#'SPEAKING IN ALL CAPS IS FUN'

[maxladcomics]

So did anyone else know that Gaster is most likely a last name or was I supposed to work that out after.. what? 7 years?

[mohntilyet]

i’m having illario dellamorte thoughts. what if instead of knowingly betraying lucanis he did it like, unknowingly. idk how this would work but i’m intrigued by what it gives us. illario ‘i accidentally caused my cousin’s death & can never tell anyone’ dellamorte. genuinely grieving. blaming himself. does he take advantage of the year before lucanis comes back?? does caterina still ignore him the whole time?? how different is the canon plotline once rook shows up with lucanis post-rescue…..

anyways i would love your thoughts!!

95% of what i do with illario operates on the idea that he is frighteningly competent so you can see why the way the crows plotline plays out in the game might frustrate me. it’s also this reason why i don’t actually think too much about “illario got lucanis killed, but didn’t mean to do it”, because i like the idea that everything illario does in his life is planned to the second and that he’s too well trained to mess up this badly, if that makes sense. with that being said. 5% of my brain power does sometimes go towards “and what if he just sucked actually” and it was a theory i enjoyed before the game even released. so i have in fact been thinking about this anyway LOL . maybe he tries to honeypot zara, accidentally actually reveals lucanis’ next assassination job, and zara gets rid of him as a ‘gift’. illario is horrified and that gets even worse when lucanis’ body shows up, and he assumes this must be because he spurned zara by leaving her and not having the guts to seize power.

i think we could make his inferiority complex worse. illario’s worst fear confirmed: he is as worthless as his grandmother believes he is, botching something so badly that he accidentally sentences his cousin to death when what he wanted was lucanis just… out of the way for a bit (maybe while he kills caterina. LOL. i still think his resentment of caterina trumps his jealousy for lucanis though those two things are very intertwined its hard for him to differentiate them). so incapable that he got the only person who actually supports him killed, and now he’s dreading the idea of becoming first talon. he doesn’t want first talon without lucanis backing him, and now the only person left is caterina which is suffocating and makes him even unhappier. at least he hadn’t lived through her alone, and now through consequences of his own decisions, illario has no choice but to.

i think that would affect his plans for talon because of how horribly he’d fucked up, and tries to mask it because if he suddenly actually doesn’t want to be talon that would be a red flag for everyone. lucanis coming back would delight him (talon is within his sights again if lucanis comes back!) and freak him out. i think the plotline would actually be pretty similar because of this freak out, so he still shows up to zara’s fight to cover his tracks. lucanis can never know, caterina can never know, because what little faith they have in him will be lost. like he committed fratricide and didn’t even MEAN to😭 ...corpse whispering still happens, and zara is like “ohhh that coward. he can never finish what he started, can he?” + “elaborate.” + “i gave him what he most wanted in the world and instead of being grateful, he ran away.” so lucanis finds out about what happened but feels a mix of “illario, you idiot” + pity because turns out he didn’t even mean for it to happen, and keeps his secret for now, otherwise he’d probably have to kill him.

i also think not meaning to kill lucanis would sour his feelings towards the venatori, who are a reminder of how badly he failed, so the alliance wouldn’t happen. this does mean if the story goes on as it does in canon, he has to take desperate measures another way and kidnap caterina for some other reason but i can’t think of why….. maybe a thing where illario is like “ok. lucanis is distracted by the elven gods. this time i just have to kill nonna for real and then nothing is in my way” and recruits disgraced houses or houses that don’t like caterina to do so? not sure tbh but i don’t believe caterina made it so far without making enemies lol. this would happen post bloodbath + corpse whispering— lucanis leaves his cousin unchecked because while he knows illario didn’t mean for him to die, he has no idea how far he would go to have caterina dead. teia could find out about this and send word to foil the kidnapping and assassination attempt

so ‘murder of crows’ is still about saving caterina, the illario-lucanis fight still happens, but it’s a little more hesitant and lots of “why won’t you just let me kill her? i’m doing this for the both of us”. he’s had to live with being the un-favorite, but never would have thought lucanis would actually pick caterina if it came down to it. with all of his missteps here, i think the final decision (and i think it should be like this in canon anyway) would be to imprison illario or kill him. imprisoning him is just a lot of “i can’t kill illario as much as he couldn’t kill me”, vs killing him as is expected from him as talon, and what he knew he would have to do after finding out about illario's failures. unlike canon, where illario is actually meaning to kill him and can be seen as a 'good crow' despite the sloppiness, here he's like. just bad at everything. the allied traitor houses that went against caterina would also have to be imprisoned or killed. no happy ending at all here, and lucanis still becomes first talon. now that i’ve written it out this is actually probably the worst ending LOL

