#and vax wasn't even in it lol

[fairymonk]

[butterflydm]

cr105

What a great episode!

I really like that the council meeting gave everyone a chance to lay down their own motives and stakes for the fight, because they do kinda dance around their own reasoning at times.

It felt like a pretty strong episode for pretty much all of the characters, and we got our on-screen confirmation that we're gonna get VM & MN one-shots! Particularly jazzed about a VM one-shot to save Vax! I know that our poor bird boy has been suffering as an orb for all this time, but it really does just feel right that VM gets to be the ones to go save him instead of it being BH. He's their person!

Ashton gave a really fantastic speech, while still being believable as something they could/would say: two thumbs up!

Fearne's shining moment wasn't during the council but right before, with her conversation with Braius. I love her really a lot. <3

So both Dorian and Braius got their power-up items this episode but in very different ways. We got a lot of fantastic stuff from Dorian this episode, very sincere and honest. And then Braius gets his from High Bearer Vord basically daring him to get redeemed, lol. The most threatening power-up gifting ever. This has been a very eventful day and a half for Braius.

Orym's talk with the Wildmother & especially her giving him a moment with Will really seems to have helped him not feel so guilty about his feelings about Dorian, because he was much more open (without ACTUALLY being open about it to DORIAN, because he still has a shy heart, the sweetie) than he's been before the Wildmom vision. And the lovely moment of the light shining out from the sword and I think Orym was pretty much the only person who didn't need to roll to persuade anyone of anything? (unless I missed Matt asking him to roll, which is very possible) -- Braius rolled, not super-great, but even then Matt was like "people are impressed by Orym and his sword but some of them are doubting your sincerity, Braius" iirc.

Imogen's big moment really came beforehand as well, with the dream with her mom. Lilliana is in a really tough position, because she's still embedded in her cult but now she's a double-agent, so that's tricky. I do hope that Imogen gets her chance to speak with the Stormlord though!

Launda getting that moment of being supported and defended by the Matron of Ravens' Coven. <3 <3 <3 <3

And then after all the great drama of the first half, we ended up with the hilarity of the C-Poppers. Amazing. No notes. Though Travis is right and it would be HILARIOUS if he failed his role for Chetney to wake up the next morning. The timing.

[jmtorres]

Hi, this is random, but would you mind sharing more about your gut issues/long covid? (I.e. diagnosis, treatment). I have chronic fatigue, and gut issues that are definitely linked to that, but all of my doctors are being extremely useless about it. (No worries if this is not the kind of info you want to share with a total stranger on the internet)

(This is in reference to my comment on this post)

@reptilerex I appreciate you recognizing the sensitivity of this ask, I am going to go ahead and answer it because I feel like the likelihood that you or someone you know (or even others of my readers) are struggling with long covid and finding adequate medical help vastly outweighs the minuscule probability that you've hacked into HIPAA records and are planning to dox me lol

so in the immediate aftermath of my first bout of covid (despite vaxxing and masking regularly, I'm up to two now 😭) my obvious symptoms were fatigue – going to the grocery store would wear me out for 2+ days – and a 20 year-old scar from a car accident reopened, which sounds like some scurvy ass bullshit, and I do wonder if the fact that my friend @niqaeli, who knew that long covid symptoms are highly correlated with MCAS symptoms and was encouraging me to start MCAS otc treatments like vitamin C supplements, helped. (worth noting that while I didn't hear anything about old scars reopening as a covid/post covid thing before it happened to me, but when I told people about it, they were like "oh yeah, that happened to me or someone I know" SO often) My doctor sent me to a wound specialist for that, and they kept poking it trying to figure out if there was some embedded shrapnel that they hadn't realized was in there originally, but ultimately it just healed back over much redder and angrier than the first time.

so then, the fatigue. My doctor had me wait three months because it wasn't officially long covid until three months. obnoxious as hell. I found out the DMV accepts long covid for a disability placard reason and got my doctor to write me a DMV form about how I couldn't walk hardly any distance. she was willing to do that before the three month mark.

I was Johnny on the spot coming back three months after, the first thing she did was send me for a chest x-ray because the obvious/expected reason for fatigue is you're not getting enough O2 in your blood. There was nothing wrong with my lungs and we were kind of at a dead end until I presented my doctor with more options.

I mean, I was kind of like, my PCP is being useless, I have a PPO, why can't I just go directly to a specialist, but it turns out specialist won't take you without a referral because reasons. I had heard rheumatologist is as good at figuring out weird vague shit so I tried to book there but when I told them long covid, they said that wasn't their department. They said I needed to go see an immunologist which sounded wrong to me, but there was a pretty good HIV specialist immunologist in the area that I tried to book with who said no that's not what long covid is. someone recommended a Long Covid Specialty clinic in a city that is 2 to 5 hours away depending on traffic and I knew I wasn't making that drive in my current condition so was like somebody local gotta help me.

so I went back to my PCP and said to her that I had learned from disability communities online that sometimes a rheumatologist can be helpful. And she said OK we can do some blood tests for inflammation markers to see if I can justify a referral to a rheumatologist. (and I thought of my weird scar issue and thought gee I better have some weird inflammation markers)

So I had some inflammation markers pop and I got a referral to a rheumatologist, and they were actually willing to see me. The rheumatologist ordered so many tests, like an unbelievable number of tests. I think they drew like eight vials of blood. Plus other samples. The rheumatologist was basically like let's look for anything and everything.

I had a borderline response on Calprotectin. To quote from the explainer in the test notes:

Calprotectin in Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis can be five to several thousand times above the reference population (50 mcg/g or less). Levels are usually 50 mcg/g or less in healthy patients and with irritable bowel syndrome.

so I wasn't high enough to qualify for IBD outright from that test results, but I was high enough that it flagged to the rheumatologist, and I had reported a family history (brother has IBD), so he said that was enough to diagnose and started prescribing me for that.

The thing is, rheumatology is an ass backwards way to get an IBD diagnosis and I was having another symptom that I hadn't reported because I was a dumbass and this is the apocryphal frog boiling slowly thing. I was having fairly regular loose stool/diarrhea. if I had told my PCP that could I have gotten a referral to a gastroenterologist and gotten a less ass backwards diagnosis?

I hadn't told my PCP about loose stools for two reasons:

I didn't think it was relevant to the fatigue, and in fact, I still didn't think it was relevant when the rheumatologist called it, and I was really surprised when taking medication for IBD did actually turn out to help the fatigue

I knew I was lactose intolerant, so I thought it was already explained. However, the rheumatologist and I had this exchange:

Him: so do you still drink regular milk or just Lactaid?

