#15ish years later

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Squaaad

[imperator-kahlo]

OK what even is happening with the Crows

I’ve just been trawling through the wiki and World of Thedas for a few hours trying to figure out what we (a) know, (b) can guess, (c) can speculate wildly about the inner workings of the Crows during the Dragon age.

(I am by no means an expert on the lore so please let me know where I have wildly missed the mark).

I'm definitely not trying to propose any kind of fanon consensus, where's the fun in that?! Just trying to figure out a timeline that makes sense to me. Possibly also toying around with a pre-canon Rookanis fic.

Loooong and probably insanely disorganised text post under the cut. I should have been in bed hours ago but I am hyperfixating on this and will not sleep until I hit post.

Spoilers, so many spoilers below: Veilguard, Tevinter Nights, The Silent Grove, Origins, Awakenings, the entire franchise basically.

So, a speculative timeline. Events in black are fairly or very well supported by the lore; events in blue are inconsistent/uncertain in the lore; events in purple are guesses that I can sort of back up; events in red are me throwing a dartboard at the wall.

Note: The wiki puts the events of "Eight Little Talons" in 9:44 Dragon, but I can't find any source for that. I would have guessed a little later, but let's roll with 9:44.

Also, I'm pretty unclear on the guildmaster/grandmaster distinction. I'm just going to say 'head of house' for whoever is in charge of a Crow house, or Talon if they're head of one of the eight Talon Houses.

Blessed Age

8:70 Blessed - Caterina born (she's described as well into her 70s during Eight Little Talons and as around 80 in the data-mined character descriptions for Veilguard, so give or take a couple years this seems right).

9:00 to 9:29 Dragon: House Arainai Shenanigans

9:00 Dragon - Antivan civil war, beginning of the "much maligned" Three Queens era (Codex, History of Kirkwall - Chapter 4). Unclear exactly what happens or over what period of time, but seems like the Crows would be in the thick of things.

9:05 - 9:10 - Caterina maybe reaches Talon status (not First, though). Around 8:98 Blessed would be the absolute earliest she could get there given Teia's holds the record (youngest Talon at 28). But I think Teia was at least three or four years younger than any previous Talon so I'd put it somewhere around here, if not a few years later.

9:12 Dragon - Zevran, aged 7, is purchased from a Rialto brothel by House Arainai. The House is led by First Talon Talav Arainai and described as rolling in coin after the "Three Brides" contract - they purchase 17 other slaves that year, including Taliesen (World of Thedas, vol 2, p. 96). I think based purely on vibes that House Arainai is fairly secure in First Talon position and has been there at least a couple years, probably longer.

9:15ish Dragon - Teia born (she's described as 28 in the data-mined descriptions, but she's already a Talon in 'Eight Little Talons', which says she was the youngest ever to reach the rank at age 28. I'm assuming she got there a year or two before the events of the story. See 9:17.

9:16 Dragon - whoops, sometime over the last four years it all went to shit for Talav Arainai! The House dropped to Second Talon, and he was executed in 9:16 after trying to take back the seat of First. Isadora Arainai takes over, and the House hangs on as Second Talon... for now. Rinna joins House Arainai and immediately works well with Zevran and Taliesen under the mentorship of Eoman Arainai (World of Thedas, vol 2, p. 96). This would be the earliest that Caterina could reach First Talon, but I'm not sure I'd put it this early. I think the latest she could possible reach First would be 9:25ish based on my guesses about House Velardo (see below).

9:17 Dragon - Lucanis born (described as 36 in the data-mined character descriptions. I know I threw out those descriptions for Teia, but I think we can be pretty certain Lucanis is mid thirties).

9:17 Dragon - Teia born. I was going back through Eight Little Talons and my initial read was wrong. Teia is 28 during the events of the story.

9:24 Dragon - House Arainai, having the sort of shitty luck they absolutely deserve, falls entirely out of the rank of Talons when Second Talon Isadora dies. They wallow amongst the cuchillos (minor houses) for a few years (World of Thedas, vol 2, p. 96).

9:22 - 9:27 - House Velardo attempts to usurp First Talon from House Dellamorte? The resulting war kills all of Caterina's children and grandchildren, save Lucanis and Illario. My reasoning here is this: Lucanis says he and Illario would have ended up with Caterina to train, but being orphaned sent them to her younger than anticipated. Zevran was purchased at age 7, so we know Crow training, at least for House Arainai slaves, begins very young. Perhaps the non-slave children of influential house leaders start later, but I would guess not much. So I'm assuming they end up with Caterina sometime between ages 5 and 10?

9:25 Dragon - King Maric is thought lost at sea, but is in reality being held by Third Talon Claudio Valisti in a Crow prison on behalf of a Tevinter Magister, Aurielion Titus.

Side note: I had the same reaction to finding out the Crows have a super-fun torture prison as I did to finding out Weisshaupt has dungeons. Just... why? That feels like mission creep? Does the assassin skill set at all overlap with the prison guard skill set?

9:26 - 9:28 - Eoman takes over as head of House Arainai. He eliminates House Ferragani, which was Eighth Talon, thus clearing the way for Arainai to claw its way back into power. Unfortunately, he needs the support of Third Talon Claudio Valisti to take over the position. Valisti wants Rinna Arainai dead (cult / royal bastard reasons) and Eoman tricks Zevran and Taliesen, her lovers, into doing it. This was a very stupid decision (WoT vol 2, p. 96).

9:30 to 9:43 Dragon: Zevran's Revenge

9:30 Dragon - Zevran, depressed and angry about Rinna's death, bids for the contract on the Warden's life. House Arainai is said to have accepted this contract because they believed Loghain to be the best person to defeat the blight (WoT vol 2, p. 96).

Side note: This sort of, if you squint, reconciles the contract on the Warden's life in 9:30 with the memento found in Veilguard that says the Crows had treaties with the Wardens to fight the "next blight". But also they tried to kill the Warden-Commander in Awakenings, too. I guess one could argue a new blight was unlikely so soon but like. Come on, guys. Is your word to the Wardens worth anything or not?

