#I finally played The Last of Us! huzzah

[blackjackkent]

OK. Doing as much prep work as I can for the Cazador fight because I remember how much of a pain it was with Hector. Realistically, it's not going to be nearly as hard for Rakha because a) I'm playing on Easy and b) she has two extra party members (and two rodents).

But Cazador's fight is a bitch and a half so I'm not taking any chances. :P

Jaheira is really our top utility resource in the current party, so I had her:

a) blow her sixth level spell on Hero's Feast for extra wisdom check resilience and fear resistance (which also gets us a free lunch spread, huzzah) b) cast Longstrider ritually on everyone in the party, including Boo and Ash c) load up Daylight, which I recall being a fairly critical spell to have access to against Cazzy.

Last time around, I had Hector cast Sanctuary on Astarion and kept him out of the fight, since keeping him alive is paramount; this time no one in the party has access to that, so I had Rakha load up Invisibility and Globe of Invulnerability and we'll see how those work instead.

Here we go!

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The final door in the dungeons leads into an extraordinarily large cavern. The chill is somehow even worse here; the place feels like an aura of death is laid across it. The Weave ripples and jitters as if in anxiety across the polished stone surfaces in all directions.

At the center of the room, Cazador waits.

The vampire lord stands on a sigil drawn in the middle of the cavern; Rakha can see the thin, precise lines of magic sizzling under his boots. Lines of power resonate out in all directions, tying the central sigil to six other markings where six shirtless men and women hang suspended in midair... and to one remaining alcove, which is empty.

Rakha can feel the hair on her arms and the back of her neck prickling at the air of violent power in the room. They have arrived at the critical moment; this ritual Cazador means to perform is dangerous indeed. It tugs painfully at her skin like an angry dog at the end of its lead, ready to be unleashed.

He spins at the sound of their footsteps on the enormous stairwell, and smiles cruelly as he spots Astarion at Rakha's side.

"Who stands before us?" he cries. "Is this truly our prodigal son?"

Cazador's voice is high and cold, petulant. The voice of a man accustomed to getting his way in all things. Rakha feels she would have disliked him immediately, even not knowing what he has done to Astarion, to the prisoners in that hallway behind them.

At her side, Astarion flinches at the sound of that voice as if he's been struck. Involuntarily, his head hunches forward, his shoulders rising near his ears.

"Do not slouch before me, boy!" Cazador barks mockingly. "Have you no respect for yourself?"

Astarion's head lifts. His eyes are burning coals of rage, but he says nothing. Rakha can see the way the instinctual deference grips him, beaten into him after two centuries.

Cazador can see it too, and a nasty smile curls his lips. "Look at you," he sneers. "Crawling back after abandoning your family. You should be begging our forgiveness!"

Rakha's eyes are hard now as well - and she, unlike Astarion, has not been kicked by this man until she broke. She realizes, now, the cause of the rage that has been building in her since they entered the dungeons.

This is truly just like the Temple was. A 'father', cold and cruel, welcoming a child back to the 'family.' Thousands upon thousands of deaths. And she could not lash out at Bhaal for the monster that he made of her, but she can punish Cazador for being something nearly as terrible.

"He doesn't owe you *anything*," she snarls, taking a step forward so her shoulder moves a little in front of Astarion's.

Cazador's lip curls disdainfully, looking Rakha up and down. "Have you fallen so far that *this* speaks for you?" he snaps.

Astarion flinches again, then bursts forward, knocking Rakha aside. "I don't need anyone to speak for me!"

"No," Cazador says, and the whipcrack edge of the words stop Astarion's flash of confidence in its tracks. "You always had a gift for words." Again that mocking sneer, and with each syllable, Astarion's shoulders start to hunch up again. "I fondly remember your empty boasting, your tired jokes, your endless prattle--"

"No!" Astarion cries. "Shut up!"

Rakha's jaw sets. There's an unpleasant thumping feeling in her temple that is all too familiar - but it is right that she should be angry here. This is not the beast taking control; this is her. This man is a monster. This man needs to die. This is what Minsc means when he talks about putting his boot to evil. This is what Lae'zel means by attacking with purpose.

I cannot kill Bhaal. But I can kill you. And neither Astarion nor I will be free of what happened to us... but at least you will be dead.

"We're here for justice," she growls. "You're going to pay."

"I will not speak to cattle!" Cazador roars. His voice echoes to the immeasurably high ceiling above them. "This is between me and the boy."

But perhaps Rakha's words have given Astarion some measure of confidence after all, because his head draws back and his eyes go hard. "You son of a bitch," he growls - and leaps forward.

The explosive blast of magic nearly fries the back of Rakha's eyeballs. It's a rippling burst like a cannon shot, flashing outward from the central sigil to the suspended bodies circling it, and then back in again to seize around Astarion's body, freezing him into position, his fist a few inches from Cazador's face.

Cazador smiles slowly, watching as Astarion writhes frantically in the implacable grip of the blood-red energy. "You truly forgot my power," he purrs. "You truly thought our bond as creator and creation was all that stopped you from killing me." His eyes narrow, mocking and cold. "You are weak, my child. You are a small, pathetic little boy who never amounted to anything."

Another blinding flash. The power begins to contract and compress around Astarion, lifting him off the floor. Cazador watches him unblinkingly. "But today... you will finally do something worthwhile. You will burn... and I will ascend!"

With a ripping surge of magic that makes Rakha's teeth ache, Astarion is hurled bodily across the platform and into the empty alcove awaiting him. His armor is torn violently from his body, leaving him shirtless to the waist and revealing a harsh, jagged marking carved into his back - a sigil just like the one carved into the floor in front of him.

He screams, all his confidence gone in favor of primal, desperate terror.

"No! Stop him! And get me out of this!"

Cazador laughs maniacally, spreading his arms out into the magic that is beginning to swirl around him like a whirlwind. "Witness the birth of the Vampire Ascendant!" he howls gleefully. "Ecce dominus!"

[pokimoko]

Get to Know me Tag!

Thank you @greentea-and-honey for tagging me in your post :D! I'll tag in @tiptapricot, @theophagism, @thealterscrolls and @duck-in-a-spaceship. :)

Last Song: 'The Rain' by Little Quirks. They're a band I only discovered somewhat recently but they're from the same region of NSW I grew up in, so that's pretty sweet. This song in particular is one of my favourites of theirs.

Favourite Colour: Purple equally tied with blue. I can never decide which I prefer more, I'm a very big fan of both. 💜💙

Last Book: I've almost finished reading 'The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida' by Shehan Karunatilaka, and I'm also in the middle of listening to the audiobook for 'The Haunting of Hill House' by Shirley Jackson.

Last Movie: I watched 'The Thing' (1982) last weekend. It's been on my to-watch list for yonks (because wintery horror is right up my alley) so it was nice to finally get around to watching it.

Last TV Show: 'The Outlaws' (BBC), which was a fucking amazing show. Not only was it as funny as it was thrilling, it had not one but two separate platonic male/female friendships! Big fan of those, me, and of character growth, which there was aplenty. The simplest way I can describe the show's plot is 'found family do crime, fail upwards in exceedingly elaborate and impressive ways, and grow as people together'. I highly recommend.

Sweet/spicy/savoury: Sweet tooth all the way baby.

Last thing I googled: Was 'faerie research references' to help with the fic I'm currently writing, which you'll hopefully be seeing very soon ;). 

Current Obsessions: Gravity Falls, and Dungeons & Dragons (but in a 'living vicariously through actual plays' kind of way because I can't play in person with any of my friends; curse the distance that separates us!😭).

Looking Forward to: Flying up to Sydney early next year, not just to see my beloved friends but also to go to a friend's wedding (🥳🥳🥳), the DnD Twenty-Sided Tavern show at the Sydney Opera House (which is also my first time going inside the Opera House! huzzah!), and perhaps even the Hadestown musical too. I'm very excited!! :D

[man-down-in-hatchet-town]

The Case of The Greater Gatsby Episode 23: Criminal

Ohhhhh boy! Here we are at the second to last episode, mere minutes left in our winding tale, and the answers are a-comin’ at the same speed that the plots are a-twistin’.

Hold onto your hats! Spoilers below the cut.

First off, it has to be said: As someone with a decade-plus-long hatred for the term “lover,” Shipwrecked were so real for that whole running bit. I’ve never related to our detectives more.

Now onto slightly more substantial matters: I really was right about Sheilah and Mel’s affair! Huzzah! And, frankly, good for them. Get it, girls! My whole original theory extending the affair into the murder motive doesn’t really seem to hold much water, though. Sheilah claims that she and Mel were together all night, and frankly I believe her. Something about how how she still couldn’t help but doubt Mel’s innocence just makes her story feel all the more real and reliable. But it does beg the question—who was Mel talking to on the phone that night? Leery, perhaps? Or what about her sister, the one with connections to the mob, connections Leery’s family happens to share? Did Mel’s angry phone call have had any actual impact on the events leading up to Fitzgerald’s murder?

