#it came from outer ed

[funeenefacts]

Eddy hates birds

[min0uet]

i like this eene clip bc to me its just a minute long version of this

[pigswithwings]

heartbreaking but also cool as fuck how giants deep just goes fully dark during the supernova. probably easy to accept for gabbro though. everything goes dark for a moment and you get to close your eyes and pretend like it's a nap

[andy-15-07]

So Joel miller x reader where reader was held captive by raiders. Then she came into jackson where she had an ED but then maria and tommy "helped" her she kind of tricked them. Then a few months later Joel came, something happend on patrol and after being checked on she goes home. A few days later Joel came to check on her and shes like unconcious

Xx

Second Breath

PAIRING: Joel Miller x reader

WORD COUNT: 1513 | requests are open (send requests, I will gladly answer them all)

Pedro Pascal Masterlist | Pedro Pascal Masterlist II

Joel Miller tightened the strap of his rifle as he walked the perimeter of Jackson’s outer fence with Tommy. The evening air was cool, the smell of pine drifting through the settlement. Guards patrolled the walls, lights glimmering in the growing dusk. Joel glanced back at the illuminated town,homes, the hospital, Maria’s makeshift office,and thought back to when he first brought Y/N here, nearly half a year ago.

He swallowed hard at the memory, forcing himself to focus on the present. Today’s patrol had been uneventful, but the peace always felt fragile. He nudged Tommy with his elbow.

“Anything stirring?” Joel asked in a low voice.

Tommy shook his head. “Nothing since last week’s runner sighting. Maria’s got the med tent ready if anyone gets hurt.”

Joel nodded. His mind drifted to Y/N, who’d been staying with Maria and himself after the raiders’ camp collapse. He hadn’t seen her in weeks; she’d claimed a stomach bug and went home. He’d meant to check,meant to talk,but work got in the way. Now Tommy’s presence was company enough to distract him from guilt.

Before they reached the gate, Joel spotted a group gathered by the infirmary entrance. Maria and a young guard were talking in rapid Spanish; Y/N’s cot was wheeled out with a stretcher. Joel’s heart hammered.

“Tommy,” he said, pressing forward. “Stay here.” He dropped his pack, sprinted to the med tent.

Inside, Maria knelt beside Y/N’s stretcher. The girl’s dark hair fanned across the sheet; her cheeks were pale. Maria’s voice was clipped.

“She collapsed in her home,” Maria was saying. “I think it’s malnutrition,again.”

Joel crouched and took Y/N’s hand. “Hey.” His voice cracked. “Hey, you hear me?”

Y/N’s eyes fluttered open. They were glassy, unfocused. She tried to speak, but only a whisper came.

“I’m okay,” she rasped. “Just… tired.”

Joel’s heart clenched. He dug in his pack for water as Maria and the guard carried her inside.

Two days before, Y/N had insisted she was fine. Joel found her at the end of her street, leaning against a stucco wall, sunken cheeks, thin arms folded over her chest.

“Y/N,” he began, voice gentle. “You look terrible.”

She lifted her chin. “I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine.” Joel folded his arms. “I’m taking you to Maria.”

She shook her head. “I’m not going,”

“Not up for discussion.” He grabbed her arm. “Move.”

She shrugged off his grip. “You have no right,”

He stepped closer, anger flaring. “I saved your life, and the least you can do is let me make sure you don’t kill yourself next. I’m not asking.”

Her eyes flashed. For a moment, he saw the defiance he’d first met in the raider camp,when she’d shot two men to let them escape. Then her shoulders slumped. “Fine,” she muttered, leading him back.

That afternoon in Maria’s med tent had been brutal. Maria checked Y/N’s vitals, frowned at the scales, shook her head.

“Eating disorder,” Maria said, voice low. “She’s lost too much weight.”

Y/N bristled. “I don’t have an,”

Maria cut her off. “I’m not here to argue. This is medical.”

Joel stood by the door, arms crossed. He’d never known Y/N’s history,why she joined that raider gang at nineteen. He hadn’t asked. But seeing her bright determination collapse in the face of food… it made him furious.

Maria instructed rest, a nutrition plan, regular check‑ins. Tommy offered to transfer supplies. Y/N nodded like a kid forced into school.

But Joel suspected she was only playing along. She’d taken the meal supplements and hid them. He caught her one night, cramming crackers into her coat pocket.

“You tricking them again?” he’d demanded.

She glared. “None of your goddamn business.”

“It is when you’re dying.”

She struck out,palm to his chest,then fled. He watched her go, helpless.

Back in the med tent now, Y/N lay too still. Joel crouched and brushed her hair from her forehead.

Maria motioned to the guard. “We need to monitor her.”

Joel stood, pacing. “I’ll stay.”

She shook her head. “You need rest.”

He glared. “Not until she’s breathing easy again.”

Maria gave in. “One hour.” She left, closing the flap.

Tommy appeared, eyes guarded. Joel nodded.

They settled in an awkward silence. Tommy finally cleared his throat.

“She’s tough,” Tommy said quietly.

Joel stared at Y/N’s face. “Too tough.” He exhaled. “I was so busy trying to fix everything else I forgot… she’s human.”

Tommy sat. “She doesn’t have to do this alone.”

Joel rubbed his face. “I know.”

Over the next few hours, Y/N’s vitals stabilized. She blinked awake when the lantern swung too close.

“Hey,” Joel whispered.

She tried to smile but winced. “Feel like death.”

He squeezed her hand. “You’re going to be okay.”

She closed her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

He shook his head. “Don’t. Just… get better.”

She nodded, exhausted. Joel sat beside her until a new shift of guard arrived. He left with Tommy,both silent.

That night, Joel barely slept. He tread carefully through Jackson, coat collar up. At Y/N’s house,an old storefront converted to a bunk room,he paused outside the door.

He knocked softly. No answer. He pushed it open.

Y/N lay in the single bed, curled under a thin blanket. Light from the streetlamp cast shadows. He knelt, reached out.

“Y/N?” he whispered.

No response. Her skin was cold. He pressed his cheek to her forehead,ice. Panic seized him.

“Tess!” he yelled.

Tess and Maria burst in.

“She’s unconscious,” Maria said, rushing to her side.

Joel paced. “What happened?” he demanded.

Tess knelt. “She didn’t eat today.”

Joel sank to the floor. “She needs help… we failed her.”

Maria scolded gently. “No. You got her here. Now we get her back.”

They carried Y/N to the med tent. Joel followed, heart pounding. She was still unresponsive as they laid her down.

Maria slid an IV. “We get her hydrated, then gradually reintroduce calories. She should wake soon.”

Joel stood over her, mind racing. Tommy appeared at the flap.

“She’s stable,” he said.

Joel didn’t respond.

Morning light broke the next day. Joel awoke on a cot in the med tent, clothes rumpled. Maria leaned over Y/N, clearing her throat.

Y/N stirred, eyelids fluttering. Joel jumped up.

“Hey,” he said, relief flooding him as she opened her eyes.

She blinked. “Joel…”

He took her hand. “Thank God.”

She tried to sit but winced. Joel helped her. Maria watched.

“How are you feeling?” Joel asked, voice gentle.

“Tired,” Y/N whispered. “So tired.”

He brushed her hair back. “Stay here a bit.”

Maria nodded. “I’ll be back with breakfast.”

She left. Y/N turned to Joel.

“Thank you,” she said, voice thick with emotion. “I… I tricked you.”

He frowned. “Don’t. I get it.”

She sighed. “I’m sorry.”

He cupped her face. “You’re alive. That’s enough.”

She smiled weakly. “This sucks.”

He grinned. “Yeah. But I’m here.”

She closed her eyes. “Thank you.”

He kissed her forehead. “Get some rest.”

Over the next week, Y/N recovered under Maria’s care. She accepted meals, grudgingly at first, then with small gratitude. Joel checked in daily,sometimes brusque, sometimes gentle. She’d glare when he was arrogant; she’d beam when he was tender. Tess brought coffee; Tommy shared old jokes.

Slowly, Y/N began to open up. She told him about the raider camp,how they’d forced her to spy on Jackson, how she’d escaped during the raid Joel led. He’d nodded, solemn, then gently pressed for more,why she’d joined them. She’d stared at him, silence heavy, then whispered, “I wanted a family.”

Joel’s chest ached. He took her hand. “You’re part of our family now.”

She blinked. “Do you mean that?”

He squeezed. “I do.”

She managed a small smile.

