#I think that’s all whoof

[quenthel]

i have been replaying origins and honestly the armors in the game kind of suck so i tried to design/redesign some iconic fits for the companions based on concept art/the more charming elements of the armors in origins....

bonus: my wardens surana and brosca

[kirdoodl]

so in your relativity falls au did euclid and scalene burn down their dimension too? btw loving ur interpretation of the au SO much!!!

Thank you for the ask! And I'm glad you like this so far :D (if you want the short answer, yes, they did)

As for the long answer... In terms of Bill's backstory playing into my interpretation? I haven't figured it out yet, I have a couple of concepts but I'm not really interested in exploring that part of the narrative (even in gravity falls) as much as other parts and character relations 💔

I'd like to think that Bill or even the concept of him doesn't exist in this au, so the destruction of his home dimension wasn't at all connected to him, but maybe Scalene and Euclid still managed to cause a tear in their dimension by other means.

As far as I know in tbob the destruction itself is kept vague, and lemme tell ya I am NOT creative enough to fill in those gaps in a way that is satisfying, especially in this scenario, but...

My personal headcanon is 2 lesbian triangles find out about the concept of z by seeing something from a perspective that would be impossible to them and then accidentally exploding their universe.

Slams hand on table, there ya have it!

[zirconpetals]

I’ve never been... happy Wouldn’t that be nice? Is this the secret? Singing and dancing through life? Is my integrity worth anything at all?But happiness can’t come before its fall

[rukafais]

Reading pulp fantasy and understanding how it shaped the fantasy genre is extremely fascinating because its like "oh, that's why every Strong Female Character heroine of the 80s-90s fantasy boom was Like That, huh"

[the-insouciant-scientist]

Finally, after long last, I'm done! A character lineup for @the-dye-stained-socialite's fic Take a Bow, written during the Fallen London Fic Swap! I got very inspired by all the descriptions of characters and costumes and went uh. A little nuts. Can't say they're all accurate as historical stage costumes go, but I think they look cool as hell, so!

Characters and who they belong to under the cut! Because there's quite a few of them.

Jamie Awnings, @thedeafprophet

Elias Leroux, @the-dye-stained-socialite

Rook, @moonstruck-stormy

Irving Merritt and Harper Faraday, (me)

Jules, @thedandy-detective

Orsinio Elderwood, @house-of-mirrors

And finally,

The Ex-Disgraced Academic, @alexis-royce :-)

[realmikedirnt]

w's for the day:

Facen't

.... by which i mean i got the radiator assembly off of the mini on my own. got a couple other things off as well, and i've been keeping everything labelled and recording how things go together. recording and labelling is probably making it all take half again as long, but fuck me if it wont be good to have later.

my cousin helped me find + assemble the engine hoist and stand, which are both fuck off heavy as hell and were tucked in the back corner of one of the garage bays bc of course. it's so strange that he's 15 now.

my syllabus for enviro chem got posted !

annnd finally we found a fill for all of my raid days that i'll miss yippee

[echthr0s]

allegedly there's a storyline in here somewhere but right now I'm enjoying "Finally After Like Nine Years I Can Take High Definition Images Of My Boss" Simulator

[devilcroc]

hypnospace is a good game. i will never forget how dylan merchant made me feel when i beat it for the first time

[blackjackkent]

Ask prompt fill for @astreamofstars for this ask meme: Prompts for Ordinary Things That Feel Intimate Rasaad/Jaheira - [ carry ] after receiver falls asleep in an inconvenient place, sender carries them to a bed and tucks them in Set around 1400DR. This turned out to be mostly just a rambly sort of character exploration, but you'd expressed interest in hearing more of Rasaad's perspectives and I wanted to play around with exploring them, so here we are. :D Hope you enjoy!

-----

They call it the Night Stalk.

It is, Rasaad has always felt, a rather ominous term for a ritual which carries such meaning to so many Selunites. Then again, “night walk” sounds counterintuitively mundane, so perhaps there is no winning, in the end.

A pity it is not so simple a thing as either name suggests. He sighs, pacing slowly along the cobblestones, trying and failing to settle his thoughts.

It was easy once, of course, when he was young. In Calimport, the monks honored the full moon by meditative circuits around the wide courtyard at the monastery’s center, bathed in Selune’s light and lost in prayer to her radiance. As a boy, Rasaad looked forward to these nights - the crisp fresh air of the desert after sunset, and the goddess’s light binding them all together.

