#VP scenes not included

[yujeong]

(My) Top 5 VegasPete scenes

Listen. Listen. I'm surely not being original here. I'm certain this post has been made before, especially closer to the show airing, but I wasn't here then, and the spoons for such a post came right now, so I'm doing it now. Now, a warning: my choices will make you question my sanity. They will make you wonder wtf is wrong with me for *not* including specific scenes. They will make you question my VP taste in general. I know, I do too all the time, but the thing is, I have *reasons* for every single one being here and I will thoroughly explain, and if you're still baffled, I get it, I am too, but the brainrot works in mysterious ways. So, let's go (very long post incoming):

No5: The pool scene - Episode 14

LOOK, I COULDN'T NOT INCLUDE THIS SCENE OK? I'M NOT THAT STUPID (Pls don't kill me for not putting it higher, I know, it's a crime, I know-). Fun fact: I had seen a screenshot of the point in which Pete says he's hungry, before watching the VP arc, and I deadass thought it was fan subtitles, like a joke, a meme, SOMETHING other than what he ACTUALLY said. It was very funny when I found out the truth. God, this scene is heart-wrenching for all the right reasons. It had everything I could ever ask for and more I didn't even know I needed. I think my No1 reason for loving this scene so much is Pete's desperation to save Vegas and all the ways he showed it. To explain, we have: - him coming to find Vegas after resigning from the main family to be with him, - him being physically intimate for the very first time to such a degree (he fucking hugged Vegas from behind, I lost my marbles when I saw it), - him trying so fucking hard to say "I love you" without saying it, because he can't, it's not sth he can say, but holy fuck will he show in SOME way, - him saying he's Vegas' pet while dying a bit inside but it's necessary goddammit, Vegas won't get it otherwise, he won't understand that Pete *needs* him, - him killing the guy who shot Vegas without hesitation. I wholeheartedly believe he'd kill whoever that person was, even Korn himself, and I love it. ALSO, can we talk about the fact that the scene was dead silent, no music, nothing during their talk, then when hope is on the horizon a soft melody plays and then BOOM, Ink comes just as Vegas gets shot and you feel like YOU got shot along with him. I love the title of the piece, and I love how it gives me goosebumps every single time I hear it, and I love how *tragic* it is, because what we're witnessing is a tragedy, and would remain a tragedy if the hospital scene didn't exist. 10/10 writing, I can't believe this scene is real, I can't believe how lucky we are to have witnessed such a moment.

No4: Vegas hits Pete with the belt + tasers him when he escapes + finds him unconscious later - Episode 11

I am aware that I'm cheating with the last scene but I love it a little too much and it's the continuation of the previous one so I'll add it in. Ok, firstly, I had to include the scene which inspired me to write my first ever meta post in here, guys, it was essential. Furthermore, one thing you should know about me is that I love - what I like to call - "pre-VP VP", meaning VP interactions up to ep 11 (which is my favorite episode, you'll figure out why as we move through the list). It had everything; it had Pete refusing to eat, throwing his philosophy at Vegas' face, it had Vegas lashing out at Pete in a way he didn't even enjoy (he started shouting as he was hitting him to convince himself he was enjoying this but he wasn't, I'm biting my FIST here), we had Pete using the belt to escape, only for Vegas, the fucking SLUT with the loose shirt showing off his TITS, to follow him outside, we had the tasing and the catching and the soft handling of Pete's body as he fell (he totally carried him back bridal style), we had Vegas believing Pete would laugh at him for what his father did (oh Vegas you moron, he would never laugh at you, if only you saw his face when Gun slapped you), we had Vegas freaking the fuck out at a non-responsive Pete, we had it all folks. I've watched these scenes more times than I can count, they're fucking glorious. And the music too, oh God the music. You'll see me scream about the music a lot here, because it's one of the deciding factors in my preferences, so I have to mention it, just as I did for No5. Unfortunately, Shazam hasn't helped me find the first two pieces used in the scene (when Pete is hit with the belt and when he uses it to escape) but I know of the other two, which are Lost Register and Walking the Distance, which are such perfect titles for Vegas, aren't they? I don't have any intelligent things to say about these scenes, I just love them so fucking much, even though Vegas hitting Pete with the belt makes me flinch, even though Pete gets the worst treatment here (minus the ball roasting I guess), I love them so much, because it's the limit that Vegas surpasses, and the realization he did so was incredibly enjoyable to watch.

No3: Vegas tortures Pete - Episodes 10-11

Yes, I did cheat again but technically the two scenes happen back to back on the same day (it's not the same day, Vegas is wearing a different shirt, but we'll pretend it is okay?) and yes, I did put only Pete screenshots here, look at my name, what do you want from me? When I said I have a deep fascination with "pre-VP VP", this is what I mean people. These two scenes solidified my obsession with this specific dynamic of theirs. Pete was so fucking unhinged and it was the most beautiful thing I have laid my eyes upon. There are too many things to mention, I adore them so much. We have Pete not speaking a single line of dialogue during the scene in ep 10, we have ep 11 and Vegas changing his approach, touching Pete in a sexual way which unnerves Pete but he's still not lost complete control, we have Gun hitting Vegas in front of Pete, with Pete putting the pieces together, we have the fucking phone call to his grandma, which is the thing that makes Pete give up and it's wonderful, because after that we have Pete screaming - I love his screams, I've listened to them on repeat, I have issues - and trembling with pure rage as Vegas toys with him. I've watched these two scenes, both for fic purposes and for my own enjoyment, probably more than 30 times at this point and I loved every single one of them. Btw, can we pay attention to the fact that the sneaky bastards over at BOC put a slight variation of Stable Delusion during the moment in which Vegas puts his hand inside Pete's underwear? Because I noticed, and I hope you did too. A lot of VP fans said they truly noticed Pete here, which is fair tbh, even though I was a big fan of his from the start. He truly shines in these scenes and seeing this side of him is delicious every single time.

No2: Pete's breakdown - Episode 13

Fuck my whole existence, what am I supposed to even say here? How am I even supposed to touch upon this scene without losing my mind? How do I explain what this scene did to my brain when I watched it, and kept watching it, and never stopped watching it because it's so fucking important to me? Pff, whatever, let me try. I'll mostly use the music playing throughout the scene to help me describe my feelings about it. The scene basically starts with both Vegas and Pete being lost and miserable, each one for different but interlaying reasons. The music accompanying the scene is called Unspoken, because neither can really say outright what's bothering them, because they're hanging by a thread and it's so, so good. It's heavy and painful and it creates this uneasy feeling in your stomach, accompanied by the visuals. It goes on, until it stops, right as Vegas says "Isn't my fucking life like this because of them?", because of course it does, Vegas is one second away from snapping at Pete, but Pete doesn't hesitate, he says to Vegas the harsh truth: "It's your choice." And then, Vegas drops the noodles - Pete's food, Pete's nourishment - on the floor, and the music playing is called Calculating Catastrophe, which I *only just discovered* and I want to pull my hair out. The dream is gone, no more afterglow, only misery, because Vegas can't handle the truth, because Pete can't handle the lie, because it's all crushing down and Pete can do nothing about it but accept it, accept Vegas' cruelty, accept the knife in his throat. He's waiting to die, he says it, he grabs Vegas' wrist and then, only when he says he doesn't even have his humanity left, does the music resume playing, the OST called This Creed, just as Pete tells Vegas - tells us, the audience - what his "set of beliefs which guide his actions" is, and both Vegas and us watching are dumbfounded, we're as scared for what Pete might do as Vegas is, and it's so painful and so beautiful to witness. The music stops again as Vegas says "No" to Pete being just a pet, and both him and us are breathing a hesitant shy of relief, only for Pete to snap again, to scream at Vegas while showing his handcuffed wrist, to ask "what the fuck is this then?" and the music playing compliments this moment brilliantly, because it's called Absent Cognition and it's a 10/10 fit. And the most brilliant thing here is how they're BOTH HAVING A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT CONVERSATION. They're talking past each other and Pete knows, he knows Vegas is stuck on his delusions because he can't do otherwise, he can't, it'll destroy him, but Pete himself also can't do this anymore, he can't stay, he has to go, "I'm sorry, Vegas, I'm sorry" (relevant post to this point specifically because I have lost my mind over it in the past). God, this scene is sosososososo good and so them, and I can't stop watching it, I can't get it out of my head. It's utterly stunning and I love it.

