#I hope someone else also finds this mildly interesting

[gaargoyle]

My current much-loved possession, an original 1993 copy of Space Marine. I wanted it for its lovely cover, mostly, (also physical media is supreme) even though it's seen better days. The pretty foil lettering has worn away in spots.

Inside is the timeline that was canon in 1993. You can still get this book today digitally, but I do not know if they include a timeline with it still, and if they do, if they kept it as it was for posterity or made updates.

Transcribed below!

A TIMELINE FOR THE WARHAMMER 40,000 UNIVERSE

15th Millennium - Humanity begins to colonise nearby solar systems using conventional sub-light spacecraft. At first, progress is painfully slow. Separated from Terra by up to ten generations in travel time, the new colonies have to survive mainly on local resources.

The Dark Age of Technology

20th Millennium - Discovery of warp drives accelerates the colonisation process and the early independent or corporate colonies become federated to Terra. The first alien races (including the ubiquitous Orks) are encountered. The development of the Navigator gene allows human pilots to make longer and faster 'jumps' through warp space than was previously thought possible. The great Navigator families, initially controlled by industrial and trading cartels, become a power base in their own right.

Humanity continues to explore and colonise the galaxy. Contacts are established with the Eldar and other alien races. A golden age of scientific achievement begins. Perfection of the Standard Template Construct (STC) system now permits an almost explosive expansion to the stars.

The Age of Strife

25th Millennium - Humanity reaches the far edges of the galaxy, completing the push to the stars begun over ten thousand years before. Human civilisation is now widely dispersed and divergent - with countless small colonies as well as many large, overpopulated planets. Localised wars and disputes with various alien races (especially the Orks!) continue, but pose no threat to the overall stability of human-colonised space. Then, two things happen almost simultaneously. First, humans with psychic powers begin to appear on almost every colonised world. Second, civilisation starts to disintegrate under the stress of widespread insanity, demonic possession, and internecine strife between these new 'psykers' and the rest of humanity. Countless fanatical cults and organisations spring up to persecute the psykers as witches, and/or degenerate mutants. At this time, the existence of the creatures of the warp (later known and feared as demons), and the dangers they pose to the human mind with newly awakened psychic powers, is far from understood.

Terrible wars tear human civilisation apart. Localised empires and factions fight amongst themselves as well as against fleets of Orks, Tyrannids [sic], and other aliens whose forces are quick to seize the opportunity to sack human space. Many worlds fall prey to the dominance of Warp Creatures whilst others revert to barbarism. Humans survive only on those worlds where psykers are suppressed or controlled. During this time, Terra is cut off from the rest of humanity by terrible warp storms, which isolate the home world for several thousand years, further accelerating the ruin of humanity.

The Horus Heresy

30th Millennium - Humanity itself teeters on the brink of the abyss of extinction. Civil war erupts throughout the galaxy as the Emperor of human space is betrayed by his most trusted lieutenant, the Warmaster Horus. Possessed by a demon from the warp, Horus seduces whole chapters of humanity's greatest warriors - the Space Marines - into joining his cause. When the final battle seems lost, the Emperor defeats Horus in single combat, but only at the cost of his own humanity.

His physical life maintained by artificial means, and his psyche by human sacrifice, the Emperor begins the long task of reconquering human space. With the creation by the Emperor of the psychic navigational beacon known as the Astronomican, the foundations are laid for the building of the Imperium, as it to be known in the 41st millennium. Fuelled by the dying spirits of those psykers who would otherwise fall prey to the demons of the warp, and directed by the Emperor's indomitable will, the Astronomican soon becomes an invaluable aid to Navigators throughout the galaxy. Interstellar travel becomes even easier and quicker, while the repression and control of psykers and creatures from the warp releases much of humanity from its hellish bondage.

The Age of the Imperium

41st Millennium - Throughout the portion of the galaxy known as the Imperium, humanity is bound within the organisations and strictures of the Administratum. The Emperor grows ever more detached from the day to day concerns of his mortal subjects, while the Inquisition works ceaselessly to protect humanity from the ever-present dangers posed by renegade psykers and the terrible creatures inhabiting warp space. The armies of the Imperium - the Guard and the almost superhuman Space Marines - maintain a constant vigil against the threat of invading Orks, Tyrannids [sic] and other aliens. But still the number of psykers increases steadily, and other more sinister groups associated with Warp Creature domination continue to gain ground...

[fandom-freak-123]

If I could get a request in, the idea is reader showing the puppets metal music and their reactions.

Your ideas istg, they give me life.

These headcanons can be seen as Romantic or Platonic.

This reader is gender neutral (No pronouns mentioned for the reader).

Welcome home reactions to you introducing them to metal music.

———————————————————————————————————

Wally Darling

———————————————————————————————————

•Just a wide eyed stare

•Mildly concerned for your sanity

•Telling Julie asap

•Scared but also enjoys it

•usually listens to folk music

•“this… is very loud neighbour… the lyrics are… uhm… interesting”

———————————————————————————————————

———————————————————————————————————

Howdy Pillar

———————————————————————————————————

•Has to turn the music down

•Really enjoys it but usually listens to pop music

•Asks if you have any tapes with more music like it

•Will listen to it while reading

•He can’t understand the words but he’s enjoying them nonetheless

•“where do you find this stuff? You’ve got to tell me”

———————————————————————————————————

———————————————————————————————————

Barnaby B. Beagle 

———————————————————————————————————

•Already listens to Metal

•Will recommend you songs

•Happy to find someone else who likes Metal

•Has full albums of metal bands

•Mumbling the lyrics under his breath

• “I used to listen to this one a lot but I haven’t for a long time”

———————————————————————————————————

———————————————————————————————————

Frank Frankly

———————————————————————————————————

•Really not a fan

•Prefers alternative and indie music

•Listens to two words

•Never trusts you with music again

•Covering his ears

•“it’s so loud! Who needs that much bass?!”

———————————————————————————————————

———————————————————————————————————

Eddie Dear

———————————————————————————————————

•Has a heart attack /hj

•Usually listens to country music

•Trying to understand the lyrics

•Will listen to more until he can understand it

•Spends WAY too long trying to find out the meaning

•“but what is it all about???? It talks about so much but so little”

I’m so sorry it took so long I’ve been lost on motivation for a while along with being really busy, I hope this makes up for the other one!

Farewell my little butterflies!

[evilbookworm]

Okay guys, I’m making an episode post!!! Already posted a short one on Escape From Camazotz, but here’s a brief interpretation and meaning of each episode title!  And please, this is an interpretation, not concrete proof!

Episode 1: The Crawl

Ok, I've seen a lot of people translating this and interpreting it to be an episode about a mission, and while this could be right, I think there’s more to it. We all know very well about the show’s constant references to DND, the roleplaying game the party loves. In DND terms, a crawl, or a dungeon crawl, is a scenario in which players must navigate through a sort of maze, “dungeon” if you will, while battling monsters, avoiding traps, and solving puzzles.

                                      So, this episode might be a mission, as has been said many times, but it could also be in a maze of types. A possible terrain in the UD? I just find it very interesting.

Episode 2: The Vanishing of —----------------

Ok, this has pretty much been confirmed for being Holly Wheeler, considering how much she’s appeared in recent bts pictures, but Nancy and Karen fit the 5 letter pieces don’t they? Just a thought, though it probably is Holly.

As for what it could mean in dnd terms, not much really, just some vanishing spells, but this episode will definitely be interesting!

Episode 3: The Turnbow Trap

I was hoping to find this as a dnd term as well, but sadly, it was not. I did find something else rather interesting though. Turnbow is the Americanized version of the Alsatian name Dürrenbach, which means dry stream. So “The dry stream trap,” what could that mean? I was honestly puzzled at this for a while and I couldn’t figure it out. What do you guys think?

                                                             

Episode 4: Sorcerer

Okay, we're all clearly thinking of Will Byers here. Maybe not a cleric, but a Sorcerer is quite similar. Clerics are more medicinal, healers by class. On the other hand, Sorcerers are masters of arcane magic, which is using magic energy in the world to manipulate reality through spells. This definitely ties in to the theory that the UD is Wills mindscape.

                                       

Episode 5: Shock Jock

Shock jocks are essentially radio broadcasters or talk show hosts who entertain listeners by using humor that is mildly offensive to some people. This could totally be a reference to Dustin, considering his constant tinkering with radios. Maybe he’ll be in charge of radios or somehow be part of a secret news source. There are many theories, really.

                                     

Episode 6: Escape from Camazotz

Oh, I love this one. In dnd, Camazotz is the Olman god of bats and horrible things that fly in the night. ANd who got killed by bats in the previous season of Stranger Things? Eddie Munson! No, I don’t think this means he’ll come back, but I do think he’ll be a villain of sorts. 

               

There’s something else, though. Camazotz is also a planet in A Wrinkle In Time, which has been theorized a lot in Stranger Things. Camazotz is essentially a dark planet controlled by evil. People who live there don’t have their own thoughts and are controlled by a central brain called IT. Remind you of anyone? Yeah, Vecna (No not It from It lol). Camazotz more specifically defines what happens when someone just hands over their free will. Sort of like what Vecna does with his victims. He tries to make them accept their death before he kills them.

                               

Episode 7: The Bridge

This one was pretty hard for me to really analyze. I’ve looked through dnd searches and tried to look for meanings of bridges in ST, but I haven’t really found much. Generally, its communication and union, which is kind of conflicting, considering the goal for the final season is to destroy the UD. Maybe I’m looking too much into things, and it’s a literal bridge into the UD. All I could really find is in the movie Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, a bridge is crumbled by a sorcerer, but that’s really it.

                                                   

Maybe it has something to do with the UD being Wil’’s mindscape, and it’s a sort of bridge he creates between the two worlds. Or maybe he is the bridge between the UD and the normal world.

Episode 8: The Rightside Up

I think this one’s pretty self explanatory. The UD will be destroyed and everything will be Rightside Up again. Just like the last episode of Stranger Things Season 1 was called the Upside Down, this is the plain opposite. It will be the episode where Hawkins is saved, and Vecna, whatever he is, is defeated for good. (and byler becomes endgame :) )

                                 

Hope you liked this analysis! It was really fun to make! And please leave your interpretations in the comments if you saw something differently! Thanks :)

[slutforpringles]

What do you think is actually behind the Danny bashing on social media and Reddit lately?

I find it really puzzling, to put it mildly. As if the decision over an RBR or VCARB seat is simple enough to decide 4 races into a 24-race season, which it certainly isn’t.

Some of the Yuki and Liam fans seem to be really young, and for some of them, there seems to be some sort of weird ageism involved in their anti-Ricciardo ranting.

But some of it seems to be an enjoyment of tearing someone down who’s always been popular, despite him not misusing or abusing that popularity

IDK - what are your thoughts, please?

Hey anon! This is actually a really interesting question, and I’d be really interested to hear other people’s thoughts and opinions on too. I think probably how much time you spend online and on which online platforms does probably affect your viewpoint, and obviously this is just my take on the growing anti-DR sentiment based on what I’ve seen/ experienced. 

I think it’s definitely multi-faceted, which is partly why there’s so much of it at the moment, because multiple situations/things have fed into the Daniel hatred. 

I think a very large percentage of it is simply the influx of new fans into the sport that have only seen Daniel drive from the McL era onwards. 

I think a lot of people are consuming more and more F1 content from non-trustworthy sources (e.g. instagram and twitter update accounts, non-reputable websites) that use clickbait and unsubstantiated rumours to create maximum drama. I think this has been particularly tricky for Daniel, because his popularity has made him a super target since 2021 for this.

I think there's a growing sentiment of annoyance at the limited number of seats available to enter F1, particularly for fans of younger drivers who have watched them go through the feeder series and feel it is unfair that they aren’t being given a chance in F1. I think this has become even louder since F1 rejected Andretti’s bid, and I think struggling or older drivers become a much easier target for expressing that frustration than an entire sport/regulatory body.