Me: Lactaid

Him: then you shouldn't still be having diarrhea

Me:…

I can't remember the first med he started me on because I was only on it for a couple of weeks before we had to switch. (it helped a lot when I could tolerate it but about every three days I had to throw up and then I felt awful and didn't take the med for a couple of days and you can guess how that went.) the one that I went on long-term that actually worked without side effects for me was mesalamine/lialda. I also started experimenting with some dietary changes, the low FODMAP diet is intended for IBS not IBD, but you are still expected to have IBD triggers so I was playing around with that.

for a few weeks, I had incredible improving energy. It was crazy.

then I made what I can only now think of as a mistake in trying to be proactive about my care. because I had stumbled ass backwards into an IBD diagnosis and I felt like I should have gastroenterologist confirm it, and I went to go see my brother's gastroenterologist. he wanted to do a colonoscopy and he asked me to go off the mesalamine for six weeks so that he could see what my colon was like without treatment and it was the worst fucking six weeks of my life. Hated it. colonoscopy results: he didn't see anything fucking wrong and would not diagnose IBD or prescribe mesalamine based on what he found. I said, but the mesalamine improves my symptoms, what does that mean? He said, it means keep seeing your rheumatologist.

I went back to the rheumatologist and told him about the whole debacle with the gastroenterologist and he was like "so how did he explain your inflammation readings?" like CHECKMATE. And he concluded that any lesions I had must be in the small intestine, not the large intestine and so were not seen by colonoscopy.

I kept taking mesalamine. My improvement was slower after the break from it which sucks but I did get back to normal lab work within six months, hallelujah.

Follow up: MORE stuff that might have been avoided if I had gastroenterologist regularly, had gotten an IBD diagnosis from a gastroenterologist, or had mentioned my shitty symptoms in the immediate: the gallbladder bullshit this summer

I had my second round of covid in May and I didn't notice a lot of fatigue coming out of it, though I was more cautious with myself the second time around, but I was sort of holding my breath for what horrible nonsense is going to come out of this now? so then I had what I thought was a really bad case of Gerd that didn't go away for two weeks even though my Gerd usually resolves in like a day. I went to my PCP twice during this period and then ultimately ended up at the ER when I realized my pain was in my side not central anymore and I was worried about appendicitis. It wasn't appendicitis. It was my gallbladder. and it came out that night. overall, I am very happy with how the hospital handled the emergency for instance, I didn't realize until two weeks later that I seriously could've died because they were so calm about it the whole time but like they don't do same-day surgery unless death is on the line, let's be real.

but here's things that could have been helped if I had better gastroenterology care:

I didn't find this out until I was researching gallstones after the fact, and I would like to think a gastroenterologist would have warned me whereas the rheumatologist wasn't super aware of it but: IBD can lead to gallstones because one of the ways a cholesterol gallstone forms is, if you get an imbalance of bile and cholesterol in your gallbladder; your body wants to recycle bile by reabsorbing it at the end of your small intestine, but if you have IBD, sometimes it loses the bile instead of reabsorbing it, and then you get an overabundance of cholesterol, turning into a gallstone the size of a golf ball

I told my PCP it was a case of Gerd that wouldn't go away, but I didn't tell her I was also having diarrhea. Diarrhea is not a Gerd symptom. Maybe if I had just fucking told her she might've recognized or could've sent me to somebody who would have recognized it as a gallbladder symptom before it turned into an immediate emergency

tl;dr don't hide your gut symptoms from your doctor because you "think" you know what's wrong with your guts or that it's not related to your other problems or you're embarrassed or what the fuck ever just tell them that you're shitting yourself because it might turn out to be important

[vodika-vibes]

For commander Monkk can I request a cute little fic where he has a crush on his generals former Padawan, now turned Jedi knight, and teaches her how to swim when both their battalions have a day off and spend it at the beach 👉👈

I'll Love Every Version Of You

Summary: One year ago your master, Kit Fisto, promoted you to Jedi Knight though it would have been his preference to keep you at his side until the war's end. But the Jedi needed more Knights and you were old enough and skilled enough that keeping you as a padawan would have been a waste of time. This is your first real break in over a year, and you get to spend it on a peaceful tropical planet, with your former Master…and his battalion.

Pairing: Commander Monnk x F! Twi'lek Reader

Word Count: 1190

Warnings: Reader is described as a twi'lek with freckles.

A/N: I wasn't sure where to go with this, at first, but I think I'm happy with this one. Maybe. I'm super dizzy, so it might not be the best, lol.

Click HERE to be added to my taglist

You’re glad for the break.

The last year has been you, and your battalion, running from one crisis to the next without much of a chance for a break, save for what time you can take while traveling through hyperspace. 

You’re exhausted. You feel like you could sleep for a year and still not get enough rest.

Which is funny. You don’t remember being half this exhausted when you were Master Kit’s padawan.

Of course, even when you’re supposed to be resting (Vax is going to have your head on a silver platter if you don’t get your stress levels down at least a little bit), you still have work that you need to consider.

The truth is, you’re worried about the next mission.

It’s based on a water planet, and while you know how to swim, your Master is from an aquatic species after all, you’ll be the first person to admit that you’re not the strongest swimmer.

Not through any failing on his part, though.

The failing is all you.

You stretch out on the blanket you’re relaxing on, and bury your toes in the hot sand. In truth, as a twi’lek, you’ve always been a poor match for Master Kit as a padawan. There were plenty of aquatic initiates that he could have chosen from, and yet he chose you.

You remember the other Councilers commenting on how unusual it was that Master Kit didn’t take another Nautolan or a Mon Cala as a padawan. They were careful to not make it seem like they didn’t approve, but you’ve always been a sensitive child.

A huff falls from your lips as you feel your stress levels rising.

Vax is definitely going to kill you. He only signed off on this because he thinks you’re going to stress yourself into an early grave.

“Well now, look who it is,” You turn your head to the side when you hear the familiar voice, and a small smile crosses your lips, “Was wondering where you were hiding, kid.”

“I’m hardly a kid anymore, Commander.”

Commander Monnk, your Master’s right hand, and someone you’re lucky enough to call a friend, laughs and sits on the towel next to you, dripping water onto your bare skin.

His dark eyes scan your bikini-clad form, and a small smirk lifts the corner of his lips, “Oh, I can see that, mesh’la.”

You seriously consider flinging some sand at his face but think again. He’s always been like this, flirty and teasing. He doesn’t mean anything by it.

“I figured I’d sunbathe someplace private so people won’t stare at me.” You shrug, “Plus, Master still gets a funny little twitch when he sees me wearing bikinis.”

“Well, you are his daughter.”

“Former Padawan,”

Monnk rolls his eyes and tweaks the end of one of your lekku, “Semantics.”

You toss a small grin up at him, and he grins right back at you. You missed Monnk. You like Commander Vash. You do, he’s smart and competent. But he’s not Monnk.

“So,” Monnk continues as he leans back on his hands, “What’s bothering you?”

You sit up and fold your legs, “What makes you think something’s bothering me?”

