#i think brennan would approve

[d20brainrot]

i wish i could watch the new season rn but i feel like i should watch the 4 hour interview of the guy i'm gonna vote for in an election that could change the future of my country instead

[bored-trans-orchidsexual]

Porter Musings

Spoilers for Fantasy High Junior Year, as of episode 17.

Some of you may recall me being on team "fuck Porter" most of this season, since he denied Gorgug's MCAT and dared to hit him with the "I am feeling hurt". Since his power as a narrow-minded instructor meant Gorgug was forced to quadruple his workload in order to persue his education as he envisioned it. Since he *saw* that workload, how hard Gorgug was working, and still refused to budge. At this point, if what he *said* was the problem, that gorgug wasn't doing well as a barbarian and he saw no drive in him, is just plain stupid.

Gorgug is going through more effort than *any student in the past* for a single school year and flying, getting nat 20's in his class checks, that's fucking determination. That Gorgug has been trying his ass off and succeeding, and Porter did not give a shit. Yes, he says *in the aftermath* his mind was changed by Gorgug putting in the work, but look back. Hopefully now that he's a confirmed rage-empowered villain more people will see it wasn't Gorgug's *effort* he chose to reward, it was his *stress.* The way Gorgug has been breaking down, yelling more, being so hurt he's lashing out *that* is what impressed him enough to approve Gorgug.

The way Porter likes to act, to boast that his 'tough love' approach helped motivate Gorgug to succeed, makes me sick. The way Brennan, even in adventuring party, as well as both Gorgug and Zach seem to *agree* that this push was necessary and in the end for the best, makes we want to throw up. And the way so many in this community just accepted that, will even argue in favor if it, makes me sad. Accepting that is, by way of implication, suggesting that the Helioic repackaging of hardship is valid too.

To those in the Helioic faith, whenever someone triumphs over hardship, they will say it's because *Helio* helped them. When something bad happens and it isn't stopped or recovered from, it was just a test they *personally* failed. Helio receives all credit and no blame. The fanbase as a whole cringes back from this thinking with Helioic followers, but swap a god with a shitty teacher? And suddenly, it makes sense, I guess.

I understand these two scenarios are not 1:1 but they are a *lot* more similar than they are different. In both cases success is being attributed, at least partially, to someone who did not lift a finger to help and in fact, with Gorgug's situation, Porter was a direct barrier, he was *preventing* Gorgug's success. Why would we assume that without Porter's disruption, Gorgug wouldn't be able to fuful his ambition? Was Porter there to stop him from creating the Solar Lasso? Was he there, to prevent him from establishing connection to the Thistlespring Satellite? Oh wait no, the people around him then *helped* him and supported his growth, like some kind of *teacher* should.

I'm just hoping now that the narrative sees him as a villain more people are willing to look at his actions critically, and maybe rethink the way the look at certain behaviors. All interpretations can be valid but please think more about intent and consequences.

[emmalouloubean]

thoughts after ep 27

back before arc #3 started, I made a post of theories and predictions and things, and I already referenced it once, but here I am to reference it again (you don't have to go back and read that post, I'll reiterate all the important info here)

the two big things I'll bring up here are the politics of destroying the station of the Witch of the World's Heart and the tense collaboration between Mirara and Indri (warning: idk how to shut up so this is a little long)

I understand where they (Ame, Suvi, and Eursulon) are coming at with the numbers angle, but back in ep 15, Mirara said that the coven can act without unanimity and Grandma Wren said that they may act as they see fit without her approval. So I'm not sure how strong that argument is gonna be on its own. There is a difference between unanimity and majority, but I think that they might need something else on top of the issue with odd/even members.

Also in ep 15, Grandma Wren said that "there will be tremendous repercussions if you insinuate that any of the other stations are not incredibly significant to the nature of magic itself" and in Ep20, Sly tells Ame that "one of your sisters is going to make the argument that your existence threatens the nature of magic in the world of Umora. And the only way—in the majority of cases where you win that argument, you win it because in order to get rid of your station, they would probably magically have to get rid of another." I think the key points of both of these statements in the tie to magic, as if the thing that makes getting rid of a station in the coven is some sort of magical law/rule and not just a logistical one. I know Brennan was almost leading them away from that conclusion, but I really feel like they were onto something with the idea of balance. Plus, we haven't seen any of the "tremendous repercussions" that Grandma Wren mentioned. Maybe the repercussions are just Ame gets to take someone else with her, or maybe it's a bit of etiquette that Ame doesn't know yet and they're playing off her ignorance, like maybe Ame is allowed to do something in response and she doesn't know she's granted any sort of special reaction.

I'm actually pleasantly surprised that my theory that Indri is working with the Man in Black (MiB) seems to be coming true. I felt a little like the Pepe Silvia meme when I was coming up with it.

We got confirmation that the MiB is under Mirara's station and I think that based on Indri was talking during their argument that they are probably working together against the wizards. And by the transitive property, we can guess that Indri and the MiB are also allies.

I theorized Indri might be working with the MiB because one of the other titles for him is the Pilgrim Under the Stars, which implies that he moves around like people, walking around on the ground (at least to me). In the last memory Ame has in Ep15, Grandma Wren says that "he has been moving upon our world in a way that I cannot quite see" which I think we all clocked, but she also stated explicitly that it's only been like this recently (to quote directly: "for some time now, since you were a very little girl, in fact"). It's possible that perhaps the reason this changed was because Indri had aligned herself with the MiB and was aiding him in moving in a way that is no longer under the stars.

I wonder if Grandma Wren had somehow clocked this because in Ep2, Brennan said that "she sort of had a relationship with [the stars], like someone who spent time in their company" so maybe that's how she knew something was up or wrong with them. I wonder if she asked Steele for a book (the one about stars of the southern sky that was sent with Suvi along with the shape-changer diagrams) that categorized the stars or just listed them in an effort to compare the information of what the sky used to look like or how these things used to work with how they may have been changed by either Indri or MiB.

Let me know what you guys think! Were you guys surprised by the Mirara/Indri alliance reveal? I was a little caught off guard ngl, even though I've suspected Indri of not being on Ame's side before we even met her lol

[treblrebl]

Cam - The Unsung

Booth should add Cam's name to his list of saints. That woman has one HELL of a thankless job as the administrator of the Medico-Legal lab. The irony of her position is that the better she does her job, the less it looks like her position is needed. And being the calm, steady one in a team full of highly individualistic, radical personalities means that her own specialized intelligence often gets ignored. When you have 'works-on-a different-plane-of-thought' Brennan, affable-yet-utterly-mad scientist Hodgins, and queen-of-lateral-thinking Angela on your team, your astute leadership skills and pathological expertise are not given their due importance.

Which is a bloody travesty. The Medico-Legal lab's job is not only to determine the truth, but also to make certain that the analysis can be utilized and presented successfully in court. Before Cam, the team was essentially a group of genius scientists working on individual remains on an as-is basis. Booth was correct in Season 2 when he told Brennan that Cam's objective is to ensure a successful prosecution. And in order to safeguard the findings of the team from being thrown out on a legal technicality, she is bound by the rules of the Justice Dept, the FBI and the Jeffersonian board. It sucks that time and again her team chastise her for doing so.

I mean the poor woman was treated like a traitor by her team for not lying to the authorities when Brennan was framed by Pelant. I mean, sure Angela, Cam should just lie about the evidence implicating Brennan. It's not like evidence in murder cases has a long chain of custody, and any fudging would be soon discovered. It's not as though Cam wouldn't immediately nuke her career and possibly her freedom by actively sabotaging a Federal murder inquiry.

And look - I love Hodgins but I'm surprised how fans of the show either ignore or simply brush over the times he blatantly uses his financial privilege without considering the ramifications to other people. I mean seriously, do we really think he would be so free to full off half his shenanigans if he wasn't the last scion of the Cantilever group, and thus enjoyed donor privilege? He regularly swipes items from other departments and exhibits, often without approval. He brews alcohol in Jeffersonian owned instruments and sets off minor explosions. His intentions are never ever malicious, and he is genuinely an adult version of the boy who loved to take everything apart to see how things worked. But let's face it - ANY other person would have faced severe consequences for these actions. Remember the Founder's Day party? It would have been Cam's job to take the heat for the decimated Mexican succulents and unauthorized drinking in the workplace. I wonder just how much she's shielded her team from - and whether she's ever been acknowledged.

Gods even in the episode where Wendell comes back after his chemo and lets Cam know that he takes medical marijuana to deal with the pain - did she have ANY recourse but to let him go? She stuck her neck out for Finn but Caroline bulldozed her, and with justifiable reason. She was stuck between the same rock and hard place with Wendell. And wow, the way Angela and Hodgins immediately painted her as a moustache twirling villain laughing at Wendell's pain infuriated me. They should realize how hypocritical their stance is - after all when Brennan left for Maluku and Booth for Afghanistan they had a proper cause and mission. Hodgins and Angela left simply because they could, and because they didn't want to put in the effort of breaking in a new team, however temporarily. Cam was left in the dust.

So here's to Camille Saroyan - woman of infinite patience, empathy and the ability to handle rambunctious adults. May she one day get the recognition she deserves.

[jq37]

The Report Card – Fantasy High Junior Year Ep 12/13 A Moonar Yulenear Miracle

Welcome back to Fantasy High where last week, I was MIA because I was on a girls trip–a reason I think the Bad Kids would very much approve of. 

Luckily, we can easily gloss over what we missed in a quick series of bullet points because, while it was an absolute banger of an episode (eat your dice Brennan!), it was fairly straightforward plotwise:

The Bad Kids were dropped into a creepy, dreamlike version of Mordred Manor which was created by a semi corrupted Cassandra who was trying to create a safe place for the Bad Kids to escape but having her intentions warped.

The Bad Kids did a fetch quest, fighting monsters and dodging Baron while they found the pieces of the pride armor curse. Once they got them together, they had a hefty piece of free infernal magic that Adaine could use as a spell component for a major thing–maybe even freeing Lydia from Bakur.

Cassandra assured Kristen that as long as Kristen is alive and believes in the Cass version of her, she can’t be fully corrupted (which is seemingly what Baron was trying to do–kill Kristen so Cass could comeback as his “stark father” the Nightmare King)

Cass also sent Kristen images of her wedding–where she got Kalina as a kitten as a present. Kalina once again reiterated that Ragh is the only name she can say before breaking her own neck so she wouldn't attack Kristen. 

Got it? Good. We reconvene with the Bad Kids as they’re escaping this briefcase dimension and all of their loved ones are calling out for them, but they all decide to take a brief detour to hell to get some answers about the pride armor first–just what every parent wants for their kids! Adaine stores the infernal energy in the Sword of Sight and Planeshifts everyone to hell.

They pop into Fig’s Hellish Recording Studio and slurp down some boiling hot grapefruit seltzers before recruiting Baby to help them find the research books they need. Baby trashed them all and, unfortunately, it’s trash day so they all have to book it as the dump truck ambles towards the dumpster. It looks like it’s gonna be a close call but then–BLAM! The dump truck is vaporized by a plume of fire from the Goldenhoard! Yup, Bill Seacaster is here and he’s tattooing one of those cheesy bumper stickers onto his ship's ass: My son is a Maximum Legend at the Aguefort Adventuring Academy. He got Fabian’s message after all! 

Father and son are delighted to see one another but there’s still a lot of research to do so Kristen goes dumpster diving for books. She gets a 25 Religion and then a 20 (not nat) History while Adaine gets a 22 History and Riz gets a 27. Here’s what they collectively learn about the armor they came to research:

The sin armors were collected by Gorthalax as trophies for his hall.

Each was created by a different infernal deity to punish a mortal for the associated sin.

The armor of Pride was created to punish an elf named Athrenriel.

The Armor allowed him to win tons of battles but every battle ruined his reputation and the happiness of his family.

Eventually someone gave away the armor (maybe directly to Gorthalax, it’s unclear) but that caused the curse to move to the bloodline of the family itself and it’s been passed down patrilineally since.

The curse is known as the “curse of humiliation” and it usually affects the oldest boy in the family once their dad passes–which is why Gilear was a stud as a younger man and then he morphed into the yogurt man we all know and love. 

