#But at the same time like. What kind of objection can he make here. They're the Parents. He's just the grifter uncle

[tswwwit]

Just imagining Dipper's parents finally trying to get their shit together and rekindle their relationship with the twins after several years of almost no contact, only to show up in town and 1. Dipper doesn't recognize them at first, and 2. When they remind him who they are, his brain scrambles for a second because, in his head, his "Dad" is already in the shack, scamming groups of tourists for loose change. He nearly goes, "huh? But my dad is-," and points to the shack, before catching up with his brain and realizing who he's talking to

[roosterr]

white flag ✹ ch 3

note: (･ω･)

pairing: ghost x gn!reader

wc: 3.5k

no use of y/n reader's callsign is 'stingray'

summary: the 141 goes on your first mission since the fire, and you're forced to face your fear head on. when you fall short and ghost has to save you, your already fragile relationship seems to fall apart at the seams.

warnings: canon-typical violence, angst, pyrophobia, panic attacks, hurt/minimal comfort, argruments, ghost is mean again, reader has a little breakdown

ao3

【prev】 || 【next】

you can do this.

you can do this.

the mantra plays on repeat in your head as you stare holes into the opposite wall of the helo. you can do this, despite the objective being to demolish an enemy facility, which almost certainly meant that there would be fire, which you were certainly not afraid of.

you had to do this because nobody knew, and they couldn't find out. what kind of soldier is afraid of fire? considering all the things you've done, it should be trivial; you've stared down the barrel of a gun more times than you can remember, had a knife to your throat the same amount, and yet the simple thought of being near a fire has your heart beating out of control.

ghost's figure passing in front of you snaps you out of your thoughts, illuminated by the red lights as he stops at the edge of the ramp. the night behind him is foreboding, no stars to be seen and the wind cold against your skin as it rushes into the back of the helo.

"bravo team," his gruff voice cuts through the noise of the wind and the blades, "let's move."

you look across to where soap sits, exchanging a brief nod before you both stand and dutifully follow after your lieutenant. clutching your rifle to your chest with one hand, you use the other to lower the night-vision goggles over your eyes, casting an uneasy green glow over the environment. you keep yourself low as you follow after ghost and soap, making your way quickly to the cover of the treeline.

the facility you were here to demolish was between the three of you and the site gaz and the captain had landed at. the plan was to sweep from opposite sides of the building, planting charges as you go and regrouping in the middle – preferably with minimal enemy interference, but you were expecting them to put up a fight.

ideally, you could be out of the building and far enough away before the charges go off, and your phobia wouldn't be an issue; but that's only if luck was on your side, and lately it's been feeling like it's decidedly not.

your rifle is wedged into the crook of your shoulder as you follow behind soap, listening intently for any signs of movement other than the three of you. goosebumps prickle at your skin even under the many layers of your gear – caused by the temperature or your nerves, you're not sure.

ghost raises his hand in a gesture for you to stop, crouching just before the break in the trees. you follow suit and so does soap, gazing up at the building looming in front of you, a dark shadow against the night sky.

"bravo's in position," ghost says, keeping his voice low, "waitin' on you, alpha."

the radio stays silent. you roll your shoulders to release some of the tension, but you only breath a small sigh of relief when you hear price's voice cut through the static a moment later.

"solid copy," the captain responds, "had some company, let's get this done before they find the bodies."

"affirm. out here." ghost's monotone reply ends the correspondence, and he gestures once more to continue. you make sure to stay low and keep your head on swivel as the three of you creep closer to the large warehouse.

thankfully, you don't run into much trouble as you make your way inside; there's a few stragglers around the perimeter, but they're expertly dispatched with very little commotion.

your entrance is a lone side door, pried open as quietly as possible for the three of you to rush into. you make sure there aren't any hostiles waiting in the shadows before you head towards the support pillars along the centre of the room.

you secure the explosive to the base of the pillar, listening for the faint beep as you arm it, and stand back up to watch as ghost and soap do the same. with the first three charges set, ghost nods at the two of you, a silent affirmation to keep moving forward.

you fall into place behind soap again, the barely-there crunch of gravel under your boots is the only sound as you weave through the warehouse.

passing through another doorway into a smaller room, you fall into place next to ghost as soap takes his other side, the three of you beelining for the load-bearing wall to the north.

you arm the final set of charges with precision, turning to ghost and nodding at his signal to push forward again. the next room was where you'd regroup with gaz and price before heading to the exfil site.

as you're about to round the corner after them, you hear a noise from behind, the way you'd come in. you turn on your heel and raise your gun to look through the sights at where the sound came from, but you don't see any movement as you scan the area.

an uneasy feeling settles in your stomach, but you don't get to voice your concerns to the others before you're thrown to the ground but the force of an explosion.

you're momentarily blinded by your night vision goggles when you pry your eyes open, the heat from the fire washing over you as you push yourself up and stumble backwards a few steps. shoving the goggles away from your eyes, you blink the disorientation away and whip your head around, searching for your teammates. 

you breathe a shaky sigh of relief when you find them brushing themselves off and mostly unharmed; ghost and soap were helping each other up, and gaz was running towards you from the other end of the room while price fired at an unknown threat beyond where you could see.

the panic only sets in when you realise that they're on one side of the fire, and you're alone on the other.

"you've gotta jump through!" gaz shouts to you, his concerned face just about visible through the licks of orange flames between you.

your chest is tight, simply drawing a breath feels like wading through white water, and all of a sudden you're back in your room with black smoke filling your lungs.

"for fucks sake, sting!" a gruff shout echoes around you, but your mind is too foggy to register the words.

the heat on your face is far too much, the sound of your teammates shouting and the blood in your ears, the flickering light if the fire, its all

too

much.

even as you stumble backwards and fall on your arse your gaze is transfixed on the blaze in front of you, it feels impossible to tear your eyes away.

as you feel yourself completely succumbing to your panic, a dark figure cuts through the wall of flame and comes barrelling towards you, his features indistinguishable from the shadows at the corners of your eyes.

you feel him grab the strap on the back of your vest, and he roughly pulls you up to stand on your feet. the stark white of the skull mask fills your vision, tearing your focus away from the flames.

"get up, sergeant!" he growls, and in the back of your mind you register that it's ghost grabbing you by the shoulders and shaking you. "move!"

his hand goes to the strap again and before you can protest he's pulling you along with him, shielding you from the fire as he shoves you through to the other side. 

the sprint back to the helo is a misty blur; one moment you're being dragged along with a knife shoved into your hand, the next you're leaning back against the metal siding and kyle is holding an oxygen mask to your face with an upsettingly worried expression.

you want to cry, but the tears don't come no matter how much you will them to.

ghost doesn't even look at you. he passes by where you're slumped next to gaz, heading straight to the cockpit without so much as a glance. your heart sinks to your stomach as you watch him go, knowing any attempt to talk to him would be futile.

the flight home is unbearably quiet, aside from the sound of the engines and your laboured breathing. eventually the tension leaves your shoulders and you're left with a bone-deep exhaustion that you know you'll be feeling for days after this is done.

when you finally land, ghost is the first down the ramp, again without a hint of acknowledgement to the rest of you. soap jogs to catch up with him as you follow them out, keeping his voice low as he tries to reason with the lieutenant.

they stop a little ways down the runway, and you take the opportunity to catch up to him. johnny shoots you an apprehensive look as you draw a deep, shaky breath, but before you can get a single word out, ghost whips around to face you. 

"what the fuck was that!?" he spits, meeting your eyes with a glare so frantically venomous it sends a twinge of pain through your heart.

"i– i'm sorry, i don't know wh–" you sputter, desperate to explain yourself, but he cuts you off.

"i don't want excuses, sergeant!" he growls, gesturing angrily with his arms as he takes a step closer to you. "you can't just freeze like that in the field!"

"plea–"

"why?!" he's shouting at you now, invading your personal space. "what the fuck happened out there?!" he gets closer again, and all you can see is pure emotion in his eyes, something so raw you can't name it. "you could've died, for fucks sake! we all could've died!"

"ghost, c'mon…" soap places a gentle hand on his shoulder, an attempt to calm him that goes entirely unnoticed as ghost brushes him off. you try to take a step back and put some space between you, but he follows to stay uncomfortably close.

"what then, eh? what if i hadn't been there to come to the rescue?!" he's so close you can feel the heat radiating from him, see the reflection of your distraught expression in his dark eyes. "i can't babysit you every time we go on a mission, sergeant!"

…babysit? is that really what he thought of you?

the words feel like a knife in your chest.

he glowers at you with such intensity you have to squeeze you eyes shut to escape it – and as a desperate attempt to hold back the flood of tears threatening to spill over.

a heavy silence falls over you, more tense than you've ever felt it.

he stares at you, looking straight past you and into your soul, his eyes so intense it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. over ghost's shoulder, you see price stalking towards the two of you, a stern look creasing his face.

"simon, that's enough!" price commands, grabbing his elbow and pulling him roughly away from you.

now that you have room to breathe, you allow your eyes fall to your boots, but it's no use, the tears have already started rolling down your cheeks. you cover your face with a hand and brush past ghost and the captain, 

"sting–" gaz calls out to you as you march into the building, but you can't face any of them right now – you need to be alone, there's too many eyes on you, it makes your skin crawl.

they know now.

they know you're afraid of fire, there's no way price won't bench you after this. you nearly jeopardised the entire mission – in fact, if it hadn't been for ghost, you probably wouldn't have made it out in one piece.

there's no way he would ever forgive you for such a monumental fuck up.

your vision is foggy through the tears, but the urge to get away is all you need as you push through door after door. you do your best to ignore the stares the other soldiers give you when you rush past them.

their eyes follow you as you go, you feel them burning into your skin, and it only serves to make you feel even worse about the whole ordeal. it was only a matter of time until what happened reaches the rumour mill, and you're not sure you'd be able to stop yourself if one of them decides to bring it up to you.

there has to be somewhere you can go where they won't find you, somewhere you can escape.

in your haste to get away, you end up following wherever your subconscious leads you. you come back to your senses outside again, on the turf behind one of the many buildings on base.

your legs give out and you collapse into the grass, knocking your head against the wall with how hard you throw yourself down. sobs wrack your body as you dig the heels of your palms into your eyes, a desperate attempt to block out the world around you that only leaves your vision scattered.

you fucked up – badly. you're not sure how you're going to recover from the utter humiliation of it all.

if ghost hated you before, you were certain he loathed you now.

to him, this was just another entry on the long list of your mistakes. but to you, not only were you a failure of a soldier, you'd also managed to ruin whatever progress you'd made with getting him to trust you. you don't think you've ever heard ghost so pissed. sure, he's yelled at you before, but to experience such unfiltered anger, it came as a shock to you, as well as the others it seemed.

the sound of footsteps from your right prompts you to hide your face in your hands again. whoever it is, you don't want them to see you like this.

"sting," price's voice calls out to you, as soft as the captain can manage. a small part of you is disappointed it wasn't ghost, coming to apologise, but you know that would never happen. he said it himself, he has no desire to babysit you.

that's all you were to him; a burden, thrust upon him against his wishes, someone he was obligated to look after despite how much of a chore it was.

you just wish you hadn't been so naively optimistic as to assume that he would ever come around to you. that he would ever change.

your spiralling thoughts only make the tears fall even harder. price approaches, you hear rustle of fabric as he sits himself next to you.

a heavy arm rests over your shoulders, the weight of it comforting in an odd way. "it's alright, you're alright." price murmurs.

a moment passes before you lift your head, watching him from the corner of your eye.

"i'm sorry…" your voice is strained, hoarse from the tears and your exhaustion.

he shakes his head. "no need to apologise." he responds, giving your shoulder an affirming pat. you sniffle, fixing him with a questioning look.

