#pixelcircus

[notsaige]

I can't wait for you to see this show

[wrenrix]

watching failed save and aabria just hit me in the feels with the line

‘i’m sorry bora i lose everything i love’

EXCUSE ME? MA’AM? I AM SOBBING. PLEASE

it’s so good and i can’t wait to catch up (two years in the future)

anyways, i don’t know how to tag this so wish me luck

[fanbynature]

i love the matching of their hair and make up colours 🫰

[captain-watercress]

This is my favourite one so far lmao

[rabdoidal]

pixelcircus is doing a barbie oneshot right now and i just had do draw @carloscrits as superstar ken! we love a sad bisexual icon

🎗️ kofi link in bio if you’re feeling generous 🎗️

[3rddimension]

Answering the other anon’s question about Saige and Damien with what I’ve gathered from the internet…heads up, this is long! Sorry in advance!

First, I need to preface this by saying, this information is provided to satisfy curiosity only. This new community being cultivated seems to keep discussions to themselves and leave the Smosh cast alone, which is awesome. When this stuff first happened, Saige stans and Damien stans took sides and started being toxic and spreading rumors and misinformation. Really don’t want that to happen here. Warning done? Cool!

Saige started working at Smosh at the beginning of 2021. Damien stated in a stream that he quickly developed a crush on her. It’s not clear when they first started dating but by November 2021, they had moved in together and confirmed their relationship. They made regular appearances on each other’s streams (clearly in different rooms of the same residence). They did couple’s costumes in Halloween and in his end of the year post for 2021, Damien called Saige the “love of his life”.

Damien bought Saige concert tickets to a show she wanted to see, they would show snippets of their outings (a picnic, the Ren faire), and they travelled to Italy together.

Professionally, SmoshGames partnered with Twitch in the fall of 2020. Saige had started PixelCircus at the same time but it was just beginning so I think she agreed to be hired by Smosh to help with their Twitch content. I think the streams did modestly. There was some drama about how it was clear SmoshGames was just in it for the money versus “normal” streamers being in it for the community. (I think at the end of the day, any monetized channel is in it for the money but that’s another story.) Speculation also arose around doing things live on Twitch causing issues for the cast and scheduling. Regardless, what happened was SmoshGames ended their Twitch streaming in March 2022. Saige started appearing in less content although she still went with Smosh to Vidcon 2022. I don’t think she was as visible as everyone else though. Matt Raub left Smosh in July 2022. This is speculation but I assume he had something to do with hiring Saige so with him gone and the Twitch gone, I think Smosh decided not to continue with Saige. They also hired Angela, Chanse and Arasha at this time.

Saige didn’t get an official departure notice, but people started to notice she wasn’t in Smosh content. She confirmed only in October 2022 that she no longer worked for Smosh. In the meantime, I think her content creation and viewership with PixelCircus picked up. She was going to more tabletop conventions and whatnot. At one point, she had to quarantine from Damien because she caught something at one of them.

Their exact breakup date is not public. Presuming that Damien is a supportive partner, it’s telling that he liked all her IG posts before September 12, 2022 and nothing after. Again, it’s not confirmation of anything but it’s likely they broke up some time after that. Saige also mentioned in her fall 2022 streams that she was moving. (This is much later but they completely unfollowed each other on social media by May 2023.)

When Saige confirmed to her fans that she left Smosh in October 2022, I assume some of her fans thought something was wrong with Smosh. Saige fed the flames by stating in her discord that while she didn’t say anything that “isn’t lawyer approved”, “everything else is a guess or logical conclusion of an intelligent community”. This wasn’t great but what really stirred things in up was a fan making accusations about Smosh being toxic except for Damien in November of 2022 and Saige LIKING that tweet. At this point, I think the bridges were burned and connections severed.

You can leave a company but you probably shouldn’t support someone calling your ex, your former workplace and his coworkers/friends toxic if you want to maintain any sort of relationship. From that point on, I think they just don’t acknowledge each other. Damien and Saige were both at GenCon this year even and promoted completely separate events.