The best that they can tell, some combination of Gilear putting the armor back on and Fig calling for the power in the Night Yorb fight/being an archdevil had some weird magical effect that pulled the curse back onto the bloodline and got her involved despite her not being blood related to Gilear. 

This is just my interpretation but what makes the most sense to me is that because the armor was meant to help you win battles at the expense of your family’s rep, once Gilear put on the armor and rebooted the curse to its default state, he got really lucky and Fig, as his family, suffered for it. 

Anyway, the party catches up Bill on the whole Kipperlily situation (he thinks Kristen should just kill her and Kristen isn’t NOT thinking about it), the shrimp jump, and the Cloud Rider (which he doesn’t know much about but he does use it as an opportunity to teach Fabian a fun way to threaten his banker). He also gives them all guns–much to Adaine’s delight.

Fig remembers that she has to figure out her pact and asks Bill, a Warlock patron himself, for help with that. He’s happy to help her cheat at school and for 40 gp (borrowed from Fabian of course) writes her an agreement on the back of one of his crewmembers and flays it off (nobody liked that). Somehow, I don’t think Zara–who wouldn’t even let her be a Warlock of Cassandra because that didn’t feel right–is gonna let this slide but hey, it’s not my grade in jeopardy here. 

On Kristen’s suggestion, Fabian also gets a touchup on his Maximum Legend neck tattoo. He barely manages to stay conscious (truly so barely–Riz is so anxious about Bill using a dragon-sized tattoo gun on him that he gives Fabian disadvantage while trying to be supportive) but with the help of his friends he succeeds and, for his troubles, he now has a gold tattoo that allows him to safely handled cursed gold–no more dragon madness for him!

That super important business out of the way, the group splits up. Fabian and Gorgug stay with Bill so Bill can prove a point about the wisdom of buttering up ramps (just go with it) while everyone else goes further into the Bottomless Pit to continue investigating the armors of sin–this time in person. There are high rolls all around so here are the highlights again:

The Armor of Pride looks elven in design but it also feels fundamentally infernal. Riz wonders if that means it’s something maybe summer Eladrin related and Brennan says that would check out.  

The other armors don’t really feel seasonal in any way (the Lust armor is a full Gimp suit lol).

When Riz turns on Detect Good and Evil, he can see the weird rune from the dead bodies on the Pride Armor which now also pings as the word Anakarna. It’s the arcane mark on the armor which means that Ankarna is the one who made this armor. 

As he does this scan, he gets a call on his Spy Kids watch–it’s his dad! Just like Fabian, he’s super thrilled but he tries to keep it profesh. His dad (Pok Gukgak, secret agent angel) is understandably concerned that his son is randomly in hell as well as the fact that a god whose name hasn’t been said in a thousand years just had their name pinged by angelic spy tech (the necktie Riz used to cast the spell–all info gets routed back to the home office in heaven). Riz explains everything and his dad offers to help if there’s anything they want him to look up. They ask him to look up Athenriel and Ankarana and Pok is able to do that because he’s freed from the bonds of Oblivati Mori since they found the name themselves. So that’s a new fact we just learned: O.M. applies to celestial and infernal agents too, not just gods themselves. With Pok no longer bound by celestial silence, we get a bunch of info about Athenriel:

He wasn’t a follower of Ankarna as far as they know.

He’s older than the Court of Stars (the government of Falinel).

He’s not in any of the heavens they know of.

He was a druid and built many of the standing stones in Falinel (very probably including  the one they triggered two episodes ago. 

Gilear is related to him patrilineally. 

They also tell Pok about Kalina and Spy’s Tongue Curse and Riz asks Ragh if he’s under that with anyone. Ragh says no adamantly but Pok points out that he wouldn’t be able to say yes even if he was. Pok says that in order to get around a Spy’s Tongue Curse situation, the best strat is to find someone just slightly outside of the group of covered people to get you in the right direction and here’s where I want to cut in really quickly to drop the piece of info from Sophomore Year that I said recently was a loose end which was bugging me and might be relevant. This is a screengrab from the recap I did of SY Ep 4:

So that’s suspicious as hell and also a possible reason that Kalina would want to say Ragh’s name to alert the Bad Kids to someone else. Anyway, back to the story in progress, Riz wonders if Athenriel is Bakur and asks his dad if there's anything connecting the armor being cursed and the Ankarna being corrupted/if Ankarna had a previous form. Pok starts looking it up and is a little confused because Ankarna’s file is a bit weird. It says she (we get the pronoun she in this ep so I’ll be using it now) is associated with the 9 Hells and it says that she doesn’t have any active divine domains (which isn’t weird because she’s dead) but the file is corrupted so he can’t see what the domains are supposed to be (though it seems like there are multiple). 

Riz thinks that maybe Sol could have pulled some shenanigans to snag the sun domain for himself and Pok lays down some facts about gods. Gods–even good ones–are playing a different game from everyone else. They have to when their very existence depends on having worshippers. And gods generally hate collabing with a deity that shares their domain because they were explicitly the competition. 

As they’re having this conversation, they’re exiting the pit and they make it in time to watch Bill hurl Gorgug up a giant ramp in some kind of insane and ultimately inconclusive science experiment. Pok says hi to him via the watch and they make quick plans for Bill to sell criminal secrets to heaven in exchange for gold (what is he even spending it on???? It’s hell!!!). Fig asks one last important question. Is this a Night Yorb situation? Now that the cat’s out of the bag, is it OK to say Ankarna’s name? Pok says it should be fine. The only problem will come if anyone actually starts worshiping her. (Did you hear that Fig?) 

Kristen Planeshifts everyone out of hell before Fabian has a chance to say goodbye to his dad (entirely for the bit) and all of their parents are so relieved that they’re OK. Gilear is even more excited when he learns that his good luck has been nullified and his life can suck again. He feels at peace being back in his comfort zone and firmly believes that he doesn’t deserve good luck AND the best daughter in the world. Fig is worried that Hilariel might leave him now that his luck is bad again but Hilariel was into him BEFORE his glow up so they’re all good. Possibly better than just good if Adaine’s teasing prediction of a baby on the way is more than a bit (Fabian demands she undo it with a div roll and plans to give Gilear a vasectomy with his sword). 

Lydia rolls up and asks what the hell happened because Bakur just tried to jailbreak harder than he has in ages. They start filling her in and offer to try the ritual they talked about in an earlier ep but she says they’ve been through a lot and it’s Fantasy Christmas tomorrow so they should get some rest first. Riz asks if Tracker is OK and they confirm that she and Nara both are when they give her a call. Zayn and Aelwyn are also both fine. Tracker and Nara were, as Fabian suspected, thrown out of the circle as protection by Gal from the pride armor situation. 

Kristen explains to Tracker everything about Ankarna and the corruption and Bakur. Tracker is honestly really sympathetic to Adaine saying the name out loud and triggering everything in a, “Well if you find a dead god’s name you GOTTA say it” kind of way, like it’s as irresistible as popping bubble wrap. 

They talk to Gorthalax who, surprise surprise, ALSO was being tongue tied by Oblivati Mori and can now spill some info. Lotta helpful dads in this episode! Here’s what he’s got:

Ankarna wasn’t a fiendish entity to start with. She fell, just like he did (you’ll recall Gorthalax went from being an angel of temperance to a devil of gluttony). He doesn’t know what her deal was exactly pre-fall though (which seems to be a running theme).

Post fall, she was all about rage and fire and conquering and Bakur was her right hand. Unlike her, Bakur wasn’t Celestial previously.

She had a set of scales that she turned into a warhammer (sounds like justice to war–also, doesn’t Porter have a warhammer? Suspicious).

She took artifacts from other pit fiends about conquest to study them which Gorthalax says is a super weird thing for a god to do. 

Bakur referred to her as a “Mistress to her people” which Gorthalax also finds weird because, generally speaking, gods are more the ones making requests not taking requests as she seemed to be doing (the Bad Kids think this might mean there was an as above, so below situation where her followers morphed her into what she is now).

She was very touchy about her relationship status and once almost merc-ed someone who made a pass at her and had a snide comment about her being married still.

Before everyone goes to bed, Tracker checks in with Kristen and offers to help in any way she can. Kristen asks her to ask Gal about Ankarna and her OG domain and Tracker promises to follow up–now that Oblivati Mori is out the window, she can bring it up during their weekly Zoom meeting no problem. Tracker, like Pok, warns Kristen to be careful to avoid allowing this goddess followers and belief because now that this name is out there, it’s only a matter of time. (FIG, ARE YOU LISTENING???) Kristen thinks maybe it wouldn’t be that bad if they can revert this goddess back to her original, presumably less destructive domain.

While the above conversation was happening, Nara was around so Adaine steered her away from it from getting her to take her and a disguised Aelwyn (“Roma Childa” which Fig shoots down with bazooka level force) to the Court of Stars where her dad apparently works (Note: Her parents are supposed to be clerics, right? I guess they just have no separation of church and state in Falinel, lol). Adaine tells these immortal elves with no concept of finances that she can’t afford to be the Elven Oracle and she’s tapping out because she’s working as an ice cream waitress to scrape together enough money for her basic needs. Nara both vouches for her skills as an adventurer and asks her dad to let her have the 10 barrels of diamonds that are just lying around their house that they don’t have any use for. After briefly clarifying that she (Adaine) was *not* in fact declaring war on Falinel (exhausting, high elves are exhausting), the Council says they’ll convene in a month to discuss whether Oracle should be made a paid position. Their first thought is lawyers but Adaine gets it changed to a dance battle and she gets Fabian assigned as her champion. Fabian agrees, though the text asking him if he’s down stops him from completing his sword vasectomy on Gilear. Better luck next time buddy. 

The next day, it’s the Moonar Yulenear and game time re: the gem in Lydia’s chest. Adaine is going to use the energy in her sword plus Contact Other Plane to make a viewing screen to talk to Bakur. With the spell, they get 5 questions and, of course, being the Bad Kids, they immediately waste two just asking “Sup?”. Riz yells at everyone except for Adaine (and maybe him) to shut up and the real questioning begins.

With their first proper question, they ask Bakur if he was Athenriel. He says yes. They guessed it in one. Second question: What was Ankarna’s previous domain before she was all about conquest? He starts crying scalding tears at hearing her name–the kind of crying that you do when you haven’t heard a loved one’s name in a really long time. He says she was the goddess of giants, long days of plenty, clarity, discernment, judgment, justice, righteousness, clarity, and the conviction to act with the force of the sun. So a serious slide from pretty chill to pretty intense. He also says that her sister was the light of her life and that she was fiercely protective of her. Final question: Was Sol involved in Ankarna’s corruption? Bakur, instead of answering, asks a clarifying question: Do they mean Sol himself or his followers?

At that, Adaine has to make a Charisma save. With help from her friends (including Gorgug’s new Flash of Genius Artificer ability) she just barely makes it. Bakur is going off about gods and followers and weapons and who wields who and Lydia is starting to not feel good so Adaine shuts down the connection right away. Lydia has to make a save and also just hangs on so it’s time for that gem to come out of her chest. 

When they reveal that they have the power to get the gem out properly, Lydia is taken aback and Ragh is in tears, soulfully pleading that they do anything they can to help, and of course they do. Adaine uses the energy stored in her sword from Fig’s curse to gold-seal the gem so it’s no longer in contact with Lydia’s skin. Inside the gem, Bakur reverts back from devil form to being a high elf that looks a lot like Gilear and is terrified of yogurt. 

Fabian volunteers to do impromptu surgery because he has the new anti-cursed gold tattoo and clearly the dice know he’s not anything close to a trained medical professional because he rolls TWO NAT ONES and KILLS LYDIA. But luckily, there’s no I in Team and the other Bad Kids are there to bail him (and, more importantly, Lydia) out. Adaine swoops in with a 13 Portent roll so she doesn’t just pass away on the spot and then Kristen, surprise surprise, casually pops out a Nat 20 to remove this enormous, chronic, burden from Lydia. Saint Kristen does it again. 

