#and impact Inquisition so drastically

[icharchivist]

Oh yeah, since Icha is really into Dragon Age, Dragon Age Inquisition is currently up for free in the Epic game store until Thursday next week

Just download the thing, make an account and receive game for free forever

To whom it may concern

oh true!

that's indeed helpful if the free aspect helps.

Here's the link!

I hate Epic Game Store personally (the lack of game overlay like on steam pissed me off with my ff7r copy and it kept telling me i had to be online to play a solo game), but free game is always good game.

tho as a disclaimer if you get interested in DA because of me, do start with Dragon Age: Origins (take the Ultimate Edition, so you also have the Awakening DLC, the in game DLCs, as well as the others post game DLC to play after Awakening, Golem of Amgarrak and then Witch Hunt), and then Dragon Age 2 (again with the In Game DLC, Especially Legacy and Mark of The Assassin to play when the Main Quest's Storyline "The Last Straw" is first unlocked/when Act 3 starts). And then DAI.

Like of course grabbing DAI as it's free is a good thing if you make plans for later, but yeah to me personally DA is the type of games you'd want to play in order.

(DA4 is supposed to come out this year too so. well. jsyk.)

o7 good luck everyone, and thanks anon for that!

[centrally-unplanned]

As I have been sick over the past week+ (doing better now I think) I have put in *checks save file* over 100 hours into The Last Sovereign, the ero-kingdom-builder-RPGmaker indie game. I am as done as I can be with it pretty much right now - its being released piece-by-piece, from all plot suggestions it is right at its penultimate chapter. I highly recommend it - it's a full-on RPGmaker game and not by someone who is a tech or art wiz breaking that box's confines, so you have to be down for that aesthetic & design style. But if you are the game has one of the most detailed "politics of rulership" games I have ever played in the genre, and done very seriously through the hilarious ero-lens of you dealing with succubus migrant populations, church purity inquisitions, and orc intelligence uplifting experimental breeding pits. This plot concept lets the game be hyper-realist and irreverently funny at the same time, a welcome tone.

But it's me, so I am here to whine about some stuff!

The game has, as typical to the genre, "hidden variable" systems for resolving big political plot elements - you talk to people, make dialogue decisions, those get stored as variable counts or binaries, etc. More uniquely it also has a huge economic investment system, where you make choices balancing money-making, military, political, and social investments through cycles that give you more money and impact said political plots. This is all quite complex but it works really well in the beginning, when everything is contained.

Chapter 3 is you and your harem plotting a false flag-style insurrectionist takeover of a kingdom, Yhilin. You made some investments pretty much purely for profit in the last chapter, so you got some opening cash, you have some allies to talk to, decisions around orc recruitment, and a one-off political event. This is all pretty clear - the game even locks some of your money in a vault to make sure you spend it on military supply industries, so you can't screw up by under-provisioning. You know you are gonna invade Yhilin, and you know that you need a good army, good allies, you have a desire to minimize civilian casualties for morality reasons, and a desire to minimize damage to reduce rebuilding costs. Should you save some of your army strength at the expense of more civilian deaths? Whose to say what is better in the long run, but you know what you are choosing. This part works great, it's the best part of the game. The plot is linear, sure, you are gonna win no matter what, but based on your choices the Yhilin you conquer can be quite different.

In future chapters, particularly chapter 5, the scope is drastically wider; you are dealing with *does some head math* 10 countries in your main continent of Arlecent and ~7 nations on other continents, all of which have investments opportunities, political decisions, and hidden variables. Big plot events will occur where 4-5 different variable tracks from different countries will come into play. And the game is not built for this, for a few reasons:

Most importantly, Chapter 3's Yhilin invasion was ordered correctly; you were told you were gonna attack Yhilin first, then made decisions after. Each big political event after that is a surprise; you will have terroristic Incubus Kings attacking via magic portals three kingdoms with no warning, and your multi-track variable scores of each of those countries will impact those events.

The UI is just not built for this. Its RPGMaker, and all the variables are hidden; you can access a ledger list of investments but it doesn't tell you how important each is or anything, just money. I could track one goal in Chapter 3 around a concrete list of options and tasks; that same UI doesn't work here.

All of this would be fine if it was mainly plot, and every option was "equally good", like in some playthroughs Givini does well and Ardoheim does badly, that's cool. But it really isn't; if you know the plot ahead of time, time investments for each event, and so on, you do way better in the game, get bonus equipment and even characters. Hell it's an ero game, you get bonus sex scenes! I skip all those but I'm sure it's important for some of the players out there. So these hidden decisions are high stakes.

So yeah, all that combines to make what should be a "making tradeoffs" political management plot feel way more like a lottery system - and in practice the game is just ludomantically begging you to read a walkthrough. I tried for a long time to play the game sans guide, and as its scope expanded I gave up; I was essentially missing a lot of content because my decisions were suboptimal and I couldn't track all the decision points I ran across to make decisions between them (Also its combat is really hard and easily-missed items can make a huge difference, another guide-pushing factor).

I personally would fix this in the obvious ways; make these variables not hidden, and rewrite the plot to have less "surprises" and more telegraphed decision moments. And then make me actively choose between Ardoheim & Givini with known consequences instead of accidentally doing that (the game does have some decisions like that, its not amateur hour over here; its just out of balance).

But the more important thing to do is imo that UI, and 'conveyance'. Right now all the investment opportunities for example are discovered organically - you talk to a person in Gasm Falls (yeah, that's in the succubus kingdom, how'd you know?), she tells you about a religious order expansion opportunity, and if you wanna spend the coin you go back and talk to her. Again, fine in Chapter 3; but when there are over 50 concurrent investment opportunities across the globe in later chapters, I really can't track this all; I am making decisions somewhat arbitrarily. Instead I would have more structured events; at the end of each cycle you sit down with your harem-ministers in a room and go "here is the list of investments; if you select these 13 here is a loose summary of the bonuses each nation would get, expected revenue, etc." Since RPGs don't typically do that this game doesn't, but it's not a typical RPG right? Its UI needs to evolve with the game.

Which, btw, it is doing! So there are a bunch of political conferences throughout the game's story, and at first it was just talk to people, make dialogue tree decisions, hope you keep it all in your head and make it work. But for the last few one of the mages in your harem would cast a "display spell" making a little magic demiplane with characters who summarize all the information for you. Dealing with potential suitors for the new Queen of Ardoheim? Let's line 'em up and give you a summary of their current odds if you talk to them:

This is great, it's way better! Why aren't there more of these? I am pretty sure it's because, ya know, the creator didn't think of it until recently lol. It's an indie game, being updated live and serially. This is likely feedback in action; the events of Chapter 3 & 4 got too unwieldy, the creator realized that, so in the last few sequences in Chapter 5 improvements were added. But going back and adding these to already-completed sections? Ugh, that can't be a priority in comparison to finishing the damn game.

Which, as I often say, is why I don't judge a game harshly for these issues when it's an indie creator and their small team making their vision. The creator knows this is a problem, but fixing problems is hard! They can't do it all. It's actually very cool to see the game 'evolve' over time as they got new ideas for plot concepts, map design, and structuring political mechanics. That makes the game messier, for sure, but also more interesting; a tradeoff I normally will take.

[mithrilhearts]

Where is your favorite Dragon Age place? Do you have a favorite romance?

Mine would have to be Skyhold just because all our friends are there and it's home. My spouse and I have played all the romances in Inquisition and I love them all sooooo very much that I couldn't choose a favorite and I just wish you could romance every last one of them at the same time.

*Asks are sent for fun, no pressure to answer.

SOMEONE IS TALKING TO ME ABOUT DRAGON AGE??? SIGN ME UP.

Okay, so I have to agree that across the games, I really do love Skyhold - but if we're talking about an environment that you get to run around in, I am very partial to Emprise du Lion for whatever reason. Maybe it's the sheer terror of knowing there are three dragons out there? Or that when under-leveled, the mobs can rock my world into the afterlife?

I just find it pretty out there, and the Emerald Graves. There are so many beautiful places within Inquisition, it's almost hard to pick - the music makes a big impact too!

Now for romances, I've dabbled in handfuls of them over the years of playing all three games, and I just think they're all really well written and amazing. But my basic set up for each game is...

Origins: Fem!Mage x Alistair

DA2: Male!Mage x Fenris

Inquisition: Fem!Mage x Cullen

There's just something about the "mage hater x mage" (even if they don't exactly HATE them, the concept is still there) dynamic that has me in a chokehold.

Honorable mention: Inquisitor x Blackwall, because I love a tortured bearded man, and his romance/story is so tragic and emotional, I cry.

I can already tell you what I plan to play for DA4, Unless something drastic catches my attention and just changes all gears for me. But I fully intend to make a Male Rook (Still undecided between mage and rogue), and romance Lucanis (the mage killer....see the trend?? Rogue just looks so fun to play imo lol, so I may break my trend for that), but regardless, I am stoked!!

Thanks for the ask!

[hareofhrair]

Typed out a whole long post on reddit that it won’t let me post for no apparent reason, so y’all have to read it instead. It was a response to the question…

Imo, Dragon Age 2 was worse (because it just wasn’t *finished*) but DAI had some pretty glaring flaws. People have mentioned the gameplay issues with things getting annoyingly mmo-like, and the terrible war table timer, a lot of the fights being unnecessary slogs or just annoying to fight- the fear demons that teleport in front of you, knocking you over, then stun you while you’re still in the standing up animation comes to mind.

But for me the biggest problem was a culmination of writing problems that had always been present, but compounded as the series went on. It’s always been a bit… I don’t know if centrist or just contradictory is the better word.

The writing of inquisition is very concerned about *judging* or punishing the player’s negative moral choices and this has an impact on the consistency of the writing, even for people who aren’t interested in engaging with the ethical issues the game presents, because it’s afraid to give you consequences for your actions or allow them to make major impact and it goes out of its way to try and justify any choice you make as morally right or at least pragmatic in a very surface level way. This is consistently teeth grindingly annoying if you’re playing a “good” character/aligning yourself with the elves and mages, because the game is constantly finding an excuse to interrupt whatever you’re doing to say “but what about the Templar’s feelings??? QmQ” or “Did you consider… some elves are really rude???” or “This one mage did something Bad(tm) therefore it’s actually reasonable and right to want to murder all of them!” It also undermines player choice if they want to be evil or self serving, since it’s constantly bending over backwards to tell them how right and just and good their choices are. The writing itself won’t commit to a moral position because it’s too afraid of contradicting the player, and that makes it impossible for it to actually bring any of its themes to a satisfying conclusion.

(It makes this worse by choosing to really backseat the darkspawn storyline in favor of the templars vs mages conflict, which is annoying for multiple reasons, not the least of which is because they can’t bring it to a real resolution without drastically altering the worldstate and having to create two separate storylines- something inquisition is desperate not to do because of money and time restraints. You just can’t do meaningful branching narratives in a triple A setting as this whole series really illustrates- so they just pivot away from it into the *bullshit* with Tresspasser which I will get into in a minute…)

DAO handled the moral issue at least slightly better, I think. There were consequences for deciding to be an asshole at least. I was recently playing a Dalish elf and slogging through the Sacred Ashes questline getting more and more resentful as they essentially forced my character to Become Fantasy Catholic, so I dumped dragon blood in the ashes just to be spiteful… with Leiliana and Wynn in my party. Whoops. In case you haven’t played DAO, there are multiple big moral choices you can make- among them deciding to defile the mortal remains of Fantasy Jesus- which will cause your party members to leave permanently or straight up try to kill you! They have firm personal morals, and if your actions go against those morals they won’t just tolerate it.

Unfortunately, there’s a reason DAO connected such a major party breaking choice to the unavoidable-if-you-want-the-best-ending Player Has Become Catholic quest. These games have some issues with religion.

On the surface, it wants to pretend all the different religions are equally valid and it’s not taking a stance on which one is *real.* Wink wink nudge nudge. Then in practice it trips over itself to provide proof the Christian analogue is real. From finding Jesus’s ashes which have magic healing powers in DAO to Corypheus in Inquisition confirming the blight really was started by Tevinter mages desecrating heaven and pissing off the Maker, which up till then at least had a plausible deniability veneer of “this might be church propaganda, we don’t know what really happened.” And the games will *consistently* assume you are fantasy Catholic 90% of the time, *even if you’re a dwarf or an elf or FUCKING QUNARI*, the only concession being essentially flavor text dialogue where, if asked directly about religion, you can tell people their god is fake in the rudest manner possible. You are either catholic or an asshole, that’s it. Inquisition really knocks it out of the park though with making you *literally* the leader of the titular fantasy catholic inquisition. You can protest throughout the game that you’re not actually fantasy catholic, but this doesn’t have any meaningful effect on anything, and you obviously can’t just choose *not* to lead an explicitly religious order of a faith you don’t actually ascribe to.

This isn’t just me ranting about how much it sucks to be Assigned Catholic At Character Creation (though it is) it’s about how consistently the game renders player choice meaningless. And I fully believe it’s an extension of the already discussed issue with being terrified to contradict player choices or have to account for them in gameplay. It’s just that it treats believing in the Christian analogue as something *default,* standard and unobjectionable. “Of course our players will be Christian. Everyone believes in god! They’d only choose *not* to be as a fun wacky role playing experience! Which means acknowledging those other religions is optional and we can cut it for time.”

Which brings me to *fucking* Trespasser. First of all, and totally besides discussion of the writing, they released DAI without its actual ending, and then released the ending nearly a year later, as PAID DLC. That dick move alone engendered a Lot of negative feelings about the game, even from people who loved everything else. And then there’s the actual content…..

I actually just decided it’s too goddamn much to get into for a reddit post that probably no one will read. Short version- remember the religion problem? And also the bending over backwards to make the player feel morally justified for hating the elves and mages problem?

