lucy, you're coming back to us too, right? to me?

i hope that the discussion about student protests does not get reduced to "privileged rich kids faffing around at an ivy league school." setting aside that tenuous claim, over the last week, protests have erupted over the entire country. a few days ago, riot police beat, pepper-sprayed, and arrested NYU faculty shielding students; protests started at the university of southern california when the admin cancelled the valedictorian's speech; encampments appeared at the university of southern carolina, UT dallas, the university of maryland, the university of new mexico, IUPUI, virginia tech, the university of virginia, the university of illinois, the university of north carolina — chapel hill, the university of pittsburgh, uc berkeley, the university of michigan — ann arbor, MIT, emerson, tufts, the university of rochester, rice, swarthmore, the new school, vanderbilt university, with students arrested; students protested or walked out at miami university, northwestern, temple, the 5 claremont colleges: pomona, pitzer, scripps, harvey mudd, and claremont mckenna, stanford, washington university in st louis, students were arrested at ohio state, students were confronted by riot police at cal poly humboldt, after which they occupied campus, students were arrested at the university of minnesota — twin cities, after which faculty walked out; and yes, there are protests at the other ivies, most notably yale, with students facing mass arests after encampments, but there is also an encampment at brown, protests appeared at cornell, princeton faculty issued a statement of solidarity while students are preparing an encampment, and harvard banned the undergraduate palestine solidarity committee. there are thousands of students who are protesting for palestine across the entire country, facing harassment, arrest, and suspension in return

shoutout to southern queers fr, holy christ y'all deserve recognition and celebration

show some appreciation and support for queers in the american south pls

“yay the bad kids can spend all their downtime doing mystery and relaxation rolls now that academics are out of the way!!” all i’m hearing is that murph has the opportunity to make riz’s arc this season even more heartbreaking as he continues to pour all his energy into mystery and helping his friends bc he simply cannot let himself relax or he’ll Die

also i have a feeling that murph is saving that rage token for a juicy plot/character moment and part of me hopes the npc he’ll mess up his relationship with is jawbone :) can you imagine jawbone finding out riz stole klck’s file from his office and, not realising that riz is this 👌 close to snapping, (rightfully) gets a little mad at him and riz bites back WAY too hard? and jawbone has to deal with the fact that, even though he had a right to be angry, he’s screwed up his chances of helping the one kid he’s been having so much trouble reaching?

the only thing worse than this to me would be riz snapping at his mom (unthinkable) or one of the bad kids (life ruining)

Okay but I’ve been thinking about the conversation Kristen had with Tracker in ep 11, specifically the part where she asks “what part of this seems unholy to you?” And like… bear with me here…. But Kristen was raised in the Helioic Faith which has a huge emphasis on damnation and hell. It was an off hand joke in Freshman Year that Kristen went to the Harvestmen meetings, and joked about being kept awake for hours and not getting enough food. We know she used to pray for hours and that there was a lot of emotional turmoil when she realized that she was gay. My point being that so much of Helioic faith is built around the promise of future pain, and on a personal level for Kristen it brought her a lot of emotional pain.

So it makes all the sense in the world for her to look at Tracker having a good time with her religion and wonder how that’s proper worship. I think it also puts into perspective Kristen struggling to connect with other deities. It must feel almost alien, after spending her entire adolescence struggling in the name of Helio, to meet gods that do not promise pain or struggle as a part of faith. No wonder she panics and throws up blocks between her and Cassandra that she must fight to overcome. Because struggling for faith is what she’s used to.

Also a lovely parallel to Adaine saying that sometimes she wished her new family would be just a little bit mean to her. She’s only known one way her whole life, and she knows it’s good that the pain is gone, but at the same time doesn’t know what to do without it.

Idk man for a silly dnd show where we get sexy rats showing hole, there’s a lot of depth and nuance to the story telling.

Something about how Kristen still hasn’t truly processed all her Helio being the chosen one stuff. Something about how Cassandra literally looks exactly how Kristen looked when she was with Helio. Something about how Buddy Dawn is exactly who she would’ve become if she hadn’t died and met Helio down to his mini having to exact same pose as freshman year her. Something about how she couldn’t even find comfort in Yes! or Yes? because they were just puppets of Sol to try and get her back. Something about how she did everything right and still got expelled because she left Helio. Something about how the only reason Ankarna fell as far as we know is Sol was greedy and didn’t want to share a domain. Something about how even though it’s been reshaped and regifted and refined her staff is still the same as when she fought for Sol. Something about how Kristen was the one to bring back the sun after 4 months of night. Doesn’t that feel special at all.

never let anyone tell you that trawling through mediocre victorian poetry isn't worth it. we just happened upon an absolute BANGER of a worm poem. go read it or else 🪱🪱🪱

never let being a girl stop you from being a boy

i was thinking “oh wouldn’t it be funny if buddy dawn also met helio, was supremely disappointed, and joined up with kristen and cassandra” and then i realised that he won’t do any of that. buddy dawn is not going to meet helio because buddy dawn is not his chosen one. buddy dawn was a teenage boy manipulated by his church since early childhood and now he is just a dead one.

Autophobia: an irrational, extreme fear of being alone

I can't stop thinking about how Riz stole from Jawbone.

This is the third iteration of Jawbone trying to connect with Riz emotionally, check in on the little guy, only for Riz to fully dodge the prying.

On the first day of school, Jawbone was pretty direct in trying to get Riz to open up. Needling him about Kipperlily, asking what is up with Riz, saying he's gonna "get" Riz eventually. Riz deflects by saying that he's an open book, and then refocuses on helping Kristen to get out from Jawbone's scrutiny.

Then in "Baron's Game," we get a manifestation of Jawbone in the twisted manor, telling a hidden Riz, "I just want to talk." It's not Jawbone himself, of course, but I take it both as a reflection of Riz's fear of opening up and as Brennan keeping the theme present in the story. Riz uses Misty Step to get away from the encounter.

And most recently, it's Brennan who introduces Jawbone into Riz's downtime. Murph doesn't go looking for him, so it adds to this sence of Jawbone being deliberate about connecting with Riz. And Riz once again not only dodges Jawbone's attempt to check in on him emotionally, but this time he uses Jawbone's care to get Kipperlily's file.

And I can't stop thinking about this last instance, because I feel like this is actually a significant betrayal for Jawbone.

Riz dodging his attempts at connection, brushing off his inquiries? Sure, that's all fine. And I feel like swiping literally anything else from Jawbone would be taken in-stride as "a rogue thing." They're at Aguefort, after all.

But Jawbone takes his job as student counselor very seriously. Part of that is protecting the students that come to him for help. And protecting those students means protecting their confidentiality. And it's in the middle of Jawbone trying to help Riz, and in the middle of Jawbone speaking some manner of defense towards Kipperlily ("she's not a bad kid")... THAT'S when Riz steals the file.

Riz uses the cover of Jawbone trying to help him in order to undermine Jawbone's protection of another student.

I want Jawbone to be angry about that. I think Jawbone deserves to be angry about that.

To be clear, I love this character beat for Riz. It fits him so well. And I don't think he personally saw it as a betrayal. This was him just getting the clues! That's what he does! My little task-oriented guy!!

I am hoping for there to be some fallout from this that forces Riz to finally open up. (And maybe that leads to learning about aromanticism/asexuality from Jawbone??? That may be a leap, but let a guy dream.)