#That one TAL Episode

[theultrablog]

Pulp Storytime #32: What I did for my summer vacation!

Meet me by the moonlit hedges. Don’t bring any spies. Today’s session was supposed to be focused on two historical oddities: American fascist summer camps, and “Stonehenge USA”. The players (Simon, Oksana, Javid, and Penny (with a new player) were staff at camp Winnemucca in New Hampshire. They feuded with the counselors of Centro Estivo Cansiglio, and there was a climax at American Stonehenge, with mystical barriers weakened by the Fourth of July fireworks. But the real drama was created by competition day*. The boys’ camp, CEC, came over. The night before, Oksana had infiltrated the camp and found out it was run by Luigi Cadorna, a former Italian general. Italy wanted to study American mysticism and create fascist sympathy in American youth. And to do that, they wanted the spirit stick, a Penobscot artifact held all year by the winning camp. Not everybody knew this, so Penny An'Te, Hawaiian gambling queen, decided to bet a week’s salary against her own camp. Devika was the head of a girl’s cabin, so Lord Simon, her number one supporter, felt compelled to cheat on her behalf. He asked Javid to help, who sabotaged one of the kayaks. The players cheated to influence all three of the competitions. Lord Simon stole the list for the scavenger hunt. Lifeguard Penny rescued the kayak team before they sank, and gave them a boost from underwater. Tactician Javid gave the girls advice to win the tug-of-war. These (and other lies) came out during the group’s night off. Lord Simon lied to the snitch counselor Darlene that he was happy to take her to dance. When she got the wrong idea, he meant to say “I’m not interested in women” but it came out “I would never be with someone who looks like you.” MORE DRAMA. Worse, she was the party’s ride. Penny yelled at Simon, Oksana reprimanded Penny, and Javid played innocent. While the rest of the scenario was filled with incident (including Oksana disrupting a ritual site by throwing beer bottles into a sacred slot), player drama is a thing to cherish. *You know you had an action-packed adventure when you truncate the opening, which was a nature hike interrupted by a bear attack.

Darlene, the snitch.

[gelarshiesprofruitboarder]

trying to find the sound effects w/o background noise was hell ,,, and they still kinda sound bad,,,,,, rip

(EDIT OFC LIKE RIGHT AFTER I MADE THIS I FOUND A BUNCH OF THE OG SFX im unstoppable now)

[lbctal]

jacob pitts as tim gutterson (justified, 2010). 1/2

[dent-de-leon]

every day I am in Agony over the fact that widomauk is the first kiss of the campaign, Caleb kissed Molly back in the very end, the literal last scene between King and Caleb is them flirting and King is still so utterly enamored with his Magician, and I just wish...there was any mention of those feelings in the wrap up or a q and a or anything. Absolutely begging Taliesin to tell us what Molly/King feels for Caleb--why he chose to make King's last moments on screen him being explicitly attracted to Caleb, and whether we will ever get to see him revisit those feelings one day...

[archivistmyrya]

Quotes about the strange nature of Taliesin's existence - Day 68

Taliesin: rolls yet another nat 20 Laura: "With a different die?" Taliesin: "With a different die, of course with a different die." Marisha: "Shut the fuck up!" Travis: "Who are you? You're the Jesus of..." Taliesin: "I'm the devil. I am the devil and I have come to do the devil's work." Matt: "So all of you who are going to conventions to meet Taliesin in the future, make sure you get a nice long hold of his hand, so you can roll better, too." Taliesin: "I will lick your die, because that's how I bless them."

(C1E33 Part 2)

[septembermonologues]

chetney straight up asking ashton if he was talking to them when they interrupted and dorian affectionately reading him last episode has been so like. cathartic to me. because at this point. at the risk of sounding uncharitable. ashton is like that one college friend you know is just always going to be a college friend because now that you're approaching graduation you're realizing they still are acting like a high schooler in a sort of "shit or get off the pot" way. a "yeah dude we all have damage and we're all frustrated and tired but that just can't be all that it is" way. and i'm glad the party has reached a point where they're calling him on it.