"but… i fucked up," you reply, your confusion obvious; you'd expected him to be pissed like ghost, his nonchalance was certainly unexpected. "and we almost died because of me…"

"but we didn't," with the arm around your shoulders he gives you a gentle shake, "the mission was a success, wasn't it?"

"i… yeah?"

"then you got nothin' to be sorry for, have you? people get hurt, that's par for the course, sting." he moves his hand to ruffle your hair, giving you a reassuring smile. "so you can stop with the waterworks an'all,"

you huff, a half-hearted attempt at a laugh, and wipe your eyes with the sleeves of your jacket.

"come on mate, let's get you checked out, yeah?" price stands, grabbing one of your arms and pulling you up with him.

you don't talk on the way to the infirmary, trailing behind him feeling wholly like a child having been scolded. you felt pathetic, and you're glad you have the captain's massive frame to hide yourself behind.

one step through the doors and you're bombarded by the smell of antiseptics and artificial air freshener. the nurse greets you, her placid voice and the gentle hand that guides you to one of the many beds causing your muscles to go rigid.

the captain stands with you, arms crossed over his chest and out of the way of the nurse as she checks you over and runs various checks. you do your best to stay calm, but the cold, clinical environment has a distressing effect on you.

the door opens and shuts behind you. the warning look on price's face tells you exactly who came in. the thick tension is back in the air in an instant

"you–" ghost begins, but you interrupt before he can get another word out.

"i know. i fucking get it, alright?" you snap, rubbing your already bloodshot eyes in exasperation. "you don't have to keep goin' on." your voice gets weaker, a betrayal of how you really feel about his outburst.

heartache.

"i just…" ghost goes to speak again, but price shakes his head at him in a wordless exchange.

he doesn't try again. the door swings open and shut again with his exit.

somehow, your heart aches even more.

the nurse clears you with no major injuries, just scrapes and bruises – nothing you weren't used to. some of your gear was a little singed from the fire, but you'd managed to escape without any burns.

it appeared lady luck had a sense of humour.

you still don't say a word as price leads the way to his office. there's a few people milling around in the corridors, their eyes on you feeling like needles in your skin. you keep your head down and try not to think about the talk you're about to have.

you hear laughter, and lift your head to see that there's a group of three recruits standing against the wall up ahead. the one who appears to be the ringleader watches you approach, snickering with his buddies in a way that has your eyes narrowing. you can tell he's up to something even before he moves, sharing a look with his friends.

has has a lighter in his hand. he waits until you're right in front of him before he ignites it and shoves it in your face, laughing obnoxiously when you flinch away from the gesture.

"ooh, scared, are ya?" his voice is high pitched and infuriatingly mocking. you slap his hand holding the lighter out of your face, and the two recruits behind him laugh at you as well, nudging each other like they're funny.

it makes your blood boil.

the condescending looks, the way they clearly think they're above you, the highschool bully attitude – you just see red.

grabbing him harshly by the front of his jacket, you shove him up against the wall with such aggression it shakes the picture frames.

"shut up–" you seethe, allowing every ounce of pent up frustration and anger and desperation to bleed into your voice, "shut the fuck up!" you pull him back and slam him back into the wall. you find a great deal of satisfaction in the sound his head makes when it collides with the wall.

his friends have stopped laughing, in fact you can't hear anything except the blood rushing in your ears as you repeatedly hit his head against the brick, over and over again.

too much,

it's all too. much.

you're yanked away from him, but your eyes stay locked on the way he clutches the back of his head and shuffles back from you like a dog with its tail between its legs.

it was almost cathartic, you would've smiled, if not for price turning you to face him with a hand on your shoulder. you blink back to your senses, but you can't find it in yourself to feel bad. he had it coming.

"my office. now." his face is hard as he addresses you, looking to the recruits with a similarly displeased look. "and i'll be back for you."

by the hand on your shoulder you're guided away from the wide-eyed recruits, your head still feeling light with the anger the recruit evoked from you.

you're not used to feeling so helpless; the whole situation is frustrating enough, but the feeling of not being able to do anything just makes it all the more infuriating.

you shouldn't have lashed out like that, but it's all been building to a point and it was bound to blow up in your face sooner or later. the last couple of weeks, your struggles with ghost and the fact that you'd fucked it all up again, the general stress of the job – you should've seen this coming, really.

it feels like you're all the way back at square one, and you don't have it in you to try anymore.

taglist: @sofasoap , @siilvan , @mockerycrow , @i-love-ghost , @projectdreamwalker , @achelois-is-here , @adamsloverboyy , @thatchickwiththecamera , @chickensandwich69 , @batmanunicorns523 , @tiny-kasper , @dezibou , @pampeop , @cumbermovels , @goth-boi-atlas , @berryjuicyy , @guiltgoreglory , @postmodernrevolutionist , @untoldshortsofthefandoms , @delilah-grimes , @sunflowerqueen1416 , @luvssemma , @ghostslittlegf , @imonmykneessir , @kenz-ee , @eistro-phobia , @rzmarona , @alanalanalanalanalanna , @cathnoneofyourbusiness , @madsothree , @geisterfvhrer , @lazyninjaphilosopher , @aliilium , @koi-feish , @chaoticgoblindev , @clear-your-mind-and-dream , @thrivig-n-jiving , @lesterous , @glitterypirateduck , @slu77ym4nw415ts , @livelaugh-light , @trulylavendedarling , @stateofcatatonia , @rivalriotrenegade

if your name is crossed out, i can't tag you for whatever reason, sorry! ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

[catcze]

OKAY BUT how about matching jewellery with Wriothesley?? You could both wear a necklace or a choker to match his vibe or maybe earrings? (The fact he's wearing some is sending me 😩 His style is really good tbh, def would let him choose my clothes) And if they're embedded with each other's initials? Even better, let the world know you belong to him, the same way he belongs to you (was inspired by your other collar drabble don't mind me 🥺👌)

AAAAA that is SO cute wtf ?!?! And so true, his style is honestly immaculate !! I got inspiredddd and wrote this (even tho it's a little more 'secret relationship for now, but wearing little tokens of each other until we make it public' kind of thing tee hee)

warning for vv slight leaks (Wriothesley's birthdate) and a slightly ooc Wrio !!

Reblogs are greatly appreciated !!

"Your grace?"

"Yes, Sigewinne?" Wriothesley hums, not looking up from his morning paper. He holds a teacup in his other hand, the scent of freshly brewed English Breakfast filling the room.

Sigewinne is staring hard at him, head tilted as she examines the change in the Duke's wardrobe. "I can't seem to place my finger on it but your new necklace looks rather—"

Wriothesley promptly chokes on his drink, loud coughing breaking the quiet of his office as he thumps his chest, sputtering and frantically moving his paper out of the range of fire of his choking.

"—familiar."

Sigewinne hands him a handkerchief, which he takes with a wheezed word of thanks. She's squinting at him in suspicion, antennae twitching as she watches the duke squirm.

"I'm afraid I don't follow," Wriothesley coughs one last time into the handkerchief, clearing his throat in an attempt to get rid of the roughness in his voice. It doesn't work. "Perhaps you're mistaken, Sigewinne. Are you certain that you haven't just seen someone around the fortress using something similar? Or maybe you saw it in fashion on the surface."

Sigewinne is sure she hasn't. She just hums in thought, placing her hands on her hips as she continues to evaluate the necklace, while Wriothesley pointedly does not meet her gaze.

It's a simple thing, really. A silver circle on a thin silver chain, and from this distance Sigewinne can barely make out what looks like two letters and a date carved on it. It's this simplicity, actually, that makes it stand out amidst the Duke's otherwise chunky and bold accessories.

Sigewinne keeps staring, trying to remember just where oh where had she seen something like that before, and why does it nag her so much that she can't recall. Wriothesley doesn't offer up any information, however, having chosen to pour himself another cup of tea and resuming reading his paper.

Eventually, the nurse relents and turns to head down the staircase to leave his office with a word of farewell thrown over her shoulder, still bothered by the mystery that she just can't solve, but knowing what the Duke is like when he clams up.

"Oh! Hi, Sigewinne!" You greet, almost running into her as she descends, while you yourself are on your way up. You reach out a hand to steady her lest she roll down the rest of the way. "Leaving already? Everything alright?"

"Everything is fine," she says kindly, patting your arm in thanks as she looks up to your face. "Some patients to check on, but otherwise nothing particularly noteworthy. His Grace just refuses to answer any of my questions, however..."

But then her eyes catch on something shiny on your neck. Something shiny, and looking awfully like the object of her interest just a few short minutes ago. She glances at it, and as close as she is, she can make out what is carved on the pendant around your neck: A simple W and the date November 23 written underneath it.

She pauses mid-sentence, turning to glance over her shoulder.

Wriothesley is still reading his paper, but from here even she can see how he's trying to subtly glance over it in your direction. His fingers clench the sheets in anticipation and how his boot has started to tap on the floor despite his show of nonchalance. She looks at the pot of tea he had put out earlier, notices just how much tea there still seems to be in it, and the extra teacup that she had asked about earlier when she had first come in.

Just in case a guest stops by, he had told her, and nothing after that. Suddenly, she has a pretty good guess of what is written on his grace's necklace.

"Nevermind," she corrects, trying not to smile too widely. "But I certainly have to be going. Enjoy your... meeting with his grace. I'll see you later!"

You blink at her abrupt departure. "Oh? Okay. Uh... Bye, Sigewinne. See you soon!"

She nods, hurriedly excusing herself in an attempt to give you two some privacy, finally letting her happy little grin show once she was no longer in sight. She shuts the doors behind her and takes a moment, then practically skips her way back to the infirmary, her steps light and joyful.

I'm glad. They deserve to be happy together.

[n3ptoonz]

Can you do hdcs on MK1 men pushing the reader to a wall while kissing them?

randomly selected mk1 men hcs: how raiden, rain, smoke, shang tsung, reptile, and kung lao go about pushing reader to the wall while kissing them

warnings: suggestive (y'all horny freekie fucs) reader being a monster fucker mentioned 😈

these aren't bullet points. they're like lil blurbs for each character cause the bullets would've been awkwardly placed. otherwise, enjoy! part two here

quan ch- SIIIKKKEEE

Raiden

Raiden's kisses were always so gentle and sweet, like him, but when your moans poured into his mouth as your back hit the wall, a flip switched in his mind. His calloused hands roamed your body so carelessly, yet with such thought. Rough, yet with a soft touch. Fervent, yet patient. His hand was wrapped around the nape of your neck with such care like his lips weren't just at war with yours, but clearly that was no issue the way you pulled him even closer and tried your best to stay quiet. Who knew the Wu Shi Academy was a great spot for lowkey make out sessions?

Rain

You always knew Rain was a passionate lover. The same efforts and care he put in his magic and knowledge, ten times more went into you. So when he had you against the wall in his office, surrounded by his own creations and scrolls only you knew about, it was make out city. The way his lips molded to yours should've been illegal with how mesmerizing it was. His hands were no stranger to your hips; you were like a shiny antique on his bookshelf he cherished. If you dare to run your fingers through his hair while you kissed, you can and will get taken on this same wall.

Smoke

Smoke was always the kind of man to start slow/gentle and gradually become more aggressive in his ways. However, some things just drive him crazy. You drive him crazy. His patience went just like that, and now here you both are groaning and whining into each other's mouths. Your lips just looked so soft, they were calling his name in a taunting manner. Now, he's not so aggressive that you hit the wall harshly, no, the contrasting feathery touch of his hands gliding along your body to the hunger in his kiss was just enough to get both of you to the next level of passion.

