#ruby vm

[clownkiwi]

instead of doing anything important yesterday (besides starting to replace my new controller), i just fiddled around on my vms. i got the internet to work And surf the web on windows 98

[mareastrorum]

I’ve been working off and on with a longer post about villains and their roles in a story, but in light of the latest episode, one part seems especially relevant:

Villains and antagonists are different roles in a narrative. Some characters overlap, but they aren’t the same thing. A villain represents the wrong conclusion of something; they are the narrative’s spotlight on a destructive, immoral, or self-defeating way of handling a perceived problem. They aren’t necessarily opponents. In comparison, an antagonist is an obstacle for protagonists, whether they are right or wrong. If the story doesn’t dig into those issues, then that character is likely just an antagonist and shouldn’t be expected to carry much narrative weight. In narratives like an improv D&D actual play show, there’s a Schrodinger’s villain aspect going on here because these roles depend on the choices of multiple participants, so we can’t really judge except in hindsight.

That said, Vox Machina wasn’t going to fight against villains in episodes 113 and 114 because their story within the C3 narrative didn’t need a villain. VM wasn’t here for some overarching narrative conclusion to occur during their appearance. They were here to save Vax, break the bridge, and help prevent the end of the world. C3 isn’t their story; this side story is like the EXU breakaways. Every VM antagonist was someone we hadn’t really seen before and didn’t know much of anything about because making them face villains wouldn’t have made sense. They’re not here to face the narrative questions of C3.

I’ve had the impression that the story purpose to include VM and the MN is that they will be contrasts for the motivations and decisions that Bell’s Hells are going to make for the finale. However, because that is my understanding of their purpose, I don’t expect either of those teams to face any villains. They’re going to face antagonists. Maybe there will be some minor comparisons between the Weave Mind and Cognouza or the Cerberus Assembly, but I don’t anticipate those will be more than passing statements. It likely won’t be the focus of the interaction and the players probably won’t dig deep on it. The parties simply don’t have a reason to care why their opponents are doing this, there isn’t any motivation for them to be invested in correcting any wrong conclusions, and the players probably have character stuff they’d rather focus on.

Then, at the end, we’re going to see Bell’s Hells deal with the story’s actual villains: Ludinus Da’leth, Liliana Temult, and the other exaltants of the Ruby Vanguard. From Matt’s perspective as the DM, the villains are on the wrong path. Does Bell’s Hells agree? What are they going to do about it? Are they going to be heroic like VM, sacrificing their own wants and desires for a greater good, even if they take small moments for themselves? Or are they more like MN, who are like, fuck, no one else is gonna do this, and we don’t want the world to end, and apparently we’re experts on psychic bullshit, so we’re here killing some jackass I guess? Or something else?

Not every conflict within a story needs a villain. Sometimes it’s just a bunch of mean assholes so that the drama can focus on the protagonists and their hangups.

[positivitypeeps]

Mighty Nein Animated Series Predictions / Delusional Headcannons

Spoilers for C2/C3 of Critical Role

The main musical theme will be the melody of “It’s Thursday Night,” much like how “Your Turn to Roll” was for VM

I know they’re starting with Session 0 stuff, but at least one of the intro episodes has to be titled “The Terror of Trostenwald” ala “The Terror of Tal’Dorei”

S1 Finale is gonna be Molly’s Death. I sincerely don’t think the loss or the impact of Lucien later will land as hard as it should if they do it any earlier.

Matt will Play: Essek and Artagan (100% sure + Artie’s confirmed in LOVM), Probably Ukatoa, Pumat?, The Gentleman?

Elijah Wood or Sean Astin as Yeza Brennato (keep the hobbit trend going! - even if they don’t play him specifically)

Tons more Ruby Vangard/Ruidus shit foreshadowed with Ludinus (we won’t get a Bells Hells animated for like a decade 😭)

Chet in the background somewhere in Uthodurn

At least one Scanlan song played in the background at a tavern

The second we get a snippet of this fucking show, I’m gonna go feral

[protectorcraft]

MORE computer worms (literal)

Code Red White Papillion / White Silkspot / Cherry Rift Lightning Multigaze

Code Red II Black Marble/Beige Mottle/Ruby Peacock Lightning Bright

Father Christmas/HI.COM VMS Crimson Skink/Spearmint Coil/White Wool Ice Goat

WANK/OILZ Buttercup Pinstripe/Honeydew Foam/Sunsail Seafoam Wind Spiral

[cassafrasscr]

Here's the thing... I don't feel particularly good about Fearne taking the shard.

