he’s silly
Baked Apple Sunday Stream
Continuing BOTW while the momentum's hot! Last time we lost a bunch of butterflies learning to cook and Link discovered he's being ritually filled with marbles. We made it off the plateau and are slowly exploring the eastern realm, though a brief detour into fighting a giant Snorlax indicates there are still some leveled enemies in this world.
Today's plan? Genuinely no idea. Wander around eastwards, get yahaha'd, fight bokoblins?
Vibing Saturday Stream
Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has just come out, so obviously it's time for me to finally start 2017's Breath of the Wild. The last Zelda game I played was Ocarina of Time in college, I'm middling at best with controllers, and I've spent the last several years trying to get really good at FPS games. It's a natural fit!
I know absolutely nothing about this game besides that it has puzzles, cooking, and weapon decay. I think Link can take his shirt off?
[Fic] Iron Bound [7/25]
Rating: G Characters/Pairings: Fenris/Hawke, Sebastian Word Count: 3.3k this chapter, ~96k total Summary: Fenris, captain of Starkhaven’s White Guard and the dearest friend of that country’s prince, has arrived in the kingdom of Kirkwall with a retinue of noble-born guards and a carriage brimming with lavish gifts. How else to win over the hearts of a suspicious mountain people who would rather break teeth on stone than accept the prince of Starkhaven stealing away their heir princess?
But stone is all they have in their kitchens lately, and gravel in their quarries and ice in their bitter rivers, and Starkhaven sits abreast the richest lea and moorland south of the Minanter.
And Sebastian Vael, the young prince of that country, needs a wife.
—
Nearly six weeks after the night the carriage burned, they came upon a village tucked into the trees. It was set at a crossroads known to Hawke, large enough for an inn and too small for a standing guard, and its villagers survived off the fishing from a nearby river. The caravan had planned to stay here on the original route, but as Hawke pointed out, with their arrival so delayed, any lingering watchers had almost certainly moved on. Worth the risk for news, surely, and if they happened to get a bath and a hot meal from it at the same time—
It was not wise, but she had asked for so little in their travels that he could not bring himself to refuse.
The innkeeper was a wary woman, but she sold them a room and sent them upstairs with strict orders to bathe before touching her sheets. They carried up the water by light of the setting sun, then took turns watching the door; by the time dusk had fallen they were barred in their small room with a plate of roast beef each and two small glasses of mulled wine.
“Heaven,” Hawke said, sitting cross-legged on the floor, and she tore at the bread with her teeth.
—
I don't believe in making major edits to stuff I've already posted publicly, but every now and then when I reread my own fic I am sorely tempted.
#that argument in the middle of ch10 of the vampire fic#i would pay real dollars to go back in time and fix that one#they're just saying words and none of it is about the actual conflict#which is that fenris is too scared to want anything (especially a vampire)#but at the same time he's furious hawke won't just sit there and wait for him to come to a decision#i'm scared to try to be happy with you but how dare you be happy with other people#if anyone ever rereads that fic just imagine this is what they yell about right before she bites him#instead of the balderdash they do say#also several chunks of in salt and gold#i was too cowardly to make danarius as evil as he should have been#and a couple things in spire#but anyway that argument is the big one#quark rambles
4-Sided Dive Highlights - Critical Role C3 up to E58 (May. 17, 2023)
Rolling right into the next one, tonight’s guests are Aabria, Christian, Sam, and Travis. We open with Christian wearing sunglasses inside due to one eye being very light sensitive. Travis wins host and hulas his way into a monologue about an increasingly frantic recap of the recent plot, capping off with a ventriloquism segment and a French puppet wolf. It's...not...good, haha.
- What the Fuck is Up with That? Sam reveals he verbally bleeps curse words when his kids watch the show, ha. Sam absolutely loves having the guests and mixing up the company. Sam to Aabria: "How do I know you?" Aabria: "What?" It turns out he means how did they meet? Aabria did a D20 game with Matt and Marisha (Pirates of Leviathan). Christian slid into Sam's DMs on Instagram, ahahahaha, and asked him for coffee with Marisha. Incredible! He just felt that Christian had a good heart! Sam, what in the world!
