#and everything else they could ask for

[catachan-jungle-fighter]

"Honestly? Most of the money I make in my criminal enterprises and various schemes is all redirected into my subordinates and investments in the local community. I've even developed several extremely cutting-edge medical technologies that are open for my subordinates and their families to use to take care of cancer and other such nonsense, I swear sometimes I wonder why that hasn't been cured by you heroes yet..."

"Beyond that point, I've even stepped up my investments and schemes, like E.B.I.L... a investment in that craze for Virtual Streamers, a company staffed by those villains who don't want to be involved with combat and such things and my subordinates who act as the management, staff, and other various positions."

You are the supervillain known for having a proper work ethic such as giving incredible health insurance witg dental, days off, vacation, sick time, the whole package because one of your former grunts swapped sides for better pay. Now the good guy is wondering why everyone’s switching sides

[mynnthia]

was talking with a friend about how some of dunmeshi fаndom misunderstands kabru's initial feelings towards laios.

to sum up kabru's situation via a self-contained modernized metaphor:

kabru is like a guy who lost his entire family in a highly traumatic car accident. years later he joins a discord server and takes note of laios, another server member who seems interesting, so they start chatting. then laios reveals his special interest and favorite movie of all time is David Cronenberg's Crash (1996), and invites kabru to go watch a demolition derby with him

[malinaa]

if i think about the hunger games in peeta's perspective i WILL start sobbing

[transgnckon]

Trans Kon commission I got from @saphicsol !!

[blorbologist]

Y'know, I think I figured out why the Hells still feel like a new low-level party to me, even though they're level 13 and almost 100 episodes in.

I don't quite think it's the lack of conversations, or the fact half the party's plot hooks are big ties to past campaigns - though that definitely plays a part.

... Bell's Hells still primarily rely on quest givers.

Most of their goals are given to them and do not feel organic to the party, and constantly remind us that the Hells are pretty much never the most powerful people in the room. Which is usually something you see with a low-level party.

NPCs offering jobs is not a bad thing; it's a very common plot hook. Matt has been extremely skilled with using NPC quest givers in those two campaigns. Not only do they provide an obvious plot thread, but they can put the party in the path of others (say, the Nein running into the Iron Shepherds while doing a job for the Gentleman and everything that came of that). And the Hells had a solid start with it too - Eshteross was an excellent quest giver!

The problem is that Bell's Hells have never really not had a quest giver.

Maybe it's a byproduct of the more plot-heavy structure of this campaign? But while prior parties have felt like they decided on their course of action and what they prioritized, Bell's Hells feels less like level 13 (13! Level 13!) experienced adventurers and more like an MMO group clicking on the exclamation point over an NPC's head. Where does the plot demand we go next? Who do we report back to?

They're level 13.

At level 13, Vox Machina had just defeated a necromantic city-state to clear their name and Percy's conscience. And, you know, the Conclave just destroyed Emon. No one was explicitly telling the group to gather Vestiges and save the world (though Matt guided them there), and they were usually among the most powerful people in the room. They chose which Vestiges to prioritize, which dragons to tackle when, even if the over-all plot was pretty clear.

At level 13, the Mighty Nein were celebrating Traveler Con (another PC goal, I'll note) after brokering peace between two nations, accidentally becoming pirates and heroes of the Dynasty. The Nein regularly chose what to do based on personal goals, not grand ones. Though definitely smaller fish than Vox Machina at this level, they were very independent and gaining solid political clout.

While we're at it: level 13 is one level lower than the Ring of Brass, who had a huge amount of sway over Avalir. They ended the world, and also saved it, while in the grand scheme of things being only a smidge more powerful than Bell's Hells are now.

Can you really see the Hells wielding that amount of influence, when they're constantly being told what to do next?

The god-eater might be unleashed, so Bell's Hells have no time to do anything but what is asked of them. No time for therapy unless stolen from Feywild time, no travel on foot and late-night watches. They haven't even had time to grieve FCG. Percy was grieved in the middle of the Conclave arc. Molly was grieved when half the party was still in irons.

