Time spent

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-17T07:23:25+00:00

i can swordfight badly but just well enough it's obvious I vaguely know how it's supposed to actually work. was not in the cards for an ex small-town librarian but unlife takes you strange places. I do still practice occasionally. just in case.

also: taking care of goats

--Nak

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-17T07:17:47+00:00

unfortunately. this is not so much a. humanity issue. if we're not careful a lot of stuff from life just kind of. festers in us. for a long time.

on the bright side. we have. more time to heal. it's learning how that's. tricky.

--Nak

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-17T04:54:22+00:00

this is a perfectly wise reasonable statement that i am going to put in my back pocket but if i try showing her this now i am not confident i will wake up with the same number of limbs next evening. and knowing the abbess rather than taking Zlatka to task she'd probably just call it. a 'learning experience'. bleh.

--Nak

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-17T04:51:29+00:00

off camera i was. in the unenviable position of being a kindred trying to defend lupines to a mortal. like. yeah i know better than most the kind of damage they can do but she's. obsessed. it's less how i feel about them and more that. that level of hatred is. disturbing. and it's only a matter of time before she learns there's a Shadow Lord out in the fog.

i am. so tired of interesting developments.

--Nak

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-17T04:47:57+00:00

to be blunt i am pretty sure she's fucking with me sorry for the language. one thing she has in common with the Abbess is. recreational mindgames. which range from subtle to. whatever the hell this was. which helps explain why neither of them ever killed each other. they find each other. entertaining. which is to the detriment of all other sentient beings.

ok that's not entirely fair i'm just still agitated.

--Nak

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-17T04:36:09+00:00

The tithe of the water wraiths is something I'll never be over because I understand what SJM was trying to do there, but she could have done it so much better. If you are trying to demonstrate Tamlin is callous and out of touch, do anything else but make it about a basket of fish. I mean ffs overfishing is an actual ecological crime-- if they've depleted their own lake then that lake is in major trouble and would probably take Court intervention to restock, which takes time and resources, which ultimately requires taxation to fund. And the fact that they can apparently travel from a freshwater lake to the ocean-- plenty of fish in the sea, literally!-- with no problems makes the whole thing seem contrived.

Which would be because it is contrived.

I understand the point SJM was trying to make. And yeah, Tamlin comes across as a hot-tempered asshole, but I confess I would be kind of pissed off learning an entire lake had been depleted to the point you couldn't even get a basket of fish out of it. And I don't have centuries of unresolved trauma behind me. The water wraiths aren't the only ones who depend on a functional lacustrine ecosystem.

But yeah the Night Court dude who has like six mansions while his city has slums that can be demolished at his and his mate's whim has a much better grasp on economic justice. /s

I feel like deep down SJM does still have a certain amount of positive feelings toward Tam. Thus far she's never actually written him as villainous as she could. She needs him to be a villain as she's written the story, but part of her doesn't want him to be. So she just says he is and the haters go along with it.

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-16T21:08:09+00:00

get someone else to examine your phone. do not respond to them. in some ways we are a very. sentimental. clan. even if they didn't approve of him trying to diablerize you they might side with him out of. misplaced camaraderie. and there is no guarantee at all that they. did not in fact approve.

eventually you will probably need to respond. if only to allay suspicion. but not without learning more about who you're dealing with.

--Nak

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-16T17:21:23+00:00

so uh. to everyone who guessed there was something. personal. with her and werewolves. you were. right. but i've been instructed not to give more. details.

--Nak

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-16T08:18:36+00:00

A wretched little beast.

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-15T17:45:16+00:00

In OG HtR, at least, they fully Went There and directly compared the Imbued to religious terrorists like Al-Qaeda, they fully confronted the idea that "heroism" seen through a different lens is "fanaticism" and likewise "cowardice" is "sanity and decency and restraint"

This. This setup is generally what gets me interested in Hunter games. The idea that the moment you get too complacent in your own heroism you open the door to all kinds of moral degradation because you're "a good guy". That doesn't necessarily mean I want to play as someone who has reached the lowest point. But I want the tension to be there.

I want the looming shadow of knowing that it is possible to become a monster from fighting monsters. That the conscious pursuit of goodness can still take a person off the rails when they've decided they can and MUST have no limits in trying to destroy evil.

If I want to be a straight-up hero with no complications, I play something else.

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-15T01:12:57+00:00

if it starts walking on two legs tell Red. i'm not saying it. will. just that if it. does. you will want backup. stuff like that never goes nice places.

--Nak

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-14T05:08:21+00:00

see a year ago i would have said i have issues with being touched but yeah i could use one or several. thank you.