- Aww, Christian is still such a fan of the show! (The way he's talking right now is very much like Jeremy Dooley from AH right after he first got hired.) He & Aabria got together for a Session Zero at Matt's place and feel like brother/sister now. They built the characters together. FRIDA came first & Aabria wanted to explore some holes in the world and was able to match elements around FRIDA's build. Plus they didn't know which members of the regular cast they'd be with. As Aabria developed the character Matt instantly decided she'd be paired with Travis. Christian knew FRIDA's color palette before anything else, ha! He knew he wanted to build a complementary character for Sam because he's grateful to the opportunities Sam had given him.
- FRIDA has the level of rogue because they'd wandered around for a while on their own, and the cleric levels from Deanna's influence.
- Aabria was determined to be a nice generous cleric to counteract any expectations of hard-ass-ness from Laerryn, ha! She picked the Dawnfather because he's one of the most hardline Prime Deities; she's a full cleric with off vibes. She wanted a contrast to FCG, who's in the position of a supplicant; she wanted someone more under the thumb of a deity in order to bring more facets of those relationships. Travis: "A perpetual IOU."
- Deanna was one of the names from Chetney's vision; she was fully a Matt invention. Aabria loved the idea of being a past relationship and sent notes to Matt; then the day before they started filming Travis sent more notes to Matt saying she was a fling. "Damn it, I got downgraded to a fling before I even walked in!" Travis had to firm out Chet's backstory as they got to Uthodurn.
- Sam really wanted to see Travis kill Santa, but Matt made Oltgar too regretful. Travis loves taking the dark routes in video games when available, but "with Mercer there's so much heart. I feel bad."
- They had probably more god advancement in the last seven episodes than the entire campaign. I'm realizing this is about where I am in my show watch, which is why it all feels so current to me! Everyone loved the Changebringer stuff, except Travis could do without the Ring girl hair.
- Ludinus was behind it from the start?! What the hell does the leather armor do? He caused the corruption of the Savalirwood 500 years ago, which means he's been planning this for a long time. He tried to kill them with Molaesmyr and corrupted the land, founded the Cerberus Assembly; he's constantly reaching back for the glory of the Age of Arcanum. Everyone hated the freaky animals.
- The Rexxentrum Toy Authority was a beautiful moment! Sam: "Why would you come up with a three-letter moniker that was actually standing for something else??"
- Sam is very grateful for this arc because it gave a lot of meat to his character. He feels that he's been asking so many questions: who am I, what are dreams, am I alive, who are the gods, I want answers. Now he has a connection with his god, a connection with FRIDA--it doesn't really matter what his original design to kill was for because he has such a bright path forward.
- Deanna was built to complement many characters, and Aabria leaned into certain facets for this party over others. "The dying and come back was very built in for Laudna and Ashton and Orym especially" because she spent a lot of her life constantly bringing her husband back from 0 hp. She liked playing with the weird, unresolved feelings of knowing that the dead person isn't gone, just static and waiting. The husband is still alive but is super old???? Ha! "Dustyl" is his name.
- Everyone's enjoyed exploring the haunted areas of Exandria. Travis describes several locations on the maps in detail from memory and everyone ribs him a little; it's really cute! Everything was a little wrong in the Savalirwood.
- Sam thinks Fearne should have the staff. Fearne having teleportation would be incredible. FCG's coin has a once-a-day power that can cause distractions, ask the Changebringer a question, or get a luck point (which everyone's sure he'll use right away).
- The last two interactions with the gods were fascinating because they weren't requests for help, they were demands. Deanna thought she'd died for a second at the end.
- Aabria went pure life cleric specifically because she wanted to lean into the drama of resurrection magic being off the table. "Someone's dead? Oh, I'm great at this! Oh...wait..."
- Jerry stole the show. Everyone agrees the goats are giant food.
- Travis is sad they didn't fight the pterodactyl thing. FRIDA is intentionally built like a tank & has had Death Ward most of the time, so they intentionally drew aggro.
- Travis intentionally pulled Chet away from the group when the moon started changing him specifically to avoid endangering the guests, and then Christian went after him! I have spelled "intentionally" wrong as "intentially" every single time. Christian knew it wasn't a "smart" play but thought it would be fun to interact with Chet, and that'll trump optimization every time for him.
