Tumgik
#you want to hear a story about dragons? (in character)
oc-challenges · 3 days
Text
Tumblr media
WELCOME TO OC HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE 2O24!
SMILE because it's time for the annual oc halloween challenge! We will see the evil, hear the evil, and speak the evil with these spooky challenges brought to you by @aliverse, @astarionbae, @endless-oc-creations, and @come-along-pond!
If this is your first time, here's the lowdown; This is an event that takes place over the 31 days of October and presents oc creators with Halloween-themed challenges to encourage creativity, foster community, and have fun! Some of these have guidelines/suggestions, but this is very much a free-for-all so you can ignore them if they don't fit with your interpretations.
RULES
DO NOT copy others edits.
If you are doing crossovers, PLEASE make sure that the creator of the other oc is okay with crossovers.
If you want your post to be reblogged onto this blog, it must contain the hashtag ohc2024.
Feel free to ask questions, I promise I’m more treat than trick.
Everything is up to the creators interpretation, although I have tried to include some examples for help!
Have fun!
Day One: Godly Parent
Whether Greek, Roman, Norse, Egyptian, or any other; What "God" could have created your oc?
Day Two: Mystical Communication
There are tons of ways we think we can communicate with those beyond our realm such as Tarot Cards, Oujia Boards, Prayer, EMFs, or even through other people with otherworldly powers. Which method would your oc use? Or maybe they are the communication tool?
Day Three: Merch/Memorabilia
When we really love something, we want a piece of it with us. What merch would people buy of your ocs? Ex. Dolls (like funkos or Barbie crossovers), Clothes (like shirts or sweatshirts), Buttons/Patches, Dishware (like cups or plates), trading cards, posters, or even spin-off books of the show they star in.
Day Four: If They Were Canon AU
You could create an actor oc who plays your character or even make edits about how you think your ocs faceclaim would promote/interpret their character and get along with fellow cast members.
Day Five: Social Media AU
Within their canon, what would your ocs Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, Tumblr, Snapchat, and/or YouTube look like?
Day Six: Role Swap AU
Give your oc a role in their story that is different than the one they already have. Whether this is making a hero a villain or vice versa, your victim a survivor or vice versa, or anything else you can think of.
Day Seven: Butterfly Effect
One choice could change the trajectory of our lives or any game we play. Show us the effects of your oc making the wrong choice when they originally made the right choice, befriending someone they originally hated, or even just missing their alarm.
Day Eight: Multiverse
Maybe you have multiple ocs with the same faceclaim, maybe you have a friend(s) who have ocs with the same faceclaim that you've wanted to do a crossover with, or maybe you want your oc to meet some of the actual characters their faceclaim has played. No matter what it is, it's time for your ocs to meet their multiverse counterparts!
Day Nine: Literature AU
Put your oc into an alternate universe based off a book you enjoy whether it be a classic or a newer one, no matter the genre.
Day Ten: Dungeons & Dragons AU
Have your ocs play DND, make an au based off a classic DND campaign, or just tell us the stats of your oc in DND terms.
Day Eleven: Ghost AU
Sometimes when we die, we don't leave. Tell us the unfinished business that keeps your ocs ghost on Earth, who your oc would haunt, how they would haunt, or anything else related to your oc being a ghost!
Day Twelve: Supernatural AU
Make your human oc a supernatural creature or your supernatural oc a different supernatural character.
Day Thirteen: Video Game AU
Show us some of what your story would look like as a video game or put your ocs into your favorite game.
Day Fourteen: Musical AU
The doctor said I couldn't talk, he didn't say I couldn't siiinnnggg! Put your oc into your favorite musical such as Hamilton or Mean Girls, or come up with some original lyrics to show what you think your story would look like if it were written as a musical.
Day Fifteen: Nostalgia
Take the books, shows, or movies you enjoyed as a child and put your oc into them! Or, show us what your oc enjoyed as a child.
Day Sixteen: Fairytale AU
One of the most classics of classics. Make your oc a character in your favorite fairytale, whether you prefer the Grimm or Disney version, or make up a fairytale about your oc!
Day Seventeen: Being is Believing
For day seventeen, think about superstitions, urban legends, or folklore and either make your oc a part of them, make your oc experience them, or tell us which ones your oc believes.
Day Eighteen: Beloved Pet or Object Turned Human
It's not unusual for someone to grow an emotional attatchment to an animal or an inanimate object. What would your ocs beloved pet or object say if they turned human and could speak your ocs langauge?
Day Nineteen: Genre Switch
Whatever the genre of your story is, swap it with another one. Maybe your romance story is now a horror story, your comedy is now a tragedy, or your historical realism story is now future sci-fi.
Day Twenty: Darkest After Dawn
Things can go so right for so long and then suddenly so wrong. Show us what happens when something rains on your ocs parade, when a perfect day turns into a horrible night, or a dream vacation turns into a nightmare trap.
Day Twenty-One: Apocalypse AU
Put your oc into an alternate universe that's been thrust into an apocalypse whether that be because of zombies, aliens, radiation, or the Earth trying to reclaim its land.
Day Twenty-Two: Time Problems
Let's play with time for this challenge. Picture your story as if it has always taken place in a different time, throw your oc into a time loop, or have them somehow travel through time.
Day Twenty-Three: Horrorify A Song
Take your favorite Halloween song and tell it's story, or even take a perfectly innocent song and give it a horrifying meaning! Both using your ocs, obviously.
Day Twenty-Four: What's Your Favorite Scary Movie?
It wouldn't be Halloween without some good scary movies. Put your ocs into one of your favorite scary movies!
Day Twenty-Five: Horror Location
This is an easier throwback to one of the week long challenges we've done for this event. Make something that tells a horror story of your oc at a certain location such as a Hospital/Asylum, Summer Camp, Place of Worship, Cemetery/Tomb, House/Apartment, Hotel/Cabin, or Farm/Ranch.
Day Twenty-Six: Horror Subgenres
Another throwback to a week long challenge we've done for this event. Make something that tells a horror story of your oc within a horror subgenre such as extraterrestrial, apocalypse, monster, time loop, isolation, time loop, cult, doppleganger, or anything else you can think of.
Day Twenty-Seven: Horror Archetypes
Which horror character tropes do your ocs embody? The Final Girl or The Killer? The Accomplice or The Harmless Antagonist? The Harbinger or The Nonbeliever? The Comedic Relief or The Hysteric Annoyance?
Day Twenty-Eight: Solo Costume
Show us what your oc would dress up as for Halloween! Would they dress sexy? Scary? Lazy? Practical?
Day Twenty-Nine: Couples Costume
Show us what matching costume your oc and their love interest would wear! Peanut Butter & Jelly? Morticia & Gomez? Bert & Ernie?
Day Thirty: Group Costume
Show us what costumes your oc and their friend group would coordinate. Are they the Scooby Gang? The Wiggles? Mario Party Characters?
Day Thirty-One: Here's A Treat!
The Halloween potluck isn't happening this year but we still want to encourage interaction and giving. So, choose someone to give a treat! This could be an ask, an edit, some writing, or even a playlist.
69 notes · View notes
Text
At this rate I’m going to become a full Fire & Blood anti.
7 notes · View notes
vaguely-concerned · 3 months
Text
I understand and agree with a lot of the frustrations about the shortcomings of Inquisition as a story. but sometimes when I hear people complain about the chosen one narrative in it I do want to just be like... you know it's a deconstruction of the concept more than anything, right. the inquisitor isn't actually chosen by anything except stumbling into the wrong (right?) room at the right (wrong?) time because they like, heard a noise or whatever. or if you think they are chosen, as many do in-universe, that's something you have to take on faith, the maker-or-whoever moves in mysterious ways indeed-style. the Inquisitor isn't actually a Destined Chosen One, they're a Just Some Guy in a fancy hat, self-delusions of grandeur to taste as you'd prefer.
a running thread that goes through all of the personal quests of the companions is the concept of a comforting lie vs. an uncomfortable truth, upholding old corrupt structures vs. disrupting them, and the role of faith in navigating that. (blackwall the warden vs. thom rainier the liar and murderer. hissrad vs. the iron bull, or is that the other way around? cassandra and the seekers -- do we tell the truth about what we find, even if it means dismantling the old order of the world? and so on.) and your inquisitor IS at the same time a comforting lie (a necessary one, in dark times? the game seems to ask) and an uncomfortable truth (we are the result of random fickle chance, no protective hand is held over the universe, it's on us to make a better world because the maker sure as hell won't lift a divine finger to help anyone, should he against all odds exist). faith wielded for political power... where's the point that it crosses the line into ugliness? is it before it even begins? what's the alternative? will anyone listen to the truth, if you tell it?
interesting how you also get a mix of companion agency in this -- you have characters like dorian who ALWAYS choose one side of the comforting lie vs. uncomfortable truth dichotomy. he will always make up his own mind to go back to tevinter and try to dismantle the corruption of the old system no matter what you say, or how you try to influence him. meanwhile iron bull is on the complete opposite side of the spectrum -- so psychologically trapped and mangled, caught in an impossible spiritual catch-22, that his sense of identity is left entirely to you and your mercy. you cannot change dorian in any way that matters; you can be his friend or not, support him or not, but he is whole no matter what. you are given incredible and potentially destructive-to-him power over bull's soul. it's really cool (and heartbreaking) to think about.
this is a game about how history will eat you even while you're still alive, and shape you into whatever image it pleases to serve it, and for all your incredible power right now you are powerless in the face of the gravitational force of time -- of more than time, of History. you won't recognize yourself in what History will make of you, because you belong to it now. you don't belong to yourself anymore and you never will again. the further you were from what it needs from you to begin with, the more you will find yourself distorted in its funhouse mirror. (why hello there inquisitor ameridan, same hat!)
and to me this is so much the core of what Dragon Age is about right from the Origins days -- how and by whom history gets written, the inherent unreliable narration of it all. I hope you like stories, Inquisitor. You are one now.
I do think it's probably still the weakest of the games narratively, and it's hampered by its structure and bloated systems. but I also find it disingenous to say that there's nothing deeper or actually interesting going on with it, thematically. if you're willing to engage with it there is Some Real Shit going on under the high fantasy-tinted surface.
2K notes · View notes
eglerieth · 11 months
Text
Some of y’all are not appreciating Bilbo Baggins enough. I am here to remedy that. This guy has:
• somehow managed to establish himself as a respectable, staid hobbit by the time he was fifty, despite being both a grandson of Bullroarer Took and the Shire champion of pretty much every aiming-game known to hobbitkind
• had an in-depth debate on pleasantries with a random guy passing by in the street, who turned out to be GANDALF
• collapsed in front of his own fire shaking and muttering “struck by lightning” over and over again in response to hearing about dragons and danger
• mind you, this was after he screamed loud enough to startle a roomful of Dwarves
• signed up for a dangerous quest completely outside of his league out of spite
• when told to scout out a mysterious light, saw some trolls, and instead of reporting back with the information, decided to PICK THE TROLLS POCKET
• arrived in Rivendell for the first time and said it “smelled like elves”
• upon meeting a strange creature that visibly wanted to eat him, he decided to play a riddle game with him- and guessed pretty much every one, and made up his own riddles, afraid and alone, that not only were good and full of linguistic puns, but actually stumped the other guy- AND THEN CHEATED AND WON WITH A QUESTION
• showed mercy to said strange creature who wanted to kill him, and was now standing between him and freedom
• eavesdropped on the dwarves arguing over whether to try to save him, then popped up casually smack in the middle of them just as they were debating
• somehow managed to sleep like a log at the really really high eyrie full of wild predators
• found himself in a bad situation, said eff it, and turned around and antagonized and fought off an insane amount of man eating spiders, like enough of them that fifty was a small portion, by singing at them with incredibly complex and punny insulting songs composed on the spot, while simultaneously slaying them in multitudes despite having zero combat training. Seriously, we don’t discuss enough how epic the spider scene is.
• broke a company of dwarves out of the very secure prison of the Elvenking by inventing white water rafting with barrels
• charmed his way out of being eaten by a dragon
• stole the frickin Arkenstone from the guys who employed him, one of whom was a king
• took part in an epic battle, only to be knocked out in the first ten minutes and miss the entire thing
• was named elf-friend by the guy who’s prisoners he sprung
• wrote his own autobiography, complete with all the narrative recognition of his own heroics
• spent 60 years writing said autobiography
• taught his lower class neighbor’s kid how to read
• taught his nephew Elvish- not only Sindarin, but Quenya too
• spent decades telling his cousins his own story as fairy tales, complete with character impressions accurate enough that one of them was able to fool a servant of the Enemy with a second hand impression
• used the One Ring of Power to hide from his neighbors
• planned an elaborate feast with multiple social faux pas to mess with his neighbors, complete with a purposefully bewildering speech and culminating in him vanishing into thin air in front of everyone
• left his cousins and neighbors very unsubtle passive aggressive gifts in his will
• settled into Rivendell, randomly befriended the heir to the throne of like half of Middle Earth, and apparently spent his time writing very personal poems about his hosts and reciting them to crowds of elves
• after being invited to a Council of basically every major kingdom in the continent, spent a quarter of the time reciting vague poems about his friends, a quarter of the time telling anyone who would listen about his heroic past, and half the time interrupting to ask when lunch would be
• volunteered to bring the ring to Mordor
• became one of only four or five mortals in history to live in Valinor
Seriously, Bilbo Baggins may well be the most chaotic, insane person in the entire legendarium, and that includes the likes of people like Finrod “bit a werewolf to death to save the life of guy who he just met and gave up his kingdom for” Felagund.
4K notes · View notes
happilyhertale · 4 months
Text
Fire and blood - Daemon Targaryen x wife!reader
Tumblr media
Author’s note: Before I got into my usual summary, this fic is part of a collab with a bunch of my lovely moots! @lady-phasma came to us with an ask about period sex and Daemon and being as lovely as she is, she offered us all the chance to collab on it. Choosing our own characters and how to play the story.
Please find the masterlist of everyone's fics here.
English is my second language, please forgive me if I made any mistakes (:
Summary: You haven't been married to your husband Daemon Targaryen for very long - but you've learnt to enjoy your marriage to the Rogue Prince. But unlike normality, you haven't sought out Daemon for a few affectionate visits throughout the day, and that makes him suspicious…
Pairing: Daemon Targaryen x wife!reader
Warnings: Smut; 18+; NSFW; Period smut; fingering (f in v), p in v sex - implied
Word count: 2.2 k
Other stories of mine
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
Daemon opens the door, but only darkness reveals itself to him. He raises his eyebrows slightly, but steps into your shared chambers. He is looking for his wife, who has been by his side for several moons now.
During this time, he has already become accustomed to you seeking him out throughout the day, sometimes just to get a little peck and sometimes because you want to tell him something - but today you have not sought him out.
His heavy footsteps sound in your chambers as he walks further inside.
"Are you hiding from me, woman?" he murmurs.
He walks over to a small table with fruit and sweet dishes on it. He takes a bunch of grapes between his fingers before letting them disappear into his mouth.
"Has another moon gone by?" he asks into the room and turns to your bed, where he recognises the outline of a figure under the covers. A slight grin plays around his lips before he walks towards the bed.
But as he gets closer, he picks up an unusual scent.
"What's that smell?" he asks.
And suddenly your voice rings out, "It's oak bark tea... My abdomen is a cramp," you mumble from under the covers.
He's still smiling and comes closer to the bed.
"What have we got here? I wonder what trouble could be brewing under here," he says, reaching lightly for the blanket.
"No... Go away," you say quietly and try to hold the blanket tight.
But Daemon pulls the blanket down further and kneels on the bed with one knee.
"Ah... there you are... what a view," he says sarcastically as the blanket reveals your face. Your hair lies dishevelled on the pillow, your face a little sleepily puffy as your annoyed gaze meets his. "Yes....my beautiful wife," he says and smiles. He pulls the blanket down further and a "Go away," sounds from you again.
He smiles at your words, "Why would I do that when I have such a sight in front of me?" he says, a hint of sarcasm still in his voice again.
You sigh and try to turn away, but you feel Daemon kneel down further on the bed and his hand grips you gently.
"Ah, ah, ah," he says and lies down next to you, his arm wrapped around your middle.
His warm breath brushes the back of your neck as he presses his face into yours, "What's wrong," he whispers.
You sigh again and already feel his large, surprisingly warm hand on your abdomen... a warm touch of your dragon.
"I'm bleeding..." you say almost inaudibly, but Daemon hears your words and smiles slightly. He knows how you feel during your period. You're vulnerable and sleepy. The cramps force you to lie down and only warmth and strange teas from the maesters give you some relief... well, and other things.
But you're his wife and according to him, you should always feel carefree - but he can't refrain from teasing you a little.
"Pardon?" he whispers, smiling slightly, while you sigh lightly again.
"I'm bleeding..." you repeat your words and mumble into your pillow.
"Love..." he whispers again.
You close your eyes and feel this inner tension that tickles your fingertips.
"I'm on my period," you say a little louder into the pillow.
"Love... Sorry, I don't understand," Daemon replies and his lips graze your neck.
His behaviour makes you seethe, why can't he leave you alone?
"Daemon! Seven hells! I'm on my period! I'm in pain and I'm bleeding!", you call out and raise your head slightly.
He chuckles, "It's fine... no need to shout like that..."
You shake your head slightly, wanting to push his arm away, but he has a firm grip on you. His hand slides slowly downwards, his fingers make light, circular movements and you stiffen slightly.
"Daemon, what are you doing," you suddenly whisper.
"I want you to feel good, love... It'll help you relax..." he murmurs into your ear, nibbling lightly.
You gasp and hold his hand back, "Daemon... there's blood... a lot... it's the first day..." you say hesitantly.
He continues to nibble on your earlobe, his fingers sliding along your thigh, not in the least impressed by your words.
"You know there's nothing to be ashamed of. A woman's body is a natural, beautiful thing.... It's beautiful because it's you," he kisses your cheek and lets his nose glide gently along it. His hand strokes along your thigh and you feel a slight throbbing between your thighs alongside the numbing pain in your abdomen.
"Do you want me to take care of you?" he whispers, kissing the soft skin behind your ear.
You bite your lip lightly, but you shake your head slightly.
"Daemon... There really is a lot of blood..." you repeat your words quietly.
He chuckles softly again, another kiss landing on your neck, "Love... a true warrior isn't afraid of a little blood..." he murmurs.
His hand slides further, "Just relax..." he whispers and you try. Slowly, you close your eyes and try to concentrate on his touch as a heavy breath leaves your lips.
