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utilitycaster · 3 months

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Hope I can phrase this in a way that makes sense but—

What well-known actual-play cast member is your favorite for each of the core D&D class? Not necessarily a specific characters, but I’m interested in which players you think brings the most to each class.

This is a very interesting question! It's a hard one to answer for some classes and very easy for others so bear with me; also there are a couple where I could not pick just one.

I'm sticking to the PHB 12 for, as you said, core classes:

Barbarian: While Travis did give us "I would like to rage," I think Ashley and Taliesin get to share this one for me. I think they both really explore what rage means to someone and while I love a good "I'm a tank because I can take the hits and that's what I do and what I'm good at" story, I also think Yasha's messy relationship with her feelings of guilt and grief, and Ashton's chronic pain, are both incredible ways to play with the barbarian archetype.

Bard: much easier. Sam Riegel and Krystina Arielle. I'm a sucker for someone who actually sings even as I don't think you have to (and have played bard without doing so). It's both clearly a class they each love dearly and it shows, and they're incredibly musically talented performers to boot.

Cleric: Lou Wilson. Especially since I didn't like Fantasy High season 1 Fabian until the end of the season Kingston blew me away. I would love to see him explore cleric again, though it's exciting to see him as a paladin on WBN.

Druid: Emily Axford as Moonshine. Emily as a rule understands D&D classes very well anyway, but I think the culture of the crick and the ways that Moonshine must grow as a character while being a druid take it to the next level. (Also I prefer a caster-heavy druid to a shapechanger-heavy one; that's just me).

Fighter: Back to NADDPod because literally who could I say other than Jake Hurwitz, the man who only plays fighters. People who are new to D&D when they start actual play can be hit or miss imo; some pick it up and some lean harder on being showy to make up for it and it doesn't play well for me personally, but Jake is the greatest hit.

Monk: Marisha Ray; Beau is just generally a great character, and I think Marisha's own experience with martial arts informs the way she plays her; monks can be kind of repetitive in combat even with strong players and she manages to avoid this through her description.

Paladin: This is actually super hard because people don't play straight paladin a lot. This is incorrect of them, but it is an intense class. I think Luis Carazo and Zac Oyama are like...the duality of paladin (and indeed, redemption paladin). The tragedy and the comedy.

Ranger: Laura Bailey, natch; it's funny because Vex is in many ways not the archetypal ranger due to having high charisma, but she is simply my favorite and that's that on that. Sorry the mechanics were so bad; I would love to see more rangers in D&D even though Vex will be hard to dethrone. I promise Tasha's fixed them!

Rogue: I think I'm actually going Murph on this one. I like when rogues are more of the detective/spy type than the assassin/criminal type [obligatory "of course that's what you'd say you stupid paladin stan"] and inquisitive and arcane trickster are probably my two top rogue classes so Riz it is.

Sorcerer: I do consider PF1e cheating here because it's technically a different system that also imo addresses a lot of the weaknesses of sorcerer/makes it way better, but Bryn Monroe of RQG did play a great sorcerer. In D&D? Giving Emily Axford a second spot here for Saccharina. I'm going to talk about this for warlock, but I think sorcerer is a class you don't have to justify but if you don't it's a little unsatisfying. Sorcerer really shines in the Crown of Candy setting, and metamagic often doesn't live up to its reputation but Emily makes it work for her.

Warlock: Travis Willingham. I think there are classes that are kind of self-explanatory, for lack of a better term; you can play a fighter or rogue or even a bard or druid without going super deep into why the character is this class and still be an incredible character (though a good backstory never hurts). But there are others where you really need to be engaging with the class at all times to make it work, and warlock is one of them, and Fjord explores the warlock pact and what it means like few others.

Wizard: Aabria Iyengar. NO ONE gets wizard hubris as a player like Aabria. Knowledge is power and boy do wizards love knowledge. I especially like that most people in 5e play wizards as genuine adventurers because it feels very easy to play them as old guy in robes swept up in events beyond them; Aabria plays wizards who are combat ready with the humanity and backstory to make the difficult decisions sympathetic and meaningful, and I think that's how you have to play it.

Note: I want to specifically call out Liam O'Brien and Siobhan Thompson as "people I trust in basically any class or system and just didn't happen to hit a favorite here due to sky-high competition/personal preferences". They are both very close seconds for wizard.

#answered #pawthorn #d&d mechanics

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soleminisanction · 3 months

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Issue 6 of "The Saga of the Super Sons" answers an important question: where the fuck has Dick been in this scenario?

Answer, apparently: At college.

Which is... where Bruce Junior is supposed to be. Bruce Junior, whose mother Bruce almost certainly met years after he took Dick in as a ward. Bruce Junior, who appears to be younger than Dick, but not by that much.

If you came at a Silver or Bronze Age writer with today's modern "but why is this character still 17" bullshit, I think they'd laugh directly in your face.

By the by, Dick is here because Bruce has been murdered.

I guess some things never change.

This does present an amusing comparison with the more modern takes on the subject like Prodigal/Knightfall, Gotham Knights (the game) and Battle for the Cowl, because here the boys treat Batman like something they expect to be left to one of them in Bruce's legal, actual will, like the one read out loud by his lawyer, implying the lawyer would be in on the whole secret identity thing.

When that obviously doesn't happen they come to an agreement to both... team up? But also compete? To find out who murdered Bruce, and whoever does the actual uncovering wins the cowl. This, for... reasons involves seal hunting in the Arctic and, ah... northern Native people. Which means a lot of use of a certain slur that all Natives in that biome used to (and still do) get lumped under, which I shall endeavor to write around but just know, there's a lot of it. Like, a lot. A loooooot.

Less awkwardly, check out what Dick Dillin apparently thought a killer whale looked like:

Hell, look at those mildly demonic black seals. I know this was pre-Internet dude but you could've gone to your local library. Or picked up a Seaworld ad.

Another thing that apparently never changes: Super-Sons comics insisting that only blood relatives count as "real" children.

To be fair, I wasn't actually expecting to see Dick referred to as Bruce's son at all in this. And Bruce Jr. is the only one who says this, and he's pretty consistently portrayed as the more immature and bratty one in this equation, so it doesn't really feel like the story is "agreeing" with him, it's just an interesting parallel.

Of course, because this is the 70s, they don't have any consideration for things like tactical costume changes or the realities of being mostly normal guys in the Arctic. So, though the boys arrive wearing sensible parkas, once they change into their superhero costumes Dick is just, snow shoeing through the tundra and water skiing behind a seal in his short sleeves and bare legs.

You'll probably be grateful to hear that the white industrial seal hunter is in fact the bad guy of this story -- this is actually one of the more cohesive stories in the saga so far in that regard. Simon Link was exploiting the land by killing too many seals, and then massacred part of the native village when they fought back trying to stop him, so this man Malook wanted to kill him. But, unable to find him and unable to get the white authorities to listen to him, he instead traveled to America to target his business partner, Bruce Wayne.

Bruce Junior is appalled by the accusations but, interestingly, Dick is willing to hear the guy out. When Link's crime is exposed (with the help of the Supers Senior and Junior, natch), he tries to escape across the ice.... disguised as a seal... aaaaand...

Huh. Okay then. Justice is served, I guess.

Oh also Bruce Senior's still alive.

I mean... good on you for realizing the need to make amends for funding exploitative colonialism, Brucie-boy, but did you have to do it in a way that put your son through the exact same trauma you went through? Complete with the murder mystery dinner theater death scene?

Not to mention your poor wife, do you know how much shit you two have put her through in the last however long it's been?? Junior faked his death complete with a full funeral in the first issue of the saga and now you're doing the same thing! If you actually did marry Talia she'll gut you both the next time she sees you and probably Dick too just because she's never liked him.

Anyway, for a parting shot, check out the image they used to advertise this story on the cover, it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Beware the Ominous Pixie Boot!