“Vash.”

You scowl out towards the water, “He’s a snitch.”

“Also, according to Vax, you’ve been stressed. And haven’t been sleeping well.”

This time you direct your scowl at him, “Is my entire battalion spying on me for you?”

“Come on, mesh’la. Don’t be like that,” One of his fingers traces a line of freckles on your shoulder making you shiver, “They’re worried about you. I’m worried about you.”

The sigh that falls from you is so heavy it makes you wince. 

“Well, clearly you’re worried about something.” And, of course, Monnk catches it. “Come on, talk to me.”

“We have a mission,” You admit, “To an aquatic planet.” It’s all you say. It’s all you have to say.

“Ah.”

You draw your knees up so you’re able to rest your chin on them, “I don’t know what to do, Monnk. My battalion thinks I’m a great swimmer, and that I’ll do wonderfully on this mission. But I won’t.”

“Your swimming hasn’t improved since leaving General Fisto’s side?”

You shoot him a pained look, “When would I have the chance?”

“No wonder you’re so stressed.” Monnk shifts slightly, draping his arm over his raised knee. “Alright, let’s get some swimming practice in.”

“What?”

“This is a pretty secluded spot you’ve found, no one will see us practicing your swimming.” Monnk continues.

“This is supposed to be your vacation too, Monnk.”

“Yeah, and this is how I want to spend it.” He hops to his feet and offers you his hand, “Come on.”

It’s the easiest thing in the world, to reach out and take his hand. It’s Monnk, after all.

He leads you into the water, and then out until you’re standing on your toes to keep the water off your face, “Here’s a good place to start,” Monnk murmurs, his hands warm against your hips, helping you keep your head above the water.

“If you say so,” You scrunch up your nose as your toes leave the ground due to a wave.

“Ah, don’t look like that mesh’la. This will be fun!”

“For you, maybe.”

Monnk laughs, but when he looks at you there’s something soft and affectionate in his gaze. His hands, warm and calloused from years of weapon handling, slide from your hips to rest on your sides. “How are you still so impossibly soft?”

“I use lotion to keep my skin healthy,” You reply.

“Yeah? Need help with that?”

“Pervert,” You counter, affectionately.

“Just to you, mesh’la,” Monnk says automatically. It’s a familiar conversation, one you’ve had with him time and time again. Monnk has never shied away from how he feels about you.

He wears his heart on his sleeve, at least when it comes to you.

“Alright!” Monnk’s hands tighten around you, “Are you ready to begin?”

“I suppose.”

“Good,” He pauses, “Hm…I should charge you for this.”

A startled laugh slips from you, “I have to pay you to teach me how to swim.”

“All good swimming teachers are paid,” He counters solemnly.

“Alright, but I should warn you, I’m not paid.”

“A kiss,” Monnk says, his gaze serious and slightly wistful, “I teach you in exchange for a kiss. Maybe two.”

“Two? Aren’t you being a little greedy?” You tease.

“Well,” His voice is low as he lightly presses his forehead against yours, “The economy is in shambles—”

You don’t let him finish, as you tilt your head to press your lips against his.

He reacts immediately, his arms locking securely around your waist as he pulls you as close as he can. Monnk immediately deepens the kiss, his tongue sliding across your lips.

The force almost sings with what he feels for you. I love you. I’ve always loved you. I’ll always love you. No matter who you become. No matter where you go. 

And so, you slide your arms around his neck and allow him to pull you closer. After all, you love him too. He’s Monnk, after all.

@imabeautifulbutterfly

@n0vqni

@bad4amficideas

@justiceandwar98

@mira-loves-star-wars

@tiredbi-peach

@dukeoftheblackstar

@trixie2023

@kimiheartblade

@padawancat97

@falconfeather23435

@etod

@bb8-99

@kiss-anon

@continous-mistakes

@yoitsjay

@liz-stat

@cc--2224

@adriennelenoir

@cdblake1565

@sweater-sloot

@heidnspeak

@wax-birds

@silly-starfish

@lonewolflupe

@maniacalbooper

@rebell-ious

[jae-birde]

The Legend of Vox Machina Liveblog: Episode 1

I just finished the first episode of TLOVM season 3 and holy shit it was amazing

(also, I do reference the campaign, so if you don't want spoilers for that, maybe stay clear from my breakdown)

(Breakdown under the cut)

--------------------

Holy shit, the opening sequence was straight up fire (pun intended) and seriously shows the animation's improvement SO MUCH. HOLY SHIT

Like, the dragons look so fucking good? Especially compared to season 1, like holy shit? they look so cool and badass and intimidating?

And the action when Thordak is chasing Vax holy shit, it's so well done oh my gods.

AND HOLY SHIT THE OPENINGN TITLE CARD LOOKS SO BADASS

I honestly wasn't too much of a fan of Raishan in the campaign, but I've gotta say I'm enjoying her a lot here

OMG BYRODEN MENTION I AM SO NORMAL ABOUT THIS

"Not a stranger to vengence, are you?" Omg Raishan pulling out the heavy hitters on Percy, damn

SWEET SARENRAE THE ANIMATION + STORYTELLING WITH RAISHAN IS INSANE HOLY SHIT

GO OFF KIKI WOOO!! So glad that they kept Keyleth's anger at Raishan in the show and didn't tone it down like I kinda expected. I appreciate that they kept that a lot

Oh Gilmore, you flirt

GRAND POOBAH MENTION, WOO. Still have my fingers crossed for him to get the official title

Pike talking about coming in riding a dragon was also amazing. God I love Pike so much.

Keyleth and Vax talking it out <3 (don't think about how much it hurts because Keyleth feels like the odd one out and how she misses Vax, and don't think about how Vax is going to die and she'll miss him so much but won't be able to talk to him, not really, and don't think about how Keyleth will be the last member of Vox Machina once they've all died and she'll be left to mourn her friends, her family, and this is basically just a taste of that. Instead think about how they had to redesign the Vox Machina logo to avoid it looking like the gmail one)

My heart just melts every time Vax calls her Kiki

OMG VAXLETH KISS HELLS YES

Wait fuck no no no the vision holy shit no

Oh poor Keyleth, she's so nervous, KIKI BABY YOU DIDNT DO ANYTHINGG WRONG

OMG PERC'AHLIA IMMEDIATELY AFTER VAXLETH? HELL YES

but no Percy, darling, stop blaming yourself. (IT'S THE FORGIVENESS CONVERSATION EARLIER Y'ALL)

"One can certainly try" I see what y'all did there

Also can I just say the lighting and framing of this scene was beautiful? because it was. it was absolutely GORGEOUS

Omg that was adorable i adore these two so muhc

Lol, Trinket cockblocking Perc'ahlia has no right to be as funny as it is. And the way they both got so flustered i can't!