Meanwhile, Mo has managed to get his grubby little mitts on Scotty’s tapes. While I don’t think he’s going to make any huge breaks in the case with them, I’m interested to see how he proceeds. They’d certainly be useful in what looks like his attempt to frame Barnaby on Vivian’s behalf. Speaking of Mo and Viv and whatever little devil’s bargain they’ve got going on, I once again have to wonder: what role exactly, if any, did they play in the murder? Why was Mo covering it up at the start of this whole thing? Was he doing it as a favor to his future business partner, and Leery’s brother, Luigi? He may have been covering up the murder so that Leery could go free. But if that’s the case, what did Mel have to do with it? Is their business relationship a red herring that has nothing to do with the rest of Mo’s plots? Regardless, how is Mo planning to balance his murder cover-up with whatever campaign he and Vivian seemingly are waging to put Barnaby behind bars? I suppose if his main motivation is to make sure that Leery doesn’t go down for murder, arresting Barnaby would do the trick just as well as refusing to admit that a murder even occurred….

I do enjoy that we’ve gone from Fig and Ford being hired to prove Barnaby murdered Fitzgerald, to them inevitably having to scramble to prove his innocence in the finale.

Though that assumes that Barnaby is, in fact, innocent. Cause here’s the main question: Is Leery actually guilty? The episode’s big reveal unmasks Leery as our murderer, but I’m not sure I’m fully onboard yet. The case against him certainly feels compelling, but we have a whole episode of reveals and twists to go and so far all the evidence remains quite circumstantial. I did suspect Leery awhile ago, purely on the basis that he didn’t have much of a role in the show and I couldn’t figure out why they even included him, much less cast someone as iconic as Carlos Alazraqui in the role. I largely set that theory aside due to lack of motive, and I’m still running up against that wall now. Obviously he wasn’t a fan of Scott’s treatment of Zelda, though perhaps that rant to her was more about other hidden issues, but that hardly seems like a motive for murder. He loves to sing about his broken heart—did Fitzgerald have some role in that? Has Leery secretly been in love with Zelda or Sheilah from a distance? That doesn’t feel likely. Or is Fig right, and he’s also the letter writer and his reason to kill is no more complicated than a secret hatred of adaptions? Maybe his mob-ties taught him to respond to such problems with a certain… violent je ne sais quoi. Or maybe he thought Fitzgerald had uncovered something about his criminal brother and murdered him to prevent the secret from leaking into the Greater Gatsby script? We know that Leery’s part of the Brigade, so perhaps Fitzgerald discovered some secret through that connection. I dunno; any of these theories is possible but so far none of them are really clicking with me yet. Thoughts?

I’m also not sure that he’s the one behind the letters. Why would Leery hate adaptions? He seems to have one foot out the acting door anyways, wanting to focus on his music career instead, and Grapes of Wrath has proved that anything can be turned into a musical. Or is he leaving acting for music specifically because of a secret hatred for the direction the industry is going? Maybe he misses the days when original screenplays ruled the roost, assuming that such time ever existed. Or perhaps he murdered Fitzgerald for some other reason, and the letter campaign is just one long, extremely elaborate distraction and cover-up. I will say that the awkward writing style used in the letters does match up with his attempts at songwriting. We’ve known that Leery is a bad writer for quite some time.

But does that make him a killer?

I guess I’ll find out for sure tomorrow.

TOMORROW!!!

[misterspectacular]

GOOD OMENS 2 SPOILERS, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK, JUST STATING MY THOUGHTS BASICALLY

SO MY FRIEND AND I BINGED SEASON 2 OF GOOD OMENS THE SECOND IT WAS RELEASED! What an adrenaline rush pahahahaa to have waited that long, and finally get it, it was a lot, I think we almost died.

(I dunno how to do the "keep reading" thing so have some dots)

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I honestly would say that season 2 of Good Omens is better than season 1. Nearly the entire thing was Crowley and Aziraphale. YES. They're what I want.

Also, the way the flashbacks were arranged -- perfect! They were longer and more fleshed out and we got continuations of some of them! Huzzah!

Gabriel was hilarious, as usual. Jim was even funnier. Conflicting feelings about Gabriel for most of the season, I started forgiving him towards the end though. The thing with Beelzebub was pretty nice.

It starting off with angel Crowley, he was such a dork, finding out he KNEW AZIRAPHALE THEN, wow! Highlight!

The apology dance was a highlight,

Crowley drinking poison and shrinking/growing and sounding like a Leprechaun was a highlight,

All of Crowley's different accents -- all highlights.

THE FACT THAT CROWLEY IS THE ONE THAT GOT AZIRAPHALE EATING, THE WAY THAT WHOLE THING HAPPENED, THAT WAS CERTAINLY A HIGHLIGHT.

Crowley pretending to be EVIL!!! I didnt fall for it for a second, I was like, yeah okay so where did the goats actually go hahaa! Into the crows, amazing!

Aziraphale with his halo, that was freaking awesome -- he was pretty badass in this season, at some points.

THEM DANCING TOGETHER!!! Jfhsnsnehdiend

The magic act! And it working, even without using actual miracles!

Crowley making it rain, ha, I did that in a RP.

Aziraphale being... look, he's freakin adorable, the way he cradled the, well, the tumor -- I mean, it sounds weird, but it was actually incredibly endearing -- he was very endearing, as always.

THINKING HE WAS GOING TO FALL, and crying about it, and Crowley cheering him up!! YESSS

And... Crowley's realization... SAYING AZIRAPHALE COULD NEVER BE A SIDE PIECE jddjsbdje

Crowley FALLING APART as he OPENS UP TO AZIRAPHALE!!! OUCH! That was like being stabbed, but somehow in a good way, because YES HES SAYING IT, JESUS FUCK

And...

THE

KISS

Like holy-fucking-moly! Dream come true, right there!! I did NOT expect things to go in that direction, I thought we were going to play it safe, and I am so glad that I was wrong. I've wanted these two to kiss for A LONG TIME, I've role played kissing AZIRAPHALE SO MANY TIMES, I've written stories, that was -- well, this was my response at the time: hfjdnelsneksndkwndjskwjznwjs jdneksneksjs disndjsnskw djjwdne idens! LITERALLY A DREAM COME TRUE, NEARLY EXPLODED!!! Like Crowley and Aziraphale literally kissed, mouth to mouth, its canon, it happened, the music swelled, they did it, it's real. Never thought I'd have pictures of men kissing up on my wall but I think I might need to print that out and hang it up, this was not just a highlight of season 2, this was A HIGHLIGHT OF MY LIFE! THANKS FOR THE NOURISHMENT, GAIMAN

and the nightingale thing -- "I don't hear anything" "that's the point, no nightingales", killed me man. THE NIGHTINGGALE, WHY IS IT ALWAYS THE NIGHTINGALE! OW! I DID NOT CRY ABOUT IT, I SWEAR ! ! !

Aziraphale saying I FORGIVE YOU ksndjwnsje I dont understand why he said that when just seconds ago he was saying LET US BE TOGETHER HOORAY, my friend and I were talking and I said, well last time he said I FORGIVE YOU it was after Crowley called him stupid, and my friend was like, well didnt Crowley call him an idiot this time, call back, so maybe that was it,

Aziraphale touching his lips like that after the kiss, holy fuck, A++++, but a painful A++++

and then CHOOSING METATRON!?!? WHAAAAAT?!?!?! I was reeeaaallly hoping he'd run to Crowley and KISS HIM or SOMETHING, but he -- METATRON, NOOoooOooOooo!!! So that was an extremely painful ending. and I realize that for Season 3 to happen, something would HAVE to push fans into creating that build-up and that NEED for another season, but.... OW! how long do I have to live with this pain??? If season 3 is NEVER MADE, it's going to end on this note??? it'd better get made jdbekdnwksn HOLY FUCK, I also better not DIE BEFORE IT'S MADE. I'll be over here, guts out, "cant die... yet... need... to see... Aziraphale and Crowley... make up...! Need... season... 3...!"

So yeah I'll be watching that over and over and over and over and over and over and ov

[subject-2-change]

Huzzah! I have been roped into a wholeosme ask game, and now I'm pulling you into it too! 😄

List 5 things that make you happy! 😁 Then if you like, put this prompt in the askbox for the last 10 people who liked or reblogged something from you! No pressure of course.☺️

Awwww I could use a little wholesome right now!

My precious baby cat. I adore her!

Good food and vibes of my place of work.

Music 🎶 especially angry music

The rain. Finally! I hope it does again soon.

D&D, particularly that it allows me to play imagination with friends.

Honorable mention to fandom art, in all forms. Like your videos!

Thanks for the ask! 😄

[sheliesshattered]

Interior sleeve finishes:

Done!

Armscye facing:

Done!

Neckline facing and reinforcement for trim and beading:

Done!

Visibility from the outside:

NONE!

Pardon my excitement over finishing these finishings, but I'm just so glad to be done. All of these were fiddly, time-consuming handsewing, but now that they're done, all the interior finishes of the overdress are checked off my list. I still need to do the hem (probably very last step of the whole project), and the handsewing on the underdress seamlines are still ongoing, but this is still a huge section of the project done. Huzzah.

Someone on the Dragon Con discord mentioned the other day how much time cosplayers spend doing teeny tiny hand-stitches that no one else will ever see, because the whole point of them is to be invisible. The dimpling along the sleeve seam is just a little bit visible, even after ironing, but that's mostly down to the thickness of the flat-felled fabric there. But the neckline and armscye finishes are completely invisible, even from close up, which is exactly what I wanted. A lot of effort, but worth it.

