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loquaciousquark · 2 years

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4-Sided Dive Highlights - Critical Role C3 up to E38 (Nov. 1, 2022)

Good afternoon, all! It's rainy and lovely here and this accursed week is finally over, so let's join Marisha, Sam, Matt, and Taliesin on this week's episode. Matt wins host & intros us from a Laudna-dark-dimension-themed spiel. "Taliesin Jaffe's current character, Ashton, got to argue with Taliesin Jaffe's old character, Percy, giving form to the internal strife between our old egos and the audacity of the now." Omar arrives to be held in the last segment and he remains adorable.

What the Fuck is Up With That? Matt got to be most of VM except for Scanlan, Grog, and Vax. Sam: "Percy is a dick!" Matt says him being in charge of the only source of residuum in the world and watching his weapons stretch across the world has stressed him out. Taliesin was very impressed with Matt's portrayal of both Percy and Delilah and agrees that with Delilah present and Percy as paranoid as he is, it all felt true to form. Matt says with all his trauma Percy would have let Laudna "go" (I think he means "stay dead" in this context). Sam: "Whitestone is a paranoid place."

Matt knew when Orym & Laudna were created that he might have to play C1 characters. He was nervous about it and hoped it wouldn't happen, but as the story leaned that way he knew he'd need to be ready. When they ended the episode going through the Sun Tree, Matt emailed Taliesin and asked him about where Percy would be in the world, his relationship with Keyleth & Whitestone, etc. All the players agreed they did NOT want to play their old characters alongside their new ones: "That would have been SO confusing." Matt knew they were excited about the mystery as well.

Keyleth and Percy are okay. She was distracted and had places to be. "When you're friends for a long time, you can agree a lot of the time and occasionally not agree." Sam: "Are they having an affair?" Everyone else, repulsed: "No!" Marisha: "They wouldn't be having an affair. Vex would be totally in on it, let's be real." Tal: That's true, yeah. She would instigate it, to be honest."

Matt wanted Keyleth to stick around longer, but it was juggling too many characters. Sam says the longer she's onscreen, the higher the likelihood she turns into a fish and dies.

Matt wanted the old characters to be able to help, but wants the new ones to understand they are still small fries & need to find their own solutions.

As son as Vex realized the connection, she was eager to help. Tal likes that Laudna never put it together who Vex was; it makes it almost more cruel.

Percy is very close to Gwendolyn because he sees a lot of his bad qualities in her and is trying to guide them in a better direction.

The Matilda/Laudna confabulation was Matt showing Delilah was having a hard time keeping the illusions together.

She was born Matilda Bradbury and changed her name to Laudna after dying and living alone in the woods for a long time. She was losing touch with who she was. She doesn't hate the name Matilda, but had just become something else.

All three of Marisha's characters have Timeless Body by complete accident. Sam: "Seems like a cry for help." Marisha, aggrieved: "It's really hard being a woman in Hollywood, slowly aging! Let me have this!"

Sam loved the moving buildings. Marisha thought it was crazy seeing them experience her backstory without her being there.

Marisha had a small living room set up in the area where she was watching offscreen. Dani tells us everyone at the table at the end were the same people who were either taken by the Iron Shepherds or who passed away. Fascinating! Scripted!!!!

Sam talks about having never died and left the table as a player. Scanlan was only dead very briefly, and Tary came on right away after Scanlan left the party.

If FCG dies, they'll just put him in neutral and roll him down a hill until he kickstarts again.

The creature Matt created was the Shade of Delilah Briarwood and she was a creature rather than a full PC/NPC.

When Pike said there was a chance Delilah was gone forever, Matt rolled behind the screen and knows himself whether she is dead forever. He refuses to say to preserve the mystery. Tal suggests throwing Laudna in an acid pit to be sure.

Travis is the worst at trying to catch Matt off-guard in revealing secrets. Matt has deliberately "woven an aura of confusion" around what he's told Travis and others to keep from revealing too much.

Pate is a reflavored imp from the Pact of the Chain warlock ability.

If you had to do a one-man show of a piece of media, what would it be? Sam: Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. He doesn't love the movie, but he's seen it so many times; Sam reveals he worked on a cruise ship when he was a teenager (!) and saw the same eight movies a thousand times. Bill & Ted, Memphis Belle, Adventures in Babysitting, Glengarry Glen Ross...incredible! Taliesin: SpaceCamp or Young Frankenstein. Marisha: Popeye movie.

Tower of Inquiry! Where did your character's names come from? We've had this question before, huh. "Matilda" came from a rabbit hole in Marisha's research, where she read about young girls who made silk flowers in the late 1800s in factories. They used a popular bright green paint (apparently a difficult color to manufacture) called Scheele's green which turned out to have arsenic in it, and one of the girls who died was called Matilda. FCG's name did in fact come from the article about how freshly cut grass screams. Ashton came from one of Taliesin's friend's names. Greymoore came from Tal's love of Dickensian slightly off-kilter names: Cratchet, Bumble, Greymoore.

Sam & Tal had a 2:1 with Matt prior to the first session, and Tal liked seeing Sam find the voice for FCG. Matt wondered if he should say something to Laura when she came up with the same voice later, but decided not to.

The EXU crew & Travis didn't have 1:1s because they already knew their characters from EXU & C1.