the above sticks a lot to what is canon to the game (plot points, choices, etc) and i didn’t go very far away from it so it's like canon 3 inches to the left. tho my thoughts on this are not fleshed out* because i think illario works better as an antagonist character that sets things in motion !! not necessarily the villain in a cain-abel story, but a character who opposes lucanis while still not wanting to hurt him. that kind of discipline where he finds a way to get what he wants (first talon) without compromising what he also cares for (family) is so much more fun for me than a man who apparently just loses it and decides to enact a bad plan to get rid of his cousin. if he waited 20+ years to become talon i think he’d be more careful when it came down to it. if i had my way illario would be playing insane 5d chess to rival solas (insert black sails “i once thought that to lead, to be liked was just as good as feared. and that may very well be true. but to be both liked and feared all at once, is an entirely different state of being.”)

[moonshynecybin]

fellow aquarius here! your last post RESONATED with me. curious if there’s been a particular moment where you’ve really had to sit with your aquarius nature while exploring rosquez?

i think my most aquarius trait is my militant fuckin contrarianism and i dont think they have that per say but i think they ARE deeply invested in themselves as individuals. the myth the legend the sort of. obsession with personal narrative even when it impacts other people around them. also how interested vale is in surprising people with the way he does things-- they both derive pleasure from being different ! whether that be from their ability to execute on the track or whatever. like if you go up to marc and call him a FREAK he will enjoy it so much lol

[ltlemon]

ok so maybe walking all day yesterday had repercussions .

[akkivee]

I AM BEING ATTACKED AND ASSAULTED ON ALL FRONTS

[habitual-creatures]

*Cue DIS absolutely launching at HABIT*

C0M3 H3R3, W0LFMAN!

~CHA0TICALLY, DISC0RD/🕕

*the CHASE has begun, lmao.*

[sunshinechay]

I’m gonna give Chimon the benefit of the doubt. I can buy that the first kiss was a shock and initially awkward. The next kiss(es) has to be better though or atleast open your fucking mouth. He’s worked with Perth long enough that there really isn’t any excuse at this point. If we continue to get a half committed performance from Chimon that will bring down my overall personal grade of the show. It’s already been sliding because they’ve been rushing development. Moving from one plot point to the next at 100mph. The realism and believability of the main couple is the most important thing that I look for in a bl. If I’m not sold on that then it brings down my enjoyment level of a show.

That’s absolutely fair! I’m in a similar boat myself. It’s definitely not the best in terms of execution and the show is made worse for it, but I’m still enjoying it enough to want to keep going. So far Kang and Sailom still feel believable to me (if only because they’re both 17/18 and very clearly have no experience with romance at all) and the next few episodes are going to test that in terms of their romantic relationship and I look forward to it. Kang is quickly becoming a character I enjoy watching, especially because of the way in which his family and his history are teased without everything being revealed. I am also still enjoying Sailom and his angst and his want for better for himself. I’m even here for Guy and Nawa (they’re not the enemies to lovers we were expecting, but they are the enemies to lovers we seem to be getting and I’m okay with that) and Pimfah and the student teacher (who’s name I can never seem to remember and I feel bad about that fact but it’s also my fault because every time her face appears onscreen I think of Maggie and NLMG and yeah…)

I’m a fiction writer by interest so I’m usually here for the story telling and development. Believably is definitely a big on for me as well, but I usually try to reserve my judgement until the end. If I enjoy the ride, I’ll usually score it higher, even if the show doesn’t altogether make sense/is coherent. However, I completely understand why you may not feel the same, everyone looks for different things when they go into a show. If at the end of the show, it’s just a bad now, well I guess that will be egg on my face and I’m okay with that.

My approach to any BL is to go into it with tentative optimism, varying levels of excitement and low expectations. It is very rare that my expectations are high going into a BL. The only one I can think of right now that I had high expectations going in is I Feel You Linger In The Air, which is meeting and exceeding my expectations every week. I didn’t even have high expectations for Only Friends and that show is very good as many of us knew it would be.

I do hope the show gets better and the pacing and the kisses get better, but I guess we won’t know until we get there. Still I’m on this ride until the end and I’m glad you’re going to join me Anon. It’s gonna be a wild ride either way but for now, we can only hope the ride is worth it.

