#Candela Obscura SPOILERS for ts

[hauntedfalcon]

you've heard of Auntie Bee

now get ready for

Uncle Locust

#Candela Obscura #Rajan Savarimuthu #Candela Obscura SPOILERS for ts

[captainofthetidesbreath]

There's something incredible and skillful on Travis' part about how little Nathaniel actually directly says about suspicions of institutional weaknesses in Candela and how in the conversation in the carriage, he doesn't really directly lodge any serious accusations against Candela—the others all do, and Marion even encourages Nathaniel to be less hesitant and hedging in his verbiage. Travis as Nathaniel bolded and italicized, just for highlighting:

BRENNAN: They told the kid she was dead? TRAVIS: Yes. BRENNAN: How sick do you got to be where you go, "Hey, we got to break it to the kid soft. Just tell them she's dead." LUIS: Right? I guess there's things worse than dead. I guess. Well, clearly we know there's things that are worse than dying, but. TRAVIS: I know there's an amount of trust we all have with this organization. We see what we're fighting against. We know what sort of evil there is in the world, not just the kind that we make. But-- LUIS: But they withhold a lot. TRAVIS: It feels that way. LUIS: It is that way. Would you have risked everything we did for what they explained was in that container? A creature that's used to get people high? That's all there is to that. ZEHRA: There-- Marion, if I may, there may be-- It's deeply disappointing to understand that money seems to move a lot of these organizations through the world. There may have been monetary gain that Candela was trying to prevent by stopping the androphage transfer. There are certain groups that would pay a great sum for it. All I'm saying is maybe Candela isn't immune to some of these capital gains. MARISHA: Well, look. Any institution, even an institution that stands up against institutions, well, I mean they're not immune from their own organizational flaws. However, I would still like to believe that out of all of the other capitalistic and governmental factions that rule our day-to-day lives that hopefully we're choosing the one lesser evil. TRAVIS: Ms. Monroe. Beatrix. You've been with the organization longer than any, and I've looped my men into this with a certain amount of trust. Have you ever seen anyone marked by bleed changed? Have you ever seen them made whole, amended? MARISHA: I tend to find sometimes the best route is to just keep your mouth shut and your eyes open. Oftentimes you'll learn far more than what people can tell you. We've all been touched by bleed, whether we want to accept that or not. No, I guess, to answer your question, not to, what it sounds, the severity of Allison's level was. But I would still like to believe that that's why we're fighting. You certainly had no problems standing up and calling out the organization to Mr. Kingsley. Which is a little bit surprising, I got to say, Nathaniel, for someone who's quite the institutional man himself. TRAVIS: Force of habit, I'm afraid. ZEHRA: Well, speaking of Mr. Kingsley, what did he mean when he said it was someone above his head who made the decision to tell Lucas, was it, the boy? TRAVIS: Lucas. ZEHRA: That his mother was dead? Someone above a Lightkeeper's head. LUIS: Everybody answers to somebody else. BRENNAN: I don't know if that's true. I guess there's got to be a few people don't answer to anybody.

Generally, the way Travis handles Nathaniel's exposition in the carriage is blisteringly efficient on an informational and emotional level without ever feeling heavy-handed, but I think this sowing seeds of doubt in an institution (which seems to be a major theme in this chapter) is very skillful in its subtlety. Given that he's emotionally close to this incident and is a character conceptualized around corruptions and abuses of power, Nathaniel is unexpectedly spare in this sequence of exchanges, most significantly only delivering a set-up and pulling Beatrix in. He interestingly takes more of a listening role in this sequence, despite the fact that he is delivering almost all information and doing most of the thematic set-up.

His accusations are few and the ones he makes are mild and hesitant. The most he directly says is an interrupted "but" that leaves a hanging implication. But that tiny crack drives everyone else to start speculating about the whys and hows and whats of what is going on, and it feels very natural and is very skillful. Nathaniel clearly has his doubts and his experiences and doubts are the center of this conversation, but by holding off on actually voicing them directly, it gives everyone else space to guess at where he's going and leaves it open for others to contribute.

It's really skillful work as a player and a scene partner, especially as someone who is setting up the episode's plot and seeding what feels like may be one of the major themes of this chapter about institutional distrust and power and capital.

