#caden rambles

[watchingyoufromthestars]

I thought it would be cool if the computers in tmagp are completely unable to run spider solitaire, but after some research I’ve found it wasn’t introduced until Windows ME. There goes that headcanon, oh well.

[gyrovagi]

well i guess the inaugural post (apart from my personal friend bluebeard's wife) gets to be this whiteboy sketch that i drew and then stared at like. this is too much. i dont know how exactly but in some way its too much

[blackjackkent]

The real fun magic of editing is the moments where I do things like transfer a broken ankle between two characters. Roz giveth and Roz taketh away.

[cyberstudious]

staring longingly at the SANS cybersecurity master's program this morning...

[akuma-tenshi]

i need to know

if you asked someone this question and that was their response. what would you assume. because like am i wrong in thinking someone would assume they're fwb

[wornkindness]

when i say amelia is the family favorite im mostly joking. however she also is the family favorite but in the least toxic way possible.

[gamernovellist]

I really got on picrew to make some new characters for an idea I have, but here I am making Caden… again

Why am I like this lol

[iammissingautumn]

anyways not to think but i again think it would be soooo much better if the names we used for a partner when getting together wasn’t based on gender or whatever but instead the type of attraction it’s connected to

[transmutationisms]

Hi Caden good morning. How are you? I am bored at work with few things to do. If you could, could I bother you to ramble about something interesting that’s been on your mind? Your interests always brighten my day

HI MEGAN im sorry i missed you yesterday 😭 well im in the middle of moving and my new building was constructed in the 19th century as a catholic girls' school so i keep walking around it noticing all these hygienic architectural elements lol. like for instance there are more windows than a UU church because this was during a period where germ theory was new and being synthesised with environmental disease theories, so a lot of building sanitation meant fresh air and sunlight. and there was never a gym but there was a lawn/courtyard and a ballroom: because physical activity was considered equally important for girls but typically with less emphasis on gaining visible musculature or doing military gymnastics, and more emphasis on exposure to nature and discipline over the body. it would be more fun if it had been a co-ed school because a lot of the design elements in those types of institutions were really motivated by the fear that common areas could destabilise the sex-binary social order. so you get all of these, like, hallways designed to cattle-herd students in a particular direction so that boys and girls don't lay eyes on each other and whatnot. i mean not that we've really moved past that attitude but you know

[midnightsun-if]

What is a habit your character has that others might find cute? (For everybody? <3)

Koda: Forgets his size at times and tends to walk into things, crushing people in hugs, knocking things over, etc.

Scarlett: Names her plants that she keeps in her room (she doesn’t have a lot but the ones she does have she cherishes).

Cyrus/Cyra: When they’re really listening to someone they tend to lean in— as they want to ensure the person understands that they have their undivided attention.

Quinn: Tends to tilt their head quite often when they’re observing something (very reminiscent of a puppy).

Caden: Will start to fiddle with things, typically their sleeve, whenever they get clusters and/or nervous.

Sloane: Sometimes when they scratch their nose they do it with both hands— making them look like a rabbit.

Blake: Gets a small little furrow to their brow whenever they’re concentrating on something (or just thinking fairly hard).

Reginald/Regina: Uses their hands a lot whenever they ramble.

[theink-stainedfolk]

Travel Buddies Tag Game.

Thank you for tagging me @the-golden-comet here

Rules: Imagine your characters are going on a trip for vacation. Which ones are most likely to fit the roles below?

1. Doing mad research for an affordable place for everyone to stay:

Vesperine – She’s the practical one, making sure the place is affordable but also has good diving spots and no creepy vibes that would trigger her anxiety.

2. Hoping to try all the new food they can:

Cleo – Absolutely all about the food. She’s excited to try everything from street food to fine dining and will probably drag everyone along.

3. Wants to stay inside and sleep through the whole vacation:

Caden – He’s all for relaxation and would prefer to spend his vacation napping or lounging indoors with a good book.

4. Believes no vacation is complete without certain activities:

Caden – The adrenaline junkie who insists on doing adventurous activities. Whether it’s hiking, rock climbing, or water sports, he's determined to make the trip exciting.

