7-ratsinatrenchcoat

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it's just really funny to me to imagine Fabian actually being a great big brother honorable nemesis.

like, putting a nemesis ward on the nursery with aelwyn's help since "it won't do if they die before their eighteenth birthday, will it?" (aelwyn, deeply sarcastic: "well of course, that is exactly why I put the ward on adaine's room." fabian, too deep in denial for sarcasm: "see? you get it")

gifting them a battle sheet baby blanket since they should start preparing for their battle early on (and yes it's extra fluffy, it's for a baby stop laughing everybody)

generally trying to teach them everything he knows "so their battle to the death will be a fair one"

giving their adventuring party the same lecture on tactics that the bad kids got from his papa

hunting down chungledown bim and any other nemesis so his sibling is the only one who could get a piece of his fund (he just wants it to stay in the family, shut up)

just. fabian being an amazing big brother but also if you call him that to his face he will cut you

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Thinking about. Rizbert. Erizabeth. Rizwalda. Riz has to be short for something because... because why? Is he 'too good' for a short name? (a goblin name?) Isn't he surrounded by non-goblins who cannot think outside their cultural perceptions of what a name is supposed to be? Riz both as a name and as a person seems short & lesser but don't worry, he's really something greater, something larger and longer than can be expressed with his native name. As if something small cannot be powerful and important without secretly being large. As if there is only one way to be great. It's like Sklonda said, his name is Riz. Just Riz, as if there's anything 'just' about it.

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Leaked footage of Bill Seacastor breaking the news to Fabian that he’s started dating Riz’s dad

[7-ratsinatrenchcoat]

man if i were kipperlilly i would hate kristen. kristen switches her god like twice a year and has died and come back multiple times and is as devoted to her friends as they are to her, and kipperlilly’s best friend in the whole world chose her god over coming back and being with kipperlilly

[7-ratsinatrenchcoat]

i read @brennan-lee-mother 's post and well... yikes

[7-ratsinatrenchcoat]

the choice

[7-ratsinatrenchcoat]

i will say kipperlilly’s rage at riz specifically for having an unfair advantage in his dad’s tragic murder when riz has been practically killing himself all year bc they are a single parent low income household and won’t be able to afford uni without a scholarship precisely because his dad’s tragic murder isn’t accounted for is just,,,, oh boy

[7-ratsinatrenchcoat]

Not to “um actually” but Um, Actually the Bad Kids didn’t have any chaperones for their Spring Break quest they had hirelings.

Sandra Lynn, Cathilda, Tracker, Ragh, and to a lesser extent, Gilear, were all technically working for the Bad Kids.

The Bad “in charge of 3 legal & 2 near-adults” Kids vs The Rat “need a chaperone because they aren’t good enough” Grinders had wildly different Spring Break quests

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the world is a better place with trans women in it

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Happy lesbian visibility week 🥰🌈

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real footage of kipperlilly finding the rogue teacher

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Kipperlilly is so If Van Gogh Had Been Medicated How Would He Have Painted All The Pretty Flowers :(((((( coded

[7-ratsinatrenchcoat]

Kristen stands in front of him. She looks behind him. There’s nobody behind him but Gavin Pundle, up high in a tower.

Pain. It shoots through his throat. Kristen stands and looks horrified.

Not her. It can’t have been her. This does not feel like divine magic turned foul; instead, it feels like cold steel against his skin.

Buddy falls. He doesn’t hit the ground. Instead, he falls and falls and falls. He falls through the pale tiles of the arena and continues to fall.

Death. That’s what happened. 

Death. He is not unfamiliar with the sensation, nor is he afraid. Death happens to everyone, even young adventurers. If Helio has deemed that it was Buddy’s time to go, then that is how it will be. Everything grows dull and numb, and Buddy waits for the darkness to give way to his promised afterlife.

It does not come.

He waits patiently. Many people die each day. Helio must be up there, at the pearly gates, awaiting every follower with a smile to give them access to what is rightfully theirs. Buddy can wait, for Helio will give him the same courtesy.

That is coming. His afterlife. He’s getting there.

Any minute now.

No longer falling; now weightless in this void. There is no light, not even a flicker or a hint. Buddy clutches his staff and whispers a prayer. Surely Helio would remember him. Surely Helio would await him.

Sensation returns to him. It starts in his chest, deep within his stomach. Negligible at first, then growing. It beats, almost like a heart. With each beat, more and more of that searing sensation spreads across his chest and stomach. It is difficult to breathe (he’s dead. he doesn’t need to breathe. let go) and it spread through his neck to his mind.

Rage. He clings to it. Helio is the only one who can call down righteous fury onto the unbelievers and lash out with hatred. He has never known Helio’s wrath, but he has seen it in action.

He welcomes it. He expects to be wrapped up in it - not as its target, but a witness. Righteous fury by a god aimed towards themselves, for forgetting one of their most loyal, dutiful followers. Hasn’t he been loyal? Hasn’t he been dutiful? The Rat Grinders prove difficult to convert, yes, but Helio knows he hasn’t stopped trying.

It’s not righteous. It burns through him, it hurts in a way that nothing has ever hurt before. It is not righteous rage, but rather uncontrolled. Unbridled, untapped rage that lashes out like a wildfire, that cares not about who stands in the way and what gets destroyed in its path. It similarly lashes out at Buddy’s soul and being, whatever is left of it after this murder.

A hellscape. He blinks and he is no longer within this lightless void. Instead, he sees a terrifying hellscape such as his grandfather has warned him about. He tries to block it out and quell the rising panic in his chest, but he doesn’t need to. The rage is all-encompassing that he almost can’t feel that terrible dread sink into his chest.

He shouldn’t be here. He has been loyal and dutiful. He should not be here.

A voice. Or perhaps there isn’t. Perhaps he wishes to hear a voice. It whispers in his mind all the same.

A promise. An impossible choice between life in service of rage, or eternal death in this hellscape. 

Buddy wishes to stay true. To make a well-informed decision. Yet unbridled rage clouds his mind and time, he feels, is running out. He needs to make a decision now. 

Helio has abandoned me.

The thought sneaks into his mind. He wishes to cast it out, but once taken root, it spreads like the wildfire ignited by rage. 

Helio has abandoned him. He cares not for the mortals who would follow him. If Helio cared, he would have shielded Buddy from this hell and this decision in the first place. If Helio cared, Buddy would be on the other side of the pearly gates - where he belongs.

Helio has abandoned him. Helio isn’t here.

But this god is.

He doesn’t need to agree verbally. He doesn’t need to think about his answer to be heard, because this god knows his answer.

A breath. He sees the sky of the plane where the Last Stand takes place. A deep breath in as he sits up straight.

A scream. A hateful, guttural scream that has been sitting at the bottom of his throat finally is released. It felt good to release it at last and to feel all the things he’s always felt but never acted on. A scream, heard only by himself and the giant that towered over him. 

The rage stops burning. Instead, it settles in his stomach. His chest hurts only a little.

Buddy looks up. The face of the giant is obscured. He knows this being brought him back. He knows this is a servant of the one he now worships.

It’s a funny feeling. When he thinks about Helio, he feels no devotion at all. Only the now omni-present rage colors his view. Though his new deity does not have a name - it doesn’t need one, he still follows it - he can feel that devotion that once belonged to Helio. It now belongs to her.

Buddy belongs to her.

“Dang, y’all,” he says. “I worship a nameless god of rage.”

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The Bad Kids watch Sandra Lynn laughing and eating ice cream at Adaine's party, knowing the man who ruined her life lives in Elmville again