[joshuaalbert]

mixed feelings on the friendship one death bc on one hand like god it would be so devastating losing a member of your crew after 7 years when you were all supposed to grow old together and make it back to earth together but on the other hand it probably would have hit harder if it was a character anyone in the audience was really attached to

[rotisseries]

IM SHAKING. IM SO SO SHAKY. OUGH GOD WHAT DO YOU MEAAAANNNNNNWE HAVE ANOTHER EPISODE LEFT IN THIS SEASON GUYS PLEASASSEEEEE

the next episode honestly doesn't have anything to do with anything happening here so sorry

[autumnrory]

have been picking podcasts from each genre i have saved (it's not exact sometimes i'll just put something in bc of the genres i have set up god i miss actually being able to separate them as i did on stitcher but they're still organized) in between re-listening to a year of lpotl episodes and ofc i hit news podcasts which i need more of anyway and i was just staring at all of them with anywhere from like 300 to 3000 episodes and i AM a person who goes through everything but i found one i have saved that's more like world news which sounds so much more bearable to me rn bc it's a lot harder only being hit with news that's close to home and plus i really rarely know about stuff outside of the us like ofc you get the "why is no one talking about this" posts on here of things that news outlets are literally reporting on but. for me i am so focused on what's happening here and i really would like to be more well-rounded

[news4dzhozhar]

Yasmin Porat, a survivor of the bloodshed at Kibbutz Be’eri, near the boundary with Gaza, says many Israeli civilians were killed by Israeli forces.

An Israeli woman who survived the Hamas assault on settlements near the Gaza boundary on 7 October says Israeli civilians were “undoubtedly” killed by their own security forces.

It happened when Israeli forces engaged in fierce gun battles with Palestinian fighters in Kibbutz Be’eri and fired indiscriminately at both the fighters and their Israeli prisoners.

“They eliminated everyone, including the hostages,” she told Israeli radio. “There was very, very heavy crossfire” and even tank shelling.

The woman, 44-year-old mother of three Yasmin Porat, said that prior to that, she and other civilians had been held by the Palestinians for several hours and treated “humanely.” She had fled the nearby “Nova” rave.

A recording of her interview, from the radio program Haboker Hazeh (“This Morning”) hosted by Aryeh Golan on state broadcaster Kan, has been circulating on social media.

Notably, the interview is not included in the online version of Haboker Hazeh for 15 October, the episode in which it apparently aired.

It may well have been censored due to its explosive nature.

Porat, who is from Kabri, a settlement near the Lebanese border, undoubtedly experienced terrible things and saw many noncombatants killed. Her own partner, Tal Katz, is among the dead.

However, her account undermines Israel’s official story of deliberate, wanton murder by the Palestinian fighters.

Although it no longer appears on the Kan website, there can be little doubt about the recording’s authenticity.

At least one Hebrew-language account posted part of the interview on Twitter, now officially called X, and accused Kan of functioning as “media in the service of Hamas.”

Porat also gave her account to the Israeli newspaper Maariv.

However, the Maariv story, published on 9 October, makes no specific mention of civilians being killed by Israeli forces.

And in a half-hour interview with Israel’s Channel 12 on Thursday, Porat speaks of intense gunfire after Israeli forces arrived. Porat herself received a bullet in the thigh.

Not only does Porat tell Kan that Israelis were killed in the heavy counterattack by Israeli security forces, but she says she and other captive civilians were well treated by the Palestinian fighters.

Porat had been attending the “Nova” rave when the Hamas assault began with missiles and motorized paragliders. She and her partner Tal Katz escaped by car to nearby Kibbutz Be’eri where many of the events she describes in her media interviews took place.

According to Porat speaking to Maariv, she and Katz initially sought refuge in the house of a couple called Adi and Hadas Dagan. After the Palestinian fighters found them they were all taken to another house, where eight people were already being held captive and one person was dead.

Porat said that the wife of the dead man “told us that when they [the Hamas fighters] tried to enter, the guy tried to prevent them from entering and grabbed the door. They shot at the door and he was killed. They did not execute them.”

“They did not abuse us. They treated us very humanely,” Porat explained to a surprised Golan in the Kan radio interview.

“By that I mean they guard us,” she said. “They give us something to drink here and there. When they see we are nervous they calm us down. It was very frightening but no one treated us violently. Luckily nothing happened to me like what I heard in the media.”

“They were very humane towards us,” Porat said in her Channel 12 interview. She recalled that one Palestinian fighter who spoke Hebrew, “told me, ‘Look at me well, were not going to kill you. We want to take you to Gaza. We are not going to kill you. So be calm, you’re not going to die.’ Thats what he told me, in those words.”

“I was calm because I knew nothing would happen to me,” she added.

“They told us that we would not die, that they wanted to take us to Gaza and that the next day they would return us to the border,” Porat told Maariv.

In the Channel 12 interview, Porat elaborates that although the Palestinian fighters all had loaded weapons, she never saw them shoot captives or threaten them with their guns.

In addition to providing the captives with drinking water, she said the fighters let them go outside to the lawn because it was hot, especially as the electricity was cut.

