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creature-wizard · 1 year ago

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Some things associated with New Age that aren't inherently bad

Since this blog can get kinda heavy sometimes, and because there's some people out there who think that anything remotely adjacent to New Age is evil and must be banished forever, I figured I'd write something on elements it includes that aren't necessarily bad.

Its general concept of God and divinity

New Age beliefs typically posit that God, or Source, effectively split itself into many different souls in order to have different kinds of experiences. There's nothing wrong with this model of divinity in itself, since it doesn't by itself imply anything hateful or suggest any kind of action that might lead to harm. Where it gets messed up is when people start claiming that if you're suffering, it's because you deliberately chose to have this kind of experience before you incarnated. That's just victim blaming, and it's wrong.

Energy healing

Energy healing on its own is a harmless practice, and many people do report feeling better for doing it. Dismissing energy healing as inherently bad in itself would be like dismissing prayer for recovery as inherently bad. It's really not. The problem is always when people start believing they should only rely on energy healing or prayer, or fall into the belief that pharmaceutical medicine is sinful or an evil conspiracy.

Listening to relaxing tones

No, those "healing frequencies" probably won't cure any serious ailments. But that doesn't mean they can't make you feel more relaxed or help you focus. You don't have to subscribe to any specific belief system to listen to these audios.

Glossolalia

The New Age practice of speaking in light languages is a form of glossolalia, which basically involves relaxing and speaking whatever sounds immediately come to you. Doing it can be cathartic and relaxing, and you don't need to subscribe to any specific belief system to do it.

Tarot reading

Reading tarot cards doesn't require subscribing to any specific spiritual belief system. Nor do you even need to be spiritual at all; you can read tarot cards with the perspective that what you're doing is prompting your own mind to consider things from new angles.

Meditation

Meditation is known to have beneficial effects, and doing it doesn't require subscribing to any particular belief system. Yes, it's a problem when somebody subscribes meditation as a cure-all, or use it as a form of spiritual bypassing, but that's a problem with the teacher, not the practice itself.

Eating more plant foods

Provided you don't have any allergies or intolerances, eating more fruits, vegetables, nuts, and the like usually isn't a bad idea. The problem with New Age is when it effectively moralizes food by decreeing certain foods "high vibrational" or "low vibrational," or when it's pushing conspiracy theories about modern processed food items being intentionally poisoned to block our psychic abilities or keep us dependent on the healthcare system. And obviously, it's appallingly ableist to tell someone that they could cure a chronic illness by switching to an all-natural vegan diet or something.

Belief in aliens

It's a big universe, and it's not unreasonable to think we're not alone in it, and that maybe there's beings who are observing us. The problem is when belief in aliens becomes part of a conspiratorial worldview that scapegoats certain groups of people for the world's problems, displaces real history, and misuses other people's traditions and beliefs.

Belief that things can and will get better

To paraphrase Terry Pratchett's words in The Hogfather, we sometimes need to believe in things that aren't true (such as justice and mercy) so they can become true. Believing that things can change makes people feel like their efforts are worth something. Meanwhile, when everyone's got a doomer attitude nothing will change for the better because nobody will even try.

One problem with New Age's optimism in specific is that they tend to believe that things getting better is contingent on converting a large number of people to New Age spirituality, which includes getting them to accept a large number of conspiratorial beliefs that target and harm vulnerable minorities, and/or distort and erase the actual spiritual beliefs of people from different cultures (many of whom are marginalized minorities and/or have been severely harmed by colonialism already).

Another problem is when you get the whole 5D ascension thing going on. 5D ascension is basically the New Age version of the Rapture, and just like the Rapture, it's always said to be right around the corner, but it never materializes. (If you'd like examples, here are predictions for 2012 and 2015.) Very concerningly, New Agers often list a number of physical and mental health symptoms as "ascension symptoms." They were claiming this as far back as the 2010s, when December 31, 2012 was supposed to be the big day. (Here's an example.)

Basically, hope and belief that things can get better is important - but it's also important not to hang our hopes (and medical decisions) on supernatural predictions that have already failed multiple times.

Wanting to promote compassion and understanding between people

This is a great thing to want! The problem with New Age isn't that they want to spread peace and harmony, but rather the way they want to do it without really listening to the people they supposedly want to help. You can't, for example, genuinely fight colonialism if you're engaging in cultural appropriation and misrepresenting their spiritual traditions - you're an active part of the problem. Promoting compassion and understanding begins with you shutting up, listening, and learning without imposing your own preconceptions or reacting from your ego. You're not doing this if you're looking for mythology to project aliens onto, or dismissing anything you don't want to hear as a conspiracy.

And here's some critical thinking tips before you go

When you're evaluating any belief system or practice, it's always important to remember that belief and practice are not the same thing. Most of the time the practices are harmless in and of themselves; the actual danger comes from the conspiratorial and morally polarized worldviews many practitioners also subscribe to. Nobody's ever died from putting rose quartz in their room or getting a reiki session. They have died from refusing evidence-based medical care because someone convinced them that the health care industry is a scam and will also separate them from Source.

When it comes to beliefs themselves, ask yourself what kind of narratives they're upholding. If they basically promote the same kind of conspiratorial narratives used by Nazis, witch hunters, or far right Christians to justify their hatred and violence, that's a pretty strong sign that this belief is bullshit. But of course, there's a pretty stark difference between believing that aliens could be out there, and believing blood-drinking reptiles have invaded the Earth.

#new age #beliefs #belief #spirituality #witchblr #critical thinking #discernment

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gigidragonbbxxx · 1 year ago

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The Dark Side of Loass + motivation

I was on my daily reddit scroll while sipping my morning coffee when I saw something extremely disgusting on my homepage.

It was a manifestation success story by a man who claimed to have manifested his "perfect" gf - the kicker? She's underaged and he is a fully grown man.

The post has been deleted but the original poster's account is still up, as is his comment history. In his comments he details how he essentially used SATS and shot a message to someone he saw in discord. Apparently she is 15, lives with him due to an abusive situation, and yes they are s******y active. Apparently he treats her very well (he even mentioned bringing her to school YUCK) and buys her a lot of stuff and she's happy.

Let me make this clear:

a girl in an abusive home situation is not "saved" by an adult man taking advantage of it in the guise of "improving" her life situation while subjecting her to doing physical things she cannot consent to because she is not a damn adult.

I did some digging and it was not very long until I saw his first-ever comment about it and it was worse than I thought. I was trying to give the benefit of the doubt like maybe he visualized for a perfect gf and he didn't know she was a minor. Well, that says more about me than anything bc yes I found out that he had specified that he wanted her underaged. He literally says in the comment "specifcs that could get me in trouble". He made a lot of comments about her body, etc. and quite literally said something along the lines of "I'm her savior and shes my obsessed loving gf". Keep in mind...one of the titles this man used (he posted twice in diff subreddits) was "I manifested a s** s****e". So. Yup. He's a whole p*do.

I will not be sharing links as I don't want to give that horrible man any more traction but if you read all that and said to yourself, but Gigi whats that got to do with the dark side of the law of assumption? and why would you say there's a dark side to it?

The truth is that the law isn't dark at all, the evil part of the law is the people who use it for evil.

This is why good things can happen to horrible people.

This is why you see villains win.

They may have an amazing self-concept OR they just are under the assumption that NO MATTER HOW HORRIBLE THEY ARE THEY GET WHAT THEY WANT EVEN IF ITS FUCKED UP AND MORALLY TWISTED.

It's why you see nepo babies who aren't talented get shit handed to them - THEY EXPECT IT BECAUSE OF WHAT? WHO. THEY. ARE. SO CHANGE YOUR INNER SELF. EMBODY THAT CONFIDENCE.

This is why I wanted to share that story with you, it is to motivate you: if you know you're a better person than that horrible man, WHY CAN'T YOU HAVE EVERYTHING YOU WANT TOO?

Shouldn't you deserve even more for being good?

Stop thinking you don't deserve things bc guess what? People who are genuinely criminals are out here manifesting - so stay on your zoom and FOCUS. SATURATE. DISCIPLINE. COMMIT.

and let's all collectively agree to pray for that girl. I'm honestly gonna affirm that she gets saved and ends up in a situation where she is protected, loved, and away from predators.

Do not let evil win. Use it to remind yourself that the law is about BELIEF not FEELING.

with a heavy heart, xx, gigi

#law of assumption #loass #loassblog #loassumption #manifestation #affirm and persist #affirmations #neville goddard #self concept #saturation #affirm #affirmdaily #affirmyourreality #affirmyourlife #master manifestor #manifesting #manifesting sp #gigiwrites

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utopians · 1 year ago

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I don't want to be that guy but that's not pseudoscience? The prefrontal cortex isn't fully developed until around the mid to late twenties bc the synaptic connections between neurons in that part of the brain are the last to develop. Source: https:// doi.org /10.1038/ s41386-021-01137-9

I think there might be a miscommunication happening here -- the pseudoscience isn't the assertion that synaptic development continues into adulthood, it's the assertion that synaptic development defines adulthood.

I have now read this whole article and the only assertion that it makes that's relevant to this discussion is that synaptic development continues "into the 3rd decade of life". this doesn't -- at least in my opinion -- give any meaningful credence to the idea that the brain isn't fully 'mature' until this point, bc this idea relies on the assumption that 'maturity' is a static biochemical state that the brain organically reaches and not a complex interplay of life experience, societal conceptions of 'maturity' and 'adulthood', and individual variations in development/cognition in addition to the broader process of brain development. additionally, 'brain development' is far more complicated than just the synapses of the prefrontal cortex finishing development, and is a process that continues throughout one's life.