I think the more recent wave of fans being more critical of driver’s public opinions and thoughts on social/political/moral issues has probably increased scrutiny on Daniel, too. And while I completely agree with fans expecting more and better from drivers, I think there’s a huge amount of hypocrisy and recency bias when it comes to some very vocal online fans and fanbases, which I think also underscores how many of them are part of the new wave of F1 fans. (E.g. I see ample criticism of Daniel from fans of driver’s who refused to kneel during 2020 that are clearly totally unaware that Daniel was one of the loudest supporters of Lewis during 2020 and BLM protests)

I think it’s also just part and parcel of the growing extreme polarisation of the internet. It seems people are becoming far more used to extreme polarisation in general, and the echo chambers of social media and the wider internet algorithms are only continuing to exaggerate that. People also seem to be less and less civil online, and while places like twitter have been a toxic wasteland for a long time, that toxicity and complete lack of normal human interaction has started to affect other online spaces too.

And yeah I do agree that there seems to be a certain percentage of fans that just seem to enjoy revelling in a driver’s struggles, and love to tear down someone who seems to be a happy bubbly person. And while some of that is maybe inherent sports tribalism (which I’m not really on board with tbh), I really think it’s reached a whole new low.

OK sorry I didn't mean for this to be such a long response! Hope that answers your question and I’d love to hear if anyone else has other thoughts/opinions too!! 🙂

[yuri-is-online]

Masquerade request with number 5 for Jamil (tho not sure he'd be shy, more like reticent, potentially) aand since I can ask for two others I guess I might as well go for Azul and Deuce who kinda seem like suitable sorts for this prompt.

Ty!

-viperwhispered

5. You know it's him and he knows it's you, but you're both a bit too shy to admit you would like to keep holding onto each other when the masks come off, so you'll just stay here together a little longer.

Completely agree that Jamil wouldn't be shy in this scenario, more like a prisoner of his own self destructive tendencies. Also hello! I'm always really happy to see you in my notifications Whisper <(˶ᵔᵕᵔ˶)> Your comments are always very much appreciated.

notes: they/them used for Yuu, this is mildly angsty and I am uncertain if I have provided any comfort here. Uhh unrequited requited love, everyone here is a pining idiot, Deuce is bro zoning himself. The other event requests can be found on my masterlist.

Jamil

He is unprepared for what it feels like to hold you.

It's one thing to look at someone, another to think of them, but both keep a level of imagination to the interaction. Jamil doesn't have the risk of failure in his imagination; he can comfort himself in his perceived superiority and not actually make the effort. There is no warmth in those thoughts, no weight, no you, nothing resembling the delicate weight in his arms that he finds himself wanting to-

"Are you alright?" You ask softly, bringing some focus back to Jamil's eyes, he smiles at you and you wish you could be certain that he really means it.

"I'm just... unused to this." Jamil chooses his words carefully. He does not expect you to know it's him, but there's always the chance someone else does. It makes him feel sick to think the small sigh of relief you give could be meant for someone else, his mind has a ready supply of suspects, but tonight is supposed to be for strangers to play act at romance. He is... allowed... to want this. "I am not that interesting of a guy, you know?"

"I'm sure you're plenty interesting." You say and Jamil swallows to steady himself, trying to remind the spiraling fractions of his mind that you are saying this to a stranger. You would, you have very likely, said this to anyone who needed the encouragement. "If you let yourself go I am sure you will find there's a person underneath the act." But would it be one you approve of? And why is he worrying over that when everyone should approve of him anyway, especially considering what middling results his classmates are barely capable of?

"Your compliments aren't necessary." His smile says otherwise but you cannot bring yourself to push it least you push Jamil away. "But if you wish to keep them coming I will not stop you." You wind your arms around him to pull Jamil just a bit closer. If only he could read your mind as well as command it, if only he wanted you as much as you wanted him.

"Are you sure you can withstand it?" No he's not. "Because I could go on for quite some time." You are clearly teasing him. Jamil's heart should be used to stress, it's been working overtime since he was first sworn over to Kalim, but he's not. There's something new about this stress, or maybe it isn't stress at all and that's just what he's labeling it because that's what he is used to feeling.

"I can take anything." Jamil certainly projects something like confidence, but even as the other guests begin removing their masks his stays firmly put. In both senses you suppose, unable to keep a bitter sigh from escaping you.

But you say nothing, choosing to simply squeeze his hand and hope that he will somehow inhale the meaning of your movements with the sharp breath he takes.

You can want this, please say you want this, please say you want me and give me a reason to stay.

But he can't in good conscious. He is bound by a duty he wishes upon no one, he refuses to ask properly. Just what it is Jamil wants of you needs to be asked for in freedom. So once again you slip away into the night alone with his hand reaching out towards you just out of sight.

Azul

"You have a strong grip." Your voice is muffled as the gentle, but strong hand at the back of your head keeps you firmly resting on this handsome "stranger's" shoulder.

Azul appears to be under the impression this will be easier on him if he cannot see you, but he seems to have forgotten he still can look down the expanse of your back when he holds you this close. What you're doing can barely be described as dancing, swaying is what people might call it but Azul barely registers that he is moving.

"Of course I do." His voice lacks the usual musical performance you associate with it, he sounds almost... tired. Overwhelmed, you decide is the more accurate term as you exhale into his neck and try not to savor the way he shudders. "To keep precious things close is what any pirate would do, hm?" You smile.

"Fancy yourself a heart thief? I would think that's a more Heartslabyul gig." He stiffens, you know he was just trying to make a jest at the appearance of his costume but you appear to have touched some sort of nerve. Azul pulls you closer, arm wrapping properly around your waist instead of simply sitting on it.

"Is it?" Azul wants to vomit all his feelings up, eject them like a sea cucumber and walk off the embarrassment from showing his guts. Anything has to be less painful than thinking of his-

No you are not his. That's why he is being a coward and not looking you in the eye like any proper gentleman would. Why he had asked for a dance, kissed your hand, and not let go of you all under the flimsy pretense of a mask. Azul dislikes taking solace in your kindness, but he knows he can rely on you to not make him pay for this. Even if you really should.

"Has your heart already been carried off to a maze?" Azul is trying to make a joke, but you are so close to his heart you can hear the nerves hammering away at his typical sense of self.

"I think my heart is drowning." You whisper it, low into his pulse point before your eyes squeeze close in embarrassment. Azul's pulse does not slow, and he cannot squeeze you any closer, a sure sign as if you needed it that he isn't Floyd nor could he ever pretend to be. But he can guide you into a sway that's a little more like a dance.

This is enough for tonight. It will not be enough tomorrow, but it is enough for tonight.

Deuce

This is how friends look at each other. Deuce would know because he has never looked at you any other way. There's a respectful distance between you both, an almost boring decorum to the proper ballroom dance he is happily guiding you in. If it weren't for his continued refusal to call you by your name or meaningless title, it would be like you were talking normally.

"Do they have dances like this where you're from?" Deuce is genuine in his interest, always eager to find a new way to ensure you feel like you belong.

"In books and movies maybe." Your laughter makes him soar, spinning you into the air for a brief second that adds a shriek to it that brings a grin to his face that has you feeling lightheaded. "Honestly I never thought I would get a chance to go to something like this!"

"Why not?" It's a stupid question, even if you have repeatedly reassured him there is no such thing.

"Well a Masquerade is kind of a rich people thing, and I'm not rich." Technically you shouldn't be here either, but you let that thought go unsaid. It never even crosses Deuce's mind, there is something so natural about having you in his arms that the idea of a world without you in it-

A world without you in it. It crystalizes as someone taps on the mic to announce the band will play just one as nice slow song that if everything in Twisted Wonderland had been normal he would be rolling his eyes at as he escapes to the sidelines. But that's not what's happening, he is pulling you closer to him and placing his arm around your waist without so much as a second thought.

"I'm not rich either." Deuce says, no where near as stiff in tone or posture as you would have expected him to be when trying to slow dance. If anything he holds you as if it is the most natural thing in the world to him, lapsing into uncharacteristic silence as he really looks you in the eyes with some strange hidden emotion in them.

It's always been there of course, this is always the way Deuce looks at you, but the mask ironically forces you to really see it.

"I'm lucky to be in this world with you." He means it, and though you hold tightly to his hand he doesn't think you know just how much.

[skyloftian-nutcase]

In regards to that ask about Legend, I've always liked the idea of him being Fable's half sibling or something, because it is a different Link/Zelda dynamic. I also think Legend wouldn't really be interested in relationships after the whole Marin thing. It does get tiring when Link is always paired with Zelda.

That being said, what are some of your favorite Link/Zelda dynamics? Or who might a Link be interested in instead? Sky and Sun are the only ones I can't see with anyone else, and I know you like Mipha/Wild. Which if I had actually taken my time with BoTW I probably would too, but I don't know enough of the story there to really have an opinion

There are some who like the whole “Link & Zelda are destined to be soulmates no matter what and that means romance all the time,” and if that floats your boat, sure. But I do definitely prefer variety. Also I could make a really cursed observation about Zelink through the ages based on the reincarnation that’s mildly implied, but for the sake of my lovelies who adore all the Zelink, I won’t 😂

I’m probably just gonna sound like I’m repeating myself from other asks, sorry, I haven’t played all the Zelda games so I can only truly speak to the ones that I have, but I’ll throw in my two cents for the ones that I’ve at least seen play through snippets/vibes I get from LU/ideas I liked.

Skyward Sword: They’re definitely, 100% in love, and they are adorable. 10/10 pairing

Minish Cap: They’re childhood friends to my knowledge, so it could go either way, I think. They’re so young in this game, I can’t say what’s gonna happen to them. Definitely would stay friends though.

Ocarina of Time/Majora’s Mask: It’s so complicated. I can see Adult timeline Zelda having an attraction to him, having hoped and prayed for his return to see a handsome young man appear. I can see Link physically being attracted to her while not entirely comprehending what that means because he’s still nine, and I can see than becoming an issue when he does naturally grow a little older. I can see Link being unable to separate the Zelda in the “nonexistent” timeline he fought alongside from the Zelda in his current timeline, who didn’t have to endure the same trials and therefore isn’t exactly the same, and I can see that messing him up too. So I feel like they’d be friends at best, have a professional relationship with maybe some fondness being likely, or cold and distant at worst. It seems most likely that they’re friends but Link keeps her at an arm’s length… by Majora’s Mask he seems to keep everyone at an arm’s length, tbh.

Twilight Princess: Eh. They could be friends, they could become lovers, it could work. But there definitely isn’t enough in the game to say for sure with the latter option. Link very clearly finds her beautiful based on his reaction to seeing her the first time, but he also had the same reaction to Midna lol, boy just goes :O with every pretty girl he sees. 😂 I think he had more chemistry with Midna but he also had time to develop that relationship, and since she’s gone that’s a sadly moot point anyway. But most likely, I think he’ll either end up with Ilia (he does seem to genuinely care about her, and you can see she has some strong feelings for him… you can make them a sibling dynamic or romantic, I haven’t played through the entire game yet so I can’t say for sure, but I can see them getting together) or someone completely different, despite his restlessness at the end of the game, he seems very much a guy who would settle somewhere quiet and have a family eventually. He’s very domestic and gentle and stuff ☺️ And honestly it would be interesting and fun to see the quiet, regal, stoic Queen Zelda get invited to middle-of-nowhere country village to wind down, or for her to invite Link to the castle and his kids sneak along and cause chaos or something 😂

Wind Waker/Phantom Hourglass: I’m pretty sure Tetra and Link found New Hyrule together, so it’s heavily implied they’re a thing. From what I’ve seen they have cute chemistry together, so I’m down for it.

Spirit Tracks: I’ve barely seen anything about this game, but given Zelda is the companion for this one she at least is one of the likelier Zeldas to be in a romantic relationship with Link. Dunno 😅🤷🏻‍♀️ everyone seems to think they are, so I guess I’ll go with it

A Link to the Past/Link’s Awakening/Oracle games: I honestly really like the implication that Zelda and Link are siblings. It’s very different from the others and could have so much potential for either fun or angst! Or both! Link obviously has feelings for Marin, and I do think he’d definitely need a break from romance after Koholint. I can’t say he’d never be interested in another relationship after that, but definitely not for a while.