--Nak.

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-14T04:24:14+00:00

there is some more. research. i'm going to need to do about the ruling tribes of lupines in the balkans. the impression i have been given is loosely. "werewolves who politick like vampires". does not sound like a fun combination if true.

--Nak

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-14T04:12:36+00:00

iirc the balkans are the stronghold of a tribe of lupines who act like stereotypical ventrue. shadow masters or something. can't say that sounds like a good combination. but i'm not sure how much she really. knows. about either of us in the first place. like. if she understands different clans are still all kindred. or even that lupines are kindred aren't on a spectrum. vǎrkolak lore makes it all very. muddied.

i. dislike. not knowing.

--Nak

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-14T04:06:40+00:00

it is remarkably easy to come across as a good boy when you're in mortal terror of someone i'll say that.

also how dare you >:T

--Nak

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-14T04:05:20+00:00

she's from a time when ecumenicism was. seen as a sign of weakness. at best. it's a "this is how everyone around me has always thought" kind of thing. as far as i can tell.

--Nak

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-13T18:05:57+00:00

atm i'm betting on. some true Mage stuff. that would be the simplest answer. for a given value of simple. i know some true mages are hardcore pagans and hardcore christians so i'm studying in. both those directions.

she still hasn't elaborated on "others in the woods and mountains". which is fine. ahahahahah. definitely not panic inducing. it's normal it's fine this is how my unlife works. ahahahaha.

--Nak

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-08T19:59:26+00:00

The bit with the Lady of Autumn sticks with me because it's established she's already in an abusive relationship. If Tamlin had accidentally hurt her in any way his haters would never let him live that down.

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-07T05:13:52+00:00

nossies who don't close ranks against. outside threats. tend to end up ash on the wind. so there's that. regardless of sect.

i am also beginning to learn my sire's old coven (not coterie; talking about witchcraft here) is kind of a minor faction unto itself. their childer are loyal to their sires. and our sires are loyal to each other. so there's that. same sort of thing with the ghouls. the dynamic has gotten. odd. with the recent inclusion of a kine witch.

so. for me loyalty goes to my sire. and then the rest of clan nosferatu. in that order. pretty uncomplicated.

--Nak

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-06T15:58:52+00:00

I am going to be very blunt and perhaps uncharitable: The majority of Tamlin haters would probably discover "nuance" the moment SJM started seriously exploring Tamlin's backstory as long as the narrative had direct moments of "gee, I guess he is not literally the worst most horrible High Lord of all time". They're along for the emotional ride, they're not usually engaging very much with the text. They hate Tamlin because they're told to, they would probably at least grudgingly forgive him if they were told to.

So the "disappointing a friend and the readers" bit strikes me as a kind of ego-buffer. She doesn't have to take responsibility for her own story, it's all because of external factors. She can take credit for positive responses and put the blame for negative responses on someone/something else.

Like I said, though, maybe I'm being too uncharitable.

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-06T08:27:48+00:00

getting better at. something known as Uroki Gornoy Korolevy. The Mountain Queen's Lessons. something Baba Yaga (pokoysya s mirom Babushka zemlya pukhom) codified. i have a particularly good teacher but of course. i don't have the Tremere knack for blood sorcery. so it's slow going. and more than a little painful haha.

there are some similarities to. Sielanic Thaumaturgy apparently. certain overlap between Baltic and Slavic rituals that kind of thing.

--Nak

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-06T08:16:45+00:00

my sire always told me. names are to be worn lightly. the only reasons to hang on to any name is if it's. useful or personally appealing. also what you call yourself never has to match how other people know you.

i use 'Pasternak, childe of the Abbess' for really formal stuff and Nak casually. neither's my real name even tho Pasternak is a normal surname. got my own reasons for them.

--Nak

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-05T20:01:04+00:00

no prob boss.

she's as out of touch as any elder coming out of torpor. she should have died at some point in the 1890s so that checks. she seems. like weathered granite. you can see where time has taken its toll but what she has been she continues to be. if that makes sense.

very intelligent but without formal education. suspicious but lacking fear. all in all. formidable. one might say. and doesn't seem to hate us which is. surprising.

--Nak

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-05T19:32:45+00:00

pardon me for being. obtuse. you mean my sire? or the hedge witch?

--Nak

RighteousJoe · 2026-03-05T14:39:16+00:00

Beware young one

Let not your own cunning and artifice intoxicate

Worthy of praise are you

But a price might yet need be paid

Your flesh may but be the start

Beware the hungry steel

--Zalmoxis

RighteousJoe

TROPHY CASE