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[theactivemedia]

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[corviiids]

For the director's cut fanfic thing: ⭐⭐⭐ (these are THREE stars valid for whatever. I'm giving you blank checks)

thank you again <3

blank check 2/3 goes back to as you like it again! but this time i want to talk about my shadow designs for the akechi bossfights we've encountered in the preceding chapters >:3 there are five - the Puppet, the Singer, the Bard, the Dancer, and the Magician.

but this got really ABSURDLY long this time so ill stick to mostly the Puppet, and just do a brief ("brief") overview of the others for now.......

(for context: this is my palace au and akechi's keywords are akechi goro, the world, theatre.)

the Puppet (photos of giant puppets below if that freaks you out!)

the first Wing the thieves encounter is the puppet show, and the boss shadow is a giant marionette:

For one thing, it’s huge—maybe three or four times the size of a human being. It’s also gleaming, carefully polished and buffed, reflecting light more viciously in the areas where it seems the wood might be chipped or worn. The polish throws the lines of joints and pieces into sharp relief, giving the puppet the general impression of something whole that had been cut up and pieced slowly together with hinges and nails. Behind it, mostly concealed by its limp bulk, is a door. As they might have gleaned from the chatter of the audience, the show does not yet seem to have begun. As such, the puppet on stage is limp on its strings. Most disturbingly, it’s draped backward, not forward, snapped unnaturally at the spine and giving it the extremely uncanny look of a corpse on uneven ceiling hooks. They can just make out the side of the thing’s eyes from where they’re standing. Gravity has not been kind to them: the puppet’s eyelids are dropped open, bulging eyes left wide and staring up as far back as the build will let them. They haven’t rolled all the way into the wooden skull, presumably because they can’t. Instead, the unseeing yellow eyes remain fixed on the back corner of the stage. The puppet is entirely still. “I think I’m going to be sick,” Makoto says faintly.

i think the Puppet is my favourite of the five because he's so disturbing. i imagine he looks a bit like the giant marionettes by the french street theatre show royal de luxe:

but i really love these guys, so i think it's uncharitable to say akechi's shadow looks exactly like them. i know giant puppets are always a little freaky but i genuinely love the royal de luxe puppets and i think the workmanship on these does genuinely do a ton of work to dispel that uncanny vibe.

puppet akechi on the other hand is absolutely drenched in uncanny valley, so i guess imagine these puppets but much scarier. the main thing is those places where different pieces of wood are joined, in the joints / on the limbs / etc, because that's very key to puppet akechi's look in my mind, hence "something whole that had been cut up and pieced slowly together with hinges and nails". the Puppet is a marionette, but the way he's been constructed and set up on stage almost calls to mind the imagery of a corpse that's been reconstructed to perform. the way he moves is really unnatural:

Ren is beginning to think they might be able to get past and slip through that door without a fight when the whole creature rears up, back strings going taut, and lashes wildly out at him with a horrible clack of its arms—he leaps back and crashes directly into Haru, who catches and dips him like a princess before twirling him frantically into Ryuji and the puppet gouges a deep gash in the stage floor.    As they watch it screeches, howls an unnatural shriek, eyes suddenly wide and bulging larger. They ‘blink’ a few times, eyelids flipping, then the puppet Akechi goes limp on its strings again, though decidedly more upright than before, like whoever’s pulling the strings is now on guard. Its eyes stay open this time, bright gold and piercing.

very much not like something exercising its own agency, but like a body on strings being operated by someone who did not care to practice in the artistry of operating a puppet to make it look like a live thing - the puppet is literally just a tool to be flailed about.

this also shows in the way the puppet sits when it's at rest. guys do you know how god damn hard it is to find normal pictures of puppets? when you google marionette it just comes up with a bunch of fnaf shit. anyway check this guy out

at rest, they usually just kind of dangle innocently, or might slouch forward if given too much slack, right? it was important to me that puppet akechi look very wrong at rest, as if he's not "at rest" so much as he's just been left to hang. hence: "it’s draped backward, not forward, snapped unnaturally at the spine and giving it the extremely uncanny look of a corpse on uneven ceiling hooks." i'm basically imagining meat hooks, like, in a slaughterhouse or something you know? like he's just dangling from those.

that imagery was inspired by persona 5 dancing, actually - akechi's finishing pose in his dance is this:

this is just such an unnatural pose. when i saw it for the first time, i just couldn't get the image out of my head of a string puppet who'd been hung up and left to dangle without any regard for how it might look or feel (lol). not to mention that blank look in his eyes. i think a lot of the Puppet was born from this dance because the dance itself is so dynamic and silly but then the lead-up to the end suddenly gets very jerky and puppet-like. i really like his dance!

the Puppet's battle mechanic is that the applause will continue as long as the Puppet is either acting or getting hurt (kind of like the mettaton fight in undertale actually?). if the applause stops, then the Puppet will be inflicted with Despair - in p5 the Despair effect means you lose SP for each turn and then instantly die on the third turn. makoto ends up healing the Puppet and yusuke mercy-kills it before it can commit suicide:

Fox silently raises his gun. The Thieves collectively flinch as the Puppet dissipates. The applause starts back up. “If we’d left things silent,” Yusuke says, “it would have only happened again.”

because this is the first shadow bossfight the thieves encounter in the Theatre, i needed it to have some broader implications (vs some of the later shadows who have more specific interactions). so obviously the analogue for akechi is that the performance needs to continue and he needs to continue receiving acknowledgement from the public / from shido / etc because if he's not useful and entertaining and noticeable and such, then he's nothing - his life doesn't mean anything. obviously, if he doesnt perform for shido (perform in the sense of working, but also in the sense of showmanship) he'll probably be killed. but also, akechi really externalises his sense of self to an insane degree. the conceit of the palace is essentially that his entire internal world is the show, it's just this shallow performance, the backstage is empty. if he stops existing in the cognition of the masses, he essentially "stops existing".

i think a lot about third semester akechi in royal and how completely he's faded from public awareness. he doesn't care because he's a dead man walking and has locked into nihilism at that point. but if you look at what akechi says in the engine room:

his voice when he says this says a lot to me. akechi's envisioning the world as it will look when he has to return and face the consequences of the world discovering what's behind the curtain and realising his credibility was all a show. to be honest, i think this also plays a role in his decision to sacrifice himself in this scene. i don't think he wanted to die, but i think he did realise that the post-thieves, post-truth world wasn't a place that held anything for him anymore, and his desire to return to that reality was dramatically weakened, so it was an easier decision for him to choose to make that sacrifice than it otherwise might have been.

um, i had a point. okay, so, i was saying that once the applause stops, the Puppet begins to despair. the Puppet also is the most direct representation of akechi as someone who is being used. all the shadow bosses correlate to some aspect of akechi's need to perform and to the varying reasons why they all have that sense of desperation:

“Kinda feels like they’re just defendin’ themselves, you know,” [Ryuji] says. “Or somethin’. Look too much like him. It’s weird they can’t talk, cos it’s like fighting a dumb animal. Don’t they all seem real scared to you?” None of Akechi’s Shadows have delivered grand speeches about conquering the world. Even Futaba’s Shadow had given them a fairly strong indication of what was going on with her, that overwhelming guilt which had given birth to a resolve to lock herself up in her mind and die. Akechi’s Shadows have lashed out, tried to destroy them, sure. But it feels different in a way that’s growing more and more impossible to ignore. Desperate to fend them off, more than anything, like each one is the final bastion standing for a world that could crumble at any moment.

that's why once you figure out how to stop each shadow's "show" from going on, they instantly die:

ripping the Singer's mask off causes him to cease to exist (see below)

silencing the Bard, who relies on the power of his words to manipulate others, removes his power and reveals that he's pretty easy to take down

the Dancer's feet are always bleeding because he can't stop moving. he's hard to catch, but the moment he stops dancing, he's revealed to have extremely low defence and can be taken out very easily

but the Puppet is literally being manipulated by a puppetmaster. because he no longer has any use when the applause stops, he no longer has a reason to exist. i also just thought this would be a fun effect to start on because it's so drastic as an introduction to akc's psyche and really gives the thieves a sense of what they're working with by throwing them directly into the deep end.

ok let's leave the puppet behind for now. im gonna be more brief with the others i promise (maybe)

the Singer

LET'S TALK about. beneath the mask. a song about ren. but it's also a song about goro.

I'm a shape-shifter at Poe's masquerade Hiding both face and mind All free for you to draw

the fic goes over some of my meta about this:

[Yusuke] I have done some research. [Makoto] Oh? [Yusuke] I believe when the Opera Shadow sang of “Poe’s Masquerade”, he was referring to a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, entitled “The Masque of the Red Death”.

eternally grateful for the scene during the pyramid arc where yusuke loredumps about egyptian mythology so i have precedent to do this

yusuke summarises the story in this chapter (chapter 4), but basically: the story is about rich people abandoning the common folk to a plague, until a personification of the plague wearing a red mask enters the castle. when his mask is removed, it's revealed there is nothing underneath. everyone in the castle then succumbs to the plague.

the superficial connections to akechi are pretty obvious - red mask, plague doctor. etc. but this song is really, really telling for both ren and goro. i briefly went over this in my last dvd commentary post about the palace fic, but this relates to my meta around both of them as mask wearers. the line "all free for you to draw" is a big one - ren is "all free for you," the player, "to draw" - he becomes who you need him to be, and because you need to max out your confidants, he becomes (via you) who his friends need him to be.

goro is similar on a different scale because he moulds his personality to what the public expects him to be. he takes it one step further, because it's less utility for him and more foundational - as i said, to an extent the performance is the substance of his personality, which is the core of the distortion. so both ren and goro are wearing the mask, malleable in character, their actual personality being somewhat questionable, but that emptiness is only true for goro. ren's definitely got something underneath it, but goro feels like he doesn't.

brief cw for suicidal ideation, but i also generally take it as a given that goro doesn't really expect to live past 18 after defeating shido. not that he's actively suicidal, but i think literally or figuratively he knows after shido's downfall, his own life will pretty much be over, and that's part of what drives the emptiness. the show really only needs to go on until that point, and after that there's no need to build a real thing underneath to return to. he's very much living for that goal.

anyway: so the Singer starts out singing the Phantom of the Opera - the Shadow is very much modelled after the phantom - but swaps to beneath the mask and begins to connect with ren. the Singer wears a red mask. i really like this mask! i envision it as looking like someone pouring blood over his face and then the blood freezing in place, so it just looks very molten and liquid but fixed over half his face.

ren defeats the Singer by ripping his mask off:

[Ren] Please don’t take off my mask, revealing dark [Ann] OMG!! [Ann] THAT’S WHAT HAPPENED WHEN WE TOOK OFF HIS MASK!! [Ann] HE REVEALED DARK!!!! [Ann] HE DISAPPEARED!!!!!!!!!!

(i love the thieves because i dont have to be subtle about my symbolism i can just make them say it)

anyway, just like the figure in the Masque of the Red Death, ripping off the Singer's mask reveals "dark" underneath - he ceases to exist.

Just a cage of bones There's nothing inside

the Bard and the Dancer

when i was first plotting this fic, i was actually designing the palace not as a written environment but as though it would be a playable place. so a lot of it is informed by me picturing what this palace would be like to play through and explore, building it out as a video game environment in my mind's eye and then trying to describe it from that point. i took the same approach to the bossfights, so they're all designed around central gameplay mechanics which are largely based on status effects and how the player would strategise around them. (to that end, a lot of the design stuff in my doc never made it into the fic...)

the conceit of the bard was a shadow who can manifest abstract concepts into being by manipulating reality with his words. so the status effects he uses are brainwash and sleep, mostly. his monologues are modified versions of shakespeare's works.

part of the reason why i started writing this fic was specifically to challenge myself in aras of writing im not very confident in: so longform planning, progression of plot, environment description, and action scenes being major ones. writing all the boss fights was and continues to be a real challenge. the chapter that the bard shows up in (chapter 5) ended up taking ages and ages in part because i kept putting off writing this fight. now that it's done, though, the bard fight is actually maybe my favourite fight scene i've written lol. it always turns out that way!!! the reason i like it is because i realised the physical action wasn't the fun part of writing a fight like this. since it was focused on status effects, it meant i got to crawl into ren's headspace when he got brainwashed, which i really really enjoyed doing because i got to drag out some trauma that joker has lovingly repressed.

   to set my fellows, phantoms in the wings    in deadly hate the one against the other…    This isn’t the Casino. This is somewhere else entirely. The Casino, and everything that came with it, that was months ago. How did he forget? The cottonwool that had crept so slowly into his blood dissipates in a mad rush that leaves him dizzy with disbelief. His hands, now that he can feel them again, are trembling. The knife between his fingers, trembling. The cool floor beneath him, the air in his lungs. How close had he come to never feeling that again?    Had he really just been feeling safe about that plan? Had he really felt everything was going to be okay? If anything had gone wrong—anything at all—he’d have been gone. He’d have been dead. How had they made it so he felt okay with that?    A trick? A ruse?    How blasé they’d all been, when it was his life they were gambling with like a worthless set of poker chips! And they’re here—all around him. Safe? He’s never been in more danger.    “Joker!”    Surrounded. He’s surrounded by the ones who left him for dead.

the Dancer doesn't get as much attention in text because i didn't want to slow down the pacing of the story every few minutes to do another huge scene tgat doesn't really serve a purpose, just like the exploration of the Globe Wing didn't. all that mattered was that he was shown to be adaptable, agile, and resilient - the Dancer needs to be in top condition at all times and ready to dodge any threat. the imagery that came through to me the strongest was the idea that his feet are always bleeding, so he leaves bloodstains all over the floor.

the Magician

this was another scene i adored writing. i think environment-wise, the House of Cards is my favourite Wing in the palace because it's the most unique structure. it's not a styled theatre like the others, it's more on-theme to the Magician, like he's set up his own performance environment. so it's just a huge house of cards made of crumbling playing cards which is really difficult to navigate and which joker kind of blends into.

the premise for the Magician was someone who needs to perform miracles and present impossible illusions as reality with a flair for drama. the Magician fools the Thieves over and over and over again, because they are good-hearted people who want to save him.

did you ever see that unused mementos request in royal where akechi tells the thieves about a target to save someone, and doesn't tell them that the someone in question is dodgy themself, and watches to see how quickly the Thieves immediately trust them?

i don't think i based this fight off this request because im pretty sure i had it planned out before i ever saw this, but i was really pleased to see it because it's very much the same idea. even in the engine room, akechi calls the thieves idiots for inviting him back into the team. of course, this isn't a good or healthy worldview lol and it's something he has to unlearn because he literally trusts no one and that's not an extreme anyone should be endorsing, but he also has a point in that the thieves are willing to throw their faith into things way too easily and don't look critically at people or situations. so the magician fools them, victimises them, tricks them into considering him a victim, fools them again, traumatises them, but they all continue to feel empathy for him and try to save him when he's in trouble. akc's cynicism vs the thieves' faith is a big theme of this one i think and the question is like, when to doubt vs when to trust even when you have evidence to the opposition. i think the right position is somewhere between thesis and antithesis (which iirc is not actually the wording hegel used when describing dialectics? lol... i might be wrong. i never studied hegel so my knowledge is pretty superficial. but i think this was a translation thing anyway because allegedly goro doesnt refer directly to hegel in jp? someone can confirm or deny idk)

anyway those are the bossfights we've had so far!!! just the VIP Box to go now......................... :3

[mariacallous]

Neo-Nazis and white supremacists are sharing Hitler-related propaganda and trying to recruit new members on TikTok, according to a new report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) shared exclusively with WIRED. The TikTok algorithm is also promoting this content to new users, researchers found, as extremist communities are leveraging the huge popularity of TikTok among younger audiences to spread their message.

