I’m obsessed with the idea of rat grinder Gorgug, every version I have seen is amazing. A life where he is happy with the rat grinders and one where he is miserable.
The angsty version where Gorgug never broke out of his shell. Where he has no friends and his rage star is driven by a complete apathy for everyone around him, anger for his lack of connection. Similar to the way MaryAnn acts but while her life revolves around the things she has outside of school (her quooki pet forums and her relationship with her family) he doesn’t have anything besides his parents (with whom there is a lot of opportunity for angst with anger towards them for not connecting him with his bio parents and forcing him to live in a house too small). He doesn’t have the same confidence she has, he is still the nervous freshman holding a metal flower.
But my fav is the potential for being happy with the rat grinders. It would be different from his connections with the bad kids, but the rat grinders being good for him in a different way. Lucy helping his feel comfortable with his softer side, two gentle giants. Kipperlily helping him understand his rage and see the good it can do for him, while in turn him helping her control her rage and find peace in anger. Oisin and Ivy helping him come out of his shell and find his snarky side we see sometimes. Ruben helping him find that kind of energy he has with the hangvan. Meeting Henry Hopclap sooner and connecting with his artificer side earlier.
Maybe they still get rage stars, maybe they don’t, either is an interesting way of exploring those relationships.
About to write my first Fantasy High fic because he won’t leave my brain.
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I'm actually obsessed with the way Zaeth defended and stook up for everyone in the Coterie. When he spoke about Bat Child even though they had all made fun of her. "She's working on it." was so full of love. His sire said "your only job is to stay on top of the wheel" and Zaeth went "What if you want to kind of decorate the wheel and get your buds on the wheel? And kind of run at the same pace?" They're his buds. He wants them to be okay and succeed in whatever way matters to them. They're family. <3
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This episode was so needed and completely focused the group.
Explanation with spoilers ->
For one, they started the episode with going over the game-plan for the next encounter (Koschei). They were private and all presented, meaning they didn’t have to hide any of their cards. A true “where are we at and where do we want to be” convo.
Then, ofc, it progressed into semi-madness with BatChild’s birthday gift. Not only was it funny, it helped reestablish their relationships to one another and their own character flaws. (LaVonte keeping calm in the best interest of the coterie at BatChilds expense, Mitch thinking fast and ordering something meaningful but with delayed gratification, Madeleine giving a gift only she would like, etc.)
THEN, we get an amazing action sequences (again with just the PCs present) that solidifies those relationships but with insanely higher stakes.
After Koschei arrives and the group is represented their original goals. Reminding the audience (and players) that “hey, they really have made a lot of progress” and adding back that much needed external pressure from the Masquerade at large.
And all that wraps up with Cody and Maya, bringing the PCs back into the current moment and problems (ex, the busses) and providing the team with a clear path for the next stage of the season.
It just WORKED
One thing that can be frustrating about this season is the sandbox aspect of it. It can feel like the PCs are going in 80 different directions with every episode and bc of that so many plots and NPCs can feel shallow bc we simply don’t get to spend enough time with them. And plot-wise some PC endeavors can feel fruitless when the dice don’t roll their way.
This isn’t an inherently bad thing, it adds tension and make the moments when the puzzle clicks together even more satisfying. But bc of the fact they are playing a combat-light game the PCs seem to have less moments they are are forced to work all together at once (unlike D&D where so much of party building happens in combat).
Ep.10 reset the season and personally can’t wait for this final push!!!!
watched the latest adventuring party ep and like. emily confirming that bat child internalising what cody said about his lycanthropy leading to her accepting her vampirism, biting him and having visions was an erotic experience for bat child is so dihdjd but also!! this is the same woman who talked about abt ylfa and her lycanthropy being allegory for the experiences of growing up, changing and struggling to accept oneself against society's perceptions of those changes !!
like i think everyone was pretty much on the same wavelength with cody in the sense they pretty immediately folded into accepting his presence there. with darkness man especially running defence for him despite meeting him one time. brennan emphasising the first change be an experience brought upon by ostracisation and harm by others it's like. i already had faith that the appearance of werewolves in ccod would be cool but im sooo happy bc they Get It yk yk
I think maybe HJ's whole deal is that now that he's on SSRIs, he's able to actually feel things instead of the lifeless gray sludge that being a vampire is. And his age makes him largely immune from vampire consequences. This means that he does what he wants, whenever he wants, because he thinks he's immune from human consequences, too.