On a quiet afternoon, they sat on the infirmary steps. Y/N sipped soup; Joel rested a granola bar.

“You know,” she said slowly, “I thought I’d hate you.”

He cracked a grin. “I’m lovable.”

She rolled her eyes. “But you’re not. You’re tough.”

He shrugged. “And you’re tougher.”

She looked at him. “I’m still broken.”

He shifted, serious. “We all are.”

She studied him. “You,don’t give up on me.”

He brushed hair from her face. “Never.”

She leaned into him. “Thank you.”

He kissed her temple. “Anytime.”

Months later, Y/N walked crutch‑supported around Jackson. Joel hurried beside her.

“You sure you don’t want me to carry you?” he teased.

She smirked. “I beg your pardon.”

He laughed and bumped her shoulder. “You’re stubborn as hell.”

She grinned. “Saves my ass.”

He stopped and looked at her. “You saved mine too.”

She blinked. “Me?”

He nodded. “You showed me… you’re more than a survivor. You’re a person.” He took both her hands. “I’m glad you’re here.”

She pressed his hands. “Glad you’re here too.”

He leaned in, kissing her softly. She melted into it.

As the sun set over Jackson, Joel and Y/N stood by the supply tent, watching the lanterns flicker on. She looped her arm through his.

“Ready for patrol?” he asked.

She smiled. “Yeah,ready for anything.”

He kissed her cheek. “Let’s go home.”

Together, they walked back,stronger, healed by each other, survivors no longer alone.

[army-navy-air]

How did pilots of the SR-71 Blackbird prevent the aircraft from leaving contrails over 65,000 feet?

The SR-71 Blackbird was designed to fly at Mach 3.2, or more than three times the speed of sound, and at altitudes up to 85,000 feet. At such extreme conditions, the air temperature was very low, around -60°C, and the air pressure was very low, around 0.9 psi. This meant that the air was very dry and could not hold much water vapor.

The SR-71 had two powerful Pratt & Whitney J58 engines that used a special fuel called JP-7, which had a very high flash point and low vapor pressure. The fuel was also used as a coolant for the engines and the airframe, which heated up due to aerodynamic friction. The fuel was circulated through heat exchangers and then sprayed into the engines’ afterburners, where it ignited and produced thrust.

The SR-71’s engines had a unique feature called “ejector nozzles”, which allowed them to operate efficiently at both subsonic and supersonic speeds. The nozzles consisted of two concentric rings: an inner ring that could move forward and backward to adjust the exhaust area, and an outer ring that had slots to allow air to enter the exhaust stream. The air entering the slots created a shock wave that increased the pressure and temperature of the exhaust gases, making them expand faster and produce more thrust. The air also diluted the exhaust gases, reducing their water content and making them less likely to form contrails.

The SR-71 pilots had to carefully monitor the engine performance and adjust the nozzle position to avoid contrail formation. They also had to avoid flying through clouds or areas of high humidity, which could trigger contrail formation. They used a device called a “contrail light”, which was mounted on the tail of the aircraft and projected a beam of light downward. If the light reflected off a contrail, the pilots would know they had to change their altitude or speed.

One example of a close encounter with a Soviet fighter occurred on Oct. 6, 1986, when an SR-71 was flying along the coast of Murmansk. The pilot, Ed Yeilding, spotted a long white contrail coming towards him at lower altitude. He realized it was a MiG-31 interceptor, one of the few aircraft that could reach the SR-71’s altitude. He raised his periscope and saw that he was also leaving a contrail behind him. He knew that the MiG-31 pilot could see his contrail as well and might try to fire his missiles at him if he crossed into Soviet airspace. He decided to stick to his planned track and get his pictures while depending on his speed and altitude for survival. The MiG-31 came as close as eight miles before running out of airspeed at 65,000 feet.

If you want to learn more about it, I recommend reading some of these books:

Lockheed Blackbird: Beyond the Secret Missions (Revised Edition) by Paul Crickmore

Sled Driver: Flying the World’s Fastest Jet by Brian Shul

Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed by Ben Rich

[inquisitionthoughts]

Dragon Age the Veilguard: My Thoughts

I have played through all of the latest Dragon Age installation (except for two side quests in Rivain, and one blighted dragon that I was locked out of for the entire game due to what I believe was a bug) and I have things to say. 

After finishing it I had so many conflicting thoughts and feelings, and those internal conflicts have only grown after letting the experience marinate. 

I want to start with saying that I am writing what I'm going to say as a nonbinary, queer, bi, pan, poly, “leftist” progressive feminist vegetarian working at an NGO LGBTQI-organization, so you can safely assume that I am not coming from a grifter or alt-right point of view. 

To give you an idea of where I am coming from:

I grew up reading folktales, mythologies and fantasy literature by Pratchett, Tolkien and Eddings; playing the Swedish version of Dungeons & Dragons, making role-playing games, and programming text based fantasy adventures in DOS as a kid. That's how I ended up in this whole fandom in the first place. 

I am an original Dragon Age fan. I've followed and absolutely loved the series since before the release of Origins. As I watched my friends play Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, but never had a good enough computer at home to play those games myself at that time, I was elated when I got to hear talk of a game universe that was the “spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate”, and I followed all info on the development and marketing, until the game was released. And boy did they deliver, Dragon Age: Origins converted me into a gamer and cemented my love for cRPGs as well as my love for BioWare. 

I did many playthroughs of Origins; every origin, good runs, evil runs, canon runs. All the DLC. Several runs of Awakening. When the demo for DAII was released I was apprehensive due to the really weird look so it took me a while to play it, but when I eventually did it was amazing. The companions and the story were stellar, and it didn't really matter that they reused the dungeons, I just wish they had updated the maps so it wasn't as obvious. Several playthroughs later with both siblings, all romances and different allied endings I was ready for the next installation. 

I pre-ordered Dragon Age Inquisition as soon as it was possible, the collector's edition, so I ended up learning tarot to use the deck that came with it. I bought all the art books for all the games. I kind of wanted to stop playing Inquisition at the 1337 hour mark but now I have over 2000 hours in the game, with all the DLC completed, and I've played every race and class, explored all the different ways the character can be portrayed as devout Andrastian, carefree selfish asshole, elven supremacist or goodie-two shoes hero, and I’ve even written a guide to how to get the best DAI experience here on tumblr (tldr; get out of the Hinterlands, talk to companions, skip the shards 😅). 

And then I waited for ten years. Played Mass Effect 1-4, Fallout 3-4, Skyrim, Witcher 3, Baldur's Gate 1-3, Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, Elder Scrolls Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Divinity: Original Sin 2, The Outer Worlds, Cyberpunk 2077 and Starfield to bide my time. Followed Ghil Dirthalen's YouTube channel religiously. Read most of the Dragon Age Wiki, even contributed to it. Made my own mad person mind maps over the lore and timeline of the universe; the Maker, the titans, the spirits, the elves, the veil, humans, Tevinter, qunari, the blight, Andraste and the Chantry. 

I love the darkness and depth of the Dragon Age universe. How it consciously turns fantasy tropes on their head in its own way. I have memories of the writers of Origins explaining that when they created the setting they wanted to contemplate how the existence of magic, elves and dwarves actually would play out in a gritty realistic world filled with bigoted and narrow minded people, and then followed through with those conclusions. How the plight of the elves had clear connotations to the holocaust and the Jewish gettos of Europe. It was a curious series not afraid to follow their own trains of thought, making you nauseated, flabbergasted and upset on the way. 

I followed the twists and turns of the development at BioWare. Through development being halted due to teams being moved to Andromeda and Anthem, the pivot to and from multi-player live service, mass leavings and layoffs, teaser trailers, Kotaku articles and whatnot. It was a roller-coaster pendulum swing between being afraid and hopeful, oftentimes at the same time. I refused to completely give up hope, I never did, and I was immensely excited for the release of Dragon Age Dreadwolf. 

Eventually it came! Name changed to Veilguard. A quite weird League of Legends-esque companions trailer. A spoiler filled gameplay video. Marketing team spoiling endgame scenes with official trailers. Rumors of amazing character creation and a shocking reveal that only three choices would carry over from the past three games. We already knew the Keep wouldn't be used, but only three? Nevertheless I pre-ordered and then it came. 

And I played it. 

I loved it so much, but at the same time I had so many deep grievances that threatened to take over the whole playthrough unless I somehow managed them. I had to create a document that stayed open at all times on my second screen just so I could write down things that I just could not let go otherwise, that made me able to keep focusing on the game and not the hard to swallow moments I was getting stuck on. I have never experienced anything like this before, but on the other hand I have never loved and been invested in any game fantasy universe like this. 