Still a little bummed that we don't get Surfer Dude Sun Tree

Back to Grayskull Keep, WOO

The twins' bickering never fails to amuse me, and I just absolutely love it whenever Vax calls Vex Stubby. It's just so cute. *cradles the twins in my hands* i simply adore them and want to see them happy and well

And everyone (but especially Vex and Percy) dissing Vax's plan is great

And now we've caught up to the opening scene!

I swear the animation gets better every season, holy shitballs

The Gilmore firework! Scanlan and Grog teaming up! Vox Machina working as a team! Scanlan actually getting to use Mythcarver! I love it!

And then Vex swooping in to save the day!

And Percy helping Vax as they realized just how absolutely fucked they are. Even with the vestiges. Fuck

That SARENRAE that Grog caught Pike there, she was thrown HARD

Raishan showing up was so unexpected to me for some reason, but OMG THE PERC'AHLIA HUG(ish) FROM THE SCREENSHOTS (it literally happened as I wrote this i forgot what I was gonna write)

FUCK YEAH KIKI BUST OUT THE AIR/FIREBENDER POWERS WOO

Ooooo, Thordak was injured. Always good to see

OMG ANK'HAREL! WE'RE GOING TO ANK'HAREL ALREADY

WHCIH MEANS GLINTSHOR IS SOON

WHICH MEANS PAIN

BUT IM ALSO SO EXCITED

Seriously so excited to see Ank'harel (do ya spice?)

Scanlan, just what are you up to?

OH FUCK NOT GUNSHOTS

THIS ISN'T GOOD

FUCK. FUCK IT'S RIPLEY ISN'T IT? I KNOW IT IS

I FUCKING KNEW IT FUCK

SHE GOT THE LPATE TOO

FRICK

PERCY GET HER ASS

OMG SHE'S GOT THE CABAL'S RUIN TOO FUCK

Scanlan, what the FUCK?

I know you wanna see Kaylie but man cmon it is NOT THE TIME

GET HER ASS GUYS

holy shit the cabal's ruin is animated so cool i love it

AND SHE CAN TELEPORT FUCK

I wonder if Kaylie will even be there

OMG Matt being the one to ask "Do you spice?" omg i love this. The only missed opportunity was to give him a red shirt, damn

FUCK YEAH GET HER ASS PERCY

Ripley you absolute BITCH

FUCK IT'S ORTHAX

FUCK

FUCK

OH GOD NO

NO YHAT CANT BE THE END NO NO PERCY

fuck i wanna watch the next one but it's 1am. fuck

(Also the end credits being a song of "do you spice?" is just too funny. love it so much)

Holy shit i have so many thoughts. I wrote this out as literally as I watched it and did minimal editing, so sorry if it's a little incoherent, lol

I'll def reblog this with more thoughts tomorrow once I've thought about and slept on the episode, but DAMN we really are starting off with some absolute BANGER moments!

[doberbutts]

Sorry you've apparently become The Rabies Guy overnight lol. But since you have, and it was absolutely a childhood special interest/fear of mine that's 👉👉 laid dormant 👉👉 for quite some time, would you happen to know (if you're not sick of rabies asks by now)-

1) why is the rabies vaccine itself so much cheaper and easier to make and administer in dogs and cats than for humans? Obviously part of the cost equation is just that demand dictates production scale and its easier to educate and avoid in the human relationship to rabies, but it's interesting to me that we don't treat it like tetanus or other relatively-rarer and somewhat avoidable/environmental risks we do still vax for, and that are produced at scale accordingly and so are cheaper. I've heard the other factor of low demand is that it's also a pretty rough vaccine for people that work in relevant professions that *do* have to get it to receive (and is even worse if you have to get it after being potentially exposed). It doesn't seem that way for pets though? I'd be interested to hear if you have any insights into all that from the vetmed side.

2) are you aware of any changes that the recent mRNA vax advancements of recent years may be bringing to the way we approach the rabies vaccine in pets or people? That'd be cool and interesting!

Thanks! Hope people aren't being too rabidly annoying in your notifs lol

1: There's a couple different factors here:

To my knowledge the human rabies vaccination and the dog rabies vaccination and the cat rabies vaccination and the hoofstock rabies vaccination are all slightly different from each other with different methods of creation and ingredients and dosing. This will contribute to the difference in cost.

Simply put, animal medicine is often cheaper than human medicine because human medicine has inflated prices due to hospital and insurance markups. In other words, if your human hospital scaled the cost of services the way your dog's hospital does, and health insurance wasn't a thing that exists, the price would be astronomical. If you ever go to an ER and get fluids, compare the "before insurance" price of just your room and bag of saline and catheter to what your vet charges for the same thing.

The animals we vaccinate for rabies do experience a lot of the same side effects, but animals are stoic and do not often complain about the side effects. Lethargy, muscle aches, low grade fever, vaccine-site soreness and localized reaction (swelling, redness), depression, and irritability are all common side effects of the rabies vaccination in our domesticated animals. Usually these side effects resolve within 24 hours but can last in rare cases up to a week. Less commonly, vomiting, diarrhea, facial swelling, and trouble breathing, but those are more allergic reactions than side effects. This is why a lot of anti-vaxxers don't want to vaccinate their pets for rabies, it does put a lot of stress on the immune system and thus can result in some pretty dramatic symptoms. It's just that "1 to 7 days of feeling shitty every couple years" is a significantly preferable outcome to "rabies outbreak".

Post-exposure prophylaxes is something else entirely- immunoglobulin is administered in addition to the vaccination to give your body a running start on the whole "don't let rabies get to my brain" thing. This is not an option for exposed domesticated animals, so not only is this very expensive but it is also human-exclusive because immunoglobulin is not cheap or easy to get ahold of and thus all of it that we have is dedicated to human cases.

Remember, in countries with robust vaccination protocols for domesticated pets and a culture of keeping their domesticated animals contained and away from wildlife, human deaths are fairly rare and are caused by rabies virus are almost exclusively caused by encounters with wildlife, which is why in those countries the chosen path is "tell people to stop touching animals they can't verify vaccine status of" and not "vaccinate everyone". The US has maximum like 5 human deaths due to rabies per year. Compare that to India, where vaccine availability is not as good and there is a very serious loose, wandering dog problem, and that number soars to 21,000 human deaths due to rabies per year. If 21,000 humans in India are dying from rabies, what percentage of them are receiving an incomplete post-exposure prophylaxes (usually incomplete due to expense) and what are the numbers for people who were able to complete the series (largely those who either can afford it or who chose serious debt over a grisly death)? We need that immunoglobulin to help the people we can still save from rabies exposure, so it's not really available in large amounts to be experimenting with pets every time a dog picks a fight with a fox or raccoon.