CONTINUED below the cut bc I don't want to annihilate everyone's dash with this but I have a lot more to say

continuing the previous thought: if we're measuring maturity strictly by brain development, then things get extremely dicey, because the brain continues changing beyond your twenties and throughout adulthood! consider this study, which finds that the age of peak performance for different cognitive abilities varies widely, with some peaking around 20 and others closer to 50. the brain doesn't reach a state of 'maturity' in its cognitive functions at age 25 that it then maintains consistently through adulthood, it's far more complicated than that.

essentially, while synapses in the prefrontal cortex keep developing into your 20s (curious as to where you got 'mid to late twenties' from as well; the study only references 'the third decade of life', which could mean anything from 20 to 30), the idea that this development means anything particularly concrete about maturity or adulthood is based on (imo) a faulty and oversimplified understanding of both the brain and what 'maturity' actually means in the context of society. if your conception of 'maturity' asserts that adulthood begins in the late twenties, this conception may be due for a serious reevaluation.

and the reason I'm concerned about all this isn't because I'm a pedant -- it's because this matters in our current political climate. conservative politicians in the UK are currently trying to raise the legal age at which one can transition to 25 based on exactly this faulty conception of maturity, which argues that trans people can't make 'adult' decisions about their own bodies until this point. this is wildly infantilizing and patronizing, and I imagine I don't have to explain why it's a problem, but to elaborate: adulthood and maturity aren't apolitical concepts, and the assertion that adults don't have the right to bodily autonomy because they have been deemed medically incompetent by a truly arbitrary metric is an act of political violence.

I highly recommend this slate article: it goes into this topic in a lot more depth than I do, and features commentary from a lot of neuroscientists who know a lot more about this than me.

#asked and answered

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wafflexdguy · 8 months ago

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Murder Drones | Platonic Doll Oneshot

PLATONIC Doll x Traumatized!Male!Reader

Requested by Youllneverknowmynam3, thank you!

The reader identifies as male, but since the POV isn't 3rd person, you probably won't notice.

CW! Gore(?)

This is more different than what I usually write, this is because I wanted to change up how I wrote trauma fics.

-------------------------------------------------------------

You knew that it wasn't a good idea from the start, but somehow they convinced you to go through with it anyway. Your (ex)friends convinced you that there weren't anything on the other side of the door, that the murder drones weren't real.

You were naive. Stupid. You wished you knew better.

But you didn't.

And there you went, into the cold, desolate winter hellhole that was Copper-9. Or what was left of it. Quite frankly, you didn't expect it to look that bad. You had learned about it in class about the history of Copper-9, about how humans basically fucked up something with the core, and that it collapsed because of their own incompetence.

And that leads to the murder drones landing here, because the company that owned Copper-9 didn't like having their ex-slaves free.

Your friends led the way. They weren't that much older than you, but you assumed that they knew better because they were older than you. You went exploring, like those cool cave explorers you saw from those pirated human shows. You thought they were cool.

You didn't even have time to blink as one of the murder drones landed right in front of you.

By all accounts, you should have died. But you didn't.

It stabbed you straight in the chest, barely missing your core by millimeters. It threw you into a window into one of the abandoned buildings. You were still busy trying to process what was happening as the screams from your former friends rang out throughout the city, followed by sadistic laughter.

By the time reality set in, it was already too late. You sat up and went over to the window, trying your best to stay out of sight, pray that it forgot about you; that it wouldn't realize that you were there.

That image never really left your mind, even after so many years.

That 'FATAL ERROR' on their screen, with their mouth wide open in horror didn't leave your mind at all that night. And seeing the murder drone holding one of their bodies up, draining the oil from the mutilated body. Your eyes had hollowed out seeing the gruesome sight, but you somehow managed to keep your breathing steady, and stayed calm as you possibly could in that kind of situation.

By the time it got its fill, you had already retreated from the window and hid behind whatever you could.

It didn't forget about you, but after taking one scan across the room it had thrown you in, it decided you weren't worth the effort.

And it flew off.

Leaving you to deal with the consequences.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

You woke up, like per usual. Back into your plain old room, with nothing really there.

You usually had a laptop nearby, but someone had to borrow it for some reason. In her words, it was to 'track down a special someone,' whatever that meant. You inquired it with her, but she just denied telling you anything about it. It annoyed you, but you didn't complain about it directly to her face.

You and Doll had met through ironically unique circumstances. She was interestingly more outgoing than you were, which showed when you were paired with her in a class project. Usually, she would have hung out with Lizzy during school projects, but the teacher -for some reason- decided to switch things up with the grouping and sat you two together.

You were initially offput with her, because she was the quiet type. Really creepy when she came over to your house to work on the project with you.

Maybe it was out of curiosity, or just out of pity with your slightly disheveled form, but she decided to try and warm up to you. You knew what she was trying to do, but your parents had basically 'forced' you to try and make new friends, so you gave it a shot.

After that, you found that you had a lot in common. Ranging from weird ritualistic things, to just hanging out and enjoying each other's company. She fed into your fragile ego, which had already been shattered forty times over, but she still fed it. Usually to make you feel better if you're having a really bad day. Your parents basically considered you two peas in a pod.

She was a really good friend; you appreciated her for just being there for you.

Her mother was really cool too, typically letting you two do whatever you wanted while you were over there. Not like your parents, who after seeing you after what happened didn't let you do anything without adult supervision. You hated being treated like a kid, even after all these years later, but not much you could do about it.

You never really figured out what happened to her. All that Doll told you was that there was an accident, and she isn't really liking it over her house as much anymore. You wanted to inquire more about it, but when she was talking to you about it, she was tripping over her words and shaking a lot too.

You've seen that before. You don't ever want to see it again.

You assumed the worst.

That was all about a few years ago. You never said a word to her about what happened to you, not fully and you don't think you will. Not yet anyways.

It felt unfair, it was selfish of you to do that to her, especially after everything you two have been through. But she weirdly seemed to understand, especially after that night she approached you, telling you what happened.

It didn't reassure you when you saw the same murder drone that killed your friends show up for a second time. When Uzi let them in.

The worst part was that it didn't recognize you. The very same drone that ruined your life didn't even know you.

You weren't sure if you felt anything by that or not. Didn't really matter anyway, since it had its ass handed to her by its own teammates.

And that leads you to the present. In your room, still juggling with whether or not you should get out of bed, whether or not you really wanted to. Your parents weren't usually around anymore anyway, typically out on business trips around the very small bunker, but it's still there.

'You have to grow up, get past what happened,' they said. Easy for them to say, they weren't there.

Unfortunately, you didn't have a choice as a knock on your door immediately ruined your mood.

"Not right nowwww...." You whined. You heard another knock at your door, and you immediately knew who it was. She was usually unnecessarily stubborn.

"Go away Doll-"

Before you could even finish your sentence, the door had opened, revealing who you already knew who it was. She had something in your hands that you couldn't make out due to the sudden flash of light.

Probably helps to mention that you were an older model of Worker Drones. You were painfully aware of that as the sudden flash of light nearly makes your systems reboot.

"Dammit Doll, I told you not to do that!" You yelled, to only receive a lighthearted giggle. She walked over to you, setting down the item in her hands that turned out to be the laptop you had lended to her.

She sat next to you in your bed as you sat up, rubbing your visor. "И я сказал тебе больше не спать допоздна. (And I've told you to not sleep in late anymore.)"

You shoved her lightly in the shoulder. "What are you, my mom?" You joked, to which she only let out another giggle.

She opened up the laptop and lifted her hand up shifting it into a gesture, and a glyph appeared. Suddenly, one of the USB drives came shooting out from one of your drawers, to which she grabbed and handed another end to you.

You knew this was necessary, but you really didn't want to do it. "Do we really have to keep doing this?" You groaned, to which she nodded.

"Мы занимаемся этим уже много лет, Т/и. (We've been doing this for years, Y/n.)" She pointed out, which you already knew. That just didn't make it any easier.

Reluctantly, you reached to grab the USB and plugged it into your head, and immediately you heard clicking coming from the laptop.

What she was doing was basically installing code that was basically the human equivalent of human anti-depressants. You didn't deem it necessary, your dad did. You loved the guy like family, but he can be really unbearable sometimes. You were fine.

You were fine.

"Сделанный. (Done.)" Doll pulled the USB plug out of the laptop, as you did the same to your head. You didn't like the feeling of being broken. Doll knew that as she pats you on the back for comfort. You didn't respond, just sitting there stewing in your own depression and pity.

Doll took notice of this as she snaps her fingers in front of your face to grab your attention. You turn to her, seeing her slightly worried expression.

"ты в порядке? (Are you okay?)"

You shrugged. You felt fine physically, you felt shitty emotionally. "Yeah, just... Had a nightmare."

She hums as she sits up from your bed. "Я могу это понять. (I can relate.)" She offers you a hand, to which you accept. You grabbed your backpack from next to your bed and walked out with Doll, who was on her phone texting someone. Likely Lizzy.

"She say anything after your fight?" You question.

Doll had recently gotten into a petty fight with Lizzy -who you knew absolutely had a crush on Doll- about her spending much more time with you than her. You were just kind of there sitting awkwardly on the side. Doll has tried to apologize, but to no avail. Lizzy was always kind of a brat, which you feel like only you knew. Doll seemed somewhat oblivious to it, or at the very least, really good at hiding it.

She shakes her head as she puts her phone away. "Я могу это понять. (No, she's still ghosting me.)" She shakes her head as she thinks. "Я даже не знаю, что я сделала не так! Она мелочная, я думаю. (I don't even know what I did wrong! She's being petty, I think.)"

You shrug. "That doesn't surprise me. She's been petty in the past."

"Да, но прошло уже несколько дней. (Yeah, but it's been a few days.)" She digs around in her pocket to fetch her phone again. "Она сказала, что поговорит со мной, если это будет связано только с планом. (She said she'll talk to me if it's only related to the plan.)"

