thinking about how kipperlilly even knew who riz was or why he was important and - riz was spying on porter and jace when they were investigating the cafeteria to make sure they didn't try to cover it up. even if he didn't spot riz, porter then went to check on the bad kids of whom riz was missing. it wouldn't be suspicious at all for porter to look into the kid who randomly disappeared after the principal died, in fact very sensible to check for his guardian and address to make sure he gets home safe.
maybe he asks someone from his rogue class if she knows anything. mentions that goldenhoard seemed to be very interested about his dad. pretends he's just concerned about a kid with a tough home life witnessing a murder on his first day.
maybe in her little black-and-white mind that means he's getting special treatment. maybe that was what porter intended.
we need a kipperlilly special on the complicated women podcast - she willingly chose to be possessed, those are some complex ethical and philosophical ramifications. for the sake of the argument i'm assuming porter also has control over her since the shatter star is a part of her, because the morality of choosing to become evil is so interesting. did she think she was going to become a hero somehow, or did she accept that she would have to be a villain to have the power she wanted? she wanted to be better than the bad kids but she kept her moral superiority about fairness and the rules, so was she aware that she couldn't beat the bad kids by playing fair? was her anger always at her own inadequacy, at the fact that she could never excel in the same way they did without cheating? was she projecting the entire time?
it's so fucking funny how quickly the bad kids switch from Battle Mode. less than a minute ago you were burning/suffocating pawns alive in lava but initiative drops and suddenly it's all nooo ankarna you need to forgive people! violence is not the answer! and yet it took them a solid hour of roleplay to be okay with bringing back the rat grinders because they were so pissed lmao
adaine's denim jacket is a mental illness/trauma recovery staple, actually. she wears that jacket every goddamn day and it has fluffy pockets and probably mysterious stains and tears that are a reminder of the life she's lived. a tear from catching on one of gorgug's tin flowers that she wore like a corsage on prom night. a yoghurt stain from gilear that really was powerfully resistant to cleaning, as much as she tried. a pulled seam from kristen shoving her whole buff arm into a pocket to get ecaf out. an extravagant embroidery of her name sewn onto the inside of the collar by cathilda in fabian's calligraphy. an abjurative ward burned into the denim by aelwyn who never learned to sew. an eternally damp spot on the shoulder where boggy cuddles up still wet from the aquatic portion of his backpack. a missing chunk of wool taken by riz for 'analysis' that was really stuffed into a baggie and pinned on a conspiracy board. a tiny unicorn created from fig's illusion in the nightmare forest that seemed to stay real even after leaving the forest prancing about the inner world of the jacket. a pocket in the ethereal realm just so that ghostly edgar the rat can curl up in it without phasing through it. an 'in memoriam' patch sewn in to commemorate the jacket-world person who sacrificed his life to give her a wand of ray of frost in freshman year. a little uplifting message written in ballpoint pen on the inside of her cuff during class. a smattering of wolf hairs that persist no matter how hard she tries to brush them off and keep ending up in her mouth somehow, although she keeps politely quiet about the occasional grey she finds on her shoulders.
people are starting to sympathise with the rat grinders now because they ARE the underdogs. they're outmatched by far and even if they're the villains people want to root for an underdog. they're weak because they were given the cheat codes and never learned anything because why would they?
it's so funny that fig was going to spare ruben if she could 'connect with him' GIRL, YOU'VE BEEN CATFISHING HIM ALL SEASON AND JUST KILLED HIS FRIEND. i love emily's meta perspective of 'you wasted MY time by not being manipulated into letting me kill your friends! you know how long i spent on that psychological torment? how dare you cast a spell on me!' because she really put in the work with this but yeah of course he's going to psychic scream after being haunted by an illusion he fell in love with all year!
enemies in d&d die as soon as they drop to zero hit points even if they have the exact same stats as the pcs. this depends on the dm, but that's how fantasy high works with i think the only exceptions being ragh and daybreak in freshman year. they cannot be healed from unconsciousness unless they are a main character, meaning the rat grinders WERE disadvantaged from the start by the game itself. if the bad kids were held to the same rules then kristen or k2 would have to reach touching distance to cast revivify on one person at a time, and even then as far as we know enemies in fantasy high cannot revive each other.
no matter how powerful they were or how much work they put in, the rat grinders would always be held back because when they die, they die. their only way out was to take the deal - in freshman year all of the bad kids would have died fighting the corn cuties if they had to play by the same set of rules. what would they have done if their only way back was to accept rage?