With all the finishing (except the hem) done, it's finally finally time to move on to the trim portion of this project! The wide strip of organza to finish the neckline was measured to match the 1.5" trim that will be going along there, and that will have ~200 tiny garnet seed beads sewn on top. The red silk can be a little fragile feeling, so I wanted to be sure that the trim+beading would have plenty of support to grab onto.

Getting that trim placed and seamed together at center front and shoulder seams is going to be another tedious project, but I think getting that -- and the narrow trim that goes over the seamlines -- into place will really bring the dress into focus and make it look a lot more like the screen-used dress. The narrow trim is going to look something like this:

I need to play around with it a bit to figure out placement and technique, but I'm planning to anchor it to the interior vertical seam finishings if possible. It all needs to be handsewn, but the trim is so narrow that I think I'll either be able to do a single line of stitches, or a narrow zig-zag alternating between the sides. This trim is on nine of the ten seams (not center back, for some reason, but eh I'll match the show and skip that one) running from shoulder to floor, so even if the handsewing itself is fast, I've got a lot of ground to cover.

The narrow trim disappears under the wide neckline trim at center front and over the shoulders (a fact I used when drafting the shoulders waaaaay back in January, which is weird to think about now), so I may end up sewing on at least the upper edge of the wide trim before I do the trim for those five seams, just so I can position it correctly in relation to the bottom edge of the wide trim. I think I'll start with one of the underarm seams, though, until I have a good grasp on the technique for couching the narrow trim along the seamlines.

Besides getting started on the trim, this week I also want to keep hacking away at all the seam finishes for the underdress. This past week I was able to finish a stretch of one seam from waist to floor, and start on another one. It's another part of this project that is very slow and tedious work, but it would be even more fiddly if I tried to do it by machine, so I'm just going to keep at it little by little.

The only other thing I might try to tackle this week is sewing the hooks and eyes to the forearm opening of the sleeves. It's not hugely pressing, but I do want to have those in and functioning before I add this same narrow trim to the cuff of the sleeves. I still need to figure out what I want to do for the wide flat circular medallions? beads? trim? that are just above that. I think I might be able to replicate the ones on the show using the narrow trim, but if not I do have a couple of options bookmarked on Etsy.

And speaking of, this last week I also ordered the last piece of jewelry I need, and the bits for making the one thing that I haven't been able to find a good stand-in for also arrived. Jack has promised to help me with that, we just haven't gotten to it yet. I'll definitely post pics once that's done. There are a couple of other little bits -- lacing rings and aglets -- that I need to order for the decorative dragon-claw lacings on the front of the dress, but I my shopping list is definitely getting pretty short.

Not counting today, there are 86 days left until Dragon Con, basically just 12 weeks plus a couple of days for packing and last minute wig fussing and such. And I think I'm well on track to get this project done, including a little matching bag to carry all my con necessities around in.

Buuut I've also sourced all the bits I would need for the other cosplay I'm really excited about, including an alternative for the one piece I want to sew, in case I run out of time to sew it. And then there's the classic-and-comfy cosplay that I've been meaning to tackle for literal decades that would be fun to have for an easy Thursday evening cosplay, and ugh I just want to sew all the things!

OTOH, given that it's 12 weeks until Dragon Con, I'm also trying to get my sleep schedule under control again, and walk earlier (and longer) every morning, to prepare for all the walking that con entails. So I should probably wrap up this post, maybe do a little more handsewing on the underdress before bed, and make myself get some sleep. And hopefully not dream about working on cosplay again tonight, lol.

[enbyleighlines]

Leigh plays Tellius prt 11

It's time to push around some priests!

I absolutely adore how Tellius has so many cartoonishly evil villains. Schaeffer especially is so much fun to hate.

Regrettably, I underestimated the boss, and wound up losing Boyd to a crit from his killer bow, so I had to do this map twice. Whoops...

On my second go, I hatched a plan that would allow me to take down Schaeffer without any risk of getting one-shot by a critical hit. I first left an unarmed Soren in Schaeffer's killer bow range, knowing that he's immune to critical hits so long as Ike is adjacent to him. Then on my next turn, I had Ike deal the finishing blow, with Reyson hovering nearby in case I needed someone to make a hasty retreat.

Schaeffer's defeat lines are so funny. You don't get more cartoonishly evil than this.

Here's a visual of what everything looked like. I actually had to use Reyson to give Ike a second turn, because he wasn't able to kill Schaeffer in one round. I also had to put that priest in the lower left corner to sleep at one point, because I accidentally left Boyd in his range with a two-handed weapon.

Now it's time for this scene! I wonder if the writing on the wall actually translates to anything, or if it's just random gibberish that's been copy and pasted.

Do we ever find out just how many siblings Reyson has? Is having a ton of siblings a heron-only thing? Or was Lorazieh and his wife just overambitious? I feel like, with how canonically frail herons are, that childbirth would be difficult for them.

How does one translate a name into a different language?

Ranulf has returned!!!

I think this may be my favorite thing Ranulf has ever said. He is such a fucking charmer. Ugh, my heart.

I snorted at Ranulf calling Soren a "nervous little staff officer". Most people consider Soren moody and detached, but I think this is the first time someone has described him as "nervous". But I think it makes sense if Soren always seems nervous around the laguz.

And now we finally get Ike and Soren's relationship to A rank! Huzzah!

I also got Mist and Boyd to B rank at long last. And it looks like Boyd is the one who started crushing first. Unsurprising, really. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Boyd's love language is dunking on people and being dunked on. It's only natural he would fall in love with Mist, who dunks on Boyd like she's getting paid for it.

Yay! The infamous Aimee and Soren scene! I always wondered about this bit, though. What do you mean, there's only one of these in all the world? Then how does one also exist in Radiant Dawn? Is this a mistranslation?

Next was the bridge map! I could have looked up a map about which squares to avoid, but I was too lazy to do that, and instead relied on my memory. Which turns out was a bad idea, because I still fell into a bunch of holes! Even so, I didn't have any problems with this map.

Lucia! Behold, a true bicon.

I had to get Petrine and Soren's dialogue. I am a little sad we never get to learn more about Petrine being Branded. How does she feel about it? Has she experienced discrimination before? Surely her experiences have influenced her fanatic hatred of the laguz. And perhaps her overconfident personality is her overcompensating for a secret self-loathing? Idk, I think it would be interesting if they explored that.

I decided to give the killing blow to Boyd, as a bit of an apology, both for letting him die to Schaeffer, but also for putting provoke on him so he would take all the hits from the ballistae.

Ike and Ranulf's C-rank conversation was immediately available after this map, so yay! And man, maybe it's just my shipper goggles blinding me from the obvious, but um, how else am I supposed to interpret this line other than Ranulf hitting on Ike?

Ike being so unbelievably tickled by Ranulf's stupid puns gives me so much life.

And that's part 11! We are getting into the endgame, and I'm starting to get nervous. Will I defeat the Black Knight? If I don't, does it count as letting Nasir die? Does that go against my "no deaths" rule?

Ahhhhh, let's hope all goes well.

[chidoroki]

Fairy Tail: 100 Year Quest EP3

aka: let's get down to business

I like how to title screen actually focused in on the water dragon now that we’ve officially met him. That would be cool if the same happened with each dragon going forward.

“Great Water God Dragon! Why would you bring a bunch like that to the temple?” Kinda impressed the voice of Karameel sounded familiar to me at all, especially from someone like Olivier from No Guns Life.

Oh, and Mercphobia and Mars share va too but somehow that didn’t set off any bells in my head. Then again, I’m used to the Black Clover dub instead so that explains that I suppose.

Okay no, wait, they really have Carla’s guild mark on her arm. I wasn’t just seeing things last week nor was it an error? Because I’m like 99% sure it was originally on her back like Happy & Lily’s.

“That’s true. He seems harmless.” “That’s not true. I may not look it, but I have killed many people in the past. Like they were vermin.” Well damn, way to change the mood. Such a nice shot of Mercphobia though.

The way he so casually smiles after saying Karameel was nothing more than a meal he once found at sea is too good. I get he had a change of heart once she became attached to him but he looked so soft saying that.

Ichiya and his three cheerful boys were not on my bingo card of who we would see today. Yes I forget things. Nope I haven’t gone back and reread the chapters like I said I would.

Ah right, Jellal still asking around for clues about this Touka chick.

“If that woman’s guilty, then Levy’s in danger, too. I’ll never let her hurt Levy.” Gajeel is a sweetheart.

Pfft Juvia shielding Gajeel’s eyes. Good job girl.

Levy’s goddamn blank-pissed off stare upon seeing Gajeel onto of Juvia like that! AAAHA!

Thank god my memory didn’t fail me about Levy being pregnant.

It did, however, fail regarding the white mage stealing Merc’s power. Whoops. That’s kinda important, huh?

So, Kagura knows about Touka being in Fairy Tail because “they introduced her to me when I visited Magnolia last month.” With how quick everything happened, I assumed it’s only been a couple days since she joined but whatever. I guess that make's Levy's annoyances more reasonable if Gajeel has been out playing detective this whole time.

Also, it’s nice to see Kagura being able to chat with Jellal so normally after everything that happened. Glad they're on better terms nowadays.