The report from ISD details how hundreds of extremist TikTok accounts are openly posting videos promoting Holocaust denial and the glorification of Hitler and Nazi-era Germany, and suggesting that Nazi ideology is a solution to modern-day issues such as the alleged migrant invasion of Western countries. The accounts also show support for white supremacist mass shooters and livestream-related footage or recreations of these massacres. Many of the accounts use Nazi symbols in their profile pictures or include white supremacist codes in their usernames.

Nathan Doctor, an ISD researcher who authored the report, says he began his investigation earlier this year when he came across one neo-Nazi account on TikTok while conducting research for another project.

He was quickly able to unmask a much broader network of accounts that appeared to be actively helping each other through liking, sharing, and commenting on each other’s accounts in order to increase their viewership and reach.

The groups promoting neo-Nazi narratives are typically siloed in more fringe platforms, like Telegram, the encrypted messaging app. But Telegram has become a place to discuss recruitment techniques for TikTok specifically: White supremacist groups there share videos, images, and audio tracks that members can use, explicitly telling other members to cross-post the content on TikTok.

“We posted stuff on our brand new tiktok account with 0 followers but had more views than you could ever have on bitchute or twitter,” one account in a Neo-Nazi group posted on Telegram about their outreach on TikTok. “It just reaches much more people.”

Others have followed suit. One prominent neo-Nazi has often asked his thousands of Telegram followers to “juice,” or algorithmically boost, his TikTok videos to increase their viral potential.

An extremist Telegram channel with 12,000 followers urged members to promote the neo-Nazi documentary Europa: The Last Battle by blanketing TikTok with reaction videos in an effort to make the film go viral. Researchers from ISD found dozens of videos on TikTok featuring clips from the film, some with over 100,000 views. “One account posting such snippets has received nearly 900k views on their videos, which include claims that the Rothschild family control the media and handpick presidents, as well as other false or antisemitic claims,” the researchers wrote.

This is far from the first time the role that TikTok’s algorithm plays in promoting extremist content has been exposed. Earlier this month, the Global Network on Extremism and Technology reported that TikTok’s algorithm was promoting the “adoration of minor fascist ideologues.” The same researchers found last year that it was boosting Eurocentric supremacist narratives in Southeast Asia. Earlier this month, WIRED reported how TikTok’s search suggestions were pushing young voters in Germany towards the far-right Alternative for Germany party ahead of last month’s EU elections.

“Hateful behavior, organizations and their ideologies have no place on TikTok, and we remove more than 98 percent of this content before it is reported to us,” Jamie Favazza, a TikTok spokesperson tells WIRED. “We work with experts to keep ahead of evolving trends and continually strengthen our safeguards against hateful ideologies and groups.”

Part of the reason platforms like TikTok have in the past been unable to effectively clamp down on extremist content is due to the use of code language, emojis, acronyms, and numbers by these groups. For example, many of the neo-Nazi accounts used a juice box emoji to refer to Jewish people.

“At present, self-identified Nazis are discussing TikTok as an amenable platform to spread their ideology, especially when employing a series of countermeasures to evade moderation and amplify content as a network,” the researchers write in the report.

But Doctor points out that even when viewing non-English-language content, spotting these patterns should be possible. “Despite seeing content in other languages, you can still pretty quickly recognize what it means,” says Doctor. “The coded nature of it isn't an excuse, because if it's pretty easily recognizable to someone in another language, it should be recognizable to TikTok as well.”

TikTok says it has more than “40,000 trust and safety professionals” working on moderation around the globe, and the company says its Trust and Safety Team has specialists in violent extremism who constantly monitor developments in these communities, including the use of new coded language.

While many of the identified accounts are based in the US, Doctor found that the network was also international.

“It's definitely global, it's not even just the English language,” Doctor tells WIRED. “We found stuff in French, Hungarian, German. Some of these are in countries where Naziism is illegal. Russian is a big one. But we even found things that were a bit surprising, like groups of Mexican Nazis, or across Latin America. So, yeah, definitely a global phenomenon.”

Doctor did not find any evidence that the international groups were actively coordinating with each other, but they were certainly aware of each others’ presence on TikTok: “These accounts are definitely engaging with each others' content. You can see, based on comment sections, European English-speaking pro-Nazi accounts reacting with praise toward Russian-language pro-Nazi content.”

The researchers also found that beyond individual accounts and groups promoting extremist content, some real-world fascist or far-right organizations were openly recruiting on the platform.

Accounts from these groups posted links in their TikTok videos to a website featuring antisemitic flyers and instructions on how to print and distribute them. They also boosted Telegram channels featuring more violent and explicitly extremist discourse.

In one example cited by ISD, an account whose username contains an antisemitic slur and whose bio calls for an armed revolution and the complete annihilation of Jewish people, has shared incomplete instructions to build improvised explosive devices, 3D-printed guns, and “napalm on a budget.”

To receive the complete instructions, the account holder urged followers to join a “secure groupchat” on encrypted messaging platforms Element and Tox. Doctor says that comments under the account holder’s videos indicate that a number of his followers had joined these chat groups.

ISD reported this account, along with 49 other accounts, in June for breaching TikTok’s policies on hate speech, encouragement of violence against protected groups, promoting hateful ideologies, celebrating violent extremists, and Holocaust denial. In all cases, TikTok found no violations, and all accounts were initially allowed to remain active.

A month later, 23 of the accounts had been banned by TikTok, indicating that the platform is at least removing some violative content and channels over time. Prior to being taken down, the 23 banned accounts had racked up at least 2 million views.

The researchers also created new TikTok accounts to understand how Nazi content is promoted to new users by TikTok’s powerful algorithm.

Using an account created at the end of May, researchers watched 10 videos from the network of pro-Nazi users, occasionally clicking on comment sections but stopping short of any form of real engagement such as liking, commenting, or bookmarking. The researchers also viewed 10 pro-Nazi accounts. When the researchers then flipped to the For You feed within the app, it took just three videos for the algorithm to suggest a video featuring a World War II-era Nazi soldier overlayed with a chart of US murder rates, with perpetrators broken down by race. Later, a video appeared of an AI-translated speech from Hitler overlaid with a recruitment poster for a white nationalist group.

Another account created by ISD researchers saw even more extremist content promoted in its main feed, with 70 percent of videos coming from self-identified Nazis or featuring Nazi propaganda. After the account followed a number of pro-Nazi accounts in order to access content on channels set to private, the TikTok algorithm also promoted other Nazi accounts to follow. All 10 of the first accounts recommended by TikTok to this account used Nazi symbology or keywords in their usernames or profile photos, or featured Nazi propaganda in their videos.

“In no way is this particularly surprising,” says Abbie Richards, a disinformation researcher specializing in TikTok. "These are things that we found time and time again. I have certainly found them in my research."

Richards wrote about white supremacist and militant accelerationist content on the platform in 2022, including the case of neo-Nazi Paul Miller, who, while serving a 41-month sentence for firearm charges, featured in a TikTok video that racked up more than 5 million views and 700,000 likes during the three months it was on the platform before being removed.

Marcus Bösch, a researcher based in Hamburg University who monitors TikTok, tells WIRED that the report’s findings “do not come as a big surprise,” and he’s not hopeful there is anything TikTok can do to fix the problem.

“I’m not sure exactly where the problem is,” Bösch says. “TikTok says it has around 40,000 content moderators, and it should be easy to understand such obvious policy violations. Yet due to the sheer volume [of content], and the ability by bad actors to quickly adapt, I am convinced that the entire disinformation problem cannot be finally solved, neither with AI nor with more moderators.”

TikTok says it has completed a mentorship program with Tech Against Terrorism, a group that seeks to disrupt terrorists’ online activity and helps TikTok identify online threats.

“Despite proactive steps taken, TikTok remains a target for exploitation by extremist groups as its popularity grows,” Adam Hadley, executive director of Tech Against Terrorism, tells WIRED. “The ISD study shows that a small number of violent extremists can wreak havoc on large platforms due to adversarial asymmetry. This report therefore underscores the need for cross-platform threat intelligence supported by improved AI-powered content moderation. The report also reminds us that Telegram should also be held accountable for its role in the online extremist ecosystem.”

As Hadley outlines, the report’s findings show that there are significant loopholes in the company’s current policies.

“I've always described TikTok, when it comes to far-right usage, as a messaging platform,” Richards said. “More than anything, it's just about repetition. It's about being exposed to the same hateful narrative over and over and over again, because at a certain point you start to believe things after you just see them enough, and they start to really influence your worldview.”

[felassan]

Snippets. 🐺💜 DA:TV spoilers under cut.

Kala has heard rumors that there may be merch pins coming of Assan and Manfred [source]

(Previous comment for context - Dev Brenon: "You can sprint, there is also a dash/dodge move you can do for short range mobility - though I don't tend to use that much when exploring.") A user asked on this, "Will it be a push-to-sprint key, a sprint toggle, or other (to be explained later)?". Brenon replied with some more detail on this feature: "Right now it's a pseudo-toggle, you press it once (while moving) to start sprinting and then as long as you keep moving you keep sprinting. If you let got of the movement controls, you stop sprinting." [source: the official BioWare Discord]

User: "if a choice i made 30 hours ago affects me.. best believe im restarting the whole game". Brenon: "Uh oh''. User: "UH OH???". Brenon: "I mean... we do have "decision saves" before big choice moments, but there are still a bunch that depend on a whole mess of stuff you've done earlier... so... yeah... RIP :P" [source: the official BioWare Discord]

They hope to get a bunch more BioWare-themed emojis for the Discord [source: the official BioWare Discord]

Trick Weekes has been signing DA:TV stuff with "with love and appreciation for your patience" [source]

Carly: "theres so much id love to say, but i unfortunately can't , that being said, i hear y'all and love working on a game for such passionate people and hope y'all enjoy when it does come out 💕" [source]

Actor signing attendees report that it was amazing and that we're in good hands with this acting cast. You can see more photos from it here [source].

Dev signing attendees report that it was packed. You can see another photo from it here [source]. and here is a photo of the sign from it [source]

Another photo of the booth [source]. Sometimes at the booth the devs had a Solas statue [source] (this is done by Dark Horse). I think Dark were also displaying somewhere a Varric and a Cassandra statue too, and I think these were the ones that Dark Horse do too (Varric, Cass), but I can't find the image or video where I originally saw this anymore, sorry >.<

The companion tarot-style art from the website was shown on the big screen at the acting panel [source]

A few more details from the actor panel, from an attendee: John Epler said that this is the best group of companions written because of their relationships with each other, not just Rook. They can become friends, lovers, rivals with each other. Zach thought that Lucanis was the coolest character he gets to play. It sounds like he mentioned Illario [I'm assuming] by name. Lucanis is quick-witted. Neve is a bit of a romantic. Jessica found voice acting freeing as it felt like playing pretend when she was little. In her role, she felt like she could embrace being very powerful. Neve is passionate. On Emmrich, "wisdom, calm to group, warm-hearted, loves learning". Emmrich has some fantastic lines. Along with working with Varric to track down Solas, Harding has also been working with Rook and Neve. Ali talked a lot about how much collaboration there is between BioWare, the actors and the material they're given to work with. Harding has been through some things and has more of an edge to her, but they can't talk about it! [source]

A few more details from the actor panel, from an attendee - Jessica Clark: "A lot of the time, we kind've really all bonded in the way that we were intended to, you know? And that's why we've been so excited all week and all weekend, because we can be like 'oh my god you're here', 'oh my god you're here, you're here, you're here', finally, you know? You know, I know on a lot of projects people are like 'oh yeah, we're all like, we love each other', but we really do, we really really do, and it just evolved so organically, and there was something magical about it just being our voices in the beginning, you know, like, sort've taking anything else out of the [equation.]" [source]

A few more details from the actor panel, from an attendee - Nick Boraine: "I think I've been preparing for Emmrich all my life. I was very attracted to the role initially, and I was so, I was so, I was overjoyed when I got it, because I think it was, the writing of Emmrich is really fascinating, it's this, this man that is obsessed with death, on one hand, but on death as a comfort, death as a transition, death as something that is not scary, and that, that ability to enable people to transition and the investment that he gives in that sphere, which we don't give in our own lives. I was immediately attracted to that and I thought that that was, I'd never seen that before, so to go in these two ways, to talk about death and to talk about it in a way that is kind, and that the transition becomes a kind transition, that was fascinating to me, and I think, will be fascinating to you too." [source]

A few more details from the actor panel, from an attendee - Zach Mendez: "[before they started shooting] I did kinda get an idea about how passionate the fanbase was, which made me really excited. I don't wanna say nervous, because I don't say I'm nervous, I say I'm excited. And so, before the first day of shoot, I was very excited. And luckily, you know, Ashley and them, didn't have me do too much on the first day. I played a lot of darkspawn. I darkspawn-ed my ass off, though. I want you guys to know, I really. And when I got home, I thought to myself, 'Zach, did you darkspawn hard enough?' I was just worried. You know, and within an hour I got texts from Jeff, who's a part of this cast as well, and G, telling me what a great job I did, and then I'll never forget, I got a call from Ali Hillis down here, and I'll remember that conversation, because for thirty minutes she made me feel like I was welcome in the Dragon Age family, and it gave me so much confidence moving forwards. So thank you, Ali, so much, I still remember that." [source]

[Character limit text break!]

