#game banter and dialogue

[amazinglyegg]

Nora: You remember the Cabots and that affair with Emogene we helped out with?

Danse: Uhm, no. You took Nick and left me at home staring into the middle distance. After what we've been through you didn't have to sideline me like that.

Nora: Okay we are NOT going to dig into this ancient history right now, Danse.

Danse: Was it a social anxiety thing? Did... did I smell? I mean you only took one of us at a time.

Hancock: Some sad violin music coming from somewhere...

Nora: Can we not do this right now?

[91-aquarii]

you mean this isn't a conversation they have?

[idiopathicsmile]

gonna get perhaps a little controversial for this site and say i think it's generally kind of a weird move to be proud of yourself simply for not liking something.

if you are boycotting a work for political reasons and it brings you some measure of peace or clarity to critique its messages, by all means go ahead; that isn't what i'm talking about.

but patting yourself on the back just for not deriving the happy chemicals from a potential source for them, in this world so full of pain and struggle, where sometimes it seems like we all have to fight to enjoy anything in the first place...why?

all of that said, i think i would care about the superbowl more if it had clearer dramatic stakes and better dialogue.

[drarry-reccage]

before a fall by @eleadore (65k, E)

tags: slow burn, eighth year, everyone is allergic to apologies and that's how we like it

The stubborn chill of winter finally gives way to spring. The days get longer, packed to the brim with activity, but everything becomes indistinct next to Draco Malfoy, blurry and not quite there while he stands in stark relief, the long, long line of his neck and his proud back. The fragile curve of his skull. Harry likes to cradle it when they kiss, take the impact of the hard stone against his knuckles when he shoves Draco up against the wall.  "Stop that," Draco says, while Harry's palming the fine hair at the back of his head, kneading at the divot where it meets his neck. His eyes are closed, but Harry likes to look at him. "Stop doing that."  "What?"  "Holding me," Draco says nonsensically, and jerks his head back to prove his point. Harry keeps his crushed hand just there, between his head and the wall, and Draco's eyes snap open. Then narrow. "Stop it, Potter."  Another jerk. Harry's knuckles are going to bruise.  Draco bites when Harry kisses him and then, quite abruptly, softens and moulds into him like a lover, hands under his shirt and tracing over the sensitive skin of his back, scratching just so, gentle. After, when they've ended up on the floor catching their breath, he will reach over to take Harry's hand and examine the bruises, curious. He'll press on them and when Harry winces, look rather pleased.  He remains capricious, even in this—especially in this. The more Harry learns of him the less he knows. 

(rec by @garagepaperback)

[teamdilf]

BioWare, please let Rook canonically refer to Solas as "Wolfy" at least once in-game. Please, please, please.

[space-writes]

last line tag

tagged by @ahordeofwasps, thank you! i’m indulging with a small set of lines, because Sorrow dialogue is my favourite~

[ID - a green and black decorative divider]

“How in the world did you convince Parizimandi to pose for that fountain?” Mehen chuckled. “Pariza is less of a prude than you imagine.” “She’s immune to my charms.” “Which are many and varied, but unfortunately do not extend to seducing my wife.”

[ID - a green and black decorative divider]

no-pressure tagging @morganwriteblr @eccaiia and @hagscribes

Valloroth taglist: @cherrybombfangirlwrites @reininginthefirewriting @memento-morri-writes @foxboyclit @lawful-evil-novelist

@at-thezenith @morganwriteblr @fayeiswriting @serenanymph

@sam-glade @viscerawrites @thegreatobsesso (ask to be +/-)

[magnetic-dogz]

The absolute dichotomy of Sans portrayed in fanon versus how he was portrayed in the actual game of Undertale is so fucking hilarious how many people do you think checked the game out like "Ooh I gotta see what this Sans guy is about he looks like the most badass video game character ever" and then they found out his very first appearance and interaction with the player in the game is a fucking fart joke

[blackjackkent]

Rakha steps with an expression of distaste back out of the House of Healing, feeling the slight shift in strain as the smell of blood fades and is again replaced by the stinging wrongness of the curse magic. Wyll is moving slightly ahead of her, drawn by the sound of the girl's frightened shouts.

"Mum? Pops?!" she cries, with pitiable terror. "Can you hear me? It's me... Arabella!"