(Also the problem is that rabies bites tend to cause severe trauma, which you can't really deliberately cause severe trauma to an animal in a laboratory ethically, and even if you could you can't do it to easily handled animals like mice because as said before most rodents can't survive that level of trauma for very long before they just die, and researchers very do not want to deal with the potential of handling known rabid dogs, so that's sort of at a standstill as far as studies go)

(Also also, the Milwaukee Protocol costs $800,000 to attempt to save a single person and as discussed has a significant failure rate, so if people aren't getting PEP due to expense, they very can't afford the incredibly expensive experimental treatment that's more likely to kill them than save them either, so it's not like with that amount of deaths we've gotten a lot of people trying anything more than strapping that person down and waiting for them to die)

In addition, of those 21,000 deaths, over 96% of them are caused by bites from dogs. This means that if we fix the loose, wandering dog problem, rabies cases should plummet very similarly to the way they did in the US when we started enforcing our own rabies protocols. There are programs in place to fix this problem but it is multifaceted in origin and not as simple as one might think. As said before, dogs are the #1 rabies vector in the world, even if rabies is technically a "bat virus". The only reason we blame bats here in the US is because we fixed the dog problem. Not every country has been able to do that.

So... very much a complex problem with not a very easy solution. This costs a lot of money and countries just do not have the funds to pour into experiments solving a disease that's more or less 100% fatal when they could just as easily tell people to stop touching animals that aren't vaccinated.

2: The only change I'm aware of is that there's an ongoing attempt to create a single-dose rabies and chemical castration vaccine as a one-and-done to help countries like India and others with loose wandering dogs, which will both cut down on the dog population because they won't be able to breed, and also will cut down on rabies infections within the dog population that currently exists. They have not yet been successful. Again, resolving the problem of the packs of unvaccinated dogs living in close proximity to humans will significantly reduce the instance of rabies deaths in humans as well, since that is the leading cause of rabies spread to humans at time of writing worldwide.

[utilitycaster]

idk if you're still doing the unpopular opinion thing. Feel free to ignore if you're not. My unpopular opinion is that, because the romances in C1 happened without any planning from the players, it set the precedent to the cast and the fandom that if they talk about the relationships out of the game, it's gonna make them not as organic or "earned". Laura just teasing Travis about fj already made people disregard the ship as "planned" (ignoring the 500+ hours of development) and treating it as if it was bad because Laura "planned it" in advance. But honestly, Imodna is a ship that would've benefited A LOT from some out of game conversations between Laura and Marisha and I think it would've been better if they had planned for them to become a couple from the beginning, so maybe they could've focus more on developing it in game

I'm not still doing it per se but I'm not not doing it, but also to be honest I agree with you on which of these ships are good and that Imogen and Laudna needed considerably more planning, but I actually disagree that this is how this played out for other ships.

I didn't watch Talks for campaign 1 nor watch Campaign 1 as it aired (and Talks didn't start until after the romances had begun), but from what I recall from other conversations Liam did at least float the idea of playing romance out of game to Marisha and Matt - the surprise was when and how he revealed it, which is really no different from Fjord and Jester. I think (and as with all thoughts re: the fandom in C1 I might be wrong because I was not there; it's educated guessing) it was simply more surprising to the audience in that campaign because there wasn't a talkback show, because the fandom was smaller and less romance-focused, and because Vax and Keyleth particularly was very early since some of the development was pre-stream.

I think this post, which I made about a month and a half ago, about talking about the relationship in-game and in-character, might be relevant, as might this post about defining the relationship from yesterday. I think talking out of game is good and useful (and I think the fact that Matt, on 4SD, essentially said "do not try this at home" re: Imogen and Laudna is worth keeping in mind) but also I think that having the characters communicate in-game is arguably more important. Like, I don't know how much Taliesin and Laura talked about Percy and Vex out of game, nor can I say how much was necessary, but the fact that Vex, while Percy is dead (but Taliesin is watching from backstage), says that her heart belongs to him is the equivalent of a green flag conversation. Like, I don't think the cast typically plans out "my character is romantically interested in this character", and even if they do that doesn't mean it will remain the case or that anything will come of it; but a lot of the conversations happen in-game, but in a place where action is not immediately required from the other party (this is important) and that's just as valid a place to talk as out of game. It even serves as a reason to talk out of game; if Taliesin heard that and Percy was not interested in Vex (or if he as a player was uncomfortable playing romance), that's a chance for him to say "by the way, here's where I'm at" out of game after the session.

With Fjord and Jester specifically...look. A lot of people just don't like that relationship, which is their right, but the arguments against it have always been incoherent. As I was around during Campaign 2 I can say that the criticism was essentially ever-changing with each episode, which is usually a sign that it's baseless. It went from "Travis doesn't do romance so this isn't even on the table" to "Jester isn't even interested in him" to "wow Travis didn't plan this at all lol he doesn't care" to "wow this is too planned and inorganic and fake" to "well Laura blinked twice in Liam or Marisha's direction this episode [and also Fjord and Jester made out mid-combat] so I'd say we're winning, folks!" to "we popping the BIGGEST bottles in the finale where they break up" to "this campaign was a FAILURE and I hope Jester is eternally miserable" to "how DARE we have a Fjord-centric two-shot, prayer circle for Fjorester divorce" to "[incoherent sobbing, incorrect use of the term 'comphet', rage-quitting the fandom, and/or creating an entire Essek Hate Block Evasion sideblog]."

Anyway my point in all this, in addition to having fun, is that haters gonna hate and in the case of the Campaign 2 ships, which are all incredibly well-developed throughout the course of the campaign, they are going to make shit up. We don't need to pretend like it comes from a place of anything other than illogic and bitterness; too much planning was just one of the many things they threw out to try to justify a dislike that was, imo, barely related to what was happening onscreen.

But yes: especially because Imogen and Laudna were, out of game, intended not to be romantic, it desperately needed some kind of conversation that defined boundaries and indicated a change, and it's telling (and obviously I'm biased, but also, my blog archives speak for themselves) that the tenor of the conversation among those who ship it has drastically changed over the course of the campaign whereas the criticism has been remarkably consistent since roughly post-gnarlrock fight. But the fix could have been a conversation either out of game or in-game with other characters. Like, FCG and FRIDA, or Deanna and Chetney, are actually a perfect model of how you can handle this primarily in-game.

[waltwhitmansbeard]

“Liam and Laura knew what they were doing and chose violence anyway.”

That they did. So… from now on, I will say “Vex’ahlia” instead of Vex lol

That said, same prompt as before?

19. opening up about their own struggles when they see the other's problems aight let's run this back. s2 tlovm again.

When they make camp, Vex is ready to pass the fuck out. She's still exhausted from the whole dying debacle, and fighting off those flying fire demon things in Pyrah didn't help the situation. All she wants to do now is huddle up near the crackling campfire and sleep until Grog's snoring wakes her in approximately three hours.