Like, Ashley seems happy and excited about Fearne's new form and powers, and I am glad about that.

I really just can't shake the feeling that Fearne was ultimately pressured into taking the shard. They should have taken more time to discuss it and actually listened to Fearne's reasons for not wanting it. Chetney was the only one who asked her about it, and he still tried to persuade her to change her mind.

Laudna and Imogen didn't ask at all, only talked about how disappointed they were that she was hesitant to take the shard's power. I know they're leaning into the whole 'embracing their darkness and power' thing, but they of all people should be most sympathetic about Fearne being afraid of how doing that could change her for the worse.

I think at least part of this is the disconnect between IRL time and in-game time. Above-table, it's been over a month since Ashton’s failed attempt to take the shard. In-game, it's been no more than 2 days. It's only been a few hours since Fearne found out the truth about who her real father is. Most of that time has been spent on the team-building scavenger hunt. There hasn't actually been time to properly process all that.

There's also the issue of Fearne's bodily autonomy to consider. For any character, taking the shard would mean accepting permanent changes to both their physical body and their powers. Ashton didn't even get to keep the Shard of Rau'shan, and look what it did to him! He lost an arm; grew a new, completely different one; and very nearly died permanently. Putting that much pressure on Fearne to accept that level of risk and self-alteration when she'd already said no is not good friend behaviour.

I would be fine with Fearne taking the shard if (instead of everyone just continuously insisting she should take it) they had respected her initial decision and let her gain the confidence to change her mind on her own.

I also would also have liked to see Fearne learning to stand up for herself and her decisions as part of her 'embracing your power' character arc. Drawing boundaries with your friends and actually enforcing them is really hard, but it’s also necessary for building healthy relationships.

Trusting Fearne's judgement on what's best for her and respecting her decisions would have been better for rebuilding the broken relationships between Bell's Hells. As it is, I don't know how much is actually going to change between them after this retreat.

Not to mention how some of them - mainly Imogen and Laudna - have kind of been trying to force something to happen between Fearne and Ashton. Like, I make no secret of being an Ashrym shipper, but I wouldn’t be comfortable with it even if I did ship Callowmoore. Like I already said, it's been 2 days max since Ashton exploded. That experience really rattled their relationship and it'll take more time and work to rebuild. If Callowmoore is going to happen, let it happen naturally.

I'm glad Allura took the time to remind them that, while the moon mission is urgent, it is still just a recon mission. Once they gather and hand off the information, they'll have more time again to step back and take a breather, and potentially decide not to involve themselves any further if they don’t want to.

(Obviously they're not gonna ditch and leave the Ruby Vanguard to VM and the M9 to deal with - they're all too invested in the outcome to back out, and it's the central plot of C3. But knowing they have the option, and that they'll have some time to make that final decision is, I think, important for their character arcs going forward.)

I dunno. Maybe it's a hot take, but it just kinda leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth.

[pyrot3ch-nick]

I forget where I saw it, Twitter, YouTube comment, TikTok commen or a tumblr post (maybe it was Reddit),

It brought forth the idea of Critical Role Campaign 3 will be the campaign crossover for that brings forth the 3 teams: Vox Machina, The Mighty Nein, and the Bells' Hells.

BH at around lvl 15-17 would end their portion of campaign 3 fighting Otohan Hull and Liliana Temult and destroying/dismantling the Malleus Key.

M9 at level 18 will fight Ludinus Daleth and the Ruby Vanguard and maybe the rest of the Cerberus Assembly.

And VM will be at level 20 fighting Predathos and making sure the gods don't entirely die and get forgotten.

[hazelcephalopod]

Personally I choose to believe the Ruby Vanguard went after Keyleth and not Vex for several reasons.

Whitestone has a much stronger spy network and defenses.