#saga of the super sons #dick grayson #bruce wayne #batman #robin #world's finest #batman jr #superman jr #clark kent jr #bronze age comics #bronze age dc #dc comics

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twig-tea · 1 month

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Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko Ep 6: The Politics of the Closet

There have been some good posts already about how forced outing is not actually excused by a character's crush or different values (@pigglepiephi here and @respectthepetty here as two examples) so I won't spend a lot of time retreading that ground. Risa should not have told Ayaka that Hiroko was a lesbian, and Mama should have known better than to spill more of Hiroko's secrets after already having been confronted on and apologizing for doing so last episode. And it would be one thing if this was a character choice that the show was clear was not the right decision, but it seems to be presenting these choices as positive because it is moving the main romance forward. @hyeoni-comb noted the parallels between this this and She Makes My Heart Flutter, specifically around how both shows have a character of a different generation explaining the mindset of an older lesbian to the younger generation, which at a theoretical level, like hyeon is talking about here, I do also like; But I think a significant difference, and why it's bothering me in this show when it didn't in SMMHF, is the very different circumstances of both characters. [For those who haven't seen SMMHF, the character in question in that case was concerned about marketing her lesbian bar on social media. Also, go watch it, it's fantastic!]

What's still sitting so poorly with me about episode 6 of Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko is the way the show seems to be saying that Hiroko is wrongly scared and irrationally continuing to be closeted at work while times have changed. Mama says her reason for telling Hiroko's secrets to Risa and Ayaka is so that they can help Hiroko with her situation. She says 'there was a time when society was much harsher and more prejudiced'. She calls Hiroko's thinking old-fashioned. This suggests that Hiroko is in the wrong for hiding her sexuality. [This also sets how this is going in AIILWH apart from how it was done in SMMHF, because in that show the characters came around to realizing the owner would need to be ready on her own time to take that risk, which is a much more compassionate place to land.]

It bothers me when queer media tells queer people that they are paranoid for being afraid of being outed, especially at school or work. Has Japanese society progressed since 2014 so much that people can comfortably be out as lesbians in office workplaces without fear of repercussion to their careers? Because Canadian society hasn't, certainly not in every office [I only started being out at work in the last year, because the VP of the office where I worked until then was homophobic, as one example]. And we know that at least some of the people from the flashbacks still work there, so Hiroko's fears seem super valid to me.

Also, it isn't actually any of her colleagues' business who Hiroko does or doesn't fuck on her own time. It is definitely also true that Hiroko feels isolated and lonely because nobody at work knows her fully--since being a lesbian is a huge part of who she is--and I get that. The closet is a horrible, isolating experience. But it's super important to me that Hiroko gets to make that decision for herself. I would have been so down for a story where Risa and Ayaka reached out to Hiroko and made space for her to be herself and comfortable with a trusted sub-set of colleagues (including Yuya, natch). I would have also been ok with Ayaka outing herself as a lesbian at work to model that things have actually changed and it is safer--with Hiroko about to step in to a manager's position, I could believe that it she'd be able to ensure there would be minimal blowback. That would put them in a good position to negotiate what a relationship might look like, and would have been a great way to have that generational gap conversation, and maybe giving Hiroko confidence to come out herself eventually.

But instead Ayaka is starting the gossip mill about her crush, and putting eyes on Hiroko, which will inevitably either out her or force her to be even more closeted to hide her sexuality from the increased scrutiny. Regardless of the genders involved, there's also the fact that office romances especially across power lines are potentially problematic and could lead to problems for both of them. It feels like we are not well set up to take the complications of an office romance between a junior and a senior (or a boss) seriously, and that has me nervous too.

I'm waiting to see what the next episode brings, but this is why the episode has left me feeling so uncomfortable, and worried about how this show is going to land it's last two episodes.

#ayaka is in love with hiroko #ayaka chan wa hiroko senpai ni koishiteru #gl meta #typed so that i can stop thinking it

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bittrlys · 1 month

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I have heard some people saying that the show is going to address the issues of humans being discriminated against will be addressed in season 7 dark. What do you think about that?

Personally, I think it might be a bit too late for them to properly address it and do it in a satisfactory way especially because the main ship rayllum had rayla being prejudice against humans but her actions don't get called compared to Callum so i doubt her actions will be called out next season as both the fandom and the narrative love to frame her in the right when she can sometimes be quite hypocritical and in the wrong.

Also, I want zubeia to be called out for her actions and zyms father but I doubt that will happen either.

Another question I also don't like the series framing of dark magic. Now in season 6 (took us 6 seasons) to learn that dark magic creates a hole in your spirit and it corrupts you to aaravos but that feels like the writers adding it in there so people don't bring up the whole arguement that dark magic is bad because the narrative says so. Also the show doesn't convince me dark magic is so bad that viren SHOULDN'T of used it to save soren or that Callum SHOULDN'T of used it to save rayla.

Idk to be honest the handling of dark magic within the narrative is so confusing and bad.

Anyway sorry this got so long

My very upfront opinion is that there is clearly some dissonance, and perhaps even conflict, in the writer's room about Viren and Claudia, dark magic, the cost of it, and the intended take away from these characters and their actions.

Now, when writing, there's no particular requirement to be honest with your audience or to not accurately represent how history can be muddled and shift. "Humans learned dark magic" to "Unicorns taught humans magic and were slaughtered in thanks" to "Aaravos is implied to have taught humans dark magic" to "Aaravos's daughter Leola (a uni-horned elf) taught humans magic and was killed" is cohesive enough, even considering the writers are on record saying they may be changing things as they go, as happens with writing. (With dark magic being the main sticking point of anti-human sentiments, how and why it occurred matters.) I also don't think the show has never wanted us to sympathize with humans or not see their discrimination -- the sight of them in tears as they're exiled, evoking the Trail of Tears (still bonkers), or Ziard's bitterness over how humans starved or his terror when Sol Regem tricks him in hopes to destroy Elarion are moments of raw feeling where the camera centres humans and their pain. Most of our protagonists are humans, and Callum, though occasionally punished for his ambitions, is a character who wants magic who is heroic.

The ultimate problem, however, is that the show wants to have its cake and eat it too, which goes back to my earliest complaints in how they 'meta write' from what we expect of fantasy and muddle their own messages. Certainly this show could be a long-form exercise in tricking people into rooting for ethnic cleansing racists but like, it's a show for kids. Sol Regem is a bad dragon and he is obviously bad. Zubeia is a good dragon and she is obviously good. We're supposed to understand Sol Regem kinda had it coming and understand that Zubeia being hurt is allegedly sad. There's no deceit to this straightforward presentation. Viren, Claudia, and now Aaravos are sympathetic villains, but they're still villains. And when your villains come in two main flavours of Team Anti-Human (arising after humans wronged Xadians initially, natch) or Team Human (or adjacent) and every hero is Team Xadia because humans fighting against the disparity of their world is Causing Trouble while humans who extend the hand of friendship to Xadians are Bringing Peace, it ultimately teaches us that "Maybe humans had a hard time of it, but it's time they suck it up." I don't think there was anything more explicit to this than having our Out Of The Mouth Of Babes protagonist Ezran's Zubeia-backed speech at the Many Thunder Victims Memorial Valley.

A lot of writers like villains who have a point, because they feel it adds depth to them, but they often jump straight to "the villain is a marginalized person who is fighting for change in the Wrong Way" and this creates an implication that Fighting For Change At All is wrong because our heroes are never passionate champions for equality. They may like equality, but they say "Not now -- not like this --" and it isn't central to their beliefs. Team Xadia are not nominally Anti Equality or Anti Humanity, but their framing vis a vis our villains makes this lack of investment in the liberation of humanity quite clear.

All of this is to say that I agree, it would be too little, too late, and that the fact the show has *already established* humans as being victims of discrimination makes the narratives around them all the more galling and difficult to untangle. I absolutely would like to have the show deliver one of its extremely straightforward, directly to the camera-type messages on how humans were discriminated against, yes, but it doesn't fix six seasons of presenting all anger on behalf of humanity as something that is ultimately morally unsound and in need of changing. And how much further can they take it? Can they portray Xadians as a whole as privileged beings who have benefited from the mistreatment of humans? Not just a few bad apples -- can they actually, truly acknowledge Xadians as less than idealized? Can they take seasons upon seasons of trying to make us love Xadians and turn it around with frank questions about things like "reparations" and "acknowledging generational trauma without both-sides-ing it"? Can they give us a purely heroic human protagonist who is firmly Team Human and centres human interests? I don't think so. They prefer keeping to their "Callum and Amaya and Ezran constantly apologizing and putting down humanity in favour of their Xadian betters" agenda. (So bonkers they do this with three characters of colour, sidenote.)