9:31 - 9:34 - If Zevran survived, he comes back from Ferelden with a spring in his step and murder in his heart (and possibly a Warden on his arm) and wreaks absolute havoc on House Arainai. Eoman is first to go, then like half a dozen more of their top people. The House loses Eighth Talon and falls once more into obscurity. The Crows call Zevran (or an unnamed assassin if Zevran is dead) the "Black Shadow" and speculate that he has allies among the cuchillos (WoT vol 2, p. 96).

9:34 - 9:43 - Where the fuck is Zevran?

9:37 Dragon - Corypheus is freed (Legacy DLC). The Venatori will start to be a thing in the next few years, so Lucanis is going to pick up his nickname between now and, say 9:50 Dragon. I'd put it between 9:45 and 9:49 because of vibes (and because he talks about not immediately specialising in mages. Crows get started very young, but I dunno. I see him starting on mages in his mid twenties because, again, vibes.)

9:38 - 9:40 - Events of The Silent Grove (comic - I haven't read it in a while but I'm throwing it in here for complete-ish-ness). Alistair, Varric and Isabela break into the Crow archive and Velabanchel prison (which side note is a totally heinous operation). Isabela kills Claudio Valisti (Third Talon passes to Ezio Valisti). This, for me, raises the question again: Where the fuck is Zevran (sob). Valisti was implicated in Rinna's death, so either Zevran never found out or he couldn't get to Valisti while he was cleaning house.

9:44 Dragon - Ongoing: We're Entering Our Freedom-Fighter Era

9:44 Dragon - The events of 'Eight Little Talons'. Briefly: Caterina calls all the Talons together to plan for the imminent invasion of the Antaam, but a whole bunch of murder happens. Turns out that Fourth Talon Emil Kortez made deal with the Antaam and was trying to wipe out the Crows' leadership. He was killed by the survivors and Viago suggests--correctly, I think--that Caterina will wipe out the whole house.

The following Talons are killed but it seems like their houses will probably retain their status, with somebody else taking over as Talon:

Dante Balazar, Second

Lera Valisti, Third

Giuli Arainai, Eighth (having only just managed to lift that fucking house back up to Talonship, shame lol)

In addition to Caterina, Viago, and Teia, Sixth Talon Nero Bolivar survives, but he um, isn't much help. I would guess that Caterina, in a pretty strong alliance with Viago and Teia and with all the other Talons being new, might fuck his shit up and try to get someone more solid in before the Antaam invade?

9:44 - ongoing - WHERE THE FUCK IS ZEVRAN???? He can't have taken control of any of the eight Talon houses, because he's not at the summit in 'Eight Little Talons'-- and however much he damaged House Arainai, they've clawed back some power by 9:44. Is there a breakaway faction of cuchillo houses that Caterina won't even dignify with an acknowledgment? Is he not interested in any kind of Crow power and is just fucking shit up for them - we can assume House Valisti has had a lock on Third Talon since at least 9:28 (Claudio or Ezio Valisti pop up periodically in this position), and my guess is House de Riva have held Fifth a decent period of time, but as far as I can tell we know nothing about Second, Fourth, Sixth and Seventh Talon Houses in this period. So maybe Zev is toppling houses left, right and centre? Seems like that sort of instability might have changed Caterina's approach in 'Eight Little Talons', though...

9:51 - Lucanis imprisoned in the Ossuary.

9:51 - Antaam invasion of Antiva, starting with Treviso. The Antaam rebellion begins in 9:44 and is ongoing; the failure of Kortez in 9:44 delayed the invasion somewhat. I wouldn't have thought it would delay it this much, but I'm pretty sure that it happened while Lucanis was imprisoned, right? So since we free him in 9:52 after a year in the Ossuary, the invasion must have been delayed until 9:51? Maybe very late 9:50?

"Conclusions"

(I haven't read the comics in a bit and I know there's some Crow stuff that goes down in there beyond the Silent Grove... but as best I recall its just Teia and Viago running into Varric and Harding, and some stuff setting up Solas and the Antaam. Please let me know if I'm mistaken!)

I think it's safe to say the Crows are in chaos for pretty much the entire first half of the Dragon age: Arainai are causing chaos from 9:16 to 9:25, then they pass the torch to Velardo, whose war against House Dellamorte must have lasted a few years if it wiped out almost all of Caterina's family. Zevran is on a murder spree at least between 9:31 and 9:34, and possibly (much) longer depending on your headcanon.

After, at very best, a decade's peace, 9:44 sees the plot to wipe out the Crow leadership, which fails but does kill half the Talons and lead to the elimination of at least one, maybe two of the Talon Houses. Half a decade after that the Antaam invades.

I've been completely on board with the critiques of Veilguard's portrayal of the Crows, but I think writing it all out like this has helped me reconcile things a little bit? This is a deeply chaotic network of feuding families, and no single Talon is going to have the secure political power to make sweeping changes. Which isn't to say the child abuse that was definitely still occuring in Houses Dellamorte and de Riva during Rook and Lucanis' childhoods is just fine. But it makes more sense to me now that Houses Dellamorte, de Riva and Cantori could have wildly different ideas about slavery and torture prisons than, say Houses Arainai and Valisti--and have extremely limited power to shift the culture of competing Houses. Even the First Talon's position is deeply precarious.

Whew. Good night!

(Just realised as I was tagging that I haven't slotted The Wigmaker Job in anywhere. I thiiiiink Viago mentions in 'Eight Little Talons' that Lucanis is currently in Tevinter for a job, maybe a sly reference to Wigmaker? But I cannot possibly get sucked in any deeper, my dog is losing her entire mind at me STILL being at the computer.)

***

Waking up and editing to add: At some point in her time as a Talon (probably First but I guess maybe not?), Caterina wiped out another house so completely that Teia doesn't even recognise the name, Gaspari, when Viago mentions it in 'Eight Little Talons'. Given House Velardo was the one that made a play for First Talon, this is a whole 'nother big intra-Crows conflict that slots in somewhere on this timeline. Caterina is ruthless, y'all.

