#so this marks the start of his corruption arc in game

[lightandfellowship]

It truly is fitting that the Xehanort game was the one that explored this idea of like. Love and empathy having the potential to turn into corrupting forces. People hurting each other and themselves due to the despair and insecurity born from intense love. Things that ought to be associated with light and goodness (and that usually are in the main games) instead leading to darkness and suffering.

Eraqus with his bright and well-meaning comments to Baldr that are nonetheless ignorant and hurtful (Scala's teachings in general). Vidar's feelings of love and mercy compelling him to destroy darkness and save Baldr for his friends' sake, a normally heroic and selfless desire that would be awarded in any other KH game as others before me have noted, but because this quest is misguided, Vidar's methods too extreme, it turns into a fruitless, failure of an endeavor that ends up causing more death rather than preventing it. Baldr's adoration of his sister, his love for her, twists into an obsessive, self-esteem destroying dependency that leaves a gaping hole in his heart the perfect size for darkness to call home.

Over and over again, examples of the "false light" that the Master of Masters described to Xehanort.

Like yeah no wonder Xehanort turned out like that. He was trapped in a story where—what were ostensibly—acts of goodness and light were either utterly ineffective at preventing tragedy or were easily corrupted under the right conditions. The form of "light" wielded by his instructors and peers, the people who were supposed to protect and guide the world, let him down on such a profound level that his perception of its efficacy and righteousness suffered as a result; he completely lost faith in whatever was masquerading as "true light" in this world...or, you know, that's probably how he viewed it, anyway.

In his eyes, better to turn to darkness for his goals because at least it's good at getting shit done and not pretending to be something it isn't, assuming you're strong enough to bring it to heel and not let it corrupt you. And Sora wasn't around yet to prove him wrong, to prove that true light and goodness still exist in the world and you don't have to throw everything away and start over...

So yeah out of all the potential KH games that could've introduced (debatable)/explored this topic I'm glad it was the Xehanort one because it just makes so much sense for his character and where the series is at now, especially with the Lost Masters arc on the horizon featuring: the Master of Masters, a villain (question mark) seemingly motivated by light and light alone.

[lizardsfromspace]

I think I didn't make it clear enough how much of the book that "Inspired The Matrix" is conspiracy content. The pitch has nine chapters, and we don't formally meet the main character or start the plot until chapter five. The first four chapters are entirely lore & conspiracy rants: about pyramids, about the media, about pyramids, about how barcode scanners are the mark of the beast, about pyramids, and most incredibly, about how video games are a evil plot to corrupt children into nuclear warfare. Except it was 1983 so the evil games are like. Pac-Man

There's no explanation of how any of this would come across on screen

Meanwhile this is how the protagonist's story arc is described

He develops his power and is ready. The only reason he doesn't go to the final planet right away is entirely practical, the ship is damaged so they have to stop for a plot cul-de-sac involving an alien princess whose planet is destroyed for aiding the galactic rebellion, who isn't a Princess Leia ripoff bc she's taken prisoner and never mentioned again so she presumably dies in captivity. Who needs Luke Skywalker when you have heroes like this

[maxwell-grant]

So now that the series is over and your (really great btw) analysis of the final episode is out, I have to ask: is this where you thought it would be going? Did you expect them to adapt the "Penguin runs for mayor" arc? Personally, I have to admit, I didn't. I expected him to end this as kingpin, ruler of the underworld, at the proverbial tip of the iceberg - but I didn't expect the mayor arc to come in, and so soon.

(This imo also really shows why this series was necessary - because how else could they have justified having Penguin as the comedic relief minor mobster lieutenant in the first movie and as the political puppetteer gunning for the position of bird-king of Gotham in the second, going from an affable minor career criminal that (albeit with a lot of effort) maybe still could have been saved and led to a less harmful route, to a pure unlimited void and personification of the human capabitlity for selfish greed, lust for power and corruption that killed his own heart and soul, if not by thrusting us into a whole tv show about it? In Gotham the festering wound of coldhearted capitalism gets to be its own guy in an appropriately designed outfit.)

(Spoilers for The Penguin)

Yes yes yes, extremely second that second paragraph, "In Gotham the festering wound of coldhearted capitalism gets to be its own guy in an appropriately designed outfit",

Honestly, that this would end with the beginning of his political career was just about the only thing I expected and accurately called from early on, purely because it was always the show's mandate that he rises to power and that was one of the big Penguin Trademark Plots that the movie hadn't covered or gestured to - and with the total absence of Harvey Dent, the other major Batman villain who tends to go into politics/mayoral campaigns, it was easy to deduce that they were saving it for Oz. I think there were some things that I called as it was trucking along but before all of that, up until Episode 1, I think I was pretty wildly wrong about how this would actually be like, what form it would take.

I was pretty wrong about Victor and his fate, I was very wrong about Francis, I was COLOSSALLY OFF THE MARK about Sofia, holy shit, I thought early on that she was just gonna be like, someone trying to preserve the legacy (which is what she's usually done in previous versions) that Oz wants to burn down, or that she was just going to be the generic Prestige TV Crime Show protagonist this needed to sell Oz as a freakish weirdo by contrast, I was so fucking wrong about her and I'm so glad I was. l I think there was even a time I was very hesitant as to whether this would even be good, can you imagine.

They very much telegraphed from the start that this was gonna be about his rise to power, that he was gonna become Da Nu Kingpeen of Gotham and rise above where he stands in the movie. And he technically does do all of that, but also, it was very much not how I expected it to go. Like I said, he got the smallest possible measure of what he wanted, and at the highest conceivable cost.

The whole trajectory in our show showcases that Oz, by the end, really becomes a version of the kingpin. Not Carmine level – he has a penthouse but he’s around Crown Point in the east side of Gotham. He’s not in the wealthiest part. And then within that just making sure that we’re aligning all of Gotham City, the world, the stress of the city properly to launch into the film. - Lauren LeFranc

It's less that he rose to the top of the underworld, and more so that he dragged and broke the entire Gotham underworld down to his level. His war with Sofia destroyed all successors to the Falcone throne, the entire Maroni family, and all the gang leaders who fought over their scraps, along with Crown Point, just as he hitched a ride to Step 1 of an entirely new game of power that automatically puts him above everyone who's left in his old battleground warring with each other. He is still a far cry from having anywhere near the kind of money and power and influence and prestige that Carmine Falcone had, but he's already begun to ruin everything with only a fraction of all of that, and he won't stop clawing for more.

As LeFranc said, his penthouse and rooms are under construction because he himself is under construction, and we see now that it's less that he's rising and moving up in the world, and more so that he's dragging all of Gotham beneath him so he can drown it and be automatically on top of it. I had no idea things were gonna so catastrophically terrible and scary and ominous, and that The Penguin's foretold rise to potential mayor would be depicted as such a horrible prospect. All of this is just the shit he's done as a "bargain basememt hustler".

Unlike what I expected from the description of the show, this was not a competition, this was not a race to the top, or even just a race to see who gets the best seats on the Titanic sinking ship of mob crime in Gotham - this was never something that could be won, it could only ever mutate into something worse. This was a horrorshow with a clear as day statement of how we're all gonna fucking die because of this guy who is incapable of changing or growing, but will only push the city down further and further if nobody stops him. And as much as I expected Oz to change and develop and even grow more vicious and powerful over the course of the show, I don't think anyone was prepared for where this was going, for the extent that this wildly recontextualized everything he was in the movie, and where this would leave us for the next one.

[fallen-mangos]

Pr~etty sure my original blog got shadowbanned:D I stopped popping up in the tags just in general.. no idea what caused the shadow ban, kind of doubt I'd be appeal it.. so rebranding time! (If anyone has tips to avoid shadowbans when talking about this game, please let me know. It'll be really annoying to make a new blog every time I want to yap about my fixation on a NSFW game. This is absolutely not a main blog or with my friends topic >>)

For some reason the format on this post is being an absolute nuisance so I'm sorry if the pictures are for some reason ALL THE WAY AT THE BOTTOM?? Tumblr app please????

So I'm coming back with reworked designs of LIs using Goose.. Because I am unable to draw myself. >>

Starting with the school LIs, I like these more than my original attempt >> Obviously it's probably more likely for the characters to be very simplistic, especially Robin, as they likely wear the default clothes, but I like having fun ~!

I think they're all cuties and I want to carry them in a purse ~

What I typically imagine for bodies and stuff down here if anyone's interested ↓

Sydney: I personally always depict him as a Cis-man, Usually always depict him with a slender body-type whenever I remake him in game - if moles and beauty marks existed in-game, I absolutely would put them, I always picture him with a mole under his mouth, a few on the chest, maybe one on a thigh. I could see Sydney being, physically, pretty androgynous at first glance, I totally think he could dress feminine and pull it off completely (corrupt Sydney absolutely would). As pure Sydney I definitely think he dresses almost professionally. With little button-ups, slacks, pretty decent shoes. Very modest. ..I think when he's corrupted he'd probably either ditch the vest and have the shirt untucked, or only have the shirt untucked in his school uniform. Subtle things. But I also think he'd experiment more with his out of school style. (When I make versions of outfits for Robin and Sydney on the "arc change" things, I'll try to better showcase this) I don't remember if the height is canon, I'm looking at a screenshot from the discord server, but, 5'9in seems accurate to me and my thoughts (would probably picture CF!Sydney as being an inch taller than that. I like my women to tower me as someone who's probably about Kylar height, maybe slightly taller). ..Pro~bably packing in the chastity belt.. >> (would picture CF!Sydney with a larger chest to compensate)

Robin: I always depict her as a Cis-Woman, Always always will depict with a chubbier body type, so soft was chosen here (Goose does have body types now, but you can't tell in the clothes like you can in vanilla..), fell in love with the idea of Robin being covered in freckles, definitely think she has a bunch more, I think she'd have a little gap in her front teeth, too. I also tend to picture her with heterochromia. She always came off to me as being cutesy, but also cozy, but her clothes are definitely old and a little worn down, but I did forget to play with the shirt and damages (the bloomers being a recent gift). When she's cross-dressing, she wears a lot more baggy clothes while keeping her original style mostly in tact, this also would happen when her trauma skyrockets, but her clothes in that case would still be distinctly feminine. Just like with Sydney, I feel like Robin is also naturally androgynous in facial features. Pretty sure her height varies depending on your PC, but, I'm going to say 5'5in as just a general height. She has a smaller chest - not being flat exactly, but close to it. (Means smaller thing for CM!Robin).

Kylar: I sometimes swap this around - usually bouncing from cis-man and trans-man, mostly because I'd find his entire pregnancy complex interesting with that in mind. Always depict him with a slender body type in-game, but honestly he gives me the feel of being more malnourished than just natural slender (I feel like it'd be so easy to just pick this little guy up), and that a lot of his random acts of strength are just his unhinged feral adrenaline. I think he'd probably have fairly bloodshot eyes, hasn't slept in weeks, always staring at a laptop, one look at him and you'd feel the strain on his eyeballs. His hair is always incredibly messy. No light in those eyes unless he's anywhere in the vicinity of the chosen PC. Definitely wears whatever makes him blend into the backdrop of any location, doesn't really have a set style, but prefers hoodies just for the easy to access pockets. Absolutely would experiment with anything and everything clothes wise if the PC wanted it, no matter how stupid he looked. Heart locket would carry a photo of PC, almost always being one they were not aware of. Think he's canonically 5'2in. His size down there is honestly a 50/50, if I'm playing him as a cis-man, I either pick big, or I purposely pick smaller because it'd be funny. (If I were to ever make Kylar a woman, the chest size would probably be a 50/50 too)

Whitney: Nowadays I tend to depict her as a Cis-Woman, sometimes depict her as a trans-woman, always will depict her as being relatively curvy. She always seemed like a glitter eyeshadow and pink lip gloss type. Dimples. I just think she'd look lovely. I feel like she'd probably have tan-lines in the summer months, usually of her exposed thong. I honestly don't know what I'd call her sense of fashion or style, vaguely what's comfortable, what's sexy, but she also apparently wears the long school skirt too? I think it was said somewhere that she doesn't care about what underwear she wears, so I imagine her clothes are probably the same? Not sure. The glasses are a must though. Think she's mentioned to be about 5'11 in this discord screenshot I'm using as reference. And I tend to give her a relatively large chest.

[zaahvi]

oc tag game!!

thank youuu @greypetrel for the tag! i'll take any opportunity to talk about my rook :)

and i shall tag @probablylilly @diesvitae @plutoprophecy @giselberts @persimminwrites @rookinthecrownest @beck-nightengale @gabriellerudessa!!