No1: The pill kiss/VP's talk - Episode 11

Ok. I am not normal when it comes to this scene. I have based my entire fucking personality around it since 2022. It makes me emotional every time I rewatch it, it gives me goosebumps just remembering its existence. It's because this scene is the shift in their relationship. It's them finally looking at each other in the eye and truly seeing each other. It's a promise in the shape of a pill, it's a revelation, it's rebirth. Vegas being gentle with Pete for the first time shifted something in me, as it did in Pete himself. Vegas is fighting it a bit at first; he says "Take it" to Pete harshly, demanding Pete take the pill, but when Pete rejects him, his tone gets softer. It almost sounds like begging to me and it's so powerful. Oh Bible, the delivery of some lines feel like a slap across the face, thank you. Little House on the Hill starts playing as Vegas lowers his body and puts the pill into Pete's mouth through a kiss. Even the title of the song is softer, their own little world in a little house, as they're coming closer through a promise that ended up not being kept: I can be gentle with you too. Please take the nourishment I'm giving you. And then he gets up, and sits on the floor, and the show literally gives us VP being on equal ground for the first time, truly equal: both battered and broken and looking at each other. And they talk, and Vegas starts opening up already after Pete asks him what happened, and then A Sky Sparkling starts playing as Pete talks to Vegas about his childhood, about how his father beat him up for losing, and then for winning, and I'm a sobbing mess on the floor at this point. (A Sky Sparkling = Vegas' worldview changing, gaining light, a new perspective. Fuck the titles of these songs have ruined me.) You'd think I'd have the most words about my all-time favorite VP scene, but I'm afraid that's not the case. I'm speechless. It'd given me such a visceral reaction that I simply don't know how to explain myself anymore. All I know is that I'll never get tired of watching it, of thinking about it, of analyzing it in my head. It's everything to me. I love VegasPete so much. At the end of this super long post, that's all I can say.

[covertblizzard]

jaykyle au where they're theatre kids in the same school but they're not the actors jason's the scriptwriter/director and kyle is the prop manager (i don't know the official terms sorry) and they'd probably do an amazing job on the backstage setting if they could stop arguing for 5 whole seconds about their artistic visions and ideas and how "this would obviously work better this way"

[charmac]

im curious if it also irritated you that rob was promoting his dumb fuck show with Ryan on the four walls account the other day… lol

Idk if I noticed honestly lol but, if it helps (or hurts), Four Walls is under the "More Better" umbrella along with Wrexham and anything else Rob is apart of/tied to now or in the future, so it's really all the same team doing cross promotion for everything... We probably shouldn't be surprised if the More Better name/logo ends up being attached to Sunny 17 (and beyond)

[zeezelweazel]

Valorant| They accidentally hurt you|

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I'm so obsessed with Valorant but it's literally such a random hyperfixation like ʘ⁠‿⁠ʘ

Characters included : Reyna, Sage, Viper, Fade

____________________________________________________

• Reyna •

Reyna is used to hurting people. She has to. It's a source of life. For both her and her sister.

That's why she doesn't feel guilty when she sees the purple light of one's soul slithering up her arm and the life fading from their eyes.

She's never hurt you, she never would. Still she fears the day her wrath and her bloodlust would get to you. That despite everything her true nature would shine through and the empress would feed from your corpse.

And the day she feared had finally come.

It was supposed to be a simple mission, but it's never simple with the protocol, is it?

You were supposed to defuse the spike and all was well after you took out enemy Killjoy. Or so you thought.

Enemy Omen was creeping up on you from the side. As he was ready to strike, Reyna appeared across from him.

The scene in front of her paired with the intense "conversation" she had with enemy Viper about Lucia made her see red. She unleashed such a powerful attack it almost knocked her off her feet.

Omega Omen was most definitely dead but you were also on the ground, clutching your side.

Reyna though the bastard had managed to shoot you before he died but as she got closer it was very obvious who had done this to you.

You were saying something in the comms, probably declaring that the mission was over and calling Skye for healing, but Reyna couldn't hear you. The ringing in her ears was far too loud.

You tilted your head up catching her eyes. You were shocked to see the emotions swirling in them.

"Zyanya? Are you ok? Are you hurt too?"

That's when she snapped from her haze and dropped to her knees next to you. She was fussing over you wound, which wasn't even that serious, mumbling something in Spanish over and over again.

" Lo siento "

I'm sorry...

Then you finally understood. Reyna had fears of hurting you and she has told you so herself. Now they've come true even if the injury is minor.

You brought her hands up to cup her face and kissed her. A short but loving kiss to get her attention.

"It's fine my love. You didn't mean to hurt me I know that. You feel bad and bad people never show remorse for those they've hurt."

• Sage •

Sage, poor gentle Sage, is the protocol's healer.

She's not supposed to hurt you. Her only job is to help the agents and make sure they return in one piece.

So I'm sure you can imagine her panic when everything occurred.

Sage is a bastion and an experienced soldier panic is not something she does. It's usually the younger agents who act recklessly and she the one that scolds them. But at the moment her mind was running a thousand miles per second.

You were good at sneaking around, that was one of your greatest gifts. Right now though it was more of a disadvantage. Sage was just trying to protect herself by walling off the hallway behind her. She was sure the enemies were going to come from behind as well and as far as she knew there was no ally around to help her. In these situations it's best to wall herself off and wait for reinforcements.

Sage has complained multiple times about not being just a healer. In the end though there was one truth. If the VP loses Sage it's all over. There's no one else that can bring people back from the dead after all.

The only problem with her plan is that you were right behind her all this time.

So when she rounded the corner and walled that part of she barely heard the sound of your surprised grunt before the walls came up to the ceiling.

You weren't really hurt by the wall, just a bit dizzy, what really hurt you was enemy Phoenix and his fireballs. He cought you by surprise and managed to land a hit on you before you took him down.

By the time Sage brought down a part of her wall to get to you, you were already lying down and supporting yourself to the wall clearly not strong enough to stand.

Sage was too panicked to think of anything as she threw her gun to the side and fell to her knees beside you. Her eyes were burning with tears and her lips were shaking. She knows your injuries aren't grave. She can revive people for god's sake, this is nothing for her.

So why does it hurt so much? Why does she feel like her soul is being ripped out as she watches the burns on your skin heal.

You know how kind hearted your girlfriend is. And even though she knows you're a strong woman who's more than capable of predicting herself, she can't help but be protective of you.

After she's done healing you she keeps her gaze to the ground and her hands tightly griping the fabric on her thighs.

You can't handle seeing your girlfriend like this so you bring your hands around her in a bone crushing hug. Sage is surprised at first and who can hear a faint gasp before she returns the embrace.

As she burries her head on your shoulder you feel tears wet your shirt but you keep quiet. You'll always be here to hold her through moments like this and remind her that she can accept help as well as give it.

• Viper •

Viper is one of the highest ranking people on the protocol and prides herself in being hard working and cold hearted.

She doesn't pay mind to the nasty glares she receives by some agents. Most days she spents in her lab creating new toxins and poisons.

She never would've thought these chemicals she loved so much would end up hurting possibly the only person she truly cares about.

This mission was no different from the others. Omega earth was trying to reck havoc again and the protocol was ready to stop them. Viper was leading this mission.

With both her and Sage on the team you felt safe and perhaps that's why you got so reckless.

You know you're bound to hear a lecture from your girlfriend about being careful on the battlefield but the rush of the fight had gotten to you.

You rushed right into enemy territory and upon locking eyes with omega earth's Reyna you suddenly felt all that rush sleeping away. You were strong but you couldn't take on the empress.

Panic set in as you fleed as fast and as far as possible, only stopping when you could feel your lungs burning from exertion. Or so you thought.

When you opened your eyes all you could see was green. Admist your panic you ran straight into Viper's pit. Great.

You could barely see the crates in front of you as you stumbled and wobbled across the battlefield. You wanted to shout for Sabine but you knew that opening your mouth to speak would only allow more of the deadly gas into your system. You could only hope you wouldn't run into more enemies.

Thankfully before you blacked out completely Sage was able to find you and grace you with her healing powers.

Soon Sova and Yoru were heard in the comms signaling the spike disarmed and the mission successful. In a few minutes everyone was aboard the Vulture and ready to fly home.

You noticed that Viper hadn't talked to you at all during the flight and you found it weird. Viper isn't the most chaty person but usually she checks up on you after missions.

You soon find her sitting alone, her leg bouncing up and down rapidly. When she notices you she looks up and-

Is that guilt in her eyes?

She closes her eyes not bearing to look at you.

Sage had told her about what happened. She had hurt you.

You know that words were useless so instead you hoped that your presence would be enough to calm her down and reassure her.

• Fade •

The Turkish nightmare of a woman was not particularly well liked when she first joined the VP.

You were one of the only agents who were not set on avoiding her. She appreciated the fact that you showed her empathy and decency despite what she's done.

Fade had already hurt you by releasing that dossier but after your relationship started she swore that was the one and only time she would hurt you.

Apparently that was a promise she couldn't keep.

Many times things don't go according to plan during missions. When that happens everything is frantic.

There are shots fired from everywhere, bullets raining on the battlefield, along with bombs and turrets. You can see Jett's wind dome and Skye's bird. They're setting up an ambush.

You are so overwhelmed you don't even have the right mind to call for your teammates but you're sure they wouldn't have answered anyway.

You don't know if they have planted the spike already. Maybe they dropped it or maybe they still have it on them. You can't act properly if you don't know the situation.

Before you could even think about anything else you saw a shadow monster charging towards you and then everything went quiet.

All you could see was black before you opened your eyes to face your darkest fear.

With everything happening all at once it was pretty hard for Fade to see where she was aiming. When she felt that the prowler had locked it's target she walked closer only to see her own nightmare come alive.