Varric and Manfred: "not romanceable" [source] ?

Neve mostly eats deep-fried fish [source], it makes up the bulk of her diet [source]

Bellara loves pan-fried fish [source]

John on SDCC: "thank you to everyone who came out to the signing. thank you to everyone who came out to the panel. thank you to everyone who said hi, swung by the booth, or otherwise expressed how excited you were about the game. absolutely amazing experience. was wonderful to see you all" [source]

There's a lot of lovely concept art for DA:TV [source]

Trick Weekes: "One of the things I was proudest of was inviting leads from other teams/departments into writing peer reviews and having them later say, "Wow, those critiques went deep, but everyone stayed professional and compassionate the whole time." My junior-most writer knew she could tell me I was wrong." [source]

Violet: "As we get closer to DATV, I just want to send out a reminder Var lath vir suledin 😭" [source]

Derek on the casting department: "They really did an incredible job! Every single one of these folks deliver such amazing performances." [source]

Derek: "a lot of great talent doing awesome stuff from KY nowadays. I count myself extremely lucky that I can work on such an amazing project with such a wonderful team straight from my home state!" [source]

Michael Gamble: "i know a few people on the DA team, and i want them to have a nice time." [source]

User, on the recent word count news: "Sooooo , when will I (we) get to hear all these words". Michael: "hopefully when the game is out." [source]

User, on the news of no microtransactions: "This is great news that I hope survives past the review period". Michael: "it will" [source]

User: "What class have you been playing as in DAV mostly?" Michael: "mage. i light everything up. everything." [source]

DAMP / multiplayer mode is not returning [source]

Ghil: "Im very sorry for the teasing tweet but to be very real, i really miss playing veilguard and to stop THERE and have to wait over a year is killing me tbh. Im bothered. My crops are dying. I am withering. I want to know what happens" [source]

A user asked a question around if there are dialogue options and choices available in the game that indicate a mixed or less favorable positive perspective on Solas. Bria, a Councilmember, shared: "As an Egg Cracker, I was pretty satisfied with what we saw. I don’t want to go into spoilers but I was able to play my Rook the way I wanted when it came to the Sad Egg Man." [source]

User: "would you be able to tell us if you can change your perspective while in a fight? Those circles we saw on the video were kind of hard to see from that angle". Ghil: "Like a bit- no promises but they told us a lot of stuff like that would be in an accessibility feature. I get pretty motion sick so I remember talking about backing it up a bit." [source]

Kala: "The amount of gasping, screaming, @/ElbenherzArt having to lay on the floor, @/hattedhedgehog and @/chaosbria having to stand up from excitement and us just being in shock the whole time. Yeah 🔟 😎" [source]

Kala shared that there are moments in the game that she knows people will freak out about [source], that in terms of marketing, she knows that the devs have more things planned [source], and that she found Bellara endearing, despite not usually vibing with optimistic and energetic characters [source]

Kala shared that she feels that the Lighthouse is way cooler than Skyhold [source]

Also, in early May 2024 Zach appeared on a podcast:

Zach: "I'm very excited because it looks like at the end of this year, the video game that I've been working on for about three or so years is gonna come out, and I'm really excited for that. I'm gonna come back on and I'm gonna promote that, you guys, you will have no choice, I'm coming back on." Host: "Does the video game feature dicks?" Zach: "I can't say too much about it, but it, it doesn't ignore dicks, you know what I mean? It doesn't, you know what, there might be, yeah, there's, it's a sexy video game, it's a hot video game." Host: "So are you a character?" Zach: "I'm a character in the video game." --- Zach: "I'm gonna come back on to promote the hell out of that, because I'm really excited about that. I'm still working on that, and that's been, like, I'm super grateful for that, because that's been going on for like three years and it's been consistent work." --- Zach: "I'm super excited about it [...]" "Other people help you make really amazing things, when humans get together they make pretty stuff, and this game looks amazing"

[source (acting career segment. source link isn't work-appropriate. I don't recommend the podcast)]

[zillatastic]

rapper! ony x singer! reader

summary: good girl gone bad ; you just can’t get enough of rapper ! ony who has made a name for himself for participating in a plethora of (usually) one-sided rap beefs, being a creative lyricist/producer, & being such a bad influence to your heart.

(I suck at summarizing ಥ_ಥ̥)

this post contains: head-cannons, cursing, n-word usage, smidge of smut, spelling errors, lowercase grammar, semi-toxic ! ony or wtv, crybaby ! reader, vague description of reader’s body, lowk clickbaited summary, not proofread.

▬▬ rapper! ony who “accidentally” leaks a snippet of his new song with your moans as the intro melody.

much to your horror the audio blows up on tiktok and now every time you open the app, that accursed audio plays.

the worst thing about it is that every time you bring up the audio to ony and question how it even got leaked in the first place, you’re met with a..

“mmcht, ma, for the last time I don’t know how it got leaked. connie’s dumb ass must have did something stupid and posted the wrong shit.”

or a..

“fatbutt, I don’t know why you complaining. you sound sexy as fuck and the fans wanna hear more of the track once i release it. you don’t wanna disappoint our fans, right ma?”

“n-no, I don’t wanna disappoint them but I just don’t feel comfortable with it. maybe you can call connie one more time and try to get it taken care of ?”

“ight.”

it never gets taken care of, in fact three weeks later ony drops the song with eren as featured artist which doubles the song’s popularity and makes it on the billboard hot 100.

“whose pussy is this, ma ? ~ mhm tell me ?” ony asks while delivering slow harsh strokes into your trembling body. your hair wrapped tightly in his hands as it helps aid his assault into your weeping cunt while his free hand is gripping your midsection equally as tight.

“f-fucknmhm, it’s yours pa,” ony’s abusive thrusts to your pussy force your words to ball up in the back of your throat as you try to concentrate on listening to his commands and hold the phone recording the intimate moment.

watching the phone slowly start to slip through your half- boneless hands, it urged him to re-wrap your hair (tightly) into his hands and harshly lift your body onto his chest while continuing his now- upward thrusts into your cunt. the new angle allowed a deeper reach into your cervix as ony heartlessly knocked into it. “say it louder for the camera baby. whose owns this pussy ?”

“ony does, ony owns my pussy. fuck~ please pa I’m so close.”

“good girl, ma. you so pretty when you cry. now cum for me.” ony commands as he watches your body tremble in pure overstimulation and pleasure. biting his lip as he gently wipes the tears from out the corner your eyes and leans down to kiss your cheek.

▬▬ rapper ! ony who can sense when someone is making his girl laugh.

“ony what is your opinion on the Kendrick vs Drake beef?” a reporter asked while shoving her mic into his face.

ony who was tired of being asked this question sighed and tried his best to formulate a sentence that would not offend either rapper.

“well you know I be-” he stops mid sentence to turn around before hearing the soft chuckle of his girlfriend from across the garden of the regal event.

the reporter who was standing there unanswered lifted a brow and tried to gain ony’s attention back on the question for it’s live broadcasted audience.

“umm, ony ?” the reporter asked until she heard a feminine chuckle from the other side of her. the reporter and the cameraman turned swiftly to what caught ony’s eye to see you laughing hysterically at something thee Brent Faiyaz said.

“I’ll be back.” ony mumbled.

(damn.. someone stole my bitch.)

▬▬ rapper ! ony who promotes your music to his hardcore fan base.

▬▬ rapper ! ony who cannot keep his hands off your body.

he is stuck to you like white on rice.

you physically cannot escape this man because his strong arms are always securely wrapped around your waist, neck or arm.

ony isn’t a controlling person, but he is very clingy. he likes to feel the presence of his girl around him and having a body part of his connect to yours-

It sedates him.

cheesy? I know.. but he’s your man, so you’ll deal with it.

▬▬ rapper ! ony whose mean mug is nasty.

he does not play when it comes to people besides him being handsy with you.

ony’s sideeye has become a stan twitter icon.

in the earlier stages of your blooming relationship ony did not want to come off as too overbearing (he is) and let a lot of of his boundaries be overstepped. he never wanted to cause a big scene, so he always used his face to project his emotions instead of his words and fist.

a particular event where you had been pulled to the side to be interviewed had blown up all over social media because of ony deviously standing in the back- mugging the fuck out of the reporter whose hands were on the small of your back.

retweets of the incident had you delighted while ony was rather annoyed.

▬▬ rapper ! ony who dedicates an entire album to you.

▬▬ rapper ! ony who corrects your behavior.

ony has eyes all over. never forget that.

you two had gotten into an argument the day before over something small. at this point you had already forgotten what you two were arguing about, but the impact of the altercation was still there.

you despised when ony bested you in an argument and in retaliation you decided to attend a not-so little house party that ony advised you not to attend.

so what did you do?

you went to the party.

that night you’d tell ony that it was all sasha’s fault, but this was a conscious choice made by yourself.

that night you were spent bent over ony’s leg being spanked till tears then finger fucked.

▬▬ rapper ! ony who can’t stop talking about you during interviews.

▬▬ rapper ! ony who verbally dragged another artist who decided it would be cute to throw shade at your new single.

“ony, delete the tweet.” with your hands on your hips you let out a deep sigh. you two have been bickering back and forth all evening about the tweet-simply because you didn’t care what someone with barely 500k streams had to say.

“no, she’s gonna learn to pick her battles wisely today, ma.”

“oh my fucking god onyankopon put the phone down.”

(end of rapper! ony x singer! reader headcannons pt. 1)

author note: thank you so much for reading and noting. I have not written in years (2019-22) and I wanted to jump back into something new. usually I would’ve written a 10k fanfic on naruto but I’ve been tuning into a lot of aot/jjk content and I’ve decided this is my new era of writing. I cannot wait to find my own comfort and flow with this new fandom !!

[paracosm-draw]

Guys I fell into the slave!Anakin hole, have this as a little snippet 👀

---

The young man - Anakin, Obi-Wan remembers - is curlded up on the furthest bench of the room (the furthest one from him), bare legs drawn up against his barely more covered chest, blue eyes fixed on him and following each and every one of his movements.

He's shivering, even though he tries to hide it as well as he can. Like Obi-Wan is going to punish him for being cold during his first space travel. He thinks about bringing him a blanket but as soon as he moves, Anakin straightens up, delicate muscles tensing up below the poor excuse of clothes he wears. His presence in the Force perks up in alarm and he makes himself smaller against the wall of the ship, at the same time his gaze intensifies, pinning Obi-Wan in place like an insect to be dissected.

He doesn't dare move. Instead he forces himself to relax under the scrutinizing look of the former slave, keeping his hands crossed behind his back to avoid scaring him.

"I'm not going to hurt you."

Silence. Anakin keeps staring at him, still as a statue except for the occasional tremors betraying how cold he feels.

He might have heard that plenty of times before. Obi-Wan realizes, compelling his own eyes to stay on the boy's face instead of roaming over the scars covering his body. He doesn't want to make him even more uncomfortable than he already feels. But the truth is... He has no idea how to communicate with Anakin.

Freeing him seemed like the right thing do to at the time. More than that, a barely controlled urge mostly driven by the Force he can't totally explain. He didn't have to think as he sprung into action, as he planned and tricked and gained the slave's freedom. But now that the heat has passed, now that he's faced with the consequences of his choices, he finds himself helpless.

"I- I realize I didn't even introduce myself." He says for lack of anything else to tell. "I'm Obi-Wan Kenobi."

Another silence. The intensity of Anakin's gaze on him doesn't decrease.

"It's my name." Obi-Wan precises. "You're Ah-nakin, right ? And I'm Ob-"

"I'm not stupid." Obi-Wan almost startles when the young man opens his mouth. His voice his deeper than the softness of his features would suggest. It's also the first time he hears it. "And it's Anakin, not Ah-nakin."

Obi-Wan clears his throat.

"Far from me the idea of implying that. And I believe that's what I said. Ah-nakin."

"No, it's Anakin." The boy repeats stubbornly. "You make it sound snobbish."

Obi-Wan frowns. He tries to silently mouth the word. It shouldn't be that difficult. Then he gives it his best try.

"Ah-nakin ?"

Anakin actually rolls his eyes at him, like he's the stupidest thing in the galaxy. Obi-Wan tries not to be offended by it.

"Nevermind. You can call me what you want now that you owe me, anyway."

Obi-Wan can't stay still at the words. He takes a step forward on instinct and Anakin flinches hard against the wall, stopping him on his track.