[hlvrai-stuck-together]

((OOC))

Sorry I keep updating at like. midnight. I honestly dont have an excuse besides i go to work and i get home and i'm tired fghsdajk

Gonna take me a little while to get into the swing of this. I've never done an askblog like this before (though I have hosted... technically 3 in the past? (EDIT: no, 4 actually.) But never like this, and none of them went anywhere), so trying to get into the swing of it has been weird.

Glad people seem to be enjoying it, though! I had no idea it'd take off like this, aha. Hopefully I can get a bit more consistent and stop uploading at 2 AM, lol.

That said, I don't know what my schedule's gonna be (if I even start one). So if there's a couple days where I don't upload, it's not because I abandoned the AU or anything, it's probably just because I'm busy IRL.

Feel free to keep sending in asks even if I'm not online! I've already got a lot of really good ones sitting there that I'm gonna hold onto for a bit (for. reasons).

This has been really fun so far, and I hope everyone's having fun, too! Just bear with me while I figure this out. I'm hoping to get out a ref of [ERROR] soon, and also stop calling him that soon, but getting into character is proving to be a challenge when you do it on and off like this. But that's never stopped me before and it won't now. Like I said, this has been fun so far!

That said, if anyone has any suggestions on a meta level, I'm all ears. I realize now that I've run into this basically blind, so even though I did a couple week's worth of preparation in advance for this blog, I'm also still floundering a bit. Learning more every day, though! And I'm hoping I can pick up the pace soon as well. After Day 1's rapidfire replies, going at a more leisurely pace feels really slow, and I both wanna fix that but also don't know how because, like I said, I keep uploading at midnight gfdshjk

TL;DR I'm working on it dw lol

-Mod Dimonds

[puppypawprintce]

i do enjoy book harry.. i think it's nice getting to know all his inner thoughts and questions and turmoils. also the way chapter 2 of order is just every weird, unexpected thing happening all at once. i didn't remember any of this happened

petunia's howler got me. like what a great way to finish off all the madness in that family discussion (if you can call it that, more like an interrogation) the relief and catharsis of harry actually being listened to. as well as the moment where he, assumedly expelled, is like you literally can't hurt me nothing i cast will harm me any more than i already am

and also just the raw conversation about voldemort is refreshing too. like good lord finally SOMEONE else is thinking sensibly, and is pale-faced at the notion of him returning. i wanted to gnaw on a stick this whole chapter, but nonetheless good start im very excited to keep reading

[bookwyrminspiration]

PRIDE MONTH WIN GOT ASKED IF I’M A BOY OR A GIRL FOR THE FIRST TIME !!

[werewolf4vampire]

there's a new really terrible kind of person on the internet i've noticed lately who thinks it's totally okay to belittle someone's trauma if they're, like, kinda sorta annoying or whatever, and/or if it sounds like something that "shouldn't" cause trauma. like they legitimately think that they, as a complete and total stranger, can decide whether or not someone else is ~actually~ traumatized

recently someone i know - who did, in fact, grow up in a cult - tried to see a new therapist for EMDR. when they mentioned religious trauma during the first visit, she practically laughed in their face and told them it's ~just a buzzword~ and not actually a real thing (and that you can only get trauma from being raped, suffering severe physical abuse, or almost dying) so like. idk, maybe promoting the idea that people frequently exaggerate or just simply make up trauma (and supposedly for fucking clout of all things) actually has real world implications and doesn't make for a little funny haha tumblr post lmao

[diodellet]

ya girl is back on her bullshiet lets see what gets finished first: this vampy!reader wip, my final papers, or me🥴🥴🥴

[pipskippy]

beast infodump i like them a lot

[bytesyoubytesyou]

idfk WHO is anxious rn but they are really bringing down the vibe also our body feels like garrrrrrbageeeeeeee wish bats would just take some fucking gummies and put us all out of our misery but she’s being a FUCKING PAIN IN THE ASS about everything on earth