Rayla is interesting because I think they have a fundamental disinterest in her inner world. She's so defined by her relationships with others and traumatic things that happen to her personally are ignored (her feelings on her banishment getting sidelined into Callum stuff, or her overcoming her fear of water to save Callum and Ezran happening off screen.) Her prejudice is a standard result of her upbringing but it's another thing that hasn't really come up in a while. I don't know if they so much want her as a character to be right, or prejudiced, or whatever, so much as they use her as a mouthpiece for particular opinions they need stated. She was learning about humans as much as Callum and Ezran were learning about elves and now she's learned she's just chilling being another one of Ezran's inexplicably pro-monarchy shooters.

Onto the second half of your ask about dark magic -- this season has firmly shifted the dark magic usage into an addiction metaphor, and so we get the "hole in your soul" (the anti-Birdhouse In Your Soul.) I do think this makes sense with earlier seasons. Dark magic has always been shown as corrupting the user (hence the monstrosity, and hence Viren being likely to die if purified of it, because it's become so entwined with his inner core) and this destruction of the self has been a reason to avoid it. I'll even be generous and say it's not entirely "Evil People Are Ugly" but instead a lot of "Self-Destruction Is Terrifying." However, I've been obsessed with this since I saw it:

"He shouldn't be monstrous in his final moments of heroism" is very funny. The writers are aware they have thoroughly codified Ugly, Monstrous = Bad and would try to bend themselves over backwards to let a Good Act be done via Evil Means in a way that minimizes the evidence of the evil means. This is why you have to put that "inherent evil" in quotation marks because real inherent evils don't tend to get a pass. And because they want dark magic to still exist in the show and still be used by sympathetic characters like Callum and Claudia without rendering them utterly reprehensible they have to make it the hole-in-your-soul addiction metaphor and say it costs the user as much as, if not more than, it costs the world around them.

Which is, like, fine, but at a certain point it is like -- Yeah, if we can see times where dark magic is basically a necessity because your choice is either "dark magic, or let your child die" or "dark magic, or let a dragon flambé your people" -- which many of us would consider non-choices -- then you have to respect that people maybe will have to make that choice. And if the cost is more on them, then ...? It's practically a noble sacrifice. To oppose it for reasons of Aaravos is a non-argument. Viren was mainlining dark magic for decades and it wasn't until he got that mirror that Aaravos became a problem and Aaravos isn't always going to be around ... not to mention that now that he's free I think he has abilities that go well beyond "souljacking." Aaravos in this case represents more the 'spiritual death' associated with this internal corruption. So can we find reasons to oppose it that go beyond The Harm It Causes To An Individual, Who Should Be Allowed their Autonomy?

They still throw half-hearted nods to the previous seasons much more heavy-handed "omg the beautiful butterfly" "omg the baby deer" (single crying tear) "stop hurting the environment" "magical beings are superior to you" type anti-dark magic rhetoric (see Claudia and the cat thing) but it seems the writers have come to realize they need dark magic to exist as much as the people in universe need it to exist, and so they're trying to focus more on the internal cost. Personally, I think this is a fine place to take it and if the intent is to return the discussion to how humans have been discriminated against, it's a wise thing to do. So I won't protest it much, although we can discuss villainizing addicts and so forth and why Rayla's lack of compassion in approaching Callum's dark magic use is difficult to watch.

It's funny, because I wouldn't even call myself "pro dark magic" as I do see it as harmful, but the hypocritical and condescending treatment of dark magic users in the narrative is something I take issue with more than the use of dark magic itself. This is why, if they are leaning into this more sympathetic reason for rejecting dark magic, I hope we see increased sympathy as to why dark magic is used and why, until humans are liberated (i.e. given equal access to magic and Xadian resources) it's pretty much essential.

Thank you very much for the ask! ♥ Don't apologize for the length, as you can see I love to ramble away myself. Also yeah didn't fit this in anywhere else but fuck that narrative deadweight Zubeia. Thunder at least got shaded by Rex Igneous even if Rex Igneous was Mean and Scary.

#ask #tdp critical #long post #*#trying to express my frustrations with how rayla is handled in my how would i rewrite tdp post #like i get what you mean about her writing and how they can't let things interfere with the ship #but i think moment to moment its clear they care way WAY more about callum than they do rayla or ezran #to be completely honest i think the writers are burdened by the show's rating and this leads to them being bored of characters they can't #take to the same kind of dark or complicated places as they can do with the pg appropriate dark magic users

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milehighmegs · 3 days

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Good Omens Playlists

So I've seen some pretty wonderful Good Omens playlists on Pinterest, most of which are based on music in the show (especially Queen, natch), songs that say how Zira & Crowley feel about one another or describe them as characters.

In the wake (double meaning totally intended) of S2, I wondered: how do they feel about each other NOW? We've all been there. The sad love songs, the sleeping all day, entire pints of ice cream while watching romcoms... but mostly the recounting of how it all could've gone so wrong, what we wished we'd said & done, and what we wish we could say now.

Since Zira & Crowley definitely have communication issues (Nina & Maggie were SPOT ON in their convo with Crowley), I imagine they would have an easier time telling each other their feelings through other means. I'll admit, there's a bias here: this is what I would do, so of course I project onto these characters. But isn't that the beauty of fan art? We put ourselves into the work/live vicariously through them because we have such a damned hard time saying want we want & need and how we feel in plain language? Mostly because such complex feelings are REALLY REALLY hard to explain to ourselves, let alone to another person. But art- writing, music, imagery- can say what we struggle to put into more direct words. Music is an enormous part of who I am, so I often find that the songs of others say perfectly what I feel I never could.

On that note (pun only slightly intended), I've created 3 playlists: one for Crowley, one for Zira, and one for the both of them. The individual playlists are meant to reflect the 5 stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance. There are elements of other stages within the songs meant to correspond to a particular stage, even coming full circle (it seems like acceptance, but there's a hint of denial in there, etc.). The joint playlist is of songs I imagine would make the memories of each other start to creep in (or totally gobsmack them in the feels) when they hear them, or things they wished they'd said/want to say to each other.

So without further ado, here are the playlists:

Crowley's Heartbroken Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6LyYnip9XuZqcRIEsiDSwz

Zira's Heartbroken Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3YUi13sTfPSR99R1dB2XVY

AziraCrow's Heartbroken Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/48NpfV42Y8LTVSFsui8zl2

For those of you who don't have Spotify, here's what's on the playlists:

Crowley 'Never Tear Us Apart' - INXS 'Bad Romance' - Lady Gaga 'Love Don't Live Here Anymore' - Madonna 'Cosmic Love' - Florence + the Machine 'As It Was' - Hozier 'I Found' - Amber Run 'Wicked Game' - Chris Isaac 'Dancing On My Own' - Calum Scott 'Halo' - Depeche Mode 'Falling' - The Civil Wars

Zira 'i love you' - Billie Eilish 'And I Am Telling You' - Jennifer Hudson 'You'll See' - Madonna 'Somebody That I Used To Know' - Gotye 'Someone Like You' - Adele 'Boys Don't Cry' - The Cure 'Un-break My Heart' - Toni Braxton 'For No One' - The Beatles 'Comfort' - Julia Jacklin 'I Will Always Love You' - Whitney Houston

AziraCrow 'I Have Nothing' - Whitney Houston 'Nothing Compares 2 U' - Sinead O'Connor 'Torn' - Natalie Imbruglia 'Hopelessly Devoted to You' - Olivia Newton John 'In A Lonely Place' - Bush, the Tricky Remix 'With Or Without You' - U2 'Don't Let Go (Love)' - En Vogue

'Don't Speak' - No Doubt 'Here With Me' - Dido

A note on the playlists: I know that Zira wouldn't listen to most of this if any, and Crowley would outwardly cringe just thinking about some of these. The point wasn't to choose songs that they'd go out of their way to hear, it was to capture the feelings they'd be going through. Crowley's songs are a bit darker: more minor keys, moodier atmosphere, etc., while Zira's are more sad but lighter & gentler (except maybe 'And I Am Telling You'; that's a straight-up "aww HELL NO YOU AIN'T GONNA FUCK THIS UP THIS IS HAPPENING YOU KNOW WE BELONG TOGETHER"... well, the song says it pretty well).

I 'd love to hear any thoughts about this, agree or disagree, love or loathe, hate that you love it... What would you put into a ZiraCrow playlist?

Hope you enjoy it!