5. Is annoyed that certain people are in the same travel group as them:

Vesperine and Arkyn – While they hide it well, there's probably someone who’s testing their patience or energy levels, and they're boh inwardly sighing the whole time.

6. Buying souvenirs for everyone back home:

Cleo – She’s definitely that friend who buys cheesy souvenirs, making sure everyone gets something (whether they want it or not).

7. Is about to turn this trip into a business trip:

Arkyn – Always thinking ahead, he’s the one subtly scheduling meetings or looking for opportunities to turn the vacation into something productive.

---

I'll tag @finickyfelix @willtheweaver @leahnardo-da-veggie @illarian-rambling @winglesswriter

@paeliae-occasionally @thecomfywriter @roarintheheavens @drchenquill @wyked-ao3

[eastgaysian]

dragon age white boy rambles ⬇️ i need to revisit his siblings...

see my original vision for caden trevelyan repressed homosexual was always that he was homoerotically obsessed with his superior officer who viewed him as a little brother and after that superior officer died tragically at the conclave this immediately got transferred onto cullen. but this was a failed attempt to try and change the fact that cullen has always been deeply uninteresting to me. like i'm keeping it because it's central to my white boy vision but i've realized now that it's much funnier to focus on the fact he wants to phantom thread solas.

basically he has a Repression Framework for fellow templars/soldiers where attraction is more-or-less acceptably translated into intense devotion/idealization, being weirdly invested in hearing about past exploits, fantasizing about dying in each other's arms etc. with solas, caden has reasons to like/respect him - solas kept the anchor from killing him, he's chosen to aid the inquisition of his own free will despite any reservations, he's a knowledgeable older man with relevant expertise and genuinely impressive capabilities, to some degree even the fact that he's an apostate who knows this much and has avoided being found by templars is something caden finds fascinating.

but at the same time solas is an elven apostate who no one knows anything about and is too mysterious to really trust, so logically caden Can't like/respect him, and he doesn't have any established framework for dealing with these complicated feelings. before he recruits the templars/becomes inquisitor their relationship actually gets off to a tentative good start because the Fundamental Moral Disagreements haven't come to a head yet. caden is technically a very recent ex-templar but he's polite and pragmatic, he puts the work in to help people, and he's always curious to learn more, which are qualities solas can appreciate.

after becoming inquisitor solas immediately disapproves of essentially All of caden's major decisions, while still feeling obligated to stay with the inquisition for the greater good. weirdly, solas pretty openly disliking him is what allows caden to justify liking him, because it's not like he's friends with this elven apostate, they're comrades by necessity, he appreciates the qualities that make solas a necessary comrade, and that's fine. at the same time solas is an older male authority figure who is forced to abide by caden's decisions even if he fucking hates them which is opening up crazy new pathways in caden's brain of being able to, from his point of view entirely justifiably, defy the wishes of an older man he respects and wield power over him. all this clicks into place in caden's head and he's like. I want him flat on his back helpless tender open with only me to help.

what this means in practice is they'll go out a-questing and have what seems on the surface to be a cordial conversation about history or whatever but they're both imagining killing each other with hammers and on caden's side it is sexual and on solas' side it is not. he is fully aware that solas wants to kill him with hammers but honestly this kind of makes it more sexual. he's going to punch solas at some point, immediately apologize for losing his temper, and then be unable to sleep for hours that night touching the bruised knuckles feeling something he can't name but knows isn't quite guilt. because he feels guilty for feeling it. this is the gayest thing that will actually happen between them except for the confrontation at the end of trespasser maybe which can be gay if you think about it. normalest guy in all of thedas 👍

[gyrovagi]

i do think caden's homophobia is largely internalized and occasionally directed at owain. He would absolutely still microaggress you in the most perfectly plausibly deniable/maybe he meant well but just doesn't know way. not just homophobically but i digress. he is not a good person 👍 rambling got long so here's a cut

like due to the weird 'there is kind of light cultural homophobia but it's not really institutionalized in southern thedas' thing. it's a lot about his personal weird ideas about being a man that he absolutely has to adhere to. but if other men who aren't his brother don't live up to his standards, he won't idealize them to the point of obsession, but they can still hang out. he'll just make the very occasional joking(?) condescending remark or casually throw out some concerning piece of advice. like the thedosian equivalent of a guy who thinks you shouldn't eat soy.

bull kind of gets a pass because he's still this jacked macho guy who's also qunari that's totally different 🤷‍♂️ whereas caden doesn't really know what to make of dorian at all. weird mix of initial mistrust and personality mismatch with recognizing that he did leave his homeland and risk his life to help the inquisition despite any misgivings, and THEN you add in the defying his father to be openly gay thing. (hdb talking about the smoker on the balcony voice) there's something about him...

but i think actually it manifests as this combination of. caden being big picture supportive like fuck your dad and his blood magic let's go kill venatori together. maybe if there were more people like you in tevinter it wouldn't be so bad. but prickly on a personal level like every now and then he asks dorian kind of a personal question, gets an answer, goes quiet, and when dorian tries to coax out an actual response or god forbid ask caden a question in return caden shuts him down. caden doesn't necessarily dislike dorian, but he sees no logical reason to get close to him, they don't really have compatible personalities. at the same time he gets this weird impulse to know more about him that he's irritated at himself for giving into. over time i do think it evens out a little and unfortunately dorian might actually be maladjusted/lonely enough for him to still count caden as a friend.

generally his response to being confronted with gay people is this very flustered, stiff neutrality that, to other gay people, gives off closeted vibes. so it is very funny that i got dorian/bull to happen in his playthrough because he's absolutely overhearing all this with his face BRIGHT red like Can you do this back at skyhold so i don't have to hear or think about it. Please. it's like the only thing that can get him embarrassed and blushing

if another man made a pass at him... like any plausibly denial 'do you like men' feelers i think he'd just dodge and not react to. anything more direct would get shut down aggressively like I'm not. Like that. What made you think... Whatever it was you're wrong.

would bull or dorian have ever made a pass at him? by the time they get to skyhold it's pretty established that caden has kind of a 'charming prince who casually flirt-compliments women' thing going on and that he and cassandra are Close. i think bull knows better than to try an overt come-on (and probably wasn't interested in the first place) and i think dorian might have thrown out something half-joking/subtle that got ignored, and combined with other observations, realized that caden is repressed as fuck. dude has front row seats to caden and solas's conversations one floor down and he will not be touching that with a ten foot pole. whenever he asks caden how he and cassandra are doing these days caden always gets the disquieting sense there's a joke he's not in on

[blackjackkent]

Hi there! I’ve been reading your playthroughs and love them a lot! It’s inspired me to want to try smth similar with my game, but I’ve been having a really hard time coming up with a character, as opposed to a generic self insert. Your PCs are so great and distinct, how do you go about creating them?

:O Ahhh, this is such a nice message, thank you! Very touched to hear you've been enjoying my stuff and that it's inspired you as well. c:

Let's see. I think what is most significant about the way I create characters through liveblogging is the idea of focusing on throughlines. In other words, recurring elements carrying through from post to post/event to event. Every time I write about something happening to them, I try to focus on how it can relate back to something else that already happened to them, and how that informs their reaction to the new thing. This helps give them a sense of internal consistency and motivation.

This is particularly significant, I think, with Rakha, since she literally knows nothing besides what she's experienced over the course of the game. So every experience is a step based on what came before it. But even with Hector or my other earlier OCs (or, tbh, even when I'm writing fic about established canon characters), in any given situation I'm always thinking about what makes their response specific to them and not somebody else. What have they gone through, what past reactions have they had, that inform the current moment.

As far as the initial process of creating a jumping off point... I think for the most part I try to combine two simple facts about them to create a unique third thing, and that ends up providing a very personally unique starting point for all the throughline work. (DND with its combination of class and background provides some useful starting points for this out of the box for any new character.)