Shang Tsung

Shang Tsung is only ever gentle with you. His aura was just so powerful in itself, all he had to do was walk you into the wall. He didn't need to push you against it to assert dominance. His eyes never dared to dart from yours, especially when you looked so cute trying to hold his gaze. If it were a third person point of view they'd think you're under hypnosis. One face caress and your lips locked with his. If you thought he was power hungry individual before? You haven't seen anything yet.

Reptile

Syzoth is a mystery. On one hand he's a romantic lover and on the other, his Zaterran instincts get the best of him. His abnormal strength always lead to him picking you up in some way shape or form, so here you were on the wall and straddling his waist all because he got excited. Being a monster fucker had its perks since his lizard tongue didn't change with his human form, and that didn't bother you at all. In fact, you welcomed it every time you kissed; once he figured that out he used to his advantage every time.

Kung Lao

Kung Lao is the type of man who was driven by pride, so he was bound to tease you to no end anytime soon. His kisses were usually feverish and slightly aggressive with a touch of a sweet side. Once he gets you on that wall from all that teasing and shit talking it's no different. Only the sound of heavy breaths, lips smacking, and clothes rubbing against each other filled the room every time it happened. He smirks into the kiss every. single. time. He refuses to let you slip away from him even for a moment. His hands have to always be on you, which especially isn't hard to do when you literally have nowhere else to go. But hey, any objections? Didn't think so!

a/n: if y'all want a part 2, you know what to do! (haha that rhymed)

[comicaurora]

Hey red, what's your opinion on some modern writing that's very lamp shady? And do you have any advice on how to avoid "Well that just happened" dialogue?

It's an interesting question!

The thing is, lampshading exists for a reason, but it's not the reason it gets used a lot of the time. Writers might lampshade a narrative choice they're insecure about, while characters lampshade because the things they go through in a typical story are kind of bonkers, and we might expect them to notice. If a character signs on for a simple mercenary expedition and ends up discovering they're the long-lost prince of a kingdom they've never heard of, that's weird and they probably feel weird about it. If an ally is determined to 1v1 their super overpowered nemesis with no help from their friends, those friends might have opinions about how dumb that is.

This is a form of lampshading that doesn't break immersion because it's entirely in-character and doesn't lean on the fourth wall. There's a difference between a character noticing how weird their life is and a character pointing out how cliched a recent experience was. In the latter case, the character is treating their life like a story, and while it IS a story, they shouldn't know that.

There's a spectrum here, with "complete sincerity and taking every turn of the plot at face value" defining the 0-point and "complete self-aware uninvestment" at the far end, but healthy levels of lampshading live somewhere in the middle. Characters at the 0-point accepting everything that happens without question can feel just as weird as characters that won't stop pointing out the TVTropes entry they're currently living. It's about what it makes sense for the character to find disruptive or noteworthy. A hardened badass probably won't see the need to point out how bonkers a recent fight scene was, but a newcomer to the Cool Bombastic Adventure scene might be really excited when they pull off a cool special move and want to point it out.

I think this is why the recent D&D movie worked for a lot of people, because while the main characters all lampshade their lives to varying degrees, the way they do so makes sense for all of them. Edgin is a bard and storyteller so he has a slightly meta perspective on a lot of things, purposefully avoids playing along with certain narrative conventions and sometimes responds to other people's dialogue by critiquing their dialogue instead of just responding normally; Holga doesn't really care to understand how the world works and so keeps pointing out that they should just use magic to solve their problems, which is probably the most popular lampshade in the whole genre; Doric and Simon don't get a ton of time to shine character-wise, but they'll both occasionally poke holes in the pretense of the story they're in. The thing that makes this all work is Xenk, who plays absolutely every moment completely 100% straight and is entirely immersed in the objectively ridiculous setting of D&D. Same goes for most of the villains, except for Forge, who's probably the wackiest and most self-aware character in the entire movie, but in a way that makes him feel callous and disregarding of the people around him, like he's uninvested in the world not because he knows he's a fictional character but because he has too much money and power to care about anything. The ways each character does or does not lampshade their surroundings make sense for who they are as people and reinforce their characterization and place in the world instead of undermining it.

I recently watched a couple episodes of Stargate Atlantis and noticed something similar - the main character and, to a lesser extent, the rest of his associates from Earth have a tendency to make wry observations about his objectively bizarre life and the eccentricities of the people around him, which helps contrast against the extremely serious and businesslike Cool Space Warriors they keep accumulating, which helps make them feel (a) distinct from each other and (b) relatable considering all the weird stuff that happens. And the protagonist switches off the quips as soon as things start looking perilous for his team, so you never get the impression that they aren't invested in the story they're living, and as a result the various quips and lampshades come across more as a habit or a coping mechanism than a disruption to the narrative itself.

So basically I think you can get away with a lot of lampshades as long as the character doesn't feel like they know they're in a story.

[grimrester]

i love farcille but i have Thoughts

i don't think marcille is even close to accepting any romantic feelings towards OR from falin by the end of the manga, or even in the supplemental comics set after the manga.

marcille has huge issues and misconceptions around age. part of her still sees falin as the young girl she met in school. when she hears about falin and laios's parents' age, she immediately calls them "those kids." she's objectively wrong here, but her perception of time and maturity is totally warped. she uses her own numerical age as a benchmark for maturity - with her own current age representing "totally 100% mature." anyone younger than her is "a kid." this is completely flawed thinking in two ways. firstly, half-elves age differently and inconsistently, so her numerical benchmarks don't make sense for literally any other race. secondly, marcille is NOT MATURE.

she spends half the manga whining about what she has to eat to survive. she repeatedly endangers her teammates to selfishly prove her worth. she clings to doing things by the book to the detriment of her own growth and her relationships with other people. she pouts when people don't want to do things her way. hell, just in day-to-day personal interactions, falin is more mature than marcille by a long shot. and yet she sees herself as more "adult" than falin.

falin, who understood early on that her parents did their best to protect her with the resources they had, even if they didn't always communicate it well. falin, who rejects shuro's second attempt at a proposal with such nuance, kindness, and grace that he smiles afterwards. falin, who withstood bullying from her peers at school and from adults in her village for years and came out of it with kindness that can exorcize zombies with a hug.

in order to accept any feelings she has for falin or vice versa, marcille would first have to recognize that falin is not a child compared to her. and there are times she comes close. falin, in her eyes, is almost superhumanly kind to the point of near worship. but she still sees falin as silly or childish because falin doesn't make the same practical choices that marcille would. ironically, those choices are typically driven by falin's kindness or love of all things living. and falin is too conflict-avoidant to tell marcille directly that she's wrong.

i don't think that a romance is impossible between them, though. i think it'd just take either emotional growth on marcille's part, or possibly even growth on falin's. while falin canonically doesn't push back on marcille's assumptions at all, she's also not so passive that she couldn't ever push back. we see pretty early on in the story that she's willing to hurt others if it means protecting her friends, she'd just prefer not to. i could see a situation arising where marcille makes selfish or damaging choices and falin has to put her in her place about it, and marcille finally comes to a revelation about her own or falin's maturity.

from there i think would essentially be an emotional floodgate. the groundwork for her having feelings is there, as they're obviously very affectionate with each other, but the revelation "falin is not an ickle babby i have to look out for" would have her recontextualizing a lot of their interactions. marcille would have to spend a while wrestling with suddenly feeling "wrong" about sharing a bed with falin, something she used to do easily. when falin gets cuddly, she'd struggle with the feeling of "this used to seem platonic to me but now it doesn't."

actually, it'd probably be a lot like realizing you're a lesbian and that your relationship with a friend was kind of weirdly homoerotic, and not knowing if that was "okay" or not.

[sciderman]

I really don't like how we're just glossing over the fact that Gwen cheated on Peter let alone MJ hiding this from him.

who's glossing? i'm writing a whole fic about it.

2. they were on a BREAK

3. you're forgetting that peter and gwen are dramatic irony the couple™ and at exactly the precise same time gwen had her tongue down mary jane's throat peter had his tongue down harry's. the exact same night.

the joke is that peter has been burying all this guilt for years thinking that he'd failed gwen and was terrible and dishonest and she was an angel who was too good for him until he finds out. gwen was always just as much of a messy bitch as he was. but he was too busy spiralling in his own messes to realise that gwen was just as messy as he was.

4. mj didn't tell him, sure. but that's because she assumed gwen told him. i don't think mj's the sort of girl to say "hey by the way i fucked your girlfriend shitlips" even if that would be hilarious. she didn't think it was a secret though and definitely thought gwen told peter.

and yeah. i'd hesitate to call it cheating - they were definitely on a break. they might not have laid down a law, and definitely both feel ridiculously guilty about it, but they. were. on a break.

i think it was just a necessary thing, for both of them.

i think for me, i'm not about the moral black-and-white of relationships - it always got me down when people point at the piña colada song saying it's terrible. it's about cheating. that's objectively bad and evil so says it in the bible thou shall not commit adultery yadda yadda yadda. no, no, shut up. that's not what the song is about. the song is about rediscovering there's stuff you've overlooked about your partner. that you can think you love someone, but not actually know them. and you can learn more about them, and realise they're not what you thought, and you can fall in love with them all over again. for me, that's like, the most romantic thing ever, actually. and those who look at it through the "this song is about cheating" lens completely sleep on how genuinely, sincerely cute and romantic it is. that it's a song not about cheating, but discovering stuff you didn't know about your partner, and falling in love with them all over again. finding out that actually, you're both the kind of person who's crazy and lustful for life enough to run away with a romantic stranger on a wild escape, but you were both too afraid to admit that to each other. i love that song. it's so much more sincere and human than any stupid love song. nay sayers get away from me.

i think peter and gwen are a lot like that piña colada song. neither of them are a villain. both of them make mistakes and both of them were messy and both of them had stuff to figure out before they could make it work together.

i... sighs... i'd like people to kind of stop expecting these guys to be right all the time. they're disasters. i wouldn't be interested to write them in any other way. and i promise you wouldn't be interested to read it, either. i'm here for the messy bitches who have stuff to figure out. shout out to the messy bitches who have stuff to figure out.

[deliciousangelfestival]

You can totally ignore my idea lol but what about a fluffy/angsty fic about Steve Rogers or Bucky Barnes being turned into a baby/toddler by Tony on accident. But because they are babies they just want to be around and held by “Y/N” and get mad or throw a cute tantrum from lack of attention or if someone tries to hit on their “Y/N”. You can ignore this if it sounds idk weird or dumb lol but I thought it would be cute like they can’t hold back there affection for them while in baby form and when they turn back they are like well shit.. lmao

(PS: the fanart here is from Alexa_520 on Twitter I’m not sure if she has a tumblr but in case you or anyone wants to see it for yourself)

This is so cute!!!

Thank you for the idea. Here it goes. The story has little angst a bit. 

Zero Crush.

Summary: Y/N was on her way to go out for her day off. However, her plan got interrupted because the AI told her something at the lab. You almost lose your mind seeing both of your bosses turn into babies. 

And now, she has to watch them. Y/N is okay with kids, but the problem is she has a little crush towards Captain America and The Winter Soldier. 

Character: Steve Rogers x platonic!reader, Bucky Barnes x platonic!reader

Warning: If you squint a bit, there’s a little angst. 

Main Masterlist || Buy me Ko-fi please 🥹

Drawing of baby Steve and Rogers : Drawing 1, Drawing 2, Drawing 3

It's been a long time for Steve and Bucky to cry, even for crying their heart out to release all their feelings through tears. 

“Waaaaa!”

“Aah…Ahh!”

The rest of the Avengers rubbed their eyes. They couldn't believe the strongest soldiers standing tall before, were shorter than them.