A Link Between Worlds: 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️ not a clue, never seen an interaction between them

Four Swords: Also not a clue lol

Legend of Zelda/Adventure of Link: I mean, clearly they’re at least friends if Link’s still helping her out six years later, that’s all I’ve got 🤷🏻‍♀️😂

Hyrule Warriors: Ugh. This game lol. They give each other lovey dovey looks, so sure. Why not. At least make Zelda interesting if you’re (general you, not specifically you) gonna write it though. Idk. Honestly, them being war buddies is awesome. But the way this game portrays Zelink grinds my gears so I usually struggle to get beyond that. Link honestly should probably just be left alone after he has Cia’s creepy self stalking after him while simultaneously trying to kill him (girl did not know what she wanted, nor did she know what clothes were). Of Link’s options, he definitely wouldn’t want Cia, Lana would be sweet and loving and kind but he probably couldn’t get beyond her being a part of Cia (RIP poor girl, I really do like her and she genuinely loves Link), and Zelda would be ok. Both Zelda and Lana could be war buddies with Link, which is fun. I don’t think Link/Lana could happen because Cia, and I can see the war and politics after the fact impeding Link/Zelda. LET LINK JUST FIGURE HIMSELF OUT DANG IT HE’S A TRAUMATIZED WAR VETERAN WHO HAS BEEN SEXUALLY HARASSED.

Age of Calamity: Link/Mipha all the way! It’s heavily implied in BotW canon that they were a thing anyway, and here they get the chance to actually live! And be together! As such, I feel like Link is a very caring friend to Zelda, and I also think a strong friendship/siblinglike relationship between Zelda and the Miphlink couple would be adorable (and very beneficial for diplomatic relations between the Zora and Hyrule). I know in botw Zelda had a crush on Link prior to the calamity after he rescued her, not sure if that’s the case in AoC because I haven’t finished the game but it seems less pronounced. Either way, a crush isn’t the same as a strong friendship changing into a romantic one. Also I had this idea that Zelda, being the scientist she is and far more interested in just helping rebuild her kingdom (and perhaps not knowing how to cope with being alone when the guy she crushed on is married), announces some kind of competition or presentation for eligible bachelors and Link and Mipha are facepalming and Link (and Urbosa) is 100% gonna vet all the men by glaring at them from behind the queen and Mipha’s gonna be the Vibe Check girl (Daruk thinks they’re all nice, mostly; Revali is like “keep me out of this nonsense” but will low key stalk all the bachelors to make sure they’re up to snuff)

Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom: Given the fact that these two traumatized beans only have each other for points of reference/mutual understanding of their trauma and entire viewpoint, they very likely get together. I have a hard time with it only because people are so insistent on botw Zelink that they completely disregard Mipha and ship Link with Zelda before the calamity as well, which I do not. But honestly, botw/TotK Zelink is fine with me. Though TotK keeps it so vague sometimes, I feel like you can reasonably imply that maybe they haven’t gotten together yet by that point but they’re very close to doing so. Or it’s early in their romantic relationship.

Echoes of Wisdom: TBD! They haven’t interacted much yet from where I am in the game (Gerudo Desert), but considering (MILD SPOILERS) they didn’t even know each other until he rescued her, it’s gonna take a lot to convince me they’re gonna fall in love. Also, it’s hard to tell how old they are with this chibi style but I get the vibe they’re on the younger teenager side? Nothing’s set in stone for relationships at that age.

…I think that’s all of them?

[bruh-myguy-what]

If Not Him, Perhaps Me

Let me just say... I hate moving. The whole process has been something else (derogatory). I've not gotten to all of my requests either because of that. I've been in limbo with this moving process for the last four months, but I've finally secured a place and will be moving soon! Anyway, I was able to finish (finally) this chapter! I hope you guys enjoy it! ______________________________________________

Chapter 1 , Chapter 2 , Chapter 3 , Chapter 4

Pairing- Thrawn x f!reader x Luke Skywalker

Summary- Life on the Chimera actually...improves a lot. You're surprised by the hospitality shown to you and your relationship with Thrawn starts to change? Hearing from Luke also helps since it's been so long...

Word Count- 3.6K

Warnings- Mentions of kidnapping, confrontation, pining, kissing, nothing major

It'd been weeks since you'd seen Thrawn last, from what you counted, at least. Your idea of time had gotten a little better after being moved into a comfortable room with the ability to govern yourself. There had been a time or two during those weeks that you'd left your room to see if you could visit Thrawn, but you were met with the troopers telling you he wasn't around. The troopers clarified that he was away for business. The news was annoying the first time because you'd wanted to give him a piece of your mind for annotating your art as if it were to be critiqued by someone like him! But by the second and third time you were turned away, you were surprisingly disappointed.

Disappointed and mildly apprehensive…

Though, you would've rather choked on your tongue before conceding that to anyone.

Lying in bed, nestled and wrapped in warm blankets, you were reading a few documents on a datapad one of the troopers had brought you a few days ago. You aimed to learn as much as possible about Thrawn and asking him directly was completely out of the question, but you knew that if you were spending time here you needed to collect as much as you could. The vision of the arrogant expression he'd have if you ever even alluded to any curiosity about him appeared in your mind and you couldn't help but roll your eyes. No. You needed to learn the information without letting him know you were interested and also to be able to take the things you'd find back to your friends to benefit in protecting the New Republic. Sleep was quickly beginning to take you and your eyes began to droop; though, it wasn't long after your eyes had shut that a voice softly called your name. It sounded familiar, soothing. The daze of slumber prevented you from instantly recognizing the voice until they called your name again, imploring you to respond.

"Please, answer me. Hear me."

"Luke…" Your first instinct, even through your groggy state, was to whisper his name. There was no clear insight yet of who was speaking to you until his name left your lips and the voice expressed relief.

"Thank the Force, you're alive. I…I've been so worried. None of my other attempts worked and-and I couldn't feel you for so long. I assumed…" He sounded choked up as his voice withered from your mind. "I thought I'd lost you. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." Luke apologized profusely, his voice trembling as he appeared to speak from far away. Then you recalled, through your sleep, that he used to do this while away on missions. He'd first initiated it with Leia, to let the two of you know he was okay, but then he began doing it with you as well.

He'd explained it before, once when the two of you had been alone and were appreciating the rare free time out on top of the Falcon; it was what the Jedi called a Force bond. Something he'd never experienced entirely, other than with Leia with whom he'd always had a connection. It was also the moment you thought he would kiss you…but he never did; never had. The attachment rule that he'd learned while in his trials with Yoda consistently stuck with him and it maintained you at a bitter distance from the man you'd fallen in love with.

But right now you didn't care about that distance because being that close to him would've been far more comforting than how far apart the two of you were now. "Luke…" You groggily said again as you shifted around in the large bed, the blankets rustling around you and his soft chuckle echoed in your mind. It warmed your heart to hear, it'd felt so long and you'd nearly forgotten the precious sound.

"It sounds as if you're resting, I'm sorry for bothering you." He taunted lightheartedly, undoubtedly at ease to know you were alright.

You smiled, feeling yourself attempting to reach out to the Jedi Knight as if he were in the room with you. Then you coldly realized you were alone, tucking your arms back into the warm blankets. "Yeah," you answered sleepily, "I've been resting very well lately." The truthfulness in your voice seemed to surprise Luke if the hum that rang in your ears was any sign.

"You are? Have you been saved by someone? Are you alright?" His voice rushed out in apprehension, the questions that'd plagued his mind swirling once more. Why wasn't he able to see you or feel you for so long? What occurred that kept you so barred from his reach?

You sighed as you turned over, stretching a bit, eyes still pleasantly closed. "Mmm, no. Still on the Chimera." Your reply was simple and fearless, entirely sincere with Luke in your half-asleep condition.

"You're still with Thrawn?" His voice was pressing now, "And you're comfortable? He's not hurting you in any way, is he?"

"No, he's been wonderful to me…good man, gave me a nice room, drawing book..'m okay."

Luke was silent for a long time and you'd almost woke up, concerned that he'd left you alone, but you were assured of his company in your mind when he spoke once more in a secure voice. "I'm going to find you and I'm going to save you. I promise. I'm not going to lose you again." Then his voice wanes away again for a moment, though it comes back more delicate than you've ever heard when he utters your name. "I…I-" But Luke stops and clears his throat, "I hope you know how meaningful you are to me…I will not give up on you."

But before you could react, you were aroused by a solid knock on your door, jolting you upright. Luke's voice felt like a distant memory as soon as you were sitting up and glancing around your room, eyes refocusing on your surroundings. Had you dreamed all of that? No. You couldn't have, you've had a connection like that with Luke before you'd been aboard the Chimera. But why hadn't you heard from him until now?

The knock at the door roused you again, so you slid out of bed to walk over and press the release button only to be met with a trooper with a plate full of food. And this time the food looked fantastic. "Oh, thanks." You responded in astonishment as he passed the tray over. He replied with a brief 'you're welcome' and began to walk away but not before you called out to him again. "Uh! Sorry, forgive me. I-I was just curious…"

"About what ma'am?" He questioned, evidently he was being patient but had someplace else to be and he wasn't a trooper you were presently familiarized with; there'd be time for that late though.

Glimpsing at your tray full of food, your cheeks burned despite yourself. "Have you possibly heard if the Grand Admiral is back from his business, or not?" The query sounded pitiful even to you, but you couldn't very well have the man who was the sole retainer of the Empire to go off and die without any warning.

That was it, no other reason.

Your cheeks were warming because the heat in the hall of the Chimera was too much. Again; no other reason.

The uncertain sound made by the soldier caused you to look at his impassive helmet. "Uh, no ma'am. The Grand Admiral hasn't returned yet. We aren't sure when he'll be back, he has work to do elsewhere and will return whenever he's concluded that." Then his helmet tipped slightly as if inspecting you and a slight chuckle crackled through his modulator. "But don't worry so much, he's surprisingly resilient. He'll come back in one piece. We serve the most brilliant and adept man in all of the Empire. If someone could prevail over anything, it'd Grand Admiral Thrawn." He clarified and with a nod then left, and you bashfully took refuge back into your room, the door closing behind you with a whoosh.

You griped bitterly to yourself, "I wasn't worried about that blue idiot…how could I be worried about him? He's an ass anyway." But the lingering apprehension in your chest said otherwise.

Another week had gone by and you'd troubled the troopers outside your door every one of those days, requesting an update about Thrawn and his whereabouts. There was no way he was going to abduct you, treat you like a captive, then regard you with interest and compliment you, shower you with gifts, and then go off and die on some random planet! You'd bring the damned Chiss man back yourself if only to give him a piece of your mind for being so rude.

Though with a continued shadow of Thrawn's expected return, you had to entertain yourself in other ways; keeping your mind busy. So, you were standing by the window, watching the stars and TIE fighters training. Thrawn had explained to you previously that they were a project he held in high esteem, something he truly believed would do the Empire well. They looked as if they were doing spectacularly too. To your eye, they handled a lot better than some of the pilots of the Republic… But you didn't have too long to dwell on that before you'd overheard out in the hallway- over the intercom- that Thrawn's personal vessel was docked and unloading its passengers.

Feeling your heart leap in your chest at the announcement and instead of waiting around to figure out why, you ran out the door; blowing past the two troopers. As you ran down the hall, passing by troopers and Chimera crew, you neglected their baffled stares and carved your way toward the docking bay. Though on your way you saw a familiar tall blue figure, it was him. Thrawn was standing at his office door about to head inside until he heard hasty footsteps bee-lining in his direction.

Fiery red eyes peeked in your direction first, before ultimately turning his head to watch you frantically trail toward him. Your heart raced as you eventually made it to him, the admiral looking down at you with a single brow lifted and the touch of a smile at the corner of his mouth. Your cheeks burned as you gazed up at him, but you blamed it on the brisk pace you'd opted for to reach Thrawn. Out of breath, your chest heaving slightly from the labored breathing, Thrawn's eyes returned to the door as it opened, "Perhaps you would like to join me in my office?" It was poised as less of an inquiry and more of an assertion as he walked into the dark corridor where you joined him. Surprisingly there were no unwelcomed remarks from the darkness as there usually had been, though your eyes still searched around for any sign of the creature.

