Magnus Burnsides keeps dogs for all of his adult life. He loves them, of course, and they love him, but the thing about all dogs is that, no matter what, they live significantly shorter lives than humans do. He develops a reputation for taking in very elderly pooches who are unwanted, and each time one of them passes away, he completes a little ritual that he’s developed over the years. First, he sends for a friend, a fellow he’s come to see over the years as a brother-in-law. The dogs are often scared of him at first, but his is a comforting presence, and they always warm up to him. While Death and the dogs are making friends, Magnus writes letters. The dogs follow his friend on a last long walk, one that moves right from this plane and on into the next. They stop at the porch of a little sturdy cottage, and the occupant opens the door. After she makes small talk, welcomes the new charges, and sits for a cup of tea, she reads Magus’s letters. He always starts them with something like this: “here’s a buddy of mine who wants to keep you company. He’s a very good boy.” And he always signs the letters: “see you sooner.”
phantom feeling from when i first listened through taz: when griffin drops the pan voice and goes “well this is gonna be a lot easier than i thought”, the excitement of we got tricked by the narrator and now something big is gonna happen rushes through me again and i start grinning uncontrollably
other phantom feelings:
gasping at the destruction of phandalin because, wow, griffin really let that happen
rockport limited when angus says “what are your names that aren’t fake” and i get a small jump of shock and worry, even though i know now that angus isn’t evil
laughing along with everyone’s excitement in eleventh hour when griffin follows their death scene with “and then you wake up”
heart rate jumping when magnus puts together E-G-G B-A-B-E
heart rate SKYROCKETING when magnus breaks into the fucking brig
freaking my goddamn bean at “sturdy. denim. blue.”
—the rush of adrenaline when Magnus sees the red robe in Wonderland
—a sort of momentary misplaced sympathy when they find ‘Jenkins’ body and THB cry out their regret
—the tingle of excitement to “we pan up” where you don’t quite understand what’s happening you just know it’s so much bigger than the relics and it’s right on top of them and they HAVEN’T NOTICED
—“Who?” still makes my goddamn heart stop beating
yes to all of these, and adding:
– that few moments’ pause and then Griffin saying, “That was the last conversation you ever had with your sister.”
– the final seconds of the eleventh hour arc when Magnus is looking at the plans for the statue and Griffin says, “And it’s an incredibly familiar face, Magnus, because it’s your face. This figure in this red robe is you.” and you just go kgkfjdjjdjfjfj
– when taako breaks the umbra staff and it dawns on you what is happening, and then griffin details every moment up to that point where she was there but you didn’t REALIZE it and suddenly everything is clear and you’re crying (again)
I had a dream set during the Gerblins arc where Magnus kept trying to make awkward small talk and ask the others about themselves.
Taako was annoyed by it and sarcastically said “okay guys, how about we just stop the whole adventure and get to know each other better?”
Merle looked off into the distance and said “there used to be so much time for that.”
And the others were like “what” and Merle was like “what” and they shook it off and never mentioned it again.
And now because of that dream I have a headcanon that Merle “forgot his own last name, twice” Hitower Highchurch has a memory that’s already so full of holes and folds and blank spots that occasionally one of those holes works the other way around and he briefly has a thought like “this is worse than that mushroom planet” or “didn’t Magnus always used to wear red?” pass through his mind, only to immediately be forgotten again.
On rare occasions while the thought is in his head he’ll make an odd comment that others brush off and forget just as quickly.
And yes, he once called Taako Lup by mistake. Taako didn’t react and it didn’t stir any memories but later he looked down and realized he’d been clutching the handle of the Umbra Staff so tightly that the tiny raised pattern at the top had left a deep indentation in his hand.
I was re-listening to the Gerblins arc and at one point Merle says (to two people he’s supposed to have just recently met) “Can we talk? I feel like I don’t know you guys […] I just feel like we’ve grown apart.”
And obviously it was just goofing as is the case for 90% of the things that are foreshadowing in retrospect but that’s all I needed headcanon locked the fuck down.
Im 78% sure that when N03113 mentions liched Merle joked about being good friends with some liches
Merle’s brain: uselessly shouting vital information
The Adventure Zone: 3 crit fails to its name, moved to roll20 because Travis’ rolls were suspiciously high, only had a character drop to 0 hitpoints once during the final boss
Critical role: Regularly has to resuscitate party members, had irreversible pc deaths, reliably rolled enough crit fails to make D&D Beyond donate $100 to charity for each one.
but seriously “i’m going to collect 6-7 incredibly powerful and well-hidden magical artifacts in a year, by myself, and that is extremely doable, and everything will be fine” like… god. the hubris. the GALL. what an iconic and stubborn woman. i love lucretia so much
lucretia is a slytherin and yall slept on it
i legit thought this was talking about harry james potter until you said “woman,” so theoretically gryffindor is still not out of the picture
holy shit lucretia is just straight up harry potter
Pass Through Fire 