So it turns out not only is the elven religion *not* real, it was actually just a bunch of evil elven mages doing a slavery! You know, just like the empire of slave owning evil mages we already had? Remember Tevinter? Yeah, turns out that happened twice. Fuck mages, am I right? Also the racist egg you’ve been trying to make friends with all game has, apropos of absolutely nothing, decided actually Fantasy Islam is the biggest threat to the elven people right now (not the civil rights issues or the slow cultural genocide or anything) and he needs to blow up the world before the elves become muslim.

I don’t even know where to go from there frankly! What else can you say! His entire justification for turning against the player and wanting to tear down the veil is wanting to “save” his people (people he has spent the entire game calling inferior and not real elves) by…. Killing them all! Which will fix them, somehow? The specifics aren’t important. All that matters is it’s better they die now than join a different religion. As for everybody else on the planet? Well, we already established he’s racist, not giving a shit about destroying all the non elves is actually perfectly in character. No notes there.

Uhg. I’ve gotten very off track. Trying to bring it back in-

The dragon age series has always been over ambitious in trying to center player choice, stumbling into the same pits Mass Effect did when they simply didn’t have time or money to implement branching narratives, leading to games that talk a lot about how your choices matter while actually giving them very little impact. Origins came the closest to that goal, giving you more choices than most games of the time for how to approach problems. But as the games went on and the team was expected to continue accounting for those choices going forward, it became increasingly avoidant of giving the player choices that had any actual significant impact on the overall worldstate. Combined with a growing reluctance to be perceived as punishing players for in game moral choices (potentially alienating players when they needed to be as broadly appealing as possible because capitalism) and the writer’s centering an explicitly christian perspective as default, these problems snowballed and by Inquisition became very difficult not to notice, creating a choice driven rpg where you can’t make meaningful choices and can’t role play.

[dungeons-and-dragon-age]

you said you're holding yourself from going into details of your quizes dealing with an arm loss. can you elaborate on it here? :)

yea!! thank you for enabling me hfkdlsfjdl <3

will preface this by saying i'm working off of the fact that this is a high fantasy setting where heavy injury etc is way more common and also this is dragon age so things don't Have To Make Perfect Sense lolol

but n e way!

Gonna start off with June cos the Actual Arm Loss has much less impact on her. It still needs a lot of getting used to and adjustment in how she goes about doing things, and she does have times where she gets frustrated with how difficult mundane things are now, or with how slow the progress is, or with needing so much help.

It's the magic-y part that has the biggest impact; the mark's been there for a good 3 years, and her body had gotten used to having it there, so it suddenly being gone, especially after expanding so drastically, kind of fucks up her magic balance and drains her both physically and mentally for a long time. She also hadn't realised how used she'd gotten to intuitively tapping into the anchor's powers until she couldn't do it anymore, so that took readjusting as well.

Otherwise it doesn't take a big toll on her mentally though; if anything, she is kind of relieved to have the arm (or rather the anchor) gone. It's caused an insane amount of pain especially towards the end, and truth be told she'd seriously considered having it removed more than once, so in a way this being how she got rid of the mark is kind of ironic. But what's done is done, and she'd rather tackle the challenge than dwell on it.

As for the prosthesis, the first one she gets and main one she uses is basically a substitute staff -- or rather wand lol. Dagna designed it early on because June is used to bare-handed casting (don't do that at home kids), so she'd instinctively try to channel mana to a hand that Is Not There Anymore which was uh. messy. So! Simple device that lets her channel magic safely and accurately :) They've developed it since then to be more versatile and sturdy, but overall it's still light and simple enough to be easily strapped on and off and to not immediately break when she accidentally tries to lean on it. She does learn to control her casting better also, but on missions it's a practical tool to have. She does have some other simple, utilitarian prostheses for when she really needs a 2nd "hand" to say, grab or hold something, but rarely ever uses them unless she really needs it (too much of a hassle to put on and off & too exhausting to use for long) Full mech arm is being workshopped! Tbh mostly for fun than for "i need this" purposes, but since the Inquisition is still standing they have the resources to do it, and because June and Dagna (and Dorian) are nerds who don't back down from a challenge, they Will do it. Lots of experimenting with levels of complexity, materials, runes, magic, and how to make all that work together, and how to make it work in theory if surgical procedures were involved (neither of them are medics tho so uh. the results are questionable fdkjfs)

ok wow that got a lot longer than anticipated lmaoo so Ari under the cut!

Ari Does Not take it as well oops. Mostly bc Trespasser & the aftermath of it is already So Much (June is much more distanced from all of it but to Ari it Matters. A Lot.) and dealing with the loss of his main hand/arm on top of that is just Too Much, so with everything piled together rehab does not go nearly as smoothly. Doesn't exactly help that things he'd usually do to wind down like cooking or hunting or taxidermy are, well, hard to do now, so the stress and frustration pents up a lot and he's just. not having a great time. Luckily he has a good support system though and he does get better, eventually.

At least for Ari the magic aspect isn't as much of an issue. I do hc that the anchor gives non-mages some magic adjacent abilities, and the strength of its influence is more than enough to mess up non-mages mana balance as well, but it's not nearly as severe as it would be if he were a mage and takes a lot less readjustment (long term anchor fucked-up-ness notwithstanding).

Like June he also never gets a full on mech arm, and doesn't intend to. Ari isn't as close with Dagna and not as keen on experimenting, or has the time or brain space to invest in fancy gadgets, but he makes good use of utility tools to help him for things like keeping a clipboard steady or holding reigns, but especially for archery. The first solution was the mounted crossbow like in the epilogue slides, which.. works. It's not elegant and not always practical, but it does its job well enough and he does make sure to keep in practice with it. Later he gets a prosthesis with which he can draw a proper bow; with entirely different techniques he has to get used to, but he greatly prefers it. Takes a long time before he becomes proficient with archery again, but he's glad he doesn't have to give it up. Helps that at this point it is mostly recreational since he does way less field work over the years post Trespasser, which makes the limitations to speed and draw weight much less of an issue.

[theyaskedmeto]

A Rainy Late Afternoon in the Bakery

pairing: kurt x blaine

summary: Icing cakes can be hard, and even more of a hurdle when there's a handsome stranger standing by the counter.

notes: This little oneshot is set in Arundel, a place I have actually been!! It's this little historic town with a big ass castle and cathedral and loads of charity shops. If you ever get the chance to go, give it a visit :)

Hope you enjoy this small thing I've finally written!

meet!cute, bakery!au

Read on AO3

-----

Cake decorating takes a lot of time and precision, which was something Kurt Hummel had discovered over the years through his passion and love for baking - cake being the primary contender for that passion.

He was reminded of that very fact just twenty minutes to closing time on a rainy Thursday afternoon, very close to tears as he hastily continued to mix the icing sugar into the buttercream, setting his Kenwood mixer to the highest speed. The icing was still much too runny to be used as a reliable implement to decorate his newly baked raspberry and white chocolate sponge, and he already knew he’d be staying up late to finish it for tomorrow’s selection of freshly baked cakes and other sweet goods.

It wasn’t Kurt’s original plan of action to move to England and start a little bakery in a small but incredibly tasteful village in the South East, but after realizing the pressure of college was too much for him in New York, he turned to a completely fresh start, and an apprenticeship in baking in the UK seemed like the perfect answer (as dramatic as it felt at the time).

It certainly wasn’t his original dream, either. Growing up, he envisioned himself as a famous designer, ordering models to change into outfit after outfit - in clothes that he designed, at that - but his dreams changed quite drastically after finally realising the realities of adult life. College was hard - the stress was too much, and he never really fitted in the way his younger self had always imagined he would have done - and through the pitiful emotions, he rediscovered baking - something that his now late mother had taught him many years ago. It was something he could control, and, although it was deflating when the design of one of his cakes he’d imagined didn’t turn out the way he’d wanted it to, it was another form of art he was able to master. Finding recipes, discovering new techniques - all of it was inspiring, bringing him ideas in a way that fashion design did not.

So he gave the fashion dream up and moved abroad. It was a big change, but he needed it greatly, devoid of the deep feeling of missing his father that washed over him with every passing day.

It was okay, though. Kurt and Burt stayed in touch regularly, and Kurt was happily able to lose himself in cake decorating rather than wallowing in his pity.

Although, it didn’t help that sometimes his career did bring him pity, as it did in a final moment of understanding after tasting his buttercream, that he was going to have to start again. Letting out a defeated groan, Kurt threw his head into his hands with his elbows leaning on the counter. Today was not his day. Far from it, in fact. Only a few customers, running low on icing sugar and then making some buttercream that was far too sweet for even the greatest sugar enthusiast to enjoy. In that moment, Kurt wished it was tomorrow. Or a few weeks later, at most.

Ten minutes till closing time. He was going to have to leave the back room and embrace the weather in all its rainy glory soon, walking through the winding streets to his house near the Wey and Arun canal. It was impractical to drive such a short distance, so before his departure to work in the morning, he was sure to bring all the necessary waterproof equipment - a precaution he wasn’t prepared to take in his first few months of living in England, because it was cold, even when he didn’t realise how much of an impact the weather would have on him here.

Just as Kurt was about to resort to adding another half a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste to his mixture, he heard the tell-tale sound of the bell ringing as a customer entered, and Kurt could even recognise the hasty movements of said customer before he witnessed them.

Walking around to the front of the bakery, through the back room and behind the counter, dusting off the remains of icing sugar powder from his artisan denim apron, Kurt finally examined the (rather wet) customer peering at the array of cakes in the small display cabinet next to the counter.

He examined his eyes first, the way the man’s lashes fanned down perfectly onto his cheeks as he looked at the cabinet. Kurt found himself slightly starstruck as he realised the beauty of the person standing in front of him - the man’s strong shoulders, his simple smile, inquisitive eyes (Kurt saw them as the customer looked up to meet the eyes of his) - he bore a kind face.

Just as the man looked up, Kurt heard a sombre rumble of thunder outside the window as the rain pelted down relentlessly. Tightening his lips and smiling sourly, he looked again at the customer, before realising they were already speaking, and pointing at a cupcake inside the cabinet.

“Are those red velvet?”

Now shaken out of his reverie, Kurt responded: “Oh! Yes. They’re… not really my favourite, if I’m honest.”

It was a little awkward, the quietness of the little shop with the rain falling outside, Kurt just standing there as the man continued to examine the cake cabinet. Thunder continued to shake outside, the sound of it alarming the man in front of the counter who turned to look at the window and the small view of the war memorial on the high street, now tremendously covered in water, seemingly majestic with the quality of light shining on it.

Turning back, the customer let out a small hum and asked, “So you wouldn’t recommend buying them…?”

“Well. It’s not that I’d not recommend buying them, it’s just…” Kurt broke off his sentence slightly as he considered the lack of customers he’d had today - not enough, for sure - he shouldn’t be putting people off sales, that’s something his dad always told him. Making a compromise, he pointed at the selection of gingerbread men closest to him.

“I can recommend these, though.”

The customer pressed his lips together slightly and tilted his head. “Okay. Four gingerbreads then please?”

Kurt was a little intrigued by the way the man asked like it was a question, but promptly fetched a small paper bag (the logo decorated on it, of course) and gave the gingerbread man to the customer after rattling out the total. He thought a little about the man’s voice. It was nice. He’d never get tired of the British accent. Or, more specifically, British men with kind accents. When he first moved to England, he felt as if he was caught up in some incredibly middle-class romantic comedy twenty-four seven.

“Thank you.” The customer said after the baked goods were handed to him, and then quickly, just before he turned to leave, “Hey, if you ever want to discuss red velvet cake again I could maybe… get your number?”

For a moment, Kurt was minutely overcome with a flush of embarrassment that this person would ask him, but tried to push the feeling back. Even though he’d had a fair share of romantic experiences in college, it was still a thrill to realise someone was hitting on him.

“Oh! Sure… I’ll just grab my phone.”

As he spoke, he was already walking around the back to where he’d left his phone, hanging up in his coat pocket, and when he passed the mess of icing sugar bags and butter left out, his side jostled an open box slightly, resulting in him being covered completely in icing sugar powder.

There was now icing sugar all over his new denim apron. Cursing under his breath slightly, he made it to his phone, and unlocked it as he walked back behind the counter.

Returning to see the man still patiently waiting, fingers clasped together in front of himself with a contented smile on his face (although Kurt could had an inkling that that smile was just plastered on for politeness, which did intrigue him slightly), Kurt hastily handed him his phone, now considerably more messy than he previously was when he went to fetch it. For a moment, there was a slight sense of awkwardness where neither said anything, and Kurt only heard a quiet ‘okay…’ from the man in front of him as he entered his number into the contacts app.

Kurt found himself pressing his lips together awkwardly once again, still aware of the silence of the room in contrast to the harsh rain outside.

The sense of awkwardness and silence was quickly over, however, when the customer (Blaine was his name, Kurt noticed as he looked at the contact in his phone) handed Kurt his phone back - “All done. Great!” was what Blaine said, to which Kurt responded with a quick “I’ll… text you.” - Kurt already felt himself being surrounded by an eased aura, which wasn’t something he had really felt before.

“Cool. Send me a message.” Blaine was already speaking, and already reaching for the door as he did so. “Maybe we could meet sometime? LG cafe, maybe?”

“Of course.”

With another one of those quick smiles Blaine The Stranger opened the bakery door with nothing so much as an “Alright then,” expressed slightly softly, and soon he was leaving, out into the rain once more, the heavy door banging closed with its own weight and the bell ringing its sound, the sound Kurt recognised so clearly now as just another customer leaving his little shop.

But maybe this wasn’t just another customer.