"I don't-" Obi-Wan takes a deep breath, exhaling while he pushes into the Force the emotions those words aroused in him. Disgust, revolt, sadness. Anakin certainly doesn't need his misplaced pity. "I don't owe you, Ah-nakin. I didn't... buy you. I freed you. You belong to yourself, now."

He doesn't know what he expects. Thanks. Gratefulness, maybe. Joy. Relief. He's humbled real quick when all Anakin does is bark a sharp laugh.

"Yeah, sure. Like Watto is actually gonna free me. Good story but I've heard better."

Again, Obi-Wan tries not to be offended. It's natural, after all, that Anakin doesn't trust him. That he doesn't see him as a saviour but as another potential threat. There's probably a lesson to be learned in this, somewhere. Most probably about Obi-Wan's ego.

So, he doesn't insist and changes his angle instead.

"Are you hungry ? You seem to be cold, can I bring you a blanket ?"

Anakin squints at him. His lips slowly start to turn blue but he still shake his head defiantly.

"I'm not cold."

Obi-Wan bites the inside of his cheek, pulling closer to the Force to borrow a little bit of patience.

"You're not really... Dressed for space travels." He tries carefully. "Space is cold. You're used to the constant heat of Tatooine, so... I have spare clothes if you ever feel the need to cover more."

Anakin grins at him, despite his now obvious shivers.

"You don't like how I'm dressed ?"

The question brings a faint blush on Obi-Wan cheekbones. He orders his eyes to stay on Anakin's face. Nobody with common sense would call what the boy is wearing proper clothes. It's nothing more than complicated bands of sheer material intertwined around his body and leaving nothing to the imagination. He must be currently freezing.

"That is not the question." He answers quickly. "I'll bring you warmer clothes. You can do whatever you want with them."

And on that, he flees. He's not proud about it but there's something in Anakin that both fascinates and makes him uncomfortable. He needs some time to disentangle all of it, and to think about what's next.

[twasmayfield]

still.

description: years later after a summer trip with her father that became fading memories, fernando alonso's daughter stumbles across a camcorder and reflects on the rare time spent with her father as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn't.

warnings: major character death (off screen, not mentioned), loosely based off of ‘aftersun (2022)’, mostly me forgetting how eleven year olds work, afab and daughter!reader, fernando might be a little ooc, title's from a noah kahan song, lmk if i forgot anything else.

a/n: idk man, this au was stuck in my head sigh

She found the old shoebox back in March when she dug through her closet, trying to find a presentable dress to wear to an event. The box was shoved all the way in the back of the closet on the floor, looking worn and almost cold to the touch. Of course, it was long forgotten after a long night of drinking expensive champagne and schmoozing with her friends. And she didn’t stumble upon it again until late September when she was stuffing her old clothes into boxes to donate.

She pulled the box out, letting out a small huff of amusement as she dug through it. The box was full of old photographs from when she was younger. A couple snapshots featuring her parents being in love, her mother looking pretty in the sunlight, and one or two pictures of her and her father at his races. She paused, staring down at the pictures; a bittersweet feeling clawing at her chest. She grabbed the old camcorder, riffling through the box for the charger before she plugged it into an outlet, waiting for it to be charged.

Her memories of him were few and far—snippets of his smile and face long forgotten, slipping and fading away into the back of her mind—only actually being encapsulated in news articles and old race clips spread out across the internet. She thought it wasn’t fair how she couldn’t seem to remember what he used to have for breakfast, yet the strangers online knew about him more than she ever did and will.

The video is grainy now—not like the clear footage she remembered so vividly when she was younger. Now she’s the same age as he was in the video; maybe even older by a few years. She stared at the screen, her eyes studying the way his face looked in the video; the way the corners of his eyes crinkled when he laughed—the sound of his laughter quiet and faint in her ears without her ever needing to play it.

The Mediterranean sun was blinding, casting golden light over the quiet resort town.

On the balcony of a small, seaside hotel, Fernando Alonso stood by the railing, sunglasses perched on his nose, and a cigarette lazily held between his two fingers. He watched the world in easy silence, the waves lapping at the shore, the distant hum of laughter and clinking glasses from the bar below.

Inside, his daughter unboxed a new camcorder he had bought for her. She read through the instructions before turning it on, adjusting it on a stack of books. The red recording light flickered on, causing her to let out a squeal of excitement that caught her father’s attention.

“Ladies and gentleman, my father, the amazing, wondrous, one armed Fernando Alonso Díaz.” She giggled as she held the camcorder in her hands, zooming into his face; his features on display in the little screen. “Papá, say something.”

Fernando glanced at her, a smirk tugging at his lips. “What do you want me to say?”

She rolled her eyes. “I don’t know, something wise.”

He exhaled slowly, flicking ash over the railing. “Life is like a race. Everyone tells you to go faster, but sometimes… you should just enjoy the track.”

She snorted. “That was awful.”

But she’s smiling.

And for now, that’s enough.

The air was hot and humid—the clothes on her back sticking to her skin as she kicked the water in the pool, fidgeting with the camcorder she held in her hands. A few minutes ago, the eleven year old girl sat on one of the plastic lounge chairs the hotel provided, and watched as her father applied sunscreen to her arms. “I can do it myself!” She told him with a determined nod, but held her arm out anyway as her papá smiled and managed with one arm—the other in a cast due to a crash during a recent race.

The trip to the seaside was a well needed vacation after the grueling season he had so far, and she was just happy to spend time with him. He looked tired and worn down, but she chalked it up to the season taking a toll on him—that’s why they were on vacation, he needed a break. The hotel wasn’t fancy, the town was quiet, and Fernando seemed happy enough, but there’s something off. A feeling she couldn’t quite place at the time.

He’s quiet—distant even—a faraway look evident in his eyes as he watched her kick and splash water; her small hands steady and careful as she toyed with the camcorder. “Papá!” The girl called out to him, craning her body back to film him. She watched him wave through the tiny screen, his movements slowed by a millisecond. Fernando laughed as he waved, leaning back in his chair, sunglasses on, always watching. “Be careful, cariño, it was expensive.” 

“Okay!”

The father and daughter walked down a street market full of bustling vendors and wandering tourists. She walked closely beside him as she peered at each stall, noticing one that laid out an assortment of jewelry. Fernando noticed her gaze and mussed her hair as she protested and tried to fix it, causing him to laugh. “I’ll get it for you, chiquita,” he said, and watched her smile, baring her teeth as she did. She giggled as he tied the bracelet on her wrist, helping him when he couldn’t pull the strings with one hand.

She fidgeted with the bracelet, the payphone’s receiver pressed between her shoulder and ear as she listened to her mother’s voice on the other side. “The hotel’s alright. Well, we’re not actually at our hotel. It doesn’t have a phone. But yeah.” She paused, looking out the booth’s window, and seeing her father talking to a stranger, a half hearted smile plastered on his face as he listened to whatever the man was saying. “Papá? Yeah, he’s fine—just talking to someone,” she pushed the door open with her foot, hand covering the receiver as she called to him. “Mamá wants to talk to you.”

Fernando bid his goodbye to the man, giving her an easy smile as he took the receiver from her hands and held it up to his ear. She skipped out of the booth, looking around her surroundings to pass the time, knowing that her parents were going to be on call longer. She waited, almost close to pressing her cheek to the booth window to get his attention. And the call ended. She heard them exchange ‘I love you’s,’ and a smile found itself on her face before he hung up, setting the receiver back on the hook.

She sat on a chair, her legs swinging off it as she watched her father shoot pool. Hunched down on the pool table, he carefully studied the sequence, trying to find the perfect moment to strike. “Can you teach me?” She asked, curious. He looked back up, straightening his back as he held the cue stick, looking at her with an amused smile on his face. “Sure,” he waved her over and she jumped off the chair in excitement.

“Mi vida,” he called her and pulled her into his side, her cheek getting squished. He handed her the cue stick, telling her to point it carefully.

The evening sun settled, streaks of orange and pink meshed together with the incoming night sky. Her small hand reached for his, settling in it as they walked along the shore together. The sand no longer felt hot underneath her, it was bearable. She talked his ear off about how she was excited to go back to school, how she was going to make lots of friends, and how she hoped her mother would let her attend his races. Fernando simply listened, squeezing her hand with a small smile. She grinned up at him at that.

The waves crashed against the shore as birds flew overhead. This was perfect. She watched as a few people passed by them. “Will we come back next summer?” She asked quietly, her small body wrapped in a beach towel, her hair wet. She glanced up at the sunny sky, imagining different animals in the clouds, and Fernando paused just a little too long before saying, “Of course.”

On the last night of their trip, they danced at a small, open-air club. She watched in embarrassment and amusement as he started dancing, his arm out and beckoned her to join him on the floor with the others. She isn’t much of a dancer, but she tried anyway. She laughed, he smiled. Someone took a picture of them together, their happiness frozen on a piece of film. It was perfect.

The night was always quiet. The distant humming of motorcycles and cars faded as the sky darkened and the stars lit up. She woke up in the middle of the night, her father not in the room. Her eyes adjusted to the dimness of the room. The balcony let the light of the moon in, illuminating shadows on the room’s floor. She could barely see out due to the doors, but she knew he was there. Knew he was standing outside with his elbows pressed to the metal railing as a lit cigarette found itself between his lips. He was quiet, just thinking. She didn’t know what thoughts swirled around in his mind. She wanted to ask if he’s okay. She doesn’t. And she wished she did.

In the morning, they found themselves back at the airport—their trip ending right before her eyes. She didn’t want it to end, wanting to spend time with him longer. One week wasn’t enough, but she swallowed her protests down.

"I love you, you know?" She nodded. She wished she had said it back. Fernando hugged her, tighter than they both expected. She gave him a smile when he released her from his grip, pulling at the strap of her backpack. He ran a hand through her hair and pressed a kiss to her forehead before patting her shoulder and gave it a small squeeze. She waved him goodbye as the flight attendant softly ushered her from him with a smile. She looked back and he’s there, a distant look in his face as if he was memorizing and committing this moment in his mind.

She is eleven again. He is still standing at the airport gate, watching her go.

[velvetfoxgames]

Infinite Blue - January 2025 Update

Hello, and happy New Year! 🎉 We'll be heading into 2025 optimistic that we'll be making great progress in the upcoming months, putting us closer to a release date. For this update, we have a little yearly recap as well as some gameplay teasers.

A LOOK BACK

🎨 This past year, we made many strides in the art department. Let's go over what was finished:

CGs ✅

Sprites ✅

Base backgrounds ✅

Chatroom art ✅

Item art ✅

GUI update part 2 ✅

📝 We also made some pretty good progress with the writing, particularly getting Rory's route into better shape. We're about halfway there!

🗣️ As for voice acting, we're actively working on that right now as one of our main priorities. We can't wait for you to hear snippets of the characters' phone calls, plus a few extras for the community 😉

🖥️ Check out our programming updates below...

PROGRAMMING

Some fun news here - we're very excited to share that all 7 days of Tobias's script have been programmed! This includes expressions, CG transitions, SFX, and more. A few things left to do will include: programming in the voice acting and updating phone call scripts, time of day/weather BG changes, and putting in a few new music tracks.

Leo's route is on it's way to being programmed as well, with days 5-7 done. Big thank you to our additional programmer, Kristi, whom some of you may be familiar with!

Here's a peek at a scene and a chatroom from Tobias's route. Always fun to make the flirty character flustered.

We also have an update on a really cool customization feature in the game - the skin tone picker done by programming genius Feniks! The picker will adjust how the MC appears in CGs.

As we go forward, you'll be seeing a lot more screenshots and videos of the routes!

PATREON

On Patreon, we had a cozy fall picnic theme for Alexei 🧺 And a mistletoe themed comic featuring Rory.

Thanks for reading ❤️

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[hellodarling1357]

Tiny Toes: Part 2 - Cassian x reader

Hello hello!! I couldn't leave these two alone so here's a short snippet of what occured after the end of part 1.

Thank you for all the support and all of the suggestions for bonus parts that were sent in, I'm so excited to get started on them all and it's safe to say there will be a strong mix of fluff and angst so buckle up!

Hope you enjoy 🥰

Warnings: Smut

Word Count: 2k

The flickering of sunlight streaming in through the open window danced across your eyelids, rousing you from a deep sleep. With a slight groan, you turned away from the light and into the mass of comforting warmth beside you in a desperate attempt to return to sleep so as to chase the wonderful dream you had been having – at least when you slept you could pretend it was real…

The soothing tugs and twirls of your hair almost managed to do just that. That is, of course, until you realised that someone had to be on the other end of those movements; meaning that someone else was in your bed.

“Mornin’, sweetheart,” A rough, sleep-filled voice broke through the morning silence followed by the rustle of sheets and a groan of someone heavily stretching the sleep from their limbs.

Your eyes snapped open; vision slightly constructed as you took in the splay of crisp white sheets haphazardly draped over a toned, warm body that your face had been burrowed against in an attempt to block out the intruding sun.

Oh.

This was not your room.

And that meant your dream hadn’t been a dream…

“Hi,” Your eyes lit up as they met with Cassian’s, smile widening as you remembered the events of the previous night.

“Hi,” The lingering kiss against your forehead had a content sigh escaping your lips. “How are you feeling?”

The distant undertone and furrowed brow had you cocking your head at the male in front of you.

“Good. Great. Why?” Hesitant eyes scanned your sleep muddled features as Cassian tried to sense any signs of regret.

“After last night… I just don’t want you to feel pressured or like you now have to—"

The gentle slant of your lips over his was enough to stop his words in their tracks. Cassian wrapped his arms around your waist, revelling in the feel of the warmth of your skin under his palms as he rolled onto his back, pulling you with him so that you now hovered above his bare chest, lips not once parting from your own.

