AAAA THIS PERSON GETS IT

karna and amangeaux's relationship absolutely ruins me. they both develop in opposite directions until they converge in the finale. amangeaux's struggle sharpening her until she's stone, keeping herself alive through connection in a literal sense. but karna's life post FDA has been better than anything she's ever known. she's been rotting for as long as she can remember, shes living on borrowed time with the people (mainly deli we're talking about deli here) that she loved. her time is softening her, in both an emotional and a literal sense. by the finale they've effectively gone through opposite arcs. even their designs are extremely similar at this point. by the end they've swapped spots. karna at the softest she's ever been. in a literal sense: her body fully rotting away before her death, and in an emotional sense: confessing her love to deli. trying her best to save the one she cares most about in the best way she knows how. amangeaux continues to harden even after the battle. she shifts into karna's place, slipping in and out of shadows and disguises, running on what she thinks is borrowed time.

its about sisterly love to me. its about looking out for the other in the only way you know how. amangeaux WANTS karna to be soft! she encourages her endeavors with deli! she wants her to build relationships and let down her walls. and the opposite is the same for karna. karna wants amangeaux to toughen up. she wants her to be stronger and more secretive and tougher because thats how she knows she won't get hurt. she wants her to be safe. they both care for one another so much but neither of them understand the depths of the other until the end, when they've experienced it for themselves.

My little Baron and Fig pins came in!!

I’m so happy I’m going a little bit crazy

A flower, clutched and crushing in her hands, the blue-white staining and eating her fingertips— a cyanotype. She gazes across the battlefield. She sneaks into the bedchambers of a beloved she kept too close, kept too far. 

Karna stands in replaced positions. A Colin sized position. An Ariana sized position.

Her heart skips a beat as she skims over Deli’s haphazardly hidden notes. She finds motes of anger, of resentment, of despair and heartbreak at the corners of rapid heartbeats. She pulls and tugs at them, rearranging herself. Presentable. Useful. Disposable. 

She slides her note underneath the pillows of Delissandro Katzon’s bed. A quiet confession. A hopeful confession. She must survive.

She is dying, she is a child, she is in love. She hopes and she fears as tears crawl down her face and the rot eats her body. She knows the ways of war and the smell of murder better than the scent of a well prepared meal in the comforts of home. She knows the quick breath of death and the slow of a pulse better than the warmth of a family and the embrace of a lover. “She died nine years ago”.

At the bottom of the earth, in the embrace of Heart of the World, her story ends in a realm unknown to the rest. All the fighting to survive, the lies and the murder, the whispering of secret secrets and the blood dripping from the end of a blade. It all comes to a rest. Karna gives in to her exhaustion with an exhale (exhale, exhale). Eyes closed and a prayer to no god. A Hunger greets this tired warrior.

Cold steel rips apart her torn body. She dies and no one will mourn her. She dies and no mother, no sister, no lover will leave flowers by her gravestone, no eulogies sung, an insignificant name. 

She dies and she looks at the face of her lover. A letter remains underneath his pillows. Will he mourn for her?

“The only secret I have left, is that I love you” and in a title that was never made for her— “Signed, Sklad Karna Solara of Scoville”.

The Pawn resigns.

The best thing Dimension 20 has done for me personally is that it proved that creating interesting, realistic and authentic queer and diverse characters *is* possible and not an impossibly difficult challenge so many different pieces of media make it out to be

A right hand man. A trusty sword. A friend.

Deli finds comfort in his new acquaintance. Colin Provolone is a sturdy and simple man— quick and skilled in battle, a loyal and reliable in service, and also a good friend. Deli, with boyhood now smudged against the edges of his face, grows into his position of The Meat Lands.

Colin keeps the promise he made years ago to a disgruntled mother in the corner of an expansive hall in Comida. He listens and enacts the advises and discussions made for the benefit of this land far from home. He keeps guard and wrestles the yawns that strangle his throat and eyes as politics are discussed. All standing, never leaving, the right hand of Deli.

Colin watches Deli through the days, this leader guided with a willpower of steel, the love and dedication to the unification of his home watering his quick growth and maturation. Two years and Deli had become a fearsome, confident and ambitious young man.

Then Deli lies a gift upon his shoulders— Skald Colin Provolone, meaning poet (sing the songs of heroes, be my witness, carve my name into history, approve of my works).

And when Deli uses this title, Colin doesn’t question. He only grips his sword tighter, stands straighter, observes steadier. Deli’s sword and shield. His skald, his poet.

And at night he meets a softer, kinder Deli. They sit on the edge of Deli’s bed, talking and laughing about smaller matters. Sweeter things, like childhood and gossip that whisper down the hallways. He watched Deli’s expressions pour out, an innocence that splays across his face. He finds delight in those times, a remedy for a past he tries to forget. Light laughter, “simple is always how we’ve kept things”, and drunkenness fills the air between the two.

Two quiet years. Then comes blood.

And blood and blood pours from a carriage and drips, viscous, hot and real from hands and blades.

A quiet shatter in friendship. A trusty sword clanks at the feet of Deli and the familiar, light scent of cheese drifts far away from the house.

For the first time in two years, Deli is alone. A void renders behind him where his skald, his poet, would be standing.

And then five years pass and Colin sees Deli again. Scars rip at his face and he explains in whispers the ambush which landed him with it. Colin examines Deli’s face and finds little. A hardened and rough man. Colin thinks Deli resembles his mother.

Colin thinks about how he might’ve been able to prevent it, how he would’ve kept his promise, how he would have been able to protect him or die trying. Deli’s sword and shield, his skald, his poet.

