#step by step c2

[notyourmusebby]

i know what you two are

x / source: @uzuhiikoo

[f1-stuff]

Monaco GP '24 // Two angles of the hug

[utilitycaster]

I am, to be clear, prepared to slightly eat my words on this but it is An Experience To Be Sure to watch people in the tag be like "SURELY they would TELL us if there were only three episodes of Campaign 3 left? We're not being hysterical and grasping for straws like those FOOLS did with Campaign 2, we are rational beings of light and truth" when in fact the reason people freaked out so thoroughly for Campaign 2 was because they told the fandom just before the penultimate episode that it was the penultimate episode. So yeah actually they have told the fandom 2 episodes beforehand before and they might do it again. Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it.

[leclercskiesahead]

C2 at the fan forum in Singapore

Scuderia Ferrari Instagram story

[wardensantoineandevka]

this will only make sense if you've seen CritRole C2 but my feelings about the idea that Lucanis's arc within the bounds of the game should've ended in him making a decision about whether to accept the position of First Talon or to say no to it (and to Caterina) are similar to my feelings about the idea that Caleb's arc within the bounds of the campaign should've ended in him taking up a crusade against the Assembly and violently undoing it immediately

[exandrianpunk]

*downcast eyes, nervous demeanor, deep shame wracking their body*

(deep breath, then a long drawn-out sigh)

...yeah, i've started listening to campaign two again...

[aeoris4lovers]

if i’m ever known for anything in the critical role fandom, i sincerely hope it’s for my obsession with this man

[sparring-spirals]

oh GOD i have work tomorrow. shit. but you know who doesnt.... bc... theyre dead......😭

[kkglinka]

So wild to check the pitch of my own speaking voice and confirm that I'm in the C3-2 range. If I ever decided I was a dude and went on T I'd become a baritone or bass. How does a voice that deep even come out of someone my size? It must be very startling for people (and also why I get sir'd so often).

[zeemczed]

It's ten days late, but word is out.

About bleeding time.

[vestaignis]

Движемся навстречу солнцу с элегантным скатом (Обыкновенный пятнистый орляк). Moving towards the sun with an elegant eagle spotted stingray.

Обыкновенный пятнист­­ый орляк (Аetobatus narinari).

Это — вид хрящевых рыб одноимённого рода семейства орляковых скатов. Пятнистый орляк прин­­­адлежит к роду Aet­oba­t­us, его видовое на­зв­ание можно переве­сти, как «орел­–скат». Это скат крупных раз­­­меров (до 8,8 м с хвостом), у которого ма­ксимальный размах пл­авников-крыльев может доходить до 330 см, толщина тела в рай­оне головы – 50 см, а вес до 230 кг. Скат орляк похож на парящую под водой хи­­­щную птицу -- не зря он получил свое на­з­вание. Движения его плавник­­­ов похожи на взмахи крыльев, нос на пт­и­ч­ий клюв. Спинная поверхность орляка окрашена в темно-синий или чёрный цвет с белыми точками, брюшная сторона — белая. Хвост длиннее, чем у других скатов, и несёт на себе 2—6 ядовитых шипов.

Широко распространён в тропической зоне, включая Мексиканск­­­ий залив, Гавайские острова, вдоль побе­р­­ежья западной Афр­ик­и, в Индийском ок­еан­е, Океании и вдо­ль об­оих побережий Амер­ики на глубине до 80 м. Обычно ведет одиночн­­­ый образ жизни, но вне сезона размноже­н­ия может образовыв­ать крупные стаи. В дикой природе , ес­­­ли пятнистого орля­ка не трогать , то это животное неопасно и пугливо. Но , если , нечайно наступить на пятнист­­­ый орляк , то он об­в­ивает ногу хвост­ом, наступившего на ры­бу пловца , или рыба­ка и вонзает ядов­итые шипы.Часто люди получают рваные раны, которые необходимо промыть и лечить.

Пятнистый орляк имеет охранный статус на Большом Барьерном рифе вдоль восточного побережья ��встралии.

Eagle spotted stingray(Aetobatus narinari).