That was before everything fell apart. His brother's death. His vengeful quest for Alorgoth. The shattering apart of his brotherhood with the Sun Soul. For many years it became difficult to see himself as worthy even of prayer, let alone a more intense communion.

It's only in recent years that he has come back to the practice, cautious and uncertain. As much at Jaheira's urging as at his own will, he's started to watch for the full moon again on their journeys. It's simple enough on the road, at least, to wander away from camp into the darkness, just far enough that the light of the fire fades, and relinquish himself into the moonlight. 

And now I am here, he thinks ruefully, kicking at a pebble and watching it skitter along the battered cobble. Trying yet again, in yet another place.

This is his first stalk since he and Jaheira purchased the small house near Baldur’s Gate’s harbor. Even though they’ve now owned it for nearly a year, their stays here are intermittent at best and have never coincided with the full moon until tonight. And in spite of his anticipation, he's already finding that attempting to commune with Selune on a city street is a far different experience than in the dark of an empty forest. The light of the moon, full and bright as it is, is nevertheless dimmed and muted by the flaming and flickering lamps that line the street in front of the house. 

His eyes narrow in frustration and his step quickens, taking him around the corner and behind the house into the shadows. It’s slightly better there, shielded from the street; he relaxes, coming to a halt, and watches the silver light glint off the water of the small creek that runs down towards the shore. Better. For some minutes he simply stands there, unmoving, drawing slow breaths to the count of six as he was taught as a boy.

It's a strange business, this return to city life, more so than he expected. Jaheira’s work with the Harpers was bringing them to the Gate more and more often, and Rasaad initially thought himself pleased with the development. It would be nice, he felt, to have a place that was theirs, a place that was home. He will never return to Calimport, but it was home for many years of his life, and he has missed having an anchor point to which their journeys could be tethered.

But it has not been quite so simple in practice. He did not, perhaps, account for the way that coming to live in Baldur’s Gate, even for these intermittent periods, would touch much older and more primal memories. Cracked stone streets and the shouting of merchants, the smell of coal fires and the sea, and the furtive movements of rats and thieves and lonely children in the shadows. Such things recall to him his very earliest years before the Moonmaiden entered his life, and while the memories are not unpleasant, it leads to a… jumbling of his thoughts, a feeling of all the chapters of his life pressing in on him from behind.

All the more important to take these times for meditation. Slow breaths. One… two… three… four… five… six. 

Calm returns, and with it, the sense of Selune’s presence, undimmed by lamps or anything else. A soft hand on his shoulder - and a gentle chastisement for his irritation and strain. I should know better, after all I have seen, he thinks ruefully. Every place has its own challenges, and the moon follows everywhere, city or field or forest. A good reminder.

-----

His tension eases as he surrenders himself to the meditation. But even so, eventually he cannot hold himself still any longer. Solitude and contemplation do not come as easily to him as they once did. Not after all he has been through, and not with Jaheira waiting for him inside. 

He pushes open the back door of the house and steps inside, feeling the welcome warmth of the dying fire in the fireplace compared to the late fall chill outside. With a heavy breath out, he begins to trudge towards the stairs, shedding his outer robe and tossing it over the back of one of the kitchen chairs - and then halts, hearing the subtle sound of movement from the study.

“Jaheira?” he calls softly. He’d assumed she went to bed long since, but pushing open the study door, he finds his wife slumped in her chair, head resting on one arm on the desk. Her other hand is gripping a pen, which is slowly dripping ink onto the corner of a report of Harper activities in Waterdeep. Occasionally she twitches, scraping the nib of the pin against the desk, and mumbles a few inarticulate sounds.

Rasaad smiles. Moving to her side, he places a hand gently on her shoulder, and she stirs at once, a quick jerking motion like a frightened animal. Her eyes flutter half-open, and then, seeing Rasaad, she relaxes. “Hmmn…?” she says drowsily.

“You are up late,” he murmurs, rubbing his fingertips in slow circles over her back and shoulder.

She mumbles something else barely audible; he barely discerns the word “reports”. 

“They can keep till morning, surely,” he says. 

She doesn’t respond. 