- The Tower of Inquiry! Favorite encounter so far? Travis: the Ludinus showdown. Sam: Laudna going down and not knowing how to Revivify. (Aabria asked if she could play Otohan and Matt was like, what? No!) Christian: the heist race where Ashton got the bust! Aabria: the same fight as Sam.
- How does it feel being part of a larger group? Sam: FCG's entire first group died, so this new group is a lot of pressure. FCG's been one event away from berserkness multiple times. Every time they long rest, Sam can roll a d4 to reduce stress points, but he's self-imposed a rule that he doesn't do so on non-active days.
- Sam literally leans over to Travis about his old age rules. Travis has to roll a 100 on the dice (three 0s) in order for Chet to drop dead. He's not concerned at all that it'll happen; Sam is hilariously concerned.
- The Deep Dive, sooner than usual! Sam absolutely loved the interaction with the bull. He's delighted "the power of friendship" mattered.
- Travis has been sitting on the RTC reveal for a while. He sat down a while back and really mapped out a lot of Chet's backstory and where he traveled, and again pulls out tons of map details like the Wuyun Gorge. The one place he hasn't been yet is Issylra.
- FRIDA is a little nervous about turning into a werewolf; being around the group made them more comfortable, but the reveal of killing all those people is concerning. FRIDA also felt they were able to see Chet inside the beast during that fight & loves the idea of being unadulterated & free. Christian texted Matt & asked what it all meant that night, and just got in return, "ahahahahahahahaha". Ha!
- Aabria is fascinated that developing these relationships with Bell's Hells has changed the previously friendly ease Deanna had with FRIDA. It's not quite a strain, but it is a reevaluation which is not settled; it's painful. FRIDAY had a strong opinion on the absence of pain and the absence of sadness; he hadn't appreciated how important current relationships were before FCG. Sam: "We have so much in common. We're both metal. We're both murderers."
- Sam butchers the FRIDA acronym, which Aabria of course nails. Far-Ranging Integrated Defense Aeormaton. FCG is scared about the Changebringer's lack of clarity, and fears for the future. Travis suggests that if FRIDA dies, FCG should incorporate their body parts. Christian: I'd give you FRIDA's legs.
- Everyone laughs at the size differences/similarities in their partners. Dani's (female) SO and she share clothes. Sam shrinks things in the dryer and gives them to Quyen. Alissa is taller than Christian so she can't wear his clothes; same for Aabria and her husband. Travis rolling over in bed is a literal health hazard for Laura, ha!
- It took Travis forever to realize Deanna was his Deanna; Aabria even pointed to her name & he didn't get it. When it did click, the panic was real; he had acid reflux and realized she knew the backstory and he didn't! He didn't know if he should be angry or happy or neutral to see her; he had to wait until he had more context clues.
- The romance for FCG and FRIDA was organic in nature. Originally they'd thought Deanna & FRIDA might have something, but it didn't pan out. Sam did text Christian to make sure they could lean in after.
- Aabria loved getting to play with a character she helped develop in ExU (Fearne).
Tower of Inquiry, Redux: character's favorite board games? Chet: Chutes & Ladders. Deanna: Pandemic. FRIDA: Risk. FCG: Operation.
- Post-Break Shenanigans: Super Smash Brothers! Sam: Dark Samus. Travis: Wolf. Aabria: Kirby. Christian: ROB.
- Travis thought Oltgar was going to be more of a shit, but he's 100% okay tracking Drixlich instead.
- Deanna is concerned after the conversation with the Dawnfather because while it's on brand, she fears losing her powers/life. She'd rather pay it forward first.
- Sam wins round one! Huh! Round two: Sam: random (Falco), Travis: Ganondorf, Aabria: Ganondorf, Christian: ROB again.
- FCG is weirdly comforted to have direction from the Changebringer; Sam likes her vibe. He was little freaked out by how demanding she was at the end but looks forward to exploring that relationship.
- Christian wonders if FRIDA belonged to Ludinus. All he gave Matt was the dream of the child's legs. Time runs out on the second round and Christian takes it by percentage!
- Round three: everyone picks random. Sam: Diddy Kong, Travis: Terry, Aabria: Kirby, Christian: Bayonetta.
- How does Chet feel about the gods? It's only a matter of time before Chetney takes the gods' place.
- FRIDA was very freaked out by fighting Aeormatons, but Chet's gift especially helped a lot.