Lydia, free from the need for her constant rage for the first time in years, instantly falls asleep. Fabian keeps the gem because of his cursed gold immunity and Adaine uses Nystul’s Magic Aura to make it magically ping as an empty palimpsest to anyone who’s being nosy. 

And with that Fantasy Christmas Miracle, vacation is over and we move into downtime.

Fabian first!

First Track Popularity: 18. Wild success.

Second Track Bard: 23: A+ AND Brennan lets the Dance Battle for Adaine be a school project so he crushes his competition and gets her salaried! Even though he’s wildly wealthy and doesn’t need more money, Adaine declares him her champion for all future dance battles and demands that the position comes with a stipend as well. He’s named the Oracle of Dance and Adaine gets her extra credit from predicting that he becomes the future of dance. Way to pay off a bit.

Third Track Owlbears: 27. Big success!

Fourth Track Fighter: 32. Another A+!

Fifth Track Job: You might be wondering what a job roll is for Fabian since he’s, as I said before, fabulously wealthy. Well, he’s keen to threaten his banker life his dad showed him and with help from Fig as backup (and Adaine telling him where the banker is hiding) shakes him down. Brennan, who I assume is making this up on the spot, says that it’s written in Fabian’s trust contract that he gets a 200 gp advance every time he finds and threatens his banker. Adaine offers to locate him every day if Fabian will split the gold with her. Fig is down to tag along for free.

Adaine’s next–though we’re not going to resolve all of her rolls this episode. 

Now that she’s getting paid, she gives Basrar her two week’s notice and he’s sad to see her go but happy that she’s doing well. Adaine says that she’ll maybe come back to get a summer job for fun and he gives her a Fudgie the Whale cake to celebrate. Aelwyn’s sister senses go off and she can instantly sense that Adaine is having a nice thing without her. Adaine, who wanted to stuff her face with ice cream cake in private, is baffled at her non-divination specialist sister’s sudden supernatural intuition, but invites Aelwyn over to have cake with her. 

Also, with the Oracle job being paid now, Adaine gets to roll 2d10 GP and even if she fails her Oracle track, as long as she rolls for it, and her financial situation will count as Well Off which is great because it was really screwing with her school rolls to not have her finances in check.

First Track Wizard: Dirty 20. A+! And without having to worry about her supplies, she now has time for research and projects and stuff. 

Second Track Spells: This is a wizard mechanic that allows her to get new spells from her spellbook. With Help from Boggy, she rolls high enough to get a new 7th, 6th, 5th, and 4th level spell!

Third Track Mystery: She wants to Investigate Kipperlilly and on an 18, Brennan says that they’ll resolve this at the end of downtime, but she’s starting to put together where their hideouts and meetup stops are. Let’s put a pin in that until next episode. 

Fourth Track: Relaxation Fabian is surprised and honestly adorably thrilled when Adaine shows up at his little relaxation nurse spa day thing. And, this time, it actually takes! Adaine is able to relax so well that she removes 2 stress tokens (which allows her to get rid of two negative stat effects–she’s now down to only 1 stress). I guess money solves all your problems after all. 

[NOTE: Relaxation is supposed to be your last track but, in the AP, Brennan lets Shiv roll Oracle track and she gets a NAT TWENTY. Brennan flavors this as her issuing a ton of new prophecies while she’s at her spa day, haha.]

She closes off her downtime rolls with a sweet scene with Jawbone where she’s finally able to open up to him about the trouble she’s been having because she’s fixed it herself. Jawbone really wants her to know that she can come to him with problems and that she doesn’t have to fix things herself and when she says she likes solving her own problems and that she can still get discounted ice cream for everyone since Basrar let her keep the discount, Jawbone gently rebuffs her. He’s the adult, he buys the ice cream. (And Aelwyn steals the ice cream. Adaine catches her creating a portal to steal more whale cake from the mini fridge because she’s a menace even when she’s not actually there).

Finally for the episode, we move on to Kristen who is back in cleric class after a harrowing break and, as she steps into the classroom she sees an even more harrowing sight: In an all white suit with a Kentucky-fried silver tongue is the new Cleric teacher. None other than Buddy’s grandfather–Bobby Dawn. 

Detention*

Fabian for Killing Lydia

I mean, come on? Double Nat ones? My guy. 

Honor Roll

Kristen for Saving Lydia

The reason Kristen can be such a chaos generator is because and everyone just deals with it is because, at the end of the day, she’s also the best cleric ever hands down. Honorable mention to Adaine for her arcane assistance. 

*I want to give Bobby Detention just for existing but I’m gonna wait for him to do actually do something out of pocket. Somehow, I don’t think I’ll have to wait very long. 

Random Thoughts

Just a few quick notes this week! I haven’t been including this section consistently because I tend to get a lot of my random thoughts out in answering asks that people send me and also I’ve been so busy that by the time I get to the end of the actual recap I’m often like, OK I’m done, lol. But I wanted to take a few minutes this week to include a few thoughts.

Love Pok being just not happy that Adaine has a gun but not being able to say anything because his son is literally wielding his gun. Also lol at Murph saying, “It feels less weird when you call it an arquebus.” That’s why I love referring to it as a glock whenever I can.

I didn’t mention it in the recap proper but, in case it matters, Fig uses her blood to create a…Copy? Clone? Child? Romance Partner?...for Baby named Baby Baby. Truly not sure what their deal is. 

Riz has a thought about whether they can use the power of music to uncorrupt Ankarna and, honestly, not even remotely the craziest possible idea. They have a rockstar on the team and last season a viral shrimp party was an important strategy.  

As much as Fabian is protesting, I think he’d make a great big brother. Also, he’d have a full house again! I think he knows deep down he’d be the most ride or die big bro ever. Did you see how outraged he was last ep upon hearing her hurt Adaine?

I wonder if Gal throwing her clerics out of the circle had more to do with the general badness of the pride armor or her recognizing Ankarna’s mark specifically. Glad Tracker is going to question her. I think they should be exploring all their godly options at this point now that OM is gone. Hell, Kristen should try and ask Helio if he’s still taking her calls. 

We need eyes back on the Rat Grinders ASAP. I’m glad Adaine took initiative there because we still have so many loose ends with them. We did a lot of macro investigating this ep but I’m itching to find out about the BS happening closer to home. What is Kipperlilly up to? Why did Ivy react the way she did to seeing “Lucy”? Is Oisin evil or not and can Adaine date him? All equally important questions. 

If Brennan bided his time and let Emily rage about Porter for two seasons only to lull her into a false sense of security and reveal that he was involved in secret machinations this whole time I’m gonna laugh so hard. 

[verosvault]

🚨SPOILERS FOR FANTASY HIGH JUNIOR YEAR EPISODE 7🚨

Dimension20 "Fantasy High Junior Year"

Episode 7 "Stress Tested"

Timestamp: 2:04:46

Video Length: 4min. & 30sec.

Discovering clues about Lucy Frostblade & Principal Grix (Pt. 1 | ‣Pt. 2)

Emily: "As their Paladin, for potentially Paladin, can I give them a Bardic? I know that that sentence makes no sense."

Brennan: "You can give a Bardic if you want."

Ally: "Yeah?"

Emily: "I think it's like corrupted, but like maybe it won't be bad."

Ally: "I don't ****ing care."

Brennan: "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go roll me a corrupted Bardic."

Ally: "It's an eight?"

Emily: "It's a d8."

Ally: "Eight, an eight on the die."

Brennan: "Okay."

Ally: "Okay, so that's a 27."

Brennan: "Yolanda says,"

Yolanda: "Lucy was a wonderful, wonderful student. It's been very hard these last few months."

Kristen: "What was her domain again or who was she following?"

Yolanda: "She worshipped a goddess of giants and giantkin named Ruvina, who was a goddess of winter and sorrow."

Kristen: "Whoa."

Yolanda: "Lucy was not a very happy soul, but was a very kind soul. And her interpretation of that goddess was, 'the winds are cold and we are made to warm each other. And the night is long and that is why we keep the fire lit.'

Kristen: "Wow, that's beautiful. Hard."

Brennan: "Yolanda sheds a tear."

Yolanda: "She[Lucy] was very special. Very, very special."

Ally: "Would Riz have told me already that she tried to put in the-"

Brennan: "We can allow that. Yeah."

Ally: "Okay."

Kristen: "Wasn't she hoping to switch from that though? Was it to something more positive?"

Yolanda: "Lucy would never have switched. No, I don't think so."

Kristen: "Oh, she was really committed to that?"

Yolanda: "Oh, undoubtedly. Her conviction was profound. I mean, it's an ancestral goddess of her people going back a long, long time."

Kristen: "Yeah, I thought so, too."

Brennan: "I'm sorry, she actually says,"

Yolanda: "From the Mountains of Chaos."

Brennan: "She's like,"

Yolanda: "Yeah from the Mountains of Chaos for a long, long time."

Kristen: "Oh, my- I have a friend who's in the office with paperwork and they just said they were sure that they saw a request form going in her record. I don't know."

Yolanda: "Does your friend have something I could see that would confirm that? Nothing ever made its way to me that-"

Kristen: "Oh, it's not in her file or in any of your info on her?"

Yolanda: "Well, it would've needed my approval. When was it submitted?"

Ally: "I give the time."

Brennan: "She looks and says,"

Yolanda: "Well, after that time period, I mean, most of us, we've already submitted our final grades. I just wasn't at school during those two weeks. This is... I need to talk to Principal Grix. This is-"

Kristen: "So she tried to switch her god, but you don't think she would ever do that, and then she died?"

Yolanda: "Kristen, I wanna thank you very much for bringing this to me."

Kristen: "Yeah."

Yolanda: "I wanna thank you very much for bringing this to me."

Ally: "Oh, can I do an insight check and see if she's real?"

Brennan: "Yeah. Yeah."

Ally: "Or if she feels like found out or something? I don't know."

Brennan: "Yeah."

Ally: *rolls dice* "Okay. Insight is, oh, that's a 27."

Brennan: "She[Yolanda] looks upset and frightened."

Kristen: "I don't know much about Principal Grix, but is that someone...?"

Yolanda: *shakes her head*

Kristen: "Or- Up to you, yeah. I just have gotten a weird, he shot a net at multiple students, and then rode out of the room leaving them in the nets. I don't know. I'm just kind of wondering if he has, like, the care capacity for something this big."

Yolanda: "You're right. I won't go to Grix, but I need to find out what is known about this. There should have been a document attached to this that would've said the deity she was changing to. Was that... is that... ?"

Kristen: "They said it was blank, or that they couldn't find that information anywhere."

Yolanda: "Okay. I won't talk to Grix. I'm gonna go talk to Vice Principal Stardiamond, see what we can find out. Thank you for bringing this to me."

Kristen: "Of course. Anything you need help with, I would love- if you need more eyes on the ground or something like that."

Yolanda: "Please keep your eyes open, Kristen."

Brennan: "She leans over and hands you a little token. And you see that there's a small little emblem that just says, 'When the only thing you can believe in is believing' and hands it to you."

Kristen: "What's this?"

Yolanda: "Hold onto it. Hold onto it."

Ally: "Is there a little picture of Bruce Springsteen?"

Brennan: "Yes, you see there is a- tight jeans, bandana. It's the Boss, baby. You head out from there."

[vino---delectable]

Our unintelligent squint (e1 part 2/?)

Summary: It's y/n's first day at the Jeffersonian. You are being swiftly introduced to everyone!

Character pairings: Zack Addy x reader, Angela x Hodgins, Booth x Brennan

Word Count: 10.8k

Warnings: none

A/n: Hey... Finally got to p2... I hope you can tell me what you think!!!! Again, non of the words belonging to the case, or anything having nothing to do with y/n belongs to me! Enjoy! (If you haven't read the whole story click here. For my masterlist!)

(Y/n's pov)

I woke up a half hour before my alarm rang again… This is going to be a long day. Ick! I know it's not healthy for me to be so anxious. But what reputation will I have if I lose this job? I certainly don't want to wind up serving French fries and mini burgers again. Not if I can help it. Plus, what would my father think? No, I'll have to try my hardest to stick to this job.