Gently, he kisses your neck and shoulder as he holds you close."It's nothing to be ashamed of either. Especially not my wife. It's natural," he whispers in your ear.
His fingers pull your nightgown up, very slowly. His fingers leave a fiery trail on your thigh and you try to ignore the dull ache that runs through your abdomen.
You can't suppress it, your hips begin to move in slight circular motions as his fingers glide through your pubic hair, caressing you. You gasp as you can already feel his arousal from behind as he presses himself lightly against you.
His fingers reach their destination, slowly running along your folds, and you gasp again – your legs spread slightly.
"That's it... I'll take care of you..." he whispers in your ear and you nod slightly.
The sweetest moan escapes your lips as his fingers find your pearl and apply light pressure. Your legs spread wider and a smile graces his lips.
"Daemon..." you gasp.
"I know..." he whispers, nibbling on your earlobe again as his fingers rub gently over your clit.
"Your body is natural and beautiful. Even in all its bloody glory," he whispers and you nod, your breathing quickening.
He kisses you on the cheek again as his fingers tease over your glistening entrance, gently spreading your folds.
You feel the familiar stretch as his fingers slide inside you. But not all the way in, he teases you a little and you exhale heavily, your hips moving towards his fingers, longing for his touch. And then he fulfils your craving – his fingers stretch your walls, trying to find a good angle, pushing deeper. He revels in the slickness that coats his fingers, the evidence of your arousal mingling with the blood that flows.
"Feel how wet you are for me," he whispers teasingly, his smile pressing against the back of your neck.
"Daemon!" you gasp, but also a small moan leaves your lips.
He chuckles briefly, but your concentration is once again fully on his movements as his fingers penetrate deeper.
"Gods..." you gasp and he grins. Slowly, but firmly, his fingers push forward. He can feel your walls clench, longing for release.
"You know I love all the sounds you make, but I love your moans the most. I can feel your walls tighten around my fingers as if your body wants to hold me inside you while I make you tremble..." he whispers in your ear.
You moan again as his thumb grazes your pearl. He continues his expert ministrations, he is determined to make you forget the discomfort, to lose yourself in a wave of pleasure that only he can provide.
His fingers curl inside you, beckoning you as his thumb presses against your clit again.  You press your arse against his hardness and he moans into your neck. As he feels your hips moving towards his fingers, urging for more, he complies, increasing the intensity of his movements. He curls his fingers, angling them to hit that sweet spot within you, knowing exactly how to drive you wild with desire.
"Moan for me…" he commands, his voice laced with dominance, "Let me hear your pleasure, let it echo through these chambers."
And you obey as his fingers thrust deeper. He bites into your neck as his fingers tease your walls. His fingers continue their exploration, delving deeper inside you, seeking out the spots that make you writhe with pleasure. He maintains a steady rhythm, his touch skilled and attentive to your body's responses.
Smacking noises echo in your chambers as his fingers pump in and out faster. His fingers sliding in and out of your wetness with ease. With each thrust of his fingers, he can feel the slickness and warmth of your arousal, heightening his own desire.
He starts to apply more pressure and lets a third finger slide in. He knows what you like and he gives it to you the way you need it. He stretches your walls while they continue to clench around his fingers. Daemon's eyes gleam with a mixture of desire and possessiveness as he feels your response to his touch. He revels in the power he holds over your pleasure, his fingers moving with a practiced precision.
"Oh, my sweet wife," he murmurs, the words laced with a mixture of possessiveness and anticipation. "You are so responsive, so eager for my touch."
His body presses against yours, his hard length grinding against your backside as he continues to pleasure you with his fingers. His lips find your ear, his breath hot against your skin. Your fear of smearing him with your blood is forgotten, you need more.
"Daemon... Daemon," you whimper again and again, your arm reaching back, to the back of his head. Your fingers reach into his silky hair and he grunts. As he continues to drive you towards the peak of pleasure, Daemon's own desire grows, his need for release becoming undeniable. But at this moment, he's focused solely on your pleasure, on taking you to the edge and beyond, on helping you forget your discomfort.
"Yes... my love... Come on, come on my fingers, milk them like you always milk my cock when I fuck that delicious cunt," he growls into your neck.
And that pushes you over the edge. You cry out, your walls tightening around his fingers and Daemon grunts out.
You whimper, your hand gripping his hair tighter as he kisses your neck. Your eyes are closed, your breathing rapid as he pulls his fingers out when your walls stop clenching. A pleasant warmth flows through your abdomen, soothing away the pain more effectively than every maester's tea could.
As you catch your breath, you glance slightly over your shoulder and look at Daemon. He chuckles as he looks at his fingers, they're covered in blood.
"This is a sight I couldn't have imagined at the beginning of the day..", he kisses your neck again, "But I'm going to enjoy it“, he whispers into your ear.
"Daemon, no!" you say with wide eyes.
He just grins as you avert your eyes and blush. You hear the smacking sound as he licks his fingers.
But now you have to laugh as you stare at him again – his eyes are closed and he seems to be enjoying it.
"You're impossible..." you say softly as he still licks his fingers.
"Daemon, stop it!" you say and giggle, but he just grins and pulls you closer to him again.
"Delicious," he murmurs.
He starts stroking and caressing your belly again.
His breathing slows down as he holds you close. The sounds and smell of you, your little body in his embrace, it's almost more than he can bear at this moment.
He gently grabs your chin, as if he were holding something fragile and precious, and gently pulls your head upwards. When you return his gaze, it is gentle and tender.
"And you are my wife. You may feel sick, you may bleed, sometimes I may even be the cause of your anger. But that's all part of your body's natural rhythm. So please, my sweet girl, never hide from the pain, never keep your misery a secret. Otherwise, I promise you, it will cause me more grief than your blood..." he says gently. These moments with him are rare, but you savour them – your lovely husband. You lean towards him and let your lips slide onto his. He growls slightly and you feel his hand on your arse. You giggle slightly and feel his smile on your lips.
But the grip on your arse tightens and he pulls you towards him, positioning you perfectly against his crotch. He still can't hide his excitement and you gasp slightly. Your lips are still dancing around each other, you can feel the coppery taste on his tongue as he starts to undo his trousers. He growls again as his hand spreads your cheeks slightly and presses his hardness between your thighs from behind. You whimper as his cock slides along your folds.
"Let's see if we can give you a little more relief, shall we?" he growls against your lips and you moan as the tip of his cock presses against your slick entrance.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
1K notes · View notes
tofixtheshadows · 4 months
Note
Id love to hear ur interpretation and analysis on falin! She’s one of my favorite characters and and I was wondering what ur thoughts on her are
Man, I struggle to think of anything I could say about Falin that others have not already said. But she's one of my favorite things about Dungeon Meshi too.
So much of the story revolves around Falin, and she's not even there. Tumblr loves to talk about haunting the narrative, but Falin might be one of the best examples of it ever put to page. She's dead. She's alive. She's dead. She's alive. She's alive but she's missing, she's alive but she isn't herself. She's dead but she might wake. She's dead but she's frozen in ice. She's alive but she's sleepwalking. They chase her ghost and they chase her body all through the story.
I think what Kui does with her is fascinating. Not just as character with a personality we can analyze, but as an object in a narrative- that's why I say she's one of my favorite things about the story, because I also mean it in a mechanical sense. As a writer, Kui's really good at misdirection- that is, setting you up to believe or expect something about a character or a plot, and then turning that on its head. It's most apparent with Kabru, but it works really well with Falin too.
Because the precious little sister is a very well known character archetype, right? So is the gentle healer. The heart of the party. The white mage girl. The damsel in distress. The martyr.
And this isn't a Laura Palmer situation, where we find out that beneath her wholesome surface there's something dark and troubled. No, Falin truly is a kind and gentle person. That isn't where the misdirection leads (and that, too, I think, is another misdirection- it's not "Plot twist, she isn't as nice as you thought!", which would almost be too easy).
The misdirection here is more about structure than about character (but also, yeah- a little about character).
What I mean is, with these archetypes firmly in mind, along with a whole other host of fantasy genre expectations, I think anyone who goes into Dungeon Meshi un-spoiled probably expects Falin's rescue to be an endgame event; at least on a subconscious level, where you're not really thinking about it but in the back of your head you're already stretching out the story to place Falin firmly in the distance. Fire breathing dragon at the bottom of the dungeon is perfect final boss material, right? Slay the dragon. Rescue the princess.
And Falin is the perfect prize in the traditional old school fantasy that the concept of the titular dungeon is a send-up to. Blonde (white), soft-spoken, sweet-natured, beloved by everyone. An angelic figure.
Maybe that's why Ryoko Kui gave her white wings.
Tumblr media
It is sort of jarring when chapter 23 rolls around and it's already time to fight the red dragon. And it takes a few chapters, but they succeed. And then Falin's impossible resurrection succeeds. But by then you guess that this is not going to be the story you expected it to be.
I want to point out that Falin spends a lot of time getting, well, babied, post-resurrection. Marcille washes her in the bath, despite Falin stating that she's capable of washing herself. Marcille schools her about her mana use despite Falin demonstrating that she is not hurting for mana, and brushes aside Falin's explanations. Both Marcille and Laios refuse to actually tell her what happened. Laios scruffs up her hair like she's a little kid and scolds her for something she can't remember doing. Marcille explicitly calls her a little kid when Falin tries to talk about how much she's grown.
Of course I'm not saying that Laios was wrong to act like a big brother, or that Marcille shouldn't be worried about taking care of her shell-shocked friend in the bath. But the framing of it clearly shows a Falin who is struggling to be heard.
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
If you'd like to address the big gay elephant in the room while we're here, I want to state for the record that- whether you read her as gay or not -I think Marcille is completely oblivious during this. Because Falin is her little friend from school. Her best friend, yes, but also the young tallman student she, in her infinite elven wisdom, had to mentor and look after. Marcille has not yet accepted that Falin is an adult now, nor has she accepted that she, herself, is only barely past teenagerhood developmentally and is not nearly as mature as she believes. Of course she'd scrub Falin in the bath and fuss over her.
Falin, meanwhile, seems more than aware of her own adult body and the inappropriate way Marcille is treating it.
Tumblr media
The mana-sharing scene is, I think, Falin trying to get a little of her own back. How do you like it, Marcille?
And she tries again in bed.
Tumblr media
Maybe she's wondering if their relationship will change now that they're grown ups. If Marcille prefers her as a little girl, or at least as a woman who lets herself be guided like one; if Marcille will react badly if Falin keeps trying to assert herself. She also might be subtly trying to signal to Marcille that bed sharing, like bathing, carries a different weight to it when you do it as adults rather than as children.
With all this in mind, the decision to turn Falin from the precious prize they rescued into to the vicious dragon they have to slay, hits a lot harder.
Falin with a powerful, monstrous, destructive body. Falin, who couldn't even stand to cause people pain from using healing spells, slaughtering half a dozen people in brutal ways. And that's not her, she's being mind-controlled, but as an object in the story she has completely flipped. From damsel to threat.
And I love that she carries a little bit of that with her when she's resurrected again.
Tumblr media
Because she's no longer the girl who's going to let herself be stifled by her brother's and her best friend's co-dependency, no matter how much she loves them. She's different now: stronger, eyes open, forging her own path instead of following in their wake. Falin is still going to come back to them again, but this time it won't be because they chased her. It'll be because they let her go.
1K notes · View notes
maglors-grief · 1 month
Text
I'm so confused about all the people that have been insulting targaryen!readers and ocs as "boring" lately.
You expect me to believe that a reader/oc that has a fucked up family and can ride a dragon is somehow uninteresting...? This is a big fandom. There's room for everyone to write what they want. There's no reason for some people to be so judgemental. Fic writers are providing us with free content about our favorite characters. They are taking time out of their day to write us stories. You aren't expected to like every fic. This entitlement in fandom is ridiculous. Fanfiction writers owe you nothing. If you don't like what they write then that's your problem not theirs.
Most of these characters have hundreds of fics written for them, there is no point in dwelling on the fics you don't like. The Aemond/ofc tag on ao3 has over 2000 fics, the Aemond/reader tag has over 1000 fics, but yet I'll still see people whining in the fanfiction tags on tumblr about how a writer dared to write a reader/oc or plot they personally didn't like. Again, you are reading free content, we don't need to hear your criticisms. Not liking a fic is not some crisis we need to urgently address. You can keep your thoughts to yourself and move on to something else. My rant is over. Be kind to fic writers. Life would be miserable without them.
Tumblr media
689 notes · View notes
corseque · 3 months
Text
Transferring a twitter Dragon Age 4 theory to tumblr:
This is a theory about the very latest DA4 information that people were upset to learn about because they want to wait for the game rather than hear too much, so look elswhere if that is you. I suspect that Rook is called "Rook" for a reason. I suspect their color is purple for a reason.
Rook is associated with trickery and death, a bad omen.
Tumblr media
Hmm.... that reminds me a little of a "dread wolf."
I, for a long time, thought the game was called "Dreadwolf" because the main character would be taking on the trials and tribulations and responsibilities of the Dread Wolf onto their own shoulders. This suspicion has expanded hugely in my mind when I think about DA4 because what exactly is the story set-up, here? What is the Dread Wolf?
Tumblr media
Solas, who is playing the role in the story of Dragon Age of an ancient trickster deity, has claim and power over the functions that trickster gods. Namely, power over doorways, thresholds, boundaries.
Tumblr media
It doesn't matter what Solas thinks about godhood if he has all the trappings and power of godhood. There is no material difference in a fictional story.
(I love that Solas in the prologue is demonstrating exactly what you would expect from a Trickster God in this situation - manipulating boundaries, and then being Just a Little Guy.)
Tumblr media Tumblr media
So the game prologue opens on Solas, a trickster god, delicately manipulating the magical boundary between worlds, which is something that you would expect a trickster god to do. Then unfolds a scene in which a tiny figure (Rook) causes a larger-than-life god (Solas) mischief and, with Rook's foolish meddling, undoes the very fabric of normalcy, trapping the trickster god and throwing the world into chaos, upsetting the very balance of power between the gods, threatening the end of the world.
Rook then recieves power over the Veil the trickster god has, the sacred knife that the trickster god wields, the ability to traverse back and forth between the boundaries only easily traversed by the trickster god, the magical mirror teleportation network of the trickster god, the magical floating Lighthouse home of the trickster god, the responsibilities of the trickster god, etc.
Rook also recieves the advice of the trickster god, whether they want it or not (it seems).
Do you see what I'm saying?
"They call me the Dread Wolf, what will they call you when this is over?"
I think this game may be about Rook becoming a trickster god.
As Felassan tells Briala in The Masked Empire, "[Becoming a god] is for the stories to decide."
Tricksters in folklore are very often mortal, human heroes. Very often, they act stupidly and foolishly (like we are said to do by interrupting Solas in the prologue) and somehow win anyway.
Tumblr media
And what more powerful figure could there be, to fight with gods? Only a little guy like Solas or Rook, could hope to fight multiple gods and win. A little tiny trickster hero who makes foolish mistakes but is unkillable like Bugs Bunny is actually the perfect challenger to all-powerful deities.
Anyway, so if we get all of Solas' powers and his responsibilities, if we're, in a way, in training to become a trickster god. We may be stepping into myth and doing his job for him, disrupting things the way he does, and there will be comparisons. (the articles tell us that Solas is comparing himself to Rook, and that he doesn't like what he sees of himself in Rook). People always acted like Solas' situation was incredibly easy, but imo we could never actually understand what his story was, or see it from his point of view, enough to judge him. But if we actually walk in his shoes, then maybe we can actually have a part of the conversation. And later, maybe part of the myth.
The little Rook-bird that tugged the Dread Wolf's tail and let the creators free again, the little trickster Rook that destroyed or saved the world. I wonder what kind of trickster they will call us, when it is all over?
Tumblr media
779 notes · View notes
flawseer · 6 days
Note
In your last ask, you mentioned misgivings with Book 10's ending, and especially how it pertains to Winter. I absolutely agree, and I know why, but I wanna hear your thoughts on it, too: What's up with Book 10?
Tumblr media
The following is a (very long) examination of my personal feelings with regards to the WoF second story arc finale. While it is based on what is in the text, this analysis will be interpretive and fill in blanks with my own thoughts. Keep that in mind.
Hahhhh... okay. Since mentioning it in my last post I’ve gotten several requests to talk about my feelings regarding the second arc finale. There’s probably no way around it then.
If you haven’t read that last post (it was admittedly very long, and so will this one be), I talked briefly about why I didn’t like that part of the story. I have to warn you now, this will likely be the most negative and dour post in the history of this blog. In a few parts it will sound like I hate Wings of Fire, and I want to say now, while I still have the chance, that I don’t. I love this series, thinking about its setting and characters brings me joy.
I also—very emphatically—want to make it clear that I have no ill will against Tui T. Sutherland. I’ve looked around other people’s stuff a bit and there are a huge number of posts wishing violence upon her or threatening her for doing things to her series that people don’t agree with. That is NOT what I am doing here, shit like that is NOT okay! While I will be critical of her choices, I still respect her effort of bringing this vibrant, wonderful world of dragons to all of us.
Also, obligatory last disclaimer: If you liked the finale, that is okay. You are valid for feeling that way. I’m here to share my point of view, not to demand people agree with everything I say. Just be warned that you most likely won’t enjoy what I have to say. If you don’t think you can handle that kind of criticism, this is your guilt-free opportunity to stop reading.
Otherwise, let's get into it.
CW: Discussion of parental abuse, depression, disease, and extreme acts of violence.
In defense of the finale
Before I start to systematically disassemble this narrative and get lost in a quagmire of negativity, let’s talk a bit about the circumstances that brought forth this part of the story. The plot of this arc was a mess from the moment animus magic was unshackled from the restrictions it had in the first arc, and from then on there was no longer any conceivable way to end this story in a clean way. Sutherland had created an invincible, unbeatable, omnipotent villain; he could read minds, see the future with perfect clarity, and anything he could imagine he could conjure into existence at any time with no cost to himself and no drawbacks. She was likely wracking her brain about how to resolve this impossible conundrum. What we got wasn’t good, but I believe nothing could have been. The foundation was rotting and by the fifth book it couldn’t bear the weight of the plot anymore.