The black tendrils coming out of your mouth made her gasp.

She hit you. She had never ment to hit you.

She quickly went over to you but hesitated as she watched you struggle against the nightmare she unleashed upon you.

There were tears in your eyes as well as Fade's. Breach was shouting something in her ear but all she could think about was you.

"Y/N is down. I... She needs healing... Uh."

Fade felt like she couldn't breathe, but she would stay strong. Because she needs to see you open your eyes. She needs to know that you're okay.

A few moments later you open your eyes gasping for air. Skye is beside you in an instant, offering her help. Your eyes are moving around desperate to find your lover. You know how Fade is. You're certain the thoughts in her head aren't pretty right now.

You soon find her sitting down against the wall with her knees hugged to her chest and her eyes shut tight. It pains you to see her like this.

You thank Skye as you move to get up. Fade already knows you're awake. She heard your gasps. She's not sure if her presence is wanted right now. She feels like such a hypocrite. After promising that she'd never do something to hurt you again, there she goes. Ruining everything again.

She prepares herself for whatever is to come when she feels you sitting down beside her. She is very surprised when she feels your hand gently stroking her cheek. Mismatched eyes open to look at your own. She finds you smiling.

"You didn't mean it Hazal. I know it. Plus I'm fine! Yeah it did shake me up a little but so do horror movies, so there's no need to feel guilty. I love you, I always will, don't you forget that. "

____________________________________________________

[dvinaamesca]

I see some speculations that I use mods for poses on Elden Ring and Lies of P. No I do not use any of those, and I do entirely by myself. I can move characters around yes and pause some scenes, but the camtool I use does not work on controlling the skeleton mesh on Lies of P characters or Elden Ring. If you guys are curious, I can do a video of all the facial expressions that are in fact in the game. :) (Slowmotion is my bestfriend.) For my background, I use Reshades and use ENVIRONMENTS with depth of fields. So facts check that it takes time for me to do screenshots most of the time because of how I want to be creative with my shots without extra modded items being added to the game. And the pose editor camtool only works well on some games, not on Lies of P character expressions or Elden Ring. And for the poses, uhm there are emotes in the game? Again, be creative and slowmo the action to capture how you want. It doesn’t hurt to ask me questions. Shall I do a whole video of how to do the shots that people have questions, I am more than happy to show you and not gatekeep, to prove I don’t fuck around with my shots.

I get asked A LOT in my dms or tumblr inboxes asking what camtool I use, mods, how I did the background and I'm fine answering them because not a lot of people really know, but don't go around making all these assumptions about my photography when you guys don't know about it. I can pull ALL those messages for you guys to see that I am not just saying this. I will only say these once because I am already getting tired of it. I just want you guys to enjoy my screenshots and the hardwork I also put. Also, no I don't have a powerful pc, I run GTX1660, I5processor, and this is my first pc that I still need to upgrade (Bought my parts already haha), It's pretty mid. What makes my screenshot look HQ is entirely Otis Camtool and upscaling. Most of the time I lag because I have to sacrifice the performance for the image quality.

You are MORE than welcome to come and ask me for help or even figure things out together with me if any of you wanted to start becoming a VP. I consider myself still a rookie, ngl, and I also learn from many great VPs out there. Yes you may think taking screenshots are easy compare to being a digital artists, but they still take time. Don't forget, people tend to use detailed in-game shots for art references.

Just to put it out there again, I do the character placements, angles, poses using IN-GAME EMOTES or cutscenes, the lightings, color corrections, and get creative with the background MYSELF. I can see every details in the games hun and I will be glad to provide you all those, including the sad face P makes when he sees Romeo. Don't go comparing me to others that these creators are better because that's just foul. I never thought of myself being above anyone if that's what you guys are thinking. I 100% am passionate of what I do and even had fun doing requests for people for free.

Thank you,

Dvinaamesca

[my-vanishing-rad]

This video exposing P*rnhub was released in 2020 and together we’ve made enormous progress since—but we won’t stop fighting until justice is fully served. Here’s a recap of what’s happened in the past 5 years:

*P*rnhub was forced to take down 91% of the entire website—over 50 million videos and images— in what Financial Times called “probably the biggest takedown of content in internet history.”

*Visa, Mastercard and Discover joined PayPal in completely cutting off the site.

*Nearly 300 trafficking victims have sued P*rnhub in 25 lawsuits including certified class actions on behalf of tens of thousands of child victims.

*The company was criminally charged by the U.S. Federal Government for knowingly and intentionally profiting from sex trafficking.

*Thousands of media pieces globally have exposed the site.

*PH lost all mainstream advertisers.

*Roku, Comcast/Xfinity, Grant Thornton and numerous other companies cut ties.

*The CEO and COO were forced to resign.

*The secret majority shareholder was found, exposed and is being personally sued by dozens of victims.

*The VP of P*rnhub who used a fake name to hide his identity was exposed.

*The site was permanently kicked off of Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, losing over 14 million followers.

*They were forced to change their upload process and remove the download function.

*The website and entire parent company MindGeek was sold as a distressed asset to a hastily concocted private equity firm that laughably called themselves “Ethical” Capital Partners in a desperate attempt to rebrand.

Today what’s left of the site is still full of *unverified* content that includes monetized child abuse, rape and trafficking crime scenes. In fact, in 2024 they averaged having to take down over 800 monetized child sexual abuse videos per month and nearly 2000 rape and nonconsensual videos per month according to the Digital Services Act mandatory report.

We aren’t done with this fight yet...

#Takedown #Traffickinghub

[cg11555]

CURRENT FHJY THEORIES

My current conspiracy board for the season

These are my plausible theories and then I'll talk about my batshit insane theories

I think that the rat grinders HAVE lost their memories regarding Lucy's death. I'm inclined to believe that Ratbitch Dogface and MAYBE Ivy remember. I'd bet that they took the honey to lie to Aguefort and the other staff about their involvement with her death.

The mind terrorism that Fig put Ruben through caused him to vomit up a 'Bloody Viscous Substance' And I will not be surprised if Fig has made Ruben remember whatever happened to Lucy

Gertie verified that the honey made from the Devil's nectar is bloody red.

She is making the honey for some local food trucks that we know Are KLKC's

Another thing we know for a fact is that the body of Lucy Frostblade showed marks from multiple assailants including magical, non- magical, and specifically a type of bludgeoning damage that carbonized her blood into red diamonds

This leads us to believe that Lucy's murderers were her own party members. In addition to this, they also found the rage crystals in the dirt and the bodies of Lucy and Yolanda Badgood.

This clearing's destroyed trees shows indications of giant involvement as well

What we currently know leads me to believe that the Rat Grinders attempted a replication of Kristen's spring break miracle

Lucy attempted to resurrect an 'Evil' sibling of her goddess, Ruvina, The unnamed god now known as Ankarna.

This mirrors the Cassandra / Galicaea relationship as well

This attempt clearly backfired in some way I'd bet either resulting in Lucy or the others becoming something similar to the Rage Mages we saw in the battle at the Synod

I think that the Rat grinders are all at various levels of involvement in the upcoming plot involving Ankarna with KLCK being the mastermind AND I KNOW that there's some bullshit going on with the rogue teacher that FOUND KLCK ( Will be unsurprised if this unknown teacher is dead)

We currently do not know how this episode's revelations regarding the name will affect these plans in the upcoming episodes. If this is playing into the preexisting plans or completely destroying them

The way Brennan talked in the most recent AP about how he thought that them finding the name was an inevitability but a scene he thought would happen in the third act of the season makes me think that this will NOT affect the Rat Grinders plans in a majorly significant way. They still have to do something ( some kind of ritual or other ) that the Bad Kids will have stop in the final eps

After learning all about the Historical side of the shifts that Ankarna's domain saw I believe that there is a lot of evidence for a conspiracy against Cassandra and Ankarna involving Sol and Galicaea. But this is still up in the air

Now for my pepe silvia conspiracies . . . Feel free to bully me in the comments for these

ONE- The Time Quangle that Arthur Aguefort dropped on us in the second episode

We know that The Seven have already experienced a large chunk of this year during the GED quest that Aguefort was present for

And lesser men will say that the TIME QUANGLE is BLeeM's way of justifying the continuity errors between these two seasons

I am not one of them

The animated opening sees the Bad Kids falling past clocks and into a diamond prison created by Aguefort which explodes into the BK's falling in a scene eerily similar to them falling into Riz's briefcase of holding. They then face villains from both of the two previous seasons ( Goldenhoard, Kalina, a Corn-cutie, Chungledown Bim, James Whitclaw ( the mindflayer that kicked Fabian's ass during spring break) , Coach Daybreak, and Penelope w/ Dayne) in the Gym they fought Kalvaxus ( VP Goldenhoard ) before we get title cards for each of the Bad Kids

I posit that we will see the Bad Kids tumble through time as a result of not only Agueforts chronomancy adventure with Ayda but also the fuckery involving the time loop at the synod. Visiting their past villains in addition to current threats

TWO- Vice Principal Jace Stardiamond

Facts we know about Aguefort's resident sorcery prof and interim VP . . . Ragh Barkrock SAW him give Adaine's mom and Kalina the Nightmare King's crown from Aguefort's office after prompocalypse, Jace Stardiamond holds a useless position at Aguefort as sorcerers do not need any teaching for an innate ability, despite his uselessness he was chosen to become the VP, he was the person Yolanda Badgood was going to approach about the sinister shit surrounding Lucy Frostblade's 'disappearance' and the paperwork for a new deity she never saw. Yolanda is now dead, even though he is VP; after the death of Interim emergency backup principal Arcturus Grix He is still VP and Student body president Mazey Phaedra is now acting principal. Making room for KLCK to become principal next year if she wins that election.