He can guess at her thoughts; he knows her well enough by now that he does not need to force her to say them aloud. If Rasaad is perplexed by the re-entry into city life, Jaheira is a thousand times less comfortable. The house feels strange and dark, too new and too enclosed and too large all at once. She can rest here if he is beside her… but when he is not, the walls and the city rumble press on her too fiercely. She saw no point in lying alone, staring at the ceiling; better to work, to chip away at the neverending set of tasks she lays for herself, while he prowled the night outside.

“I am here now, my sun,” he says softly. “Shall we go to bed?” 

He runs his fingers through her hair, and she rolls her head into his touch. “Mmm,” she agrees sleepily. 

At this assent, he crouches down and lifts her carefully into his arms. “Come then,” he says, and dips his head to press a kiss to her temple.

Her eyes flicker more fully open as he begins to carry her up the stairs. “Mmph. You spoil me, foolish man,” she mumbles dryly, her voice still thick with sleep. “Take care I do not become too used to this…”

“Would that be a bad thing?” he murmurs.

She chuckles hoarsely, turning her head to press her face into his shoulder. “I will not have the city make a soft thing of me, Rasaad,” she says after a while, the words muffled into his shirt.

Ah. He pushes the bedroom door open and carries her inside - but does not take her to the bed, instead letting her down onto her feet so she stands pressed against him. At once she wraps her arms around his torso, turning her face now into his neck.

“I would not ask it of you,” he murmurs. 

As he folds his arms around her, he feels her start to relax into him, and there’s a long silence while he presses another slow kiss into her hair. Her embrace feels comfortable and familiar and safe. There are no questions here of faith or past failures or city smoke; there is just her and him.

“This is a strange place for us both, is it not?” he asks quietly after a while. 

“To put it mildly." She's coming more awake now, but doesn't pull away, her fingers fisting into the back of his tunic. "I am glad we will be on the road again before long. I cannot imagine what it would be like, to live in such a place unceasingly.”

“I did not turn out so badly for it,” he points out, raising an eyebrow with the flicker of a smile.

She snorts a low laugh against his shoulder. "Perhaps not." She pauses, shifts to settle more comfortably into him, and lifts her head to kiss his jaw. “I am glad you are here with me,” she adds in a low voice. “If this is to be our home.”

He’s quiet for a little while, then tucks his fingers under her chin to lift her face to his. “You are my home,” he answers. “This place is only a place that is ours.” 

She smiles at that, and he feels her relax fully against him. “Then what have I to complain of, hm?”

[waterbearable]

oops! every one is down bad for wink and I wasn't really trying😂

[scruncheduppaper]

to elaborate on this — i don’t think any ships within this chart really work without referring to the others or at least acknowledging them (with the exception of fiddlestan bc they havent actually met the way people portray them as in canon LOL)

starting from there, fiddlestan stands on the basis that fiddauthor existed, at least a very unrequited version of it — and to acknowledge fiddauthor means also to acknowledge billford and how that affected their relationship. billstan doesnt function without previous existence of billford, and billford is better when grounded by the existence of fiddauthor.

and also every single one of these relationships is painful LMFAO

i cant take it anymore i cant do maths anymore

[holographicbutch]

I have such a Talee'ah brainworm rn it's unreal. Any time I see a group of characters in media I imagine what she would be like in that group and in one-on-one interactions with them and it's really taking up way too much of my brain space

[triaelf9]

Just a lil post about Taash and how I'm feeling about how ppl are reacting to them as someone who relates to them very strongly not only on the gender journey front, but also on the mom-issues front.

Cut for length b/c of course this won't actually be a "little" post lol

So I hear a lot of "Taash is too young" "Taash acts like a child" "Taash is too brash" "Taash has wildly binary views of the world" "Taash is thinks their reality is the world's reality" etc etc etc

And I'm here to say that as someone who realized that non-binary was a thing later in life, grew up trying to be them, but society was not only unwelcoming to that, but openly hostile at points, with a mom who had totally different interests, who very much wanted to protect them from the outside world to a point where it left them unprepared to deal with nuances of the world, etc, a mom who thought they were "just doing their best" but was never meant to be a mom, and never wanted to be a mom, didn't have the tools for mom-hood, who wanted to protect their child, but had no real idea how, and how every comment turned into the mom trying to steer her kid the right way, but just came out as a dig or a "you're not good enough" remark, AND looking after your mom in a world that is wholly unsuited to her, that she can't really adapt to and fit into, and kinda becoming her mom to a point so that your life completely revolves around her until you leave home?