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To mortal perceptions, she presents as a beautiful white girl and the enamoration folks have with her beauty and white feminity is part of her ability to charm and enthrall. While being underestimated, they let her in to their secrets and scheming, they let their guard down.
But the Camarilla know she's a centuries-old vampire and yet she often plays the "I'm so smol" game to weaponize that white feminity and distance herself from others without facing the wrath of the Camarilla. This is clear in how other members of the coterie: LaVonte, Darkness Man, and Bat Child (outcasts and liabilities) in particular are treated in contrast to her.
Because as a Camarilla vampire, that for Madelaine is also her age and with that age comes superiority, being prioritized, being the one that can leave if any of them do. But age and being older also means knowing the "back in my days", knowing the Camarilla seeks to control and not shake things up. And for Madelaine to have been a Camarilla vampire for this long, means benefitting from and continuing those aims of the Camarilla for centuries.
And now, with her power and privilege, she is forced to choose whether to maintain those aims and repay her owed favor to Hermaine by giving her the data center, or express the autonomy that she does have to prevent that bad thing from happening.
She is not fragile, she is not just a girl, she's a white centuries old vampire, and as many times before, has a decision to make.
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This post is brought to you over a week late by an unexpected opera gig. (Tech week, it's a binch.) Ahem.
-I don't usually comment on the starting recap section. However: gods bless Beardsley for reminding Brennan that we ended episode 8 in the midst of a New Year's party at Ms. Laurent's place, not the damn festival. I was like bro?? You good?? XD
-Ghorse can now choose to howl rather than whinny/neigh/nicker/any other horse noise. Magnificent.
-Why is this Hunter speaking in a voice so similar to our Darkness... Man?? Also, I appear to have spent half of this section convinced that the crossbow user could be someone other than Aaron. I think the voice was what did it. Until they got hold of his wallet, I still wasn’t sure it was him.
-Bat Child first pigeon-cooing to alert DM to her position, and then the pair of them cycling through howls and every other nocturnal noise they can think of: chef's kiss.
-Hunter, then Darkness Man, then Bat Child, then Zaeth and even Ghorse declaring their intention to “defend Purpee” one after the other: double and triple chef's kiss. Oh my god.
-Zaeth, moments after having corkscrew dived through the Hunter's chest and joined DM/BC in exsanguinating the guy: “Was that justice?”
-HJ's near constant shirtlessness throughout this episode. My god. I know the Worthystreet shippers and I have been screaming about that all week, but we were fed so well we could hardly do anything else.
-Ms. Laurent (hearing distant commotion): “What's going on outside?”
Madelaine (on instinct): “I don't know them.”
Ms. L: “Who?”
Mad.: “What?”
Ms. L: “Who don't you know?”
Mad.: “Oh, we should go see. I don't know anything.”
Madelaine. Girl. What the fuck was that XDDDD
-The way HJ (still shirtless, wearing a scarf) is just flexing so hard while backing up LaVonte's Banksy gambit. The faces Ally was making wweijkbvs;im;nl
-I choose to believe that the guest who was paying such close attention to LaVonte's 'slips' re Banksy's gender was just Brennan himself in the universe of the game. Like all those NPCs in The Legend of Vox Machina that are simply animated versions of Matt Mercer.
-I fully thought Ms. Laurent was going to be pissed about the wreckage and especially about the ripped-up old-growth oak, but no. LaVonte's charisma is simply that powerful, because no one on earth is immune to the force of Lou Wilson's sparkling eyes.
-Ms. L: “I would love to go somewhere where I'm not being propositioned to turn my life's work into some kind of- 'token', or-”
LaV: “What? You, you don't get roused at the idea of an NFT?”
(He and Ms. L burst into yet more posh laughter)
Ms. L: “You're charming!”
LaV: “I know.”
Damn right. Welcome back, Lord Squak Airavis ^_^
-During the debrief back at #9 Shady Street: this highly illustrative exchange in the wake of Bat Child's question about how to change her approach to Herbert Melvin.
LaV: “A lot of- some of my best transactional relationships started out incredibly authentic.”
HJ: “Yeah. Totally.”
BC: “Okay.”
Madelaine: “I'm sorry, what is different between authentic and transactional? I've never- I don't know what this first one is.”
LaV (tapping head w index finger): “And that's the first step.”
I do think there are still some truly authentic relationships LaVonte has going on. But for Madelaine I think all her relationships are just authentically transactional. She’s used to disguising it with flirtation and other little tricks, but in the end, she goes into almost every interaction with the intention of getting something from the other person.