It is a species of cartilaginous fish of the eponymous genus of the eagle ray family. The eagle spotted stingray belongs to the genus Aetobatus, its specific name can be translated as "eagle–stingray". This is a large-sized stingray (up to 8.8 m with a tail), whose maximum wingspan can reach 330 cm, body thickness in the head area is 50 cm, and weight is up to 230 kg. The eagle stingray looks like a floating chi under watera bird of prey -- it got its name for a reason. The movements of its fins are similar to the flapping of wings, its nose is like a bird's beak. The dorsal surface of the eaglet is colored dark blue or black with white dots, the ventral side is white. The tail is longer than that of other stingrays and carries 2-6 poisonous spikes.

It is widespread in the tropical zone, including the Gulf of Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, along the coast of West Africa, in the Indian Ocean, Oceania and along both coasts of America at depths up to 80 m. It usually leads a solitary lifestyle, but outside the breeding season it can form large flocks. In the wild, if the eagle spotted stingray is not touched, then this animal is harmless and timid. But if you step on a eagle stingray, it wraps its tail around the leg of a swimmer or fisherman who stepped on a fish and pierces poisonous thorns.People often get lacerations that need to be washed and treated.

The eagle spotted stingray has a protected status on the Great Barrier Reef along the east coast of Australia.

Источник://seaforum.aqualogo.ru/topic/59066-обыкновенный-пятнист%C2%AD%C2%ADый-орляк-аetobatus-narinari/, /ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Обыкновенныйпятнистыйорляк, pofoto.club/29020-obyknovennyj-pjatnistyj-orljak.html, ru.pinterest.com/pin/985231163169913/,t.me/+HLoqW4OcT5VjZjM6.

[potatoplace]

Labyrinth: Dizzy and Dehydrated

C1: Dizzy and Dehydrated | C2

Alpha!Feysand x Omega!Reader, Backrooms!AU

series masterlist | Poly!ACOTAR x Reader Masterlist

Story Summary: You're out with your friends one night, celebrating finishing your finals, when suddenly you find yourself in a strange place, with no exit in sight.

Warnings: mild injury, slight horror (idk how actually scary it is lol), general backrooms vibes - also this WILL be an omegaverse story, but it has no effect on this first chapter

Words: ~3.8k

Author's Note: I hope you guys like this one! I'm sorry there's no update for The Afterthought yet, but I thought sooomething is better than nothing 🤷‍♀️ and I'm rlly excited about the backrooms vibes (and now it's omegaverse toooo ahhh) Lemme know what you guys think!! 🫶 Read it on AO3!

18+ only pls

🤍🩵⛓️‍💥💜🤍

The night air was cool as you stepped out of the bar, your friends’ arms linked with yours as you began walking to your dorm.

The three of you had just finished your finals five hours ago, with three of those hours spent pounding shots and dancing together before you’d started feeling slightly dizzy.

So now the three of you were walking home, and thankfully you had your two friends to help keep you from stumbling.

Or that’s what you’d thought, until you reached a stoplight and they unlinked their arms from yours for a moment, the two of them locking hands and cheering over something that you hadn’t quite caught.

The walk light came on and you took your first step, then your second, but it wasn’t until your third that your stupidly high heel caught on an uneven patch of pavement, sending you tumbling towards the floor.

A flash of heat and pain ran through your palms and knees as you caught yourself, just barely keeping your head from bonking off of the pavement.

You expected to hear your friends giggling, and maybe their hands grasping your arms to yank you to your feet and get you out of the intersection.

What you didn’t expect…

Was silence.

You looked up from where you’d landed, squeezing your eyes shut and opening them a few times, confused.

Where…? Where were you?

Where were your friends?

Where was the bar you had just been inside?!

You had to be far more drunk than you’d thought, or maybe someone had slipped you something, and that was why you’d been so dizzy?

But none of it made sense, it wouldn’t make sense that you went from being in the middle of a well lit intersection…

To being in a bland, yellow corridor, completely alone.

You rolled off of your knees and onto your rear, taking stock of your injuries with your still-spinning vision. Your palms were completely wrecked, tiny rivulets of blood dripping from the ripped skin, down your wrists and forearms. And your knees… They were just as bad, a renewed sting with every movement, blood trickling down your shins.

Tears filled your eyes as you looked at the injuries, your lower lip wobbling. You sniffled and turned your eyes to your surroundings instead- surely you just tripped and got turned around or something, right? Maybe you stumbled through a door?

But there was nothing that resembled a door around you, just identical yellow walls for as far as you could see, with occasional breaks for other hallways to join to the one you were in.

You groaned loudly and fell back against the floor, wishing your hands were unharmed so you could pull at your hair. How had you managed to get so thoroughly lost?! The tears finally fell from your eyes, rolling into your hair as you let yourself cry for a couple minutes.