#good omens #aziracrow #crowley #aziraphale #aziraphale x crowley #ineffable #good omens fandom #creators on tumblr #fan music #ineffable lovers #ineffable breakup #ineffable playlist

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leporellian · 2 months

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Every so often (usually on twitter, or at least last i remember because i haven't been there in like a year.) the meme of 'what if (movie) but a muppets version' goes around, and opera people naturally start applying this to opera. So people will start casting muppets in operas or asking 'who would be the one human in this opera'. This is fine and good except that dramaturgically it is a betrayal of the concept of the Muppets. The section of Muppet movies that are 'muppets do this famous story' is really quite small, and out of them only one (The Muppet Christmas Carol natch) is really notable.

This is because Muppets are very specifically a loving homage of vaudevillian theatre and the early golden age of Hollywood. They match those tropes and archetypes perfectly. That's also why attempts to update the Muppets to be 'more modern and relevant' often fail unless they hearken back to that era, the Muppets are actually a very specific brand of humor that doesn't easily translate especially as the early to mid 20th century becomes something less and less people actually lived through.

REALISTICALLY a GOOD and NOT LAME Muppet movie about opera would have them RUNNING an opera house, with the actual plot being about backstage operations, and it would be a homage to the 1920s-1960s era of opera houses, which have a lot of the same archetypes as Vaudeville and early Hollywood. Plus that would kind of give a tinge of the 'nostalgia factor' that Muppet productions used to have, because when Muppet stuff came out people actually remembered the golden age of Hollywood from their childhoods. However if we really HAVE to do the 'omg what if muppets cast in this' thing, which again has only worked well Once for One Muppet Movie, we would need an opera that plays on those archetypes we see from that era of theatre. Maybe even an opera that was written early in the thick of it and deliberately plays into those archetypes both on and off the stage. And it has to be something that has a very tight plot, so it doesn't devolve into pure filler (sorry Adriana Lecouvreur).

This means there's only ONE correct answer to this question of what opera would make the best Muppet movie. And that is that Miss Piggy was born to play Floria Tosca.

#opera tag #rambles #i have a lot of thoughts on this and the dramaturgical consistency of muppetry.

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mrsaltieri-real · 1 year

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Alright! Request time! Lemme get a request with Mickey, natch, but hear me out. You and he, catching a mid-afternoon movie for a date, starts off sweet, and the theater is empty except for you both. He cannot keep his hands off you when twenty minutes after the trailers happen he realizes no one else is showing up. He teases and touches till you give in and let him fuck you in the theater. Some risky, public, try to keep it down, don't get caught sex in the theater. Passionate, needy, messy, some begging, make it so, so good just like I know you will.

When Boredom Strikes (Mickey Altieri x Fem!AFAB!Reader)

You and Mickey have an afternoon date at the movies, but boredom quickly consumes him, forcing him to find alternate ways to entertain himself.

Word Count: 3k

Warning/s: language, smut, p in v, slight degradation, fingering, public/semi public sex, praise, begging, almost caught fucking, teasing, thirsty Mickey, riding, ect.

Bex Bex BEX. You know damn well what this request has done to me these last couple of days. I’m happy to oblige. Here we go!

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” Mickey stood with his arm casually slung around your shoulder as he eyed the movie options up on the board, pulling a face at every single one of them. “Fuck, there’s really no halfway decent movies.”

You rolled your eyes at your boyfriend, looking up at his dramatically disgusted face. “Well, whose bright idea was it to ditch class to come watch a movie in the middle of the afternoon, Mick?”

He glanced down at you, his pretty brown eyes playfully amused and a smile lit up his face as he lifted your chin with his finger, ducking his head down to peck you lightly on the lips, in which you eagerly reciprocated. “We missed our last date because I had to edit my short film and you’ve got a packed schedule for the rest of this week so I didn’t really have much of a choice now, did I?” He pointed out, reluctantly moving his face away from yours.

You nodded your head a little as you looked up at the board yourself, eyes scanning the cheesy rom com movies, every single one of them containing the exact same main plot point of a girl who didn’t realise love was right there all along. You knew Mickey hated these sort of movies with a passion, claiming they had no depth and no entertainment value whatsoever.

Being with a film geek like Mickey meant you were subjected to listen to his intensely angry ramblings about how cinema was quote “going down fucking hill,” and how there’s “nothing like the classics anymore.” You’d listen to him with a cocked eyebrow and watch him as he would rifle through his seemingly never ending cases of illegally pirated films that varied from action to mystery then to his personal favourite, horror.

As much as you loved him, you never quite understood his affliction with horror movies. Sure, you enjoyed them, but you’d see the intense excitement in his eyes as he watched some blonde girl with big tits get brutally butchered and ripped apart and you’d listen to him rant about the “authenticity” of the production value with blank but affectionate eyes. Nobody could say that he wasn’t passionate.

The theatre attendant sighed, her nails drumming impatiently on the counter as she stared unseeingly past the two of you with a bored expression. Mickey glanced at her, unable to stop the small roll of his eyes at her attitude.

“Just pick one and we’ll watch it. And choose fast because this one’s about to fall asleep.” Mickey said to you under his breath, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out his wallet. You knew better than to offer to pay, knowing you’d be met with a disgusted look of horror at the very idea of you wanting to pay for absolutely anything.

You loosely gestured to the least sappy looking movie for his benefit, secretly relieved you didn’t have to sit through yet another bloody mess of a film and Mickey paid the attendant and took the tickets as she mumbled, “enjoy your movie,” He nodded his head at her politely and picked up the popcorn and drinks, begrudgingly making his way into the theatre with a grimace on his face at the thought of having to sit in the freezing theatre for two hours and watch this god awful movie. But as he walked toward the theatre doors, popcorn under one arm and you under the other, he noticed how deserted the place was. Just you, himself and 3 attendants in the entire place. He smiled a little to himself, knowing full well he could have a lot of fun with this little benefit when the boredom would truly take over.

As you both settled down in your assigned seats beside each other Mickey placed the popcorn by next to his feet, leaning back on the chair with his eyes scanning the room. Just as he’d hoped, it was completely deserted apart from the two of you. He glanced at your face, the smile still on his lips as you looked back at him, asking him in a suspicious tone, “what?”

“Nothing, nothing.” He said, diverting his eyes from you and to the large screen as the trailers began to play.

“Give me my popcorn.” You said, holding out your hand expectantly.

“No, no, absolutely not.” Mickey shook his head as he spoke, pushing your hand away gently.

“What? Why?”

“Baby, you always finish your popcorn before the movie even starts and what happens? Oh, Mickey.” He mocked your voice in an absolutely terrible impression, twirling imaginary hair around his finger as he spoke. “I finished all my popcorn, give me yours.” He looked at you with knowing eyes and a playful smile on his lips as he dropped his hand back down onto the arm rest. “Just wait for the opening titles at least.” He said in his normal voice.

“You think you know me so well. I don’t fucking sound like that. Ass.” You grumbled under your breath, slumping back in your seat with a pout. He laughed at you affectionately, reaching for your hand and bringing it up to his lips, kissing it gently.

“Huh, guess it’s just us.” You mused as you watched one of the attendants close the theatre doors, leaving just you and Mickey in the large dark room with nothing but the glowing light of the screen shining down on the two of you.

“Guess it is.” Mickey said lightly, shifting in his seat and dropping your hand in favour of resting his palm on the smooth bare skin of your thigh, his fingers lightly tracing shapes and leaving goosebumps in their wake.

This wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Mickey was big on casual physical contact, especially whilst watching movies. The cheerful opening of the movie caught your attention and your eyes set on the screen, deciding to make the most of your date together by actually enjoying the movie, even if he didn’t.

Twenty minutes into the film and Mickey was bored out of his mind. You seemed engrossed with the movie, shushing Mickey every couple of minutes when he tried to talk to you or complain about the “god awful” film.

“This is so fucking sh-“

You swatted at his arm lightly, shushing him once again and he groaned, slumping back in his seat and letting his head fall backward against the soft material of the chair. The two dimensional characters seemed to mock him through the screen as the actors paraded around with an awful performance. He physically recoiled as he heard the cheesy lines being spoken.

Nobody fucking talks like that. He thought to himself with a grimace.

He began to think of what he could do to make this date a little more interesting. He quickly scanned the theatre double checking the room once again to make sure it was empty before his fingers slowly danced across your thigh, casually moving in between your legs.

He chuckled a little as you slapped his hand, pinning your legs together as you sent him a small glare. “No, Mickey.” You said as sternly as you could muster. He looked at you completely unphased and raised an eyebrow, but said absolutely nothing.

