#I suppose I need a tag for that

[faejilly]

@rebelren requested the deeply complimentary if slightly broad "I WANT TO KNOW ALL YOUR RICKY/ESTHER THOUGHTS" and I have so many thoughts

let's see where I ramble, huh? There is no plan here? This is mostly just season 1 stuff because that's where I am in my very slow attempt at fic writing.

They very much have a Lois and Clark vibe to me and that is one of my foundational OTPs, so.

She's too smart and sharp for almost everyone else she's ever met but that is in fact what he likes about her. He's deeply impossibly committed to actually being nice and kind and doing the right thing ALL THE TIME without any ability to tell how that's even more unusual than his superpowers absurd good looks and physical abilities and she recognizes that about him.

Ricky is not subtle about his crush on Esther, but he is completely respectful about it. He texts her whenever he has a thought, but that's because he wants her thoughts back, not because he's trying to make her think about him, if that makes sense?

I spent most of the first campaign being very 'she likes him back?' but not sure if I really thought that based on anything she was doing, or I thought that was how the story was being built/structured and it was just gonna... happen. And I was honestly fine with that because Brennan and Zac have such good chemistry, plus the aforementioned respect in approaching the relationship, so I was just gonna take what I got and be happy about it.

BUT on a rewatch (or transcript re-read on the wiki) it becomes increasingly obvious surprisingly early that she is INCREDIBLY KEYED IN ON RICKY AT ALL TIMES and it makes me *pterodactyl screech* a lot A LOT A LOT:

See how quickly she responds to all his texts every time! In group settings even if she hasn't said anything lately she'll usually answer a Ricky-question before anyone else can! She legitimately seems to enjoy figuring out how to rephrase things she's said that were too academic for him to follow!

Like, she's not just humoring him, she is in fact interested in how his mind works and the way he feels his way around information whether or not he understands it in at all the way that she does.

Usually not, obviously, but that doesn't mean his perspective isn't valuable to her.

And also funny, sometimes entirely on purpose, which is again a Lois/Clark thing because Clark is absolutely a bit of a troll about making terrible Superman jokes for no one except himself and eventually also Lois, and Ricky and Esther give me the same "we're in this nonsense together" vibes whenever Zac managed an especially good dumb-but-hilarious-and-not-actually-stupid Ricky line.

I guess what I'm getting at there is that, even beyond the quality chemistry and adorkableness, they genuinely enjoy each other's company, yk? They like each other even when there's an invisible barrier that the audience (and Ricky) can only sort of tell is there that prevents a deeper relationship/understanding during s1.

There's a really good line in a fic, tenets of devotion by fensandmarshes: "[Ricky] took his Oath of Redemption to the world; he took Devotion to Esther, he thinks, no matter that that’s not really a thing." which is I think incredibly accurate and is a thing I am weak for, the conscious deliberate explicit choice to devote yourself to a person because they are perfect for you (even if you are completely aware of their supposed flaws and weaknesses and humanity at the same time). THEY'RE BOTH JUST SO COMMITTED Y'ALL, I'M LOVE THEM.

While I have no problem with inter-party romance and am deeply fond of battle couples and all that stuff, I do think it's important that Esther is not an active party member, and while incredibly competent at it, is not explicitly designed for combat in the same way the PCs are, because despite his skillset, Ricky is pretty damn conflict adverse personality-wise, so it's nice his partner is a research nerd and not usually a combatant.

Because Ricky never wanted a blade. He accepted the Questing Blade but he didn't choose it, it chose him. (Obviously his weapon-searching-arc in s2 makes me feral. Someday I will manage fic about it, hopefully?)

This is a recurring theme in TUC actually, that except for Cody who is definitely the other side of that coin on purpose (sorry not sorry) most of the PCs and their primary NPC friends/relatives/whatever did not go looking for magic or power, but DID accept the responsibility once it happened. (This adds a nice depth to their relationship, the fact that part of why they're careful getting together is that sense of responsibility, so I'm including it here even though it's more about the setting/campaigns rather than Ricky/Esther specifically.)

They have not even been on a date and her curse is broken and they are immediately "let's live a dangerous life together" aka they are my favorite kind of batshit, 100/10, no notes

(I mean, obviously I have a lot of notes. I have all these things I just wrote down, and a fic about the almost-year before s1, and one about the campaign itself from Esther's POV, and a thing about Ricky cataloguing all the ways he'd broken the tenets of his Paladin Devotion Oath as part of his transition to Redemption, and a thing that takes place between campaigns that is mostly smut and crying for probably obvious reasons, and a s2 epilogue mostly about the proposal, (not currently anything during s2 unlike Esther's POV for s1, but I suppose that might change if I ever figure out the stuff that takes place before it), and possibly an AU where the curse wasn't broken before the final battle so when Ricky dies, Esther falls, and an entirely different Curse Breaking Thing After That, so.

So many notes.)