Reviewing these fact I put forth the following idea, VP Jace Stardiamond is in cahoots with KLCK AND he is the unknown rogue teacher. WHY? how would someone with no knowledge of trickery or thievery manage to take the Nighmare King's Crown from Aguefort's office? How would a man that essentially does nothing as a teacher keep job security? What if the reason that KLCK was found by the rogue teacher was because he is in on the scheme? SPIE'S TONGUE CURSE?? SOMETHING THAT TWO ROGUES IN CAHOOTS WOULD USE DON'T YOU THINK? WHY WOULD HE MAKE RIZ A MEMBER OF THE FACULTY??

[wanderingaldecaldo]

WIP Whenever on a Wednesday

I am terrible at keeping up with tags in general but I am aghast to see my oldest WIP Whenever tag was from nearly 8 weeks ago. I completed a couple of things since my last one, namely the sock garters and the boots, and added quite a few more projects to the list than I scratched off. 😩

Tagged by (and tagging back) @fly-amanitaa @streetkid-named-desire @ouroboros-hideout @aggravateddurian @luvwich

@ghostoffuturespast. Also tagging with the usual zero pressure @olath124 @dustymagpie @medtech-mara @corpo-cunt-couture

@merge-conflict @blackrevell @fereldanwench and YOU reading this! Share and tag me!

Modding

Shocking that it's still my main focus 🙄 but the first one is in support of a couple of VP project:

Presidential Props which include a variety of flags and the NUSA medal with box. The flags are part of the VP set below, though I didn't actually show them here.

Featuring: five different flag varieties with five appearances each; medal box in multiple states, plus the medal itself; and the presidential coin, scalable and with multiple appearances.

SlutWear, a new line of clothing that will tell NC just how slutty your V is. It will be gender and (smaller) size inclusive. 😊

Does Val really heart NC?

An update of my tee framework for dynamic AXL just in time for Pride, though there are no interesting pics to share. Sorry!

However, in support of the previous two items, a modder's tool: a CodePen to generate instances for the yaml. Both the SlutWear shirt(s) and the custom logo tees will require a lot of instances to get all of the color and logo combinations that are possible through dynamic AXL. There's still a little work to do, but it's already been of great use to me, as it wrote 220 lines of code for me. Let's not discuss how many lines of code I wrote to save those 220. 😂

Me using the tool to generate instances for the custom tees yaml. This will remove the limit on colors available to the user, so they can have any color with any of the logos!

VP (and Writing)

A glimpse at a set I took last week for inspo in the presidential PWP that's been stalled out at 5.7k words. More on it in a minute...

Even though the pics are cropped, they're still on the risque side, so I'm sticking them and the rest about the PWP behind the cut.

Not shown: Johnny both rolling his eyes at V and enjoying the show

I've been working on a PWP that was unrelated to the President's Merc AU for months now, but have been stuck because, well, I don't know how to wrap it up. I posted about it a little ways back and someone helpfully suggested that I just have to keep going until one of them passes out. Which, is what does happen, but I don't have that kind of patience to write it out and nearly 6k words is already well longer than my usual PWP, so I went in game to set the scene and possible prompt some ideas for a potenial ... climax to the scene.

It worked! I have a plan, and I think it won't take more than 500 words to reach the end, plus a few more touch-ups to help set up everything, then a rewrite or two for cleaning and polishing.

In the meantime, as I've been working through this version of Val and how she responds to Rosalind, it's the perfect prologue to The Tower story that I've been writing longhand. Val is going to leave this encounter fully loyal to Rosalind and will turn So Mi over with only a moment's hesitation. She doesn't have any attachments in this universe other than Misty and Vik, and after she wakes up to what Night City has become, it's easy for her to walk away from it forever. Especially when it puts her closer to Rosalind.

What about you? What are you working on? 👀

[jq37]

The Report Card – Fantasy High Junior Year Ep 7

Fast Times at Aguefort High

Welcome back to Fantasy High where the Bad Kids are, as the episode’s title suggests, being stress tested in a major way! Before we hop into that though, we have a few short scenes at school to get through, starting with a surprise assembly called by Principal Grix. 

There’s two main orders of business. The first is to introduce Agent Clark who is going to be investigating because of Fig’s shenanigans over the past 2 seasons. Fig Disguises herself as Kristen causing a scene that forces Adaine to burn a portent roll to cancel a Nat 20 and Agent Clark to go off on a very intense rant about the improper use of Disguises, which we mostly don’t hear because the Bad Kids are busy doing bits. 

After that’s done, Grix subjects all of the students to a mandatory drug test and starts literally throwing bolo nets at the students who fail—including Max Durden of course. VP Jace is alarmed and chases after him as he chases after students. Riz was already hella suspicious of Max pushing gorgenfern on them iat the party and now interrogates him about his motives as he cuts him out of the net. Max insists that his only motive was that smoking fantasy weed is awesome and that he’s never gotten in trouble like this before. Riz asks if any of the Rat Grinders were down in the basement with him and he says that they weren’t but Ivy was supposed to be down there. She was the one who hooked him up with the fern. Everyone notes that with suspicion. 

The conversation pivots to the fact that KP has a fleet of food trucks outside offering free food as part of her campaign. Riz is on guard but everyone else kinda wants to chow down–for recon reasons of course. After a quick aside where the idea of Adaine solving her money problems by dealing drugs is discussed and quickly rebuffed–they check out the food trucks and find that the food, unfortunately, slaps. Adaine ritual casts Detect Magic to see if the food is charmed in any way and she finds that it’s not but that the paper the food is in has some vote for KP subliminal messages implanted. Which is, como se dice, INTENSE for a school election even though they brush it off.

They discuss going over to KP (who is campaigning with a bullhorn while Mary Ann hands out flyers) and intimidating her but Kristen decides to take the high road. Of course, her version of the high road involves going over in a cowboy hat full of salsa and offering to let KP dip chips into it because this is still Kristen we’re talking about. 

Kristen and KP have a very smiley but catty conversation. Kristen implies KP was at the shrimp party but KP denies and says she was busy. Kristen shoots back that she thought she was done with all her classes because the rogue teacher found her (info she got from Riz via Jawbone you’ll remember). KP gives a tight smile at that and Kristen later on a 14 Insight sees that not only is she not rattled or insulted, she’s actually the kind of person who loves breaking the spirit of the law and getting a technical success over a traditional one. Hate that! KP says that it’s nice to be able to focus and asks how things are going with Kristen’s goddess. Kristen, for reasons I can’t fathom, says that her goddess passed and then immediately backpedals and changes it to “passed the test to give me more spells” and tries to “Spiderman away”.

????????????

Luckily she has the best friends in the world and they all team up with various spells to help her make a flashy, magical escape that’s so bombastic a bunch of the food trucks drive off in terror. 

As this happens, KP says into the bullhorn, “Your goddess passed? How can you cast spells?” So it looks like that is now public knowledge. 

Also, as an aside, Riz brings this subliminal message to Max since he’s a conspiracy head and, by their estimation, a pretty cool guy. Max says he’s on the case.  

OK, Now let’s jump into downtime! The way this works is that for the clump of time time that each bit of downtime runs for (this one is from the start of the school year to the beginning of November) each Bad Kid can make a series of rolls in the following categories: Academics, Popularity, Money, Job/Money, Extracurriculars, Relationships, and Mystery. Each roll they make, the DC goes up by 5 and failing some tracks have higher consequences than others.

Having a signed MCAT means you get to roll advantage on all Academic tracks after your first. Succeeding wildly means you get extra fun stuff. 

Fig and Kristen are in danger of expulsion and if they fail their Academics by more than 5, they’ll be expelled. And Brennan says Kristen’s Academics rolls will be hard without a god

Adaine is rolling her Academic track with disadvantage until she can get enough money to get to “well off”--diamonds aren’t cheap! (Girl, take Oisin’s diamonds, I’m begging you).

And, if at any point they want to reroll, they can by taking a stress token. They can only take 2 for each roll. The players can’t see this but whenever they take one there is a countdown to 5 and it’s parked by increasingly bigger and gnarlier red crystals which, considering the theme of this season is Concerning. 

Fabian gives Bardics to everyone but Riz and Riz takes one of Fig’s corrupted Bardics. Even though this is a long period of time, they’re each only allowed one Bardic (not sure if that’s per person–like they could get one from Fig and from Fabe–or period). Likewise, Adaine can only get help from Boggy once. 