"Rhuk is recuperating from our mission, he is not present with us, at this moment." Thrawn's cool voice expressed through the shadows and as you glanced at him to ask how he'd known what you were thinking, you caught a peek of his glowing eye over his shoulder as he observed you. "Your thoughts are easier for me to read than you may think." Though there was typically a chill to his voice, a remote remnant of detachment lingering underneath, it felt strangely… warm with that last sentence.

Once the door finally released the two of you into his office, Thrawn wasted no time in returning to his side of the desk and you approached the chair you sat at during your sessions. The annoyance instantly took over once again, "Where have you been?! It's been weeks!" You spoke without genuinely considering and the smirk that suddenly sat on his face made you mourn opening your mouth, your head sinking to cover your maddening blush.

Thrawn was quiet for a prolonged moment, creating an even more unnerving situation because you knew- you just knew- he was analyzing you as he did when he thought something was intriguing. "As I have heard it," He finally began to talk again but it wasn't making anything any more painless, the blatant smugness in his tone causing the burning in your cheeks to rush up your ears. "You were rather concerned about my unannounced absence."

"I wasn't that concerned!" You bit back quickly, lifting your head to scowl at him for his arrogance but were hushed by the raise of his brow, as if challenging you to prove him inaccurate in his observations.

"Were you not?" Thrawn queried rhetorically as he sat back in his seat, reclining far more casually than you appreciated for the circumstances. "Please, clarify for me then. Why were my troopers in rather steady communication with me, telling me about your continued inquiry of my whereabouts?" His voice was curious but mockingly so, and entirely too soft as his eyes appeared to admire you from across his desk.

You swallowed at the accusation, understanding you had no rebuttal, and instead clutched at your elbows, crossing your arms over your waist awkwardly; evading his burning gaze. "Y-You left before I could give you a piece of m-my mind-"

And his unexpectedly too affectionate voice cut you off mid-sentence, "About what, may I ask?"

You were caught off guard by his simple question, eyes coming back to meet his. The dominance he was maintaining over you at the moment wasn't one he'd used before; he wasn't trying to intimidate you, nor was he trying to exploit you. Thrawn's power came entirely from how much you had thought about him while he was away. You'd first considered how furious you were with him, how he'd treated you as if gifts would make you give up your friends, but then you began thinking about how he'd quit regarding you as a prisoner; opting to give you more freedom, and more respect. Thrawn was curious about you and consistently genuine in his queries as you spent more time with one another. Then you'd found your mind lingering on his eyes, the way his brows were the most expressionate part of him but if you observed closely enough you could see the shift of sentiment in his eyes. Thrawn was small in his mannerisms but he appeared to open himself up more to your company lately and allowed you to see past the stoic behavior.

"Have you perhaps forgotten whatever it was that you were going to chastise me over, hmm?" The soft underlying tease in his voice brought you back to your present reality and you huffed indignantly at his arrogant expression.

"Hardly." You complained as you turned your head away stubbornly. "As if I could forget why you piss me off. You seem to enjoy bugging me." Thrawn seemed to find your retort comical because he chuckled, staggering you slightly. You'd never heard him sound so…pleasant. It was hardly a lively sound, more as if he were taunting you but even still, it was the closest thing you'd heard to spirit from the Chiss man. Your eyes widened at the sound, watching intently as he shook his head and began to stand once more; neatening his admiral coat.

He rounded the desk, his hands ever positioned behind his back as his steps felt calculated, gradually coming toward you. "Then, please, continue. I am rather fascinated to hear what I've done to incur your outrage, my lady." His voice was unfairly warm, matching how his eyes bore into yours, glancing down to appreciate the rest of you only once or twice.

You were losing all of your built-up frustrations as the subject of your anger approached so calmly, tension building with each step he took toward you. The buzzing in your mind only intensified as you caught his eyes favoring you. "I-I…you…" You swallowed cautiously then cleared your throat to regain your composure, closing your eyes and breaking the rapidly building connection that made your stomach ache in an unfamiliar way. After a moment, you trusted yourself to speak finally and you leveled the approaching man with a lethal glare. "You annotated my art as if I asked for your commentaries." With every word, Thrawn took a step closer, the smile leaving his face the nearer he grew. "Then you ran off without allowing me to tell you how stupid your observation of my work even was. I didn't know if you were going to die or-"

"Would that have troubled you so greatly if I had?" Thrawn's voice was hushed and low, but cold as usual. Standing directly before now, his impressive height towered, eyes keenly observing you.

You made a vexed sound and rolled your eyes at the ludicrous question. "Don't flatter yourself, Thrawn. I just didn't want to miss my opportunity to set you straight before you died." But then you look back at him and are frozen by how close he'd gotten, inclining closer to your face.

The air around the two of you was electric as Thrawn admired your face up close; so close that his breath fanned over your lips causing a warm shutter to race up your spine. He was quiet, silently surveying you and you couldn't help catching how his eyes fell to your lips multiple times; the realization making your stomach flip. His proximity was overwhelming, drowning you in him wholly. His broad shoulders obstructed anything else from your sight, the way he leaned over you trapping you in place though nothing behind you was preventing you from running away if you wanted.

But you found that you didn't want to.

His presence was intoxicating this close.

"Allow me to speak now," Thrawn whispered, his voice sounding gentle despite how confidently he said it. His fiery eyes searched your face before he spoke again, possibly waiting to see if you would stop him from voicing his thoughts but when you didn't, he persisted. "Would it surprise you to know as I was on your mind, so were you on mine?"

The admission sends your heart into a frenzy. What does that even mean? What did he mean, you were on his mind? It felt as if he were communicating in riddles that you couldn't fully decipher and the vague meanings would be incredibly humiliating if you were to assume. So you stood there wide-eyed and lips slightly parted to steady your labored breathing, waiting for any explanation but rather you were met with a cool touch as the knuckle of Thrawn's finger brushed against your warm cheek. "This knowledge does surprise you." He stated matter-of-factly at your speechlessness, the delicate caress passing down the soft line of your jaw and allowing him to take hold of your chin, between his finger and thumb delicately. "I cannot help but find my unfamiliarity in these matters rather displeasing, as I assumed my intentions would have been made clear by this point."

"I-Intentions?" You questioned dumbly, brows upturned in surrender, "I thought you wanted to know more about the New Republic an-and Luke…that was all I was here for." The unstable whisper that left your lips signaled your uncertainty at Thrawn's next move.

Sighing narrowly, Thrawn rose to his full height once more and allowed his hand to fall away from your face; to which you let out an audible gasp at the loss of contact. "Indeed I aimed to gather details about Skywalker through you, as you appeared important to him. Though, as your tenacity and overall insolent attitude toward me continued I found myself…" He paused momentarily, contemplating his words, "Curious about you. Your boldness to defy the orders of an Imperial Grand Admiral is as brilliant as it is reckless, though, I can't help but find myself drawn by your full refusal to recognize my endeavors at rapport. I spoke to my troopers on numerous occasions to see if they could understand why it was that you were so uncompromising against my advances though seemed so agreeable with them-"

"Wait-" You interrupted him, jerking your head side to side to get your thoughts back after being so enamored with his attention. "You asked-"

"My troopers, yes." Thrawn concluded your sentence for you with a simple shrug. "Is it so unlikely that I would pursue the guidance of those in better regard with you about your preferences?"

"W-Well no…b-but-" Then it hit you; what Danvers had said before, about you being Thrawn's favorite aboard the Chimera, and your cheeks flushed once again. "So…what you're saying is…" You trailed off, expecting Thrawn to finish the sentence again for you.

Thrawn took to your hint fast and the corner of his lip quirked barely, "Perhaps I persist to fail in making myself clear." He conceded then leaned back into your space as he had earlier, stealing the breath from your lungs at the closeness.

"I-I wouldn't mind you saying it clearly so I don't make a fool of myself for guessing…" You implored quietly, lashes fluttering a few times.

Thrawn smiled now, showing the beautiful white of his teeth, contrasting against his blue skin, his red eyes narrowing delightfully as he stepped the last few inches closer to diminish the space between you. "It would see my words fail me in this moment and rather actions would be far more suitable."

And with the last delicate words of his spoken, Thrawn's chilled lips descend upon your awaiting ones in a soft display of his withheld admiration.

[watatsumiis]

I honestly adore your bitey series, and saw your suggestions were open. Do you mind if I suggest Arlecchino, Beidou, Hu Tao, Rosaria, Yanfei, Kuki, and Ganyu for the Bitey Series? I'm super interested in your hc ideas gkjddfgkl (Don't feel bad if you wanna not write for some of the characters I just listed gjkfdkfjgljk I just went with six because each of your bitey posts also have six so I used it as a baseline jkfgjkdgjk) I hope you're having a good day/night!

Thanks so much for the request!! I’m more than happy to do this, I really had a lot of fun writing the bitey reader series, something about it just makes my little heart happy <3 It seems like you actually submitted seven here, which is alright!! Thank you for noticing about the number of characters i usually have per post, it means a lot to me kjdkdfs

I think i may have to give Yanfei, Shinobu and Ganyu a miss for now since I’m not familiar at all with writing them, but I’ll keep them on my list, don’t worry!

Content: Gender neutral reader who bites as a sign of platonic affection. 

Arlecchino is used to being bitten. She works with children who will bite for a large myriad of reasons. She may not like it, but she understands it comes from a place of not being able to verbalise a certain emotion. At first she’ll be concerned that there’s something wrong, and will try to pinpoint what it is. Eventually, she’ll move on to being mildly annoyed, shooing you off, and then finally just settling for it and realising it’s just a way of you asking for attention. If she’s busy, she may brush you off and move away, but she’ll make a note to give you the affections that you’re pining for when she has a moment. If you have a particularly close relationship with her she’ll let it fly if she knows you’ve had a bit of a rough/long day.

Beidou finds it kind of funny, though she doesn’t entirely understand it. She’ll just laugh like you’ve told her some kind of hilarious joke, shaking her head and tutting her tongue as she pats you on the head and jokes that some kind of shark or something must’ve gotten on board while her back was turned. Though if you consistently do it, she may ask if you’ve gotten into the liquor (she’s got a few crew members who get a little… bitey, once they’ve had a few drinks), or kind of semi-awkwardly try to redirect you onto something (or someone) else. Eventually she just resigns to her fate though, and you get to nibble on her to your heart's content! She’ll just sort of phase it out after a while.

Hu Tao kind of adores it - she lives for non-traditional acts of affection and the like, so will almost immediately try to get you back. She’ll turn it up a notch and just CHOMP down on you, giggling all the while. She thinks it's a very silly and fun way of communicating affection, and it feels strangely natural to her, as do most ‘unorthodox’ ways of making people know how much she likes them. She’s fairly well known for doing things like this in her own unorthodox way, and once she knows you're open to it, you'll often find yourself on the receiving end of one of her rather 'quirky' ways of showing affection, which include tying things to the ends of your hair (usually ribbons, feathers or charms for warding off spirits or bad luck), pocketing some of your belongings while you're not looking or just grabbing ahold of you or your clothing and clinging tight.

Rosaria is entirely baffled, and maybe even a little offended. She’ll pull away sharply and give you a stern look, but won’t directly say anything about it. If you try again, you’ll earn an annoyed sigh. Repeated attempts will reward you with progressively more annoyed reactions, eventually escalating to you getting bopped (mostly gently) on the head with a book or paper she has on hand. After that, if you do it again, she can and will just walk away. She doesn’t understand and doesn’t really have a heavy desire to try and understand - all she knows is that it’s bothering her and she doesn’t like it. If you're in a situation that she isn't able to walk away from, you'll likely find yourself getting scolded or grumbled at - don't get too upset though, she isn't really that mad, and will forget about it pretty quickly.

Please don't repost, steal, copy or otherwise plagarise my writing! This includes posting translations to other sites.

[flowerandthesongstress]

You would not find my country on the map.