***

Editing again a few days later to report that I was flicking through WoT and spotted a WHOLE-ASS ENTRY on Claudio Valisti that I’d managed to miss. I was… not happy. I’m begging you BioWare, no more information. I cannot reconcile it.

Anyway. World of Thedas, vol 2, p 44, has Claudio Valisti taking over from his father as Eighth Talon in 9:34, quickly getting the house to Sixth Talon and appearing to be going places. This appears to contradict p. 96 of the same, which has a Third Talon Claudio Valisti helping House Arainai in 9:28, as described above.

I thought very carefully about tearing the page out, burning it, and forgetting I ever knew this particular piece of lore.

Instead I have decided fuck it, we have a father-son pair here. Senior helped out Arainai in 9:28. His house later fell to Eighth (in my incredibly unwieldy and underdeveloped headcanon this is partly because helping Arainai really pissed off Caterina). Claudio Senior dies in 9:34, Claudio Junior inherits. By the time Junior dies to Isabela in 9:38-40 he’s got the house properly back on track, so the loss of a leader doesn’t destabilise them too badly.

Ezio Valisti is Third Talon in 9:41, according to the Winter Palace announcer in Inquisition, and the house still holds the third seat in 9:44.

(Also edited Teia’s birth year from 9:15 to 9:17; I misread Eight Little Talons. She’s 28 during the events of the story.)

[boolger]

Ahem just thinking about a fic idea w John Price and reader having a fling when they were in their early twenties and promising to be there for each other or some romantic shit like that, and then the world kinda tore them apart, and they were supposed to go on one last date before John was sent out - but he was pulled to a mission and ended up ghosting reader.

and a couple of years later reader left the military possibly due to losing a limb or getting disabled in a way after a really bad mission - and then reader decided to dip out from the world and go live on a farm in the middle of nowhere — and John can’t find her anywhere and kinda forgets about her. Then like 15ish years later the 141 needs a place to stay low and Laswell sends them to Reader, without telling them who she is. And the first thing Reader does when they’re reunited is slapping John and being angry for being stood up.

But when Reader has night terrors one night while they’re there, John comforts her and apologises properly for not showing up. That date night. And they have sex and make up and the rest of the men says it’s like divorced parents getting back together and maybe they end up getting back together-

or maybe it’s more bittersweet and they just enjoy their time together but when John and the team leaves again, reader says they can’t be together and John is like “I will always wait for you.�� Kind of the one that got away vibes.

Ahem anyway, hi sinners, I already have 10+ wips

[atzjieun]

friends outside ateez

kim sunwoo of the boyz

the two met when they were just kids because they lived down the street from each other and their parents were friends

jieun became close with him because she and jihoon would sometimes spend evenings at his house when their parents were at work

they bonded a lot over their shared love of music and eventually their common dream of becoming idols

sunwoo was the one who convinced her to audition for jyp, and was also the one who encouraged her to join kq when she was scouted

they’ve always been super supportive of each other throughout the years, especially during their respective survival shows (her with sixteen and him with high school rapper)

however, the public didn’t get to know about their friendship until kingdom when jieun showed some photos of the two as children and it was revealed they’d been friends for 15ish years 

fans are begging to see more interactions between the two of them but honestly their friendship is something they like keeping out of the spotlight

jieun trusts him with her life and he’s one of the very few people that she’ll open up to without hesitation

choi “lia” jisu of itzy

they were introduced through chaeryeong and became really close in 2019! 

lia’s both like an older sister and a best friend to her 

they both know they can always go to each other when they need advice or just want to rant, but lia cares for her like a little sister and jieun really appreciates her for it

because of their idol activities they don’t get to hang out as often as they’d like, but they still designate at least one day a month to go out and catch up 

they bring out the inner gossipers in each other because every time something tea-worthy happens to one of them, the other is on speed dial and will be the first to know

they’ve both gone to each others concerts multiple times and have even attended a few other concerts together

another thing that jieun is grateful for is lia’s incredible taste in fashion because there’s been so many times that she’s texted lia from inside a fitting room to get her opinion on clothes

honestly jieun’s pretty close with all the members of itzy and has hung out at their dorms on multiple occasions, but lia’s always the one she gravitates to the most

jeon wonwoo of seventeen

goodbye they met after being queued into the same match in league of legends 😭

he sent her a friend request because she was good at the game and wanted to know some of her secrets and strats

and thus they’d occasionally play together while neither knew who the other was

it was really funny when they found out because she was doing a gaming stream and mentioned she was queued with a friend (him), but then her stream popped up on scoups’ recommendations list and he put two and two together because he could hear wonwoo’s voice in comms

wonwoo literally sent her a private message later that day being like “are you ateez’s jieun?” which lowkey gave her a heart attack ngl

her members were in shock when they found out that jieun had been playing video games with a seventeen member for all that time

they don’t really talk much outside of the topic of video games but whenever one of them has a comeback or upcoming tour, they always send nice messages to each other

taglist: @teezingsiyeon

[windybluebelles]

Batfam Ages!

WOOOOO LETS GO

This is a mishmash of canon ages in an attempt to make a coherent time line, this is in no way actual fact, these are just ages that make sense to me. Feel free to give constructive criticism if something is entirely inaccurate

Also, I think some things I’ve put in this timeline aren’t strictly canon at the moment, but I like them sooooo

Bruce Wayne became Batman at 21 after training with the league of assassins for like 3 years

Dick Grayson is 10 when his parents die,

24 year old Bruce Wayne saw it happen

And 2 year old Tim Drake was in the audience

Barbara Gordon became batgirl when she was 12 and Dick was 11

The Titans was formed when Dick was 14

When Dick was 16 he left home and became Nightwing a year later,

9 year old Tim Drake starts stalking Batman (and Robin/Nightwing)

Damian al Ghul is born when Bruce is 31

32 year old Bruce Wayne adopted 12 year old Jason Todd

Jason Todd died at 15,

22 year old Babs gets beaten by the joker and becomes disabled

Tim Drake started training to be Robin around six months later and became Robin at 13, Bruce is 36

Spoiler becomes an active Vigilante when both her and Tim are 14

15ish year old Tim gets beat up by 18 year old Jason Todd (maybe 19 idk) in Titans Tower