Examples:

Hector: I knew from the character creator that he was a monk and that he had the Sage background. This gave me a starting point image of a guy whose life consisted of a combination of physical training and intellectual study - which would be a very rigorous life indeed, leading to the combination "third thing" that he didn't really ever leave the monastery and was very new to the adventuring life. This was the jumping off point for all of his early game reactions to things.

Rakha: I knew bc she was Durge she was no thoughts head empty, and in my first post writing her, I had her think very systematically through all the facts of her situation. Taking these two things together made for the "third thing" that she is a very analytical thinker and takes rational interpretation of events to an extreme, which has colored her speech patterns, responses to events, and interactions with other characters.

Caden: I decided in the CC that he was a thief, and the game gave me an initial context of being raised in Candlekeep and being close with Imoen and Gorion. This combined to the "third thing" that he was a good-hearted person who nevertheless did know how to steal things - kind of a goofball who liked pickpocketing and stealing for the fun of it but always gave everything back. This laid groundwork for him turning out to be a generally trusting person often flummoxed by people less generous and more manipulative than himself.

Speaking a little broader and outside the DND context, Elliot Hawke: I knew I wanted him to be a mage, I knew I wanted to play him as more sympathetic to the Templars, and I knew I wanted him to be a red/aggressive Hawke, since my previous DA2 char had been none of those things. So I combined these for the "third thing" (conceptually, not numerically) that he was a somniari, which gave him reason to be scared of his own powers and lash out at the people around him. This informed all of his choices and behavior afterwards.

I sadly can't find the post now but I read someone a while back talking about how you can use this same approach for worldbuiliding as well. (A particular culture of people with only one defining trait is boring. But with two, you combine them to make a third more interesting set of implications about that culture which gives them depth. Etc.)

But yeah, once I've figured out that establishing hook, then I can build on it with every experience they go through. How is their response to that experience colored by the hook/past experiences? How does it fit or contrast with what they've done up to now? How does it add to their store of experiences going forward?

One example off the top of my head, with Rakha: meeting Ethel at the tiefling camp turned out to be a formative experience, because it clashed and contrasted with the established throughline up to that point. Rakha was, as established, very cool and analytical and not emotionally driven, but Ethel was (apparently) kind to her and it woke up an emotional response that was new to her. This made the experience stick out in her mind - and also meant that when she eventually went to Ethel's teahouse, she had a very specific chink in her armor that Ethel could use to convince her to give up her eye. Had she gone straight to the teahouse without the previous combination of experiences, her reaction to Ethel's hag form would have been quite different.

I could probably ramble about this a lot longer (quite entertaining to analyze my own writing like this), but I hope this gives you some ideas to work from and answers your questions to some degree. c: I really appreciate you asking! Cheering you on in your own character creations and would love to hear about what you come up with!

[maeleelee]

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝙽𝚒𝚗𝚎

Y/n just wants to get her brother out of the gang business but that's become harder than she'd like to admit. Then she over hears someone at the bar talking about a Crystal necklace that's worth millions. Now her goal can work, if she can figure out how to find the Crystal without her brother catching on. Oh, and he doesn't know she's a leader of The Fallen Angels, his "rival" gang. Hongjoong hated the gang life but he was in too deep to give it up. However, he wanted to give his partner, sister, and their best friend the world, so when he hears about this Crystal that's worth millions. He's coming up with a plan to get it. He just has two problems, The Fallen Angels and the Strays keep getting in the way. Will they come to the conclusion and just work together? Or are more people going to get in the way?

⚠️Minors do NOT interact with this au⚠️

warnings: Prismatic Chaos.

Y/n was hanging out on the couch, watching Wooyoung and San hit the punching bag. Y/n had gotten Wooyoung stitched up after the fight he put himself in. The two boys were joking around with each other. Just being the goof balls they are, when they heard a cough.

All three looked up and San smiled. “Look who finally decided to grace us with her presence.” San smirked at the girl in the doorway.

“Not my fault you decided to move a million miles away.” She raised an eyebrow.

“I offered not to leave or bring you with me.” San said to her.