[blueraith]

"How could Vi not notice her sister is suicidal?!"

I feel like people who ask this question have a fundamentally immature understanding of depression and suicidal thoughts/actions, and how the two affect people OUTSIDE of the person suffering from these conditions. Perhaps you guys are young, and you don't know how to view this matter outside of yourselves and your own perception, but it is tragically common for people to miss seemingly "obvious" details that lead up to a loved one's suicide. "I didn't notice anything was wrong" is about one of the most common refrains you'll hear after the fact.

Let’s also remember that Vi does not actually know all of Jinx's emotional tells or signs of an impending episode. She is confused each and every time Jinx goes through one and almost always unintentionally triggers her. This because it's been SEVEN FUCKING YEARS since they've seen, spoken to, or lived together.

Neither Jinx or Vi actually know the current versions of each other very well, it's one of the reasons they keep hurting each other, and part of the tragedy of their relationship.

Look, I have depression. I've had it since I was about 15 or so. I can recall self-isolating or worse and assuming my parents or friends or a teacher would notice and rush to my aid or something.

Never happened. Because depression isn't always a very obvious condition. People mask in different ways, and not always with the conscious intention to hide their symptoms. Sometimes, people with depression mask simply because it makes it slightly easier to get through the day. Jinx's case would likely be even more difficult to spot because of the manic side of her condition.

I ended up getting the bulk of my care taken care of as an adult. Mostly because I could finally advocate for myself and I also realized that NO ONE is going to notice the more alarming symptoms of my own depression better than me.

This is not to say that you can't have a support network. Or that members of that support network WON'T spot something you've overlooked from time-to-time.

But Vi is not Jinx's support network. (Arguably Sevika is far better placed for that.) She might have gotten there eventually if Act 2 hadn't ended the way that it had, but that dream of the sisters being able to recreate their lost family was shattered and the progress they were making in getting to know each other halted at Jinx's realization that she needed to leave for Vi to move on.

I don't know, it's like some of you expect everyone in your lives or in other, unrelated media to have a 13 Reasons Why style reaction any time someone shows symptoms of suicidal thoughts or actions, or when one occurs. This is almost an absurd thing to expect out of anyone unfamiliar with what depression or suicidal thoughts actually look like. Like, if you're American, this idea that everyone everywhere is familiar with what a mental health crisis looks like is even more tragically farcical because we can't even admit that poor mental health is an aspect of mass shootings here as a society and culture.

And y'all expect the ex-con stuffed into a box since the age of 15 or so to be able to just instantly spot that her sister--again whose symptoms she's very obviously not familiar with--is going through a crisis event?

Like, damn, no one in this fandom is cut more slack than Jinx, and this entire criticism of Vi makes that more clear than any other. It's a position ironically devoid of any and all empathy, probably because y'all spent it all on Jinx, and assumes a sort of selfishness and coldness towards Vi that is in no way, shape, or form supported by canon.

It's honestly an argument that I dismiss entirely the moment a person attempts to make it. Largely because I am exhausted of how hypocritical this aspect of the famdom becomes towards Vi. Jinx's actions are a large part of the reason Vi sinks into alcoholism. She then proceeds to taunt Vi about it in the mines as if Vi's pain is nothing to her.

I NEVER hear anyone talk about that. It's almost always about how Vi should have done better. How Vi hurt Jinx. How Vi wasn't good enough.

It's some Grade A, Bonafide Bullshit™

Vi and Jinx were never going to ride off into the sunset together. If that is something you thought was going to happen and are now irrationally blaming Vi for because you're disappointed....? I don't know what to tell you. I personally thought it was pretty obvious that they were Doomed Siblings in this storyline and any potential, permanent reconciliation between them may happen in some far off sequel project or not at all.

[agarthanguide]

Wow, you knocked it out of the park with Ashton’s new art, just stunning. The outfit and the hammer of course (superherocore Exandria chic WHAT), but their expression really gets me. The lightness in it, the quiet determination. Did you get suggestions from Taliesin on that, or was that all you?

Oh, Ashton-

Honestly, Ashton has the expressions that Punks I Have Known tend to hold. Tal never directed me toward any particular expression, but he did send lots of pics of friends who have Ash's vibe, tones and quotes that felt right, that sort of thing. I think a thing about Ashton is that they aren't actually choleric or abrasive. The audience may perceive "punk" however they wish, but Ashton is very keen on teamwork and the superhero vibe. For some reason, I kept flashing back to his desperate run across the battlefield with Laudna('s body) in episode 34- this is a person who dreams of rescue.