GENERAL

Name: faolan of house de riva, formerly of clan vallas'an

Alias(es): rook

Gender: cis male

Age: 26 (9:52 dragon)

Place of birth: a camp belonging to his dalish clan, somewhere in the wilderness of antiva

Spoken languages: trade, antivan, a little elven from his clan (and later picks up more)

Sexual orientation: pansexual

Occupation: first to the keeper (until he was 15), antivan crow assassin, leader of the veilguard until act 3, then elgar'nan's champion until he dies. (yes i'm a rook corruption arc enjoyer and i'm not sorry about it 😔

FAVOURITE

Colour: gold, but if you asked him he'd tell you he doesn't have one.

Entertainment: going on walks, either on his own in the crossroads or in treviso just kinda people watching or eavesdropping to catch rumours. also hanging out with assan :)

Pastime: hunting antaam for sport.. and in veilguard, writing notes about what he learns about the evanuris and comparing it to what he remembers from his upbringing. trying to improve his elven.

Food: any dalish dishes, because it reminds him of his childhood

Drink: black coffee (with lots of sugar), red wine

Books: he doesn’t particularly like reading, but starts to read some books from the lighthouse library, particularly those about what ancient elvhenan was like

HAVE THEY

Passed university: hmm no? i mean he’s gotten extensive tutoring and training from the crows about magic and assassination both but it’s not exactly “university” lmao

Had sex: yes

Had sex in public: absolutely

Gotten tattoos: his forehead vallaslin when he was 19, later on he gets full body vallaslin but those are less tattoos and more like... markings?? idk it's complicated

Gotten piercings: his right ear is pierced and he wears a stud, like his sister did. he chooses to get more ear piercings later on, after being swiped by elgar’nan

Had a broken heart: no, he’s the heart breaker if anything 😭

Been in love: no… at least not in the past. he pushes people away before he can catch feelings because he feels like he doesn’t deserve it. but in the end i think he lets himself fall in love with elgar’nan because he feels that there is no one else in the world who truly understands him. and because he knows that elgar'nan knows him completely and doesn't mind any of his baggage..... to quote a song from my elgarook playlist, "somewhere, there is someone who loves you before and after they learn what you are"..

ARE THEY

A cuddler: nope

Scared easily: nope, unless it’s a dragon. sorry taash, he’s scared of dragons (as well as any other gigantic creatures)

Jealous easily: no, he doesn’t get jealous of others and keeps most relationships casual so no jealousy there either. i will say, he does get super attached to elgar’nan later on and would absolutely get jealous IF there was reason to, but there isn’t.

Trustworthy: unless he's 100% loyal to you, absolutely not

FAMILY

Sibling(s): he had an older sister named deirdre and a younger brother named ciaran, both are dead now

Parents: both also dead :(

Children: 😭 no. he can barely take care of himself let alone others

Pets: ^^^ nope. he does love animals though. he loves petting the cats around treviso and feeds them sometimes too

---- blank template: ----

GENERAL

Name:

Alias(es):

Gender:

Age:

Place of birth:

Spoken languages:

Sexual orientation:

Occupation:

FAVOURITE

Colour:

Entertainment:

Pastime:

Food:

Drink:

Books:

HAVE THEY

Passed university:

Had sex:

Had sex in public:

Gotten tattoos:

Gotten piercings:

Had a broken heart:

Been in love:

ARE THEY

A cuddler:

Scared easily:

Jealous easily:

Trustworthy:

FAMILY

Sibling(s):

Parents:

Children:

Pets:

[ettawritesnstudies]

Sora Outfits Along her Character Arc

I'm hyperfixating on my dnd character tonight so here's some Sora costume outfit breakdown rambles: for context, this character comes from an Avatar The Last Airbender themed campaign that takes after the end of the 100 year war. However the war doesn't end cleanly after the fire lord's defeat. The Gaang spends five years putting out fires, recalling troops from all over the world, and squashing loyalists that keep fighting after Ozai and Azula's capture. Eventually, a 17 year old Aang establishes Republic City to welcome benders from all the nations, to teach them bending, and to establish a new method of diplomacy.

Our game began with four young students arriving to the city for the opening festival, who then uncover a deeper conspiracy that threatens to undermine the balance of the world. Sora, Suliyos, Seraphine, Han, and eventually Cab have to work together with the Gaang to discover the true enemy before their world is plunged into another bloody conflict.

Beginning of campaign: Republic City Air Nomad Uniform

When Sora first arrives in RC, she's been hiding her airbending for her whole life, growing up in Omashu with an overprotective earthbending mother and sister, never knowing her father. She's hopeful for a fresh start, and eager to meet other air nomads, but she comes to the city just claiming air nomad heritage, hiding her powers, and pretending to be a non-bender for her own safety.

Traveling Clothes: Earth Kingdom Civilian

During the opening festival at RC, the city was attacked by terrorists from a shadowy group called the "eye" which included members from all the nations. They sabotaged the city with fireworks and bombs, tried to blame the attacks on the fire nation, and restart the war. Sora and her friends helped discover and thwart these attacks, and she started establishing a connection to a spirit, though she didn't understand what was happening, and her paranoia grew. Their relationship with the Gaang strained under the stress, especially once they found out that the Eye was kidnapping Airbenders. Aang couldn't leave republic city in such dire circumstances, and our group had crossed one too many lines (including Suliyos learning to bloodbend) so we left RC to get some space and follow the lead. This brought us through the Earth Kingdom, and to a boat called the Juggernaut which would take us across the North Sea to reach Ba Sing Se.

NWT Arc: Water Tribe Furs gifted by Suliyos

En Route to Ba Sing Se we discovered one of the members of the Eye on our ship. He was a powerful bloodbender and had a sinister connection to the spirit world, but he was also a member the NWT royalty. By killing him in self defense, we also had to take a detour to the NWT to return his body, deal with the politics, discover the evil spirits corrupting the leaders of the NWT, banish the spirits, and restore the true leaders to the throne. That leader being Suliyos, one of our party members, who discovered he was the nephew of the chief, and next in line after Yue's sacrifice. Sora established her own connection with her spirit Shishi, and with a supportive crew and team, explored her airbending. These clothes were a gift as thanks for her aid. Her hair and eyes also started turning blue due to her spirit connection.

Onward to Ba Sing Se: back to the traveling clothes

One of the members of the ship's crew was Boma, an airbender, and a distant relative of Sora's. When he discovered she was family, he gave her armor and skydancer's anklets which gave her proficiency in airbending skills like acrobatics. It's been several months of travel now, so her hair's gotten longer. We also passed the ice trials, so she's wearing the mark of the wise (I think?) here. It's not a permanent tattoo though.

Ba Sing Se: Undercover Mode

So many things happened once we reached Ba Sing Se. We discovered the evil spirit - Father Glowworm - had kidnapped Hei-Bei, caused a famine, the Dai Li was creating living terra cotta warriors to impersonate members of the white lotus, they managed to kill a dragon, we managed to bring it back, Sora's spirit got kind-of-killed, it's been a wild ride. In any case, we're wanted all over the earth kingdom and the iconic outfit from before wasn't doing her any favors so she got a change of clothes.

Freeing the Airbenders!!!! Family Drama!!! AAA

The Dai Li had captured the airbenders to use as their own specialized army against the fire nation, and subdued/hypnotized them with the evil spirits. When we broke open everything in BSS, we also 1) rescued Sora's family from an assasination attempt in Omashu, and 2) freed the airbenders! Her dad wasn't with them, but she discovered, he had been sending home airbender regalia all this time, and her mother had hidden it away from her, to keep her from pursuing airbending to keep her safe. Now she's wearing it proudly to lead the newly freed nation, and to go rescue her father from the fire nation.

But her mother still hates her life decisions, Aang is worried the airbenders are losing their culture, and the airbenders resent Aang for the differences that led to them getting captured in the first place. Sora needs to forge her own path, and show the world what it means to be an airbender, both in practice, and in spirit, fearlessly, and so that others might do the same.

We still have a lot of loose ends to tie up, and there will be at least one more costume iteration for her, when we go to the fire nation to handle Ozai and Azula escaping and the other spiritual problems with the dragons there. But I'm so excited about Sora and her arc so far, seeing the transition from the first airbender outfit to the final one is so satisfying and I'm so attached to her story, even if only 4 people will ever understand how much it means to me...

[thesffcorner]

Part 7: Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall

Dishonored’s first piece of story expansion came out in 2013, under the title Knife of Dunwall (KoD). You play as Daud, with parts of the story taking place on the day of Jessamine’s murder, while others overlap with Corvo’s escape from prison. 

Hot take, but I like the story in the expansions better than the base game. I think the plot is more original, I like how it fills in the gaps of the main story, I like Daud better than Corvo both as a character and mechanically and many of my gripes with the base game start getting addressed here. 

Changes:

The first and most notable change is that we no longer have a silent protagonist. 

This is a really good change, not the least because it would have been incredibly weird to have Daud voiced in the original and not in the expansion. Michael Madsen reprises his role and he’s even better in this DLC; he gets more lines and more time to shine and develop Daud’s voice and character.

There is a longstanding debate in video games on silent vs voiced protagonists. I understand how someone might prefer a silent protagonist (especially if the alternative is someone who will not shut up), but I’ve always preferred the latter, especially in this series, since we are roleplaying as a specific character. Having a voice helps develop Daud's personality, and actually allows for dialogue and real interaction, instead of picking 1 out of 2 prompts while his scene partner just stands in front of him, looking straight down at the camera.

Though you can technically play as Corvo in Dishonored 2, the intended protagonist is Emily, meaning that every instalment of the series has a different PoV character, and each has their own personality, beliefs, skills and powers, and so none of the games feel repetitive or boring. 

Moreover, many of the series staples, like the presence of witches, a conflict between different gangs and/or the City Watch, corrupt/black bonecharms and favours/contracts are first introduced in the DLC.

Story:

Daud can't sleep after Jessamine’s murder. Something inside him has broken, and the Outsider, who hasn’t spoken to him in years appears. The Outsider loses his interest in his marked subjects who use their powers ‘predictably’ - violence for power’s sake. Daud questioning his choices has made him interesting again, and he stands at a crossroads. Whatever path he chooses, things will never be the same again, and if he truly wants to change, he can start by solving the mystery of Delilah. 

For the next 6 months, Daud searches for Delilah, and finally on the day that Corvo escapes Coldrige Prison he finds her - a whaling ship owned by Bundry Rothwild.

Instead of a revenge, this time we have a mystery, one whose answer will determine the course of Daud's life. Not only has he killed Jessamine, he has had a lifetime of killing that he can’t easily atone for. Finding out who Delilah is and how she ties in with Jessamine might be the very last chance Daud has to save his soul.

Gameplay:

The chaos system is the same from the previous game; stay quiet, stay unseen and don't kill if you want low-chaos; it’s even possible to do a full non-lethal run called Cleaner Hands (as opposed to Corvo’s Clean Hands). 

High chaos still allows you to destroy everyone and anything, and gives you a different, darker ending. Once again, I am partial to low chaos, so for the most part, we’ll be discussing that. 

In terms of gameplay, there are a lot of small changes that I found really improved the experience.

The first and FUNNIEST is that Daud, the assassin, has MORE non-lethal options than Corvo. 

He has the standard sword/pistol combo, along with regular and explosive bolts, as well as grenades. Instead of a crossbow, he has an Assassin’s Creed style wristbow, with regular bolts and sleep darts. He also has 3 new weapons: an arc mine and a stun mine, the first one being deadly, the second not, as well as chokedust, a smoke bomb that’s invaluable when confronting groups. So he has 3 options in his arsenal that are non-lethal and silent, which is 2 more than Corvo did. 

Daud too is marked, but his powers and abilities are different. Blink and Bend Time  are the same, but his Void Gaze combines Corvo’s Dark Vision and the heart, highlighting both enemies and runes. He has another power called Summon Assassins which as the name suggests, summons an Assassin to help out in a fight. 

Daud has 4 of the same abilities as Corvo: Vitality, Agility, Blood Thirst, and Shadow Kill, but he also has Arcane Bond which copies his own abilities to his assassins, so they can use the same powers he can in combat. 

Daud’s powers and abilities are unlocked and upgraded with runes, and like Corvo he also collects bonecharms, which give him different buffs.

Here the game includes a new mechanic - Corrupted Bonecharms. These charms have greater advantages in exchange for drawbacks; for example, taking no fall damage, but depleting all mana when falling. It’s up to the player to decide if the perk is worth the downside. Personally, I’ve never found much use for any of the bonecharms, but I imagine on challenge or higher difficulty runs they make a difference. 