OK, that’s all the nitty gritty. Let’s jump into everyone's rolls!

ROUND ONE

Riz predictably knocks out Academics with his DC 5 roll. He gets a 24. Boom, A+ in Rogue class and he’s not breaking a sweat. 

Adaine rolls for a job and rolls an 11 which passes but she needs a 25 to get to well off. Her passing roll is enough to get her a job as Basrar’s with Aelwyn as her one reference. 

Fabian rolls Popularity and gets a 20 which is a high enough success to get a perk: He’ll now get advantage on charisma whenever he meets someone new at school AND he’ll get advantage rolling on another track because some other student will just help him. 

Gorgug rolls all four of his Academic tracks at once–3 Artificers and 1 Barbarian. He doesn’t have an MCAT so it’s way harder than it should be. 

AND YET. 

His first roll is a 21. A+ no Sweat. His second roll is a 13 which is a C. He takes a Stress token. Nat 1. He takes another stress token. Nat 20! Another A+. He rolls his third Artificer track with advantage because of the last roll.. NAT 20 AGAIN!!! Ayda would be so proud! AND Brennan said that if he crit he’d get something super secret and special (some kind of academic resource). Excited to find out what it is so soon! His Barbarian roll is a 23 which is high but just a C since the DC keeps going up. He decides he’s cool with that. 

Kristen, before she rolls, goes to her cleric teacher Yolanda and fills her in on everything re: Cassandra. Yolanda says that if she wants to stay on the cleric track she’s going to need to do extra papers and academic stuff to make up for the lack of magic. She’ll need to get her spells back by the end of fall semester or else she’ll fail just as a matter of course And she needs to perform a miracle. You know, casual stuff. Although this is Kristen so maybe it is kind of casual. 

Yolanda does a divination spell on the Cassandra shards and we don’t learn what, if any, info she gleans from that but she does tell Kristen that as long as she still believes in Cass, she shouldn’t be fully gone. Cass can’t work through her right now so she’ll have to step up and work through Cass. 

After confirming that the Shrimp Jump doesn’t count as a miracle, she meditates on Cass and doubt and how it’s helped her in her life. When she thinks about doubt as the first step of escaping a bad situation, all the doors and windows in the room she’s in unlock–a minor bit of magic which means that she’s not totally cut off from Cass. The feeling she gets is that the cable is still there, there’s just not any juice running through it. This–tending to her religion–counts as her Extracurricular roll btw and she got a 22 on a DC 5. 

She hosts a little ceremony as almost an apology and tribute to Cass and Craig shows up! Good old Craig. 

Moving on to Fig, she suddenly has the idea that I’ve been wondering about all season: why not become a paladin to Cassandra? She needs followers. And Rebellion and Doubt go hand in hand. She seems wary cause it’s such a rash decision but Kristen encourages her to go with it.

She goes to Warlock classes where Zara once again offers her a signed MCAT before they take a field trip to the Bottomless Pit–Fig’s domain taken from Gorthalax. It’s backed up with work she’s ignoring and she tells everyone to just build a giant recording studio. Sure. 

Fig tells Zara that she’s kind of her own source of warlock power which Zara says is dangerous because it’s super easy to break a promise you made to yourself. She advises Fig to find a promise that she can make to herself that she won’t break. 

Fig then sees the Pride Armor behind her which says, “Ruin you have brought here.” Fig tells Baby to check in on who owns that armor and what its deal is. (Which is good because this is definitely the kind of thing that will SERIOUSLY bite you in the butt if you don’t stay on top of it). 

Then she rolls for her Warlock classes: 24! Fig’s an A+ student! 

ROUND TWO

DCs are higher now and we’re gonna start with Gorgug this time. 

He rolls for the Owlbears and is now at a DC 25. He fails and is told then if he fails this track 2 more times, he’ll be kicked off the team. He takes a stress but still fails, playing a truly trash game against the Hudol Hellions. 

Fabian rolls for Academics next and tries to get help from Mazey. Brennan makes him roll for the boldness of getting help from her after blowing her off but with a 22, he’s successful and has a flirty conversation with him. He also rolls a 22 on the DC 10 Bard Academic track. 

Then, he does his Fighter roll (DC 15 but with Advantage cause he has a signed MCAT) and gets a THIRTY TWO. 

His DC 20 Owlbears check? TWENTY THREE.

Fabian is the most popular kid in school, maximum party legend, lofi study nights at his house every weekday, captain of the Owlbears, and straight A student. You truly hate to see it gang.

Adaine rolls Academics next and takes the Help action from Boggy so she can roll flat. That’s a 22 on her DC 10 check. Party nerd, keeping it together even without diamonds (and eggs). 

Then, she decides she wants to put her jacket to use and become the school dealer, not of drugs but of things like extra pencils and erasers. Brennan lets her make another Job track check and with a 22 (DC 15) makes 2d10 gold. 

She does another roll (DC 20) to try and get the AV club’s help checking the Seacaster Manor security footage for info on the suspicious Mephits but even with a stress token, she can’t find anything. She does know that if they WERE her mephits then they must have been compelled because they wouldn’t have acted like that naturally. 

Also, she absolutely isn’t doing her oracle gig even though elves keep showing up at her job. Adaine, just charge them! They’re rich!  Take money from the Falinel 1%! It’s easy and ethical! 

Finally, Brennan makes her roll to keep her panic in check with all the stress and she succeeds. 

Riz rolls for his Extracurriculars next at a DC 10. Brennan allows him to do all of them at once if he takes Disadvantage. He does so and rolls a Nat 1 but with Reliable Talent, that becomes a 10+9=19. He’s doing every club he can and he’s acing it! 

October is apparently Riz and Gorgug’s Birthday (which I thought was supposed to be at the folk fairy but either I misunderstood or Brennan misspoke–either way just chalk it up to the time quangle, gang) and they have a joint Ice Cream party at Basrar’s. Gorgug gets an artificing gift card from his bio-parents who are coming down to see him at the Frosty Folk Fair which is coming up. 

Fig tells her bard teacher that she wants to do an independent study, causing her to float away in tears (though she absolutely allows it, apologizes for her behavior via email, and says she’s welcome back any time). 

Gorgug is having a harder time with his teachers (or at least with Porter because Henry loves him). He asks Fig what to do and she tries to trick Porter into signing Gorgug’s MCAT. He sees right through her and, to Gorgug’s dismay, signs Fig’s MCAT instead, saying that she’s been such a good student just from auditing. In contrast, he tells Gorgug that he needs to get an A+ or he’ll be kicked out. “Must be nice,” Gorgug laments to a baffled Fig who truly was just trying to help her friend. The signed MCAT confers the same benefits to her even though she’s not officially going for Barb levels. She is officially on the books as a Barb/Warlock multiclass. 

She does check out Paladin classes however. The poncy knight Halo St. Croix (love these names Brennan) isn’t really her speed so she checks in with one of the multiclass teachers at Brennan’s suggestion. Guess who the paladin/barb specialist is? Lmao, it’s Porter and Zac is so over it. Like, not Gorgug I felt that annoyance coming from Zac Oyama the real life person. Porter tells her that Rage and an Oath are two sides of the same coin because you’re raging to keep the oath to protect the people you care about. He does a very cool Divine Smite to demonstrate his abilities and Fig is on board for private lessons, calling him “sir” and rolling a 22 on this track (I think a DC 10 right now). A+ in Paladin. Insane. 

Kristen rolls for Popularity. It’s a DC 10 and she rolls a 12. Riz asks to take stress for her and Brennan says yes but he’s the only one who can do that for other people. I wonder if that’s an in the moment judgment to keep the whole table from taking bullets for each other or a true Riz special but, either way, it totally checks out. She rolls worse and Riz takes another stress which puts her roll at a 21. She gets the same Charisma perk as Fabian. 

Next Kristen has to do her homework which she does with advantage because of her newly gained perk. It’s a DC 15 and she gets an 18 to pass (with a C) and then an 11 on her actual research which is on Osmir, the god of magic and secrets. While doing this research, she learns that there is a lot of value in faith that’s not evangelistic and evergrowing (something common in Helioism and the Moon religion) and it can be just as powerful to have one follower who prays every day or monasteries that do their own thing and don’t do converts (which seems kind of like what Osmir’s vibe is).

ROUND THREE

Fig rolls Mystery (DC 15) to find out what Ruben’s type is so she can continue her infiltration mission. She takes a stress to reroll to get a 19 and learns he isn’t picky and actually has a big crush on Wanda Childa and hopes she’ll be at the Frosty Fair that he’s headlining. She’s delighted and magically inserts herself into his dreams to keep that fire burning. 

Fabian does a DC 25 relationship roll on Ivy and fails. He takes 2 stress tokens but fails twice more, leaving her unimpressed with him and his friendship with Mazey. She sneers and says that if it gets cold he can “wear her like a sweater”. Fabian is absolutely taken aback by the cruelty and Emily’s disgusted, “Oh my God,” at the table really sums up my feelings. I knew I never liked that bitch. Before Fabian can make a hasty retreat with an excuse about getting a phone call, Ivy gets close to Fabian’s ear and says, “You missed your shot playboy.” 