Matt is in the very unfortunate spot of not being able to give the Hells the same agency as the other two parties. Not only because of the world-ending plot introduced so early on; they are surrounded by characters they know (and the cast knows) are stronger and wiser than them - the familiarity of the past PCs and NPCs is to their disadvantage.

Why would the party reasonably ignore Keyleth's task that will help save the world and go off on a romp? Why would the cast when they know well Keyleth has to be sensible and with the best intentions in mind? The stakes are just too high.

It means that the Hells still feel like they're running errands instead of pursuing their own destiny. Their accomplishments are diminished as just being parts of a to-do list, and any stakes feel padded by several level 20 PCs/NPCs standing 5 steps away ready to catch them.

This isn't Bell's Hell's fault, nor is it Matt's. It could be amended, I think, if the Hells are really left to their own devices for a long period of time without support and shortcuts (like during the party split)... which would be really tricky to pull off at this point in the campaign.

They're level 13. They're big fish, but they're stuck in a pond full of friendly sharks, so they don't feel big at all.

[yuwuta]

half of these tiktok relationship/break up/whatever pranks would not work on most of the jjk boys, but nanami is esp funny because he just becomes immune to it. you tell him you two should break up and he just sighs and nods, continues making dinner even as you flutter around him and try to start a fake argument. “kento, hello? i’m saying we’re finished!” and he just hums, and chops the vegetables, “that’s nice, dear. did you want red or yellow peppers this time?” 

[uldren-sov]

the reality (not the expectation) of what it's like sleeping with Seven Lawless. - Camy Rose ~dated five years ago~

Comm'd the amazing and talented @aevari tysm bestie!! Of yet another meme of my OC Camy and @infamous-if 's most divisive clingy sleeper Seven Lawless

Blank version under the cut!

[naomiknight-17]

Hey y'all

I hate to ask for help again when I know I still owe folks some doodles from the last donation drive, but we're in a bit of a spot

My Visa interest and fees come out on Monday and I don't have enough space to cover them. If they bounce I'll be hit with exorbitant overage fees.

If anyone can pitch in a few dollars to help us cover the fees, I'd be extremely grateful. Anything left afterwards will go towards groceries and/or Christmas savings

Thank you for taking the time to read this

[louferrignojrofficial]

if i got the chance to interview oliver stark about 911, you bet your ass i wouldn’t waste a single question over something like ‘will tommy be jealous of buck and eddie’s friendship?’ after we have seen multiple times he isn’t, and most recently in the new episode. not to mention we’ve seen even eddie isn’t jealous of buck and tommy’s relationship, and we were shown that yet again in the premiere. there are so many more interesting things you could ask about buck’s actual relationship and that story, or even buck and eddie. but no.

[deoidesign]

I'll either succeed or I'll learn trying

[pixelatedraindrops]

Happy Birthday Yakou! 🚬💙🎉

The best roommate, mentor, boss, father figure and caretaker Yuma could ask for💕

I had to try to make something for him. I’ve grown to adore him almost as much as yuma as I kept putting them in various scenarios the past half year.

(its kinda for both of them since their birthdays are only a day apart from each-other??)

So yeah, birthday cuddles for them both~ 💜💙

[legally-allowed-to-slime]

im so glad every pearlie watches wild life barely holding themself back from killing scott smajor. we're all in this together

STOP i feel like pearl has the vague idea that she’s supposed to still hate scott and it really does show but scott is so aggravatingly nice/ passive-aggressive and she can’t really do anything about it because if there’s one thing c!pearl is not good at, it’s subtlety. like she can detect the implicit things in whatever scott is conveying but to everyone else (like her alliance) it just looks like she’s being all uncooperative and grumpy while scott is being friendly and mature. and this kills me because cleo would rather side with scott than pearl and impulse would rather go on a murder spree than care about whatever drama’s happening at home base. and the whole time they’re all talking about how antagonising she is. the narrative is constructing itself in front of my VERY eyes and pearl’s trying so hard to stop it forming but unfortunately both gem and scott are against her now. MAN.