16 year old Tim temporarily stops being Robin,

16 year old Steph became Robin

40 year old Bruce finally meets 9 year old Damian Wayne

41 year old Bruce is lost in the time stream,

11 year old Damian becomes Robin

42 year old Bruce starts fostering 16 year old Duke Thomas

…Gang I’m gonna be honest, I know borderline NOTHING about Cass’s character, I have no clue where to put her on the time line

No idea if any of what I just wrote is in anyway correct or makes any sense, I did try and reference canon using Birthdays and such but I think I definitely fucked up Damian

The only thing im pretty sure is officially no longer canon is Tim being at the circus when Dick’s parents died, but I love that concept so much and really don’t care. Also, a lot of comics just decide to not make Babs disabled, which is a massive bummer

I’m pretty sure young Batman is only a thing from a few films but the idea of him being a vigilante when he can barely drink is funny to me

Also, and this really has nothing to do with the time line, the idea of both the teen titans tv shows and the titans comics being canon is so funny to me. Like, yes, of course they did all that wacky shit in the span of approximately 3 years (not counting after Dick becomes Nightwing)

I know people don’t like the TV shows (especially TTG) due to how badly characterised they are, but the concept is funny to me

[baddygab-bi]

Based on episode stills, it looks like there’s dry cleaning hanging in Wolf’s kitchen and then later on when he’s at the bar he’s wearing a suit. Muriel normally wears nicer pantsuits and outfits so idk, but I really think we’re talking about his dad in this episode. Likely, it’s a memorial anniversary type of deal. Because why else could Wolf be in a suit and stopping by his mom’s house? He was how old when he went camping with his dad? Early to mid teens, right? Like 15ish? (I can’t remember). And if we’re basing his current age on ZQ’s current age of 47. We could be looking at a 30 year anniversary. I see keys on the bar counter too, so Wolf is likely in a bad way— ready to drink. Might be totally wrong, but that’s my current prediction based on 3 singular stills😂

Pessimistic prediction: Wolf’s invited to some sort of formal event and it doesn’t go well and that’s why he ends up at the bar. His keys are on the counter so he’s ready to drink until he can’t drive.

[kibblemode]

I know like nothing about any of ur ocs or works so, could you sum up telling me about whichever you want so I can ask more questions in person? Please feel free to make the ask as long as possible!

stares autistically...YAYU..galaxy quest is my Main ocverse bc its almost 11 yrs old now and its just been a default in my mind since i was 11-12ish but capitalist creepshow is a close 2nd with how fleshed out it is...my oc carrd has some good info character wise but its lacking on worldbuilding + plot stuff bc im insanely character focused and suck at that shit badly LOL, also the plot/episode page and number of seasons on gq's page is outdated bc i recently like completely redid the plot and havent updated it yet 😭 anyway u can have existing gq lore. sorry if this is weirdly worded and hard to understand im at work rn 😢 i also have a couple scattered tumblr posts on random important bits of lore/character stuff ill get them later. oh ya and toyhouse if u want to see whos who or whatever. a couple side characters havent been redesigned yet but ill get there eventually lol

gq is like. a 90s-2000s CN styled adult cartoon (i always sum it up as if futurama and chowder were 1 cartoon. BIG BIG influences from chowder especially with the voice acting my goddd )..its Planned to have 5 seasons, it used to be 4 but with the new plot i had to add one to fit it in without Completely starting over on every single season lol, also perhaps 1 semi canon movie and a small side series for a bunch of silly mostly canon fillers i couldnt fit into the show itself.

so like i said im bad at having a consistent plot, also words are hard for me so ur getting a Very shitty bastardized version of what i Do have.

Basically it takes place mostly on 2 planets, earth and alkaliba(i hate this name i made it up when i was like 15ish, i just cant think of something better rn😔) its initially in 2009, but actually this is like a Different 2009. bc basically there was a mass extinction like several hundred million years ago and everything just kinda started over but like only Slightly different (sounds stupid af out loud but just trust me ok) alkaliba had existed for a Very long time the next galaxy over and it just so happens that the planet is dying and all their natural resources are fucked. so melody (lenarrs mom) set up an agreement with alkaliba that they could borror resources from earth. (melody is thousands of years old, but thats a secret lol) also melody was from another dimension Also a very powerful sorcerer and kept most of her spells and whatnot in her journal But its written in her native dimensions language which nobody on earth (except lenarr) can read. anyway she used her magic to connect the 2 planets using a series of portals called stargates (again. subject to change, also they connect to a Lot of other planets besides just earth but whatever) that allowed ppl to easily travel between the 2. bc of this alkaliba Kinda "colonized" (FOR LACK OF A BETTER WORD) earth? and that was normal for a few thousand years.

anyway for s1 jump ahead to where canon starts (2009) tix is sent to earth by meredith (queen of alkaliba, tix is her son but u dont know that until later in s1 when they actually Go to alkaliba) to pretty much track lenarr down and convince him to use his powers he inherented from melody (lenarr is not aware of this at all) to pretty much save alkaliba (BIG SPOILER. THIS IS SOMEWHAT DISHONEST. sure lenarr could Choose to save alkaliba but that would result in the destruction of earth or it could be vice versa. it cant be both BUT youll see) so he find lenarr Completely by coincidence after lenarr offers to help him bc tix has never seen snow or ice in his life and is having Difficulty. anyway this is ridiculous that i havent figured this out after 10+ years but tix does Something to convince lenarr to go with him, bc obviously lenarr would be very hesitant to. a bunch of shit happens u know the drill 1st episode shit to establish everything. i could type out a full episode 1 plot but i don't particularly want to rn😢