He also gets 10k gold for being a trust fund baby. Yay for Fabian. 

Riz does a DC 15 Mystery Roll for the crystal stuff and gets a 23 (2 away from a bigger clue). He learns that Ragh was in middle school when the crystal was put into Lydia so there’s no danger of him being an avatar of any kind of bad magic. 

He does another roll to research Lucy (DC 20) and a Nat 1 becomes a 21. Rogues are so good you guys. 

He learns that they never found a body but scrying magic confirmed her dead. However, it was low level scrying so all it really confirmed was that she wasn’t alive on the material plane. That still leaves a lot of options that are not quite dead. 

More info: She went missing near Lake Shimmerstone which is near the woods the Ratgrinders grind rats at. And, most notably, in that two week period where grades didn’t count anymore, she submitted paperwork to change her god but then submitted paperwork to cancel the first set of paperwork. Riz doesn’t see who she wanted to change her god to though. There’s nothing written there. 

Adaine does a Mystery roll to see what’s up with Grix. It’s a DC 25 and even with a stress she doesn’t make it. She’s not grasping anything but the uptick in bureaucracy is very weird and worrying. 

Finally, Kristen rolls Mystery to try and find out more about Lucy. It’s a DC 20 and she gets a 19 after taking a stress token. With Fig’s sketchy bardic that takes it up to a 27. 

She goes to talk to her teacher again and asks about Lucy and whatever happened to her. Yolanda gets somber and says Lucy was a wonderful student, sad but very kind. She worshiped a goddess named Ruvina who was an ancestral goddess of giants and giant-kin. Her domain is winter and sorrow. 

Kristen asks if she was thinking about switching and Yolanda is confused and alarmed. Lucy never would have switched to another god. She was extremely devoted. Kristen mentions the request form and Yolanda says she never got it and didn’t give approval–she wouldn’t have been at school when the form was sent. She thanks Kristen for bringing this to her attention and when Kristen rolls insight, a 27 tells her that her teacher is sincerely upset and frightened at what this info might mean. 

Yolanda says she’s going to talk to Grix but Kristen points out that the guy who throws nets at kids probably isn’t the best person to confide in. Yolanda agrees and plans to talk to VP Jace instead. Before she leaves, she gives Kristen a token that says “When the only thing you can believe in is believing.”

Listening to this conversation gives Riz a brain blast. What if the name on the god change form wasn’t blank or redacted. What if it was invisible, like the name of a god you can’t say? He uses some of his dad’s celestial spy gear and, sure enough, there’s something there that can’t be read by mortal eyes. 

This is where we exit downtime and everyone has taken some level of stress. Fig has one. Riz and Adaine have two. Kristen, Gorgug, and Fabian have three. They’re all fried and coping in ways that range from being hermits (Adaine) to not slowing down lest the wheels fall off (Riz). There’s a way to reduce stress but Ally says it's hard and Brennan says they can’t try till next time. Based on their stress, they’ll have to pick certain things to have disadvantage on (which isn't great considering there’s def gonna be a fight next episode and we don’t know how long until the next downtime period). 

We finish off the day of the Frosty Folk Fair which will be held at Gorgug’s house. Riz realizes he forgot to look into the fraud case his mom is defending but it’s too late now. 

At Mordred, Lydia is making a killer breakfast and she also has all the stuff the party asked her to get about her Bakur quest. Since he’s a fiend, they all expected it to be written in Infernal but no. The texts are written in the language of the Giants. 

Honor Roll

Gorgug for Acing His Artificing Classes

It’s honestly absurd how proud I am of Gorgug for this. Like I fully recognize that this is a fictional character and these were just random rolls but guys, he’s doing it! 

Detention 

Ivy for Minitaur Racism and Extreme Bitchiness 

Ok look. I love characters who are bitches. Aelwyn is my favorite FH NPC. That’s well known information. But this is a nuanced thing. I’m not out here for any character who just shows up and is mean. You need style. You need flair. You need a decade of family trauma and suppressed affection you don’t know how to express. 

Ivy just showing up to be full on racist to Mazey? Jail. 

It was like Brennan looked Lou right in the eyes and was like, “If you pursue this character after this point I absolve myself from any responsibility.”

Fabian, my guy, you are under absolutely no obligation to date Mazey if you don’t see her that way but for the love of whoever Kristen is praying to right now, don’t pursue Ivy! 

Random Thoughts

Kristen’s range is such that in one breath she can be telling Max that “if we all do drugs he can’t net everyone” isn’t a union and then in the next breath she’s encouraging Adaine to sell drugs.

A little surprised Fig didn’t run into Bucky when she crashed Paladin classes. 

Curious if when KP said, “Your god passed, how are you casting spells?” in the bullhorn if that was purely to spill her secrets or if she was also genuinely baffled by that. 

I didn’t mention this before but Fig is purposefully tanking her Popularity track to focus on other things/be more stealthy. It’s good she’s not prioritizing it because it seems like she’s doing literally everything else she can! It’s interesting how right as Gorgug is digging more into techy things and magic, she’s dipping more into martial classes. I am so curious to know what her character sheet looks like by the end of the season. If she doesn’t want to take full levels, she can always take the Magic Initiate feat for some paladin spells. 

In a clutch bit of detective work from Riz, we learn that the god’s name on Lucy’s sheet can’t be read by mortal eyes. I know Kristen would be loath to do this, but I bet she could get Helio on the phone pretty easily and get him to read it for her, maybe for a price. Maybe he’d even do it pro bono if he’s not mad at her–Kristen thought he sucked but from what I remember he was pretty chill. 

The timeline of Lucy’s supposed death is throwing me off. If she’d died Freshmen year the Rat Grinders would make sense to me–why leave the woods if your cleric died the first week of school? But this seems like it was their M.O. even before whatever happened to Lucy. So what’s the deal? 

I also can’t get a read on whether the Rat Grinders (by which I mean KP and Ivy–the ones I trust the least) are pro or anti Lucy. Like, is whatever they’re going now a ploy to bring back Lucy (if she’s even dead at all which seems doubtful) or is it a second attempt at whatever did her in, now with Buddy as the sacrifice? I’ve seen people speculate that the Rat Grinders are mad that Kristen and Gorgug were resurrected by Aguefort while their cleric was not and that’s why they hate the system but that theory hinges on whether they cared about Lucy or not. So curious to know what their group dynamics are when they’re alone. 

If Lucy’s got is a god of sorrow I wonder if this nameless god was a god of rage.  Also wondering if there is any connection between the frost giant thing and the frosty folk fair thing.

I sincerely love this downtime system and I think it’s great that we’re getting more of the high school experience this season. I wonder how many times we’ll get to do this. 

I was expecting to have to ask Brennan in a Q&A what Gorgug’s nat 20 would mean, not that it would happen twice back to back on his first set of rolls! I can’t wait to see what he unlocked! 

On another note, Porter really needs to let Gorgug get his MCAT. Yes, his grades are slipping like Porter said they would but that’s kind of a self fulfilling prophecy from forcing him into this position.

Yolanda Badgood is weirdly comfortable talking to a student about others students' private business but maybe it's an adventuring school so it would be weird if students weren't breaking into school records from time to time. They literally teach students to be rogues after all.  

EDIT: Coming back a day later to make this edit because I can't believe I forgot to mention my new favorite corruption of KP's name: Littledoggy Girlcollar. Chef's kiss. No notes. They are really dragging Brennan's ass for this name--the name of one of his ACTUAL PCs. Lmao, brutal.

The main additions to the Conspiracy Board from this ep:

Not from the ep but we learned from the just released map that KP’s family owns a real estate company (thanks to the anon who gave me the heads up). I wonder if that’s why they keep grinding in that one specific plot of land. Maybe she knows something about the land that others don’t because of intel from her parents. 

Lucy seems like she was a good person and switching her god is so out of character that it was deeply worrying for her teacher. We have to wonder if she even sent the form or if one or both of them were forgeries, perhaps by a rogue. And if she did send the form, was she coerced and then quickly changed her mind? 

The dead god Bakur was trying to raise seems related to giants and Lucy worshiped an ancestral giant god. We need more to go on but that’s an obvious connection. Did KP learn about this nameless god via Lucy and decide to use it to her advantage?

No idea if this is at all relevant but Lucy's people are said to be from the Mountain's of Chaos in this episode. That's also where Tiberia Runestaff--Adaine's divination teacher who kinda sucks--is from. Doesn't necessarily mean she's implicated but it does mean she might know some information.

[yujeong]

Baptize me with new names so I can exist

Myrsini Gkana - I have other things I love too

[acaplaya-musings]

I'm a day late but I still wanted to acknowledge the fact that it's now been 5 years since the release of VoicePlay's cover for Oogie Boogie's Song! It's VoicePlay's second-most-viewed video, currently sitting at 13.25 million hits(!!!), and, like the case for many other people, it was my first ever introduction to VoicePlay.