As for the enemies, it’s more of the same. Overseers, Guards, and the City Watch make a return; the only ‘new’ enemy are Soldiers, which are a reskinned version of the Guards. We still have gangs, but instead of the Bottle Street thugs we have Haters. 

Characters:

Our protagonist is Daud, and he is a much more interesting character than Corvo, starting with being able to speak. He narrates the opening to every level, he comments on events and characters, and he makes quite a few jokes, especially in response to people questioning his authority. 

His conflict is a lot more personal than Corvo's because he is the source of his own problems. Not only will he sentence Dunwall to destruction if he doesn't find Delilah, or if he continues down the bloody path, he has been on for years, but he will also doom himself at Corvo's hands. If he changes, he may live yet and save Dunwall from certain destruction. The Outsider tells Daud that his years of slipping into the shadows with no consequences for his actions are over.

If you played low-chaos in the base game, you already saw the kernels of his redemption; he curses Burrows, admits that killing Jessamine was a mistake that permanently changed him, and pleads for his life. In KoD, we see the journey he took to arrive there.

Is Daud truly sorry for what he did? Does he understand the consequences of the life he’s lived? Or is his repentance all a selfish ploy to get out of the vengeance that’s coming his way? 

My reading is that Daud starts off his journey selfishly, trying to do what the Outsider told him in an attempt to deflect or delay the punishment he knows is coming. However, through the course of both of the DLCs he comes face to face with people who reflect his worse qualities back at him, some much worse than even the Lord Regent himself. This, I think, is what gets him to start changing sincerely. 

I like Daud better because he's a more complex and more difficult character to like. Even on high-chaos you can easily sympathize with Corvo - he's a wrongfully accused man, he had everything he loves taken away from him, and even his allies became his enemies. The Guards he kills work for the same people who have his daughter, who murdered his lover and threw him in jail.  

Daud has spent 30 years killing people for money. The people who want to kill him deserve to do so. And yet, despite everything, it's not too late to change. He can never bring Jessamine back, but he can make sure there are no more Emilies in the world, or at the very least, he alone can stop creating them.

The few other notable characters we have are: 

Billie Lurk;

Delilah; 

Bundry Rothwild; 

Barrister Arnold Timsh; 

Thalia Timsh; 

Abigail Ames;

& Overseer Leonard Hume. 

As you can see, the gender breakdown is already better than the base game. Not only are Billie and Delilah well developed and interesting characters in their own right, they are equally as important as Daud. We’ll talk about them more later; for now, let’s start with:

Level Breakdown:

KoD has three levels and like before have a mix of city levels and single location levels. There are levels here which are on par with Flooded District in length, which is impressive for a DLC.

We open on Daud narrating Jessamine’s murder. The Outsider pulls him into the Void, and it’s very apparent that whatever affection they had for each other is long gone. Daud is being replaced by Corvo, but he doesn't know that yet; all he knows is that the Outsider wants him to find Delilah.  

There is no Hound Pits Pub-like area where Daud can relax and shop, so you start each level with an upgrade screen. This is where we are introduced to Favours, a concept that gets even further developed with the Black Markets and Contracts in the sequel.

Favours are small things that Daud can pay for to make the game slightly easier or open up different paths of playing, such as purchasing extra tanks of whale oil to be put in a specific location or having a rune hidden in the level. You can finish each level without them, but they are useful, and especially on low-chaos, quite helpful. 

A Captain of Industry:

Boundary Rothwild, a former deckhand, now owner of the Rothwild Slaughterhouse, is brutally crushing a worker strike with the help of the City Watch and his Butcher enforcers. 

Daud needs to find a way to infiltrate the factory, and he has help from his second, Billie Lurk. Billie is a Whaler, Daud’s point-woman, and the best and smartest of the crew. She’s snarky, sarcastic, and isn’t afraid to show anger and compassion alike during missions. I loved her and Daud’s banter; their dialogue really fleshes out their characters as well as their relationship.

Billie informs Daud that all worker timecards have been confiscated, and many workers are still trapped inside. 

Outside the Slaughterhouse, you will be dealing with regular City Watch; inside are the Butchers. Butchers are my favourite enemies in the first game; they are brawlers who come in two flavours: regular dudes who use a cleaver and massive giants with whale oil powered chainsaws. The death animation from their saws is GRUESOME. They scare me every single time, no matter how many times I replay this level. They also set you up for a fake out with Rothwild; the whole level you imagine him as a giant brawler too, and when you meet him, he's a regular dude who lifts.

There’s quite a lot to do before you enter the Slaughterhouse. First you can visit an apartment that gives you Granny Rags’ first side quest. Though she’s not physically present in any of the DLCs, she still has the most involved side quests, and the reward for all of them is a rune.  

In this particular one, you need to find a Weeper body and then the eye of a whale. The body is nearby; the whale will come later. From this apartment, you can find a safe whose combination is a favour you can purchase, hidden behind some planks. That very same balcony is also where you can climb down and talk to a man in a boat. He mentions someone named Abigail who could help you, but she’s stuck inside. 

From the boat you can easily get to the impromptu prison, where Butchers are keeping some of the striking workers. If you free them, one will give you his timecard, though you don’t actually need it to get inside. If you already have one, the workers are shocked you saved them and are asking nothing in return.

The best way to get inside is to power up a crane and use a balcony on the other side. This not only gives you a good vantage point over the whole slaughterhouse entrance, but also lets you get to a body with a rune. 

The Whale Butchers (the jacked-up cousins with the saws) are threatening a worker. If Daud saves him, he will tell Daud about Rothwild's torture chair. You can find the chair in the next area, where you get to see, and more disgustingly hear the Whale Butchers using their saws on carcasses. 

The chair is electric, and it will serve nicely, should you elect to go that route with Bundry. 

The Slaughterhouse is my favourite location in the first game. It’s fairly big, with many interconnected paths, and interesting things to do and see. You can find the other half of Granny Rags’ recipe in the Whale Harvesting Room. 

Apparently, the best way to get oil from whales is to slowly and brutally electrocute them to death. Billie will outright ask you to put the whale out of its mystery, which you should. To do this, you need to power up the machine and electrocute it quickly; then you can steal its eye. 

The area is grim, every detail contributing to its atmosphere. The river of blood and oil running under the whale, the Butchers with their smoking saws, powered by the same oil the whale is being tortured to produce, the clashing noises of their saws and the whale cries, the enormity of the room. It's a brilliant piece of world building.

From this room, you can blink up into the archives, circumventing some Butchers. There’s a safe here that you can rob, and you can listen to Bundry’s really creepy audiograph in which he's doing an ASMR gloat.  

Currently, Rothwild is arguing with Abigail Ames. Ames only appears in this one level, but she knows who Daud is. To the workers she was a union rep; to Rothwild she was the head of his labour force. In reality, she’s an agent for Lord Ramsey (the guy who called the Guards on you at the Boyle party), sent to kill Rothwild and steal his workers.

If you decide to play non-lethally, you will be met with scorn and resistance from everyone you encounter. Here especially, both Billie and Abigail make fun of Daud for considering alternatives. Abigail agrees to tell you about the boat if you blow up the slaughterhouse, and when you ask about the workers, she mocks you for growing a conscience. She doesn't consider Rothwild or the Butchers are people, so she doesn't care if they get caught in the explosion.

If you are serious about doing a non-lethal run, don’t leave Abigail and Rothwild alone; she will stab him with a screwdriver. It’s best to knock her out and put Rothwild in the chair. 

Delilah belonged to Lord Arnold Timsh. He sold the ship to Bundry for a quarter of its market value, because he wanted to get rid of it as quickly as possible. 

This leaves Daud with two choices. You can leave Rothwild in the chair or you can put him in a crate that will take him to the furthest part of the Empire. If you leave him in the chair, in the next level, Butchers will be waiting for you at the docks, to kill you for what you did to him. 

With that done, beware of the Butchers that enter the Slaughterhouse from the front door (this is why I like the roof entrance) and leave. You can finish Granny’s recipe for the rune, and on your way out, you’ll get your first real brush with the Overseer music box. 

Music boxes were used in the base game, but Daud encounters them far more frequently. They disorient magic users, taking away the use of their abilities. Billie is surrounded by Overseers and disoriented by the box. The best way to save her, is to chuck a chokedust at them, and she’ll blink out herself. 

Billie asks Daud if she can tag along for the next mission too, since she was already planning a hit on Timsh. Daud agrees.

Eminent Domain:

Daud narrates the start of the second level, explaining what he knows about Arnold Timsh. He is a wealthy noble, barrister, and close friend of Hiram Burrows, and during the plague, he's tripled his fortune by confiscating property from plague-stricken families (not all of whom had the plague). However, he’s embroiled in a familial war with his niece, Thalia Timsh, over his mother’s will. 

Armed with this knowledge, Daud seeks Thalia out, and she agrees to meet him at Treaver’s Close.  

The level starts with you and Billie taking out some guards; if you didn’t kill Bundry, Billie will follow your lead and knock the guard out. Treaver’s Close is on the other side of the wall of light, so you have to make your way there.

The main advice I have for you is to SHUT IT OFF. If you don’t, there’s no way across the wall and no way to deactivate it from the Waterfront side, so you will essentially break the game. Do it and save yourself the frustration.

Thalia is waiting for you; a Hatter has killed her bodyguard and is harassing her. This is a trap: two of his buddies are waiting behind the roof, and they’ll attack you as soon as you take him out. Moreover, if you’re not careful, and you say, try to get into the open window, you might alert ALL the Hatters in the area, since there’s a lot of them. 

Thalia tells Daud that Delilah completely messed up Timsh’s mind; he is erratic and seems to now be afraid of her, whereas before they were lovers, and he was willing to leave everything to her. Thalia wants Daud to kill Timsh and replace his will, which is maybe a problem if you’re playing Cleaner Hands.

Before you can worry about that though, there is the slight issue of getting into the Legal District. If you listen to the City Watch talk outside, you’ll hear that they lost the key to the Legal District to the Hatters, and you need it if you want to get inside.

If you’re low-chaos, the key will be in the Hatter building on the second floor. In high and medium, it’ll be with a dead Hatter named Chauncy, whose body changes rooms. The stronghold is crawling with Hatters, so be careful. 

The other thing to note is that if you break the wooden planks on the Hatter side of the street, you’ll start a war with the City Watch. It’s easy to get caught in the crossfire, and this also alerts the City Watch,

There’s an apartment here that has another incomplete Outsider shrine with a bone charm instead of a rune. On the shrine you can find Granny Rags’ second recipe and this one is a lot more involved than the first one. 

If the Slaughterhouse was my favourite location, this is my favourite level. I love the city levels where you get to explore the interconnected apartments and observe the street below. Apartment 10 is presently locked, but well be needing it. For now, get as close to the entrance as you can, and after you hear the guy being congratulated for finally getting a squad after what happened last night, enter the Legal District. 

Since the Whalers have been planning a hit on Timsh for a while, you have a scope location already set up where you can talk to Billie and stock up on weapons and gear. Before you do that, it’s good to visit one of Timsh’ former ‘friends’, Roland. 

Timsh has destroyed Roland's entire family by falsely accusing them of having the plague and confiscating their property. Roland wants revenge, so he gives daud the address to his old apartment, where he has a fake immunity document signed with the forged signature of the Lord Regent, along with something to make his apartment infected with the plague; a bag of dead rats. 

The apartment is 10, and it makes it easy to circumvent the Legal District entrance and return to the Waterfront. Conveniently it’s also the best vantage point to blink into Timsh’s third and fourth stories. Inside, behind a bookshelf is the actual Outsider shrine. 

Billie is aware that Daud can speak to the Outsider and wonders what he’d say to her. I find this very sad; the actual first time the Outsider speaks to Billie, he’s 20 years too late. 

As for the Outsider, he’s not too thrilled with Daud’s sudden ‘no killing thing’. He thinks it’s another desperate attempt to avoid his fate, rather than a genuine change of heart, something that many fans seem to believe to this day. 

There are many ways to go after Timsh. My favourite is to blink to the fourth floor and speak to Delilah first. She knows who Daud is, and warns him to stay away from her, but do whatever he wants with Timsh, who is no longer of use to her. Billie calls Delilah a bitch and hopeless painter.   

Timsh is on the third floor, arguing with his Head of Guard. He’s supposed to get a visit from General Turnbull, but Turnbull is late because of Corvo kidnapping Sokolov. Once the argument (concerning Thalia) ends, Timsh goes upstairs, and you can knock him out and steal his key. On the third floor you can replace his immunity document with Roland’s forgery. You can then steal the will, which to Daud’s shock, leaves everything to Delilah. 

