#like Riz said:

[backstepping]

when you have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

bonus:

[biboomerangboi]

The whole party’s so codependent that this hardly matters anyway but Queerplatonic FabRiz is actually so important to me like all I picture is them at 20 being like Fabian “Hello my future lover, this is my emotional support provider THE BALL, I run most of my decisions past him and lose my mind if he’s not around.” Meanwhile Riz just gets the confirmation he’s actually loved for being a great friend and just the validation that his friendship is as important to someone’s life as a romance partner and also getting to at some point to be Fabian’s Sugarbaby.

[littlebitofdnd]

Sandra-Lynn and Sklonda are having a "What Do We Do About Kristen" phone call as we speak

[bacchuschucklefuck]

one thing I really really appreciate abt riz gukgak as a character is that he is un-self-aware to the max. he inhabits his body so completely. the arc that would usually be run as "I'm different and unable to connect with my friends in this way that everyone seems to be able to do and so something's wrong with me and I don't like myself" when it comes to riz is actually like no! I have literally no problems or praises for myself personally. I don't stand outside of my own self and judge it. it's phrased as "other people will eventually find someone more important to them than you" rather than centering it on his self-perception. he doesn't know why he doesn't have the best social life on earth even though he's not afraid at all to talk to other people. every time he sees himself in someone else's actions or behaviour he gets startled by it. his latest epilogue is realizing seemingly for the first time that he's not just an agent of causes but an actual character. he's my hero and I want to be him when I grow up

[captainsparklefingers]

I love Sklonda's reaction to Kristen's campaign.

Just...huh.

That feels about right.

[lightningidle]

I am once again emotional about Riz Gukgak, this time because he is (as far as we know) the only Bad Kid actively thinking about the group's future together. The entire plot of The Seven was the Seven Maidens fighting tooth and nail to all graduate together and remain an adventuring party, but as Junior Year kicks off, Riz is the only one we see trying to chart a course for the whole group.

This doesn't mean the other Bad Kids don't care! Of course they do!! All of them have big things to deal with, be it breakups or a lack of parental figures or a lack of direction or a lack of money, the list goes on. But as the future looms ever nearer, Riz is the only one we've seen thus far thinking about everyone's future together, not just his own.

"The years will go by, and everyone will find someone that matters more to them than you."

It can be hard to be the friend that always makes the plans. It can be hard to be the friend who's constantly reaching out first, who's always the one facilitating hangouts, who's always taking charge because (especially as you get older and your time becomes less structured) without someone taking the wheel, the gang won't be getting together for weeks at a time, if at all. None of this means the gang doesn't want to spend time together, just that as you age, it takes more effort to make happen. and more often than not, it tends to fall on one person to see that through.

And even though you love your friends, even though you know the work is worth it, even though the work itself is your love language, it can sometimes feel like none of them care as much as you do. Whether or not it's true, sometimes it feels like, if you just stopped trying, no one else would pick up the slack, because it doesn't matter to them the way it matters to you.

"Why do you think your friends keep you around, Riz Gukgak? If it had not been for detention on your first day of school, and for you to solve this little mystery, do you think they'd look at you as someone they can truly understand? Or are you just a funny little thing that finds the clues?"

At the end of the day, the Bad Kids love each other. These friendships are meaningful and important, and they all put effort into taking care of each other. Riz is the little shrimp (honorific)(affectionate) of his crew because he belongs, not because he's simply tolerated.

But like he told his mom before Boys Night, he has a hard time relating to them when there's not a problem to solve. As he told his dad, he feels the distance between himself and the group as someone who doesn't get the hype around getting their kisses in. Work is his love language. And if he can do this— lay out the pieces, solve the puzzle, do the work to make sure that there's a future for all of them as a team— then he can prove he's worth keeping around.

Right?

[gods-favorite-autistic]

Track list for Fig and the Cig Figs independently published Junior Year album (officially named “Infaethable”)

Teenage Rebellion

Night Yorb (a heavy metal banger)

Summer Scaries

Devils Nectar

Time Quangle (a love song about Ayda)

Multiclass (Gorgug sings on this!)

The Ballad Of Lucy Frostblade (Kristen was the one who convinced Fig to write this)

So Late, So Tactical

Do You Have A Fucking Warrant

Cassandra (Can You Hear Me)

Hall Of Mirrors

President Applebees (written entirely in the night after Kristen gets elected by a drunk Fig with extremely drunk notes by Kristen)

Raging For Love (inspired by Gorgug, of course)

The Elven Oracle (Has A Day Job) (So Stop Bothering Her)

Maximum Legend

Fury Of The Ball

Cursed

Infaethable

The Bad Kids

[little-doggy-girl-kisser]

idc brennan is the biggest supporter of aroace riz

saying riz was asexual in an adventuring party for the seven

bringing baron back to try get SOME confirmation of his aroness

"what awkward conversation were you trying to avoid?" - baron

[voxmilia]

Oh Sklonda's righteous fury hits so hard, as a kid who WAS taken advantage of in many ways by her friends when she was in school, and whose mom tried to tell her they were being unkind and who didn't believe her until she got kinder friends

[novaiisk]

"When you think about me, why do you always bring up The Ball?"