s2-3 is just mostly playing toys w my characters and tix teaching lenarr how to use his powers (s1 finale is when lenarr starts to Get it but u know) also s2 is noodles villain arc and s3 has eugene in it which is so fun bc i really really like noodle and eugene is funny. OH AND THE MAIN VILLAINS. hydro is the Main antagonist but he has 5 other idek what to call them. henchmen????? that either work for him (griff, dimentia, derric) Or are loyal to him bc he practically saved their life (grem and pixie, also dimentia a little? its complicated) and while Yes hydro IS a villain and he IS evil, hes actually just trying to save earth bc in his mind alkaliba is actually like the typical alien invasion thing u see in movies (not exactly whats happening but it Is possible u could see it that way) he just goes abt it in the weirdest most fucked up way possible. also BIG plotpoint worth mentioning, grem and tix were dating for at least 3000+ years before tix left him for his (now deceased) wife, which grem is Extremely bitter abt. so hes obviously loyal to hydro bc hydro helped him escape his abusive father BUT hes also doing it for himself to get back at tix. (important note tix Was the asshole in that situation 100%, grem is actually right to be upset a little but probably not That much) anyway once lenarr tix and zach(forgot to mention zach is tixs best friend who tix brings along bc hes smart and good at strategizing, also bc tix is GAYYYYYY) get to alkaliba finally it is literally impossible to conceal the fact that tix is a prince there. and bc lenarr doesnt know the Real reason why hes there he doesnt think much of it, in fact he finds it weird that tix wouldnt tell him that.

jumping allll the way to s4 when the Actual shit goes down. this is where shit gets less in depth bc its Extremely new..this is when lenarr learns that hes being used to basically doom earth, u know. his home planet. (considering having either hydro or grem tell him, not in a nice way either) obviously he gets really upset abt this, Especially bc its been at least a couple years since canon started and zach and tix are basically like family to him at this point. he probably runs off idk. i need to think abt it more bc i JUST made this up but im considering recycling an OLDD concept from like early highschool gq where lenarr gets to visit melody in her home dimension. also forgot to mention. melody and lenarrs older brother ruben both committed suicide when lenarr was younger. melody only did it to go back to her home dimension, but ruben did it bc he got rlly depressed after melody died ÷(

anyway lenarr gets to see melody, its very sweet ÷) he talks to her abt his problem abd she gives him some kinda cryptic advice bc Plot. this changes lenarr basically, at this point hes mastered melodys spellbook and Now he can create his own spells or whatever. SO. he comes up with a way to make it so NEITHER planet gets destroyed somehow. this works bc lenarr is actually like twice as powrful as melody at his full potential. after this the main villains would most likely have their redemption arcs somehow i havent thought up What exactly happens yet. and for s5 its basically just me wrapping things up and playing with my toys freely...theres still active plot happening thats very relevant to the story obviously but its a liiiiitle less high stakes and thats all i got in regards to the main plot bc if i sat here and typed a detailed explanation of my fun fillers id be here for years

SOME GENERAL TRIVIA FUN FACTS DEVELOPMENT SHIT 4 FUNSIES TOO.

originally gq was Not supposed to be a cartoon nor was it an ocverse. it was a fucking spm fan spinoff i made up bc i was autistic af and 12. grem was my first ever oc that was Not a fursona and he was actually terrible like as a person. i mean hes kinda terrible now but not as bad

griffs name was changed a few years after i made him. it used to be falcon (STUPID AF BUT I WAS 12. REMEMBER THIS.) also i thought itd be funny for his name to be griff bc youd think its short for griffon but no its short for grifford. also texs and tiabia names were changed too. tiabis name was janette and she was actually originally an adult but i thought itd be better if she was 7

like 99.999% of my original designs and concept art + silly little comics of my villains bc it was just them when it was still a mario thing is lost media forever bc my mom accidentally threw it all away when we moved to a new house i miss it every dayyyy id do Anything to see it again..... the Only original stuff i have is from highschool and i fucking hate my artstyle then so its sad af...its just lenarrs finalized design (which actually barely changed since then) and MAYBE if i looked hard enough thru my old computers i could find zachs original design too? idk i dont feel like looking

speaking of the spm thing. dimentia was supposed to be dimentios little sister which is why shes named that (original i know) but i decided to take the name a different direction after it became its own thing

grem went through the most design changes by a huge margin, but imo derrics few redesigns were the most insane and drastic. pixie went through One change and it got reversed a couple years later LOL

some Stupid reasons behind design changes were 1. hydro used to have 4 heads, hence the dumbass wordplay on "hydra" but i got so fucking fed up with drawing them every time + i kept forgetting to so i just made him a regular dragon. and 2. griff has his mask bc i literally just kept getting mad trying to draw his face right. thats literally it. thats the only reason.

fun fact noodle was probably my least favorite oc before i redesigned him. i hated him SO FUCKING MUCH especiallyafter i came up with his villain arc. now hes my favorite toy and i lovie

HUGE props to my bff @/killer12345blog. hes literally my cowriter and theres a couple characters of his in the main canon that play a HUGE part (eugene, daffodil, and louise) also eugene was actually a joke character and i HATED HIM (AS PART OF THE BIT) but i randomly got really attached to him now hes the villain for s3😇

gq was actually RECENTLY renamed. it used to be H.I.D.E. dont ask me what it means or what it stands for idfkkkkk i thought itd come to me eventually but it didnt so i changed it bc w/o a meaning it was just dumb af

tix was originally very very small. like around pixies size. also gq was still a video game for a bit but it was like its own Thing by then. tix was intended to be the tutorial character kinda like tippi

also im going to go ahead and say this LMAO. the original alkaliban designs were Heavily inspired by homestuck bc thats what i liked back then. ive tried soooo hard to make it not as obvious but i feel like itll always be so so obvious 😭

im actually kinda considering having gq be 3d animated instead of 2d, stylistically if that were the case itd look kinda like. idk. do u remember that moomins cartoon they made a few years ago. like that. but i seriously doubt ill end up making it 3d anyway

i fucking hate musicals usually but my GOD are there a couple showtunes i want in there. jfc. i have a dedicated yt playlist of songs i want in gq Or relate heavily to certain characters/events. hi. speaking of i like to think gq would have a very 80s cartoon soundtrack like the one in labyrinth or something similar

tix and zach were originally Much younger. tix was like 19 or 20 and zach was 17 iirc? i changed that bc 1. dumb and 2. i wanted tix and zach to be in love i didnt quite like the age gap it was a little iffy

the origin of lenarrs name is kinda silly. i was having trouble coming up w a fitting name and one day after school we drove past a sign for lennar homes or whatever the companys called and i went AHAAAAAAAH!☝️🤑

i think noodle was originally brazillian, idr why that changed..also tex was japanese iirc

tix is like Billions of years old probably. its intentionally left unclear and vague but also IDEFK.

im probably forgetting LOADS of important shit but whatever....u get the idea + ive been typing for like 2 hours in between work shit

[libraford]

6 years and 15ish pounds later

[emwheezie]

Do you have some fun facts about Enzo to share? Just wanna to know the guy a bit better.