[rezziejoth]

I wish dragon age expanded more on the in universe holidays like there's so much potential for in universe holiday themed missions in any of the games like

First Day

In origins First Day would be celebrated at some point but so much more gloomier than usual like you get to lothering and the atmosphere is closer to "there's no point in checking in maker knows how many are dead" purchaseable chicken based gifts/food on discount

In DA2 First day happens at the start of a new act and gives you the chance to check in with each of your companions and even share a meal with the Hawke family and perhaps get more of a look into their dynamic

First day at Skyhold in inquisition could possibly come with like a item gathering mission with little cutscenes and bits of lore depending on who you bring with you

Wintersend

In origins you'd be able to see the dalish celebrating this holiday in its original form, celebrating Urthemiel and opening up specific dialogue options based on your characters background

Wintersend in DA2 could open up a window for looking in more to how Anders views the chantry watching the celebrations going on inside the chantry from the area outside

Wintersend in inquisition would be be drastically different given the Inquisitors faith but all would result in a scene in the courtyard either talking to solas the scene would also have Solas talk a bit of the holiday's past

Summerday

In origins the wardens would witness redcliff attempting to celebrate summerday despite the constant attacks on the village the atmosphere in the chantry bitter sweet as the wardens are given the chance to be apart of the speech

DA2 Would probably have a passing reference to the holidays varric talking about how big the celebration is in orlais (even if it does sound like total bs-)

Inquisition would take us too Orlais during the celebration to once again touch on the Inquisitors faith and see how they are the celebration as a whole

All Souls Day

All Souls day would be ESPECIALLY impactful in origins the warden and Alistair perhaps breifly returning to lothering across their travels to remember the wardens that were lost and the warden themselves talking about their own personal loss in their backstory

DA2 could have a scene in which Hawke remembers Malcolm and Either or both Bethany and Carver with Leandra commenting on what they would of thought of Kirkwall and the choices Hawke has made so far including LI choice

In Inquisition Dorian would suggest celebrating the holidays the way they do up north and the Inquisitor has the choice to either disagree or accept and result in a mini mission and some cutscenes with Dorian and the other companions

Satinalia

Zevran Making references to the holiday talking about how he was hired to "gift a knife in the back" to someone on the holiday one year

Isabela having MANY tales from Satinalia

Josephine talking about how she misses the holiday now that she's no longer in antiva with the Inquisitor being given the option to implie Making a nug leader for a day

[tocrackerboxpalace]

September, 1965

Summary: During a press interview to promote Help!, an interviewer makes his feelings for Paul quite obvious. Some parties aren't too happy about it.

“Now, I’m sure the four of you have been celebrating upon the release of your new film, Help! which recently came out here in the U.K. just over a month ago. I wanted to speak with you all about the film, the process, and the potential impact it could have. Now, the reviews have been generally strong, but many are claiming that despite its substantially more extensive budget, it falls a bit short of last year’s A Hard Day’s Night. Would you mind sharing your feelings on those claims?”

“Well, I’d hate to take this question on account of I haven’t seen either film,” came John’s reply first, drawing a thrum of laughter from the audience.

The interviewer (whose name Paul had already forgotten) spoke through a toothy grin, laughter bright on his lips. “You haven’t seen the films, John?”

A playful smile tugged at John’s lips, contradicting his deadpan reply. “Haven’t gotten around to it, no. Been busy filming some things.”

Another round of laughter. Paul felt a grin rise to his own face, knowing that John had good and well seen the films, and had rather liked them. He always found it intriguing to watch the show that John put on for the public eye.

“What about you, Paul? How do you feel about them?”

Paul tore his gaze away from his friend and flashed a bright smile at the interviewer. “Oh, I don’t mind about them. It was good fun to make them, yeah.”

“Do you feel like they captured your personalities quite well?”

“I’d say, relatively so.” The answer came from George this time, who began interlocking his fingers around his crossed knee. “You know, the films are full of us really just playing around and having a game of it, even with the more structured plots. Filming Help! was good fun, indeed.”

“We lot are a big fan of playing around,” Ringo added helpfully.

“Now Ringo, you’re more or less the star of this new film—if we can discount The Exciting Adventure of Paul on the Floor, of course. Was there any unwanted pressure there?”

Paul felt his cheeks redden at the mention of his slightly racy scene. He had already been uncomfortable with it, and the fact that it was receiving so much publicity frankly embarrassed him. He silently cursed John, the bastard, for his stupid ideas and his stupid way of making Paul go along with them. He caught John’s eye, who hastily looked away, suppressing the teasing grin that twitched at the corner of his mouth.

“—nothing at all, really,” Ringo was saying with a shrug. “I suppose it was a bit more work, as last film I got to wander about while they filmed me for a while and this one I had real big scenes of human sacrifice and whatnot. But no, I never thought about it as being stressful or more pressure.”

“Well, that’s wonderful, Ringo, thank you. Now, I’d like to circle back to something mentioned a bit earlier. Let’s cut to the chase: Paul, that scene. I’d like to know how much was really going on under that wrapper.”

A blush crept up his neck and he absentmindedly reached up to scratch his cheek. He forced himself to smile bashfully, subconsciously crossing his legs at the knee. “Well, y-you know…” He trailed off, not wanting to explicitly answer but framing the sentence in such a way that it was still suggestive.

“Aw,” the reporter gushed, flashing him a wink. “Don’t be shy now, Paul. I’m sure the viewers are dying to know as well.” The crowd hummed in agreement.

Before Paul could open his mouth, John shot a quick reply. “Now, I feel a bit hurt that no one has wanted to ask me that question.” He turned to face the camera. “I, John Winston Lennon, confirm on Universal Broadcast Television that in that scene I was wearing absolutely nothing underneath my clothing and undergarments.” He feigned a gasp, then exaggerated a grandiose curtsy as he momentarily raised himself out of his armchair. This raised another collective laugh. John was an easy fan favourite.

Paul suppressed feelings of gratitude. He giggled at the prospect of John confessing that to a real universally-broadcasted program, which, for now (fortunately, unfortunately?), was a thing of the future.

The interviewer waited for the laughter and scattered applause to subside before he continued. “Thank you for that shocking revelation, John. Though I’m not quite sure that answered our question…” The suggestion trailed off, and Paul realized that it was meant for him to answer. He was busy watching John after accidentally catching a flash of something in his expression, something he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

Paul put on his best puppy-dog pouty face and blinked up at the interviewer through his lashes. “I suppose,” he started, intentionally producing a voice thick and coy, “there wasn’t much going on at all.” His mind barely registered that John was now tapping is foot anxiously, a habit that arose only when the man was incredibly agitated or stressed. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw George place an inquisitive hand on John’s, hidden enough from the cameras for him to subtly ask if his friend was all right. John gave a curt and almost unnoticeable nod, his eyes darting from George back to the interviewer. Though unsatisfied with the confirmation, George let his hand apprehensively fall back into his own lap.

Paul noticed every one of these ministrations between them, feeling his heart warm at the thought. He knew no one else, not even crazed fans, would pick up on the subtle movements. The four were just that close, having an entire language of their own, able to communicate without even making eye contact. It felt nice, performing a television interview with over half the country watching and knowing that there were still things they had for themselves. Still, despite his musings, worry seeped into his mind as the significance of the interaction hit him. Was John all right? Paul tried to beckon John’s gaze with his own, but his friend simply started at the ground where his foot was beginning to pose quite the distraction.

The interviewer let out a bright laugh and leaned closer to Paul, if unintentionally. “Well, I’m sure our viewers won’t be able to get that image out of their heads tonight. I know I won’t be able to.”

Paul flashed an amused grin at the insinuation, watching in his peripheral as John crossed his ankles to stop his shoe from tapping, his lips pressed into a tight, thin line. A flash of annoyance struck in Paul’s chest. What could John possibly be upset about? Didn’t he realize that they were on live television? What did he have such an… an attitude for? He still wouldn’t meet his stare.

“Now, I’d like to touch upon the impact of this film,” the interviewer was continuing. “An article in The Daily Mail characterized Help! as a pioneer in the genre of musical comedies, especially with its Technicolor production, magical realism, and rather organic integration of musical influence into the plot. George, do you think that this film is going to be as historically impactful as some are proclaiming?”

“Well, er… I wouldn’t say so, only because I can’t quite know what impact it could have, as I’m not so much involved in the world of cinema. Personally, I felt as if our previous film made no industrial impact, so it’s a bit difficult to foresee this one going in a different direction. It's just fun.”

“Wonderful insight, George,” the reporter praised. “I’ll be interested to see which one of us is correct.” He flashed a wink, causing George to chuckle and respond with a bemused, “Yes, we’ll see.”

“John, I’d be interested to see where your thoughts stand on the matter. Personally, I could see you continuing with an acting, or perhaps directing, career far beyond the musical films. Do you dabble in the world of art cinema at all?”

“I suppose.”

“You suppose?” The interviewer looked a bit thrown by the curt response.

“That’s all there is to it, really.”

Paul didn’t think much of John’s acting skills tonight. Whatever was bothering the man was now evident for every eye to see, a change in his demeanor so drastic that Paul almost felt a chill come over the room. What the hell was going on with him?

The interviewer chuckled nervously and switched subjects. “All right, I’d like to shift a bit and discuss some more of the actual content of the film. Now, the scene in the bathroom—how did you all manage that?”

Ringo broke into a wide grin, and Paul matched his energy at the memory. “Well,” Ringo started, “We had to have our clothing stitched apart just enough to where it would hold on for the beginning of the scene, but easily tear off. Like in Paul’s shirt sleeve, they had sewn a bit of fishing wire into the cuff and snaked it through the dryer opening, so when they gave a tug the whole sleeve came flying off at the shoulder.” Paul nodded for emphasis as Ringo demonstrated then, reaching for the cuff of his shirtsleeve and pulling at it.

“Oh,” the reporter mused, “and here I was hoping it would take a lot more with it.” He flashed Paul another charismatic grin.

Paul had almost—almost—missed the slight eye roll that John gave as he began to chew at his thumb nail, another nervous habit he had picked up. Paul’s heart jumped a bit at the sight, followed by a pull of confusion in his stomach. Another look flashed in John’s eyes, longer this time. It looked like… anger. Paul was almost certain he had identified it when the look passed, and a sudden calm came over John as he regained his composure.

“Well that makes a pair of us, then, doesn’t it, mate?”

Paul froze. The words were light, but there was nothing friendly about the sentence that John had just spat out—the tone was salacious and determined, leaving no room for misinterpretation. His eyes glinted in a frightening mixture of malice and amusement as an awkward silence settled over the 5 players. George shifted uncomfortably and Ringo eyed the blinking red dot across the room.

Fuck, Paul thought to himself. They were live.

It had only been about five seconds, but they ticked away at what felt like a painfully slow rate. Paul’s internal clock supplied each passing numeric as the interviewer opened and closed his mouth a few times before speaking once more. Someone in the audience coughed.

“All right, well, erm—it has been a pleasure hosting you boys on the show, and I wish you the utmost of luck on the film’s continuing success and your further aspirations with the band.”

George murmured a light, “Very well, thanks.” Ringo nodded with an, “All right, Louis, all the best.” John said nothing. Paul said nothing.

Louis. That was his name.

The red light ceased blinking across the room. The interviewer got up stiffly and stalked off, bewildered at the surprise ending of the televised event. George and Ringo quickly rose to their feet and muttered a quick, “goingtothedressingroom,” scurrying off.

Paul suddenly felt furious with John, a white-hot rage efflorescing in his chest. The attitude, the behaviour on live television and in front of a live audience, the lack of self-control—Paul bit back an outburst in response, willing himself not to create yet another scene. Not to mention the whole issue of what John had actually said, and what on earth had pushed him to do so. “We need to talk.”

John shrugged indifferently, letting Paul grab his wrist roughly and drag him away from the armchair. Paul made a break for the nearest hallway, desperately wanting to escape what felt like millions of nosy and inquisitive stares, pulling John behind him. Eventually, he tried the knob to a utility closet, and the door gave way as Paul shoved John inside. He could no longer contain his baffled anger as he slammed the door behind them.

It was dark in the closet save a sliver of blue moonlight that creeped through the small square window. The light bathed John in an angelic glow in front of him, and Paul wasn’t sure if it was the shadows playing tricks on him or if John actually looked sorry. Paul’s chest was rising and falling rapidly, but John’s was steady, near unmoving. The man was incredibly quiet and still as he waited for Paul to speak first.

“What the fuck was that?” He hissed.

John looked at him with wide, innocent eyes. “What?”

“What do you mean, ‘What?’, Lennon? Y-you acted like a twat. On live television. What were you so twisted up about, anyway? You couldn’t have just held it in? The interview was like five fucking minutes. Why couldn’t you do that? For m–” Paul stopped himself. He suddenly felt stupid. For me, he wanted to say. John knew how important Paul thought their public perception was. John knew how anxious Paul got before interviews, desperation and fear of saying the wrong thing crowding his thoughts. John knew all of that stuff and had still gone and mucked it up, perhaps even intentionally.

“I didn’t like the way he was talking with you,” John said quietly. “I—it was for you.”

A hand came up to pinch the bridge of Paul’s nose. He sighed as he rubbed at his eyes, a frustrated perplexity tugging at his features. He was embarrassed more than anything. Embarrassed at the forwardness of the interviewer, embarrassed at the scenes of himself in the movie, embarrassed at his reaction to what was probably just John taking up for him. He shook his head.

“I don’t get it, John. Help me understand why you would say that, why you would say it like that—"

“It was, Paul.” John’s voice cut him off, insistent now, and he stepped closer to Paul against the door. It took him a moment to realize that John was still talking about his intent. There was something rather odd in his gaze now, something almost… needy?

The pair were now only inches away from each other. Paul felt his nerves singing as he took in the sight of his best friend. A twitch in his chest told him that something had changed in the shared space between them. John’s eyes were half-lidded, and not in the vision-starved squint that was familiar, the deep amber bearing down on him with a heated look. Paul gazed at the way the man’s lower lashes rested on his cheeks, which were flushed slightly, pink like the wet bottom lip he had nervously caught between his teeth. John’s soft brown locks fell against his forehead, brushing his eyebrows, and Paul felt the sudden urge to reach up and tangle his fingers in it.

Why had he never noticed how beautiful John was before?