Going after Vex would have meant strongly attracting the attention and wrath of the Terrible Tinkerer of Tal’dorei who controls most of the Residuum trade and invented guns. Vs less strongly attracting him by going after Keyleth. It also would have been attacking not just one member of VM -and world famous leader- but two, and potentially their children.

If they’d attacked Vex, Vox Machina would have burned the Empire to the ground with Ludinus in it. And hunted down every member of the Ruby Vanguard. And because more people like VM and don’t like the Empire I doubt anyone would help or care much. Further even so, I’d be surprised if they weren’t hedging their bets that Keyleth would survive that one, b/c same result tbh.

Bc I refuse to believe Vax wouldn’t do the same for Vex and her family. Nor that he’s not also watching over them with ravens and stuff. They just have each other and more going on because of that. Not that Keyleth has no one and nothing going on, just sorta less.

[edelgarfield]

hmmmm the angels/devils heading to Issylra makes me wonder if Vasselheim has something Extra planned outside of the PC's purview.

like, imo, Matt as a DM has been leaning very hard on the idea that the party should sever Exandria's ties to the gods. It seems pretty clear that as a storyteller he WANTS to take Exandria in a new direction without the deities. And while BH has grown to consider that idea, it would likely mean unleashing Predathos in some form, either by becoming its vessel or some other method. I don't see BH making a choice that drastic unless they feel they have to. I think Matt knows that, and I think as a DM, he probably has something planned to push them to that extreme.

I don't think he'd ever make the choice FOR them, but I think he probably has the deck stacked to make that the most reasonable option.

With the Bloody Bridge gone, Ruidus is now a big floating target & nearly all of the Ruby Vanguard's major players are trapped on it. We saw that Vasselheim doesn't really care about Ruidians. The angel VM overheard said something along the lines of "let's make sure we can finish the job if [mortals] can't." What if Vasselheim has something in their pocket to just... destroy the moon/everyone on it?

I wonder if BH will be faced with the choice to let Ruidus be destroyed or release Predathos to save it.

[angelgnomeverse]

Color Silk (졸올 싥) is a five member south korean girl group under VM Entertainement. They debuted on August 3 of 2014 with Joyfullness. The group´s name represents their concepts duality, being able to bring colorfull energetic fun and silk smooth vocals to their fans using their songs.

Members: Ruby | Sohee | Jane | Bliss | Yeji Fandom Name: Silkies Eras: Joyfullness

[koalathebear]

Maxton Hall Stars Harriet Herbig-Matten & Damian Hardung Dish on Prime Video Romance | Interview

Interesting interview. A few observations.

As I already knew, they are both very proficient in English - Damian probably a bit more than Harriet.

Damian is clearly a lot more comfortable being interviewed than Harriet is - Harriet is moving around a lot, playing with her hair, putting herself at weird angles ... I think they're probably both totally freaked out / overwhelmed by the unexpected popularity of the show. As soon as I saw the show the first time on the 9th, I had had a feeling that the show was going to be a lot bigger than they expected and had wondered how the cast were going to cope

Harriet is clearly going to struggle a bit in her responses about the character of Ruby.

On the one hand, the interviewers are going to want to pursue a - this is so romantic they should be together storyline, but clearly Harriet herself believes the relationship is pretty toxic and I think she feels uncomfortable advocating it - which I totally understand in this day and age.

In the presser, she even said that she felt a bit lost / subsumed/subordinate to the James character and had to detox for a few days post-filming - even Damian looked a bit taken aback by that admission.

She's going to have a lot more of these interviews so I hope she manages to come to a comfortable position where she can be a bit more comfortable with them.

I think she ended up with a good answer at the end - that Ruby falls in love with the good / emotional side of James and not the toxic. I think that's where I landed on the relationship, too - she not only was the catalyst for change in him, but James himself had some good elements within him already and he was responsible for also making himself change, not just relying on Ruby

I'm older than a lot of the fandom / target demographic for this show so I still remember the days of Veronica Mars and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The VM show runners and the main actress did not like the fact that the fans loved Veronica & Logan the reformed bad boy so much. Similarly with Buffy, the lead actress the show runner didn't like the fact that so many fans liked Spike / Buffy. The problem was, the actors and characters had such chemistry that it was difficult to move away from that and so they were faced with a quandary. Attempts to move the main female character towards a more wholesome male were usually unsuccessful and interview comments that disparaged a popular ship were also challenging. It will be interesting to see how Maxton Hall navigates a similar quagmire.