This is Enzo Vincenzo! I've gotten a TON of asks about him, but was waiting to finish some art and work his story/character a bit more before answering! He's a character we thought up in 2014-15ish, but only recently worked in depth on his development. Pre apologies here, I'm longwinded when talking about my characters! (also it is 3:13am and I'm feeling silly)

Enzo is a secondary character in the comic, friend of the main character kind of deal. My cowriter and I love Enzo and are very happy that everyone else seems to like him too! We are making sure to develop all our characters as much as the two main characters so that we can create as rich of a story/universe as possible. (like we have so much content you could pick any random minor character and be like "them. make a spinoff about them" and we could just do that immediately we have so much content my brain is going to explode)

Enzo and Lennon are high school buddies who met sophomore year, shortly before Lennon dropped out. (peep the bottom art of them from their HS years)

Him and Lennon are big into movies. They binge watch them over the weekends or when he's convinced by Lennon to skip classes for the day.

Enzo loves to draw, especially dragons and horror related stuff. He posts his drawings on DeviantArt where he met xXHexiLexi328Xx and fell in love with her. She's also an artist who loves to draw super kawaii anime chibis magical girls and pokemon stuff.

No one thinks Hexi Lexi is a real person. Everyone's like "awh poor Enzo, still single...you'll find someone, buddy." But she's real and from Arkansas. (like that state even exists?)

Enzo loves knives. His favorite one is a switchblade engraved with the name "Colleen." He found Colleen at a Goodwill while he and Lennon were looking for parts to build a "Saw trap." (you know, from the Saw franchise) Enzo thinks he's Billy The Puppet from Saw...I mean, high school Enzo kind of had the same poofy hair and I'm not gonna be the one to tell him he didn't look like that puppet.

Somewhere along the way, early in their friendship, Lennon is convinced Enzo killed his parents. Lennon's never seen Enzo with his parents so I guess that's the only solution, right? It becomes a longstanding rumor/joke... and Lennon's like wow Enzo that's so cool I'm friends with a literal murderer. (Lennon is dumb).

Enzo once wanted to become a priest but then he remembered he was evil.

Enzo is Albanian-Italian and grew up in Cambridge, MA living with his parents and grandparents. His parents are super religious people who work at the restaurant his grandparents own, located in the North End of Boston.

It's a joke that Enzo's like never heard a music once in his life before meeting Lennon who introduced him to guitar. (He's rhythm guitar in Lennon and Tony's band Poison Boy Club)

I feel like I've said a lot of words and stuff. I feel like there's more but it's now 3:40am and my brain is mush. OH later on, Enzo really hones in on his art skills and gets into tattooing, earning himself an internship at a local studio.

Overall, Enzo's a cool, confident dude who's a little scary in a "big guard dog" type of way, but he's a loyal friend and does his own thing and he's with that.

[rocksibblingsau]

"Death is tragic, but sometimes living can be so much worse."

So..... same anon that send the rant ask that this come from and I just have to say how good this is. Like unbelievably so and everything from your response as well, I cant say this enough I love your writing and how you interpret trolls and their world

Honestly, you're so right that they likely had that "hes in a better place now" (pun not intended), it fits so well with what we know about pop trolls mentality and life-style. The same trolls that erased and forgotten everyone that was lost during the escape, including the heir, would also accept a little brother as dead and go on without checking so they can better ignore the grief of losing him. Thinking about it, thats a way better and in-character reason why Floyd never came back

People say that he was out partying or he forgor or whatever, but the thought that some 3-5 years later he stopped to think and realized "oh... hes probably dead by now", and now having to choose between confirming the "reality" that his brother died waiting for him or just moving forward, be happy and never think about things that upset you (that just pop trolls second nature at this point)

There is a part of me that still wants to write Brozone facing that grief either by having to save Floyd without him or reuniting some other way, now with the added against of "everybody including you forgot your brother ever existed, isn't that fun!". Thinking about it, I may even write that Branch died in the woods or something instead of the bergens. He didn't die because they left him in the tree, he died because they never came back for him. And the same mentality that "helped" them "grief" (read: ignore) his supposed dead is the same mentality that caused the pop village to ignore and ostracize him (that being what actually killed him). Tragic, gut-punching, hope they surfer and cry about it :)

But for my actual headcanon of the brothers mentally during those 20 years, I can only imagine your view of the situation is just that good and accurate. Thank you for entertaining my thoughts and sorry for the rambles lol

Thank you! I love overanalyzing things, and Trolls is a very fun subject to work with!

It's very in line with Pop mentality to just accept that and move on. Bruce especially lives on Vacay Island where "every day is a vacay". I could see a bit of that mentality existing there. Maybe not the 'sugar coat everything in glitter' degree but 'why worry?' type of ignore your problems.

Branch dying on his own rather than in the tree I think is a way more terrifying reality. Hundreds of Pop Trolls were eaten, and that's seen as the Bergens fault. Branch getting injured and having no one to check in on him so he passes is on the village. It's been mentioned in Rock Sibblings but the fact is, that was a reality Branch faced. Poppy likely would've come by EVENTUALLY but she was younger than him.

In Rock Sibblings the truth is if not for Poppy deciding to follow after him, no one would have ever known what happened to Branch. In Techno Branch and Classical Branch, no one actually does until 15ish years later.

With his brothers, it's sad to say that with an alive Branch, there's very little that could have them initially realizing that Branch is hurt. I mean look at him in Trolls Band Together. He's not fully grey but he's very drastically darker than they all are despite initially all having the same skin tone. Yet none of them react or mention it. They're fine to ignore the situation at hand.