Favorite RP moments so far? Sam loved the dream journey with Imogen & giving couples' advice to the Green Seekers. Taliesin: loves his moments with Laudna & messing with Percy. Matt thought it was so fun to have such a mutual disdain & respect. Marisha: breaking the rock on the airship & all of the one on one conversations with everyone giving advice afterwards.

The Deep Dive! Laudna's mind was an extended skill check. Anything that fit with a heroic moment applied. If Orym hadn't found the tunnel under the house, they would have had to keep going through the forest with more Laudna memories, which would have drained them.

Tal really loved every moment of the Percy interactions & thought Matt did an amazing job. He loves playing Percy & would do it again anytime, but playing against him was satisfying too. He would have kept going for twenty more minutes if he could.

Scanlan would be okay with Laudna: she's weird & he likes weird. "He has a weird kink, but I don't know about the dead thing... You know, I've spent so much time with Scanlan at this point, I'd like to think no, but if I'm being honest..." Scanlan is probably splitting his time between Whitestone & Marquet.

Marisha didn't put any stipulations on Matt in terms of the resurrection ritual: "Whatever happens happens." She was willing to accept it if it went wrong, and Matt reminds us it got real close. She didn't want him to pad rolls. "Natural one..."

Eshteross knew the end was coming for him eventually. He got his affairs in order early & knew BH would be best suited for airship travel in the short term.

Ashton has worked really hard not to think about his parents until the Hishari helm made him face it. "You would be a coward and an idiot to not start figuring it out." He's only consciously & deliberately touched another member of the group for the first time in this last episode because everything hurts.

FCG was shocked by the discovery that he has a soul because suddenly he has a responsibility to it. It's easy to take care of other people when that's your designated role, but when you're forced to take care of yourself too, that's way harder. That FCG dying would be a loss for the world is more pressure. "It's a hard thing for them to swallow especially since they can't digest things."

Block break! Thanks a lot, tumblr. This didn't used to be a thing!

Having her friends fight Delilah for her felt like having your friends take care of you when you're way too drunk: "I didn't want anybody to have to do that."

Tower of Inquiry, Redux: Moments of greatest character impact so far? FCG: the flapping wings of the night. Laudna: dying. Ashton: getting out of the contract & everything that came with it. FCG: getting hooked up with the Changebringer.

Describe two characters stuck in an elevator. Hazel Copperpot & Keyleth are trapped; Hazel refuses to allow the doors to open for 15 minutes while she gets an interview. Nott & Taryon: Nott would think he's very handsome & then become instantly annoyed. Percy & Molly would have a terrible first 30 minutes but then be good friends. Gilmore & Essek: Matt does a little one-man-show where they appreciate each other's styles & comment on Essek's floating.

Sam approaches the Jenga tower with "the energy of a three-year-old." It's truly terrifying. Matt does still have pictures of key rolls on his phone. FCG has a new feature called Shared Exuberance that lets him get a little boost on a friend's natural 20. Cute name!

Post-Break Shenanigans: Hand to Hand Wombat! Our post-break game is a one I've never heard of. Players build a small tower of blocks while covering their eyes. One player is a secret tower saboteur. It's a good thing these rounds are 90 seconds long because this is CHAOTIC. Taliesin is the saboteur and is hilariously obvious about it. Votes are split between Tal & Sam and they all answer three questions at the same time as each other???? Why would you do this to me!!

Laudna is excited and happy to be back & is feeling a bit like a fever dream that she doesn't believe is real.

No way Eshteross could have survived alone. The BH could have maybe helped, but it still would have been close. He was doomed.

Ashton has kept the pain to himself for a long time and didn't know how to share it. Having it reveal in game the way it did was nice.

DON'T AT ME IF ANY OF THESE ARE WRONG, I DID MY BEST.

Game one, round two: wicked wombat wins again! This time Taliesin is clearly identified and eliminated. Victory to the others.

FCG likes that he's gotten to see other people's trauma, but it's been traumatic. He needs to bond with Laudna but is sad it will be so straightforward: "It'll just be like a waiting room. It'll be chips and snacks..."

Game two: Matt is a hideous liar, good Lord. Hilariously, he still wins the game despite being correctly eliminated in the first round.

Delilah was manipulating the shades of Laudna's parents.

FCG likes the Changebringer a lot, but Sam wonders if FCG needs something with more clarity and direction, like Catholicism.

Game three, round one: they get worse as this game goes on with no towers built. Tal is eliminated; I think the saboteur was Sam?

Marisha picked Pact of the Chain solely because she wanted to bring Pate to life.

Sam: "We can't play this game. It's killing me. I haven't touched this many humans in so long." Matt: "Building calluses already?" Sam: "My hand can't take this kind of strain."

Game three, round two: one tower built, no eliminations. Matt is convinced it's Marisha but Sam insists it was Tal.

FINALLY, I WANTED THIS QUESTION HOURS AGO: The thought process behind casting Compulsion on Laudna! Sam: "It was not a very good thought process, though, as Laura instantly shamed me. She was like, 'You know her history and you would do that to Laudna?' and I was like, 'Oh fuck, she's right. That's so stupid!'" Ashton seriously thought about cutting FCG off in the moment but didn't. Sam was just looking for spells that would help physically bring the soul back, and all of his healing spells were worthless. He was trying to avoid using Persuasion since they all know Imogen would be trying that one, and the DC increases every time the same skill is used. Matt talks about other ways to creatively use certain strengths in rituals like this, like Intimidating someone to return, or using Strength to help wake them up.