Given that this has been an unexpected runaway hit, I can't imagine that they won't have a season 2. I just hope that they maintain the quality and don't make it like all the other bland, generic teen romances on offer ...

Random thought - I wonder how Damian would have handled a role like eg Kieran.

[silver-heller]

Heya! I'm curious - how does Ruben get along with the rest of VM aside from Percy?

~ Fate

Ooo good question!

Keyleth: Ruby is a bit wary of Keyleth, but underswtands where she's coming from.

Vex'ahlia: I could see those two having good, romantic chemistry to be honest, with Vex teasing Ruby and Ruby not being afraid to call her out either. I've decided to do a poly ship with her and Percy!

Scanlan: Ruby secretly finds Scanlan funny, but keeps him at a distance as he is afraid Scanlan might emotionally hurt him in the future.

Pike: I think Ruby is a little too grumpy for Pike's taste, and Pike is a little too optimistic for Ruby's taste. They're polite to each other but distance.

Vax'ildan: They're good friends that just like to hang out quietly together sometimes.

[mareastrorum]

The thing I dislike the most about c3 is how it damaged c1&c2. Not just Vax but it weakened Keyleth and VM as characters. Keyleth has proven unable to move on, wallowing in anger and self pity instead of respecting the man she loves choices. She is stagnant. They way she was played in combat at the key is so unlike any combat Marisha would do for her that it makes Keyleth look stupid. Beau and Caleb after 7 years apparently can't figure out and track down Ludinus but BH can in 5 months?

As an initial comment, I don't really want my blog to just become a place to vent. If you send future asks, please include a question.

That said, I wouldn't agree with that characterization of Keyleth. She's successfully led the Ashari for 30+ years at this point, and she's maintained enough respect among foreign representatives that she can vouch for complete strangers--including a Ruidusborn--to the collective governments present at Vasselheim. She convinced them to trust Bell's Hells to undertake sensitive missions on their behalf. That is not something someone who wallows in anger and self-pity could achieve. I also didn't see her actions or statements as disrespecting Vax's choices, even if she disagreed with him. She is angry, and she is still grieving her relationship with Vax, but that does not detract from her accomplishments in the meantime.

In addition, I'm not going to criticize D&D players for their combat choices. I don't know what undisclosed strategies Marisha and the other players had created back in C1, during one-shots, or right before the Malleus Key fight. I'm not going to second guess her choices, especially when there is an element of guess work to sorting out the highest priority targets in the face of an enemy who keeps attacking until he misses. Of all the elements of an actual play show, combat is the facet where I am least critical, especially during level 20 combat after years of playing entirely different classes.

As for tracking down Ludinus, he was in plain sight for most of those 7 years because he was the leader of the Cerberus Assembly. If he managed to keep the Augen Trust (which is loyal to King Dwendal, who dislikes sharing power) from exposing his plans, I am not surprised that he prevented the entire Cobalt Soul, including Beau and Caleb, from doing it either. Only the highest ranking members of the Ruby Vanguard knew details of Ludinus's plans. We could debate how/why Matt may have made mistakes in using Ludinus as a villain antagonist, but avoiding capture isn't one of them. In fact, avoiding a hunt by pretty much the entire known world for 5 months when he has no remaining allies is quite a feat.

However, I do share that feeling that the stories of C1 and C2 are cheapened by how C3 was resolved. The retcons, bringing Vax back, the apathetic handling of organized religion and personal belief, etc. It leaves a very sour taste to have enjoyed those aspects of prior campaigns and then engage with a sequel where we learn that actually the cast thinks none of that was important. Any inkling the audience may have had about their sincerity had actually just been acting, and they find it more important is that their PCs are always heroes and get happy endings regardless of the choices they make.

That took a certain magic out of the whole thing, and I don't know that CR can ever get that back.

[masterqwertster]

Apologies for the butt load of questions, but this is in regards to your ruby hells au.

What was the reaction to Laudna's information and involvement with the Vanguard? I imagine there was mixed feelings because, while she DID initially help and was in part involved, Laudna probably didn't want to cause harm to others and was only doing it for the protection the Vanguard provided and have access to information most people wouldn't have knowledge of.

