#back to yapping

[steinkauz-does-nothing]

whenever im thinking about stans and their relationship i end up believing in "stan fell first, ford fell harder" but with a twist.

see, stan loved ford his whole life, openly and unashamedly. he knows ford means more than just family to him (and don't get me wrong, family's EXTREMELY important to stan, but he was still willing to sacrifice everything and everyone he ever knew and loved for a chance of saving ford, including the kids). maybe it wasn't obvious for him what kind of love it was, initially, but it's always been there, something he knows he can't run away from (he tried). so it's kind of easier for him to accept this truth - why would it be anyone else if ford is everything he ever wanted?

with ford it's a bit trickier. of course, he loved stan, always did. but this love was buried beneath years and years of "hatred" and repression and focusing on the wrong things. it takes him to lose stan to finally see how cruel he was to him. and from that moment the dam breaks — he's flooded with these intense feelings of love, guilt, yearning, it consumes him, makes him reevaluate his priorities, his attitude. stan's sacrifice changes ford, and that is sudden — he spends considerable time trying to understand what exactly is stan to him before reaching the inevitable solution. and from that point ford makes sure stan knows just how much he means to him, makes sure he's never feeling alone and abandoned ever in his life, to the point where i can see him being overbearing in his affection — but it's not like stan is complaining.

and then they kiss and everything is perfect forever

[beigetiger]

Thinking again about how important it is to reading SP that you be able to decouple the perspective of the character you’re reading from with what’s actually going on in reality. It’s not a series where you can just turn your brain off and take everything at face value, you NEED to be able to form your own thoughts and opinions based on clues and small notes that you’re given from each character.

This is, of course, most relevant to Valkyrie because she’s the one who’s perspective we usually read from.

I, personally, started to notice this around book 2. Details that Valkyrie was brushing off, like how little she was sleeping and eating in order to appease Skulduggery, hinted to me that there was something bigger at play here. And of course, that only got bigger throughout the series. She’s a child, she’s not in a situation where she can be making these decisions. But we don’t really think about it like that at first, because it’s so normalized for children to be doing those things in so many series. And so actually grabbing us by the shoulders and telling us no, this is not good, she is being groomed here is such a subtle but excellent critique of the genre without taking away from the series itself.

Additionally, there’s also characters giving their own opinions and experiences on things (take Kenspeckle, for example), who force the audience to actually take note of what they are saying, even if the main character is not. They are physically saying things that our perspective character is not thinking, and that gives us a sort of reference for how we should be thinking of this. And this continues all throughout the series. Everything is written from the biased perspective of a human being, and it is up to us as the reader to put together all the context clues to form our own conclusions rather than just blindly accept what a character is saying.

And this shows up in several ways as well! Valkyrie being a child is just one form of unreliable narrator that the series shows us, there are also times like in UtE, when Valkyrie has been taken over by the Faceless Ones. She sees absolutely nothing wrong, and we aren’t getting enough information from her to really know anything otherwise. It ends up being Skulduggery, who is normally a source of morality that the reader has to avoid, who ends up giving us enough information to understand the situation at hand.

There is, also, when Valkyrie is suffering the effects of drugs in Bedlam. She’s hallucinating wildly (and also thinks that her excessive use of magic drugs is fine), and THIS time around, we have to guess what is going on based on our own common sense. There is nobody who is experiencing the same events that Valkyrie is, there is nobody to offer us a guiding light. We just have to try and puzzle out on our own what parts of her experiences are real or healthy and which parts are not, which puts us in her shoes.

So, so many series allow their audience to just accept what the perspective character is thinking as what is basically reality, while SP forces us to look at clues that the characters don’t pay attention to or makes us take in the perspectives of many characters in order to understand what is going on. We have to be more active as readers, and that creates yet another way to suck us in.

Anyways, where I’m going with this is I REALLY LOVE UNRELIABLE NARRATORS. The aspect of teenage Valkyrie not realizing how damaged she is and ignoring any proof that shows just how inappropriate her situation is is one of the things that really got me into this series, I was absolutely fascinated and wanted to know more. I also want more of it, please I’m so tired of Valkyrie being actually stable. I love her but I need her and Skulduggery to be kind of crazy.

[cyandreamsinwords]

Hiii! Did you get to finish your run of Baldur's Gate 3? I saw you were romancing Wyll, how was that? I've tried to romance him twice, but he rejected me both times 😭

I have not finished BG3 yet, though that isn't surprising for me, it takes me forever to complete games. I'm pretty sure it took me over two years to complete my first playthrough of DA: Inquisition. I lollygag, it's just my nature🤷‍♀️

I absolutely ADORE Wyll...but I do sorta want to fight the developers for how they handle his story. I feel like this is a really common gripe among the fanbase, but as I progress through his plot line, I just feel like it petters off at the end and is sort of lacking in substance. There's this noticeable difference from early on scenes to later ones that makes it feel incomplete the further I get, which is pretty disappointing as it started really strong in my opinion. As a character, Wyll has so much potential, especially with how key his father is to the plot and his connections to other characters, and as of right now in the middle of act 3, I do not feel they have utilized him fully. Maybe my opinion on that will change once I've actually finished the game, but that's what I feel at the moment.

BUT! I still absolutely love his character and do not regret romancing him for a single second. He honestly is one of the only romance options outside of maybe Halsin (kinda?), who makes sense for my Tav to be interested in and has my entire heart. He's so genuine and selfless, while also being such a massive DORK. There is still so much I love about his romance, like the dancing and the little twirl he'll sometimes do when he pulls you in for a kiss (AHHHHH!!!) and just how much of a sap he is. He is my own personal dreamboat, I love him so much.