Taliesin loved Percy's office & would spend as much time there as he could. He wanted to see the streetlamps at night.

Game three, round three. Matt: "I told you it's Marisha!" Sam, desperately: "It is Marisha!!" All pretense is abandoned as she destroys their carefully built towers piece by piece. She was by far the best liar of the bunch! Amazing.

And that's a wrap! Is it Thursday yet?

#critical role #critical role spoilers #4 sided dive #4 sided dive spoilers #long post for ts #the last round of the wombat game is genuinely hilarious #also the wrap up song remains a bop #good job sam #talks machina

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boxfullaturtles · 4 months

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Now that we're entering into 2024, I'm asking some artists and writers that I follow:

1) What is the one piece you're most proud of from this past year?

2) What are some pieces that you would have liked more people to see? If you can include links, I'd love to go check them out!

3) What were your top three favorite pieces (art, comics, fics, etc) that someone else has made this past year?

(As always, no pressure to respond! Feel free to just ignore, or let me know if you'd rather I not send you these kinds of asks in the future.)

Oh man, let's see...

1) I think my fave turtle art I've done is this Residuum fan art. I mean, it's my banner haha. But the art overall that I am most proud of that I did this year, is this art of one of my friend's Splatoon OCs. I drew WATER and it turned out so friggin awesome! When it comes to writing, I'm just really happy with Mortal Shell! Really honored to work with two super awesome artists and I had a blast working on it!

2) Well I'd always love more attention on Adagio in Green heh,,, It's my post-movie recovery fic and I've put so much love into it. These boys are basically getting everything except a space arc lol

3) Only THREE!? Dang. Okay. Uh. Hm. Okay, first three that came to mind, in no particular order: Of course there's Residuum. Residuum, my beloved. Residuum, whom I dream about. Residuum, whose hand I ask for in marriage. Residuum that delights me so much, I cannot explain to you how much I absolutely LOVE Residuum. I am gay for Residuum. In the same vein, The Lemonade Leak occupies my mind so much, the terror of it consumes me. The storytelling and the twists are phenomenal and it drives me insane. Drives me absolutely mad, it's so damn good. Shit. Just picking three is too hard. I can't just pick three. There's so much I love that this fandom has created... Fuck it. We ball. Here's a handful of creators that make some REALLY awesome stuff that I love!

dandylovesturtles - writes awesome fics and has spectacular ideas! intotheelliwoods - delightful art style and 2 Arms Left has left me with severe emotional damage abbeyofcyn - the art the aaaarrrtttt oh my god, the expressions and use of color! and Krang Infection is phenomenal, I love it so much venelona-turtle-den - made the wonderful Ghost Leonardo, which ended with me having to explain Rise TMNT to my therapist lmao turtlesoupswimmer - The Lemonade Leak. I don't need to say anything else. I am inspired and I am wrecked. thedawningofthehour - The Dawning of the Hour series is slow burn torture and is one of the few things that have made me shout "FUCK YOU" and slam my laptop closed. sassatello - gorgeous art, love the style, love the colors, love the line art! I'm saving for a commission :3

And a special shout out to tmnt-event-blog for the Halloween event and the Window Decorating event! Looking forward to what other fun stuff they host!

anyway, i've definitely forgotten to mention some stuff but! this is the stuff that i thought of off the top of my head lol

happy new year everyone!

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stxrry18 · 5 months

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Welcome! This blog is not recommended for younger viewers. There will be warnings and discretions listed below.

~ 1: I work on these myself, and these WILL get messed up at some points. (My imagination gets WILD sometimes with these.)

~ 2: Lots of swearing, blood, gore, etc. It won’t be realistic, so if it bothers you, I will be making censored versions.

~ 3: I’m fine if you reupload some of these parts to TikTok, just give me credit. **IT IS NOT LIKE THIS FOR EVERY CREATOR.**

~ 4: Lots of inspiration comes from rottmnt-residuum, go check them out.

[Part 1] (Coming Soon)

~ I’ll try my best to post every week. When I’m able to get my schedule more stable, then I’ll start posting more.

#rottmnt #battleuntiltheend #rottmntbute #mikey2018 #donnie2018 #raph2018 #leo2018

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blorbologist · 1 year

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❔for the WIP asks :)

❔Choose a random WIP and talk about it.

Spins another wheel, how about the Filles du roi AU?

I've spent all but the last year-ish of my life in Québec, and grew up learning about these women in school every other year pretty much - there's something so... torn between tragedy and bravery about them. And, due to how rigorous Québec's churches were about documenting births, deaths and marriages, many of us from the province can trace our lineage to a few by name. I've been tempted to look into it, sometime.

And there's something fun, about taking historical AUs - usually set either in the UK or young USA - and making it mine. Making it about my family's history.

Because there's a lot about Nouvelle France that would mesh well with Vex and Vax - the prevalence of Métis kids, the coureurs des bois (fur traders), the allure of freedom vs the harsh realities of life here at the time. And of course how gender meshes into all of it, and Percy too.

Some lil tidbits:

Percival de Rolo is not actually his name. de Rolo is probably Vex and Vax's best take on whatever his actual last name is, so a Francophone version. Historically, a lot of Irish immigrants got Francophone versions of their last names, written down as best those writing their info down could get them!

The Briarwoods murdered Percy's family over 'residuum' - which is actually uranium glass. FWIW, the levels of radiation are very low, and it would certainly look magical, but it's very funny to me.