“What?! It’s Fairy Tail again?” Surprise.

I like how they mentioned a while ago that there’s oxygen inside the temple so no one has to question how Natsu’s fire is suddenly working when it previously didn’t outside underwater.

Ayyyoo hold up, the animation is looking so good! I’m really loving this new art style they got going on!

Putting our hot head on a boat is such a dirty move considering new gen slayers don’t get motion sickness for whatever reason.

“My sword must he strong to protect my friends.” Help I’m falling in love with Erza all over again.

“I cut her strength itself.” BITCH. That I remembered and I still hate it.

Okay, listen, I’ll be one of the many people who would gladly allow Jade (HSR) to step on me, but someone like Kiria? NAH. Foot off the queen’s head please! How dare you!

Aww I love how Wendy went full dragon mode and rushed in to help Erza though!

Gray bringing out the ice demon stuff too!

Hello sir freezing the whole damn ocean, I see you!

Jellal’s tedious search finally comes to an end, huzzah.

Man.. this whole waiting for episodes thing sucks. I binged watched Fairy Tail however many years ago so I didn’t have to worry about it, but now I have no choice! Ahh! I want more! They’re doing so well.

[foxmonkey]

The Mandalorian, last episode! Spoilers! HAHAHAHAHAHA

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The Mandalorian S3:E8, The Return.

Here we go! Grogu saves Din Djarin! He's so cute I can't take it. Din telling Grogu they can't keep running and asking "Are you with me?" Grogu's little nod. The two of them is what all of these episodes should have been about. Their connection is so sweet.

Star Wars does ships and flying machines like no one else. Gorgeous.

R5! I thought that mouse droid was playing music at first, which would have been hilarious.

DIN DJARIN, BADASS LOOSE IN THE COMMAND CENTER. Seriously, he should have kept the Dark Saber because he's the best.

The mouse droids ganging up on R5 is hilarious.

The red guys again...aiiiii, they're after Grogu! Oh no, the IG unit is toast. :( K, Grogu force jumping away from the red guys and laughing....yes. Yay, Din saved Grogu. :-)

Bo vs. Moff Gideon: The Dark Saber is now toast.

Whee! Grogu used the force to save Bo and Din Djarin. This is definitely The Way. ...aaaaaand there he goes on his little butt. So cute.

Grogu cannot speak so he cannot take the creed. His disappointed little face! "Then I will adopt him as my own." SCREAMING!!!!!!!!! I hated so much of this season, but I'm smiling so hard right now. YES YES YES.

Aw, the Great Forge has been lit. Huzzah! I continue to love the Armorer.

I love Carson Teva. IG-11 is (kinda) back! He's the new marshall! I love this show.

Grogu plays with frogs while Din Dad watches from the porch of their new little cabin on the outskirts of town. THIS is what this last season should have been about. A perfect end to an imperfect season. I'm glad I finally watched.

[master-john-uk]

The oldest regular cricket fixture in the world which is still played, and the only regular inter-school cricket match to still be played at Lord's Cricket Ground.

The 2023 cricket match between Eton College and Harrow School was played at Lord's in May, and Harrow won by four runs. It was a lucky win for Harrow... Rain repeatedly interrupted play, and the final result was calculated using the Duckworth-Lewis method. (But Eton are still ahead in total number of wins... just.)

Eton v Harrow used to be one the sporting social events of the year, alongside Royal Ascot and the Henley Royal Regatta. In the early 20th Century this cricket fixture attracted crowds in excess of 30,000.

In February 2022, the MCC announced that from 2023 onwards the fixture would no longer be held at the Lord's. It would be replaced by the finals of boys’ and girls’ schools competitions, as stated by MCC to be more inclusive. (This was the MCC's attempted "woke" response to criticism of English cricket being elitist, sexist and racist.)

A large number of MCC members, including myself were opposed to this weak and feeble decision designed to appease the criticism. Yes, I agree that English cricket may be discriminatory... but simply dropping the Eton v Harrow (and the Oxford v Cambridge) fixture does nothing to make the game more inclusive. These two one day cricket games would not stop Lord's from hosting other inter-school cricket tournament finals.

In 2022, I took part in a protest (which I helped to arrange.) Old Etonians and Old Harrovians got together. We attended what was to be the last Eton v Harrow cricket match, all dressed in 1930's style morning dress. As well as hiring an expensive hospitality box, we also spent an exorbitant amount of money on over-priced food and drink.

The MCC have to pay a fortune to keep Lord's Cricket Ground maintained and up to standard. I think we helped them realise that they can not afford to lose the revenue gained from these two historic cricket fixtures.

In September 2022, MCC reviewed their decision and allowed the 2023 match to take place. In March 2023 they decided that further consultation was needed, and Eton v Harrow will continue to be played at Lord's until at least 2027. There will be a members vote on the issue in 2028.

Huzzah!

The annual Eton vs Harrow match at Lords - Slim Aarons (1955)

[astrolotte]

Hi I have finally gotten around to reading all of the Alterna Logs after speedrunning my way through world 5 and 6 because I had enough eggs and didn't have to play any of them and. and.

Wow! They did a great job of continuing the Splatoon trend of giving us a funny concept with absolutely decimating lore behind it! I'm absolutely miserable now! /pos

more. under the cut. spoiler warning

ough what the FUCK /pos /pos /very much positive! Wow! All of humanity is dead but the new species exist because of US! That's absolutely miserable!

Honestly, I never really expected an actual reason to how the sea life evolved so quickly. I mean, it's only been 12,000 years since humanity died. There's no way that squids evolved into humanoids THAT FAST. But I didn't think much of it. Sure, Splatoon has a tendency to give proper and often detailed explanations towards little details (ex. the reason you can customize your character after the beginning is because squids can change color irl), but I just figured... eh. It's Splatoon. they can do what they want.

But NOPE! Turns out, there IS a reason for it!

I don't know if there's anyone still reading this who doesn't yet know the lore but doesn't care about spoilers, but here's a copy-pasted message from me talking to my friends about what the reason is:

"The few remaining humans on earth decided to build a dome underground, for their safety. Eventually, they developed these 'crystals' made from the bodily fluids of squids, that could essentially read minds and reflect the hopes of humanity. They filled the ceiling of the dome with these crystals, and they turned into the Earth's sky- the humans just wanted to be on the surface again, all we really wanted was to be back up there. All we wanted was to see the sky.

Eventually, this last group of humans had children, and the new generation was just as wistful as the last; they wanted to be on the surface too. Even though they had never seen it.

Against the wishes of their elders, they built a rocket ship to get back up there. But this... was a mistake. As soon as they attempted to turn it on, it started burning up the ceiling. The 'sky' fell, crystals included. It killed everyone. There were no more humans left on Earth.

But these crystals... they began to, essentially, merge with the sea life around their dome. And as the crystals reflected humanity's hopes and dreams, the sea life began to rapidly evolve into humanoids. They became humanoid because of us. Because of our desires and love and hope, the squids and octopi and every other creature we had found began to become us, or as close as they can get.

They are our last creation, our last little huzzah. The product of our last hope. They wanted to go to the surface just as we had, because that was what we wanted. They became land animals because of our dreams. They left the dome because that was all we wanted to do.

They saw our sky again for us. And yet, they had no clue that they were our result. They just... wanted to see the sky. Just as we had.

In typical Splatoon fashion, you have a funny premise (humanoid sea creatures have a society) followed by absolutely devastating lore."

Just... wow. Alright. Alright! That's some of the most horrifying lore we have yet! I mean, knowing that all the humans died because of World War 5 + global warming, including the few who survived in domes, was already miserable, but now.. now we get to know the history behind it. Now we get to know more about the domes they lives in, now we get to know more about their final years. Now we get to know that they hoped and dreamed too much.

They followed the story of Icarus: they flew too close to the sky. That's all they wanted to see, all they wanted was to be close to it again, they just wanted to see the blue sky and feel the breeze and watch the clouds. But they failed, and the sky they had, fake and artificial as it was, fell.

... Like Chicken Little.

[miredinmiddleearth]

Rings of Power, Ep. 8 Review - A rant fit for a finale

 Ready for my final rant? I shan’t hold back. The show sure didn’t! Here are my thoughts on episode eight:

1. Starting with a bang. Gandalf is Sauron red herring. Believed it for exactly...no seconds.

2. Slow-mo hits a little different when Halbrand’s limp body is slow-mo bouncing on a horse.

3. Pretty sure the three elven rings were made last? And positive they were made in SECRET. AFTER they suspected Sauron was messing with the rings already. And I KNOW the three elven rings were untouched by Sauron. But oh look. Sauron’s going around touching stuff. Literally picks up the mithril that will make the rings.

4. See, Halbrand’s line about giving “a gift” is okay subtlety! One of Sauron’s names meant “giver of gifts.” Plant the seeds slowly. Show him working his way gradually into becoming friends with the elves, then maybe trusted to play around in the forge, then helping make rings for the dwarves, then suspected, then -

No? We’re going to skip all that and immediately suspect him? Awesome.

5. And of COURSE Nancy Galadriel Drew has to be the one to crack the case. She has no reason to suspect Halbrand! He says one thing that Adar says, and he’s immediately a villain to her. Girl, remind me never to be your ally. You are more fickle than a squirrel trying to cross the road.