Before you dump the dead rats in the cellar air duct, finish Granny Rags’ recipe. On the first floor of Timsh’s house there is a deck of tarot cards. If you have Granny’s note, pull out the World card. Then, return to apt 10, place the card on the Overseer Shrine and cut your palm over it. Take the bloodied card and throw it in Timsh’ fireplace. Whoala; you have a rune. 

With that done, dump the rats, and watch Turnbull arrest Timsh for using a forgery of Burrows’ document. 

Thalia is waiting for you at the docks, like she said she would. Though she's not a good person, she does keep her word, and give Daud Delilah's backstory.

Delilah was a baker’s apprentice in Dunwall Tower, before she became Sokolov's apprentice. She met Timsh and they became lovers, but this led to conflict between Timsh and his mother because he would put her life in danger for Delilah and tried to write Thalia out of the will in order to give everything to Delilah.

Timsh is Delilah's experiment for her real plan which involves Emily, but Daud doesn't know this yet.  

On their way back to the Flooded District, Billie comments that she likes the poetic nature of Timsh getting taken down by a forged document, like he had done to so many (a callback to Daud's speech about the Lord Regent) and muses that she might have misjudged Daud. 

This for me is the platonic ideal of a Dishonored level. It's long, but doesn't drag, it involved a lot of weaving from building to building, carefully knocking out or avoiding enemies, but also some sneaking through corridors and hallways. The scenes between Daud, Billie and the Outsider are great, Granny Rags' side quest is interesting and not too easy, and I really enjoyed seeing a different part of Dunwall. It’s nice to see that Dunwall was still a functioning city while Corvo was out killing people.

As Daud returns to the Flooded District to regroup and plan however, Delilah has other intentions. 

The Surge:

As soon as Daud enters his base, Billie Lurk informs him that Overseers have attacked the hideout. Many of the Whalers are dead, and others have been captured. Billie is adamant that you can still push back against the Overseers if you free your men and attack. Daud is more interested in how the Overseers found the base in the first place.

This is the final level in KoD, and I HATE it.

It's not dull like A Light at the End, but it combines my least favourite elements of the series. I hate fighting Overseers and their Hounds, and I hate dealing with the Overseers music boxes. I don't like single location levels where you fight a bunch of enemies, and this one has the double whammy of being a reused location from the base-game. It's also a hard level, full of groups of enemies that can’t be easily separated, and to make it worse, because the base has many walkways and bridges, using projectile weapons will have you reloading at least 5 times a minute to save all the Overseers you accidentally kill by knocking them off the edge. 

The last time I replayed this level, I think the game glitched on me, because all the Overseers were in a permanent alert state which made it fucking impossible to do anything. I’ve never had hostiles notice me from that far away, like buildings away (some could even see me THROUGH walls and barriers) and become that aggressive that quickly. I had to restart several times over, and even when I finished it, I still felt like the game was breaking under how many enemies it threw at me, even though I was playing Cleaner Hands AND Low Chaos. 

The only positive I will say is that story wise, this is the most famous of part of the first game, and it's crucial to everything that happens in BW and the sequel. So, let’s go over it.

You can retrace Corvo’s footsteps from the base game to discover the absolutely insane number of Overseers in the base. Like always, there are multiple ways you can do things, but honestly? They are all bad.

The best thing I’ve found is to free all your captured Whalers (there’s 4 of them), and then go after Hume, because that way you can get to the best position to get to him; through the window and floors of the neighbouring building where you fought Daud as Corvo in the base game. 

Dealing with the Overseers for me is like pulling teeth, so I won't belabour things; my only advice is that chokedust works well to disorient and briefly scatter groups, and gives you enough of a window to choke out the music box carries, and THEN shoot the rest, because the boxes are impossible to deal with when they start playing (they also alert even MORE Overseers to your location). 

The trick with this level is that it’s actually deceptively simple. You don’t even NEED to save the captured Whalers; all you need to do is choke out or shoot Hume and steal his letter which is how you know that the Overseers had a plan that Hume moved early on. You still need to actually look into the Overseer plans, which are in a heavily guarded building across from your base, but knocking Hume out will open the possibility to rendezvous with the rest of your crew, and you can order them to choke out or kill the rest of the Overseers. 

Taking Hume down is easiest by using the window and Bend Time. One thing to note, is if you do go after Hume, and you’ve saved at least one assassin, make sure to knock him out and run before you’re seen, because otherwise Billie will help you, and she will sometimes just kill Hume even after he’s been darted. 

The plans you find will let you know that Hume was tipped straight to your hideout, and that there’s a massive Overseer force coming. However, with your knowledge, Billie and the others can bottleneck the Overseers and prevent them from taking over the base. 

Once you do all this you can talk to the Whalers. Billie comes clean; she is the one who gave Delilah your location. 

Unfortunately, because of how well known this scene is, it was spoiled for me before I got to play it, but I still loved it. Billie has been your partner the whole game; she bounced ideas off of you, helped you develop plans, commented on your actions, joked with you - she is clearly as close to Daud as much as he lets anyone get. To find out that she sought Delilah out and wanted to betray you is a genuine blow.

What’s more, even on low-chaos, Billie’s biggest regret isn’t attempting to kill Daud, or getting her friends killed; it’s moving in too early, before she was ready. She regrets it because she failed Daud's teaching; that is not what he would've done. It's still a reflection on him; she messed up because she wasn’t as effective a killer as he is. 

It's not that Billie doesn't regret betraying Daud; she tells Delilah Daud deserves better when Delilah appears, angry at her failure. It's more that Billie is mad at herself for misjudging Daud, mistaking his unwillingness to kill for weakness.

It was really Hume who blew the whole thing; had he not moved early the Overseers would have taken the base, and Billie would have killed Daud in his tunnel. Delilah mocks Billie for telling Daud that her life is in his hands (which Daud echoes in his confrontation with Corvo), and after your decision, she bamfs out, with a ridiculously over the top warning that she will “crush your cold heart and walk into your skin”. 

This is your final, real choice as Daud: kill, or spare Billie. 

To compare this choice to Covo’s choice of sparing or killing Daud, I think this was done much better.

Firstly, Billie has been with you for 3 straight levels. She has a strong personality and presence in the story, both physically and to Daud as a character.

She betrayed Daud directly, and if you died a lot in this level like I did then you have a lot of personal reasons to be angry with her. Your feelings and decision as a player are aligned with that of Daud, the character. In the base game, even after two expansions all about how Daud changed, I still don’t think Corvo would let him go. Corvo doesn’t know what happened to Daud, nor do you when you are playing as him. Daud knows everything about Billie, and your choice informs the way you see his character: do you believe that he is changing, really is sick of killing and trying to make amends, or is it all just a shallow facade in an attempt to avoid his inevitable fate? 

I also like Billie’s little aside about how she and Daud, both knew it would end like this between them; Billie was going to betray him at some point, and he would have had to face her. Even Delilah acknowledges this, by saying she knew Billie’s betrayal would have been sweetest. 

We end the DLC with Billie boarding a ship away from Dunwall, and I don’t just mean in your choice. Billie Lurk is one of the most important characters in the Dishonoured franchise and her story isn’t even close to being over.  

As for Daud, we stay with him for the second of the DLC expansions - The Brigmore Witches.

Part 6: Dishonored: Concluding Thoughts

Part 8: Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches

Main Menu

[esa-marie]

I like making spotify playlists so heres a masterlist.

I'm still updating a ton of these and if you have any suggestions for characters/ prompts i would love to hear it

Fandom:

Shirt music with success of upon people || Flesh Cousin || Regretevator

Mostly compiled of songs that are utter nonsense, or fit the idea of a disconnect between your mind and your body.

Toxic construction Yaoi || Mannequin mark and Wallter || Regretevator

Songs that are pining, but also sad. bc divorce.

I just love to dance || Big Mama || ROTTMNT

Big Mama talks about dancing a lot in rottmnt. I threw in lots of girl disco and some more evil-vibed songs, ofc. (I love her sm im a #1 big mama defender)

FUCK YES! || Karlach || BG3

Karlach's story means so much to me. lots of songs to do with fire/ inevitability/ general badassery.

Fate spins along as it should || Withers || BG3

This one is the most WIP bc im sourcing a lot of the songs from old 13th century manuscripts, which is harder than it sounds.

Various White Knight Chronicles Playlists ( Cisna , Ceasar , Eldore , Yulie , Leonard , Kara , Setti/Grazel ). Since the fandom is actually incredibly small I might make a separate post for their playlists.

OC and others under cut!

OC

'What is it?' 'Home.' || Zael Stormveil || BG3 tav

Zael is my first tav when I started playing BG3. Im developing her more as I play, and started a tag for her on this blog

Was I sweet once? || Anatasios || BG3 Durge

Even though I havent finished my Zael run, I started a Durge run. Still more WIP than other playlists, and is about resist!Durge

Comin' atcha live from Avalonia! :3 || Elliot || LBP OC

Elliot, also known as console kitty, is a tv celebrity in avalonia! Ill spare you the rest of their lore for now, but their playlist is full of silly goofy songs, and songs about not feeling good enough, for whatever reason :)

Spidersona [Spider: Null] || Eve || Project Eden

My spidersona universe (Project:Eden) uses a different titling scheme than my other playlists. Anyway, Eve was a computer program who was ejected into reality. She now has to figure out how to be a human, and what being a human really is.

The Lizard || Lilith || Project Eden

Eve's best friend, who knew her when she was just a program on a laboratory computer. She has a corruption arc :3 (dw she gets better. Kinda.) gentle songs, and some not-so gentle songs

Doc Ock || 'Ock || Project Eden

A scientist who was employed at the same facility Eve was created. calculating, colhearted, cynical. at least for now (enemies to lovers??? P). Science songs and love songs, ofc

The Goblin || Goby || Project Eden

His tagline is "Imitations Limitations"-- a fish man cyborg amalgamation that was trying desperately to mimic the structures of pre-awakened Eve. But, that didn't go well, for him or the scientists. Not nonsense, but definitely songs that teeter on insane.

You said you know a guy? || Vance || Rottmnt OC

Vance is a scavenger, they go above the hidden city and 'scavenge' for things to sell below. Energy is his name, an he lives up to it.

You dont know me. || The Ghosts Official Playlist

I have several WIP projects, and Pastries and a Poltergeist is one of them. The ghost inhabits this old, run down, 70s house and is trying to get Maya to move out. but she wont. Melancholy 70s

I need this. || Maya Dufour's Official Playlist

Recent college graduate, she's about to find out why this house was insanely cheap. Stubborn. WIP.

This is a story about beginnings || The Librarian's Official playlist.

Ill spare the story for The Dead World for now, but The librarians playlist is a lot of epic orchestral and some medival songs sprinkled in.

Squash and Stretch || Cross || AVA/AVM OC

Living in-between a sketched figure and a stick figure, Cross is ever stuck in limbo. lots of video game songs/ songs to pick them up.

GameDev!Donnie || TMNT SONA Official Playlist

Gamedev is stuck in the world of video games for now. He doesnt mind a ton, although he misses his brothers sometimes. Filled with upbeat/happy video game songs

Monsters? That's Outrageous! || Gwen || Doors OC

WIP, but songs relating to the timeloop shes stuck in or the game itself.

Got it!! || Tracey || White Knight Chronicles OC

Songs for when your not the main character but still trying to be useful.

Technically I have more OC playlists but I think that's good for now ahjhkdbSAhkadk

Other

GET SHIT DONE (via killer video game soundtracks)

Over 40 hours of video game music (as soon as i finish a game it gets shoved into this playlist. I might reduce it in the future but I like the absurdity of how big it is)

She blinded me... WITH SCIENCE!!! || Silly songs about science

Specifically songs referring to science. This started as a Donatello playlist but then i fully committed to the bit. This is also technically my most popular playlist for some reason lmao.

A New Ghost Town

WIP playlist for a fanfic I may never make (each song is supposed to be representative of a chapter/ the chapter titles) (if you wanna know its dp and Gravity falls crossover)

Again, you'll see more playlists than this on my account (shared) But heres the tip of the iceberg :)

[highladyluck]

Tag Game: 9 Favorite Characters

I was tagged by @anyboli, @asha-mage, and @spectrum-color (Stop! stop! I’m already tagged!)

Aladdin (Disney’s Aladdin)

This is definitely where my love of the rogue-with-a-heart-of-gold archetype started. Lay the blame squarely at his bare feet. I watched all the sequels including the direct-to-VHS Aladdin and the King of Thieves.

2. Mat Cauthon (the Wheel of Time series)

He’s 12 different literary/historical/mythological references slapped together, chained to a lovable rogue archetype, rolled in accessories, doused in foreshadowing, and given #vampireproblems. He probably has ADHD and dyslexia and definitely has anxiety. I’m obsessed with him and I have the essays to prove it.