I? Might still have trans!Vax in this AU? but it would be very dicey - y'know, historical transphobia. And as a cis person I'm not sure I can tackle it delicately. But it would mean both of them could be Filles du roi, to get double the dowry, before Vax changes into his usual clothes as soon as he can with a huge sigh of relief.

I'm also unsure of how to tackle Elaina (probably not her actual name but what Syldor called her) - I'm white, and... gestures at the residential schools and similar atrocities committed and that continue to be committed against Native Americans. I might skirt around it mostly, but... given what happens to her and Byroden in canon, and what would be likely to happen historically (smallpox, raids, etc.) I. head in hands.

90% of this AU's time investment would be research to get everything as right as possible because I could Not handle fucking this up NGTRKJTJNHKTRN

Also Québec is just. Beautiful. Belugas in the St.Lawrence. the fall foliage. The sheets and sheets of fucking snow. Pair that with historical drama tropes (Shelter from the cold! Gossip! Oh No her Virtue!!) and it's a recipe for one hell of an AU

#ask game

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mysticalspiders · 2 years

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Magic in Exandria

My own take on magic in Exandria, building off of @occidentalavian’s post trying to connect together magic in Exandria and using the absolutely fantastic new wiki Encyclopedia Exandria.

Ether is pure, raw, magical energy/power; magical potential held within beings, magical objects, etc; roughly equivalent to the concept of spell slots. Avalir traded, gathered, and bartered for ether that is stored in the “etheric net” and that ether is released back into the continent of Domunus during the replenishment. It is implied that at least some of the ether collected is from magical objects (that Avalir traded for) that were broken down to extract the ether contained within them. Some of the ether collected also went to the Tree of Names. Ether also seems to be an idea and term from the Age of Arcanum as it is only mentioned in Calamity. It could be this is a magical scientific progression and idea that was lost during the calamity and an idea that is not part of modern Exandrian magical theory. Maybe magical energy is thought of differently in modern day Exandria, with different languages and theories and models of magic. Maybe the function of ether fundamentally changed during the calamity to make it a concept that does not apply to modern Exandria.

Aether is something that was in the astral sea and Cognoza that allowed Lucien and the Mighty Nien to change the environment through imagination, and seems to have something to do with potential and manifestation as it is referred to as “the aether of potential” and “manifestation enhancing aether.” Whether it is the same thing as or related to the Ether of Exandria is unclear but both seem to be potential magical energy but their functions and uses are different. Aether was crackling in the air of Cognoza while in the astral plane while ether seems to be found in objects and people. Maybe ether functions differently on different planes.

Ley Lines are invisible lines of arcane ley energy that flow around Exandria in a network. They affect the environment and the planes especially where they converge. Ley Lines move and change shape based on the seasons, years, and celestial alignments (winter’s crest, celestial solstice, apogee solstice, etc). How exactly ley energy and ether are related, if at all, is unclear. Avalir traveled along ley lines and the astral leywright that Laerryn created was attempting to create a new ley line that would go to other planes. Interestingly ley energy was able to be extracted using siphons during the Age of Arcanum to craft powerful magical items like the Vestiges. “They were used as a means "of transferring extremely powerful - raw, magical powers. They were placed strategically throughout the world's crust at these various nexus points as a means of creating extremely powerful relics.” “Raw, magical powers” is very close to the way ether was described as “raw, magical energy.” This supports the idea that the ley lines are full of ether and that ley energy is the same as the magical energy that is ether. However, this one line is the only instance I can find that connects the two and its from campaign one when the world building of Exandria was less fleshed out. I don’t think that Avalir is collecting ether from the ley lines themselves since it is mentioned that they barter for the ether and that items are broken down to extract it. It holds that it is extreamly difficult to extract the (possible) ether from the ley lines which is why the siphons were used to craft only the most powerful magical items, perhaps by the Gods themselves.

Residuum is the leftover residue of magical energy and can be used to enhance magic in a variety of ways. In modern day Exandria, the primary source of residuum is Whitestone due to the residue of magical energy left there after a violent battle between Pelor and Tharizdun. How residuum relates to ley energy and/or ether is unclear but given that Whitestone is also on the convergence of two ley lines and that residuum is residue of magical energy while ether is potential magical energy it seems likely there is a relationship to one or both. Sudde can be refined from residuum or azuremite but was first refined from residuum during the Age of Arcanum. Presumably there were other sources of residuum during the Age of Arcanum since the battle that created Whitestone and the residuum deposit there was yet to have happened. Perhaps battles from the Schism created other sources of residuum or were more common given the Prime Deities still waked Exandria (or even just from the large amount of arcane magic that was being used and created during the age). Given the fact that residuum was around during the Age of Arcanum seems to imply that it was some relationship to either ley energy or ether or both. To try to pull all the forms of magic together: if ether is potential magical energy residuum is the opposite, what is left after that magical energy has been used.

To summarize:

Ether is magical potential and residuum is magical residue. Aether could also be described as magical potential but it seems to at the very least function differently on the astral plane. It is possible that the ley energy of the ley lines is also ether but that connection is far from confirmed.

#critical role #exu calamity

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essayofthoughts · 2 years

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Hi! Just throwing this question out there for a few of the great writers I love and admire because I’m curious to know their opinions~ ^_^ Where do you think Whitestone would be in real life?

In real life as in our IRL world?