I did my hair up with my two front pieces of hair, and pulled the back with a polka dot tie. I decided I'd wear a modest skirt and shirt. I at least thought I looked lovely and sophisticated. I didn't bother to eat breakfast at home. I could easily go to the cafeteria, and besides, it was only 5:30. My breakfast isn't until an hour later.

I took the bus because I didn't want to bother or wake up anyone this early in the morning. After all I'm still working on my driver's license. The ride was bumpy, but I was ok once I put in my music… The byrds, Celine Dion, green day, lynyrd skynyrd, def leopard… (I like everything ok!)

And finally… After me lip syncing the duet of phantom of the opera, I was at the Jeffersonian. I seriously wanted to cry. There's no way I'm ready! I thought as I jumped out of the bus. I started turning around to try to jump back into the bus, but I noticed it was already half way down the road. No, the only option was to go in. So I did!

I walked in with the self consciousness of my shoes squeaking. Everyone smiled at me. Most likely because they have seen me once or twice before with my dad. So I took it as no sign of approval. I walk into a beautiful woman with what I would imagine to be the warmest face I have seen in forever. And since I had no idea where to go, I thought it right that I should talk to her.

"Hello," I started awkwardly, sounding like I originated from Germany, "I'm new here. And I was wondering if you could give me directions. Like how to get a name tag, like the ones I see you and- well, everyone wearing.. And a tour of how the work, y'know, works…" I smile.

"Oh, hi!!! Quick question first. Are you a-," she reads from a card she took from her jacket, "Ms. Y/n y/l/n?" She smiles back.

"yes… Yeah, I was the one hired… Yesterday, actually."

"Well, Dr. Brennan asked me to give this to you if I ran into you, " she handed me my ID card, I took it and she nodded, "I'm Angela, Montenegro… Angela Montenegro."

"It's very nice to meet you!" I perked up.

"And yes, I can give you a quick look at the work place," she gestured with her hands for me to follow her.

She showed me my main working space first. A platform where the remains or artifacts are originally delivered. A room Angela says she mostly works in, where she designs holograms for the Jeffersonian. She showed me a room where all the skeletons are kept. She kept mentioning the numbers of the rooms, but I remembered none of them. "Now, you can call this one Hodgins sanctuary," She showed me a room full of a variety of insects and chemicals. "

"I swear I've seen this exact setting on Harry Potter," I teased.

"yeah, well, we have to be careful when this wizard waves his wand," she jokingly warned.

This guy with bright curly hair and a tolerable, well maintained beard emerges from the room of doom. "Hey Angie, check out what I discov-" he noticed me standing next to her, "you're new… And fresh out of diapers. Ange, we've got to by her some formula!"

I got defensive "I'm fifteen!" I say.

"It's alright, sweetie. He's just like that," Hodgins raises his eyebrows, approving what she said, "you said you discovered something?"

"I- it can wait!" He said , "you should show the kiddo more things… Or something," he turns and goes back into his "lair".

I turn to her in curiosity, " is this hairstyle fine to wear here?"

"Yes. So long as it's up, and won't get mixed into any of the particulates, or remains we find."

"Uhuh, gotcha. And my clothes?" I bit my lip anxiously.

"you can wear most things; jeans, top, skirt, blouse… For you to get approval, you should wear something modest."

"Good," I say, "because that's all I have."

We walk near the bones room where I see the one face I recognized when i first wanted to work here a year ago. The one who initiated the interview with me. Now he was walking fast over to us. And given how tall he was, he could walk faster than most people I've known.

"Ms. y/l/n. I was wondering if I could speak to you right now?" He said when he reached us.

"Uhrm, yes, Mr. Addy? Um, yeah… I seriously have nothing going on right now so…" I look around awkwardly.

He takes me by the arm, and drags me to the other side of the lab. Angela was so curious as to why he was being so secretive, based on her staring in our direction. I think I was more so curious than she was.

"Look. You have got to follow my lead, words and every move," He definitely could tell that my eyes were screaming the word "what", at him. He tried to elaborate.

" You know nothing about the names of bones, " he said.

"Yes that's true. But I know what they are and where they go when I look at-" I started.

"But the names are important to know in this line of work," Mr. Addy interrupted, "What's going to happen when Dr. Brennan asks you to hand her a tray with a femur on it?"

"A whater?" I raised an eyebrow.

He sighs, "This is going to be a long day," He looks me in the eyes in silence, I just twittle my thumbs as he does so, "Just do what I tell you to. Because if you get fired, I will most likely lose certain privileges, and eventually get fired. So, won't you, since you're already working just under me, do all I ask of you… Pay attention!" I just nod. Not really knowing how else to respond.

Dr. Brennan walks through the door. I recognized her because she always works with my father, occasionally visiting my house. Me and Zack's conversation ends. He hands me a dark blue lab coat with a rough texture, and smoothly gestures with his hands for me to attach my ID to it. We join Dr. Brennan along with everyone else. She always appeared so grumpy to me, like, to the point where she says jump and I ask how high. So, I assumed it was best l should follow with them.

We all walk in a group. While I was still pinning my ID to my coat while simultaneously walking up the stairs, I hear Hodgins saying, "The pond is not only warm and teeming with microbes, which accelerated decomposition, but it houses black carp and coy which fed on the body." We all walk up to this grossly muddied skeleton. It was interesting to me, because I had never, in person , seen a skeleton like this before. Thank goodness I'm only assisting for now!

"Can I, as the only normal person in the room," Angela said, "Say EW?" I looked to her wondering why she didn't see me as normal. I thought I was normal.

"I got three larval stages," Hodgins continued, "Of trichoptera, chironimidae…" I've heard of these flying insects before, I thought, I must've read them in a book.

"As we cut to the chase," She clearly didn't want to be explained anything today.

"The body was in the pond one winter and two summers," he said quickly.

"Spring before last," Dr. Brennan said.

Hodgins smirked, quickly changing topic, "You really think I'm Lesty?"

Temperance looked to Angela with furrowed brows and gaping mouth, in confusion of his sentence.

"The book," Angela explained.

"No, no, no," Dr. Brennan says shaking her head, "you're not in the book."

"Sure he is! we all are," Zack said, amused.

"No none of you are in the book. Those are fictitious characters based on…" As she tries to defend herself Hodgins almost rudely interrupts her to show her bone scans on a computer. I believe it to be the ribcage, maybe.

"I found some small bone fragments in the silt," He said.

"We're out of the book now, we're back in real life," Angela said to Dr. Brennan.

"I guess rana temporaria," Hodgins said.

"frog bones…" How does this woman get frog bones from what he just said? I wondered.

"Also some tiny gold links," Hodgins monitor points where, "Those from a fine chain."

"Point of clarification," began Zack, talking about the book again, "I'm not a virgin. Nowhere near in fact," I looked beside me at his smirking face in awe. How could you be so confident in that? Again, I'm wondering too much.

"Who you captured perfectly was booth," Angela started, touching Dr. Brennan's hand slightly in excitement, "Buttoned down but buckets of sexual confidence which, uahh, I for one would love to tap," She says with a slightly mischievous smile.

"It's not right to discuss tapping asses in front of a soaker," Zack said, looked toward the body.

"You could also say it's not right to discuss your virginity level here as well," I smiled at him, "It also might make those who have never … Oh, what's the term, "" done it"" feel a little bit pressured. "

"You mean- you're saying you've never?" He looks me straight into my eyes. I simply look everywhere but his eyes, "I seem to be forgetting that, some girls at 15 prefer not to."

"Or," I continued , "Some girls, regardless of age, have a few morals." I was low-key angry now.

"Ms. y/l/n," Hearing Dr. Brennan mentioning my name made me turn my head quickly to her, "I am very glad you were available to work with us, but arguing in such a manner should be permitted while you are working," I quickly shut my mouth and meekly nodded, "Anyways, I can't bounce back and forth between my book and real life. Since we're stuck in real life, let's just forget the book." She directed.

"I haven't analyzed whatever it was the victim was holding in her hand," Hodgins looks to the bone scans on the computer, "But it looks like cellulose."

"Paper?" Angela inquired.

"mm, possibly," said Hodgins.

"I found microscopic grit embedded in the skull fragments. I need you to identify those too," Dr. Brennan says to Hodgins, To Zack, She orders, "Remove the remaining tissue, I'll debreed the skull fragments myself, reassemble it so Angela can put a face on our victim."

"Good," Angela is relieved, "I prefer holograms, they don't stink."

Hodgins and Angela begin to walk away. All that's left is me. Yay. "And you, Ms. y/l/n. I will have you thoroughly look around the dirt before it gets removed. Most importantly , I would prefer you to specifically focus on the areas surrounding the phalanges, to see if anything is missed. But be careful of whatever it is the victim is holding in her hands. Understood?"

She looks at me with eyebrows raised. I just smile like an idiot and look to Zack, who is just as freaked out as I am. It takes him a second to contemplate, but he then lifts his hand and wriggle all his fingers. Ahh, now I understand, I thought, I got this!

"Of course, Dr. Brennan, I will get right on that." In a hurry I run to the bodies side, trying my hardest to examine the fi- phalanges! Barely hearing what is being said behind me…

[pushing500]

The Ship

It's been a long time coming, but it's time for us to say goodbye to The Animist Alliance and the story of Eureka. Who would have thought that a colony I started because I was feeling sick and uncomfortable one day would grow into something so fun? I've had a grand time sharing this story with you all, and I hope you've had fun following the adventure.

Speaking of stories, I tried my hand at writing one for the ending! It's a bit long, so I'll stick it under a break, but I hope you like it. Thank you to everybody who's enjoyed my art and my colony, I've had so much fun making these posts. I can't wait to do more!

So, without further ado...

Tap, tap, tap.

Irwin’s pencil bumped against the clipboard in a thoughtful rhythm as he scowled at the list before him.

“There are twenty-nine people in this colony.” He said, his voice cutting through the silence, “Twenty-nine people, eighty animals, but only eighteen cryptosleep caskets. At the very least, eleven people will have to stay behind.”

“More than that, if we want any of the animals to make it off this planet!” Kawoo piped up, “It would be a shame to leave them all behind after we’ve been through so much together. Anybody with a bonded animal should be allowed to take them on the ship, don’t you think?”

“If there’s room.” Irwin stopped tapping the pencil for a moment to scribble something on the clipboard, “Here, I’ve narrowed the choice down.” He looked up, scanning the gathered colonists until he found who he was looking for— the small group of uncertain newcomers huddled towards the back of the crowd, “Gracie, Hot Minute, Grump, Kelorul, and Jesse. You’ll be staying behind.”

“What?!” 

Predictably, it was Grump who exploded. She had a hair-trigger temper, and when she wasn’t trying to destroy the technology around the colony, she could be found trying to pick a fight with one of the men. Irwin seemed to be a favourite target of hers, perhaps due to his powerful position as the Moral Guide of the Path of Animism. “Why do we have to stay behind? Who do you think you are to make us sit down and watch as the rest of you all get to leave this steaming pile of—”

Irwin’s gaze snapped toward her, a dangerous glint in his eyes. He rolled the pencil back and forth between his fingertips for a few long moments, and Grump calmed herself quickly as she recognised the all-too-familiar expression. 

Irwin only looked at people like that before he reached underneath his duster for the sturdy grip of his persona zeushammer, Xanxalbur.

“You’re staying behind because I don’t like you,” He told her, making no effort to soften the impact of his words. He never did. “You’re all newcomers. None of you have earned a place on the ship.”

“We got the AI Core, didn’t we?” said Hot Minute indignantly, “You never would have finished the ship without us! Well, without Grump, Gracie, Kelorul and me.” Grump, Gracie and Kelorul murmured in agreement. 

“No, I suppose not.” Irwin shrugged and tapped the pencil against the clipboard again.

Tap, tap, tap.

“So… Can we go on the ship?” Gracie asked finally, after several moments of silence broken only by the pencil tapping against the clipboard.

“No.” Irwin squinted at the clipboard and crossed something else out, “Eva, you can’t go either.”

“I can’t?” Eva looked up from the tray of nutrient paste she had been quietly eating, “What’s wrong with me specifically?”

“We’re not convinced you’re human, that’s what’s wrong.” Albina stepped up beside Irwin and peered at the list in his hands, “That does narrow our choices down, but there’s still so many of us.”