3. Fortuona Athaem Devi Paendrag (the Wheel of Time series)

Liking Mat is the gateway drug to liking Tuon, at least in my case. She’s so fucking weird and mysterious and infuriating and I really wanted to understand her and her role in the story. Then I wanted to figure out how to fix her. Now I still want all that but also I want to make her worse, make her make other people worse, and just generally Put Her In Situations. She is endlessly fascinating to me and I want to chew on her until I rip out her squeaker. Then I will put in another squeaker and the process will begin again. My username, originally chosen because somebody else snagged matrimonycauthon, has very appropriately become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

4. Ael i'Mhessian t'Rllalielu (the Rihannsu series)

No one should be surprised that I love Diane Duane’s take on the Romulans, and Ael is the archetypal honorable Romulan type that Star Trek originally introduced. As the aunt of the Romulan Commander in the Enterprise Incident (the Federation steals technology from the Romulans) she has good reasons to hate Captain Kirk and the Federation personally- but as the tagline says, when there is no help from her friends, she turns to her enemies. She’s the star of the Rihannsu Star Trek novels: start with either My Enemy, My Ally for the first book or the omnibus Rihannsu: The Bloodwing Voyages.

5. Tertius Lydgate (Middlemarch)

I was trying to sum up what I like about him and I think it’s something about the quiet tragedy of good intentions and ambition getting banally corrupted by unquestioned systems, practical considerations, and bad but personally inevitable choices. If you’ve ever worked in nonprofits or a b-corp, you may recognize yourself in Lydgate in a way that will make you uncomfortable. Or maybe it’s just me? Anyway, go read Middlemarch. It is always the right time in your life to read Middlemarch.

6. Tau-Indi Bosoka (The Masquerade series)

I’m love them! Tau-Indi is such a sweet person, and they follow a favorite character arc of mine: characters whose assigned or chosen role is to be the best representative & highest expression of their specific ethical and political milieu, and then they experience or learn something that forever disqualifies them from their former role, and then they have to keep on existing and build their sense of morality and place in the world from the ground up, on firmer foundations than the ones they started with. Also an excellent foil to Baru.

7. Miriam Beckstein (the Merchant Princes series)

Merchant Princes is basically an isekai story where a biotech journalist finds out she’s a long-lost heir to a group of alternate-universe-teleporting refugees. It’s not actually very fun for her at first, but she’s making it work. I love competence porn and she definitely delivers, and there’s also a very sweet slow-burn romance tied up with her funding and leading the socialist revolution of yet another alternate universe.

8. Glimmer (new She-Ra)

Glimmer? She’s just my bisexual teleporting deeply morally questionable power fantasy, it’s not that deep. Also she’s hot and I love her hair.

9. Mark Pierre Vorkosigan (Vorkosigan series)

What an incredible foil! Every time I read him I’m so impressed by how fucked up he is and how hard he’s working to figure out who he is and develop in a direction he chooses. Control issues, daddy issues, sexuality issues, identity issues… he’s an entire wall of magazines and I think he’s just great.

Tagging: @unmarkedcards @veliseraptor @ameliarating @gunkreads @liesmyth and anyone else who wants to do it

[himbosuplex]

idk if anyone is interested in hearing about my digimon AU boys but

but if anything this serves to sort of hammer down some details about them since I'm going through the process of drawing all their main designs.

I originally came up with them when I was playing through the Cyber Sleuth games many years ago, and kind of connecting in my head different ideas from different medias approaches to Digimon and the Digital World.

The general premise is that in the Digital World, there is an entire subcommunity of Digimon that are - for all intents and purposes - professional fighters. They compete in different ranks of the Digital Colosseum, but unlike other tournaments, this is entirely organized by Digimon, for Digimon, with no humans involved. No human trains a competitor, there are no tamers, no Digidestined, it is part of the greater society of Digimon that just exist on their own without human intervention.

The focus is on four specific members of a faction (Taiji-gun/ 太極軍) that is managed and run by Dido, a Lilithmon. Most of the fighters in the faction are essentially rescues as opposed to scouted - some were abandoned, rescued from black market sellers, or other generally abusive situations. Eventually the plot branches out from the initial "tournament arc" to involve excursion into the human world as well as a looming threat that is corrupting Digimon's code.

The main stable

Cygnus

(Zurumon - Pagumon -PicoDevimon - Devimon - LucentVamdemon* ) *OC Alternate Form of Vamdemon from being converted to a "benign virus" during evolution.

Cygnus was hatched as a DigiEgg by a Tamer who was disappointed to have a Virus. He was tolerated as a baby, but upon evolving to Pagumon, his Tamer actively disliked him. His mischief, while generally less malicious than wild Pagumon, caused enough issues that shortly after evolving to PicoDevimon he was abandoned by his Tamer and their link severed. Dido found him while the athletes she managed were out on a wilderness training trip and she took him in before he could become cold-hearted and dangerous. He has trust issues and struggles to work with new team-mates and has a rather aggressive rivalry with Clione. He initially evolved to Devimon while in a "Friendly Fire" match against Clione, netting him the win but injuring Clione badly. His resulting guilt softened his attitude towards his teammate and their rivalry became much friendlier. He's missing a horn that was snapped off by a Devidramon. He and Clione are rarely apart from each other.

Clione

(Poyomon - Tokomon - Patamon - Angemon - HolyAngemon)

Unlike Cygnus, Clione has never had a Tamer - he was being sold in the black market Digimon trade to Tamers who wanted Digimon for illicit uses such as illegal hacking, "bait" monsters for Digimon training, or code disassembly. He was weak and shy early on and went unsold for so long he was marked for deletion, avoiding it narrowly when he was finally rescued. It took him quite awhile to break out of his shell, and not until the addition of a wild child PicoDevimon to the faction did he start developing a competitive drive. Clione has never felt as negative towards Cygnus as Cygnus did towards him early on, beyond annoyance at the other Digimon's aggressive need to compete with him. Even after being injured by Cygnus accidentally in a junior tournament, he still regards him with affection and finally evolves to Angemon when intervening to protect him from an attacking Devidramon. Unlike his peers, he doesn't stay in his Perfect or higher forms because it tires him out due to, as an Angemon, having a dramatically stronger natural power than most Digimon.

Regulus

(Punimon - Tsunomon - Elecmon - Leomon - BlackLeomon* - BanchoLeomon) *Regulus briefly is forced into an evolution to MadLeomon by corrupted data, going berserk for a time until he's neutralized into a variant of his original form.

Regulus, along with team-mate Bootes, was originally a bait monster for training up Digimon for the Digimon equivalent of dogfighting. Tamers and Hackers participating would often buy black market Digimon to use as living punching bags for their competing Digimon. Regulus was rescued when he was an Elecmon and due to his experiences has always been very stoic and humorless. He's the odd man out in the group of four due to his inability to build relationships, and it's not until he realizes how strongly Bootes feels about him that he starts to open up. His secret weakness is back scratches, which will get him to purr - something that he finds very embarrassing.

Bootes

(Pitchmon - Pukamon - Betamon - Ogremon - Etemon - MetalEtemon)

Bootes was a bait monster in the same fighting ring as Regulus and was rescued along with him. Habitually terrified as a baby, he began to develop a loud, obnoxious personality once he was rescued. He deeply admires and respects Regulus, who he views as both the perfect athlete and perfect opponent and wishes to be like him. When he makes a sudden change from aquatic Digimon to an Ogremon, Dido surmises it's due to his desire to be like and fight Regulus, and unintentionally embodies the natural rivalry that Ogremons and Leomons have towards each other. Even as an Ogremon (and later Etemon), Bootes loves water and swimming. Despite being a Virus type, he's incredibly friendly and loves his teammates, though none as much as he loves Regulus.

Perhaps once I'm done with the design documents of these guys I'll post more about other Digimon in their orbit.

[jeniffercheck]

interested in ALL your thoughts on the Sexualization of Shiv Roy™️ if you have any to share

So many & it's kind of conflicting at times so I really hope this all makes sense!!! I have been caught in 4k before saying that I adore how the character of Shiv Roy was handled within the writing of the show, I do really think they hit the nail on the head of how a woman like her, in that specific position, would be treated from every angle, even including and bleeding out into to how the audience is supposed to receive and perceive her (very very expectedly polarizing!!!).

So for context for all of this: one of the main things I appreciate about Shiv is how fully realized she is in comparison to her male counterparts (as in, she is just as realized as the rest of them are). Obviously a lot of people who watch the show like to pretend that she's one dimensional (and think the writers missed the mark in some aspects which I can understand those points of view even if I don't always agree, but there is always room for improvement in writing female characters 100% although Shiv is not a standard female character -- she is in many ways, acting and appealing to men), but I honestly do feel like it's safe to say (in that there is evidence to back it up) that we see so much of Shiv's personal character that is wholeheartedly NOT defined by the men on the show (her career ambitions, her sexuality(!!!), her complex thoughts about motherhood, her liberal values, the morally corrupt things she does despite those values, how mean and selfish she is, how she obviously just wants so badly to be loved, etc.) BUT (huge but), at the same time, Shiv's role on the show and her story arcs are so heavily centered around the male characters that most of her character motives & drive ARE defined by the men. Every single thing she does in that show is to win over the support of a giant group of men (starting in s2, but i will get into this)!!

[This is not always in a bad way to me, I think characters like Shiv, Gerri, & Karolina are purposefully portrayed how many women feel in real life, which is that they always have to try harder than their male counterparts to get a fraction of the credit, and there's always a risk of being undermined or overlooked (Roman betraying Gerri --more to that obviously as well-- & Hugo aiming to get Karolina fired -- more to that as well but u get the picture). We see this with Shiv most often; as hard as she tries, Roman and especially Kendall will always land higher on the rung than her (final lesson is her sitting in that car with tom).]

This is where the sexualization of Shiv Roy gets a little contradictory for me, because at certain points in the show I do have difficulty placing her motives and other times I do think it’s a really important part of her character! For added context, Roman’s sexualization is very important to me here because I think it's good to remember that from the very start of the show Shiv wasn't the ONLY character being sexualized; obviously a lot of Roman's motives are centered around his difficulties having traditional sex, and we even get some early suggestive sex from Kendall and Rava although I think that scene is pretty gratuitous (the staircase scene????? I mean I guess we know why rava fell for him<33 and the hospital boner<3) BUT I think for me, Season 1 is the only time where I think Shiv's sexuality is MAINLY (not only, but mainly) gratuitous. I think ShivNate on its own was a very good set up and introduction to Shiv's promiscuity and her inclination towards cheating/non-monogamy, but a lot of her motives and plot in that season went specifically towards all of the cheating, and by extension, sex, with Nate and the growing festering smothering feeling of being with Tom, and it is a time in the show where I felt like she seemed more like a sex object than a true competitor in the 'succession.'

Season 2, I take a lot differently. I think once she's inserted into the game completely, the playing field kind of evens out in a sense. They also stop with the suggestive scenes for the most part, and while I do believe that is in part due to the tonal shift, I think it's also uniquely fitting for Shiv's character coming into a new season. A season where she arrives with a new husband, a second season big chop (VERY professional haircut compared to s1), an updated wardrobe, and receives a brand new role in the family structure, I do play with the idea that they obviously could have kept in a lot of the same suggestive scenes that had in Season 1, yet chose not to, which in part I think has to do with Shiv becoming a 'serious person.'

One of the most interesting parts about this aspect, is that the sexualization of Shiv Roy from OTHER CHARACTERS does not end!!! The filmmakers themselves lay off on the blatant stuff (save for s2 ass shot you'll always be famous) -- Season 2 is Shiv's big season and they really start to tell her nuances and her wants and we learn so much more about her than we had in s1, yet the characters within the show, the people she's surrounded by, still don't treat her any differently!! She's a slut, she's a cheater, she's cucking Tom, she's giving a speech so let's blast 'rape me', we're caught in a sex scandal so let's use her!!! Shiv Roy is still an object!! She is a woman she is an object!!

That, is what I find most brilliant about the writing. All of Season 1 was spent showing Shiv as all of the things men fear in a woman; abrasiveness, confident, sexy, smart, willing to cheat, and many many viewers bought into this. These viewers took s1 Shiv and placed her into a box and that's all she ever was from s1 to the very last second of s4, which is exactlyyyyy how the characters in the show treated her. Her tonal shift in s2 did not matter to them, she was never fit for anything she tried for. Never. They could not fit Shiv inside their heads, which like....,,,,,,,,,,,,,,she says it to you !! She says it to everyone, the characters, to the viewers,,,,,,,,,,,,,like........amazing and why I am so enamored with her and with the writing. She is so real and so many women feel this way. She knows she's sexy too, and couldn't even use with someone like her husband who just saw her as a vending machine for an heir (gee Tom why do you think she strayed....was it the period tracking???). now i'm just going to rant so i'll stop<3333

[chronoxtreme]

The Cage: Chapters 2-5 Author's Notes

So, I'll be honest - one of the biggest weaknesses of this fic for me, personally, is that these 3 chapters don't really need to be here, but they do at the same time. They're important to Astarion actually getting to know Nanne, but at the same time they don't really move the story along in terms of the main thesis, i.e. "they met 10 years ago and now they're back together oopsies."