Steve and Bucky have turned into babies. They were standing too close to Tony and Bruce's new invention. 

The high IQ bros try to copy the Pym-particles to shrink and increase an object.

"What kind of machine is that, Tony?!" Natasha pushed Tony away while he was still in shock. 

"I'm trying to make a quantum machine like Ant-man. Look, it works!!! The box got small.” Tony pointed at the test object.

"Yeah, it’s obvious the zone needs to get fixed." Natasha carried Bucky to her arm. At the same time, Steve was taken by Clint. Steve wants to push Clint away because he stinks. 

Bucky did the same towards Natasha; her perfume was too strong. Natasha couldn't help it since she just returned from her mission, and Clint was training when Tony called him.

Tony shook his head. "If Steve and Bucky didn't stand near the test object, they wouldn't get transformed." 

Natasha wants to punch him. "You..!!"

All the adults are pointing at each other. At the same time, Steve and Bucky were confused. Since they're shorter than everyone and the mood in the room doesn't feel good, it makes them uncomfortable.

"Uuh…"

All of them stop arguing because they suddenly hear a sobbing voice.

"Hey, guys? Is everything alright?" You were preparing to go out since today is your day off. Before putting on sunscreen, F.R.I.D.A.Y informed you that something happened at the lab.

Nobody answered you, but from their face, you could say they were nervous.

Then you saw that Natasha and Clint have a baby in their arms. 

"Ooh, so cute. Clint, you have a twin? Congrats." You know Clint is a family man, but it’s new for him to bring his kids to the headquarters. 

Clint chuckled. "Y/N, you don't recognise him?"

"Huh?" 

After he said that, you did notice something that felt familiar, but you can tell what it was. Blond hair, blue eyes, straight nose. Then you turn to Natasha. The baby has black hair and vibranium arms. 

You gasped, “Oh my god!”

"Yaa! Yaa!" Steve stretched his short arms towards you. Clint gently put Steve on your arm. 

“Why did you give him to me?” You nervously hold Steve. Even though he’s a baby now, he is still your boss. You turned to Tony. "You better fix this!!"

"On it."

Bucky saw Steve get carried by you. And he wants it, too. "Ahh…" He pulled Natasha's shirt and pointed at you. 

"Even in baby form, you can't be separated from your best friend?"

After everyone stops panicking, Tony wears his Iron suit and buys kid's clothes; perhaps he wants to run away. Bruce is fixing the machine, Clint went home to get toys for Steve and Bucky, and Natasha is helping you. 

But you know Natasha just returned after a 3-month mission, and from her eyes, you could see she's damn tired. So you told her to rest. 

In the end, there are two babies in your arms. You learn that Steve and Bucky are two years old and can walk alone. 

You put them on the couch while you went to the fridge to make warm milk for them. You're not nervous taking care of little kids since you always cared for nieces and nephews before being accepted as a SHIELD agent.

But you’re nervous since you have a little crush towards your idols. 

You're relieved to see milk inside the fridge. When you turn around to search for a pan, you're shocked not to see the two babies on the sofa.

Where are they?

Then you feel someone is watching you. You looked and saw Steve and Bucky looking at you. 

You lean down and speak softly towards them, "I'm making warm milk for you both. Do you want some?"

Steve and Bucky nodded at the same time. With their fluffy cheeks and small body-like dumplings, you wouldn't believe they're the same boss who is deadly and righteous at the same time. You patted their head gently. 

When the milk has warmed up, you give it to both. Steve and Bucky drink the warm milk. They widened their eyes when they tasted it. It's delicious. 

In their eyes, you're the person they could look up to. You never raised your voice, and you gave them a delicious drink. 

Is this what it feels like to have a big sister? 

After 30 minutes, Tony returned with shopping bags from the kid's store. 

"Give me the clothes. It needs to be cleaned first before they wear it." You received the bag from Tony. You look inside the bag and see there are pyjamas too. 

"I'm going to the laundry room. Could you watch them for a while?"

"Sure."

Steve and Bucky didn't want to be left alone with Tony. Their short legs immediately run after you. Then, each of them hugs each of your legs.

Your body froze. You looked down at the little boys who held your legs, their two big eyes looking at you intensely. 

You knew they didn't want to be left alone at this moment. "Umm, Tony, could you do the dirty laundry instead?"

Tony nodded his head. "Yup, the message is clear: both hate me." 

Since then, both Steve and Bucky have followed you everywhere. They helped you when you made lunch. They wash all the veggies. 

You chuckled, even though they turn into kids, they are always helping. 

But no matter what, they're just a kid who needs attention. You learned that when eating together with them. 

When you help to feed Bucky because of his metal arm, it doesn't seem like he can control his body. 

Steve doesn't like to see Bucky get all your attention. He starts to make a noise and drops his spoon. "Ah..ahhh..."

Because of that, you feed them in turns. 

And before they go to sleep, you want to read a bedtime story. You thought this would be easy since they didn't take a nap. 

You were wrong. First, it was Steve's book choice; then, it was Bucky's. You should've said only one story but couldn't say no to them.

When they fell asleep, you slowly went out of the room. Finally, you could breathe. Even though you like kids, it takes time and energy. 

But at least because of this, your secret crush towards your bosses is gone. Like 50% gone. 

Before you join the Avengers, your HR has told you to keep everything professional. It's impossible not to like Captain America and The Winter Soldier.

At first, you saw them cute. But because their crying and whining hurt your eardrum, it shattered their perfect image in your brain. 

You don't think you could wait for another day. You could handle terrorists, pirates, and aliens, but not kids. You wish Tony and Bruce could finish the machine quickly.

It took three days to fix the machine. When Steve and Bucky return to their old self, they fall asleep to get checked first. After two hours, they finally woke up and searched for you. 

"Ooh, you're looking for Y/N? I gave her a week off after caring for both of you."

Yes, you do. When Bruce said the machine worked fine without side effects, you immediately left the building and went to a bar. 

At the bar, you gulped the second glass of beer. You sighed heavily since you realised you needed the strongest alcohol to erase the image from your mind of baby Steve Rogers and baby Bucky Barnes when they're crying, nagging and pulling your hair. 

Their perfect image in your mind has been destroyed.

Drawing of baby Steve and Rogers : Drawing 1, Drawing 2, Drawing 3

Main Masterlist || Buy me Ko-fi please 🥹

[jahiera]

Love your little meta analyses of Astarion and would LOVE to hear your thought on the optional "you don't have to do this just because you feel like you owe me something" line early in Act 1 when he first propositions Tav and his reaction to it?

Okay hi sorry, I lost a bunch of my saves and I thought I'd lost the save for this scene too but turns out NOPE I HAD IT & I'm so glad because I wanted to go back and play the different variations so I could probably scream and... scream I did! And I'm SO compelled by this, so thank you for the ask! & sorry for the late response.

So you actually only get this version of the conversation if you don't express any sort of confirmation that yeah, you're into him. If you confirm you're into him, or the biting, that'll bypass the ability to say "you don't have to do this," altogether, which makes me want to eat drywall because the whole conversation prior is still fairly shady, but the "reward for your noble sacrifice" only comes through if you don't fully confirm you were into it. which is very interesting because in the other two versions you can still express doubt, but only in the format of the "a less trusting person" line seen above as well.

The first time he propositions you, if you get this branch of dialogue, what I think happens here is Astarion quickly shifts gears. He sees that Tav isn't, at least according to what they say, charmed or aroused by the vampire routine.

One other thing: they helped him because, as a result of giving him blood, he would be able to physically help them more. He would be stronger, a better fighter, and thus useful. (Whatever is intended by each individual tav who takes his line is up to the player, but that's what can most obviously be received by Astarion).

So, he switches up instantaneously to accommodate the motivation that Tav seems to have (through his own eyes). Instead of appealing to Tav's horny brain and physical attraction to him, he's appealing to their "sacrifice." Tit for tat. Pleasure in reward for blood. You aren't lustfully interested in him as is? That's fine. He can switch it up and instead offer sex as repayment for what you've done for him, and for his body as an object that functions better due to the blood you've given him. Either way, the end goal will be the same: sex to secure his position in the group.

At this point in the game, it isn't about Tav, not really, I don't think. You could take any version of this conversation to the conclusion and it would mean the same thing to him. (That is to say: seduction and sex for security, and sleeping with Tav is a quick way to get that.)

So when Tav says, "You shouldn't do this just because you feel like you owe me something," I don't even think it really... registers for him? Because he hasn't even begun to conceive of that possibility. He is fully still in the same mindset he had prior to escaping, and is running through the same patterns of behavior as before.

He brushes off that reassurance immediately, says it's "more of an excuse," than anything, doing the same thing as before. When he gets this reaction from Tav, he switches gears again: oh it's not the only reason I want to have sex with you, I'm mostly interested in you, I promise. He's navigating the very shallow social interaction that this seduction routine entails by adjusting at a moment's notice to the next thing Tav says. If they're interested or flirty back, he'll fully play up the whole thing. If they're reluctant, he offers new reasons for why they should want to sleep with him.

And then if you reject him entirely:

"Deny your feelings all you like, it doesn't matter to me."

You don't get disapproval for rejecting him, but he still reinforces this idea to Tav that yes, you're interested in me. You just haven't realized it yet. Typically this kind of line in romance would be annoyingly obnoxiously all about "oh you want me you just haven't realized it yet" and the other party is supposed to find this hot, but with the context of the rest of his arc, it's fascinating. Because Astarion only knows how to secure safety and power through seduction and sex. He only knows how to get what he needs through emotional manipulation and cunning--and SHALLOW emotional manipulation at that. He's not playing an intricate game here. His manipulations become prettyyyyy overt by the second time he propositions you:

Like, it would take some serious emotional blindness to miss the hints he's laying out here. He's delighting in dangling the fact that he's lying and manipulating Tav right out in front of them. Because now he feels more secure in his position in the group. In Tav's attraction to him. Because they've already slept together once, he has less to fear about losing his station of safety via Tav within the group.

So then I thought. Okay what does he say when you reject him in other places where he propositions you. In the actual sex scene itself, he simply says "Why are you here then? I thought we had an understanding? (...)" but if you reject him during the "little treat," scene, he says:

In both instances, the "you don't have to" and "I don't think I really want this," Astarion gives Tav a glimpse at the, huh, trauma behind the scenes. In this later scene, when you've already slept with him once, he outright admits he's slept with tons of people and doesn't remember most of them, and in a very.... passive, "gotten on my back," phrasing that's so offhanded for all that it implies. Like can we go back. Can we unpack that. And he does not! I don't know what to make of that last line. "You, I'll remember." Maybe he's being saccharine one last time to keep up some manner of security within the group. Maybe he's confusingly genuine, growing to care about Tav in a way he has no idea how to unpack yet, if at all. Probably doesn't even realize it yet, if that's the case.

Either way, he gives you unintentional glimpses behind the scenes to the inner workings of his intentions. The inconsistencies in how he talks to Tav depending on their next reaction. The switching gears quick to accommodate different statements and personalities. The offhanded reveal of his total lack of care or feeling about the "lines" he spews to get people to be interested. IT HITS. It hits badly.