Never apologize for rambles. That's what we do here.

[frances-baby-houseman]

I have been seeing my sorority sisters about every 6 weeks without fail for 15+ years, and people are understandably amazed that we are able to keep this up so regularly for so long. Obviously there have been breaks-- when we all had tiny babies it was a little less frequent, and of course the COVID year, but in general, dinner or brunch every 1-2 months for 15ish years for me, 20 years for them (they are older than me and I didn't join the group until I moved back to Chicago two years after school).

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW THE SECRET?

We never leave without setting the date for our next meeting. Other than special events, like coordinating tickets to a show, we don't leave dinner without setting the date for our next dinner.

It's the only way to do it. You're happy, you're glad to be with your friends, you're undistracted. We've also implemented this rule for my canasta group, and it just works!

Do not trust yourselves to make a plan over text. It's impossible. At the end of the night, pull out your calendar and set the date. The actual plan can come later, but set the date!!!

[modao-enjoyer]

jin ling 15ish years later: jiujiu you fucking traitor

[shiggitysstuff]

So this happened to me a month ago and I'm still mad and pretty much terrified of this incident.I'm posting this just to calm down for a few days for remembering about the game is pissing me off.

It was August of this year,i was scrolling down through steam and gamejolt to find some Sonic games to play,I'm a Sonic fan ever since I was 8, alright that's out of topic, but I did find something… interesting to say the least

… I found a port of Sonic 1 on steam for 5$, I did unfortunately bought the fucking game which was pretty much an awful idea, opening the game it was a PNG of the Sonic 1 title with the Green Hill Stage from Super Smash Bros Ultimate,yep i was scammed because of my excited dumbass but I decided to play the game to see how shit this game is.

The first zone was of course Green Hill Zone and I literally see the Sonic sprite from Sonic 1 on a Sky PNG background with low quality green hill ground,there was no animation either and Sonic didn't built up more speed while running,the game looked like it was made in Scratch which made me giggle a little bit but also disappointed,i later on found some platforms and some rings,the rings were just a PNG of the rings from Sonic Color and went on to jump over some spikes and other shit till I found a motobug PNG that's from Sonic Colors too,when I took damage 3 ring PNG’s just appeared for a 1 second and then disappeared getting my ring count to 0,after all of that nonsense I found the big ring for special stages,but after I jumped in I got to the next zone which was Chemical Plant Zone

Chemical Plant Zone was literally just Green Hill Zone with a Gray Sky PNG as the background this time with harder platforming and worse badnik placements,after doing all of that stupid ass platforming I found the big ring and jumped on it but after I did the game fucking crashed, I opened up the game and it has reset my progress making me play the 2 zones I just played again,pretty much wasted 15ish minutes over nothing,but half way through the level the game started freezing for some odd reason,I barely beat the Zone and went to Chemical Plant Zone.

EVERYTHING WAS GOING WRONG,my game was glitching out,the hole zone layout was going crazy and sprites of the game were just losing textures and we're just going around the screen,I was starting to panic and I closed the game,BUT THE GAME OPENED ITSELF,I was pretty much fuckin scared because I didn't know what to do in this situation because nothing like this ever happened to me,I tried to close the game again and again but the game would open again and again,I sadly had to continue playing the game.

After somehow beating Chemical Plant Zone,I was sent back to Green Hill Zone again with a new layout and platforms,I was confused and just continued and there were no enemies or rings this time.. but then the same thing happened again with the hole game going crazy and sprites just shaking everywhere but this time the screen was just shaking and shaking,I was getting more terrified but since I couldn't do anything other to play the game,I just continued playing the game,after a little bit of time I did find the big ring and jumped into it,but then the screen went dark for a little bit..

After some time the dark screen turned into a small square.. then a Sonic with no eyes,with less quills,white arms and red legs popped out from the black square,I jumped from that jumpscare and I was confused and scared for 2 minutes and then.. MY FILES AND MY PROGRAM AND ICONS WERE SLOWLY GETTING DELETED,after seeing that I realized that this was no ordinary scam game but a scam game with a FUCKING BOOT SECTOR VIRUS CODED INTO IT,I couldn't do anything as my PC slowly broke down and crashed,I turned it on and I saw the Blue Screen,which meant my PC was broken and needed repairing and such.

2 days after that hole incident,I tried to get my PC fixed but my PC was long gone,I had to buy a Laptop cuz I was wasted half of my money on the PC that broke down,I'm still pissed about that day,whenever you see an Official Sonic on steam or gamejolt that needs to be purchased with real life money DON’T BUY IT,ITS A SCAM GAME WITH A VIRUS! This will be the last time I talk about this incident or even post about it.I wish I wasn't that excited and I would have kept my PC and wouldn't have spent a lot of my money again. Please do not make the same mistake I did.

("Hedgehog Virus" is written by CREATOR OF DOOM/DOOMCREATOR)

[horizon-verizon]

Emma called Daemyra grooming, which to me means they both don't understand what that actually means and they don't understand the relationship, so sorry GREAT actor but I don't listen to their thoughts on them :)

Anon talks abt this post.

i mean, I guess? Grooming, yes, needs time and much more psychological manipulation than what we see b/t older Daemon and 19 year old Rhaenyra. It requires much more than showing explicit sexual content the one time (bc these two).

Some might point out that he was also giving her gifts as young as 15, which I mean...eh. He wasn't trying to deceive her with that particular act/acts or had ulterior motives which again is what is required in grooming situations. Daemon with the necklace wasn't having some master plan to entrap her or use her. He was just giving a necklace. That moment was more charged with the knowledge that such a thing just wouldn't fly in our own world, so the observation of what's actually happening int this particular scene is put aside for the audience wanting to and applying an immediate boundary by claiming that he was grpoming bc he gave her gifts in this very 1st episode and has thus been grooming her ever since she was what, 7ish if you asked some of them?

At the same time, Daemon has done wrong/manipulated to Rhaenyra both in bk and show when she is older and in her teens when he comes back from the Stepstones--even if we can't solidify or define it was real grooming.