[qiinamii]

new guy in the Express

bonus:

adding more to the whimsy

[strawbunnydoesart]

✨💫Quick WIP of @kianamaiart 's lil magical girl character! I literally love her design sm (her monotone and "I'm done with life" expressions are my favorite shdgjshaksjsj) ⭐️

It's a bit messy and I need to work on the contrast more so it's easier to read,, but I think the overall composition and colors are nice :)) I might work on it a bit more but ehhhhh what if I said I don't wanna

[gatorgrumbles]

For all my fellow Mr Gap simps

[ctrlzxoo]

ROUND 7: amongst a sea of green, is a glimpse of snow

Bonus: happy end(?)

[iwasbored777]

The guy at the bar: Are you two gonna fuck or fight?

Wade and Logan, few hours later:

[iizuumi]

whoever decided to give astarion a gun ily

[funkbun]

miss mitternacht fucking balling

she's bawling?? oh, no no. she's Ballin'

[the-meme-monarch]

sorry for having favorite characters that aren’t even actually in the game. they make me insane. this next one’s set way in the past they���re like older teens here⬇️

i’m thinking about their Past. chat is it fucking over for me. aromantic arthur and aromantic aplatonic delilah upon ye

also can you believe. that i had characters kiss and i’m asking you to not call it ship art. like i think it makes sense in context but it’s a little funny to me

[hrokkall]

Art trade with the lovely @pigswithwings! The goal was to emulate each other's styles

[umblrspectrum]

part 4 of a lot funnier in my head than on paper

[just-qonika]

"i really, loved the literature club."

id like to think after monikas "deleted" this is how it feels to look back on everything that happened; she has a guilty conscience once she realizes how far everything got taken, and how bad it really was.

ᵐᵒⁿⁱᵏᵃ ᵍᵉᵗˢ ˢᵒ ᵐⁱˢˢ ᶜʰᵃʳᵃᶜᵗᵉʳⁱᶻᵉᵈ ˢᵒᵐᵉᵗⁱᵐᵉˢ ⁱᵗ ᴴᵁᴿᵀˢ :⁽ ˢʰᵉˢ ⁿᵒᵗ ᵃⁿ ᵉᵛⁱˡ ʸᵃⁿᵈᵉʳᵉ

[14dayswithyou]

Give Redacted a kiss for me!!!

Do you have any dark/creepy headcanons for Redacted? I’m very curious ^^

✦゜ANSWERED: I know you asked for [REDACTED] specifically, but everything mentioned below could also apply to Ren as well ^^;

cw: mentions of gore, torture, (one line about) cannibalism, NSFW themes, and just general creepy behaviour

I'm sure most people already know about Ren's red room days, but for the newer folks: he used to livestream himself torturing his victims on the dark web. He would also harvest and sell their organs for extra cash.

His red room phase began after a group of upperclassmen started livestreaming themselves bullying people (Angel included) for attention online. If those teens wanted a taste of online fame that badly, Ren would be all too happy to give it to them — especially after he heard all the degrading things they said about Angel during their stream.

Ren has probably sniffed (licked???) Angel's underwear on multiple occasions lmao

He also keeps a bunch of their discarded cups, mugs, bottles, etc. — and on the days when he's feeling especially lonely — Ren likes to put his lips where Angel's would've been and treat it like it's an indirect kiss.

If Angel is fine with it, Ren would be more than willing to carve his name into their skin. He'd have to use an ample amount of his numbing cream though (typically reserved for when he gives himself tattoos and piercings), since he doesn't want them to be in any pain.

Similarly, he'd also be willing to carve their name into his skin as well — as many times as Angel would want. But he already has multiple tattoos of their name on his skin, so.... gksgsjj

I'm sure everyone already knows this, but Ren has an entire shrine dedicated to Angel. He keeps all his sentimental and stolen items there.

Ren genuinely has no empathy for anyone other than Angel, so if they were to ask him to murder his own mother (or his sister, his best friend, etc.) and bring back their heart, he'd do it with a smile on his face.

Because he has no empathy, Ren would probably enjoy watching snuff films like it's any other B-tier horror film. To him, it's just more research material on how he can get rid of his competition.

I've mentioned this in the past, but Ren has jacked off to the thought of Angel while in the library lol

I made a post back in 2022 that mentioned how Ren would willingly offer up any of his body parts to a cannibal!Angel, and I think the point still stands!!

He likes to put Angel's stolen laundry on his body pillow and rut into/hump it 😟

I once mentioned that Ren would slap a barcode sticker on his sledgehammer to make it look less... questionable whenever he carries it around in broad daylight — but alongside that, I think he'd also carry around some tools and an unopened can of paint to make it seem like he's just doing renovations. In reality, he'd probably force his victims to drink paint or gargle nails teehee

Builder AU except Ren mistook a body for plywood??? Why is he hammering so many nails into them?? Why is he feeding it into a wood chipper???

Builder AU except Ren gives Angel a different meaning to getting nailed and railed???????? Jackhammering???????? Getting screwed sideways????? KGJDSGNK It's 2AM I'm losing da plot now T_T I'll shut up

[reizerou-arts]

M🟣CHI M🟣CHI

[sugarfortia]

Survived the timeloops and all I got was this thing.

[cloudysarts]

this is what the book of bill was about right

(og image under the cut)