I've also been trying to break the habit of relying on canon dialogue/scenes to convey relationships. It's something that I notice I do a lot in my other fics that aren't AUs, so this fic is trying to get out of that niche.

As well, Nanne giving the tent to Astarion is something I kind of stumbled into and ended up loving. I think it's a nice way to establish Nanne's personality in context. That sort of generosity mixed with envy because you really want it for yourself but you know that it's the right thing to do to give it to this poor nobleman who's clearly never had a day of hardship in his life. The selflessness that isn't quite selfless because it's been engrained into you from a young age and is it really a choice? (Don't worry, we'll get into more of that later)

Some funny headcanons/canon events that I shoved into this fic:

Literally all of Astarion's camp gear is stolen from the crypt/the tiefling refugees/the druids at the grove. I refuse to believe that he obtained all of those trinkets by gainful means when it's repeatedly emphasized that this dude owned literally nothing under Cazador.

Astarion's burial shroud (inspired by the rags you can see in his various camp sites, especially in Last Light Inn). This is something that was almost 100% pulled out of my ass. I don't think the vampiric resting place rule applies to spawn, but I do like the thought of Astarion's sole possession being a reminder of his trauma. We'll do stuff with that later, don't worry.

Astarion thinks Wyll is hot because he's exactly his type of "innocent charming younger man who is selfless and slightly awkward but good at heart." Also Wyll is just hot.

Astarion making fun of Shadowheart's goth name is a thing that happens in game if you happen to recruit Astarion first before her and it's VERY funny

The sheer, utter frustration Astarion has watching everyone in camp target his seduction mark and try and pull the moves on them

I do also believe that Astarion's compatible with every single party member (except for Minsc and Jaheira for obv reasons), so while he does tick them off the list of "seduce for protection" candidates for various reasons, it's mainly because this is a Tav x Astarion story. Likewise, I love all the party members, no matter how much Astarion may shit on them lol

So, let's talk a little about Chapter 5 and what's going on here. A lot of the events are based on my second-first playthrough as Nanne (my first playthrough was on my old PC that died and the saves got corrupted, so I had to start over). Looking back, I do think it's pretty self indulgent to have everyone hit on my OC, but considering it happened in game just by playing a nice character who naturally wanted to get to know everyone and was a compulsive peacemaker, I can't say it's, like, over the top outrageous. (They literally ALL cockblocked Astarion's romance scene except for Wyll. Literally all of them)

If I were to go back and rewrite this section, though, I'd probably stretch out the timeline a lot more, moving Shadowheart's date later back, Gale's magic lessons, etc. One of the issues that I have with writing is the timeline, and nowhere has it been more obvious than with this fic, where I'll describe a week's worth of events happening in literally four days, then skip ahead two months and go "Hey guys, take my word for it that x time has passed." It's something I definitely need to work on lol. At the same time, this is very much a self indulgent fic for funsies.

Now SPOILERS FOR NANNE'S CHARACTER ARC: In case anyone's curious, no, Nanne had no clue that Shadowheart's little date was supposed to be a date. This is a person who has never been approached for anything romantic except from their sketchy employer. Astarion is exasperated that they didn't see the signs, but Nanne has no experience with "hooking up", dating, whatever you wanna call it.

They do feel bad about accidentally leading Shadowheart on, but honestly, they're torn because on the one hand, someone did find them attractive! Wowee! On the other hand, this is moving awfully fast and they're scared about being exposed. They have had it repeatedly bashed into their head that their body is disgusting, unnatural, a deviation that must be fixed, and so relationships are this thing that they can't ever have, but desperately crave. It is a deeply painful position to be in. They do a good job of hiding it and not coming across as clingy, but Nanne is a very lonely person who craves connection and intimacy (physical, sexual, emotional, any of it). At the same time, they can't risk being rejected again.

END SPOILERS

The boar scene is one of my favorite early on scenes because this is the moment when Nanne clocks that Astarion is actually a vampire. A lot of people make fun of the game for waiting like, five in game days before exposing the elephant in the room, but considering that everyone knows vampires can't stand in sunlight, it's reasonable to assume that Astarion's just an incredibly pampered noble who's got delicate skin and maybe some drow ancestry.

But then he starts acting VERY suspicious and guilty and, well, the boar is literally right there.

Nanne's comment of "You're protecting us from the vampire, aren't you?" is meant to be a very subtle way of thanking Astarion from not eating anyone yet, which considering what happens in the next chapter is, uh, lol. Lmao, even.

[bleeding-star-heart]

Fenris absolutely REFUSING to get some context on his anti-mage views is just super annoying. I mean, unlike everyone else, he actually has something to justify it-a.k.a. Tevinter trauma-but he doesn't seem to take ANYTHING he sees outside of Tevinter into account. The apprentice Ella narrowly avoiding SA? The templars never seeming to actually HUNT the blood mages around Kirkwall even though that's their JOB? The way Meredith, despite otherwise being fanatically anti-mage, ignores mage! Hawke because he's rich, powerful and "useful" (which to me indicates a certain corruption and hypocrisy). The fact that Bethany, if she doesn't go the Deep Roads, gets taken away against her will? The fact that Meredith's solution in the final quest means her death? The fact that Hawke's mom had to run away to marry Malcolm, the fact that all Hawkes were fugitives because otherwise their family would be torn apart? None of this ever makes him pause. Instead, he just continues to hate mages because Tevinter, experiences in Kirkwall and outside of Tevinter be damned.

This is a massive problem with the DA2 companions in general I feel. While the Origins companions have more fleshed out characters AND character arcs, the Kirkwall gang feels more like archetypes who get more exaggerated over time. Some of them, like Sebastian, Varric, and admittedly Anders, do have the ability to change over time in new ways. Sebastian flip flops from devout to revenge-driven, and agonizes over retaking Starkhaven enough to make him complex. Varric's relationship with Bartrand takes a lot of twists and turns over the course of the game. But the rest, not so much. They don't really change or grow so much as their character archetype gets more exaggerated. Carver starts out as a resentful younger who is inexplicably pro-Templar. Instead of being able to understand the other side, Carver can either a) die, b) join the Grey Wardens while still resenting Hawke, or c) join the Templars for flimsy reasons. Bethany is better, but she doesn't really deviate from her 'sweet little angel' personality either. Or from her status as a victim of anti-mage oppression. Like Carver, she can a) die, b) join the Grey Wardens, or c) get put in the Circle against her will. When we meet Merrill, she's naive to the point of being extremely childlike (which is a marked contrast from her characterization in DA:O) and is obsessed with restoring the Eluvian at any cost. Throughout the game she just becomes MORE obsessed with the Eluvian. Instead of becoming less naive, her naivete instead becomes more noticeable. Isabela is a hedonistic, self-centered pirate captain in Act 1, and by the end of Act 2, she's only shown to be even MORE self-centered. Since, if you don't have enough Friendship or Rivalry with her, Isabela won't return the book, instead letting the Qunari try to take over Kirkwall. Even though she knows firsthand that forced conversion is AWFUL. Aveline mainly just goes from Lawful Neutral soldier to Lawful Neutral city guardsman, which is not a character change but a job change. She CAN get over her husband's death, but only if you put effort into it. And Fenris? Well, he's a traumatized ex-slave (which I sympathize with), and he stays a traumatized ex-slave, but if Hawke is a mage and treats him right, Fenris can make Hawke the exception to his views. This contrast between the broad archetypes of DA2 and Origins is part of why Origins's writing is infinitely better.

I love "fugitives together" ending so much. People call Anders romance depressing for very wrong reasons. Like oh, you think chantry explosion was sad? How about Hawke's whole friend group calling his best friend and lover mad for literally the same things Hawke stands for? How about mage Hawke's friends having no problems with templars, the same people, who would gladly imprison Hawke for life or even execute him for apostasy? I think people idealize Kirkwall gang way too much. Varric occasionally drinks with templars and has almost zero principles. Aveline helps templars to arrest apostates. And Fenris...I don't know how much patience a mage needs to listen to "all mages are bad magic itself is bad but you're different" for 6 years. The part where you can kill him in the Gallows for trying to murder you is kinda bruh too. And Isabela doesn't care what side you choose in the end. Isn't it depressing, to know that your friends don't care even one bit about people like you dying and being tortured literally every day? I don't like "fix it" headcanons where Anders warms up to certain companions because why would he? That's, like, the whole point of the game. Playing a mage IS isolating. It WILL make you look unlikable to others if you're vocal enough about the oppression. Because most people tend to ignore all the problems that do not concern them directly and they don't like when the said problems are being pushed into their faces. I can't speak for other players but for my mage Hawke, life in Kirkwall was awful. Like on the level where you think taking your own life is not that bad awful. Anders and Merrill were the only people who didn't make him feel even worse for being a mage. I don't think being fugitive is sad. What saddens me the most, is that only on the run with Anders Hawke realizes that he is finally happy. Because running from authorities is way better than running from your own nature. Its not sad when you and your lover are alone against the whole world. It`s only sad when the unjust world breaks your spirit and you accept it as it is without fighting.

[purru]

Safer in the Dark

▷ Summary; They had banished the devil from his body, too bad he replaced its place

⚠️ content advisory: light stockholm syndrome, character with dubious morality

Fandom: original character (ttrpg)

Note #1: fill for day 8 of Whumptober - Back From The Dead | continuation of this fic, set right after his resurrection

He woke up from the dead with glacial resentment. When he noticed the handcuffs, he couldn’t tell when fury ended and grief began.

His murderer–no, savior, explained with great regret that he had to do it. Hicks had to kill Rook to separate his soul from the devil, there was no other way.

Patiently, his savior made it clear that they also destroyed the contract that binds him to the devil. He eventually learned that the process also made him lose a chunk of his arcane power. Lost in thought, Rook was quiet the whole time.

“What happened to you was not your fault. It's time to start over,” his savior finally said. There was a heavy lump in his throat. He slowly looked away, not wanting emotion to overtake him. He had to be grateful for what Hicks had done to save him. He had to. He convinced himself so. After all, Hicks was the first person who ever stood up for him.

“You have spent years under that devil’s thumb, unwillingly,” Rook heard his savior saying. “You are free now.”

The revenant tried his best to believe it.

---

Rook stood completely still when he felt the cold barrel of a gun pressed against the back of his head. Gun to head, not unlike his first taste of death. His mind raced. Sir?

“Hands in the air,” barked his target. Rook quickly complied. Sir?

He frantically evoked the devil’s name in his head. Static. There was no familiar taunting laugh. Rook heard his target saying something out of anger but his ears were swimming.

Cold sweat began to form on his forehead. Rook was confused as to why he couldn’t smell sulfur, why his target wasn’t set ablaze yet.

And he was truly alone, he realized. Fear wormed further into his head, now that it's devoid of The Prince’s company.

It was way too late and he had to learn the hard way, but they were right. There’s a price for everything in life. He had regained his soul but lost his protector.

‎

Note #2: title is taken from the lyrics of this song

[thefangirltreehouse]

sebastian sallow | general thoughts / headcanons with gryffindor!mc

this is just overall thoughts on the sebastian arc and his general characterisation (yes, i am continuing to update this on my second playthrough)

spoilers below

the amount of times i’ve caught sebastian looking at mc through the start of my now second play-through is hilariously adorable, like don’t get me wrong the herbology one is absolutely the best, but i noticed that throughout charms sebastian is just staring at mc (like he’s straight up starts ignoring ominis speaking to him when they walk in the room) also the slight glances in defence against the dark arts before the duel is so cute.

he does it again whilst sirona and rookwood are arguing, like he just turns to them and similes

you can’t convince me otherwise that mc didn’t grab at least his arm to pull him away from ranrok, like it genuinely looks like that and if you squint hard enough it looks like he does the same thing when heading into the three broomsticks

listen i’m specifically playing as fem! & gryffindor! and the missions with ominis feel so reminiscent of the golden trio (i’m calling it now, they’re the electrum trio - a metal mixed with gold and sliver) especially the crucio side-mission

saw someone in a comment sum their dynamic up perfectly from my perspective

“i used to have beef with ominis before this (crucio) quest happened and now it’s me, a gryffindor dragging two slytherins by their shirt collars”

slight tangent but ominis is so sweet if you start as a slytherin! i saw my friend start his game and meet him in the common room and i was like “i’m sorry, is this the same tory bastard that yelled at me for nicking his pal?”

if anything sebastian comes off worse in that section.

almost every streamer i’ve came across assumes he’s flirting, like this was absolutely intentional

when either of the boys, particularly sebastian is speaking to imelda and the conversation of mc comes up she absolutely refers to mc as “that gryffindor of yours”

i mean, it’s the age old rivalry that just gives everything that extra oomph! despite the fact nobody seems to be questioning that a gryffindor has closely befriended not one, but two slytherins because that certainly isn't suspicious (i'm surprised one of the gryffindors didn't bring it up - particularly leander)

speaking of leander, why are the more prominent gryffindors (and ravenclaws) so antagonistic or hellbent on getting us in trouble?

sebastian’s jealously towards both his friends is dripping in the crucio quest like, in the line below i know he means because mc and ominis have special abilities but...

