#build from source

[vaguely-concerned]

This might be due to the fact that on my first playthrough I ended up creating a Rook more emotionally guarded than any of the companions except Minrathous-route Lucanis and perhaps Neve, so I was primed to look for it, but I never got the sense that the companions don’t care for Rook (the thought never even occurred to me until I saw other people post about it) — to me it seems much more like it’s Rook who keeps the last bit of distance, Rook who pulls away when the companions try to extend their care or worry too directly, who keeps themselves slightly apart. (Rook who is so full of grief they cannot know as grief and thus process that there’s no room inside them to let anything else all the way in, perhaps.) They deflect and flinch back when someone gets too close or approaches them too overtly about their feelings — especially when it brushes up against the theme of grief. They can offer care to all the companions who are grieving, come along to any number of funerals as emotional support, but the moment someone turns that towards them they shut that shit down Immediately, like when Taash almost gives the whole game away with ‘Like you’d know? You act like you haven’t lost anyone!’ and Rook just blandly responds ‘We’re talking about you’ and doesn’t engage. But they can also admit that they struggle with accepting compliments, or knowing what to say, or having confidence in themselves without Varric’s help.

Despite all their determination and even in their most stoic no-nonsense incarnation, Rook is awkward, with the struggles that entails. Someone who is eager and happy to be the helper wherever they can, and helplessly unequipped to know how to be the helpee, as it were. It’s not that the companions don’t return Rook’s attachment to them, there’s MUCH more of a ‘okay so what are the ways you will allow me to be good to you??’ desperation of care vibe behind all their invitations to conversations and hangouts together, to my mind. They bring Rook to their favourite places and share the things they love with them, they ask to spend time together (many times just to have their company, not because they have a problem they need help with! Sometimes the problem arises anyway b/c video game quest narrative of course), they bring them out for some direly needed grass touching, they introduce them to their families. Everyone is clearly getting the sense that Rook does Not want to talk about Varric especially (this is in fact what Harding says in banter, if she’s still alive after the reveal :’( ), but they are absolutely SCRAMBLING to find ways to show that they’re there for them even so. AND from the companions’ perspective, with the situation as they have the means to understand it, accepting that Rook isn’t ready to have that conversation and backing off is also a kind thing to do. (tl;dr: To Me Rook is that weirdly socialized friend who is a great hang once they’re actually there but you have to directly invite them or they don’t quite know how to initiate the contact themselves lol) 

Just as a crushing sense of responsibility for their family is a trait that is built into Hawke no matter how you play them or how you make them respond to that, I feel like Rook — however helpful and earnest, warm, charming, jocular, stoic or straightforward they seem at a surface glance — is always someone who struggles deeply with connecting to themselves and other people. (Emotional Intimacy, the Final Frontier.) As, indeed, is the case with all of the Veilguard companions too! It’s clearly a deliberate theme. These are all lonely people struggling with their sense of identity and belonging in some sort of way. AND having, working on and eventually starting to overcome these difficulties also makes Rook a direct foil for Solas, who doesn’t learn that lesson unless you corner him at the end of the world to force feed him his medicine lmao. They don’t manage to break out of the regret prison under their own steam, it’s because even struggling and grieving they have managed to create mutual bonds with other people who show up for them in turn now — and with all the protective walls of denial around what happened to Varric crumbling and making them less of a stranger to themselves, Rook is finally able to let them. An outcome Solas seemingly didn’t even consider to guard against, because he’s become that deeply entrenched in his loneliness, the utter isolation of the self — he can no longer truly imagine an alternative. (It’s not that he can’t form these bonds, obviously, it’s that he resolutely refuses to value them. Whether it’s because he feels like he doesn’t deserve it or out of a need for control or the martyr complex where he must sacrifice everything he loves on the sacrificial pyre of fixing his mistakes, all of the above and more, the result is the same. Mind!Varric, who I think is mostly Solas speaking, even calls this out directly. So yet again a situation where he has some self awareness about it and it doesn’t help At All haha. Solas falls to the temptation of making people into tools again and again and again, no matter how many times it comes back to bite him in the ass and the eternal solitude it traps him in.) 

