#and I will deal with tomorrow's problems tomorrow!!

[remidyal]

Open Questions as we head into a massive lore drop tomorrow with the new episode, along with my best guesses as to the answers. Warning: Long post.

1) Who did Kalina have the spy's tongue curse with?

The most popular (and most likely, in my opinion) theory here is that it's Jace and/or Porter, who Ragh saw the night of Prompocolypse. The players at the table seem to think it's connected directly to Bakur and/or Lydia; however, Kalina DID say the name Lydia Barkrock during Spring Break to Riz.

There's some slight weirdness in the timeline around Aelwyn helping with the Spy's Tongue Curse in that the implication of her answer for when she was helping with it would be after she was arrested ('the end of freshman year going into that summer' when Aelwyn was arrested in early March) but it's not the first time the timeline around those events has been fucked and it probably won't be the last.

2) What's Jace's deal? Also, 2a) What's Porter's deal?

As of the end of episode 16, we can pretty safely say he was at SOME point killed and brought back via a deal with Ankarna. It's been pointed out that in Freshman Year his art did not cover his chest with the scarf; I'm not taking that as definitive evidence of anything, because that's the kind of retcon that can easy be explained away.

Jace and Porter did not seem to be on super friendly terms when Riz overheard them the first day of school freshman year, but by the end of the year, the night of Prom, they're on closer terms. Ragh, after the fight at Prom but inside of the school, sees Arianwen and Jace talking to someone he cannot at that point see, almost certainly Kalina. Later - it's not really clear HOW much later - Jace and Porter found Ragh, and Porter did some 'barbarian healing stuff' that presumably included a blood transfusion, because Ragh then CAN see Kalina and is threatened into silence by her.

It's quite clear to me from this that both Jace and Porter carried the curse of Kalina, and I'm of the belief that they were fulfilling their end of whatever deal was going on between Kalina and them by helping her agent in the form of Arianwen get the Crown.

Now which of them is in charge, and what're their respective motivations? That's much more interesting and I think independant.

I saw a theory on here that I LOVE and now fully believe that Jace was, in fact, the sorcerer in Lydia's party, and after dying to Bakur he took the deal to come back and is working for Ankarna. How truly willing he or any of the others who took that deal are at this point is another question. This is speculation, but it's really good speculation. This would obviously mean Jace was corrupted well before freshman year, but I don't actually think that's a problem.

Porter's more interesting, and I'm fully not certain which of the two are in charge, if either is, though my own speculation is that Porter is the primary driver. Jace clearly got him to help with Ragh because Porter would know Ragh and could easily infect him with Kalina; why they didn't kill him is an interesting question, though it may be as simple as Arthur Aguefort was back alive at that point and the death of one of the students who fought Kalvaxus wouldn't be a quiet matter. Still, Porter pushes rage as an almost religious matter, we do not know the nature of his own Paladin Oath, and his behavior towards Fig to push her away from Cassandra leads me to think he's a true believer sort who's in this willingly, not a revived pawn like Jace or the Ratgrinders appear to be.

3) What exactly happened to the Ratgrinders in the Mountains of Chaos?

I do not believe they all died there, for the simple reason that Lucy died in the Farhaven Woods. I think it's much more likely that either Jace targeted Kipperlilly specifically as the most fertile ground for rage and then it spread from there, or if the above speculation about Jace is wrong and he's also a more recent pawn that some thing terrible happened to SOME of them there. The details on this are really important to see, to me - there's a version of this story where Kipperlilly died willingly for the power it would bring, for example. I think this is one where we're VERY likely to get answers this episode.

4) What are the Ratgrinders using the Devil's Necter for?

I strongly believe all the stuff about modified memories is a red herring, though maybe it explains some odd behaviors here and there: I think they're using it to lie to gods. My own wild theory this was first used by LUCY to lie to her own god in prayer and get Ankarna's name from her by claiming they had already broken through Oblivati Mori, so why not share some information about the sister you loved so much? And then the guilt of having done this, and maybe even seeing some sort of backlash onto her god, is what led her to back out of whatever bits of the plan she had gone along with to that point for Kipperlilly's sake.

5) Why does Kipperlilly need to be principal?

I don't exactly believe that the Ratgrinders are looking for a long term senior year sort of situation; Kipperlilly being student body president and thus principal is the key to something within the bylaws.

The most likely thing to me here is that we don't yet have the details we'd need to answer why on this one.

The funniest callback sort of answer is that she needs to be principal in order to remove Watches and Wards from the library, which is supposed to prevent divine summonings on school grounds. It's stated in freshman year that only the Elven Oracle or Arthur Aguefort can remove the book, but this may well be Arthur Aguefort in his role as Principal rather than being tied to Arthur himself. Certainly Adaine wasn't likely to repeat her own mistake, at least. Also, potentially, this would be why they couldn't just change the bylaws for their endgoal directly instead of going through the election - the knockout enchantment on Watches and Wards is on the book, not part of the school bylaws. In any case, this could potentially be tied in to my guess on six, which is…

6) What's the overall plan here?

The overall plan, I think, is to bring Ankarna back fully to life during graduation in the gym, a place where a god (if a shitty one) was born. Elmville will be prepared for proper worship with the rage from the infections through the tree, etc, to provide enough worship to bring Ankarna in her current form back.

7) Who was the imposing figure who revived Buddy Dawn?

Very possible answers to this question are either a true form of some kind for Jace or Porter, some kind of Avatar of Ankarna (especially since they were not on the material plane, though it seems likely this figure was also involved for Yolanda or Lucy), some corrupted form for Kipperlilly, or some other servant of Ankarna. We really don't have enough to know.

