#Direct variations

[ramlightly]

How a relationship got infinitely more complicated in one night

[chimerafeathers]

continuing End Talk posting. Odile’s dialogue has a lot of juicy variations that i didn’t delve into for that post, but one thing i noticed between the regular and friendquest versions…

Siffrin takes her advice.

in the regular ending, she tells them to let down their walls once in a while. so in the friendquest end talk, after she’s shared her own story with him—even though she doesn’t ask it of them there—Siffrin actually DOES let down their walls, let himself be vulnerable. he admits to her and no one else that he doesn’t have a home to go back to. (Why not say it, in the end?)

later repetitions will have them questioning why they ever admitted that much to her, berating themself for making it a part of the script that they feel bound to repeat. but he made that choice to share a deeply personal piece of himself with her, that first time. it’s hard, and painful, and…

and Odile sees their discomfort, and…backs off. she doesn’t push.

i think Siffrin wanted her to push.

not like she does in Sus Quest, fueled by anger and suspicion. just as a fellow traveler, disconnected from their histories, looking for answers. a tentative bid for mutual connection beyond what they already shared in the clearing with the familytale. a plea for comfort from a friend.

but they're both private people, by nature, and Odile isn't...the best at comfort. her inclination is to ease away from the sensitive subject instead of pursuing it, an attempt to respect his boundaries and give him space.

so she says it isn't any of her business. she extends an apology, and moves on.

maybe if she had pushed, Siffrin still would have shut down, and it wouldn't have been much different from all the other points in Sus Quest where Siffrin denies and distracts in the face of her questioning after all.

but the fact that Siffrin told her that much at the "end" of it all, when they still thought there was a chance that this was it, and time would move forward—was that all he wanted out of the conversation? to share that one truth and move on?

i think they were hoping for more. they had listened to her and let down their walls for a moment, invited her in, in whatever small way they could bear to do so. and it hurt when Odile put the walls back in place herself.

[gollygeedash]

So Alan Wake 2 was a lot of fun. (Inspired by the AW2 achievement art because it goes so hard)

[padofwan]

The Hidden Path in OWK having a set of blueprints of Fortress Inquisitorius that they got from someone who downloaded them when it was under construction...sure would be interesting if there were, say, someone who was briefly an Inquisitor who was there when it was under construction, had severe doubts about the role she was being forced into, and who has been previously established to be capable of memorizing complex building layouts.

[chamaesotis]

Thank you :)

[your-unfriendlyghost]

Andy from breakfast club liked the crazy girl alternative more! We all shout in unison!!

And I don’t blame him ily crazy girls y’all rock y’all make the world a better place fr

if I were a poet I’d write “ode to crazy girls” and so would Andy Clark 😌

[sieglinde-freud]

What do you think Awakening Trio’s spouses call them once they’re back in Ylisse?

hi anon!! thank you so much for the ask 🩷 thats a good question… honestly i think it depends both on which member of the awakening trio it is and also who their spouse is? under cut because i ended up writing a LOT sorry 😭

normally when i think about post-fates awakening trio, im thinking about my preferred pairings for all of them (lucisev, lasnyx, azuodin) and so for all of those i generally tend towards their original names? i think that inigo, sentimental as he is, would prefer his original name regardless of spouse, honestly. whether or not that’s nyx doesn’t exactly change that for me, when i really think about it. maybe if he stayed in nohr, like with xander (when it comes to xanlow im not sure if i prefer them staying or leaving? both sexy… both sad…) he might just suck it up but i think he prefers inigo.