What really sealed the deal for me on him was how he handled the Karlach situation (depending on how you play it). He was so easily persuaded to hear her out and to think the situation through. It's nice to have a character who isn't so stubbornly set in their ways for once. That and how he didn't regret protecting Karlach after Mizora changing his appearance really endeared him to me. It wasn't even a hard decision for him. And while I feel like he had every right to resent and hate his father for how he treated him (fight me daddy Ravenguard) he is so understanding of his position and why he did what he did. Every once and a while I enjoy having a character who really is the hero they project themselves as being, just as a little treat. It'd be boring if every character was that way, of course, but sometimes it's sort of refreshing.

Also, his fake eye looks like it has a little heart in the center of it, of COURSE I fell in love!

Now that I'm done gushing--I am so sorry he's rejected you 🫢 You may already know this, but if it's happening at the Tiefling party, you can still romance him! I wasn't able to get a kiss from him at the party (I've got that low charisma), but after getting some higher approval, I did eventually get the dance scene in Act 2. There may still be a chance to salvage the romance!

[crumb-crumblet-s-crumbington]

return to sub level 50

[breadstickz1]

I got both costumes a few days ago yayayaya sage of truth

[the-ramshackle-prefect]

Stupid ginger sucks at flirting

[joejhang]

idk but NEIL JOSTEN being the voice of reason in jean's head is a little bit insane.

[snail-day]

It’s surprisingly easy to harass your boyfriend while he’s making his after sex tea. He's practically begging for it, with how his loose dark sweatpants hang low on his hips, and how his broad, scarred chest practically begs to be groped.

You creep up behind him, cold palms sliding shamelessly up the warmth of his bare skin, fingertips brushing over old marks from fighting curses and firm muscle. You give a little squeeze, pressing your cheek against the heat of his back and whispering, "Boobies," with another squeeze to follow your giggle.

A low laugh ripples through him. "Pecs, baby," Suguru drawls, voice thick with amusement. You can practically feel the bombastic side-eye he’s giving you, even if he doesn’t turn around yet.

Still, you persist, squishing handfuls of him between your fingers, utterly unrepentant. It’s only when his warm hand closes over yours, large and calloused, that he finally turns.

He looks down at you, all sleepy-lidded affection, the ends of his messy dark hair brushing his jaw. His mouth quirks into a lazy smirk as he leans closer, crowding into your space. "Did I not already fuck you silly enough, pretty girl?" he hums, violet eyes scanning your face. "Mmm? Need me to carry you back to bed and make sure you don't even have thoughts left in that pretty little head?"

You giggle, trying to tug your hand free, but Suguru’s already lacing his long fingers with yours, tightening just enough to make you stumble into his chest.

He dips his head, brushing a kiss to your forehead with aching tenderness, the tip of his nose nuzzling lightly against your hairline. "Silly girl," he murmurs, the words almost a purr, thick with a edge of fondness. His free arm loops loosely around your waist, trapping you there against his chest, enveloping you in his warmth.

"You’re lucky you’re cute," he adds, mouth curling against your temple as he presses another kiss there. "Otherwise, I'd have no mercy."

[acesluvrxx]

NO ONE TALKS ABOUT HIM.

ughh him at 40 is so MMMFHGGFHUJVKUVIFHKDJDSLK the way we're growing old together :3 WE DO IT EVEN WHEN HIS BUSH HAIRS TURN GRAY or idk maybe i really REALLY like him with stubble BUT?? HES HOT WITH STUBBLE LIKE IM SNIFFING THE SCREEN SO HARD UGHH I CAN SMELL HIS MERA MERA

[theamazingmr-j]

thinking about yuki and isack always featuring each other in their photo dumps post race weekend

like you’re kidding

[helenaeggan]

there’s something to be said about the innies’ innocence especially Mark S. “Let’s pass around these posters and ask about Ms. Casey” and “if we find her, I’ll take her to the stairs and we’ll walk out together and my outie will take hopefully things from there.” He’s so earnest about his plan. He thinks of his outie as part of the team.

Then we cut to the outies and they’re so wary and cynical. When Reghabi asks outie Mark what he expected his innie to do, he’s dismissive and says “that’s his problem to solve.”

[ayilings]

do we fuck with black parade hatsune miku [wip] 💀🖤

[gojosoups]

saw this on twitter, nerdjo giving you backshots while studying for his upcoming midterm tmr

[gongyussy]

why are you as a man smiling like that at your temporary teammate who the nhl ships you with....

[luxurystark-jackson]

i like how the second his angel boyfriend is back from the dead dean immediately makes him dress up in fetish wear. okay freak

[cherryapplefish]

I am so sad. I want a world for Caleb where nothing bad happens to him.

I want him to be born to loving parents who are best friends with MC’s parents.

When MC is born he’s in awe and auntie and uncle tell him, “She’s like your sister. You have to protect her like an older brother would.”

They grow up together. Caleb sees her every weekend because their parents are always getting together.

When Caleb’s in the second grade, MC is starting kindergarten and he makes sure to protect her from the older kids who like to tease and tug at her pigtails.

In high school, Caleb gets to check in on her. He walks her to classes, tutors her in the subjects she’s struggling with, and they join the same clubs because they’re so alike it’s almost ridiculous.

And in college they fall in love. Except maybe that’s silly because Caleb’s always loved MC. There’s never been a question of if maybe just how much.

He loves her like she’s his soul. He loves her like she’s the sun. He loves her like he’s the earth, pulled in by her gravity, given life by her light.

He loves her on soft days, when the summer sun beats down on them and yet she’s still pressed into his side reading some book.

He loves her on hard days, when rain beats down against the roof, thunder roaring over the sounds of her sobs. Her tears fall faster than the water drops outside and he presses her face into his neck, whispers, “You’re good enough. I promise you are. You’re perfect.”

He loves her because all he’s ever known is love and all he’s ever seen her as is love.