Storytime! (On my first introduction to/first experiences with VoicePlay):

So I didn't find the video immediately after its release, but the fact that I found it at all was basically due to me setting myself up as the perfect target audience. Firstly, I'm a big Disney fan, have been since I was a young kid (as to be expected), and although I didn't actually watch The Nightmare Before Christmas in full until December last year, I was still familiar with a lot of its music. I have an old Disney Christmas album which starts out with Christmassy songs, but ends with songs from various Disney movie soundtracks (idk why), and it includes What's This, Oogie Boogie's Song, and Jack's Lament. And furthermore, each October I would watch the This Is Halloween intro scene from the movie on YouTube.

Secondly, at the time, I was a fan of at least some stuff by certain acapella and acapella-adjacent groups and artists. Straight No Chaser, Pentatonix, Peter Hollens, Nick Pitera, Jon Cozart/Paint, Todrick Hall, y'know. (Although I only watched/listened to covers of songs where I already knew the originals, because why would I listen to cover artists doing songs I didn't already know? Right? (I was naive)).

So it was late October when I finally clicked on VoicePlay's Oogie Boogie's Song. It had been sitting in my Suggested Videos sidebar thing for at least a couple of days iirc before my curiosity gave in (and seriously, it's quite a unique and striking sort of video thumbnail compared to most other VoicePlay thumbnails; something that perhaps worked in its favour?) And well, here's what I had to say about it on my Discord server:

(Little did I know that that E1 was not, in fact, the lowest goddamn note I would ever hear, lol)

But actually, that wasn't the first post I made about VoicePlay/Geoff. This was:

(In my defense of the description/comparison, I had been watching a lot of Unraveled and Overboard videos on Polygon's channel and it was the best description I could think of at the time).

So yeah, I fell in love with Geoff right from that video (I do love a man with a threatrical streak, and obvious bonus points for the hair!), and that crush was further solidified with videos like Panic In 4 Minutes (which I loved), and Queen In 5 Minutes (which I adored).

Also I just have to share this post/comment of mine, because man, Apollo's Dodgeball really side-swiped if not just straight up hit me with this one huh?

(For clarification, this was about 6 or 7 months before Geoff started making his own song covers on his personal channel, where he of course typically sings with "clones" of himself)

But like what I did with other singers and acapella groups, I mostly watched/listened to songs where I knew the original, including for Geoff's channel once it began (though I did also watch Headless Horseman and Mele Kalikimaka), and so yeah, I missed out on a lot at the time! So I wasn't "fully" invested yet, and I think I stuck around till like maybe late 2021 ish? Idk I remember watching Geoff's Monster Mash video, but I can't remember whether I watched VP's Friends On The Other Side at that point or not.

But then, in late October 2023, YouTube stuck Geoff's cover of Jack's Lament in my Recommended section, and I knew even before I watched it that it would be the best thing ever, and it was, and then I came across VoicePlay's cover of Hellfire, and well, the rest is history! 😄

So yeah, Oogie Boogie's Song might not have been the video that actually pushed me "down the rabbit hole", but maybe I might not have come across Jack's Lament four years later without it, or at least I wouldn't have had those memories or that degree of familiarity that made the video extra special, which helped make me want to go catch up on everything I had been missing out on.

In summary: Oogie Boogie's Song you will always be famous <3

[deathlessathanasia]

"Tethys is similarly included with Dionysos in a scene on a bell krater in London that depicts Hermes handing him, as a baby, over to his nurses (fig. 3.3). Here Tethys is one of the maenads who nurses Dionysos. Her surprising presence suggests the cosmopolitan importance of Dionysos. Tethys appears elsewhere as a maenad, for example on VP 20 (fig. 3.11), and is part of a broader trend of showing local personifications as maenads, which I will discuss at the end of this chapter."

- Polis and personification in classical Athenian art by Amy C. Smith

[wraithsoutlaws]

Then & Now the (x: perfect drug) edition:

Inspired by the fandom to look back and celebrate the boys' journey as well as my own in terms of vp.

March 2021, ps4.

I never created Dagger with the intention to ship him with anyone, but by the time I got here on his file it felt strangely natural. He was still a very fresh oc but things began to click immediately and genuinely felt like it was meant to be. The development of him as a character began to happen side by side with this silly little ship and both ended up becoming really personal and special to me.

It's hard getting decent shots on ps4 with anyone. It's especially hard when it's a minor npc with extremely limited screen time available! You have no idea how many times I went back and played these two quests trying to get something interesting. Honestly I'm really grateful for my time on ps4 not only because it helps me appreciate what I can do now a little more, but I think a lot of my growth happened here, stretching the limited resources I had available.

July 2021, ps4

Learning how to work within the confines of totally vanilla photomode, getting creative with base game poses and skipping time to find the best natural light, etc. I'm still proud of these pictures, they capture an intimacy that I think is really special, and at the time were some of my favorites I'd ever taken, and even now I can note the growth between these and the first ones I'd taken.

April 2022, laptop

The first pictures taken on my laptop and my first time posing them with AMM/setting up a scene. I might like to retake these some day. I'm more critical of them than I am of my ps4 pics tbh but they're still an important part of my journey. Over time I noticed red lighting had become my comfort zone, or more specifically, a crutch! So I've tried really hard since then to improve on that and push myself in different directions.

February 2023

It took me almost a year to feel comfortable enough with posing to attempt some goddam kisses. I'm still not very good at these but at least I improved in other ways. Honestly, I struggle with these two at times because they aren't your typical outwardly loving, cute couple, and I'm usually very strict with myself to keep them as in character as I can. That can make it hard to think of couples poses/ideas, both cute and spicy, but. they can be lovebirds as a treat.

May 2023

Only recently have I begun to feel a strong sense of style in my own work. Playing with lighting and scenes, and trying to jam as much personality as I can into these slice of life pictures is really important to me and is one of my favorite parts of doing this. They can be sweet together but it's important you see the other side of that (the blood, the knives, drugs, etc. Also Dagger resting his ashtray on Dum Dum is one of my personal favorite quirks). I really try to put a lot of their life into pictures like this. I want to convey all the parts of who they are together, even if nobody else notices.

June/July 2023

Its pretty hard to articulate how important these two have become for me over the last couple years. I've been playing this game since release and haven't had this sort of steady inspiration or creativity for years. Even on the bad days, just thinking about them is enough to get me through as silly as it sounds. I've grown so much not only in VP but my own art (something I had all but entirely abandoned until I picked up this game). They've provided an outlet I've been searching for for a very long time, and I'm really grateful for that. It's kinda wild looking back at where it started, and seeing how far it's come. Sometimes I still struggle with my perception/the worth of my work but I can't deny the happiness its brought me either.

Including a couple other character ship pics under the cut c:

I'm always a little insecure about my ship pics specifically, I'm very bad at comparing myself with others! But I put a lot of love into these and I can see the improvement when I look at them over time. Regardless of anything, they were all made with lots of love and I hope that comes across.

[10-best]

10 Best Web Hosting in Karachi

The right choice of web hosting can make all the difference when it comes to hosting a website. Whether you’re starting a small blog or launching a large online store, you need a fast, reliable, and secure hosting provider. Karachi, the bustling business hub of Pakistan, has many hosting providers to choose from.

List of Top Karachi's Hosting

In this guide, we’ll look at the 10 best web hosting in Karachi to help you make an informed decision.

1. QW Hosting

QW Hosting is a standout choice for web hosting in Karachi. Known for its reliability and excellent customer support, QW Hosting provides shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated servers. They focus on fast performance, security, and ease of use. If you are looking for a hosting provider that offers great uptime, excellent speed, and 24/7 support, QW Hosting is the one to go for.

Their hosting plans are affordable, and they offer a user-friendly control panel, making it easy for beginners to get started. Whether you need hosting for a personal blog or a business website, QW Hosting can meet your needs with its high-quality services.

2. HosterPK

HosterPK is one of the most popular hosting providers in Karachi. They offer a variety of hosting options, including shared hosting, cloud hosting, and dedicated servers. Their services are well-suited for both beginners and advanced users. One of the standout features of HosterPK is its focus on providing local server locations, ensuring fast loading speeds for Pakistani users.

The customer support team is responsive and ready to help at any time, which is a big plus for people new to web hosting. HosterPK also offers affordable pricing with flexible plans, so you can find something that fits your budget.

3. HostBreak

Another top contender in Karachi’s web hosting scene is HostBreak. They offer shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated hosting solutions. HostBreak is known for its fast server speeds and great customer support. Their servers are optimized for WordPress, which makes them a good choice for those looking to run a WordPress website.

What sets HostBreak apart is its reliability. The uptime is excellent, which means your website is less likely to face downtime. They also provide free SSL certificates, which are essential for securing your site and building trust with your visitors.

4. WebSouls

If you’re looking for affordable yet reliable hosting in Karachi, WebSouls could be a great option. They offer shared hosting, cloud hosting, and VPS hosting, all with high uptime and excellent customer support. WebSouls focuses on providing an easy-to-use experience for beginners. Their hosting plans come with many useful features, such as free backups, unlimited bandwidth, and free domain registration.