With one hand planted on the mattress beside his head and the other tangled in his tousled, sleep-mussed hair, you traced your tongue across his bottom lip, tugging slightly with your teeth until he eagerly parted for you. With a small moan you lost yourself in the feel of his tongue, his mouth, him. The calloused hand that had been running up and down the bare skin of your back trailed over to your chest, fingertips caressing your skin before finally finding their way to your breast, teasing your perked nipple until a whimper of pleasure sounded out from the back of your throat as you pressed yourself even closer to him.

All too quickly, Cassian was sitting up, arms holding you tightly as his mouth trailed lingering kisses down your neck and across your chest, teeth nipping at your skin followed by the soothing press of his tongue. Wrapping your legs around his middle, you ground your core against him, letting your head fall back to allow him further access to your sensitive skin as he groaned at the feel of you.

“You’re divine.” The words were rasped against the tender spot below your ear before his mouth continued down towards your breasts, leaving a small trail of love bites in his wake. You ground your hips against him again, revelling in the feel of his erection, so close to where you needed him, and didn’t bother to hide the breathy little sounds spiralling from your lips at the feel of his tongue tracing your nipple, his hand softly squeezing your other breast.

“Cassian,” his name was a desperate, needy plead, begging him for more. 

“Don’t worry, sweetheart. I’ve got you.”

Then you were on your back, Cassian hovering above you as his lips momentarily returned to yours, teeth nipping at your bottom lip before he started his journey back down. Down along your jaw, your neck, across your chest, trailing further and further until he was peppering kisses along your thighs, hands firmly resting on your hips to keep them from bucking up.

“Cass,” you said again, the needy, desperate tone now laced with warning as he continued to tease you. You looked down, finding Cassian already staring back at you from between your legs, eyes glazed with lust and a smirk tugging at his lips as he cocked an eyebrow at you. “Please, I need—“ Your words were cut off at the feel of his tongue sliding along your folds, toes curling as he teased your clit.

The little noises and whimpers you were making went straight to Cassian’s head and he fell in love with each and every sound he managed to pull from you. He was now determined to find out what other noises he could get you making, cursing himself for waiting this long to find out.

The slam of the front door was, sadly, not one of the noises he wanted to hear in this moment.

It took a moment for his mind to register the noise then he was pulling away from you, jumping off the bed and closing the bedroom door as quickly and as quietly as he could.

“Cass?”

The sight of you panting and sprawled on top of his bed as you looked up at him from under heavy lashes in what could only be described as a look of desperate confusion, had his cock hardening even more. That, combined with the taste of you still on his tongue, knowing that you hadn’t finished, had him growling in frustration.

“I’m sorry.  I’m so sorry, Y/N. I didn’t realise the time and—"

“I’m home,” The little voice that sounded from the bottom of the stairs had your eyes widening, all your feelings of arousal dissipating immediately as you jumped up to find your clothes.

“Uncle Rhysie is here, he winnowed me back. Daddy? Where are you?”

In that moment, all Cassian felt was pure panic as he pulled on the first items of clothing he could reach, shooting you apologetic glances as you rushed to get dressed.

“Can you… I hate to ask this, but do you mind staying in here? I’m sorry, I just don’t know how to explain this to Ottie yet and I—"

“Cassian, stop. It’s fine,” you cut off his whispered spiralling, sensing his turmoil from across the room. “Go. I’ll stay here and won’t make a sound until you figure what you want to do.”

Your encouraging smile eased some of the tension he felt, repeatedly nodding his head before hurriedly walking towards the door before Ottie reached the top of the stairs and decided to walk in.

He wasn’t worried about you, per se. Ottie loved you and he knew your staying over wouldn’t even register in her little mind. But the idea that a female had spent the night in their house had guilt gnawing at his stomach. He had been with other people since Nesta; the occasional one-night stand after a, very rare, night out to quell his needs. But he had never brought someone home. Never even deigned to think about introducing Ottie to any of the females he had been with. That is, of course, until you came along. And although you were different, so far from just a casual, meaningless one night stand, now was not the time to have this conversation with his two-year-old daughter.

Your immediate understanding and not taking any offence to him asking you to hide in his room until the coast was clear, had his heart skipping a beat. You were just so… perfect. And right.

Cassian’s hand was reaching towards the door handle when he turned on the spot, determinedly walking over to where you sat on the edge of the bed in a mere few strides. His calloused hand cupped your face as he slanted his mouth against yours in a soft, tender kiss. So different from the kisses you had shared moments ago.

“Y/N…” You waited for him to continue, fingers running through his hair in a desperate attempt to straighten out the mess your tugging fingers had made, a small smile on your face. Cassian covered your lips with his again, this time more hurried. “I meant what I said last night. Every word of it. I love you.”

All you could do was grin up at him before he was striding back across the room, giving you a wink over his shoulder before he gently closed the door behind him.

“Good morning my little princess. Did you have a good night with Uncle Rhysie, Auntie Feyre and Nyx?” Falling back against the mattress, you smiled at the sound of Ottie’s giggles through the door, picturing Cassian scooping her into his arms and throwing her up into the air.

There wasn’t a single part of you that resented Cassian for asking you to stay upstairs. You got it. In all the time you had worked for him, not once did anything ever suggest he had females staying over, regardless of whether or not Ottie was in the house. So the fact that you had stayed the night, in his bed… well, you knew it was a huge step for him and a huge show of the trust he placed in you. 

Despite being fully dressed, you burrowed back into the mattress, pulling the blankets up to your chin as you finally had the chance to process the whirlwind the past day had been, settling into the lingering warmth and comforting smell that was Cassian.

You had gone from thinking you would be fired due to crossing some boundary between the fine personal and professional line, never being able to see two of the most important people to you again. Then, Cassian decided to throw a spanner in the works and, of all things, admitted his love for you. You felt your heart sore as memories of the previous night flowed across your mind; the stolen, lingering kisses as you shared the meal he had set out for you, conversation thrumming with excited, albeit somewhat nervous, energy for what was to come, both after dinner and the days, months, years to follow. 

Then there had been the expectant build-up once your plates had been scraped clean. Cassian had reached out for your hand, thumb running lazy circles into your skin as you stared at one another. You had slowly gotten out of your chair, hand still grasped in his, before carefully setting yourself in his lap, arms wrapping around his neck, his coming around your waist. He had buried his face into your neck, releasing a content sigh as the two of you sat in comfortable silence simply holding each other. Then the slow kisses had started, trailing up your neck, across your jaw, until his lips finally landed on yours; everything else ceased to exist.

Cassian had scooped you up into his arms, lips never leaving yours, as he walked you both inside, up the stairs and, finally, into his bedroom before gently laying you down on the bed.

Your mind continued to drift, going over the memories of the two of you exploring one another’s bodies in so many different ways; after years of knowing each other, you didn’t realise how much there was left to learn.

With Ottie’s echoing giggles filtering through the door, and the sound of Cassian’s booming laugh that followed, you were content to wait for him, for them, knowing it would all be worth it when the time came.

*****

Part 3

@nessianxgwynriel Thank you for starting all of this with your fabulous request!

[exaflux]

BTAS pre-production stuff/official designs and artstyle stuff

Don't mind the title, I'm a bit naff at titling things...

I'm sure people have made posts about it before, but just in case there's anyone that doesn't know, there's official documents on BTAS floating around the net. Things covering episode writing, bios, a bunch of art that animators would have used. Whole lot of stuff.

I've seen people ask questions/have discussion on things like imitating the style/character heights/other general things. These documents are all official and might be helpful so, hey, might as well share for those not in the know.

Gonna keep it short (I'll provide some links so you can check out for yourself as there's a lot I won't cover) but I'll outline some stuff that catches my eye (first bit is about pre-production and ideas they had, second bit is stuff about how they went about drawing/designing the characters)

Pre-production

In animation, it's standard to have a thing called a writer's bible, also called an animation bible. They include everything from plot synopsis, character/concept art, character bios, episode ideas, basically the whole nine yards. These are used mainly in the early stages to pitch ideas and get projects greenlit, but are also kept around as a handy shortform thing to summarise the whole project as much as possible.

As it turns out, the BTAS writer's bible has been extensively documented! There's a PDF of it actually! And if you don't want a PDF, there's a website that covers all the contents too.

As per writer's bibles, it has a ton of their ideas and direction they wanted to take with the show, from episode structure to joke writing right down to how much settings should be able to change per-episode. There's a whole lot of art too! Here's a snippet about some of the changes they wanted to make with the Dark Knight himself:

And just for fun let's also leave some info about how they approached writing Bruce Wayne:

Anyway! On a more interesting topic- some of the rogues. The bios of most of the rogues are included, as are some art of earlier designs. Riddler looks like a sleezy car salesman and Joker is kinda just missing his lips and has stripy pants is seems.

Also of note: in some alternative timeline somewhere we could have had Calendar Man and Gentleman Ghost in BTAS...

As for character heights... The height chart is sectioned into "head" height for Batman's head. The uppermost line is Batman's height, so Batman is 8 Batman heads tall. While it can be hard to make out some of the character heights due to the poses, it'd be safe to guess that you do take poses into account on the height chart. Two-Face is shorter on the chart than Harvey is for example but you'll notice that Two-Face's art shows his head tilted down slightly, so Two-Face isn't actually shorter it's just his pose.

You'll notice these characters are uncoloured. The colour palettes featured are an interesting point that deserve their own post. I'll touch on them another time.

Style Guides / Character Sheets

Style guides tell animators how to correctly draw characters. Can also be applied for things like backgrounds and props and the likes though, whatever feels needed to be noted to keep consistency even if other people are drawing the characters.

Character sheets are character sheets. 'Nuff said. These just show off a character looks from different angles. Expression sheets showing how character emote, art on full-body posing and sheets on hand poses are things that also tend to be covered in animated productions.

Can be found here and here. A lot of overlap in the art shown between the two links but they're absolutely full of character sheets and turn-arounds. There's definitely a lot more design documents I've seen about in other places, but alas, I can't track them down for the life of me.

Here's some highlights:

(When Twoface blinks only his good eye closes completely. His injured eye only partially closes)

("John Crane")