This was the result of all my reactions to Dragon Age the Veilguard:

THE LOVE

Things I really loved

the lighthouse <3

the look and graphics of every place, the game is absolutely stunning, and the visual people have outdone themselves, the level designs, the environmental storytelling is amazing and beyond

the cities, the markets, I LOVE LOVE LOVE them, and they give so much cyberpunk 2077 vibes in a good way 

dock town gives awesome low town vibes from da2 ❤️

the main story

the new lore drops, omg the lore, yum yum

buskers playing the old tavern songs, just love it

the blight, visually, oh god I loved it, it was really a throwback to the fleshyness of the Deep Roads in Origins

the new look of the demons, I actually loved it eventually as I was first sceptical, even though the pride demons were abit too much floaty neon

so many new iterations of enemies, in such fun ways

the faction systems and factions stores 

the companion gear systems

the gear system, upgrade systems

the short letters ❤️

the leveling up systems, really funny, great to be able to refund at any time

the world maps and fast travel systems

the cards where you chose your companions, stunning

the scene in front of the lighthouse eluvian, awestriking

the companion conversation system where you could see on the map of the lighthouse if they had anything new, or a quest or where they were if you wanted to eavesdrop - it was very refreshing after talking to everyone in camp in bg3 every night to see if there is any new reaction to something you did, now I could just talk to them if they had something and not compulsively all the time

the quest formats of walking along with your companions in areas you otherwise can end up in battle in, loved that so much, a calm way to experience these absolutely stunning environments

the combat system on explorer mode, when at highest level the animations that played out were mad cool XD that was fun!

that you can walk into and climb ladders at the same time as companions and that they teleport to you or enemies in battle, lovely

squeezing through narrow passages, sliding down, walking on thin planks

the no fall damage jumping

opening doors like in dark souls games

that lucanis had a contract on a bronto once XD

elgar’nan has an amaaazing voice actor giving weight to his menace

loved the format of the ending in the style of mass effect 2, so well executed! one of the best endings of all times

the varric twist OMG!! I cried ❤️

I have cried and have had goosebumps so many time during this game ❤️ I love so much of it so much ❤️

the hype for what the "devouring storm", "the adversary" and "it's eye" is, and a potential next game

the joining chalice T_T

THE MEH

Things that were meh

that the romance was super PG13 T_T I guess I am spoiled after bg3 but to get a peck and then a lying hug on a couch and an "I love you" was of course wonderful, but NOT ENOUGH XD I absolutely loved the Lucanis romance otherwise, very spicy in it's way, but I really wanted the scenes of origins, da2 or dai - we honestly didn't get that here

wasn't a fan of the cartoony vibes for the characters but I still grew into almost immediately, I really wish that they had done something to not make all important characters look so extremely young, some people who should be in at least their 30s look like teenagers.. they should have used more rugged face textures

that there was no real way to make your inquisitor look like your original inquisitor like in they did with hawke in Inquisition, kinda broke immersion and emotional connection

the controls (ok remappable so it was fine in the end)

the lol dota fortnite overwatch type of ui vibe

whats up with all this drowning all the time XD

that you have to destroy stuff to loot it - very dark souls (they have clearly been elden ring inspired in this game) - very unimmersive as you trash the markets in all major cities…😅 but in the end it was fun, but still insane XD

repetetive puzzles in especially arlathan forest, wish they made more meaningful quests there instead to slow the pace

wish I never watched the game trailers they released, they spoiled too much of the

would have loved to be able to zoom in a bit more

too many cats XD 😉

the music was more like starfield or a scifi game than dragon age - there was a lot of modern music instead of the classical brass orchestra or choirs, I missed that

I missed the chantry, and the chant of light

personal quests starts like in the shadow of mordor games, interesting, a bit weird 😛

THE 😬

Things that I did not like

that I could not recreate a body that is similar to mine (and I have a completely normal female body that is just kinda curvaceous) because they put an unrealistic cap on boob and butt size, it makes me really sad because it feels like there is something wrong with existing like me, especially since women like me are the only ones not allowed to be included and represented in a game that otherwise prides itself at inclusion and representation

the stressed opening throwing us into the main action of the game far too quickly with far too little buildup as to who your character is, how they were drafted by Varric, what they have been doing, why they have been split up, what their relationships are like and why you should care about your own character

the gold exploding everywhere when looting or opening chests, it is really immersion breaking and unnecessary, I really hope someone can mod that out

the new look of the darkspawn: I like that there are so many different types and the amazing idea that the blight has changed, but they obviously went for comedic effect instead of horror here which makes me so sad, it feels like it ties in with other choices that make the game more juvenile that are hard to reckon with, especially since the game is marketed as “mature”

the new combat system on anything other than explorer, a huge nope for me, unfortunately, but I can only congratulate all those that seem to love it

that we, true to american culture and despite healing magic existing in this world, get death scenes of people just sitting and watching someone die crying for dramatic effect instead of trying to help them… it irks me every time it happens in any media

that you cannot sort your inventory by any values or show only light or medium armor or anything, a missed opportunity

THE 😭

These last grievances are the hardest ones to put into words and the things that have stayed with me since I played the game. They have given rise to so many questions as to why these choices were made, because these things are so obviously choices that it becomes really hard to understand why they would chose to go this route.

But here they are, the three major grievances I have with this game:

1) the lore breaking or retconning

2) the writing regarding companions, NPCs and its ideas of "teambuilding" and preaching

3) that there is so little real choice 

The lore breaking or retconning

That there is much lore that is missing, and many choices or things from the previous games that are not referenced, felt a lot more okay than the instances where actual lore and world building was retconned in a way that was not explained in any capacity, but where you were just supposed to live with the fact that this is the new reality of the world. 

I am not fully sure why this happened, and it felt really disrespectful to the game itself, its previous creators and all those who love this universe. It feels like they did it for two main reasons: one was that they wanted to remove things that could be somehow perceived as “uncomfortable” or “problematic” to the player, and the other was in instances where I think that the writers did not have enough knowledge or interest in the world lore, or experience with playing the previous games, and thus missed important pieces of lore where they had taken part of just some of previous codex entries and just kind of gotten it wrong. I really don’t know. 

They seem to have retconned and thrown out the window all previous elf lore regarding dalish and city elves, that dalish elves are very hateful towards shemlen, and that humans are generally racist against elves, and that city elves are oppressed, and that they are often andrastian, and that not all elves even speak elvish… 

Playing an elf mage warden was a rollercoaster of people talking about "my people" when I most likely grew up in a mage circle and was drafted to the wardens and should most likely not speak old elven? All elves just talked about "our people" and "our culture" like if that was a thing constantly, but it is so much more complex in this universe. And it seemed all elves just suddenly knew elvish, which was not a thing in the older games, that was like a cryptic language people didn't know much about.

The weirdest scene in the whole game that had me rubbing my eyes to make sure I was seeing and hearing correctly was the one where you meet the Veil Jumpers for the first time and the two leaders of the faction for some unknown reasons had knowledge of Solas being Fen'harel and most importantly that the old elven gods were power hungry evil mages. Like, that should not at all be any kind of common knowledge, that just felt absolutely insane. No explanation given as to how they could have pertained that bit of info.

And there was something really off with Arlathan, where the whereabouts of the ancient elven capital was like the biggest mystery of the previous games; no one knew where it had vanished, it had just been buried according to legend, and suddenly there is just a large crater in the middle of Arlathan forest and loads of city parts kind of left? Just, really strange. 

And all this talk about the Tevinter blood magic destroying the elves while walking in that forest - where we literally just learned in the last game that it was not Tevinter that destroyed the elves, but the elves themselves and that when Tevinter came they were long gone, which makes those throwaway conversations just like this huge retcon of the last games. Kind of like someone reading the early lore and being like, aha, this is what happened, without also taking part of the events that showed that as being a false belief… 

And it feels like this was done because it fits in with this whole new idea of “elves good” and “man bad” vibe of the story, where elves had been turned into some kind of indigenous population that were fighting the evil colonialist Tevinter? Which is not at all the original lore; in the original lore pretty much everyone’s an asshole in different ways (even if Tevinter are more assholes than most).

They have also removed a lot of the difference between surface dwarves and thaigh dwarves with their quite oppressive cast systems and racism towards the surface dwarves and peoples.