There wasn’t a good reason for what happened next. Maybe it was the moment of emotional vulnerability. Maybe it was their proximity. Maybe it was the tension. Maybe it was the way that Paul came to the sudden realization that John hadn’t been angry before, but jealous.

Paul tilted his chin down and kissed him.

[cornelthecursed]

The story behind the vampire

// Finally after weeks of putting it off, Cornel’s story is ‘revamped’ so to speak (see the pun hehehe) A lot was added and a lot was redacted, but it does not change the interaction you might have with the vampire gentleman. Don’t worry you didn’t loose all too much from his story if you didn’t read the previous version and I quite get that asking you to read around 1,7k words long background to my character might be a little more than usual, however, I would very much appreciate if you could at least give it a skim.

Without further ado - let’s dive into it:

🩸 Early childhood

Cornelius’ life started like any other - being born to parents that were well off, he never had to worry about not having anything to eat at the end of the day. He had not suspected that he might have been of supernatural origin at all. However, not everything is all nice and pleasant when you are born in the 1500s. Even if he had no idea about magics and vampires or other supernatural creatures, humans around them did. You see, his parents were not regular humans either - a mother who was a renowned vampiress and his father being the son of the Lightbringer himself, attracted unwanted attention.

The city was in uproar with accusing everyone of witchcraft and his parents were no exception. His mother had enough foresight to hide the poor child in the tool shed of their gardens when the inquisition came to get them. Cornelius stayed there for hours not knowing what was going on exactly, he had thought that bad people came to speak to his parents and so he had to hide (it was not the first time he had done so, an antichrist and a vampire marrying and actually creating an offspring isn’t exactly approved of), however, as the hours passed and his stomach grumbled with bigger intensity the longer he stayed there he slipped outside.

It didn’t take long to figure out that his parents were not home, nor their servants. Everyone was dragged off apparently and the boy did the next best thing. Grabbing a few pieces of food to eat at the moment he slipped into his bed. Being woken up early the next day by shouts of the guards to bag anything they saw for their taking Cornel used every wit he had at his disposal to hide and run away from his family home.

He realized pretty soon that he would have to scavenge for food to make due, going around town he begged where he could, nipping a bread or a grape from the odd basket put on the floor while they bantered for a better price. A first sneak peek into the life of crime for our little Cornelius. However it wasn’t long before a certain man found the boy stealing from him and decided to make him pay for the food by actually working for him - as an apprentice, since he had no children of his own. The man turned out to be the later famous man Leonardo da Vinci.

🩸 Adolescence

Gaining skills in woodworking and actually staying still (whenever muse struck his adoptive father to draw him) kept Cornel busy during his early years. Soon he was being sent out to make deals, or meet people in Leonardo’s stead when he had proven capable enough. He trained almost daily to keep his body well kept and he had a prospect in joining an order that went against the corruption that was going on in the city they lived in.

However, fate had a different plan for him. Around the age fourteen he had got very sick, to a point where he was bed ridden. No one knew what was happening to him, the doctor that was called had thought it was tuberculosis, since he was coughing up blood.

Turns out it was the year that changed his life completely. He had eventually, after weeks upon weeks of the lungs hurting and heart palpitations, turned into a creature of the night he had never heard of, with thirst that could not be satiated with normal means.

He could still feel his heartbeat, he could still breathe (even if the time he could spend underwater drastically prolonged), yet he looked different. His eyes changed from their previous blue color to red, whites exchanged for blackness that seemed to be unending, not to mention the fangs. He couldn’t go out during the day anymore either. And yet he had started researching (perhaps he had learned from his adoptive father or not), looking into anything supernatural he could get his hands on. Eventually he had found a witch who helped him with the sun dilemma, the constant voices in his head (turns out our boy is telepathic) and the weird object movement that happened around him (telekinetic powers as well). She even taught him a few glamour spells to cover up his real identity, which helped him to establish himself into the society once again.

🩸 Adulthood - until the WW I

The years went by and he trained with the assassins. He wasn't very skilled in hand-to-hand combat (and still has trouble with it) but he had been shaped into a skillful tracker, strategist and sniper/long range combatant. He used his powers to help the guild where he could, but more often than not he got captured by the enemy and tortured in many various ways, which left scars on his physical body. Surprisingly he coped with the mental scars pretty well.

Still as a young vampire, he fell in love with a beautiful mortal woman. He had created a bond with her on a spiritual level he had not known was possible (granted that was the result of his supernatural nature and them exchanging their blood accidentally), he was at first scared of the fact that they could feel each other’s emotions and had to come forth to his partner as not being completely human. Yet Emalia took it in stride and accepted him for what he was, which Cornel was eternally grateful for.Their wedding was the most joyous thing in his life, right after the birth of his daughter, Caitlin. Few months after that he picked on work yet again, this time he decided for a more docile one, since he had a family to take care of.

Yet as it was in life - when there are good things, bad ones are right behind the corner. One night when he had stayed longer in town working on a wooden piece for one of his clients his world turned upside down. He had found his family murdered in their own home, his heart breaking in half at the sight. Not to mention the chest ache from the bond breaking didn’t help any. 

After burying them and still stricken with grief he made it his personal mission to hunt down those that killed his immediate family, since that was the only one he had in this world. But oh, if it ended there. He found the two hunters of course, but the newfound bloodlust that dulled the pain he felt, the surge of power with the amount of blood he consumed….it didn’t end well for the city of Venice, near which he had lived. 

The bloodshed that he had caused took around five vampires to stop. Only when he was face down on the flagstones, tears running down his cheeks from the amount of pain he was feeling and seeing what he had caused made him sober up. That was the day he met his best friend Leoric - not without a nice little story to exchange between themselves now as they recalled the old days, the poor two thousand year old vampire of a viking had a scar to prove their first meeting made by none other than yours truly.

After that incident with Leoric keeping a close eye on the young pureblood, Cornelius had moved out of his home country, not being able to stay because of the memories and more importantly hunters that were hot on his tail. Few attempts were made at his life during his stay in Italy by the aforementioned group, scarring the otherwise perfect skin around his heart and a thin line across his throat.  Finding a  nice spot in the UK, a few hours away from London and near a small village Ibberton, Cornel started on building his dream home in the middle of a clearing. Not even realizing how but had built himself a sizable mansion.

🩸 Adulthood - WW I & after

The world wars rolled in. Cornel felt obliged to answer the call to arms and yet there was more imminent war than the one between the humans. His own race was warring against the werewolves all the while archduke was assassinated in Sarajevo. It was not a big battle, a skirmish at most a couple of hundred of kilometers away from his own home, yet Cornelius was not left unscathed. 

Up until that point he was making his fortune in tracking people and even killing them if the contract required it off him, however, after he returned home from the vampire-werewolf war he had to put that kind of job on hold. He prided himself on being a good strategist, on observing and using the information the best he could, yet it is completely different to do so on the battlefield. One second of not paying attention and he ended with a spear coated in werewolf’s blood through his left knee. 

Even after years or healing, of drinking antidote for months after the battle, he was left with a limp. Relieving him of duties towards the United Kingdom in the upcoming wars. With the time that suddenly appeared in his hands he started to seek different hobbies (not sure how tracking and killing people could be a hobby but to each their own). Leoric, who was always somewhere around his old time friend suggested to take up cooking, since he himself was baking and found enjoyment in it. Few tries later and the vampire sacrificed sleep in attempt to perfect his skills in the kitchen.

By the end of the twentieth century, he was a skilled chef that would give Gordon a run for his money and since there really was no better time than to start his own business than after the world wars he did that. Funding the rent of a place in Ibberton, he founded Assaggia la Storia, an Italian restaurant keeping true to his family roots.

Granted there are many stories and little tidbits that occurred in vampire’s life - be it how other vampires flocked to him or how he actually managed to lay claim to his family heirloom back in Italy. Yet these are the ones that marked his life the most, making an impact on how he is now. The rest are for you to discover through mutual interaction.

Updated: 18th August 2021

[felassanis]

Trespasser is so good and...

I love it when Bioware does that. Make some side character have a huge impact on the story. They did with Morrigan and Alistair, a witch with darker intentions (Or not?) Alistair, the comedic relief but is actually an heir to the throne and can alter the ending of the game DRASTICALLY. 

Varric, your dwarf mate is actually recounting your story and has been kidnapped because of your actions. He’s the one who helps drive the plot in the first half the game. And...fucking Anders. FUCKING Anders man. This dude you see slowly become more and more deranged, he fucking lies to your Hawke taking advantage of their compassion for him and he betrays your trust by BLOWING UP THE CHANTRY, causing the Mage and Templar war which was being built up in Origins and then combusted in DAII and we see it running rampant in Inquisition.

I think having one of your companions be the next antagonist is awesome. You’ve got history with Solas, friend or romance. Instead of introducing another geezer they twist a character and give them a new purpose that shakes the plot of the whole series. 

They do it in pair I see, and I think Solas’s counterpart is gonna be Dorian. He’s gone back to Tevinter to try and make a difference in the City and since DA4 will go to Tevinter I have no doubt Dorian is going to appear as a major role in the next instalment. It just makes sense and he is a fan favourite too.

I hope we got another one of these in DA4. A companion with a bigger role to play. Maybe Fenris will be Dorian’s counterpart? I will be SO disappointed if Gideon Emery doesn’t reprise his role and Fenris is only mentioned. No? Bring him back FULLY thank YOU 

[izcana]

i’ve walked with you (once upon a dream)

Thominho Week Day 5: Pre-Maze/The Fever Code Era

I took this prompt a bit differently, because in my opinion, when the scene in The Fever Code took place, both Thomas and Minho were too young to date, which is why I'm moving the timeline. Don't worry, though, it's still pre-Maze stuff.

Title from Once Upon A Dream (Sleeping Beauty): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCCxnuLlS18&ab_channel=Disney

***

"Here, Sweetheart, tuck in the blanket," Minho cooed, wrapping the fluffy floral blanket around Thomas' shoulders. "You're still the ugliest shucky girl I've ever met." Dating Minho was great, really. Something Thomas didn't expect from the older boy was the pet names. Minho babied Thomas ("Everybody knows I'm way older than you, Thomas! Gotta take care of my younger boyfriend, right?") constantly, and he often called him by adoring pet names.

One thing that remained the same was the constant teasing. Thomas liked that about Minho; he could be casual and even when they were insulting each other with the most unflattering words they knew, it was clear that neither meant it. The sense of closeness and understanding Thomas liked.

"Thanks, Min," Thomas said, making grabby hands at his boyfriend. "Lie down with me."

"Sappy shank," Minho said, rolling his eyes with a soft, fond look in his eyes. Nonetheless, Thomas knew that Minho could never escape Thomas' puppy eyes, and sure enough, Minho plopped down on the bed obediently and rolled over. "I guess you win this time..."

"I always win!" Thomas agued proudly, holding up an imaginary trophy.

"Whatever, Slinthead," Minho muttered, shaking his head. "Don't need to rub it in."

–––––––––––––––––––––––

It was the middle of the night when the men came to fetch him. "Get up, A2!" The shortest shouted, slamming the door open.

The younger Thomas blinked blearily, rubbing his eyes. Thomas didn't know the man, but the younger version of him definitely did, and judging by the fear in his eyes, he had some bad memories with the man. "What's going on, Randall?" Younger Thomas asked groggily, his voice squeakier than Thomas was used to.

"You know very well what's going on," Randall, it seemed, reprimanded sharply, and the younger version of himself flinched violently. "That's why you need to come with us right now. We need your help with something."

"Get up, you're coming with us," The man next to Randall said, pulling out a launcher. A launcher? Thomas thought. What did younger-me do to have a launcher pulled on him?

"What?" Younger-Thomas questioned, but standing up pliantly, following the man.

"Just come!" Randall yelled, clearly losing all patience with the inquisitive boy. Dreaming Thomas snickered. Apparently younger him was just as annoying as current him, and judging by "Randall's" reactions, he drove WICKED up the wall. He smirked. Good. "If you come you won't get into trouble."

The last man sighed. "Just come with us, Thomas, you need to see this."

Thomas's feet drove him to follow the younger Thomas and Randall. It felt like something was dragging him reluctantly to his end goal.

The younger version of Thomas obeyed wordlessly in a monotonous manner, his eyes glancing to the floor in guilt and fear. Something was up, perhaps something happened before this memory. They walked down a maze of hallways, and ironically, Thomas thought, the WICKED compound was like a maze in itself.

After a rough few twists and turns, they winded up in a control room with lots of large grey screens and a couple more people waiting for them.

"Seriously, what's going on?" The dreaming Thomas asked rhetorically, cocking his head to the right.

No one heard him. After all, it was a memory. "Looks like your friend didn't learn from his last attempt to go outside," the man named Randall murmured, looking at one of the screens in the corner. Both Thomases followed his gaze, and both let out gasps at what they saw.

What's your point? Thomas wanted to scream, but he knew that no one would hear him.

"We're going to teach him a lesson, see," the bald one said casually. "The lesson has to stick, this time."

There, on the screen, was a younger version of Minho bound to a chair, his head down. There were beads of sweat dripping from his temples, and his eyes were focused, widened with fear, on a pod in the corner of the dully coloured room. The younger Thomas looked confused, but the dreaming Thomas' heart lept to his throat and his stomach sunk with dread.

That was a Griever's pod, and judging by the expressions of the scientists around them, it was heading straight for Minho.

The next minute or so was a mess of grey blurs. The dream Thomas was screaming, begging. "Don't hurt him, Randall! Please!" When that didn't work, he went to threatening. "If you kill him, I won't work with you. I don't care what they do to me."

While the younger Thomas was desperately trying to convince Randall, the dreaming Thomas was screaming, horrible wretched screams forcing their way out of his throat. He needed to wake up. Why wasn't he waking up?

"Pause," Randall said hurriedly after he heard the last one. Thomas' heart was at his throat; the Griever was practically draped on top of Minho's frame, the tanned boy sweating furiously in the corner. At the command, the monster melted to the floor and slithered back to its pod.