Because she's paying for Ashton's resurrection with what information she knew, it was probably a bit of a shock to members of VM that a victim of the Briarwood's was up and walking around and now asking for the life of a friend. I'm also not sure if they ever were invited to sleep inside the castle or if they had to delve inside Ashton's mind to find his soul within the mess of dunamancy intertwined with their baby titan body.

No need to apologize. This is enrichment. I don't get many asks anyways.

🤫I mean, yeah, basically. Like, desperate people do desperate things, but she regrets it (mostly. she did get Ashton and FCG out of it) now.

But also no?

Like, Imogen and Fearne were already aware of the Vanguard and its goal, so they're more worried about the difficulty Laudna was put through by the Vanguard to survive them.

Ashton and FCG were kind of there with Laudna, so they're not exactly surprised by what they learn and know pretty much all of it already.

It's new info for Chetney and Orym. I think Chet would be more worried about the past coming back to bite them in the ass than condemnation for helping the bad guys. Orym's probably the most judgey about it in BH, but that has more to do with who the Vanguard are and what they did to him.

🤫Yeah, so in actually plotting the Ruby Hells AU out (because I'm toying with actually writing it), the Vox Machina resurrection method got scrapped. For the canon resurrection of Laudna herself, they did lean into her being of Whitestone and all as the reason they pushed that way for getting her back. And I think that it makes more sense to go with Eshteross getting them a healer in Jrusar with Ashton. Jrusar is a capitol city and thus should have at least one cleric in residence capable of casting Raise Dead, probably more. The reason they didn't go with him or Hexum in canon is because Matt didn't give Bells Hells the hard "yes" they were clearly looking for while Keyleth did. So really, Eshteross should be aware of and have potential access to a cleric capable of resurrection as a minor noble of sorts in a capitol city. Hell, I'm fairly certain Weva Vudol (the cleric that interrogated Eshteross's corpse) meets the bill, as Orym clocked her as having more HP than him at Level 7, and she only needs to be Level 9 for Raise Dead.

Or if I go with a different path I'm considering, Nana Morri would do it.

But to answer the particulars of your question anyways, shock is probably a bit of an understatement.

I feel like Keyleth would have a full on moral panic attack about it, given the Suntree bodies were something that continually haunted her and here is "living" proof that they fucked that up even worse than she's believed all these years. Like, she probably had a bit of one in canon while out of view of BH, to be honest.

Pike... probably holds it together better than Keyleth. Still a lot of WTF?! going on there, but not the doomspiraling Keyleth is prone to.

Keyleth would have to tell Vex herself, probably, to get the resources to deal with Ashton's special needs for resurrection. Which, I think mostly brings out Vex's sympathy like in canon when she saw who Laudna was.

Percy will of course hear about it because he's a paranoid old man who's set his youngest loose as a spymaster-in-training. I'd say he's definitely not nearly as supportive as the ladies for his canon reasons in trying to originally reject helping Laudna. And paranoia probably has him distrusting the undead raised by Delilah fucking Briarwood asking for anything from Whitestone. (and he's kind of right. I mean, Delilah is there)

🤫And probably not invited up to the castle as they didn't go directly to the Lord and Lady of Whitestone. And, as stated above, Percy is a paranoid bastard who's not going to invite trouble into his home if he doesn't have to. There are inns in the city (and he's not above dropping coin for a night's rental for them to stay out of his house).

[jewellerycompare]

Atelier VM unveils Carezza charm

Atelier VM has announced the launch of its latest piece Carezza, “a delicate touch of jewellery against your skin”. Carezza is available in three colour variants: yellow gold and white diamond, yellow gold and ruby, and platinum and white diamond. The diamonds are laboratory-grown, identical in appearance and physical composition to natural diamonds, while respecting … http://dlvr.it/TJphMX

[himanitech]

What are the emerging trends in JVM language adoption and popularity in 2025 ?

