#danger waves

Ep 66

I'm SO pleased that not only did I call that Salaraq was Theo's mom, but also that Salaraq's thread has never been passed down -- the same person's held it this whole time.

Now, the whole thing where Evelyn has been Theo's mom over and over and over again...that's SUPER fucked up.

Ep 67

OH I FEEL LIKE IN THE BETWEEN WHEN WE OFFER UP A BAD OUTCOME AND OUR GM SAYS "IT'S WORSE THAN THAT"

OH MY GOD I'M EMOTIONAL ABOUT SAYRE'S NEW SPECIAL

IT PUTS SUCH AN INTERESTING TWIST ON SAYRE/CARRO

SAYRE NO!!! TASS YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO KILL SAYRE. I FORBID IT. IT'S NOT ALLOWED.

This ep had a lot of great quotes, though -- "We want to borrow your Commodore" "I just need a piece of bread" "This seems important and I'm emotionally invested in you two for sure, but--"

Actually that last one I especially really like because it comes off as a joke but I also read it as a quick little glimpse of the kind of...I dunno, there's just this low-key powerful vibe between Callahan and Ada where I don't ship it at all but I absolutely think they'd go to the mat for each other no questions asked. Not that I think either of them wouldn't go to the mat for ANYONE on the crew, but it's just a little different with each of the other PCs. Maybe it feels like a sibling vibe, I dunno. That would fit with the way Ada's pretty much the only one to call him "Tristan."

Anyway, ADD 👏 JETER 👏 TO 👏 THE 👏 HAREM 👏. Give this sweet pathetic man a Norrington pirate makeover (but with a happier ending in all possible senses including the dirty one).

Also very good quotes:

Queen: Please limit middle of the night visits. Callahan: Please limit middle of the night attacks.

Sayre: I find myself wondering if I know you. Queen: In very real ways, you do and you do not.

Sayre's convos with the Queen and with Ada were both so good. I don't think Ada has referred to Sayre as "sir" that way much before, if at all? It's a very affectionate usage that she also uses for her uncle Cyrus, and if she's started to see him as an equivalently close and trusted person...god, I love it, it's so sweet.

In hindsight, all that focus seems like it should have been more of a red flag that something was going to happen with him.

FINALLY we start getting into Kingfisher stuff. The thing about the Owl's last task for him being to put part of Adelaide Dawson's soul back in her body...I agree with the rest of the discussion in the ep about Cole pointing toward him being the new Owl instead, but then that raises SEVERAL questions about why the Kingfisher did that.

Was it some kind of lure for Cole to become the new Owl, a taste of power? Was he asking the current Owl for a favor to win over someone he already was prospecting as the new Owl? That would be...cold, and point toward the Queen not keeping her plans as hidden from him as she thought they were.

Tass was so careful to say only part of the soul; why? Purely a mechanical issue of not restoring her fully so she'd still be controllable by Wings magic? Or does Dawson perhaps know something in the part of the soul left behind? (About the Seven? About Cole or Callahan's father? 👀)

Also, just tossing a thought out there:

Andrea: introduces Callahan Periloustides as an NPC the party starts to hear about with a connections to the plot and at least one (other) PC's backstory, who has done some shady shit and outfoxed Death

okay, so I feel pretty good about the Ghost: Cole, the Darkness: Ada, the Blood: Sayre, the Flesh: Callahan, the Light: Theo. but what does it all MEEEAAAAN dot gif?! (will someone PLEASE ask Cole about his weird prophecy ship plans?!)

also like...for a hot second I doubted that Salaraq Nynes is actually Theo’s mom Evelyn, because maybe she’s Lucy, but now I’m back to thinking it’s Evelyn because the backstory and timing seem too weird otherwise -- plus then why send Theo off to find Lucy’s brother just to have him lead her right back to Salaraq? (also is that gonna be Evan, Theo’s childhood best friend?)

I DO like them with the twins a lot, especially Elliot and Ada, but overall with actual play stuff I favor PC/PC romance. But I would just like to set this funny little bit from ep 22 gently down in front of you:

Callahan: I wanna-- all right, let me paint you a picture, okay. You're a ruthless pirate. You're hiding out. In this secret cove. On your fortress island. Some random woman shows up. Is there any reality in which you just go, 'yeah alright.' Theo, SO loudly: HAVE YOU NOT SEEN ADA?! Ada: Maybe if I take the dress off. Theo: Well--!

well Theo, I guess someone has seen Ada 👀

And like, clearly they are fond of each other in a friendly platonic way! But also, Ada took Theo on that spa date recently -- IIRC one of the boys even said “spa day” and Kim specifically corrected him. It kind of made me wonder if Ada was genuinely testing the waters regarding wooing Theo.

Even ages ago, there was that moment way back on the Anvil where Theo picked up Ada and carried her off as she was having fun with fireballs!

I read Ada as pretty indiscriminately bi/pan and Theo as either a lesbian or bi with a heavy preference toward women. They’ve all got so much on their plates right now, but at some point I deeply hope they run into Theo’s old childhood best friend Evan and Theo can have a moment where she realizes she kinda thought that had been romance but coming back to the concept of it now, she feels very differently (Will Smith gesture at Ada).

Also at some point they gotta resolve the tension of Theo not knowing about Monty and Ada not knowing about...god, WHATEVER Theo’s thing is that she’s so cagey about because it can’t just be that she’s in debt, there’s definitely more to it than that. And having some romantic feelings in the mix as they wrestle with those tensions? MMMMMMMMMM.