“I’ll narrow it some more!” Debby stomped over and linked arms with Eva, “I don’t care if you think she’s a mime! I’m staying with her! I don’t want to go on your stupid ship!”

“Alright, then. Suit yourself.” Irwin made a note on his clipboard, and Albina nodded her approval.

“Irwin, if Debby is staying…” Brennan slunk forward, her eyes rimmed with dark circles. It was clear she hadn’t been sleeping well since her abrupt divorce, “May I claim the first spot on the ship? I… I don’t think I can stand to stay here. Not with…” She glanced over her shoulder to where Debby and Eva stood side-by-side, “Not with some people. Please let me leave.”

“This ship wouldn’t have been possible without you, Brennan. If anybody deserves a spot, it’s you.” Irwin offered her one of his rare smiles, “Alright. Seventeen cryptosleep caskets left.”

“Well, then, let me say something.” Zonovo shoved past Hazrov and Vu to glare at Irwin, “Either that thing leaves on the ship, or I do!” As he delivered his ultimatum, he pointed accusingly at the pulmonoscorpius skittering around by the kitchen. 

Frisbee was one of Kawoo’s beloved pets, but it was a well-known fact around Eureka that Zonovo could not stand the sight of the giant scorpion. His shrieks of terror were such a regular occurrence that nobody batted an eyelid anymore.

Irwin and Albina exchanged glances, and Irwin’s pencil returned to its nervous tapping.

Tap, tap, tap.

“If he wants to go on the ship, I won’t stop him.”  said Albina after a moment, “Some people go to such extreme measures to run from their fears.”

“How can any of you stand to live in such close proximity to that monstrous—” Zonovo began to bristle with anger, but a hand on his arm stopped him before he could start a social fight.

“If Zonovo is going, I’m going.” Baz squeezed his husband’s shoulder and grinned, “You wouldn’t break up marriages over this ship, would you?”

“We wouldn’t dream of it. Irwin, put their names down next to each other. They can have adjacent caskets.” Albina watched Irwin take his notes, then glanced up, “Speaking of marriages… Wookshys, do you want a spot on the ship?” 

“You’ll have a spot if you want one.” Irwin promised, “It’s the least we can do, especially considering how you’ve been treated around here.”

“I’ll follow wherever Albina goes.” Wookshys’ laugh was deep and rich, and it rumbled in his chest as he shook his head and wagged his tail cheerfully, “If she stays, I’ll stay. If she goes, I’ll go. I only want to be with her.” He caught Albina’s eye and winked at her.

“Up to you, then, our fearless leader. Do you want to leave?” Irwin’s pencil hovered over the list of names as he looked at Albina. She hesitated, then lifted her head and stared across the colony to where she could see the faintest glimmer of light where the Anima tree stood. 

Albina spent the majority of her time by the Anima tree. She spoke of it like it was a beloved sister, and she smiled as she looked at it now.

“No.” She murmured, “No, I think I’ll stay. I can’t bear the idea of leaving the tree behind.”

“Excellent!” beamed Wookshys, “I wasn’t sure I’d be able to cope on a spaceship anyway. There's not much fishing to be done in a vacuum, from what I’ve heard. I’d much prefer to stay here.”

“Yes, I think you’ll find more joy here than drifting in the void.” agreed Irwin, “So, that’s three spots gone already. Brennan, Zonovo, and Baz. Fifteen caskets left. Any takers?”

“I’d like to humbly request a spot, please.” Candlelight raised one hand and smiled, “I have very much enjoyed my time here, but I miss being among my own people. This looks like the best chance I’ll get at returning to them, so I’d like to take the chance before it’s gone.”

Irwin nodded as he made the necessary notes, then glanced back up as someone blew a low whistle.

“Well…” Wendy sighed and cracked the knuckles on her right hand, the one which wasn’t bionic, then smiled at her wife, “I reckon Tamarind probably feels the same way about the Anima tree that Albina does, hey? I’m happy to stay here with her. I’ve died once on this planet, and it only seems right that I stay until the day it gets to keep me forever.”

“I’ll stay, but I’d like you to refrain from dying for as long as possible.” Tamarind playfully jabbed Wendy in the ribs, and the two women chuckled before glancing back at Irwin, who was watching them with a quirked eyebrow, “Cross us off the list, please. We’ll stay here.”

“There’s enough room for everyone else, then.” Irwin looked ready to wrap it up, but a cry of distress stopped him before he lay the clipboard aside.

“Wait, wait!” exclaimed Fafo, “I… I don’t want to go. I want to stay here. There are… My… I have… I have my robots!” She gestured helplessly to where Gadget, her small constructoid, was working to rebuild some power conduits while her centipede gunner Hero watched impassively, “I’ve only scratched the surface of my abilities as a mechanitor! Please, don’t be upset, but I don’t want to go!” She addressed this last comment to her husband, Kaz, standing nearby with their son, Ro.

“I’m not upset,” Kaz reassured. He absent-mindedly ruffled Ro’s hair, frowning as he considered, “In all honesty… I prefer the idea of staying, too. I helped build most of this colony. I fell in love and got married here. My son was born here. I think I’d like to stay to raise my family here.” He smiled and glanced at Wendy and Tamarind, “Besides, I’ve still got nine fingers left in case Wendy does anything stupid again and needs to be resurrected. Someone responsible ought to keep an eye on her.” 

Irwin shook his head, but it didn’t hide the grin that crept across his face as he crossed the three Kaznove names off the list.

“I’ll stay, too.” Another voice called out, and Barghest stepped forward, “I know I mostly just sweep the floors here, and nobody would miss me if I left, but this place is good. I like my room. I like my chores. I like the weather here.” He rubbed his beard, then added as if it were an afterthought, “I don’t like the idea of being blown up in a ship and dying in the void without ever knowing what happened.”

“That’s certainly a risk we’ll be taking.” Irwin agreed, “Anybody else having second thoughts? Connie?”

“It’s a risk I’m willing to take as long as we’re both on board.” Connie folded her arms and stuck her nose in the air, “I’m sick to death of this place! I just want to go to a nice glitterworld somewhere and get pampered! Is that too much to ask? Besides, you built the ship, dear. I have full faith in it.”

“Make sure I’m in a casket near her!” called Emerald, “We’re sisters, after all. I don’t want to be separated again.” 

Irwin dutifully noted the names of his wife and sister-in-law alongside his own.

“That means there’s room for some of us to go!” blurted Kelorul, “If so many people are staying back, we can—”

“No. Not happening.” Irwin silenced him with a glare, “None of you are welcome on our ship. You’re staying right here. Build your own ship for all I care.” When Kelorul opened his mouth to object, Irwin’s glare intensified, “Don’t make me get Xanxalbur. It’s got the kill-happy trait, and it’s been waiting a long time without satisfaction.”

“Fine,” Kelorul said sulkily before he turned to tramp away with Gracie, Hot Minute, and Grump following in his footsteps. Nearby, Jesse inclined his head and watched his fellow space battle survivors leave, then strolled towards the farms at a leisurely pace, apparently content to stay behind amongst the flowers and trees of the temperate forest rather than fighting for a spot on the ship.

“I want to stay here.” Laurie drew Irwin’s attention back to the main group as she glanced sideways at Debby and Eva, “Maybe I… Maybe… Fall in love again.” Eva poked her tongue out at Laurie, but Debby winked, and Laurie flushed bright red and turned to shuffle away.

“I’m not staying here. There are adventures to have and people to kill! A whole galaxy of them!” Hazrov clenched and unclenched her fists. Her expression was hidden behind the skull mask she wore, but it was easy to imagine the sadistic glee in her eyes.

“I was going to stay, but… If Hazrov is brave enough to board that ship, so am I!” Vu stuffed her hands into her hoodie pocket, “M-mostly. I am a bit worried. It looks awfully rickety, doesn’t it? Like it would break in space.”

“We’ll find out.” Irwin shrugged.

“Will the ship break in space?” Andy, only seven years old, turned to stare at his parents with eyes as big as saucers. Kawoo knelt to gather her son into her arms.

“Of course not!” She reassured, “Your father helped build it, you know. It’s the best one I’ve ever seen! Besides, we’ll be with you the whole way, even if we’re in separate caskets.”

“I built the ship as sturdy as they come, kiddo. Don’t you worry.” Andrei patted Andy’s head. For a moment, Andy still looked troubled, but then his eyes lit up, and he pulled away from Kawoo. He hurried over to the edge of the group and caught one of Henry’s hands in his own.

“You’re coming too, aren’t you?” He said breathlessly, “I’ll be brave if you’re there, Henry. I won’t have to worry about anything hurting us! Not even space could beat you in a fight!” 

“You’re crazy.” Henry did not quite manage a smile, but he clapped Andy on the shoulder in the crisp, parade-ground manner that seemed far too grown up for his small frame, “I won’t leave you for a second. I was engineered as a soldier, and I’ll be damned if I don’t use that engineering to protect the people who have protected me.”

“Language, Henry.” Irwin chided, but he was smiling as he wrote the last few names down. “Let me see… Brennan, Zonovo, Baz, Candlelight, Connie, Emerald, me, Hazrov, Vu, Kawoo, Andrei, Andy, and Henry. That leaves five cryptosleep caskets that we need to fill.”

“We could be really funny and bring the scorpion.” Connie gestured towards Frisbee, but the white-hot glare that Zonovo shot at her was enough to shut her up.

“Tempting, but we should probably use those caskets for any bonded animals. Andrei, Kawoo, you two work with animals the most. Do you want to bring any?”

“Oh, I’d be extremely grateful if we could make room for Pharaoh!” Kawoo perked up at once, “He’s big and strong, but he’s very gentle. I’d love to take him to a glitterworld and show him off! He’s a majestic creature and definitely worthy to be a space explorer. I’d feel better knowing he was close by.”

“The thrumbos are very majestic.” Irwin wrote Pharaoh’s name next to Kawoo’s on his list, “What about you, Andrei? Any animals you’re particularly close to?”

“Well, keeping on the thrumbo theme…” Andrei wrung his hands, “I’m pretty fond of Bellboy. I’ve helped raise him from birth. He’s only young, but… He could grow into something amazing. He’s trained so well. Is there room for him?”

“We have more caskets. We can fit more thrumbos.” Irwin reassured.

“If I may interject, I… I happen to be particularly close with that enormous fluffy cave bear.” Candlelight spoke up, “Witch, you know? She follows me when I go hunting. She’s very affectionate for something with such huge teeth and claws that could– and do– tear raiders to pieces. Her protection and devotion were not easily earned, and I would hate to leave her behind.”

“Two thrumbos and a cave bear. Is there anyone else we need?” Irwin jotted down a few more notes, “We have two caskets left to fill. Suggestions?”

“Brandi and Big Dipper!” Andy exclaimed, “Pharaoh would be lonely if we took him but not his wife and Brandi is pregnant anyway, so it’s like two thrumbos in one go! And they can’t leave without Big Dipper because he was their first baby, and he can keep his little brother Bellboy company.”

“Good idea, Andy.” Irwin nodded his agreement, “You’re a genius. I’m glad you’re coming with us. You too, Henry.” He checked over the clipboard one final time, tapping the pencil as he did.

Tap, tap, tap.

Tap, tap, tap.

“Looks good.” He said at last, and tucked the pencil and the clipboard away in the pockets of his duster, “That was easy enough to sort out. Now, all that’s left to do is take off.”

So there you have it! It's both exhilarating and heartbreaking to see the end.

On the one hand, I finished a game of RimWorld for the first time!! Woo! On the other hand, I'd really grown to love Eureka and all the colonists it had. Well, I mean, almost all of them. I could take or leave Grump, Hot Minute, Gracie, and Kelorul.