And that deep deep loneliness… There but for the grace of… well the theological state of thedas being what it is right now, let’s just go with the grace of Something, Presumably go you as well, Rook. The same capacity/tendency to pull away from connection clearly lives in them as well in some form (again, for whatever reason and with whatever motivations and instincts behind it for any individual Rook). Solas and Rook coming together to create a blood magic paper doll of the mind Varric in response to acute loss and loneliness is one of the most deep , deeply fucked up and invasive acts of intimacy I’ve ever contemplated. I don’t think that’s accidental, there’s something There’s Something Wrong With You (there’s something wrong with you that’s also wrong with me (derogatory)) here that resonates no matter how both parties would hate to hear it. (A fitting legacy for Varric and his wild ‘I made my best friend into a story because it’s the only way I know how to love with this desperation of sincerity’ brain to leave in the narrative, methinks. I feel he’d appreciate it on a craft level, if nothing else.)

If you read through all of Rook’s potential backstories, one of the common threads through all of them, along with a certain maverick ‘I’ll do whatever it takes’ streak, is a sense of profound alienation. They did something or have some sort of quality that made it hard for them to fit in with the group they’re from, causing a conflict that cuts them off from parts of their identity as it’s been up until now. All of which also adds to how important Varric is to them — he was clearly able to break/see through some of that and be closer with them, even in the relatively short time they spent together. No matter what else goes to shit, they can trust that a) Varric sees them, b) he genuinely likes them and believes in them not despite who they are, but for it, and c) he’s got their back, we’re in this together kid. And then he is gone, and it takes them the whole game to be able to bring themselves to accept that and know themselves again, be able to let new relationships in fully. The very understandable ‘the last time I let someone in, they got stabbed before my eyes and the world ended’ flinch away, even if they’re not consciously aware that’s what it is. Anyway I love Rook. So much space to play around in here as to WHY they might feel or react like this, even when the framework is more defined.

[sleptawake]

unstable universe is both so impressive and so funny to me . like how did you put a guy who debunks escape rooms for a living & tier 1 pvper sweat in the same server that's like 2 people from polar opposite sides of the mc community

[rimatsu]

oh if we're all being candid... yeah i'm not a fan of the subletting plot point at all. it just reinforces the notion that buck has little identity outside of the 118 now that his place of residence is also linked to a coworker, best friend or not. it's a reductive development, he needs to expand outward instead of being increasingly tethered/confined to that small world EIGHT SEASONS IN

[sharedblood]

as ive been rewatching and exploring the spn fandom my following has gotten considerably smaller bc while im open to reading differing interpretations (as any media can and should be subject to) some are so off the mark/ disjointed from the source that it’s apparent fandom opinion/content/misrepresentation of canon has eroded a genuine ability to critically look at what the series is saying/doing

[sceneemo-bah]

may we get a detailed peridot from steven universe with cat ears, arm warmers, and hair extensions ? :3

⏤͟͟͞͞ 𖤐 PERIDOT PACK!!

[With cat ears, arm warmers and hair extensions]

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︴𖤐 Name - Peridot//Peri//Spark

︴𖤐 Pronouns - It/its, she/her, Ze/Zir, Sh☆/h☆r

︴𖤐 Role - Comedian, Insecurity holder, Spin holder (if applicable), Autism holder (also if applicable)

︴𖤐 Age - Ageless

︴𖤐 Sexuality - Cupioromantic asexual, Queerplatonic, platonic/nonsexual objectum (optional)

︴𖤐 Gender - Agender/Genderless, Xenohoarder

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︴𖤐 Likes - zir source, sourcemates, fandom culture, physics, messing with technology, plushies, dressing up

︴𖤐 Dislikes - Cringe culture, being alone, feeling excluded, being misunderstood, socializing, strangers

︴𖤐 Hobbies - Coding, drawing fanart/writing fanfic, making meepmorp (art), collecting plushies and trinkets