Thomas' heart was practically leaping in his chest, and he felt faint, at least in the dream. Everything became shades of grey...fainter, fainter...gone...

–––––––––––––––––––––––

Minho woke up to the agonised shrieks of his angelic boyfriend.

"Let him go!" Thomas screamed, thrashing against the sheets. Minho winced when the heel of Thomas' foot caught his shin, but now was not the time to complain. The sheets got tangled up between then in the furious struggle, leaving Minho to thrash wildly, too, trying to escape the confining vines creeping around them.

"Thomas!" Minho shouted as he undid the knots that tied him to the bed. "You have to wake up!"

Thomas' flailing slowed, but it was evident that he wasn't awake yet, trapped in a space between dreaming and reality. "THOMAS, WAKE UP!" Minho screamed, bracing himself for what was inevitable; Thomas was going to panic.

Thomas bolted awake quickly, his forehead smacking into Minho's painfully. "Oow!" Both cried, rubbing their foreheads.

Minho was the first to regain his senses, the impact leaving a dull ring in his ears. "Are you okay, Tom?" He asked gently, shaking Thomas by the shoulder.

Thomas shook his head; Minho could feel the trembling tenseness in his shoulders.

"Do you want to talk about it, Thomas?"

"They set a Griever on you," Thomas blurted out, sniffling. Minho, upon hearing about the dreaded beast, was frozen.

"It wasn't real," He whispered. "It was just a dream.

"It was real!" Thomas screamed, making Minho recoil slightly. "It was a memory. We were kids, and they made me watch. Something about you not trying to escape again."

"I'm sorry" was the only thing Minho could conjure up, trying to wrap his head around this new development. Thomas's shook his head slightly – it tousled his dark locks which brush against Minho's chin comfortingly. "It's okay, now. It happened in the past."

"I'm just...scared..." Thomas confessed, snuggling closer to Minho. Not that Minho minded. He didn't mind. Like, at all. Snuggling with his boyfriend was always a good thing; nothing beats it, not even the campfires in Paradise, the snow that turned Thomas' cheeks a dusty pink, or the presents on Christmas day.

"I'll cuddle with you," Minho volunteered, leaning back against the headboard.

Thomas took him on his offer. "Sap," he teased.

"You love it," Minho retorted, watching the beautiful boy's eyelashes drift down to his cheekbones, fluttering slightly. "I love you."

"Love you too, Min."

–––––––––––––––––––––––

WICKED Memorandum, Date 227.4.12, Time 9:03

TO: My Associates

FROM: Kevin Anderson, Chancellor

RE: Elites, The Creation of Grievers

I would say that the trial with Subject A7 was a success. We all know of A2's connection with him (after all, all of you have read the results). The reactions from A1, B1, and B2 weren't as interesting as that of A2, but that was to be expected; A2 had the closest relationship to A7, as our Physcs had noted the other day.

The creation of our perfect maze monster seemed to throw all 4 elites off balance, as was expected. A2's reaction was, again, the most drastic, and it is safe to say that the trials are heading the way we had planned them to go. With A7's relationship with A2 being so close, sending A7 to the maze with the Griever would definitely mean the loss of some of A2's trust, but that is inevitable. We can only hope to move forward and hope that this decision was the right one to make.

I have a feeling that A2's involvement with Group A would prove to be most useful to the patterns we are rapidly discovering within the Subjects' killzones.

The reactions of B1 and B2 were as expected: they were shaken but did not hold the same compassion or anger that A1 and A2 had, notably A2. Physcs observe that B1's attitude towards A7 was indifferent at best, cold at worst. It seems that some of the elites didn't care as much as we thought they would.

This is wonderful news; we're making progress from all directions. Whether that be the perfect maze monster or the study of both the Elites and A7's killzone movement, we can safely claim a victory, another step towards the blueprint.

I congratulate you all for another success, my associates, and till next time.

Regards,

Kevin Anderson

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 68

One chapter, beta’d by both @satan-parisienne and @baelpenrose, so there should be a minimum of errors floating around in there.

As some have noticed, I did update the Master List over the weekend.  A few other things I just want to touch on:

Ask box is literally always open, as is my inbox.  Feel free to drop questions, comments, whatever in there.  I love interacting with people, so it makes my day to see y’all reach out to me.

Also, I recently crossed the threshold for 500 followers.  It’s crazy, and I’m just gobsmacked that you all follow me.  I won’t be doing a character contest this time, but keep your peepers peeled for what I am doing instead...

Now, on with our chapter!

“To confirm Councilor Reid’s statement, the bacteria that was, until recently, potentially killing us, is instead killing itself?”

“Correct, Eino.”

“And this is a bad thing because it is sentient?”

“Partially why it is bad, yes.”

“Xiomara, if I may?” I couldn’t see them, but I could practically hear Grey lean forward and push their glasses further up the bridge of their nose. Just the tone of voice told me that this Grey was well-rested and firing on all cylinders.

Xiomara nodded, then dropped her head back to suppress a groan when she realized the rest of the Council couldn’t actually see her. “Please go ahead, Grey.  You are probably better to explain this than I am.”

“Thank you.” A brief pause. “While I do confess that I argued stringently against the decision that Else is sentient, in the end, even I was satisfied with the decision.  However, Terran studies of neural matrices do show that there is a threshold of connections, below which sentience does not exist except as a potential.  It stands to reason that, for a hive minded species such as Else or even the Hujylsogox, loss of too many members would create a similar loss of sentience.”

Noah’s voice hummed in confirmation. “This is correct. Even if I were to lose too many of my avatars, and later come in proximity to others of my kind, I would no longer be myself but instead be absorbed into the sentient member, and they would gain any information I had learned.”

I felt my face contort into a horrified expression. “Noah, does that happen?”

“Only in very dire circumstances, Wisdom.  It is considered a capital crime do so against a cluster’s will, and the height of rudeness to begin to do so accidentally.”

“Question: if a species can lose sentience due to low population, can it actually be considered sentient?” Eino’s tone was carefully inquisitive rather than argumentative.

“The problem cannot be framed in that way and make logical sense,” Grey advised, not unkindly.  “According to the Galactic research database, each member of a hive-minded species serves as a neural connection for one single, larger mind.  Just because the individual loses neural awareness or function, the species does not; believing so would be comparative to stating we are not sentient as a species simply because sufficient neural damage can render one of us brain-dead.”

“Thank you for the clarification,” he breathed, seemingly in relief.

Grey continued. “In this case, however, there are no others of Else’s species. It is such a young race, that despite so many bodies, it only has one mind for now.   Should too many bodies die off from starvation out of Else’s attempt to do no further harm, sentience will be lost.  At that point, there is a reasonable amount of certainty that it will begin to eat freely again, and become sentient again.”

“And there is no guarantee that the new version of Else will like us as much as the current version.  We can’t take that chance,” Xiomara finished.  “What if we end up with a homicidal bacterium instead of an apologetic one.”

The entire channel fell silent at the weight of her words.  I couldn’t blame anyone – it was a lot to process.  Hell, I was the one who brought the topic to her attention, and even I felt the need to vomit when she said it.  It was too much to really contemplate for long.

“So, what are we supposed to do? Feed it?” The words may have sounded sarcastic coming from a different person, but I knew Pranav was considering this a genuine option.  In the time I had known him, he had always worked with the facts, regardless of what anyone hoped to dreamt.

Looked like it was my turn.  “We actually have a few options that Else mentioned on their own, when they were trying to convince me not to have them eradicated.”

After a brief pause, Giang Huynh spoke up. “Please elaborate, Sophia.”  Not only the illness, but the destruction or degradation of several structures had led to his department being the one most effected by Else.  Instead of his normal belligerence, he just sounded resigned.

Taking a deep breath, I laid out what Else and I discussed. “The first, probably easiest option, is to isolate all of Else and deposit the entire culture into the first nebula we reach.”

“Nebulas are very rich in iron,” Eino pointed out. “But does it need oxygen?”

“Else is largely anaerobic,” Grey responded. “Due to its diet of iron, open air is almost immediately fatal to it.  This explains why it has been predominantly found in bone marrow and the spleen, as that is where the highest amount of iron can be found in the human body, before the blood is oxygenated.”

“Are there any downsides to this option?” Simon asked.  Since I was technically still on medical leave, he was acting in my stead. The only reason I was allowed on this conference was as a witness, not a Councillor.

“Else doesn’t like it,” I admitted. “Because, and I quote, ‘there are no humans in a nebula’.”

“Miys, does Else have a say in this?” Eino asked, curious.

“As a sentient species, yes, they must agree to the relocation unless their current environment is untenable without drastic intervention.  Technically, their current environment is viable for the foreseeable future.”

“Wait – what?” Simon sputtered.  “We only recently stopped needing constant transfusions.”

“Not all of the ship needed them on a constant basis,” Grey pointed out.  “And some who were impacted did not need them at all until very near the end of the crisis.”

She means others like Tyche, I realized. “Okay, so that’s an option, but only if we lack any others and can talk Else into it,” I forged ahead. “Which means any discussion of whether or not Else needs to be forcibly relocated is moot, because they did bring up other options.” I paused for response, and continued when there was none. “The second option was dropping them off on a barren, iron-rich planet with a late-sequence star.”

“How is that any different?” Huynh sputtered in confusion.

I watched Xiomara’s eyes get wide. “Tactics,” she breathed before repeating it, louder. “It’s a tactical preference. An iron-rich world, especially a barren one, is more likely to be mined, isn’t it?”

“Mining such planets requires significantly less effort and resources than are needed to mine a nebula,” Noah confirmed.

“And mining gives them the chance to be picked up by a new species,” Xiomara dropped like a bomb, triggering a rush of muttering.

“We should only base the value of an option on whether or not it will be a detriment to Else if it is certain to prevent the detriment, regardless of the impact to us.” I was initially surprised to hear such a venomous tone from Huynh, before considering his home nation’s history. Okay, he has every reason to be adamant here.  After all, his country had suffered horribly at the hands of mine, not even a century prior. “Are there any other options?”

“Put them in stasis and bring them with us,” I confessed. “But, I also pointed this out to Else: And then what? It’s still a finite resource situation, in the long run.  Not to mention the fact that we are working toward having the least possible impact to the new world – doesn’t bringing a sentient plague with us completely defeat the purpose?”

“We are already studying the impact our own gut bacteria will have on Kepler 442b,” Grey added. “And while we have no plans for large-scale mining of natural resources, the planet and its star already have poor metallicity.”

“I feel like those options really cover everything that is actually available to us,” Xiomara confessed.

“Agreed,” Pranav chimed in. “There is an option that Else does not like, but provides greatest opportunity for it to thrive.  There is an option it likes, which also provides the chance for a species that shows every indication of being quite social to potentially interact with others.  And there is an option that is really only a stopgap measure.”

“Ultimately, Else has to agree to whatever measure is to be taken,” Noah pointed out, attempting to be helpful.

“Else wants to stay with us,” I rebutted. “So much so that it is about to lobotomize itself in the attempt.  We have to convince it to take an option that is better for its survival.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realized what I was saying.  I didn’t even attempt to suppress the groan of regret that erupted.

“If you are done impersonating a cow,” Xiomara grinned wryly, “Yes, that means we need to negotiate with Else.”

“You mean I need to,” I grumbled.

Grey gave me a sliver of vain hope. “We are attempting to locate another individual who has been able to get in touch with it, Sophia.  While their method of conveying it was quite crude, Mr. MacMaoilir and Mr. Okima did have a valid concern regarding how taxing it is for your body when you are speaking with Else.”

“Any luck?”

“Not as of yet, no.” Damn it. Even Grey sounded unhappy with the fact.

“So, unless something drastic changes, the plan is for me to try to talk Else into agreeing to either relocating to a nebula or a barren planet, either way, no people.  Does that about sum it up?” Confirmations came from everyone. “Wonderful. And if anyone comes up with any other options, please make sure we know ahead of time. Even a brief conversation is going to be ten hours, if the last one is anything to go by.”

“About that,” Eino ventured hesitantly. “The case study for your previous interview with Else indicates that you recited scientific papers to provide a lexicon. Is this true?”

“I wish it wasn’t, but yes, it’s true.”

His tone almost immediately perked up. “Since you know going in what you will be discussing, would it be more beneficial if we instead played a targeted lexicon for you to recite?  It may minimize the time you spend reciting unnecessary or repetitive words.” When I didn’t immediately respond, he clarified.  “I understand that your previous interaction involved many open-ended questions, and therefore you needed as many words as conceivably necessary for an intelligible response, but this time, the questions are close-ended, are they not?”

“The questions are at least more close-ended, yes,” I admitted, realizing what he was getting at.

“Council, I would like to offer my department to support this situation by preparing a targeted lexicon for the upcoming negotiations with Else. Should another person be found to enter into negotiations, we will also create a script for the questions themselves, which should provide enough language for Else to respond coherently with their answers.”

I shrugged and nodded at Xiomara.  Even if I was going to be the person doing this, a targeted lexicon would be easier – and less time consuming – to recite than scientific papers.

She nodded firmly before replying, “That is a value add, definitely. Council vote?”

Unsurprisingly, the decision was unanimous.  “Any idea how long it will take to get everything ready?” I asked, admittedly impatient. “We don’t know how long we have until Else reaches that threshold Grey mentioned.”

Eino hummed for a moment. “Tentatively? Five days.  Conservatively, I would put it at a week.”

Pinching my nose before swiping an entire down my entire face, I made some quick estimates. “I don’t think Else has that long, I’ll be honest.  Grey, do you have any idea how fast it is reducing itself?  Or better yet, how long before it reaches a critical density?”

“As to the second inquiry, there has been no study to even begin estimations, but I will task a group of researchers with finding an answer. However, we do have hard data in regard to the first question: Since you last spoke with Else, seventeen percent of its population has died off.  It has also ceased replication of itself.  By current estimates, we have less than thirteen days before Else is entirely extinct.”

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[elusetta]

1-20 Aurie :P

Thank you so much!!!!!

