#Bc they (Fabian) are always making jokes about riz

[rooolt]

but also can we talk about how seemingly none of the other bad kids know how big of a deal baron was for riz. Like they know he kidnapped him and they fought them, but did “a very private boy” riz gukgak ever tell them about his experience in the nightmare forest? Did he ever explain the extent of his insecurities that baron represents? Do they know that baron is a manifestation of what riz in sophomore year believed to be too different about himself that he needed to like about it? DO THEY KNOW?!!?!!??

[adaines-furious-feast]

bc you're my friend who i talk about jace stardiamond with, here is the sorcery subclasses of the bad kids imo:

Kristen - Divine Soul, pretty rare for sorcerers imo and Jace probably finds it interesting but would be so annoyed by Kristen's shenanigans

Adaine - Aberrant Mind, has something to do w/ being the Oracle. Jace loves the effort she puts into her work and is probably his favorite.

Gorgug - Wild Magic. Tries really hard to control his surges and Jace puts in the effort in helping him come to terms w/ his magic, rather than fight it

Fabian - Storm Sorcery. Jace really finds Fabian's whole freshman self to be pompous and it's like looking into a mirror almost. Really tries not to project onto him but fails <3

Fig - Wild Magic as well. Is also in the Kristen school of sorcery and is such a wild card. but she's worse bc her magic is uncontrolled (somewhat)

Riz - Clockwork Soul. Jace enjoys Riz as a student until he realizes how obsessive Riz is at school and wants Riz to relax. Riz cannot relax.

Yeah, I'll co-sign these subclasses.

Kristen would be a really interesting case. Has her magic always come from Cassandra or was she once blessed by Helio and that changed? I can see Jace - honestly any teacher - finding Kristen fun at first but then it keeps going. And he realises "oh, this isn't a joke, this is your personality". In a class of chaos, that is really, really unneeded.

Aberrant Mind is so interesting and just such a perfect match for Adaine. I mean, of course she's his favourite, for many reasons. One of those reasons is definitely because he can go to Tiberia like "ha, one of my students is better at divination wizard spells than any of yours and she's not even a wizard". Adaine definitely gets frustrated with Jace though because she has a very clear idea of what being taught magic is like and he doesn't provide it, so she attends wizard classes even if she can't fully participate in the same way. She'll just take that teaching and change it into what she needs.

With Gorgug, I can see the problem being honestly the same one he has with rage: he needs to feel like he has a good enough reason to use magic. In canon, he would only let himself rage if he felt he was protecting his friends. I can see Gorgug being like "ok, I'll only use magic to help people when I have a good enough reason", perhaps not realising that this self-suppression is only hurting himself.

Fabian as a storm sorcerer pirate is just so super interesting. I want to know what things were like for him before he arrived at Aguefort, when he was with his dad on adventures. Were there other storm sorcerers on the Hangman? Or Leviathan? Did he get help from any of them? Or did Bill see his son, blessed by the storms on the seven seas, and just use it as evidence that Fabian was special and going to write his name on the face of the world, only bigging him up even more?

I actually think Jace would find Fig less annoying than Kristen purely for the fact that she doesn't show up for class. Fig's in every other class for spell casters, trying to see how long it takes the teacher to figure out that she's not actually a wizard/warlock/bard. Normally he'd find this brilliant but Fig's inability for introspection is making her surges more common which is an issue.

Riz hates his class (as in school class, not D&D class). When I was at school, we had to pick one of about five different types of "design and technology" classes we could take for GCSE (cooking, textiles, woodworking, ect.) and I picked graphics, which turned out to be what the students who were rejected from all the other classes took so it was just me and a bunch of kids (boys) who could not give a fuck. I was the only one that showed up to any revision classes, I was the only one paid any attention (and I was the only one to get an A). That's Riz in sorcery class, but with a teacher who prefers the kids that fuck about a bit and it drives him absolutely insane.

[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!!!!!

[oddlittlestories]

Okay e3 of d20 completed. Spoilers below.

First off, e2. Riz is honestly kind of a badass?? And that whole exposition we get about like fallen angels or whatever. It makes me wonder if Mr. Gibbons was pushed into Hell or wherever bc of what Arthur did. Not just the shooting him but also the stealing a spot into heaven yk?

Poor Kristin. Her whole faith was kind of overturned bc her god wasn’t anywhere close to what she hoped. She has such an upbeat attitude to it, probably bc she was partially meh on him anyways, but I feel bad.

I think I feel worst for Fabian, having to pretend to be okay so he can feel close to his dad. And his dad isn’t even BAD he just has NO CLUE how to connect with him other than reveling on their exploits. Adaine’s experience ALSO sucks but at least she doesn’t have to pretend things are okay. (Also Gorgug’s parents 😭)

e3 is so funny. It’s SUCH traditional tt rpg bs. Something is a bit or a funny idea so you just do it. Like the clapping.