The thing about animus magic in arc 2 is that it is so potent, so all-powerful, and so free of restraint that everyone who uses it also HAS to be a simpleton, or they would be able to break the plot immediately and become god. From the moment Darkstalker broke out of that mountain, he could have said “Any and all spells that are cast with the intention to harm me, interfere with my plans, or do something I don’t consent to will not work, from now on until forever”, and he would have instantly won. The strawberry would have fizzled out. The Darkstalker-blocking earrings would not have been created, and no one could have saved the Icewings. On the flipside, Turtle or Anemone could have said “I enchant the concept of animus magic itself to no longer obey Darkstalker”, and his threat would have been neutered. Point is, powers as potent and easy to use as this really need limitations, or they will quickly eat your plot alive.
I don’t envy the situation Sutherland was in at the time at all. If you’re an author, that kind of thing is a nightmare. It really is no wonder she decided to blow up animus magic for good in her next arc, even if I would have preferred it to get more healthy restrictions instead of killing it outright.
The Darkstalker age regression thing
Everyone has talked this part to death already, but if I am to write a thorough analysis of my feelings regarding this finale, I’m going to have to talk about it as well. I’m sorry if I end up repeating a lot of things you’ve already heard.
This final fate of Darkstalker, to have his memories wiped and be reset to an infant, is really uncomfortable. As far as I am aware, though correct me if I’m wrong, Sutherland said in an interview that she didn’t want Darkstalker to die because, in her view, he did not deserve to. We can debate here about the philosophical question of whether anyone is truly deserving of death, and the merits of “justice” and “punishment”, but in general, Wings of Fire did not seem to have any issues killing off its villains prior if they committed suitably terrible acts. That makes this moment stand out as noteworthy.
Who is Darkstalker then--and if we assume villains can be “deserving” and “not deserving” of death--what about him speaks in his favor, or against? The guy had a pretty crappy childhood, coming from a broken home (there is that inadequate parent theme again). He genuinely loved his sister and felt protective of her, and whenever he liked someone he wanted them to be happy and feel affirmed. The thing that Queen Diamond does to his mother is awful and he is justified in hating her for it. He is also portrayed as rather sympathetic in Moon Rising. When he asks Moon to find his scroll for him and not to leave him, he is not manipulating her, he is sincerely begging for her help. He is stuck somewhere underground, trapped in darkness, in a space so tiny that he can’t move. He remains that way for months, lonely and sad. If you just focus on these aspects, it’s easy to understand why he has so many fans who want him to see healthy and happy.
On the flipside, while he is dedicated to the happiness of his friends, he doesn’t always go for the most ethical way to achieve it. He tries to brainwash said friends without their consent whenever they exhibit behaviors he doesn’t like, or when he thinks he knows better and wants to “fix” them. He has very little regard for other people’s autonomy, lies to his loved ones with alarming frequency, and is unhealthily attached to the idea of power. Those things are certainly not good, but they are his character flaws. These are his demons; everyone has them and they make him a person. If this was all there was to it, he might still be a villain, but I’d argue he’d not be wholly irredeemable.
But there are things about him that take him beyond the pale. Things that go beyond the realm of just being misunderstood, or easily excusable.
He is possessive. He wants Clearsight and Fathom for himself, and for them to listen to him primarily. When Indigo makes it clear she doesn’t like him and cautions Fathom against trusting him, he deceives his friends and traps Indigo in a wood carving, just so he can isolate Fathom from his support network and manipulate him easier. He alters Clearsight’s mind to make her more agreeable and stop her from holding him accountable for his actions; while he thinks he loves her, he only loves an idealized version of her that is wholly devoted to and unquestioning of him. This is why, when he later forcibly overwrites Fierceteeth’s existence to recreate her (which is another horrific thing), he tries to excise the parts he finds undesirable to create a perfect version of his lover. But this caricature he has created in his head is not and can never be Clearsight, which frustrates his attempts.
He is vengeful. Not against people who have actually wronged him, like Queen Diamond. That would be questionable, but understandable. What makes this unacceptable is his frequent targeting of innocent people who just happen to be related to the person who wronged him in some esoteric way. He enchants a secret murder knife that kills random Icewings regardless of who they are or what they think about the Queen, just because the one who took his mother from him happened to share their tribe. He hates Turtle and wishes death upon him in Moon Rising just because he is a green Seawing, like Fathom was. And then there is the big one: He tries to kill all the Icewings who are alive in the present day, where Queen Diamond is long dead and none of them have ever even met her. Even his mother, who suffered from Diamond’s actions the most and has the most reason to hate her, is horrified and calls him out on that one.
And lastly, he is sadistic. He revels in torturing those he hates. He forces his father to disembowel himself, while the latter is fully aware and powerless to resist AND the man’s traumatized daughter is watching. Later he sends a magical plague to kill every single living Icewing sans one.
It should be noted that Darkstalker possesses virtually infinite magical power; whatever he declares, with very few exceptions, will happen. Even if he wanted them dead, he had the power to prevent unnecessary suffering. He could have said “Arctic, fall dead instantaneously”, or “Every Icewing will fall asleep and pass away peacefully,” but he didn’t. He wanted them to feel pain and pass away in the most wretched, agonizing ways he could imagine.
So what he chose to do instead is—and I want you to picture this for a moment—Darkstalker sat down, calmly, and said “Henceforth every living Icewing, excepting Prince Winter and those of hybrid blood, will fall ill with an incurable disease. This disease will cause heavy internal bleeding and make its victims cough up blood and waste away for a few days, followed by certain death.”
This spell does not discriminate with regards to who its victims are. The book glosses over the implications, but imagine the ramifications. Young children are notoriously frail, how many newborns got infected and died because of this? How many families were torn apart because they couldn’t get the magic earrings fast enough? Or accidentally got one earring less than there were family members and had to decide who has to die?
Most of the Icewings were physically cured by the earrings, but an experience like that sticks with you for the rest of your life. Somewhere surely, a dragonet watched as his mother put the earring on him and then slowly wasted away because she didn’t have one for herself.
It’s really easy to overlook how horrific this spell is because it isn’t shown or dwelt on. But the trauma, grief, and suffering it caused must have been immeasurable.
And none of those victims have ever even met the person Darkstalker wanted to get revenge on. None of those deaths meant anything to anyone.
The attempted death toll and scale of the calamity here puts even Scarlet to shame. The ones who come closest to it were Queen Battlewinner and Morrowseer with their attempted Rainwing extermination. All three of those died for what they did. Gives you some food for thought for sure.
Peacemaker’s burden
Despite just airing all of his dirty laundry and declaring him an irredeemable villain, I actually do have a lot of sympathy for Darkstalker still. His story is really sad. He was a child born with an amount of power that nobody should possess, and it corrupted him to the point where it destroyed his life before it began. His parents were always fighting and no matter how good his intentions were, he was unable to understand why he couldn’t hold on to his friends and relationship. He kept making mistakes, then made bigger mistakes to fix those, until his hands were covered in blood and he couldn’t stop anymore. My belief is that, after he wakes up in the present and realizes Clearsight is dead, he loses his reason for living and becomes completely lost in his grief.
Therefore, my opinion is that it would have been appropriate for him to die. If not to punish him, then to finally grant him reprieve from all that rage and pain, and let him rest. I think that would have been a dignified end.
But instead he got turned into a baby. ... And then they decided to magically erase his father’s blood from him? I don’t know what it is, but something about that Icewing erasure makes my skin crawl?
The thing that turns this baby twist from weird into highly unsettling is the context. Darkstalker’s mind is erased, then modified into a new person via animus magic. This is the technique a lot of this arc’s villains used to victimize Hailstorm, Queen Ruby, Peril, Kinkajou, Fierceteeth, and Winter. The same technique is now used again, by the heroes, which is a dangerous thing to have your protagonists do if you want them to remain morally upright.
It is also very reckless, because in almost all of these instances, animus mind alteration has been shown to be very unreliable. The spells seem to wear down over time and are susceptible to partial breaking upon encountering certain strong stimuli. Hailstorm—while trapped as Pyrite—seems to retain trace amounts of his former memories, which is why Pyrite is subconsciously drawn to Winter and clings to him all the time. Ruby is able to ignore half of her conditioning because her familial love for her son partially overpowers the magic. Qibli is just straight up able to reason his way out of it.
The thing to note here is that spells of this nature require a very meticulous approach; you can’t half-ass your reprogramming or the victim will just think their way past it. If you alter someone’s mind, the wording of the spell must be ironclad, lest you risk it wearing down over time and even break.
Luckily we have nothing to fear in that regard, because the spell that created Peacemaker was written by a Rainwing with a total of four days of literacy training. No one better mention the name Clearsight to the new baby Nightwing, or next month is going to be rather interesting.
But that’s just speculation on my part. Let’s assume that, somehow, this spell isn’t as unstable as all the others. Somehow Kinkajou threaded all the needles, and masterfully dodged every conceivable pitfall to pen the perfect incantation, despite having been illiterate just a few weeks prior. This one is built to last and Darkstalker is sealed away really thoroughly, for good.
That is still absolutely terrible and morally dubious, because now you have Peacemaker, who for all intents and purposes is a COMPLETELY innocent little kid, saddled with this huge burden of being the certifiable reincarnation of a genocidal ancient wizard. He’s gonna grow up thinking things like “Mommy gets real quiet whenever the topic of the Icewing tragedy is brought up,” and “Why does Auntie Moon look at me like that? One time she accidentally called me a weird name, who is Darkstalker?” “What is this ‘Clearsight’ name my mind-reading friends from the village found in Mommy’s mind?”
In a village that will be full of mind-readers soon, eventually the secret will come out, and Peacemaker is going to learn what was done to him. A huge, messy load of undeserved baggage was forced onto this completely separate, innocent entity. He will be devastated. Whether he then chooses to forgive them for this remains to be seen. To be honest, he would be well within his right not to, and turn resentful.
Poor kid.
Qibli’s callousness
I love Qibli, he is one of my favorite characters. This happens to be his book, and the fact that I fundamentally dislike half of it makes me rather sad. If anything, I hope this tells you that I’m not just hating on it for my personal amusement. I really wanted to like this. I tried to, and I couldn’t.
Qibli is really weird in this one, to be honest. He is suddenly made to be co-dependent on Moonwatcher, fawning over her every third paragraph, saying how much he loves her, how he is an incomplete and dysfunctional wreck without her, how it physically pains him to be apart from her, oh if only the stars would grant his wish and split the mountains apart so that he may fly to his princess, his muse, his goddess of ebony wit. It gets so old.
And it’s not Qibli. He never acted this clingy towards Moonwatcher. It’s more intense than even Winter gets about Moon, and Winter was actually depicted with a crush on her in book 6. Qibli was always just a supportive element, eager to befriend Moon but never desperate, like he is going to keel over if he is separated from his true love five minutes longer. These very frequent love declarations feel so forced coming out of him. It strikes me like it was just written in service of the love triangle. Maybe if we make him confess his love every four seconds readers will overlook the fact that they had no proper romantic build-up.
You might rightly accuse me of bias. I have previously admitted I am fond of Qibli/Winter as a romantic pairing, on the surface this seems like I am just not happy with my pet ship being blocked by Moonwatcher. But I assure you, I am actually pretty flexible and accommodating even towards pairings that contradict my preferences. I have no issues with Winter/Moonwatcher, for example, because the possibility was properly established and they have good romantic chemistry in Winter Turning. In theory, I would have no problem with Qibli/Moonwatcher either if it was ever set up as an interesting romantic dynamic. But to me, it seems like Qibli is written as a good, supportive friend to Moon for four books, only to pivot hard into “Moon moon moon moon moon moon swoon” at the last second, and it just reads to me as obnoxious.
I got distracted. This section is called “Qibli’s callousness”, and I haven’t even talked about the main part.
Qibli and Winter have excellent chemstry together, whether you read it as romantic or platonic—both of these interpretations have merit and are set up. They’re always the highlight of any scene they’re in. Throughout the story arc you get the impression that these two really get on each other’s nerves, but they bond and grow into really strong friends who bicker a lot but have each other’s backs when it counts.
Then there is a scene where Qibli casually tells Winter that he wouldn’t object if someone wanted to mind-control away some of Winter’s more objectionable traits.
This is genuinely a terrible thing to say to your friend. Like, it crosses a line and ceases to be harmless banter; you’re just telling them that there is something you hate about them so much that you wish they were someone else. Winter actually WAS mind-controlled earlier and felt (and proably still feels) guilty about having attacked Qibli in that state. And now Qibli says “Hey, I wouldn’t mind if someone did that to you again! Hue hue!”
It is awful, BUT I don’t necessarily object to Qibli saying this here. Qibli is in the middle of his character arc at this moment, so he is expected to be flawed. He is making a mistake by thoughtlessly telling Winter this horrid thing, and it seems like a believable continuation of his current character track. This is a reasonable development as long as the plot acknowledges that it’s a mistake.
Spoilers: The plot doesn’t acknowledge that it’s a mistake. Qibli never has a scene after where he reflects upon what he said and apologizes to Winter. When Darkstalker has Qibli trapped in his mountain jail and mind-wipes Qibli’s grandfather into a toddler (hey, wait a minute), Qibli gets visibly disturbed. Like, this is so off-putting to him that he gets queasy and Darkstalker hastily changes the spell. That could have been a great way to bring this back. Like in the epilogue, have Qibli track down Winter and tell him about disturbing baby grandpa theater and how he realized that wiping people’s minds is actually messed up and should have never said that to him.
But he doesn’t. He just lets Winter go, allowing him to believe he is broken and needs magical intervention to be tolerable. It leaves me to think that maybe he’s still okay with it, and fantasizing about rewriting his friend’s mind. Great.
Moonwatcher’s character death
You will find as this goes on that, I get the impression that the second half of this book takes all of the wonderful, endearing characters I have learned to love throughout the story and replaces them with really mean, or stupid, or otherwise inaccurate caricatures.
Moonwatcher’s relationship with Darkstalker gets plenty of setup and development in Moon Rising. You get the sense that these two could be great friends if their circumstances were a little different. It does a great job at making you think maybe Darkstalker is just misunderstood; maybe Moon should free him from his predicament.
Then at the end of Escaping Peril comes the emotional gut punch. Darkstalker actually IS a villain. He callously admits to Moonwatcher that he used his magic to make his own father gruesomely disembowel himself. Moonwatcher is horrified and disgusted that he would do that. There is no circumstance in which something like that would ever be okay. She ends the scene awash in tears because the person she thought was her friend is a murderer and a sadist. This is good, that is a natural reaction to what she was just told.
A few hours from there, in Talons of Power, Turtle finds Moon again and she is completely cool with Darkstalker walking free, despite crying her eyes out after feeling so betrayed earlier. That may seem strange, but this is still good because later, Darkstalker’s mind control plot is discovered. This scene was obviously written to set that up, Moon is mind-controlled into forgetting that Darkstalker could do something that morally reprehensible, and thus forgives him. This is also completely in line with his characterization in Legends: Darkstalker. It’s a kind of stunt he would pull to get Clearsight to shut up about him slipping into villainy.
In my earlier post I alluded to a moment where Moon is set to narrative auto-pilot and says something so rampantly off-kilter that it does irreversible, permanent damage to her character. It happens here, in the second half of book 10. Qibli gives Moon the Darkstalker protection earring, and Moon, somehow, says “I’m not being mind-controlled, Darkstalker really is my friend.”
I get what the plot tries to do here. It’s taking this concept of mind-control and adding a nuance, in an attempt to flesh out Darkstalker and give his character depth. He is ready to control everyone in the world, but for Moon, who is his best friend in this era, he wants her to remain herself. Perhaps this is his attempt at attonement for playing with Clearsight’s mind and driving her away from him. It is very touching in a way, viewed in isolation.
Unfortunately, it does not work with the full context of all the books. Because Moon is in auto-pilot mode right now, her main character trait is “Darkstalker=Friend,” so naturally she would speak in support of him. But this revelation has devastating retroactive consequences. The earlier scene that was written with Moon under mind-control is now altered into her having been in her right mind! She is completely okay with Darkstalker’s admittance to cold-blooded torture and evisceration, within hours of being so shocked by it that it made her cry and ready to denounce him. That is such a quick turnaround it’s giving me whiplash. And what’s more it turns Moon from a principled, upstanding girl into a sociopath who casually accepts gruesome torture and murder if it is committed by someone she likes.
Did Sutherland forget about the scene two books ago, where Darkstalker’s actions were so inconceivably horrid for Moon to learn of that she started crying? It baffles me that this made it into the final version. Her saying she was never mind-controlled makes Moon come off as so awful. This torture-excusing lunatic is not the same kind-hearted and insightful character I followed in all the other books.
Kinkajou’s character derailment
The world is a sad place when I have to question the way Kinjajou is written. Fortunately she is mostly fine, despite her having the biggest excuse to act out-of-character since she’s the victim of a mind-altering spell. Her only real moment of “what!?” comes at the end.
I already talked about her role in casting the spell that regresses Darkstalker into an infant. But I didn’t mention how her being the source of it is questionable in itself.
The clue is in the first paragraph of this section: She herself has experienced the effects of invasive mind-alteration. She was cursed by Anemone in the previous book to be in love with Turtle, and kind of half-struggles kind of not with it, it’s really strange. Turtle is appropriately horrified and acts like really awful things are happening, but then it’s mostly played lightly for some reason. My assumption is that Sutherland introduced this plot point, but then realized how uncomfortable this premise really is and tried to downplay it until the story got to a point where it could get done away with.
But I think the takeaway is still supposed to be that this was a horrid thing to do (which it absolutely is), and that Kinkajou will have to spend a lot of time trying to untangle her real emotions from the fake ones the spell created.
The point is: Kinkajou knows first-hand how awful it is to do something like that to another person. Ideally she should never even conceive of the idea to cast a spell like that, but if we’re really set on this Darkstalker baby thing and it has to happen, she should at least be a bit hesitant about it. And afterwards she should struggle with the guilt of having resorted to it. Not celebrate it and be proud, like it’s funny.
The assassination of Winter’s future
Now we come to the part I’ve alluded to previously; the part where all of these threads converge to utterly destroy one character and drive him to the brink of ruin. Let’s talk about Winter.
Prince Winter is the son of Tundra and Prince Narwhal, hatching in the same clutch as his sister Icicle. He spent his formative years being unfavorably compared to said sister—who easily took to traits that Icewing royalty considers desirable—whereas Winter struggled greatly to embody those same ideals. He was just a little too kind, too merciful, too gentle. As a result he often had to endure abuse from his parents, who made him feel like he was defective.
Because he was young and didn’t have any other frame of reference, he embraced this abusive narrative and began to drive himself with a vigor unreasonable for someone of his age. He scraped and cloyed for every bit of credit he could get, obsessing over advancing up the circle rankings in an attempt to “purge” the wrongness out of himself. To make his parents as proud of him as they were of Icicle.