6. Oh good lord. We have time to shoe-horn Elendil’s daughter into all this?

7. Aaaaaaaaaaand now Sauron’s helping with the actual forging of the three elven rings. So much for unsullied by Sauron’s hand!

8. Elrond talking about how quickly they’re making the rings: “Three weeks for a labor that could take three centuries.” 

I don’t know if they’re making fun of us with this, but yes, all this SHOULD take three centuries. Three weeks? We’re seriously going to do the forging of the rings in PART of ONE EPISODE?!

9. HUZZAH! HARFOOT DEATH!

10. The three witchy ladies talk about Gandalf by saying “He is the other. The Istar.” THE other? As if it’s just Sauron v. Gandalf. And *gasp* This guy is Gandalf?! Who would have guessed?!

11. Because Gandalf spoke to that moth in the movies, he’s mothman now?

12. They’re really going to end the season with the lie that Isildur is dead?

13. The Sauron reveal. Okay, buckle up.

So Galadriel gets suspicious and SUPER mad at Halbrand when she discovers he’s not king of the Southlands. Problem is, SHE is the one who insisted that that was his identity! SHE was the one who told all of the Numenoreans that he was king! SHE was the one who poked and prodded him to take up that title! This reveal has no weight for many reasons, one of them being it is a lie GALADRIEL CREATED AND PERPETUATED. 

Then we get the reveal, and man oh man. One vague accusation, and they have Sauron go completely mask-off and smile like an over-the-top villain. All he’s missing is a mustache. Where is the master manipulator?! He could EASILY twist her suspicions. 

Then Sauron proceeds to point out fact after fact after fact. Ultimately, Galadriel is the reason Sauron is a villain again. Kill me. Gone is Galadriel the hero. In her place is now a woman with a guilty conscience trying to clean up the massive mess she made.

THEN, the temptation scene. Some cool visuals of the reflections in the water, but why does Galadriel’s temptation have to be tied to her romantic attractions. She can’t be tempted by power for its own sake? She has to be lured in by a sexy face and a soft lilt to the voice? Which, fine...if we didn’t already know her as someone who consistently throughout Tolkien is drawn to the idea of power without the need for all that. 

I’m so over these showrunners who constantly bragged about their strong female characters. You have single-handedly stripped this goddess of a character to be a sniveling, obnoxious, self-righteous piece of cardboard who has every single step of her journey defined by the men that surround her. Now, as the final insult, you make her quest to save Middle-Earth tied to her sexuality and a made-up guilt rooted in creating the very monster that will nearly destroy everything in the world. I. HATE. THIS. SHOW!!!!!

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE. Sauron’s final threat is to remind Galadriel that he lives because of her. She replies, “And you will die because of me.” This is her promise. SHE will be responsible for Sauron’s defeat. Not only have you diminished Galadriel, you are now diminishing the ring-bearers who actually bring about Sauron’s demise. THEY’RE LESSENING THE HEROISM OF FRODO AND SAM!!!!!! You come for Sam and Frodo, YOU DIE!!!!!!!!!!!

Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Let’s get back to the stupid elven rings thing.

14. Elrond says the rings must be untouched by hands other than elves’. Look at that. Even the show insists the three rings shouldn’t be touched by Sauron. The show that just showed him touching them five minutes ago. 

15. The Harfoot goodbye takes FOREVER. 

16. “Always follow your nose.” Good. Freaking. Grief. See, in another show, I might have been delighted with this line. I might have smiled with glee and cried, “Gandalf!” But no. That which is beautiful is soured by the foul fingers of these greedy, talentless showrunners.

17. I’m so confused by the picking and choosing. So in some ways they try to match the Jackson aesthetic (Balrog, basic elven and hobbit design, Sauron armor, etc.). Then they go and totally ignore it in others, specifically the design of the three rings. 

18. I still can’t believe they showed their hand. Their two big mysteries: Sauron and Gandalf, and they revealed both in a single episode and in the first season. AND they forged the three rings.

19. P.S. I hate the credits song.

20. Random things of note: Lol, no balrog. No Theo and fam, thank goodness. No Isildur? 

I hate it all, but at last, it. is. DONE.

[triptuckers]

Together again - Jaskier

Request: nope Pairing: Jaskier x reader Summary: you run into someone you thought you'd lost Warnings:  mentions of blood, death, grieving, fighting, bruises, language, angst Word count: 2.2K A/N: huzzah! I'm writing again who would have thought!! finally out of my writers block :') took me long enough lol. I recently watched the witcher and absolutely love the characters, so I figured I'd write one for jaskier! I'll update my character list as well, enjoy reading!

You're walking through the woods, on your way back to the town you'd been staying at. Just as you're enjoying some peace and quiet, you hear shouting nearby.

You cautiously follow the sound, sword at the ready. When the shouts get louder, you see a clearing in the forest. In the middle of it is a figure in a purple cloak and someone in a long coat, fighting what appears to be a group of assassins.

Then the figure in the purple cloak turns around and you see it's Yennefer.

Immediately, you rush to help your friend. You can tell she's not using her magic, and you don't know why. One thing you do know: they're severely outnumbered.

Just as you slice the head off one of the assassins, the other figure that's wearing the long coat turns around to face you.

Your breath briefly hitches in your throat.

It can't be. You watched him die. You were sure of it because you had to relive the moment every time you tried to sleep. You knew because you somehow saw his face everywhere, it haunted you.

But then he opens his mouth to speak, and you can tell it's not your mind playing tricks on you as a result of sleep deprivation.

'Y/N?'

Just your name, so simple. It's enough to have every feeling you've ever felt for him rush back.

'You- you're..' your voice fades away, too stunned to speak. You even forgot you came here in the first place because they were fighting a losing battle.

You're harshly brought back to reality by a sword making a deep cut in one of your thighs. You groan and quickly turn and drive your sword through your attacker's heart.

You turn back to the man in front of you.

'Jaskier.' you say. 'I watched you die.'

'I know.' says Jaskier, his eyes filled with guilt. 'I know, I know, and I never should have-'

'You're bleeding.' you say, interrupting him when you looked at his shoulder.

It's only then you realise Jaskier doesn't know how to fight. So it's just Yennefer against the rest, and she's not using her magic. You didn't know why she wouldn't use it. Unless she couldn't use it.

Your eyes widen in realisation.

'Yennefer!' you yell.

Yennefer whacks an attacker on the head with a large chunk of wood before turning to you.

You toss her a key you retrieved from your pocket. 'Ronan's inn. Room 27. I'll find you there, go.' you say.

She looks grateful she gets to leave this fight. And she knows you can handle it, she's fought side by side with you before.

'Go with her Jaskier.' you say.

'I'm not leaving you.' says Jaskier.

'Jaskier you're useless in a fight, you don't know anything about combat. Go with Yennefer.' you say, turning around to face the assassins that are left.

You grip your sword tightly as you prepare for the first man to approach you. You can still sense Jaskier's presence behind you.

'Jaskier I told you to go.' you say firmly.

'I don't want to leave you here on your own.' he says.

'I don't want to watch you die. Again.' you say. 'Go.'

It seems that reminded him of the last time you saw him. You feel his hand on your shoulder, squeezing it softly. Then you hear his footsteps retreating as he quickly follows Yennefer.

You take a deep breath and brace yourself for the fight.

It took a lot of muscle power and perseverance, as well as a few clever moves, but you manage to take down the last of the assassins.

You're breathing heavily, blood dripping from your sword onto the ground. Despite being a skilled fighter, you did manage to get a few cuts and bruises here and there. And you painfully sprained your ankle somewhere during all the fighting.

'Fuck.' you mutter as you inspect the wounds on your body. You'd have to lay low for a while, allow your body to heal. If only Yennefer could heal you, but you sensed she'd lost her magic somehow. Otherwise she would have made quick work of the assassins.

You stumble to the next town, careful not to put too much weight on your ankle.

When you get to the small town, the people at the market are taking steps back when you walk past, and they're visibly shocked at the look of you.

You know how it must look for them. A woman, covered in wounds and bruises, carrying a sword that's dripping blood. And your angry facial expression doesn't help much.

As soon as the adrenaline rush was over and you started making your way toward the town, you saw Jaskier's face in your mind again.

Everything in you that used to be grief was now consumed by rage. You watched him die. Or at least, you thought you did. And he's alive. He's alive and he's never even tried to reach out to you.

You're ignoring the looks people give you as you make your way to the inn you told Yennefer about. You'd been staying there for the last few days, you'd have to find a different inn soon. You didn't want to stay anywhere too long.

As you open the door to the bar that's on the ground floor of the inn, a few heads turn to you, then they resume their drinking. You briefly nod at the owner before making your way to the stairwell in the back.

Your leg is throbbing painfully as you slowly walk up the stairs to the second floor. Once you get to your floor, you pause for a second. You feel lightheaded, likely because of the blood loss.

When you get to your room, you knock on the door, not wanting to startle Yennefer and end up with a knife in your chest. After a minute or so, the door slowly opens and one eye appears behind it.

Yennefer pulls the door further open to let you in and you thank her.

Then your eyes land on Jaskier, who is sitting on the bed. Apparently Yennefer was in the middle of putting a bandage on his shoulder. You must still look angry, because Jaskier's eyes widen slightly at the look of you.