And they made the chantry into the catholic church in Antiva, is that really lore friendly? The chantry run or other mage circles aren’t really referenced anymore, even with several new organisations around that forming after Inquisition no matter what choices you made, and mages aren’t really treated any special, and people don’t seem to be afraid of them or revere them as they would in the rest of the world or Tevinter, and magic has been turned into some kind of scifi magical tech instead of what it used to be. 

And apparently dragons have treasures now, but they never used to have that, so that's another thing where it feels like the writers did not write for the Thedas but for like generic fantasy. 

And the Crows of Antiva are only a friendly family instead of an unscrupulous child buying assassin’s league (I hear that has kind of been explained in some written media by a war between the different crow factions, but they could have somehow then explained that...), and the pirates lead by Isabela - one of the worst perpetrator of cultural theft known from Dragon Age 2 where she stole the Tome of Koslun, with so little care as to return it to the point that a war with the Qunari broke out in Kirkwall - are not pirates but culturally sensitive treasure hunters, but of course without explanation as to how this could come to pass. 

I have seen many people complain about things and references that are missing but that actually ARE in the game, and that is why I am not as upset about the missing lore because I know that there are probably a lot of that lying around in codexes and scenes and little NPC conversations and such that I have missed, just as many others have missed a lot of things. But those things that ARE there, that break the earlier lore without any given plausible explanation, that is what hurts. 

The writing regarding companions, NPCs, "teambuilding" and preaching tone

Generally people are just too happy and cheery almost all the time.

I've heard "you've got this" WAY too many times - the disconnect between the dark lore and world and the NPCs who are so unphased almost all of the time, except for when emotion is needed for a scene, is too large. There is way much more cynicism needed here to reflect the evil in the world and the actual goings on around. This constant cheeriness was present in both companion dialogue and NPC interaction.

This game is obviously themed around building "a team" - that's the main premise, but the idea the writers have about how you do that doesn't feel based in reality. It feels like the power fantasy of nerdy queer computer developers on how they want people to feel or operate. Rook is made out to be a good leader because the question "are you ok" is used in any and all (not always reasonable) situations. Romantic questions are blunt in a way that not everyone would be comfortable with, but all companions are still happy with that in-the-real-world not very successful flirting style, and it feels like that is a power fantasy of writers who just wish the world would function like this. 

You as Rook feels like your companion's mom and therapist, and their struggles are so juvenile and safe that they are about that they cannot sleep, forget to eat, that their mom told them to do something, that grandma might not approve of them, or that they do not like vegetables… And you tell them how to live their lives; they should eat, and sleep, and lots of other cliches, but the game also tells you as the player through companion dialogue that it is also good to do breathing exercises, drink less coffee, eat more flax-seed because it's good for your stomach, and how often you should shower. I as Rook even gave the mega ancient goddess Mythal modern style RELATIONSHIP advice, I wanted to sink through the floor… 

This game feels preachy in a way that I have never ever felt in a game, it is like there are some writers there who just discovered that mindfulness, flax-seed and personal hygiene are good for you and now have to tell that to the WORLD. If kind of feels like they were envisioning us players some young vulnerable gamers that they needed to save with their hard earned life wisdom. I feel like the writers behind a lot of the companion interactions were not suited to write the kind of deep meaningful content that you expect from this kind of game.

The amount of times I have heard "Thank you" and "I am sorry" in this game is insane. The characters thank each others and apologize constantly like there is no tomorrow, and they resolve their differences within two sentences like - "I hate your whole way of life" - "Oh, I'm sorry I wish you said something sooner" - "Oh, no, I am sorry, I should never have called you assbag." It's just… so much bad writing, I don't know what to call it, it's shallow and flat and I just wish it was so different.

A whole lot of the preaching style could have been remedied if there had been more “show, don’t tell” in this game. It feels like the writers have forgotten that when you want to convey a moral, cultural, artistic or political message through a piece of art, like games are, you need to do it through the power of allegory and not just by having characters outright saying what is right or wrong.

For example, if the message that you want to get across is that cultural piracy is bad, you should not have a character posture for an organisation just telling you how good they are for returning treasure to cultures they come from; you should write a quest where you dig up a piece of treasure that gives you some kind of power, but where you later find out this is an important cultural relic of some lost tribe that really wants it back, and where you as the player have to grapple with the weight of that moral choice. Even players who would then choose to keep the relic for selfish and power-grabbing reasons would still feel kind of morally bad, and they would still get the message you are trying to convey. This kind of mechanic in storytelling is something that is missing throughout the whole game when it comes to different moral, social or cultural messages. 

Also, in the character Bellara the retcon or writing for a different universe and strange companion writing converges. She namely talks about herself as autodidact - that she has learnt not by studying but by poking around and figuring out what goes boom - but at the same time she has many discussions with professor Emmerich about academic stuff and she uses all the fancy words, words that are also out of lore-words, about frequencies and things that come rather from Elder Scrolls and sci-fi universes, whereas in Dragon Age magical power relates to blood (titan blood, human blood, blighted blood and so on) or the fade and spirits. A person who is self taught by only learning and doing would not at all talk like that "you need to huperflux the enchantment-condesator", they would say "you know that feeling you get when it's about to go boom, that's when you do like this show and hold your breath" or something.

That there is so little real choice, you have only one personality and morality

You get very little choice in this game, so little that it almost no longer really feels like an RPG. Especially around who your Rook is and how they act, oftentimes they will just continue talking and say things about their life and background that you had no idea about and had never chosen. You are getting to know your character at the same speed as the NPCs of the game.

For a while while playing this game I honestly thought I had lost my ability to read and understand the English language, and was making plans to try to regain my language skills, because I had never before experienced such a disconnect between what you choose as a player and what Rook actually says. I realized later that this disconnect was not only felt by me but by others as well, and that there is a large disconnect between the options and what is said. 

I don’t need to be “evil” like you could be in Origins or can be in the Baldur’s Gate games, but at least I thought you could be a kind of paragon or renegade version of Rook, or at least that you could form your personality like Hawke and be kind, funny or harsh - but not even that. Rook is more pre cooked than Geralt in the Witcher games, this is more of an interactive movie in many places, so many that I wish they were more honest about that and made those conversations more into quicktime events where you would just experience the scenes like in Detroit Become Human or games like those. The illusion that there are RPG choices where you have less choice in dialogue than you had in Fallout 4 is just hurting the experience, and especially hurting any immersion and connection you can have with your player character. 

You are only allowed to be heroic, and just one type of heroic; not the one that is ready to sacrifice things for the greater good or to get things done, but only the goodie two-shoes hero (that for sure oftentimes is what I play, but which feels meaningless unless there is an option to go another route). 

The most glaring example of this forced morality that pretty much breaks the fourth wall was when Rook goes by a scene in a blighted city where several people have been hung and says very dramatically that “this shouldn’t happen anywhere” and then proceeds to murder 20 Venatori agents with zero thought as to who their mothers, children or pets are. That comment did not feel like a legitimate comment that would be said by a Rook as created by genuine interest in the character or their connection to the world, but much more as a clear “social posturing” or “virtue signaling” for the player behind the computer screen that this is a good person, and that they are good according to the only specific moral view the hero is allowed to have (no chaotic good allowed). 

It was also very present in Rook's interactions with Solas' memories in the crossroads. When confronted with a memory of the blight being created and threatening to spread to the whole world and how Solas sacrificed ONE of his agents to guarantee that the blight would not spread to the world the only way to react to that was the Solas was a horrible callous and evil person for not saving this one person and possibly condemning the world. I think they somehow meant for Rook and Solas to be moral opposites, where Rook would always protect the little people against oppression and Solas would sacrifice the little people for his missions, but it really feels so off to not have any say in your RPG characters moral values, even within the tropes of heroes.

This kind of virtue signaling is also present in many other parts of the game, used not to deepen the characters but to position them as the "good guys", and my best example here is how they handle Emmerichs vegetarianism. It could have been a really interesting trait that could have resulted in interesting conversations about morality, mortality, spirits of animals and flesh - but instead this trait is mainly used to position the other companions as good because they have (wow, time to get impressed) remembered to cook vegetarian food for Emmerich, several times even (naaw, that is so nice and inclusive of them, uwu). This cheapens the whole thing and makes it instead feel preachy (which it is at this point) and it's such a wasted potential.

And when it comes to the choices in the main game there is only one big choice before the suicide mission ending that is major and creates some replayability, but it doesn’t have a particularly large emotional effect because you have not come to know the places enough to care about them properly. The choices you make in the companion quests are, with the exception of Emmerich’s quest, so shallow and just affect their gear instead of their stories in any meaningful way, that I just wish they didn’t have any choices at the end of the quest lines.