Some early character art:

~~~

If you made it this far then congrats here's some Batmen for your troubles

[justsomerandomfanfic]

Her Knight In Shining Armor - Logan Howlett X Female Reader

Series Title: Her Knight In Shining Armor

Chapter 3: Teach Me

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James 'Logan' Howlett (Knight) X Female (Princess) Reader

Additional Characters: Your Father; the King, advisors (Mentioned), and Reader's mother (Mentioned)

WC: 1,523

Warnings: Royal AU, sunshine x grumpy, knight x princess, slow burn, assassins/attempted murder mentioned, longing, banter, teasing, tension, slight angst, and fluff

You stood in the grand hall, the large, wooden double doors shut firmly before you. Behind them, your father and his advisors spoke in hushed tones, their voices occasionally rising as they debated the kingdom’s safety. Pressing your back to the cool stone wall, you strained to listen, catching snippets of their conversation about looming threats and preparations for a possible conflict with the neighboring kingdom.

Beside you, James stood silently. He didn’t comment on your eavesdropping, though you caught the occasional shift of his gaze as if he was telling you to ignore them. But you couldn’t.

Your father’s voice carried through the thick doors. "The knights and guards will undergo additional training, and we’ll bolster the defenses. It’s imperative to ensure the safety of our people."

After what happened on your afternoon ride, you had been forced to stay behind the castle walls. It was upsetting, and your father’s words only made you feel worse. You felt like a bird trapped in a golden cage. 

You huffed softly, pushing off the wall abruptly as you reached out and grabbed James’ hand without a second thought. "Come on," You said, tugging him along. 

But James stopped in his tracks, and you found yourself unable to continue forward. He looked at you, his brow furrowing slightly. "Where do ya think you are goin’?"

You glanced back at him, meeting his gaze. "I need to get some fresh air," You said simply, hoping he’d understand.

He paused for a moment, the usual guarded look in his eyes, before he let you pull him along. He followed, his brow furrowing slightly as he glanced down at your hand holding his. When the two of you stepped into the gardens, you released his hand, and crossed your arms.

You began pacing, the hem of your gown brushing the grass with every determined step. James stood still, his arms folded as his watchful eyes followed your every move. Finally, you stopped, turning to face him with a determined expression. "Teach me how to fight."

His brow lifted, and for a moment, he simply stared at you, the faintest flicker of surprise breaking through his otherwise stoic features.

"Princess-" He began, but you cut him off.

"I’m serious. I can’t stand the thought of being helpless while everyone else prepares to protect the kingdom. I want to learn how to defend myself... And the people I care about. And after that afternoon…" James turned his head, his gaze settling on the sprawling oak tree nearby, as though ignoring your plea would make it disappear. His silence only fueled your frustration. You huffed, stepping closer to him, your determination unwavering. "You’re the Captain," You said, your voice firm. "If anyone is qualified to teach me, it’s you. Who else could I possibly trust with something this important?" He didn’t reply immediately, his eyes fixed on the bark of the tree, his jaw tightening as he mulled over your words. The breeze stirred his dark hair, "I’m not asking for much," You continued, trying to temper the fire in your tone, though your persistence shone through. "Just teach me the basics - enough to hold my own."

Finally, his hazel gaze shifted, locking onto yours. "And what makes ya think I’d agree to this, Princess?" His voice was low and gruff, carrying the weight of genuine concern. "I highly doubt the King would find that favorable." You met his gaze without flinching, a couple of moments of silence passing between you both. His eyes searched yours, weighing the seriousness in your expression. With a reluctant sigh, he finally spoke, his voice laced with resignation. "Fine," He grumbled, the word heavy with reluctance. "I’ll teach ya. But on one condition."

Excitement surged in your chest, but you masked it with a firm, determined expression. "Name it."

He took a step closer, his presence even more imposing now, towering over you as he leveled you with an unwavering, almost intimidating look. "Ya listen to everythin’ I say. No arguin’, no sneakin’ off to ‘practice’ on your own, and no takin’ risks I don’t approve of. If we’re doin’ this, we’re doin’ it my way. Understood?" His tone left no room for negotiation.

Your excitement didn’t waver, though, as you nodded firmly. "Understood."

The very next morning, you stood in your riding gear - comfortable, flexible pants and a simple top - far more practical than the dresses you typically wore. It was a welcome change, though the sight of James’s eyes lingering on you as you adjusted the strap of your quiver wasn’t lost on you. He said nothing, his gaze flicking between your movements and the bow in your hands. You were a good distance from the target, as you raised the bow, your arrow aimed at the target, trying to fix your stance.

With a steady breath, you let go. The arrow flew, but instead of hitting the target, it landed with a soft thud, two feet in front of you.

You stared at it, wide-eyed, shocked at how far off you were. James, already sighing deeply, pushed off from the tree he'd been leaning against. He walked over, out of his usual armour, replaced with what you believed was his training uniform, his frustration was evident.

"Your stance is all wrong," He said, not looking at you but focusing on the arrow instead. "You're not alignin’ your shoulders properly."

Your frown deepened as you muttered, "I’m doing the best I can." The words came out sharper than you intended, a reflection of your mounting frustration.

James said nothing, stepping closer until his broad chest was nearly pressed to your back. His proximity sent a jolt of awareness through you, and you stiffened instinctively, your grip tightening on the bow. "Relax your grip," He instructed softly, his voice lower now, coaxing. His hands came up, fingers brushing lightly against yours as he adjusted the bow in your hands. The contact sent a warm shiver racing up your arm and down your spine, tingling your toes. You could feel the heat of him - solid and steady - radiating against your back.

You swallowed hard, your heart thudding in your chest as you tried to focus on the bow instead of the sensation of his touch.

"Like this?" You asked, your voice faltering, you cursed to yourself mentally.

James didn’t respond immediately. His gaze was focused on your hands, his brow furrowed in concentration. His fingers brushed against your wrist, their touch gentle as he tilted your arm slightly. "Not bad.”

His breath, warm and soft, fanned against the side of your neck as he leaned down just slightly to align your arms. It sent a shiver through you, your pulse quickening, and your mind fixated on the smallest details; the rough texture of his calloused fingers - he wasn’t wearing his usual gloves - the scent of leather, pine, and musk that clung to him, and the way his voice rumbled so close to your ear.

"You’re too stiff," He added, his hands lingered for just a moment longer than necessary, adjusting your elbow with a touch so light it left a trail of warmth in its wake; you no doubt had goosebumps. "Breathe.” You exhaled deeply, not even realizing that you were holding your breath. You drew the string back, feeling his hands leave your hand on the bow, and your elbow, though his presence still loomed large behind you. "Now, release.” You let go, the arrow sailing forward and hitting the target - not quite where you’d intended, but closer than before. "Better," He muttered, and for the first time, there was a faint note of approval in his voice.

Turning to look at him, you quickly realized just how close he still was. Your gaze lifted, his face was just inches away, close enough that you could feel his hot breath against your warm cheeks. Your own breath hitched as your tongue darted out to wet your lips, your eyes tracing the sharp lines of his jaw and the subtle curve of his lips.

"Thank you," You managed to whisper, your voice soft, your heart pounding in your chest as you snapped your eyes to his, realizing that you may have been staring at his lips for a tad too long.

Something flickered in his eyes, an emotion you couldn’t quite name, before he stepped back abruptly, retreating to his spot under the tree. The warmth that had surrounded you seemed to dissipate with him, leaving you almost unsteady.

"Continue trainin’," He said, his tone once again commanding and stoic.

You turned back to the target, your fingers tightening around the bow as you tried to shake off the lingering effects of his closeness. But no matter how much you tried to focus completely on the target, you could still feel his touch; a ghost’s caress along your skin. You missed his touch…

Were you the only one who had felt it? That warmth, that tingling that made your spine shiver and your heart race?

“Not proper.” Your mother’s voice rang through your ears and you scoffed to yourself, raising the bow, and trying again.