Not because you’re an ignorant dumbass of course but simply because my country is so small that it just doesn’t fit on some paper maps for example it doesn’t fit on this particular map you own and you’ll be looking and looking trying to find my country on your map and you will squint your eyes straining them irresponsibly to almost dangerous levels and in the end you will only find a thin black line that leads away from a tiny dot to some text which says hello please be aware that the country you’re trying to find is somewhere over there but it’s just such a small country that we didn’t have enough space at our disposal to paint that country on this map yikes sorry and you’ll be like whAT what the heck is this nonsense I am feeling mildly outraged this isn’t a good way to make world maps and atlases and then you will huff and look at the corner of the map to see where it was printed and there will be a number with an annotation that says hello person who bought this beautiful map which we printed could you please be so kind as to call this number on the phone if you have any feedback for us and so you will go uh-huuuh and call the number and say uh yes hi I’m calling you about those maps you’re printing and I have feedback as requested namely my feedback is about how I think you should not print world maps in such small sizes because not everything fits into them for example I could not find my friend’s country on your map I only found an explanation for why it isn’t there and as a sidenote I also have to tell you that I needed to squint when looking at that map which can’t be good for my eyesight and so I wonder if you have considered only printing bigger maps with more readable fonts and they will tell you yes yes of course we have because after all we make big maps meant for boardrooms and classrooms and all that and actually with the deforestation problem being as dire and with all of the necessary maps being available online anyway we try not to print too many paper maps but only make them to order and I assure you that every map we make can fit everything because no one but schools and businesses is ordering paper maps of the world from us nowadays so ma’am could you please tell us which size of the map do you mean and you will tell them the size of the map and additionally inform them that the map looks glossy and brand new and they will gasp and say oh wow ma’am this particular map you’re describing has been out of print for over thirty years moreover you should know that due to it containing a misprint there was a very very limited number of copies and yet you’re saying it’s in pristine condition congratulations you basically own an antique map you should hold on to it especially if you’re a map collector and you will say whoah this is fantastic and very interesting although no I am not a collector but I could use some cash right now so I’ll sell it to a collector I suppose hello rich people troy is joining you yes I’ll hold hahaha but seriously thank you so much for this information it comes at the best time and they will tell you in amicable tones oh no problem no problem hope you have a nice day after which you will hang up the phone and give a meaningful and pensive slow nod while somewhere else in the world and likely somewhere nearby let’s be honest here someone else would not find my country on the map because he is an ignorant dumbass, yes.

[blackjackkent]

Rakha waits until they're back at camp to talk to Wyll about Ansur.

(This conversation actually turned out quite interesting for Rakha imo, although for reasons quite liberally seasoned with headcanon.)

She has been trying to sort out her own thoughts about it. Her attention has been so much on her own problems - on Orin, on Gortash, on the most direct route to the brain and the problems in her own mind - but she is aware that this mission was deeply important to Wyll. It was his father's wish that he seek out Ansur and bring him back to protect the city, and even though it was no fault of Wyll's, they could not do that.

Rakha... is really pretty familiar with the idea of disappointing her father, after the last few days, but her father is, to put it mildly, very different from Wyll's. This is not a situation she has a lot of relevant experience with.

Luckily, Wyll speaks before she has to figure out how to open the conversation.

"Ansur is dead."

(A/N: The game bugged and hung the dialogue on this line until I hit space, and it was very amusing that it seemed like Wyll said that and then just fell silent and looked depressed. Valid, my dude.)

"There will be no great tempest roaring through the skies, no dragon redeemer to save us. What hope, then, for Baldur's Gate? Without the great wyrm's aid... is the city doomed to fall?"

Rakha can hear the anxiety in his voice. The strain and despair is unlike him; he has always been a steady presence at her side, guiding her along a path of hope even when she's felt the world shaking apart around her. But not here, not now. He has focused all his hope on finally making his father proud, doing his duty by the city he was thrown out of, bringing back an unstoppable weapon to fight the evil that threatened it.

And now none of that will happen. Rakha swallows, fumbling for some words that might soothe his fear and anger and grief as he has so often soothed hers... but though her mind is quieter now, she is no more facile with comfort and soft words than she was before.

And someone else speaks up before she can find the right thing to say.

"You braved the wyrm's lair seeking a savior," the Emperor rumbles through their minds out of the Prism. "Yet it was you - all of you - who vanquished the undead abomination which Ansur became. You are more powerful than you understand. It is you who are the tempest. It is you who are the Heart of the Gate."

(A/N: Fascinating.

So... I'll be honest - I really don't like this set of two post-Ansur conversations for Wyll. The particular circumstances of Rakha's run, however, do make this really interesting.

It's an open point of discussion in the fandom that a lot of Wyll's quest, particularly in Act 3, feels haphazardly done and unsatisfying; these days I am somewhat intrigued by the theory that he was originally supposed to have story opportunities in the Upper City which then got scrapped. It would certainly explain a lot, because the business with Ansur does not really feel like a thematic conclusion to his arc.

But imo these two conversations are by far the weakest part. As you can see if you look at just the dialogue in this post without my context and descriptions, he bounces ALL over the place from depression to ambition to valor to a weird sort of manic celebratory air, all pretty much without the player's input at all (or regardless of it). Left to its own devices it's a pretty lackluster set of dialogue and in my opinion serves to make the ending of this quest feel even weirder than it already does.

HOWEVER. This really is fascinating in the context of Rakha's run specifically and considering the events that have directly led up to this.

Rakha has been for most of the game loyal to the Emperor and thus able to be manipulated by it.

Ever since meeting Minsc and particularly since their argument in the Astral, that partnership has broken; Rakha now sees through the Emperor's manipulation and has 180'd to pretty much hating it.

Rakha has now also been stripped of her Bhaalspawn heritage - meaning that another thing binding her to the Emperor (the mental peace offered in the Astral) is now also no longer relevant.

The Emperor and Rakha just had ANOTHER fight in the aftermath of battling Ansur, in which they both made it super clear that one of them is probably going to kill the other eventually.

And now... Wyll is in a state of clear despair. (Well, clear-ish. Poor Theo Solomon does his best but this dialogue is, again, so weirdly written that he clearly had trouble figuring out what emotion he was supposed to be going for - but for our story purposes, that first line is definitely despair.) And of all people, the Emperor chimes in out of nowhere and starts talking him up about how cool he is and how it doesn't matter that Ansur is dead because actually Wyll is the Heart of the Gate.

And look how that plays out.)

Rakha's eyes narrow, hearing the Emperor's strange and unexpected words of encouragement - but she sees how they work on Wyll. His head lifts, and some of the bleak despair goes out of his eyes. His lips curl up at the corners in a cautious smile. "You're right," he says, squaring his shoulders. "We are the warriors who'll slay the Absolute. We are the guardians who'll defend this fair city."

Nod along silently.

"The brain will fall." Wyll is warming to the discussion now, his eyes going brighter with eager energy. "And the people will hail us as champions." His eyes widen and his breath catches. "I could even claim my father's own ducal title and carry his banner after this! 'Grand Duke Wyll Ravengard.' Marshal of the Flaming Fist, the city's truest defender!"

(A/N: You see what I mean, maybe, about how fast the tone flips in this conversation. I am very much aware of what they're going for here but the execution just ends up feeling extremely weird.

But... specifically in this story's context, this really ends up reading like the Emperor (who heretofore has shown zero interest in buttering up Wyll) realizing that its goose is cooked as far as Rakha is concerned and instead fixing on this new target at a moment of extreme emotional vulnerability.

And for a moment here, Wyll comes very close to buying it, hook, line, and sinker. Because Blade of Frontiers or not, there is a part of him that does desperately want to return to the city, his city, and take up his father's mantle. The Emperor has played on that subtle aspiration and for just a moment it almost takes over.

I am glad, though, that unlike the business with his pact, we actually do have the option to let Wyll make his own decision here.)

Rakha listens to this speech in silence. She can hear the desperate hope in his voice, the need for her to say yes, yes, you will return to the city and they will love you, they will cheer you for what you did for them, after so long away. But... she doesn't understand it. In all the time she's known Wyll, he has never shown the slightest bit of aspiration for a seat among the patriars. In fact, he's spoken disparagingly of the city's emphasis on the nobility over the less fortunate. He has sacrificed everything of himself for others (including her) on more than one occasion.

But now he pictures a world where he is not only a noble but a Duke, the leader of the Flaming Fist, standing in his father's shoes. Is that what he wants? Does he believe it is required of him? Or is there some other element of this that she does not understand?

Perhaps it is simply that he wants peace, just as she does. Perhaps he is tired of adventuring and wants to return to the city for good. She has no right whatsoever to judge him for that - and yet she wonders. What is the place for me, in such a future?

She feels conscious of the Emperor watching them both. Watching Wyll. She can just barely see the outline of how it is pulling the strings of this conversation, just as it has pulled hers.

But Wyll has never listened to the Emperor. He even warned Rakha away from it. Surely... surely he is stronger than that... And she loves him. She will follow him down whatever path he chooses, as he has followed her.

"Follow your heart, Wyll," she says quietly. After a moment's pause, she reaches out cautiously and grips his hand tightly in hers. "I trust you to make the right decision."

Wyll frowns, looking down at her hand on his. A muscle works in his jaw. Then, after a long moment, he shakes his head. "I fought to right the wrongs of the Coast. To slay the monsters that hunt the helpless," he murmurs. "What good is a champion who puts himself above the people? What good am I as a politician, just out of reach?"

He lifts his head and squares his shoulders firmly. "There will be no Grand Duke Wyll Ravengard. And there will be no Blade of Frontiers. I am now the Blade of Avernus. For as long as demons and devils imperil the Sword Coast, they will be my prey."

(A/N: And now we've whiplashed back the other direction. XD Honestly I think this part of the conversation would be LOADS improved by an actual pause before I fought to right the wrongs of the coast; I described one here but there isn't actually one in game and it just sounds like he changed his mind INSTANTLY. The Blade of Avernus thing also seems to come out of nowhere since he hadn't mentioned any dissatisfaction with being the Blade of Frontiers at any point previously.

It's just odd. But - GO WYLL! IGNORE THE EMPEROR'S MANIPULATION! \o/)

Rakha relaxes. Good. That sounds more like Wyll, like the man she knows, the man who helped guide the broken pieces of her towards something better. She nods again soberly, her hand tightening around his.

Narrator: A calm settles over you. The elder brain is a menace - but with the Blade of Avernus at your side, you know you will triumph.

-----

(A/N: Glad the narrator is so confident about it. :D The other followup conversation is much shorter; it's also tonally weird, but only in the context of everything happening around it. As it stands alone, it is very cute. :3 )

"The Blade of Avernus. A new name for a changed man. The four pillars finally rise within me - Courage, Insight, Strategy, Justice. I'm not to abide them, but to become them. Ah, but enough reflection for today. I'm of a mind to celebrate. A hearty meal would do the trick. A few hunks fresh venison, a round of brown ale - what do you say?"

"Sounds heavenly."

"Wonderful. You hunt the deer, I'll scrounge up the ale. Prepare your belly for roast a la Blade! Let's hope Gale doesn't take offense if I assume cooking duties, just the once."

(A/N: Hector definitely got extra dialogue here about how Wyll has an ulterior motive for wanting to go to Avernus - hunting down Mizora. I'm not sure why it's not popping for Rakha. But we will leave it with this cuteness because this whole conversation has been weird. :P )

[astarionslittlejuicebox]

The Promise of Eternity (Part 5)

Author: @astarionslittlejuicebox

Imagine: The reader helped Astarion ascend and became his spawn. After saving the world from the Elder brain and it’s destruction, the reader and Astarion set out to take on the world together. While he promised to never forget the gifts the reader has given him, Astarion has seemed to have changed his attitude towards the reader in the last century…. After someone breaks one of  Astarion’s rules, how will this affect the reader’s fate?

Pairing: Astarion x F!Reader

Trigger warnings: potential for minor spoilers, suggestive themes, language, mentions of death, mentions of blood, abusive relationship, mention of slavery

Word Count: 1145

Imagine Series

Side Notes: 

This imagine series takes place 200 years after the events of Baldur’s Gate 3.  Everything you read in here is a story from my mind outside of the original BG3 character Astarion.

In this imagine series, Astarion is a bit more unemotionally unavailable, and this series will follow the decisions and consequences of that change. This is not canonically accepted and it is just an idea I’ve had in my head! (I do believe Astarion might truly care for the reader after Ascension, but that is open to individual interpretation.)