"What plan?"

She nearly chokes on her own spit when she realizes what she just said. "Ничего. Забудь, что я только что сказал. (It's nothing. Forget what I just said.)" She gives her best 'sweet' smile towards you.

You tilted your head but decided not to question it any further. You figured it wasn't anything important.

"...How're you doing?" You asked, looking to Doll. She tilted her head, confused to what you meant as she lets out a small hum. "After the whole... break in."

It clicks to her on what you meant as she rubs her arm discretely. "Бывало и лучше. Но это я должен был спросить тебя. (I've been better. But I should be asking you that.)"

You look down.

And you can see oil.

Your brought back to the same place. Every. Time. You're asked that question.

This is your fault.

You should have stopped them.

You idiot.

"I don't know." You answer honestly. For once you answered honestly about that.

'Хорошо...' she mumbles to herself. She decides to take a risk.

"Это было связано с вашим кошмаром? (Was it related to your nightmare?)"

You felt your body tense a little bit. It couldn't hurt to at least talk a little about it.

"...I got lost." You started. "In the city, outside the doors?" She hums. "And... I couldn't find a way back. I had this sense of dread to where if I screamed, I was going to die, or worse."

You fell silent after that. You continued walking to class.

Doll processes this as she thinks to herself. It was clear that you were outside the doors, for what, she'll probably never know. She pats your back as she changes the topic, deciding not to pry further.

"А как насчет выпускного вечера? Ты уже выбрала, с кем хочешь пойти? (How about the prom coming up? You choose anyone you want to go out with yet?" She asks, giving a sly look towards you direction. You snap out of whatever daze you were in as you look towards her.

"Eh, not really. I don't think I'll go out with anyone this year, really. You?"

She looks forward, thoughtful.

"...Я хотел спросить Lizzy, но не думаю, что она захочет. (I wanted to ask Lizzy, but I don't think she wants to.)"

You chuckle. "You kidding? That girl has had a crush on you since she was 10. You could probably say a word about it and she'll accept it."

A blush creeps a way on her screen as she punches your shoulder lightly. "Не произносите этого вслух! (Don't say that out loud!)" You continue laughing lightly as you two finally make your way to class.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

"Is this really a good idea?" You question to your friend. Your other friend put a hand on your shoulder.

"Relax, there's no way the adults are being serious about the murder drones. I mean, the planet blew up! there's no way they could have survived that!" They exclaim, pumping their fist in the air.

"We survived." You pointed out.

"Then we're stronger than them! Come on, you aren't scared, are you?" Your other friend asked, to which you furiously shook your head.

"Of course not! I'm just... Unsure."

"So your scared?"

"S-shut up!"

"Relax, Y/n. If anything happens, the big kids are here to protect you. You trust us, right?"

...Did you?

"Uh... Yeah! Of course."

That was a lie.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Class took way too long to complete this time. Especially after Uzi wouldn't stop groaning the entire time about something, which you couldn't hear over her. It ticked you off, but you didn't do anything about it. Doll didn't acknowledge it, notably. Nobody else did, which didn't surprise you.

You felt singled out in your own mind, it was slightly embarrassing. But, nonetheless, you press forward.

Class was... Interesting. To say the least. Doll had to leave early with Lizzy, for some random reason. It was really rushed on how it all went; you didn't really have time to process what the hell happened, but Doll said she should be around for the Prom tonight. You didn't want to go to the prom, and interestingly, neither did Doll.

Your parents are forcing you to go. 'You need to socialize!' So they say. It's fair, but you really didn't want to do it. Not because you were anti-social, although that was certainly a factor, it was because you had this overwhelming gut feeling that something was going to go wrong.

You're practically forced to go. Regrettably.

At least you'll have Doll there to keep you company.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

You rubbed your arm nervously, peaking around every corner. Your friends saw you doing this as one shoved you lightly.

"Relax, N/n, you'll be fine. You need to stop worrying so much." Your friend reassured to which you didn't feel very reassured. You felt more threatened than anything. The atmosphere was extremely tense. You didn't like it.

You hated this feeling. The feeling of being helpless. You had your friends to help you in case things went awry, but even then, there's only so much that they could do if things went wrong. You regret this. You shouldn't have gone out here.

Your friend nudged you.

"Hey, N/n, relax, nothin's gonna ha-"

"Shush." You blurted out.

You heard something cracking. Sounded like glass, sounded like something moving.

The others didn't seem to hear it. You figured as much, these guys were good hunters. You had to give them credit for that if nothing else. Stealthy, crafty, murdery. All traits that are not good with the last one. Especially for you and your friends.

"I hate it here. I really hate it here." You voice. The others look at each other for a split moment before looking back at you.

Your friend sighed. "Yeah, I guess this was a bad idea." They said. "Yeah, we should probably go. Our parents are probably going to be worried about us if we stay out for too long." The other concurred. With all in agreement, you started to go back the way you came.

Unfortunately, someone didn't want you to go back.

------------------------------------------------------------------

The blaring music, the crowded nature of the place, everything about this made you slightly uncomfortable. You saw people drop dead right in front of you because they drank the fruit punch, which obviously isn't good for worker drones. Honestly, it was really confusing on how the ignored the signs.

Another thing was that you saw Lizzy on the stage, just kind of waiting around for something. She was on her phone, texting the entire time. It was par for the course for her. It didn't surprise you, not one bit. You figured she was texting Doll, or some of her other goons that you didn't care for.

You didn't like how you were just sitting around, twiddling your thumbs like a total loser. You had no way of conversating with anyone, Doll hasn't shown up yet, and you feel like a loser.

You tap your finger against your arm as you consider just ditching the entire place in general. It's not like you had any real reason to be here. You didn't know anyone here, you weren't really looking to make any friends right now, and not to mention that you were forced here.

Forced being a loose term.

"Бу."

You jump at the sudden loud noise close to your audio receptor, immediately snapping your head to the source of the noise, only to see your red eyed companion. Sitting there with an innocent smile as she waves at you.

You felt petty anger boiling up inside of you.

"Doll."

She hums.

"Could you not do that every time I'm off my guard?"

"Нет."

You sit in silence, glaring at Doll while she just stares at you back. She doesn't do anything, both of you waiting for the other to break the silence. It was a super unnecessary standoff. Eventually, Doll is the one to break the silence, ignoring the loud prom music.

"Я не думал, что ты действительно появишься. (I didn't think you'd actually show up.)" She casually mentions, to which you shrug, your previous anger having dissipated completely.

"Yeah, well; not like I really had a choice." You wave off. "'Sides, couldn't let you have all the fun by yourself, right?"

What you expected didn't happen as she looks down, seemingly concerned or worried, you couldn't tell. You reached out a hand towards her, touching her shoulder.

"Hey, everything okay?" You question, to which she sheepishly nods.

"Да, просто... (Yeah, Just...)" She seemed to lose herself in the moment. She looked at you, then the stage. Which notably had a giant 'X' in the edge of it. You didn't even notice it before until Doll glanced at it.

"Doll? What's go-"

You were suddenly interrupted by someone on a microphone, which was Lizzy, standing there with a hand on her hip.

"Okay, listen up nerds." She announced, leaving you with a bad taste in your mouth already. "We're doing this a little early-"

"Т/и." Doll grabbed your attention away from the entitled bitch. "Послушай меня, (Listen to me,)"

You look at Doll, confused and frightened at her sudden shift in tone. Urgency, you've seen it before.

"Вам нужно- (You need to-)"

"This..."

...

You honestly weren't sure what you were expecting. But Lizzy bringing in a murder drone, especially after what had happened definitely caught you off guard. As for you, in the present moment. You shot back into the wall where you had initially been situated, hand clutched to chest, trying to process what the hell Lizzy was doing.

She wasn't doing anything intelligent, that's for sure.

The thing that was right behind her crept up behind Lizzy as everyone in the auditorium started to panic. Justifiably, people started heading for the exit, but Lizzy stopped them before they really hit it, except for one in a mustache.

You had mostly tuned everything out, just staring in horror at the sight in front of you. The same murder drone that had ruined your life had showed up for the third time. You were starting to get sick of it, you just wanted to live in peace.

Of course, you could never get that lucky. Right?

"Черт возьми, Lizzy, зачем ты... (Dammit, Lizzy, why would you...)" Doll turned her attention to you. "Т/И, уйди с дороги и скройся из виду. (Y/n, get out of the way and get out of sight.)"

You didn't have to be told twice, considering you weren't the one with spoopy magical powers. Doll started to walk over to the middle of the crowd, to which you lost her in the crowd.

You felt like you were going to be sick. Ironic, since you couldn't really feel sick.

-----------------------------------------------------

Someone had knocked on the door. Confused, your parents went to go open it, only to find Doll standing there.

"Oh, greetings young lady," Your dad greeted. "what brings you here at this hour?"

"...Могу ли я поговорить с Т/И? (May I speak to Y/n?)" She nervously asked, to which your father accepted. "Of course, come inside! Y/n, your friend is here!"

You had opened the door from your bedroom, only to see Doll there, disheveled, more than what you had ever been. You immediately noticed the difference, while you dad hadn't. She did typically look at least somewhat disheveled all the time, usually with messy hair. This time was different though, you could tell.

Her dress had looked slightly torn up, hair messier than usual, that look in her eye. You knew what that look was.

The feeling of being empty.

"U-uh, hey Doll." You greeted as she approached you. "You need something?"

"Можем ли мы поговорить наедине? (Can we speak in private?)" You nodded, unblocking yourself away from your bedroom door and allowing her entry. You thought about just not doing it, because you had your own issues to deal with. You didn't need to deal with hers.

That's selfish.

You should be ashamed of yourself.

