These freaks are not studying (good for them)

Closeups below :)

this is such a simple but good bad kids friendship moment to me. fabian being the first one to say hi to gorgug when he shows up in the middle of the investigation, followed by fig. gorgug saying hi but communicating that he doesn’t want to talk & them both not understanding but going “okay.” gorgug saying hi to riz as a form of acknowledgement even though he’s in full blown investigative mode & probably hasn’t realized gorgug is there yet. gorgug feeling comfortable enough to just put on his headphones & unwind while sitting there with his friends. they’ve come so far from freshman year ❤️

im so normal about riz gukgak looking back at moments where he felt there was unfairness, and what he sees is himself back in middle school, lonely and friendless, desperate for connection, but he also sees himself now, so desperate to hold onto the friends he has made that he’s pushed them to do things they didn’t want to do just so he could stay with them.

something something fabian immediately noticing when riz disappears something sonething fabian asking riz for advice about the party something something riz noticing the time for the party because fabian is passionate about it something something they are best friends and im sobbing your honor

All of the bad kids guys (+ Ragh) are in a QPR and all the bad kids girls are in a QPR

The guys QPR is basically just an insane bromance polycule with a sliding scale from “bromance in an insane platonic+ way” to “bromance in the literal bro platonic romance way” where gorgug and riz are at one end and Fabian and Ragh are at the other lol

The girls is just deep love and care for each other and wanting to protect each other and be weird together lol

jumping off the back of the post about genres of song lyrics, another thing about tmbg's lyrics in particular is that even when they write about pleasant themes, they still manage to frequently do so through a sinister lens:

the experience of having children and looking after them:

a nice little nightlight protecting a child muses on the shortcomings it would have outside its assigned responsibility:

fantasising about getting high in the park with your crush:

"friends of lava" new lgbtq+ euphemism

the tragedy of the rat grinders wanting to be heroes before this all started and the bad kids being forced yet again to save the world because no one else can or will. the tragedy of lack of choice.

The Bad Kids and their taste in music:

Gorgug: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - Gorgug will listen to anything and everything. I feel like at the start of freshman year he would definitely be listening to more of the angsty stuff (evanescence no doubt…) but as he gets more into music with Fig i feel like he’d just be listening to anything he can get his hands on and finding something to love about every song he hears. He would find the most obscure bands and by merch for bands that literally no one has ever heard of, but he would also love a lot of mainstream music as well. Nothing is beneath him, he has respect for all of it. (basically he’s fantasy james acaster). I also feel like he would be the kind of person to change up what he’s listening to depending on who he’s with? And he would definitely have hundreds of playlists made to fit whatever other people want to hear for when he’s allowed to choose the music. He would also probably be the only one whos allowed to choose the music when the bad kids all hang out just because hes the only one with music in common with each of the bad kids, so they know all their favourite music will be included. But when it’s just him alone he’s for sure just playing all his music on shuffle, jumping through genres like nobody's business, and everyone else thinks hes crazy for that.

Fig: definitely starts freshman year with a complicated relationship to music. I like to think that pre teifling discovery she would be very into pop music - but not just whatever was on the radio. I think she would have still taken pride in having great music taste, it just would have been more poppy and cheerful than what she’s starts listening to at the start of the freshman year. She would then make the transition to punk music and i think she’d be one of those ‘i was born in the wrong generation’ people for a little while. But later on, when she starts becoming more comfortable in herself, and she starts to forgive her parents, i think she’d become nostalgic for the music that used to mean so much to her, and she’d start introducing back into her playlists. (She would LOVE punk covers of pop songs). I think for Fig sharing her favourite music with other people would be a really big deal. Like I think she would always be trying to get people to listen to obscure punk bands, and would be doing it in a kind of jokey way, but once she actually starts to trust you and form a bond, thats when she starts recomending her real favourites, and thats when it becomes more serious. She would for sure be the kind of person to take it personally if you dont like her favourite song. (for this reason Gorgug is her favourite person to share music with) She would absolutly LOVE introducing Ayda to all her favourite bands. Ayda is the only person who can tell Fig she doesn't like her music without it being an issue.

Kristen: Like Fig I feel like she would end up with a very complicated relationship to music. She would start the year listening to nothing but helioic music - she would know all the 'cool' helio songs, as well as the cheesy kids songs they sing at camp, and the more traditional songs they sing at church. For a long time that would be the only music she knew. As she starts to lose her faith, she would probably just stop listening to music entierly, finding it hard to figure out what she actually likes to listen to. When she eventually starts listening to music again she would 100% be the kind of person to find a new song, fall in love with it, listen to it a million times, and then never listen to it again. She goes through songs quicker than she goes through new deities. She is consantly asking her friends to recomend her new music because shes sick of everything shes currently got downloaded. I think sometimes she would get nostalgic for the old helioic music, but then she'd listen to .5 seconds of a song and realise just how god awful it really was and it would leave her feeling just really lost and dissapointed for a while. It would be just another thing from her childhood that has lost all of the usual warmth nostalgia brings and instead just leaves a sour taste in her mouth.