In this series, TAV is mildly based on my first character I played in BG3; she is a drow and I will make references to her in her background and knowledge as well. I do apologize that it is not 100% your own imagine, but the name for TAV is up to you as well as anything else that I can think of leaving to you, the reader, to decide.

I appreciate everyone who reads the imagines and this series, and I hope you enjoy the story!

TAV POV

“Good morning, Mistress.” I awoke the next morning with a startle as Kristiana knocked and entered my bedchambers.

“Fuck!” My hand clutched where my heart would have been beating through my chest. “Kristiana, damn, I’m sorry. You startled me.” The woman frowned slightly as she took in the sight of me still in yesterday’s clothes.

“Mistress, did you not go to bed last night?” Concern laced in every word she spoke, but I waved a dismissive hand.

“Do not fret. I was merely doing some very interesting reading and lost track of time.” I gave her a reassuring smile as I took note of my page and closed the book. “Let’s get dressed for the day.”

After bathing and getting dressed in a beautiful jade dress that flowed around my ankles, I dismissed Kristiana again for the whole day under the guise that I wanted her to enjoy the change of season. I waited until she left before I opened Inception of Yesterday and reread the last page I had fallen asleep on, and my eyes widened in surprise. This page had a detailed step-by-step process of a ritual Elminster had done in 1000 DR to see what caused a catastrophic fire in the Waterdeep Palace. If my heart still had a rhythmic beating, it would have increased its pace as my eyes reread and then read again the words on the page. A sliver of hope began to sprout in my chest as I studied the steps, but a small voice in the back of my head also began to sow doubt in the back of my mind.

There is only one way to test this. I thought to myself. I have to see if I can do the ritual and see what happened here last night. I read again the list of ingredients needed for the ritual: four red candles, a single blue candle, chalk, and a connection to the Weave. I bit at my lip as I looked up from the book. I needed to head back into town for supplies, and I had a feeling that I might need to have a few rounds of those supplies. Magic has a tendency to be temperamental when attempting it for the first time.

Gathering my coat and placing the books from the library in my bag, I threw open my bedroom door to find Astarion standing there with his fist poised to knock on my door before  I let out a startled yelp. A perfectly sculpted eyebrow raised itself on the pale elf’s face at the sight of me.

“I have to go into town for supplies.” I answered before Astarion could ask anything of me. “I may require your assistance later on for the task you have asked of me, but I need to see if I am capable of doing the spell first. So, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go.” The words fumbled out of my mouth as I avoided prolonged eye contact with the pair of crimson eyes I had been in love with for centuries now. The same ones that continued to break my heart for the last century. I said nothing more as I pushed past Astarion and closed the door behind me.

“Darling, you seem to have forgotten something.” His velvety voice sounded amused as I started to walk away from him. I paused and noticed that the sole of my foot felt cooler than before. Looking down, I had noticed what the vampire had alluded to: I wasn’t wearing shoes. I groaned before turning around, but Astarion stood in front of my door, blocking my reentry. “Does your maiden not take care in getting you dressed?”

“I dismissed her this morning after putting on my dress.” The words bitterly left my mouth as I avoided eye contact with the piercing red eyes staring at me. Why did he suddenly seem to care? He hadn’t in a century. A deep chuckle sounded from his chest, which made me look at him. “Can I put my shoes on now, or do you wish to ridicule me further?” Any amusement that was on the elf’s face dissipated at my question.

“Darling—” He began, but I raised a hand to stop him.

“Forgive me, my Lord, but you have asked a task of me and I must do so. I am not sure what has changed recently, but you cannot just resume calling someone darling when you’ve treated them like a speck of dirt or a bug to be squashed for the last hundred years.” Those crimson eyes of his widened at my outburst. “Now, if you will forgive me, I have to get these supplies, and do my duty. I’m sure your tiefling is looking for you.” He made no move to stop me as he stepped out of my way, and he was gone by the time I threw on a pair of heels to match my dress.

I hadn’t spoken to Astarion in such a manner since the tiefling had arrived at the castle, nor had Astarion spoken so casually to me since her arrival. She despised my guts the moment she stepped foot through the door, and Astarion seemed to do the same from the moment he made eye contact with her. An unsettling feeling began to emerge in the pit of my stomach as I thought more about the damn tiefling, but I pushed it to the back of my mind as I hurried to gather my supplies.

Astarion POV

You cannot just resume calling someone darling when you’ve treated them like a speck of dirt or a bug to be squashed for the last hundred years. (TAV’s name)’s words echoed in my mind as I walked away from her room. He hadn’t known that he was acting in such a way to her, and it made him feel as though he had been absent for quite some time.

Could I really have treated her so horribly? He thought to himself as he walked the halls of his castle they had built together. Why can I not recall the last century? It seemed like just yesterday Zeyis arrived at the castle’s door. His feet seemed to stop as he stood in front of a large portrait of himself. His eyes trained themselves on this painting, and his brain struggled to recall when he had replaced the portrait of (TAV) and him. Several emotions passed through him as he drew blanks, but two emotions remained: anger and confusion.

“Admiring yourself, are you?” Zeyis’ voice asked from behind him. As Astarion turned to look at her, all of his anger and confusion was forgotten the moment their eyes met. Something in the back of his mind was nagging at him, but he couldn’t quite place it as he looked at the tiefling.

What had been bothering him?

[mental69er]

Hii. Could you write a Firecracker x Fem!supe!reader. If you'd want to you could just do whatever with this request or Firecracker recently joined the seven and, reader is already apart of the team and. Firecracker kind of develops an obsession with reader kind of like the one she has on Homelander but, she is in denial because yk homophobia "girls cant love girls!". I dont really know what else to add so 😔 (also sorry if this request is a bit of a yap session) (I hope you have a good day/afternoon/night even if you dont read or do this request!) (Also this is my first request so sorry if it sounds rude in any way.) (English isnt my first language so sorry for any errors in grammar!) (Sorry for the bother and !Remember to stay hydrated!)

I hope you have a good day/night as well! Here's some Firecracker and fem super reader!

Content: fem reader as a superhero, obsessive Firecracker, homophobic Firecracker because she's in denial, mild spice, Fireracker pinned to the wall

Firecracker couldn't stand her.

Her entire existance was an affront to God.

Firecracker had been over the moon when she'd first heard she was going to be part of the Seven. Joining the team had been a dream come true, especially for someone like her who'd come from next to nothing.

The joy of being one of the Seven quickly began to fade when she realized who her teammates were. Homelander, she could look up to, Noir and the Deep she could ignore, A-Train had long deserted, and she'd thought of Sage as a friend once before the supe had used her to become Starlight's punching bag,

But her.

The superhero known as Myght.

Everything about her infuriated Firecracker to the point that she was entirely too distracted. Myght's eyes were a soft golden brown, sparkling in the light. Her long black hair spilled down her shoulders in waves. She was so beautiful she was probably full of herself.

Her lips were full and pulled up in a cocky smirk as she sat during the meetings and imparted her opinions. Opinions she should have no right to, not when they contradicted Homelander's own.

Firecracker couldn't help but speak up during those meetings to defend their leader, earning skeptic or mildly irritated looks from Myght. Firecracker wanted to piss her off even more, as payback for the way that she couldn't stop thinking about her.

Firecracker could spend hours thinking about what Myght said in a meeting or during a mission. Thought about how awfully muscular she was. A woman shouldn't have biceps that size, or have abs, or thighs that could crush heads.

Firecracker thought about how on one mission Myght had carried Firecracker to safety in those arms and how ashamed Firecracker had been to be seen weakened like this, relying on someone she hated.

And she made sure Myght knew she hated her. She'd poke fun of her, making snippy comments, and try to take her glory during missions. Not to mention she shit talked her on her podcast and it was validating to see others chime in on their hatred of her. For the most part.

'Sounds like someone has a crush' was one of the comments on Firecracker's latest half hour rant. Firecracker immediately deleted the comment and blocked the user from ever seeing any of her videos, pulse thudding with anger.

How dare they fucking think that! Firecracker only dated men and was only interested in them. Rage pulsed through her as thoughts she tried to suppress fought to surface into her concious mind.

She decided to work them out by going to the gym in Vought tower and take them all out on the equipment there. Eventually, when her muscles were too sore, she was able to finally go back to her room and shower, trying to wash away the weird heat churning in her stomach as the comment replayed over and over in her head.

"I don't like her!" she screamed out in frustration to no one and punched through the tiled wall, before taking deep shuddering breaths to calm herself. She'd find herself doing this more frequently when multiple comments accusing her of being hot for Myght kept circulating around in her comment sections. She kept deleting and blocking but someone always said something about it.

As Firecracker's time on the Seven extended, so did her efforts to piss off Myght.

Myght barely gave Firecracker any thought and that only made Firecracker try harder to annoy her.

Eventually though, as it always did with supes, the taunting and teasing devolved into violence. Myght swung Firecracker into the wall after a particular meeting, hand to her throat holding tight, anger making her bare her teeth.

"Seriously, what issue do you have with me?" Myght had spat out, grinding words. Firecracker tried to pry the hands off of her throat, but the grip was tight. Bits of plaster crumbled around her as she struggled to free herself.

"What have I done to warrant this behavior?"

"You existing is bad enough," Firecracker grit out, trying to catch her breath. Their faces were close together and she couldn't help the way her eyes flicked down to Myght's lips. Firecracker had never realized that Myght smelled this sweet, her perfume wafting over into Firecracker's nose.

"I think you want my attention," Myght said and Firecracker laughed.

"I want you gone. Don't flatter yourself," she said, pulling her lips back to show how unaffected she was.

"Really?" Myght asked, huffing. She stepped in, til their bodies were touching. Firecracker could feel the warmth of her against her chest, feel the shape of her breasts and muscles, and her heart rate slammed up.

Her eyelids fluttered as all those annoying comments about having a crush on Myght surfaced through her mind. At all the countless hours she had spent watching footage of Myght's rescues and trainings in an effort to better understand her enemy leading to Firecracker's costume feeling uncomfortably tight.

Just like it did now, the material sticking to too hot and too tight skin.

Firecracker had wondered, against her better wishes, what it would be like to be held in those strong arms again. What it would feel like to have that body pinning her down.

"Really," Firecracker said, voice sounding too breathy.

"Are you sure about that?" Myght began slipping a leg in between Firecracker's own and Firecracker's eyes flared in panic. "Because I've seen the way you talk about me on that little show of yours. And I've seen the comments they post about us."

"You're delusional if you think I feel that way about you," Fireracker spat out even as her body tensed when Myght's thigh slotted perfectly in between her own. Fireracker had to tamp down on the ridicolous and curious urge to buck right into it.

Myght merely smirked, thumb pressing down hard over Firecracker's pulse. "We'll see about that." She stepped back and let go and Firecracker nearly fell over, legs feeling strangely weak. She rubbed a hand up and down her throat.

"Things would be a lot better if you stopped being so cruel towards me and your own self," Myght offered softly.

"Fuck off," Firecracker growled out. "You disgusting leech. I'm letting every single one of my fans know what you did today during my podcast."

"Go ahead," Myght smirked and walked off.

Firecracker mumbled a few choice words under her breath about her. She would show her! When she turned to go to her room, she became aware of the uncomfortable wetness between her thighs.

Shit.

She really didn't want to think about why that was.

And when she finished ranting on her podcast about what Myght had done to her, vindicated by the many comments agreeing with her, her feelings of arousal had not gone away. Only intensifying when she had recounted them live for her audience.

As usual, there were a few comments that continued to ship her and Myght.

'Them fucking against the wall would have been so hot. Firecracker submitting to Myght, riding her thigh until she comes all over it' followed by thirsty emojis.

That only filled Firecracker's mind with images she didn't need, images that made her hand crawl mindlessly to the front of her shorts, rubbing down as she continued to read the reply thread.

'Do you see how ripped Myght is? She could probably get Firecracker off by rubbing Firecracker's cunts against her abs'.

Firecracker stifled a whimper at the thought of that, hand rubbing harder while her hand holding her phone began to shake from effort of holding back.

'Firecracker wants to be fucked so bad by Myght. Pinned under her and taken.'