Your trauma doesn't matter right now, your friend needs you. Don't abandon her like you did with them.

Both of you sat on your bed, not breaking the silence. You were waiting for her to say something, but nothing came out. She was just kind of sitting there, expression blank with nothing coming out. Nothing.

It confused you. You knew you weren't particularly chatty either when what happened happened, but this is a whole different level than what you were expecting. Maybe you were still being selfish. You didn't know, but all you knew was that your friend was hurting. You needed to help her.

"Ее больше нет... (She's gone...)" She managed to whimper out. She had her hands folded in her lap, still looking blankly at the ground. You didn't know what that meant. Who's she? You didn't inquire further as it seemed like a sensitive topic.

"Are you okay?" You questioned. Doll only shook her head in response, which kind of confirmed your suspicions.

You didn't know how to deal with this, you were just a kid.

You both were just kids.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The fight that just took place in front of you... You couldn't believe your eyes.

You had no love for the murder drones, and you couldn't help but cheer Doll on from the sidelines as she ensnared V (that's what you heard Doll refer to her as, anyway) and took down the metal ceiling fans, and launched them towards V.

Everything after that was a blur. But you knew Doll was starting to lose, because she had just gotten launched back by Uzi, who kicked her back. Your breathing hitched as you saw yellow approach doll from behind.

...And point a gun right at her head.

Without a second thought, you bolted towards V.

"Doll, move-!"

Doll turned around just in time to see you push V's gun out of the way. In turn, you got a nanite tail straight to the eye. Doll breathing grew erattic as she grabbed a table with her glyph and immediately launched towards V, who wasn't expecting to receive table.

You felt arms wrap around you as the world seemed to shift around you. All you saw was red glitches before your system finally gave way and you passed out.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Too be continued, probably.

#Murder Drones #Murder Drones x reader #Doll x Reader #Platonic x reader #Platonic #Have fun processing that.#V showing up to ruin Y/n's life the third time

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artistredfox · 2 months ago

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I don't think Im gonna get to explain it organically in the fics(because Ford doesn't know what's happening and Stan is too zonked out to recognize it) but I wanna talk about what's happening with the barrier. (This way there's more context for what will happen going forward. It'll make sense without you reading this though. Consider this Bonus Content I am sharing because I wanna tell someone about it)

So, the unicorn barrier is pretty advanced magic. Not just because of it needing unicorn hair(though that is a big factor), but also because you need to have a specific goal in mind for it. Like, just casting a barrier isn't going to do aything if you aren't telling it what to protect you from.

In Ford's case, he basically told it "protect myself, my family, and anyone in this house from anything I cannot easily defeat on my own." And given his history roaming the universe, that's a pretty specific group of things. Like, if you were to arrange all the Weird things in Gravity Falls from 1 to 10, gnomes would be a 1, manotaurs a 4, and Bill an 11. Ford can protect the house from anything under an 8, if given time to prepare.

Stan, pre-Weirdness Wave, would have settled at a 5, tipping 6. He could shapshift, sure, and he's upset with Ford, but Ford can easily overpower him. Stan mostly kept to humanoid shifts, and it took a bit of concentration to shift.

Plus, he didn't really mean Ford any harm. That's his brother, after all.

Stan now, however, rests at a solid 9. His shifting is fluid and instinctive, he's upset with Ford, and the Weird Wave basically gave him a steroid shot of extra energy reserves.

The barrier now registers him as a threat. But wait... he's part of Ford's family. So it needs to protect him. Keeping him out leaves Stan in danger, but bringing him in puts everyone else in danger.

Unless he doesn't get upset.

If Stan is calm and relaxed, he won't hurt anyone. Plus, then Stan makes a good backup protector for the family. If needed, the barrier can just change the humming, and turn him loose on the danger.

Stan doesn't recognize what's happening at first because he's dealing with the whole 'holy crap my shifting powers are rebelling and I cant figure out how to control them' thing. It's like having a mesh box full of ice but the ice started melting and now your hands are soaked.

So because he's dealing with that, the barrier easily hooks its claws into him and starts soothing all his emotions out. It isn't sure which one will cause a blow-up so its tamping them all down.

It's also why its putting him to sleep. A sleeping shifter can't have emotional reactions, after all. It's the easiest way to fulfill its purpose.

#amnesia shifter stan au #yea just wanted to talk about it. i find the Lore for things really interesting #prolly no one else does but yknow

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amellderiva · 20 days ago

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Nice Little Things

Thank you so much for the tag @fenrelmercar this one was definitely a challenge. I'm just gonna copy your whole format, if you don't mind. Rules: Choose 10 objects that you will place in the room of your Rooks on the places intended for customization. These should be small objects that can be placed in the following places: 2 on the tables by the doors, 2 on the tables by the aquarium, 4 on the bookcases and 2 on the walls. Attach a photo of these objects and give a short description of why your Rooks chose them.

Calypso de Riva

Tables by the door (x2)

Chess set

She's not the type to naturally gravitate toward anything that requires thinking more than one step ahead (lol), but hey, her name is Rook now. So she's giving it another shot, at least until she confidently learns how each piece moves. Doesn't hurt that it's real pretty, either. (And I just realized that this isn't how chess sets look like in Thedas, but I'm too lazy to change it, pls don't judge me too hard.)

Octopus-thingy

Looted from the Hall of Valor – with Isabela's permission, mind you (though given very disappointedly, because she'd been hoping Rook would just steal it. Alas, she's not that kind of girl). Rook thinks he's very cute and that this is the coolest thing ever. Also, it's not useless, it's clearly a very functional candelabrum!

Tables by the aquarium (x2)

Beautiful, but useless AF dagger

She doesn't even remember where she picked it up (some contract or another, but who knows which one?), all she knows is that it's shiny and very, very pretty. Also completely useless. It'd probably bend the first time it met anything well-made, and it's not even magical. So… decor it is.

Mini armory

Look, unpreparedness kills more people than a blade ever does, and she knows it. Every (living) Crow does. That's why she takes comfort in knowing she has more of certain pieces (mostly boots, because at this point, functioning without proper shoes feels impossible) than strictly necessary. Which is also why they're out in the open, not tucked away in her wardrobe – that one's already full.

Bookshelves (x4)

Fancy crystalware

A gift from Viago, given shortly after his first visit to the Lighthouse. He probably intended it to be used properly, not just displayed, but gifts from him are so rare that there's no way Calypso would risk it. No one is allowed to touch it. Seriously, just don't.

Collection of hairpins

There are simpler ones, fancier ones, some made of silver, others of gold; all gifts from Teia, as subtle attempts to nudge her into wearing her hair more safely. Sometimes, when Calypso knows their paths will cross, she uses one. Otherwise, they remain untouched. They sit beside the crystal pitcher, just as Teia stands beside Viago.

Wolf bookends

One of them has actually lost its head, but that somehow only made it more appealing to her, for… reasons. The other is a bit worse for wear, having been defaced with ink drawings by her own hand (mostly of penises), but they still serve their purpose. She doesn't own many books: The Tale of the Champion (signed!), a few about history, and whatever the book club is currently reading, though she's always behind on that.

Quill and ink

A gift from Varric, never used. At first, it was simple forgetfulness, but now… now they'll never be used, just to keep them in pristine condition.

Walls (x2)

Crow mask

You can take the girl out of the Crows, but you can't take the Crow out of the girl. She wasn't fully happy with them, and she's far from blind to their flaws – but they're still family. And let's be honest, they've got a pretty sleek aesthetic.

Stained glass art piece

She's not a religious person; never really was before all this, and whatever hope she had in a higher power pretty much died with the events of Veilguard, but she'll still be the first to give the Chantry credit where it's due: their use of stained glass absolutely slaps. Peak design choice.

Madre mía, this was looong. I'm tagging some folks with absolutely no pressure applied: @impuls1veworm @curiouswisp @litchigaming @suntamer & @lemonina00 @wickedviago @goodoldmila

#oc game #tag game #nice little things #dragon age #veilguard #datv #rook #the rookery #my rook #oc: calypso de riva

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pbdigital · 4 months ago

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Dragon Age II - A review and thoughts

This is long, and I felt the itch to write something up. I think I could've kept poking at it for a while but honestly I want to just start playing DA:I now so I am throwing it out here.

I recently caught COVID-19. First timer, managed to avoid it for years. But a combination of a few emergencies exposed me when I didn't have time to mask up. It sucks, I don't recommend it. I mention this because it took so much out of me that I couldn't play any twitchy reflex based games, and needed a game that wouldn't exhaust me just playing. So I played through the entirety of Dragon Age: Origins, and quickly jumped into Dragon Age II. I play on PC, so I definitely installed mods— but I tend to prefer mods that enhance what is already there rather than alter gameplay or visual style.

Back in the day, I was a day one purchase for Dragon Age II. I was fully bought in- enjoying it with excitement until that all-too common occurrence— discourse. While it wasn’t likely the only thing to blame, it turns out that hearing negative things about something you’re enjoying really poisons your mind. There’s a moment at the end of Act 2 that I apparently never played past, not knowing how it would turn out, and I can confidently point to an old Something Awful thread as the drain on my excitement to continue.

But now— now! I've returned and completed the game after years of having it in my backlog, just leaving it unprioritized because it was generally panned. Preconceptions and memory I had of the game were that all the environments were copypasted, the fights went on a little too long, and my god, they’ve murdered poor Anders. For shame. This isn’t really accurate— but some of it isn’t wrong, either.

The writing in this game is unsurprisingly its strongest point. I think most of the dialogue is convincing, and that can’t be laid at the feet of the performance of the voice actors alone. There are some cutting lines in this game: "I'm not sorry she's dead, I'm sorry she died for You." "Guilt isn't a punishment. It's a reminder of the things you haven't set right." and both of those are from the same quest. It also gave some of the best advice one can get when you’re grieving – “when someone says ‘move on’ you take their hand and say ‘my choice’.” While it wasn’t phrased like this, this was definitely one of the better things I was told when I was grieving the loss of a loved one.