There, Colin watches Karna die and the light leave Deli’s eyes. He watches the replaced Skald (and he thinks about the way Deli reached out to her with this title that fit her so effortlessly) shredded into a million pieces and he hears something in Deli die along with it.

This time Colin saves him. He nurses his old friend to stability and yet the “yeah, we’ll talk later” never comes as he watches Deli walk off into the sunset, now a man that would never be the boy, the friend Colin knew five years ago. A man with a cold and lifeless portrait, his soft edges ragged and a heart half rotten.

A sword. A shield. A skald, a poet. Colin keeps a promise to a mother and son made seven years ago. A protector, dedicated and loyal. He swings his sword quietly, precisely, dangerously against the ones who killed all his friends, dead or alive. Colin Provolone, sole survivor of the Saprophus, the poet of dead heroes.

The Rook’s exchange.

ive been thinking about this today and just feel the need to sing praises to it

the last stand fight is literally one of my favourites if not the favourite from D20

and, you know, its probably not the hardest or the most story important one, but god its just so good

like the fact that non of them dropped??? that they didnt even get that injured and yeah on some part it obviously was the dice as it often tends to be in dnd but it was also them showing how well they work together

i feel like they all play into their strengths very well it this fight and they even talk about it in the adventuring party like if it werent for spell casters with area of effect spell the fighters would stand no chance, but also noone else could probably tank all that shit from the purple worm like gorgug

and like the decision from emily axford to disguise herself as the proctor was so good and yeah again luck also played into that but if she didnt do it, there would be no chance at even having that luck

and also her spirit guardians (love that spell) delt so much damage, and adaine coming in with the scatter to move the proctor away, which leads to kristin coming closer to there, which allows her to see kipper whats her face and stop whatever she was about to do

and then theres the exams part which they fully blow out of the park, like im pretty sure there was at least one question from like freshman year like prompts to you for remembering, also them actually attempting the math and essay and the essay actually kind of making sense and being about something that the characters genuinely care about

even if we go back to the dice, fig is struggling it that fight (and honestly the whole season) but because of so many good strategical decisions that emily makes, the impact of the dice is not as big as it could have been, if she had done things differently

also everyones vibe is so good the entire fight, like this fight was not made to be easy, they were probably met to at least drop maybe even multiple times, but they are having fun with it, joking around about the rats and the jellies and honestly its a very on brand fight for the bad kids

i also just remember the amount of nat 20 zac rolled in that fight, like that was insane

When Aesop told the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf to Pinocchio, it really got to me how everyone immediately became protective of him and started snapping at Aesop, defending this abused little boy's right to lie and make mistakes. Those things that are so universally punished in the morals of stories like that. Those things that any person should have a right to do, especially a kid, and especially a kid in a really bad situation.

It really brought home for me how much of Neverafter is about kids misbehaving or disobeying their elders, as kids tend to do, and getting disproportionately punished for it with cruelty. Pinocchio, Red, and even Gerard and Rosamund. Jack, in Timothy's story. And I think it's really heartwarming to see those ideas rejected. No, actually, sometimes you need to lie in order to save someone. No, sometimes, your elders don't know what the hell they're talking about. Sometimes they don't have your best interest at heart. And really, you should be given grace and allowed to make mistakes and learn and grow either way, without being horrifically punished and traumatized for it. Especially as a child.

Idk, something about how viscerally angry it made everyone at the table to see this story preached to a little boy who has suffered more than enough for things that he should've had the right to do in the first place. It felt very beautiful and comforting. What a loving and kind story that is

do you ever think about how the bad kids were only just children during s1?

Gorgug was 14 years old when he first died and had ended up in that dark forest, and when he was resurrected had to live through the terror that followed him to the waking world with the thought that he ended up in hell, because he was only 14, just a child, what had he done to end up in such a place? was it a result of his rage, the rage he was constantly trying to tamper down, was his simple nature fundamentally horrible enough to automatically buy him a seat in hell?

Kristen was only 14 when she had her entire existence turned upside down, everything she'd known and believed in unraveled in just one day. She had died, she'd met god(!), the god that had spoken to her, guided her, given her reason and given her purpose, and yet the meeting was disappointing, and it left Kristen confused and scared and wondering what to do next, what path to take if the one with Helio, the path she'd been walking her whole life, turned out to be leading to a destination she didn't want.

And isn't it scary, isn't it terrifying to end up in the place you've heard so many horrible rumors about, and for all those violent tales to turn out to be true? The moment Adaine walked into her new school all her fears were confirmed, and in just a few hours she went from bitterly mourning not being at Hudol to stealing an important book from the library, from sitting in detention to holding a broken out of shape ladle, sleeves of her uniform ripped and blood smearing her clothes and face, a body at her feet of a women who surely did not deserve anything that Adaine had just done to her.

Isn't it scary when everything suddenly goes so awfully, horribly wrong, and now you're stuck in a party with a group of people you don't know at all, who you didn't choose, and you're all just kids having to witness all these things you didn't sign up for and yet everything is only just beginning, and now you can't go back

Hi! I’m pluto passingnights!! I’m super into Dimension 20, Worlds Beyond Number and Glass Animals :D

I binge a lot of the D20 campaigns and so I write character studies and analyses here!

I’m always going a little bit insane about the current season I’m watching so I might write more on that but I’ll catch up on the ones I’ve watched before eventually :)

D20 campaigns I've watched:

I yell about other random things, usually untagged, on @plutomn!!

The Ravening War 1.05