#i am going absolutely bonkers

[mydemonsyourangels]

the way mhok and day are letting the tension build. like this precious thing. they're so gentle about the way they feel about each other.

[thelikesofus]

They really can't try and tell us that the couch metaphor is not about buddie after Buck struggled to get comfortable or sleep on his new couch but went to Eddie's when he got overwhelmed and instantly feel asleep on Eddie's couch like he was coming home

[sageknowsstuff]

Do you ever feel stuck?

[silly-little-goober-core]

bringing back this post because guess what else is back?

the star wars obsession

first date idea: we watch the clone wars and giggle and kick our feet every time darth maul is on screen

[tiniest-hands-in-all-the-land]

i miss these guys

[mangodonutss]

framed villain

[starpunchsteria]

White Room, May 31st, 1975

[wehaveagathering]

THAT'S OUR CAPTAIN.

[blackjackkent]

(tldr: read to end for my new favorite thing to have EVER happened because of RNG in this game, holy shit)

So. Yeah. When Orin said that Bhaal demands a duel, I was thinking the usual situation for "duels" in CRPGs, where it's nominally a duel but you're also allowed to bring your 2-4 closest friends who happen to be in the party with you.

AND BOY WOULD IT BE GREAT IF THAT WAS THE CASE HERE.

This is deeply not what I expected. I was actually low-key kind of excited for the standard Tav fight, because Rakha just hit level 12 and got the Spirit Guardians spell that I sank six levels of bard for, and I was real excited to see if they worked for buzz-sawing through the Sanctuary'd cultists.

No such luck, however. It's just us and Orin.

[slowly and carefully taps the reload button and examines Rakha's spell loadout]

There is actually some good news here too. I'm playing on easy so Orin's hit points aren't particularly terrifying, and far more significantly, she doesn't seem to have the buff from her cultist buddies, meaning she does not have stacks of Unstoppable and we can damage her immediately.

The downside is basically everything else. :P

Everyone else in the party currently has a condition called Duel: Murder's Chosen -

Very ominous. Even switching to any other character makes everyone get Big Mad:

At this point, the fight basically converts to normal, Orin recovers her Unstoppable stacks, the cultists start chanting, etc.

So I guess, ultimately, we could play this the Tav way if we wanted, but that seems counter to the spirit of the thing. XD Let's do this duel.

-----

POST FIGHT REPORT:

holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit

Y'all know how in tabletop games sometimes the RNG just plays out perfectly to do something never expected that nevertheless makes perfect story sense and feels like a brilliant thematic conclusion to everything that happened previously?

Rakha's fight with Orin started off pretty bog-standard. It's a pretty scary duel, but Rakha has her level 6 spiritual weapon out from the Harper Sacredstriker staff she's wielding, and it's doing a pretty good job of distracting and confusing Orin's AI and running her in and out of the Spirit Guardians that Rakha has up. She also landed a solid hit of Dethrone, "pulling on strands of the Weave" to "shred [Orin's] very essence."

All well and good.

Second round, she casts Misty Step to bring herself close to Orin for Burning Hands, and...

...well...

She wild-magic surged and unlocked Lae'zel's restraints on the altar.

Incredible. In-fucking-credible.

AND she is under our control as, basically, a summon for Rakha.

AND the Bhaalists don't consider this fight interference.

------

Perhaps it is simply random chance. It's happened before, after all - moments when her magic surged wildly out of her control, chaos incarnate to match the chaos in her brain.

But it feels like something more than that at this moment. A desperate reaching through the Weave in this moment of greatest need, her heart pounding with terror as she faces down her dark sibling. Jaheira and Minsc and Minthara and Wyll are beyond her reach, but something in her - mind or magic or something deeper still, some guidance from some force even Bhaal cannot stand against - reaches out and breaks the chains on her closest, oldest friend.

Help. Me.

The bonds break, and with them the enchantment that held Lae'zel unconscious. Her eyes snap open and she is on her feet in an instant, a sudden bursting release of tension and rage to match Rakha's own. For a moment their gazes lock, and Lae'zel blinks with recognition and astonishment and something like joy - and then her face hardens and she moves to stand at Rakha's side, shoulder to shoulder against the beast before them.

Her blade glints in the torchlight like sharpened flame.

[astronomodome]

c!skizz’s character arc is better constructed than a lot of arcs I’ve seen in actual pre-written media I’m serious

[queerfables]

Sorry but I've spent the last week thinking about Eddie's giddy little giggles on the phone to Presumably Tommy and I just cannot let this go. The dazzling smile!! The bashful head duck!! That man has a CRUSH if I've ever seen one. I feel like I'm going insane here like hello? hello?? is anyone listening?? is this thing on???>\?\\???????

[mechanismslorearchive]

to the person who just sent the ask calling me a strange esoteric god of knowledge (i am keeping the ask as a pet): thanks its my uber autism powers

[doodle17]

I need to stop replaying these games they make me emotional

"What kind?" You may ask. Sad emotional? Mad emotional? Happy emotional?

Yes

[supersecretnerd]

Ok ok so these images? Have not been able to find the original post containing them and Google Images is not helping me with that. However Google Images did help me discover more information on the little gold crown logo (Wanda) in the bottom and I found this (page was originally in Chinese, Google translated it to English)

So since the company with the same logo does own the IP for the Octonauts, I am led to believe these were officially made by them.

Again have not been able to find the original versions (as I could only find them in multiple fan video edits and Google is not helping me with the other company's logo), but go ahead and take these while I keep looking for the original posts.

[buckleysbegin]

"just be sure that you're following your heart"

and then he follows buck up to the top of a fucking lightning rod.

[ms--lobotomy]

I am nothing if not a horrid Konrad simp. Literally have that art of him saved to my phone. But Sevatar... ough.

Both is good.