So, that’s what I know. Mostly pulled from Twitter, some Tumblr and IG sleuthing. Saige and Damien did seem happy so I’m sad they didn’t work it out and this is how the relationships, both personal and professional, ended.

It’s not really clear why Damien and Saige’s personal relationship ended. It might seem like it was because she stopped working at Smosh but we’ll never really know. In my personal judgement, from afar and definitely with incomplete information, it does seem like Saige is a bit immature. Maybe a bit of a narcissist. Around this time too, Damien started to experience some breakthroughs and epiphanies about his neurology and mental health, so that may have helped him realize if he was in any unhealthy situations. (Since he’s neurospicy, kind and socially awkward, I think he was probably easy to take advantage of.)

Anyway, hope this answers the previous anon’s question. At the end of the day, I hope both of them continue to improve their mental health and find happiness. It just won’t be with each other.

Dang. That's a long one! Thanks for all the info anon. Also don't forget that this already happened for quite awhile now and all of them already moved on. I can see both of them already happy with the way their chose and i'm happy for them.

[chungledown-bimothy]

i was going to say top 5 make some noise prompts and then i thought about how constantly i reference them and went "oh that's way too hard" so...... hm. top 5 battle for beyond moments and top 5 dnd chaos moments to start. OH and top 5 underrated d20 seasons or other actual-play stuff if you'd like

ty for not asking the impossible of me re: make some noise prompts lol

god i hate that i keep having to say this, but i don't remember dnd chaos well enough to give a top 5 answer that means anything, i'm sorry!

that said. top 5 b4b? let's fuckin go.

(yes some of these aren't a single moment but i'm obsessed with b4b's "how it started out with a bit how did it end up like this" energy)

1- Trick? No, I don't charge. This one needs no explanation. Nikhil's a slut and so am I.

2- Nikhil's lance. It's the only thing he cares about. His sister made it for him. He says something like a prayer to it.

3- Let Ekon sleep. I felt that shit in my goddamn soul.

4- I'm pretty sure potatoes are a kind of meat. I'm morosexual, actually.

5- Literally the whole scene in their quarters after the bee tree fight. Sestia and Murdina definitely fucked. Nikhil asking Sestia to slap him so he can hellish rebuke the tea. Everyone lying their asses off about wanting to share the room.

underrated actualplay stuff. (wait hang on carlos was involved with almost all of these. interesting)

1- coffin run. please. i am begging everyone. watch it. izzy and zac have what i am 100% confident is the funniest dynamic of the entirety of d20. every single time the camera cuts to them, something unhinged and fucking hilarious is about to happen. carlos is the most wet kitten of a man, and erika... i can't do may justice. you gotta watch it.

2- battle for beyond. that top 5 was extremely difficult- i almost just said 5 of the 6 pcs because it's all just. so. good. the nikhil/sestia/murdina throuple is everything to me. the characters' growth and god the worldbuilding. i cannot overstate how much i love it.

3- dnd chaos. i really need to rewatch them. again, tables of pcs that absolutely fuck. i need citizen doctor abraham mehermblur carnally. both times, it's a fucking all-star cast. 10/10 highly recommend.

4- barbie d&d from PixelCircus. i've seen basically no one talking about it, and holy shit it was so fucking funny and i love when a shiny, happy aesthetic ends up going into truly terrifying existential horror. "this barbie commits war crimes!" carlos pops the fuck off.

5- candela obscura. i've not seen the first arc and i'm not done with the second (i've got an hour left of ep 2 and ep 3 is six. hours. long.) but god fucking damn. just. watch it. i cannot do it justice.

[artemissoteira]

something I love about watching Aabria play ttrpgs is her absolute delight in character conflict and specifically characters who insist upon sitting in conflicts of deeply held convictions that don't have an easy resolution.