(sorry sorry it’s just. this narrative that pearl hates gem coming out of NOWHERE when it’s literally the opposite. this is like that stupid among us round again)

(also i feel like scott thinks so much about what other people think. everything he does feels performative, like he thinks everyone else are judging and forming opinions on him every second. like evil anxiety but not like the one in inside out 2. you know what i mean. he does this with everyone except for 1) jimmy and 2) pearl because i don’t know. i’m not the scott expert)

[witchofthesouls]

I like to think that Cybertronian morals especially for mecha that survived the Quintessons invasion like Ratchet have a bit of moral blind spot in regard to them.

Old Bot 1: It's bad to eat sapient species!

Old Bot 2: It's a Quintesson.

Old Bot 1: Oh well, that's allright then.

Initially, I was thinking along those lines, but then I veered in a different direction with cultural shifts that can occur under long-term occupation.

The extent of Quintesson occupation of Cybertron was probably an equivalent of Vietnam under Chinese rule for 1000 years. Equivalent since Cybertronians have an extremely long lifespan compared to humans, so how many generations came under that entire rule? How much information was destroyed or repressed? The Quintessons had no issues with manipulating the Well of Allsparks to their benefit, so would it be surprising if they also paved the foundations to eliminate obstacles (i.e., agriculture and foraging traditions, historical evidence of Cybertron's natural landscapes and biomes, dietary culture, and language related to cuisine, production, and health, to name a few) to ensure they had total control of the entire planet? They would have found ways to switch the natives from a varied diet into a fully liquid one with scarce esources to make it viable.

[reanimatedgh0ul]

anyways this is my take on lance/kristin lol

[lenakluthor]

If you could choose a moment for Kara to tell Lena she's Supergirl, without considering what happened in the Super life episode... Which moment would be best?;

okay i've thought a lot about this and i think the moment in 2x15 when kara is on the phone with lena, hears her get attacked, and then catches lena when she's pushed off her office balcony would be a really good moment to tell her. she just recently spent an entire episode (so, what? a week or two?) adamantly defending lena's honor and goodness when lillian broke her out of prison and manipulated her to get into lex's vault, and kara was ultimately proven right about lena (because, duh). she's had a little bit of time to breathe and let the reality of that really sink in- she was right. she was absolutely validated and justified in putting her entire faith and trust in lena. lena came through. lena did not let her down. so, when she hears lena get attacked and doesn't really have a great excuse as to how supergirl knew the exact moment lena needed saving, i think when lena asks "how did you know?" kara could've easily been like "i was on the phone with you when it happened," or something along those lines. cue her putting on her glasses, big reveal. it's early enough that it probably wouldn't feel like a huge betrayal of lena's trust, but it's been long enough for kara to completely trust lena and feel solid in that trust. i also think this is an especially good moment in time, because then when they do have that moment in lena's office a few episodes later, the impact of "i'm not going anywhere. i will always be your friend. i will always protect you." is even greater. like yeah, she's saying that as kara but there's also the weight of supergirl behind it. i just think it would've been even more meaningful with lena having the full knowledge of who kara really is as she hears that promise.

[kimbapisnotsushi]

can you imagine being a hardworking thirty-something bouncing ball corp employee in like idk sales or some shit who spent YEARS before that trying to climb the corporate ladder and succumbing to the 9-5 workhorse race that makes you dead inside but now your boss is a college kid who shows up to important company meetings in sweats and brings his homework to the office so he can get it done on time and haphazardly stuffs paperwork and legal documents into the same binders as his lecture notes and doesn’t give a shit if you don’t properly file for time off bc he can barely be assed to email his professors the same and will still PAY you for it????? can you imagine???? i can’t but it’d be REALLY fucking funnny