One of Mickey’s favourite pastimes is fooling around with you in semi-public places. Semi-public was okay, semi-public was fun and exciting. It was even encouraged. There was only a risk of being caught. You knew exactly what he was thinking at the moment, what he wanted to do. But doing it here, in the middle of a movie theatre? That was a little too risky for your liking. You felt his hand move back to your thigh after a couple of seconds, still tracing small shapes onto your skin with a feather light touch. You clenched your teeth, staring at the screen to try and focus on the movie again, but now that felt almost impossible.

How the fuck did he always manage to do this to you? Completely divert your attention and make you focus explicitly on him and what you wanted him to do to you? The fact he didn’t even need to speak in order for you to waver on your insistence not to fuck him in a movie theatre was almost making you angry with yourself and your lack of ability to stand by your decisions.

He waited until you relaxed your rigid stance and your legs unstiffened, his fingers still grazing your skin gently before he made another much slower move. His fingers hardly even touched you as he lightly brushed your inner thigh. He smiled to himself a little when he heard your breath hitch a little and felt you look up at him with imploring eyes. He made sure his eyes were still set on the screen as if he was completely sucked into the crappy movie. You looked down at his hand, tugging at your bottom lip with your teeth as it moved upward underneath your skirt, feeling his fingertips glide up your inner thigh, your legs opening for him as though they had a mind of their own before feeling him very lightly grazing your clit through the soft cotton material of your already damp panties.

You shifted a little, fingers digging into the dark red upholstery of the arm of the chair, your legs instinctively inching even wider for him and you heard him let out a small, satisfied laugh as he felt the damp patch.

Fuck.

“Look who's changed her mind.” He murmured softly under his breath. You ignored him, eyes fluttering closed as you felt him move your panties to the side, his index finger slowly sliding up the length of your slit to collect moisture before torturously circling your clit with a pace that was so slow, so light, that it was almost painful. He let out another chuckle as he felt the heat on his fingers and heard the small whimper fall out from between your lips, his eyes still not moving from the screen.

Your head fell back against your seat as his fingers gradually increased speed, circling over your clit in the way he knew drove you crazy, but not quite applying enough pleasure for you to genuinely enjoy it. Mickey shifted a little in his seat so he was leaning toward you, eyes finally dragging away from the screen and to your face, watching you with dark and almost amused eyes as your chest heaved and your grip on the armrest tightened so hard your knuckles turned white. His fingers suddenly abandoned your clit in favour of plunging two of them knuckle deep into your pussy and causing you to let out a loud, unfiltered moan.

“Shh.” He whispered to you, his free hand covering your mouth as he continued to move his long fingers inside of you, hooking and curling them to graze the spot inside of you that was bound to make you cum sooner rather than later if he carried on.

Your eyes nervously flickered around the room again, terrified you’d missed a spectator in one of the chairs that would turn around and find some girl getting fingered by her boyfriend in the middle of a movie theatre. Of course there was no one, but his free hand remained on your mouth as he leaned forward, pressing a gentle kiss to your cheek and before resting his forehead on your temple.

“You gotta be quiet, okay?“ he said in your ear, another twist of his fingers inside of you causing you to moan against his hand in response. His fingers abruptly stopped moving, frozen inside of you and you looked at him in desperate confusion as his other hand moved from your mouth to slide down behind your head, gripping your hair firmly by the roots and forcing you to look into his eyes. “Do you promise you’ll be quiet?” He whispered, hand dropping from your mouth so you could respond.

“Mmm- mm yes.” You gasped out, your voice pleading and almost whiny as you bucked your hips against his hand, desperate to feel friction again. “Please, Mickey.”

“Look at you.” He said tauntingly. “Twenty minutes ago you were slapping my hand away and now here you are, dripping down my arm and begging for me to get you off in the middle of a movie theatre.”

He suddenly pulled his fingers out of you, bringing them up and pressing them against your lips. You eagerly took his fingers into your mouth, sucking your own arousal off of them eagerly. He let out somewhat of a growl as he felt your tongue swirl around his fingers as you greedily tasted yourself and he quickly glanced behind him at the door before he slid his fingers out of your mouth slowly to unbuckle his belt. As he did, you were almost too eager to drop to your knees so you could blow him but he stopped you with his hand, shaking his head once whilst saying, “No, no,” and pulling his jeans and briefs down so his cock was just about out, already hard and pressed against his toned stomach. “Panties off, leave the skirt on.”

Your eyes widened a little as you hesitated, glancing up at the theatre doors. Mickey followed your gaze and rolled his eyes a little at you. “What, so you’re fine letting me finger your pussy here but you don’t want to fuck? Come on now, baby.”

You could hear the sarcasm in his voice and you scowled at him, but obediently removed your panties, discarding them on the floor by your feet.

“Good girl.” Mickey grinned at you, looking victorious as he grabbed your arm as soon as they were off, practically yanking you onto his lap. You straddled him with your knees either side of him, just about hovering over him as you felt the flushed head of his cock lightly graze your swollen clit, the sensation so slight yet so intense it sent a small shiver throughout your entire body. Mickey felt it too, sighing a little as he felt you just barely touching him.

The light of the huge screen dully illuminated the two of you as Mickey hitched your skirt around your waist before sliding his hands around to grip your ass, spreading you open for him as he angled his hips up, groaning quietly as he slowly began filling you. You let out a gasp that was a little too loud at the satisfying stretch, causing Mickey to stop abruptly, gripping your hips so you couldn’t move.

“What did I say?”

“I- I’m sorry, please don’t stop.” You begged him as quietly as you could. He could feel your body trembling with need and he couldn’t help but oblige you.

His eyes remained on your face, though you were hardly visible in the dim light of the screen and he smiled at your desperate expression before continuing to push up into you, sighing in satisfaction at the familiar feeling of your pussy clenching around him as he did. You angled your hips downward, impatient at his slow pace so you could envelop him completely and almost too eagerly. The thrill of fucking him in a public place where a stranger could walk in at any given moment and see the two of you was more exciting than you had anticipated, your earlier anxiety and concerns becoming nothing more than a distant and irrelevant memory. It made you more eager and hungry for him, more than you could have even begun to imagine. It took Mickey by surprise as he let out a small, breathless laugh as your hips rolled against him, thoroughly enjoying the reluctantly quiet moans you were panting in his ear.

“Such a whore.” He whispered into your hair, sliding one of his hands up your back and gripping the back of your neck under your hair. The sound of his voice in your ear as you rode him sent tingles through your body, spurring you on. “Look at you, riding me like a slut in the middle of a movie theatre, fucking acting like you didn’t want this the whole time. Bad fucking girl.” You groaned at his words, throwing your head back and moving your hands to rest behind you on his thighs, feeling the familiar need for him to take control. He obliged you once again, his hands resting your waist and holding you still as he began to grind his hips upwards and fuck deep into you, treating you as if you were his very own sex doll.

You almost cried out, turning your head and biting into the soft skin of your shoulder as you felt him thrust up into you, feeling his cock hitting all of the right places. You felt the slight stubble of his trimmed hair prick and grind over your clit, stimulating you perfectly as your nails dug into his thighs, making him let out a small hiss and grind up into you even faster, watching intently as your tits bounced from behind your thin tank top.

Your body was held still in his firm grip with your only movements being a reaction from him as he fucked you to his own accord as you tried hard not to make too loud of a sound. One of his hands moved from your waist to slide between the two of you, his thumb applying pressure to your clit and moving in small, calculated circles. His head fell forward to watch himself sliding in and out of your convulsing pussy, groaning as he felt you clench and tighten around him. He knew you were close to cumming when he felt your legs start to shake beside him and he knew he was close too. Just watching you with your mouth biting into your own shoulder to stop yourself from screaming as he fucked up into you in the middle of the day in a movie theatre was driving him insane, and he didn’t feel the need to prevent your impending orgasm or his own, the need to tease you disappeared in favour of feeling you cum on his dick.

Your head lifted from your shoulder and you looked at him, panting desperately with wide eyes. “I- I’m gonna- p- please can I-“

Mickey suddenly let out a sharp gasp and quickly grabbed you by your arms that were still propping you up by your hands on his thighs and hastily pulled you toward him, gently but quickly turning you around so you were sitting on his lap and he tugged at the end of your skirt so it covered the sight of his dick still stuffed inside of you. You frowned a little in surprise at the sudden unwelcome change, his heart hammering against your back and his panting breath on the back of your neck. You went to glance back at him in confusion only to see the theatre doors wide open and an attendant stroll in.