you are cassandra. in the middle of being possessed by the spirit of your vengeful, undead domain and feeling the world split apart with the festering carcass of your ex-lover being restored to grandeur only so she can be devoured completely, someone familiar approaches from the deck of a flying ship in active battle. your vision is warped, you're barely conscious, you don't know how it's possible that you're still alive, the figure blurs further and splits in two. one calls out to you, the same voice that has been reaching out for you all along, the same voice that called out your name the very first time and brought you to life. you ignore her. the other - clothes a little tighter, some subtle makeup, a pair of bicycle shorts patterned with a flag not known to this world. she opens her mouth - her teeth are horrible. 'blimey', she says, and you feel again. you feel something that crushes against your bones and shocks still your rotten heart. something cuts itself loose from your chest and escapes with a virulent tear of pain through your throat. lightning, bright and sharp, gushes from your screaming maw to its true purpose, and then she's gone. it's over. 'blimey', it whispers into the ethos, a memory as much as a promise to the tragedy of a dying star that may die forever. but you feel something else, you remember something or perhaps you are only now recognising it that nothing can be done. something else that lived in that void of space, you think. nothing more than a collection of cells yet, and still the weight pushes you to your knees. two lines on a stick, you reason, perhaps not even a choice to be made at all. surely not a life to be lived, you tell yourself as the memory of possibility dissolves and the void envelops the very space that baby might have occupied.
'blimey', the whispers consume what's left of your aching heart. 'blimey', you echo.
i may never recover from the tonal whiplash of lore dumping/important discoveries and straight british kristen white girl twerking by the voting booth.
oisin got buff over the summer, the same time he would have gotten a rage crystal
maryann is a barbarian with insane athletics and porter's been teaching her, he might have connected with the high five heroes through her in the first place
kipperlilly didn't want to be called the rat grinders because it gives away some of their secrets but ruben just wanted to fuck with her
the rats that lucy revived were either killed out of spite by the other rat grinders or they were just collateral when porter fought monsters
oisin only started missing ping pong balls after talking to adaine when she said she didn't remember him and talked about how rich she is, maybe because he felt justified then
buddy presumably thought they were actually restoring this goddess even though she was competing with sol and helped anyway
they all genuinely thought lucy was coming back so 'killing' her wasn't ever meant maliciously by the rat grinders
they could have had a suicide pact all planning to take the deal and come back and just lucy didn't follow through
so with the next cleric they didn't give him any warning so he would make a split-second decision to come back to life without necessarily knowing the consequences
we're really going to get a moment of truth next episode because when freshman year kristen died she went to heaven, but daybreak went to hell. freshman year kristen's only problem was trying to convert people, she was never bigoted or hurt anyone so of course she'd get into heaven. daybreak was a hardcore believer in helio but he was a bigot and a part of a cult plot to bring about the apocalypse, so of course he went to hell.
buddy has had some moments that make him seem evil/bigoted and if he was involved knowingly in the rat grinders plot then he'd be going to hell. helio might suck but he doesn't get to bring whoever he wants into heaven and even if he did he wouldn't bring buddy if he'd been plotting to revive ankarna. but if buddy is actually a good kid? if he had the same beliefs as freshman year kristen, if he thought helio loved everyone and didn't think religion was the basis of morality?
i'm just saying a place where abstinence is seen as holy and is celebrated and in fact attraction is the sin? that sounds like a good place to be asexual without having to label it and face discrimination
am i a total asshole for being kind of upset that they totally healed lydia? i know disabilities in fantasy are tough because there are spells that can fix everything but i get a bit sad imagining the new art of her without the gem standing up.
golsum has -3 to charisma despite being a realtor because he's a flesh construct so he looks scary and people don't like him
no matter how nice he is all flesh constructs have a charisma score of 5
he's banished because of his charisma score and then the teens that did it laugh about how uncharismatic he is for a realtor
everyone encountered in the house is a monstrous race - ghost, vampire, frankenstein, werewolf - instead of just making monstrous versions of npcs they took the ones that already sort of fit and took away their personalities
fabian came to alone in adaine's room surrounded by her blood
brennan said not to touch the items and i think fig full-on ate some of that cottage cheese
cassandra was trying to send them home to mordred manor in elmville and messed up
kalina was around when cassandra got married meaning ankarna had shared custody and everyone knows lesbian exes that own a cat together are more committed to co-parenting than most actual parents
kristen heard a wolf howl somewhere in the house and she probably assumed it was tracker, remembering when she turned in the nightmare forest
baron knows that riz fears his friends finding out that he's aroace and they keep teasing him about dating baron so when baron says they're mistreating him he's actually kind of right
and riz tries his best to explain the situation while not giving too much away because if he doesn't then baron will explain the situation in his own words
fig doesn't live in the piano bubble anymore
the AUDACITY of kristen chilis applebees criticising wolfsong for not being serious enough - MA'AM YOU JUMPED FROM FABIAN'S ROOF ON A SHRIMP MOTORCYCLE INTO A POOL OF TARTAR SAUCE AND YOU DIDN'T EVEN MENTION THE RELIGION!!