"between the two of you, i'm starting to feel left out"

the constant proud "that's my girl" look on his face

"never know who's watching - although that hasn't stopped us before." "strictly speaking, it has. we were caught."

also at the start of the library mission, anyone notice the way he's casually waiting on mc against the banister smiling up at her? or whilst he's waiting on her and ominis to figure out the location of the scriptorium? like, this boy knows he's the shit.

listen, there are certain things that sebastian said and did during his storyline that even at that age, i would’ve noped out of but i went in with a “yes, corrupt the little goody-two-shoes gryffindor madly infatuated with you” attitude and honestly it was so much fun. cause objectively yeah, sebastian should be expelled at the very least but my mc was not gonna let them do that (they're very much giving jd and veronica)

that said, mc isn't about to let him walk all over her, she's a gryffindor for a reason, she's just had some misguided judgement

don’t love how there isn’t much of a reaction from either boy after crucio is cast on mc, especially from sebastian (again, massive red flag) but also, think the devs missed the mark on that one like sebastian is still mc’s friend, yeah he really wants to see anne healed but a little sympathy shown would’ve been nice and a proper acknowledgement of what'd he'd done.

even if sebastian shrugged it off quickly he should've helped them walk or at least offered a hand to stand up

i love the wee house jibes, i wish we got more of them!

"you're not a bad chap, for a slytherin" "you gryffindors don't have a monopoly on bravery y'know"

an awful lot of english folk in the scottish highlands

sebastian and poppy are talking whilst leaving a class and my brain was like “omg her bf + gf are talking!”

i want triwizard and yule so badly!

the red and the green / gold and silver looks, look so good!

mc makes a comment about how amazed sebastian will be when she tells him that she took down the ashwinders by herself

"it'd be wise to keep an eye on you"

_____

general headcanons (oc-ish)

he'd absolutely mutter continuous little digs and comments throughout their classes simply to get under her skin and make her smile whilst she's trying to listen to their professors (he used to do this to ominis but he's able to ignore sebastian now after years of the torment)

whilst having dinner in the great hall they won't be sitting together but they'll lightly tap or nudge one another on the back if they're passing behind each-other's designated tables

sebastian refers to the fat lady painting as the "golden gate keeper of mediocrity" after walking mc back to gryffindor tower, which earns him a mildly deserved elbow jab

he gives mc piggy-backs during their trips to hogsmead and the quidditch pitch

whilst she's walking to and from classes with cressida or natsai, sebastian is regularly seen inserting himself between them, putting an arm over mc and / or pinching her away over to ominis and nerida

"who would've thought, all it took was a snake to tame the lion" cressida noted to a disinterested leander, peering over at the scarlet robes peaking beneath the sea of green

mc likes to softly poke at his blushing cheeks, joking that if sebastian "gets any redder, he won't be allowed back into slytherin" or that "he might have to come back to gryffindor with her"

mc has on occasion accidently fallen asleep, resting her head on his shoulder during history of magic

most of the gryffindors (nellie, leander and garreth in particular) will tease sebastian as he waits for her outside the common room, claiming "she was ours first" and attempt to distract her for as long as possible beyond the painting just to 'knock 'im down a few pegs'

they're well aware she's highly capable of holding her own, but not only is he a slytherin, he's also sebastian sallow so they're protective

he much prefers bumping into natty, who'll make a light "lost puppy" joke, share laugh and proceed to actually go get mc or he would actively seek out lucan because he knows the kid sucks-up to him but eventually the older gryffindors caught-on and would bribe lucan with chocolate frogs to stop him in his tracks

mc enjoys exposing sebastian to muggle trinkets and snacks, she grew up in a travelling circus with her parents, a ringmaster and fortune teller who never attended hogwarts in their youth (i'm gonna do a separate oc bio)

the trio all share a love of pumpkin pasties and lavender tea so whoever has a free period (or when sebastian has detention) will pop down to the kitchen to collect some

forehead kisses, hugs and interlocked arms whilst exploring the castle are everything to these two (their subtle little height difference is adorable, especially when you remember fem!mc is wearing wee wedged shoes at the start of the game)

highwing isn't his biggest fan (prefers ominis) and mc relishes in that

[underratedandoverit]

writing your request gave me another idea, so i'm sending it to you lol. while kip's recovery from the belt is going well, orange suddenly has some of his old symptoms from his own recovery come back, making him unable to function for the day. so now it's kip's turn to take care of him while also getting a chance to see just how bad it was for orange back then. let me know if you need any other details!

disclaimer i did not proofread this, so any funky structure or words or anything is just there, deal with it. its too late and i want this out tonight woo

~4,5k words orangekip (orange cassidy/kip sabian)

set in the belt corruption arc(/immortal fears technically). has a good old chuck cameo. generally anxiety and shades of unreality are present. hurt/comfort would probably be my best guess for a genre, hints of angst. happy ending tho 💜

On Ao3

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With a yawn, Kip pushed his chair away from the desk, stretching his arms over his head. It had been a long but a very good day, another successful stream with the squad and much less angry yelling than he was anticipating. He was glad to have this time at home again, it had been quite some time since the last time he was able to sit down for this long period of time to focus on something so special to him. Streaming was a good, happy place for him still, one of those things that he could pick up again after being away from it for a long time, and it actually made him feel somewhat normal again, which a lot of things he tried really didn’t do.

Maybe it was because it had been so long, that he had almost completely dropped the hobby he had previously invested so much time and effort into, that it felt so good and normal to get back to it. Being so focused on the game and listening to his friends laugh and bicker while entertaining an audience he didn’t directly see felt so different to Kip, it felt like something he had genuinely missed all this time. Since he hadn’t really given it the time of the day or any thought really while he had been dealing with the belt.

His arms dropped to the armrests of the chair, Kip leaning his head back as he stared at the ceiling for a moment. The silence in the room felt nice for a change, as the Discord call with the boys had just ended and he was left on his own once again. But it didn’t feel bad, honestly. It was quite nice to him, for a change. Maybe Kip was still coming down from the high of the last game and the victory of it, maybe he was just for once in a place after everything that had happened where being alone in silence made him feel content instead of panicking him the hell out.

It didn’t matter though. Whatever it was, it felt really nice.

Kip reached his hands up, removing the headphones from his head as he finally straightened up on his seat, proceeding to turn the computer off. He could have gotten a bit more stream related work done today if he so wished, it was still early in the evening, but stretching his legs and getting away from the screen for at least a little while felt like a better idea to him. He needed to get something to eat anyway and he was out of energy drinks, plus he needed to check on Cassidy, as Kip hadn’t seen him for a few hours now.

Not that he was really worried or anything, but usually when they were apart from one another for this long of a period of time, at least one reached out to the other to make sure they were fine. Be it with just a single text message of ‘hey’ or asking what they wanted for dinner or if they were hungry in the first place. And today so far, Kip had received no such messages, or sent any out himself since he let Cassidy know he would be starting a stream.

Picking his phone from the desk, checking it as the thoughts crossed his mind, Kip’s brows arched a little as he checked over his messages, not seeing the usual blue tick mark next to the messages he sent out hours ago at this point, everything having gone unread.

Pushing up on his feet, Kip quickly exited the office, heading towards the living room. Maybe Cassidy had just fallen asleep and was taking a very long nap, it wasn’t unheard of him especially after a long, rough work week. Kip stopped in the doorway, scanning the empty room with confusion taking over his face.

Slowly the panic starting to rise in him, he turned on his heels, heading upstairs. Maybe he was there, having a good sleep in the bedroom instead. Kip could feel himself stumbling on his feet as he almost tripped up the stairs, trying to steady his breathing as he could suddenly feel the walls closing in on him, the sudden realization of loneliness was taking him over. It felt so familiar in a scary way, he could see from the corner of his eyes the shadows moving around him, every footstep against the wooden flooring echoing in his ears and ringing through his head as he reached for the bedroom door, almost bursting through it as he finally reached it.

Kip stumbled in the bedroom, a wave of comfort and safety immediately washing over him as he stopped the familiar pile of denim clad man laying on it.

He wasn’t sure if Cassidy was awake or not, but he didn’t react as Kip burst into the room with probably way too much force than he intended. Kip stood there in the doorway, taking in the sight of his boyfriend for a moment, a warm, content feeling slowly filling him as he watched the other man’s back steadily rise and lower along his breathing as he was laying on his stomach in the middle of the queen sized bed.

Stepping inside the room finally, Kip walked to the bed, taking a seat on the edge of it, his eyes never leaving Cassidy. He looked so peaceful on his spot, but Kip had to admit that he was almost… Too peaceful.

He carefully reached a hand towards him, laying it on his back. Kip’s eyes dimmed a little as he could feel Cassidy tense up under his touch, such reaction not being very usual for him when being shown affection. Kip shifted on his spot a little, sitting up a bit better, giving Cassidy a gentle nudge with his hand.

“Hey… You okay?”

This time Cassidy moved, only to curl up on his side and roll slightly away from him and his touch. Kip slowly pulled his hand back to himself, trying to comprehend this sudden change in behavior in the other man. He hadn’t seen this from Cassidy before, and honestly it was worrying him a lot.

Especially since Kip could see hints of his own previous behavior in this sudden change of attitude in him.

Kip jumped a little as he could suddenly hear buzzing coming from somewhere close by. Eyes shooting towards the sound, he spotted Cassidy’s phone sitting on the nightstand, screen flashing with an incoming call he deducted based on the length of the buzzing sound. He looked at Cassidy, the blond completely ignoring the sound as he didn’t even move on his spot, for a moment Kip not being sure if he was even breathing anymore as he just remained completely still, ignoring his surroundings.

Slowly sliding off the bed Kip stood up, walking around the bed to the nightstand, picking the phone in his hand. He watched Chuck’s familiar name flashing on the screen, disappearing just as he was looking at the screen, marking him hanging up the call. Before the screen turned off again, Kip could see it reading ‘25 missed calls’ and a pile of unread messages, similarly from Chuck, a few probably from others too.

Kip turned towards Cassidy slowly, any remaining resemblance of a positive outlook about the situation leaving him as Kip watched him just continue to lay still on the bed, the sunglasses still on his face he had pressed hard against the bed. The position he was in looked rather painful, even more so when Kip now knew he wasn't asleep and was absolutely doing it willingly to himself. 

"...Chuck's been trying to reach you." 

Cassidy remained completely stoic and unreactive, making Kip's face sink even more looking at him. He wasn't sure what had brought this behavior forward, he hadn't seen Cassidy act like this even on his worse days. Sure the man was often very closed off due to both his persona and personality, but it never got this bad. He always at least responded to Kip if no one else, but now it seemed like even he couldn't get through to him. 

There was something so clearly wrong that Kip just didn't know how he was supposed to deal with the situation.

He could feel the panic rising again, trying to override those thoughts with the knowledge that he needed to stay calm right now. There was no one else around that could take care of this, there was no one else that knew what was going on, there was no --

Before Kip’s thoughts could race any further, the phone buzzed in his hand again. His eyes widened as they shot towards it, Chuck’s name flashing on the screen again. Pushing all his other thoughts to the side, Kip reached for the phone screen with his free hand, quickly sliding the bar on the screen before lifting the phone up to his ear.

“Orange? Orange? Thank god--”

“Chuck.”

The line went quiet for a moment, Kip considering briefly just dropping the phone next to Cassidy on the bed with the speaker on to let Chuck talk directly to him as he might have been an unwanted part of this conversation. But as Chuck’s voice picked up again, despite how awkward he sounded, at least it made Kip aware that he was needed to be around for this.

“...Kip? Where’s… Where’s Orange?”