This never worked. He was always seen as the runt, poised to embarrass the family name. Whatever he did, no matter how hard he strived, there was always something he could have done better.
The only real source of love and affirmation in his life was his older brother, Hailstorm. Where everyone else only saw what Winter wasn’t, Hailstorm embraced his brother despite of his “failings” and was openly affectionate with him. When Winter was with him, it was okay to not think about rankings all the time, and just be himself for a bit. I assume Hailstorm fulfilled a similar role for Icicle as well, which is why both of them love him dearly, and Icicle destroys her own life to bring him back.
Winter also has a fascination with scavengers, possibly because they are small and perceived as useless, like he himself is. He likely feels a kinship with them and observes them being craftier and more adept than everyone else sees them. This is therapeutic for him, to see that a thing can have merit even if no one wants to see it.
One day, he and Hailstorm sneak into Skywing territory so Winter can catch a scavenger as a pet. This excursion turns hostile when they are discovered by a roaming Skywing troop and faced with the prospect of capture, possibly execution. In a gambit to save Winter from this fate, Hailstorm mirrors the words of his parents, calling Winter pathetic and useless, so the Skywings will not think of him as a threat and show mercy. His act succeeds in convincing the Skywings, but it also convinces Winter, who does not understand Hailstorm only said these things to save his life. He returns home—believing his brother hated him all along—to face the wrath of his furious family for losing them “the desirable son”.
For all of his life, these themes have repeated themselves and haunted him. “I was born wrong and defective,” “I am unlovable,” “No one wants me.”
A few months after the war ends, Winter is one of the five Icewings enrolled in the newly founded Jade Mountain Academy. Shortly after departing, he unexpectedly returns home, having successfully rescued his older brother and bringing him back. He is made to believe that this erases his mistakes, his mother even pays him a backhanded compliment, an uncharacteristically “nice” gesture. He is promoted to the top of the rankings, finally his parents are proud of him.
But of course it is all a trick. The “adoration” afforded to him was all a ploy. Secretly, his parents abused power and tradition to arrange for Winter’s death. They force him into a lethal trial they intentionally rigged against him, all to finally erase that stain on their family’s honor.
Winter finally realizes the true nature of his parents’ opinion of him. Even when he succeeds, and does everything right, he is still defective, unlovable, and unwanted. He will never be anything else to his family. And so he leaves his homeland, pretending he is dead, resigned to live in hiding forever.
During this time, while at the brink of despair, Winter is able to draw strength from one source: His new friends from the academy. He vocalizes that, for all the abuse he suffered at the hands of his birth family, he fervently believes that THEY would never do anything like that to him. They chose to stuck with him, even when he was awful, and told him he was not hopeless. He was not a mistake; he could be deserving of love.
So naturally, he returns to them; they accept him readily, are willing to be his new surrogate family. When he almost burns to death at a later point, they fear and weep for him. When Qibli sets out to confront his own abusive family, Winter, despite being mind-controlled into a placid potato at the time, feels concerned enough for his friend’s safety to insist to come along (returning the favor of them accompanying him in his time of need in book 7). When Darkstalker’s mind control forces Winter to attack Qibli, he is shown ashamed and guilty of it once the control wears off again.
They bicker and struggle, and make mistakes, they break up but always come back together again. Time and time again the one thing that is always reinforced: When the cards are down, Winter loves his friends, and they love him. They would never intentionally hurt each other, or give up on each other.
I want you to keep in mind how wholesome, and loving, and mutually supportive this ramshackle band of misfits has been portrayed to this point... Because we’re moving on to the arc 2 finale, and it will do everything it can to corrupt all of it and consign Winter to a life of misery.
We arrive at aforementioned scene, where Moonwatcher receives her earring. Just a little bit prior, Winter had learned that Darkstalker unleashed a magical plague onto his people in an attempt to wipe them out. Now here is Moonwatcher, revealing that she is not under any spell, and has aligned herself with this guy willingly, speaking fondly of him as if he was a dear friend who never did any wrong. Winter takes this badly and accidentally breaks a vase; the narrative lingers on this moment and really tries to sell us on how unreasonable Winter’s reaction is, how he is overreacting, but let’s examine that interpretation for a moment.
Moonwatcher doesn’t yet know about the attempted Icewing genocide, but she DOES know about Darkstalker being okay with casting spells to inflict immeasurable torture upon those he hates. WE know that she knows this, so her stance here is already suspect. Yet she goes on to praise Darkstalker and refer to him as a friend. Look at this from Winter’s perspective. This “friend” of Moonwatcher just tried to kill his entire tribe, and he actually succeeded in killing his aunt, Queen Glacier, a person Winter greatly respects. Winter is currently unable to return to his homeland for fear of being branded a traitor. Even if he could return, he knows his obstinate and spiteful family would prevent him from attending the funeral, meaning he is not even afforded the basic dignity of saying farewell to his aunt. The aunt whom Darkstalker murdered by making her vomit her own blood until she withered away in her bed. And here is Moon, absolving the person who did this to Glacier from his appalling actions, despite knowing full well what Darkstalker is capable of and choosing to look away.
I don’t know about you, but I think I can forgive the grieving, emotionally overwhelmed boy for shattering a little pottery after hearing his trusted friend—who held his hand when he was dying—say that the guy who makes people disembowel themselves and wipes out entire countries may be misunderstood and not so bad. I think I would have a similar reaction. In fact, I would never want to talk to her ever again.
There is no way I can read this scene in which Moon doesn’t come off as either an absolute lunatic, or critically stupid and callous. In fact, based on her earlier behavior I half-expect her to get over the news of the attempted Icewing massacre in a couple hours, saying “Eh, it’s kinda bad, but you just have to do these kinds of things sometimes, you know? I’m sure he had his reasons.”
Then there is the part where Qibli makes his off-color comment about how Winter’s brain could really use a good wash. I already went into how it could have worked but didn’t. But with the timing here, we’ve already had Moon spit on their friendship, so as Winter’s other closest friend, it naturally follows that Qibli also craps on his feelings.
Consider the context: Winter comes from an abusive household where his parents forcibly tried to change him away from who he was to purge the “wrongness” from him. When they betray him and he narrowly escapes their attempt on his life, he re-affirms his belief in his friends, and the knowledge that they wouldn’t treat him like that gives him the strength he needs to keep going. But now, Qibli asserts that Winter DOES need to be altered, thereby AGREEING with Winter’s abusive parents, rendering Winter’s affirmation from book 7 erroneous. Qibli WOULD treat him like that if it made Winter less “intolerable”.
Neither Moonwatcher nor Qibli ever make an attempt to repair this rift. Winter is left betrayed and alone.
Stuff happens, and the forces of the Nightwings and Icewings come to blows over Jade Mountain. With his two closest friends having written him off and his support network eroded, Winter relapses into thinking he is worthless, seeks validation in unquestioning patriotism, and realigns himself with his abusive family by throwing himself into the battle. Nobody wants him to, in fact his parents still hate him for it, but whatever. His father dies and his mother blames him for it.
Meanwhile Turtle, Anemone, and Qibli are cooking up a solution to the battle problem. They have the idea to make everyone’s minds connect in a huge empathy wave for a few moments, which I think is a pretty interesting idea for what it’s worth. But then they teleport both armies back to their homes, and the spell sweeps Winter up with them, taking him out of the rest of the finale and bringing him to the Ice Kingdom. The characters say “whoops” but aren’t further concerned with the situation. It’s all a big laugh.
Let me remind you that Winter is currently considered not welcome on Icewing territory. His family, whom he was sent back with, is extremely abusive and vindictive. His friends know this. Said parents have previously arranged for him to be killed, and are still on record as wanting him dead. His friends KNOW this. And now he is alone with them and a gaggle of other royal Icewings who all are extremely pissed off at him for ruining their sacred trial site.
It is very possible that he is being torn apart and mauled by an enraged mob right now. He could be forced into captivity and flayed. Maybe the interim regent is sentencing him to death and getting the rope ready. There is a million different horrible things that could be happening to Winter right now, while he is trapped alone with people who hate him, things his friends would be reasonably able to anticipate. And nobody is doing anything to get him out of there, to suggest bringing him back, even though it would only take a single spoken sentence to do so! They aren’t even concerned!
Then the climax happens, strawberry thing and all, and we get the coup de grâce. After all is said and done, the group decides that Winter is untrustworthy, and that they must protect the secret of Darkstalker’s fate from him, because they fear if he knew he would kill Peacemaker.
Moon, who read Winter’s mind in book 6 and reached out to him about how the “ruthless Icewing warrior” persona in his head is a facade and how she sees he has a gentle and good heart... Moon, who in book 7 finds out about Winter’s secret deal to kill Glory and STILL trusts him, who calls out his bullshit to his face because she KNOWS how kind-hearted Winter is and that he would never resort to murder... Moon who, again, held his hand while he was dying... thinks that the dragon she has reminded of his compassionate nature time and time again would kill an innocent child.
This is disgusting. Moon believing that is so far off the mark with regards to anything this group has embodied or done for any of the last 4 books, that my only conclusion can be that these are different characters. Maybe the Nightwing library collapsed on top of original Moon, and when Darkstalker magiced her back to health she came back wrong or something. I don’t know.
So after all of this, Winter is left alone. He somehow escaped from the Ice Kingdom; luckily there is a timeskip so we can just gloss over the horrible situation he was put in by his friends. He thinks about Jade Mountain. He reflects on everything that happened, how his parents never really loved him... How they hated him so much they tried to kill him... How he despaired, but found solace in his friends who loved him for who he was.... How those friends then betrayed him too and magiced him away... How they didn’t care about what happened to him... And he decides he is done. He won’t bother going back. A few people, probably Sunny, reach out to tell him he is welcome back, but he says “it wouldn’t be fair to other Icewings if an exile took up a bed”. The decision isn’t hard to make, after all there is nothing left for him there. Everyone has written him off, moved on and left him behind.
Kinkajou visits sometimes, tries to stay in touch, but that’s just how she is. Maybe the others sent her to check on whether he’s going to become troublesome. They don’t trust him. Better to keep an eye on him, he might kill the baby.
Tumblr media
With nowhere else to go, Winter moves to Sanctuary, a place for rejects like him. I picture him standing there, at the edge of a cliff staring blankly into the distance. He is completely alone; no one wants to go near him or talk to him beyond the bare necessities. He could probably make new friends with the Talons of Peace if he tried, but there is no point. Why should someone like him have friends? It wouldn’t work. They’d just decide he is too inconvenient to be around. Sooner or later they would just tell him to leave anyway. It's better not to try, so he doesn't get hurt again.
And slowly it dawns on him. His parents had been right all along. It was never them, or the others, it was him. He is the problem. The Icewings said it, Qibli said it, Moonwatcher said it. There is just something fundamentally wrong with him.
He is defective. He is unlovable. Nobody wants him. He will never be anything, or have anyone. And so he stands at the cliff, looking over the broken vase fragments of his life... This is who he is. Prince Winter. A mistake.
And quietly, where no one knows or cares, he does the only thing he has left to do... he begins to weep.
As it is written, the tale of Winter is the story of a boy who is told he is wrong for being alive. He closes his ears and tries to keep walking forward, desperate to prove that he is not an error, that he has merit. But this book comes out and it unmistakably says that he doesn’t. He is nothing, and he deserves to have nothing.
And I just cannot accept that.
Why did this have to happen?
I think that the author was really struggling with the ending of this book. I’ve said before how much of a corner she wrote herself into with such an invincible villain. I think she came up with the strawberry idea as a solution to this problem. But as she was writing it, the characters kept fighting her. It was not a natural solution, not a decision the characters—as they were established—would ever make.
So concessions had to be made to force the issue. Established traits had to be bent slightly to make this plot work. The farther she went, the worse it got. The concessions piled up and turned into contrivances. Eventually the characters were no longer acting like themselves. Their bonds got stretched too far and some snapped. It’s a very tragic pitfall that occurs with long-running series.
I think Sutherland must have also been tired. Writing an entire book is a monumental task, and writing 6 connected ones even moreso. She also comes out with these things really quickly. Maybe she was burnt out? Maybe she wanted to be done and her attention lapsed. Maybe that’s why she forgot that Moon knew about the disemboweling. It seems reasonable to believe when you consider that the next story arc would make a relatively clean break from the problems of this arc, especially with regards to the magic system.
But I don’t know what ultimately happened, so I can only speculate. I reiterate, I bear no ill will against Sutherland for writing this. Even if I kind of hate everything about this finale, and very vocally wish it would be different, I don’t want this examination to generate (or reawaken) any hatred towards her, or to attack her personally. I understand the pain of an artist who gets trapped with something for too long and has to find the means, any means, to see it through to the end. I criticize the story, but I could never hate anyone for that.
But for me, I do not consider this half of the book as part of the story. The characters act too unnaturally for it to have happened. So to me, it didn’t. We don’t know what happened, maybe Darkstalker is still out there. Maybe they dealt with him. Maybe what actually happened is my crappy and self-indulgent rewrite of the ending which I will never show to anyone because it would be really embarrassing.
But whatever actually ended up happening, I am sure Winter never ended up at that cliff, pondering how worthless and meaningless his life was. He is currently at Jade Mountain, surrounded by friends who love him, and bickering with Qibli about the correct solution to their advanced calculus assignment that is due tomorrow.
Is there anything left to say?
Probably.
I didn’t talk about Anemone yet. You know, in the epilogue she enchants herself a bracelet that makes her “not be so mean all the time”. I find that creepy. To me it reads as Anemone voluntarily brainwashing herself with magic to erase her negative traits instead of growing past them naturally because she finds them undesirable and wants to work to change for the better. I would ordinarily assume that this is an overreaction on my part, and I’m just reading the scene wrong. But no, we just got through a part where the heroes brainwashing someone is treated as an unequivocal good and worthy of celebration, so I think my reading may actually be spot on. Why are we letting the little kid alter her own brain without supervision? Hello? Tsunami? Someone intervene maybe? This cannot be healthy.
Turtle stands out to me as the one bright spot in all of this. He (and Peril, but she’s mostly out of focus) remain as the only main characters of this arc who don’t have any mind-boggling out-of-character moments or sudden streaks of uncharacteristic callousness. I really like the part where Qibli goes to free Turtle from his captivity and plans to give him an earful about the comically unhelpful messages he’s been sending him. But when Turtle asks if what he did was helpful, Qibli sees how beaten down and exhausted Turtle is, and wordlessly drops his frustration to tell him “Yeah, they were helpful.” That is the true Qibli shining through for a moment, showing that he cares about the well-being of his friends.
Do I hate the pairing of Qibli/Moonwatcher? No. Well, I DO hate how it happened in the book, and how the story tried to assassinate Winter’s character to resolve the love triangle and make it happen. I don’t hate it on principle though. If you are a fan of Qibli/Moonwatcher and want to write fanfics about it, please do! I absolutely encourage you to do that! Maybe you can fix this mess and turn it into something that’s actually properly handled!
Mightyclaws keeps the power that Darkstalker granted him past the finale. That means all the spells that Darkstalker cast are technically still active. Does that mean the Icewings have to wear earrings for the rest of their lives? Do they get sick again if they take them off? Is Peril forever cursed to think of Darkstalker as a cool old uncle and has to somehow reconcile how everyone else thinks of him? How did the Nightwings relinquishing their powers work, do they have to wear the earrings forever too now?
And there is one more thing to mention.
My confession
You may have already intuited this, if you’ve been following the content of my blog. It is very heavily skewed towards the first and second arcs of the series. I would now like to confess something.
When I read the second half of book 10, I found it so disillusioning, Winter’s fate so upsetting... that I put down the series then and there. And I haven’t picked it back up since.
That’s right, I have not read arc 3. I don’t know if that makes me a fake fan. I know pretty much everything that happens in it, the controversial twist at the end, Pyrrhia coming back into the story later, Snowfall getting brainwashed by a piece of jewelry until she cares about a plot that had nothing to do with her or the fate of the Icewings, etc..
It’s not out of malice, or because it’s a new continent. The opposite in fact; I would have greatly prefered a clean break with a new setting—Bug-themed dragons in a slightly more contemporary, developed environment sounds fascinating and full of potential. I don’t hate Pantala or the new characters.
I just... I can’t really do this again. I can’t handle the thought of Pyrrhia coming back post-Darkstalker, with Winter showing up and talking to these guys again like nothing happened, seeming like a different person, joking around with them like his entire character wasn’t dragged through a mountain of manure to make the plot bend a certain way. I think as long as this is the ending that the story is continuing from, seeing that would just make me miserable.
Maybe I will just stay in the parts of the story that I fell in love with. And imagine a version of reality in which Pantala is allowed to exist on its own, where Swordtail was the fourth POV character of arc 3, where Queen Wasp stayed the villain throughout, and Snowfall got her own legends book about how she reformed Icewing society and fixed all the shit that poisoned Winter’s life, so future generations don’t have to suffer through the same stuff he did.
~~~~~
If you’re still with me, thank you for reading this far. I think this is everything I ever thought about the finale of the second story arc, so now I never have to talk about it again. Writing this was difficult. I found it crushing at times. This will probably stand as the only overtly negative post I have ever made on this blog. I love Wings of Fire, and I want to celebrate it. To add to it, not tear it down.
I hope this wasn’t too boring, or painful, or frustrating, or soul-crushing to read through. I’ll see you later, hopefully with a more constructive post.
Tumblr media
378 notes · View notes
danhoneyyysblog · 4 months
Note
hi! can i request for wuthering waves male characters, can it also be yandere with headcanons? want to see how you would view them as yanderes! if so, thanks!
author note: finally, my first request! of course i can! if you don’t mind, i’ll do three characters — Male! Rover, Jiyan and Scar! hope you’re okay with those.
Tumblr media
MALE WUWA (WUTHERING WAVES) HEADCANONS, AS YANDERES!
➵ CHARACTERS MENTIONED IN THIS: MALE! ROVER, JIYAN, AND SCAR!
➵ WARNING, MAY CONTAIN: lowercase intended, may be slight ooc — as game recently released, simple information on each character. if you don’t enjoy ooc, don’t suggest! pet names mentioned (loved one, darling, love), mentions of obsession (Jiyan), mentions of possession (Male! Fover, Jiyan), mentions of overprotectiveness (Male! Rover, Jiyan), mentions of manipulation (Scar), mentions of sadistic behaviour (Scar), mentions of delusional behaviour (Scar).
Tumblr media
MALE! ROVER:
➵ of all honesty, his was terribly difficult to think about, but with enough work from how he acts. i believe he would fall beneath possessiveness and overprotectiveness.