WebSouls also stands out for its transparent pricing, so there are no hidden costs. This makes it a great option for those on a budget who want solid web hosting.

5. SiteGround

Although SiteGround is an international hosting provider, it has a strong presence in Karachi and Pakistan. Known for its excellent customer service and high-speed servers, SiteGround offers shared hosting, cloud hosting, and dedicated hosting. The user interface is simple and easy to use, making it a good choice for both beginners and experts.

SiteGround offers 24/7 customer support and is praised for its fast response times. Their servers are optimized for various content management systems, including WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.

6. BlueHost

BlueHost is another global brand with a strong presence in Karachi. They offer a variety of hosting plans, including shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated servers. BlueHost is especially known for its integration with WordPress, making it a popular choice for bloggers and website owners.

The hosting plans come with free SSL certificates, domain names, and a 30-day money-back guarantee, giving you peace of mind if you're unsure. BlueHost offers a user-friendly control panel and excellent customer service, which is available 24/7.

7. PakHost

As a local hosting provider in Karachi, PakHost offers a range of affordable web hosting options. Whether you need shared hosting, VPS hosting, or a dedicated server, PakHost has plans to suit your needs. Their hosting services come with a solid uptime guarantee, ensuring that your website is always accessible.

PakHost offers a cPanel-based control panel, making it easy to manage your hosting account. Their customer support is reliable, and they offer 24/7 assistance for any issues that may arise.

8. InMotion Hosting

Although InMotion Hosting is not based in Karachi, it is still one of the top choices for many Pakistani website owners. Known for its fast and reliable hosting services, InMotion Hosting offers a range of plans, including shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated servers.

InMotion Hosting provides excellent customer service, with a team that is ready to help whenever needed. Their servers are optimized for speed, ensuring fast page load times for your visitors. The company also offers a 90-day money-back guarantee, which is a great option if you’re not satisfied with their service.

9. A2 Hosting

Another international provider that is popular in Karachi is A2 Hosting. They are known for their speed, offering ultra-fast page load times, which is crucial for website performance. A2 Hosting offers shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated servers. They provide free SSL certificates, unlimited storage, and free website migration.

One of the best features of A2 Hosting is its Turbo plans, which give your website an extra performance boost. This is ideal for sites that require higher speed and resources.

10. GoDaddy

GoDaddy is a well-known name in the hosting industry and is widely used in Karachi. Although its hosting plans can be a bit pricier compared to local providers, GoDaddy offers solid customer support, high uptime, and fast loading speeds.

They offer a range of hosting options, including shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated servers. GoDaddy is a good option for businesses that need reliable, secure, and feature-rich hosting.

Conclusion

Choosing the right web hosting provider is essential for the success of your website. Whether you are just starting or have an established business, the hosting provider you choose can make a big difference in terms of website performance, security, and customer experience.

The 10 best web hosting in Karachi listed above offer a wide range of services to suit different needs and budgets. From local providers like QW Hosting, HosterPK, and HostBreak to global providers like SiteGround and BlueHost, there are plenty of options to choose from.

When making your decision, consider your website's specific needs, such as the type of site you’re running, your budget, and the level of support you require. Happy hosting!

[jules-has-notes]

Tennessee Whiskey — VoicePlay music video

VoicePlay's fans love to challenge them from time to time, and this was definitely one of those instances. The guys were a little intimidated by the prospect of tackling such a popular and complex tune for their PartWork series, but they rose to the occasion beautifully, providing a velvety doo-wop-style take full of tight harmonies and flowing rhythms.

Details:

title: Tennessee Whiskey

original performers: David Allan Coe (1981); inspired by the Chris Stapleton version (2015)

written by: Dean Dillon & Linda Hargrove

arranged by: Layne Stein

release date: 19 April 2019

My favorite bits:

putting corn stalks around the VP logo on the title card like a laurel wreath (This does deserve awards, dangit.)

the color scheme of their wardrobe, set dressing, and lighting that gives the whole thing a sepia-toned nostalgic feel

Layne holding the beat with laid-back brush snares and high hats

the proliferation of leisurely bell chords throughout the backing vocals

Eli's freedom and agility on the lead for the first verse

the steady simplicity of Geoff's bass line, with the occasional two-octave descending arpeggio for punctuation

Earl's appreciative smile as J digs into the lead melody

J.None settling into the lower end of his range with ♫ "always dry-y-y-y-y" ♫

the echo of ♫ "did-n't waste your looo-ove" ♫ from Eli and Earl

showing off J's falsetto at the beginning and end of the second chorus

Layne adding just a touch of whimsy with a cork pop 🍾 sound before he joins in on the harmonies for the third verse

Geoff finishing off his solo with a subharmonic drop, just because he can

riffing in three part harmony (That is so hard to do well, and they pull it off magnificently.)

that smooth, gentle ending chord from all five guys

Trivia:

The rhythmic and melodic changes in Chris Stapleton's cover of this song were inspired by Etta James's "I'd Rather Go Blind".

When the VoicePlay guys were tasked with singing it, J.None, Eli, and Earl all started brushing up their already impressive riffing skills. Geoff was slightly alarmed when Layne prodded him to do the same, because basses don't usually riff in that way.

The video was filmed at a swanky Prohibition-era themed bar called Mathers Social Gathering. Their pals the American Sirens used it later in the year to film their "Puttin’ On the Ritz" video.

It racked up 15 million views on Facebook in just 3 months.

There is a very cute video on Geoff's Instagram of him rehearsing in the car and little William trying to follow along with dad. (Kathy's driving. Everyone is being safe.)

The cover art was designed by the guys' friend and frequent collaborator, Rek Dunn.

Judging by the YouTube comments, this video was an introduction to VoicePlay for a fair number of people, pulling in a very different demographic of new fans than their Disney medleys.

By legal definition, Tennessee whiskey must be made from at least 51% corn-based mash, filtered through maple charcoal, and aged in new charred oak barrels. And, of course, manufactured in the state of Tennessee.

Some of the boys indulged in a bit of silly dancing on set while they were getting ready to film.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by VoicePlay (@thevoiceplay)

As part of their Patreon behind the scenes video, Layne and Eli tasted some actual strawberry "wine".

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by VoicePlay (@thevoiceplay)

This track was later included on VoicePlay's "Citrus" album, which compiled most of the songs they recorded from 2017-19. Because the individual songs had already been made available digitally, that album is exclusively a physical item that can only be purchased at live shows or through their website.

[beardedmrbean]

The Uber passenger charged with a hate crime for pepper spraying a Muslim driver in Manhattan is a former sorority girl who was fired from her PR job over the shocking incident.

Manhattan College graduate Jennifer Guilbeault, 23, had just started a promising career at a New York public relations firm when she was caught on dashcam springing forward to spray her rideshare driver in July, horrifying the pal who was with her.

However, her employer, D Pagan Communications in Melville, fired her over the shocking incident. Agency president Debra Pagan confirmed to PR Weekly that Guilbeault had left the firm, without saying when she left.

“We are aware of the actions of this former employee and we don’t condone this behavior,” the company, which specializes in PR for tech companies, said on X in August.

Guilbeault’s attorneys argued that the case should not be handled as a hate crime — and that a full review of the evidence would prove that.

“Ms. Guilbeault was not motivated by race, religion, national origin, or any other discriminatory factor,” Michael J. Alber said in a statement.

“This case needs to be looked at with all surrounding circumstances which include assessing all of the evidence and lack of evidence,” he added. 

“We look forward to working with the District Attorney’s office to fully vet all of the facts in the proper forum, which does not embellish or exaggerate the claims, especially where the integrity and credibility of claims can properly be tested.”

Guilbeault, a native of Northbridge, Mass. earned a bachelor’s degree in public relations, advertising and applied communication at the Bronx university, where she also served as the VP social chair for her sorority, Sigma Delta Tau, according to an online profile.

Glitzy photos posted to the Manhattan College chapter’s social media page show her and her sisters dressing up for formals and celebrating scholarships.

Guilbeault was indicted in New York State Supreme Court on two counts of assault as a hate crime and aggravated harassment for the Upper East Side attack, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday.

Guilbeault was riding in the backseat with the other woman at around 12:15 a.m. when she suddenly sprayed the noxious substance in the 45-year-old driver’s eyes, according to a viral clip circulating online.

The driver, Shohel Mahmud, later claimed that Guilbeault launched her assault simply because of his skin color. He said he hadn’t spoken to the at all women when he picked them up near Lexington Avenue and East 66th Street in Midtown.

“Her friend, she is yelling, ‘Jen, Jen, what the f–k, what are you doing? What’s going on?’” Mahmud told The Post days after the attack. “Her friend is asking ‘Why did you do that?’ And she say, ‘He’s brown.’”

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Guilbeault attacked the driver when he began praying in Arabic just as he approached a red light.

The father of three jumped out of the car, thinking the women were trying to rob him and his vehicle. When he hopped back inside as the car started to roll, she maced him again.

Cops arrested Guilbeault at the scene, but initially only gave her a desk ticket.