As she spreads out her bedroll and shoves the last of her gathered berries into her mouth, she sees movement at the entrance to the cave they've claimed for the night. Her hand flies to her bow out of habit, but even in this low, flickering light, she recognizes those antlers. She sets the bow down and frowns. Where is Keyleth going at this hour?

The others are busy chatting or getting ready for sleep or, in her brother's case, struggling with the Vestige that he can't seem to get off (another problem for another day), so Vex hauls herself up from the craggy floor and follows after Keyleth. She finds her sitting with her knees pulled to her chest just outside the cave, her circlet appearing gray in the silvery light of the moon. "It's freezing out here," Vex says, and Keyleth jumps, startled. "Don't you want to come inside?"

Keyleth shakes her head, resting her chin atop her knees again. "Not really in the mood to sleep."

Vex settles onto the hard ground beside her. "You know, it was pretty fucking cool how you turned into that giant fire beast. Not sure what that was all about, but it'll be useful all the same."

"Useful." Keyleth says the word with scorn, and Vex doesn't think she's ever heard such derision in her voice. "How many people in Pyrah had to die until I was finally useful enough to stop the slaughter?"

Oh. "Keyleth, you know what happened there wasn't your fault."

"Maybe not. But if I had been on focused on my Aramenté, on the path that I was supposed to be following, I could have been there earlier. I could have stopped it."

Vex lays a hand on her shoulder, which trembles beneath her palm. "You don't know that." Vex worries her lip between her teeth. "You know I studied dragons?" Keyleth nods. "My studies left me with an...ability, I guess you'd call it. A new sense, in a way. I know when dragons are near."

"Yeah, I remember, with Brimscythe."

"Well, I felt them approach, in Emon." Keyleth doesn't ask who she's referring to. "It felt like my head was exploding. Four dragons, all descending at once. The pain was so debilitating, I could barely tell Vax what was going on." She shrugs. "Maybe if I had, we would have been able to warn more people. Maybe if I had, Sovereign Uriel would still be alive."

Keyleth twists her head to frown at her. "Vex, we had seconds to figure out what was going on in Emon. You barely had any more warning than the bells gave us. There was nothing you could have done differently or better to save people."

"Exactly." Keyleth's eyes flick up in annoyance as she realizes the trap she's walked right into. "Keyleth, you got to Pyrah when you did. Before the rest of us, don't forget. You saved the people you could save. You did what you could. That's what we do. That's all we can do. Our best."

"It doesn't feel like the best," she says quietly. She rubs at her eyes with the back of her hand. "It feels like I failed."

"That's because you're a good person. It's kind of annoying, actually. You know you're the best of us, right?" Keyleth's eyebrows furrow. "You and Pike, I'd say. The ones who make sure that we're always doing the right thing, even when we're scared, even when we don't want to. I mean, fuck, the way you took off when my brother tried to ignore the danger in Pyrah? That's not the action of someone who failed, Keyleth."

And finally, Vex sees the hint of a smile at the corner of her mouth. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." Vex shoves off of then ground and extends a hand out to Keyleth. "Come on. Warmth and food, and you'll feel fine again."

Keyleth lets Vex pull her to her feet, and then, to Vex's surprise, she throws her arms around her. "Thanks, Vex," she murmurs. "You're a good friend."

And wow. Yeah. They're friends. Who would've fucking guessed? She hugs Keyleth back. "We're in this together, remember? Gotta have each other's backs if we're not gonna be devoured by a league of murderous dragons."

Keyleth chuckles, and then they go back inside the cave, where the rest of their friends talk and laugh and sleep.

[burr-ell]

Wow people are being so weird about the fact that you just have a ship preference???

Like I keep seeing people being like “oh you hate the ship? Well too bad bc it’s CANON and the CAST wants it and were excited that it happened!!!” And I’m just like… where was this attitude when vaxleth and fjorester went canon lol (and barring any personal opinions on those ships, they were pretty unpopular among fans when they happened).

Like did people forget you can just… not like ships that are canon? Or are they just choosing to ignore the fact that it was a pretty popular stance in the previous two campaigns to hate on the canon ships for some reason? Idk man it’s just so weird. Like why are people acting like you’re a bad person for not liking a ship that went canon lmao

i've genuinely seen someone claim that everyone loved it when vax/eth and fjor/ester and beau/yasha happened (and then turn around and admit they didn't actually watch the campaigns). like, CR was accused of lesbophobia because the wrong wlw ship ended up together and beau/yasha is "a gay ship for the straights". biphobia was rampant back in the day when vax went for keyleth over gilmore, and people celebrated when TCSR came out and revealed that pike/lan divorced (and started hoping for fjor/ester next). i think maybe the only ship that wasn't met with this kind of discourse was perc/ahlia, and even then, it's got its share of haters.

the thing is, i want to like this ship! i enjoy media criticism, sure, but i don't like...enjoy being negative lmao. it's just that canon isn't compensating for the fact that the fandom is so cartoonishly poisonous.

[spurgie-cousin]

im happy i took the boosters and wore masks. i haven't gotten covid, and if i did, it was mild enough for me to not notice

me too man, i honestly had to do a lot of traveling during COVID and was around big groups of people more than i should've been, but it took almost 3 years to catch up to me (being around a bunch of kindergarteners finally did it lol). and even when i got it it wasn't bad at all, like a light cold maybe, and i attribute all of that to wearing the type of mask that was recommended by my dad (who's a respiratory specialist in a hospital) even when i was outside and getting my vaccine/booster.

im in a small town and from a small town so i know anti-vax people, and it feels like they've all had COVID at *least* twice (sometimes 3 or 4 times) and the same strain i had seems to have fucked them up way worse than it did me and those i know who are vax'd. it all feels very logical lol, like the people who cared about protecting themselves had it easier than people who all thought it was fake.

obv that's not to say COVID wasn't horrible for people who wore masks and got vaccinated, like any virus it affects everyone differently. and like any vaccine, some people had weird reactions to it, but that's just what i noticed personally.

[storiedhistories]

an assortment of dialogue prompts // Accepting!

@yieldingdreams asked: ❛ your heart is beating so fast right now. ❜ Astarion for Vax. he would know, he has a good eye, ear and nose for pulse related things lol

"Guess you just have that affect on me," Vax responded, trying to pull a smile onto his face for Astarion.

But the truth of the matter was that he was terrified. He didn't know how he was going to help his sister get out of this, and that scared him more than the possibility that he wouldn't make it out himself. As far as he was concerned, Vex mattered far more than he did, and so did the rest of their party. He was the last person they should be worrying about, especially if they could help someone else instead.

And that included Astarion, too. Vax wanted to do what he could to keep him safe too, but it all felt so much bigger than something he could handle. He was the least useful member of their group, when it came to an actual fight. Oh, sure, he could throw his daggers and do some damage, but he wasn't strong like Grog was or powerful like Keyleth.