Until you heard a noise from somewhere behind you, your eyes flying open in fear as you bolted upright and looked behind you, only to see… Nothing different.

Great, I’ve been lost two minutes and I’m already paranoid and hallucinating, you groaned to yourself as you forced your body up, being mindful of the way pain bit at your knees with every movement.

As much as you’d like to lay down and cry for the rest of the night, you wanted to do it in your bed, not in this creepy hallway.

And to get to your bed, you needed to figure out how the hell you got here.

You flipped your head to the right, then the left, trying to decide which way you should go. You had fallen towards the side of the corridor now to your left so… Maybe you had come from your right?

A sigh left your lips.

Things couldn’t get much worse, could they?

🤍🩵⛓️‍💥💜🤍

You’d been walking for what felt like hours now, your heels long since stripped off of your feet and dangling by their straps from your left hand. The floor beneath you was rough, but it was better than twisting your ankle for a fourth time, or god forbid spraining or breaking it while you’re stuck… Wherever it is that you’re stuck.

So far you’d come across no doorways, windows, or signs of life. Only other hallways that linked to the one you’d been following, with you only taking a turn when you had no other options. It was strange, how the walls and floors seemed clean enough of dust, and the hallways were all generously lit, with not a single lightbulb burnt out.

Surely you’d find someone soon, right?

🤍🩵⛓️‍💥💜🤍

You estimated that it was two hours later when you felt it- a pair of eyes lingering on your back.

Or at least, you thought you did.

When you turned around, there was nothing there, nobody was watching you.

But you couldn’t shake that feeling, even as your pace began to slow, your adrenaline and alcohol fueled energy running out quickly, especially as your mouth started to feel dry.

Every few minutes you risked a glance behind you, just to be sure that you were alone.

Soon enough though, you needed to rest. Or at least sit, give your muscles a break for a couple of minutes. You kept your eyes searching for a small closet or cubby-like area for you to curl up in, but after another few minutes of the same smooth walls, you sighed and pressed your back to one of them, letting your body slide down it.

The concrete beneath you was cold, the short and thin material of your dress doing little to keep you warm in this confusing place. You laid your shoes next to you then stretched out, a yawn breaking from your lips as you did so.

Maybe… Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, really, for you to take a quick nap? Then you would feel more refreshed, and ready to find your way home.

You’d close your eyes for a few minutes… Just a few minutes.

🤍🩵⛓️‍💥💜🤍

You startled awake some time later, your body shaking from the cold. Your surroundings were so unfamiliar, so strange-

And it all came rushing back, how you’d been with your friends and then tripped, or something, and ended up in this yellow hellscape that had no exit.

Your head was pounding from your hangover, and you wishedyou had a glass of water to help with it.

As it was, you’d be lucky to get even a drop.

A few minutes passed with your head in your hands, rubbing the exhaustion from your eyes. Eventually you forced yourself from the ground, grabbing your heels and dangling them from your right hand.

Your eyes darted between the two directions the hallway stretched into, and you thought that you’d come from the left… But you weren’t sure.

Everything looked the same.

You sighed and started walking to the right, hoping that you’d run across another person that could help you soon, or an exit if you were extremely lucky.

The concrete beneath you sucked all warmth from your feet as you walked, and walked, and walked. This place seemed to go on forever, though how that could be possible, you weren’t sure.

You’d been walking for a while, having passed at least a dozen intersecting corridors when you heard a scraping noise behind you. Instinctively you looked toward the noise, eyes going wide when they landed on a towering figure with decaying, leathery wings, the clawed tips of one scraping against the wall it was near. It let out a horrific screech when it noticed your gaze, a sound between metal shredding and a bloodcurdling scream causing you to freeze in your tracks.

Until it began running at you, it’s long limbs carrying it towards you quickly.

You let out a scream and began sprinting forward, running as quickly as you could for the next corner that you could run down, hoping beyond hope that there would be somewhere you could hide, or more turns to help you lose whatever the hell was chasing you.

Fear and adrenaline overtook you completely as you rounded the corner, only to be met with another long hallway, though you could see that it forked a ways ahead.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, you thought to yourself as you risked a glance behind you, your heart stuttering when you saw the creature still following, though you might have gained a bit of ground on it.

You still had your heels clutched in your hand, so if it came down to it… Maybe you could jam one into each eye and kill the damn thing.