'Yennefer, leave.' you say.

She must have sensed the anger radiating off of you, because she quickly makes her way to the door.

'Yennefer, don't leave!' says Jaskier desperately, clearly terrified to be in one room with you.

But Yennefer knows what's best for her as she shuts the door, leaving you and Jaskier alone.

You look at him, anger coursing through your veins. He had all the right to look terrified. And you had all the right to be mad.

'I watched you die.' you say. 'They beat you to shit and then dragged your body away. And months later, I find out you're alive by running into you and Yennefer fighting off fucking assassins?'

Jaskier slowly raises his hands, as if he's trying to surrender or show you he doesn't mean you any harm.

'I know how this looks but-'

'Looks to me like you never even tried to reach out to me.' you say, interrupting him.

'I did!' Jaskier protests.

'Well apparently you didn't try hard enough then.' you say.

'Y/N, I understand that you're angry and honestly you have all the right to be. I know I've been an idiot and I'm truly sorry.' says Jaskier.

You chuckle and shake your head, walking over to look out the window and turning your back to Jaskier.

'You're sorry?' you say. 'Do you know what I went through?'

'No.' says Jaskier truthfully. 'I can't imagine what it's been like for you these past months.'

'I'll tell you.' you say, still looking out the window. 'It was a living hell. I thought you died right in front of me. It would have been so much easier if we'd been separated and someone told me. But instead I saw it happen right in front of me. I'm not easily scared, I've seen enough death, blood and monsters in my life. But in that moment, I was terrified. I didn't know what I'd do without you.'

You turn to look over your shoulder at Jaskier. 'I had rented a room at an inn and I didn't leave the room for weeks.' you say. 'I was so consumed by grief, I didn't know if I had the strength left to live. So you can imagine what it's like to see Yennefer and feeling relieved to see a friend again, and then I realise you're there as well.'

You close your eyes and shake your head. 'I used to see your face everywhere. I still do. I had to relive that exact moment every single time I went to sleep. So I just didn't. I stayed awake, til I would pass out from exhaustion.'

Jaskier's eyes are filled with guilt as you walk up to him. 'Seeing you die in front of me, it nearly ended me.' you say.

'I know nothing I say would ever make it alright again.' says Jaskier. 'But I truly am sorry. I've been an idiot. And I did try to reach out to you. I always found a way before so when I didn't hear anything from you, I figured you'd never want to see me again or that something had happened to you.'

Jaskier slowly rises from his position on the bed, standing so close to you, your noses almost touch. You take a step back.

'I understand if you'd never forgive me, and if you want to stay as far away from me as possible.' says Jaskier softly. 'But I really hope you'd give me a chance to try and win your heart again. For you to stop hating me.'

You look at the ground, feeling tears in your eyes. 'I don't hate you, Jaskier.' you say. 'I never could. I tried. I only ended up hating myself for not being able to hate you.'

You feel how Jaskier places one of his fingers underneath your chin and slowly tilts your head up, so he can look you in the eye.

'Y/N, dear, can you give me a chance to make it up to you?' he says softly.

You look into his eyes, debating what you should do. He looks at you, waiting for you answer. You still feel his finger underneath your chin, warm and comforting. Fuck, how could you ever say no to him?

'Okay.' you whisper. 'But I want you to know it's going to take time. And a lot of effort. This isn't something I can just forget or move on from that easily. But I still love you, so I'll give you a chance.'

Jaskier smiles and presses a kiss to your forehead. You close your eyes, letting the memories rush back to you. He would always tease you about your height, even though he's only a little bit taller than you. A kiss to your forehead was his favourite way to do so.

You sigh and step closer so you can wrap your arms around him. Jaskier hugs you back and you inhale sharply when he puts a little too much pressure on one of your wounds.

He's quick to let you go, a concerned look in his eyes.

'Are you alright?' he says.

'Dine.' you say. 'Just some cuts and bruises, that's all. I'll live.'

'Let me help you with those.' says Jaskier gently.

You smile at him and nod. 'Alright.'

You let him bandage your wounds and wash the dirt off of your body, closing your eyes and letting yourself rest for a while. Jaskier's softly humming a song, something he always did whenever it was just the two of you. It reminds you of old times.

Just as Jaskier finishes taking care of your wounds and you pull your shirt over you head, you hear a soft knock on the door. You shoot Jaskier a look as you slowly walk toward the door, hand holding your sword.

You open the door, ready to fight again, but it's just Yennefer.

'Are you guys alright again?' she asks you, soft enough so that only you can hear her.

'Sort of.' you say. 'We're not fighting.'

You open the door and Yennefer enters the room.

The three of you spend the rest of the night catching each other up in what happened in your lives during the months you were separated.

As the hours creep by, you find yourself getting more and more tired. Partly because of all the fighting you did today, and partly because you haven't had a good nights sleep in months.

Jaskier must have noticed how tired you are, because you keep dropping your head to his shoulder before looking up again. He leans in to whisper in your ear.

'You need to sleep, dear.' he says.

You're too tired to protest that you want to listen to Yennefer's story. So instead you only nod, moving so you can lay down on the bed.

As you close your eyes, you can feel yourself already drifting off to sleep. You reach out your hand and feel Jaskier intertwine his fingers with yours.

There's a smile on your lips as you fall asleep.

A/N: If you want to request something, make sure to read my house rules Here’s the list of characters I write for. Everything that I have written can be found on my masterlist. Please don’t repost my work, as I spend much time and effort on it!! Thank you for reading! Much love, Marit

[goldenchocobo]

Is this the end?

I got a migraine last week, and Dog was super late, so we skipped Sunday, but we are back!

"Is he gonna kill himself live on-stream..?" Isopod talking about Ansem's self-destruct.

Many remarks were made about Riku looking like Gojo... or... Gojo looking like Riku...

They both used Riku in their party alongside Donald and reacquainted themselves with the controls. Dog lagged behind a bit, and during the wait, Isopod completed the puzzle pieces they could.

"I think they're in love." Dog (said deadpanned) about Maleficent and Pete.

After Dog asked about an Auditory Xemnas Onlyfans, it was off to fight him! Isopod's first word? "Fear."

The boss fight was pretty intense. Dog failed to buy potions or understand the reaction command at first.

Isopod faired better, but mostly ran away haha.

"Congrats on beating Kingdom Hearts :)" -Me "Really? That was-"-Isopod *Camera pans to Xemnas in front of Kingdom Hearts.* "Yeah, I thought not."-Isopod

Isopod sent this image when waiting the short while, After I described Xemnas' decent as me leaving Discord.:

After that cutscene, they both left TWTNW to buy potions and equipment.

and Isopod then sent this as Dog grinded for Munny:

"It's like a weird fisheye-lens for Anime characters" "That's how I look at [Isopod's name] at work"-Dog

I told Isopod that if she wanted to; she could level up Final form. It's not necessary for the final battle, but it's something to do while they waited... and they got up to lvl1 glide, yeppieeee

It was off to fight Xemnas... for the final time!

"What in the Eldenring boss??? is that what? that... a dragon-building???"-Isopod

They were pretty close in time to one another, keeping up. Which I'm happy about. Isopod then pulled ahead, and faced Armoured Xemnas first, having war flashbacks when he pulled out Xaldin's lances.

Dog quickly caught up and only finished a little after Isopod.

-one cutscene later-

It was onto the last flying section

Dog was just a hair ahead of Isopod, mainly because Isopod didn't see the 'drain' command. But somehow Isopod pulled ahead.

"Why can I jump so high?" -Isopod and Dog upon the second Armoured Xemnas fight

"Wait, waaahhhhhhhh-" Dog did a bit where he pulled away from his mic when Sora got launched.

"Oh god he's in his zebra fit." Isopod "Oh god, he's a slut."-Dog

"No more eternal than that radiance of yours...."-Xemnas "Aw, thank you :)"-Isopod

It was time for the FINAL-final battle. Isopod and Dog were taken surprise by the start, and panicked with their reaction commands. They both died at the Riku section, and Dog lamented about having to go through the whole dragon bit again, then was relieved when he did not have to.

"holy shit this IS a domain expansion!!! help meeeee!!!!!" Isopod button mashing for their LIFE. They finished before Dog, and couldn't pause the cutscene.

Dichotomy.

Dog was having trouble with the reversal command, as well as the ending section with the dome of lasers. Saying he couldn't mash, or the button wasn't registering.

He did not have any potions, I'm not going to say it, but honestly, he did have pretty poor potion management throughout his playthrough, always resorting to that when he was at half-health or even just a little chip damage. But hey- it's how he plays and if he wants to chug them like a frat boy, I can only advise him "maybe not."

However. After about 5-6 attempts, Dog defeated Xemnas!!!

Both Isopod and Dog have now beaten Kingdom Hearts II, Huzzah!!!

"What are your final thoughts?"

The game itself. Fine. It's the accumulation of a million little grievances and a stuff that I was objectively against, game design wise. I can't say I dislike this game cause of 'x', because it's a million things. -Dog

I like the game a lot. Its something I could've played in my childhood and would have obsessed over. However, it did have... how do explain... I guess it could have explained things better... Like I wouldn't have NEVER have known to spam click the last battle. Or the section with Roxas where he came at you and you had to click instead of reaction command??? I don't understand why there were three dudes harder than the final boss??? I did enjoy fighting Roxas which what a surprise. Even though it was fucking hell and I died near a100 times. But overall I liked it. I'm glad I didn't pick any higher modes...-Isopod

"anything else you wanna add?"