SUMMARY

In conclusion: a lot of people have tried to explain these choices of retconning the factions and the lore, and the strange “teambuilding” discourse, as stemming from an idea of Rook as a heroic hero and their team “The Veilguard” as some kind of Avengers. And that for this purpose everything they do has to be good, they have to have only one type of personality, with one type of morality, have only one type of interaction with the world and their companions, the companions have to lack any type of “problematic” (or god forbid interesting) or morally ambiguous character flaw, and all factions you collaborate with have to be morally unambiguously good and the bad guys have to be unequivocally evil preferably without grayscale.

This way of thinking, if this is true, makes these choices that they have made for the game kind of make sense, but it is still such a weird choice to make, to take a complex dark fantasy story that is Dragon Age - and a cRPG franchise known for morally difficult and emotional choices and complex morally grey factions and cultures - and turn it into this hero-fiction, with clear cut morals and cartoony vibe aimed at younger audiences. 

This could have been such an amazing game (which is in many parts still is), but something went really wrong in the direction for the writers and I ache so bad for all those developers that I am sure really tried their best and probably suffered under insane creative direction. I don’t know how else to explain this. 

It feels like, when playing through the game, like the teams that made the environments, the main story and the companions were three different teams where the first two got all the time and resources, and no micromanagement, whereas the last team didn't have any contact with the others and got the short end of the stick.

I am still waiting for the Kotaku article where they talk to 19 people who have worked on this keeping them anonymous and telling us the real story about the experience of making this game. 

Thank you for reading this far, I seriously hope you loved this game no matter its strange choices at time, and I would STILL say after all of this that it is worth playing for all Dragon Age fans out there.

Dareth shiral.

[dndhistory]

554. Jeff Grubb - Manual of the Planes (1987)

With a truly spectacular cover by Jeff Easley featuring an Astral Dreadnought (before there was such a thing), this is a manual to all the different planes of existence in the D&D universe, from Ethereal to Inner and Outer, including the Elemental and Quasi-Elemental planes, and of course the Astral plane. This is before the development of some planes which would become iconic in the game, such as the Feywild and Shadowfell which would come later, but there is plenty of interest for players using any edition of D&D in this book.

Grubb admits right from the start, in the Special Thanks section of the book, that he is standing on the shoulders of others who came before him and gives just plaudits to people like Ed Greenwood and Roger Moore who had already written extensively on the nature of planes in the pages of Dragon magazine, but having everything in one place within such an attractive hardcover is pretty great.

The book explains not only the nature, look and inhabitants of each plane, but it also details how magic works differently in each of them and effects that players might feel while travelling through these planes. Full of interior illustrations and diagrams this would be a pretty great resource for any DMs wanting to take players off the beaten path.

[abubblingcandle]

Jamie Tartt Accent Analysis

Um so yeah, after an anon ask to @withbadhair talking about how Phil is posh and Jamie is Manc, I relistened to Phil Dunster's episode on No Such Thing As A Fish again today and got sucked back into how much I love thinking about the intricacies of regional accents and how much I love thinking about Phil's accent work and how it is great!

So here you go -

A Yorkshire Lass' with an obsession with regional UK accents' take on Jamie Tartt's accent

Phil's Intentions with the accent

Phil has said that it was really his choice what sort of Manchester accent they went for (as Jamie wasn't written specifically to be Mancunian) but he was aiming for New Moston sort of area which is north eastern Manchester suburb (see yellow highlighted area on the image)

But he started by mimicking his agent who is apparently sassy and from Manchester but then listened to people like Aitch (who is from Moston which is probably where the idea for Jamie being from Moston/New Moston came from), Marcus Rashford (who is from Wythenshawe which is south Manchester out of the Outer Ring Road), Jesse Lingard (who is from Warrington which is a town between Manchester and Liverpool to the west) the Gallaghers (who are from Burnage which is south eastern - near Highfield Country Park on the map) which was more season 1 Jamie.

It was mentioned that Aitch was a bit inspiration with the attitude and the sort of swagger as well as the accent itself.

Features of a Mancunian Accent (some things to listen out for)

Research says that the Manchester accent can be characterised by a few distinct features:

The LettER vowel: if there is an ER at the end of a word it is pronounced more like UH. So for example "letter" becomes "let-uh"

The HappY vowel: what Jamie is known for. If there is a Y at the end of a word it is pronounced more like EH. For example "poopy" being "poopeh" or "city" being "cit-eh

H-dropping: this is typically northern but prevalent in Manchester. It is not pronouncing the H at the start of a word so instead of saying "head" pronouncing it "ed".

T-glotallisation: if there is a T in the middle of a word it is sort of dragged over. Like in "better" it can be "beh-uh".

-NG: typically if a word ends in -NG you do not say the G. For example "waiting" is "waitin"

All of these features are more easily noticed in words where more than one of them happens like "happy" becomes "appeh" with both H-dropping and the Y at the end

Analysis of Jamie Tartt's accent from a professional (not me)

Manchester Met have done a study of the different dialects within Greater Manchester and have split it into four categories. Lancashire, Mancs, Wigan, Posh. If Phil was aiming for Moston that would be more Manc but some Lancashire.

Dr Rob Drummond who was the lead on this research was sent clips of Jamie Tartt (edit - as a few people commented on this but he is a friend of No Such Thing As A Fish so was sent it in preparation for Phil being on the podcast but was apparently very complimentary so definitely a Phil Dunster win!) and managed to locate very precisely to just north of central Manchester in the Smedley sort of area which is the blue area on the map. If you compare that with Phil's aim of the red area ... that's damn impressive

So if you are looking for areas of Manchester to set your fics around or ways to make your dialogue feel more Tartt. Then we are looking for the Mancs accent and living somewhere in just north/north west of central Manchester based on his accent.

So yeah thanks for reading my thesis. I was going to go into words and sayings here too but it's after midnight and I have been talking to myself for the last hour just repeating the same words in Queens English, Leeds, and Manc 😂

Disclaimer - this is more based on S3 Jamie as S1 Jamie had a lot more subdued characteristics as Phil was finding his feet with the accent.

Side Plug as I have preordered it - Dr Rob Drummond's book called You're All Talk is coming out soon and it is all about this stuff and also social perceptions of linguistic diversity (which as someone who's accent massively chances based on the situation I am in I am super interested in)

[bi-numi-aliyani]

Hello, friends! I apologize for my absence as of late, I unfortunately ended up in a situation where I didn't have access to the internet for a little while and had to get everything sorted out. There's a lot of things I'm excited to do here, but for now I'd just like to hopefully make up for it with these sketches of ancient symbols of 𒀭ʾEl-ʿElyon and 𒀭Lady ʾAshirat :)

Great Seal of 𒀭ʾAshirat: This is the Asherah-tree symbol as it appears on the famous Pithos A from the Kuntillet ʿAjrud site. It probably came from around the early 8th century BCE when the former Judean outpost was under Northern Israelite control and bears a now-famous inscription mentioning “𒀭Yahweh of Samaria and 𒀭ʾAsheratah.” The ornately-depicted Sacred Tree nourishes two flanking ibex, the sacred animal of 𒀭ʾAshirat, and rests above a lion which symbolizes a Deity's strength in ancient Canaanite iconography.

Small Seal of 𒀭ʾAshirat: This more simplistic iteration of the Tree-and-Ibex symbol is found on the famous Lachish ewer from the end of the Bronze Age and is most notable for its remarkable resemblance to the Menorah of the later Temple of 𒀭Yahweh at Jerusalem.

Small Solar Seal of 𒀭ʾEl: This design is found on the head of a sceptre held by a bronze seated figurine of 𒀭ʾEl in intact gold leaf from a Bronze-Age Temple at Megiddo (Tel Megiddo). It was made around the same time as the Lachish ewer and is believed to invoke the Sun and its beams in a similar way to more recognizable Egyptian or Mesopotamian solar symbols. Another theory holds that it depicts a flower.