for owain, though, i think it depends! for him with azura specifically, i think they would go with calling him owain, because 1) i think he realizes that azura needs space from everything in nohrshido and a ylissean name as opposed to a nohrian one is already a huge help with that and 2) its HIS name and he holds a lot of value in that! but on that second point, the weird thing about owain is that hes actually… super down with changing his name. its odd at first, but unlike someone like laslow who’s kind of in this feeling of limbo with the identity change, odin kinda jumps at it and uses the change in name to help more strictly define his persona as the “legendary hero of darkness” aching blood and twitching hands thing he’s got going on. not only that, but wheras owain’s identity is already cemented in being the second (or third if lucina has a sibling. yikes!) prince of ylisse who’s pushed to the side in favor of his “better” or “stronger” family members, odin gets to choose what and who he is. and so, i think owain is really just. it depends, because even with all that said, owain is still the name he got from his mom, and it’s the name that saw him through hell and back! i think if he were like with niles or beruka, he’d take owain. if he were with like, charlotte or elise, he’d take odin. i think his relationships and how they come about would definitely influence his pick.

for severa… well, like i said, my favorite pick for her is lucina (oohhh u wanna pine for your lost love while in another world soooo bad ooohhhhh) and so, when she comes back, because lucina has known severa forever, i think she just goes with that. HOWEVER. if she brings back a nohrshido spouse… i think she’d like to stick with selena. she’s in a very similar spot that owain was in in terms of using the name change as a new identity, but unlike owain, she just… goes for it. no reservations, no errors, she dumps severa behind and immediately falls into her role as selena and i think she’s much happier for it. i think for her, severa was too much trapped in the shadow of her past and her mother, so once she’s given the opportunity to become selena, that all just kinda… falls away. not that it doesn’t affect her anymore—it does! in her supports with like, subaki, for example, her mother and her insecurities are still there. and her supports with odin show she does still long for her home, but i also think that she’s a lot better at realizing that, despite everything, you can’t actually go back to the past and fix how fucked up the three of them are, and being stuck in that grief isn’t worth much to her! so she accepts selena and everything that comes with that identity. and once she’s in ylisse again, just because she’s home, it doesn’t mean she’s going back. now that she’s experienced what it’s like to be able to step out of everything that’s restricted her for so long, like her name that attaches her too much to her mom, i think she wouldn’t mind keeping selena. in private, and especially if her spouse is like, lucina or inigo or owain or noire or laurent, maybe she wouldn’t mind hearing severa every now and then. but publically (and probably legally. #paperwork) she’s selena for the rest of time. also i do hc that even if her spouse is ylissean, she just kinda falls back into mercenary work, so. professionally also, she’s def known as selena. she said FUCK that old name im not going back. cordelia calls her severa though.

[sunlight-shunlight]

me poorly restraining my Too Many Thoughts about chantry reformation: "haha yeah.... it would be neat. :)"

anyway i'm glad people liked my "varric tethras accidentally domino effects his pulp novels into contributing to a chantry schism" niche genre of posting... make sure to like and subscribe for more incredibly specific hot takes like "what's memento mori style painting like in thedas" and "was the veil a mass extinction event" and "varric could be sheherzade but to an angry titan" and "solas would stop wanting to end the world if given a watercolour set <3" etc.

[hp-lonesome-actual-art]

Sketchbook doodles with zero context, because my mind has been all over the place and he keeps inserting himself during my low moments to be a distraction. Or maybe I’m the clingy one in this scenario? I don’t know who’s to blame but clearly one of us is attention seeking and the other is desperate for human connection. A recipe for disaster probably /j

Bonus unhinged one which will not be disclosed further lmao

[caramiaaddio]

watching nobody asked and unfortunately my autism isn’t going to let me continue until I rant about this to SOMEONE so

hello I am opera lady and while I can say none of us would be mad at someone for cheating to hit a high c. there are some uhhh Inaccuracies vis a vis vocal anatomy that are killing me so here we go

— tenor is not the highest male voice. It’s the highest (typically) male vocal part in music, which essentially means “when you sing a choral piece this part will be within a certain range.” Operatic voices are classified by the fach system, in which the highest male voice is the countertenor, a man that sings in the soprano range

— the whole thing about falsetto is based on a misconception of the human voice. Falsetto absolutely “counts” because it’s not a separate part of your voice, it’s just your voice but higher

— Operatic singers don’t “sound” like they have falsettos because what we think of as the typical falsetto is actually a severely underutilized head voice with a rough passagio. When you’re properly trained, you can cross your passagio with a balanced mixed voice that’s just as strong as your chest voice and doesn’t create that gap in timbre. Those singers he’s referring to aren’t using full chest voice to hit those notes

— carrying your belt up that high is bad for you!!!!! You shouldn’t be forcing your chest voice up through your passagio, that’s what causes the infamous “break” in the voice! A trained opera singer begins their mix before the passagio so that they can keep some of the weight of the chest voice while properly navigating that change!