Percy is consistently characterised with an upper class British accent so the obvious shout would be somewhere in Britain. Taliesin-as-Percy also notes that the de Rolo family and much of the original population of Whitestone came from Wildemount, which is stated by Matthew Mercer to specifically have Prussian influences - which can be easily used to incorporate a version of Whitestone located in Britain. A lot of Britain's early history, before it became a world power, was characterised by it being repeatedly invaded* and a notable invasion and colonisation was by the Angles** and the Saxons. Saxons originated from Saxony which is an area of Germany and honestly Britain and especially the British upper-class have had a long history of relations with Germanic groups and especially royals. Hells that's part of what dragged everyone into the clusterfuck that was WW1.

So, in short, if we take Wildemount as fantasy Prussia, that would make Whitestone a most likely Anglo-Saxon-established settlement in Britain. As for specific location, I can think of two and these are less based on history and more based on how Whitestone is described in canon.

Firstly, the North of England. Yes, everyone knows that the North of England accent is very different to the Southern English accent (even if it is sadly not given as much representation in media as it should really have) but when you get to the upper classes - nobles socialise more with other nobles than locals of the area they dwell in. Rich people associate more with other rich people than with poorer neighbours. This is an established fact. The North of England is also known for a few minor mountains and hefty hills - the Pennines, Yorkshire Dales, Lake District, etc. - which suits with the Alabaster Sierras, and some of those are closer to the coast. Similarly, the North has a history of coal mining (and coal mine striking, go unions) which would be a possible parallel to whitestone the mineral - whitestone and refined residuum both have hefty magical properties which rather powers a magical world, while coal was for a long time the primary fuel source of much of the world before oil and natural gas were exploited for the same purposes.

The other possible location I can think of would be in Wales. Wales has been technically a part of Britain as a whole and under English rule for fucking ages, but has managed to maintain a considerable national identity despite both that and a lot of efforts to stamp out Welsh language, folklore, culture and the like. This kind of gels with the idea of Whitestone as a city state within the continent of Tal'Dorei, neighbouring the main Emon-run territory but separate too - even as we see it become more infolved over the course of the first Campaign. Secondly, Wales also has mountains! Thirdly, Wales also has coal mines! As well as historical precious metal mining to boot. Fourthly, there's some really niche local folklore and interesting religious history in Wales which I think would tie in well if you were to include the canonical Pelor history. Fifthly, finally.... Wales has some fucking great forests. The North of England has some cool forests too, but I've been up north and I've been to Wales and I remember the woods in Wales and the streams, waterfalls and all much more. The woods, I think, are important, because then you have a Parchwoods. Then you have a means of physical isolation just as in canon.

So yes, I would say if you're putting Whitestone in the IRL world you'd want to locate it in Britain, and if you were locating it in Britain I'd say either the North of England or in Wales, with a heavy leaning towards Wales.

I hope this helps!

*Anyone who tries to claim that Britain's superiority comes from any kind of national purity is fucking lying to themselves - we are a mongrel nation with a bastard language of kludged together parts; Britain's power comes from the fact we have the English Oak tree which enabled us to build fuckmassive boats well suited to troublesome weather and from that master the seas and commit a great deal of colonialism.

**The word "England" actually comes from "Angles" which which was combined with Saxon to create "Anglo-Saxon" and I'm pretty sure most people recognise "Anglo-" as a modifier - Anglophone, for example, meaning English-speaking.

#asks #anonymous #vox machina #percy de rolo #whitestone #fic things #critrole headcanons #cr headcanons

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hayleysayshay · 2 years

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Time travel AU?

Okay I’m just gonna assume VM cos it’s what I’ve posted before:

Okay what i think could be interesting is if Percy makes a deal with.... something... to stop himself triggering the trap in the sunken tomb, but instead he takes the mantle of the Raven Queen. Problem is that he isn't any good at it, perma-dies, and then VM fail to stop Vecna, and Percy has to accept that what happened in the sunken tomb happened for a reason and he has to let it and turn time back. How does he make time travel? I don't know, puts a lot of residuum into a big gun or something.

So whatever, VM Time Travel Modern AU with magic!

I feel like Percy who would be the type of protagonist to just invent time travel.

Percy has been working with Cassandra for years, trying to invent a time machine to stop the murder of this family by the evil Briarwoods and Ripley

He succeeds and i feel the machine is strapped to his wrist or something, and goes alone whilst Cass stays behind. He manages to do something basic like warn his family and tip off the police and then the fire (?) doesn’t happen

But doing this was very bad and basically released Orthax who like, feeds on the time warp shit

Percy struggles to get back to his own time and ends up in the medieval period, and meets Keyleth who is a magic user who lives in the woods

They’re surprised by this random future traveller, but also the time tears mean that bad things start happening. Think Vex and Vax get involved in a fight with Orthax and are like ‘fuck this we’re going with you’

They manage to jump into the pre-modern Victorian esque period where they meet Scanlan, Pike and Grog, who are all performers in a travelling circus. I think they'd use guns, Percy and Keyleth stumble into them trying to fight Orthax, they're the only people who don't run away and try and help fight Orthax.

They follow Orthax to hundred years in a dystopian hellscape future that Percy caused by time travelling. Vex, Vax and Taryon are there. It’s basically a hell scape with the twins leading a band of survivors who try and stave off attacks from Orthax who feeds off people’s misery. Taryon still builds ruidmentary robots to help out with survival etc.