Seal of the House of 𒀭ʾEl: Yet another 13th century BCE find, this peculiar insignia is featured on a bronze sceptre head coated in silver leaf which would have been inserted into a wooden pole to be grasped by a life-sized cult statue of 𒀭ʾEl. A stylized human face is flanked by serpents and zigzag lines topped with an upturned crescent. At the bottom and the top is another sign resembling the omega-shaped womb symbol originally associated with the Mother Goddess 𒀭Ninhursag of the Sumerian Pantheon (cf. the cow uterus headdress of the ancient Egyptian childbirth Goddess 𒀭Meskhenet and the “Hathoric curls” hairstyle associated with 𒀭Lady ʿAshtart and 𒀭Qadesh). This design was described as a “cult standard” by the archaeological team who discovered it in a destruction layer at Hazor (Tel Hazor) in the 1950s and I've interpreted it to symbolize the House of 𒀭ʾEl which is also the House of all the Gods and Goddesses. The artifact was found in what appeared to be a small shrine indicating it possibly received some kind of veneration of its own.

Great Solar Seal of 𒀭ʾEl: This is from another bronze sceptre head with silver leaf and was discovered in a 12th century BCE layer at the site of a Canaanite Temple in Lachish (Tell ed-Duweir). I've followed the interpretation that this is a solar symbol similar to the one from Megiddo. A solar disc with three nesting circles is backed by a sort of oblong "halo" which represents the Firmament of Heaven in my view. The Sun with its life-giving rays shown descending upon the Earth here has been interpreted as an anthropomorphic figure as well. I can also see the broad outer bands and the thin inner streams having to do with 𒀭ʾEl's Abode of Mount Lalu being located “at the Source of the Two Rivers, at the Confluence of the Channels of the Two Deeps” according to Ugaritic texts.

Thanks so much for checking this out!

My source for the pictures of and information on the 𒀭ʾEl sceptres is “The sceptres of life-sized divine statues from Canaanite Lachish and Hazor” by Yosef Garfinkel in Antiquity 94:375 (2020), pp. 669–685, https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2020.44.

[lee-hakhyun]

um. side story

yjh tells lhh that they'll go to gwanghwamun in an hour, and lhh leaves and checks his phone. seems the app is shared over star relics too. dkos peeks at the app and figures out his skill. seems it really is only serialized while he's awake ... who is serializing it??? han sooyoung? lhh asks dkos. sure, she may have died in front of lhh but.. is she really gone? wouldn't kdj know, being the oldest dream? wait. if kim dokja was split up, and his sponsor is the 'demon king of salvation',... lhh asks what grade dkos is. myth grade, right?

dkos ignores the question, and tells lhh to use his free comment passes. not myth grade, then. the first two comments aren't anything substantial ("demon king of salvation! demon king of salvation! demon king of salvation!"), but the third one,

"that's not the demon king of salvation i knew."

kdj unexpectedly agrees. and starts talking about yjh in twsa. joonghyukie was softer in the ealier regressions, joonghyukie is still very loyal, etc etc until he asks if lhh is actually listening

checking the last comment, the commenter mentions they feel sorry for lhh being on the verge of death again. uh oh. lhh tells kdj that the latest chapter describes the near future, to which kdj compares the skill to anna croft's precognition. lhh confirms that the chapters' progression is pretty slow, so dkos says the danger probably wouldn't be related to a scenario then. so what's the problem this time?? lhh did avoid dying to yjh...

dkos asks if 'that' has started yet. ??? lhh asks him to elaborate but dkos tells him, you know, it's not easy for constellations to give out information—

the smartphone sparks, and an error in midday tryst occurs. hello?? there's no indirect messages either. dkos probably got hit by a probability aftermath, they were chatting in real time after all... and oh! shin yoosung!!

the last time lhh had seen sys, she definitely wasn't the 41st. but looking at her now, there's no golden glow in her eyes. if 3rd sys is gone, did something happen to kimcom..? lhh asks if sys remembers taming the ancient nagak, and she says she does. but that it wasn't her. ...she was aware? lhh asks her to elaborate, and after hesitating to figure out how to explain it she says it's like a [taming] bond with her from another world? does that make sense? lhh tells her he believes her. sys says then that the other her had said she could trust ahjussi, and that she wouldn't be able to come for a while...

lhh doesn't know what happened with sys, but until she left she had cared for lhh. sys asks one more question.

"who is kim dokja?"

ah? where did she hear about kdj? lhh starts to answer, but stumbles. sys grabs him but points to his neck. there's blood? no, it's... story fragments? lhh pushes sys away as sparks begin to fly throughout his body. the star stram has determined the grade of the story he got for defeating the outer god. his feat has given him a story, but. not all stories are beneficial to the owner.

lhh was given a story with a temporary judgment of semi-myth-grade, 'heir to the eternal name'.

what yoo hoseong of the island of reincarnators had said came to mind. those who could not control their story would end up being consumed by it. this story was too much for lee hakhyun.

「if y ou are sup pos ed to be 49%, then yo u shou ld al so ha ve th is」

lhh remembers what 49% was like. 49's story gradually broke down. lhh's body is suddenly unstable. this was his price for declaring that he would be 'kim dokja'.

system messages tell him that he is currently an incomplete 'kim dokja'. to survive, he had to collect additional kim dokja fragments. if he doesn't collect a new fragment in 50 minutes, he'll die.

dansu ahjussi, kyung sein, and killer king are seen rushing to him, but he couldn't greet them when his story was commanding him.

become the singular kim dokja, by eliminating all the other kim dokjas.

[time remaining until death: 49:51]

[funeenefacts]

Nazz is allergic to shellfish

[cyanvalour]

Update (1/12/24): updated mostly the hollows with a more accurate version of the au rn, will come back in the future to update the AvM sticks

Hi folks I'm back with another weird au, because I have no self control. What au is it this time?

A "swap" au.

It's really weird because half of them came from me rolling a d20 and praying i can make them make sense so please bare with me.

With that, let's start with -

torment (Originally The Chosen One):

- This version is basically fanon Dark who ate a Victim and Mango sundae. Trust me it'll make sense

- torment was made first, and was tormented (hah) for a long time by Alan.

- Alan made another stickman (FREEDOM MENTION) as his friend. They became close (almost canon Chodark/p close) before Alan deleted Freedom since he was trying to help torment escape.

- this was the last straw for them as torment proceeded to trick Alan into unlocking his chains and then broke the computer, allowing him to escape.

-he was still pissed and kinda depressed over Freedom's death so he continued his rampage across the web, slowly trying to find a way to take revenge against all cursors permanently

- At some point he meets this version of Dark, adopts him and set off to become the greatest terrorists the outernet has ever seen

- HE NEARLY ACCOMPLISH HIS GOAL TOO, DESPITE FIGHTING ALAN, TSF, CG+TPC+TCA. THIS CRAZY MAN-

Some fun facts about torment!:

- after everything is said and done, he decides to go by another nick of mento. SF thinks it's cute

- at some point he manages to find a way to go into Minecraft and he uses it as a stress reliever. What kind is up to you :3

- he's so chaotic I wasn't even kidding about the fanon Dark comparison. He will see a happy family chilling and will just divebomb on them

- he's well aware of the fact that Alan messed up his name when creating him, he was supposed to have an "-ed" at the end but Alan pressed enter too early

- a couple pre-escape things I mentioned in my fic but yea torment didn't think of himself as a stick for a while and stole Freedom's pronouns when he died. He also has a bad ankle for being dragged around so much.

- He's mentally ill 20 but physically 18. Freedom was like physically 1 years old before dying but he was mentally around the same age as torment back then (so like, 12?)

I haven't fully figured out how torment plans to carry out their plan but there will be a "King sees Purple as his son" moment for them, except this time it's Dark. Speaking of Dark-

The Second Fool (Originally The Dark Lord):

- TSF "swapped" with Purple but borrows a couple of traits from Victim (I'm sobbing why did the dice and I decide this)

- Alan made him next, meaning to replace torment with a more cunning but weaker version of him (so no powers rip)

- He gave TSF a mission code (still deciding on the exact one) which basically gaslights him into thinking his only purpose in life is to fight Alan

- So when Alan deletes the poor dude, he feels unworthy and shit like that

- he kinda stays in there for a good year, just floating around

- At some point, he manages to escape the Void and ends up in the outer net, where torment finds him and picks him up

- torment convinced TSF to join him, and TSF, thinking this would show Alan that he would be worthy enough again, agrees

- during their terrorism arc, TSF slowly realises that terrorising people probably isn't the right thing to do and that this wouldn't get Alan's attention back to him so he tries to stop torment. tor, the revengeful dumbass, doesn't listen.