The dwarf girl getting poisoned killed me. And then the nurse asking if they want to know whether she’ll be okay *right in front of her dad* ooooooofff.

And Gorgug being the scapegoat LMAO!!!!

It reminds me. Years ago. We were joking about how tt rpg characters are always so exceptional. And my DM said, “They’re not exceptional because we’re following them. We’ve chosen to follow the story of these people in particular because they’re exceptional.” And I think that’s true of these characters. Not exceptionality maybe. But we’re following them because they have the drive to find out what’s happening here, to shake things up. Whereas other students are trying to AVOID thrusting themselves into the thick of things.

Also it’s brilliant that they start as level 1. I usually hate level one but making teens be level one is *chefs kiss*.

I wanted to roll right into the drag race so badly but I decided to listen to another podcast instead so I wouldn’t be listening to pods all night since d20 is so long. Which was a Bad Idea because I listened to one that made me sad, and another to recover, so it was a moot point lmao!!!

Anyways I love d20. I am so far behind. 3 out like 72 episodes. Keeping it rolling.

[grasslandgirl]

1, 14, 24 for any, 48, 49!!

mwah mwah mwah mwah mwah

1. What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read any of your work? (In other words, what do you think is the best introduction to your fics?)

sfjkvnksjfbs this is so difficult bc i feel like so much of what i write is impossibly niche and only for myself and a handful of my friends skjfvnsk so i have no idea what an effective introduction to my body of work would be. my figayda coffeeshop au, maybe? just because i think it's really solid and a good demonstration of my narrative style/rhythm? alternately, my figfabian lounge singer au for similar reasons? i dunno ksjfnksjf

honorable mention jamie @gilears and my 2nd pov figgorgug fic we wrote last year bc its some of my favorite and best work and one of the things i've most enjoyed writing-- and i think it's a really solid hook into figgorgug, which i have not been able to stop writing since kjsfnbvksfjbn

14. Are there any tropes you would only read if written by a trusted friend or writer?

i really only read oc-heavy if i really trust the author!! as a genre/style of fic they don't usually hold a lot of appeal for me unless i know the person writing it/ the backstory and process of the oc/ trust the author to build and integrate appropriate and interesting ocs (a really great example of this is santeri @fearlessjournalism 's brushfire, and also casey all of your clsoc fic <3)

24. Are there any easter eggs in [insert fic], and if so, what are they?

idk if it's really an easter egg but jam and i have a running joke about a handful of beats/moments i keep putting into my figgorgug fics, with varying amounts of intention; including but not limited to: diners, pancakes, (fig) sitting on counters/tables, sunflowers, stolen clothes/sweatshirts, and kissing hands <3

48. What’s the last fic you read? Do you recommend it?

i was looking around through the zuko/sokka tag and read a modern nye get together fic and it was. fine. readable but not something i'd bookmark or send to people like "oooh i really liked this"

49. What are you currently working on? Share a few lines if you’re up for it!

working on a fig/gorgug right person wrong time fic rn 😵‍💫 having many thoughts in my silly little head about it <3

There’s something rotting inside of her. Fig’s always been a little on the wrong side of selfish; Sandra Lynn says she gets it from her, but maybe it’s the hell influence too. She wants to be happy for her friends, the freedom from Aguefort and school and childhood thats burning on the horizon for all of them. A whole class of peers ready to stumble forward into the real world all together- college and work and more adventures and quests ready for the taking. Fig wants to be happy, wants to glow with a vicarious joy when Fabian talks about learning specialty knots and sending letters to Garthy and Jamina on the Leviathan. Or when Riz rolls out his conspiracy board and talks through it to them with tapping fingers that itch to get back on the road- with Penny, this time. Fig wants to join in on the excitement when Gorgug and Kristen make plans for finding a cafe on campus that’s theirs and trying to convince the dorms to let them room together. But she’s not. Because Fig can’t help but feel like everyone’s moving on without her. Like it’s the last weeks of eighth grade all over again and her horns are finally getting too big to be covered by her hair and all her (ex) friends have stopped pretending to make plans for the summer or for freshman year with Fig, anymore. The Bad Kids have been Fig’s roots, and her wings, and all the other metaphors she’s shoved into her songs all these years, and she doesn’t really know what she’s going to do with herself without them. Now that it feels like they’re all going their separate ways, with no school year starting in the fall to drag them back together. It’s just Fig, and the band she started because she wanted to scream and hear Gorgug slam on the drums- only this time it’s really just Fig.

send me numbers from this fic writer's ask list!!