I dunno. it's really hard for me to like... I'm tired. The UI.... The UI was the biggest problem I like the combat flow. Kind of? I like combos... in the same vein, I got punished for doing a full combo, so I felt like I couldn't do them. I felt like I had to cheese. The combat was fast, and I liked it, but at the same time, it was sometimes so fast, that you could not react. I would reflect or block a move correctly, and I would get punished by the next move. Also, it not telling me not to do things... I'd have NO idea about the glide in the last fight, no idea about the dodge roll. And you'd say, oh it DOES, in the back of the menu... I can't look to the UI and play the game at the same time.-Dog

The UI. I'm okay with the UI, I like the little head and the weoweoweo... but navigating it was my biggest issue. Maybe because I was on Keyboard and mouse, I had to use the scroll wheel, but if I needed to go back, I had to take my hand off the mouse and press backspace. I liked how goofy it was... also- all the characters were gay.-Isopod

Their favourite boss: Isopod: Roxas Dog Xigbar

Least favourite boss: Isopod: Xigbar Dog: Roxas

So me and two of my friends have started a Gaming Culture Exchange. It’s where we give one game that means a lot to us, or embodies us as a person for the other two to play. I, of course- picked Kingdom Hearts.

It took a bit of thought to whittle it down, but in the end, I chose to get my friends to play KHII.  Because 1) it’s a fan favourite, 2) It has MUCH better combat and fluidity of controls than KHI, and 3) While yeah- you should play KHII and CoM, you can still glean the story; which is what I wanted them to play for. And if they don't understand anything- I'm here.

We meet up every Saturday night, and they play for 2-3 hours whilst I watch and act as a guide/tip-giver.

I wanted to document their experiences because they’re (mostly) fresh eyes in ‘24. This took so long to do because I kept forgetting to ask their permission to do this. How long? When we devised this, the KH series was announced that it was coming to steam during the VC call. I kind of laughed at the irony.

For now, let me introduce you to my friends! I’m not using any of their real names/what I call them due to identity.

Isopod: She/They: We get along really well and often watch shows together, play games or hang out. They’re more of a slow-paced gamer, liking farming sims and the less action-heavy Minecraft parts, but overall she loves genetic sims/ family tree games (wobbledogs, niece etc…). She’s seen little bits of KH, but doesn’t know a whole bunch. Their game for this exchange is Rainworld.

Dog: He/Him: We’re good friends that can get on each other's nerves and argue over pedantic stuff. He likes grimdark things and was the one who introduced me to Berserk. We, along with Isopod, watched Dungeon Meshi together, and I got him to watch Demon Slayer, which he’s enjoying. He actively dislikes/is uninterested in KH, not liking the style clash. His game for this exchange is Eldenring.

Due to the lag with getting permissions, each new entry will be each day until I've caught up, then every Sunday. Each day will be a reblog of this post with a Keep reading spoiler tag so that it doesn't clutter, but can be read in order.

Now that the stage is set, the journey starts below;

-

The game starts, and we jam out to Sanctuary. Isopod already kind of remembers who Roxas is and why he's here, but Dog doesn't- instead, he comments on the 'Gaming Rig' Roxas has got set up (the weird contraption with the light up star in his room) while Isopod laments that they'll never own a lamp as cool as his fish one.

'oh no, our ___ are gone!' "Your WHAT" -Dog

"I thought my audio glitched for a second" -Isopod

We then have to wait because Dog needed to eat dinner because his timing with that is impeccable, let me tell you. This let Isopod explore a bit and examine Roxas' outfit- which she concludes is a 'disaster'(lovingly).

It's then noted that Isopod is playing with Keyboard and mouse, and I m horrified. Dog is playing with an X-box controller and I lovingly refer to him as a heathen.

When Dog came back, the tutorial was completed, but I noticed that Dog... never really read the text. "I read it when Isopod has it up on her stream" he says. This'll bean important fact later.

During the Siefer fight, Isopod picks magic and Dog picks defence.

"woah whatda-" "Demon! actual demon!" Isopod and Dog during their first sighting of a Dusk. Quickly followed up with Isopod saying "why's he got cheeks though???"

The Dusk fight was quickly finished, and they both liked the reaction command (important for later).

"Why are they not calling for an adult. This (strange man) had pictures of children. That's VERY concerning" -Isopod "Yeah, the adults in this aren't very reliable" -Me, all knowing.

"COUNT DOOKU WHAT'RE YOU DOING HERE?!" -Dog upon hearing DiZ.

I then let the two do a few chores for munny. Dog does the Cargo Climb, and Isopod the Mail Delivery.

After a short while, I could hear them bemoan doing the same thing over and over; then I say 'yeah- you don't have to collect the full amount, you can go now', which fills the conversation with relief.

"Oh my god Roxas is hallucinating now" - Isopod "I think his friends are gaslighting him" -Dog upon the Pickpocket scene.

The Namine scenes had some interesting reactions:

"Why is there a GIRL braking into his room?!" -Isopod "Puberty is sometimes like that" -Dog

"That is a note an adult leaves when they want to kidnap children." -Dog upon reading Hayner's note "Yeah, I wouldn't trust it" -Isopod. "is she a Jojo???" -Isopod Dog then imitates Dio -during Namine's meeting with Roxas where she freezes time.

Then, in the Dive to the Heart, Isopod picks Attack, and Dog picks Defence. Isopod is able to beat Twilight Thorn straight away, but Dog takes two attempts.

The Fourth day is where everything fell apart. The tournament was easy, and neither struggled against Hayner or Vivi. Then came along Axel.

Isopod beat Axel fairly quickly. I thought they'd struggle, but they didn't. Dog, however struggled. I noticed that when he attacked Axel after parrying or blocking, Axel would retaliate- I told him what I saw, but Dog complained 'I can't attack him otherwise'. It took Dog going from Crit to Proud to beat Axel. "Wow Golden, you're cruel to put a new player on the hardest difficulty" you say, and you would be right, but Dog typically loves very hard games, and boasts that it took him 8 solid hours to beat a boss in Eldren Ring and that 'it was awesome', so I suggested Crit to him.

When Axel was beaten, Dog was VERY tired of Kingdom Hearts, and actively tried his best to dislike it, talking bad about the combat and how 'you're locked into an action'. Isopod did not share this, and was enjoying her time. I could tell that Dog wanted this done, but I urged them forward because they were nearing the finale of the prologue.

They did the wonders, made fun of Roxas' friends gaslighting him into thinking he didn't fall off the clocktower, and they both beat Axel fairly easily second go around. They then made fun of Sora's shoes for 5 minutes straight, and ended the session.

-

It was fun seeing people's first reactions to KHII. Dog's reaction was nothing new to me, as I knew this wouldn't be his favourite, and is only playing so me and Isopod play Eldenring. I'm hoping in the future, he'll warm up to it. Isopod is enjoying her time with the game, which is good to hear.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 328: Pandora’s Box of Discourse

Previously on BnHA: DEKU TOOK A BATH.

Today on BnHA: 

Also Naomasa grew a beard. Goddamn. 

please let this be a cool chapter that plays nice with my ADHD lol

(ETA: lol I feel guilty because a lot of people hated this chapter, but I’m just happy there was a lot of stuff to make fun of, and also that I have another week to work on my backlog of meta posts since the kids were MIA.)

around one month ago?? ah, okay, so we’re gonna find out what was in that Tartarus security file huh

I love that they just randomly set the place on fire

was it necessary to do this in order to escape? no. was it a good idea to set the island they were occupying on fire while they were in the midst of still occupying it? uh. was it cinematic as fuck? fuck yeah

wow it’s a pervert!!

that’s so great that the villains set loose this fine fellow who I’m sure is definitely not a serial rapist. truly the LoV is so noble and misunderstood. they’re just trying to free society from its chains people

oh my god??!

SHANKED!!! oh my god I cheered for Stain before I realized what I was doing. time to have an identity crisis I guess

so he’s all “hey what’s going on.” which, while a respectable question, is something I personally would have waited to ask until I had put a bit of distance between myself and the fiery murder island. but that’s just my personal preference

Stain you really are tenacious I’ll give you that

“what’s the point of escaping prison if you’re not gonna be smart about it” well shit. anyways yeah you’re dead right, society is in the process of collapsing and the outside world is in total chaos, good call there

oh shit

I mean it’s not like we really expecting anything otherwise, but still. fucking brutal. I feel like these guys’ fates were decided the minute that one guy called AFO “scum” back in chapter 94. AFO is unmatched at getting long-term revenge

??

ahh, was it the security footage??

fdsdfk he’s still alive??

and he’s immediately launching into an inappropriately theatrical monologue even as the darkness closes in on him fdlfksjdlk. you know, was it ever confirmed that the other guy back in chapter 297 was Seiji’s dad? I’m just saying

very impressed that he’s still coherent enough to weigh the pros and cons before making the decision to gamble on giving this info to Stain, who at the very least has his own moral code and isn’t allied with AFO. it was definitely still a risk, but as we now know it was also the right call

what a weird alliance. so Stain tells him that he’ll give it to a just person, and the guy is all,

okay for real though I’m gonna need someone to run a DNA test on this guy. maybe it was some kind of cuckold situation?? the other guy had the family resemblance, but this guy absolutely 100% raised Shishikura Seiji and you are not going to convince me otherwise

anyway, so Stain is all,

PRISON GUARD: “???? ??????? what the hell. what the fuck does that fucking mean. I’m dying here, jesus christ, whatever man fuck you”

(ETA: I kind of feel like this might have been Stain’s last appearance in the manga, given all the fanfare. there’s not really much else he can do for the story at this point, and he seems to have gotten all the character development Horikoshi was planning on giving him. so if this really is it, hasta la vista and good riddance I guess.)