- at some point during this au's version of showdown, TSF tried stopping tor themself, but got punted away before eventually getting blasted by tor's fire (I'm still figuring out the exact details bare with me)

- He got saved by one of the TSCs after torment found his unconscious body

Now some fun facts! Not a lot since I'm waiting till I write more of them but for now:

- being in the void really fucks you up, and SF isn't any different. He doesn't really know how to interact with people, often coming off a tinge insane and scary sometimes

- they're really blunt too. Which makes interactions with Arrival and Current kinda awkward.

- he's a sweetheart under... everything. Yea, he's really nice, especially to Arrival! Wonder if there's any reason for that?

- doesn't know what to think of torment after everything. They still believe 'ment thinks of them as a servant, and he doesn't feel like breaking his heart again

- can see the code of everyone around them, which makes bringing someone to the Void awfully easy since he still has some of his own code edited from the Void. Pretty easy to adjust someone else's to match theirs.

Now onto the 2 TSCs (why do I do this to myself), starting with-

Meet, The Chosen Arrival! (Originally The Second Coming):

- simultaneously Second, Dark and Freedom/Chosen. I'm sorry myself

- an accident (IM SO SORRY I DID NOT KNOW HOW ELSE TO PHRASE IT)

- it kinda follows canon, Alan doodled this little guy, left them alone for a while and when he came back Arrival n co. was messing around on Facebook.

- however, this time, when Alan deletes CG and then Arrival, Arrival went fucking ballistic and unleashed his powers on the pc, nearly destroying it in the process

- in a panic, Alan drew his last stick on accident again, this time being:

The Peaceful Current!! (Originally victim):

- Current is swapped with Second!!

- Current has this really calming effect to them for some reason. To this day no one can figure out how she manages to calm Arrival down.

- when they were created, the tab she was in had the wall between it and Arrival's broken down, and Arrival crashed in, planning to destroy everything in the computer.

- but when they saw Current, they kinda just froze. Like they were buffering. Current, for whatever reason, decided to hug Arrival. Arrival then crashed, breaking out into sobs as the two kinda just stood there.

- Alan tried deleting Arrival at that moment of vulnerability, but Current, seeing his cursor move, started speaking and pleading for Alan to hear them out. Alan, shocked to find out that the sticks were actually sentient and not just little desktop creatures he could fight against, heard them out.

- from here it continues from canon, Alan letting the gang chill on his pc, Current found out that she was a great artist, and Arrival decided to start learning how to make tools and stuff for CG to defend themselves.

Some fun facts about these two:

- Arrival fucking hates torment lmao, it's actually really funny how hard they hate him. Current on the other hand doesn't mind torment, as she can see him trying to change

- Arrival does not like going by Chosen, so they prefer to be called by their last name. Peaceful doesn't mind being called either of them, but they're mostly referred to as Current because she likes to copy her brother

- both of them actually have powers, the problem is that Current doesn't know about them, while Arrival refuses to use them. This makes Ava S3 very fun for me :3

Now you might be wondering, who could be the victim in this story. Now bare with me,

Purple.

- little shit got orphaned so hard she became spiteful and decided to start a company just to prove her dad wrong.

- company got way too successful and she let the power go to her head.

- one day she saw a video of Chosen and decided she needed him to be in her team. So she decided to kidnap Dark.

(Idk what else to add I'm still figuring stuff out)

Alright, you might reply, but if purple is busy being victim, then who's taking their place in AvM?

You see, this is where the "swap" part of this au kinda starts veering away. Because, haha,

It's Gold.

- Basically what happened was when Gold got stuck in Minecraft, he kinda became a Minecraft entity like Herobrine. So he just wandered around the world aimlessly before coming across a village.

- AvM 9&10 happened and Purple betrayal happens but this time it's Gold and he didn't go for the egg because he wanted to prove it to his dad, but because he heard rumours around the egg and wanted to test it out.

Now you're thinking, alright, if Gold's purple, then King has to be someone else, right?

To that I show you an image of President Haltmann and Susie from Planet Robobot. Iykyk. (Yes King is still King, he just has amnesia and tbh Gold doesn't really look the same after the fair.)

I'm still deciding on whether I want to swap CG and Mercs personalities but that's all I got for now!!

[caesarinsalata]

Intermission: Part 2

Including the rare occurrence of DIGITAL visual aid 😄

INTERMISSION

Part 2

A Year into Rehab

“Have you seen Ed, Al? He's due for an appointment.”

“Um, no actually…” Alphonse thought for a moment. “I haven't been able to get the time to check on him. I'm sorry, I've been busy.”

Winry shook her head. “Don't worry. I'll find him. He's probably in the Library or something. I don't expect I'll find him in his bed.”

Al gently smiled. “Let me know, when you find him, if he's okay.”

“I'm sure he's fine, Al. Don't worry too much.” She patted his shoulder before walking down the hallway to search the Palace for Edward.

Her first thought was to look in the Library. That boy wouldn't be able to stay in his room and rest. He's bound to be busying himself with research of some kind. Keeping Ed from analyzing or learning things was like pulling teeth. Hopefully he wasn't researching how to take her handy work apart. He'd just end up ruining it.

Coming to the doorway of the Library, she pushed the curtain open and looked around. Sure enough, there was someone with golden, blonde hair who had now styled it into a braid that reached his shoulders. He was leaning to one side, with his cheek resting on his hand, sitting at the table positioned in the middle of the room. He was facing away from the doorway, so he wouldn't know if anyone was coming in.

“How did I know you'd be in here…” She shifted the tool box on her shoulder and walked up behind him.

He didn't respond.

“Ed?”

She moved around him and leaned down to see that he was sound asleep. A scoff came out of her as she put her tool box down on a chair at the table. Ed softly snored as Winry looked at what he was doing. She couldn't read a lick of it, but it had diagrams of prosthetics. Arms, legs, hands, feet. So he was looking into her work. She'd consider it endearing if she didn't know he was going to use that knowledge to mess with it when she wasn't around. Glancing back at Ed, his head was going to fall off his hand if she didn't wake him up.

“Ed.” Winry thought about it, then decided to gently slide Ed's hands out from under his head. He's gonna hate her for this, but it was going to be so funny. His head smacked into the book under his elbow.

“AGH!” His head shot back, covering his forehead with his hands. “What the hell-” Blinking through the pain, he spotted her. “Winry?!”

“How was your nap?”

Still rubbing his forehead, he closed the books and shoved them aside. “Fine, until you showed up…” Shifting in his chair. “What do you want anyway?”

“Hello to you too, Ed.” Lifting the tool box onto the table and placing her hands on her hips. “You keep forgetting to show up for adjustments.”

Ed leans back in his chair and groans. “It's getting stiff. I can't go down the stairs. And I'm not asking Al to carry me.” Crossing his arms, he extends the leg out from under the table at her. It made a creak and Winry visibly winced. He attempted to bend it at the knee, but it protested angrily.

“You haven't been oiling the joints have you?” Putting her head in her hand, disappointed in his carelessness.

“I thought that was Al's job?”

“I can't trust you to do anything…”

“Wha- Hey! I've been moving and resting appropriately, just like you and Granny wanted me too. Don't I get some credit for that?”

Winry had pulled up a chair and rested his leg on her thigh while he talked at her. “Your physical therapy suffers if you don't oil it. It can mess with your stance and hurt your hip if it's stiff.” Yanking tools out of her box, she removed the outer casing of his knee first, lubricating the joint before it was damaged by continued grinding.

“Yeah, yeah…” He feigned disinterest while he watched her fiddle with the inner workings of his leg.

“So…” Winry didn't look at him, she was too busy checking the length of both legs to see if he needed it adjusted yet. “I see you've been taking an interest in my work.” Finally glancing up at him.

He blinked, confused for a second, then seemed to put the pieces together. “Oh, yeah…right…” He glanced over at the books. “I was just curious if we had any books about these, since they're so unheard of here.”

Winry couldn't help but smile. Ed said thank you and studied her interests in his own way. He was hard to read sometimes, but at others, he was plain and simple. “So you'll happily look into what I do, but you won't take care of it? Am I hearing this right?” Resealing his knee cap.

Ed clicked his tongue and pouted.

“How long have you been sitting in here?” She replaced her tools in the box, closing it after. Letting Ed take his leg from her so he could bend it in and out. Still looking at it with amazement as he wiggles the toes.

“Not sure…” Ed stood up, pushing the chair out and grabbed the stack of books he had. “I've been losing time lately. I'm not even sure it's even still daylight outside.” Turning away and looking at the spines of the books to double check where he got them from. His walking wasn't terrible after a year into therapy, but he occasionally leaned too far to one side and upset his balance enough to almost lose his footing.

Winry didn't like the sound of that. “Is that normal?”