~~~

Taglist is Open! Let me know if you want to be tagged!

~~~

Main Masterlist | X-Men Masterlist

[facewithoutheart]

Thanks for the tag @prettygoododds! I totally agree the 10 to 1k challenge is way more about editing than it is writing, which I’m really loving even if omg it’s so hard.

I’m off traveling with my husband for our 12th anniversary. I spend most days alternating between being so full of love for him that it feels like my heart can’t bear it, and wanting to push him into the nearest lake. Marriage, am I right?

See below for writing updates and photos from my trip, plus a small cursed snippet.

I’ve also been doing a ton of writing while traveling and none of it on things I should be working on 🤣

Some updates:

I’ve been really loving the 10 to 1k challenge which I wasn’t planning on entering, but got an idea the night before flying out and so I guess when else do you start a new WIP? Check mine out here if you want … it’s a buddie fic where Eddie will kiss Buck … but only for five minutes at a time. Featuring lots of mutual pining and self-hatred. These boys are really good at hurting themselves. This whole fic has really helped hone my short game. I’m having a great time.

I also started posting more silly adventures of Buck the robot. It’s dumb it’s sweet. At some point there will be porn.

To the excitement of none of y’all but a lot of buddie fans, I finally started tackling my sequel to We Are Like Frogs Oblivious. It’s basically just gonna be mpreg smut interspersed with some sweeter moments. If you’re hoping for angst resolution, you’re in good luck.

I started plotting but haven’t written much of my FTH fic for @thewholelemon. I’m kind of annoyed I got a wave of juice that dissipated in favor of buddie, but it’s based on a tv show I can’t currently watch, so fingers crossed motivation comes back when I’m home.

And then for my most cursed fic, I wrote, like, 6k of RPF on my flight to Zurich. It’s ringing too melancholy now (I was so anxious while flying I feel like that colored my creativity), but I’m gonna share some of it below because I need a reason to dive back into the google doc and convince myself it’s not as bad as I remember:

The worst part is Oliver’s not even frustrated that what comes hard-won to Oliver comes so naturally to Ryan because on their first joint interview together he finds himself equally as charmed.

“I loved you in Into the Badlands,” Ryan says shortly before the cameras start rolling.

Oliver, who prides himself on never being caught off guard, is surprised by this. “I wasn’t aware that show had much of a following.”

“Well, no,” Ryan admits, his aw shucks in full force, “but I tried to watch at least one film or show for each of the cast when prepping for the job. Did you know Chimney was in Halloweentown?”

There’s a moment where Oliver could feign shock; it’s clearly the reaction Ryan expects. Because that’s the normal response one has when one of your co-workers boasts the prestigiously credited role of “hip-sales-creature” in a Disney Channel Original movie.

Instead, Oliver finds himself confessing, “I did, actually.”

When Ryan doesn’t seem thrown by Oliver’s reply, simply sits there, full eye contact, his shoulders angled toward Oliver and one hand on his chin like Ryan couldn’t imagine anything more interesting than the drivel Oliver’s about to spout, Oliver adds, “When I got cast as Buck, I actually watched every project Angela, Peter, Connie, Aisha and Kenny ever made.”

This makes Ryan react, his brows flying upward to that lush hairline of his. “Every … every project? Phew,” he whistles, “that had to have taken …”

“Way too long,” Oliver finishes for him. “I can be …” Oliver bites his lip, thinking about how to phrase this, and doesn’t miss when Ryan’s eyes track the movement “… intense,” he lands, a bit breathless.

“Mmm. I’ll say.” Ryan’s smiling placidly, like he didn’t just reveal a tell that would send Oliver in a full panic if he’d allowed it.

If you’ve made it this far, here’s some photos:

& tags for people who I don’t think will be annoyed at the lengthy update lol @sillyunicorn @martsonmars @raenestee @thewholelemon @bookish-bogwitch @cutestkilla @stitchyqueer @forabeatofadrum @fiend-for-culture @artsyunderstudy @aristocratic-otter @ic3que3n @run-for-chamo-miles @monbons @roomwithanopenfire @whatevertheweather @ileadacharmedlife @skeedelvee

[absynthe-mind]

Yandere Vulkan Snippet

TW: yandere, collaring, nsfw: dub/non-con elements, masturbation, somnophilia

Follow on from: Yandere Vulkan Headcannons

When he enters his quarters it’s already far later than he’d like, having spent long hours slogging through paperwork and Imperial administration keeping him from spending the evening with you as he’d planned.

Even so, the sight of you curled up on your side looking oh so tiny compared to his massive bed has him instantly at ease. 

Your face is smoothed out in sleep, looking utterly relaxed in a swaddle of the finest fabrics being a primarch afforded him. Lips perfectly parted as you slumber, unaware of the giant mountain of a man quietly inching his way closer to you, finally lowering himself onto the bed next to you.

The bed dips dramatically, despite being custom made for a primarch, and you slide towards him slightly, blankets shifting around you. Still, you don’t wake - too deep in sleep for the movement to bother you.

After a long moment to ensure you’re still sleeping and settled he gently cards his fingers through your hair, softly stroking your head, his fingers occasionally grazing over your face to caress your lips and cheeks. 

His reward is a soft sigh and your unconscious nuzzling towards the gentle warmth he provides, and he can feel the tension bleeding from his own body as he pets you. Your subconscious response betrays you to him - you’re never so keen while awake. 

If not for the cue expressions you make and how adorable you are while pottering about day to day he might like to keep you asleep like this forever. Soft, safe, compliant.

His fingers trail downwards, peeling the plush blanket you’d cocooned yourself in to expose your neck and shoulders. He takes a long second to drink in the sight, clavicle and soft skin exposed to him, and your neck, oh your neck.

So small, fragile, breakable - your neck scared him somewhat, but he couldn’t deny the growing warmth in his abdomen as he played with his latest gift to you, the collar.

Thick and chemically strengthened leather dyed a deep green, adorned with golden decorations and clasp, with his legion’s symbol proudly hanging as a charm at the base of your throat. 

Designed to be impossible for you to take off yourself and fitted with two trackers, a heart rate monitor and audio recording to boot - not that you knew about the extra features.

He hated how upset you’d been with it at first, your cries almost cracking his resolve, but he needed to ensure you were safe, that he could keep track of you, that he could check on you at a moment’s notice even while planetside. 

But he wasn’t heartless, of course, he compromised with you, starting off with it loosely clasped, plenty of wiggle room, and then slowly tightening it until it was skin tight. You were distraught every time it was tightened of course, but it was nothing like the hysterics you were in when he first put it on how he’d intended. 

You’d gotten used to it eventually, and it had put him at ease to be able to check on you when his possessiveness flared up.

He lets the pendant charm drop back against your throat, opting to turn his attention elsewhere, lower and lower as he slips his hand beneath the blanket rather than remove it and risk waking you.

His other hand comes to remove the armour around his groin, letting it drop against the floor with a muffled thud. How glad he was to have redone the floors with a thick carpet for you to enjoy, and to make sure it was soft if you fell of course.

His cock springs free, already at half-mast from seeing you so delicate and pliable beside him, adorned with his work and colours. 

All the while, his other hand has been working your nipples tenderly, rolling and squeezing the nubs in an attempt to elicit a sleepy moan.

Once he has you moaning softly into him, he pumps himself until he’s fully erect before taking his hand off his throbbing dick and swiping his fingers inside your mouth. Once his fingers are coated in your spit he removes them, using it as lubricant for his cock.

It doesn’t take long for him to get close to finishing, he’s been on edge all day just thinking about you, and now that he has his fingers splayed over your stomach, saliva on his cock and scent filling his nose it doesn’t take much to have him twitching and leaking, close to getting off.

He finishes into his hand, cum spilling over as he pumps out boiling hot spurts. He wipes most of it off with a bedside rag he’ll burn before you ever see, but he can’t resist using your sleeping mouth to clean off the excess left behind.

What you don’t know won’t hurt you and he deserves a treat for looking after you so well, keeping you so safe.

Subconsciously his grip has tightened around your waist, fingers digging into the soft flesh. He releases his hold softly, hoping it won’t bruise and give anything away - he’d hate to have you nervous or begin to suspect about his nighttime activities.

Soon, soon. 

Soon there won’t be a need to relieve himself like this, you’re slowly getting happier, understanding more and more why he keeps you like this.

Soon you’ll let him do this while awake without flinching or crying or being generally upset with him.

For you? He can wait.

[acourtofladydeath]

Poly+ SJM Week D1: Whose Court is it Anyway?

Welcome back to the "To Become A Vanserra" universe, where he Vanserra's have quite a ritual to join the family. This fic features all OCs, and will be the first multichapter installment of the series.

Neve Aenson, only daughter of the Winter's Autumn Court Border Emissary, has only ever met the Vanserra's a few times before. That is until she decides enough is enough and takes over her father's role, hoping to readapt treatise in her Court's favor. What she didn't expect was to find a mate, let alone two. Conleth Vanserra never expected Neve, never expected love at all. He doesn't do emotions. Neither does his brother, Fintan. Those who have met them would say the brothers are polar opposites, despite having been forced together as young boys. How will they deal with being forced together once more?

Join me for Chapter 1: Apples & Contracts to learn about the first arm of this closed V for day 1 of @polysjmweek: Whose Court is it Anyway? As with all TBAV fics, they are best understood if you have read the entire series in order. The fics are chronological. Find a snippet below, or read the whole thing on AO3!

The urge to rub his arms made Conleth itch. He hated the cold. Snowflakes landed on his eyelashes, his cheeks, nearly burning his skin. Blinking furiously, he cleared the damned freezing powder from his eyes. It melted against the heat of his body, running down his pale, freckled skin in tracks. The fact that he had to cross the border into the Winter Court on foot was upsetting, insulting even. But it was his job to maintain relations along this border, and if walking into the court prevented war, or more importantly, Beron’s wrath, Conleth would suffer through it.  Though the cold was oppressive, the view was intoxicating. Hands in his pockets to maintain what little warmth he could, Conleth strode purposefully across the frozen lake toward the manor built into the icy mountain before him. The white marble walls fit perfectly against the iced-over stone, making the building look like it was part of the landscape. And while the snow was hell against the fire trying to stay lit beneath his skin, it looked gloriously soft falling against the beautifully harsh landscape. Conleth didn’t like soft, but something about the snow was different. Not bothering to consider why, he moved his gaze down to his feet, watching the snakes of snow skate across the blue ice and wrap around his thick boots. Mentally he began to prepare for the meeting he’d crossed the border for.  The Winter Court emissary assigned to communicate with Autumn resided in the beautiful manor. Conleth had conceded to alternating meetings in Autumn and Winter to improve relations, and this month it was his turn to travel. The male was docile enough, easy to maneuver and manipulate so Conleth could get what he wanted without pushing too hard. His manner made these trips worth it. 

Finish the chapter on AO3.

Special thanks to @nocasdatsgay, @climbthemountain2020, and @secret-third-thing for their unyielding support on this fic and during OC development. And an extra forehead kiss for CC who has helped me beta the entire thing.

Let me know if you want on or off the taglist! @pippsmcgee @born-to-riot @chunkypossum @bubybubsters @queercontrarian @yanny-77 @fieldofdaisiies @iftheshoef1tz @secret-third-thing @jules-writes-stories @the-darkestminds @climbthemountain2020 @amalhe-kofee @molcat07

[felassan]

Some more DA:TV and related snippets from Sylvia Feketekuty, Part 4. rest of post under a cut due to length and spoilers. [Post One, Post Two, Post Three]

User: "How and when did he and her(johanna) meet? What was the story between him and her back then?" // Sylvia Feketekuty: "1. So I always imagined he and Johanna met pretty early on, in the Watchers. In their teens, maybe? (Hezenkoss was a pretty exceptional mage and Emmrich was raised by the MW, so I imagine both were fast tracked into the order.) 2. I have rough ideas, but of course since not much is in the game, not much is set in stone. One thing I did hint at obliquely I think is okay to expand on: when Hezenkoss complains about the Venatori and Emmrich says disapprovingly they remind him of Tevinter's nobility, and she agrees. In my mind, I imagine Hezenkoss came from a family not that much more socially higher than Emmrich's. So they were kids who probably bonded early on not only out of intellectual curiosity, but because they both came from working class families compared to students from the elites." [source, two, three]

Nick Boraine: "Hey Sylvia. thanks for writing such a beautiful character. I loved saying your words. Hope to again one day." [source] // Sylvia: "Nick! Hello! I hope you've been soaking in people's reactions to your wonderful performance. People have fallen in love with it! "Hope to again one day." If the stars align, I'd love that! Also: hope you saw that Emmrich picked up the Silver for "best new character" on the Playstation blog fan vote!" [source, two, three] // Nick: "I have indeed - it’s been incredible. So grateful. Hoping VG companies will all come on board soon and we can end the strike. I’d love to interact more with all the fans." [source] // Sylvia: "I'm glad to hear you've been getting to see some of the fan reactions! "Hoping VG companies will all come on board soon and we can end the strike." Amen to that. Best of luck to everyone holding the line, you all deserve what you're asking for and more." [source]

User: "I had been looking forward to learning more about the Mourn Watch since reading “Down Among the Dead Men” (which made me cry!), and it has been such a delight to explore that part of DAV" // Sylvia: "I'm especially touched to hear that about DatDM. It was a privilege to be the first writer who got to really open up the tombs in that story." [source]

User: "I'd be interested to know if you know any fun facts or something about the nevarran language featured in the game" // Sylvia: "Ah, tomb-script. I named it but it was our concept artists who went developed it with the hexagon shape-language of the Mourn Watch, which I loved. Conceptually: I think it's used purely an occult or sacred language. Something for the graves, or books on magic, but not everyday things." [source] // User: "The artists did an amazing job—it’s such a unique and visually striking evolution of Elvhen script, and it really highlights the distinct Nevarran aesthetic beautifully. It would be great to hear more about it if there's anything you're able to share from the concept/lore side of its development!" // Sylvia: "I don't know if I have too much more, but I did love how our artists made it follow the hexagonal shape-language of the Mourn Watch in general. (It's everywhere in their architecture and props.)" [source]

User: "1. What was Emmrich like as a student? Did he struggle with a particular topic in classes? Hezenkoss says some about him dragging her to parties so I was wondering if he was wilder in his youth" // Sylvia: "1. I think he was a diligent but very social student, very outgoing and fairly popular. I can't think of what lessons he might be bad at, not because he was good at all of them, but because that would mean getting into extreme detail about the MWers academia. e.g. I think it's fair to say visualizing and compartmentalizing thoughts and memetic rituals is part of casting magic, but but what do those classes LOOK like? How many are broken into sub-specialties? Etc. That said, even though I'm not sure how much it'd come up, Emmrich is absolutely terrible with anything mechanical. (Touched on that in some banter between him and Bellara.) 3. I'd say someone achieving the rank of Watcher is probably discussed by senior staff members, and is tailored to each mage. More about competence, temperament, and control, rather than passing a set test. (Which could include a thesis or a practical demonstration, but not as an end-goal per se.)" [source, two, three, four, five]

User: "could Emmrich be considered a spirit healer, or rather whatever it is that makes a spirit healer have that extra affinity for spirits? (I always felt like the healer bit was encouraged out of fear) Is corpse whispering a subset of that or a different thing entirely?" // Sylvia: "I definitely feel Nevarran necromancy is in the same realm in general, yet that Emmrich's corpse whispering isn't drawing on spirits to function, it's his own personal will. If that makes sense." [source] // User: "I think I understand! Like he can comprehend the spirits a little more clearly than most so they're inclined to want to interact with him but the corpse whispering itself is his own request/demand, the spirit/corpse/whatever a soul is is responding rather than assisting with the magic itself?" // Sylvia: "Yes! I think that's a good description of it." [source]

User: "I have to ask, did you write the Josephine letter to the inquisitor codex?" // Sylvia: "that was indeed me! I liked revisiting those two, even a little bit, in that letter." [source]

User: "since he's interested in botany, do you think he'd enjoy opening up a flower shop with a romanced Rook?" // Sylvia: "I don't think he's a man interested in the headaches of running a business, but if Rook REALLY wanted to go for it, Emmrich would probably help grow the plants." [source]

User: "my question is did any of nick’s performance inform how you wrote emmrich, because some of the scenes of his i had to stop the game and just take in the perfect unity of actor and writer voice to conceive such a realized character. and were you always interested in claiming emm to write?" // Sylvia: "1. Yes, absolutely. Nick got who Emmrich was, right away, and that informed future writing once I knew what Emmrich actually sounded like, how Nick embodied those emotions. 2. I pitched Emmrich, so: yes, absolutely! I'd always thought the Grand Necropolis and its inhabitants sounded like a very cool corner of Thedas, and I'm partial to necromancers in general, so "necromancer" was the first thing I thought of when it came time to pitch new followers." [source, two]

User: "do you think Emmrich would ever end up referring to Manfred directly as his son?" // Sylvia: "So I had Emmrich call Manfred his ward, not his son, because I thought that was one step too far for him right away. But I don't think anything is impossible in the future." [source, two]

Sylvia: "It was my pleasure to to work with the team to finally show off the crypts of the Necropolis." [source]

User: "Can you please tell us what type of tea Emmrich drinks for breakfast? He strikes me as an Earl Grey person but then again English Breakfast also makes sense somehow" // Sylvia: "I'm actually not a big tea person, so I almost feel I should let this be whatever your head canon is. (That said I do think Earl Grey has the better scent. But do Emmrich's refined tastes match my own? I dump a lot of sugar and cream into mine after all lol.)" [source]

User: "Emmrich as Vincent Price: all in my head or intentional? And if the latter, who do I have to thank?" // Sylvia: "Love Mr. Price, a legend, but it was actually Peter Cushing who was one of my first touchstones before we had any art for Emmrich in." [source]

User: "1. When Em&Rook had their fight - what were his intentions? Did he try to break up with Rook? 2. Just hypothetically, if my Rook bends her knee and asks him to be hers forever, what would his reaction be? 3. Johannas hand, it's planning mischief, is it not?" // Sylvia: "2. Emmrich would be over the moon. He would absolutely love to get married. 3. "Johannas hand, it's planning mischief, is it not?" Who could possibly say? (yes)" [source, two]

User: "Could you tell us how Mourn Watchers life is arranged? Do they live in Nevarra or right in Necropolis? Are their rooms similar to that coffin room?" // Sylvia: "The Watchers live in the upper, safer levels of the Necropolis. I imagine this is where they sleep, eat, teach/train, and also where they prepare bodies for interment. "Are their rooms similar to that coffin room?" I don't want to say either way, just because we never actually go there, and I prefer to keep things open until something is actually in the game or in a story or comic or etc." [source, two]