You looked at Mickey’s face in alarm but his eyes were set on the screen, refusing to meet you. You turned your head back around and looked at the screen, seeing nothing. You weren’t even sure what the movie was about anymore but you stared at the characters desperately. Mickey’s hand rested on your hip as the theatre clerk stood by the door, eyes scanning the room. It was just dark enough that the man wouldn’t be able to spot your panties bunched up on the floor, let alone you sat with your boyfriends still rigid cock up inside of you. To him, it probably looked as though you were sat on his lap cuddling him.

You shifted anxiously, feeling Mickey’s breathing change as you did so and you realised that at this angle, he could really feel you. Your eyes flickered to the utterly bored looking attendant who seemed to have his attention grabbed by the movie as an idea started ringing in your head. You slightly adjusted yourself, rising up a little and angling your hips back down. You heard him take in a sharp breath, his fingers bruising your hips as you moved very calculated and slow, unable to wipe the satisfied smile off your face as you felt his cock twitch almost pathetically inside of you.

“Filthy bitch wants to get caught.” You heard him mutter between his teeth.

You shrugged every so slightly, responding to him in a hushed whisper, “you started it. I’m finishing it.”

#eeeeek #i loved writing this #ty for the request Bex #I love writing mickey so much dude #hope you all enjoy #mickey altieri #scream #scream 2 #mickey altieri x reader #mickey altieri x you #mickey altieri smut

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darchildre · 1 year

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(Okay, I had intended to wait on this till we got to CHAS but I forgot that the Letters from Watson chronology would get to BRUC first and BRUC also has a fun burglary sequence.)

Friends. If you enjoy reading about Victorian dudes committing burglary while being extremely in love with each other, please go read E W Hornung's Raffles stories. E W Hornung was ACD's brother in law, the Raffles stories are him going "what if Holmes and Watson but criminals though?", and there's some fun intertextuality between them and the Holmes stories. (For instance: is CHAS Raffles fanfic? Maaaaybe. Did ACD borrow ideas from Hornung for FINA/EMPT? Could be!) I don't know, man, I just think that's neat.

The main characters are:

A J Raffles: cricketer, man about town, jewel thief. ADHD icon, has no impulse control and a death wish you can see from space. Engaged in a constant battle with John Watson for the title of Most Bisexual Man in Victorian Lit. Thinks tricking someone into robbing a jewelry store together is romantic. Deals with the majority of his problems by theft, barefaced lying, or faking his own death.

Bunny: our narrator, sometime poet/journalist, also a jewel thief (not as good). He's not going to tell you his actual name till the last damned story, but he's really such a rabbit that you aren't going to mind. Drinks too much, angsts constantly about a) the immorality of crime and b) not being able to grow a proper mustache, only crossdresses in one story but talks about it in a way that implies he's done it before. Is dreadful at pretty much everything, but in a very endearing way.

(I love both of them so much.)

Together, they fight commit crimes! Often while holding hands.

There are three collections of short stories and one novel, plus a variety of adaptations of varying quality. The short stories are pretty consistently delightful (except for "The Fate of Faustina" imo). The novel is perhaps not as good - some things don't work as well when you stretch them to novel-length - but I haven't finished it yet so who knows? It might improve. In any case, the plot isn't great but Raffles and Bunny are still very enjoyable.

Anyway, go read Raffles and then please come and talk to me about it. If you'd prefer to wait until you can get the stories in your inbox, Letters from Bunny is starting up in March 2024 (on the Ides, natch). It's going to be a fun time.

#letters from watson #CHAS really would have been a more appropriate point to post this #but holmes and watson are so cute about their burglary in BRUC #that i couldn't wait #raffles

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olympeline · 8 months

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Liquor headcanons, in order of best to worst tolerance, for the Hetalia main cast:

America: Never gets drunk, ever. His super strength makes it that alcohol simply doesn’t affect him. Guy can chug absinthe like water and wake up the next day with a sunny smile. USA #1!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🦅🦅🦅😍⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ Because of his sweet tooth, he doesn’t bother with alcohol much, preferring soda and milkshakes instead. If he had to pick a favourite, it would be one of the cheap, popular American beers like budweiser. Always drunk from one of those cliche college red cups, natch!

Russia: Ridiculously strong tolerance. He is the land of vodka after all. Plus his sheer size (both in map area and as a man) gives him a huge edge in drinking. Only America and his cheat code metabolism can beat him. Everyone else is just plain doomed. Favourite drink is vodka (duh)

Canada: A dark horse! Canada takes after his papa France - the wine connoisseur of the world - but his height and huge map size gives him an edge in the tolerance game even beyond that. Favourite drink is anything maple flavoured, but especially beer

France: A lover of fine wines! Francy-pants can hold his liquor like a champ. Also his natural grace and poise make him seem less drunk than he is. Even wasted, the guy can walk in a straight line like a model on a catwalk. Has many favourites because the alcohol from his place is just so good! How can he possibly pick just one?

Italy: Another wine lover! Italy is a step down from France, but still puts up strong competition. All the carbs he eats play a big role. And he acts drunk a lot of the time anyway so pinpointing when he gets smashed is hard lol. Favourite drink is whichever wine pairs best with the delicious Italian meal he’s eating. Just never give him beer 🤮

China: Mid-tier. His long life has let him grow a better tolerance than some nations, but his slight build and tendency to flush comes back to bite him. Favourite drink is beer when he wants to relax, and baijiu when he’s feeling more traditional

Germany: Surprisingly low on the list for a man of his size. Mostly because he’s one of the youngest nations and so hasn’t had time to build up a good tolerance to alcohol. Also he mainly drinks beer so harder stuff tends to crater him. Favourite drink? Beer, beer, more beer 🍻

Japan: Very bad. His small frame and vulnerability to alcohol flush means only a glass or two goes straight to his head. Then he turns scarlet and falls asleep on someone. Favourite drink is sake while at home, beer while travelling

England: Dead last. Embarrassingly bad, especially for an ex-pirate! How is he so bad? No one knows. Favourite drink is anything

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vintagerpg · 1 year

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OK, so, as if having a massive book on RPGs coming out in October wasn’t exciting enough, I actually have two massive books on RPGs coming out in October? Sort of. Same tasty words and pictures (with one exception, I’ll get to that in a minute), but totally different candy coating. This is the DELUXE edition of Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground, published by MIT Press and due on shelves October 10.

As you can see, we have a clothbound book and slipcase, stamped with both gold and black foil. There is a dramatic increase in the number of skulls on display. We also have an entirely different piece of Kyle Patterson’s art set in as a medallion on the cover there. There is a sewn-in ribbon bookmark (natch), the pages are gilt and the inside of the slipcase is a lustrous gold. As I said, the interior is essentially the same, but with one key difference: this one has custom end pages in the front and back — those shelfies. That was a last minute addition in the production and I legit forgot about them until I opened the book for the first time and they look so dang cool. It’s the little things.

Also, because there is nothing worse than having to forgo rad regular art for the special edition, they included an 8.5x11-inch card stock print (sans text) of Kyle’s painting for the standard edition inside the slipcase.

The deluxe is also up for pre-order everywhere. I can not stress how much I recommend pre-ordering this version via Bookshop if you want rest assured it will arrive in good shape. I also recommend pre-ordering the deluxe if you want to be sure to get it in October, as they were printed in a smaller quantity and I know at least my Patrons are snagging them fast.

#rpg #d&d #dungeons & dragons #tabletop rpg #roleplaying game #ttrpg #Monsters Aliens and Holes in the Ground #MIT Press

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utilitycaster · 8 months

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speaking of jasmine bhullar, she and brennan had a great convo about min-maxers and i was wondering what your own thoughts on min-maxing were? i'm new-ish to actually playing dnd and i still worry about making myself a problem to the dm as opposed to an asset.

First off as someone who enjoys Adventuring Academy but never has the time to watch the full episodes, thank you for bringing this up - I watched just the debate, and it was incredible and hilarious.

This is a good question. I am 100% in agreement with Jasmine here and she said it better than I could: min-maxing simply means that you read the rules to D&D and decided to use them to your advantage. Reading the rules to D&D is great and everyone should do it (in fact, this a reliable way to be an asset to the DM: know how your character's abilities work). There are a few cases where it sucks but most of those aren't actually due to min-maxing so much as shitty player behaviors that can occur in min-maxers.