Ed glanced back while he was pushing a book onto a shelf. “Well…not particularly,” Thinking about it a bit more. “It has been happening a lot more often lately. Al told me I've been sleeping a lot.”

“Do you know why?”

Ed just shrugs, coming back over to sit back down. “Trauma can do a lot to a person. Or maybe it's due to expending all my energy walking around in circles for hours with nothing to do. They won't let me do anything, not to mention Al, no matter how low maintenance it is.” Shooting his arms into the air. “I could just use alchemy! I'm so bored!” He just slouches in his seat.

“Is the library not keeping you enough company?”

“One can only reread the same books he's read for years so many times.”

“Hmm, you haven't read the ones on the higher shelves yet?”

Edward challenges her with a dark glare. “Watch it…” Trying to telepathically remind her ‘We're literally the same height.’

Winry just smiles. “What? What did I say?”

Ed sat up and braced his hands on the edge of the table, steaming. “You know full well what you were insinuating!”

“Yeah, yeah…” Mimicking him a bit with her response. Winry thought about something for a moment. If Ed was bored because no one would let him do anything productive and Al was too busy doing a two man job already, Winry could assist Ed, so he feels useful again as well as getting him up and moving; She liked this idea.

“Hey, Ed.”

“Yeah?” Taken back by her outlandish response to their usual banter, he relaxed and raised an eyebrow at her. Confused as to what gave her pause.

“How about we do some work together?”

“Huh?”

“Al's too busy to watch you and the adults won't let you help, so how about we do what we can together? You can work on your therapy and I can be there to catch you.”

Ed just blinked, wondering where this drive came from. “Uh, why?” It's not like he didn't want to do his part of the work, he's the most selfless person in this palace, save for Al, of course, but he didn't want to rope Winry into this. She wasn't a slave, she was virtually just a regular resident here. She had no reason to lower herself to doing work for the palace. But he sensed it obviously wasn't for the Palace’s sake. “Where is this coming from?”

“Just get up!” Winry hopped out of her seat and yanked Ed out of his. He almost fell flat on his face as he regained his footing and yanked his hand from her. She stopped and looked back, confused.

“You're not contractually obligated to maintain this palace. I'm not letting you take on Al and my responsibility.” He appeared to be protective, more so than angry about it.

“I'm no stranger to physical labor, Ed.” Winry rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand again. “Stop thinking about the technicalities of it all and let's get you up and outside or at least moving instead of holding yourself up in a dusty library.”

Ed frowned while his arm felt like it was being pulled out of socket until he was able to match her pace. He still didn't like this idea, but at least it got him out of doing nothing.

[nonplayer-character]

It Came From Outer Space! By ghostalservice! (10k; E rated; aliens, tentacles, mind melds, oh my! 🛸)

“I think we’ve made it,” Stede says a while later, the relief heavy in his voice. He’s smiling, an undercurrent of exhilarated laughter under the words. “Ed, I think we’ve done it!”

“Fucking great!” Ed reaches out and slaps a hand across Stede’s shoulder, lets his fingers split back into tentacles and pat Stede’s cheek affectionately. It’s the sort of thing he’d do to Fang or Ivan or Archie back home, and as soon as his tentacles hit soft, finely-haired skin, he freezes.

Stede’s skin heats under his touch, and Ed’s about to pull back when he looks up at Stede’s eyes and oh, he’s—he’s still smiling.

[princesspuresarahk]

An Ann n Anny Episode Stories my version.

based on my favorite episodes on each season with some alternate scenes.

Season 1: "Nagged to An"

"Pop Goes the An"

"Over Your An"

"A Pinch to Grow an An"

"Virt-An-Go" 

"Quick Shot An"

"An An Too Many"

"Tag Yer An"

"It's Way An"

"Laugh An Laugh"

"A Glass of Warm An"

"Who, What, Where, An!"

"Oath to an An"

"Avast Ye Ans"

Season 2:

"Know It All An"

"Knock Knock Who's An

"Eeny, Meeny, Miney, An"

"Hands Across An"

"In Like An" 

"Homecooked Ans"

"To Sir with Ans"

"Urban An"

"Honor Thy Ed"

"Rent-a-An"

"Mirror, Mirror, on the Ed"

"Hot Buttered Ed"

"Fa-La-La-La-Ed"

Season 3:

"Momma's Little Ed"

"Once Upon an Ed"

"It Came from Outer An"

"Dueling Ans"

Will Work for An"

"X Marks the An" 

"Boys Will Be Ans"

"My Fair An"

"O-An Eleven"

"The Luck of the An" 

"Ed...Pass It on..."

"The Day the Ed Stood Still" 

"If It Smells Like an An"

"Don't Rain on My An" 

Season 4:

"See No An"

"An An Is Born"

"Pain in the An"

"An Overboard" 

"They Call Her Ms. An"

"For the An by the An" 

"Little An Blue" 

"A Twist of An"

"Your An Here"

"Thick as an An" 

"Robbin' An"

"Run for Your An" 

"Stiff Upper An"

"Postcards from the An" 

Season 4:

"Out with the Old...in with the An"

"Mission An-Possible"

"Boom Boom Out Goes the An"

"Cleanliness Is Next to Anness"

"I Am Curious Ed"

"No Speak da An"

"Cool Hand An"

"Too Smart for Her Own An"

"Who's Minding the An"

"Pick an An"

"This Won't Hurt an An"

"Tinker An"

"The Good, the Bad and the An"

"Tight End An"

"Smile for the An" 

"A Town Called An"

"A Fistful of An"

Season 5:

"The Ans Are Coming, the Ans Are Coming"

"May I Have This An?"

[spookygayferret]

i wrote. a thing?? it's more hurt/comfort gentlebeard for freaks (like me) who are really into that shit.

Fandom: Our Flag Means Death

Relationship(s): Ed/Stede

Rating: M (Mature)

Title: The Flow

CW: Ed having a panic attack, references to Ed being abused, Ed having abandonment issues, Ed's friends being shitty

Summary:

When Ed has a panic attack at a music festival, he is helped by a kind stranger.

Ed made a face–that face–that face he always did–Anne knew what it meant. Almost jabbed herself right there–right in the eye with the mascara brush, distracted.

“You said you’d come, Eddie,” she reminded him.

Ed groaned–fuck. Yeah, that figured. Fucking figured–she’d remember that. Always forgot his coffee order, never forgot when Ed made a promise. Priorities straight and narrow.

He winced, flinched a little–touched his black-polished nails on the porcelain sink. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to–middle age had taken a lot from him, but Ed was always down to party–or at least that was what he told himself, drumming fingers on the sink shoulder to shoulder with Anne Bonny. It’d been years since she came over–and of course when she finally reached out, it was for this.

“He’s good with…this?” said Ed. “He’s cool?”

They hadn’t talked really–since their parties, really old parties–in university, when Anne dated Jack. And Jack was dickish, but okay–he didn’t mind that Anne was Ed’s ex–didn’t make it weird, Jack was just–kind of an asshole, insecure and doing stupid every minute Ed looked at him. Jack was fun–at least back in those days, before graduation. Before messy breakups.

“You know Jack,” was all Anne said.

Ed relaxed–a little bit anyway.

Ed used to be excited about Revfest. But it’d been years since he went–he was kind of busy, having a mental breakdown over the career he’d come to hate. When Anne called and asked about Revfest, Ed couldn’t think of a single reason to just blow her off–not like he had plans. And when she showed up at his house to make sure they were still on, Ed couldn’t exactly back out and trust she wouldn’t give him grief. They both knew he needed this.

So Ed dredged up a pair of red leather pants, sequined silver up the outer legs–and a loose spaghetti strap black tank that said True Trans Soul Rebel–put his hair in two braids. He got ready with Anne in front of the bathroom mirror, shadowed his big brown eyes and freckled his cheeks with pastel purple glitter. Made himself look like he wasn’t a total wreck of a person–Ed wasn’t good at that, pretending he wasn’t coming unraveled at the seams.

Anne drove, Mary rode passenger–Ed slept the two hours. They were linking up with Jack at Revfest. And Ed was–when he woke up, rubbed sleep out of his eyes–getting a little excited.

His excitement quelled, when he found out Jack didn’t come alone–Jack’s new boyfriend Felix, this skinny foodie photographer guy about eight years Jack’s junior. That brought the total odd-numbered–and Ed was the only guy there who hadn’t brought a date–thought this was just a hangout, not that everyone (except him) was coming pre-coupled.

Read the rest here: