#ctl 2e

[vexwerewolf]

>BaskervillesCurse: hannah >BaskervillesCurse: were talking >BaskervillesCurse: now >EternallyHannah: My my my~ >EternallyHannah: Our strong and silent protector speaks~ >EternallyHannah: To what do I owe this rare and cherished tête-à-tête?~ >BaskervillesCurse: i want you to start putting me on other jobs >BaskervillesCurse: jobs that arent just standing behind you at meetings or negotiations doing nothing >EternallyHannah: Well, that's an interesting request~ >EternallyHannah: I can certainly consider it~ >EternallyHannah: But you are rather excellent as a bodyguard~ >EternallyHannah: I don't think the club would be half as successful in its dealings without you~ >BaskervillesCurse: youve got other springers who can fight >BaskervillesCurse: i have skills other than standing silently in the corner looking mean >BaskervillesCurse: and i want to use them >EternallyHannah: That's certainly something we can look into~ >EternallyHannah: But darling, I truly had no idea that you felt this way~ >EternallyHannah: Ever since you've joined, you've always been the gentle giant of the spring club~ >BaskervillesCurse: hannah i >BaskervillesCurse: i >BaskervillesCurse: i >BaskervillesCurse: i need you to stop calling me that >BaskervillesCurse: you use that term with everyone you talk about me to and you have no idea how fucking demeaning it is to hear it >EternallyHannah: Why my dear, I never meant any harm by it~ >EternallyHannah: If anything, I intended it as quite the compliment~ >BaskervillesCurse: holy shit >BaskervillesCurse: i didnt ask for a justification >BaskervillesCurse: i asked for you to stop >EternallyHannah: You've never said anything before~ >BaskervillesCurse: because whenever i set a boundary with anyone they act like im trying to intimidate them >BaskervillesCurse: i just want to be respected as a fucking human being >BaskervillesCurse: im not an animal anymore >BaskervillesCurse: i didnt choose to be a 2 meter tall 150 kilo mountain of muscle >BaskervillesCurse: i didnt choose to have dog teeth >BaskervillesCurse: i didnt choose to have my voicebox mutilated so i cant speak human language >BaskervillesCurse: i didnt choose to be something children start crying when they see >BaskervillesCurse: and im not fucking gentle hannah >BaskervillesCurse: im restrained >BaskervillesCurse: i am filled with rage all of the fucking time but i have to hold it all in because if it leaks out even a little bit everyones opinions of me will be instantly validated >BaskervillesCurse: my keeper ensured that even once i escaped her id never be able to escape what she did to me even a little >BaskervillesCurse: so i am begging you >BaskervillesCurse: stop helping her >BaskervillesCurse: stop calling me your gentle giant >BaskervillesCurse: im not gentle >BaskervillesCurse: im not yours >BaskervillesCurse: and i never got a choice not to be a giant >EternallyHannah: I >EternallyHannah: I understand >EternallyHannah: I'm sorry >EternallyHannah: When speaking of you, those words will not pass my lips again >EternallyHannah: You know a lot about goblin fruits, yes? >EternallyHannah: Perhaps we could set up foraging lessons? Do you think you could teach? >BaskervillesCurse: if someone else does the talking >BaskervillesCurse: reckon i could >EternallyHannah: I'll make it happen, Ember >BaskervillesCurse: and dont worry >BaskervillesCurse: ill still stand behind you looking scary when you really need it >BaskervillesCurse: after all >BaskervillesCurse: someone needs to dropkick the next goblin who calls you a whore >EternallyHannah: Do you think he's still flying?~ >BaskervillesCurse: oh i hope so

[hedgespun]

I think it's really interesting that in Changeling the Lost 2nd ed you start with two the higher tier powers making it so that expanding your contracts is only giving you more options rather than progression through stronger abilities.

I like that you can have a mostly realised version of a character from the jump and then can expand your repertoire from what makes sense for the character as you progress through the plot.

[the-wonderful-jinx]

Nimbly, nimbly rose she up Down to the river's brim But the louder that this lady called The louder blew the wind

[vexwerewolf]

>GregSharpe1989: Alright if you're reading this, your accounts on Surrey HedgeNet should be set up. You can access this from your home PC, and from your smartphone (the Spring Club runs courses on those if you're severely jetlagged). >GregSharpe1989: Standard warnings apply: don't log onto HedgeNet from any unsecured device or from any public terminal. Don't use any word you've ever used in a promise as your password. Don't, under any circumstances, ever send anyone your true name over HedgeNet. If you have a combination lock on any piece of physical luggage you own, don't use the same combination in your password or screen name. If someone contacts you claiming to be your Keeper, block them immediately and use the priority report function. Do not mention Shakespeare's Forbidden Play under any circumstances. Never start a groupchat that has 13 members - always include a 14th, or pare it down to 12. >GregSharpe1989: And in case nobody has said this yet: welcome home.