Wyll shoulders through the iron gate near the girl and Rakha follows him - and Arabella, spotting them, brightens and waves vigorously.

"Hey, I know you!" she cries eagerly. "You're--"

There's a sudden horrific screeching noise. As if prompted by Rakha's arrival, new shadowy forms surge out of the darkness, like those they fought alongside the Harpers when they first arrived.

Rakha drops backward a step, her hands lifting with flame in each palm -- but the girl moves faster.

"Twist 'em up!" she yells.

And Rakha watches, wondering, as the Weave surges in a bright burst around them. Pure, clean magic against the corrupted darkness - this is a spell like the one Jaheira used at Last Light to bind Rakha into the ground. Living plants surge up from the soil among the dead ones, great crawling vines with inch-thick spikes that stab through the shadows and drag them bound downwards.

Arabella's arms drop to her sides. Her whole body sags and she stumbles almost to her knees.

"Impressive," Lae'zel murmurs. "Last I saw this child, she was cowed to Kagha's snake."

Rakha says nothing, but looks down at Arabella with a stony expression that masks a whirl of thoughts.

It is beyond impressive. It was impressive enough when Jaheira was able to conjure magic from the land in this dead, corrupted wasteland. This girl shows a power and control that would do Jaheira credit, and she did it to two targets at once, and at such a young age, and - Rakha does not remember any sense of magic on her when they met before.

More than that, though - it is like Rakha's own.

There is something familiar to the way Arabella conjured those vines. Something chaotic, a bursting effect that Rakha knows all too well - like the moments when her magic slips her own control and acts of its own accord.

Wild Magic, Gale has called it.

Arabella looks up at her anxiously. Misreading the tightness in Rakha's expression, she hangs her head. "Sorry," she mutters. "Knocks the wind right out of me."

Rakha is no stranger to the draining exhaustion that comes from strong magic. She nods gruffly. "What are you doing out here?" she asks. "It's not safe."

"I was looking for mum and pops," she answers. "When Zevlor - when he -" Her face crumples with sudden ill-contained tears. "Well. There was an ambush," she mutters thickly. "Mum yelled 'run!' so we ran. I could hear 'em running behind me... 'til I couldn't..." She swallows. "Still can't find 'em."

She looks up at Rakha, and then her expression loosens with sudden hope. "But I bet you can!" she says eagerly. "You'll help me! I just know it!"

Narrator: [WISDOM] You notice the girl shivering in fear and anger. She is not yet ready to hear the truth of her parents' fate.

Rakha lets out a heavy breath. She can understand the girl's faith in her, on some level. After all, Rakha saved her once before, by some definitions, in telling Kagha to let her go and not allowing the druid's snake to kill her. At the time, Rakha was deep in the thrall of her own dark urges, and Arabella's survival was less about the girl at all and more about Rakha's own internal victory. But Arabella does not know that; all she knows is that Rakha stood between her and the snake.

(A/N: There's a Durge option here - "Your parents are test-fodder stuffed full of needles, little orphan." Which is pretty brutal. However, honestly, just as with Hector, I just really don't like ANY of the options through this conversation; they all feel REALLY weird. So I'm going to simply rewrite the end of this scene once again as I did with Hec. Everything below here except for the italic line is complete artistic license. XD)

"Your parents are dead," Rakha says bluntly. She is never in the habit of lying, even when the truth is harsh, and she does not choose this moment to begin. The girl will learn, sooner or later.

Arabella's expression twists. She hears the truth in the words and doesn't want to accept it; Rakha can already see the understanding in her eyes. "You LIE!" she shrieks, her fists clenching. "They're out there! And if you won't find 'em, I will!"

She lifts her hands, and again that pale green magic surges upwards, this time lashing outwards towards Rakha, intending to knock her aside. Rakha moves - more with instinct than thought; a glimmering blue shield flashes up around her body, knocking the vines backwards, and as it does so, a thunderous shock wave erupts forward in answer, taking Arabella off her feet and onto her rear with a crunching thump.

"Rakha!" Wyll shouts, darting forward to grab her by the wrist - but she is already calm again. Her eyes hood over and she turns inward, wrestling back the beast; it wants to rise, to continue the attack, to burn-bleed-tear-kill, but she squeezes her eyes shut and stands stock-still until the urge settles back to its usual background growl.