- Mazey after attempting to kiss Fabian who immediately called Riz to explain

BRENNAN STOP IT HE'S NEVER BEATING THE REPRESSED PLATONIC SOULMATES ALLEGATIONS NOW !!!!!!!!!

[feelingtheaster99]

Goddamn the fact that Murph/Riz figured it out RIGHT BEFORE it happened 🤯

[princessdarth-vader]

I think my ultimate thoughts re; Kipperlilly is that I wish we got a scene where a character was allowed to show her... sympathy. I know there's a tone you wanna hit with a victorious season finale, and a somber note of a teenager falling into a deep well of rage doesnt match that tone but it would've been nice to see.

In my dream world, we get an extra epilogue scene where Riz goes to see Jawbone to go and talk to him, and brings up the thing he mentioned about "seeing Kipperlilly in himself" -- relating that to what Jawbone said at the beginning of the year, and wanting to talk about that deeply set in need for control, and the latent anger he has, and all the ways he is like Kipperlilly, and doesn't want to be.

And in response, Jawbone is able to address the ways in which he failed Kipperlilly, and let her down. That she needed more help than he could provide, that she needed someone who wasn't too afraid of their own biases to shut down her anger, someone who could maybe have given her a support system to turn to instead of Porter. Someone external to the school and the social dynamics within it. Just an acknowledgement from, as far as we know, the only adult in Kipperlilly's life who earnestly tried -- and earnestly failed -- to help her find a better path than her rage.

Just a small moment of acknowledgement that Kipperlilly was a child, an angry, scared, biased and deeply insecure child who was looking for help when she first walked into Jawbone's office, and because of all the adults who failed her, she was turned into something unrecognisable by the time she was 17.

[smallbunn]

i will support sklonda gukgak until the very end honestly. she just wants whats best for her son, man!!! the bad kids are his first friends ever! it makes sense that sklonda would be worried about riz not knowing when or how to say ‘no’ to them. riz has been called names all his life, of course sklonda would be upset that his friends call him ‘the ball’ especially when it started as a demeaning name given by the school bully. sure riz insists that it’s said with love, and we know thats true, but i dont blame her for being worried that riz is just not understanding that he’s being teased again. she just loves her son so much, she wants him to have friends that respect him, she wants him to take care of himself or at least let others take care of him, she wants to see him rest and be carefree!!

[tomurakii]

I kind of hate all the comparisons between kipperlily and like. Those fuckass "affirmative action fucks me over I wish I was [minority] so it would be easier" people because none of that. Is what she said. She said the bad kids already had more experience with adventuring before they got to augefort and it meant they had an advantage. Which is true. Yeah Riz was lower-class but his mum was a COP. Riz, Kristen and Fig had parents who were heroes (Sandra-Lynn is an active ranger, Kristen's parents are paladins, Sklonda is a rogue), Adaine's family was super rich and politically influential, Fabian had both. Gorgug's the only one who wasn't actively at an advantage [IN THE CONTEXT OF HAVING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE ABOUT HEROISM] and she didn't have shit to say about him. Kipperlily was the first person in her family to try heroism, the bad kids are largely legacy admissions.

Additionally to the people comparing it to the "anti-affirmative action" crowd: do you know what affirmative action is. The bad kids didn't receive special consideration on their admissions to aguefort or scholarships or additional financial support or extended assessment times or anything. How could she be mad about affirmative action if none of these people received affirmative action. What they DID have was knowledge about their classes that started much earlier than high school, which is what Kipperlily said in her file that she thought grading should be adjusted for because she did not have that.

To me it's less like affirmative action and more like augefort is like an IQ test. They pretend that it's fair and objective, but you can be taught how to do those things from a younger age, and if your parents took the time to teach you pattern recognition and shit then you'll do better on an IQ test than someone who wasn't trained for it and everyone will act like that makes you innately smarter when it doesn't. It just means someone taught you how to do that earlier.

Barring Gorgug, every one of the bad kids had access to information about heroism and their class at a younger age than Kipperlily did, which primed them for success in their classes. Every one of them got additional information about mysteries from their families (and even direct battle-tactics training from Bill), Riz especially with getting classified info out of his mum. Kipperlily does not have hero relatives. She's the first in her family line to attend a hero school. She knew nothing about it before her first day, meanwhile Kristen was already the chosen of Helio, Adaine had already been attending the best wizard school in the country, Fabian had already spent his whole life training with his father, and Riz was already involved in solving mysteries using info and tactics he got from his parents.

They aren't necessarily "privileged" (except Fabian and Adaine), but Kipperlily didn't say they were, she said that in the specific context of attending a hero school they had a prior-knowledge advantage. Saying they didn't is like comparing the grades of a kid who's academic career started with preschool with a kid who didn't attend until middle school and acting like one of them wasn't better prepared.

[lemon-bomb]

I can’t decide if I want Adaine to punch or shoot Oisin.

[ringzgukgak]

okok LISTEN. ALL jokes aside-

i need you to really think about how you would really respond to both of these real tattoos in real life upon seeing them on two real people

(and also please explain your reasoning i beg of you but no pressure)