All he wanted to do was to protect the people he cared about, and he didn't have any idea how he could, not with something like this. There was too much he didn't know, and he didn't even know where to begin to find answers.

Vax tried to keep up a good face for everyone else; it wouldn't help anyone to show them just how fucking scared he was. But Astarion had seen right through that…, and even as his thoughts were racing, his shoulders slumped, letting the facade drop just a little.

"I don't know how I'm going to get Vex out of this," he admitted, "or how much help I'm going to be to anyone." He felt like his heart was going to beat out of his chest, and he knew if he didn't manage to get himself under some sort of control, his thoughts were going to keep spiraling.

[earltealord]

Results of the Polls!!

Liam's wasn't too surprising, i however did not suspect that Caleb would have won by that much. Vax and Orym were very close though.

Laura's was also not surprising, no one is immune to Jester

So far a lot of the Mighty Nein characters are winning which makes sense, I feel bad for Keyleth though

The amount that Fjord won by is very surprising! Also Grog's percentage is wild! Also that 1% for Betrand

This one is especially wild! I was expecting Mollymauk to be higher in the poll, or even Ashton too. I know a lot of people love Caduceus, these results are so out there!

I wasnt expecting Yasha and Pike to be voted so low, but it does make some sense because Ashley wasnt there for a lot of their campaigns. So Fearne is definitely the most fleshed out. Or maybe it is the chaotic energy she exudes lol.

Tbh i was expecting Nott to win, but again, the other percentages is not something i would have expected. Least of all for FCG!

[onewingedsparrow]

For the WIP thing:

The Sound of My Spark (because it sounds like it might go with a personal headcanon/story idea of mine)

Shadowzoned (no explanation needed 😉)

Cortado (because it happens to be the title of a song I really like)

Operation Bumblebee Sketch (because it’s ‘Bee, and I’m hoping to get a glimpse. Lol)

I decided to ask about a few since there were so many that sounded interesting to me. 😄

Hi Nova! <3 Thanks for the ask! All righty, lol I love all this curiosity! Also, coincidentally (or not?) half of these happen to be about TFP Soundwave, so your instincts are spot on ;) This post got kinda long, but I know you won't mind. From the top:

"The Sound of My Spark" is an interesting case. It originally started out as a pre-canon one-shot exploring how TFP Soundwave met his Minicons. (Likely canon-divergent, since I still haven't read the Aligned novels. At the time I started writing (over a year ago), I didn't know Soundwave's canonical origin story, and just wanted to explore him being a gladiator in the Pits, alongside Megatron.)

I chose the title because I wanted to find a connection between TFP Soundwave and music (or soundwaves, if you will) that was different from his iterations in, say, Cyberverse or G1, where he literally had a music player built into him. Inspired by Optimus and 'Bee's connection in "The Song Forever Calling," I began to ponder a different scenario: What if individual sparks carried a song of their own? What if each bot's sparkbeat carried a unique musical voice, and Combiners (or Minicons + Soundwave) literally had to stay on beat with each other in order to move together? That's when the fic took off, gaining a very interesting aspect. I chose time signatures for writing Soundwave's POV, based on his emotions during each scene, and matched each word to that beat. It became poetry, in a way <3 It's quite fun to reread, lol. And at THAT point, after writing a certain number of interactions between Soundwave and Laserbeak, Ravage, Frenzy, Rumble, Megatron and more...I realized that the story I really wanted to write about Soundwave wasn't a fic at all. 💜 So, while this WIP has been technically abandoned, I would not call it irrelevant. It has become something greater. I do not know if the musical aspect will remain a key plot point in the newly transformed story, but it certainly runs in the background of the worldbuilding. Now I'm curious about your headcanon / story idea as well! Shadowzoned, my beloved. "Shadowzoned" was the first of my two major RiD-canon-divergent fics. I'm very displeased with how S3 treated Soundwave (I actually refuse to believe that's the same bot as TFP Soundwave. That's gotta be a dude from an AU), but if you discount all of S3 for Soundwave, that means S2's "Portals" was the last thing he got in-universe, and he was kicked right back into the Shadowzone. Poor guy. BUT Soundwave is incredibly intelligent; and even in a ghost dimension, even with his vow of silence intact, even after he DID successfully escape and was thrown back in...he has a plan. An ally. An ally who doesn't even know he's helping Soundwave, because Decepticons have to be crafty when seeking aid from humans. Especially when that human is one Soundwave has a history with. Rafael Esquivel. "Cortado" is a modern coffeeshop AU for the half-elf twins, Vex and Vax. :) The idea is somewhat silly, but it's a coffee AU, so it can get away with it. 😆 Basically, the twins don't know that they're twins, until Vax randomly visits a local café and nearly has a heart attack when he realizes the barista handing him his drink looks identical to him. Meanwhile, Vex is equally shocked, and immediately begins scheming how to figure out what's up with her mysterious doppelganger. In a chaotic, roundabout way, they eventually learn the truth. I haven't written this one in a while, but it's a nice, lighthearted piece to come back to when I need a break from heavier works. The "Operation Bumblebee sketch" is actually one I showed you before! It was my first actual success at capturing TFP Optimus, lol. It's called that because I was redrawing a screenshot from the episode Operation: Bumblebee. I'm glad you brought it up, this is a reminder for myself to finish it and post it soon. Seriously, it could have been done a year or so ago, but I got lost in perfectionism when it came to capturing all the details of the TFP designs 😅 Since that time, I've learned to embrace "finished; not perfect!" far more in my art endeavors, especially when it comes to TFP designs.

Tell you what, I'll tag you when I post it! In the meantime, here's a glimpse for you :D

[ladyofthelake]

lol at the anti Vax when there wasn't even one. Get a guy who can do it all.

[pushingdaisies1]

Oh totally every PC character is dope.

For C1 I'd have to say Vex/Vax i love both of them incredibly much and i relate to them a lot on different levels. As an example i lost my mom early not in a death type of way but in the way that she isn't even trying to accept who i am by using my dead name and the wrong Pronounce.

For C2 it's Mollymauk just the minute he was introduced i connected with him because he's so incredibly eccentric and different. I've been named the "weird" kid for basically all my life so having a character that embodies that made me feel so good. After Molly died i was absolutely distraught and Kinda started to cling onto Caduceus. I also absolutely adore Veth thought because well after her True form is revealed to be on the chubby side it made me happy. I've always been immensely struggling with my body image due to different things so seeing that and the general body positivity in her character just warms my heart.

For C3 it's Ashton and Orym Ashton because as a Non-binary 19 year old who uses Neo Pronounce in a city which does not accept LGBTQ+ and a family which doesn't want to understand it, seeing a character use those pronouns made me feel so valid i also connect to him in a different way though.