[felassan]

let's talk a lil bit about the new Thedas Calls teaser and the new blog post, in relation to revisiting the DA:D leaks from around 10 months ago (potential DA:D spoiler warning for those last 2 links, as well as for under the cut below):

(I won't be posting the images and gif themselves from that leak here, not directly. here and here are some previous posts of mine talking/speculating about those leaks so that I don't repeat myself too much. and here is my DA:D spoiler tag in general in case it's of interest to anyone to browse or anyone wishes to blacklist it. also, the usual set of disclaimers that accompany all leaks applies - might not be real, unable to verify, games change a fair bit between development phases and final release, take with grain of salt etc).

okay, so really in this post I am just looking to tie the new teaser&blog info with that leak.

the new teaser indicates Weisshaupt as a location we'll be visiting in DA:D, seeming to confirm the leak, which shows the possible Player Character, Rook, and their companions including Davrin fighting through Weisshaupt ("Weisshaupt" can be seen in the top right text).

the new teaser implies something bad has happened to Weisshaupt (see bottom paragraph in that post) and when the 'Speaker 2' Warden character speaks their line, we hear the roar of battle, a battle cry, the clang of weapons etc. I wrote elsewhere that Speaker 2 (who insists that Wardens don't hide in their castle, they fight)

sounds like a hardened fighter, a seasoned commander. he is speaking when he’s about to be attacked, or in a pause in battle

and in the leak, text shows that Rook has the objective "Defeat the darkspawn", and shows them fighting through Weisshaupt in combat with darkspawn. this is not the worst of it however - per the dialogue there's "worse than darkspawn on the way", and the walls won't hold it back. we see Rook fighting what looks like those red lyrium-affected darkspawn creatures. Could the thing that is worse and on the way be the cause of the "tremors in the Anderfels" described in the blog post, or one of the "risen gods" mentioned in the teaser? I feel like if you squint, in some of the images from the leak, there looks to be the silhouette of a great beast in the background, maybe a dragon.

this location in the leak, also noted as Weisshaupt, looks to be this location from the teaser, just from a different angle/position on that 'level'. it has the same night-time, lighting, dark atmosphere, rocky cliffs, cloudyness, ruined buildings/structures, ominous feel, vaguely green tint etc.

the blue dome in that location also seems to show up as an asset in the Rivain segment of the teaser.

apart from the red lyrium darkspawn, the red lighting here in the leak (and potentially the reference to "Spawn Boils"), as well as the ominous spreading tendrils in the leak images in general, bring to mind the red lyrium-esque glow in part of this shot from the teaser.

the leak describes Rook as a "Level [x] Grey Warden" - interesting considering the prominence of Grey Wardens as a highlighted faction, locale (via Anderfels and their HQ), 'Warden Speaker' in the teaser and all. (remembering also the speculation that Warden is a potential background of some kind for the PC)

I also wonder if the big door with griffons on it in the leak is what looks to me like a door/gateway covered by the suggestion of red lyrium in the teaser. I feel like if you squint you can just about make out the pattern of the engraved griffons' wings on it, or those rayed lines from the bottom half of the door. (or is this just me seeing things hh?) in the leak the characters are trying to hold the door shut and there's no red lyrium on it. I guess they fail and it becomes tainted by red lyrium and destroyed/grown over or something, or the dragon etc that I presume they're trying to keep out, does end up busting through, with the walls around it becoming destroyed too. (easily done by a dragon, magic, red lyrium or stuff magic-warping bc of Fade shenanigans etc)

According to sources that spoke to Tom Henderson's Insider Gaming, "It’s understood that you’ll be able to move from your hub to missions by passing through a mirrored portal." I know the games have always had Fast Travel all over Ferelden as in DA:O or all over Ferelden and Orlais as in DA:I etc. and it's a game, so you don't really need an explanation for jumping around travel-wise due to gameplay-story segregation. the mirrored portal obviously sounds like an eluvian though and to tie this to the new teaser, with so many different locales shown across vast swathes of northern Thedas - Anderfels, Tevinter, Antiva and Rivain at least - I have to wonder again if the PC and their companions are travelling around these many different countries and across such distances via eluvians. I wrote elsewhere,

moving from a hub to missions through eluvians was exactly what we did in Trespasser from the Winter Palace, and it worked really well. Trespasser’s setup was really enjoyable. it was a fun mechanic that helped explain fast travel and apparent teleportation. it also allowed for travelling to places all over, from the Deep Roads to ancient elven ruins to places in-between the waking world and the Fade - a variety of handcrafted places to explore still but with a tighter storyline threading through them, as opposed to open-world that felt like it was probably mandatory to include during development because of other games on the market like Skyrim and AC, but which then struggled to be filled with meaningful content to fill the space and in which that struggle was apparent. I’d be down for that. I’m just daydreaming and speculating wildly now for real (bc it’s fun) but we could travel all over Thedas that way. We did that in [previous DA games] I know but you know what I mean?

at the very least from the new teaser we now know we're travelling to at least 4 different nations in DA:D. :>

Some leak-text on Reddit also accompanied the gif and screenshots from the leak. it again mentioned the darkspawn attacking Weisshaupt. as I wrote at the time, this "explains why Weisshaupt looks wrecked", now it seems like we are also seeing this in the new teaser (wrecked Weisshaupt). it seemed to confirm the influence of red lyrium also, mentioning that some of the enemy darkspawn "have red lyrium attacks", and confirmed the attacking dragon. I wrote at the time

The dragon is also Concerning.. like. Darkspawn attacking, with a dragon involved. That sounds like a Blight and an Archdemon. Is this the Sixth Blight? is it a Red Lyrium Blight? I'm reminded of this concept art. also HELLO?

not sure about a 'red lyrium Blight' / 'sixth Blight' exactly per se, but what it reminds me of again is the Anderfels blurb from the new blog,

ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ꜰᴀʀ ᴡᴇꜱᴛ, ᴛʜʀᴇᴇ ɢʀᴇʏ ᴡᴀʀᴅᴇɴꜱ ᴘᴀᴛʀᴏʟ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀɴᴅᴇʀꜰᴇʟꜱ. ᴛʀᴇᴍᴏʀꜱ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ʙᴇᴇɴ ᴄʀᴇᴀᴛɪɴɢ ᴅɪꜱᴛᴜʀʙᴀɴᴄᴇꜱ ᴏꜰ ʟᴀᴛᴇ. ᴛʜᴇɪʀ ᴄᴀᴜꜱᴇ ɪꜱ ᴜɴᴋɴᴏᴡɴ. ᴜᴘᴏɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅɪꜱᴛᴀɴᴛ ʜᴏʀɪᴢᴏɴ, ᴀ ꜱᴛᴏʀᴍ ᴏꜰ ᴏᴍɪɴᴏᴜꜱ ɪɴᴛᴇɴᴛ ʙʀᴇᴡꜱ ᴀɴᴅ ᴅᴀʀᴋᴇɴꜱ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴋɪᴇꜱ.

as in, the contents of the leaks sure sounds like this 'storm of ominous intent that darkened the Anderfels skies' has now struck, and hit Weisshaupt.

In the leak it was noted that

"The objective is to fight through the Darkspawn to get to the library, but as you are doing so there is also a big ass dragon attacking from above. And the dragon creates occasional environmental and traversal hazards. It ends once you reach the library, close the gates, "and then come face to face with the dragon. It appears you are then supposed to try and chain the dragon up, but it ends before the player completes that."

(I said of this, "I guess the big lever we see has something to do with trying to chain the dragon up.") I feel like here in the new teaser we can see some hints of occasional environmental and traversal hazards, like lightning strikes (some dragons have lightning / electricity abilities right? like Vinsomer from the DA:D codex they shared with us), broken bridges and different places where we might have to jump to, hang from, or climb onto etc (and the leak had also mentioned that jumping returns). I also feel like, perhaps the ring-things in that shot from the new teaser have something to do with the chain-system mentioned in the leak, where it seems that you're supposed to then try and chain the dragon up. the leak also said that

"Basically, buildings and whatnot are all modeled and textured but the skybox itself is very dark and makes it seem as though the entire fortress is underground, although it is clearly not. I suspect the skybox could contain some giant world event, similar to the Breach, they hadn't finished."

given that in the new teaser Weisshaupt still looks dark, it seems like this was intentional? and likely due to the attack on the fortress and whatever giant world event may be appearing in the sky[box] that was theorized to being something similar to the Breach (and in that concept art of Weisshaupt).

[2dboisloyal-devotee]

i was wondering if you write for kusuo saiki and if you do can you write abt him being yandere

like on the outside around you he acts like he doesn’t want you there and act like with everyone else but in the inside he’s freaking out he’s so close to you

and i also think he becomes a cat so you would give him kisses and hugs 🤭

Yeah, I do and I can ofc. Thanks for the request & idea, anon! Hope you enjoy!

>)~Headcanons

Yandere Saiki Kusuo

Warning: obsessive thoughts, implied threats (not towards reader), gaslight, controlling behaviors

- Here we go again... (As in another episode of Kusuo trying hard not to acknowledge his feelings and avoid you)

- The more he pushes you out his mind conciously, the deeper he's tangled in those thoughts. It's really meddlesome when falling hard for you ends up as another thing he can't control.

- Aware of the gravity his feelings could have upon you and the others, he tries to keep you away from him like he does with others.

- If the universe isn't going to push you into his way persistently unless he goes out of his way to meet you, Kusuo would feel a growing disappointment (+ guilt because you could be forgotten as a character in his world). Really now? He's annoyed and can't focus enjoying his time alone when he's filled with thoughts that you might be able to keep him company or he could make you come over. So he did.

- If the universe is somehow being kind to him, only allowing you to be by his side... well, he doesn't mind it that much as long as you're behaving yourself.

- Supposedly he doesn't mind. But now he wants some distractions aside being fixated on your presence like you're the only one matter in this world, at the same time he would hate to see others taking up your attention. You better not waste your time with a bunch like them.

- Kusuo would appreciate his inner feelings calming down by your attempts of distracting him to some desserts and coffee jelly, perhaps.

- (side note: inner because from outside he looks slightly irritated and more quiet than usual. If that put you off and you're thinking them as signs of him wanting you away from his sight since he was really cold & persistent in avoiding you, you're free to give him some space. He wouldn't stop you. When you already left, he would realize he didn't stop you. So, he brings the nearest fitting object to some island before butchering it up until it's no longer recognizeable. He stays in that island for an hour with a great storm happening.)

- After that, Kusuo would tackle most activities such as doing one of his/your hobbies with you. Once in a while, it's good to enjoy a quality time with a special someone. ...once in a while? Make that everyday, a daily routine so he could be rid of his sick feelings once and for all. he couldn't

- From now on, you're someone who often stay over to his house without anyone batting an eye. At this point, you're just like a resident of it and considered as someone fitting for Saiki by both his fussy parents.

- You feel like your life has become easier, not have a single thing or someone get in your way, it's like they're not there anymore from the very beginning.

- Saiki is also ready to face his older brother and won't let him touch a hair on your head, gets real serious and put him down whenever his brother tries to get close to you too.

- Everyday will not pass without him being close to you. Very few rare times he would show you affection are when you look like you need some comfort by a hug or a pat on the head.

- You don't need anyone to involve yourself with. Only him and his parents, maybe his friends too in your whole life, there's no things you need to do/talk with others beside the ones mentioned above. They wouldn't be making sense with their nonsensical excuses you can't do anything about.

Side story: Saiki cat/Psi ver.

- What? Don't be ridiculous, even if he cherish you deeply, he wouldn't let you take advantage of his animal form.

- It's just for special occassion like your birthday maybe, wait patiently for that. Even then, his transformation would take two hours so you still need to wait at any rate.

- If you can't interact with him in the cat form, you ask him to let you have a stuffed animal of it at least.

- He won't allow it as it's not efficient when you can instead hold the real deal—no, not him, another cat.

- So then you get to pamper an orange cat named Anpu instead. Or he could go with you to a cat island.

- All the cats are really sweet to you and would bring you random items. When you're already distracted not to mind him or forget about the cat matter from before, two hours will have passed since then.

- The peak heaven is reached with him now included.

- Don't bring up about his purrs whenever you pet/scratch him, they're only automatic response of being a cat.

