#inescapable hell

[tethered-heartstrings]

genuinely am not sure how I'm expected to get enough sleep, go to school, do all my assignments, study, exercise, keep up with dishes and laundry, keep my house clean, shower everyday, buy groceries, prepare 3 (healthy) meals a day and eat them, and not explode in the process???

[blackberry-sage-tea]

I don't think that Veilguard is a product of developers who didn't care. I feel like it's a product of developers who cared so much that they were willing to do anything and everything to get the game finished. Even if it involved a million concessions. A million compromises. An FPS game engine that had to be twisted far beyond what it was designed for, a set of assets and mechanics and art style created for a polar opposite game to the "gritty" singleplayer narrative they were making. With all the core veterans of the series that shaped its identity having been driven out or fired, and the ones remaining either inexperienced/unskilled in their new roles or burned out beyond belief to the point where they actually felt they needed a "fan council" to advise them on writing it.

I think they wanted so badly to deliver on the promise of DA4 that they kept going even as (imo) everything that would have made DA4 worthwhile got stripped out of the game.

I know a lot of people think of that as a miraculous achievement, "at least it Got Made", but personally "a hypothetical great DA4 that just sadly never got finished" would have been better than "the shitty DA4 that every new piece of fan content is now obligated to include or reference in some way by virtue of being the capstone finale to the series".

Especially because getting it made didn't...save their jobs or the series or anything they still got fired and the studio still got shuttered. Sometimes "cut your losses", "listen to your regrets", and "the little wins aren't enough" are acceptable things to say. So much of Veilguard's script feels like it's full of the mantras that the development team was telling themselves over and over just to get through a hellish cycle and you know, I think a lot of those messages are wrong, actually. I'm not looking to be judgmental, in that position I might have made the exact same choices, but looking in from the outside I think it was a mistake to just keep going at any cost.

[dopplerdora]

Honestly I'm not sure Boudica would want to be summoned as an Avenger. Being an Avenger is a hellscape where you can never stop thinking of your trauma, you can never move forward, a perpetual hell that you can't escape and that burns the world around you.

Being an Avenger canonically sucks eggs and from an in universe perspective it should never be sought out.

Remember, to kill an Avenger is the purist form of mercy you can give them.

...That said I would enjoy a Beserker or Saber Boudica.

FGO gives Boudica no fucking respect and that’s bullshit, this is a woman that razed Londinium so hard there’s still an entire layer of scorched remnants beneath modern London.

[uncanny-tranny]

Huge shout-out to John Cena for dropping my new transition goal that one time last year. Look at this and earnestly say this isn't peak male performance.

[deconstructthesoup]

This... this is probably an absolutely insane idea, but...

*small sigh, head in hands, mumbling under my breath*

A Slay the Princess "Barbie: Princess & the Pauper" AU where Damsel is Annalise, Prisoner is Erika, and... god help me, but you know that Opportunist would be the perfect Preminger

[roguelioness]

Hey you know that fisherman alone on the island banter Solas has with Varric in Inquisition

Have you ever wondered if the reason that "fade image" stuck with Solas was because he identified so deeply with it

Do you think of a fisherman Solas cooking alone, of the fisherman Solas eating alone, of the fisherman Solas isolated in a far-too-big-for-one-person place

Do you think of a touch-starved fisherman Solas wanting the warmth of another person in the coldest and darkest of night but unable to find any

Do you think that was why he was so indignant about the fisherman's inaction

Because the fisherman had options he did not

Because the fisherman could have found someone else but he could not

Because the fisherman could have had a happy life but he cannot

[saturdaysky]

Creepin on your tags… Mayfic? Mayhew fic?? Mayhew fic for us Mayhew lovers???

Is it is a WIP or is there anything published so far?

Mayhew fic for us Mayhew lovers!!!

Nothing is published yet. I will be completing the fic first, and publishing it weekly once it's done and edited. I also am hoping to illustrate it like I did for my friend's critrole mercaleb fic! (like so: one, two)

The premise

After events of the game, Gale leaves to become a god (but pinky promises he'll come back), while Wyll, Karlach, and Mayhew (now a very grudging mind flayer) go to Avernus to find a cure for Karlach. All four of these people have just leapt into the crucible. What shape do they choose to become?

I'm exploring what actually happens in those six months between the endgame and the epilogue party.

Mayhew/Flayhew: What is it actually like to become a mind flayer, and how long can you ignore the fact that you did? What if it gives you the power you've always wanted? It will cost you the better self you're trying to be, but your clock is ticking. How much faith can you put in promises made by someone who left you behind?

Karlach: What is it actually like to walk back into Hell with only trust and wishes in your pockets? How do you keep going when those wishes run out? The friend who wouldn't let you die is now slowly dying inside himself, so what do you do now that the shoe is on the other foot?

Wyll: What is it actually like to be a powerless warlock who swore to protect your friends? Hell will kill all of you if any one of you is the weak link, but you're not trapping yourself into another pact. How do you make up the difference? In your duty of protection, when does a friend become a monster, and when does a monster become a threat?

Gale: What is it actually like to become a god? What do you do when you play for ultimate power and win? Your divine future awaits, and mortality already seems distant and petty. You can leave everything behind to claim perfection, right now, and no one can stop you. So...do you keep those old, mortal promises you made?

Altogether, these are novel-length ideas to chew on, and the word count reflects it. It's novel-length already 😂 but this is because I want the fic to be robust enough to stand on its own and prove its own points, like a novel must do. I also want it to be readable even if you haven't played BG3. It's a ton of work to write, but it's very fun.

The shorter premise is: sometimes, just sometimes, if you play out two bad endings long enough, they can become one good ending.

[icannotholdmypen]

OKAY NOW I'VE LISTENED TO IT WHAT THE FUCK I WANT MY HAPPY BOY BACK RIGHT NOW

[incorrect-hs-quotes]

Equius: D-> Grocery store mission barely accomplished took massive damage to the hull and all internal systems. Shield repair could take days

[thatdamnokie]

✨ recommended reading over christian universalism ✨

[wildtales1973]

my moms obsession with being the tiniest prettiest most emotionally vulnerable and sexually desirable woman in any room and her belief that I am not a person but an extension of her has not negatively impacted me at all why would you even suggest that?

[theoldgodsaredisappointed]

Working retail is great. It's super super great when the store you work at has been having plumbing issues for the better part of a month.

It's even better when the floor drains start overflowing with literal shit water raw sewage.

And I love having a manager who refuses to close the store when the whole place smells like literal shit and every customer who comes in looks shocked and disgusted. Surely this will not ruin their perception of the store forever more.

Surely it can't be better to close for one day than to gain the reputation of "shit store."

God I just fucking Love retail.

[satellite-runner]

can solidly say the worst thing about T so far is the body acne

[disgustedorite]

Why does the unethical hell prison exist again?

[ros1eartts]

medkit says the ph word!1!!1!! Put him in timeout

-aiden wuz here!!

[dorianbrightmusic]

seriously? the moment i google what 'high nose bridge' means, i'm getting 3 different sites advertising rhinoplasties?

why is there so much pressure on folks to change their appearance. one site was labelled 'choosing your nose'. seriously? seriously??