Kip glanced at the denim clad man on the bed, wondering what would be the best response to the obvious question about the situation at hand. It was obvious that Cassidy hadn’t picked up the phone for hours, clearly signaling that something was very wrong, but while Kip could physically see it, he wasn’t sure he was able to explain any of it.

“He’s… He’s okay.”

As the words left Kip’s mouth, he wasn’t able to look at the blond anymore. Exiting the bedroom, he stopped in the hallway of the second floor, stopping to lean against the wall as he stared at the bedroom door he closed after himself, wondering if Chuck was going to be able to help him in this situation. Kip most likely knew what was wrong, this was familiar on a very personal distressing level to him, but he didn’t know if Chuck knew anything or if he was able to help.

“Can I talk to him? I just want to make sure.”

Kip shook his head, briefly forgetting in his distress that he was actually on the phone and Chuck wasn’t standing right there looking at him. He brushed a hand over his face, inhaling deeply, getting caught by a surprise at how much his breath was trembling. “I… I don’t think he really wants to talk.”

“Kip. What is going on? Is everything okay?”

“I don’t know.”

The words slipped out of his mouth faster than Kip could stop them, coming out so quietly he wasn’t sure at first if Chuck had heard them. The silence that fell over the call was telling him more than enough though, it takes a good few seconds before Chuck’s voice cut back in.

“You don’t know? Are you home, do I have to come over?”

Kip thought about his offer for a second, but knew that ultimately having another person here physically was just going to make everything even more difficult for them to deal with. While Kip wasn’t exactly sure what was going on with Cassidy, he knew enough from personal experience that getting too many people involved during a weak moment like this was just going to make it worse. As much as he trusted Chuck, he also didn’t want him to butt in to their house at a time like this.

“No… No, it would just make it worse. I just don’t know what to do.”

He was slowly starting to feel more confident telling Chuck about this, him being grilled had caught him off guard at first, but slowly Kip was leaning more into trying to get help from the one other man that might know what was going on. From what Cassidy had told him before, Chuck had been there a lot for him during his dark times just like Cassidy had been for Kip, so he had formed a sort of an understanding that Chuck also knew something about this… Curse, as they liked to refer to it after all the incidents.

Kip never really talked with Chuck though, he was aware of Kip’s situation with Cassidy, but if he was ever around, it was always for his blond friend. Kip was always an afterthought. Which he didn’t really mind in this case, he still wasn’t entirely over with what had happened to him after losing the belt, so talking about any of it with someone like Chuck would probably have been awkward anyways.

“I… I think he’s relapsing.”

That was the best way he could put it, the words they had been using between Kip and Cassidy to talk about situations where one of them, that usually being Kip, got worse again after a good period of being at least somewhat okay and functional. Kip wasn’t sure if Chuck was made aware of this terminology though, the silent reply he was getting from the other end of the call not really helping him figure it out.

“Okay… Okay that’s not good. Where is he? Is he at least in one piece?”

“He’s safe, in the bedroom. Just… Completely unresponsive, laying on the bed, barely moves away from the touch.”

Kip could hear Chuck groaning, sounding like he was suddenly more annoyed than worried anymore. Maybe it was a good sign, maybe this was behavior that he had seen before?

“Okay, listen.” Kip nodded, this time it didn't matter that Chuck didn’t see the gesture from him. “He’s aware of his surroundings if he’s avoiding touches. That’s a good sign. What you need to do is to try to ground him. We need to get him back to reality.”

Now it was starting to sound familiar. This was something Cassidy had told him before, that he had learned to do with him at days when Kip was in much of a similar state than he was right now. The problem was that Kip usually didn’t remember anything about those days when he was laid out and bedridden, so he wasn’t sure exactly how to do that. Cassidy had told him that talking seemed to help most of the time, but apart from that, Kip really had no idea.

“How do we do that?”

Chuck brought this up, maybe he had an idea. If this had been a thing with Cassidy previously while he was in recovery, Chuck had to have been there. He would know.

“Okay, do you have something small and possibly something that dissolves that you could try to feed to him? Sugar, maybe? And something to drink, something tastier than water. He needs those senses activated.”

“Yeah… Yeah I think we have something in the kitchen. Is there anything else?”

“Try to be there with him. Talk to him. Make sure he hears you and understands that you’re there, even if he most likely won’t respond. The last thing you want to do is leave him alone.”

Kip pushed himself off from the wall, heading downstairs and towards the kitchen. He tried to push Chuck’s last words out of his mind, knowing that he had already more than enough failed at that task, having spent most of the day away from him while Cassidy had been in this kind of a condition. He could hopefully still remedy all of this though, if he just followed the rest of Chuck’s advice. It all sounded distantly familiar to him, Kip couldn’t say for sure if Cassidy had been feeding him things while he had been out of it on the worst days, but the talking and closeness otherwise did ring some mental bells to him.

Kip excused himself from the call as he entered the kitchen, knowing that he was going to have his hands full going back upstairs. Thankfully Chuck was understanding, just telling Kip to let him know if things got worse and to text him when Cassidy got better. Stuffing the phone into the pocket of his sweatpants, Kip started opening the kitchen cupboards, trying to find as many items he could try to get Cassidy to consume for him, not really being sure what he could get to work. Anything from basic sugar cubes to sample packs of Nutella to mints and Starbursts, he took everything small enough he could find, alongside a few energy drinks he could try to get Cassidy to taste.

Kip wasn’t really sure if he was feeling hopeful or not about this, Chuck hadn’t really made it clear if this was actually going to work or not. He said it was what usually what worked. Glancing at the pile of food items in his hands as Kip headed back upstairs, he could feel a hard to swallow lump in his throat, teasing him with the thought that what if this wasn’t going to help after all? What if all this was for nothing? That he could try whatever he wished, and he just wasn’t going to be able to help Cassidy, not able to bring him back to this side of consciousness from the darkness.

He stopped at the bedroom door, almost too afraid to open it again. Considering the situation he was sure that Cassidy hadn’t moved from the spot Kip had left him in, but there was still a certain fear in the back of his head that what if something had happened. That he had somehow done something to himself while Kip was away.

Chuck’s words kept playing in his head. ‘The last thing you want to do is leave him alone.’ Had he already fucked this up? Was there no way to reverse this anymore? This was the first time Kip was on the other end of this situation, he hadn’t talked much with Cassidy about his feelings and fears when Kip was having one of these days himself, so he really didn’t know when it was too late to try to deal with it anymore.

Taking in a deep breath Kip tried to calm himself down, carefully pushing down the door handle, re-entering into the bedroom. A wave of content washed over him as he spotted Cassidy exactly where he was left a few minutes earlier, but at the same time Kip could feel the sadness and guilt finding him still laying there too. He wasn’t magically getting better on his own clearly, and Kip hadn’t been there enough for him to help him out.

Pushing the thoughts from his head for a moment, Kip walked around the bed, starting to pile the items from his hands to the floor. Cassidy didn’t seem to pay him any mind, still laying on his side, half of his face buried against the blanket with the sunglasses squished between it and his face in a rather painfully looking manner. As Kip was ready, he carefully approached the other man, lowering a hand on his face, carefully caressing his cheek.

“I’m sorry I’m late, Clementine,” he whispered, offering Cassidy a little smile, despite being sure he didn’t even perceive it. As Cassidy didn’t respond in any manner, vocal or physical, Kip carefully reached for him, slowly pulling the man closer to the edge of the bed. Cassidy didn’t resist, Kip having to hold himself together as Chuck’s words just kept repeating in his head. He had said that Cassidy responding even negatively to touches was good, so Kip wasn’t sure where this landed in the spectrum anymore. Hopefully Cassidy was just aware that Kip was here to help him and that’s why there was no resistance, and he actually wasn’t too far gone already.

Kip carefully slid him onto the floor, setting the blond to sit against the side of the bed. He sat down beside Cassidy, leaning his back against the nightstand, making sure that he had a good look at Cassidy’s face in case of sudden chances in his expression. It was also going to be much easier to try to feed him something from this angle, Kip thought to himself as he glanced at the items on the floor between the two of them.

“I… I got you a little something to eat.” Kip looked at Cassidy, wincing a little to himself as he could finally see the side of his face that had been laid against the bed all this time. The frames of the sunglasses had left a noticeable mark on his face, and while Kip was sure it wasn’t that painful if Cassidy could feel it in the first place, it sure didn’t look very pretty. “It’s… It’s okay. We just have a little picnic here. On the bedroom floor. Just the two of us. With all your favorite treats.”

Kip offered him a smile, getting nothing back. He tried to not let it discourage him, reaching for the little cup of sugar cubes, picking one into his hand. Reaching for Cassidy’s face, he had to fight with him a little bit to be able to get his jaws to open up, but eventually Kip was able to slip a sugar cube into his mouth. He looked at the stoic man, not seeing even a slight movement from him as a response. Maybe he needed something else. Maybe some more encouragement.

Without thinking further, Kip leaned closer, pressing a little peck on his cheek. “You’re going to get better, I promise. I’m here now.”

Maybe he was imagining it. Maybe he wasn’t but it was just a coincidence, but Kip could swear he saw Cassidy swallowing as those words exited his mouth. Kip kept staring at him, trying to make sure he was actually seeing it, his eyes widening a little as he definitely saw it the second time, being followed by a very sudden change in Cassidy’s demeanor as Kip could hear him take in a breath.

Almost frantically Kip looked back to the floor, trying to pick out the next item to try. He hadn’t expected things to work out this fast in his favor, but it was definitely making him more motivated to continue. Maybe Cassidy was just easier to pull out of his rut so it was working on his faster, the man had had a longer recovery period than Kip did, so maybe it had something to do with it. It didn’t matter though, Kip had not confirmed that this was actually working and not hope had been lost, and he was going to continue to try to make it even better, slowly but steadily.

One item at a time he kept feeding them to Cassidy, telling him between each item how proud of him he was and how Kip was there to make things better. How he was sorry he hadn’t been there all day. Eventually ending up just talking about the stream he had earlier, what the boys had been up to and how mad he got at times. What fun things the chat was saying, what they discussed about. Kip tried to keep his mouth going as much as possible, just making sure that there was sound filling in the otherwise quiet room. He didn’t mind that Cassidy still didn’t reply to him, Chuck had thankfully prepared him for that part, and Kip had enough to talk about to just keep going.

As he was chatting away about something mundane, peeling the Starburst in his hand out of the wrapper, Kip watched as suddenly a lazy hand landed on his. His eyes widened as he froze in place, quickly glancing up to watch Cassidy be otherwise just as stoic as before. He wasn’t looking at Kip, not moving anything but the hand he landed on his, but Kip could feel him trying to make an effort to squeeze his hand, almost as if trying to communicate through that.

Kip smiled, holding Cassidy’s hand in one of his while the other one reached to put the Starburst into his mouth. Cassidy had become easier to feed the more Kip did it, this time him taking the candy into his mouth almost entirely on his own from Kip’s fingers. He pressed his hand against Cassidy’s cheek, his thumb caressing the side of his face.

“I’m so proud of you. You’re so strong, Clementine.”

They continued like this until Kip basically ran out of things to give to him, with each item Cassidy slowly giving him more and more signals of some levels of awareness. He was steadily getting better through this, though Kip had no idea how far he was able to actually take it. Like was Cassidy going to return to normal tonight, or what was a point where he could stop and they could just sleep the rest of it off? Again, he didn’t remember being on the other end of this problem himself though he knew it had happened before, so he had little to no reference point to go from.

As Kip spun the final energy drink can in his free hand, he glanced up at Cassidy. He had started to breathe much more freely as time went on, returning Kip’s hands reassuring squeezes every now and then. Kip could swear he was leaning into the touches and kisses to his face too, but as his expression wasn’t changing and the movements were very minimal, it was really hard to actually tell. But the progress was definitely there, that much he could say for sure.

Kip lowered the energy drink to the floor, trying to proceed to open it with one hand. He was stopped though as Cassidy lowered his other hand on top of it, gathering a questioning look from Kip, almost making him jump as he lifted his eyes to meet Cassidy’s face, the blond for the first time in the entire day actually looking directly at him. Still emotionless and behind the sunglasses, but he had shifted on his spot a noticeable amount to be face to face with Kip finally.

“…Kip.”

His voice was hoarse, the word barely audible. Kip just stared back at him, unable to move, unable to look away, just waiting for whatever was going to follow up with that.

“…Thank you.”

Shoving the energy drink aside, Kip leaned closer, pressing his lips against Cassidy’s. A smile rose up on his lips as he could feel him respond to the show of affection, very slightly and carefully Cassidy leaning into the kiss as well after a moment of hesitation.