“Couldn’t leave the babies. You know that.” She sighed. “They’re all at the bar actually.”

“Who’s this San?” Y/n finally asked him. She had walked over to Wooyoung, who slid his arm around her waist.

“My sister Mae.” San smiled at y/n. “Mae. This is Wooyoung and Y/n.” They both waved at the girl.

“You have friends? Look at you go.” She giggled as she finally walked to him.

“Shut up and give me a hug.” San told her. She laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck. He picked her up and spun them around. He finally put her down and pulled away. “You said everyone’s here?” He asked her. She nodded.

“Everyone.” Mae smiled. “Actually I probably need to get back. They are even worse than before.”

“What do you mean?” Y/n giggled.

“Oh lord. You haven’t told them about the Prismatic chaos? I’m offended bubs.” Mae giggled. “The name of the gang doesn’t lie, we’re all just chaos in a body.”

“Oh no.” Y/n groaned.

“What’s wrong?” Mae asked her.

“This one here,” she pinched Wooyoung’s cheek, “loves chaos.”

Mae laughed. “Well he’s about to have a whole lot of it.”

“To the bar.” San smiles, walking out.

“What’s got into him?” Wooyoung asked.

“Jess is here. He’s been in love with her for a very long time and never told her.” Mae told the two.

~

Mae walked into the bar and signed. “Bunny’s back.” Maura yelled. Mae laughed and watched the chaos. Caden was on his computer, more than likely looking up plans for whatever he wants them to raid next. Dizzy was playing with her lighter in the corner making sure nothing got too crazy.

Maura and Ani had somehow talked two guys into playing flip cup with them. Ani was chugging her cup. “Welcome back bunny.” Jess smiled as she held out a cup to Mae.

“I see it’s not as bad as I thought.” Mae grabbed the cup. Jess looked at the group and smiled.

“I can handle it sometimes.” She turned back and smiled at San. “Hey big boy. Long time no see.”

“Sorry about that.” He stepped towards her and pulled her into a hug. “I’ll make up for the time princess.”

“Bunny. Come here.” Maura pouted.

“I’m coming bun bun.” Mae walked over to the two girls.

“This is Changbin and that’s Mingi. He works here. Hongjoongs the one behind the bar right now. That’s Chan and Seungmin by Caden. Oh.” Maura was rambling. She does this sometimes when she gets excited.

“Bun bun. Breathe baby. No one’s going anywhere.” Mae smiled. Y/n had walked over to the table. She felt comfortable around this group.

Maura took a deep breath. “That’s Kayla and that’s Cassi.” She pointed to two girls smiling at the chaos.

“You met so many new people today baby.” Mae giggled. Maura just nodded and smiled as she did.

Y/n turned and smiled at Cassi and Kayla. Wooyoung was at the bar getting a drink. San sat next to Jess, closer than normal, smiling brightly. Y/n had a feeling this was gonna be her life and she loved it.

~

“You said you didn’t have a leader?” Kayla asked Mae. Mae nodded.

“Yeah we don’t have one. Haven’t ever had one. Just kinda work through the chaos and stuff.” Mae shrugged. “We could definitely use one. No one just wants to because we all know we’re not leaders.”

“Kayla can do it.” Y/n smiled. “I don’t know what it is but this, this feels right, and I think we should grab it before we lose it.”

“You’re okay with losing the Fallen Angels?” Cassi asked again.

“For a family like this?” Y/n nodded towards the group all playing around with beer pong and laughing with each other. “Yes.” She smiled brightly.

“Welcome to the chaos ladies. You’re in for a real treat.” Mae smirked.

Masterlist: Back || Next

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙵𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚗 𝙰𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚕𝚜 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙿𝚒𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚜 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚂𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚢𝚜

taglist: @mxnsxngie @imagine-a-life-like-this @choisoorin @spilled-coffee-cup @weird-bookworm @bunnyiix @cadenonlinelive @acrylishly @littleleatabixx

[kozsilykave]

i was gonna ramble about shows i think caden would watch but i forgot them all as soon as i started typing sigh 💔