#d20.txt

[hazeofhearts]

ok definitely late to the party but the editing for never after is SO good???? praise be to the editing team for their amazing work on the pilot episode!!! i haven’t even finished the first episode but it’s SO incredible

[gorgugplushie]

[scalpho]

unbelievably funny that when the seven hit their junior year (after, like, a hell of a lot of shenanigans to all remain in school together despite being different ages) arthur aguefort was like "oh you guys want to stick together? yeah i'll tell you about the mystical ged and stop time to take you to my super secret library and yes i'm going to be weird and cryptic about it all because i'm arthur aguefort, like, duh, but i am still ultimately helping you and i think you're soooo cool i'm so proud of you all [sheds a tear]". and with the bad kids he's like "yeah yeah i know you 'saved the world' but you need to get your grades up or i'll expel you. lol."

[teenagerebellion]

skuttlespring the type of couple to fuck nasty and then sit in silence for 4 hours afterwards on their respective devices. after half an hour mary ann taps gorgug on the shoulder to get him to do a few quokki pet pulls for her. an hour later he gets her attention to watch a fantasy tiktok about bloodrush gameplay. when one of them gets tired of the company or bored or has something else to do they just say goodbye and leave. and honestly? goals

[licensedproldier]

I think ive realized why that one scene during the FH s1 finale has stuck with me for so long. the one where fabian gets trapped under a burning beam in seacaster manor. brennan asks him to make a strength check, lou fails, he asks again, lou fails, he asks a third time. i keep thinking about that. brennan's blunt do it again. do it again. and i think its particularly because normally, when someone fails a skill check, they just. have to wait until their next turn. or wait until theres another reason to roll. because you kind of only get one shot at the cold hard numbers, but once the dice are over and done with, dnd is ultimately limitless in the ways creativity can get you through failure. fail your perception? you can still play cautiously. fail your strength? maybe try using leverage. fail your acrobatics? hey anyone got a fly or jump spell? the dice are NEVER the end-all-be-all.

so brennan asking lou to roll the same strength check three times in a row without letting him get a word in edgewise is truly such an unforgiving break in convention that perfectly mirrors the helplessness of fabian's situation. There's nothing else you can do and no one here to help you. you're either going to make this one, or do it again. you are either strong enough, or you arent. this is the only way i'm going to let you resolve this.

I think about that kind of relentless pressure a lot and what it means for fabian in that moment, the blind desperation that is making three strength checks in a row without any attempt to improve or change his chances. the lack of space to take a step back and breathe and think. roll me a strength check. do it again. do it again. ough.

[ewwww-what]

You guys don’t get it, they used to be the high 5 heroes. They used to be the high 5 heroes guys. They used to. They used to be starry eyed freshmen. They had to choose each other. They had to have awkward introductions. They had to pick that name together. I’m never okay ever.

[cringeism]

K2 lived, served cunt, got pregnant and died

[venfx]

GOD something about "riz is the only character allowed to take stress for other people" and "riz is not slowing down at all; if he does, that is when he will break". something about the terror of sacrifice as an act of love and the inevitable reckoning it invites. something about scraping yourself raw and bloody against the pavement, about shouldering the weight of your future and your friends futures and every single stupid mistake you've made along the way. something about sprinting ahead even as the world vows to bring you to your knees.

when do you let your hands stop bleeding!!!

[birdhouse-poetry]

OK

Out of the frying pan

Into the fire.

Partake

Of the honey;

Forget

You're a liar.

This rage

In your

Heart--

It cannot

Be fought.

You

Killed

Your best

Friend,

But it's

You

Who will

Rot.

[safrodite]

terpsichore and eugenia may be different classes but boy do they have the same energy

[gorgugplushie]

THE WAY I FUCKING RAN TO MAKE THIS EDIT

[scalpho]

this image is the essence of peak d20. brennan suffering

[teenagerebellion]

adaine has never been anything other than angry at her parents. every interaction she has with them, she is snarky and talks back and fights with them. she isn’t cowed, she refuses to back down, and she would never in any world consider being obedient.

which is why it’s interesting that aelwyn is so afraid of them. what stopped her from standing up for adaine during their childhood? fear! a cycle of fear, shame, and guilt that she was never brave enough to break through.

but of course it makes perfect sense. adaine was never anything more to her parents than a massive disappointment. she was never going to be what they wanted - by the time they realized she was maybe someone worth cultivating (the elven oracle - to them a useful political tool they could possess) adaine was years beyond wanting to please her parents.

aelwyn was raised to be the perfect elven poster child. she was molded into being a pawn in a much larger game between arianwen, kalina, and kalvaxus. she was nothing less than a perfectly obedient daughter - until sylvaire. until “adaine’s just- she’s just a baby”. and the second she showed the slightest hesitance, angwyn didn’t hesitate to try to kill her.

adaine didn’t know her parents enough to fear them, but she knew them too well to love them. aelwyn knew them enough to be afraid and too well not to love them. head in hands.