#Candela Obscura #Candela things #Candela spoilers #long post for ts #Circle of Needle and Thread

[hauntedfalcon]

y’all I think the worst case scenario wailing is fifty percent right. mechanically, by game rules, there’s no way for Sean to actually die early in the next session. you have to hit four scars to bite it and he will, if the creature shoots him again, have two. I qualified that with “early” because wowzers, people racked up scars SO fast in episode two. Spenser was tossing around marks in increments of two, three, and four at a time on mixed successes. I never want to play this game, it’s so brutal!!!!

now, that’s only fifty percent of the worst case scenario wailing. I think we’re on the right track with the other fifty percent. I think Spenser “Zehra please play your character’s father because you know him best” “here’s a letter where your mother calls you a baby killer aaaaand here’s the real letter where she loves you SO much” Starke is exactly evil enough to tell Brennan off-camera and away from the others to play a monster playing Sean, and I think Brennan is 1000% evil enough to do something worse with that than any of us can imagine

#Candela Obscura #Candela Obscura SPOILERS for ts #Sean Finnerty

[hauntedfalcon]

Area Man Takes Anatomical Strike Ability Just To Make His Character Feel Guilty

#Candela Obscura #Candela Obscura SPOILERS for ts #‘I’m not supposed to do that’ sir it’s on your character sheet. right there

[hauntedfalcon]

I think it's so fascinating that Spenser wasn't super invested as a GM in the suspense of whether Sean was really Sean for the latter four hours of the Candela finale

(Brennan clearly was! he was playing with it, right up to calling the Mother "Ma" as she started to come through the rift! I'm glad he got this enrichment!)

Spenser was in the Twitch chat during the stream telling people, well before the reveal, that it wasn't the creature impersonating Sean, it was a broken and desperate man. as Jean and Sean shot at each other, right after Zehra said "this thing that has taken my friend," Spenser said it was "the Sean that we've always known"

he recognized that the uncertainty was not the compelling part of the story; the compelling part was what would drive him to do that willingly

#Candela Obscura SPOILERS for ts #Candela Obscura #Spenser Starke #Sean Finnerty #I am once again asking: Candela chapter two wrapup *when*

[hauntedfalcon]

I think all of Aimee’s character’s forever should receive phenomenal cosmic power from a questionable source actually

#Candela Obscura SPOILERS for ts #Candela Obscura #Critical Role for ts #Exandria Unlimited for ts

[hauntedfalcon]

a creature with traits of an orca and a mantis sounds an awful lot like a xenomorph actually, and being horny for that is so incredibly valid. we’ve got decades of precedent

#Candela Obscura #Candela Obscura SPOILERS for ts #Elsie Roberts

[hauntedfalcon]

obsessed with how, unlike a We Saw This Coming pep talk, there was no mechanical benefit to the "warrior in a garden" speech, and Travis just did that for the sake of doing something so beautiful

#Candela Obscura #Candela Obscura SPOILERS for ts

[hauntedfalcon]

I was having a totally normal one and then I thought about Jean saying “I’ll take it. For Mr. Finnerty, I will take it” (it being a gun)

and ending up in a shootout with Sean

#Candela Obscura SPOILERS for ts #Candela Obscura #Jinnah Basar #fearful fucking symmetry all over the episode. all over the chapter

[hauntedfalcon]

Brennan said it's been three minutes, almond time motherfuckers

#Candela Obscura SPOILERS for ts

[hauntedfalcon]

Yknow its funny to me that I think it was most people's instinct - including my own - that the ot3 would happen between Sean and Jean first before approaching Marion to bring him into the fold. But thinking on this episode, it's looking more like Jean and Marion would bring Sean into the fold and him being very confused about it. Confused in a way that he feels undeserving. Might even take it more like 'oh im here to supply more fun, not to have the fun' and perform as a service top or bottom depending on the circumstance. And they have to tell him that no this is a romantic endeavor you idiot we love you and want you here with us all the time, even when you are hurting, Mr. 'I'm taking care of everyone so dont nobody dare try to take care of me' Finnerty

I am scrubbing back through the VOD right now and absolutely reeling at how exceedingly bisexual it is that it takes one minute of game time after regaining consciousness in Jean's arms before Marion calls for Sean and they make a let's-hold-Marion sandwich

this episode rocked the axis of all three of them in my mind. like. the interactions Jean and Marion had in episode one had this almost schoolkid innocence to them, and I think a lot of the bottom table trio shippers, including me, wanted to play with the chemistry of Jean and Sean first and toss in the sweet romantic secret sauce of Marion after.

but?? Jean witnessed and then forgot (or willfully blocked out) her dad performing an exorcism on Marion as a child? and he clearly did NOT forget her and started a somewhat ambiguous but obviously romantic relationship with her in which she has already touched his scar??