For me, their relationship is one big "grey area" than anything solid and that has the potential to swing dark to light often bc that's simply who they both are. And I don't really fault or resent people for having the impression and final stamp of grooming, since it's such an age gap and she's a teen when they first kiss. (I suspect in the bk they also kissed and that was when she was actually 15ish). *EDIT 11/4/24* AND Daemon was using heer against Viserys at her young age of 15. I just don't think he was out to prey on her exactly.

GRRM already does make it a point to show that 13 yr old Dany getting impregnated, 15 year old Viserrra engaged to a man who could be her father and dying trying to live her last moments as a girl, AND Daemon messing w/Rhaenyra then getting the boot are all obviously bad things about this system--thus a critique of said political environments, but it's still does not mean Larra Rogare, Viserys I, Daemon, and a few others were necessarily bonafide "pedos" like Robert Baratheon, Craster, Walder Frey, or Aegon II bc...

it takes more than the presence of a marriage between 15 yr old and a 23 yr old or a mere relationship of such to rule one of them as an actual hand-rubbing "groomer" (although this particular label on Daemon fits more back in 111...he definitely was using her against Viserys) or a "pedo", bc of how marriages are an arranged affair AND these teens aren't as considered "adults" in ASOIAF--It's not a part of their conscious OR they were forced/socially pressured to marry

The boundaries are looser; again GRRM does criticize that, but he doesn't try to break away from the consequences of that by only writing characters who are closer in age fall in love or become closer or get into sexual relationships.

Example: He still has Dany have the much older and adult Daario as a lover so she can pursue her first self-determined relationship at her 15/16 years of age...which canonically she uses to heal even as she has her doubts about Daario's feelings for her. Perhaps he could have gotten her with one of her khalasar instead, like Jhoqo, but Dany is also still very much a teenager still and Daario was exciting and persistent when she wanted to feel desired. Daario is fine prostrating himself but not totally being her soldier like Jhoqo. Eventually, their relationship will not pan bc Daario's interest in her is still wrapped up more in her being a queen and she herself has the higher goal of freeing slaves, getting back her throne, later the Others, etc.--this doesn't mean that Daario wasn't a critical person in a particular point in her life or that she didn't love him. And all this is consequential to the sort of world she lives in and her particular circumstances.

*END OF EDIT*

Such relationships of real history and Westeros just don't jive with what we know can come of them and present so many possible fallbacks and mostly on the younger, and people want to avoid prevent justifying such things to impressionable audiences. I think, though, that people tend to eschew any and all signs of Rhaenyra genuinely finding strength AS GRRM WROTE IT in Daemon and vice versa. And that we simply do not live in their world so people have to be a little smarter and maintain a degree of intellectual separation as they also assess what makes these characters tick/their environment's affects on them as the actual text suggests. Basically, Watsonian vs Doylist readings and to stop making as if what's happening in real modern life will always happen in text. Slow down.

[breannasfluff]

Hey hey hey you should talk about your blorbos :D

yeah hi welcome to Jason Todd-Wayne hours. Okay so this kid tries to steal tires off the batmobile and Batman catches him and takes him home. Makes him Robin. But he keeps getting violent about taking down criminals. this kid is like, 13-ish. you can't blame him.

Then around 15ish he finds out his mom was actually his adoptive mom and his real mom is one of three people. he goes looking for his bio mom. finds her in Ethiopia. Looks like her, all excited to re-unite.

Turns out, his mom sells him out to the Joker and he get's captured. then this kid gets beaten with a crowbar till the Joker thinks he's dead while his mom smokes a cig and ignore this going down. Then he sets a bomb and Jason is, surprise, not totally dead! tries to get out. Door is locked. bomb goes off. Tries to shield his mom and super dies.

Worst life ever.

Many years later comes back to life through some crap no one can agree on as canon. comes back to life and takes over a neighborhood as a crime lord because he break's Batman's role of "no death".

Then again, batman doesn't kill Joker.

Anyway there's a lot of crap you can take or ignore but the upshot is this guy ends at maybe 19ish with a terrible parent-child relationship with his adopted dad. Trauma from being beaten do death and being blown up. His role as a sidekick "stolen" by another kid. A lot of gaslighting. Batman being pretty rude to someone who kills people, despite other people doing the same thing he's friends with.

This guy is TRAUMA in all capitols and he dearly needs a Bruce to act like a DAD not a hero. He's just so...crushable under the whump.

So i'm making his life terrible and then I'll hand him Danny Fenton to make it a bit better because I'm nice like that.

[tomorrowsgardennc]

garden update // july 23, 2024

good thing i got photos this morning, 'cuz its a thunderstorm now.

have had a lot of new visitors in the garden lately. unsure if the end of the drought brought them in, or if like it's hatching season?? idk anything about insects except we need more. so it's nice to see more. definitely seeing more variety of moths and butterflies and wasps this year than in past years, so that's good.

i know i posted about the baby pumpkin earlier, but like... it's crazy how big the plant itself is, and so far, only one has popped up. debating now if i let all the pumpkins keep going, or just rip up the other 3 plants since they haven't had even one female flower yet... legit dunno what to do about it yet.

the tomatillos... yeeesss the tomatillos are CHOPPED AND OUTTA HERE!! MWAHAHAhaha... well, the plants are. i still got about 4lbs to process for seeds. then i'll be done for good. so this week, my plan is to prep these barrel pots for the swiss chard i already started from seed. my farmer momma (not my biological one, but the one who has taught me a TON about farming for produce) suggested that i start the rainbow swiss chard in paper towels because even the roots show the color. never grown or eaten them before, so this is fun!! i'm gonna be a branding butthead and only grow yellow and white varieties for seed, but sell all the colors as transplants at the market. the 6-packs have always been popular at the markets, so im gonna have a 6-pack with all colors. starting seeds this way means i can put certain colors in certain cells. will post a photo later when they've grown to show.

more babies. cantelope on the left, beefsteak bush on the right. both growing for the seeds. got about 15ish cantelope babies so far... hope all my neighbors like cantelope!! only 2 beegsteak so far, hope more pop up soon.