- Deanna feels that while the gods aren't a nascent part of the world, if it weren't them, it'd be someone else. Sam found it hard to play a religious character because his instinct is to be subversive.
- Sam asked Matt if FCG had his initials carved on him somewhere after FRIDA revealed theirs. Matt said, "you don't know," then let Sam throw out a handful of suggestions for what the acronym stood for. He didn't know which until the moment, though. The entire conversation was inspired by Christian's play; "Christian did a cool thing and I wanted to steal it."
- Christian's best friend Jack was helping him with acronyms; Christian had come up with "FRIDA" and Jack defined it in about thirty seconds, haha. Backronyms!
- Travis loved the first Catha transformation. Now he has to decide who to transform into a werewolf. Everyone loves "Bells Heals" as a minigroup name, and "LoveLetters" and "Body Count" for the FRIDA/FCG ship.
- Aabria found the two relationships with Deanna/Laerryn very different; with Sam she planned it out, and with Travis she knew she was surprising him. She is fully embracing the "we've already banged" dynamic for all her characters now.
- The post-credits scene is a cutout of Sam spinning into the abyss.
That's that! One more 4SD is out right now (came out yesterday), but I'm going to catch up on the show first!
4-Sided Dive Highlights - Critical Role C3 up to E52 (Mar. 22, 2023)
I will catch up with these if it kills me. No fluff tonight, only hard-hitting facts! Tonight's guests: Liam, Marisha, Taliesin, and Ashley. We open with a recap from the previous episode where the broom was murdered while the lights were out. A montage shows us all the times we featured Broomy on the show. Rest in peace, bristles. The rest of the opening is an in media res discussion about pickles and a Kentucky vodka/Koolaid/pickle juice horror. Ashley wins host and the script lampshades the irregular show schedule along with the chaos of the show at this point. Broomy gets a moment of silence and we are introduced to his replacement, Moppo.
- What the Fuck is Up With That? We start with a discussion of creating Nana Morri. Ashley reminds us that the birdhouse her mom made (which looked like a hag hut) was a big inspiration for the character. The double-face situation and the ET neck were all Matt. Ashley did know she had two heads before everyone else; she sent him a whole doc of ideas at the start (tree house, creepy Swiss Family Robinson, Fearne's menagerie, beauty from a distance but creepy up close), and Matt came back and extrapolated upon it. Ashley loves the idea of all Fearne's wildshape animals being misfit idiots all the way down.
- How did everyone feel about the Fey Realm? Orym was sad they had to leave so soon. Ashton loved the rule of chaos. Laudna loved Grandma and how creepy everyone was; Marisha loved the idea of having two heads to take over the work. (I haven't fully caught up in my show watch and I miss Laudna so much!)
- Everyone thinks the break-in with the portable hole usage was fantastic. Everyone wants to know about the Fey creature riding the dragon.
- Dani sometimes sends them lore updates during games: "y'all, that item is literally sitting on the table in front of you, that just happened an hour ago." Neat!
- How did the Apogee Solstice go? Marisha: "medium." Matt said they went right down the middle, could have gone better and could have gone way worse. Ashley felt completely paralyzed by indecision; Marisha was proud she stuck to destroying the power sources. They wish they could have done more with their previous campaign characters.
- Marisha felt like she was in a fugue state when Beau showed up; Liam was devastated he couldn't roll better. Ashley was really struggling against her personal desire to get them out of chains ASAP. Liam loved the "sweet sweet irony of Caleb being collared y Aeor tech." He was really excited about the idea of destroying Otohan's backback, frustrated in the moment with his rolls, and then on review still felt like he'd made the right decision pursuing that for his character.
- Marisha was convinced she was going to watch at least one of her characters die. Liam short-circuited and couldn't talk for half an hour after the episode, and almost everyone (except Sam & Travis) couldn't sleep that night.
- Liam had completely closed the door on Vax in his head. He never expected to see him again after the wedding. To have him show up now both flabbergasted Liam and blew him away with the recontextualized attack on Keyleth in Orym's backstory. Both Marisha & Liam kept looking back and seeing seeds that Vax might show up later having been planted very early in the story. "It's not the first time Keyleth's been attacked. Fuck!"
- Would they be okay if either of their characters are dead? Yes, they trust Matt. Marisha would prefer Keyleth to die over Beau; Beau has more to do, and Keyleth's biggest fear was always "being the last leaf on the tree."