1. how did they feel about raising children? did these feelings change once they became parents?

Kata, for one, did not expect to ever be a mother. Josephine knew her family would want her to have children, but she definitely didn’t expect to have children the way she did… Aurie was very much a surprise.

2. what’s their parenting approach? do they raise their children differently than how they were raised?

They try to raise Aurie in a supportive environment, but Josephine wants to ensure that she’s diplomatically trained, and ready to be a Montilyet heir just in case. Since Aurie has a natural charisma and came from a noble background, it comes easily to her. Kata didn’t really know her parents, so she tries to just be close to Aurie and support her in everything she does.

3. what is their favorite thing(s) about their children? what do they love about their children the most?

Kata loves Aurie’s kindness, and Josephine adores the way she’s always asking questions, as well as her self-assurance.

(putting the rest under a readmore!)

4. who gets the most emotional seeing their children grow older?

Kata. She never knew her parents, and she never expected to have kids, so watching Aurie grow up is a completely new experience for her that she had no idea would impact her as much as it did. Josephine also gets emotional, but she’s a little more composed about it, even though she does fawn over Aurie more than Kata.

5. who do they think their children takes after the most? which traits do the children share with their parents? (appearance or personality wise)

She has the diplomatic skill of Josephine plus the curiosity and affectionate tendencies of Kata. She looks nothing like Kata, being human and not qunari, and has only a shallow resemblance to Josephine that comes from their shared Antivan heritage. 

6. how do they celebrate their baby’s first birthday? are they the type of parents to go over the top for birthdays/holidays?

They didn’t have Aurie while she was very young, but Josephine throws huge parties for her every year. Aurie loves parties. Kata always makes a big deal about her birthdays too, but in quieter ways; taking her on picnics, letting her pick a foal from her best stud, etc.

7. how do they soothe their crying baby when they’re out in public? who’s the best at rocking the baby to sleep?

Again, they didn’t have Aurie until she was about six years old, but when she does need soothing (which is rare) Josephine’s the one who can get through to her, usually by softly singing or reading her a story.

8. how do they care for their children when they get sick? who checks on them in the middle of the night?

Aurie is a resilient girl, but Kata still worries when she gets sick, and she’s the one who’s more likely to check on her once every thirty minutes just to make sure she’s okay.

9. who is the most protective of their children? what makes them both shift into overprotective mode?

Josephine is very protective of Aurie and is vehemently against bringing her anywhere near the Game; Kata is just as protective, but less about politics than actual threats. The few times that Aurie has been threatened by an enemy of the Inquisition, Kata has made them pay for it.

10. who spoils their children the most? who finds it difficult telling their children ‘no’?

Josephine can never say no to anything Aurie wants, but since Aurie is practical and not inclined to flights of fancy, it doesn’t really get exploited. However, Aurie is constantly asking for new books and to go to different places to learn, which has resulted in her becoming essentially the Inquisition’s second, smaller ambassador.

11. what was their baby’s first word(s)? if the baby’s first word was something used to address their parent(s), who claimed bragging rights?

Aurie called Kata “mother” first, which resulted in Kata straight up losing her shit and sobbing for an hour. Josephine was mildly perturbed.

12. do their kids ever find them embarrassing?

Aurie is regularly embarrassed by Kata making social blunders, but sees them as teachable moments more than anything.

13. what is their name(s)? is there any significance to it? any nicknames they go by? or cute pet names their parents give them?

Aurie’s full name is Aurelia Doria Montilyet Adaar. Her birth parents gave her the name Aurelia, Kata gave her her middle name in honor of her closest friend Dorian, and she chose to take both of her parents’ names. She’s rarely called by her first name, though; mostly, everyone calls her Aurie. Kata calls her “kadan”.

14. how were they like as small children? did their personality change drastically as they grew older?

When they adopted her, Aurie was practical, collected, and never showed emotions for fear that they would kick her out if she upset them. As she matured, though, she grew happier and, though still reserved, more outspoken, as well as developing very affectionate tendencies.

15. what do they usually eat at restaurants? are they a picky eater?

She will not eat meat, but that’s about her only thing. She’s pretty adventurous.

16. have they ever scared their parents?

Oh, absolutely. Kata’s easy to scare. Sometimes Aurie gets so caught up in studying the history of Fereldan taxes or whatever that she forgets to eat or sleep, which terrifies Kata half to death. 

17. what was their favorite childhood toys/games growing up?

Toys? Pah. Toys are for children, not ambassadors like Aurie. Just kidding; it was a doll Krem made for her who she named Princess Celestia. She loved to have Princess Celestia negotiate trade treaties with ambassadors from made-up countries. For her seventh birthday, Iron Bull gave her a model of a Highland Ravager dragon made from steel, wood and leather, who Aurie named Mr. Wings. Those two are her favorites.

18. which parent do they call out to whenever they have a bad dream?

She trusts Kata to protect her when she’s afraid of something material, but tends to go to Josephine for advice when she’s worried in general.

19. what is their favorite thing to do with their parents? any favorite games or mutual hobbies?

To Kata’s delight, Aurie loves horseback riding. She and her moms like to go for long rides together. Josephine and Kata also read to her (Kata struggles with it, since she only recently learned to read, but it’s good practice for them both). Also, Aurie likes to learn languages and such, which Josephine encourages; so far, she’s got Antivan, Orlesian, Qunlat, and some Tevene (courtesy of her Uncle Dorian) under her belt, and is working on learning Elvish. 

20. did they grow up to be different than what their parents had expected?

Well, her parents didn’t expect to run into a little Antivan orphan in the streets of Val Royeaux and adopt her. But no, she’s been exactly what they expected; a beautiful, kind, talented, smart girl, who could never let them down.

[graveyardsnowflake]

You know what I really want from the Fallout series?

A prequel, and have the actions affect the outcome, in both that game and the next.

Also, I’m on mobile, so sorry about the wall of text ahead.

You can only do a nuclear apocalypse so many times, and environmental storytelling can only tell you so much. A prequel can tell you the whole story; how it all went down, basically. But I want more than that. I really like what the Dragon Age series does: your actions in Origins will affect the world you play in 2, and your actions in 2 will affect Inquisition. The same for Mass Effect: the actions in 1, will affect the world in 2, and your actions in both will affect 3. I want that, but for Fallout. The actions you take in the Fallout Prequel (side quests and DLC included), and every game after, will affect the rest of the series, and I’m not just talking about the NPCs and some minor aspects of gameplay. I’m talking about how it’ll affect your character, the scenery, the amount of radiation and number of enemies. Getting the best possible ending in the prequel will certainly reduce the impact of the bombs; fewer, if any, radioactive areas and items, fewer destroyed buildings, fewer...well, enemies in general. Every single step your prequel character took towards ensuring that the nuclear apocalypse doesn’t happen, or mitigating the damage as much as possible in the event of one, will give you a much brighter, more optimistic version of the current Fallout timeline: NPCs are smarter and healthier (duh); there might be “shields” of sorts around certain areas that not only prevented damage from the bombs, but also stops radiation from entering these areas by clearing all visitors and their inventories of radiation and “nullifying” (whatever the real word for it) radiation storms; the Vaults, and Vault-Tec, if they exist at all, will be much, much more humane, to the point where they do what they advertised, which is pretty much provide a nuclear bunker, safe from outside threats. These Vaults will no doubt be connected to the Shielded areas, allowing every survivor and all subsequent generations safe and radiation-free places to live. There will even be some type of long-range subway system connecting all the Vaults and Shielded areas, ensuring that life in the post-apocalypse continues as normally as possible. There might be a few changes to way of life, yes, but everyone gets to continue on as though nothing really changed. The Brotherhood of Steel might not be affected much; they keep ghouls and raiders and whatever else may pose a threat to the Shielded/Vaulted areas at bay, and recover anything that may be immediately useful or can be recycled and reused, be it scrap, tools, weapons, terminals, anything really. And, getting the best possible ending in each of the next games, after getting the best possible ending in the prequel, will lead to a safer, healthier, smarter world in the next game, and so on, until your reach Fallout 4, where the post-apocalyptic world is at its best: peaceful, and practically radiation-free. Getting the worst possible ending in the prequel puts you at the opposite end of the spectrum: a very, very pessimistic vision of the nuclear apocalypse. Every single day is a battle. Illiteracy and disease is the norm; you’re lucky to find a literate person, much less even be literate. Ghouls, raiders, super mutants, and radiation galore. The life span has shortened drastically; people are lucky to live past 40. Many groups. Little trust. Lots of gunfire. That’s the Fallout series I want.

[jackdawyt]

Something I often think about regarding Dragon Age 4 is the next protagonist. Who they could be, what is their story, and how will they become our new hero? But most importantly - what will set Dragon Age 4's new protagonist apart from previous main heroes?

The Inquisitor was an incredibly powerful figure throughout Southern Thedas - one who's fame severely grew throughout the events of Inquisition's narrative. To date, the Inquisitor is (certainly) the most infamous, powerful character in the entire franchise, period!

They only grew bigger in power, with an influence that could set the very scales of justice. In many cases, the Inquisitor personally could decide the very fate of Thedas, like impacting the decision of the new ruler of Orlais, and the election of the next divine.

The Inquisitor and their army proved to be a force not to be reckoned with! One that wouldn't give up without a fight with many delegates fighting diplomatic and military battles, both ready and able to change the tides of any war.

Let us not forget that the Inquisitor has fought through sheer political turmoil, a demon uprising attempt and the very rise of an ancient Tevinter adversary! They've gone to the Fade and back with their battles, only to succeed against any opposing force.

So my question is... how in Andraste's knickers are we going to get a new protagonist who can beat, rival or match the reputation, respect and power of the Inquisitor? Well, simply put, I don't think we will...

Judging by the ending of Trespasser, we're certainly going to play as a new protagonist - someone we've never even heard of before - no matter the case, that's just how the cookie crumbles when it comes to the main playable character in Dragon Age.

Based on Project Joplin's initial concept, we know that the main protagonist was "going to be a spy" with a plot emphasized on pulling of heists around the Tevinter Imperium.

(Although that sounds like an epic narrative and something that we should speculate the heck out of. I am working on a separate video exploring the dynamics of playing as a potential spy protagonist).

It's quite the divide from experiencing the life of our glamorous Inquisitor with their Pinkquisition... to now seemingly playing as a thief in a small gang. Hear me out, I'm not against the change-up, after all, variety is the spice of life. I'm just curious about how BioWare will handle this drastic change for us.

This is (of course) subjective, however, something that I personally fear(?) for Dragon Age 4 is accommodating a new protagonist when in the past, we've already been given such a significant and relevant hero with the Inquisitor.

How are we - the players; going to adapt to a new protagonist having fulfilled the role of our Inquisitor? I'm apprehensive for the contrast of the two protagonists, but also the relevance of the same plot with a new hero.

The narrative going forward is the Inquisitor's story, Solas is their 'problem', and only they should be the one responsible for dealing with him. So, they both can reach an ending in the story they've equally started and shared together.

For this tale to be handed over and reduced to a new hero, it's in the opposing direction. I worry for the lack of significance for this new protagonist, that they may feel dis-attached to this story, and have no relevance to it.

What could they possibly add that the Inquisitor couldn't? How will this new main character stand out, what can they do differently and how can they rival Solas? Well, I have an idea that satiates the approach to a new protagonist, whilst keeping the significance of the Inquisitor.

What if we have two playable protagonists for Dragon Age 4? Something that I'd like to call a dual protagonist.

Perhaps we play as the Inquisitor for the first mission in Dragon Age 4, introducing the narrative and developing the time spent and changes since Inquisition's events. And after the prologue, we're then introduced to our new protagonist who will be a spy embarking on heists throughout Tevinter.

75% of the game can be spent delving into our new protagonist adventuring throughout Tevinter, gearing up for epic heists and further building established lore.

25% of the game can then be spent taking the role as our Inquisitor! They may not be fit to fight, but they can certainly fit an advisory role, dealing with many delegations and diplomatic disputes, building up the narrative against Solas, and mentoring our new protagonist alongside them as their protégé.

For the main journey, we would be spending the majority of our time through our new protagonist's shoes, and then at major key plot moments, we'd switch to playing as our Inquisitor.

This way we can enjoy playing as a new hero entrancing into Tevinter and all of its mayhem! Filled with new smaller adversaries, many narrative threads, plenty of lore, and overhaul attempting to follow the Inquisition's mission.

On top of that, we can still enjoy delving into our Inquisitor's story as they continue to stop Solas and his scheme to destroy the veil.

We had Hawke return as an NPC in Dragon Age: Inquisition, who served to offer many insights to fight against Corypheus. While that was great, I would like the Inquisitor to return in Dragon Age 4 as a playable protagonist. Not as a party member, but as a separate hero with small segments of the game strictly dedicated to them.

This two-character mechanic was actually utilized in Mass Effect: Andromeda. For one key mission towards the end of the game, we'd switch and play as our other sibling, furthering the story. And I actually quite liked it, so much so, that I'm hoping that this mechanic can extend to the next Dragon Age game.

We can cultivate throughout the entire narrative as our new spy-hero, they can follow new quests, characters, romances, locations, etc. However, when the main narrative kicks in and things become gritty, the Inquisitor takes the main focus as the playable protagonist.

Outside of that, the Inquisitor can serve as an adviser or informant on all things Solas related, pushing the narrative forward with rumours and threads they've uncovered, and then sending our new hero out into the Thedas on many grand quests.

In summary, the main tale of Dragon Age 4 belongs to the Inquisitor, it's their journey and Solas is their friend, adversary or even lover. For this narrative to be kacky-handed to a new protagonist without any establishment of the Inquisitor is how it will fail. To some capacity, the Inquisitor must return for Dragon Age 4.