As of February 2025, the adoption and popularity of JVM (Java Virtual Machine) languages are influenced by several emerging trends:

1. Java's Continued Dominance

Java maintains its position as a leading programming language, with approximately 30% of developers using it as their primary language. Its robustness, security, and scalability make it a preferred choice for developing complex, high-performance applications. Java's adaptability to new technological trends, such as cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT), and big data, ensures its ongoing relevance in the software development industry.

2. Rise of Kotlin

Kotlin, a statically-typed language that runs on the JVM, has seen significant growth, especially in Android development. Its concise syntax and seamless interoperability with Java have contributed to its widespread adoption among developers seeking modern language features. Kotlin's versatility extends beyond mobile development, finding applications in server-side and web development as well.

3. Adoption of Scala

Scala, known for combining object-oriented and functional programming paradigms, continues to be a prominent JVM language. Its strong static type system and compatibility with JVM and JavaScript runtimes make it suitable for building robust, scalable solutions. Scala's adoption is particularly notable in data-intensive applications and systems requiring high scalability.

4. Advancements in GraalVM

Graal VM, a high-performance runtime, is transforming the execution of JVM languages by offering faster startup times, reduced memory usage, and support for multiple languages. Developers are leveraging Graal VM to create polyglot applications that combine languages like Java, Python, JavaScript, and Ruby, addressing complex business requirements with greater efficiency.

5. Emphasis on Cloud-Native Development

The shift towards cloud-native architectures has influenced JVM language development, with a focus on building scalable microservices and serverless applications. Java's evolution, including projects like Project Loom, aims to simplify concurrency and improve performance in cloud environments. These advancements position JVM languages as strong contenders for modern, distributed application development.

These trends highlight the dynamic and evolving landscape of JVM languages, driven by technological advancements and the need for efficient, scalable, and versatile development solutions.

[milkmoonnictire]

as someone who watched all of Bells Hells up until the middle of the party split arc, and has kept up with it since then by reading episode summaries on the wiki, and with c3 now coming to an end, im thinking a lot about why i fell off. @mareastrorum 's musings on c3s flaws have helped me put that together quite a bit. in general, Bells Hells are indecisive, disconnected to the primary conflict, and suffering from a lack of planning that a session zero would have helped. i dont have much to add to that topic that mare and others haven't already discussed in detail, but i do have a few things to say.

Bells Hells' connection to the central conflict is entirely interpersonal, and so they can only grapple with it in interpersonal terms. For example:

Orym's husband was killed by Otohan.

Imogen's mother is a general of the Vanguard.

Fearne was created by Zathuda to groom into his perfect vessel of power.

Ashton uses the gods and society as proxy for resentment toward their parents.

Because of these direct, but overly relationship-based connections, they actively divert motivation away from what should be the central conflict here—are the gods a force for good or bad?—and towards conflicts like do I like or dislike these people? Orym, for example, does not have any reason to grapple with whether the Ruby Vanguard are right—their leader ruined his life, and that has to dominate his perception of the conflict.

Now I'm not saying that Ludanis is actually based af and just didnt get a fair shake—like Ashton, he's choosing to blame the gods for issues which they were only tangentially to blame for. But as the villain, Ludanis' ideology needed to be grappled with so that it could be dissected and refuted in a satisfying way; since we didn't get that, his death at Bells Hells' hands rang hollow. They seemed to not even really know why they were fighting him.

For a conflict like this, the characters needed to have opinions on the gods that could be challenged and then either strengthened or weakened. Sam seems to have realized this to some extent, resulting in both FCG and Braius having a personal stake in the conflict through his relationships tothe Changebringer, Asmodeus and the Platinum Dragon. Most of the guest characters, as well, had backstories that gave them strong opinions of the gods. As a result, they created some of my favorite story moments of the campaign (Deanna and Bor'dor come to mind). However, with comparatively little time to explore those characters, they can only do so much.

Characters should have been made to have strong opinions of the gods from the start. In my opinion, that would have helped the Hells to feel like they cared about their own story. By comparison, the guest characters feel like better protagonists than what we got.

P.S. Speaking of Bells Hells feeling like side characters in their own story... I strongly dislike the extent to which previous campaigns focus in c3. battle plans being devised off screen and handed down to the party from Matt acting as VM and M9 characters; and what felt like whole episodes devoted to returning NPCs discussing what to do about the Ruby Vanguard; it angered me to no end.