[creacherkeeper]

hey,,, same anon from before,, i’m so happy to hear that you LOVE pacific rim and this fh pacific rim au bc i’ve been re reading ur posts over and over!! can i ask for some more headcanons?? specifically about the final fight against goldenhoard (level 4) and then the nightmare (level 5)?? again of course feel free to ignore, just curious :DD

anon u indulge me 2 much

a lot of kaiju come before. a lot. more than they care to count

fabian and riz take out spells on their first drop. spells is fast, very fast, but its only a category 2. one particularly well placed blast through the skull takes it out. they destroy a good stretch of interstate before they manage to do it, but it goes down. and they feel pretty good about that

harvestman leaves footprints dripping with venom. getting too close to them is enough to leave toxins in your blood. gorgug would say later that looking into its eyes was like staring into hell itself. zelda thought it was fitting, for the end of the world. no one knows how the two of them manage to concentrate with metal screaming through the cockpit speakers. but sailing a thousand feet through the air to chop the things head off, no one dares question it

pixie is trickier. pixie almost gets them. its only a cat-3, but there's something almost psychedelic about the blast effect it has. ayda spent months studying it. something about it interfering with brain waves - fig doesnt really remember because she didnt understand even then. she just remembers seeing the gilded spyglass turn heel and run straight through a skyscraper and not knowing if they were going to win that fight. sometimes she thinks about it and starts seeing double

barlgura isn't that special. its just another kaiju. but its strong. its big. and when it smashes through the embassy that gilear is stationed at, they know this is a fight they're going to remember for a very long time. he almost doesnt make it. but kristen is magic, or so people say. she was the only one fig trusted to look after him. and he was okay. eventually. he had a little more trouble focusing, now. he got headaches. unsteady on his feet. head trauma will do that, kristen says. but he's okay. he's alive. because kristen is magic

flayer is a rough fight. its a beast in the water. doesn't stay dead, even when it should. riz crawls their jaeger home. they both have new scars. some mental ones too. theres nothing she can do to save the eye. no fights for a while. the fact that fabian doesnt argue over getting benched is what worries them all the most

the double events are always the worst. the kaiju known to them only as mother and father almost take adaine and aelwyn out, which later they will joke is extremely fitting, sneaking into each others hospital beds while kristen sleeps in the chair next to them. drowning is not a good way to go, they both agree. how they managed to operate the storm oracle with a nearly demolished pons system and fried neural link is anyones guess. they don't really let the other out of their sight for a while after that

the first kaiju kristen takes down is sol. category 4. punching the electricity-based kaiju in the face wasn't really anyones idea of a good plan, but hey, it was kristen. and the fact that afterwards, she could turn on electric appliances with a touch of her pinky was pretty cool. no one really talks about the haunted look tracker gets on her face when anyone mentions it

the breach is the first triple event. kalina is just the teaser. fast enough that they'd swear there was three of it. the frequency of their radios ends up being its downfall - ears like a freaking cat. they echo its own screech back at it and rip it apart before it has a chance to move again. they shouldve known that wouldnt be the last of them

kalvaxus is the dragon to their armored knights. scales like steel, wings that slice through air and water alike. its breath boils the ocean. fabian and riz shouldn't even be fighting, everyone knows, but they are, because this is it. the last chance to save the world. every pilot still in commission making one last effort to end this thing once and for all

only a shot of adrenaline straight to the heart gets kristen back up. she fights like shes seen god and the devil all at the same time

its aelwyn that figures out the timing of it. the few seconds before its fire breath where it just seems to freeze. where the heat from its own stomach gets a little too much for the brain in its thick skullcase. its the only reason they win. gilded spyglass puts a sword between its eyes as boiling water bubbles around them

nightmare is something they havent seen before. category 5. it doesnt seem to ... be there ... all the time. the transparent skin doesnt help. pumping organs and a bioluminescent skeleton sometimes seem to disappear in the storm that rages around its head. the lightning that strikes down at all of them seems to hurt it just as much, but it keeps fighting. it barely seems to see them, really. its just angry. and theyre just tired

adaine goes down. riz goes down. aelwyn and fabian do what they can to keep their jaegers up, but its a losing battle. wizard's paramour takes just too many shots. the jaeger is lost. maybe that's okay. everyone agrees, after, that gorgug and zelda getting them out of there was the right move. metal frenzy disengages to tend to wounds instead. it got some good hits in, but gorgug knows his friends will die if they aren't looked after

one pod of the moonlit werewolf is sent up through the ocean

alone, kristen wraps her arms around nightmare and falls through the breach

they wait. it seems like a long time goes by. it may be that the heat of battle has faded to aching bodies and bone-shaking weariness. they're all barely conscious when the second pod, leaking red, breaks the surface

ayda keeps her stable long enough to get to base. the horn of nightmare would've pierced her heart had it been off by just an inch. but it didnt. and kristen lives

she's magic, after all

[autoraton]

ur tma au driving me bonkers. would sklonda be like the previous archivist whos name im uhm. blanking on?? i havent listen to tma in so long but this au is rlly making me wanna catch back up and listen again.. im filled with primal curiousity. also npt-fig hurts my heart bc she's *dead* (iirc) and im...