As though it wouldn’t be able to kill you the moment you were in shoe-using range.

Your lungs were beginning to ache as you closed in on the fork in the hallway, the sides of your calves burning as you kept pushing forward.

Which one, which one?

The fork to your left was brightly lit, though it looked to go on with no end in sight, or any breaks in the wall that you could see from here.

And the fork to the right was darker, almost like there was black smoke pouring from further down the hallway, and you could only see a few lights along the ceiling.

Almost anything could be lurking in there, even another of the disgusting creature chasing after you, with no sign of slowing, unlike your own body that was so unaccustomed to running for more than a few blocks.

The left it was, then.

You might die, but at least you would be able to see death coming for you.

You veered to the left as you hit the fork, staying close to the wall in hopes that the creature behind you was dumber than rocks, and decided to take the right fork instead.

Your eyes kept searching the walls in front of you, each pass hoping that you would find a small doorway, or crack to shove yourself into so you could let the monster pass by, and head in the opposite fucking direction.

You risked another glance over your shoulder, the creature still following behind you, almost at the fork in the hallway- its eyes were still locked on your form. So much for it being dumb as hell…

Your focus returned to the never-ending yellow walls and concrete stretching in front of you, your breathing ragged as your lungs burned from the effort of keeping you going.

There! There was a small break in the wall to your right, looking just big enough for you to wedge yourself inside, hopefully covering you from the monster’s sight. You flung yourself inside, squeezing between identical walls and going as far forward as you could into the opening.

You tried your best to slow your breathing and racing heart, keeping yourself from making too much noise as you were finally given a moment’s reprieve, even if you may still get eaten if the creature noticed where you had hidden yourself.

Time moved slowly as you waited to either hear the creature run past your hiding spot, or reveal itself in the small opening in front of you.

But neither came.

After what you would guess was ten minutes, ten whole minutes of fear flowing through your veins, you let out a breath of relief. Maybe… Maybe you had actually outsmarted the monstrosity? You waited another minute before you let yourself move, slowly peeling yourself from the corner you’d shoved yourself in, small steps carrying you to the break in the walls that you had slid through. It took you another minute to peek your head out, looking down both sides of the hallway, your eyes met only with yellow walls and concrete floors, no sign of the winged creature that had been following you.

A heavy breath left you, and tears welled in your eyes. Now that you were safe, however momentarily, you felt the overwhelming fear wash over you, and the pain of your now scraped raw feet. You slid to the floor and buried your face in your hands as you allowed yourself to sob for a minute.

You just didn’t understand. How was all of this happening to you?!

You may have been able to rationalize it as a drug trip last night, but today? Waking up, still in this place? It just didn’t make any sense to you.

But it had to be real, at this point. You just couldn’t fathom how.

Once your tears had slowed, you forced yourself to look at your surroundings again, noticing that to your left, where you’d come from, the hallway past the fork was darkened now, similarly to how the hallway you hadn’t taken had looked.

Weird.

You sniffled and wiped your tears away with the backs of your hands, and forced yourself to stand. Your feet were aching even more, now that they’d had a chance to rest and have no pressure on them, but you didn’t have much of a choice to rest, not with dangerous creatures on the loose.

Continuing onward in the direction you’d been going, a heel dangling from each hand, you winced with each step, waiting for your feet to go numb to the pain.

🤍🩵⛓️‍💥💜🤍

You were starving, and parched beyond belief when you came across another break in the wall, deep enough for you to be out of sight while stretching out your legs.

Still, you’d seen no sign of human life, though you’d heard plenty of noises behind you that sounded suspiciously like footsteps, but whenever you’d looked, nothing was there. And you’d also had no luck in finding water or food, much to your dismay.

At this point, you might run out of strength before you found your way home, or at least outside again.

You let out a huffy breath as you turned on your side, using one of your arms as a pillow and bringing your legs to your chest. If you’d known you would be stuck in a never-ending series of corridors, you’d have worn a warmer outfit, or at least comfortable shoes.

Of course, you never would have guessed that you would be lost and alone, rapidly losing hope of finding your way to true safety.

You eventually drifted off, sleeping fitfully until you snapped awake.

Something was on you.

You looked down to see a… blanket? No, a cloak? A cloak, made of fur draped over your form.

Your eyes went wide as you looked around the nook you’d gone to sleep in, finding yourself alone, but… This was a concerning development.