- I guess he could automatically nuzzle against you too as a return without you noticing.

[skyeblue8]

Ԋҽɬɬ'ട Ƒα𝓶σᥙട Ԋσ𝜏ടρσ𝜏, ㆜ԋҽ ᑭɾιԃҽ Ꭱιɳց...🍎

♚ ⋆⋆⃟⊱✪⃝⃞⃝⊰ ⋆⋆⃟⊱✪⃝⃞⃝⊰ ⋆⃟⋆⋆⋆⃟⊱✪⃝⃞⃝⊰ ⋆⋆⃟⊱✪⃝⃞⃝⊰⋆⃟⋆ ♚

❥ Okay, to start off, I am so, so sorry for how long this took. Like, this is the longest that my lists have been prolonged, and I'm sure most of y'all have forgotten about this, but I still feel better having posted this to know it was done. Let me know what you think in the comments, pls! Thank you!

♚ ⋆⋆⃟⊱✪⃝⃞⃝⊰ ⋆⋆⃟⊱✪⃝⃞⃝⊰ ⋆⃟⋆⋆⋆⃟⊱✪⃝⃞⃝⊰ ⋆⋆⃟⊱✪⃝⃞⃝⊰⋆⃟⋆ ♚

♚ Pride's Environment: 🍎

❥ Now, first things first, after much inner debate, I headcanon that the general size of the Pride Ring, while still very gigantic, is actually the smallest of the Seven Rings.

❥ Not because it's the weakest, but rather for two reasons – 1. I feel Pride is often interwoven with other Sins, thus not making it a very prominent stand-alone type thing despite it still having a strong influence on the other Sins. And, 2. Because, going on what @Lovesart23 has stated about Lucifer not liking Hell and probably, by extension, the other demons, I feel like he would keep his Ring grand in the sense to show off his image & power as a leader, but small so less people are in it and, by extension, near him.

❥ Now, as for the Ring itself, I feel like some of Vivzie's concepts for it work while others don't. For starters, I like the idea of nearly every building, monument, restaurant, etc. having some sort of golden apple, snake, and fallen angel insignia/themeing to them to highlight the pride of Lucifer's ring and Biblical actions, as well as being a fun nod to the NYC concept I have for the Ring as it would literally be the demonic version of city with The Big Apple. (Get it? 😉) I also really like the layout of Pentagram City, so that stays.

❥ Now, the red and black color themeing here is actually fine for me as I think it simply fits well with it being a "Top Ring" so-to-speak, so that'll be like your proud, actually Hellish impression of Hell, and, instead of having the whole "looks-can-be-deceptive" thing I have going on for the other Rings besides Wrath, it's just straight up in it's monstrosity while also having a hint of glamor to it. Second to Greed, I also feel that this Ring will have a significant amount of golden accents to it to, of course, to highlight Lucifer's ego and love of the finer things. Unlike Greed however, this gold is all real.

❥ Also, I realized I never considered this in the other Ring Headcanons, so consider this now, but, going off the idea of living furniture/objects in the Pride Ring from fallen Sinners, I headcanon that the same is applied in all the other Rings in my version of Hell, just with Hellborns and moreso in the Pride Ring because the Devil hates everyone. I'd also like to think that, outside of himself, he wouldn't waste his time of building structures or housing plants for the citizens so he let's their carnage do all the work.

❥ On that note, Pride is essentially a free-for-all to a slightly lesser extent than Wrath itself (not by much) and where there's kind of always a frequent fight to the top for Overlords as a lot of them are from here or move to here because they think that's where all the power is (and also to try to get closer to Lucifer).

❥ Now, while I'll discuss more about Ring Placement in future posts, I headcanon that Pride is, essentially, the "closest to the surface" a.k.a Limbo/Purgatory or the Human World (or some world in between that I'll elaborate later). Because of that, it's usually the first Ring to be effected by the Extermination and to greet new Sinners even if they're not supposed to be in the Pride Ring (meaning they'll just shoot right through to the according Ring)

❥ In addition, while this could be applied to all the Rings, I think Pride hides to most secrets about the afterlife and Abrahamic magic and the such because Lucifer likes to keep his secrets and is the most powerful. Another reason why people frequent gravitate here.

So... yeah, that's all I got for the Pride Ring in terms of Environment. Sorry if it's a bit underwhelming, but this Ring is arguably the most malleable in terms of world functions so there's truly anything you can do with this.

ᡕᠵ᠊ᡃ່࡚ࠢ࠘⸝່ࠡࠣ᠊߯᠆ࠣ࠘ᡁࠣ࠘᠊᠊ࠢ࠘𐡏 * .♡ *:･ﾟ✧ .♡ *:･ﾟ✧ * .♡ *:･ﾟ.♡

ᡕᠵ᠊ᡃ່࡚ࠢ࠘⸝່ࠡࠣ᠊߯᠆ࠣ࠘ᡁࠣ࠘᠊᠊ࠢ࠘𐡏 * .♡ *:･ﾟ✧ .♡ *:･ﾟ✧ * .♡

ᡕᠵ᠊ᡃ່࡚ࠢ࠘⸝່ࠡࠣ᠊߯᠆ࠣ࠘ᡁࠣ࠘᠊᠊ࠢ࠘𐡏 * .♡ *:･ﾟ✧ .♡ *:･ﾟ✧ * .♡ *:･ﾟ.♡

♚ Pride's Residents: 🍎

❥ • ❥ • ❥ • ❥ • ❥ • ❥ • ❥ • ❥ • ❥ • ❥ • ❥

❞𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐬❞

➺ Pride Imps - really just normal red imps w/ nothing too special to them b/c Lucifer doesn't care. (Some of them may have some sort of survival adaptations depending on whether or not their hybrids, but otherwise, there isn't too much for them.)

➺ Humanoid Goats, Sheep, Snakes - Animals indicative of the Bible

➺ The C.H.A.R.L.O.T.T.E.S - This is direct inspiration from @violetvolute and their "Hell Princesses" concept for Charlie. They're gold and porcelain anti-cherubium demons who serve as Pride's corrupt police-force, enforcing the few laws that exist in the Ring while simultaneously tormenting Sinners and Hellborns alike, but mostly Sinners. They're also the King's eyes and ears all around the Ring.

They posses certain abilities like flight, experienced combat, & shape-shifting into various furniture amongst the Ring to shock and terrify demons while also keeping a watch on them. They can be unnervingly excellent at their jobs when it comes to monitoring demons, able to keep their stance and their watch for a long period of time (one of them maybe the clocktower itself!)

❞𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬❞

➺ Any of the non-aforementioned demons who generally fit the Pride Ring aesthetic.

➺ Also, as a newly implemented identification to differentiate the Sinners from the Hellborns, every Sinner of each respective Ring, specifically Pride in this case, possess the glowing sigil/marking that represents the ruler somewhere visible on their bodies upon entering Hell.

❥ • ❥ • ❥ • ❥ • ❥ • ❥ • ❥ • ❥ • ❥ • ❥

❥ As you can see here, there's not a lot of uber-powerful native creatures in this Ring save for the C.H.A.R.L.O.T.T.E.S, and that's largely because they're the main ones who Lucifer trusts, save for one, and that's the main Charlotte we've all come to know, who has become a marginalized rogue among the others.

❥ • ❥ • ❥ • ❥ • ❥ • ❥ • ❥ • ❥ • ❥

Alright, so that's the Pride Ring. Full disclosure, much like the other Rings, whatever is established here is liable to be changed in the future if I find the worldbuilding to be too confusing, contrived, contradictory, etc. Because of this, please don't hesitate to give honest criticism or notes and suggestions in the comments here. And if I change something, I'll always be sure to notify you all on my blog. Thank you, have a great New Year's! 😘

[corvuscorona]

"You Never Forget Your First Love."

The other day, a mutual (hi! you know who you are I think probably hello hi! thank you for the Posting Impetus!) said something that made me curious (for, like, the 80th time, actually; lol. I Have Thoughts) about something: what's the split on people who subscribe to the "Stranger of Paradise probably intended for us to believe that Jack & Sarah were in love" mindset, vs. not? In general, but ESPECIALLY around these parts.

I genuinely didn't read it that way myself (& I do NOT normally give media (general) this much credit, but the writing in this game is sublime; I had no choice but to fully engage Scholar Mode on it), + I think it's interesting that SPECIFICALLY any of my fellow tumblr people / AO3-heads / Gay People Online / etc. seem to have. (I expect nothing from people who haven't been basting themselves in the same online sub-subcultures as me for over a decade. They're allowed to write wrong things on wikis, and have done so already; it's whatever.)

I wanna metapost badly again, so let's go. Join me. No poll. If you have an opinion on this, I'm looking directly into your eyes and beckoning you towards your own keyboard + also the reblog button / comment section, like a weird ghost. What did you think when you first played the game?? What do you think right now? What are you about to think after you have read a bunch of my words. Tell Me. I Need To Know This.

Spoilers for, idk, everything? Today we will use everything we've got to talk about Princess Sarah.

1. As a Narrative Element

This game makes a point of referring to Sarah as things like "a symbol of hope and peace" as often as possible, & when it isn't doing that she's usually in the role of An Object Or Device Of Some Kind, anyway. She's important because she's capable of holding light and dark in balance & SOMEONE'S gotta hold onto this dark crystal for safekeeping, and also we're gonna need to upset that balance on purpose later. There's that conversation in the Wicked Arbor about whether the Strangers would "choose" her (as opposed to "treasure") as the "reward" for succeeding in their mission[1], & there's the one in the Sunken Shrine where Jed asks Jack what he thinks of her and Jack says that he doesn't care about her as a person[2] BUT that protecting her is mission-critical (lol), too.

Sarah's death is metaphorically charged. It's the point of no return: the dark crystal breaks, the balance of light & dark gets extremely ruined, & Literally All The Darkness In Cornelia converges in one place (Fool's Missive XXVII). That's the payoff for the "symbol of hope and peace" motif, and communicating this idea that "the metaphorical light of hope just For Real Died, Like Catastrophically Imploded, No Take-Backs" feels to me like it was the highest priority here. Second-highest goes to "Jack had way more humanity before, but he set it aside on purpose and is actively in the middle of losing the rest of it." "Sort of." "I'm not getting into what counts as humanity or doesn't because if I did we would be here forever."

Basically, I'm saying that the tidiest read on the situation is "Jack despairs because Sarah dying means in a very literary and final way that everything is ruined forever, which doesn't necessarily have anything to do with, like, Love (romantic)." I don't think the text of the game is particularly signaling that Love (romantic) is involved, and I think that if it meant to, it would be more obvious about it. You could bundle "an romance" into the "humanity" thing if you wanted to, but I'm not inclined to, based on some additional list items that you can read below this one.

[1] The fact that Neon ALSO says she feels bad for her for being thought of in this way only reinforces my conviction that the game is pointing at Sarah & yelling "REMEMBER THAT SHE IS MOSTLY A SYMBOL!", tbh. Who wants to go point out how freaky the mechanics of Being An Royalty are w/ me and the boys??

[2] I will give the Wiki WrongPosters this: I can totally see this as some kind of irony thing, given that he's still missing like a fucktillion of his memories when he says it. However! As mentioned above, I have other reasons not to read it as evidence that he was ever, like, romantically interested in her.

2. As a Sheltered Youth™

We don't have a TON of information to work with RE: Sarah as, like, a person, but here are a couple of hard facts to start with: she's 19 (per the data book, but she'd have to be somewhere in the 18-to-early-20's age range regardless or her whole deal wouldn't really make much sense, imo. She's a baby...!), and she's royalty. I think this ties into her utility as a walking metaphor, among other things; she's archetypically young, fresh, & idealistic. I'd call her naïve but the game obviously isn't interested in portraying it as a weakness, so positive words only; why not.