DWLFDKSLDK MEANWHILE, OUTSIDE

(ETA: I feel like this is meant to be evocative of that Sermon on the Mount painting, but in a really fucked up way lol.)

if it were me stumbling upon this scene I would just shake my head and walk right back into the flaming building. not getting involved in that mess. sorry not sorry. I’ll take my chances with the fire, especially given that it’s half-assed neutered BnHA fire lol

blah blah blah and so he decided to pass the info on to All Might -- HOT DAMN, HOLY SHIT

NAOMASA HOLY SHIT. THE APOCALYPSE LOOKS GOOD ON YOU, BOY

“I really like that facial scruff thing Aizawa’s got going on, I think I’m gonna get in on that” yes sir. “also thinking of ditching the tie in favor of the bulletproof vest look. also thinking of getting totally fucking jacked.” good lord. except I’m pretty sure that’s just body armor, but also I don’t care. anyway I should probably stop staring and actually read the fucking speech bubbles here lol

“All Might first handed this information over to Nao, and then went to see Deku, and then came back to Nao” thanks for that tidy little summary Horikoshi. we are capable of piecing events together in sequential order, I just want you to know that. but thank you

“so has Deku finally gotten a bath? also, sucks that Stain saved the day, but what are you gonna do” Nao I missed you so fucking much and didn’t even realize. how am I just now realizing that you are the perfect man

for a second I was gonna ask why Tartarus’s security systems would be cut off from the outside world, and then I remembered that’s a basic security control, and then I actually got impressed by how sensible that is. like, it’s been a while since I could genuinely say that the good guys (excluding class 1-A) did something smart. not that it helped them much in the end, but still

anyway so they’re talking about how AFO was able to coordinate the attack by communicating between his horcrux self on the outside and his ugly peanut-faced self on the inside

huh

okay you have my attention. I am taking notes here lol please continue

ah okay so he says that prior to Jakku, the transfer of information between him and his Vestige self was only one-way. but post-Jakku when Deku was in the hospital, he was able to tell what was happening inside the OFA Radical Lisa Frank Dead People Book Club Realm when he touched him. I feel like we established that before, actually. but he didn’t talk about how it actually felt, though

boy we already know this lol. yes AFO can talk with his horcrux self. and he can also communicate with his little bro in OFA too, let’s talk about that sometime why don’t we. what exactly does that imply, based on the rules we’ve established here

my god I cannot get over Naomasa and his fucking facial hair

no wonder All Might was in such a hurry to leave Deku and get back here

like I have no idea what this radio waves nonsense is but my god, people

that jawline. also so it’s a quirk, I see. except last I checked Deku didn’t have a radio waves quirk, so that doesn’t really explain his connection to AFO. but whatever, hopefully we’re at least getting closer to some kind of reveal here

(ETA: since I sometimes forget that other people’s lives don’t revolve around my theory posts, here are the two relevant links if you by chance want to know my thoughts about this.

Hagakure is still The U.A. Traitor™ regardless of whether Deku is passing information on to AFO through his psychic link, which he almost certainly is.

speaking of said psychic link, Deku is a horcrux.

just posting these now, because whenever trippy OFA stuff happens I tend to get an influx of theory asks. so hopefully this will be a bit of a time saver lol.)

-- wait, what

THAT’S what the recording was??!? holy SHIT. I genuinely was not expecting that. y’all wiretapped his fucking telepathy. fucking quirks, man. wild

AND THEY USED THAT POWER TO DETERMINE WHAT WE ALREADY KNEW, HUZZAH. GOOD SHOW

-- oh shit wait lol, except I forgot we’re not talking about 38 days from the present, we’re talking about 38 days from the date the conversation was recorded. heh. um

yeah that’s the face I would make too if All Fucking Might just casually told me we had eight days left until the end times

oh, pardon me. three fucking days

r.i.p. anyone who thought we were going to have another band arc sob. I sure hope Deku is enjoying that nap

(ETA: I realize people were hoping for a longer rest period here, but given that the man warned us all the way back in chapter 306 that we were entering the final act, you can’t really blame him too much when that turns out to be true. anyway but I do recognize that we’ve reached the point in the story where this kind of discourse is going to become a weekly occurrence, simply because there’s no possible way for Horikoshi’s actual endgame to line up perfectly with the variable headcanons of millions of fans, all of whom have wildly differing and in many cases contradictory expectations which can’t possibly all be fulfilled. anyway, so I’m already bracing myself for that lol. this coming year is going to be a wild ride.)

damn, U.A. out here looking like the motherfucking United Nations

-- is this U.A.?? I actually just realized, U.A. is four interconnected buildings, not two. wait holy shit is this Shiketsu?

wait holy SHIT

based on the overwhelmingly powerful vibes of bureaucratic incompetence, I’m thinking this really is the (future) U.N., or whatever organization it is that deals with international hero stuff

“just let them handle it themselves I’m sure they’ll be fine” yeah okay, thanks guys. appreciate it

wait oh shit did he say that it’s not just Japan?

soooo, what you’re telling me is that AFO is this close to bringing about the end of not just Japan, but the entire world, and you guys don’t think it’s a good idea to help the Japanese heroes stop him? so, genuine follow-up question: are you guys already planning your rich people exodus into space a la Wall-E, and that’s why you don’t give a fuck?? like, what??

omg international heroes

these guys are from World Hoodie Mission, right? is this Horikoshi’s way of reminding me to buy tickets

(ETA: and it worked too lol.)

WHO??? WHAT???

don’t tell me you’re introducing yet another badass new female character for me to fall in love with only to watch as you dismember them and/or blow them up, Horikoshi. I’m getting tired of playing this game my dude. don’t lie and tell me this time will be different. we’re not doing this again goddammit

noooooooooooooooooooo

god fucking dammit lmao. [sighs and rips the previous paragraph into shreds]

on behalf of Americans I apologize for our superheroes always being Like This

I also apologize because I love her already and I’m gonna be shameless about it. so fucking shameless you guys

is her fucking hair red white and blue. it is, isn’t it

this is the volume cliffhanger, 100% lol. it will take every ounce of Horikoshi’s willpower not to put her on the volume cover. he’ll have to settle for the spine or the inner cover this time because Deku VS his class 1-a superpals takes precedence. but it will be a close thing let me tell you

tbh it’s that smile that does it for me. she’s definitely All Might’s protege. get out there and show them how it’s done girl. and maybe call Salaam and BRD and see if you can’t convince them to play hooky from their governments as well. why not. world’s ending in three days you guys. “sorry, I’m busy this weekend” ain’t gonna cut it lol

so while I am not fully caught up with Vigilantes, I have read far enough to know that there’s an American hero named Captain Celebrity whose superpower from what I recall is being a humongous douchebag. and while I haven’t read far enough to know what happens to this guy, I can’t say I’m very disappointed to learn that he’s no longer the number one hero in the U.S. (actually, didn’t they kick him out and that’s why he moved to Japan to begin with?). anyway, so my thanks to Horikoshi for having a marginally higher opinion of Americans than Furuhashi, even though we have definitely not done anything to warrant said opinion lately, and you may have inadvertently opened the door to a pandora’s box of discourse lmao

(ETA: lol I went into the tags and they don’t disappoint. “why is she dressed like a flag” because she’s an homage to Captain America and Major Victory and literally every other character on this list. again, I apologize for fictional American superheroes being Like This. “oh boy another thicc waifu to make the fanboys happy” look, tumblr fandom never seems to have a problem thirsting over Dabi or Tomura or Aizawa or Nao, lol, I’m just saying. “where is Captain Celebrity” idk, probably murdered by the exploding bee cartel, let’s just be grateful for our good fortune and try not to Beetlejuice the man.)

anyway, so let’s see if Horikoshi’s recent character development with regards to making Mineta not terrible anymore will apply to other aspects of his writing as well. I know I was making light of discourse just now, but I do think the complaints about him introducing yet another new character at the 11th hour to be cannon fodder in the final battle are absolutely valid. and again, it wouldn’t be a problem if he didn’t keep maiming/killing off his female characters one by one instead of developing them and letting them kick ass long-term. but that said, I will never complain about Horikoshi adding another female character to the series, regardless of how clumsy the attempt may be. go ahead and pander away, just give us more girl power lol

anyway so we’ll see how it goes, but I think I’m gonna be optimistic and let myself hope once again, even though I’m probably gonna regret it lol. it is what it is. she is standing on an airplane just chilling for fuck’s sake. I’m only human. anyway fingers crossed