- Liam always felt that VM was a complete, closed story, while M9 was more a chapter in those characters' lives. He feels they're often going to come together over the years.
- Ashley felt she was too timid in the Apogee attack. She wishes she could take a second shot at it. Marisha was mentally tracking Keyleth's HP for the whole fight and panicked when she realized how close she was to death.
- Liam loves the challenge of taking the straight man role (similar to Keyleth in C1), except EVERYONE is Grog. Everyone thinks Deanna and FRIDA will be a calming influence.
- Ashley loves Aabria's range and ability to jump from comedic to serious on a dime. Christian is incredible and brings energy to the table.
- Liam is jealous he doesn't get to play with them. Marisha laughs that every time she sits back and just watches the show, she's like, "damn, this is good." She never realized how much Travis has been emoting this season since she sits next to them. Ashley loves watching people perform and be at the top of their game.
- The Tower of Inquiry! What has been your favorite scene not involving your character? Ash: Laudna & Imogen & the breaking rock. Tal: Chetney getting dark with the shopkeeper. Liam: Fearne & Chet sexual tension scene. Marisha: Chetney calling bullshit on Delilah, Fearne as a quokka.
- Liam pulls again: What surprises have you discovered about your character? Tal: what punk in Exandria means for Ashton: "life's not fair, and you either believe that it's not fair because life is chaos or you believe life's not fair because there's a bunch of interventionist assholes above you who have decided that you don't get to be a winner. Is is it a world where there are winners and losers, or is it in a world where there are interventionist gods?"
- Both Ashley & Marisha love Laudna's relationship with Ashton. Ashton brings up parallels Laudna wants to deny: "she really wanted to be past this." "Right! It's--how fucking dare you be past this? How dare you!" "Exactly!" Ashton chooses not to believe Laudna is past it, because otherwise that means it's a thing you can get past, which means Ashton is wrong, which is impossible. "It's amazing the way [Ashton] is obviously projecting."
- Liam goes to Zephra a lot in his mind palace. He never expected how much he was going to think about Orym's dead family and wondering if they would meet again. He has synthetic memories of interactions of Orym and Will, Orym's mother...
- Tal has enormous portions of Whitestone fastidiously mapped out in his head: he knows the library, the gardens, the clock tower, and the ruins to the east. He can walk there and back in his mind's eye.
- Ashley has learned that she really enjoys making everyone else cringe, ahaha. She loves when she can feel Laura looking over in concern. Everyone LOVED her stealing Ira's spyglass. Everyone lists off Travis's tics that tell Ashley she's on the verge of going too far.
- Character's daily routines? Every night, Laudna gets out her little house and tucks in the dolls and puts them to bed properly. "Pate has to die every night." Everyone adores Pate peeling his ribs open. Ashton's routine is medicinal chronic pain management and deciding every night whether he's going to get drunker or get angry tonight. Both Dani & Tal talk a little about their personal struggles with chronic pain and enjoying seeing Ashton learn to deal with it.
- Favorite spell or class feature? Laudna: Form of Dread. Fearne: Sleight of Hand.
- The Deep Dive! Orym feels completely played as regards Keyleth & the Apogee. Everyone agrees there were lots of failsafes to make sure Keyleth showed up even if he hadn't reached out.
- Ashley is very curious to see how magic has been affected by the solstice, but she's more panicking that Orym is gone and she's off the leash (ha!).
- Laudna will always be there to validate Imogen's feelings; it's okay to have these thoughts and questions about what if the Ruby Vanguard is right, examining whether the relationship with the gods is healthy or cyclical abuse. However, "we can all sit here and do a nice big thought experiment about what the world would be like without gods, but that thought experiment doesn't necessarily include all of the consequences of the Ruby Vanguard's plan...which is a world without gods, not necessarily a bad thing. Unleashing a god-eating-elder-old-one-type being, maybe a bad idea. Worse." Liam talks about how these people killed a bunch of people precious to him. Dani reminds us that the god haters killed Laudna and a god-lover (Pike) brought her back. "You can't deny the existence of the gods. All you can do is be really resentful of them." They're manipulative if you choose to take the cynical point of view; Caduceus, for example, takes the complete opposite viewpoint. Taliesin had to sit down and build a discrete theology for Clay.