[licensedproldier]

highlights from the brennan hank interview (aka taking notes on things that i liked or didn't know)

HE STARTED ATTENDING COLLEGE WHEN HE WAS 14?????

immediate jump off topic from hank to ask him about d20 (this happened while fhjy was airing)

"and the greatest project of all, my wonderful family with my wife isabella roland"

bonding over their children

brennan and hank's son both corrected their father's bedtime stories 💀

many elaine lee shoutouts

"his dad met my mom and fell in love" "you did that" "we did that, parent-trapped them"

was pulled out of school in 4th grade for homeschooling because the bullying was so bad....

started a company when they (he and his brother) were fifteen?? called Bootleg Adventures

hank's little awed hiss of "what" to the above piece of information

GOT PART OWNERSHIP OF THE WAYFINDER COMPANY AT 15

"knowledge is something that, when you share it, there's just more. there's no scarcity"

hank staring off into space slightly looking like brennan just blew his mind (we're 11 minutes in)

"we were 14 year old philosophy majors, if you can imagine anything more normal than that"

brennan unable to resist doing fun voices for the people he talks about

he wouldve loved to work at wayfinder full time and said back then hey maybe ill become a famous internet comedian or something and that's how i can help camp. now he's got texts from the staff saying how a bunch of dimension 20 fans have joined and its been a huge boon for them that way 🥺

"it's funny when a really bad plan works. dont make that plan."

"every new community-- is this too sad? no its true" THOSE THINGS ARE NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE

anyway "for every new community i start with the presupposition that someone is going to pick me up and put me in the trash can" 😭

hank sniping him through the duplex door with "[when you do that] you kind of imagine yourself to be the value you're delivering rather than yourself, or that your value is in what you deliver and not who you are" and brennan going 😐 "that's a great point man"

both of them turning to do pained smiles at the camera 😭

"i think the value is in who you are" "that's really sweet i appreciate that" "but i also love that you deliver"

brennan quoting mary oliver

im starting to feel a little called out guys

robert mckee "stories are not about their premises they're about their conclusions"

brennan also staring off into space slightly thinking about what hank said

the REAL college advice brennan is giving is reportedly "put an egg in your ramen" because thats how you stop your eyes from going "matte finish"

shoutout to vanessa's dumplings for keeping this man alive

"i am ozymandias nerd of nerds, gaze upon my banner and despair"

the moment he felt like something changed was walking into C2E2 and seeing that the biggest hanging banner in the convention hall was of fantasy high. or, as brennan put it, "my dumb face"

"my friends moved in with their partners, the apartment i had with them scattered to the wind, the woman i was dating dumped me after three weeks, and i won a bunch of money on Who Wants to Be a Millionare" "wh- what???"

he taught emily, murph, siobhan, and zac how to play dnd 🥺 and was running a home game for lou at the same time

got hired at um, actually because his name was getting around for being a big dork

zac stepped down from troopers and sam liked brennan's character from a previous casting call (tim curry eating pizza) so he brought him in

its very charming the detail with which brennan remembers these important moments in his life

became a full time cast member in the same week he started dating izzy! "hard to beat week gang!"

"they told us they were launching dropout and everyone had to make a show, which, if you're been trying to make a show your whole life, that's like saying 'bad news guys, there's 24 birthday cakes in the break room and everyone has to eat a whole birthday cake'."

brennan was making a document for a market pitch on an actual-play show when he was called into office and THEY pitched HIM the idea of an actual-play show

"i guess i have tumbled through life to end up here ready to do this"

truly like. one of the guys of all time.

"some of the things that didn't make sense about you make more sense now" hank talking indirectly about how amazing he found all the moving parts of mentopolis and now getting to hear about how long and how many time he's done storytelling it makes sense

"yeah its the one skill"

"i wanted to tell stories before i was anything else"

🎉anti-capitalist rant🎉

"people used to say 'is ucb a cult' and i'd say 'in a cult, somebody is making money'"

HIGH FIVE!!!

[ewwww-what]

Do you guys think that Adaine and Aelwyn ever had tiny moments of solidarity in their young childhoods? Like a small glance across the kitchen table when their dad said something particularly uncomfortable at dinner, or a late night conversation in the kitchen that lasted a little bit longer than either of them really expected it to?

Like maybe Aelwyn would cast healing on a knee scrape that she most certainly was the cause of, or Adaine would make a quiet comment about a good test score she got to make her feel better about something. Maybe Aelwyn passively read up on calming panic attacks and anxiety episodes, while Adaine secretly wished she got to keep her sister’s old clothes as hand-me-downs. Maybe they used to hold hands when crossing the street, or did the dishes together, or smushed together on the couch so they could both read the same book.

I think that for as much as they have always “hated” each other, there have to have been moments where love seeped through. They lived in that house together, and as much as I know their experiences were wildly different, they both endured abuse and neglect at the hands of their parents. there has to have been some times where they aligned into some kind of more gentle understanding of one another even if only for a few moments.

[my-clerical-gnomance]

so we can agree that the blue is definitely radiation , right ? and the people that ava saw were in hazmat suits ? right ?