I feel like in Failed Save alone there are multiple times where both Fess and Chi have interrupted someone (PC and NPC!) who is trying to move past or minimize or make light of a conflict in order to make things easier or more comfortable (spitting over Dew, Amelia, everything about the contract in s6). it's such a cool way to interrupt the assumed 'yes and' / narrative flow of a ttrpg by forcing not just continued focus on a scene, but refocus in the framework of - no, you don't get to be comfortable, the camera isn't going to turn away, we're going to sit with the implications of this conflict and take it seriously even if it's hard because there's something here for us to dig in to, if you'll trust me to do it together and go there together.

I just think it's such a fun approach to this medium of fantasy and creative freedom and shared storytelling, especially in a game like Failed Save that is so over the top and lackadaisical with reality - until it's not, until the characters face something very, very real. and of course the GM has a lot of tools to manipulate that contrast and set up those emotionally intense scenes, which vince does very well, but it's very cool to see a player* using their more limited scope of tools to do the same thing.

I imagine it's a style that not everyone is comfortable with, given the way it challenges cultural expectations around conflict and specifically conflict in improv / ttrpg settings (and coming from a Black woman especially). I think it's not something a player can pull off well without a) an excellent sense of narrative pacing to know when it's appropriate and b) more importantly, a ton of trust at the table, with both other players and the GM. and naturally it's harder for the audience to be certain of the latter when we're watching through a screen and don't have the same context, so I don't think it's an uncomplicated thing by any means.

but god is it marvelous to watch when it lands.

*everyone in the Failed Save cast does this in really interesting ways, actually, but I think Aabria's style is the most overtly challenging to common ttrpg sensibilities and so the most stark. Gina's emotional sneak attacks with Murray and Saige's decidedly unheroic choices for Dasle are also always on my mind but. that's another post entirely lmao.

obligatory plug to go check out Failed Save (and other shows) @PixelCircus on twitch/youtube for high-octane high-chaos ttrpg fun

[pagingdork]

this is random but if ur looking for a live actual play show, I've been getting into Failed Save recently and I'd recommend it. it's just wacky RPG fun with a lot of comedy and heart. Aabria joins in season 2 (which I am currently watching) and they have awesome guests. they stream on twitch, and you can watch episodes there or on YouTube here on the PixelCircus channel.

It might not be your cup of tea, but as far as I can tell there isn't a super huge fan base or anything, so I wanted to boost, I guess.

[dodecademons]

Yall should try watching Salt and Serpent if you like ttrpg content. It's on the PixelCircus channel, Vods are on Twitch (live on sunday) and also uploaded to youtube on wednesday. It's basically gay pirates. It's just queer people everywhere. A story of flirting, sailing, pirates and all around fun. They use the Chaosium d100 system (basic roleplaying: universal game engine). Features some amazing people like gm Kailey Bray, with players Saige Ryan, Surena Marie, Aabria Iyengar, and Rowan Hall (and perhaps some special guests). It currently has 2 episodes out, and I believe it's 4 episodes. Pixel circus also has some other content including Failed Save which is also currently being streamed on twitch with many campaigns available on youtube. I digress, here's a little snippet from episode 1.

[notsaige]

okay this one is just for Tumblr for now. It's July but I'm still gay

[wrenrix]

i’m now thinking about dis and piper and their love and how piper always respected boats as beings and talked to them and talked to dis and accepted dis as sentient so much that it allowed dis to become sentient.

piper believed so much in the reality of dis, that dis was real, and in turn dis felt a want for the first time and therefore was for the first time

anyways i love them so much and i will never think of anyone else again

[run-on-lightning]

Tinsley: "...along with the fact that you're one of the most brilliant people I've ever met in my entire life and are capable of absolutely everything, I just want to make sure that we know what we're doing because I don't want you to lose yourself in that quest for more when you're enough. Does that make sense?"

Malware: "That means a lot. Yeah."

[fanbynature]

loving the fact that pixelcircus are getting back to uploading more game types of videos

[trans-witch-cauldron]

Hmmmmm methinks it’s time for a theme change. (I’m thinking of doing a theme based off my favorite four-episode gay pirate TTRPG actual play show) (yes this is me saying more people should watch Salt & Serpent by pixelcircus) (I need a fandom)