-Okay, I’m getting jealous of the coterie for the compliments LaVonte gives them when they have good ideas or have done something well. When is it my turn to hear Lou Wilson utter my name in such a pleased tone of voice as he does for “Vesper Childers, I swear!”
-Tyler’s bylaw reading states that the emergency appointment member only has to be on the council for 6 months. It’s January now (approx). Then there are regular elections again- but 6 months from January would be summer, wouldn’t it? Or does the campaigning start in the summer and then the vote is in the fall like Brennan was saying? I got a little confused on that.
-Zaeth: “The enemy of my enemy...”
Mad.: “Exactly.”
HJ: “...is my Cal.”
-HJ going shirtless on the stealth mission to investigate Aaron’s house, wanting to feel “the night air on my skin.” Madelaine saying he “should maybe take some vitamin D” like that wasn’t going to instantly draw his gaze to LaVonte’s pants. I know we all yelled about this already but my godddd weoisd;fbne;kdnmglsfmb;lm
-Someone said Brennan was twisting the knife with all the details we learn about Aaron and his life in this sequence. Truer words never spoken. Personally the deepest twist for me was the Batman poster in the closet with the note on it from the late father (James)- “You’re my little Batman” – which of course makes immediate sense of the Voice our hapless hunter used. Ough.
-Zaeth claims to work out via “explosive plyometrics” and while I seem to have correctly guessed how to spell that, I still don’t actually know what it is.
-Ah yes, back to downtime. Skimming through January. Apparently the Silver Meadows home-theft scheme is a set of twin cherries all by itself for Nancy; I suppose we’ll hold an interview with Estelle Laurent in reserve. Plus there’s dirt to dig up on Florian Whittaker.
-Congratulations Helena, you’ve acquired free tax accountants. (Wish that were me.)
-Zaeth’s list is entitled “Two Doo” per Siobhan. So that’s how he’s playing the Illiterate trait, eh.
-Gods’ teeth, Metr is really trying to get as many claws into this town as possible. The defunct Silver Springs Commercial Complex. The area near the trailhead and pharmacy. Yeeesh.
-(Re Z’s suggestion of weaponizing local environmentalists to keep Metr away from the creek/river/whatever it is)
LaV: “Zaeth, how are you not a millionaire?”
HJ: “You might be!”
Zaeth: “I lost a lot of credit cards.”
  Me, immediately: Did they warsh away, Pappy?
-I am very proud that I clocked the Gumberoo as the cause of the mysterious fires in the old Rogue County Lumber Mill, even before Bat Child did. :333
-The whole sequence with Bat Child and Herbert. I just. Ough. He wants there to be a zoo in town because she likes zoos. He punched the creepy owl statue for threatening her. Best chosen grandpa ever T_T (Literally I’m tearing up again at 11:30 a.m. on a Thursday about this. Goddammit.) And the way she kicked the dust pile that used to be the statue while yelling that she doesn’t believe in it. Tres early-2000s-kids’-movie-protagonist. (James and the Giant Peach comes to mind.)
-And we end on Darkness... Man and Madelaine going to finally meet Cody of hostel fame. Heavily-magically-protected-hostel fame.
Madelaine: “I’ve always wanted to try rock climbing. I just have never done it before, so...” (Smol Gambit: engage) “Oh, if only somebody could show me... all of the best places in town to do it.” (Glances meaningfully up from under lashes)
  I just really liked that little entendre. If only the whole maneuver weren’t wiped out by the strength of DM’s disaster aura. Even the patented “I don’t know him” can’t survive.
-Cody NoLastName, what a guy. Dedicated to staying calm. Neither confirmed nor denied that he’s a werewolf. Knows all the supernatural business in town and is duly impressed at how quickly the coterie has dealt with the ghosts and with Aaron. Also knows vampires when he sees them.
-So apparently this mysterious “Jack of the Pines” has “got the Douglases’ back”? Did I understand that right? Cody said that directly after the wind kicked up with the strong pine scent... But maybe it only had their back as long as it was magically bound in some way, and now that that owl statue is destroyed, it’s got free reign to do whatever it wants?
-Florian is now the emergency-appointed Council member. And Koschei’s coming for a visit, heralded by the Downward Spotlight of Doom...
Thus we come to the end of my 35 pages’ worth of notes on this episode. Time to crack open a new notebook and watch episode 10!