Eventually they realise and meet Orthax and old!evil! Percy who basically has combined with Orthax, and the time jump Percy made she became corrupted, evil Percy is basically future Percy.

Evil Percy shows Percy the universe where he gets to live with his family who are alive and Percy is tempted but with the power of his new time displaced friends he decides he can’t be tempted by this new world and stabs his old self in the chest or something and then the rest of VM have a fight with him. This is the only universe where Percy fights against Orthax because in this set of universe he managed to make friends.

Basically they win but another Orthax may come about because everyone is time displaced so he takes everyone back to their timelines. Vex and Percy had a lol something going on but agree they can’t make it work with their displaced times.

Percy returns to his time to be with Cassandra

The pair agree to stop being hermits and make friends and live their lives and moves on, maybe Percy wants to go get his degree in physics. He then decides to destroy his machine because it’s too dangerous

At university he bumps into modern versions of one of his friends because it was fate

#critical role #vox machina #I was going to make something more normal but this just got weird #I was thinking of Dark my fave time travel show so #its a mess but it makes sense in my head lol

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scarredthought · 6 months

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Erfahrung als Vernarbung. (Zur Methode).

Die Erkenntnis richtet sich nicht von selbst, quasi eigenständig und nur durch die Selbstbewegung der allwissneden Vernunft auf ihr Versöhnungstelos. Das hat die Aufklärung der Neuzeit gezeigt: Sie ist dem Anspruch des Objekts nicht gerecht geworden, hat es auch nicht hinreichend versucht. Das Telos ergibt sich erst dort, wo die Erfahrung lebendig wird. Das wird sie nur dort, wo das Subjekt sich fragt, was mit der Erkenntnis zu machen sei.

Etwas von dieser vergangenen, lebendigen menschlichen Erfahrung steckt noch in dem aus der abgeflachten Wissenschaftssprache stammenden Begriff des "Lerntransfers". Diese in der Schule zu erlernende "Kompetenz" zeigt den Stand der Verflachung zeitgenössischer Didaktik, und verweist dennoch als Residuum auf das Modell des Erfahrens, das hier gemeint ist. Der Lerntransfer funktioniert wie der Vergleich (Metapher, etc.) in der Literatur: Gemeinsamkeiten werden erkannt, Brücken werden geschlagen. Das ist Vernarbung auch: Brückenbau.

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volcanicsleep · 9 months

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slim pickings for hug takers over here

#rottmnt #residuum etc.#magma.jpg #2 arms left #2al #rottmnt april #rise april #rise leo

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autumnhortsnort · 10 months

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quick and dirty, i just wanted to finish the concept, im going to call them duckweeds

#residuum #residuum etc.#creature concept #a mother duck and her weedlings #man i don't want to think about whats gonna happen to these little guys #residuum concept art #ahsart

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ozbian · 3 years

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A running list of things I really hope to find out about this Thursday:-

What did Dariax forget about from the night before, that Dorian was upset about in episode 1?

What happened between Mister and Dariax in episode zero?

Are any of Opal's other family occasionally incorporeal / magic, or is the shouting for food etc thing just Opal being opal? Or did Ted respond to her shouting for something in Session Zero?

Why was Poska herself targeting Lothal's townhouse, was there something particular about that family, other than being gentrifiers?

How was it for Orym/Liam, playing the only Neutral in a sea of Chaos, and then the only Good in a sea of Neutrals (fy'ra rai excepted)

Were Poska's people the ones who killed the sailors on the Crown ship, or was that the cloaked guys? How many groups in Emon were after it?

Who was that planar being using Poska and the Nameless to get through the weak places in Emon? Were the residuum, ankegs and Crown going to be used in a ritual?

Who fucked over Dariax so bad that he is so cautious about working with criminails

#critical role #exu #cr exu #is it thursday yet??????#cr rewatch #...doriax apparently

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gaawachan · 4 years

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Caleb, Trent, Trauma, Abuse

So, three things before I start.

The first is a trigger warning. I’m not saying anything explicit but I don’t want to hurt anyone. There will be statements on abuse (emotional, physical, sexual), trauma, avoidance/deflection, etc. Please don’t read this if you think you might find it harmful.

Secondly, I don't consider myself even remotely qualified to talk about this but I'm concerned because I don't see people examining it much, and I think it's important.

Thirdly, here are some time-stamps from CR2 and Talks Machina that I will be using in this post: CR2 40: 2h35m - Caleb indicates that Fjord should "do what he has to" with regards to Avantika. CR2 41: 2h30m25s - Fjord and Caleb talk about Avantika CR2 43: 2h37m16s - "This is going to be very hard for Fjord" "he has compromised himself" TM C2E111 - New Homes and Old Friends: 53m20s - "Caleb understands that he was abused and manipulated." TM C2E111 - New Homes and Old Friends: 1h26m45s - "it was subtly encouraged, suggested, or baked into them" that the Blumentrio were to use sex in the name of empire. I believe there was a previous Talks Machina in which Liam stated that Caleb was trained "to be charming" and maybe that there was an occasion where he didn't think that weaponizing sex was a big deal but I can't find those. If someone can find that I'd like to add it to this post.

...

Let's talk a little more about Trent, Caleb and the Blumentrio, trauma both stated and unstated, and abuse.