- Whenever Marisha and Taliesin's characters have conversations in game, she always thinks of things she wishes she'd said or phrased differently. Ashton really struggled with watching Laudna go through what he did, except with the support of so many friends. "Oh, fuck you!" It's an unhealthy, jealous anger. Liam loves the jealousies, the petty faults. Ashton probably does know abandonment more than anyone else in the party, but both Marisha & Laudna were affronted at his claim that he knew loneliness better than her.
- Orym is worried about Dorian & everything going on in Tal'Dorei.
- Fearne is terrified of Ludinus. Seeing what he did to Sumal put a lot of fear into her, which was a new experience for her.
- For about five minutes, both Liam & Marisha had all three characters sharing a map. Laura had said something about how Marisha's characters keep showing up: "Well, I habitually keep making characters that have an issue not working and just won't retire, so they just keep doing things, and maybe that speaks more about me than it does anybody else! Everyone else lets their characters rest and go to sleep, and I don't! I don't know why I'm like this!" It felt personal, but also representative of eight years of work building up the company and the world and the family. It hit everyone very hard and made them emotional.
- Ashton is conscious that their abilities are a metaphor. Ashton does not know how his abilities work, but if he doesn't understand them, then neither does your enemy. He counts on being unpredictable. He's scared to death that he cares about Laudna.
- Liam: "the three strange witches, their three bodyguards, and a robot." Orym would killed the halfling who surrendered but would have regretted it. Ashton took the locket because he believed this was not a dad who had something to lose; this was a dad who had lost something. "This was not an orphan being made." Ashton does not feel good about it, but there's no second guessing.
- Ira is a regular old schmo to Fearne, which is a word I've never written in my life. Laudna is very taken by his confidence.
- Laudna HATES not knowing where Laudna is. She loves having Pate with her all the time. If Imogen had been there during the dreams, she would have just held her hands.
- Tal: FCG thinks he's dangerous because he's going to turn on everyone. Actually, FCG is dangerous because he's going to keep running headfirst into danger and everyone else is going to try to save them. "It's a monstrously selfish robot." How will FCG deal with someone eventually getting hurt in their defense? That they keep volunteering themselves for dangerous/painful tasks is a selfish sort of martyrdom.
- One day with your character? Orym: gym, ballet. Ashton: concert. Laudna: taxidermy class. Fearne: Disneyland.
- What would your room in Caleb's tower look like? Fearne's room would just be her own room but more expanded. Ashton: a mid 90s 16-yo kid's room. Caleb would have everyone's rooms connected. Marisha: Children's Museum in St. Louis.
- What moments made you really feel you were in Exandria? Tal: the trudge through the snow with Lucien. That was the most he ever felt like Clay. Liam: going to Rexxentrum with the rain and griffin riders and arriving at the church and shattering the stained glass windows. Marisha: the jungle backstory conversation with Liam with the lighting cues and projections and the fireflies and the rain; having everything green and lush in her head really cemented the moment. Ash: descending on Aeor and realizing how old everything was. Liam: the Matron arriving on the steps at the end of C1. Taliesin: "I can't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday and I remember every fucking moment of that day."
- Favorite movie genre? Laudna: regency romance. Orym: Crouching Tiger, Errol Flynn. Fearne: soap operas. Ash: documentaries.
- Post-Break Shenanigans: "Moving Out" on the Switch. I love silly little games like this and yet this one doesn't scratch the itch at all!
- Orym understands Imogen's waffling about the Ruby Vanguard; he knows she wants a relationship with her mother. "It's a simple solution to a pretty complicated problem, though."
- Ashton thinks Jiana Hexum is what he deserves. "I know a supervillain" is what he has to offer the group.
- Fearne loved that Nana Morri came to her rescue, but just doesn't want her to get hurt.
- Laudna loved the Fey Realm. She wishes they could have spent more time there. Liam wants the beating-heart topiary collection. Tal wants a mug.
- Tal will drip out what happened with the kenku over the next five years. Ha! There's so much crosstalk; even with captions, this is awful, haha.
- Fearne knows her position with the Ruidusborn means she might have been used as part of this plot. She's not excited about it, but it's such a complex problem that she's going to wait and see what happens. Fearne would be the least helpful in a move.