[unproduciblesmackdown]

being alive at the time i gleaned some general elements abt encanto but never actually heard we don't talk about bruno beyond awareness it existed popping off & i think i heard like the title recited off key off rhythm but in a way that indicates speak singing nonetheless lol so upon experiencing it it's like oh but it's the Verses? while the last refrain goes harder but prior to that it's comparatively underwhelming to said verses which feels appropriate like verses / pieces of a larger picture & that a "we don't talk about him" as a disappointing Lid on infinitely richer more characterful & dynamic "but: talking about him" instances. like well personally it'd be like um seven foot frame....anyway besides being able to firsthand go like oh damn Real (the kind of thing you know exists if alive at the time) it's like alright hang on lol. one thing when a core theme is yeah like "is it a refuge if 'especial' vulnerability ultimately gets pushed out rather than made safer" subset like the parties whose even observation of truths (problems) & drawing attention to them is seen as Ruining Things, like if you're painted as Making futures that aren't simply what's desired or reassuring rather than a guidance via just observing & sharing the truth. but then it's like whaddaya mean living in fear of bruno stuttering and stumbling you could always hear him sort of muttering and mumbling lmao like now that's just Association between the Truth Perceiving & Telling behavior & behavior that's just apparently distinctive of the same person. & like Not Accidentally when [what if people were magic] specifics are obviously primarily abt a metaphorical meaning & like, indeed it was made clear like oh this situation isn't Just b/c [boo we hate your prophecies] & that [an Ability that isn't directed towards what anyone Wants / is "weird" even by these magic standards] isn't Coincidentally given to someone who just so happens to already be "weird" in other ways & be set up to have a different perspective & be pushed away due to having the supposed "extra" vulnerability of unmet needs / insufficient support, same as someone who doesn't "correctly" have any kind of magic ability....like yeah banger and also like Oh Yeah Kind Of Devastating re: that metaphorical resonance allowing for like [set the metaphor aside] now hang on with this about this disabled family member lol. misinterpretation to The Ruinerrr / The Problemmm / The Maliciousss etc (i.e. the scapegoatinggg) despite their efforts likely entirely to the contrary. then despite like, efforts aside, Just Existing, always kind of muttering & mumbling like & what of it. & then like oh sorry weird pets. weird [auspicious for adaptable tenacious thriving surviving; either way simply creatures, existing] pets.

truly like As Is The Idea I'm Sure quickly becomes like hands behind back standing at the window Uh Oh Sisters musing on all the [disabled person] metaphorical & already literal elements there. blair witching it in contemplation like We've All Been There whether being so resented for the mere disruption of "existing in a group as the 'abnormal' odd one out" or like people talking shit abt anything associated w/you as soon as you've left the room, which is also made relevant like, this wasn't Only directed at this person when seemingly permanently gone, nor were they unaware / unaffected prior....pacing in the Musing parlor like things don't Have to be compared to billions but i only ever even see so many things & it's like billions sure is like "get scapegoated rword" & then said scapegoating is presented as only beneficial & we hate autists & even beyond that it's like, grabbing billions, Imagine If Things Meant To Be About Something Were About Something. quite a contrast when they are & furthermore like, deliberate thought & Care for [who gets scapegoated & why] & the truth of like, people getting pushed aside & out who have a key perspective & are primed / liable to come through for others similarly vulnerable & the supposedly Ruinous, Problems Generating disruptiveness is actually the strongest effort to make essential changes to a group. & come through with like, it'd be undermining thee point if it was "reassuring" us like oh haha people will be supportive b/c bruno will be more normal, so great that it Didn't like no, no Normality Reassurance(tm), presence of abnormalities(tm), Good, & everyone Can Deal b/c if you don't then it's pushing this person away, is exactly what happens, including even if they're still Around but are being mistreated b/c that is entirely part of that pushing away like anyone's victim blaming is ready to pounce at any time but if someone can't stand to stay / leaves b/c they can't see another option like that's not out of nowhere nor Regardless of what full support & flexibility they were getting lol. these Active Measures everyone loves so much, which are everywhere always & would include Staying & Trying To Make It Work & those efforts would be "disruptive" & resented & Bringing It On Oneself & etccc smh

that is to all say like. Woww when clearly basically the core thread was these beats of like, the crucial site of [thee scapegoated], & why that comes down on someone & how that plays out. endless ideas about how someone weird(tm) & disabled (&/or queer. but there's no Or here lol. & again like it's a Context like, to even be the one person without kids? likely not living up to "full" correct sexuality in that way alone; any oppression's logics of "inferiority" being logics of ableism, ready examples being that "inferior" race, gender, sexuality (& their experiences as people classed as inferior) all being pathologized as disordered) are seen & treated as someone Ruining Things & who cannot belong like whew. bracing. winding. which, i also recall like i was watching with headphones & during this one dialogue pause i was like "?? what's this Extra Sound i heard there" & had to go over it like twice before being hit upside the head like well it Was still the dialogue pause but it was also bruno Stuttering in a very quiet whisper for the duration of that pause before continuing like iiiiiiii x_x

[vampirepuppygirl]

I wish I could actually have fun playing ffxiv again.