You could argue that people look to her as a symbol of hope because she hasn't directly experienced enough strife to exhibit hopelessness or fear in response to bad news in the abstract. I find it interesting that before Jack, like, knocks the wind out of her & tells Sophia to take her outside so she can see for herself how bad things have gotten at the end of the game, she says that her duty is to die with her people if she has to, & it doesn't even seem to occur to her that she could lead at least some of them away to safety...? When she changes her mind, she still talks about herself as a symbol before she ever uses the word "leader". She sees HERSELF in terms of symbols and metaphors, and takes action based on her designated role As One Of Those. Not very practical.

There's also the dialogue you can have with the queen the first time you're allowed to run around in the throne room at the beginning of the game, where she asks Jack to smile in front of her daughters (NOT just Mia; daughters, plural). Even if she only means "dude can you be polite please," the fact that this is The thing she has to say to Jack is telling. Is it going to upset your 19-year-old daughter to see that the Guy Whose Job It Is To Kill Monsters looks serious? Why do you think this? Does your 19-year-old daughter understand how serious the situation is, generally speaking? Do you not WANT her to for some reason? Boats don't work anymore unless a weird elf messes with them first. Not thinking very hard about the implications of this is something a sheltered person does.

Residual time loop un-memories aside, a young woman in this situation is so obviously going to have a huge crush on Jack Garland no matter what. He Is So Cool, first of all, & he's also Different from the adult men she gets to see on an everyday basis (family, guards, rando townspeople[3]...). It's not like the political social scene could POSSIBLY be thriving in this world, either; it all seems to be one kingdom we're dealing with and they're kind of busy with the external threat of being Under Fucking Attack By Monsters. Does she even get fun treats like "handsome visiting dignitaries" & what-have-you? The game doesn't present us with any potential options, here. Jack is mysterious, he has special-boy Warrior of Light status, his one job & apparent life's purpose is protecting the kingdom she loves, he's pretty nice to her (even in later cycles he at least goes out of his way to be polite!), & additionally, he's shredded. THIS makes sense to me.

There's a Q&A in the data book that has something to say about JACK as a symbol & what that has to do with this whole thing but we'll get there. We'll get there.

[3] Tangent: what's up with how Cornelia's entire adult male population appears to consist of aging queens. Why did they only make models that look Like That for the NPCs? It's awesome but I have 1 quastion

3. JACK JUMPSCARE !

I'm not about to say that he's just humoring her, or anything, but please humor ME for one second & put yourself in Jack's shoes. Not the default shoes; we can have more fun than that. Maybe the Banded Boots. Blurple ones? Shaped like a cartoon would wear them? Big spikes on the back for no reason? I love those things. Anyway, you're Jack. You're working for literally the king, & the work means Everything to you for reasons you can't even necessarily explain except to say that it JUST does. The king's eldest daughter (very young adult; Never Been Outdoors; a little overly-sociable but nice enough & what do you expect from a princess, anyway) has imprinted on you like a duckling for whatever reason. You would be nice to this person, yes? You'd be patient with her while you're in town. You have Brutal Murders to be doing, but not until, like, 2 days from now, or whatever; you're sharing space with her in some capacity in the meantime & it's in your best interests to keep her happy. (You probably even enjoy doing this, if you're Jack of a Way Earlier Cycle; I'm in no way ruling that out. Sharing your music collection with an enthusiastic Baby Adult? That's fun. I think he was probably having fun. Okay, you can step out of the fun purple shoes if you want; the Humoring Me Minute has concluded; thanks.)

Also, @2000sanimeop and I think that if Jack felt that way about her Astos would have been a little More Something about how much it was gonna suck for him when she died. In Fool's Missive XXVII he uses the word "painful," but that's about it. He doesn't even bring it up in XXV, which is the one where he says he's curious about whether she'd survive being turned into a fiend (side note: Astos fucking rocks. Why did he write that down?? I love him). & Hey SPEAKING OF ASTOS,

4. I wouldn't put Jackstos on a wiki, either.

The writing in Stranger of Paradise, SERIOUSLY, WITHOUT EXAGGERATION, is some of the best I've seen in literally anything ever. It suits not just its medium but also its sort of Place in History Relative to Other Video Games & the things it chose to DO with that medium & that niche INSANELY well. It is CUSTOMIZED. It's SO INTENTIONAL. I can't get too far into this or we'll be here all day, but the essence of what I want to say here is: there are relatively few facts presented to us by this game, compared to the implications we can go about drawing from those facts & other, external sources of context.

Sarah calls Jack her first love; that's a fact. No facts are presented to us that REALLY say much one way or the other[4] about what Jack thinks of this, himself; "fucktillion memories missing" Jack says he doesn't care, but he's missing a fucktillion of his memories, and DLC2 Jack has a set of dialogue options (hi Anne the Malboro I love you Anne the Malboro) that can point either way depending on what the player chooses, which is kind of nothing, on balance. As the audience, we can (should!) draw whatever conclusion we want about it, but none of those conclusions are text.

[4] I WILL GET TO THE DATA BOOK IN ONE SECOND. HOLD ON.

And, okay, please let me level with you. Let's be on the same page. Jack & Astos had some kind of thing going on, imo, OBVIOUSLY, but I want to be CLEAR and I want to get CREDIT for the things I'M bringing to the table to help generate this conviction. I drew that conclusion & I read that reading based on subtext, context, personal history, personal preference, & sheer gay zest for life. It is also, emphatically, NOT TEXT.

Astos refers to Jack with the ol' "...friend" in Fool's Missive XXI. He calls him "my Jack" in Fool's Missive XXXI. Canonically, textually, he has some big fucking COMPLICATED fucking feelings about this man. These are facts. If you're playing this game as Some Guy, I can see how you could potentially absorb these facts & still pay them much less regard[5] than I did & continue to. My argument here is that god I wish I lived in a world where Some Guy could extend the same courtesy to me and not treat Sarah's textual affection for Jack as something that necessarily indicates Some Kind Of Reciprocal Romantic Whatever, Definitely, Obviously, Of Course.

[5] Longer Tangent: I have been informed that the Some Guys of the world are currently pretty good at Recognizing a character that behaves in a way that's Pretty Gay, but tend to stop there, possibly for the combined reasons that A. they're not very familiar with a lot of the the ways gay relationships often work (you know, soul resonance. mutual recognition. sharing a brain etc.) and B. the Object Of Affection is usually the player character and they subconsciously shy away from thinking of a Guy They're Supposed To Identify With as gay. This is practically a lead-in to an entire separate post I could make, so I'll leave it at that, lol.

The writing is too good for that kind of assumption! I'M SERIOUS!! It's mind-blowingly subtle & endlessly fascinating to hold up to the light & view from every possible angle, and "Jack & Sarah were in love" + "Jack & Astos were in love" are BOTH ANGLES. I'm personally very very interested in giving the text credit for that. I think it's impressive. I think it's really, really cool, and I think it was on purpose. Speaking of which,

5. Word of God agrees with me, btw

This is from the Q&A section on page 156 of the Confidential File. The translations below are my own (I think they're straightforward enough, but lmk if you know more than me & I'm actually being stupid in there somewhere. Alt text has the JPN, if you want to copypaste it or something). Someone asked:

Why is it that you established Garland as someone Sarah has a romantic interest in?

The answer is from Daisuke Inoue (director, one of 3; the other 2 are from Team Ninja; he's from Square Enix):

That was because, from a narrative standpoint, we wanted Sarah to be the kind of person who holds onto hope. You can imagine that she saw the "hope" to save the world in Jack, a potential Warrior of Light. Sarah is seen by her people as a symbol of a bright future, but if there were nobody to give her hope, that might destabilize her emotionally. As for whether she felt genuine love for Jack, or just mistook her feelings of admiration towards him for "first love," we'll leave that to your interpretation.

The first time I read this, I thought the question was implying the aforementioned Reciprocal Something, but on closer inspection that doesn't even seem to be true! "思い人" seems to indicate a directional relationship; as in, the question assumes that Jack is an object of affection to Sarah, but assumes nothing about what Jack thinks.

Also, the answer uses the word "初恋" (hatsukoi), which is a very established Concept as far as "first love" goes, but in that one cutscene, Sarah says "初めての恋" (hajimete no koi), which is. Different, but I couldn't tell you how, lol. It's Not The Exact Same Phrase, but I'm not sure whether it's meaningfully different in this context. If I had to guess, I'd say that IF ANYTHING it could be a way of saying "first love" without invoking the cultural CONSTRUCT of First Love (as much)? But it's whatever. The localization holds up. All sources show that Sarah had Feelings about Jack, and all sources CONSPICUOUSLY neglect to mention Jack's feelings about her.

It was on purpose. This is my license to be as annoying as I want for one second here. I am right. All the other writing in this game is notably subtle, efficient, intentional, and skilled, AND ALSO, WHEN do you ever see anyone write such a richly beautiful, mostly-subtextual relationship between two men, which can easily be read as a romantic thing, and NOT explicitly canonize a very possible romantic relationship between at least one of those men and a woman, like not even in an interview or anything. What the fuck, man.

I'm putting away the Respectable Scholar Hat now. This is so funny. The person asking this question didn't EVEN go as far as assuming Jack & Sarah had any kind of Actual Romance going on, & the answer STILL dials it back to "she might have been conflating her feelings about Jack AS A SYMBOL with actual affection, also. We'll let you decide : ) ". This game is everything ever.

[aokoaoi]

Hi Hi!

Can you do a Norm Spellman x male! (Or gn!) omaticayan!reader?

(I genuinely haven't seen any norm fanfics and I'm so sad about it. )

Have a wonderful evening<3

norman spellman x gn!reader.

◗pairing's :: norman spellman x gn!reader.

◗ warning's :: tiniest avatar 2009 spoilers.

◗ author's note :: this is my first time writing a gn!reader, so their might be errors on how i referred the reader to. if you see any mistakes, please point it out, ill fix it right away<3 might write another norm spellman post too bcs i don't really like this one<\3

"What's that?" You peered over Norman's shoulder as he flipped over a ginormous book. He turns at you, looking at the side of your face as he was also confused. "It's a book. I thought you knew what those are?" He questioned.

You were another na'vi from the Omaticaya clan, a friend of Neytiri, Jake's mate. You learned the english language with Neytiri back when sky-people hadn't attacked the clan back then, and you've learned a lot from Kìreysì, who was also known as Grace Augustine.

Like other Omaticayas learning from her back then, you loved the woman and even called her your closes friend. You've never blamed her for what happened, and you even forgiven her unspoken apology.

You awed at the sight of the smooth, white papers, finding interest in it. "Oh, a book! Kìreysì taught me about this, but I kind of forgot." You chuckled nervously, sitting beside Norman. He notices your gaze on the book, and decides to give it to you.

Norm noticed how you sometimes stare at things you find interest in, and it gives you the curiosity and urge to learn more about it. You smiled at his actions, grateful you didn't have to ask to let him know.

Your eyes scanned the english dialog written on the pages. Some were far too deep for you to understand, but some you found familiar with. You flipped over the page, being extra careful with the object as you were scared you'd accidentally rip it.

You let out a sound similar of a coo when you saw the pictures of technologies plastered on the book. You pointed at one of it, and looked at Norman. "I know these, I saw you bring one here!" You smiled.

Norman fondly smiled at your speech, happy you're making bigger progress. "Yep, but if you see someone else bring it, it means danger. Okay?" Your ears twitched at the sound of the word, and suddenly you felt numb.

"Danger?" You frowned, "Why dangerous?" Your head tilted, confused. Norman licks his lips slightly, slowly forming his words in a nicer way to explain to you.