Someone, or something had been in close quarters with you, and left something behind. The cloak had been placed carefully over you, it seemed, as it covered every part of you besides your head, keeping your body heat trapped against you nicely.

You shivered as you looked at the fur cloak, dread sinking into your bones.

Was something watching you?

You didn’t waste another minute as you stood, stretching your limbs and wincing as your feet lit up with pain, still raw and aching from your journey yesterday. You almost left the cloak behind… But without it, you were feeling the chill of your surrounding even more, and you were uncomfortable enough as it was without feeling cold.

So you wrapped the fur around your shoulders, letting the hood fall across your back as you fastened the smoothed fang of something into the hole cut through the other side of the cloak. It was a bit long on you, dragging along the floor as you walked and absolutely drowning you in the material, but you felt warm for the first time in a day and a half, or however long you’d been stuck here.

You still held your heels in your hand, as useless as they might be, just in case you needed to distract something, or try to fight back, or… Well, they were just a reminder that you had been having a perfectly normal night.

Your journey continued on sore feet as you left the nook you’d slept in, carrying on in the way you had been going before you slept.

The only changes in your surroundings had started late last night, as the walls began looking more and more decrepit as you went on, with square chunks taken out of the ceiling that made no sense, or holes in the wall that looked to go on the same as the intersecting corridors, never ending.

Today, you pace was even slower, the toll of not having any food or drink yesterday leaving you drained of energy and motivation to continue on, knowing that more likely than not you were going to rot in this endless yellow hellscape.

You took random turns, hardly paying attention to where you were going, and far more concerned with the footsteps that you continued to hear behind you, sounding closer than ever. Yet still, when you looked, there was no one and nothing there.

Your mind had to be playing tricks on you at this point, between the dehydration and absurdity of the situation you were in. You hardly looked back to check behind you now, it was only when you remembered the sheer surge of terror that the horrific monster that had chased you had caused that you dared to look, shaking your head when every time, you were met with the same empty hallway that you had just walked through.

Soon, though, you came across something that had hope blooming in your chest.

Plants.

There was a patch of wall ahead of you that had a green, leafy vine crawling across it, dotted with clusters of little berries. Your mouth watered as you approached the plant, a hand reaching out to grasp the vine and pluck the berries from it, only for the plant to turn to ash at your touch.

Your eyebrows scrunched together as you tried to pick another cluster, only for the same thing to happen, green life turning to gray death in your hold. Tears pricked your eyes as you tried the last cluster, your fingers just managing to grasp a berry before it, too, turned to ash under your touch.

“Fuck!” You yelled, your frustration getting the better of you as tears trickled from your eyes. You needed those berries, the water they held.

But you were left with nothing, hope turning to ash in your chest as you turned away from the wall, slowly walking away.

You made yourself keep walking, even as you wondered what the point was. You’d been trying for the better part of two days now to find your way out of here, with no sign of progress or a reason to believe that you would ever leave this place.

Eventually you grew tired enough that you found yet another small nook to curl yourself into for the night, your cloak wrapped tightly around you as you curled into a ball, letting yourself sob quietly as you fell asleep.

🤍🩵⛓️‍💥💜🤍

You awoke with a start, your heart hammering as you shot up from the floor.

There was nothing out of the ordinary - well, the new ordinary - around you, except…

A pair of slippers, made of matching fur to the cloak you were wrapped in.

You blinked at the shoes, dumbfounded as to how they were in front of you. Something had to be following you, at this point.

But you were too tired and exhausted to care, seeing as whatever it was had only been near you while you were sleeping. Though you supposed that you should care more with that being the case but…

Again, tired and exhausted.

Your throat ached with each breath you drew into your lungs, your stomach clenching painfully around nothing as you pulled the soft slippers over your wounded feet, sighing at how nice the material felt against them.

You made yourself stand on shaky legs, your vision swirling in front of you as you braced your hands on a wall, steadying yourself. A deep breath in, and out, and you determined that you could go on. You bent to grab your heels, letting them dangle by the straps from your left hand as you left your little alcove.

Walking was a slow process today, your muscles protesting against every movement, lungs burning with each inhale and exhale.

Surely today would be the day, wouldn’t it? You’d been down here for almost three, with no water at all. And if it wasn’t water, well, if anything like that creature stumbled across you again, you would be done for.

Your eyes welled with tears as you wallowed in your misery, wishing that you would wake up in your bed with an extremely bad hangover, safe and sound.