- Laudna both misses Pate and his ability to heal her to full hit points. Everyone marvels at Matt's ability to rhyme off the cuff.
- Orym is marvelling that the Wildmother finds him important enough to give him a sword. "I'm a real boy!"
- The post-credits scene has an evil voiceover telling Ashley that she has no idea what's coming. Ominous!
ONE DOWN, TWO TO GO. Let's ride this train until the wheels come off!
Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (Russian, 1817-1900)
“he took her wine, as carelessly as he had taken her country, and choked on it and died.”
yeah i like them a normal amount (mentally deranged)
I was in clinic this morning with the rising third year students when a first year student came down to ask if I'd seen Dr. Jones. As it happened, I knew for a fact Dr. Jones was out of the building in a planned absence, because I was covering Dr. Jones's patients and students along with my own.
Well, said the first year, Dr. Jones is supposed to be lecturing to us on pupil anomalies from 10-12 today, and it's 10:30, and we don't know what to do. So I handed off my clinical students to the TA, told the TA to come get me when they were ready to check out, and went upstairs.
Thankfully I knew where this professor kept their lecture presentations on our shared drive, so I was able to pull up the slides for myself as well as email the file to the students. I started at 10:40 and was able to get all the way through the material except for three slides at the end, which was honestly better than I'd expected.
There were two things I kept thinking as I was lecturing. First, this pupils material used to be really hard for me; it's a lot of neuron arcs and pathways and subpathways and different types of receptors and such, and it can be blisteringly confusing if you don't have a rock-solid understanding of the underlying anatomy (which heck, I sure didn't when I took it!). When I was a student I failed an oral exam on pupils three and a half times and I think only passed the fourth out of genuine pity from my examiner. It was one of those things I constantly had to look up and re-learn for every exam because it just didn't stick. That I now felt so comfortable with the subject material that I could give an unrehearsed, unreviewed lecture with someone else's slides, and that I was confident that I could teach it effectively off the top of the dome, really hammered in how much I've learned since even my early years on faculty. I don't think I could have given this lecture without a prior material review eight years ago--maybe not even three years ago. There was one point where the PowerPoint was freezing and I said, "Well, if it keeps freezing, I can just talk to you about these conditions for the last thirty minutes," and I realized as I said it that I really could have.
The other thing I kept thinking about was that I have unexpectedly grown very comfortable with public speaking. I think it still counts as one of the most common fears in the U.S., but even getting up there in front of an audience of 40-something people with someone else's slides that I'd literally never seen in my life before, with an hour twenty to try to cram in as much information as I could, there really wasn't any fear or anxiety. Just the vague momentary sense of "oh boy, here we go," and not much more than that. It was honestly just really satisfying and affirming in a way I completely did not expect today.
Plus I think the lecture actually went over pretty well on top of that! Lots of class participation and laughter at my jokes, and nobody complained at all that I went all the way to the hour. Thankfully, the other doctor in clinic picked up almost all my slack there, and I was able to finish checking out the few last patients without them having to wait too long.
Still! I'd rather not make a habit of that, ha!
i’m playing around with a new style rather than writing my midterm
My first attempt at drawing something in Clip Studio. A request from @fairfaxleasee - Fenris, wearing a stupid party hat because of Hawke.
Next attempt will be doing proper colours. I think I'm starting to figure this program out!
Full resolution image is, as always, on my Patreon! All my patrons can vote for what I'm drawing on my monthly live streams on Discord!
#LOOK AT THIS MAN AND HIS HAT. LOOK AT IT.#you can lead an elf to a party but you can't make him have a good time#god i love the gold on his shirt#anyway hawke gave him that hat and he hates it but also if you tried to take it off him he would fight you for it#he'll take it off when he's good and ready thank you#and don't you forget it#fenris#this guy i love him
Stack the Deck
(Maria Hawke/Fenris | 1,310 words | Fluff | no warnings)
Fenris could have caught Hawke before she reached the stairs if he’d really been trying, but that probably wasn’t the point.
Hawke had left the Hanged Man when he’d excused himself for a few moments, and he’d been chasing after her since he’d returned to the table to find her gone. He knew quite well what she was doing, because she’d spent the whole evening “accidentally” running her fingers over the inside of his wrist, whispering so close to his ear that her lips often skimmed the sensitive skin, and tilting her head back in the way that occasionally exposed the small red marks at the joint of her neck.