Thank you again to everyone who followed along with this story. I appreciate it so much. I'm definitely going to play more RimWorld in the future, so please feel free to look forward to that! <3 <3 <3

First | Next | Previous

You might also like:

The Children of Ecthuctu

A Mechanitor's Message

[strugglingatart]

Jr Year ep 3

This is me live blogging bc I need to get thoughts out also would love fandom friends full spoilers bellow the cut just so no one accidentally reads anything they don’t want to this will be long

EX GIRLFRIEND I will legit fight Brennan why did we at least not see it....

btw me saying I will fight brennan is mostly a joke like I get why we made all these changes, I don't actually love everything but I do trust all these people enough that it will serve the story and play out great

Immediately clocking the fairy festival (Frosty whatever it is I'm so sorry Brenan says it and then it's immediately out of my head) connection we love

love love looove the aguefort projections, so many Arthur statues!

Riz's manic energy is such a vibe, not exactly healthy but a vibe I get

the astral realm where all the dead gods go

lowkey love that Gorgug and Fabian are solid like the boys lowkey play them so dumb but that's just teenage boys for ya (also thought maybe Fabian would be in less trouble but still some so this makes my anxiety relax a bit, only issues we already knew off)

Actually for the wizards I'm really chill is an A+ and also probably true sentence

ah the answer I needed about Fig's multiclass

Ah the society of shadows again, and a college for sad alone adventureres lol

their record is bad but it should be worse when talking about the one person sports team is SO FUNNY to me

the friends bit is so good, everythig about it, all the laughing, Emily failing intentionally, Ally letting it work even tho it shouldn't, perfection

Lydia still making half orc meals we love and stan

Adaine-Riz friendship is SO IMPORTANT to me

the sibbling energy our girls have are amazing

the Thisstlesprings will literally just go into sex ed and Gorgug's reaction is gold everytime

"Can I run from you?" LMAO

ok I'm getting the silly energy they were talking about now

listennnn we are gonna get into Gorgug isn't a good barbarian according to his teacher again aren't we? it's why it wasn't pre approved? I will fight this teacher he literally saved the world twice as mostly a barbarian let him be a chill barbarian

WHY DID GILLEAR NOT TALK TO FIG

yes Fabian make Fig go to class

yay new lunch lad

also I legit thought the time quangle was just an explain continuity errors away and also get rid of the agueforts who break encounters thing but it might be related to the plot now that it's come back up in the recap and in the intercom in story

Fig has Gillear's luck confirmed ok

Zac's physical comedy continues to be SO GOOD

the sillies really are here I'm laughing so much

straight away this lady is insane

four different dogs is such a good burn, love agro Kristen

do not trust this people at all

ohhh skullcleaver, Katya's aunt? cousin? I don't recall the seven mentioning that

listen Fabian's house being party house is lowkey dangerous

Kristen being a disaster gay even when trying to help friends flirt is a mood and a half

ooohh I like mazey

don't trust the attomaton tbh

also yes I just thought of this now so it's late but going back to Kipperlilly whatever her name is, like homegirl can't make big institutional changes youre class president not on staff

rules always being followed to the letter is tbh scary there has to be room for interpretation, perfect order doesn't exist

YES PLOT love how it's already too much bc mood and "yeah I cannot think about that right now" and "embodyment of writers block" oh this season is gonna continue to hit me in the face

Wanda Childa is wild

she was a turncoat, more importantly she was a mirror

why is Ally's hey girlie voice so terrifying

fully forgot porter was the barbarian teacher and I will fight porter LET GORGUG MULTICLASS...

aaaa I'm going into a worry is here, legit thought it was gonna be in battle but I love Gorgug's energy here bc I've been there where you do things kinda nontraditional way and have teachers make the achivements sound so much worse just bc i didn't get there through the path they wanted me to take

love terpsichore immediately

they get 30's fairly often now we love level 10

fabian is such an arsty kid at heart and always was like Lou wanted to make a jock maybe but never did

listen trashbag sandwich is worrying but it was indeed fine

I get that Riz is type A but he is the non annoying kind

homegirl who desn't like technicalities and ppl gettign away with stuff got out in one huh? also I have no idea what that means the teacher found her? what?

Jawbone I love you and also I worry about how much I relate to Riz

I so hate this girl I'm with Adaine, she's the worst we've had

oh no the Applebee's

ok so I have a huge like essay somewhere about both why I don't like how Kristen is dealing with Cassandra but also how I 10000% understand her as someone who abandoned religion but was then forced to still be in similar roles and religious enviornments after that somewher in my head buut also who cares but just know it exists

omg Bucky giving her a hug I cry

Kristen is not doing well but that was actually a pretty good parental confrontation tbh I'm proud

oh damn poor Adaine I'm sosorry my dear you don't deserve this

Brennan really went you know what? we are not having your wildness work for you this time Emily, your shit is catching up to you

yay fig went to class finally

we got SO many designs with all the teachers and such and they are all so great

oh nooo Kristeeen, each step I take the step behind me vanishes is such a raw ass line like this poor teenager is legit so lost like someone help her please (also that was a relatable little monologue.. am I ok?)

love the cleric teacher a lot

ok but i love cassandra alright twilight, mystery and doubt are such a cool ass domain you can sell it and embrace it Kristen I belive in youuuu

but also again: a good ass teacher

awn I love that they're back in the forest

again Siobhan promised no taers and I have cried twice now maybe three times in three eps??? rude af

the bad kids should've helped with the whole Cassandra stuff I just realised I'm so sorry

oh shit not Kalina again.... I feel like i got stabbed in the heart

oh I am sooo pumped for next ep!!!!!

[callsign-rogueone]

The thoughts are thought-ing after "glad it was you" oh.my.god. why are they so cute??? So so many thoughts. Are they now legally married? What about the twins? Do they like Bodhi? Do they all reunite in Aretia? If they got married, did they do it in secret? Who was there? Was that their first kiss?

SO.MANY. THOUGHTS

I love this reaction and it made me so happy that I shed two (2) tears. thank you for sharing ur thoughts!! let me attempt to answer some of those questions (and leave you with more questions… hehe) 💗🌷

why are they so cute???

I know this one is likely rhetorical, but because they’re shy little babies with zero relationship experience who have been raised to be quiet and respectful and polite, and are both still trying to feel out what the other person thinks of this whole arrangement and not overstep any boundaries. that’ll continue for a little while, until they get to know each other better. but even then they’ll still be cute because it’s Bodhi, and he’s the cutest ever, and is gonna be deeply in love with her (bold to say he isn’t already) and because Darling is so sweet.

Are they now legally married? Who was there?

yes, they are legally married in the eyes of the Tyrrish government and Navarre. she did not change her last name (all that paperwork is low priority in the middle of a war) so for all intents and purposes she is still a Laurent. maybe someday she’ll be a Durran. their kids will be, at least. 

there was no ceremony, no vows, no "wedding night"... the contract was signed and submitted and approved and that was it. I imagine that their parents had to sign it as well, since they were underage.

she brought her family’s copy to Basgiath, for a multitude of reasons: to have one last bit of her parents’ handwriting, to keep it safe in emergency / etc as one does with important paperwork, but also as a way to make sure she and Bo wouldn’t be separated after graduation (I think that they would try to keep spouses together, such as Vi’s parents.)

If they got married, did they do it in secret?

yeah, the whole thing is kindof a secret. the rebellion kids know, and Brennan and Duchess and the assembly etc, but Bo and Darling don’t really talk about it. the rest of their classmates just believe that they’re long-term BF/GF, and they’re content to keep it that way — none of their other classmates are married and it would just be awkward to tell people. eventually Dain and Violet will find out, and I’ll give you both of those conversations! they’re already written hehe 

Was that their first kiss?

as of where we left them in “glad it was you”, they haven’t kissed yet. they shook hands in the garden at her parents house when they met (without gloves, so scandalous!) and then he held her during the executions / in the aftermath while the four of them cried. maybe some handshakes or her holding his arm on a walk, etc., that happened in between, but that’s it in terms of physical contact. more to come though… we shouldn’t forget that he was the one who taught her to fight. and I also wrote some of the pillow talk after their first time the other day… 

I have at least two more pre-Basgiath chapters planned for them, that will have them getting to know each other, and Darling meeting the rest of the gang. that’ll be fun for everyone involved and not awkward at all! (sarcasm.)

What about the twins? Do they like Bodhi?

I haven’t settled on the twins’ ages, but they’re considerably younger than Darling. she’s 17 at the time of the revolution, but they’re like… 8-10? I also haven’t named them, because I struggle with picking names, and idk if people would want to imagine their own siblings in that role?? I’m the baby of the family, and basically an only child these days. I don’t know these things.

anyway yes they’ll love Bo. they don’t fully understand why he’s here all of a sudden, but he passed the vibe check during his few interactions with them before everything crumbled around them (which I haven’t written, and probably won’t), but he’s kind to them, and to darling, who is the center of their universe and their most favoritest person, so he’s approved! and they were willing to lean on him in their grief — he’s a safe person for them all 🥺

Do they all reunite in Aretia?

yes!! I have this planned for sure, 100% happening. Darling feels a lot of guilt for leaving them behind when she goes to Basgiath (I’m still working out their living arrangement there…) and she writes as early and as often as she can. so naturally when she comes back to Riorson house at the end of her second year after Resson, she’s dipping for a day to go see them while everyone else recovers, and they get to meet Sìoda!! and then again in IF when everyone moves into Riorson house, she’s leaving Love in charge for a day and going to see her bbs. they’re all grown up by then 🥺

their future remains unclear — they’re marked, but they might not have to go to Basgiath by the time that they turn 20 if the “second revolution” is successful. we’ll see how that goes. they don’t really have personalities or anything yet… they kinda just exist as development for Darling, oops. but the twins might make a brief appearance in the Happily Ever After AU. somebody needs to hold all those perfect little babies that their sister and her husband are gonna have. 

some peekies:

“And now?” She asks softly. “What do you want to be?” You pause your stitching for a split second, not expecting the question. “That doesn’t matter now,” you say hastily, tying a small knot and snipping off the extra thread. “My fate has already been decided.”

-> poor girl has had everything decided for her. but you’re really going to get a dip into her psyche here (through Violet) and I love it!!! (you may remember that Vi is now her ward, lmao. darling is going to help smooth things over between X and V a little, and keep being the cool mom. and do we not all constantly imagine the lives that our mothers could have had without us and grieve on their behalf?)

“I’m only going to ask once,” he warns, a look in his eyes that Xaden has never seen before. “Where the fuck is my wife?”

-> it would be a disservice to everyone if I didn’t drop one of these in there somewhere. you're welcome (and I'm sorry).

okay that's it for now because if I don't restrain myself I will spoil absolutely everything! ily xoxo

[anyathefandom]

Failure to Launch Chapter 2: This chapter made me realize how much I want to see Dex and Emma dealing with so much chaos😂

Valentin,Anna, and Felicia:

“That could be. The new director is Jack Brennan.”

“...No.”

“Yes.”

Me: The biggest grin was in my face because that's when I knew this man is such a menace that Anna and Valentin hated to hear this news.😂

“No,” the man shook his head in disbelief, “that can't be right. Who told you this?”

“...Emma did.”

“Emma?” Felicia's eyes widened, “How would she have known that?”

“The Academy had their orientation today, and he gave the opening speech. She called me after that happened and asked about Frisco.”

“What did you tell her about Brennan?”

“Just that her education was in good hands, which is technically true.”

“Brennan was very skilled, but he was a loose cannon. Who's to say that won't influence how he dictates the Academy's curriculum?”

Me, a lover of agents of chaos:

“He'd have to get the board to approve those changes, right?” Felicia questioned.

“Yes, but considering how they let him become the director, they could also approve any of his suggestions.”

“I think we might be catastrophizing a bit too soon,” Anna stated, “I don't disagree that in his heyday, Brennan wasn't one for conformity, but I doubt he'd be reckless enough to upend an established institution-”

“You know as well as I do that Brennan stuck to his own principles, no matter the circumstance.”

“You know that; you were closer to him than I was.”

“What principles did he have?” Felicia asked.

“Let's just say he was a fan of loopholes,” Valentin began, “If he found a way to skirt WSB's policies, he'd exploit it until he couldn't. It got him into trouble quite a bit.”

Me: WALLACE CLOSE YOUR EARS FOR A SECOND.

Wallace: 🙉

Me to the audience: Now y'all know Wallace is my main man but it has never hurt anyone (Yes tf it has😂) to have a side piece.🤷 Like y'all know I love unhinged men so who can blame me.