I have seen a lot of people say that Trent Ikithon was mostly emotionally manipulative, treating the trio as if they were special and therefore he wasn't "overtly" physically cruel or abusive. I think that this is a deeply flawed understanding of how Trent goes about abusing people. Certainly, Ikithon starts with "you are special even as you come from the unwashed masses," "I will make you strong so that you can serve the empire you love," "the pain I cause you is for your own good," etc.

However, this does not boil down what he does to being purely emotional manipulation- that is the means to the end of forcing the children to be complicit in their own physical and sexual abuse. Let's use what we know of the Residuum mutilation to examine how it is that Trent treats the Scourger children. I am of the opinion that even without manipulation, the things Trent made them do were things that children are not really capable of giving informed consent to, so when I use the word consent, keep that in mind. 1. Trent frames everything he does as being for them and the empire, simultaneously devalues their roots while uplifting their work, and after doing so gets the children to "consent" to do what he wants- in this case, physical mutilation of their bodies. 2. However, in the event that they withdraw their consent, he ignores them. We know this because of Caleb's nightmare of being strapped down wherein his explicit withdrawal of consent was disregarded.

The Residuum implantation in and of itself is a gross violation of bodily autonomy, and it always had an element of "does this remind you of anything?" baked into it. I think Caleb's very obvious trauma with respect to how he obtained the Residuum implants is indicative of how Trent "taught" them in general. First, he gets them to agree via emotional abuse. Then, if they wavered, he forced them to comply either through physical restraint or magic. And of course, the longer they endure this, the more compliant they get over time, be it with respect to his direct abuse of them, or his having them abuse others (a little bit of torture, a little bit of murder). As we do not have the full details of the sequence of their training progression, it is difficult to say, but I am quite sure that Trent used the same methodology he did with the Residuum to break the three in BEFORE he had them start victimizing others.

On the statements and behavior of Astrid, Eadwulf, and the Rosohna Scourger. The Rosohna Scourger was interesting because she did not mince words about what the training had done to her; her heart was "beaten out of her." Astrid and Eadwulf, being in their mid-thirties, are outright terrified of Trent, with both of them desperately avoiding confrontation at the dinner in different ways: Eadwulf by keeping his mouth shut on most things that seem potentially unsafe to speak on, and Astrid by parroting what she thinks Trent would want her to say. Interestingly, Astrid also did this when Caleb visited her earlier, suggesting that she has deeply internalized Trent's world view at least in some respects, but none of this has eased their fear of what Trent will do to them if they say or do something he disapproves of and one must wonder if it is punishment or modification they fear.

It should be pointed out that the scourger training even before Caleb broke consisted of active participation and experience. The Blumentrio actively tortured people, they actively murdered people. This serves multiple purposes: it breaks them down so they feel like they can't leave, it simultaneously traumatizes them and makes them think their trauma is invalid or deserved, and it desensitizes them and makes them more compliant. It makes them feel like abusers, twisting blame onto them. We can see this in all of the scourgers - "you don't know what I've done," "I am a disgusting person," "I'll go to work if I have to," "It doesn't matter because I wanted to do it when I did it."

Caleb is just starting to process the fact that he and his friends are victims, particularly with respect to the Residuum, but he ISN'T to the point where he is of this opinion with respect to the whole of their training and he still chafes at the idea of thinking in any way that would deflect blame for what happened from himself. I think that there is no clearer example of this than Caleb's statements over the course of the series regarding sex and relationships.

Caleb's relationships with Astrid and Eadwulf were very obviously romantically charged. During the MN's interactions with Avantika, Caleb encourages Fjord to "do what he has to" with respect to Avantika, but later seems to regret it, expressing concern for Fjord's emotional well-being. Caleb also struggled for a long time with not being transactional and manipulative in his interactions with others, weighing the need to survive and fulfill his goals vs his desire to do better. Caleb often makes flippant off-hand remarks about sex, and while it could be argued that this is just Liam/Caleb being silly, it could also be viewed as deflection.

I think that Caleb is currently in a state where he is just barely starting to come to terms with the abuse that was dealt to him as a child and that he was forced to participate in, and considering how damaging that trauma has been, it could be argued that the avoidance of admitting that there was (at best) dubious sexual aspects to his scourger training is an attempt to avoid pain. I want to be very clear here. Even if the Blumentrio did not even once physically engage in sexual acts/seduction as children during one of their "lessons" on how to complete their missions, the very suggestion that their sexuality is a weapon to be used in their work is sexually abusive to these manipulated teenagers. Caleb recognizes that such a thing IS hurtful... when it comes to the adult Fjord. Not himself. But not addressing it is doing more damage; it's going to interfere with Caleb's ability to have healthy relationships in the future, and this is clearest in his dynamic with Essek.

I think that Trent overestimates how much of his own world view Caleb has internalized long-term, as evidenced by his brazen flippancy about Caleb's parents, but I fear that on this point, Caleb HAS internalized the idea that he should use his sexuality in such a way. That THAT is one of the most deeply ingrained behaviors that Caleb slipped into after meeting Essek and clearly hasn't even begun to question or shy from is, I think, evidence in and of itself that next to the murder of his parents, THIS is the thing that Caleb will struggle the most to address about his traumas. It indicates experience. It screams of abuse.

It is obvious at this point that Caleb and Essek are attracted to each other, but they got off on the wrong foot right from the start. Framing their interactions as doing "favors" for one another, the overt manipulation and the ease with which it is done is going to have to be addressed at some point if only to preserve friendship. In order to do that, I think Caleb is going to have to face that aspect of his trauma, and I do not think he can do that alone.