Riz: Riz would start the year claiming to be one of those people who just 'isnt really into music'. He doesnt have time to be listening to music when there are so many mysteries to solve. He would probably tolerate other people playing music around him but probably wouldnt enjoy it. Fig would be absolutly outraged to hear this and would make it her mission to find something he likes. She goes through like every genre she can think of and hes just indifferent to all of it, then one day gorgug would reccomend something really bizzare and obscure (like fantasy drowned shrimp) and Riz would just lose his mind over it, just immediatly obssessed, and Fig would just be absolutly baffled. (i can also low key see him really like fantasy Canterbury Scene, specifically fantasy Caravn)

Fabian: I'm sorry I feel like I'm always shitting on Fabian but he would absolutly have the worst taste in music out of all the bad kids. He grew up on a combo of weird elven music, sea shanties, and whatever was playing on the fantasy radio. I fully believe he would be the kind of person who couldnt tell the difference between good music and shitty cash grab music if it hit him in the face. This would cause endless arguements between him and Fig where he would defend his taste in music to the death while Fig gets more and more frustrated trying to show him actual Good Music only to be met with complete indifference. HOWEVER this would completely change in sophmore year, after his journey of self discovery. He would have to learn more about music to facilitate his dancing and i feel like he'd have like a full on epiphany of like 'oh that music really is shit...' He would stubbornly not admit it to Fig, just discreetly ask Gorgug for some recomendations of good High Elven music that he can dance to.

Adaine: Similar to Kristen and Fabian in that she only ever listened to what her parents played her. She grew up exclusivly on Classical Elven music. I feel like she probably wouldnt even really know that there was other music out there? Or maybe she was aware but just felt decision paralysis trying to find something new to listen to. I think her transition to other music would be very slow, and she would always use Classical as her background music for when shes studdying. I can see Adaine loving songs with complex lyrics (I'm thinking fantasy Mitski, and fantasy Hozier type lyrics.) Then one day shes invited along to a cig figs gig and she would discover a whole new style of music and fall slightly in love. Punk deffinitly wouldnt be her favourite genre, but it would be so perfect for the days when shes feeling particularly bad about her shitty childhood, and Fig would absolutly support that. Adaine definitly wouldnt like anything too heavy, the proper loud, screamy songs just a bit too jarring, so Fig would take the time to hand pick the most low key punk songs she can find for Adaine. (she has definitly made her more than one mix CD, Adaine treasures every single one)

Enough perfect mom Amanda Grayson. It’s time for middling mom Amanda Grayson who loved all her kids but was never close enough to any of them and is somewhat idealized in their heads because of it. Amanda Grayson who seems great in comparison to Sarek but is actually, when you look objectively at it, strangely absent: A mother who is always facing away from you, who you have to call but who always has a smile ready for when you do. Amanda Grayson who contrasts Sarek’s overbearing rules and expectations with an almost hands-off approach that felt like a refreshing reprieve at the time but as her children grow they realize was also hurtful in different respects. Amanda Grayson who loves her children almost as much as she loves her husband. A mother who listens when you complain about dad, who agrees and nods and pets your hair and says “I’m sorry, honey” but nothing ever comes of it and at a certain point you both know nothing’s ever going to come of it. Amanda Grayson who pretends she does not see it. Amanda Grayson who is too human for any of her children to let themselves love. And because she’s human maybe she resents them for it a little bit [do you think your mother knows you love her? Did you ever say it? Do you think she ever wanted you to? Do you remember when she held you and repeated it over and over again and told you she wouldn’t tell your dad if you said it just once and you answered her with silence?] And because she’s human she loves them anyway. She knows anyway. She can hear it even in the silence. /pos

One of my unpopular opinion is that we have been robbed of jiang cheng and jin zixuan' friendship

Just watched boys night. Will never be normal again.

tell me about drawtectives. what is this little show.

oooooh my god oh my god. they are my guys. so.

drawtectives itself is a youtube series created by julia lepetit on Drawfee. it's an rpg mystery show– s1 is a murder mystery, s2 is just a mystery– that doubles as an art challenges show. she draws all of the backgrounds and npcs and most of the assets (the 'cutscenes', you could call them) and then the team gets together, knowing absolutely nothing besides what julia's asked them to prepare, and does some funky improv to create a very funky storyline.

there are 3 players and one dm; the pcs are rosé, york, and grendan/grenda/grandma/gma, and the Big NPCs are Jancy True (s1/s2) and Eugene Finch (s2) and they're, in their own words, a found family, so. beloved. their backup plan if all their jobs fail is to move out east and open a bookstore. jancy and eugene have fully accepted their titles as mom/ancestral ghost and son despite meeting each other likely once before the drawtectives dragged them together. overall though if i had to summarize, it's a bunch of friends getting together, making a bunch of puns, appreciating julia's art, and laughing together. the vibes are 10/10 so loving. in writing the transcripts i've written (Karina laughs) (Nathan laughs) (All laugh) So Many Times it's just fun.