But that didn’t happen.

No, instead, you were left to walk and walk, taking whatever turns presented themselves to you as you took yourself further in the labyrinth of nearly identical hallways, all of your energy draining into the cold concrete and yellow walls that surrounded you.

You reached a point that you could hardly walk, your joints locking up as your lungs struggled to draw in breath, and you allowed yourself to slide down against a wall, telling yourself that you would rest for only a few minutes, and then you would start moving again.

Just a few minutes, you whispered to yourself as you pulled the fur cloak in against you tightly, your head leaning back against the wall.

Your breathing was heavy as you began to drift off, jolting awake every so often and looking around, only for your eyes to fall shut again, your body desperate for any rest it could take.

Your eyes fluttered open once more, this time met with a sight that had you wide awake in an instant.

A winged man, clawed talons extending from the joints of the black leather, similarly to the monster you’d run from before, his violet eyes burning brightly, even from across the hallway. Your eyes went wide, flicking between the man and a woman, stood to his right. She had no wings, but her blue eyes glowed brightly, dangerously, as they stayed locked on your form, unblinking.

Heart in high gear, you attempted to stand from your spot on the ground, only to collapse back to where you’d been sitting as your legs gave out, a groan of pain slipping from your lips.

In an instant, the two were in front of you, faster than you could comprehend. Your body was pressed tightly to the wall, and you flinched at every movement that they made.

The woman extended a hand towards you, her palm cupping your cheek and following as you moved away from her touch, only to have your other cheek pressed into the man’s hand.

What the fuck is happening?

You didn’t have long to contemplate it before your vision went dark, your last sight being that of two sets of glowing eyes, staring down at you with… Worry?

🤍🩵⛓️‍💥💜🤍

General Taglist: @daughterofthemoons-stuff @lilah-asteria @meritxellao @twismare @wrenisrad @icey--stars

[leclercskiesahead]

They were going through it

[blackmosscupcakes]

One of the aspects of the fallout from this last episode I'm most interested in seeing is Imogen's reaction, and that's for a very out of character reason.

One of Laura's self-admitted player quirks is avoidance of inter-party conflict. She's good at smoothing things over and tends to play characters on a spectrum from forgiving to avoidant. You can see this going back to campaign one, most notably after Scanlan returned and, while most characters were furious and slow to forgive him, Vex was instantly on his side, delighted to see him, and ready to forget everything. Jester, of course, was very committed to the power of friendship in general. Imogen tends more towards burying or distracting from feelings and events that might lead to conflict.

In 4 Sided Dive episode 20, they have the following conversation from about 1 hour 3 minutes in:

Marisha: Of course diving into the relationship is always fun, but then relationship tension is also fun.

Laura: Yeah I feel like you guys really like relationship conflict too like you guys talk about that a lot. I'm terrified of conflict--that translates to the game as well. I don't like conflict.

Sam: You don't like conflict? Even in the game?

Laura: No! I don't like fighting. Like if we're having a fight I will be like "it's okay FCG, I'm not mad at you." If you do something wrong I'll be like "that's okay."

However, her character is now in a relationship with Marisha's character, and as seen in the quote above, Marisha LOVES conflict. She eats it up! From Keyleth and Percy in C1 to Beau and Caleb in C2, she's been great at diving into tensions that further character development and make for great storytelling.

So we've reached a point now where Marisha keeps making choices with Laudna that are basically dropping an invitation to a WHOLE bunch of tension and conflict on Laura's doorstep, and up until this point, aside from a little dust up over the gnarlrock incident (a big one for Laura, but small compared to, say, Beau and Caleb's arguments!), Laura as Imogen has been broadly side-stepping these in order to do exactly what she said in the 4sd quote--tell Laudna that it's all okay.

But we've reached a point now where that's not going to cut it in avoiding tension any more! If Laudna continues down this path, lines are going to be drawn within the party, and Imogen is likely to have to pick between conflict with Laudna OR conflict with other members of the party. It's very likely there will come a point where anger and arguments can't be entirely avoided for Imogen no matter what choice she makes. And that's going to be REALLY fascinating to watch.

Sometimes these players nudge one another out of their comfort zones. Laura did it to Travis with romance. Several of them did it to Ashley with the titan shard. I think we can trust them not to push their friends to a point where they REALLY don't want to go (and I'm sure that sort of thing is negotiated between them off camera), so bearing that in mind a little tiptoe out of the comfort zone can be really interesting--for example, Travis did really well with romance in the end. It might well be a bit uncomfortable for Laura at first! But as long as she's okay trying it, I think it could lead to REALLY excellent storytelling and fantastic performance. I'm excited to see where it goes .