User: "He has also been an extremely positive driving force and has caused me to pick back up my plan to go back to university and become a lecturer. It's a dream I shelved because of little self esteem but I know he would be sad if I didn't at least try, sad Emmrich is a powerful motivator!" // Sylvia: "He would indeed be sad, especially if this is a passion of yours, but glad to hear you're picking it up again. Sincerely, best of luck." [source]

User: "Can you talk about your writing process? I'd love to hear a bit about what influenced/shaped not only Emmrich but the Mourn Watch and Necropolis. I actually find comfort in death and I just adore what you crafted for the game. I'd love to join the Watchers myself." // Sylvia: ""Also, are you able to talk about what you envisioned every day life for Watcher's to be like? Or maybe some cultural tidbits you'd imagined while writing? I like to think they'd have some incredible festivals and create really interesting folk art!" Oh that is fun. I'll be honest though I'll be a little reticent, just because I tend not to talk about too much until it's in a game. I do think a lot of their everyday life is what Emmrich describes to Rook: Preparing bodies, helping grieving people visit their loved ones, maintaining the graves, and the undead that help maintain the graves. And of course hunting down malign manifestations. The MW and their carefully-courted spirit allies are good at preventing demonic incursion. But as we've seen, it's not impossible. And there's a desire to figure out the weirder stuff that not even the Watchers really fully know. (X-files theme). "I like to think they'd have some incredible festivals and create really interesting folk art" Me too! They involve the dead in their lives so much, I think that includes going down to the graveyard to celebrate milestones, versus visiting on a calendar date. One of my favorite things to write was the folk tale about how spirits were first drawn to Nevarra in particular. I really wanted to make it feel like one of those founding myths filtered through storytelling embellishment in the winter nights. [link] "I'd love to join the Watchers myself." The Necropolis is always looking for more company" [source, two, three, four, five, six]

User: "I just wanted to add that Hezenkoss is absolutely my favourite noncompanion character!" // Sylvia: "Thank you so much for this, because Hezenkoss was a great joy to write. I risked going all out with her, and I don't know if that lands for everyone, but I wanted to have a proper mad scientist who was also Emmrich's best friend because personal seemed better for him." [source]

User: "I heard a rumor that you wrote a lot of the codex. Did you write these? If not, do you know who did? I found them hilarious. [link]" // Sylvia: "Oh, that's not true at ALL. The writers all wrote about an equal amount of codex entries. (One of our editors and I did some work on the proposed structure and organization, but I'm in no way the main writer of the content.) The letter is very funny though. If it's LoF I'd assume there's a good chance this might be by Trick Weekes" [source, two] // Trick Weekes: "Honestly, while I gave that one a quick writing pass, it was largely Malcolm doing the first pass and busting out that Aethelred the Unready reference. (Which I loved and kept.)" [source]

User: "congrats on Emmrich winning second place for the best new character award" // Sylvia: "Thanks very much! I was thrilled to see him there, especially because it's a fan vote." [source]

User: "i would absolutely love to know a bit more about his relationship / time with Dorian as his student in the necropolis ! (Is it possible Dorian got inspired by him for his mustache ?" // Sylvia: "1. I'm afraid my response is pretty dull, because there's not much in game (and I'm not Dorian's writer) so I'm reluctant to add anything off the cuff. Sorry! 2. Aw that'd be cute. I think that's just artistic coincidence though, so it also has to remain in the murky mists of uncertainty. (But because it lives in that space, it's also not impossible. I'd say head canon it how you like!)" [source, two]

User: "i was also wondering if you worked on any other side characters beside Hezenkoss ?" // Sylvia: "I did! The Mourn Watchers were me. And through a complicated chain of events, I wrote one single merchant in Treviso - the gallery owner, Mistress Trella." [source]

User: "I have a very important question and I’m sorry if it’s been asked elsewhere: what’s his favorite kind of tea?" [re: Emmrich] // Sylvia: "I talked about it a little in this thread [compiled above], where I confess I'm not much of a tea person myself. So I'm happy to let tea-fans imagine anything they like." [source]

Sylvia: "So much of the romance rests on our animators and audio team and Nick Borraine stepping up to deliver everything perfectly" [source]

User: "Less of a question and more just appreciation. I love him so much, the casual plant lore, just everything." // Sylvia: "Aw thank you! I'm especially glad you enjoyed the plant lore, it really gave me an opportunity to have Emmrich enthuse about the Memorial Gardens, one of my favorite spaces in the game." [source]

User: "Also, if you don’t mind aside from liking pineapple and hazelnut torte. Does Emmrich have any other favored foods? Or favored flavours like spicy/salty/ect?" // Sylvia: "I actually went over that here a little, which isn't much detail. He DOES bring back dates for the group at one point. For whatever reason, I never pictured him with a huge sweet tooth, but the occasional pineapple or date is a nice treat." [source]

Sylvia, re: Emmrich: ""And I’m immensely jealous of how stylish he is" Same. He absolutely has a tailor or two who knows their stuff." [source]

Sylvia: ""did Emmerich studied only in Grand Necropolis or he was in Circle of Magi? Or mages in Grand Necropolis doesn't must to learn in Circles?" I talk about that a bit here: I think he trained in the Necropolis, but taught both there and Cumberland's Circle. Admittedly, I never defined the Mourn Watch's Circle status in game. It could be a sanctioned fraternity that takes in promising mages and trains them for the Necropolis, but isn't technically a Circle itself, even if it oversees harrowings. (There's a bit of banter from a Necropolis NPC on that.) This would explain why there's non-mages around with full MW membership, like how your Rook can be a MW warrior or rogue. So I'm inclined to think this is the case. (But until it's ever in a DA game or piece of media, I wouldn't consider that 100% canon. It's just my own thoughts.) "I'm not sure if I it was in game, but how Strife take it if Emmrich became a lich? Is he alright with that and they continue relationships or he just drop it?" We didn't tackle that in that game, I'm afraid, so there's no actual answer there. Sorry! Apologies if that non-answer is frustrating. But that's the kind of topic I wouldn't want to answer unless a future game had a reason to go into it. "How long Vorgoth have been around in Grand Necropolis? There's theories about their persona and I know that you can't give straight answer but could they be a lich?" I'm afraid Vorgoth must remain mysterious, but nothing is impossible with them... "me and my friend have headcanon that there should be something like hospice in Grand Necropolis. You know some place where palliative care is given to those who needs it. Could it be true or it's not in Grand Necropolis nature?" I hadn't planned it, but that's a fun head canon if you like it!" [source, two, three, four, five, six, seven]

User: "I have a question and that’s if you listened to anything in particular when writing Emmrich? Or any of your characters" // Sylvia: "I did! I have my playlist on my old computer and if I dig it out, I will post it here. It's mostly ambient stuff, I prefer music without words when writing. A lot of stuff from Cryochamber, but I listen to it a lot in general. [link]" [source, two]

User: "1. Were Johanna’s morals *always* questionable, or did they steadily decline? It sounded like she’d been given a lot of passes by the Mourn Watch, brilliant mind or no! 2. Anything you can tell us re: the War of the Banners? Like, how it began, or which spirits/noble lines were involved?" // Sylvia: "1. I think Hezenkoss always had what Emmrich might call a "cavalier attitude" towards rules and limits, but that it got worse over the years. Being exiled probably did not help, but she probably crossed a line at that point already. 2. The War of the Banners part of the backstory actually came from another writer, and I loved it. But I don't think I want to colour in the lines because there's so much room for imagination. (And since I'm not at BW anymore, it would be even more my own head canon than most other things.)" [source, two]

User: "It's so interesting when he is a lich, it's rare that we see conflict in a game romance like that. Also, his "coming out" scene to the whole group was unexpectedly funny and had me rolling xD" // Sylvia: "The "everyone: I'm a lich" scene was one where I was really trying to balance the seriousness of the previous scene with something a bit more lighthearted but still heartfelt. So I'm very glad you dug it!" [source]

User: "I wonder how Emmrich studied the Fade? cmiim he explored the Fade right? Was it through dream? I'm so intrigued by that." // Sylvia: "Your question is a good one. He has definitely explored it via dreaming/trances, but I think a Watcher would first train for that, learn how to set up wards, and to start with, do it under supervision. Given Emmrich's affinity for spirits, I'm sure he cultivated trustworthy spirit friends in the Fade who could guide and aid him as well. (The way we see him reach out during House of the Dead to spirits from a previous quest)" [source, two]

User: "Is Emmrich Andrastian?" // Sylvia: "I have some thoughts on this one. Nominally, yes he us. But I think a lifetime of studying other death practices and religions has shown Emmrich so many points of commonality in the search for transcendence and the divine, that he believes all religions may explore something of a universal truth. So the Thedas equivalent of Universal Unitarianism, basically. And maybe he corresponds/debates with some like-minded scholars out there. Though quietly. I think he'd err on the side of "Let's not trouble the Chantry with this." for safety's sake. (I didn't want to make him an agnostic free-thinker, that seems too conveniently lined up with modern conventions. But I think seeking truth through argument and philosophical exploration fits him.)" [source, two, three]

Sylvia, in response to a user saying this phrase: "BTW I got a kick out of "nevarran cryptid". Who knows what haunts the lower halls?" [source]

User: "Can a MW Rook have an opportunity to achive Lichdom in the future?Or maybe only a mage Watcher could?" // Sylvia: "So Emmrich managed it, and so did Hezenkoss after she pieced it together from what he told her. So we DO know it's not impossible for any mage to try it. Whether a non-mage could is a very good question. The abilities of the liches are very ill-defined at the moment, so possibly Emmrich meant that promise very literally... But! I'm also not at BW anymore, and at this point this is just my own thoughts, which are very non-binding. (Sorry, that's a lot of words to say "Could be cool, but currently nothing set in stone.")" [source, two, three]

User: "What is Emmrich's preferred tea and how does he have it? Different types for different times of the day?" // Sylvia: "Different types for different times of the day?" I think so, that fits in with his sense of the rhythm of a day. But I'm no tea drinker myself, so I'm happy to let fans imagine what works for them." [source]

User: "Do you have any thoughts about emmrich & marriage proposals, would he prefer to be the one proposing? Or would he be equally excited to be proposed to? Ostentatious, public, private proposal?" // Sylvia: "Re: a proposal, gee. I think he'd be equally excited either way, though he'd prefer it to be a private moment. Somewhere he and Rook can enjoy each other's company and talk about it honestly, just with each other." [source]

User: "1. What was he good at in school besides anatomy? 👀 2. What's his favorite food right now? ✨️👀 3. Did he give Manfred his name himself or did he read the names in the book for Manfred to choose?" // Sylvia: "1. Grasping abstract and metaphysical concepts, and distilling them down into language suited for others, which is handy for both magecraft and professorship. And communing with spirits, so magical control. (I imagine the Watchers prize control greatly, since they work with spirits so closely, they're well aware how dangerous their focus is.) 2. Hrm. Uh...good question. Aside from being vegetarian, I don't think he's a picky eater, but he probably marvels at what a sure and skilled cook Lucanis is. 3. Emmrich likes giving Manfred some (limited, supervised) autonomy. But I think he named his skeleton companion himself." [source, two, three, four]

User: "Did he ever see Manfred as his son?" // Sylvia: "I think consciously, calling Manfred a son seems like one step too far for Emmrich right now, but he's absolutely paternal towards his bright young skeleton child." [source]

Sylvia on Emmrich: "He truly was a team effort. Everyone in level design, cine, art, audio, his voice actor, the other writers and editors contributed greatly to who he is." [source]

User: "Do you think he has a tattoo👀 Maybe a skull or the symbol of the moun watcher" // Sylvia: "I think this is a 'it wasn't shown in game, so I don't want to commit to anything' deal, sorry. (But feel free to imagine whatever you'd like!)" [source]

User: "what subjects did he study well when he was a student?" // Sylvia: "I think probably the same subjects as in the answer to question number 1. Though I do imply in dialogue that the Mourn Watch likes to give its members a well-rounded education in non-magical subjects- history, literature, etiquette etc." [source]

Sylvia: "Hey everyone, I'd like to correct a misassumption I've seen floating around. I saw a few people who saw my name attached to the codex system, and assumed I wrote the bulk of codex entries. That's not true at ALL. Codex writing was split roughly evenly among all the writers. I pitched some style and design suggestions to the narrative team. Then editor Cameron Harris did the actual structure, the docs and training, a lot of the editing, and the importation of all the legacy DAI entries." [source, two]

Sylvia: "Emmrich would be over the moon if Rook wanted to join the Mourn Watch. More time together in the Necropolis!" [source]

User: "From your point of view, do you think Emmrich is jealous? (a little?) I noticed that he liked some things related to the Storm age (he mentions it several times), is that a coincidence or is there a particular reason?" // Sylvia: "-I don't think he's beyond jealousy (few people are!) though it'd depend on the circumstance and what it was about. -Oops! Actual coincidence regarding the repeated mentions of the Storm Age." [source]

User: "1) Did you ever choose the name of the 5th Montilyet sibling? 2) What were the inspirations for her character? 3) If the player doesn't romance her, do you think she'd marry Otranto or would she pass him on to Yvette anyways?" // Sylvia: "1) You know, I never did! It remains unknown. 3) I think Otranto and Yvette are too perfect for each other for them not to get together, so it'd be appropriate if a comedy of errors going on inside the house Montilyet led to that happy outcome if you didn't romance her." [source, two]

User: "Curious how Nevarrans, and specifically Emmrich, would view stuff like Victorian mourning jewelry. Obviously would be horrified by the ones containing ashes, but what about hair? Wondering if it would be seen as special or grotesque!" // Sylvia: "What a good question! I think a lock of hair would be perfectly all right, even romantic. Perhaps a LITTLE bit of bone would be okay, though the actual Mourn Watch wouldn't love breaking up the body. I don't think they'd see keeping a small fragment or such as wrong, just a bit unfortunate." [source]

User: "I love your work and I wanted to thank you. Through how Emmrich is written I’ve realized that dying isn’t an option because there are people that care for me and I would be missed so I’m here and will be Also I wanted to share a song that reminds me of Emmrich’s romance: Deathproof by Graveyard Club" // Sylvia: "Thank you for saying so, Lena, and for sharing that. I'm glad getting to know Emmrich was helpful, even a little, and I hope it continues to be so. And thank you for the song rec! I have a real weakness for synths (may their comeback be eternal) and "You’re nowhere to be found/but you follow me around" is a killer set of lyrics especially." [source, two]

Sylvia on Emmrich: "There was a huge team working on him, and this is just what you hope to hear one day when embarking on making something." [source]

[12woso12]

Dorothy lands in North London - Part 6

Part 5

I know it's been quite the build up to meet all the players but trust me it's coming :) A short chapter ahead, sorry!

Once you had bid goodbye to Jonas, Jennifer wasted no time in dragging you pitch side. It was there that you experienced just how much went into announcing new signings as you met the rest of Jennifer and David's team and crew members. They took long videos of you walking pitch side and sitting among the thousands of seats in the stadium, you couldn't wait to hear them roar to life on match days.

'Here' Jennifer approach where you were seated with a box in hand. 'New pair of boots for the day, wanna give them a try?'

'Hell yes' you said excitedly ripping open the box to find a pair of pink Nike phantoms laying in wait. You grinned and held them up to the camera examining with glee the way your initials and number were engraved into the side. 'Fucking fantastic aren't they?'

'Language!' Jennifer exclaimed 'We'll have to mute that Y/n'

You glanced at her sheepishly before pulling the boots snuggly over your feet.

'Perfect fit.' You weren't ashamed to admit that you went through football boots like a Foxes through chicken. They never usually lasted longer than a few months before they were falling apart of the seams, maybe it was the rough tackles or the way you liked to knee slide but you weren't all that sure. It was a shame considering how much you loved your new pair.

As you got up from your seat and made your way back down to the grass an Irish voice abruptly stopped you in your tracks.

'There's me new protege'

You turn to see Katie McCabe sauntering out the tunnel. The Irish Captain was also decked out in an Arsenal kit and she dragged a ball bag behind her.

'Katie' She introduced herself, dumping the balls at your feet.

You decided instantly that you liked the girl. You'd be lying if you said you didn't admire her style of play, it was incredibly similar to your own right down to the risky tackles and red cards. From what you'd seen in videos online, you were also pretty sure she'd appreciate your humour.

'I know who you are' You began ' Katie Robinson, right?'

A look of shock crossed Katie's features for a moment before she cackled loudly. 'Got a mouth on ya, don't ya?'

You shrugged. 'That's what they all say'

Jennifer inserted herself into the conversation. 'Okay, now we can get started'

'Started?' You frowned

'On the video."

You shook your head. 'Then what've we been filming for the last half hour?'

Jennifer shared an amused glance with Katie. 'Just some little snippets and shorts for social media, some of it might make the cut for our main video but it's going to be something a little different and i think the fans will really love it' She beckoned you and Katie to follow her over to the nearest goal where the crew had began to set up large cameras.

'That's why i'm here kid, the fans love me' Katie joked to which you sniggered.

Ignoring the Irish defender, Jennifer continued. 'The whole concept is based around reputations, people hear Katie's name and they think passionate, fearsome, daring, dangerous and your name carries that weight too. So we're gonna play onto that, teams aren't just going to have to deal with one McCabe now, but two.'

You liked that idea. You thought it made you sound tough, like you were built to handle anything.

'We're gonna be bringing the danger kid, me and you'

You smirked 'I think your face alone is scary enough'

Katie shook her head. 'I'm going to have to keep an eye on you aren't I?'

'As long as it's not when i'm in the shower' You countered

Jennifer narrowed her eyes at you as Katie just laughed. 'Stop saying things like that Y/n'

You held your hands up in surrender, you were surprised at how easily you'd managed to fit in already. It was a calming feeling, it made you more at peace with your new life in England despite only arriving a day earlier.

'Kyra's taken a liking to ya' Katie said suddenly as Jennifer wondered away with David to deal with a lighting issue. 'Came through the door at 7 this morning covered in mud but grinning like a mad man'

'Yeah, Emily wasn't too pleased with me about that'

Katie shrugged. 'That's valid, at least Kyra left me a note...even if i couldn't exactly decipher her hand writing.'

'Well I'll know for next time.'

'Next time?' Katie rolled her eyes 'Fantastic'

You honestly couldn't wait to see Kyra again. 'It's good to know someone my own age over here, most of my friends are back in the States'

'Any boyfriend...or girlfriend?' Katie teased

'Not anymore' You answer cryptically but before Katie can respond Jennifer is rushing the two of you into position in front of the camera.

'ACTION'