— also! Just like everyone has different ranges everyone also has different passagio! Just because a note might be fully in someone else’s chest voice doesn’t mean it’s in yours!! The art of operatic singing is becoming technically proficient with YOUR natural voice, not trying to sound like someone else!!!!

— also also the “falsetto”/head voice is not a separate voice it’s literally still just singing! Chest voice the entire musculature of the throat vibrates and “falsetto”/head voice only the vocal folds vibrate! This is straight up the only difference why would one not count!!!

Tl;dr — I think whoever was BDGs voice teacher was shit and should actually learn about singing before teaching it

[oldfilmsflicker]

Variations On Discord and Divisions, 1984 (dir. Mona Hatoum)

[thoughtfulfangirling]

One of the things that has me so invested in The Locked Tomb series is that it's got such a vibrant and active fandom. I just want to take a moment to appreciate the fact that some thick, not technically YA novels with no current visual adaptation has the fandom it does. I'm proud of all of you. That's really fucking cool. And FUN!

[vero-niche]

I want to do the ship ask thingy but I don't think I know any of your current fandoms. so. I obviously decided to inflict psychic damage instead

bbc johnlock

makes sense and compels me. unfortunately

[hand-of-devotion]

I keep rotating certain aspects of the Evontra'vir-Ashton conversation and there's one specific thing I see other people taking away from it that is lacking a certain amount of nuance that stuck with me.

Specifically in regards to Ashton's views and how they parallel his fathers.

It should be obvious to everyone at this point that Ashton's stubborn hypocritical "refusal to the call" rooted in his anti divine/fate beliefs need some genuine reflection. They are important and they are aware of it but they don't want any of the hard to grapple with things associated. He needs to think about what it is he can actually do moving forward rather than getting caught up in what he feels he's owed.

However! One very important thing that I keep seeing others ignore or maybe just not even pick up on is THIS.

Efterin's entitlement came from his own zealots ego. The powers he believed he was promised an understanding and control over were NEVER his.

Ashton's entitlement towards the situation is rooted in what was done TO him. Those powers are in fact his. They have been there since he was a child due to a ritual he had no say in. That ritual physically altered his body and killed off nearly everyone in his entire village.

Which. Again. Just because they HAVE those powers doesn't mean they were ever guaranteed mastery over them. Certainly not without putting in effort. It has never been a "gift", even if part of them wishes it was. There is likely never going to be a reality in which the full-blown titan level abilities just ACTIVATE for him with full ease. Moving forward. He has a base level of info. Which he likely didn't find satisfying (but given the situation, there was never really a "satisfying" answer). Now they need to just. Look forward and inward. Make some changes if they want some changes.

But yeah. At the end of the day. Regardless of parallels and a real need for character reflection and growth. Saying that Ashton is "the same" as Efterin seems. Fairly reductive, all things considered.

[chamaesotis]

[ill show the yumetober stuff tmr]

Ai Kouseki 💎 - "Anya... No... Don't kid me..."

Only a few months after the disappearance of Izumi Sycamore, Anya takes Ai to check out an alley Izumi is known to frequent.

Upon further investigation, the dried blood was discovered to be Izumi's. No other traceable evidence was found and a year later, the alley opened up again. Anya stays by the alley and follows around people dressed in red. Nobody knows what it could mean. Team flare was already disbanded.

[dragons-hoard-of-fandoms]

I mean...

At least it looks nice I guess...?