"I don't," she defended breathlessly, hips beginning to cant up. Frustrated tears leaked from her eyes as she forced herself to pull her hand away before she could orgasm. Shaking with anger and want, she tore away from the chair, tossing her phone to the side and went to the shower.

She turned the water on cold and let it run over her until her body had calmed down.

She needed to get rid of that demon woman. Only then would she be able to stop feeling this way.

[caintooth]

Okay this is a little weird but I have a DID question.

I had a friend in high school who claimed to have DID. I met several alleged alters and she really would change a lot between personalities, even seeming stronger, having a higher body temp, and having different handwriting as certain alters. She also definitely had a real, terrible childhood that I could see causing her to split off an alter for protection. At the time I was about 80% convinced.

It's been years and we're still good friends, but she hasn't mentioned any alters since high school, and she has also not mentioned being able to integrate some or all of her alters, even tho we talk about mental health often. I haven't seen her be (or at least I haven't noticed her being) any of the alters I would recognize from high school. But I also used to spend almost every day with her and now I go weeks or months without hanging out with her so my sample size is smaller.

Starting a few months after I stopped seeing her every day I started to become more skeptical of her claim to have DID, because it felt a bit too much like a movie to me at the time. Sometimes I could request time with a specific alter and they would show up, but sometimes they wouldn't. It didn't seem like she was someone else without willing it, very often if ever. She had like 3 main alters when she told me about it - a protector, a little kid, and one more I can't remember and didn't see often - and she allegedly acquired a cat alter sometime after that.

I'm split about it now. I believed her for the most part at the time, because she really did seem different, but I also knew that was the kind of thing high schoolers sometimes lie about so I was always mildly suspicious. Now looking back I feel bad doubting her because if she was telling the truth, it would probably really hurt her to know I doubted her. But also that is the kind of thing high schoolers sometimes lie about! I had other friends lie about similar shit. And I haven't seen any evidence in so long and it hasn't come up in just as long.

I've always wanted to ask her about it but I don't want to embarrass her or harm our friendship which is still strong despite this question lol. I know you're not a doctor and it can be dangerous to speculate, but I just wondered what your perspective as someone with DID is?

This is such a strange thing to anonymously ask a stranger.

Are you hoping I’ll tell you she was faking? Are you hoping I’ll validate your assumptions about her inner life? What you have described is incredibly textbook for DID.

To help you understand, let me explain that Dissociative Identity Disorder presents in two ways, typically: overtly, or covertly.

An “overt” presentation is as you were describing her high school presentation— the disorder is easier to see as an outside viewer, because an “overt” presenter has (comparatively) more visible switches between alters, with (comparatively) more noticeable differences between their abilities, voices, interests, personalities, mannerisms, etc.

And so, a “covert” presentation is the opposite of this, where the disorder is not very obvious to an outside viewer at all. Switches may seem seamless, or they may seem to not switch at all. Alters do not have as many outwardly visible differences, may have similar or same voices and mannerisms, may not speak openly about their differing opinions or likes/dislikes.

DID is a disorders which forms, as you acknowledge, to protect the haver from trauma. And because the disorder is trying to protect you, it can shift between “overt” to “covert” presentation as needed.

A system may present more overtly, for example, if some alters are better emotionally or physically equipped for a task than others, if some alters are more likely to be treated in the way the system most needs at the time, if some alters have stronger interests and knowledge about a certain subject, etc. And many systems, myself included, find themselves presenting more overtly simply when they are safe and comfortable with the people around them!

In contrast, then, a system may present more covertly when it is not safe to have visible differences, and/or to help disguise the system as one person. Alters may mimic each other to help keep their differences from putting them in danger, and this can happen so discreetly that the system themself may not even be aware of switching when it happens. This being said, systems can also present covertly just because super visible differences are not needed to keep them safe / if being outwardly visibly different from one another doesn’t serve as much of a purpose as being inwardly different.

Systems can also move between these modes for other reasons besides safety and comfort, but as far as I know, those are the main two reasons. And I want to clarify that this move isn’t, most of the time, a conscious choice. The disorder kinda decides for you.

So, if your friend who once presented very overtly around you and spoke of their DID often, is now showing a much more covert presentation and not sharing details of their disorder with you… I have two guesses.

One, your friend may simply be in a different phase of their life, where they don’t feel the need to share many details of their DID with you. People can decide to be more private about things they were once open about, and there’s nothing wrong or suspicious about that.

Two… Your friend is presenting covertly around you for comfort and safety reasons. Maybe they no longer consider you a person they can openly be themselves around.

You might want to reflect on why either of these reasons might be the case. I am not going to tell you your friend is faking. Everything you described is very typical of DID and, again, I think it is very strange you would come into my ask box seeking my opinion on this, as if you assume I, and very good friends of mine, have not presented in similar ways throughout different points in our lives.

Have you considered, I don’t know— just asking about how her headmates have been doing lately? This is indeed a very weird way to handle your feelings about this.

[mayorofcattown]

the 'yorishima is natsume's grandpa' theory is interesting to me cause on the one hand I feel like there's still a pretty high chance grandpa is gonna be Just Some Guy, but also I have literally no idea what narrative purpose yorishima is supposed to have if he's not the grandpa

like he doesn't really have anything to do with the overarching exorcist politics, the role of 'vague mentor figure to natori' is already covered by takuma, and yet he's already featured pretty heavily in the manga despite how recently he was introduced...

and esp when you remember when he was introduced it becomes even more interesting. the arc he was introduced in was the first 'real' continuation of the arc that brought up natsume's grandpa in the first place (I mean technically the arc abt matoba's curse is earlier, but that has basically nothing to do with natsume or the book so I don't think it counts even if it references it). We joke abt how long its been since they mentioned natsume's grandpa, but if that narrative thread is being carried by yorishima it would explain why it's been unacknowledged for so long

But on the flip side, yorishima doesn't really react That much to seeing natsume. He certainly reacts enough to hint that he has some kind of familiarity with reiko sure, but not to the extent you would expect from someone who could have theoretically fathered a child with them. Like idk abt you but if some kid showed up at my house who looked almost identical to a chick I'd had a brief relationship with 40+ years ago, with the same surname I'd be a bit more perturbed by it than just being mildly annoyed. Unless he just assumed Reiko found someone else I guess? It still seems unlikely for him to be that chill around natsume

He certainly seems to be old enough to be grandpa tho, given he wasn't surprised by his uni friend having adult daughters or you know. dying of 'vague illness'

either way I guess he seems like he's supposed to have some connection to reiko/natsume's past, but its hard to gauge whether he's the grandpa himself, or he just idk. knows the guy who is??

but part of me does kinda hope its him just cause it'd be really funny to see natori and matoba's reaction if he is. can you imagine finding out that this weird old guy who used to give you loquats turned out to be the long lost grandparent of this random orphan you found? I'd lose my shit

[ms-katonic-of-tamriel]

Prodigal Dragonborn AU

Thinking of a timeslip AU where due to Misadventure, Lucien from PD ends up in some other timeline where time went another way, and he and Miraak didn't meet.

Started out as a Gol Hah Dov AU, and that would be interesting, Lucien seeing a timeline where Miraak has not only hooked up with someone else, but met Lucien, even got on with him, but never showered any of that obsessive devotion on him that Lucien First Acolyte of the Cult of Miraak got without even trying. Not to mention Chry reacting to a Lucien that has Slept With His Husband In The Other Timeline, and GHD Lucien losing his mind and panicking.

However, I couldn't actually write that as GHD is very much not my fic... but I could do one without the GHD elements, and a straight up AU of PD where Melinda fell to Miraak who successfully escaped Apocrypha. And because this Miraak is, to put it mildly, very much still a Dark Lord Dragonborn, he sets out to conquer the world, and two years or so after escaping, has killed Ulfric and taken over Windhelm and the Stormcloaks, legalised Talos worship after acknowledging Talos as an honoured and respected precursor Dragonborn worthy of worship, and is now High King of most of an independent Skyrim.

However, there is a resistance movement. A Certain Someone did not take too kindly to his partner getting killed, and raced back to Whiterun to raise the alarm. And so Whiterun is still independent under Jarl Balgruuf, but it's also home to the resistance militia known as the Merry Men, who wear jester outfits to hide their real faces and carry out guerrilla attacks on Miraak's cultists wherever they find them. No prizes for guessing who they're led by.

The only reason Whiterun has held out against three dragons, Bend Will and the massed ranks of the Cult of Miraak and Stormcloaks is down to Cicero having hit up Madanach, and seeing as the Reach's Jarl bent the knee to Miraak, the Forsworn responded with aid and a magical shield to keep Bend Will at bay. The jester masks are likewise proof against mind control magic.

Anyway PD Lucien finds himself in the midst of all of this, dressed in his First Acolyte robes, probably fell through an Eye of Magnus-caused anomaly. He doesn't fully realise anything's changed - but his resonant sphere isn't resonating, and he can't feel Miraak in his head any more although the bond is still there. Weird and suspicious, but fixable potentially so back to Winterhold he goes. He gets back to Winterhold hoping for tea, a nice cuddle with his husband and the attentions of his cat. Walks into the longhouse... no cat. No Morrigan or Argis or kids. Just Jarl Korir and court, who see the robes and mask, assume he's part of the cult and do at least make him welcome, wanting to know if he's with the High King.

Lucien is looking around at a longhouse still heated and lit with naked flames rather than the steampipes and electric lights he's used to, and is almost afraid to ask what happened to the College. Turns out the Saarthal dig never happened, Miraak nixed the expedition on arriving in Winterhold with his troops, partly to ingratiate himself with Korir and partly for some reason Miraak never did fully explain... as if he knew what they might find there. Anyway, Aren still leads the College, which has accepted the regime change quite easily. Attitudes to magic have undergone a dramatic shift what with a True Nord Dragonborn High King Who Legalised Talos Worship wielding it as capably as any College member.

Lucien just stares mutely at the falling-apart bridge that Miraak never bothered fixing... and with no siege at the College, never needed to destroy either, and resolves to go to Windhelm.

He's let in, cultists looking at the robes then wanting the mask removed, and on looking at his face, look very confused and wonder when he left the city, weren't you at the palace with Our Lord?

"Clearly not, you should take me back there, he's probably missed me!" Lucien says cheerfully. Inwardly he's panicking, because they recognised him?? King Miraak knows Lucien Flavius??

Apparently so. King Miraak is masked and robed, no one ever sees his real face. But he starts on seeing Lucien, especially the robes, because why is Lucien wearing robes like his.

"You are a guest at my court, Lucien, but do not presume more than that. Even Archmagister Viidost doesn't have robes like this... wait, did she enchant these???"

Viidost is summoned and denies ever having seen these in her life, in fact Mr. Flavius is upstairs having tea and studying some Dwemer volumes acquired off Calcelmo in Markarth right now, he's been there for hours. And then Miraak looks closely at Lucien and realises the vennesetiid do not behave normally around him At All, and that he's from a different timeline, and suddenly Miraak has All The Questions.

"Keep Mr Flavius occupied and ensure he does not come to find me for the next few hours. I have a... visitor to entertain."

The resulting conversation is enlightening for both. Won't write it all out, but the main plot beats are this:

King Miraak is not the tyrant he seems. He's actually been quite the enlightened ruler, with schools of Jhunal opening in his territory and the study of magic becoming a little more respectable among Nords.

The Bards College regularly send students on placement to Windhelm to learn history from King Miraak.

The Butcher of Windhelm got caught within weeks of Miraak taking over Windhelm, and the Grey Quarter's been renovated. Argonians and Dunmer are allowed in the city, as are the Khajiit subject to skooma and stolen goods searches.

The Jarls serving him are actually mostly loyal. Laila Law-Giver was restored to Riften after Season Unending's events, and Maven was Bend Willed into submission. That led to Mercer Frey's execution and the return of the Skeleton Key, and Karliah is now a loyal agent of Miraak's. The Guild operates along similar lines to Ankh-Morpork's now. ;)

With Cidhna Mine no longer a prison in Markarth, the Reach is rather more peaceful and the Forsworn are haemorrhaging recruits. Miraak's yet to fight them full on, but he's got plans.