︴𖤐 Signoff - 👽🌒, 🧪 , 👽🎩, 🛸[initial]🛸

︴𖤐 Typing style - likes to collect typing quirks for fun/aesthetic- they aren't stuck with h☆r, and she changes them on pretty much a daily basis. Some of zir favourites to use are: +=t, !=i, 3=e and 0=o. It's use of typing quirks also depends on how many spoons she has- the more spoons the more typing quirks! Ze also uses really short sentences, to the point that the reader has to remove the punctuation in their head for it to be legible. (L1k3. +h!s)

︴𖤐 Speaking style - Speaks pretty much exactly like source, leading to its voice sounding cartoonish and almost caricatured whenever sh☆ speaks. When ze gets excited or is indodumping, she starts speaking so fast it's unintelligible unless you're REALLY trying to listen

︴𖤐 Aesthetic - Sh☆ doesn't stick to an aesthetic or label itself, prefering to just wear whatever ze currently likes. She specifically likes yellows, greens and alien imagery though!

︴𖤐 Alterhuman/nonhuman identities - Space conceptkin, Alienkin, Aftonsparv objectkin, Tech conceptkin

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︴𖤐 Front triggers - watching source, interacting with her fandoms, being around/talking to the body's friends, insecurities being pointed out/made fun of.

︴𖤐 Front indicators - Likes to wear a front indicator bracelet (it it's safe for you guys to do that!). You'll likely find her indodumping to friends, hiding in small spaces when anxious (it likes to. Literally physically be in closets. Like. Sitting inside them.) Sh☆'ll start talking exactly like ze does in source, which it struggles to mask, being a huge indicator! It also talks to itself a lot- not in the plural way, like literally processing thoughts by saying them out loud!

︴𖤐 Personality - Despite being ageless but having a kinda adult mind, Peri acts a lot like a "cringe" 13 year old. Yk, the ones who make edgy self insert ocs, use gacha life, hoard terms for aesthetics- and that's not a bad thing, especially in h☆r eyes- you can bet it's gonna make zir own Tumblr blog the moment she first fronts- she's pretty chronically online.. In fact, one of the ways it processes h☆r emotions is to live blog them online.. Ze struggles a lot with insecurity, often having breakdowns about not feeling "good enough." Ze depends heavily on having a strong support system, whether that's insys or externally; it's hard to get close to her at the beginning, but once you do, you have a fiercely loyal friend who'll make you gifts (usually in the form of art), shower you in infodumps, oblivious to if you're actually interested or not, and will always get excited about anything you're excited about! Loosing people close to zir impacts h☆r deeply, and she's prone to spiralling with depression and anxiety when it happens and oh my god now I'm the one infodumping you don't want a novel I'll shut up now lol sorry.

⏤͟͟͞͞ 𖤐 ALTERNATE FACECLAIMS

-------------------------------------------------------

ᴠᴏʟᴜᴍᴇ : ▮▮▮▮▮▮▯▯▯

⏤͟͟͞͞ PLAYLIST 𖤐

↠ⁿᵉˣᵗ ˢᵒⁿᵍ ↺ ʳᵉᵖᵉᵃᵗ ⊜ ᵖᵃᵘˢᵉ

- Peace and love on planet earth - Steven Universe

- Francis forever - Mitski

- Turn the lights off - Tally Hall

- Oh No! - Marina

- Are You Satisfied - Marina

- Amnesia was her name - Lemon demon

- Touch Touch Telephone - Lemon demon

↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺

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⏤͟͟͞͞ 𖤐 FAVORITE;

︴𖤐 Song - Touch Touch Telephone - Lemon demon

︴𖤐 Movie - The hunger games

︴𖤐 Fandoms - [INSERT COLLECTIVE BIGGEST FANDOM/SPECIAL INTEREST!!], Invader Zim, the world of Mr Plant, The owl house, PJO, star Trek (bcs ofc. Do I even need to explain.)

︴𖤐 YT channels - Strange æons, Ashur Gharavi, Kitty monk, FrogFrogSlays

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⏤͟͟͞͞ ARM WARMERS𖤐

[How they'd draw themself + signature]

⏤͟͟͞͞ ENJOY!!!1!1 𖤐

[acewitch-writes]

As a self-appointed canon Remus defender, I agree that Remus can be angry. It would be insane to suggest that a human being is incapable of expressing the perfectly natural human emotion of anger.