“And he kept his position with the WSB?”

“He did for a while. At some point, he was booted out. No one except the board knows why…” Anna gently bit her bottom lip, “which makes his grand return even more perplexing.”

Me: Seriously though what is the wsb up to because this man is apparently a loose canon and yet they hired him as the director.🤨

“Were you two partners?” Felicia raised an eyebrow at Valentin.

“We worked together on a lot of missions, so we got to know each other fairly well.”

“Has his behavior ever affected you?”

“It’s certainly gotten me in trouble with the Bureau, yes. I was lucky enough to possess plausible deniability.”

“Wow,” the woman’s eyes widened, “What was he doing?”

Me: 👀

“If I were to get into detail, we’d be here all day.”

Me: But I wanted to hear about all the horrible things he did and love him anyway😔

“Let’s just say his circle of comrades was…not the best,” Anna gritted her teeth.

“I see, and I’m willing to bet that those associations were why he was finally kicked out.”

“That’s been the running theory for those of us who worked with him.”

“And you're concerned about his position solely because of his history?” Felicia looked back at Valentin, who doesn’t respond, “...I see. Someone deeply cares about his nephew, doesn’t he?”

Me:🥹

“Of course I care about my family,” the man responded, “and I’m sure Anna filled you in on everything that’s occurred with my nephew.”

“She has. Dex has been through quite a bit.”

“I just want to make sure nothing happens to him.”

Me: God if only he had this kind of support system in canon.😮‍💨

“What would Brennan want with Dex?”

“Hopefully nothing more than making sure he can graduate without a visit to the nurse’s.”

“You think something could happen to his heart?” Anna questioned.

“It’s certainly possible; he doesn't need any excessive stress,” he shot Anna a look, his face muted, “And I doubt you want Emma to endure the kind of chaos Brennan could bring about.”

“I won't argue with that.”

“Neither will I,” Felicia nodded, “but I know that Emma will triumph over anything Brennan will throw at her. I'm sure Dex will too.”

Me: And I can't wait to see the dream team in action!!!😌

“He's a tough kid, even after what Victor did to him. I just hope he has the wherewithal to take care of himself. He is his father's son, after all.”

“I thought you and Wallace were close,” Anna crossed her fingers, donning a smirk.

Me: We love to see the Wallace and Valentin friendship is still thriving.👏👏👏

“Oh, we are, but I’ll still call a spade a spade.”

“I heard Wallace is quite the gentleman,” Felicia laughed.

“A gentleman with a mouth, yes. Dexter definitely inherited his snark.”

Me: Dex never stood a chance when it came to inheriting the Heller snark.😂

“How is he, by the way?”

“Fine, I assume. I haven’t spoken to him in a while.”

“What about Irina?”

*Chapter cuts to Irina and Wallace*

Me: IT'S MY SHIP!!!! 😍🥰

[fillingthescrapbook]

Submitted for the approval of the Tumblr Review Board, I call this fever dream:

This idea's been percolating in my head since the end of Exandria Unlimited: Calamity--the desire to see Aabria, Matt, and Brennan playing together with not one of them as the Dungeon Master. And the idea pretty much got stuck there for a while.

And then Dropout TV's Adventuring Academy came back and I learned about Connie Chang, and I saw that they had unbelievable chemistry with Brennan, and it made me want to see them play together in a game too.

Murph came into this dream cast because he has such a different energy over at Naddpod that... it made me wonder how he'll play in a group where everyone's a DM.

Last but not the least, Jasmine Bhullar. I don't actually know how to explain why I want her in my dream cast. There's just something about her energy, her vibe, that tells me she's going to make this cast come together in a way that's totally unexpected.

I'm not going to say what my dream campaign would be like for these fine folks. I'm sure whatever I think of will not be as good as what they can come up with.

What I do want to share though is my choice for Dungeon Master... and it's the tandem of Zac Oyama and Lou Wilson. Initially, my idea was that there would be a rotating set of DMs, with Emily Axford, Amy Vorpahl, and Deborah Ann Woll joining these fine men. But it might just end up too chaotic. So, instead, I'm just going to manifest this duo who can pull themselves back when it becomes too chaotic, but would also nurture the chaos when it does arrive.

And so I hand this dream to you, Tumblr Review Board, for your feedback, your guidance, and your verdict. Is this a dream worth manifesting?

[emmalouloubean]

My working theories and thoughts heading into Arc #3:

(spoilers obviously for episodes 1-23 you're not caught up)

I think that the other members of the Coven of Elders are very anti-wizard and that they think that the wizards of The Citadel pose a threat to the world of Spirits and the maybe to the world of mortals. The conflict that we hear Grandma Wren and Mirara on opposite sides of in Ep15 I think is whose side to be on, that of the Man in Black (MiB) or the wizards who I think MiB is trying to destroy.

We know that the role of witches is that of being the bridge between the realm of spirits and the realm of mortals, but it was pointed out as well by Brennan that the Witch of the World's Heart is the only station within the coven that deals with people so when a conflict arises that puts these two forces on opposing sides, obviously the other witches are gonna be more likely to side with spirits. I think it's also possible that they see the wizards not only as a threat to spirits but the world they themselves occupy and the other people who share it with them and thus are a scourge that needs to be purged. Brennan did say (in reference to the other members of the coven) that "there is much in the world that is spoken for outside of people." Grandma Wren, because she engaged with people constantly as one would expect of her station and particularly because she engaged with wizards, probably saw more complexities and nuance in the matter and understood that the MiB will probably be undiscerning in his attack on the Citadel, and will kill many innocent people in his attack (a mirror almost of what we saw in Arc #1 with Naram and Orima).

Mirara said that the coven can act without unanimity and Grandma Wren said that may act as they see fit without her approval, and I think that some of them may have already aligned themselves with MiB. This is where I think the book Steele was planning of giving Grandma Wren comes in, the book on stars of the southern sky.

Another member of the Coven of Elders is Indri the Witch of the Wind and Stars. One of the other titles for MiB is the Pilgrim Under the Stars, which implies that he moves around like people, walking around on the ground (at least to me). In the last memory Ame has in Ep15, Grandma Wren says that "he has been moving upon our world in a way that I cannot quite see" which I think we all clocked, but she also stated explicitly that it's only been like this recently (to quote directly: "for some time now, since you were a very little girl, in fact"). I think that perhaps the reason this changed was because Indri had aligned themselves with MiB and was aiding him in moving in a way that is no longer under the stars.

I wonder if Grandma Wren had somehow clocked this. In Ep2, Brennan said that "she sort of had a relationship with them, like someone who spent time in their company" so maybe that's how she knew something was up or wrong with them. I wonder if she asked Steele for a book that categorized them or just listed them in an effort to compare the information of what the sky used to look like or how these things used to work with how they may have been changed by either Indri or MiB.

Now, while looking for all the quotes I used above, I also came across this line from Grandma Wren in the flashbacks in Ep15: "Oh, there will be tremendous repercussions if you insinuate that any of the other stations are not incredibly significant to the nature of magic itself." And in Ep20, Sly tells Ame that "one of your sisters is going to make the argument that your existence threatens the nature of magic in the world of Umora. And the only way—in the majority of cases where you win that argument, you win it because in order to get rid of your station, they would probably magically have to get rid of another." I wonder if this part of the repercussions Grandma Wren was talking about, that if you threaten the level of importance of one of your sister's station, that they get to argue against your station or something to that effect.

We have no idea who's station Ame is gonna try to argue against, but I hope it's Indri cause it would be funny and dramatic if their station was threatened while in their own home but also cause the thing that prompted Grandma Wren saying that about not talking bad about your sisters was Ame saying that "tending to empty hallways and corridors of icy crystal" sounded "irrelevant" and I love me some foreshadowing.

Other things that I think are significant but I'm not sure how yet are another Grandma Wren quote and something about Suvi's official art for Arc #3.

The Quote was again in Ep15, and she said that "unfortunately, in some ways, witches, for the moment, have to be people, too." I'm hung up on the "for the moment" part. I wonder if there's been whispers and talk from other members of her coven about how they see themselves as no longer people or wish they weren't. As I mentioned earlier, only Ame's station deals with people so maybe they are just that disconnected that they feel or wish they were disconnected from the idea of being a person. This maybe could tie in with the scrolls that came with the book and Eioghorain's whole deal.

There's a lot to say about the new art for Arc #3, but the big thing to me that's sticking out (which I mentioned in the tags of my reblog of Aabria's post) was that we don't see any of her arcane focuses. The necklace, ring, and staff are all conspicuously absent. I was unsure about the ring initially cause not all of her fingers are visible in the picture, but if you look back at other official art she actually wears it on her thumb and both are bare in the new art. So what happened? How is casting spells without her focuses? Her staff wasn't in the Arc #2 art either, so maybe she still has that, but the ring and necklace are clearly missing which feels big.

Anyway, I'd love to hear what other people are thinking! Let me know how we're feeling going into Arc #3. I'm personally nervous as hell for the tension between the trio when they meet up again for the first time. I can't wait for tuesday!!!

[faeriesinmyhead]

Plans - Memento Morri

“Magic is all around us,” Rhea’s voice echoed in her head. “If you allow it to flow through you, you will be able to do anything.”

With a slow, fluid movement, Morrigan brought her arms down and allowed the magic to move through her, channeling the energy into a large, illusory firework. It shot up into the air and hovered for just a moment, before it exploded into sparks, slowly raining down over the town. As though she were dancing, she spun in a slow circle, her arms extending outwards as she brought them down to her shoulders. The sparks in the air followed her movements, dancing in the air along with the young woman. Her movements began to come faster and more confidently, her arms moving about in mesmerizing patterns, directing the sparks in the air to create shapes and patterns that moved about with her. The villagers “ooh’d” and “ahh’d” as Morrigan altered the illusions with her movements.

The dance lasted at most a few minutes, but by the end Morrigan found herself quite exhausted. The townsfolk erupted into cheers as the last of the sparks faded and left them all in darkness. With one final motion, Morrigan lit the torches lining the streets all at once. She curtsied to the crowd, and stepped away from the center of the square as the village elder came forward to say a few things.

“Thank you, Morrigan Brennan, for such a delightful show,” the elder began, before launching into a prepared speech about how beautiful this time of year is, how much he loves the village, and so forth. Morrigan found her way through the crowd to her mother, who was waiting for her with Rhea and Rowan.

“That. Was. Awesome!” Rowan said, excitedly but softly. “I didn’t know you could do all of that!” Morrigan managed a half-smile at him, and tousled his hair a bit with one hand.

“You did so excellently, honey,” her mother said, pulling her into a hug. “I’m so proud of you.” From her mother’s embrace, Morrigan looked to her teacher. Rhea merely smiled and nodded, an indication of her approval.

“Thank you, all,” she said, pushing herself out from her mother’s embrace gently. She looked from her mother to Rhea with a serious look on her face. “I wanted to ask something,” she continued, “now that my training is complete.”

“Go on, child,” Rhea said, a knowing look on her face. “You can ask.”

“I want your blessings to travel, to join the Adventurer’s Guild and see the world,” Morrigan said, her expression fearful that might say no. “I know I’m barely an adult, but I was thinking on what you said about ‘finding purpose,’ Mother, and I think that-”

“Of course, Morri,” her mother interrupted, taking Morrigan’s hand in hers. “I understand that being here is difficult for you, and seeing the wider world will be good for you.”

“You have mine as well, child,” Rhea said, stepping forward and placing a hand on Morrigan’s shoulder. Morrigan opened her mouth to express gratitude, but was silenced by a grave look from Rhea. “While you have learned much under my guidance, there is yet much more to learn. Keep an open mind, and remember that it is only in rigidity that we are doomed to failure.”

Morrigan nodded, her expression turning equally serious. “Yes, ma’am, I will be sure to remember that. Thank you, both.”

“The next caravan through town is scheduled to arrive in a few days,” Rhea said, turning to give Morrigan’s mother a thoughtful look. “Perhaps they would be willing to escort your daughter through the mountain pass to Ravengard, and the Adventurer’s Guild there.”