It doesn't have to be via the method of a dual protagonist. Personally, as an Inquisitor fanboy, I'd like it to be that way, because we can see how BioWare is adapting to this dual mechanic, with both Hawke and the Ryder twins building on the scope of this feature within the Frostbite engine. They worked out how to pull this feature off in smaller cases, with much innovation, I could see this concept becoming a reality.  

In other inquisitive regards, I have talked about how the Inquisitor should return in Dragon Age 4 plenty of times on my channel, but adding to the list, I would love to play as them once more like a dual protagonist in Dragon Age 4. They deserve to see the end of Solas's narrative, they even swore in Trespasser that they would either redeem or kill him. It'd be outright ludicrous if the Inquisitor were never to return.

In any case, tell me down below how you see the return of the Inquisitor in Dragon Age 4, and what you feel about our new hero, any thoughts on what you'd like to see? What can set them apart from previous protagonists? Let me know!

[lilith-lovett]

Found Families - Home is Where the Hart is - Chapter Eight

I have been looking forward to writing this chapter since the beginning but now I’m not entirely happy with it and I wish I would have split it into two separate chapters as it took absolutely forever to write but here we are. And as per usual I hope you enjoy this update.

Masterlist

Summary: The day of Logan and Patton day out finally arrives.

Word Count: 6008 (this is a monster chapter I am so sorry)

Warnings: Implied child abuse, self-deprecation, anxiety, disordered eating, food mention. (Not as many as usual this a fluffy chapter but if there is any I have missed please let me know).

Logan found himself on the day his outing with Patton was scheduled pacing back and forth in Maggie’s office, partaking in one of his counting rituals as he waited restlessly for Patton’s arrival. It had been three days since Patton’s last visit but to Logan it felt like an eternity (though it definitely hadn’t been as that would be physically impossible). Waves of anxiety crashed within his stomach, his heart pounded against his rib cage. Why was he feeling like this? It was merely an outing, not a matter of significance or an event which would drastically alter his existence. But why did it feel so?

Maggie had been carefully studying him since he arrived, glancing up ever so often from her marking to observe him metaphorically wearing a hole in the floor where he paced. Logan could sense her eyes on him but couldn’t bring himself to meet her gaze, knowing it would surely prompt a conversation regarding his rather confusing emotions. So, he continued to pace. Walking back and forth, back and forth until a hand on his shoulder physically stopped him in his tracks. Maggie guided him to the arm chair, urging him to sit, which he did, although begrudgingly. Though resting his aching legs certainly brought about some relief. Maggie situated herself in front of the arm chair presumably to prevent him from escaping, to silently stim until he broke.  

“Logan, I know you are nervous but if Mr Hart is everything you tell me he is. I can assure you everything will be fine,” Maggie said offering a warm smile, settling the apprehension in his stomach. “Do you trust him?”.

The question caught Logan off guard. His trust had been betrayed and broken so often and by so many, he found it exceedingly difficult to build meaningful relationships any more especially finding someone he considered close enough to warrant or deserve his trust. He had determined previously that despite his growing fondness for Patton he didn’t trust him but should he? Put his trust into the man who had been nothing but kind and patient with him but what of the consequences? Could he afford to have his trust broken again? What would be left?

“It is okay if you don’t, building trust takes time,” She said taking Logan’s elongated silence as her answer. “But if you continue to be open with him and show a little more of the real you I know is in there, I think you could learn to,”. Maggie returned to her desk, allowing Logan to process what she had said. It was true. Logan had been more…open as of late specifically with Patton, an action completely out of character for him but Patton was a special case, like no potential parent he had ever met before and he was showing interest in Logan. At times Logan struggled to comprehend why. He commonly found himself searching for the ‘why’ in every scenario. In processes, engineering, human behaviour but Patton perplexed him. Logan could never detect a singular reason or motive for his actions, Maggie assured him that is was Patton’s ‘fondness’ for him which drove him but Logan couldn’t bring himself to believe it.

“You better introduce me, I need to meet the man you are clearly smitten with,” Maggie said giggling at Logan’s pouted expression.

 Eventually, Mrs Davis found and dragged Logan away to make himself presentable. With a final glance back at Maggie, she gave him an encouraging thumbs up, a action he returned before she disappeared from view. Now, trapped in the bathroom, scrubbing at his tired features though his heightened mood these past few days had, had a significant impact on his appearance. Looking far less exhausted then he had done the week prior. He dragged a brush through his hair, the sting barely there and dressed in his best clothes he preserved for special occasions. Once his appearance had been deemed acceptable, he was directed to his and Patton’s regularly meeting room, to wait anxiously for Patton’s arrival.

He found himself unable to sit still, the constant bouncing of his thigh swiftly growing irritating. So, he instead turned to pacing the length of the moderately sized room, weaving his way through the obstacles scattered throughout the room each time taking a different pathway to the opposite side. He steered himself clear from the window, knowing if he let his mind settle for a second he would be stuck staring out of it, scanning the streets outsides for Patton’s vibrant yellow jacket. So, Logan kept moving. Occupying his mind with memory puzzles and thought-provoking questions and topics for his next research project. Which worked, for a short while until the incessant ticking of the clocking grew to loud for him to ignore. The knowledge that each second which ticked by was a second closer to Patton’s arrival and the first time he is leaving the confines of the orphanage in the almost two years of him being there, was suffocating.

Logan sensed his body moving independently towards the window despite the protests from his mind, his body simply would not obey and he found himself in an all to familiar position. Stuck to the window, staring out at the blurred shapes below. It was a fruitless endeavour. Logan knew this. His poor eyesight had deteriorated to the extent where his current glasses did little to improve his vision, which did make getting around a lot more problematic than it otherwise would have been. But yet he found himself there anyway, squinting his eyes, searching for any indication of Patton’s arrival. Luckily, Patton’s luminous yellow jacket came into view a short while later. He was here. He was actually here. He had kept his promise. Logan felt as if a sizeable weight had been lifted from his shoulders as a smile crept onto his face. He was finally getting out of here. It may only be for the day but even a minute outside of the constricting walls of the orphanage would feel like heaven.

The patter of footsteps alerted Logan to an approaching presence and the door opened to reveal Patton, dressed in pale blue polo shirt, tan coloured trousers and a glimpse of his grey cardigan from beneath his raincoat. The minute he entered his face broke into a grin which Logan couldn’t help but return.

“Hiya Logan, are you ready to go,” Patton asked.

“Yes I am. But do I now get to know what you have planned?” Logan responded. Desperate to know what Patton had planned for their outing, he’d spent many of his days and nights theorising plans for their upcoming excursion.

“Nope, it’s a surprise,” Patton exclaimed his smile growing even wider while Logan’s fell marginally a deep pit of anxiety growing within his stomach. He loathed not knowing, unable to prepare suitable precautions or reactions leaving him completely in the dark.

Patton presumably noticed the uncertainty which laced Logan’s expression as his own facial expression melted into one of understanding and concern as he made his away over to Logan’s position in the centre of the room.

“It’s alright Logan, I promise I will not force you to do anything you don’t want to. If anything I have planned makes you uncomfortable or anxious we will leave immediately. Don’t worry I have lot’s of ideas in mind I think you’ll love. Do you trust me?” Patton asked

“I-I…t-trust you,” Logan stuttered though he did not quite believe it himself he felt it was the correct answer though his mind was put at ease by Patton’s words. Despite that he struggled to meet Patton gaze but Logan’s reserved response seemed to not deter him.

“Should we go now?” Patton asked gesturing to the door.

“Yes,” Logan replied.

Minutes later, Logan and Patton walked out of the orphanage side by side. Catching the glares of both the children who had slipped into the foyer to witness Logan’s departure, their faces fixed into deep scowls and the matrons who whispered to each other under hushed breathes, watching through side glances. Though the one face which almost brought a smirk to his lips was that of Madame Claire, who stood erect in the centre of the foyer, arms crossed across her chest, her stoic expression poorly masking her agitation and dismay. Faces which disappeared from view as Logan stepped over the threshold into the outside world at Patton’s side, venturing out into the unknown for what he may later consider the greatest day of his life.

 The walk between the Orphanage - which Patton was glad to escape - and their first destination was filled with their usual chatter. Patton would introduce a topic of conversation and allow it to flow between the pair as he lead and Logan followed, apprehension evident in his movements. He had been cautious when deciding on locations to take Logan on their outing, to avoid making him uncomfortable, instead choosing places he hoped would draw the real Logan out of his shell and return the curious sparkle to his eye. Patton had to admit, he nearly cried upon hearing those three words. ‘I trust you’. He knew it wasn’t entirely the truth but he still held the hope that someday in the not so distant future it would become a reality.  

The journey passed swiftly and before long they had arrived at their first destination. The town’s largest book-store. Patton observed Logan as he studied the building, watching as his expression shifted from inquisitive searching to a child-like wonder at the realisation of their whereabouts. Patton wished he could capture the pure look of elation, painted across Logan’s normally stoic features and commit it to memory. The sparkling wide-eyes, glowing red cheeks Patton couldn’t help but squeal at his cuteness.

“Is this a book-store?” Logan asked a wide toothy grin spread across his face. Patton held back yet another squeal, this was the real Logan very few people would ever have the pleasure of meeting. The young boy who lit up at the mention of books, shedding his cold outer exterior whenever one of his favourite titles were mentioned.

“Yup, I thought we could get you some,” Patton suggested but as he did the smile disappeared, replaced with the same apprehension and unease as previously.

“Y-you shouldn’t waste any money on me,” Logan stuttered curling in on himself, one arm winding around his stomach. Patton’s heart clenched at the sight and the fact he didn’t believe he deserved something as minimal as a couple of books. Patton wanted to have a seriously talk with whoever made him feel like he didn’t deserve kindness.

“It’s not a waste if I want to,” Patton responded as he watched Logan process what he had said, his expression remaining unchanged.

“B-but…I-I,” Logan stuttered. Words forming on his tongue but never being said, shock painted clear as day across his face. Patton winced internally but it made all the more determined to make this the best day out ever for Logan.

“Okay compromise, one book,” Patton suggested. Praying Logan would agree, to see that smile and bright eyed expression returned to his face once again and for it to remain.

“I suppose one book would be acceptable,” Logan murmured barely audible but Patton took it as a success and ushered Logan inside.  

The look of awe returned to his face the minute the entered. Finally experiencing the sheer number of titles in its full glory. The store spanned an enormous three stories and he was positive Logan would insist on scouring every one of them in search of the book he really wanted. Patton trailed after Logan as he combed through the many shelves, picking up a book, reading the blurb or maybe the first few pages if it piqued his interest but then ultimately returned it to it’s correct position of the shelf. All while Patton provided his own opinions and a humourous commentary, while also challenging himself to come up with as many book-themed puns as he could resulting in light-hearted groans from Logan in response.

“Wait, this is a good one I promise,” Patton assured Logan who had stopped in his book hunt in order to listen. “I tried to make a reservation the other day but I couldn’t. Do you know why?”.

“Please don’t,”. Logan dead-panned.

“Because they were all BOOKED!” Patton exclaimed bursting into a fit of giggles as he received more than a few strange looks from some nearby strangers, gaining yet another exaggerated sigh from Logan but Patton could see the hint of a smile he was desperately trying to hide. So he counted it as a win.

Patton and Logan continued to make their way through the maze of shelves, from horror to fantasy to science fiction, pausing every so often so Logan could examine another title. He couldn’t help but smile at how domestic it felt, he wandered these shelves numerous time before with Roman, Virgil and Dee in tow but now with Logan by his side he felt one step closer to inviting a new member into his family. Through all of the three stories Logan’s enthusiasm never wavered, constantly rushing to the next shelf of potential choices, his lips moving but no sound came out.

“Hey Logan, what are you doing?” Patton asked as Logan returned another book to its correct position on the shelf.

“I am attempting to memorise the titles to recommend to Maggie when I return, she is also an avid reader,” Logan explained tracing his index finger along the spine of second book, studying the intricate front cover.

“Aw Logan, you are so sweet,” Patton squealed struggling to restrain himself from pulling Logan into a hug especially since the scarlet blush coating his cheeks made him look so gosh diddly darn cute.

“I am not!” Logan protested glancing away in embarrassment.

“Are too,”.

“Am not,”.

Their back and forth argument carried on for another five minutes, both far to stubborn to give in. Until Logan eventually admitted defeat and accepted the compliment, a shy smile creeping onto his lips. A short while later they finally reached the third story where Logan continued his search, a content smile stretching across his lip, the usual weight having dissipated entirely from his shoulders as Patton watched on, a pleasant sensation flowering within his chest.

Finally, once Logan had searched through every shelf in the entire book store he sprung towards Patton, a book clutched to his chest, practically vibrating with excitement and his eyes lit up like stars.

“Did you find a book?” Patton asked unable to prevent the steadily building squeal from escaping at Logan’s complete change in character; from the withdrawn boy he met at the Open Day to the passionate and full of life boy he saw before him now. Completely open and comfortable instead of surrounded by impenetrable walls, speaking freely instead of drowning in silence. This was the real Logan and Patton was so happy he had the privilege of being one of the few people to see it.

“Yes, its called The Murder of Rodger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie, Maggie informed me that it was one of her favourites and I have always wanted to read it,” Logan exclaimed thrusting the book towards Patton, bouncing slightly on his heels repeatedly.

“I’m guessing this is the book you want,” Patton giggled at Logan animated gestures as he was completely enthralled in his explanation of the novel.

“Um…Yes, I would very much like this book,” Logan mumbled hands halting in his enthusiastic explanation, fingertips raising to his lips which Patton had seen him do several times since meeting Logan, averting his eyes.

“It’s okay Logan, I want to,” Patton reassured Logan, knowing the guilt he presumably felt over the minimal expense despite the fact Patton desperately wanted to buy Logan more books then he could ever hope to read in a lifetime, but he knew things like this took time and effort but he was willing.

Logan responded with a nod, giving the book to Patton who held it as it were a precious artifact so not to crumple its pristine pages as he bought it, returning it to Logan who held the novel close to his chest. A soft smile appearing on his face as he did.    