So yeah, I think that Ash has a playful expression. They aren't mean. They have some snark in them, but they don't wield it like a weapon. Their anger is directed at institutions and Cruelty, not at friends and family. So I hope they feel lighter than a bigot would imagine. I think they carry their Hope very close to their heart.

Fun fact about lvl 10 Ashton- Of everyone I've ever worked with, Taliesin gives the best notes. He does this thing where he puts the art on a new page, loads that page up with references, and then marks up/writes directly on it? And then he does like 4 pages of notes per pass. It's incredibly juicy- it feels like reading lore, it feels so fun and special.

AND- I did some passes at the hammer, and then Taliesin just photoshopped one of those passes into what was essentially the finished hammer (he actually did three, and then... I?? picked the hammer??). But I knew immediately that it was perfect. That I would never beat it, in terms of raw aesthetic. So I just painted over it. Perfect from the word Go, our Taliesin.

[earthnashes]

Hello there! If I may ask about your oc Sakura, how did you go about conceptualizing her? Was there any characters or media that inspired her design? How did her character change to what it is now? Apologies for this many questions, feel free to choose just one when you have time; love your work!

Hello! You may indeed ask about my baby! 🥹

So for context, Feathers and Flowers' birthing concept was about a girl summoning a demon because she was lonely but too shy to make her own friends, so she concludes summoning a demon would somehow be easier. In that iteration of the story, Sakura was meant to be a side character; a friend to the main characters that acted as the ultimate foil to basically everyone around her. She combated Kaela's crippling anxiety by being confident and overwhelmingly outgoing, contrasted Evangeline's bossy, bitchy attitude with being kind and friendly, and be the opposite of Mal's stoic, silent character with being expressive and chatty. I also needed a character that could conveniently know enough about niche media to reasonably be able to help Kaela summon her demon in the first place, so I ended up making her a huge geek: she loved anime, video games, and had knowledge on obscure things... including occult summonings xD

So I worked off that idea to form her appearance. Again her core direction was to be a foil to all of the main cast: Kaela was short and soft. Evangeline was tall and thin. Mal was tal and hard. I wanted Sakura to be the biggest character, so she originally started started out compact and wide. Her face was what I started with: I wanted her to look somewhat like an anime character, and her inspiration was based off of the older episodes of Dragonball, Pokemon, Tenchi Muyo, Ranma, Inuyasha. I basically wanted her to have Goku vibes (his wide dark eyes, his big smile, his open and easy personality) but with Inuyasha's hairstyle (she originally had long hair).

But then the story changed; it wasn't about a demon being summoned in a silly slice-of-life story but a Spirit getting lost in a magical modern era, still very much slice of life.

That ultimately shifted Sakura's design into something more athletic; football specifically. I wanted her to keep her dorky traits but pair it with the popular star athlete trope, so she became leaner, taller, and more "top heavy". She also became more oblivious; she remained sweet and friendly and outgoing, but in turn she didn't understand when someone liked her. In fact she was later canonized to be asexual originally didn't have romance planned for her character.

Fastforward to now: the story of F&F has changed again. While the core remains mostly the same (found family), it ironically shifted into something much closer to one of the earlier concepts of the story; something more serious and not slice of life, something that focuses more on the good and bad of a world instead of being predominantly lighthearted. So with that change the characters had to get a tune-up to their characterizations. Sakura received the biggest change, I think.

Her core remains true: she's relentlessly kind, expressive, a dork. But I decided to make that her biggest strength and her biggest flaw, as well as making her loving personality be conflicted by how the world views her by changing her appearance. That's how we get current Sakura: she's kind, she's loving, she wants to help others. But people think she's a threat, a ticking timebomb, because of what she is. So her once open smile is now more manufactured, a wall to protect herself, a farce to try and make herself look less like a threat. She's now a pushover; she can't establish her boundaries without it being misinterpreted as being aggressive, so her coping mechanism is to grin and bear it. She can't get visiblt upset or angry, so she has to fight for calm to have even the smallest chance of being listened to. She's "nice" because it's all she's allowed to be.

Hence her appearance change! She is now the largest character in the main roster, the physically strongest. Her smile is now "tainted" by sabre teeth she can't hide, her size contradicts her gentle nature.