➵ you see, with possessiveness, i believe he would most certainly prefer if his loved one would dependent on him. of course, as shown throughout the story, there was times Scar is trying to convince him to join him as he is a ‘black sheep’. huh? what’s that? you want to join Scar? not on his watch. if he joins, so will you. if he doesn’t join, you won’t either. don’t be surprised if he finds a way to get you dependent on him.
➵ with overprotectiveness, i think that is WAY TOO OBVIOUS! if you were simply his peer, he would be the average level of protective, but… unfortunately for you, you’re his darling, you are the one breaking his overprotective meter! what do you know, you’re suddenly captured! he is running to save you! he has to be your shining knight in armour. if he isn’t, then who will be?!
Tumblr media
JIYAN:
➵ okay, hear me out on this: he would DEFINITELY be obsessive, possessive AND overprotective.
➵ with obsessiveness, he would be fixated on you. like… if he was with the Midnight Rangers, he would think to himself: ‘i wonder how they’re doing’, ‘i hope nothing severe is happening to them’ which eventually shift into… ‘i haven’t retrieved a letter in approximately days. are they upset?’, ‘they are definitely pissed. what should i owe them? my kisses, hugs, cuddles? no… they need something more. my heart, my soul… would they be happy if they got that?’. all of that overthinking could led into him losing sleep, which is rarely given to him due to the amount of work they have to do at night. nobody would even tell what’s going on in his head with that casual stoic expression of his!
➵ for possessiveness, listen to me on this: you know how dragons are possessive of their treasure? exactly. you don’t need to rely on family, friends or any of those people, he could insist you — he gains money for doing his work. what do you want, love? new clothes? more food? a bigger house? anything you want, he can do his best to make it possible! just rely on him, darling! and no… if you asked him to go away, he would most likely not do that.
➵ as for overprotectiveness, it somewhat follows the obsessiveness and possessiveness. if there was a day you managed to convince him you wanted to take a walk further than you usually do, he’ll accept, in one condition: he follows along. he’ll literally glare at anything he believes is a threat towards you, whether it is an ordinary person passing by, a tacet discord, even an animal as simple and small as a bunny! sometimes, people who roam by worry over you. it looks like you’re being held hostage, which you literally are! also, another thing, if you want to join the Midnight Rangers, it is going to take WAY LONGER than it’s supposed to. he will literally find every possible way to deny, you need to be bribing him to let you at one point… ‘i’ll give you more kisses than usual, on the lips, too.’, ‘that won’t work on me, (reader).’, ‘how about we cuddle for two hours instead of one?’, ‘still won’t work’. despite wanting to do it so badly due to the fact it was coming from you! thankfully, you found a way to make it work, but with extreme supervision from Jiyan…
Tumblr media
SCAR:
➵ MANIPULATIVE, SADISTIC, AND DELUSIONAL. I REPEAT: DELUSIONALLL!!! i said that with no hesitation. i am so sorry…
➵ with no hesitation, he would most likely manipulate you. what’s that he hears? you’re already in a relationship? too bad, there are two options: 1. he manipulates you into thinking your lover is a bad person, forcing you to leave them. 2. they are going to get burnt alive. to make stuff fun for him, in front of you! it’s safer to go with option 1… even if you are in a relationship with him, doesn’t mean you’re safe. you want to leave?! what do you know! he is literally using your secrets, weakness, fears, all of that against you! literally stay with this man, for the sake of you…
➵ no doubt on this one, since he basically emotionally manipulates you. he probably enjoys when you get all scared, begging him not to admit all of the stuff you fear coming out. trust me… even if you make a run for it, this man is literally going to hunt you down. may as well tackle you onto the ground, throw you over his shoulder and laugh while you’re screaming, crying, punching, kicking. believe me on this, he doesn’t plan on letting you go.
➵ HERE IS WHERE THE DELUSIONAL KING COMES OUT. tying all of the manipulation and sadistic behaviour together. he, most definitely, most certainly, believes you’re acting that way to purposely become hard to get. if you’re doing something for him out of kindness, which may be rare due to how much of a crazy guy he is, he’ll definitely think it’s out of love. if you say you’re not in love with him, or anything that comes out rude, he’ll think they are lies or that you’re simply shy — bringing back the fact he believes you’re playing hard to get.
Tumblr media
author note: i apologize if this doesn’t suit as realistic to the characters. as known, it’s nearly been a week since the game released and the more that comes out, the more we’ll learn about them. i’ll re-do this in the future, maybe with more characters? you never know!
741 notes · View notes
teyvathandymenclub · 5 months
Text
Good Morning
Tumblr media
Story: You have just spent your first night together and the obvious nervousness comes in with a bang. Will he like me without makeup? I need to keep mints close to me to hide my morning dragon breath. Should I put on some mascara at least? 
Characters: Diluc, Alhaitham
TW: Beware! Fluff.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Diluc
You have promised yourself that you will wake up before him. And somehow you did. When you opened your eyes, the sun was still pretty low and the room was filled with Diluc´s deep calm breathing. Slowly raising your head you checked his chest. You have been sleeping on him the whole night so the possibility of you salivating on him was pretty high. 
It is fine. Thank god. You sigh with relief.
For a second you got stuck because you could not stop staring at him. He looks so peaceful, but authoritative at the same time. Diluc has this aura of confidence and stoicism that you have never seen in other men. He could have every woman in the Teyvat but he chose you. Your heart flutters. 
I do not know what I did to deserve you, but I will do everything to prove to you that I am worthy of you. 
With that, you stood up and tip-toed out of the bedroom.
"Are you trying to run away from me?" 
Diluc´s voice stopped you right when you were about to reach the doorknob. Heart in your chest started racing and all you could hear was your blood rushing through your veins.
"If I disappointed you somehow last night, you can tell me straight away."
"No!" You almost screamed too ashamed to look at him.
"Then where are you going? I was excited to wake up to you sleeping in my arms."
"Me too! I just need to… Use the toilet. If that is ok."
"Of Course, it is ok." Diluc chuckled with relief as he stood up. "I will show you the way."
"No! Umm… I will find it by myself."
"Y/N, what is going on?" He frowned. "Why you did not look at me once."
You wanted to protest even more, but before you were able to find new excuses, Diluc took your chin and raised your head so he could look you directly in the eyes.
After a short moment, you cracked under his gaze, just like last night.
"I did not want you to see me like this." You finally admit.
"Like what?" Diluc looked at you and scanned you from head to toe.
"No makeup, messy hair, puffy face…"
"Stop it, please." Diluc hushed you with a voice filled with amusement and disappointment at the same time.
"I am sorry." You whisper.
"For what? That I did not show you my affection the same way I feel it here?" He took your hand and placed it on the bare skin of his chest. "Can you forgive me for leaving room for so many doubts? My dear, I have traveled most of our world and I have never met someone like you. Do not ever doubt my affection for you. For any version of you. With messy hair, with whatever makeup you do not wear. I do not care. "
"But…"
You tried to protest, but he immediately stopped you with raised brows that said more than enough.
"With that settled, how did you sleep?" Diluc smiled as he hid you in his embrace.
Tumblr media
Tumblr media
Alhaitham
Last night was everything but what you have expected from a man who presented himself the way he did. Where did those passionate touches and kisses come from?
Never even in your wildest dreams, you dreamed about being smothered with so much affection. Even though you did not want to admit it, you felt addicted. Men are usually a source of disappointment in your life. How could you score an intelligent gentleman with ways that can make your toes curl from… Well, let's call it happiness.
It would be such a shame to scare him away with my morning state. I should freshen up a little. 
You debated with yourself a little before you took your chance. As you carefully moved away his hand wrapped around your waist and tried to stand up, Alhaitham deeply growled. His grip around your body tightened. Who would have thought that he would be into spooning so much?
"What is so funny?" He asked after you chuckled a little.
"Just wondering if I could be the big spoon now."
"No." Alhaitham murmured into your neck without hesitation.
"Can I at least go to the bathroom? Pretty please?"
"So you would let me here with nothing but your scent stuck to my skin?"
"Awwwww." You smiled. "But... Do you want me to pee here?"
"You are free to go wherever you want!" Alhaitham said while dramatically pushing you away from him. 
After you gave him your best fake sad stare you quickly left to deal with some important business in the bathroom. When you finally came back, Alhaitham was already sitting in the bed leaning against the headboard reading something.
"And I thought that I had bad bed hair." You laugh.
"You probably had. You have been gone for almost half an hour."
"You did not!" You audibly gasped before you jumped at him.
"Why… Oh god…" Alhaitham growled as he maneuvered you down from him. "...do you have so much energy this early in the morning? If I knew I would never invite you over."
"REALLY?!" You froze.
"Of Course not." He smiled sheepishly as he pinned you down to kiss you oh so sweetly.
446 notes · View notes
idkfitememate · 8 months
Text
Mora is a God’s Best Friend Pt. 1
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
♡︎ « Next Part ⋙
૮꒰˶ᵔ ᗜ ᵔ˶꒱ა Pairings : GN! Mora Reader x Liyue
૮꒰ྀི∩´ ᵕ `∩꒱ྀིა W.K. : 4.6k
໒꒰ྀིᵔ ᵕ ᵔ ꒱ྀི১ Tags/CW&TW : Fluff, crack, reader is slightly angry, only slightly tho I promise :)
Tumblr media
Now, you wouldn’t say you were a greedy person… which would be a huge lie because holy shit you were compared to a dragon by your friends more times than your own mother said she loved you-
When you got your paycheck - which was a very handsome paycheck mind you - you hoarded that to the best of your abilities, but when you saw something you had to have? Bought. Spent all your cash on it.
… You have to many plushies-
You weren’t exactly an avid believer in the whole “money makes the world go around!” thing, but it certainly helped. Like, have you seen how happy Elon Musk is? That bitch living the life and you want that too.
But despite your adoration to money…
THAT DID NOT MEAN YOU WANTED TO BE IT!!
૮꒰づ˶• ༝ •˶꒱づ ˚ʚ ꒰⁐⁐⁐⁐୨🎂🍩🍰୧⁐⁐⁐⁐꒱ ɞ˚
When you woke up from a nice nap after a long day of hard labor- I mean work, you couldn’t see. You also couldn’t feel your arms or legs or… well anything in general that one would say when describing their body.
You did have your five core senses though, which is nice. Well… minus sight-
You couldn’t move, and whenever you would scream the people you heard around you - their voices were muffled… were you in a pouch?? - did nothing to help.
You continued for what you assumed to be hours, never once paying mind to the fact that you never got hungry or thirsty or ran out of breath. Then you felt warmth.
Something large and warm wrapped around your form which scared the shit out of you because as far as you were concerned, you were still very human sized. You continued to scream into the darkness as you listened to the… transaction (???) going on above you and-
Wait a minute. You recognized that voice.
A lot of your money went to Genshin Impact in your day, you were what was known in the fandom as a “whale”, did I mention you got payed handsomely?
Yeah it was enough the basically be a sugar parent for all your friends.
So you heavily related to a certain character who was constantly characterized as helping another with his money problems.
Can you guess who it is?
I’ll give you five seconds to guess!
5…
4…
3…
2… fuck it I hate the suspense-
It was Childe!
And hearing his voice above you shattered what you may have thought was happening to you. Yes you may or may not have thought you were being kidnapped-
You then felt yourself get placed on another warm surface and oh god-
“All repairs will be made in a timely manner! Thank you for the patronage!”
You flipped through the air with a small ‘whoosh’ and landed back in the hand.
… WERE YOU FUCKING MORA?????
૮꒰づ˶• ༝ •˶꒱づ ˚ʚ ꒰⁐⁐⁐⁐୨🍭🍫🍪୧⁐⁐⁐⁐꒱ ɞ˚
Being merged to a weapon wasn’t fun.
Well at the very least you weren’t “merged” with a weapon. For some reason the blacksmith couldn’t find a way to use your specific mora body to upgrade Childe’s bow.
So there you sat as a glorified decoration. Right on the front of the bow.
But you did find something out, the second you felt yourself attach to the bow, you could suddenly see! And you could very tell that you were in Liyue, which made sense. And when you coughed on accident, the blacksmith jumped and looked around, before shrugging and turning back to her work, which meant you could now be heard as well!
All five senses back baby!
Only shitty thing was that you couldn’t move on your own, and you now noticed you were no longer hungry nor need to breathe, as well as sleep.
So you were stuck.
For four days.
Unable to speak or move.
I mean, you were still figuring out your existence yourself, no need to get anyone else involved with the process since you were beyond confused.
You’ve read the Isekai stories - and fanfics - but you had never read one personally about being isekaied as money. Yes, you have seen the vending machine one. And the one where he gets turned into a dummy ASMR head mic-
Not the point!
You were just trying to figure out how to… exist (?) like this. Which was pretty hard when coming to terms with the fact that you’d never eat your favorite foods again.
Never again…
“Thank you so much for choosing our services sir! Have a nice day!”
You were suddenly picked up and placed in the gentle care of Childe - ironic sentence I know - and off you both went.
You want to know what a weird sensation is?
Being a bow and feeling someone pluck your string.
Now yeah, that sounds super sensual but it felt more like someone… pulling your hair?? You couldn’t really place it but that was honestly the closest equivalent. Feeling him rub his hands all up and down your… body (?????) was a new experience to. Again, not sensual, just ticklish? And it sucked trying not to giggle-
God this was weird and confusing.
“Well I’m free for some time… I’m sure a little practice won’t hurt…”
Oh good god you could not catch a break.
૮꒰づ˶• ༝ •˶꒱づ ˚ʚ ꒰⁐⁐⁐⁐୨🍧🍮🍬୧⁐⁐⁐⁐꒱ ɞ˚
A new fear had been unlocked within you.
You, a piece of mora crudely attached to a psychopathic killers bow, had just been de-summoned.
And it hurt.
BAD.
No one will ever know what that was like, the feel yourself fading, every atom slowly falling away into nothingness, and then the silence. That cursed silence. Deep dark blackness was what you felt for what appeared to be thousands of years to your still human brain.
Never again would allow yourself to feel that pain.
As you were summoned, you continued to stare off into the distance, coming to terms with what you had just witnessed while ignoring every word that came out of Childe’s mouth.
Something or other about practicing you couldn’t give a shit.
You only watched the changing scenery around you as you and Childe wandered aimlessly through a forest.
Then he dropped to his knees suddenly, which cause you to silently curse and sputter in shock.
Did you mention you got good at that? Being silent? Because you did.
Being that you were placed on the front of the bow, you could see perfectly where he was aiming, that being a small bird that you had to squint - how you squinted? You don’t know - to see.
It was ridiculously far away, covered in leaves. You were also slightly scared because Childe was being silent.
Childe. Silent.
Not two words you ever expected to put into the same sentence - again - but here you were.
You felt the bow string being pulled back, and him lining up the shot.
Then, you felt something course through you.
Obviously it was the Hydro infused arrow he knocked onto the string, but something else flowed through you.
You could feel yourself reaching, trying to connect with something to better control this sudden power flow, and then you found a great source.
His Hydro Vision.
૮꒰づ˶• ༝ •˶꒱づ ˚ʚ ꒰⁐⁐⁐⁐୨🍰🍡🍪୧⁐⁐⁐⁐꒱ ɞ˚
Childe was a seasoned soldier and fighter, literally anyone who met him could tell you that.
He kept that fact near and dear to his heart, that fact being why he fought so hard, to become stronger and finally find that fight that would be the end of him.
He longed for the day where he would be strong enough to fight his mentor, and weak enough to die at someone who he saw worthy enough to end his stories and legacy.
… Legacy was such a funny word to the man as all he could think of when it was spoken was his second, stronger form, Foul Legacy. Ironically, that’s what he though historians would call his stories in the far future - he would never admit how close it was due to the Electro Delusion that sapped away at his life, slower due to his strength but sucking away his soul nonetheless - would call it, a Foul Legacy.
He was self-aware enough to understand that people hated him, yet oblivious enough to leave his family in the hands of The Rooster, a man known for leveling cites before they even had the chance to riot against himself and the Tsaritsa.
He was complex in the same way he was so easy to understand.
Just as how he allowed the world to see his Vision but kept his Delusion hidden.
Just recently he had gotten his bow repaired after a… well not a hard mission more so than it was annoying.
And by the Archons it was beautiful! Any and all scratches and marks had been repaired, a new layer of pain was an added, a stronger string was restrung into it and just… mmm she was beautiful.~
The finishing touch was the little golden emblem stuck directly on the front. So shiny and pretty…
He just had to take it for a test run!
Nothing too big or anything, just a little hunting as he hadn’t indulged himself recently. Just a couple small birds or mammals nothing anyone would notice.
… No that isn’t a human corpse nu uh ya stupid-
Besides that wasn’t with his bow! That was with his blades it doesn’t count!
But anyway, he quickly spotted his first target of the day, a little finch, and aimed.
He noted that his bow, while still heavy, felt much more sturdy and the current string was stronger than his last, most likely due to the whole “new string” thing rather than being better because that old string had weathered a lot.
He quickly knocked his first arrow and took a silent breath in, calming his shaking hands and the butterflies in his stomach. Of course neither were from fear or nervousness rather than they were from excitement and dare I say ecstasy. A smile forceably carved itself into him skin as he watched how easily Hydro infused itself with his arrow.
Though almost immediately after, he felt a sudden surge of power coming from not him nor the arrow, but the bow itself.
Specifically the small golden piece sitting front and center.
This was either an unknown or well known fact depending on who you asked, but the bow was Childe’s worst used weapon. He was much more skilled with a blade - like his duel Hydro blades or the duel-bladed polearm he wielded as Foul Legacy - and he even had some experience with a catalyst, but bows just seemed so.. cowardly. Even with his catalyst he was near to his opponents as its attacks were based on his fighting style, but he personally believed that bows were for the cowardly.
Those who wanted to fight but were too weak to even dare step foot onto a battlefield.
At least that’s what he thought before Capitano shoved a bow into his arms as he complained about needing something more to do. A new challenge.
And it opened his eyes.
Bows were not for the weak rather that they were for the stealthy. Something Childe was not the best at.
He was honestly more of a ‘punch more and talk later’ kind of guy. But the bow was forcing him to learn and grow, which was more than welcome in his book.
But this power was not something he had accessed yet. Hell, he’s barely felt anything like it with any other of his weapons. Closest he has ever gotten to this kind of power would be with Foul Legacy, and even then it’d be a stretch.
He’d even have the gall to say he could never feel this kind of power from his Master.
