#it's very hard!

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

boom-squirrel replied:

Okay, I'm curious... if Teadpoled-Isobel-strikes-back™, who's the one in Last Light sustaining the shield??? oO Doppelganger?!

Hahah, well, that's obviously one of the moments when modded playthroughs like this one take a bunch of suspension of disbelief.

I call this one "The Duality of Isobel".

My justification and vague storyline idea for this HM run was that an abducted tadpoled Isobel from around the end of Act 2 ends up back on the nautiloid, via a timely divine intervention or some such brand of shenanigans (Selûne? maybe? or something altogether more sinister?). And now she is on a big mission to fix everything.

But honestly, if you could find an excuse for Jaheira and the Last Light bunch surviving without Isobel there to establish the haven so Act 2 can still work vaguely similarly, I think Isobel would be a really, really awesome origin with interesting ties into the narrative. Kicking off with her resurrection, running away from Ketheric, and ending up abducted and tadpoled on the nautiloid with the others instead of at the inn. Maybe some amnesia thrown in there to keep some of the mystique of Ketheric's storyline for the player and pacing out the reveals (a la Durge).

This is also a killer idea for some AU fanfic, I will note.

Also part of my romance pick considerations, beyond, you know, just me wanting to play out one I haven't done yet (hence no Shadowheart, I'm aware she is the obvious choice here). NPC Isobel and Aylin will of course get their beautifully touching reunion and live as happily ever after as I can manage, Honour Mode permitting (knock on wood, so far it has been), but my PC Isobel will ultimately want and need to basically leave Faerûn. So I felt it would be fitting to have her go off dragon riding with Lae'zel and have various astral (mis)adventures. Visit the actual Tears of Selûne and all, it's super Meaningful. And having Lae'zel going from constantly ragging on Isobel for being weak and soft-hearted - with me pointedly picking every single Aggressively Compassionate Selûnite Cleric dialogue option in her presence, while also showing flashes of that Isobel-brand Steel that is very much there - to finally becoming open to the very idea of tenderness and being protected is a very nice arc, I think.

I have committed severe overthinking of everything mentioned above. Now, for the Aylin playthrough I have no explanation whatsoever beyond the lethal combination of "I felt like it" with "big lady pretty" and a truly unconquerable addiction to playing paladins.

[abyssaldyke]

I loved reading Red Dragon but knowing that Harris spent time in FBI classes as research really reframes the narrative as something more akin to speculative fiction. Hyper-intelligent serial killers like Hannibal and Francis Dolarhyde don't exist in real life; they're phantoms used to validate and legitimize bunk investigative techniques like fiber analysis.

Anyone who's spent any amount of time in even a regular office job should understand that there's no way a group of people as decentralized and varied as the FBI could operate at even the margins of efficiency Harris depicts, and that's why they need copaganda so desperately. That's why they need these inhumanly clever fictional phantoms to outsmart, to convince you that the FBI and general police are full of competent and compassionate people trying to take down monsters instead of cruel and useless thugs built to subjugate in the name of justice. It's very clever, the act of transposing an alternate universe over this one so completely. Clothing the emperor in Kevlar and pretending he's naked.

[fipindustries]

i almost never do vent art, much less post it but man, i have been feeling bummed out recently

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

License to Kitty.

[ato-dato]

Piss off!!! Thanks!!!!!!!!!! :)))))

[beebfreeb]

Messaging people for the first time is so hard. What am I supposed to say? Like, "You seem really odd and your blog intrigues me. Do you want to have philosophical conversations or perhaps talk about fictional characters?" What! Whatever. I will just follow you back and stare at your blog with my big beautiful brown eyes.

[canisalbus]

✦ Freshly ordained ✦

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

Dunno how to put it properly into words but lately I find myself thinking more about that particular innocence of fairy tales, for lack of better word. Where a traveller in the middle of a field comes across an old woman with a scythe who is very clearly Death, but he treats her as any other auntie from the village. Or meeting a strange green-skinned man by the lake and sharing your loaf of bread with him when he asks because even though he's clearly not human, your mother's last words before you left home were to be kind to everyone. Where the old man in the forest rewards you for your help with nothing but a dove feather, and when you accept even such a seemingly useless reward with gratitude, on your way home you learn that it's turned to solid gold. Where supernatural beings never harm a person directly and every action against humans is a test of character, and every supernatural punishment is the result of a person bringing on their own demise through their own actions they could have avoided had they changed their ways. Where the hero wins for no other reason than that they were a good person. I don't have the braincells to describe this better right now but I wish modern fairy tales did this more instead of trying to be fantasy action movies.

[allthatdivides2]

my dealer: got some straight gas 🔥😛 this strain is called “public transit” 😳💊 you’ll be going wherever you want for an affordable price 💯👨‍💻

me: yeah whatever i dont feel shit

5 min later: dude i swear the bus should have been here by now

random guy at the bus stop with me: the transit app is lying to us

[bordonfreeman]

I do not have the energy to make this look nicer but i felt i needed to get this out or it would consume me.

I have been feeling an immense amount of rage and grief lately and this only encapsulates some of my thoughts

[supertaliart]

More Skywalker Sibling time! Now with a sequel

Part 3

[faunandfloraas]

[dragonomatopoeia]

i've died on smaller hills, so i can't judge. but i do think it's funny whenever posts about the proper definition of a poor little meow meow circulate, considering none of them mention that the origin was a kpop fan's absolutely bonkers tweet about not being able to protect a full grown man who was getting backlash for including audio from the jonestown cult leader jim jones in one of his songs

[melmov]

Making plans with your very much younger sibling

[pangur-and-grim]

grr having one of those days where my leg hurts so much that I might use a cane if I go out 💀

[hinamie]

I'll give them shelter like you've done for me