But the issue arises from turning that anger into a defining character trait, or when his anger isn't balanced and nuanced. If belittling/insulting his friends or exploding with rage is Remus' first instinct in any difficult situation in a fic, then he is OOC. Which may be suitable depending on the AU! I have written him with an angry streak myself, I'm not opposed to the idea of letting Remus be angry. But we should at least be able to acknowledge that this is OOC for Remus, who rarely expressed outward anger even in some very stressful situations.

My main qualm with atyd in particular is the fact that it touts itself as "canon compliant", eeeeexcept for the tiny fact that the main character's entire backstory was dramatically changed, which in turn affected his entire characterization. The fic even made a point to skip over every established canon scene because it would have made it very clear that atyd Remus and Canon Remus have little in common (except one scene briefly in the Shack where Remus uses special werewolf powers to read Sirius' mind to work out the whole secret keeper switch, using the very same technique that Sirius' mother often used to abuse him, this being their FIRST INTERACTION after 12 years apart, but I digress)

Atyd Remus is an OC with the same name who, yes, has some anger issues, and is nuanced and incredibly well-written, but he is NOT Remus and at no point throughout the story becomes Remus. The part that really sealed the deal for me was when Dumbledore arrived to invite Remus to teach at Hogwarts, and Remus was openly hostile and rude to this man that, canonically, is Remus' personal hero and infallible moral compass. ("Well, he's not my fucking brother.")

I also strongly disliked the way Sirius was scapegoated heavily at the end, made to apologize to Remus and grovel for his affection after spending 12 years in Azkaban while Remus was living a rather cozy life in comparison with his muggle lover in the flat that Sirius paid for. I remember waiting for Remus to apologize too, AND HE FUCKING NEVER DID

Disclaimer: I enjoyed atyd as a standalone AU with canon elements. It was beautifully written and the author clearly put so much time, effort, and love into writing it. I honestly really liked Remus in it, I just can never see him as superior to my beloved Canon Remus and I hate this fandom for bullying those of us who chose not to canonize a popular fanfic.

[witheredgardenparty]

I've been seeing a lot of posts lately in which the op will complain that people are wildly mischaracterizing their favorite characters.

I feel like it bears reminding that "as long as you can back up your arguments with evidence, there can be multiple, and even conflicting, valid interpretations of the same text" and "just because the interpretation is valid, does not mean you have to internalize it into your understanding of the text" coexist.

[ohboy-herewegoagain]

working on the sampo compilation post i mentioned a little while ago but. there is such a tragic lack of sampo and black swan being reluctant homies in fan content. Most of her story quest is them having to put up with Sparkle's bullshit (affectionate) together.

[xavalav]

explodes forever and ever as i think abt dnd session from tonight. we beefed it so hard and now my freak is having a mental breakdown.

[shinygoku]

NOOOO DON'T LET THE MCU CLAIM IT'S 616! IT'S NOT EARTH-616!!

THE MCU IS EARTH-199999, THAT'S A ONE-AND-5-NINES, IT'S NOT EARTH-616, WHICH IS THE ORIGINAL UNIVERSE THE MAIN COMICS ARE SET IN! DON'T LET THEM STEAL IT FOR FALSE LEGITIMACY!! HAAAAAAANK!!!

[bsptourist]

gm_fanze

created by HoneyDragonMan

[bah-theater-archive]

Hi! May I request a level 3 with all add ons of Marceline or Marshall Lee please!? ^_^

—🌌💥

Level 3 🎭 + 2 Add-Ons

Theme: Marceline (Adventure Time) fictive

WARNING this pack contains NSFW!