8) What's going on with Bucky Applebees?

I think he's going through a crisis of faith similar to Kristen's, but just what kind of answers he might be reaching we really don't have enough to say. It wouldn't surprise me if the Ratgrinders have tried recruiting him in some way, however; it's a good way to hurt Kristen.

9) What, exactly, was the nature of Cassandra and Ankarna's relationship? Were they still together when Ankarna fell or when Cassandra became the Nightmare King? Were they actually on good terms?

I think these are possibly answers we're getting this week, and also I think there's a good chance that Ankarna and Cassandra had LONG since fallen out before Cassandra's rebirth as the Nightmare King. Did Ankarna blame her wife for Sol's followers stealing and killing hers? Did Cassandra see her wife turning more violent and less thoughtful out of desperation? Cassandra fell in one move of betrayal, we know, her followers convinced over her pleading that to know her name was heretical - and, for what it's worth, in the form she changed to the leaders of those followers were most certainly punished for their turning on their goddess. Ankarna's seems to have been far more gradual.

10) Can Ankarna actually be restored to her original form and domain, and is that a good idea to begin with, FIG?

We'll seeeeee. There's something profoundly interesting in the nature of gods in Spyre; they need the followers much more than the followers need them, for all their power. Spreading your religion makes your god healthier, but it also makes it so that you personally have a lot less control over the shape that belief takes. We've been told repeatedly that a single follower is all a god needs to stay alive, but clearly they need more than that to come to life to begin with, or to be reborn - not everybody has Kristen's spark of divinity, it seems.

11) Can Lucy be revived slash can any of the Ratgrinders be saved?

Maybe. As always in Fantasy High, what happens depends to a very large degree on what the players want to do, and what the dice agree to. I DO think we'll see Lucy be brought back, even if just in an epilogue.

[ereborne]

Song of the Day: January 17

"Stage Fright" by The Band

[simikae]

everyone’s waiting for your curtain call

[tricoufamily]

u don't have to answer this bc i think u just deleted it but who tf is vaguing you... you're a fantastic artist making beautiful beautiful pieces of art and i am constantly in awe of the things you're creating. i barely play the sims anymore let alone participate in the community at all but i have you on notifs forever and ever bc of your storytelling and skill. i am genuinely shocked to see someone talking shit bc i don't even knwo what it wld be about. anyway i keep coming back to look at ur recent edit and it's so tender and evokes such a comforting quiet feeling. anyway. u can ignore me or delete this like i said i just want u to know u've got ppl out in the crowd rooting for u byeee

imagine me crying…..

thank you so much, genuinely. i don’t even know how to accept this properly to show my level of appreciation. this means so much to me.

just gotta remind myself i am a real artist and writer and no one can take it from me. i have talent!!! suck it!!!

[glorious-spoon]

i just heard one of the mousetraps in the kitchen go off and i do NOT want to deal with it at 11pm but i'm being so brave about it

[puppyeared]

Why whhywhy does my body choose to be hungry when im so meeped up in bed

[restlessreveries]

I BUILT A TRAIN! AND IT EVEN WORKS TOO!!!

[alternis]

ugh its Very Hard that my mums birthday is jn January bc I had Plans and now we moght bnoth be too sick for what I intended as her bday gift (going to th garden centre and letting her pick out plants) but. I also don't have any backup gifts bc I gave her the big material gifts for xmas. because trying to buy two lots of gifts within the same month for the same person is a fools errand, but also it feels mean to split the gifts bc then on Xmas their pile is smaller than everybody else's. it's a trial.

[lord-shitbox]

Anytime I'm remotely near some kind of situation that could make me feel shame my brain starts flashing lights and blaring extreme warning sirens

[significant-ace-nnoyance]

crazy how people can just mess you up so irreparably bad and then just. move on with their lives! great job with your side quest giving me years worth of trauma i guess

[baronessblixen]

In a random turn of events, I find myself inexplicably sad and since I don't want to be mean to myself or to others, I'm taking my brain by the hand, tell it that things aren't hopeless, and that not everyone hates us, and put that little melodramatic bitch to bed.

[kittlyns]

I fucking hate cleaning and sharing a space and having NOTHING to do with half the shit in my house cuz most of it belongs to other people and nobody else is in a "let's throw shit away if we don't need it" mood.

[terramythos]

.

[deepwaterwritingprompts]

What’s a really important part of your writing process someone else might consider unnecessary? For example: being able to clearly see my characters is super important to my creative process. So I have soooo many sims files and picrews saved just trying to sort out the finer details of my character’s appearance

Thank you so much for this ask. I write down the whole plot first. It won’t be good or make sense but the absolute first thing idea after getting the idea (a serious, ready to start idea) is write down the whole plot, chapter by chapter. Then I doodle. Then I’m ready.

First borderline notes look like this for reference:

[goldenpinof]

just realised that i could start "buy me a coffee" thing since i'm in ✨️Poland✨️ but truth to be told, i'm not even providing "content" that often and no one is here anyway so, good realisation, bad timing <3

[devilfruitdyke]

fucking excuse me?

[ID: 2 tumblr screenshots. the first is a comment that says ""genocide joe" will be the least of our fucking problems when we have a genocide happening in our own fucking coutry y'all" and the second is post text that says "I'm just saving this as a reference for when the anti-voting fandom inevitably winds up in my notifications again and screams that they can't possibly get off their pale asses and vote for genocide joe in November because they care sooooo much about human rights you guyz." in the second, "genocide joe" is mockingly written in inconsistent capitalization. end ID.]