I think one reason people dislike min-maxers is that the stereotypical min-maxer builds a character who truly can't do anything except for massive damage, and that does kind of suck, but I also think that that is really hard to build in 5e. You're going to have some other abilities. I think it was much easier to truly min-max in 3.5e, and perhaps in older editions you could really break things (in fact, having listened to some pathfinder 1e actual plays, I know you could).

There is also, as Jasmine points out, a false assumption that min-maxers aren't interested in RP or won't do it. This is very clearly untrue and a few examples off the top of my head from Actual Play that are debatably min-maxed are: Deadeye Cybin (played by Brennan, natch) in NADDPod (damage dealer); Laerryn Coramar-Seelie of EXU Calamity (optimized for survival, especially against non-magical foes); Caduceus Clay and Deanna Leimert of Critical Role (both optimized to be healers, incidentally); Orym and Vex, also of Critical Role (optimized to have a stupidly high perception score), Theo Gumbar of A Crown of Candy (optimized to tank and have a stupidly high AC). These are all fantastic characters with profound RP scenes who happen to also be really, really good at a narrow band of things, but they're also not just good at that. Many of them also can serve as the brains or the face of their party; many have utility spells far beyond their area of specialization.

Another reason people dislike min-maxers is they have a reputation for being ungenerous - for swooping in and stealing the spotlight. The above characters, played by some of the most generous people in actual play, show that's clearly not the case. Also, to be honest, a spotlight hog doesn't have to be min-maxed. It's just a shitty "hey, hey look at me" player. I think attention hogs might be a bit more inclined to try to build a character who is really really good at something (again, usually damage more than say, healing) but that doesn't mean that everyone who builds a gunslinger is here to steal all the glory.

Specialization also isn't bad! The reason D&D is a game where people are in a party is because not everyone can do everything! There are a small handful of characters who are a utility knife who can basically do a little bit of almost everything (Keyleth, Fjord, Moonshine) but they are the exception rather than the rule. Barbarians, for example, are a class that usually is structured around tanking and doing damage. This is fine! You probably don't want a party that's all barbarians because it is useful to have healers and ranged attackers and people who can sink all their high stat rolls into the mental side of things because they don't live and die quite so much by their physical stats, but it sure is nice to have a barbarian in the mix to balance out the glass cannon wizard, isn't it?

If you show up to a table where there is a clear gap in party composition (eg: healing) or there's a clear story the GM wants to tell (eg: very social, requires a lot of diplomacy) and you decide not to fill it because you are too busy building Guy With Stealth Bonus of +20, then that's a problem, but that's ultimately a failure to collaborate. Min-maxing for something that doesn't really help the party is simply the way in which you happened to fail that compromise.

I'm sure there are edge-case, dark corners of D&D Reddit builds that do suck, but honestly most of them suck in that they are actually not good (eg: coffeelock). Your typical case of dumping one stat to max out on another? totally normal, totally cool.

Anyway to get to the part of your question regarding not being a problem: you probably aren't! You're thinking about how to not be a problem to your DM, which people who are problems tend not to do. However, the big takeaways of the above are 1. read the rules of your character and 2. build a character who fits into the world. In the session zero, build a character who has a reason to be doing the things the DM outlines in broad strokes, and who complements the other PCs. If you do that, then it doesn't matter if you min-max or not.

#answered #Anonymous #*cool hand luke voice* what we have here is a failure to collaborate #(i have not seen cool hand luke i should)#d&d mechanics #long post

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greatunironic · 2 years

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someone asked me in the comments on this world is a cold one if robin had a crush on stevie or if stevie dated nancy and my response started getting too long for the comment so i figured i’d post it here instead:

robin had a crush on stevie for approximately fifteen minutes because like she’s got eyes okay and stevie’s an actual honest to god amazon with the face of an angel and the mouth of a grizzled sea captain — she’s only human!!!

but then she sees her stuff a whole banana in her mouth at scoops (this happens on more than one occasion too) and do that dumbass hand shake with henderson and she deadass asks her once “what kind of animal is the pink panther” but ALSO stevie tells her she thinks her hair is pretty and likes that she reads books, and robin is like “oh no — she’s the worst idiot in the world and she’s my best friend now and we’re gonna spend the rest of our lives together”.

they make out exactly one time, but it’s because they think they’re about to die in a russian torture basement and they stop almost immediately because it’s like “kissing my sister weird”.

she doesn’t date nancy — she’s with tommy then, and nancy’s dating carl perkins, and part of her journey to a better person is recognizing her internalized misogyny, natch — or jonathan, but she does briefly make out with both of them after the demogorgon because they’re tripping balls on adrenaline and it seemed like a good idea at the time.

(this has the added benefit of during season four when stevie frantically tells robin “i did it again” it means she needs about five seconds to be like “hold on — did you make out with eddie???”

“worse,” she says grimly, “i took his virginity and it was awesome. his dick is huge. he wouldn’t stop going down on me, and i came like four times. wait, oh my god, am i only into dweebs? is that my type??”

it may be the end of the world, but robin still laughs until she cries.)

#stranger things #stevie harrington thoughts #she’s a bicon!!!#i gotta think of a name for this universe #edit: we are now calling it #wishbone 'verse

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noodyl-blasstal · 4 months

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Cool, Calm, and Collegiate - Chapter 7

We did it! We finished @blupjeansweek with prompt 7 - Reunion.

You can read below, or on Ao3. Missed yesterday's chapter? Catch up here. or read the whole story in one go.

There’s an emergency meeting in the aftermath, a lecture on press interaction and how to deal with any angry parents that might be in touch. They’re also notified that the children from the twins’ class are going to be split among them. There’s no question of Edward and Lydia coming back, especially not with the formal investigation still underway.

The rest of the summer season is blissfully dull by comparison - kangaroo shoe day has nothing on beemageddon. The kids still enjoy it, natch, but it feels safe enough, contained fun (which is exactly what it should be.) They get good grades, she gets good reviews, and the summer marches inexorably on to a blank spot on Lup’s map. There’s no plans yet, no nothing.

The worst part of all of it is the waiting. Lup’s utterly sick of it.

She’s waiting for news from jobs, she’s waiting to know where she’ll be living and what she’ll be doing, and she’s waiting to tell Barry that she’s in love with him and would like to bone down proper style about it if he’d be game actually. Not that she’d say it that way… probably. Honestly at this point it’s a real risk - she’s nearly blurted out her feelings a few times and she definitely keeps staring at his lips at inappropriate moments, but she wants it to be good, he deserves that.

The worst part is, the worst bit of it all, she knows he feels the same. She’s seen the way he looks at her, knows that he’s felt the change between them too. It would be so easy to just say something, pop the unnecessary protective bubble that they’ve both built up around themselves and fall into the relationship they’ve been unknowingly carving out all these years. But she doesn’t. She can’t until she knows the plan, it’s not fair to him.

“Last week of summer school!” Barry says, next to her in bed.

“Yeah.” She snuggles in closer and lays her head on his chest. “And still nothing back about last week’s interview.”

“Ah… well, they’d be lucky to have you.” Barry soothed his hand across her back. “If they go with someone else they’re idiots.”

Lup sighs heavily. She knows that, she’s fucking fantastic, but hiring committees don’t always get the memo. She bodied that interview, but… nothing. “I just want to know the plan and where I’ll be and what I’ll be doing. I don’t think that’s unreasonable!”

“It’s not.” Barry’s tone isn’t the faux-soothing one that people sometimes adopt with her when she’s complaining about the tenuous nature of taking short term research jobs, he means it. “I remember the post-doc years, it’s no fun.”

“I just want to be in one place and working on something important.” Lup nuzzles her head against Barry. “Something like the bonds research”

“Well....” Barry pauses as if he’s trying to work out exactly how to phrase what he’s about to say. “What if something like the bonds research was the bonds research?”

“What?” There’s no way.

“Well, I was thinking, you’re doing so much on the project anyway… it’d make sense for it to be formalised. I already want you to publish with me, but it would make more sense to just have you on the team.”

“You want to hire me as a post-doc?” Lup’s face scrunches up in consternation.

“No, I want Lucretia to hire you as a researcher.” Barry says as if it’s that simple. As if that’s a thing that can just happen.