[ludinusdaleth]

the iron shepherds arc in c2 really is THE best way to establish the m9 realizing they want to be more than the dipshits they resigned themselves to accepting they were (even though, as shakäste points out, they were always Good). the way molly is an asshole like the rest of them but insists he left every town better than he found it, and beau scoffing at that til she watches him die and she snaps thinking she proved she was a True asshole to him. the way nott realizes she loves the m9 and they are a family, challenging caleb who cant find the gall to say it yet. artagan who cant save jester alone, in disguise, saying he's helping the m9 because "this place is a shithole and good people are hard to find". keg, nila, & shakäste are the perfect guests to the party; keg is the igniter of the conflict of redemption & change, especially for beau who hates herself and, for a time, keg for her role in the shepherd assault. nila is proof anyone can step up and the m9 aid her in finding her family; she thanks them with teary eyes right at the pinnacle of the theme of heroism in them. and shakäste, as i said earlier, is proof that a hero isnt always loud and gilded; and he tells the m9 they are the same at the very end of the arc. maybe a true hero doesnt brag and accept accolades. maybe a true hero is just someone who frees dozens and tries to save their family.

[arcadecoconut]

There's a lot of great meta about how Bells Hells never seemed to realise how powerful they became over the course of the campaign, and how this skewed perspective gave them a strange and at times hypocritical relationship to authority. There's also been a lot of discussion about how having a single-focus plot established early in the campaign was detrimental to individual character development, but I don't think I've seen much about how the single-focus plot is directly connected to their ignorance about their own power level. I think one of the key benefits of having various smaller arcs across c1 & c2 was not only that it supported individual character development better, it also gave the parties a sense of their own growing capability and power scale in the greater world. By having distinct arcs with enemies who were overcome and defeated, the PCs have concrete evidence of their own growth. Each arc follows a mini heroes journey too. For the MN, the Lorenzo and Obann arcs both involve PC characters being killed or overtaken early on, setting high stakes and establishing difficulty. Eventually, with persistence and planning, the Nein were able overcome and eventually defeat them. For Vox Machina, it's the Briarwoods, then the Chroma Conclave, then Vecna. At the start of each arc, every mission feels like an impossible task but again with persistence and planning, they conclude each arc in a stronger position - not just on their character sheet, but with concrete in-world elements too - the resources of Whitestone, key allies in powerful government positions, etc. These victories give each party a material sense of their achievement, which is mirrored by their internal acknowledgement, which is so natural it's mostly not explicitly acknowledged unless they're pointing out how they're capable of stepping up and helping more people. Bells Hells, by comparison, got very few distinct arcs. As a result, they never really achieved the same smaller victories to give them a sense of escalating power and agency over the course of the campaign. To be clear, it was possible this could have been achieved anyway, even within the constraints of the moon-plot. Defeating Otohan, defeating or flipping Lilliana, severing the alliance between the Unseelie Court and Ludinus, explicitly winning allies out of The Volition, or the Grim Verity, or Vasselheim and the Judicators - each of these could have been distinct arcs with victory conditions that would have served as markers of Bells Hells growing power. If they'd had concrete mini-goals to achieve along the way to dealing with Ludinus/Predathos, they could have taken time to focus and plan. In this way, we could have gotten larger investment into the world and NPCs. Imagine what it could have done for her personality if the party had to research Otohan’s role in the Apex War! Maybe if they needed to broker peace between the Grim Verity and Vasselheim to unite them against a greater threat, we could have seen Bells Hells establish their own authority in Exandria. Instead, all these potential villains and world building hooks ended up largely ignored or accidentally achieved along the path of some other muddy goal. By not giving the characters this sense of growth, BH and particularly Ashton and Laudna ended up with a very skewed perspective of themselves. They never realise their power grew well above average, putting them in a much more privileged position than the average Exandrian. It’s this skewed perspective - and their resulting attitudes towards various NPCs - which gave many viewers an 'ick' factor about their interactions. I also can't help but juxtapose this with exu: divergence, where the party's relationship to power (both their own and others') has been a core element. Their story has also been conducted over a very short time period in-world, yet their responses show a marked difference in awareness and empathy.