"Well, (nickname). These technologies aren't really safe, and they can harm you. It can even kill you," he notices your ears dropping down at his forwardness, but he continues. "These people carrying these are bad. They're not here to make friends, and they're only gonna harm you. You know about sky-people, don't you?" You nodded at his question.

"I'm one of the sky-people, but my human body is connected to an Avatar body right now, that's why I dont look human."

You frowned, "You're not sky-people. You're far more different from those cruel demons." You stated, brows furrowed as you were upset by his words.

"But I am sky-people. I'm human." You incredulously shook your head as he continued to tell you he's a sky people. You obviously knew about the man being human, and his body being connected to a na'vi Avatar. But you'd never put him in the same category as those merciless demons.

You liked Norman because of who he was, and how he was so different from the species he was related to. You even had to admit that you even had a soft spot for him.

"So you think I'm na'vi?" You also shook your head again at that question. Norman looks at you, confused as to what you're getting at. You noticed his look, and decide to explain yourself. "I know you're not na'vi, and i know where you came from. What I'm saying is that I don't consider you as those demons, because you're different than them."

"I'd rather shoot myself in the leg with an arrow than describe you in the same category as those creatures. You're far more than them, Norm." You grasped his hands with your own, watching as a small fond smile crossed through his face.

"Please don't shoot yourself in the leg."

You hummed, booping his nose with your pointer finger. You sat beside him, your shoulders leaning against his as you leaned your weight on him. "Dou you wanna go ikran flying with me?" You perked up, watching as he closed the book her was holding and placed it back inside his bag.

"Alright. But don't you remember the last time we did that?"

"You almost fell, yes. But that was partly your fault, you weren't holding on to me." You frowned, vividly remembering how the second Norman wasn't holding onto you, he was almost pushed off your Ikran's back.

Norman shrugged at your words, "i guess you're right." He admits, outstretching a hand out for you to take, hoisting you up fom the log you were both sitting on. You cheered happily, holding his hands as you lead him to the direction Hallelujah mountains were.

© aokoaoi

[midchelle]

how would you rank the different beatles couples wedding looks?

Now this looks like a job for me

9. John and Cyn (1962)

I feel a little bad ranking them this low because the four of them had about two shillings to rub together between themselves, but this was just not a great effort. John appears to be wearing A Suit. Perhaps with a tie of some sort. Paul and George's fits look kind of similar, which makes me think he got married in his Beatles suit. I guess that was an appropriate start to their marriage.

Cynthia's having a classic Cher Horowitz faux Chanel suit moment. It's not a bad look, but it's literally something you would see in Zara. There's a pneumatic drill in the background. Cyn nearly got married to George instead. What a world that would be.

8. Paul and Heather (2002)

Did you know this was one of the most expensive weddings in history? It cost 3.6 million. They rented a castle in Co. Monaghan. There were fireworks. Did you know that Heather Mills wore the most 1980s wedding dress known to man in 1989? These are the things I was forced to find out while researching this look.

I originally had this a bit higher. I didn't want to rank it low just Because Heather. But the more I look at this dress, the more I hate it. She's doing the Kate Midleton lace sleeves -- which, in fairness, was pretty forward-thinking in 2002 -- but then the lace just goes over the whole outfit, which has the effect of making everything look very same-y. Barbie in A Christmas Carol executed this idea way better.

I don't have many objections to Paul's outfit. He wore a vest. That's effort. And he matched his tie to the flowers. Like job done, basically. My only real issue here is the lack of vision. If I was Paul McCartney in 2002 and a knight of the British Empire or whatever, and I'm getting married in a castle -- I'd have a sassy little sword with me. Perhaps even just to cut the cake. Come on.

7. Paul and Linda (1969)

Don't let the cuteness of the pictures distract you from the fact that they're both dressed like they have a meeting with Harry from accounting in an hour. Paul appears to have shown the barber a picture of the guy from The Peep Show. She married him when his hair looked like that. That's love.

It's possible that Linda is wearing a non-business casual outfit under the trench. We'll never know. The problem is that these people refused to get married any time outside of the cold months. It's weird how this is the one Indian thing they all adopted.

The kid is a fun accessory. I enjoy how she and Linda appear to be matching trenches.

6. Maureen and Ringo (1965)

I enjoy how Cyn, John, and George seem to be haunting the proceedings in the second picture.

Originally, I had this lower, but you know what? I like Maureen's little Jackie O suit with the Peter Pan collar, and I love that hair accessory she has over her bun with the bow. Ringo is fine, even if he does look like he's wearing his Dad's jacket. I really don't think it's supposed to fit like that. You're Ringo Starr and this is your wedding, you couldn't get it tailored? Or just buy one that fits better?

And once again: she married him when his hair looked like that.

5. [ERROR] (1978)

I saw a lot of sources saying the first pic is George and Olivia. It is not. The man looks a bit like George, but the woman looks nothing like Olivia. The second picture, I think, is from George and Olivia's wedding, and yes, that is the best quality I could find. I think George has the same '70s open-collar suit thing as the man in the fake picture, but that's about all I can tell. Olivia could literally be wearing a rug for all I can see about her outfit. Since this is Schroedinger's Beatle wedding look -- neither good nor bad since I Literally Can't See It -- it goes right in the middle.

I can't believe they wanted to have a small personal wedding. It's like they weren't even thinking about all the Tumblrinas.

4. Paul and Nancy (2011)

Nancy Shevall's royal wedding dress ft. Paul doing a classic Paul pose.

Nancy's wearing a Stella McCartney dress -- cute -- inspired by Wallis Simpson of all people, which is kind of wild as royal wedding inspiration goes, but I like it. It's tasteful while still being unconventional.

Paul also looks great. The longer hair suits him much better. Nancy Shevall is a businesswoman, and it shows. She did not marry a man with bad hair.

3. George and Pattie (1966)

Mary Quant herself personally designed George's coat. That's how serious this is.

It's a strange occurrence because this is one of the few times that `I feel more let down by the woman than the man. Don't get me wrong, Pattie looks great. Her hair's great. Makeup: great. The tights? The coat? Fantastic. But the dress itself does look like something I wore to my friend's birthday party when I was eight. Do better.

Not featured: Paul McCartney being out of his gourd during the proceedings. Sorry, Paul. This ain't about him.

2. Ringo and Barbara (1981)

Unghhh they look so good. Sorry there's no joke.

Barbara's dress is so lovely and romantic -- I think it might be a top and a skirt, actually? Anyway, love the neckline, love the sleeves, love the bell skirt. The flowers tucked in at the waist? The lace? That's how you do lace, Heather! And Ringo. He got his hair cut by someone who actually likes him this time, and he's wearing a jacket that fits! That's how you know he was serious about it, and it shows -- forty-two years later. Very fond of the star pin on his lapel.

What really puts this look over a lot of the others is I do feel like they coordinated, her in all white and him in all black. And they one-upped both John and Paul by having not just one, but two kids. Beat that, McLennon.

John and Yoko (1969)

You might've had a cute wedding look, a great wedding look, even, but did your wedding create enduring pop-cultural tropes? Don't think so.

[kyouka-supremacy]

Atsushi for the ask game.

ATSUSHI HERE WE GO THANK YOU FOR HEARING MY PRAYERS

Favorite thing about them: HIS SELFISHNESS. It's so so delicious to explore. Can you imagine a protagonist that saves others not out of simple good will, but because of egoistic self-preservation motives? It just feels counterintuitive for me lmao, and I found it quite messed up when I first watched the anime, but now it's so compelling to explore. His whole “everything I do is in order to gain the right to live” is crazy fashinating. Because lol, that's entirely nonsensical to me! There's no such thing as “gaining the right to live”; all humans, every person in the world is inherently deserving of life. All. No exception. So there's no level of “weak” or “worthless” that would make you lose that right. The fact that's it's a vision so distant and absurd from mine, idk, it just makes it very compelling to explore? “What if there was a little fucked up guy who believed the right to live had to be earned” just sounds like a very interesting premise.

Least favorite thing about them: When I first watched the anime, I think I found him low-key annoying? I just... Don't do very well with self-deprecating people and people who complain a lot in general, I usually suffer in silence and tend to (wrongly) assume others should do the same (this probably makes me sound pretty mean, I swear I try to be understanding irl). However, it doesn't bother me as much anymore, I simply think it's more of a distinctive trait of the character that makes him multilayered and unique. As of now, I can't think of anything I don't like about him if not the fact that I wish he'd rely on Dazai and others in general a little less. I know that has to do with his lack of self-worth, so maybe it makes sense,, but as of now he feels kind of stuck. I just wish we'd see him grow more on that front.

Favorite line:

There may be better ones, but I really like the delivery of this one.

brOTP: KYOUKA AND ATSUSHI they make me go insane. Already talked about this in the Kyouka post but just to reiterate: in my headcanon Kyouka really is the only person Atsushi feels genuine, selfless affection towards. It's very sweet. They're siblings. Kyouka's happiness is really important for Atsushi. They really do have that feeling of people who got out of an abusive environment learning what normality is supposed to be like together. I also really like how they compensate for what the other lacks, be it decisiveness and coolhead for Atsushi and empathy and positivity for Kyouka. Although plenty shipping them romantically, I really like platonic sskk and atsulucy as well.

OTP: I really like sskk eheh. I think they're neat. There's a thousand and one reasons why I find them pretty great. They're objectively the only reason why I got invested in bsd as well as the only thing that has me keep up with the franchise to this day. Right now, I feel like the one thing I really appreciate about them is how you can be the worst person in the universe and still somehow be loveable to someone. I think it's sweet. I also find it very fun and enterataining to explore their various soulmatism antics. They're both very complex and multilayered characters with something deeply wrong with how their minds work that makes them very fun to analyze both by their own and in the complexity of their relationship. Their collective story arc and canon relationship progression is extremely engaging and nice to follow, too. I love dazatsu and atsulucy as well!! Both were ships I wasn't particularly invested when I read the manga for the first time, but really grew in me in the last six months or so. I really dig akuatsulucy as well!!

nOTP: Nothing?

Random headcanon: He really likes reading. There's some real meta-analysis to be made here I actually had written this is probably not the right place to talk about, but in a work that's all about literature, he's the character who reads.

Unpopular opinion: He's the hardest character to write / characterize. That's why people should probably go easier on other fans when they mischaracterize him. He's just very multifaceted and genuinely hard to get. I keep seeing people being like “Stop babyfying Atsushi he's an independent adult!!” then turn around to say “he can't be shipped with Dazai because there's too much unbalance of power :// [somewhat implying Atsushi can't make free decisions for himself]”, or “Stop making of Atsushi a soft baby who never did wrong in his life!!!” then turn around to say “Atsushi is the happy puppy of the agency who gets treats and pats from everyone ^^ ” like. At least to me, a lot of people's arguments sound self-contradictory all the time; but that doesn't mean people should stop having fun and characterize the characters as they like! Just, let's stop being mean to each other and try to be a little more accepting towards others' takes, shall we? And yes that also includes letting people find Atsushi annoying if they find him annoying (although like, I've NEVER found anyone call Atsushi annoying ever, so really, what remote fandom spaces is everyone visiting? Why are you looking for clothes (good takes) at the soup store (Tik/tok I assume?) ).

Song i associate with them: Common World Domination by Pinocchio-P, HIBANA by DECO*27, Ghost Rule by DECO*27, so on and so forth.

Favorite picture of them:

Favourite panel from the manga:

Favourite illustration: Look, there's too many beautiful illustrations, I can't chose. Here's a very good one though.

Favourite illustration in the anime art style:

But also:

Favourite Mayoi card:

Send me a character?