Miraak smashed the Dawnguard questline, brutally slaughtering Harkon personally. He's got Auriel's Bow mounted on his wall but rarely uses it. Serana lives at his court and is one of his closest friends and advisors. Isran is Miraak's right hand in the Rift. (Karliah's the left.)

Alliance agreement signed with Morrowind, who recognised the Free Kingdom of Skyrim and have an Embassy in Eastmarch.

This timeline's Lucien arrived at Windhelm not long before PD Lucien, hoping King Miraak might assist with an expedition to Solstheim to investigate Dumzbthar. This timeline's Lucien is a lot more naive and sheltered and innocent, and fascinated to meet a timeline traveller! Still less a version of him! Goodness, you must tell me all about it.

PD Lucien gives an edited version to his counterpart... but he tells Miraak the truth, seeing the man's not all evil, and even attempts to flirt with him, reasoning it's not cheating to get close to his timeline's equivalent of his husband, is it? It doesn't quite go according to plan but while sex doesn't happen (Lucien is secretly OK with that), an emotional tie does form.

Plot Twist! This timeline's Lucien was working for the Merry Men, hoping to lure Miraak out to Dumzbthar in person where Cicero is lying in wait, waiting for revenge.

Alas for PD Lucien having warned Miraak about what's down there, and that Melinda's partner was an Imperial redhead named Cicero who was an ex-assassin who owned a jester's outfit. Miraak instantly sees the Merry Men connection.

Plot Twist number two - Miraak never died so he still has a lot of Daedric corruption going on. The reason he never removes the mask is that he's got sickly pale grey skin with mottled black blood vessels and completely dark eyes with blue irises the only relief. His tongue and gums are black as well as his blood. Hardly anyone's seen it but he'd not survive long if his real face was ever seen. Miraak rips the mask off to show PD Lucien this after he tries to chat him up, but when Lucien reacts with genuine sadness and kindness instead of revulsion, that's when the emotional barriers give way. A strong friendship forms, and Miraak tells PD Lucien his husband is lucky to have him. Miraak's sense of honour places PD Lucien off limits romantically and sexually, for which Lucien is frankly relieved. But Miraak, after receiving a positive reaction from one Lucien, starts looking thoughtfully at the other one.

Not entirely sure how it'd all work out, especially as I don't normally write the Forsworn as antagonists, nor Cicero, who, let's face it, isn't surviving this.

I'm thinking PD Lucien somehow managing to persuade the other Lucien to switch sides and share his intel on the Merry Men. Dumzbthar trip happens, Cicero joins the party not realising Miraak knows who he is, turns traitor around the Oblivion Gate and PD Lucien gets in the way of the knives just as the portal opens behind Cicero and the last thing he sees before passing out is two Miraaks, one of whom is slaughtering Cicero while the other is healing him and telling him to hold on.

PD Lucien wakes up and suddenly realises the bond is there, and he can feel Saviik, and then realises GRIGIO is purring on his chest, and opens his eyes to see his perfectly healthy husband holding his hand, tears in his eyes.

Took Dumzbthar the longest time to get a lock on the resonant sphere's plane of existence, but Saviik had faith Lucien in any universe would wind up at Dumzbthar eventually and so it has proved. This timeline's Lucien managed to get the facility under control, and now King Miraak has a mighty Dwemer army plus the Liisunvaar at his disposal.

"Doesn't that bother you? I mean, isn't that bad? Aren't you afraid what he might do with it?"

Saviik laughs, wiping tears away. "Niid, lokaali. My first impression of him was you moving to save his life, and him saving yours with his healing magic. You are clearly convinced he's not beyond redemption, and he clearly treasures you. Also we have spoken. He speaks very highly of you and sees you as a true friend, and reassured me he has not taken advantage of you. In return, I have told him the Reachfolk have his daughter and grandson living peacefully among them, and also pointed him Matriarch Keirine's way. If he goes in peace to her, and promises to spare her people, she might help him be healed."

PD Lucien goes home with Saviik to live happily ever after. King Miraak sees him off with the other Lucien at his side, who not-so-secretly hero-worshipped the dashing First Acolyte who was smart and brave and heroic and all the things he's not.

King Miraak is a bit surprised to hear this, telling him he, Lucien of this timeline, is the reason Miraak now has a submarine and automaton army, and that while PD Lucien's stories may have inspired, who is going to help him bring steam power and electricity to his domain once it has peace, hmm?

"What... you don't mean me, do you?" Lucien gasps, going pink, and Miraak nods.

"Yes, Court Scientist Lucien, of course I do."

Lucien is delighted, accepts, wait, he's not going to use the machines to level Whiterun, is he?

No, in fact it turns out with a lot of the Merry Man leadership dead on Solstheim, the militia band falls apart. Balgruuf is a pragmatist at heart and a secret Talos worshipper to boot and agrees to talks now he doesn't have a psychotic motley-clad widower in his court to worry about.

As for the Forsworn, it turns out Madanach is ill and dying and the Forsworn are on their knees. Keirine is the one to agree to a surrender in return for their lives and help for her brother.

One Dwemer oxygen tank for his breathing, and Miraak is able to craft a Shout to sort his mind out. Madanach is, if not pleased at realising he's got to talk terms with Igmund, at least grateful for his life back, even if this is going to require regular shipments of cylinders for the breathing apparatus and regular restoration treatments off Miraak personally to really fix his lungs. How much is this going to cost... all you want is a few hours to talk to Morrigan? Sold.

Keirine's fascinated by the Daedric corruption, but is unsure how to fix. She's never seen anything like it. Still, there are many kinds of Daedric corruption, and a ritual to fix another kind might work on this too. Off to Morthal's summoning circle for a reworked version of the vampirism cure, and Miraak's unstained once more.

Lucien was along for the ride, for science of course, and is delighted Miraak's cured, but also a little sad.

"I suppose you'll be going unmasked more often. Everyone is going to want a piece of you now. Goodness, you're probably going to get suitors! I... oh."

Crestfallen Lucien, who's barely been away from the High King's side since the other Lucien went home... only when Miraak returned to Windhelm and Lucien stayed at Dumzbthar to research more, and they wrote constantly even then. Lucien had seen the stains, and like his counterpart, reacted with sympathy... and a cuddle. Miraak had immediately given him Hugging Privileges and Lucien had enjoyed being in the Inner Circle very much, even if it was blindingly obvious First Acolyte Lucien was definitely the handsomer, smarter and more accomplished of the two of them.

"He is that way because of my influence," Miraak had told him once, smiling at him. "Shall we see what I influence you towards?"

So far, other than long, lengthy discussions about Dwemer engineering, the Dragon Cult, and anything else Lucien had questions about, he wasn't sure exactly what that had entailed. But Miraak had seemed to enjoy keeping him close by and taking him with him when travelling. Mostly to mind the Dwemer machines but Lucien had sometimes wondered.

Regardless, Miraak had seemed to want to spend most of his free time with Lucien, and Lucien had loved the attention... except if Miraak got married, Lucien supposed the new queen might not want the Court Scientist showing up to talk her husband's ear off until the early hours of the morning.

He needn't have worried. Miraak saw all too clearly and asked gently if the idea of Miraak getting married to another and having no time left for Lucien bothered him. Lucien nodded sadly, and then Miraak smiled, leaned down and kissed him, fingers caressing his cheek.

"I already have an heir, and don't need marriage to cement alliances with three dragons at my disposal. In fact, the only power I would ally with that is not already in touch is the Empire to the south. Do you think they would listen if word reached them one of their young nobles was going to be my consort? Do you think your family have enough court influence to persuade the Emperor to be reasonable?"

"I'll ask," Lucien breathes, pink and tearful and oh goodness, the High King just kissed him and proposed. Which is all a bit too much, a LOT too much... but of course he wants to, he's spent months staring at the First Acolyte version of himself getting cosy with the High King and the two of them seeming quite happy together, with Lucien wishing he was even a tenth that cool. Apparently the High King seems to think he's halfway there already.

"This isn't just because the First Acolyte got away, is it" Lucien has to ask. Miraak shakes his head.

"No. He was never mine to have. I was always intrigued by him but I knew he was pledged to another version of me, and knew he'd be thinking of that other man the whole time. I enjoyed his company and friendship but never took him to bed. You though. You're not pledged to anyone. You could be mine. I have been thinking that even while he was still here, but was never sure if you felt the same. Until now."

Lucien isn't sure what to say to that, so settles for a hug instead, accepts the proposal on condition they take things slowly in the bedroom, to which Miraak actually agrees.

Peace talks happen. His mother's instrumental in the whole deal. A treaty and trade agreement eventually result, and peace comes to Tamriel at last. And of course, Lucien gets legally united with Miraak, and physically reunited with his cat.

[xstarkillerx]

✨ here and I had a whole discussion with my friends about Anakin and me being like “100% would love to handle this guy” and my friend was shocked as she could definitely not see Anakin as a sub. And it reaaaally got us heated like “no Anakin is definitely giving too energy” and me being like “I can’t imagine that sorry” and the thing you published about Anakin just giving his all while trying to hide his tears of frustration, I agree so so soooo much. Man is scared of his own attachment it just works perfectly

LMAOOOOOO, I love that y'all were debating about it. There are two wolves inside of every person, one wants to get absolutely railed by Anakin Skywalker, the other wants to make him cry. You guys could go back and forth on this debate forever, honestly. I do it every day.

Honestly, soooooo many versions of Anakin exist in my head, but I think the main one exists as this Christian grey type character (HEAR ME OUT, GIVE ME 2 MINUTES OK I SWEAR I CAN EXPLAIN).

Is Christian Grey a complex and well written character? Absolutely not, that entire series is dogshit, but the most interesting thing about him that I took away from those movies, is this admission of feeling like the weakest creature on earth.

mildly off the rails tangent below that I'm hoping no one thinks I'm fucking crazy for saying out loud. But sparkle anon, I think you more than anyone else will at least have a laugh about it so... CW for unhealthy BDSM practice mention, grooming mention, etc.

I was surprise to see that in that second movie, Christian actually admits that he's not a dominant, he's a sadist. NOT even in the BDSM sense of the term, which requires actual training, emotional, physical, and psychological awareness and care, but just a sadist in general. He's a very confused victim of grooming who gets off on hurting people who look like his mother. His first genuine act of emotional vulnerability with Anastasia, the first one that holds any real meaning to him, is getting on his knees and letting her violate a previously stated boundary (touching his chest), which is FUCKED UP but entirely telling of the values that were instilled in him when he was being groomed as a teenager, that love is submission, devotion is submission, and submission is self-destructive, which is horrible and I really empathize with that experience. He turns to this charade of dominance (and extremely unhealthy BDSM practice) as a rejection of his grooming but also as a way of expressing his pent up trauma that he refuses to address in a healthy way. However, when it comes time for him to show Ana who he is, be genuine with her, what does he do? He kneels, palms up, eyes to the floor.

The truth is, if he were able to find submission on his own, he would have a much better internal relationship with his submissive tendencies. (if I'm remembering correctly, I haven't seen the second film in ages)

So, how this connects to Anakin (in the way that I think and write about him) is that he probably sees things in the same way. For his own reasons (i.e. slavery, losing his mother, Palpatine's grooming), Anakin has problems relinquishing control, not just in a sexual sense but in a spiritual one too. He does not feel entirely comfortable giving things up to the will of the force.

So when it comes to you and the power you have over him, it completely tears him up inside to be at someone's mercy and it's something he clearly fights against when he's with you. Like, this isn't necessarily a sexy thought, but I almost picture him hating you sometimes because of it. Yet, how he expresses love for you, in his own fucked up little way, is to let you cross his boundaries and see hints of that submission. He lets you get on top, he lets you pull his hair, he lets you use his body, because he loves you and he loves it, he just can't help but feel conflicted and weak for how good he feels when you use him. So sometimes he fucks you rough with tears in his eyes crying and groaning in your ear about how much he fucking hates you, because his insides feel all twisted the fuck up.

Is this fucked up? probably, but I see it as being pretty aligned with his character.

ALSO SORRY FOR SUCH A LONG REPLY THAT PROBABLY MAKES NO SENSE, your asks always get my brain working, sparkle, dearest.