Next they travelled to their second location of the day, it was a little further away then the book store which was relatively close by to the Orphanage and Patton could see the growing agitation in Logan. Visible in the uneasy silence between the pair and the tension present in his jaw and shoulders as they passed yet another row of shops and buildings. Patton placed a gentle hand on Logan’s taut shoulder who flinched, jolting back to the present before meeting Patton’s concerned gaze, offering a wobbly smile in return, turning back to the path ahead but Patton’s hand remained. Fingers moving in a repetitive circular motion for added comfort and assurance, knowing how the minimal action helped to calm Virgil when he was anxious and it seemingly also worked on Logan.

Couples and families smiled at the display as they passed, cooing at the relationship between the two, comments made in passing about how cute his son was without correcting them. He found he didn’t want to. He wanted so badly for this to become his new reality: to take Logan out for weekly outings to museums, aquariums and book-stores, to buy him more books then he could ever read in a lifetime, if only to see his face light up with a beautiful child-like wonder. Patton could imagine family dinners, all sat around the dinner table, talking about the mundane. Holidays. Easter spent painting Easter eggs and eating way to much chocolate. Halloween dressed in scary costumes, decorating the house for the occasion, baking all sorts of sweet treats. Christmas waking early, gathering around the Christmas tree to open presents and a home cooked Christmas dinner with family and friends to complete the night.

Patton could imagine it all. But was forced to abandoned those fantasies for the time being and focus on making this day out perfect for Logan.

                                                           ***

They arrived a short while later to their second location of the day. From the large buildings exterior it wasn’t obvious where they were. Patton snuck at glance at Logan’s curious gaze as he studied his surrounding. Patton could see the cogs and wheels turning from within his head attempting to figure out where they were. Pupils flickering over the structure, eyes carefully studying the exterior, searching intently for any clues linking to their location.

“Where are we, Patton?” Logan asked turning to Patton, having exhausted his own list of possible options.

“You’ll see,” Patton responded with a knowing smile obtaining a roll of the eyes and a half-hearted sigh in response from Logan who charged on ahead, Patton following suit.

The moment they entered a gasp erupted from Logan as he took in the sight. Beautiful, glowing stars, strewn across the blackness, forming marvellous galaxies. A rainbow of colours, exploding from within. Our solar system hung from the seemingly endless abyss, rotating around a vibrant sun which illuminated the darkness surrounding it. Constellations adorning the walls, painted with painstaking detail. The big dipper, the little dipper and many others Patton couldn’t identify but as he glanced over to Logan he could see entire universes in his wide eyes, filled with unshed tears, marvelling at the beauty surrounding them.

“Patton, what is this place?” Logan asked his voice coming out in breathy gasps as he admired the display, the stars reflecting in his eyes, body among the galaxies.

“It is a Planetarium, kind of like a space museum,” Patton explained as he observed Logan bouncing on his heels, hands vibrating by his sides in excitement at the mention of his very favourite topic of conversation. Patton had spent hours simply listening to Logan talk about space, watching as his eyes lit up whenever Patton broached the topic, as he expressed his innermost feelings and emotions through definitions and explanations and theories. Logan was truly out of this world. Pun intended.

Logan’s face lit up like it was Christmas day, stars reflecting in his wide shinning eyes filled with unshed tears at the magnificent sight. Patton knew Logan’s love of all things space well from their frequent conversations regarding recent scientific discoveries, fun facts Logan had learned and books Maggie had gifted him on the wonders of the Universe. A trip to the local Planetarium, he himself hadn’t had a chance to visit yet, seemed appropriate and venturing slightly out of town for the experience was entirely worth it for the look of pure elation on Logan’s face.

“I-I…thank you, Patton,” Logan said glancing away from the display to Patton, a wide toothy smile stretching across his face, resulting in yet another high-pitched squeal to be emitted from Patton.

“You’re welcome. Now let’s go find some good seats, shall we?” Patton replied stretching a hand out towards Logan instinctively but before he could retract his hand and apologise for his boldness Logan took it. His touch barely there, his palm clammy and his gaze severely averted from Patton’s. Oh my gosh, Patton’s heart may spontaneously combust if this kid gets any cuter.

Once Patton had gotten over his minor heart attack, he tightened his grip on Logan’s hand, leading him into the crowd. They found seats relatively close to the front for optimal viewing - Logan’s words not his - but with nearby access to an exit point in the event of Logan becoming overwhelmed or uncomfortable. Logan had since then let go of his hand instead allowing them to flap by his side, fingertips tapping repeatedly on his thighs as he bounced in his seat too enthralled by the show to notice his visible stimming and in the moment Patton found himself more focused on Logan’s look of awe, re-lighting his previously muted blue eyes returning the light to the Patton adored, than the images of stars and planets being projected onto the ceiling of the auditorium. He was truly incredible, he wanted to protect him for everything which sought to hurt him and someday - hopefully soon - he would.

“Pa…Patton…Patton!” Logan snapped Patton out of his daze, he shook himself off, focusing attention once again onto Logan who had been insistently poking Patton in the stomach for the past minute in a half.

“Oh sorry kiddo, I guess I was a little lost in…space,” Patton had with a giggle receiving yet another groan from Logan. “What was it you wanted to tell me?”.

“Oh yes. Did you know their is a planet which may be made out of diamonds?” Logan said lowering his voice after gaining a few pointed glares from the people seated around them. Could Logan get any more adorable? Patton wasn’t sure how much more his fragile heart could take.

“No I didn’t,” Patton responded hoping to prompt an explanation from Logan, which it did.

“Its called 55 Cancri e and scientists at Yale believe its surface may be made up of graphite and diamond and despite it being 40 lights years away it is visible in the constellation Cancer,”Logan explained beaming as he shared some of his knowledge.

“Wow kiddo that is really cool,” Patton said watching Logan blush under the praise but they were interrupted by a sharp shush from the row in front. “How about you tell me more later, okay?

Logan nodded in response returning to watch the show, eyes flittering across the images of the night sky being painted across the ceiling of the auditorium, galaxies and constellations reflecting in his irises and there they both sat for the remainder of the show, in near silence, apart from the gasps of wonder emitted from Logan each times the images changed revealing yet another beautiful sight. Once the show came to an end, they along the rest of the crowd shuffled towards the exit points, Logan excitably rambling on about the new facts he had learned, without even pausing to take a breath until he suddenly stopped. Patton halted in his walking also, glancing back towards Logan he saw him sinking his teeth into his lower lip in attempt to prevent the flow of words. It hurt, to watch Logan intentionally silence himself, Patton wanted to have a serious talk with whoever made Logan feel like he couldn’t express himself.

“How about we move onto our next location?” Patton suggested hoping it would distract Logan from his presumably negative mental spiral and prevent him from retreating to far into himself.

“That sounds agreeable,” Logan replied his voice soft and barely audible but he hadn’t lost his voice entirely so Patton counted it as a success.

They left quickly, returning to the outside. A crisp breeze had picked up since they entered the Planetarium, ruffling Patton golden locks which he had made an effort to tame this morning. Logan still remained silent and in order to fill the increasingly awkward silence Patton began telling Logan all of the space puns he could think of, though his personal favourite was ‘Why did the sun go to college? Because he already has a million degrees’ which received a soft chuckle from Logan and in no time at all they arrived at their third and final location.

“Are you hungry?” Patton asked he received no verbal response but instead a well-timed stomach grumble which gave him his answer. “I’ll take that as a yes,”. 

They entered the quaint and cosy Cafe ‘Beans & Cream’ where Patton worked a considerable number of years in his youth while trying to get back onto his feet after the incident with his parents. He still visited it often with Emile and had remained close with the owners and many of the baristas ever since. The minute he stepped through the door and he heard the pleasant jingling of the little bell, he was hit with the all too familiar scent of rich coffee beans and sweet smelling cakes. Jugs of brightly coloured wild flowers sat on the table of each both, a stark contrast to the dark wood which gave the whole place a cosy cabin feeling. His stomach grumbled loud in response and he lead Logan to an empty booth in the back corner of the Cafe, sinking into the decorative cushions as Logan busied himself with the menu.

Patton eventually chose a chicken and salad wrap, orange squash and a white chocolate chip cookie for dessert, while Logan chose a much simpler cheese and tomato sandwich, accompanied by a glass of water. While Patton considered Logan’s portion too small he kept his opinion to himself, Logan was noticeably skinny but he hoped he was simply reading to much into it. He had a habit of that. So instead returned to their former conversation of space, where Logan once again came out of his shell but Patton couldn’t help noticing Logan had yet to touch his food. Instead meticulously cutting the already small sandwich into much smaller sections before finally taking a bite. The conversation had faded into comfortable silence while they ate but Patton made sure to glance up at Logan every so often, observing as he picked apart his sandwich, taking generous sips of water in between each minuscule bite until he stopped.

Logan set his knife down, pushing the plate away from him still with exactly half of his sandwich there, swallowing the remainder of his water and settling back into the cushions surrounding him but Patton couldn’t help but be concerned. It had been a few hours since they had left the orphanage and Patton was ravenous, polishing off his entire main and dessert in a matter of minutes yet Logan made no move to eat the remainder of his lunch.

“Are you okay Logan? You haven’t eaten very much,” Patton said unable to mask the underlying concern in his voice.

“I am quite alright, I am merely full,”Logan said in that nonchalant way of his. Patton nodded, not entirely convinced but he didn’t want to ruin their day out by worrying. So he kept quiet and went to pay before they departed and gradually began to make their way back to the Orphanage.

The trip back to the Orphanage was considerably quieter than the journey from as the streets were near desolate, the crowds of people who had previously cluttered the streets dispersing as time passed and it grew later, the sky darkening and the chill present in the air, spreading goosebumps along Logan’s arms but yet he was warm inside. He walked side by side with Patton, his shoulder brushing against Patton’s forearm, slowing his pace in order to extend his time with Patton before being forced to return to the Orphanage. Today had been one of the greatest days of his life; wandering the shelves of the book-store, allowing his fingertips to graze the spines of the titles, witnessing the most magnificent sight of his life, viewing the wonders of the Universe in all of their glory without the fear of being punished and he had Patton to thank for that. Patton had remained relatively quiet for the remainder of the journey until he slowed, pausing to speak.

“Hey Logan, Madame Claire is quite the character isn’t she?” Patton said with a gentle smile though Logan wasn’t quite sure what about her personality he was referring too but the upon mentioning her name Logan tensed. What had she told him? Had she convinced him to give up on him? That he wasn’t worth the effort. Logan couldn’t say he didn’t agree but he thought their day out was quite enjoyable or was it merely a final act of kindness before he broke the news?

Patton had presumably taken notice of Logan’s increased level of panic and his expression shifted into one of concern as he placed a gentle hand on Logan’s shoulder, rubbing soothing circles into the taut muscles there. Logan allowed this contact and nodded, encouraging Patton to continue his story.

“She thought I was a first time parent, it gave her quite the shock when she learned I have three kiddos at home,” Patton continued pausing every other word to release a quiet snort and chuckle.

“I apologise. Upon first meeting you I also assumed from your youthful appearance and sunny disposition you were a first time adopter,” Logan admitted averting his gaze from Patton’s.

“Oh it’s okay kiddo, I’m used to it. One time One of Roman’s teacher mistook me for his older brother and during a parents evening kept asking when our parents would be arriving,” Patton explained before bursting out into a fit of giggles which brought a smile to his own face, banishing his former negative spiralling thoughts.

They walked in silence a little further and Logan began to recognise their surroundings, they were getting close to the Orphanage. Logan’s heart clenched within his chest. He didn’t want this day to ever end. He knew it was a childish notion, they both required proper nourishment and a healthy sleep schedule but it didn’t prevent him from praying for a few more hours with Patton. Once again Patton paused outside the gate of the Orphanage as if he was prolonging the inevitability of their day out coming to an end.

 Hey kiddo, can I ask you something?” Patton asked before immediately retracting his statement. “Ah, sorry, bad wording. What I wanted to ask was, now you don’t have to say yes, you could say no and that would be completely fine. I mean…”.

“Patton, you have to ask me your question before I can offer a suitable answer,” Logan said cutting off Patton’s rambling.

“Ah yes, sorry kiddo,” Patton paused. “What I wanted to ask was. If you would like to meet them, my kids that is,”.

Logan froze. What was Patton asking? For him to meet his children, who Patton already thought extremely highly of, evident from their frequent conversations regarding them. Would this be the deciding factor? If Logan was worthy or not. It made perfect sense in fact, judging whether or not Patton’s children approved of him before continuing to interact with him.

“It is okay if you don’t want to or don’t feel comfortable doing so but I think they would really like you,” Patton assured Logan with a comforting smile stretched across his lips, a smile Logan felt he could trust.

“You want me to meet them?” Logan asked a hint of hesitation in his voice which faded once Patton nodded granting him all the reassurance he needed. “Okay,”.

Patton face split into a grin but it disappeared just as quickly as he lead Logan back through the gates, into the Orphanage and entering through the foyer where Mrs Davis sat, typing on her computer.

“Hello, how was your day out Logan?” Mrs Davis asked presumably because Patton was present, knowing she wouldn’t cast a second thought to Logan otherwise.

“It was satisfactory,” Logan responded turning once again to Patton who had been waiting patiently at the door for him. “May I introduce you to someone?”.

“Of course kiddo, I can’t wait to meet them,” Patton said flashing Logan a grin before gesturing for him to lead the way.

Logan smiled faintly to himself. Maggie would surely love Patton and he himself couldn’t wait to disclose every detail of his and Patton’s outing with her and she would surely gloat, claiming she was right and that he should take her advice more often.

And thinking back, to the day he had spent with Patton, maybe he would.

Notes: Can you tell I’ve never been to a Planetarium so I have no idea if what I have written is entirely accurate but oh well and I know Logan’s science fact about the planet made out of diamonds is a little outdated but I still thought it was really cool but if anyone has any cool facts about space I would love to hear them.

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