I think having a party that have mixed feelings about each other, and yourself, to be very interesting. It does push against the illusion of disbelief however, when some of the scathing comments they have for each other feel like fightin’ words, but I think I prefer this to there being a false sense of camaraderie to keep things simple. It also makes the times when they agree stand out more.

While I feel like it was as much done out of necessity as anything else, having the game span years in the same city is also unique. While I wished they had played more with things changing visually, ultimately the setting is a city that’s been around hundreds of years— and history tells us many of those don’t change dramatically. With that said, I did like the torch on the statue they added in Act 3, though it took far longer than I would like to admit to notice the head it is stepping on.

The story was far less of a mess than I remember. In my mind the story was pretty good, with a chorus of voices saying it was terrible- I accepted that perhaps I was wrong, even if it didn't change how I felt. Having actually completed the game— I have to say I enjoyed it. I would say the game’s writing is strongest in minutia, as some of the broader swings are a bit of a miss for me. The main conflict especially feels very forced in execution, though grand and sensible in a broader sense.

I’ve played both sides, and while siding with one side can get you backstory out of a character that otherwise is cartoonishly villainous, ultimately things play out the same no matter what. In some ways I’d say this is a good thing- it’s telling a tragedy, but given the importance placed on the Champion, it feels like things should’ve occurred differently even if they were to end in the same spot.

The Last Straw is an appropriately named quest, and the last one in the game. I think this quest was handled terribly. The opening scenes really don't sell how antagonistic your two factions are, as they stand a few feet away from each other calmly and argue. The crisis of the quest occurs, and the characters continue to just kind of stand around calmly despite their voiced anger, before agreeing to walk away and prepare to fight after some preparation. It truly counteracts the presentation of things coming to a head and people acting irrationally it is trying to sell. It rubs me as the story they're trying to tell suffering from not having the time to properly implement them mechanically in the game. This is further supported by having to fight the First Enchanter regardless of whether or not you supported the mages. Additionally, this quest is where I figured out how important maxing out a character's relationship is, as I lost some party members who disagreed with my choice. The game also makes an interesting choice after you complete the game, allowing you to load back in, but into a state where you can only access the DLC. I was hoping you would simply be saved before the last boss, able to do anything you hadn’t yet- because this quest does not warn you that it’s the end of the game, and triggers immediately once you enter the area it is in.

Perhaps it is thanks to the texture mods I installed, but I think the environments were well done, much in the way I was impressed with certain environments in KOTOR the first time I played it. However, I think it’s a crime that the maps don’t update for each time they reuse the same cave layout, especially as they block off paths with carts or worse. Sometimes paths are blocked off by walls in doorways, which is only a criticism because sometimes those walls are actually doors. You add that to the same default minimap used each time and it’s just wasted effort checking every path to see if it’s a secret door this time.

I find that most of the combat is a bit tedious, but mostly because it's always unclear when it'll end— enemies spawn in waves seemingly endlessly, from above or out of nowhere. Far too easily will you be doing great, only to find your archer went down because five enemies spawned around him. On that topic, some enemies just have too much health in comparison to the actions you can take in a battle- it can often make abilities feel useless, both offensive and defensive.

If I had any criticism of the characters as a whole, it might be how easy it is to fail to max out their relationship bar in one direction or another. I played a second playthrough chasing after the achievement to get four party members maxed out, because I managed to go the whole game without doing it. This isn't even a criticism of what or how they react to things, just that it's very easy to play a consistent character and make choices that keep returning their opinion of you down the middle. One thing I wish I'd remembered was that if you max out a relationship bar, it stays locked there- it would have changed how I tried managing my relationships, though perhaps in a more calculated way than I was aiming for. Upon replay, knowing what I know now, it was very easy to max out the relationships and then not worry about it.

I initially wanted to play through the game on console- as I remember it controlling and 'feeling' better with a controller, but sadly life just didn't line for that. Surprisingly, or not if you've played other BioWare games on PC, there wasn't any controller support- even if you looked for mods to try to restore or enable it. At most, you could try playing it with your keyboard remapped to a controller, but this would defeat the purpose- I wanted the console interface in combat. Alas, this would not be how I played the game this day. Far too late, I heard that if you press the letter R, your character will search for the nearest enemy and attack them, or interact with a container to loot it. This small bit of information did approximate the ‘feel’ of playing on console I remember. I played as mage, to better make good use of mouse and keyboard— if there was one benefit to this control scheme it was the ease of which I could place down an AoE or cone with precision.

Using the EA app meant that sometimes (but not every time) I launched DA2, it would let me know that something (the EA app) was preventing it from running in full-screen. This required a trip to the video options to check a box every time I launched it. Annoying but not too terrible- the game is hardly new enough to have taken into account overlay support. More surprisingly, unlike DA:O, the game could still dial home to EA servers and pull my account information- achievements and such. This is ultimately why I played through a second time- I've gotten them all now. Part of me wants to do so again on consoles, still.

I did experience my share of bugs: Sometimes when summoning my mabari, he would just stand there and refuse to follow me. Occasionally quest markers wouldn't disappear from the mini-map. I think once or twice I had to really finagle the camera to interact with an object. Sometimes in battle an enemy would get stuck at 1hp for a period of time leaving characters attacking them uselessly as they stand there. Maybe some of the biggest bugs, that even with mods and community patches, were the ones related to importing the save from DA:O, and respecting the world state. It's no wonder they moved to a web-based importer of The Keep- I hope my experience with DA:I will be more consistent.

It has a programmable AI system, much like DA:O, or perhaps the gambits of FFXII, however I don't know that I like them much here. The combat is too fast to verify if things are working properly, and the auto generated tactics don't make full use of abilities- which I also won't know how to use until I play as that class with those specific abilities. Perhaps this is just part and parcel of a game with different classes, but combat simultaneously is too fast per enemy but too long per battle to really want to get granular with it. Unlike DA:O I don't really find any kind of tactical joy in the combat, and just wished the AI suggested tactics were more comprehensive.

Now let’s go over the party members.

Aveline is great. I think the decision to not make her romanceable but let you flirt with her is the best and worst decision. It would’ve felt bad to not gas her up, but it also feels bad to know you never had a chance. 100 points, star of the game for me.

Unlike many of the other characters, she seems very stable, consistent, and reasonable— more willing to bend than you’d expect, and more so than other characters. I think her relationship with other characters can be shaped more by your relationships than others— or maybe I was just paying more attention to her. In my playthroughs I’ve seen her rivalry with Isabela range from having a friendly drink with each other to outright just calling her a slattern when she offers advice.

I love Merrill, but whew, returning to DA2 really makes her stand out. She plays up her innocence and lack of knowledge but gets mad when people underestimate her. She needs help but won’t listen to advice. She’s adorable and frustrating, depending on whether you let her do what she wants, or push back. The game continually pushes against her choices, giving her tragedy after tragedy, and honestly, she’s not wrong when she says none of it needed to happen if people just listened to her and let her make her own choices.

Isabela hits very different as I’m older now- I can view her as someone who is absolutely not in control of their life, but faking it until she makes it. She’s happy with what she has because if she wasn’t, it’d be heartbreaking. I honestly don’t know if I prefer pushing her to be more selfless, or meeting her where she is and her coming to the conclusion she’s a better person than she thought.

Varric is the only person in this game, other than potentially Aveline, that you should look at and say, oh he’s right. Maybe that’s due to the framing device of the game- I haven’t played further in the series yet to know. He’s a friend, and as far as I can tell, you just have to be shitty to everyone to get in a rivalry with him. I appreciate him, he’s a smarmy rogue with a cool one-of-a-kind repeating crossbow who doesn’t actually value money over people.

Anders was exactly the character I recently had an adventure with in Dragon Age Origins: Awakening. One of the opinions I had taken away from the launch window was that I felt they had butchered his character and Justice along with it. But with the passage of time and additionally playing DA2 immediately after Awakening, I can confidently say no such violence happened. Anders is still lighthearted, it just so happens that there is less for him to joke about- an intentional choice for his character. There was banter between him and Isabella that struck me and made me realize he was very intentionally going through a character arc rather than being solely used as a plot device- when he says to her he wishes he could be as selfish as he once was. In fact, there were a few party banter lines with Anders that were very telling and prophetic of where he was heading. Most of my criticism with Anders is more a criticism of the last quest of the game’s timing pacing and execution, but I feel he was fully set up and properly foreshadowed.

You only get to see much of Carver if you play as a mage, which makes his default path of becoming a Templar all the more betraying. He’s a young man trying to be bigger than he is, always in his older sibling’s shadow, and I think that’s fun. He’s real easy to not get along with, and it made me want to tease him. Rivalry would’ve been easy to get if bad stuff didn’t keep happening to the Hawke family, making me want to be nice to him as well.

Bethany is kind, and definitely seems to be a character that’s as conflict-averse as her brother seeks it out. I think seeing them play off each other would’ve been more interesting than what we got. I didn’t see much of Bethany, as I only had her in my second playthrough, and once I maxed out her friendship, she didn’t get used much in my pursuit of achievements.

I think if he had a different voice actor, Fenris would not be nearly as beloved as he is. Not that he wouldn’t have a fervent following- he’s still a soaking wet broody elf meow meow. He is not one for middle ground, but not being able to max him out naturally is maybe the most frustrating part about my playthrough. Much like his weapon, his opinion of you can take big swings if you’re not careful about your decisions around him- leading him to abandon you if you decide to side with the mages- forcing you to kill him. Rather anticlimactically.