[vexwerewolf]

"This is the scream of a man who is in the worst pain imaginable, knowing that it's also the best thing that will happen to him for the rest of his life."

Chapters 5 and 6 of This Wild And Boundless Hunt are up!

CW: humiliation, stripping, destruction of clothing, voyeurism, body shaming and transphobia, dissociation, shaving, forced cleaning, nonconsensual touching of genitals (nonsexual), severe dehumanisation, traumatising institutional cruelty, stress-puking, group violence, fae trickery dead dove: do not eat

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

[vexwerewolf]

Spoilers for Shadows over Surrey! Theta, Juno, Fay and Xeans, do not peek!

[vexwerewolf]

Chapters 3 & 4 of This Wild And Boundless Hunt are out! Read them here.

[vexwerewolf]

Okay can we talk about how fucking perfect Sleep Token are for Changeling: the Lost?

Let's take Take Me Back To Eden as an example

Chokehold is a song about two Lost who suffered their Durance together ("when we were made, it was no accident. We were tangled up like branches in a flood"), but only one of whom escaped ("I'd turn my walls to gold to bring you home again").

The Summoning is a song about a Spring Court Lost, probably a beast ("I've got a blood trail, red in the blue") absurdly horny for another Lost, probably from another Court ("I want to see the other side, won't you show me what it's like?")

Granite is sung by an Elemental ("granite, in my chest") to the True Fae who took them as a lover, simultaneously furious at the way they were violated ("I was more than just a body in your passenger seat, and you were more than just somebody I was destined to meet") but also that they were abandoned ("you say you want me but you know I'm not what you need, but I am")

Aqua Regia is sung by a Beast ("well, my love is an animal call, cutting through the darkness, bouncing off the walls, between teeth on a broken jaw, following a blood trail, frothing at the maw") lamenting that though they suffered terribly in Arcadia (between the pain and the way you look, I'm stuck in a time where the mountains shook), they saw wonders beyond a mortal conception of beauty ("sugar on the blood cells, carbon on the brain, all of Eden's vices running through my veins")

Vore is sung by two Lost, still stuck in Arcadia, suffering terribly, reaching out to one another, asking one another if they should simply give up ("Will we remain stuck in the throat of gods? Will the pain stop if we go deeper?").

I see two possible interpretations of Ascensionism:

Sung by a fetch to the changeling they resemble, ("well, I know what you want from me, you want someone to be, your reflection, your bitter deception, setting you free, so you take what you want, then leave") ("turn me into your mannequin and I'll turn you into my puppet queen") desperately trying to understand them ("show me what you are, I am desperate to know, nobody better than the perfect enemy")

Sung by a changeling to another changeling, as their attempts to love one another are being torn apart by trauma ("make it real, 'cause anything's better than the way I feel right now") that is by equal parts shared and completely alien to one another ("tell me you guessed my future and it mapped onto your fantasy").

Are You Really Okay is a song from the perspective of one of a Changeling's touchstones, a loved one, reaching out to try and understand pain they can't fully comprehend ("I saw it in your eyes, cutting deeper than the scars could run"). And no... no, they're not really okay.

The Apparition is pretty obvious: it's a changeling who still suffers nightmares of their Keeper ("why are you never real? whenever you appear, you leave me with that grace, I am trembling with fear") and the pain they inflicted ("and it remains, with me to this day, no matter what I do, this scar will never fade"), but whom they cannot help but still yearn for the touch of.

DYWTYLM is the song I skip over every time I listen to this album

Rain is a changeling singing to their lover, also a changeling, actually bearing their soul and letting themself be vulnerable, desperate to be able to trust the one whose presence heals them.

Take Me Back To Eden is an escaped changeling singing to a Keeper ("my, my, those eyes like fire, I'm a winged insect, you're a funeral pyre"), who needs their Keeper to see them not just as a plaything, but as a fully formed individual ("Godmother, rise up, I need you to see me for what I have become"), lamenting all that their Keeper took from them ("I guess it goes to show, does it not? That we've no idea what we've got, until we lose it") and the fact that they can't get it back ("no amount of self-sought fury will bring back the glory of innocence") and swearing vengeance ("grow back your sharpest teeth; you know my desire")

Euclid is a changeling singing to their motley as their Keeper is coming for them ("i've got a ghost in the hallway grinning and a heavy head that won't stop turning") ("call me when you get the chance, I can feel the walls around me closing in"); they know their fate is sealed, but they're trying to hold on to the good memories they made together and they don't regret a second ("yet in reverse you are all my symmetry, a parallel I would lay my life on, so if your wings won't find you heaven, I will bring it down like an ancient bygone")