“Oh, I’m sure,” her mother said, a tinge of sadness in her voice. “Ah, my daughter is all grown up now and ready to see the world.” She pulled Morrigan into a hug, holding her tightly. “I’ll miss you, Morri.”

“I’ll miss you too, Mother,” Morrigan said, her voice wavering slightly. After several moments she stepped away from her mother and pulled Rowan into a hug.

“You’re really gonna go?” Rowan said, sounding as though he were on the edge of tears. “But, I’ll miss you.”

“I know, Bud,” Morrigan said, barely able to contain her emotions herself. “I’ll miss you too. Come on, I’ll read you a story before bed.”

[spyxfamilyanalysis]

SPY x FAMILY analysis Ep.2 pt.1

Mission: 2 - Secure a Wife

My analysis includes 2 parts. Part 1: Summarise and analyse the episode; Part 2: Compare with the manga

Summarise + Analysis~~~(here it is at last) smaller words are not really essential for the analysis so you don't have to read them.

*Situation: After the end of episode 1, Loid and Anya's next important "mission" is to find a mom for the phase 2 of the entrance exam: interviewing with parents and child. Because no exceptions will be made, Loid needs to find a wife asap so that Anya can enter the Eden Academy -> succeed Operation Strix stage 1!

"A very cool detail in this episode is they finally add the opening for the anime with the song: Peanut lasted about 1:30 minutes."

The episode started off with Loid's "trustful companion/ friend/ colleague"- the one help him with information for the mission- Franky- tried to dress up as a wife, which, nevertheless, failed Twilight and Anya's approval. That simply because Anya thinks he is too ugly to be Anya's mom...

So while Anya gave Franky some peanuts to sympathize, Loid (Twilight) was thinking about Operation Strix. Even though Anya managed to pass phase 1 of the examination for the Eden Academy, he never thought the presence of both parents would be required for the interview. Therefore, he had to find a wife.

Meanwhile, at the Capital City Berlint-City Hall, Camilla was talking something about the buglar in her apartment. Let's just say she with Millie (short-hair girl) and Sharon (the smoking girl) were discussing about that creepy buglar and their lewd Chief, which Yor really isn't interested in. (Camilla, Millie and Sharon are Yor's colleagues). As she is always being "unique"(didn't have a lover), Yor is usually mocked by her colleagues as they all have a boyfriend or a husband.(Also if you hear carefully, Camilla called Yor as Yor-senpai)

Since Yor is 27 and doesn't have a BF, Camilla warned her of being single because some spies has been roaming around and people reported others for something trivial. One time, a woman in her 30s living alone was reported for "being suspicious" by her neighbors(the police caught her (?)), so I guess being single at 27 is a huge problem as she might be ended up like that woman. Camilla also invited Yor and the rest to her party on Saturday, and with Yor's partner, and she was pretty worried about it.

At night, Yuri (Yor's younger brother)(later been shown next episodes) called her as he was worrying about her condition about not having a boyfriend, so he also wants to find a nice guy for his sister for her sake as a way to repay for everything she has helped him. In order not to worry Yuri about finding a partner, she lied to him saying that she already has a BF and is invited to Camilla's party. So to be ensure, Yuri will ask Mr. Dominic (Camilla's bf) to find out what kind of BF she has. Yuri is always worried about his sister as he always do for her best.

After the call, she was very worried about looking for a boyfriend for Yuri's promotion, if she doesn't find anyone, he'll think she is a "liar" on top of a "weird person". Suddenly, a mysterious call from the Garden (mentioned in later chapters, the place where she works for night duty) from "shopkeeper"(her boss) called her for a mission at Royal Hotel, room 1307. Codename: Thorn Princess , an assassin as her secret identity. At Royal Hotel, she killed all the bodyguards on that floor and killed the target: Vice Minister Brennan from the Auditing Department as he is a betrayal and a treason. After cleaning the room and the blood as well as the dead bodies, she noticed her dress was torn (the only formal dress for the upcoming party), while considering about Yuri and boyfriend.

Treason (n): the crime of doing something that could cause danger to your country e.g.: elping its enemies during a war (tội phản quốc in Vietnamese)

The next day, Franky returned with some paperworks about single women for Loid to find a wife. Anya was also worried and felt guilty if she was a nuisance for Loid, so he comforted her and told her to watch TV instead. In the meantime, Franky asked why Loid didn't use female agent from his office, Loid replied because a lot of them were taken down from the spy hunting, so it is pretty difficult for him to find one suitable enough. Moreover, he also need to change Anya's appearance to look more "royalty" for the school. So Loid and Anya went to a clothes' shop and make Anya a new outfit.

Meanwhile, Loid was analysing the women working in the shop, mostly all of them are married (one of them used to be a prisoner). Suddenly, as Yor arrived the shop to fix her dress, Loid was stunned and shocked as he didn't even noticed her coming to the shop.

Information: Yor Briar 0712843 06 April 1963 HQ AKMA A single woman from a rural ... Parents have already passed away. Fomely of ... younger brother(?) (some words are too blurry to read :") But I managed to find out an old-and-long-time reblogged post that could guess the correct time. Here's the link: LINK!

As Loid identified Yor's identity, she noticed him keep staring at her sneakily, which to his surprise. So in order not to reveal this "secret", he answered wisely that she was just too beautiful. Yor was shocked and pretty surprised, so as the two were having a short and small coversation, Anya interrupted. Yor realized that he already had a child, so she was pretty disappointed that he already had a family, a wife, and was about to kill the wife, which Anya was shocked that she figured out Yor is an assassin. When the two were reconsider themselves if they were suitable enough to be together, Anya came up with a good solution, getting Loid and Yor together so the mission will become smooth and easy. So Anya acted sadly that she missed her "mother", and Loid lied saying his wife died 2 years ago.

While the three were talking, Yor explained that she needed a boyfriend for Camilla's party this weekend, and Loid said he needed Yor to be Anya's temporary mom for the interview of the Academy, so both of them accepted eachother's conditions as it was beneficial to both of them in the end. After that, Anya and Loid went shopping. Loid told Anya to behave well in the weekend because a babysister (which is obviously Franky) will take care of her while Loid would be away for the party. After paying the bill, the seller croaked "ribbit" for F code (Frog) instead of T code (Toad).

Inside the coin was a small message for Twilight's next mission: "Recover the artworks stolen from the East and destroy the smuggling syndicate stealing them". And surprisingly, as well as unfortunately, it was also on Saturday, the same time with the party.

Guys, if any of you can translate this message, I will be pretty glad and impress that you got the eye of a detective and quiz-solver! I couldn't even know how he translate (is there some kind of rules to solve the letter... Comment below if you have found out)

On that night, he asked for Franky's help to finish the mission as soon as possible for the timing, while Yor was still waiting for Loid, worried sick. Both of them managed to succeed the mission, and on the way to their escape, Loid picked an expensive ring for Yor from the mission. Unfortunately, they got hit by a car. Meanwhile, because of waiting for Loid so long, Yor thought she was fooled so she ended up going to the party alone. Of course, her colleagues teased behind her back as they think she was lying about her having a boyfriend. Mr. Dominic tried to cheer her on, but that damn bastard Camilla interrupted her, made Yor feel more painful inside. She thought, Yuri had always been wanting Yor to live a happy and normal life, thinking that she doesn't seem to see the point of her arrival.

When she was about to leave, Loid entered with a slightly injured body. Honestly, I was pretty shocked to see him arrive right on time, just before Yor was leaving. A very funny scene is Loid got mixed up with the mission, saying he is Yor's husband, which made Camilla so jealous with Yor as he is smart and handsome. So she tried to put her to shame by throwing the tray of gratin towards Yor by pretending to trip. However, Yor managed to catch it by her leg (impressed~😎, but it's pretty indecent😅), which put Camilla to shame. So Camilla used her final trick by spoilling Yor in front of Loid about Yor doing some dirty and lewd work by giving some strange men a "sexy massage" (massage them to death (=kill) as they are her targets). She wanted to explained, but Loid praised her instead, being very proud of her, which Yor surprised a lot. He explained to everyone that Yor lost her parents at a young age so she tried her best to provide her brother, even if it means by sacrificing for someone. After that, everyone were speechless and both of them left the party.

Loid also apologized to Yor for the husband thing while they were on the van driving away, worried of how to explain to Yor's brother. As they were talking, the bad guys from the mission earlier attacked them. Loid didn't notice there were transmitter in the goods, thinking that he had been so soft lately, so he came up with an explanation to Yor that those are his patients, even Yor thought that was true that being a doctor must be very tough. So they on the way to escape. While the bad guys were looking for them 2 of them were hit by Loid. Yor asked if it was ok to hit a patient, so Loid answered that in recent years, the medical community had been using the cutting-edge "batting therapy" method(he litterally made that up).

They then faced another one, eventhough Loid managed to hit him, the other one jumped from the top and tried to attack him, but Yor saved him with an incredibly strong single kick that blow him away. While Loid was super shocked to see that strong kick, Yor tried to explain that she was good at self defense and learned that from her brother(lie, she learned that for assassination missions and by herself when she was young). Instead he smiled and thanked Yor. After many attacks and sent the bad guys flying, Yor asked if it was okay to marry Loid. He was shocked and fell on the ground while both of them were running. She said: "A single woman like me is already considered suspicious as it is... So for camouflage... And for me to continue being an assassin... If you like, why don't we stay together even after an interview... For our mutual benefits".

The only one Yor thinks it is suitable enough for her is Loid, gladly, he accepted, saying after that they should drop by the city hall for the paperworks. As he was about to give her the ring earlier, the pocket had a hole and the ring was nowhere to be found... Surprisingly, the bad guys had cornered Loid and Yor, so they hid behind and Loid took the bomb and throw it to the bad guys, while use the grenade ring(the one that looks like a ring and each bomb has, you pull that out and throw the bomb to explode) as a ring instead for his proposal.

"As long as I... can continue my mission..." - Twilight

"As long as I... can continue being an assassin..." - Thorn Princess

"Thank you guys and sorry for let you guys waiting all this time for part 1. I couldn't believe that it took me nearly 2 months to finish this post. Anyways, let's celebrate Part 2 Episode 13 Spy x Family release! and Spooky Month!"

[bardic-tales]

Hi! Happy Blorbo Blursday!

What is the one thing that one of your secondary characters would never do for your protagonist? What's the worst way they could realize this?

--Joy (@italiangothicwriteblr)

Happy Blorbo Blursday, Joy. Thanks for the questions. I hope that you are having a wonderful day.

As I am working on FotD this week, I'm going to answer this for one of the secondary character: Adeon. Adeon is the foster father of Alystin Torrath and the most accomplished of Brennan's knights and his best friend.

What is the one thing that one of your secondary characters would never do for your protagonist?

Adeon is like any other silver dragon once he accepted a mate and had offspring. It didn't matter to him that they were human. Even if meant that he would lose his life, he would protect them until the final breath left his body.

Adeon does not agree with Alystin having Brennan for a mate. In the second book of the Dragon Chronicles, this is a major source of contention between the two dragons. Brennan is a bit of a wanderer as he searches for clues on the cult that is hunting Alystin and Adeon wants a stable life for his daughter. His friend cannot provide this for her.

Then, Adeon knows the fact that Brennan is a dragon means that he will live long enough to see Alystin pass. This actually does happen and causes Brennan to go mad, which is hinted to in Cold as Ice and shown in the last trilogy set in the Planes of Existence.

If Alystin went to him and asked for his permission to marry Brennan, Adeon would refuse. She has a bit of wanderlust, but the fact of the matter is that Brennan's entire flight was wiped out and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Her father thinks she is safer in their village.

What's the worst way they could realize this?

As Alystin looks up to her father, the worst way for her to find out that he doesn't approve of a relationship with Brennan would be if Adeon criticizes his friend directly.

Adeon would have a frank conversation with her about why she didn't think marrying Brennan was a good idea. He never raises his voice to her, but this makes it worse for Alystin. She hates to disappoint her father.

Flight of the Dragon Tag list

@blind-the-winds @verba-writing

If you wish to be removed or added to this list, just let me know. I don't have a post like I do with the others. Just comment, dm me, or send me an ask, and I'll add you.