I have strong opinions about Sebastian, in that I think he’s written too accurately, and I hate his presence. If Thedas had Christian media, he’d be the product of it, someone who buys fully into the church and has no idea what life is like for normal people.

Unlike other characters, he has a very specific sexual identity, and will just fuck off at the end of the game if he doesn’t like the choices you’ve made. He really feels taped onto the scenario, he interacts with the Chantry in ways that feel intentional but everywhere else he stands out- I don’t know if it’s the framing of the shots when it cuts to his reactions but the fact that nobody ever reacts to him makes him feel like a last minute addition.

I also get really annoyed at his holier-than-thou act in party banter- it really feels like he doesn’t get the pushback anyone else does. He gets to say his piece no matter what. This may be a ‘me’ problem but I couldn’t find any charming points to really get attached to.

Regarding other DLC, I feel like the Black Emporium could’ve been more interesting than it was, it’s literally a hidden black market with a dude granted immortality but his body continues to age. That’s wild. But ultimately it’s just a few codex entries, a shop, and a mirror to customize your character.

The story DLCs were great. In fact they felt more like playing DA:O than most anything else in the game- they take you to new areas, have potentially complex puzzles, interesting new characters who stand out against the dour nature of most of Kirkwall.

I will say the last boss of the Legacy DLC absolutely wrecked my team and I had to solo it very precariously- a challenge I was not expecting given I had set it to Casual difficulty early on. I had already done my time in the difficulty mines and wasn’t anticipating needing to be able to revive my teammates.

Tallis is fun. I think if she wasn’t limited to just the DLC I’d have tried using her in the main campaign. I do question her character design however, as I think they may have pushed her likeness to Felicia Day a little too much. There are mods out there that adjust this, but I didn’t make use of them, I have enough of a hard time recognizing characters through design shifts as it is.

The DLC item packs generally trivialize the other equipment in the game, and some of them are goofy as hell. In my second playthrough the latter half of the game was spent running around with a golden mask with a giant red mohawk.

With that said, they are distinct, and that has a benefit over most of the more generic ‘realistic’ armor in the game. I do wish there were more set bonuses and ‘matching’ items were set to the same levels so you could wear them all at the same time though.

Overall, I think I side with people who consider DA2 to be a good game. I think it has plenty of flaws, most of which are mechanical or technical in nature, but that’s never stopped me from liking KOTOR 2. I understand the frustration people who wanted another DA:O had, but seeing where the series has gone from here, all I can do is shrug— they had also put DA:O on a pedestal to be quite honest.

Mods I used or recommend:

Kirkwall Expanded

This mod is probably the one mod that made the most changes from the ‘vanilla’ experience that I used. It added a lot of extra content- not all of it meaningful but I think that definitely 'expands' the game. However it may have been the source of the only items that were more, or as interesting, as the DLC item pack items. I’d say give it a look. I didn’t make use of most of it on my first playthrough, but on my second, I dug into the new quests, the kaddis system for your dog, and customizing armor.

Fixes

Ishs Item Pack Skin Tint Fix

TSM Huon Fix

Hawke Siblings Base Critical Chance Quick Fix

Nathaniel Eye Fix

Haste and Barrier Fix

Unobtainable items fix

Missing Codex Entries

Assorted Tinting Fixes

Journal Fixes

DA2 Unofficial Repentance Quest Infinite Load Screen Fix

VQ DA2 BugFix

Sketchy on the Details Fix

Quest Rewards Fixes

Forbidden Knowledge Quest Fix

DA2 Epilogue Restoration and Fixes

Rebalances and Adjustments

Arishok AI Rebalance

NPC Gear Immersion Tweaks

Ishs Tougher Dog

DLC-Away - Move DLC Items to Personal Storage

Backpack Mod - Inventory Increase

Less Sassy Warriors - Female Templar and Warrior edit

Dalish Weapons for the Dalish

Textures

Colorful Materials

HR Fenris Armor

Furnitures - High resolution textures - HR HD HQ

The Arishok - High resolution textures - HR HD HQ

Sebastian's Armor - High Resolution textures - HR HD HQ

Aveline's Armor - High Resolution textures - HR HD HQ

Anders' Armors and Justice glow - High Resolution textures - HR HD HQ

Dunmr's Zevran Restoration Project

Dragon Age 2 Ultimate HD

TrufflesDuval Texture Mod

Hawke Project 2K

QoL

Let Them Eat Cake

No More Bloody Teeth

Chargen Revamp

Interesting but I didn’t use or get working

Kidnappapalooza - Best Served Cold Redux

Darkspawn Variations

Faster Exploration - Walk and Run Speed Boost

Better Map and Minimap

Evolving Companion Armor

Lock Bash DA2

Valuable Junk

Twinception - Both Siblings Survive

#dragon age II #comic wrote a thing #DA2

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strqyr · 1 year ago

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Sorry for bothering you but. Shoves my posts into your face. Oz parallels Darkness; he begs for humanity not to be punished for his actions like how Darkness didn't want the Jabberwalker punished for his. Destruction is not the enemy of Creation, destruction begets life (decay is an extent form of life), it's change. Oz embodies change to the highest degree and values it highly. He is demonized time and time again and he thinks he destroys everything he touches. He freely offers knowledge and especially choice. (<- this is all also why I think an allusion of his is Lucifer) Not only that, but he freely offers magic as well.

I just. Gestures wildly. Oz parallels Darkness so heavily that I'm so willing to bet that once Oz and Salem actually Talk, and Salem says something she believes about him, that he'll say "Is that truly what you think of me?" Or some form to parallel The Two Brothers. If he doesn't I'll fucking eat my hat and I don't even have one

yeah, oz definitely has more parallels with darkness than he does with light. like, while the gods don't embody only one specific gift, darkness is still associated more with destruction, and that is where oz's curse comes to play: he lives, he dies, and he reincarnates into a body of a like-minded soul, and with each life he's changed.

and i think what makes it even more poignant is that. . . it didn't necessarily have to be that way? if ozma's first reincarnation is anything to go by, he could have just taken over and remained unchanged, but he learned to live with each of his hosts, living their lives as much as they lived his.

in general i find oz's relationship with each gift quite fascinating. he uses the sword to end the bloodiest war in the history of remnant, and in the aftermath brings change. he uses the staff to raise atlas, making using it again quite a hurdle, highlighting the stagnancy of creation without destruction. he established the academies, institutions of knowledge and learning, but keeps the same secret close to his chest that brought him despair when he got his answer from jinn. he offers choice and encourages others to think it through instead of taking the first answer (as much as the circumstances were awful, at the time), but it is slightly undermined by the knowledge he keeps to himself that may or may not influence the choices others make.

and so much of it is informed by his own past, his own experiences, his own fear of what might happen that at times "slows" him down, where he doesn't quite follow the gifts as they should, while also following them in a different manner.

and, idk, it somehow makes me think of V9 and balance that isn't two forces locked in never-ending battle, but an ecosystem, an organism, a living breathing thing, that will find its own equilibrium, only requiring love and patience to see things through to the end.

and it's just. oz. that's oz, in a way. yes he's made mistakes and missteps along the way, but especially now that he's with oscar, he's closer than ever to finding the true balance, me thinks—and that's why it worries me that they were both fighting against the merge because that's. that's two (or more) forces locked in a battle of balance. "thus, balance cannot be restored with force or calculations" y'all i am concerned.

. . .where was i. i feel i got off the track lmao but yeah. yeah, i honestly think the like. biggest turn of events or something, words escape me, comes from salem because there's something she doesn't know about oz. it's the same as with everyone else—including ozma himself—learning about salem's immortality, just this time it's time for salem to learn something that changes her view of oz and that's where, yeah, something akin to "is that truly what you think of me?" might come out.

#rwby #ozma #nightmare-foundation #ask.strqyr #also it's no bother and sorry for taking a while to answer #my life has been taken over by hades 2 lol

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coffeeliqueurs · 4 days ago

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I saw you reblogged that post so you bet I'm asking about Finch! 🌊🎱🎀 (also you made a fair point in your tags, it does say headcanons and not canon)

WAA HII!! tysm for the ask!! to absolutely nobodies surprise I got rambly with this:

🌊 - when was the last time they cried?

Probably some time during case 4, when he starts to crack under the pressure of everything. the poor bastard is already one bad day away from a crash out and then people are suddenly telling him the threatening letter in the mail might've been for him and not his very recently stabbed boss. It absolutely wouldn't occur within the nightcap though, I think if he cried infront of a customer he'd be so embarrassed he'd consider moving countries all over again. He is however someone you'd find lying on the floor of his apartment cradling his dog like a baby whilst he cries. aggie has seen many meltdowns in her lifetime but I don't think she particularly minds it- or cares at all. she's one of those dogs where there's not a single thought behinds those eyes. either way i think crying isn't uncommon for finch, he's always stressed about something he just keeps it private.

🎀 - what is their main love language?

I don't think he has any specific love language, he cares too much about everything to show it in just one way. If i tried to narrow it down it would be quality time and physical touch though.

He likes being near people!! even if they were sat in complete silence, being in the same room as someone he cares about would be enough for him. but he's also just as down to yapping for hours with someone, he'll match the vibe!! Any friends of his would have to use this to their advantage, finch won't ever admit it but he's got a mild case of agoraphobia so quality time can be used to force the bastard to leave the damn house for once (apart from his commute to work that is). he likes the outside he promises!! he just... prefers to look at it from behind a window in the safety of his home!!

He's also very physically affectionate but not in like... a noticeable way if that makes sense? when he's close with someone (platonically or romantically) he'll lean on them a lot, in the most literal sense of the phrase. nothing on your shoulder? that's freespace for him to rest his head. There's been many occasions where he's fallen asleep on others because of this and yet he keeps doing it anyways. He's also very much the type to lean his entire bodyweight on you if you hug him so be warned.