Name: Marceline/Marcy, Juliet, Marshall Lee, Scarlet

Age: Ageless (physically 25)

Pronouns: she/it/fang/vamp/red/queen/music/ey/he/they

Genders: bigender, demigirl, mademongirlic, femdemic, demonicesse, vampgender

Orientation: Lesbian

Role: Protector / Ameliorator

Species: Vampire

Personality traits: loyal / prankster / immature

Source: Adventure Time

Sign off/emojis: 🎸🩸, [first letter of name in italics], 🪓

Likes: music / bats / bubblegum / red

Dislikes: sunlight / egotism / lies / other vampires

Hobbies: playing instruments / skateboarding / crochet

Typing quirks: uses emoticons often, e -> 3.

Speech quirks: sometimes hisses when angry.

Aesthetic: Punk rock

Faceclaim:

Marceline the Vampire Queen is a chill, if immature, vampire. She’s very loyal to her friends, but is easily annoying through her teasing and jokes. Fang’s very musically talented, using instruments to calm down. It chews on bubblegum often. However, queen hates being under the sun, preferring darkness or artificial light, and will close window curtains if applicable. Ey also dislikes other vampires and the stereotype that all vampires drink blood, on edge to hostile if ey’s around other vamps. Red is very good at giving advice, but gets avoidant about reds own issues.

Alternate faceclaims:

[note: second image is how we’d imagine her as a human!]

Playlist: I’m Just Your Problem - Adventure Time / Monster - Adventure Time / Goodnight Socialite - The Brobecks / Sugar, We’re Goin Down - Fall Out Boy / All Hail Me - Veruca Salt

Front triggers: Music / Bubblegum (the food)

Kinks: Bondage / Transformation / Blades

Libido: Medium to low. Not always in the mood, but when she is, she makes it special.

Music genre: Rock (punk specifically, but vamp likes all rock)

Thank you, thank you! We hope you enjoyed your stay!

[killrabbit]

saw someone say they think mh and ah are basically the same and theres no point in trying to separate the two…

[xinnic]

This Riptide AU is just turning into me world building for the Navy, huh.

[kurczeno]

it's so weird to see posts like "this is my rook, hes zevran's son and an antivan crow" bcs I'm not the one to be mean about the headcanons but...

is... is the child in their rebellious phase? Do they hate their father? I mean, have you even played the first game? Because the entire character arc of Zevran revolves around how much he hates the Crows, their cruel methods and that, besides being assassins, they are also a bunch of degenerate assholes. When he sees a bloody altar he's like "OH WE DID THAT SHIT IN THE CROWS TOO :)". They killed his father (something hes probably not aware of). They made him kill his lover, just so he remembered that he was nothing to them, that he was disposable, like everyone else. He dedicated a significant part of his life to killing off the guildmasters (not only of the House Arainai, as I felt Lucanis suggested? The whole banter with Harding proves the writers were too lazy to even, idk, read a wiki page). So I swear, the only explanation is that the child just got pissed at his father and was like "that's it, im joining the crows. Yes, dad, out of spite!", which I don't even think is possible, but. ok kiddo, that's a bit harsh.

Crows literally ruined his life. Singlehandedly.

and i mean, again, these are just headcanons so i shouldnt judge it but I feel like DAV is to blame here, bcs it twisted the Crows order so much, it's... bizarre. Someone just saw Zev's uniform and was like "how about we bring these guy's back, people will thirst over this, I think they're assassins or smth, so it's hot. Also make the uniform fucking ugly this time"

and i wouldnt have a problem with that, if it was supposed to shed a new light on the Crows. But that's absolutely not what they're doing, they straight up retconned it and I know DAV is a huge fucking retcon, but still why

(ps. I know Lucanis was not introduced in DAV, but the post isn't about him, but the Crows in general)

(also now that i think about it Zev would make an absolutely horrible father, so maybe his child really does hate him)

(its supposed to be more about the crows in dav in general and I assume that some people actually have a story about that crow thing. which could actually be interesting, fr)

[who-is-page]

Just read a conference paper that mentions fictionkin and... does a fantastic job at completely misunderstanding the phenomena and confusing it with KFF, but worse than that is that it uses a grand citation of a TikTok for that part. How is this going to be a foundational part of your paper's point when you can't even be half-assed to actually look into it. One of the authors has a PhD.