He watched as the area he sat in was bathed in a blue glow was his Vision and the arrow he still held grew brighter and brighter. With that, a gold shined through as the small golden piece on his bow - which now that he looked closer looked almost exactly like a piece of mora, just with the details buffered out - also glowed.
He couldn’t remember picking up any kind of ‘enchanted’ mora, just one random one he found on the roads right outside of Liyue.
It didn’t seem off in anyway-
His thoughts were cut off as Hydro swirled faster and stronger around him, knocking him off his knees and onto his ass, his grip on the arrow and bow tightening.
All the animals ran - of course including the small finch he was aiming for - from the sounds and lights, and something deep and primal inside of him wanted to run as well.
Something screamed that he wasn’t supposed to see this, to feel this.
Something was wrong.
Soon enough he couldn’t keep his grip on the arrow.
He let go.
૮꒰づ˶• ༝ •˶꒱づ ˚ʚ ꒰⁐⁐⁐⁐୨🍪🍫🍩୧⁐⁐⁐⁐꒱ ɞ˚
Everything was a blur to you.
All you knew was that you had to let go of this build up of power.
You had to.
Something bad would happen if you didn’t and god damn it you weren’t about to find out.
You truly, desperately, just wanted to go home.
The songs of narwhals and whales comforted you.
‘You will be okay’ they sang.
You would be okay.
Just let go.
૮꒰づ˶• ༝ •˶꒱づ ˚ʚ ꒰⁐⁐⁐⁐୨🍡🍪🍬୧⁐⁐⁐⁐꒱ ɞ˚
People in the city watched in shock as a forest not too far from the harbor became a light show of Hydro and golden light.
Small animals and creatures ran towards the city, this including monsters, but nothing stopped to attack. In fact, it seemed like everything was too scared to even consider attacking.
Ningguang and her guards quickly ran outside to asses the situation, meeting up with fellow Vision Holders on the edge of the city.
However, Xingqiu and Yelan seemed… out of it. And on top of that, Childe - though he wasn’t her favorite he was strong and could be of help - was no where to be found.
“Does anyone have a grasp on the situation?” Nigguang asked, only to receive shaken heads and no’s.
“I tried to get close,” started Xiao, “But something knocked me back. I was able to hear the Harbinger’s screams from inside, and from what I could gather, he doesn’t seem to be the… direct cause.” Despite what he said, Xiao seemed a bit upset at the fact that Childe wasn’t the true cause, likely just wanting an excuse to beat him up a little.
The Geo ridden Lady huffed befit finally turning her attention to the two Hydro users who seemed entranced by the lights.
“What are you-“
“They call to us.” Xingqiu cut her off.
“They sing for us.” Yelan finished.
Nigguang looked back to everyone else who simply shrugged, before noticing Zhongli also looked out of it, though before she could get a word out, he also spoke.
“It’s so calming… I have not felt true peace like this in…”
He didn’t even finish his sentence. His eyes, unlike the two Hydro users, were entranced by the golden lights that highlighted the light show.
Nigguang’s face was filled with confusion. Though she shook it off.
And again, before she could give out any orders, she was interrupted.
Though not by anyone, but by the lights themselves.
A flash of blue light blinded the group.
Then, the song of a group of narwhals and whales filled the sky.
૮꒰づ˶• ༝ •˶꒱づ ˚ʚ ꒰⁐⁐⁐⁐୨🍩🍮🍧୧⁐⁐⁐⁐꒱ ɞ˚
Blue and gold light enveloped near all of Liyue, the show being noticeable by all surrounding nations, Mondstadt especially.
And the air filled with the song of Narwhal and Whale alike.
A miracle of All-Devouring Narwhals and All-Encompassing Whales swam into the sky, dancing through the clouds.
They flew gently over Liyue, the nation having been stunned into shock and stillness over the whole situation.
Nigguang watched with bated breath as they sailed by the Jade Palace, only exhaling when they passed with not problem.
Keqing watched from beside Nigguang, mesmerized at the trail of celestial power flowing behind them.
Xiao rushed up buildings in order to get closer, but was knocked back by the sheer force of their power, though he was caught by a worried Ganyu. Both landed by an armed-and-ready Shenhe, who was more than ready to attack if need be.
Xingqiu and Yelan simply stared up at the miracle, their Visions resonating with Hydro energy they released. They felt empowered, and could feel the pure raw and unfiltered strength rolling off them in waves. They wanted to be close to that power. Wanted to feel that power.
Something deep inside them wanted that power.
Everyone in the city watched as the miracle flew just above their homes and businesses, making their presence all the more apparent as they bathed the golden city in royal blue.
This continued until a small bird was dumb enough to try and take flight to get away.
This bird being the one Childe had targeted- not that anyone knew.
The Whales and Narwhals corralled the bird, forcing it to fly higher and higher into the clouds, and it wasn’t long before all ginormous creatures followed behind it.
Then an even brighter flash of blue echoed across the skyline, small star-like glitters falling to Teyvat then fading from existence before they could touch its surface. A small amount of feathers followed after.
Nigguang could feel her jaw drop.
All that… to kill a bird?????
… She was going to need a week off just to comprehend what had just happened.
Keqing pat the woman on the back, sighing in tiredness as well.
She had a sneaking suspicion that Childe may have had something to do with this… event. Gods the paperwork she was about to be loaded with…
૮꒰づ˶• ༝ •˶꒱づ ˚ʚ ꒰⁐⁐⁐⁐୨🍬🍯🍩୧⁐⁐⁐⁐꒱ ɞ˚
Childe had figured out what primal instinct had led him to hide in the cave he was currently tucked in.
Foul Legacy.
He had yet to really tell anyone, but due to his time in the Abyss and its creation, it was safe to say it pretty much had a mind of its own. Which wasn’t bad as it would help him to doge attacks or alert him of presences he may not have noticed himself, but the shrieking and crying he heard from it deep in his soul was enough to tell him that this whole situation was wrong.
Nothing about what just happened should have been… well it shouldn’t have happened to say anything.
He could still hear it, resonating deep inside his soul, Electro cracking out whenever he heard a noise he couldn’t identify.
It was protecting him.
As he would for it.
He didn’t dare draw another arrow from the bow in his grasp, not until he learned what the fuck just happened. Including the fact that for some odd reason, he desperately wanted to just… stare(?) at the Narwhals and Whales until they disappeared, luckily Foul Legacy snapped him right out of that and told him to find shelter.
He did have his Hydro blades out, however, patiently waiting till he - and Foul Legacy - felt safe enough to exit.
A sudden loud caw of a bird made him flinch - not his proudest moment - and kick the bow to the side. What he wasn’t expecting was the loud string of curses that came from… the… bow..?
So now it was pinned to the wall by one blade and a foot, the other blade pointed directly at… it? There were no weak points on a bow..?
…Were there..?
૮꒰づ˶• ༝ •˶꒱づ ˚ʚ ꒰⁐⁐⁐⁐୨🍮🍨🍪୧⁐⁐⁐⁐꒱ ɞ˚
This is not what you wanted.
First, you get isekaied against your will; you didn’t even remember how you supposedly DIED… if you DID die anyway…
Two, you were reincarnated as MONEY. FUCKING MONEY. How does that… who comes up with that??? A fucking high schooler who has nothing better to do than write shitty fanfiction????
And finally, three… HE KICKED YOU!!! WHO GAVE HIM THE RIGHT TO THREATEN YOU?!?
You didn’t understand your powers, what the FUCK just happened, why Hydro just… became?? you??? And why on gods green earth you had to be MORA. You’re never gonna get over that you became MORA???? Like??? Really??????? Money????? You mean, you love the stuff but COME ON-
Jesus fuckin’-
Huffing at the man before you, you finally decided speak to this bitch before you because how dare he.
“Listen here-“
You were cut off by the blade moving closer to your body(??????) and Childe growling - yes. Growling - at you.
“No you listen. I don’t know what you are but what in the name of the Tsaritsa was that?”
If only this man could see your eye twitch.
“No how about YOU listen? I don’t know what the fuck that was, but I plan on figuring it out now could you PLEASE MOVE YOUR DAMN BLADES FROM MY FACE?!?!? God…”
The Hydro blades slowly removed themselves from your face, as did the boot. But you were then picked up by the man, held shockingly gently in his grip.
“What… are you?” He asked hesitantly.
“I… I honestly don’t know how to answer that question. But I’m pretty sure I’m that little Mora piece on the front.” You answered. You forced yourself to calm down. This wasn’t his fault, just so happened to be the guy who picked you up… this was going to be a mantra for a while…
“Oh… so your this little thing right here?” You felt his fingers wrap around you - and you mean your real body - and pull. Fear immediately filled your being.
“Wait! WAIT!-“ He tugged you right out, rendering you silent.
When he pulled you out, your body glowed and you reverted back to looking like a regular piece of mora. Engravings and all.
You, meanwhile, were screaming your head off, as you now knew that if removed from a weapon, you’d just be a regular ass piece of money again. Immediately you mind started racing, wondering as to way, and the only thing you could come up with was the Elemental Energy, but lore wasn’t really your strong suit… you just liked the pretty women and men…
You felt yourself gently being pressed into the slot carved for you in his bow, and started talking again.
“NEVER! Do that again, please. Unless absolutely necessary, don’t do that. You know how terrifying it is to be able to see and speak then move a couple inches and no longer be able to see or have others hear you? Fucking horrifying I’ll tell you that…” you watched the man shiver before sighing.
“Noted. Um… anything else I should be made aware of before I ask anymore questions?”
You jumped on the opportunity.
“Whenever I am apart of your weapons. Don’t. De. Summon. Them. Hurts like hell. Ever felt your molecules beings torn apart bit by bit? Not fun, don’t recommend it.” Again, Childe shivered.
“Now… you really don’t know what that was out there?” He asked again, and you sighed.
“I wish I did. I’ll admit, I was thinking of that one move you use as Foul Legacy where you summon a Whale… and a bit of your master…”
You watched as Childe’s eyes lit up.
“You know of Foul Legacy? And of my Master?” Then his eyes darkened.
“How do you know of them..?” You shivered… as well as money can shiver anyway.
“Uhm… magic?” You asked, a noticeable tilt in your voice.
His glare then lightened up.
“Oh! Like… when you attach to a weapon, you suddenly gain a bunch of knowledge on that person?” Holy shit he just gave you a way out!
“Uh… yeah! Yeah that’s exactly what it is! You figured it out! Sorry I was uh… hesitant. Just didn’t want to reveal all my secrets, you know?” Holy shit. Holy fuck. Please work please work-
“That’s really amazing! A magical piece of mora… with the ability to make your attacks beyond that of a God’s… heheheh…”
Oop. Shit. That was not good.
“Listen. I’m not going to do anything for you without my consent, you got that? I’m not even here of my own free will mind you. Just gained sentience in your bag and all of a sudden I’m a bow. This is going to be a symbiotic relationship or I’m finding someone else, alright?” You spoke up, not even hiding the fact that you were… well a little more than concerned with what he just said.
“… What are you going to do if I don’t respect your wishes?” Shit fuck shit fuck-
“… I will scream next time you use me.”
And into a standstill you both sat.
He stared at you and he could feel you glaring into him. It was probably weird feeling a bow glare into him. New feeling he never thought he’d feel before.
“… Alright. Taking someone’s free will isn’t really something I do anyway. So don’t be fearful… comrade?” Was he asking your name..?.. Eh. Comrade is nice and you don’t feel like giving it out so meh.
“Comrade works. And uhm… yeah.” Welp that was awkward. Good job 👍🏾!
The two of you continued to stare at each other in silence for a few moments.
“So… what’s your favorite dish?”
“I can’t eat asshole-“
“Childe!”
The mentioned man whipped his head in the direction of the call, honestly scaring you with how fast it moved - you are a hundred percent sure you heard a crack.
By the covered entrance of the cave stood Nigguang, Keqing, Zhongli and both Hydro Vision users. Nigguang was the one to call him.
“What are enough doing out here? Do you have any idea was caused… whatever that was?? And - as much as I hate to ask - are you alright?” She was firing questions out at an extreme speed, making both you and Childe dizzy.
“Uhm… I was hunting, I… haven’t the foggiest idea what you’re talking about! And yes , I am okay. Thank you for asking?” You knew he sucked ass a lying but like… how did that sound convincing in anyway?? The hesitation just made it worse!-
“You haven’t the foggiest clue, you say…” Keqing asked while glaring at the ginger. Ed She Ran lookin’ headass-
“Yep! No idea, not the slightest idea, definitely wasn’t my bow or the enchanted mora on it! Nope not at all.”
The group looked at him, and he looked at them.
They looked at him, and he looked at them.
They looked at him, and he looked at them.
And this went on for several minutes before this super smart man said:
“Yep, not me at all.”
And before anyone coup ask questions you groaned, forcing all attention into yourself before tearing him a new one.
“You dumb motherfucker! “I haven’t the foggiest idea😢” my ass!”
“How did you say that?-“
“Shut your bitchass up before I sew it shut. I should beat your ass for that. How they fuck you gonna say some shit like that and expect them to just go “Oh okay!😚” like some dumbass?”
“No really how-“
“I will slap the stupid outta you don’t fucking test me ginger bitch. Fatherless. That’s why your father sold you ass off it’s cause you so DAMN stupid, Jesus.”
“Mora?”
“What do you fucking want you cunt.”
“… We’re still in front of people.”
“… I will not hesitate to shoot all of you-“
… Nigguang was going to have so much paperwork tonight.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
໒꒰ྀི˶˙Ⱉ˙˶꒱ྀིა Author’s note : MORA!READER MORA!READER MORA!READER MORA!READER MORA!READER LETS GIVE IT UP FOR MORA!READER!!!!! ૮꒰˶ᵔ ᗜ ᵔ˶꒱ა˖⁺‧₊˚
They’re here you guys!!!! Get happy get wild!!!! Holy shit that ending was mild!!! I hate it!!! Anyway-
This is gonna SAGAU because… meh. But that doesn’t matter! Their here! But I’m not done yet, next thing on my checklist is humanizing the animals (Main ones) so I’ll be be radio silent for a bit again lmao (unless I choose to post shit which is very likely-) ໒꒰ྀི´ ˘ ` ꒱ྀིა
Hope you enjoyed the first chapter of Mora!Reader! More is, of course, on the way! ૮꒰ྀི∩´ ᵕ `∩꒱ྀིა
Have a magnificent day/night my dears!~
/)/)
( . .)
c( づ♡ Loves you guys!! <3
558 notes · View notes
bones4thecats · 8 months
Text
When Their S/O Meets Their Family
Type of Writing: #4 - Poll Result Characters: Manjiro Sano, Mitsuya Takashi, Souya Kawata, and Hakkai Shiba Family: Sister (M.S.), Mother and Sisters (M.T.), Brother (S.K.), and Sister (H.S.) Name: When Their S/O Meets Their Family Original Poll Link: Here
A/N: For Hakkai's part, it only features Yuzuha meeting the reader because of how Taiju is an abusive a-hole to them. Anyways, have fun reading this!
Slight spoilers for: Black Dragons Arc
✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅
Tumblr media
✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅
🍡 Mikey is very close with his family, and everyone who has ever met him knows this
🍡 When you first met Mikey, he no doubt wanted you to meet his sister, Emma, because he knew that she would like talking to his brother's S/O
🍡 He introduced you guys to one another a couple weeks after your relationship began, in which he just rode up to your house and asked you straight-up if you wanted to meet someone important to him
🍡 You hopped on his bike, wrapping your arms around his waist from behind and rode with him from your home to his to meet this person
🍡 Mikey has told you all kinds of stories about his family, from his late older brother Shinichiro to his younger sister Emma
🍡 His bike came to a stop in front of a Dojo, it was his family's, the same one that he was raised in and technically adopted his sister, Emma
🍡 He grabbed your hand and dragged you through the doors, announcing his and your arrival loudly for someone to hear
" Emma! You here? " " Yeah, oh! Who's your friend, Mikey? Is this your S/O? "
🍡 A youthful girl walked out from around the corner of the hallway and looked into the Dojo-themed room, her yellow eyes stared into your (E/C) eyes and she smiled
🍡 Introducing herself, you learned that this was Emma Sano, Mikey's younger half-sister, specifically her father's mistress' child
🍡 Unfortunately for Mikey, you and Emma bonded so much that you were pushing Mikey's affections down a peg, meaning you were ignoring him slightly, prompting him to start pouting
🍡 Why was his family such good conversationalists?
✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅
Tumblr media
✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅
🪡 You have heard millions upon millions of stories of Mitsuya's younger sisters, Luna and Mana, and his mother
🪡 He has wanted you to meet them for so long, but, since his mother worked late and normally wasn't given many breaks from work, he hasn't had any time to actually set up a meeting
🪡 Both thankfully and not thankfully, his mother was given time off, only because she had gotten sick
🪡 Mitsuya was putting in a lot of effort to helping his mother get better fast, so, when you called and he explained the situation, he was shocked when you said you were coming over with some soup
🪡 He tried to protest, claiming he didn't want you getting sick, but, you protested his protests (omg i've never typed that word that much) and you hung up after telling him you'd be there later that day
🪡 Mitsuya sighed and and laid the phone down, you really were a stubborn person when it came to things like this
🪡 When he heard the sound of his sisters yelling that a person was at the door, he got up from the kitchen stove, where he had a tea kettle and opened the door
🪡 You held out a tupperware filled with a reddish-orange thick liquid, he was guessing it was the soup you had made, probably tomato
" Love, you really didn't have to do this. " " Well, I can't have my future mother-in-law staying sick for long, now can I? "
🪡 Your boyfriend directed you to his mother's room while his sisters played in the living room, and when his mother saw you, she smiled and laughed, teasing her son
🪡 He smiled lightly as he handed her a spoon and laid the smooth-vegetable soup in her hands, before wishing her health to reach her and leaving the room with your boyfriend
🪡 This may have not been the most ideal way for you to meet his family, but it did remind him of why he loved you, you're an amazing person with an amazing heart
✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅
Tumblr media
✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅
💢 If you met Angry, you no doubt were destined to meet his twin brother, Nahoya, or Smiley
💢 Angry has wanted you to meet his brother for a while, but, his brother could be quite a lot to take at once, and he understood that, he grew up with him for Pete's sake
💢 When you called his home one day and Smiley picked up, he pretended to be his twin brother, since he obviously wasn't gonna step up to have you meet him anytime soon
💢 He snickered once you hung up, bidding goodbye, and he began to start laughing, though he attempted to hold it in, his brother was in the next room after all
" Who was that? " " Oh, just a spam. I decided to prank the scammer, it was fun! "
💢 Angry was relaxing on the sofa, messing around with a plush you had gotten him a few days prior, by what he knew, they weren't expecting any guests, especially ones after 5:00pm
💢 When he opened the door and saw you standing there, his eyes widened and he cocked and eyebrow, asking why you showed up unannounced, and when you replied with how he asked you to come over for dinner that night, he connected the dots
" That must have been Nahoya, my brother... " " Oh! Now I'm embarrassed, I can't even tell my boyfriend apart from his brother. " " Not by voice, no, but, you'll definitely tell us apart by our physical features... "
💢 Nahoya jumped out from behind the corner and hugged you, saying how happy he was that he could finally meet the person that his brother raved about when healing or resting
💢 This was gonna be a long night...
✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅
Tumblr media
✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅
☄️ I'm gonna layer this on very thickly, he does not want you to meet his older brother, he's a sadistic man by heart, and he doesn't need you to suffer from his cruelty
☄️ Hakkai wanted you to meet his sister, yes, but, due to your busy schedules, he couldn't seem to find the perfect time where Taiju and Yuzuha were apart
☄️ So, whenever you guys had met up to hang out, he normally led you to your home and away from his, he didn't need any trouble now
☄️ But, when you came to his house unannounced, he froze in place
☄️ Oh God, why were you here now?! Taiju wasn't in the brightest moods by what Yuzuha told him, and he didn't need to risk your safety like this!
" Hakkai! Who's at the damn door?! It's takin' you forever! "
☄️ You cocked and eyebrow as he yelled out to the male how it was someone he needed to speak to outside for a few minutes
☄️ He ushered you back outside the doorway and stood with you outside his home, and he sighed, knowing you were gonna ask him a ton of questions on what was going on
☄️ Hakkai slightly teared up as you asked what was happening, and, when he just told you that they had some 'familial bonds' that were kinda rusted over, you groaned, knowing he was lying
☄️ Instead of pushing salt into the wound, you hugged him, allowing him to sigh and wipe his tears away as the door opened
☄️ He swung around to shield you as a young girl walked out, she had light-orange hair and piercing amber eyes, and when she saw you she tilted her head
" Who are you exactly? " " I'm- " " This is the person I've been telling you about, Yuzuha. Y/N, this is my older sister, Yuzuha, and this is my S/O, Y/N L/N. "
☄️ Yuzuha smiled and held her hand out for you to shake, saying how she figured he had an S/O with how cheery he was whenever he hung up the phone sometimes
☄️ Hakkai got flustered and tried hiding his face as you and Yuzuha exchanged stories about Hakkai being a dork as he mumbled about how you guys were 'ganging up on him'
707 notes · View notes
sillygoofyqueer · 1 month
Note
Ooh, for Shen Yuan’s looks I was thinking a black, blue and silver theme, to Bing-ge’s black, red and gold.
(You can’t tell me emperor Bing-ge, also the Huan Hua Palace master, doesn’t have at least some gold in his formal outfits).
If you look at crow feathers, they have a sort of blue sheen in the right lighting, so blue would be quite fitting!
I also like the idea of his hair being mostly elegant and classy, but with some cute little braids that include colored threads weaved in them, plus shiny bobbles and feathers hanging off the ends. The braids are from his crow family members. It’s a traditional grooming practice!
Anon I am MADLY in love with you. We're going to high five and hug and frolic in the fields together if I ever find out who you are. The idea of little braids being in otherwise elegant hair really fits with my perception of "mainly classy Shen Yuan until his bird instincts kick in (he's also a little gremlin before that)", because he obviously wants to keep his hair neat and presentable but he also has the natural instinct to let people braid his hair to show affection! (Definitely have to have a wholesome little scene where Shen Yuan shows Bing-ge how to braid his hair in the traditional fashion). I love the idea of shiny things being in his hair as well, through shiny beads and threads. BONUS POINTS if he has a shiny little thing that holds his hair up and counts as a little dagger (gifted by one of the others in the crow family as a precaution. Can also be traditional for those who come of a certain age!) On another note, thinking about Shen Yuan in half human form. He retains his wings and I like to think he has spatterings of feathers crawling up his spine and the back of his neck, around the edges of his cheeks maybe? He looks mainly human, but I'd find it cool if he still had those little patches of feathers (like when you see patches of scales on a dragon-shifter type character)
Tumblr media
Oh, this is so fun. I've always loved a protective family, and I love Bing-ge being struck by the audacity of the crow family and also jealousy because nobody ever acts like this about him!! His wives do, he supposes, but that's for their own selfish reasons! They don't really care about him like the crow family cares for Shen Yuan. The crow family is only not attacking him because Shen Yuan has said that it's "not cool" to attack the emperor, or whatever. Corvids can mimic that stuff?? Oh my god, the ANTICS! Shen Yuan would totally use it to mess with people when he's bored, jumpscaring people and having fun with story time for the kids. He would also use it when stealing, so that he doesn't have to needlessly hurt anyone to get to the shiny thing he covets, the human side of him holding him back. I'd find it super funny that when the crows (cultivating or not) meet Bing-ge, a few start spurting out every curse they've ever heard from humans, and Shen Yuan has to explain that they're mimicking what they hear people say, they don't mean it! (probably-) {part five! Part one, part two, part three, part four, part six, part seven!!}
164 notes · View notes
joeys-babe · 2 months
Text
Joey B Imagines: Two Of Us*
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Summary: More Father’s Day festivities!
(Part Two to - Part 1)
Warnings: Fluff, LITTLE angst, smut (f & m receiving oral)
Pairing: Joe Burrow x reader
Imagine Universe: Into The Mystic
Tumblr media
June 16, 2024 - Continuation of part one!
After dinner was done, I was setting the table while Joe tiptoed into the living room to wake the twins up from their post-swimming naps.
A blissful grin formed on my lips as Joe bent over and lightly ran a big hand over Tyson’s back.
“Hey, bubba. Dinner’s ready.” - Joe
Tyson started squirming around, letting out soft toddler grunts before leaning up and looking up at his dad. He rubbed his little eyes before lifting his arms and making grabby hands towards Joe. Joe easily tucked his hands under Tyson’s arms and lifted him into his chest, Tyson immediately melting into Joe when he laid his little head down onto his shoulder.
Joe used one arm to support Tyson before bending down and gently ruffling Miles’s hair. He got up quicker than Tyson, immediately peeking up when he smelt food. The way he stood up with a big sniff made Joe and I laugh, and soon, we were all sitting down at the table.
I left the music on but turned the volume down, so it was a lot softer. Joe had just settled next to me when Two Of Us by The Beatles came on. Hearing the love song start playing, Joe reached over to my lap and laced his fingers with mine.
During dinner, Tyson recalled the crazy dream he had where he and Joe fought a dragon to save the kingdom they lived in.
“Were you the king?” - you
“No. That’s Daddy!” - Tyson
“If I'm the king then you were a prince.” - Joe
Tyson nodded his head, thinking about what more he could say to add to the dream. Of course, it was obvious that after a certain point, he was just making it up as he went.
“And Daddy could fly!!” - Tyson
Joe gently nudged me with his elbow under the table, and I couldn't help but laugh. Something about Tyson making up more to the story made it sweeter.
After dinner, I made Joe sit on the couch so that I could give him his gifts. I sent Miles and Tyson off as well to grab what they had made for him. By the time they came back, I was sitting next to Joe, sneaking a few kisses with him before the boys could see.
“You guys go first.” - you grinned
Tyson and Miles handed Joe the cards they made, and I watched his heart melt before my eyes.
“Aww. Thanks, guys.” - Joe
Joe pulled them both into a big bear hug, pressing a kiss to both of their heads before they ran off to play. Though the boys lost interest fast, when my gaze left their little bodies running up the stairs and back over to Joe, I noticed that his eyes were misty as he looked over the cards.
“You okay?” - you
I reached out and rubbed his back. Joe only pretended like he didn't know what I was talking about and shrugged before sniffling.
“Me? Yeah, I'm perfect.” - Joe
“Aww, baby.” - you
Chuckling, I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and pulled him into me. I gave his forehead a few kisses before pulling away and grabbing his three gifts.
“Woah, you spoiled me.” - Joe
“I wouldn't say that yet. You could not like everything.” - you
Joe rolled his eyes and shook his head, and I put his first gift in his lap. A smile formed on my lips as he slowly pulled it out of the bag. It was just a plain cardboard box on the outside, so he looked at me rather confused.
“What is this? Is there a bomb in this?!” - Joe
I laughed at his super-animated scared face, which immediately ended when he joined in with my laughter.
“No bomb. It’s a custom LEGO set. It’s our back porch, including all of us in character form. I even got a baby character even though she isn't here yet.” - you
“That’s sick. Can we build it tonight? After the boys go to bed? I was thinking we could do a little date night in bed. Last night, I looked up how to make some cool mocktails. We can try a couple if you want.” - Joe
“Sounds fun. I made pumpkin pie, too. We can eat that in bed and put a movie on while we sip on some mocktails.” - you
Joe nodded, happy that we'd get to have a little makeshift date. It was then that I handed him his next gift, and Joe gasped when he opened the velvet box to see a dainty yet masculine gold chain necklace in it. It had five alternating stones, and Joe looked up at me for an explanation.
“It’s your birthstone, mine, the twins, and baby girl’s. So hopefully she doesn't decide to come early or late.” - you
“It’s awesome. I love it. It was probably very expensive, though. You didn't have to do this for me.” - Joe
“Of course I did. You deserve everything and more for all you do for me and those boys.” - you
Joe just looked at me, not exactly knowing what to say in return, so he put the chain back in the velvet box. I grabbed his last gift and handed it to him moments later.
It was a velvet bag, and when Joe opened it, he pulled out a silicone wristband. It was plain orange, so again, he looked at me for an explanation.
“Look on the inside.” - you
He did as I had said, smiling when he saw what was there. In a black block letter font, it had my initials, the twins, and the baby’s. I knew he wore his wristbands 24/7, so he would have a piece of us with him all of the time, especially on the field.
“This is so cool. It’s like I’ll always have you guys with me.” - Joe
“Mhm. Exactly.” - you
“Thanks, baby. I love everything.” - Joe
Joe leaned forward and pulled me into a hug. I leaned into him for a few seconds before pulling back and giving him a quick kiss.
“I was right when I said you spoiled me.” - Joe laughed
“We aren't done with the spoiling just yet! You have one last surprise. It’s in your office.” - you
I laughed when Joe bit his lower lip and wiggled his eyebrows at me, knowing his office was where we would sneak off during the day because the twins would think Joe was working if they noticed we were gone.
“Not that!” - you
After lightly slapping his bicep to tell him to cut it out, we both got up from the couch and made our way to Joe’s office. Joe, of course, had to give me some assistance to get up, but I couldn’t complain about my handsome husband using his football muscles to help me.
“Is something gonna jump out at me?” - Joe
I rolled my eyes at his silliness before pushing open the door. Joe plopped down on the leather couch facing the projector screen, waiting patiently for his last surprise. When I rolled out a little cart, Joe was completely confused with what he saw.
“What is that? Is… is that lube??” - Joe
Again laughing at him, Joe looked at me with pure seriousness.
“It’s a gel, Joe. It’s an at-home ultrasound machine.” - you
Joe’s jaw dropped open at the surprise. Though he always tried to make it to every single one of my appointments, there were times that he couldn't make it due to football or brand partnership-related things. Knowing that I had to go into an ultrasound alone made him feel devastated every time, even going as far as to question if football was even worth it.
This was the last thing he expected, and it was so thoughtful that he couldn't help his eyes getting watery. It took me a minute to notice, but when I did, I walked toward the couch and wrapped my arms around his shoulders.
“Aww, baby.” - you
Joe buried his head into my neck, muffling his sniffles.
“Thank you.” - Joe
“You’re so welcome. Do you want to try it out? You can be my ultrasound tech.” - you giggled
After looking through the instructions and getting it working, along with figuring out how to work it, I laid back on the couch, and Joe was lifting my shirt.
“You good?” - Joe
“Perfect.” - you nod
I watched as he applied the gel to my stomach before placing the transducer on it. He started moving it around, recalling everything he'd watched during my ultrasounds. I couldn't help but giggle at the focused look on his face as he searched for the heartbeat, and a few moments later, we heard the familiar whooshing sound.
“I did it!” - Joe
Joe did a little happy dance in his office chair, drawing a laugh from my lips before my eyes were glued to the monitor.
“If this whole NFL thing ends badly, I could always do this.” - Joe
I rolled my eyes at him before he leaned down for a kiss. We wrapped up a few minutes later, and Joe cleaned my stomach up for me.
We shared an embrace for a few moments, just giving each other light touches as we held on to one another.
“I love youuuu.” - Joe
“I love you too.” - you grinned
-
Thirty minutes later, we all subsided into the living room to watch a movie before the twins had to go to bed. I was sprawled out on the couch on my back, Joe lying on his side with his back against the back of the couch as he tucked himself into me. Joe had his head on my chest, his arm thrown around me just above my bump.
Now and then, I’d lean over and press a kiss on his forehead. Joe, in turn, would cuddle deeper into me. I had one arm around his shoulders to go between playing with his messy curls and rubbing his back while my other hand gently rubbed the arm of his that was draped over my middle.
I loved cuddling with Joe. I never took it for granted, feeling thankful that I had a man who loved laying with me just as much I loved laying with him.
Joe slowly started falling asleep, and I grinned when I felt his eyelashes flutter closed against my neck.
The twins were both on one of the loveseats, intently watching one of their favorite movies, Ratatouille. A blissful smile spread on my lips as I watched the reflection of the TV in their baby blue eyes.
-
When the movie ended, though it was nine o'clock, the twins still seemed to have all of the energy in the world. They ran around the dark living room playing what they called ‘jungle’ where they were both tigers - “Like the mascot for Daddy’s team” - running through a deep jungle.
I was surprised that Joe hadn't woken up yet because they weren't necessarily being quiet. It had been a long day, and I was feeling tired, so I let my eyes close for a few minutes.
I reopened my eyes when the room fell silent, a clear sign that the boys were up to something. My eyes snapped open to see Miles and Tyson standing at the foot of the couch. Miles was holding my phone, pointing it toward Joe and me.
Miles would do this regularly. Taking my phone and videoing or taking pictures of Joe and me. I smiled when I saw the little grin on his lips, and Tyson was standing right behind him with a matching expression.
He angled the phone back down, seemingly done taking the video but not quite figuring out how to stop it.
“Mommy, help.” - Miles
Miles toddled over to me, handing my phone back to me, and I gasped when I saw my screen.
He hasn't been videoing. He was live on my Instagram. Miles was attached to my hip 24/7, so he knows how to take a video on Instagram stories. If you go to the camera and swipe to the end, you're on the live option. He must've pressed the button thinking it was starting a video, but instead, it started a live video that thousands of people were watching.
“Holy shit.” - you mumbled
I quickly ended it after that, but it was too late. Gracie Mcpherson sent me a text quickly after I ended it.
One of the boys livestreaming you and Joe’s cuddle sesh?? 😂
I guess so!! Did you happen to screen-record it? I need to see the damage. 😭
Attachment: 1 Movie
Thankfully, you can't see the messiness of our kitchen in the background. What you can see, though, is Joe fast asleep on my chest while I rubbed his back.
He's gonna get so much shit for this, you thought. Because of that, I started getting nervous, so I shook Joe awake.
“Mph..” - Joe
“Joe. Wake up.” - you
I continued shaking his shoulder till he leaned up, rubbing a hand over his face before locking eyes with me.
“What’s up?” - Joe
Handing him my phone with Gracie’s screen recording up, Joe’s eyes went wide when he realized what he was watching.
“Oh my god. Is it Miles recording?” - Joe
“Mhm.” - you nodded
I was honestly worried to see what his reaction would be, nervous that he'd be mad about it. I’d understand if he was, though. Joe was a private person, and his wife cuddling him was just live-streamed for everyone to see, and that's including his teammates, who will surely give him shit for it.
After the video ended, Joe handed me my phone back with a sigh.
“Are you mad?” - you
I searched his eyes for any sign of emotion, along with reading his body language. He seemed more tame than I expected.
“No. I'm not mad. Would I have wanted that to be out there? No. But it is, so that's that. Nothing I can do to go back in time and wipe it.” - Joe
“I shouldn't have closed my eyes for a couple of minutes. Miles wouldn't have taken my phone then.” - you
“Hey, hey. No. We’re not gonna do that, okay? This isn't your fault.” - Joe
I looked up at Joe with misty eyes, my raging pregnancy hormones making me feel even worse than I should.
“I just feel bad because you're so private, and such an intimate moment was just shown to everyone. You're probably gonna get made fun of by the guys, too. The media- they'll say stuff too. I'm sorry, Joe.” - you
Joe pulled me into his arms, my head going onto his shoulder as he ran his fingers through my hair and shushed me.
“It’s fine, baby. Seriously. If I get made fun of for cuddling with my wife, then so be it. In my eyes, that's a pretty amazing thing to be made fun of for.” - Joe
My crying slowed down, and I pulled away from his neck with a sniffle.
“How are you acting so okay about this?” - you
Joe chuckled, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and pulling me back into him before he pressed a couple of kisses to my forehead.
“It’s not that big of a deal to me. A year ago? I probably would've freaked. But I'm in a mental state right now where I don't care about what people say about us or me. My relationship and marriage with you are my number one priorities. So why would I care if people see that?” - Joe
I didn't know what to say. I thought Joe would have the complete opposite reaction, so I was distraught.
“I’m gonna put the twins to bed, okay? We can have our little date in bed after. Just relax, Mama. No big deal.” - Joe
“Are you sure?” - you
“I’m so sure.” - Joe
Before he climbed over me to get off the couch, Joe’s lips met mine in a soft kiss. Joe tried to put as much comfort into it as possible.
I watched him scoop Tyson up in one arm while holding Miles’s hand with the other as he walked up the stairs. After watching his tall frame disappear, I got up off of the couch.
I walked (waddled) into the kitchen and grabbed two slices of pie and the can of whipped cream for Joe and me before going upstairs and into our bedroom.
As I was walking there, I passed the bathroom across from the twins' room, where the door was wide open, and the scene inside made me grin.
Miles and Tyson were sitting on the counter, both holding their toothbrushes in their mouths as Joe stood in front of them, demonstrating with an imaginary toothbrush and walking them through brushing their teeth. I watched only for a few moments before I continued walking to the end of the hall.