“Fucking what?” Lup sits upright. “You want to nepotism me a job?” She doesn’t know whether to kiss him or kick him. Maybe she could do both, she’s talented. But she doesn’t need his help to succeed, she can do that all on her own. She doesn’t need pity.

“No! I mean… kind of.” Barry frowns. “This isn’t how I wanted to ask you… Shit. Look, obviously I know you, so it’s possibly kind of nepotism technically if you squint, but I want you because you’re a brilliant researcher who’s familiar with the project. You’ve got all the qualifications and more besides and IPRE would be lucky to have you on staff. You’ve already helped me solve like three issues this summer alone, why wouldn’t I want to work with you on this?”

Lup’s about to shout at him about not needing pity, about to push herself away, but she resists the urge. Really, he’s not wrong. She found her first post-doc through a researcher she met at a conference, there’s literally networking events for these kinds of reasons. She’s a baller scientist, she’s a phenomenal researcher, she’s the best teacher the IPRE ever saw if her reviews are to be believed, so why the fuck shouldn’t they want her… The main question was whether she wanted this.

She did.

But she couldn’t choose that fast, she should at least pretend, for salary negotiation if nothing else.

Lup jumps out of bed. “I need to shower.”

“Uh, sure.” Barry motions to the bathroom, as if she doesn’t know where it is by now. Sweet idiot.

She’s halfway to the door before she turns back and sits down next to him again. “Thanks Bear, I really appreciate the offer.”

“It’s not just because you’re you, you know. Lucretia wouldn’t put up with any bullshit.” He says quickly before she can turn and run again.

Lup kisses him quickly on the cheek before she completely loses her nerve then near enough sprints to the bathroom. She’s calling Taako before she locks the door behind her.

“Yes, I have seen the time thank you so much… Taako… Taako… TAAKO, listen, I think I got a job… Here! With Barry… no it’s… well, yeah it is kinda like that… but listen. Research! Proper research!... The bonds project… I guess I have been, yeah, I’ve been involved since nearly the start… Huh… No, I didn’t think about it that way… I don’t know… I haven’t had time to think about the logistics… I only just found out… He told me… In be…” She catches herself but it’s too late. “... it’s not like that!... I was here late… talking! We were talking!... No. Not about that… I haven’t figured it out yet. I will though… Don’t be gross… What should I do?... You think so?... What if something goes wrong?... yeah… good point… we’ve kinda been working on it for nine years… Thanks ‘Ko. Say hi to Krav for me… HA! I knew he was there… you can dish it but you can’t take it, you baby… I hate you too, super triple double… okay, I’ll keep posted… love you… bye!”

Lup starts the shower, then immediately stops it again and rushes back to Barry’s room. “Do I get an office?”

“Yes.” Barry says, he has the grace to not even look slightly startled by her swift reappearance.

“Okay. Thank you… shower.” Lup says quickly and leaves again.

She makes it halfway to the bathroom before she turns round this time. “Is it a permanent contract?”

“Yep.” Barry nods and sits up slightly, his attempts to doze abandoned.

“Thank you.” Lup leaves again.

Temporarily.

“Is it full time?”

“Yes, full time and year round, no term time nonsense. Lucretia’s really fair with this stuff. There’s campus housing for a bit if you need it too.” Barry looks at her as if waiting for another question.

She never said he isn’t smart. He knows his stuff.

“And there’s proper research support?”

“Budget for research expenses, publication fees, and support to take time off to go to conferences and training.” He smiles.

She smiles back. “Huh. Okay.”

“Okay…?” Barry’s eyebrows raise expectantly.

“Okay it’s time to shower.” She gets to the door before turning back. “Oh, also, I think… No, I know, I’m in love with you… bye!” She sprints for the bathroom and locks the door behind her, only just resisting the impulse to keep running. She did it! She did it! She’s got a job! And maybe a Barry? Fuck… that wasn’t the plan. Adrenaline surges through her system as she grabs her phone again.

“‘Ko?... I’m gonna take the job… also I told Barry I love him… I don’t know… what do you mean what do I mean?... I told him I’m in love with him… I ran away… bathroom… well it wasn’t exactly planned was it?... Put Kravitz on, I can hear him saying calm and useful things in the background… Hi Kravitz… nice to meet you too… uh huh… yeah, sprinted out of there… okay… that’s a fair point… yes… no it wouldn’t… in my defence I can’t say I was thinking at the time… how did Taako tell you… really? Oh fuck… bye Kravitz!... I saw an opportunity… fine… sorry… Yes, I will… Love you too ‘Ko, byeeeeeeeee.”

Lup laughs as she hangs up. Taako seems happy, Kravitz seems nice, now she just needs to fix whatever the fuck mess she just created, but she’d quite like to do it clean.

There’s a light tap at the door as she’s washing her conditioner out. “Lup?”

“Who isssssss it?” Lup sing songs.

“Lup!” Barry sounds like a guy who’d just had someone confess they were in love with him and then sprint away without any follow up opportunity. Oops.

“Sorry Bear. I’m nearly done.” She feels guilt prickling at her. There’s no nervousness, she knows he feels the same, it’s so evident, but she’s had time to freak out about it with Taako and Kravitz, he’s been stewing. “I’ll be with you soon, in fact, do you just wanna come in?”

“I… uh…” Barry sounds panicked at the prospect.

Lup reaches out to unlock the door. “It’s open, you can if you wanna.”

She can almost hear the anxiety rolling off him.

“You can wait if you’d rather, it’s fine.”

The door cracks open.

“In or out, you’re letting the cold air in.”

The door clicks shut. “You’re in love with me?” Barry asks.

“Head over heels.” Lup says matter of factly. “Sorry for… you know, the sprinting. I’ve been trying to work out how to tell you and it keeps nearly slipping out and then it actually did so I panicked.”

“I know.” He says simply. “I’ve been trying to tell you too.”

“To tell me what?” Lup asks, smiling to herself.

“That I’m in love with you.”

“There you go.”

“What?” Barry asks.

“You just did it.” Lup peeks her head out from behind the shower curtain and grins at him, not that he can see her, his glasses are totally steamed up. “We both did it!”

“Oh… yeah. I did do that. We did that!” Barry smiles, pleased with himself. “What do we do now?” He asks.

There’s a long pause, water sloughing the last of the conditioner from Lup’s hair.

“I mean… I’ve got some suggestions, but they’re not very PG.” Lup tries to sound as sultry as possible.

Barry laughs. “I love you.”

“I love you too. Now pass me my towel please?”

She knows for a fact that Barry screws his eyes shut behind his glasses when she steps out of the shower, she loves him for it. She also loves him for the way he pretends the towel is a matador’s cape as he prepares to wrap her in it, and the small kiss he plants on top of her head when he does.

“I have a suggestion.” Barry says.

“I’m willing to hear it.” Lup replies.

Barry laughs and cups her face gently with calloused palms, she knows every scar on his hands and most of the stories behind them. She’s traced the shape of them while they talked late into the night, and now his thumb is ghosting along her lower lip. She kisses it quickly. It’s clearly enough permission for Barry and he dips his head to press their lips firmly together, stroke his thumbs across her cheeks. It’s a chaste kiss, a perfect first kiss, but Lup wants many more kisses from Barry and she plans to get them.

“When does Lucretia need to hear back from me?” She asks, kisses her way along Barry’s jaw as he answers.

“Uh… I don’t… Lup, I’m not… I can’t concentrate…”

“Don’t then.” Lup replies.

Barry doesn’t, not on the job, anyway.

Bear,

Hey office neighbour! I bet you didn’t know that there was a letter tube between our offices, but boy is there.

I know, you’ve been thinking to yourself that seeing me at work, at home, on dates and via email just isn’t enough. Don’t worry, the carrier pigeons are in training. But hopefully for now this’ll suffice.

Thank you, not for the opportunity (though thank you for that too), but for wanting me and letting me know that. I never feel less than with you, and I hope you know how much I adore you.

Anyway, what do you want for tea later?

Love you (collegiately, we’re at work, be professional!) with my whole heart,

Lup xxxxxxx

#BlupjeansWeek2024 #Blupjeans #Noodyl Writes #Barry Bluejeans #Lup #That's the end of this year's Blupjeans Week gang! I really enjoy the challenge of making a fic from the prompts and I hope you enjoyed to #Thank you to everyone for the lovely tags on the reblogs (and the comments on the fic) they truly are so motivating!

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