🎱 - what kind of future do they crave, and who’s in it ?

Above all he wants a peaceful life. Unfortunately for him, the nightcap was anything but peaceful. But I think he still loves the place regardless of its history, he'd have grown attached to the clientele and all the stories they bring him and as someone who wants to be there for others, providing a small light in the darkness when someones in need, I think ultimately his time there was fulfilling for him even if it didn't go the way he expected. Despite that I don't think he'd stay there for forever, post game he'd continue working there until he enough money saved to open his own business. I mentioned in his little profile but rather than being a bartender he wants to return to being a locksmith, which is a trade his family specialised in. so he'd open his own shop to finally get back to his passion. he does his best to keep in touch with others though, I think he'd end up becoming a regular at the tea terrace and revisit the nightcap often if it was still open after he left.

As for who's in it: Clara, Maria, Ilya, Feng and Bjorn are probably the customers he'd become close friends with!! Given that he frequents the tea terrace he probably also sees Olivia and John occasionally too. I think he'd be friends with Olivia although they're not quite as close and John he's mostly just on polite terms with.

I think Ms Bai's journalling would do wonders for someone like Finch, the whole 'silly things' conversation probably changed his outlook on the world a lot and I think he picked up journalling through her!!

I just really like the little tidbit about how the bartender gave clara freebies back at the spire lounge so i always saw finch and clara as friends to me :) also they both have hobbies in combat sports so they'd bond over that methinks, although finch has probably never tried bartitsu ((which i learned at this very moment was not infact a word made up for the game and is an actual martial art. i don't know why i didn't google that earlier.))

Romantically speaking who's in his life? turns to the mysteriously high amount of Peter wagner drawings in my art program . hahah yeah i wonder who he romanced. it's anyones guess haha. who knows who that guys dating i sure don't. oksy sorry im done with this bit.

he'd be dating peter methinks 😔👍. I'd elaborate more on that but i get extremely embarrassed anytime i talk about oc x canon earnestly without saying something silly to balance it out so 👍👍👍 happy pride

#I'm the most long-winded person on earth and I've shrimply accepted that fact #🗝️ | finch #thank u again for the ask this was rlly fun to answer yippee !!!! :)#also if i got it wrong that feng bais firstname is feng and her surname is bai tell me because i spent a solid five minutes #trying to figure out if she followed the same name formatting as the other characters #or if her name was formatted surname first name like chinese names are usually written

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solarasteroid · 1 month ago

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can you tell us more about GE’s colonies or (colonial or post-independence) latin america...

—chariskris.

❤️❤️❤️ german colonial empire.. yes i Will.. speaking of latin america theyre on my list to develop i just don't have any concepts for them yet/know very little history. keep in mind this is all pre ww1 because alot changes when the war starts

cw dark topics (think sa, violence, war, etc..) under the cut

geulp.. ge in general Does not have a good relationship with any of them. its not like they even have relationships with him because he despises them all, even if it isn't 'shown'. (though you can argue on what that means)

he often uses very degrading/dehumanizing language on them and idk how to describe this but he. sees himself as their saviour? that he can change them/handle how out of touch they are. he doesn't see them as people.. white saviour complex.

colonies usually forget about their time as a representative before colonisation, for numerous reasons, so you can imagine at first they knew almost nothing about ge.

WITH each individual colony his views differ..

gea (ge calls him ostafrika) HATES him. and for good reason!! for context he represents the entire colony and the parts of it (burundi, rwanda, tanzania) represent their part of the colony.

hes scared of ge, particularly for what he's done to him. ge i dont think assaulting him is going to do anything but make him Not want to obey your orders, scared of him to the point if ge does anything such as putting a hand on his shoulder/saying his name he will freeze—compared to the others he falls for ge's bribery easily, because he'll do anything if it means ge backs away from him the slightest.

hes blind in one eye, his left specifically. used to have wings but oh i boy i wonder who cut them off!! >_< (same is done to namibia, because she rebelled against him, and so did gea) he didn't participate in the maij maij rebellion, its not like he can hold a gun properly, but the blame was later put on him. and ge, annoyed by this, wanted him to have consequences for the actions of his people.

i can Not type out what fully happened other than them having a "fist" (ge im not sure you should bring a knife to a fist fight) fight and ge cutting his wings off/stabbing him once or twice in the eye but if you scroll back up a bit to the first paragraph about him and reread the first line that might tell you something 💔

ge saw him as a disappointment, and he was actually one of his least favourites out of his colonies. we need to kill this white devil!!

onto namibia now... my daughter i love her 💔💔 obviously she isn't called namibia in this time period but calling her gswa feels like deadnaming her and i don't want to do that

ge doesnt do things directly to her, its his own soldiers most of the time who've done the harm to her. but its not like he does anything about it!

namibia, participated in her people's rebellions often (blends in with crowd,, tucked her wings in usually) and is more sympathetic to them compared to the other german colonies.

after a while though, ge was getting tired of all of it, and ordered her to cut off her wings, rather than he doing it himself. she didn't cut all of it off, but it was much, much, smaller. aww he has a pattern of doing this!! >_<

this is all im able to think about atm so i might've missed some important aspects 💔 in sha allah i will think of stuff for togo and cameroon aswell because i dont have much thought out for them.

#jims loretalk #gea and namibia both have yellow wings!!#theyre kinda like siblings but im not sure #i could never post this anywhere else 🥀

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bridgetoesoteria · 1 year ago

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🔮Quickie Read: Pick an Oracle Card🔮

Short & sweet read. Just going to see what comes out. Numbers correlate with piles.

(Psst! I'm going to split the readings so the post isn't ridiculously long. Piles 1-3 on this post).

Hope it resonates!🤍

Using Mystic Misfits Oracle Deck + Playing Cards

Pile 1

Spread: 10 of Spades, The Joker + Lovers (Oracle)

You may be holding onto something you need to let go of. I am getting that it is some kind of loss or a sense of loss. You might have had to let go of a person in some way, whether that was through breaking up or physical loss.

I'm not saying "let go" in an invalidating, trivializing way. "Process" would have been a better term. Its like you are paused in the grief/regret stage. Wishing for what no longer is. The skull has a tiny little star on its head. It made me think of the star card in tarot. Healing. You could have to let someone, or something, go that you hoped to see improve. You have a lot of history. This could be related to struggling with mental health.

The movie Lovely Bones came to mind. I am not suggesting to watch it. Its not a pleasant movie and may trigger some people. But iykyk. Perhaps something about this movie is meaningful?

TL;DR: If you are struggling with grief, mental health, or anything else. Please tell someone you trust. Ask for help with processing whatever events you are dealing with.

Pile 2

Spread: 5 of Clubs, Jack of Diamonds + Fairy (Oracle)

When I'm reading playing cards I never know whether I should consider jacks as pages or knights. So I just think of them as both and go with the energy I feel. This one feels more knight-y...

(Probably) y'all rn 🤣🤣:

Okay, let me stop trolling. Yes, this jack feels like more of a knight of pentacles. So a lot of you could be on the younger side or just really youthful. You could be used to being looked as childish or childlike. You could like to joke a lot and not take things too seriously and that may be getting you in trouble in some way. Maybe you feel like you might need to "grow up," in some way and you are wrestling with what that truly means.

Or, you could have gotten into a disagreement with a youngish masculine. Maybe your personalities don't always mesh. I don't think this will be romantic for all of you. I actually feel like it is a platonic or familial for many of you.

For both scenarios, give the situation time to calm down. If you want to reconcile with someone, don't be impulsive about it. You should probably send something sincere, thoughtful, and as "too the point" as you can get it. Depending on your situation, you may even want to meet up. If this is more about you making decisions for your future. Again, don't do anything impulsive. Move at your own pace. Embrace who you are while remaining open to who you can become.

TL;DR: If you are feeling pressure to "grow up," take a breath and make the decision when you are less conflicted. Its possible to stay true to yourself and open to change. If you are butting heads with someone else, give things time to settle then send a sincere message/peace offering.

Pile 3

Spread: 7 of Spades, Ace of Diamonds + Sun (Oracle)

Right away, if you are wondering if a certain person is lying to you or in someway being duplicitous...you're probably right. For some of you, I feel like there is a feminine energy that is burning with jealousy. Some possible reasons that come to mind:

Run-of-the-mill hatin' ass hoe

Thinks you stole her man

Thinks you stole her "position"

Like...sis is mad mad. And they are willing to try and sabotage a new beginning, opportunity, or offer for you. If this isn't someone else, this could be how you are feeling toward another person. You could feel like they get all the spotlight.

If you're winning right now, keep it to yourself. There are def haters in your energy. They don't see you as celebrating your wins when you talk about them, they see you as bragging. If you aren't telling them directly, they know somehow and think that you are on a pedestal and haaate it. Be careful about saboteurs. Loose lips sink ships besties!!