the angles of care here? episode two started what, a handful of days after the first episode? Jean still has a funeral to plan, but taking care of Marion is clearly a welcome distraction and when she's not actively doing that, she's looking out her window for EONS surveillance and having flashbacks to her dad dying. (to talk about later: the decision to have Zehra play Jinnah's father in Marion's dream, holy shit)

the fact that she now has a skill on her character sheet that lets her detect the "ailment, stress, or loss a person has in their life"??? oh boy, oh god, detecting sure isn't the same thing as fixing, is it? :))))))))))))))

and Sean?? the isolation? "I don't have anything. I don't have anything." "the last thing I need is anyone to come fucking take care of me." Sean's posture in the Silverslip chapterhouse when Jean was holding Marion?? genuinely, to your point, the only way they're going to get that man into bed and subsequently into a relationship is by making him feel useful.

if they all live that long, of course :)

om nom nom nom nom. tonight we feast, and tomorrow I start drafting a "three times Jean and Marion invited Sean over, and one time he said yes" fic. because you know what can fix the way that episode ended?? healthy polyamory!

#Candela Obscura SPOILERS for ts #OT3: Veterans' Affairs

[hauntedfalcon]

now it's not that I ever ship OT3s because I want them to become canon, if that was a requirement for me I would have already watched Leverage

but I did gnash my teeth and go "WHY haven't they INVITED HIM OVER" during that first hour

#Candela Obscura SPOILERS for ts #'I don't have anything. I don't have anything' fuuuuuuuuuuuck

[hauntedfalcon]

Elsie Roberts seems like the most mundane name at the table when you’re looking up meanings and associations

but we’ve had references in this game to Otherwhere and the Elselands, places that presumably have their own names but Halen wartime propaganda has rendered them simply “over there”. there's a baked-in insularity to the Fairelands that manifests in the names it gives other nations and probably seeps into more aspects of its culture

and then there’s the way Elsie tries to hold herself apart for others’ safety, and only work with people who already know about her and trust her anyway

so Elsie was basically assigned Other at birth

#Candela Obscura #Candela Obscura SPOILERS for ts #Elsie Roberts #woman has a communicable terminal and widely misrepresented disease ON TOP OF the monster thing #she is the Isolation Personification #she’s got me by the throat. I gotta focus I’m shifting into Tide & Bone mode 😭

[hauntedfalcon]

I’m trying to pay attention but every time there’s a shot of the whole table I’m looking at Noshir

#Candela Obscura SPOILERS for ts #just an incredible costume on an incredible looking man

[hauntedfalcon]

there is something so endearing about Spenser's voice for the creature-as-Sean :3

#the embodiment of 'you can't be evil if you're not cute' #Candela Obscura SPOILERS for ts

[hauntedfalcon]

The way Sean loves his mom so much that he would potentially kill his own team and feed his best friend to a monster is fucking wild and god what a choice. I really thought Brennan would have him fight but then there would've been no guarantee that his mom would live if he ended up dead in the fight and he just couldn't risk it. But he could risk his life and he could risk everyone else's.

I also love how happy he was that Jean was fighting back. Like he was hoping he'd die in the process so that he technically fulfilled his promise so his mom should be safe and the people closest wouldn't worry. (It is interesting that he shot at Jean but went to knock Bea out even when she was telling him to kill her. He wanted her to be with his mom, but he could've easily asked Jean to do it too.)

fucking IMMACULATE choices all around!!!! listen, I am hater numero uno of all "Sean has a death wish" headcanons, but the absolute fucking cocktail of revenge catharsis plus freeing his mom, only to turn around and find out she was watching the whole time, and everything in the first letter, everything he thought he deserved to read and everything he was most afraid of, he just made all of it come true?????

what is left for him then.

his mom is free and he cannot, cannot be around her. he kept the real letter because it represented everything he wanted, everything he was working toward, and outside of that he didn't have anything. what is left to him but to make sure his Ma is taken care of? and the creature wants him to bring Marion to a particular place? a particular place the party is already set to go because it's the only way to get to Allison? (because the creature fucking left them a map to follow? Sean is at that point just insurance that Marion gets all the way there)

four of them, one of him. good, good odds that he won't succeed. Marion would never, Marion would try to talk to him, but the others believe it's not him at all, and they will be ruthless. he's seen them bounce back from so much. he's seen Jean recover from being winged by a bullet she dodged. (I'm not over "a smile of the most genuine pride you have ever seen crosses my face" and I will never be over it)

good odds that there will be more than one of them, even factoring in the rift, left to take care of Ma, and he doesn't have to live in the world where he did those things anymore. the risk he took was calculated.

immaculate choices. what a fucking game

#Candela Obscura SPOILERS for ts #side note: did NO ONE AT THAT TABLE ever use the BLEED-SOAKING ARTIFACT Marion got from the chapter house???? HELLO