so there's three pcs. first one we meet is gyorik 'york' rogdul, who's a half-orc come to the city to learn about his mother's culture. he is the character we have by far the most lore for– if I compiled all the lore I had about the Northern Tribes and Wild Trains, I think the document would be multiple pages. he's also illiterate, which was an interesting decision for the english major of the group to make (in other words, York Will Not Be Illiterate For Season Three bc Y'all Cannot Read) and morally gray if you think about it too hard (he killed his own brother) but yknow he's hot so it's okay. they're all hot any crimes committed are okay. he's also aroace (confirmed by the player, which is!! vibes!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TELLING ME @axolotllee!)

rosé is the Human Rogue and the youngest of the party; her main trait in s1 was Millennial and she Dealt with that. she, in contrast with York, has so little lore we are scraping the barrel. she was a thief, then left everything about that life behind and changed her name to rosé when she went to work for jancy. she lied on her resumé. she knows how to sew; she's sewn Pockets of Holding on most of her clothing. she bonded with a stray cat that lived outside her last apartment. she's three credits short of graduating college. she's, in addition to being a drawtective, jancy's intern, and cried when jancy got her a cupcake. she won't tell her best friends when her birthday is or where she goes to school or what her last name is. that's all we know about her and i love her and she could probably kill someone as she has multiple knives on her person and does not use them. she's bright and funny and can be pretty dark but really does find the humor in it which is. wonderful.

so grendan highforge starts out as The Snobby Rich Boy which. already love the trope something Always Happens To Them if they're a pc. then through s1 they make an offhand comment about a character (faucon, whose name is pronounced 'falco') and how if her name was pronounced that way it'd be grenda. faucon asks how they feel about it. they are caught very off-guard by that and then ask to be called it for the next hour or so. then the next witness calls him gma, and then grandma, and then. yeah she realizes she's genderfluid. and he uses any pronouns and has a full beard and also wears a romper and loves dogs and the player is the Most Experienced TTRPG-er so through maybe using resources a bittt grandma is the most observant character of all of them. he's also a dog walker and a lightweight and does canonically have druidic magic though that was Not Touched On Much and showed up to their first day on the job slightly stoned (they did stop doing that though.) she carries around a box to make the height difference (york is 7'. grendan is 4'. rosé is 6'. you can see the formatting issue) slightly less difficult. she doesn't know how rhinos reproduce but has had a fascination with them since a police chief said one might've committed a crime. i think they could kill someone by talking too much but they don't actually have the strength or dex to do Jack Shit.

and jancy true is the head pi (a great many of the characters are puns and i love it so much) and is there to make sure things get done and clues don't get missed. she has a cochlear implant and uses a cane and solved s1 just by Reading The Paper and hearsay. she solved about half of s2 before Someone Stopped Her. she says hello children to the drawtectives and it is such a fond thing. eugene is. a guy who i love. julia started the show thinking he would be some mysterious character to join them and then made the wonderful improv decision– avoiding having to do npc-npc conversation– of saying 'yeah eugene is spinning a camera on its stand' and rosé just says so gleefully. 'guys. i think he's stupid.' and he became their son. his character is a lot of The Plot of s2 so i don't want to get into it too much but. jancy and eugene my beloved.

they're just. such a family. to quote nathan (grenda's Player) from the s2 talkback: "That's one of my favorite things about this show, is we came in with these vague ideas for characters, and just playing them with each other, they became friends and became better people as a result of knowing each other and solving mysteries. ... Like, we all kind of independently made our characters people that either were distant from their families or, you know, just had tenuous connections to other stuff, and so these are, like, the realest connections they have in their lives."

and then karina (rosé) about 10 seconds later: "Yeah, we love a found family where they bond over just being the worst."

god. them. they're chaotic and loud and feel very real to me. they have excitement and are pretty bad at social cues but they love each other and want to die together because they would hate too much to be separated. i could articulate this better but it's one in the morning and they mean a great deal to me.

honestly Adaine is so good at clarifying/directing Ayda socially that it begins to circle back to a dynamic of like, Ayda saying "i don't know or understand these rules" and Adaine responding "have no fear, I've been carefully studying and manually interfacing with these for years, I will explain:" in a way that to me is so autism4autism

The Shuttle AU where Nigel Anstruthers is even more devious and DOESN'T separate Rosalie from her family, and he pretends to be nice and good and even invites Bettina to spend her school holidays at Stornham Court one year.

(That last one was not his best idea, tbh.)

Through chance, circumstance, or maybe the weaving hand of Fate, Bettina Vanderpoel and James Hubert John Fergus Saltyre meet, speak, and quickly discover their mutual distaste for Sir Nigel Anstruthers...

Anyway I call this one Jem and Bett Ruin Nigel's Life (Ten Years Ahead of Schedule)

💡