It's late for me so I'm sure I forgot a few things but that's what I got for now! If you're interested I could show older concept work of Sakura to illustrate how she looked then vs how she looks now too. But ye! Thank you so much for asking about my character! 🥹🙏

[revvethasmythh]

you know, revisiting these talks episodes really is reminding me of just how particular matt was about the character creation process for c2. tal suggested a subtle connection to c1 and matt nixed it immediately. no one was allowed to even have references in their backstories. travis talks about how all of their choices like race, class, and subclass (since he started the game with one) and even some spells they chose needed to make sense logically and narratively. matt clearly set them up for the grungier, seedier energy of the party and worked strongly to impress the complex political situation on them early and seed that into their backstories. like, it sounds like matt had a fairly heavy hand in guiding this character creation process and was not afraid to say no if the cast started running away something too much, and it really was to their benefit

[colealexart]

story time! i met the cr cast this past weekend at mcm london and they were the kindest people imaginable, but my interaction with laura and marisha was just. incomprehensibly sweet and the best thing to ever happen to me.

first up was laura. my friends izzy (@wvearp) and abby (@overnighttosunflowers) went before me in the queue and they got my art signed by her. when they did, she said “oh, best art” and they told her that they were here with the artist. she immediately was like “what?! where?!” and started looking around frantically. i was standing just to the side and i waved awkwardly and she was like “NO WAY! YOU!! i favourite this shit on twitter ALL THE TIME!” which i find hilarious because yeah, i freak out a little every time she does.

when it got to my turn, i said hello and asked her how she was doing. she did not answer my question and instead said “cole, are you kidding me? these are gorgeous” about the two prints i handed to her. (the one pictured and a different one i got signed.) she said she remembers seeing this after the episode aired and i was like “yeah, it airs at 3am here so i drew this in a frantic, sleep deprived stupor at 7am” and she said “you did it so fast, i remember! i sent it to marisha! people are SO QUICK with the fanart, you guys are insane.”

after she signed the print, she held onto it for a moment and just sat and admired it, before looking at me with the BIGGEST smile and saying “you are seriously the best. thank you.” and i don’t know how to handle sincerity so i handed her the dice i got for her. she was so excited about them and immediately rolled the d20 and got a 10 (edit: i misremembered, she got a 3 lol). i then asked if we could play rollies and she beat me. i got a 5 and laura got a 7. i said i’m sorry they’re not rolling well and she was like “it’s fine, they just need charging up!”

i also got a selfie too, but the guy helping her at the table took the photo for us instead of me trying to take it because i suck at taking selfies. she gave me a really tight side hug and when it was done, she thanked me again with the biggest smile.

i also didnt realize until afterwards but instead of writing a character quote, laura wrote “you are everything” on my autograph 😭

next was the group photo op. as we walked up i said hi again to laura and she immediately recognized me from before. she grabbed onto my shoulders and literally spun me around to marisha and was frantically saying “marisha marisha, this is the person that does the amazing imodna art!” but there was a lot going on and marisha was looking at me with the most bewildered expression, until she eventually understood what laura was saying but we had to rush to take the photo. laura held onto my arm and marisha leaned against me and i didn’t realize until afterwards but liam and tal also had their hands on my shoulders lol. it was A Lot. i told marisha i would probably be heading to her autograph queue next so i’d see her there and she was like “awesome, i cant wait!”

so after that, i met marisha. i was probably the most nervous to meet her because she’s just so cool and intimidating but in reality she is just so warm and has such a calming presence about her. she was like “cole, good to see you again!” and i handed her the same imodna print that i had laura sign. she said “ohh, aww this is amazing! this is what laura was talking about, i was so confused!”

then we talked a bit about the live show because her voice was hoarse and i asked her how she was feeling. she said it was just her voice that was gone, but we agreed that it was absolutely worth it because the live show was incredible. i also congratulated her on the how do you wanna do this, then gave her the dice i got for her and we played rollies too. we both got an 18 at first and when we rerolled, she beat me with another 18 to my 16. then she was like “oh these roll really well, i’m definitely gonna use these!”

we took our photo together and afterwards she said “thank you for your art and everything. seriously, you’re so talented” while rubbing my shoulder, and then i headed off to join ashley’s queue.

i’m probably gonna make a separate post about meeting ashley and sam. i just wanted to write this down mostly to immortalize on my blog. i expected them to be kind but i did NOT expect to feel so loved and appreciated. laura was about as excited as i was, and made me feel so special. (this is also a pretty small thing but i dont think i pass very well, so the fact that laura said ‘person’ and didn’t misgender me meant a hell of a lot too.)

i did bring extra prints to give to them as a gift but was overwhelmed and forgot lol

anyway, that’s it! for anyone wondering if the critical role cast are as kind in person as they seem online, they absolutely are and then some. i’ll never forget this past week.

[rotisseries]

im not even gonna ask whats up with yosano

she's hot and sexy that's what's up with yosano hi yosano hiiiiiii hi hi strap me down to that table it'll be fine