TL;DR: Mad haters around so keep your business to yourself. Not everyone is happy to see you do well and they are willing to so something about it (as in sabotage your success). For others, you are the one doing the "hating," and may view someone as a rival in some way. Don't let this hate consume you. You are great and have much to offer too <3

~ K

#tarot #tarotcommunity #pick a card #tarot reading #oracle reading #oracle cards #spiritual community #spirituality #intuitive readings #pick a pile

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oopsiedaisymae · 11 months ago

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🍈

For the ask game pls

i answered this question here and talked about sasazuka but i have a million blorbos and i will talk about them endlessly. today i want to talk about solomon from obey me. my silly, ridiculous, shady wizard man. i love him. here is a small collection of some of my fav pics of him (incredibly limited for space).

i do sort of feel like a fake fan bc i didn't actually like solomon all that much when i started playing og. in my early ten pulls i got the solomon new years ur+ card and i just did not like him. i thought he was weird and was irritated i got him instead of a demon brother, so for all of og season 1 and at the beginning of season 2 i disliked him. my memory gets a little blurry here in the timeline, but i think i finished season 2 of og and warmed up to him a tad bit, then nightbringer came out and i became a simp.

my feelings about solomon are complex even to this day. i really find him and his character interesting because of the dubious nature he has. he's this cutesy wizard guy who is a simp for mc, but he's also a very dangerous figure that has waged war against the devildom, is the most powerful human sorcerer in history, and is prone to incredibly selfish bouts of behavior at the expense of others (although, never really at mc's expense). i really really like how he's handled at the end of og season 2, where he's absolutely willing to kill lucifer without much of a second thought to save the realms but cannot bring himself to do something that would upset you. fascinating! i think his character is at its best when it's handled with these multiple layers of nuance.

in terms of headcanons, i have lots, but i'll share three that are currently on my mind:

i am incredibly fond of the headcanon that solomon, in his youth, had a more olive skin tone and dark brown hair that faded over time with his magic and immortality. SCREAM!!! it's so incredibly jack frost and so incredibly interesting. not only is the image so attractive, but there's something so angsty about it too. solomon feels his humanity has been altered by the immortality he now has, and clings to human connection to remind himself who he is. i think it's so interesting to think about the image of him watching the life seeming drain from him over time. it very much mirrors asmo's fears of not recognizing himself after falling in nightbringer and i think it's delicious.

PACT MARKS!!!!!!!!!! oh my god solomon is covered in pact marks and you can't change my mind. i simply refuse a canon where he isn't. i don't give a single shit. part of my solomon simp arc was heavily spurred on by this fanart floating around, originally posted by @/angyedfez on twitter. jeeeeeeesus. oh my god look at him. i need him so badly.

and an nsfw headcanon because i'm in a mood today ig...

solomon is such a desperate lover. he never thought he'd be able to get his hands on you, to let this love building in him manifest in a way where he can freely press his lips against yours, run his scarred palms against your skin, feel the heat of your body against his chest, anything to tattoo this moment into his mind every single time he has you with him. he prefers any position that has you facing him. solomon wants to cover your body with his and just be as close to you as physically possible, to tangle legs and limbs until neither of you know where the other begins or ends. pushing even just the tip of his cock in has him resisting the urge to roll his eyes back in his head and groan like it's the first time all over again. he's so obsessed with you and your warmth and he'll fuck you far past the point of exhaustion just so he can keep memorizing everything about you.

in conclusion. i want him. i want to study him. i want to bully him. i want him between my teeth and i want him out of my kitchen. i want to chew on him like a dog with an old frayed toy and i also want to set him very delicately on my shelf where he's comfortable and happy.

#thank u vi for the ask endless smooches for listening to me ramble about him #sorry i can't be normal about him #ask games!#daisy talks

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brittanyberd · 1 month ago

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Overwatch Censorship

I recently saw the new street fighter collaboration and have some mixed feelings on the censorship of the skins. Notably, widow cammy and kiri juri have been censored. As an avid street fighter fan, I was sad to see the skins altered. I main juri, so it was sad that they changed her top so much.

Im curious as to why team 4 wanted to do so much censorship in ow, sf6 is much more realistic and violent and has all kinds of revealing costumes but still retains its teen rating. So I know that team 4 isn't censoring the skins to keep the rating.

Just ti clarify, i don't believe that sexyness is bad in games, their made to entertain people and get their minds off the real world for a little; so I think we can have unrealistic characters and games.

Cheeky skins are a staple in SFs history, and I don't think censoring them in ow is doing anything positive for anyone. All I've seen of the community is people wanting these kinds of skins; Butts and boobies free, ya know. It just wish they kept the og desgins bc there was no issue with them in the first place.

My theory is that either team 4 was forced to change them by the executives, or they really thought it was too much (which it isn't). Also, new Capcom games have been a little more censored now, so maybe Capcom wanted them to do it, but that is a long long stretch.

Thanks for reading my yap. Let me know your thoughts in opinions on this. I want to hear what the community thinks of these changes

#overwatch #overwatch 2 #talon overwatch #widowmaker #kiriko #kiriko overwatch #Widowmaker overwatch #Ow2 #OW #street fighter #street fighter 6

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ithinkthiswasabadidea · 3 months ago

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Ough god okay so I had this in my drafts since I started replaying the game last month. I want to go into a little more detail about the factions and the way that I personally saw them throughout the game.

It's one thing to say that Thélème and the Bridge Alliance are despicable and terrible in their practices, but then I think about the part that the Congregation and Nauts play in this story and no one, NO ONE, has clean hands

From the beginning, Thélème and the Bridge Alliance are so much more in-your-face about what they each stand for and venerate. They really do come across strongly to represent some terrible parts of society, and because we get to see both from an outsiders perspective, it's easier for the viewer to paint them as the 'bad ones'

Between Thélème and the Bridge Alliance, who are both actively and violently harming the native people of Tír Fradí, you're asking, 'what is worse to lose, your identity, or your life?' And so often in the story, the answer is that 'one isn't even given that choice'. No tolerance for anything other, while all dignity is stripped away

For Thélème, while Cardinal Cornelia is eventually found to be a more stout ally who has the great sense of mind to embrace change and prosecute those who fall far into religious zealotry, she turns a blind eye to the Ordo Luminis long enough that they have literal conversion camps and are torturing and killing natives there, and burning others at the stake.

Depictions of religion like this remind me of why I never want to step foot near it again in real life. There's no hate like their 'love'.

The Ordo Luminis represent everything abhorrent that organised religion can and will do in the name of their 'god', to anyone who doesn't share their faith. Fear mongering, the sabotage of progress, the narrow minded view that their version of history and the future is the only correct way. And if they don't outright kill the native people simply for being different? Then those native people lose everything about themselves and their culture that binds together the people and the island

The Bridge Alliance..... well take your fucking pick of their terrible deeds. Between the genocidal battles they wage against the native people, and Doctor Asili's work, this 'progress before people' mentality is just disgusting for the viewer to witness. The entire philosophy of the Bridge Alliance, in that progress must be made no matter the cost, is so decidedly abhorrent, that Governor Burhan justifies all of the terrible attacks and experiments with statements of either 'neutrality' or minimising and deflecting from any responsibility, so he and his people don't have to face consequences

Not only that, but Governor Burhan and Hikmet as a whole are complicit in Doctor Asili's crimes, Burhan excusing himself from taking responsibility by hiding behind "I was unaware of the extent..." and "[Asili's] madness should not overtake the merit of what he has accomplished" when he was just told the extent of the horrors that Asili had forced upon both Natives and Nauts.

For that reason, Asili runs rampant with his own obsession over the Malichor, placing everyone on Tír Fradí in peril, but not before actively torturing and killing people. Its extremely hard to find any sort of redemption thread here, unless De Sardet actively denounces these terrible deeds and has Asili executed so that the Alliance finally introduces ethics to their scientific practices

And then looking to the Nauts and Congregation, who, for years, decades, centuries. Have been chipping away at something that isn't theirs and never was, all for the sake of commerce. Exploitation run rampant. Greed.

The Nauts, while mandated to keep their secrets, sold the knowledge of Tír Fradí when it was never theirs to sell. A simple trade deal. Balancing the books. Commerce. That's all it ever was to them when they 'discovered' the island. Their valuing of profit above humanity, and individualism, constricts who they are as a faction. How will they ever grow or learn?

Ah, and we can't forget the literal people trade that they have. Contracts and traditions aside, the practice of the sea-born and sea-given Nauts is really just icky. People aren't cargo, yet the sea demands payment one way or another, and the Captain's and Admiral's enforce it without blinking an eye.

And finally, De Sardet and the Congregation. De Sardet who represents every arrogant and greedy thing the Congregation has done - charging into places without permission, demanding answers and audiences without bothering to think how that affects the people of the island, or the island itself, manipulating relationships for their own gain. Yes, in desperation they look for a cure, but in that desperation they throw the good will of the native people back in their faces

Like, practically hunting down Mev, trying to say that they won't harm her and yet she runs because she has been hunted before, and demanding answers to problems that Mev and her people have nothing to do with. There's this overarching theme that De Sardet gets what they want because they think they are owed it, or deserve it. First, because they are Legate, and that's 'their job', and second because they are on ol menawi. All the secrets and sacred things that the native people do, and De Sardet has the audacity to believe that they deserve to know that information too

How many times does Síora, or any of the other clan chiefs or doneigada tell De Sardet that they don't understand the extent of what they are asking/looking for? De Sardet never once stops to truly learn or appreciate how the native people live, and their connection to the island. "Whatever it takes". People die for De Sardet. Many, many people die for them.

Pushing and pushing and pushing, never accepting no for an answer. The colonialist mindset that everything they want or need, is theirs by right. In the end, that is what dooms Constantin, and dooms the entire island as a consequence

I can't pretend that the native people don't have flaws, like with Ullan willing to sell out his people, and Derdre willing to lead them to their deaths in battle. But the native people ARE the victims in this story. You need only look at real history to learn that colonialism is the real Malichor of the world

The topics of this game are insightful and painful and I feel like the wrong kind of person to talk about them any further, because irl I am a white person who has grown up benefiting from the systematic oppression and harm done to indigenous people on stolen land. I'm sure GreedFall didn't hit every nail on the head with these storylines, but god if it doesn't rile me the fuck up. I am interested to see where The Dying World will take us with these themes and any new ones, now that we're back on the continent

#greedfall #de sardet #constantin d'orsay #greedfall blogging #this second play through has given me a lot more time to open my eyes and contemplate what was depicted in the game

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