I think the saddest thing about it all is that in-game, none of the characters seem willing to sit down with Caleb and have frank talks about his Scourger training and what it entailed. To a degree, it's understandable; they're probably worried about hurting him by doing so, and they've seen him deflect questions out of fear of judgment, self-loathing, and discomfort. But Caleb is already hurting and struggling to process his past by himself. If the 8th floor is a sign of anything, it's that Caleb (like all people) is not going to be able to fully come to terms with his trauma by himself. Worse still, I am concerned that if it ever does come up, it will be between Caleb and either Astrid/Eadwulf, and they will end up reinforcing the idea that it was "no big deal" to each other.

From a meta perspective, I worry that it never will be addressed at all. The cast may not be comfortable with going there in detail; I already got the impression from Liam in Talks Machina that he was struggling to figure out how to phrase the sexual exploitation of the Blumentrio without it being too overt - "it was subtly encouraged, suggested, or baked into them" - as though he couldn't decide what was most appropriate to say. And there has been no indication that anyone else in the group in-game even suspects such a thing.

I do fear that if Caleb cannot at some point acknowledge that his abuse is undeservedly hurting his ability to connect honestly with people that he is genuinely attracted to and, as Liam says, "wants to be with," he may not be able to maintain a romantic relationship.

...

Anyway, that's all I've got for now. Here's a question to ponder. Which character do you think Caleb should show the 8th floor of the tower to first? If you could pick which characters Caleb would open up to with respect to his trauma, which would it be? Veth? Beau? Caddy-kins? Essek? Also, let me know if there’s anything I could add to this to improve it. :)

#critical role #critrole #critrole spoilers #caleb widogast #trent ikithon #astrid #eadwulf #eodwulf #scourger #Essek #essek thelyss #Abuse #trauma #talks machina #triggering content #shadowgast

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sun-death · 2 years

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[T]he points of disjunction on the body without organs form circles that converge on the desiring-machines; then the subject—produced as a residuum alongside the machine, as an appendix, or as a spare part adjacent to the machine—passes through all the degrees of the circle, and passes from one circle to another. This subject itself is not at the center, which is occupied by the machine, but on the periphery, with no fixed identity, forever decen-tered, defined by the states through which it passes. Thus the circles traced by Beckett's Unnamable: "a succession of irregular loops, now sharp and short as in the waltz, now of a parabolic sweep," with Murphy, Watt, Merrier, etc., as states, without the family having anything whatsoever to do with all of this. Or, to follow a path that is more complex, but leads in the end to the same thing: by means of the paranoiac machine and the miraculating machine, the proportions of attraction and repulsion on the body without organs produce, starting from zero, a series of states in the celibate machine; and the subject is born of each state in the series, is continually reborn of the following state that determines him at a given moment, consuming-consummating all these states that cause him to be born and reborn (the lived state coming first, in relation to the subject that lives it).

Gilles Deleuze & Feliz Guattari, Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (Trans. Robert Hurley, Mark Seem, and Helen R. Lane)

#gilles deleuze #felix guattari #anti-oedipus #capitalism and schizophrenia

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beetlemancy · 3 years

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Hi so having seen some of your posts on Caleb's trauma I wanted to ask what your view is of people arguing that what Liam said about the rooms in the tower is wrong. That actually keeping memories like the residuum chamber is just self-harm and not healing. That it isn't a healthy way to process trauma. Cause honestly if I hadn't read meta done by you and other critters I might have agreed with them.

Hmm. If I understand your question, I think you’re asking specifically about the people who disagree with me and a few others of us - and aren’t asking necessarily about why I think differently. If anybody else wants to read those, uhhh. I dunno, probably just search ‘caleb’ on my blog and ‘characters with trauma’ or just ‘trauma’ on luckthebard’s page - Luck’s breakdown of trauma and EMDR is especially a good read.

Okay so, back to the people disagreeing. Their opinions are valid and might very well be exactly how their trauma works. Maybe they’ve had really horrid experiences with therapy that utilized some kind of retrospection on their trauma. That’s more than okay for them. They’re allowed to think differently.

Its the people who are making maintagged posts, sending anons, etc saying, ‘No, you are wrong, Liam is wrong, and I will fight this corner to the detriment of everyone around me.’ Those are the people who I can’t stand and who need to shut up already.

There’s also quite a lot of people who clearly DON’T understand trauma (outside of, like, 2020 trauma) who are used to seeing typical media about it and are drawing their conclusions and their worldviews from those false sources. This leads to quite a lot of ableism involved in their ‘takes’ regarding characters who have trauma, and especially Caleb as Liam enjoys exploring the darker, less glorified, less digestible traits of trauma/neurodiversity. Its okay to not fully understand a topic, but when people are saying ‘hey, i relate to this, this scene and this character and how this character handles their shit is really important to me and how i handle MY shit’ then maybe take a fucking step back?? There’s also, like, you know. People who enjoy shitting on Liam characters and who jump at the mere wafting smell of a reason to do so. Many of my untagged “chipmunk” posts have more to do with my personal feelings on the topic, and my personal feelings on Caduceus. This, to me, is separate from how I feel about people who overall disagree with my take on things. As long as they let me live, I’ll let them live.

#cr discourse #cw trauma #tw trauma #Anonymous

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