The girl looks up, dazed. With the brief sharp impact, the moment of rage has passed, and tears sprout in her eyes instead. She draws a single hoarse, sobbing breath as she climbs back to her feet.

A long, tense silence stretches. Then Rakha opens her eyes and says carefully, "You can stay at our camp. Or Last Light. Whichever you wish. But you can't stay here."

Wyll cocks his head to one side and Lae'zel makes a noise of surprise. Minthara says nothing, though she scowls with evident annoyance.

Arabella shifts awkwardly from foot to foot. "That hurt," she mutters.

Rakha lifts an eyebrow. "You struck first," she says calmly.

Arabella considers this, and then nods very slightly. She's started to tremble all over and is making a valiant effort to look brave and utterly failing. "I... guess I don't have anywhere else to go," she mumbles.

"You'll be safe with us," says Wyll gently.

Arabella nods again. "All-- all right," she says unsteadily. "Then I'll come with you... I'll go to your camp."

Minthara scoffs under her breath, but Rakha ignores her. Wyll thinks it's a good idea. That's what matters.

She waits until the girl has run on a little ahead out of earshot. Then she looks to Lae'zel. "While she is in camp," she says flatly, "there must be a guard on me. She will not be another Alfira."

Lae'zel nods. She kept vigil the whole night of the teeth-ling party, out of similar fears. "I will see to it," she says crisply. A pause, and then a grudging glance towards Wyll. "We will."

Wyll nods. Rakha knows he would like to believe that she has grown beyond the need for such precautions... but the body of the dead cat at Moonrise says all too clearly that she has not. "Don't worry," he agrees quietly. "We won't let you hurt her. Or anything else, either."

[tahopo]

did the neve and harding banter also throw you off. “what do you do when you can’t trust the authorities to do the right thing” girl you were literally AT the mage-templar war what are you talking about. a mage has possibly been the pope for the last 10 years

real. Trying sososo hard to be kind rn but it was simply a bit daft… harding ur like comfortably in ur 30s. why are you talking about doing the Right Thing. or. trusting the authorities.

[baejax-the-great]

For TM Ask: the dialogue in all your stories is sooooo good! I keep going back to read conversations in Sunset in Your Veins and (even tho it still makes me cry) Agua Caliente. Our Numbered Days is mostly in Achilles’ head, but when there is dialogue it really hits. The clipped conversation Pat and Achilles have in the end is so perfect.

Thank you!

When I first started writing, it was pretty much only dialogue. I really considered everything else filler to get me from one dialogue to another 😂 It's still my favorite part, and often the part I write down first in any scene.

[taralaurel]

Dialogue Day

Thanks for the tag @carlos-in-glasses & @sanjuwrites (and great idea for a tag game @carlos-in-glasses!)

I just posted this fic yesterday. It is an alternate first Tarlos meeting. There is so much TK/Carlos and TK & Owen banter in it that I love....BUT I thought I'd post one of my other favorite little dialogue interactions between Carlos, Paul, and TK.

"Uh, excuse me. I'm looking for TK Strand."

TK hears the voice from the other side of the truck and straightens. He hasn't had a turn to shower some of the soot from the last call out of his hair and he most certainly doesn't take a second to check his reflection in the rig's mirror. He has to walk past it to get around the truck anyway.

"You know, I'm not sure where -"

"He's not in trouble."

"Oh, then he's right over here."

TK rounds the back of the truck as Paul points, nearly knocking him in the face.

"Thanks for having my back?" TK cocks his head at Paul.

"Hey, we're family now," Paul grins, "if you need to run from the law, the least I can do is give you a headstart."

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that."

Read on AO3

No pressure tags: @chaotictarlos, @cold-blooded-jelly-doughnut, @welcometololaland, @lightningboltreader

[4giorno]

wahhhh this little shit!!!!!!! fucking love this guy

[warlordfelwinter]

i love them

[ruby-static]

They're friends, your honor-

[lustbcrne]

BRAINROTTING. BRAINROTTING-

[pausegame]

Did nothing but play Inquisition yesterday and it was ✨ magical ✨ 🥲😭🙏❤️❤️