i'd just like everyone to know that when fabian gifted adaine a worm in a box it did not occur to me once that it was a literal worm until it started talking. i had no doubt in my mind that it was a fuzzy blue worm on a string in a gold box that she was going to wear like an earpiece/hearing aid.
does anyone remember who in the bad kids told the others about what they saw in the nightmare forest? i think fabian did and i'm almost certain riz didn't but they keep (accidentally?) triggering each others' forest traumas and it seems like A Thing.
fabian flirted with a mirror right next to riz and everyone teased him about kalina being his girlfriend, riz suggested gorgug answer the riddle for all of them under threat of being killed and eaten by a big animal, fig created a sexy rat for when fabian was talking to spot. is this anything.
ik it would fuck so much shit up probably, but if they faked wanda's death next to lucy and yolanda's bodies they might actually have convinced ruben to change sides...
the wind is cold and that is why for each other we light the campfire is beautiful.
and it has to be said that lucy was a frost genasi. it's a homebrew race, but logically it would make sense for her to be vulnerable to fire damage. lighting a campfire to melt away the cold could kill her - and i think it's very telling that she specified that we light the bonfires for each other. the rest of her party needed protection from the cold and she was the cold, maybe.
i CANNOT stress ENOUGH that BRENNAN DIDN'T ACTUALLY MAKE THEM ROLL. THIS JUST HAPPENED
kay, ok, one sec, so, haha, kristen applebees, presumably still in Every Woman cosplay — bootcut wranglers gripping her 270lb-leg-press-PB watermelon-crushing thighs, yellow sensible button up reeking of all dairy ever, each finger CHOKED in rings for no reason — and having donned a cowboy hat filled with like 2 gallons of salsa that is intermittently fed from like a sagging midwest trough, calls steel-orb Littledoggy Girlcollar “milady”, reveals that her 3rd god HAS INDEED died, and then attempts to *SPIDER-MAN* A WEB with NO MAGIC after RUBBING SAID SALSA ON HER FACE, catalyzing the most BUCKWILD 5-PLAYER SQUAD LIFT featuring but not limited to fireworks, a 9-foot tall spider, and YEETING kristen TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SCHOOL.
i… *wet cough*, haha, wow! *passes, and not the kind that gets you extra spells*
i know this is likely an unpopular opinion since a lot of this fandom has religious trauma, but i would kill for some redemption for helio or some positive helioic representation. it'd be just good, complex worldbuilding if it were solely fiction, but since it's so referential to christianity that ally literally says jesus instead of helio on several occasions i think they either have to really differentiate it or maybe add some complexity to the current 'all 'helioics' are bigots, your faith is evil' angle. because in fiction you can do that, but real religions aren't that simple. im not religious myself, but there have been times where i've been in really bad situations and the most welcoming, caring people are pastors. there is a good side to christianity, and in freshman year kristen wasn't a bad person. she believed in all the good things those pastors did, she helped victims of human trafficking, she fought against her family's racism even before she met her friends. her family was horrible and she was indoctrinated into a cult with the harvestmen, but her faith wasn't bad. religious trauma is not inherent to religion, it's abuse that people use religion to justify.
since s1 i have desperately wanted a good character to be introduced who worships helio like kristen did in freshman year with love and acceptance because that's who they believe helio is, and i don't want them to be proven wrong. tracker didn't give up on galicaea after kristen told her what she was like in the astral plane and worked to change her worship, and i think it would be really interesting to see someone like buddy go tracker's direction with helio instead of just rehashing kristen's character arc.
kalina said ragh barkrock, not lydia. lydia has experience with these things, she knows how to seal it and she's pretty cognizant and capable at the moment so she doesn't need ragh to explain on her behalf. maybe kalina just said ragh because he used to be infected (and he wasn't born with it so we can assume lydia wasn't) so she knows him better, but. lydia's already occupied with the gem in her chest. IF the same ritual needed to happen to seal the shatter stars again, lydia wouldn't be strong enough in her current state since she's weakened by the gem. gorgug's strength score dropped to 18 since taking more levels of artificer. ragh still has a +5. as far as we know the closest person to the bad kids who COULD have the strength to fuse with the gem is ragh, who also has some experience with it already. and if he did he would experience the same illness as his mother if not worse.