She’d also been cheating at cards to no avail, but that was nothing new. Fenris hardly noticed it anymore, since Hawke slipped the extra cards into his belt more often than not these days. As he jogged up the stairs to Hightown, he retrieved three from his waistband alone. He would almost certainly find more tucked away on his person when he finally reached her manor and disrobed.
Perhaps this sort of thing was odd to do with one’s lover, but Fenris didn’t especially care. He could hear her laughing from here, after all, and the sound of it lightened his steps. As he rounded the corner at last, he spotted Hawke at her manor door, stepping into the firelit foyer.
“Hawke,” he called, speeding up.
She held the door open for him, beaming across the courtyard as if she hadn’t seen him in days.
“Oh, dear,” she said, with not an ounce of concern in her voice. “You’ve caught me.”
Buds! Buds! Buds! And the polka dots of iesu christe, because no matter how many times i kill then they resurrect the next year; and the hostas come at last in the style of the aardvark, because they are late, shy, and ultimately a little disappointing in person; and the honeysuckle of the tumblr mushroom post, because it apparently cannot be killed in a way that matters.
…I want to just draw a fashion zine of just Miss Piggy, oh my god. she is so underrated and underutilized, where is my succession-like muppets satire thing LOL I want it so bad. let me do it disney call me pls
[Fic] Iron Bound [6/25]
Rating: G Characters/Pairings: Fenris/Hawke, Sebastian Word Count: 3.8k this chapter, ~96k total Summary: Fenris, captain of Starkhaven’s White Guard and the dearest friend of that country’s prince, has arrived in the kingdom of Kirkwall with a retinue of noble-born guards and a carriage brimming with lavish gifts. How else to win over the hearts of a suspicious mountain people who would rather break teeth on stone than accept the prince of Starkhaven stealing away their heir princess?
But stone is all they have in their kitchens lately, and gravel in their quarries and ice in their bitter rivers, and Starkhaven sits abreast the richest lea and moorland south of the Minanter.
And Sebastian Vael, the young prince of that country, needs a wife.
—
Summer came, and with it long, hot days. For two weeks they traveled through the Planasene Forest without detection. With the maps’ aid they moved most at dawn and dusk, when the sun was not so hot; at night they slept in caves and by rivers, alternating watches to listen for errant footsteps. Some evenings they set snares, when Hawke could coax them to set properly, but they rarely risked a fire and depended more on the dried, salted meat and fruit from the innkeeper’s larders. They filled their skins at waterfalls and clear rivers; they readied quickly in the mornings and bedded quickly at night.
On the whole they traveled well together, which surprised Fenris. He had known nobility who fainted at the sight of mice, who blanched at certain textures in a dancing glove; he had not known what to expect from a princess brought down from her mountain and betrayed. But Hawke kept pace with him without complaint, if not without effort, and did not ask him to slow even when the meals grew thin, even when she pulled her boots off at night to reveal blisters that bled when she touched them. Even when the heat became terrible—when even he, Tevinter-raised, grew hot—she could only be coaxed to stop when her red-cheeked face went suddenly white, and she had to wait with her feet in streamwater until she had recovered.
Instead she told him stories of Kirkwall’s foundries, of the ancient miners who had charted the tunnels and bored holes into the mountain itself. She hummed working songs as they walked, rhythmic and strong as axes striking stone. She showed him her tunic and her satchel, pointing out the difference between wool from a lowland sheep and that of mountain goats, and laughed when he could not remember and guessed wrong at her asking. The days went, all things considered, as well as he could have wished.
The bad nights, therefore, were made all the worse by contrast. He had slept so long alone in his private rooms in Starkhaven he had not realized the nightmares had not stopped.
—
ah shit they're gaining on us. we gotta jettison some weight. throw all those stolen boomerangs out we don't need em
On it, boss!
Bad news, boss!
Today is my BDay!
You can congratulate me by reblogging my art or leaving a tip on PayPal(essequamvideri88@gmail.com), since I'm saving up to finally switch from Photoshop to Clip Studio! Сьогодні мій ДН! Ретвітніть мої арти або привітайте копійчиною на ПейПал, якщо є бажання, бо я збираю на новий софт для малювання!