Rehehe yah!! Ohhhh icicicicic, im really sorry about your mom not giving you the respect you deserve. Thats just uncalled for , but other than that I totally see what you mean<3 - out of the twins id probably relate most to Vex, both due to her personality and her connection with her brother Vax. Me and my sisters have a similar bond (being like hand and hand chaos gremlins) and we're just in general pretty close, which is where I also relate to Vax cause I think I'm just like a general protector type of person lol. SAME SAME SAMEEE!! To be fr... Mollmauk was the reason I realized I wasn't cis LOL. Hes always been very close to my heart as well haha , I always found his story super sweet. In general he was always a truly charming character , forever a bbg in my heart haha. Caduceus dudeee!! I love him so muchhhh!!! When he was talking to Fjord and said (this is my memory) "I don't really talk with people but I talk to people and I know people" During the episode after the whole blown up stuff in Nicodranas?? Shit hit super close to him , as well as he's just so awesome and fluffy and genuinely a true awesome character lol. I also get what you mean about Veth!! Her true form transformation reveal made me giggle and kick my feel back and fourth. Im also more on the chubby side as well as having some bad self-image issues , which made me gravitate towards Veths character more. She embraces herself and her identity/past sm it makes me feel so welcomed yk?? I totally understand where you come from when talking about Ashton and Orym. Your family should accept you dude, and it's on them for missing out on the amazing person you are<3 I definitely also gravitated toward Ashton cause of the fact I both use He/they pronouns and Im agender. Their very much like "fuck everyone and everyone else's opinion on me and myself" which just makes me feel really seen you know? I love watching them rage out and be the sickest punk rock rock out there lol. Personally I relate to orym cause Im used to being like the mediator/voice of reason in a lot of things you know? Like I try to make sure everyone's okay , doing fine , or always try to boost moods one way or another.

[troglobite]

realizing that i don't like vex v much in tlovm bc they took out (bc they had to!) a few key pieces of her personality

it seems like she's mostly angry and judgmental in the show--and while she WAS like that in the campaign--

she was also goofy and teased ppl in a fun way too. her "arrogance" is actually insecurity, and that comes across a lot more clearly if she's being really twitchy abt spending money and demanding that she be in control of it. and also trying desperately to seem more impressive than she actually thinks she is.

and those things are missing from tlovm bc the only times they really came out during the actual campaign was during shopping episodes and downtime episodes

while adventuring and traveling, she was always trying to be Cool and Serious, which is what we see in the show

but we don't really get to see as much of her other sides in the show, purely bc you can't make snappy exciting television out of "we got to these 3 shops and bargain for discounts, then we try on a bunch of clothes, then we go get drunk at a pub and sing songs all night"

so unfortunately the most that we get is her relationship with vax (which is just the both of them being codependent and traumatized lol), some of her daddy issues (i get it, babe, but you gotta take a page out of vax's book), and then a little bit of her and trinket.

and even then we don't get to see her with trinket v much bc the animators hate quadrupeds! and i get it, i do, but it's really unfortunate that the bulk of what i liked about vex wasn't able to make it into the show. and so now new viewers are kind of like //shrug abt her. and i'm like no! she really is as pure hearted as percy says in one of the most recent eps. she really is selfless even if she's stingy and hoards money and doesn't like sharing or being mistreated. she's SUPER compassionate abt animals and wildlife, and helping ppl, for sure. she's not a bleeding heart tree hugger hippie like keyleth, but she DOES care, and she and keyleth (at points) got along bc of that sort of shared values thing. at least if i remember correctly.

also i feel like everyone's a liiiiiittle too broody and judgmental to find scanlan as funny as they all did in the campaign. i know that was mostly them as players/people, not as characters, but they did still all find scanlan funny and enjoyable. and for how crude vex is in the show, you'd think she'd get along better w scanlan. lol they sort of hinted at it with the broom, etc., but yeah.

just realizing that vex is the character who feels the most incomplete from campaign to tv show. they had to take out all of her haggling and bargaining, they had to take out what she does during downtime, and bc she's constantly in situations where she wants to seem hypercompetent and in control, they took out a lot of the clear insecurities and softness of her--and bc we can't see trinket v often, we don't get to see her babytalk and be sweet and motherly v often. it's unfortunate!

i know that laura et al. have basically total control over this show, so i'm not worried that it was a negligent oversight or something, or playing favorites w characters, or retconning anything, etc. it's just that i'm realizing like--i struggle to connect w vex and her story in the show, whereas i didn't as much in the campaign. and it's bc my favorite parts of her were unfortunately the ones that had to be left in the campaign and on the cutting room floor.

alas! such is media. oh well.

but i guess i am v much like--VERY happy that everyone loves keyleth. marisha and keyleth got SO MUCH SHIT during the campaign (all of the women did, to be fair, but esp marisha and keyleth). like i LOVE that. keyleth has translated so well to the show.

but vex has a lot of the same kind of character traits and growth as keyleth but bc those moments are done differently and are having to be edited down in a way that keyleth's aren't, it's harder to see them, and some ppl are like "eugh i don't like vex" and it makes me sad. she's a big fucking softie who's deeply insecure and also deeply compassionate. but all we see is the Cool, Badass, Competent versions of her, and then the insecure daddy issues version of her.

and i want to see the in-between. i want to see her when she's chill or vulnerable, when the mask of Hyper Competence and Coolness is down, like we saw in the campaign.

and maybe we'll get to see it before the season is up. i'm sure we'll get to see it at some point--and most definitely we'll see it next season.

and we got hints of it in the first three eps of this season, w the twins' backstory flashes together.

but yeah. anyway. just watched eps 8 and 9 again tonight and i just kept feeling like the saundor/fenthras stuff was done too quickly. it felt like there wasn't enough confidence in drawing it out or making it clearer who saundor was, what his backstory was, WHY it connected w vex. it felt like elements were missing, and that is like the FIRST time i have felt like that AT ALL w the show.

and part of it is bc they've had to rush bits and pieces of these plotlines this season bc there's so much to cram in if they want to hit certain narrative beats in the season--hence splitting the party when they didn't do that in the campaign. but it just sucks that like...the first fey realm episode didn't get to cover more or teach us more abt saundor. like that would've been a good primer for vex's issues w her dad which are tackled in the next ep.

but instead we got a focus on vax and then percy again, which i get--their relationship is weird and rocky. but yeah. idk. hm.

also obligatory statement that vex IS very capable, competent, talented, intelligent, etc., and that being insecure and haggling and being goofy are not "better" traits for women to have yada yada yada.

i merely mean that in terms of characterization, the ratio of mean/haughtiness to other traits she has is a little bit off in tlovm vs. the campaign. and so i like her less, bc there's simply less to really relate to or have compassion for.

she IS funny and cool in the show, though.