-
Around twenty minutes later, Joe came striding into the bedroom with a smile on his face. His smile was infectious, so I couldn't help but match his expression.
“What’re you smiling at?” - you
“My gorgeous wife and that piece of pumpkin pie.” - Joe
I giggled as he rubbed his hands together and launched into bed next to me. Joe got comfortable under the covers before I put the plate of pie on his lap. He got a piece on his fork and was bringing it to his lips when he abruptly stopped.
“Fuck.” - Joe mumbled
“What’s wrong?” - you
He put the plate back on my lap and got out of bed, doing a silly run out of the door. He was gone for a few minutes before he came back with two drinks in his hands.
“Okay. If it’s bad, it’s definitely my fault. Everyone in the comments under recipe loved it.” - Joe
“Good to know.” - you
Joe crawled back into bed, finally taking a bite and making appreciative groans when he did. The first couple of sounds were normal before he started making louder, more exaggerated noises in hopes of making me laugh.
“Is it good?” - you laughed
He put a finger up before dramatically chewing up his bite and slapping his lips together before answering.
“Yes.” - Joe
“Alright.” - you chuckled
I grabbed the can of whipped cream off of my nightstand to put it on my slice of pie. Before I put it back down, Joe tapped my shoulder. I turned back towards him to see his head tipped back and mouth widened, asking for me to spray some in his mouth.
Giggling to myself as I shook the can up again, I pointed the top of the can into Joe’s mouth and sprayed a bunch in there. I watched his eyes go wide when I hadn't stopped a few seconds later, the whipped cream tower now touring out of the confines of his mouth.
When I pulled the can away from his mouth, Joe tilted his head up and let the mountain fall into his hands, some landing on his adorable face.
“What the hell, baby?” - Joe chuckled
He got up and went into the bathroom, probably to wash his hands, and while he was away, I took a sip of the Shirley Temple drink he had made for me.
“Mmmmm.” - you
Joe walked back into the bedroom, whipping his shirt off before pulling his sweatpants down his legs as well.
“Taste good?” - Joe laughed
I hadn't noticed his presence yet, so my eyes went wide when I looked over to see Joe only in his boxers. My gaze moved from his perfect face down to his torso before they moved lower. I shamelessly let my eyes linger on his crotch for a few heartbeats before I looked back up to his eyes. A knowing smirk found its way onto Joe’s face. He knew exactly what I was looking at.
Joe pretended to yawn, running a hand through his hair and purposely flexing his bicep. My eyes widened once again, and Joe had to chuckle when he got the reaction that he wanted.
“You’re so cute.” - Joe
He crawled into bed a second later, and we shared small talk as we ate our pie and drank our drinks.
“Did you have a good Father’s Day?” - you
“Are you kidding?! I had the best Father’s Day. Thanks for everything, baby.” - Joe
Joe leaned in and pressed his soft lips to mine. It was an innocent, sweet kiss at first, but when he pulled away, I smashed my lips back into his. He was taken aback at first at how quickly things heated up, but he went along with it because I had initiated it.
We were just starting to let our hands wander when Joe’s phone started ringing. He disengaged his lips from mine with an audible pop before rolling over and getting his phone off of his nightstand.
“It’s Ja’Marr.” - Joe
“You should answer then. If he’s calling this late, it's probably important, right?” - you
Joe nodded and answered the call, immediately rolling back over to me after saying a greeting. He attached his lips to my neck with his phone on his ear, one of my hands making its way into his messy curls. Joe, knowing my body like the back of his hand, found my sweet spot and made sure to suck on it. I gripped his hair, and he groaned into my neck.
It was after that that he detached his lips to mumble, “Yes. I'm in bed with y/n.” As soon as he finished his sentence, he went back to kissing my neck.
A few moments later, Joe pulled his head away after Ja’Marr said something I couldn't quite hear. Joe pulled the phone away from his ear and put him on speaker.
“Alright, you're on speaker.” - Joe
“Okay, thanks. Ya know I've gotta address it, Mrs. B. Does Joey B always cuddle on your chest like that?” - Ja’Marr
I giggled at the question, and Joe rolled his eyes, laying his head on my shoulder as he held the phone to my mouth.
“What if I told you he's doing it right now?” - you
Joe rolled his eyes yet again, and I heard Ja’Marr laugh.
“So he does it a lot?” - Ja’Marr
“Yup. I love it, though.” - you
“Ohhh. That's good. I was thinkin’ that girls weren't into that. Like they liked layin’ on our chests. Not the other way around.” - Ja’Marr
I grinned as Joe rubbed his cheek into my shoulder, my hand combing through his curls as I thought of what to say back to Ja’Marr.
“You have a lot to learn when it comes to women Ja’Marr. Joe and I can teach you, though.” - you
“Nah. I’m not trying to get married and be boring just yet.” - Ja’Marr
“Marriage isn't boring.” - Joe
Ja’Marr only laughed, and there were a few seconds of silence following it. During those seconds, my gaze fell on Joe’s perfect lips, so I leaned down to kiss him.
“Y’all have kids and shit. You can't have fun anymor- are you guys fuckin’ kissing??” - Ja’Marr
I pulled away from Joe with a giggle, immediately noticing his flushed cheeks.
“Yeah, and? Joe’s my husband. I'm allowed to kiss him. And Ja’Marr… you realize I'm pregnant now right?” - you
“Yes…?” - Ja’Marr
“And you know the twins are two. So that means they were here when I got pregnant.” - you
“Yup. I don't know where you're going with this, Mrs. B.” - Ja’Marr
“You know where babies come from right?” - you
I heard Joe laugh into my neck when he realized where I was headed with the joke.
“Yes ma'am.” - Ja’Marr sighed
“So if I got pregnant while already having two kids… that means that Joe and I are still having fun even if we have kids.” - you
I dramatically gasped to add to the effect, and Ja’Marr went silent on the other line. He usually teases the hell out of us when he notices a hickey on either of us or sees us kissing, so it’s funny to see him go silent over the same subject.
“I don't need to know about y'all havin’ sex. That's nasty.” - Ja’Marr
“Are you sure? You don't want to know about how much Joe loves it when-” - you
“No no no no!! Bye, guys. Goodnight.” - Ja’Marr
Joe and I erupted into laughter as Ja’Marr quickly hung up. Joe rolled over and put his phone back on the nightstand before he pulled me back into his chest and pressed his lips to mine.
“Let’s continue, shall we?” - Joe
I never fully answered and just pulled his face back to mine. We made out for a while before Joe groaned and pulled away to catch his breath. He was getting too worked up to keep going.
After watching Joe’s heaving chest for a moment, I rolled over, reaching over on my nightstand for the bottle of whipped cream.
“I kinda want more dessert.” - you
Joe looked up at me when I said that and noticed that I was shaking up the bottle of whipped cream.
“Do you want me to grab you another slice of pie?” - Joe
“No. Thank you, though. I'm feeling something different.” - you
“Well then. What're you thinking of?” - Joe
I looked Joe up and down, making sure the trail of my gaze to his feet was an anticipatory slow movement before I flicked my eyes back to his. Sending a loaded look Joe’s way, his mouth fell open when I said my next words.
“Take your boxers off.” - you
“W- what?” - Joe stammered
“I said I wanted dessert. Didn't I?” - you
My words went right to Joe’s crotch, and the amount of blood rushing to his dick was making it hard for him to think straight. After finally blinking after twenty seconds, Joe whipped his boxers off and tossed the covers off of him.
His cock was about semi-erect, all because of me just referring to his dick as dessert. I scooted over and got comfortable between his legs before reaching out and wrapping a hand around his erection. After a few strokes, Joe was fully hard and ready for action. I took the bottle of whipped cream and spread some on his balls.
Meanwhile, Joe was mentally preparing himself for what was about to happen. The woman he was obsessed with and so down bad for was about to lick whipped cream off his balls.
What he kept repeating in his head?
Don't fucking cum as soon as her tongue touches you. Don't fucking cum as soon as her tongue touches you. Don't fucking cum as soon as her tongue touches you.
I leaned down and licked a long stripe of the cream off of him, Joe throwing his head back and immediately letting out a loud moan at the feeling.
“Holy fuck! That feels amazing.” - Joe moaned
I kept my hand on his cock, pumping away as I continued to lick the sugary product off of him. The whimpers and moans leaving Joe’s lips were loud and continuous, a byproduct of the pure pleasure he felt.
“Fuck… fuck… fuck.” - Joe panted
Joe couldn't help from moaning out. The feeling was overwhelming and insane. After getting all of the topping off of him, I continued to alternate sucking one of his balls into my mouth while I quickly jerked him off.
“Oh- oh fuck.” - Joe whimpered
I grabbed the can and once again smeared the topping on him, even trailing a line up the underside of his cock from base to tip. Though my hand wasn't fully wrapped around him, I kept my thumb on his tip and teased the slit in a way that had Joe whimpering.
“Please…” - Joe moaned
Teasing him for a few more seconds, after I was content with the way he was squirming, I leaned down and started licking everything off of his cock.
“Fuck! Oh my- fuck!” - Joe whimpered
I started with one of his balls before licking it clean and moving to the other one, repeating the process before licking a long stripe up the underside of Joe’s erection.
Joe was gripping the sheets, and his hips started bucking off of the bed, a telltale sign he was close to orgasm. The look on his face was something I'd never seen before, and I could tell he was trying his hardest to hold on as long as possible.
Noticing that he was close, I closed my mouth around his tip and slowly moved down his length inch by inch.
“Fuck, baby.” - Joe grunted
It only took a minute or so for him to throw his head back with a moan, immediately warning me that he was falling over the edge.
“Shit- I'm cumming.” - Joe moaned
Seconds later, he shot his load down my throat, and I watched him through my eyelashes as he moaned and whimpered through his climax. There was nothing hotter than that very sight, where every muscle of his was flexing and glistening with sweat, veins were popping out of his neck, chest, and arms, his chest was heaving, and his adorable face was scrunched up.
I loved knowing that this Joe was purely mine and that I was the only person that's ever seen him and had him like this. All mine.
After a few moments of cockwarming him with my mouth, I pulled off and rolled back into my spot on the bed. Any other time, I’d get a wet rag and clean him up. Right now, though, I'm almost nine months pregnant and am frankly too tired to spend five minutes trying to get up.
It took Joe a few minutes to get his breathing back to normal, but when he did, he got out of bed and went into the bathroom to clean himself up. He returned moments later and put his boxers back on before sliding back under the covers. When he did, he faced me with a dirty grin on his face, his top teeth biting his lower lip.
“Yes?” - you giggled
“Can I have extra dessert too?” - Joe
My pulse picked up when I realized what he was insinuating, and Joe crawled over me to where he was between my legs after pulling the comforter back.
“What do you have in mind?” - you grinned
“I think you already know, Mama.” - Joe
Joe sent a dirty wink my way as he wrapped his arms around my thighs and pulled me closer to him, pulling my panties down with his teeth once I was in the position he liked.
After tossing my panties on the floor behind him, Joe helped me lean up, and he took his shirt off of my body. He tossed that as well, and the stupidly sexy smug grin formed on his lips when he propped my legs up and spread them wide. His icy stare was shooting bullets right at the heaven he believed was between my legs.
“Joey.” - you breathed out
Joe grinned at the breathlessness in my tone and grinned up at me, his eyes finally meeting my own.
“Yes ma'am?” - Joe grinned
“You’re gonna have to do this fast.” - you
“Yes ma'am.” - Joe repeated
Another wink was sent my way as Joe started to lower his head, but I abruptly stopped him, and he leaned back up. I grabbed the whipped cream off of my nightstand and offered it to him, thinking he'd want to reciprocate what I did to him.
“No thanks. You already taste perfect.” - Joe
Butterflies filled my stomach - and other places - at the words leaving his lips and the gruff, hoarse voice he spoke in. Probably due to how loud he was moaning just a few minutes ago.
“Can I start now?” - Joe
I nodded, and Joe lowered his head after licking his lips. He was acting like a kid in a candy store.
“Happy Father’s Day to me.” - Joe grinned
Tumblr media
Authors note: IDK what to say. There wasn't supposed to be smut but Joe’s been too hot lately. 😜
This came from my own head!
Hope you enjoyed!! 🫶🫶
187 notes · View notes
felassan · 3 months
Text
Dragon Age: The Veilguard info compilation Post 5
[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4]
[There are also a series of 'lil snippets' posts where I was just chucking together bits and pieces that I saw at other times: one, two, three, four, five, six]
Post is under a cut due to length.
There is a lot of information coming out right now about DA:TV from many different sources. This post is just an effort to compile as much as I can in one place, in case that helps anyone. Sources for where the information came from have been included. Where I am linking to a social media user’s post, the person is either a dev, a Dragon Age community council member or other person who has had a sneak peek at and/or played the game. nb, this post is more of a ‘info that came out in snippets from articles and social media posts’ collection rather than a ‘regurgitating the information on the official website or writing out what happened in the trailer/gameplay reveal’ post. The post is broken down into headings on various topics. A few points are repeated under multiple headings where relevant. Where I am speculating without a source, I have clearly demarcated this. if you notice any mistakes in this post, please tell me.
For notes in here on community council things in particular, I recommend to listen to the vid directly, it's always better hearing things first-hand ^^
Character Creation
"The diverse body and gender options make it an industry leader by a signifcant margin" [source]
"BioWare was keen to highlight the hair strand technology that looked very similar to that seen in FIFA and EA FC, also made under EA's roof" [source]
"Fine tuning sliders that allowed for microscopic adjustments of nose angles, it was clear that a lot of options exist to get the smallest possible body parts exactly right" [source]
"There's no specific genital customisation to be oversold as CDPR did but, much like Saints Row, there is an option for bulge customisation" [source]
Pronoun choice, gender identity, body type, and voice choice are 4 separate options, not tied together [source]
Height is customised on a slider [source]
Size is customized on a triangle like in Saints Row: the 'points' are fat, slim and muscular [source]
The different lighting options are 4 different settings: clean, bright, dim, sunset [source]
In CC you can also try out what Rook looks like in their starting rags, in typical mid-game armor, and some level 50 gear (class appropriate for each one) [source]
There's a way for you to modify your character's look once the game has started if you want to make some tweaks [source: the official Discord]
You can be any class and choose any backstory/faction, any race, any gender [source]
Story and lore
On meeting Neve in the opening, if Rook chooses to say the positive dialogue option (I think this is the thumbs up one, "You rescued yourself, I see") they say something like, "It looks like you're doing pretty well by yourself huh?" [source]
According to someone who played the game at SGF, the game has a Mass Effect 2 Suicide Mission feel to it [source]
The Shadow Dragons are kind of an anti-Venatori faction, sort of. [source] A freedom force. [source]
The Mourn Watch are kind of like the police for the Grand Necropolis [source]
The Veil Jumpers are kind of like weird magical investigators, weird magical nerds [source]
The moment right after the gameplay video ends is 👀❗❗...? [source]
On the timeskip, the Community Council were told that they were going to make it about the same amount of time in-game as the amount of time that passed in real life from the time most people would have last played DA:I [source]
Rook's faction is also referenced outside of the intro segment of the game [source]
In the gameplay reveal video that we saw, some of the Evanuris statue assets at Solas' ritual site are doubled up in error, i.e. some of them have the wrong heads. This is not supposed to be the case, they are supposed to each have a different head (bear in mind this was an early build and isn't the final build of the game) [source]
Characters, companions, romance
Go [here] to see some DA:TV doodles of the characters that a dev drew this year and last year. :> the hidden doodle is a version of Rook, hidden as they have not yet shown any of the possible hairstyles for Rook outside of the gameplay reveal video. [source]
It is Lucanis who has the purple wings [source]
His name is pronounced "Loo-khan-ess Day-ah-MORT-ey" [source]
Lucanis is hands-down "the sole dumpster fire of the crew". Mary "wrote him specifically to be a bisexual disaster of a human. You're welcome." [source]
As a name 'Rook' is closer to 'Inquisitor' than 'Hawke' [source]
The Community Council highly requested there to be 4 voices for Rook. They kept bringing it up [source] (there are 4 voices for Rook)
The Solas face model has been tweaked "a hundred times" [source]
Gameplay, presentation, performance etc
Rook can jump [source: the official Discord]
Rook can sprint [source: the official Discord]
Warrior gameplay (or at least one build of this) involves doing the right parry timing to lead to a certain attack [source]
Warriors have a dropkick ability, enemies can be dropkicked off cliffs using this [source]
According to someone who played the game at SGF said that the game ran smoothly and didn't have any bugs [source]
Companions can have an ability that heals Rook even when they are not mages [source]
Sword and shield warrior's ranged skill is like, boomeranging their shield over there [source]
In terms of the 'the game isn't open world, it's mission-based' stuff, it could be likened to Trespasser in this regard [source]
The first time the Community Council played, they asked if there is a photomode. BioWare said no, and the Council were like 'aw that really sucks, we really wanted one'. The next time that they went to play it, BioWare introduced them to a dev and said "Okay, we have photo mode, all thanks to this guy". "So there is one particular dev we all need to be kissing the feet of" because he figured out photo mode. [source] [nb, more on the Photo Mode situation here]
The current build of the game is not the final build of the game. A few things are currently being vigorously worked on [source]
Other
Someone who played the game at SGF was told that all of the choices and consequences were in the game, and that basically the team are just polishing things up right now [source]
The number of community members on the Community Council is in the double digits and they are from all walks of life. They don't have any contracts which say that they can only say positive things; they can be as negative as they want about DA media. Not every member of the council has said publicly that they were part of the group, there is nothing mandating them to do so [source]. They have not played the full game [source] and they tested it on consoles [source]. A lot of them ended up liking the gameplay [source]. They played some of the main story but they don't know how it ends. At one point they did three days of playtesting from like 9am-4pm daily. "I liked the quality, I liked what was going on, I was very invested. I did have some worries from the first playtest that were completely resolved in the second". "If you are someone who is into the story, I think we're safe, in the clear, I think we're okay. What I saw, I was really enjoying, I'm really excited about" [source]
The name change also surprised the community council. They aren't keen on the 'the'. There are a lot of things that they said to BioWare which, sometimes things just cannot change as it's too late. [source]
They did not see the finished game trailer before it released, and at that time it might have had a different song in it. They fed back that the version of the trailer that they saw was fine (what they saw was a bit different) [source]
BioWare have data on the percentage of people who used tactical view in DA:I and it's in the single digits [source]
Upkeep of the The Keep is a lot and it goes down like once a month. There have been times when it was down for weeks at a time [source]
281 notes · View notes