thank you!!

i’d honestly hadn’t even pictured this as an au where the bad kids have anything to do with the archives, more one where the entities exist in the fantasy high world. but! we can diverge this au into two others! one that follows the plot of tma more closely but with inserted fantasy high characters (hello, kalina as elias, anyone?), and the other that’s set in the fantasy high canon, but entities exist and everything is considerably more horrifying.

sklonda as the previous archivist in tma-world sub-au is!!! whoa! (btw, you’re thinking of gertrude!) do you think she and riz would still be related? because if so, her death would have much more impact on riz, wouldn’t it? maybe she dies and he replaces her and is immediately just obsessed with solving what he is sure is her murder...

i think fig could 100% be an avatar of the stranger (disguises, masks, false selves... your body twisting and growing horns and becoming unrecognisable), but exploring the much more tragic path of not!fig is delightful. it’s everything she fears (as proved by the nightmare forest). i’ve had thoughts about who would see through the stranger’s disguise, and the funny option is gilear, and the much sadder option is gorgug or perhaps ayda. i’m not so sure about either of them, because they both know fig pretty well and that does go against the stranger’s usual tactics, but hear me out about gorgug.

he sees fig and it’s not her. her bangs are swept the wrong way. she always plays a little out of sync with him. her crystal doesn’t recognise her fingerprint. she isn’t using the ruby guitar pick fabian gave to her. her eyeliner is perfect and even, even though fig never manages to get both sides to match.

and it is so obvious to him, but no one else understands. he is the only one to see that their friend is not their friend, and no one else will even take him seriously. he even brings it up with riz, and there is a new horror in discovering that their resident detective does not recognise that anything is wrong, doesn’t even consider it.

and gorgug cant do anything. because he’s gorgug. he doesn’t know magic, he isn’t a detective, doesn’t know spells or history or anything that could help him figure out what this is. he’s the only one who can help fig and he can’t help fig.

it feels like a joke, a cruel joke where the punchline is that gorgug is not clever enough to even bother pretending for. maybe he wishes he was tricked by it too, didn’t know that fig was not fig. but he does. he lives with it and maybe in the end all he can do is whisper apologies and swing his axe and hope they’ll all understand.

[oddlittlestories]

Alright so a combination of some of y’all’s posts and a chat with a colleague at a conference

I have finally watched my first Dimension 20 episode. And I LOVE it

I actively listen to / have completed somewhere around 30 audio dramas. NONE of those are actual play.

Which, when you consider that I’m technically a trained tt rpg designer, and have been roleplaying for over 15 years, is kind of baffling, right? It’s not like I haven’t tried them out. But historically, I either have no idea what’s going on, or it doesn’t somehow feel like a tt rpg to me.

Some of that’s probably play style. Brennan Lee Mulligan starts out with an opening episode that is SO like my style as a GM in your DND/Pathfinder system. With color, with backstory delving. And then proceeds to DM a game session that until the last like ten minutes has almost no “real” combat. It’s all about social stuff, puzzles. And these characters! They’re so well developed but they also feel like the kinds of characters I love to have at my table. Like the moments when they have poor judgment because it’s in character and also at the same time the player feels like it’s really funny & pulls them further into the game world. The way they have these personality archetypes — like Gorgug still trying to give Fabian the flower. Or Riz handing out his business cards. I died.

Idk. There was obviously backstory and archetype work that went on for possibly quite some time before the first session which is always how I run my games! And it’s not clear whether detention was always the goal, or if Brennan just decided that after the first two got detention. It almost feels like the latter. Which is SO good DMing in my book. Right? You have this group of characters, you have a clear opportunity to connect them later in the day, two of them go in a different direction and you go that’s even better actually! Let’s do that!

Actually the overall yes and style of the group leading to greater player agency and a more robust world…

Look. I’m sure actual plays are hard to develop and write. And I also have my own preferences in DND (combat-light games, heavy on backstory and character exploration, with limited DM fiat over the characters and somewhat over the world).

Also the way Brennan describes the various characters and situations. It just makes me feel like I’m DMing, it really does. The jokes, the vividness. The ridiculous details that are nonetheless so evocative. (Also his voice acting, all their voice acting really, is off the CHARTS.)

Anyways I’m having a blast and I’m so glad I finally found an actual play I vibe with bc I have really wanted to for a long time