Yeah. I get Taash. It's actually kinda freaky how, fantasy elements aside, I get Taash on a frightening level. (aside from the dragon stuff, we're both the same with that HELL YEAH DRAGONS)

Taash doesn't read young to me because I've always read young because of how I was raised. I didn't get the chance to figure myself out until I left home. I also had the benefit of being able to leave for college at a younger age, and got a chance to experience things away from my mom earlier. But seeing things in such a binary way, that's how it is when you're protected like that.

You don't want to admit how similar you are to how your mom sees the world, b/c she sees it in one way, and as you go through life, you get to learn differently. You come out of this situation INCREDIBLY judgmental at first. Why aren't THESE things conforming to MY reality. You come across as brash and childish. And when you get treated as such, it's triggering b/c that's how your mom treats you.

You hate how you look, you think you look like a freak b/c your mom is constantly commenting on your appearance. She does it out of love (she wants you to be healthy & not mocked by your peers) but she doesn't consider that constantly telling you not to look a certain way does damage. My self confidence only recovered in my thirties. I'm 4 days from my 38th birthday, and it took getting pregnant to finally be like "you know what, I don't hate myself & my body" which is MASSIVE for me.

So where do we get our self confidence? In things we enjoy, in hyperfocuses that we're good at. For me that's comics, naginata, fantasy & DA lore lol XD For Taash it's dragons, fighting, and working out. And when we falter there, it's devastating b/c it's the only way we can feel good about ourselves b/c our SELVES are disconnected and tucked away b/c they make us feel bad.

So I totally get how Taash reads to people. The autism aspects are more like my wife (who is autistic & has issues with social cues, while I'm HYPER AWARE of social stuff which fuels my anxiety b/c of the type of person my mom was and how I had to look after her), but I get it.

But it makes me sad when I hear people dunk on Taash as "bad writing" and "unrealistic" and "annoying" and it's like...is that how you see people like that? Is that how you see me and people like my wife? I feel like people aren't willing to look deeper so often (an issue with all the companions tbh & some day I'll have to get into my Davrin feels b/c BOY do I have them. Neve too, WHOOF) but I feel like if you do that in a game, I hope you don't do that irl.

anyway TLDR this is a Taash defense post b/c while they have a lot of issues, stuff they need to work out & have wrong opinions on stuff, they're growing, they're learning & they have to do it later than most. They're an incredibly complicated character with tons of nuance, and I can't wait to get deeper into their story and banter with companions in round 2 of my playthroughs, and then again in round 3

Sorry this is too long, and I'm sure not all of this was intended when they were written, but this is how it all clicked with me as someone who has lived a large portion of that stuff. Like, again, I'm nearly fucking FOURTY and I don't feel like I should be there yet b/c I started so far back. It ALSO doesn't help that ADHD wild child I was, I was held back in preschool b/c neurodivergence also makes a kid read younger, AND the choice to have me be the youngest in the class would have been a very bad one. So I'm older than most of my peers BUT I've always read younger, felt younger, and have had a sore spot when it comes to all that.

Thank you for coming to my Taash Talk, I'll be here all week to think about more stuff, including how their body makes them read as lady, and they're not sure how to feel about that, but they don't want to CHANGE it, but is it right?

ANYWHO this is why Taash is a fascinating character & deserves better than to be regulated to "annoying kid"

[robolvrr]

Tf1 D-16 and Tf1 Megatron with a femme cybertronian reader that was his idol (and crush) in Iacon? Readers like let’s just say a queen in Iacon👍 Thank you!

phoenix, sing your song! ✧⁠*๑ 🎤

d-16/megatron x femme!cybertronian idol.

gladly! took some liberties. mild suggestive under the cut.

d-16

"heh heh. does dee have a crush?"

"wh— you know what pax. i'm not even gonna entertain that question with a response."

"lotta words for 'yes i wanna smooch on phoenix's tailpipes' -- whoof, OW!"

you know how d-16 worships his idols. which there aren't many but entertainment culture is actually very encouraged in iacon. except for the cogged, this is simply as it's stated -- enrichment. for the cogless? it's escapism and a source of motivation.

there's sentinel prime, of course. and megatronus, though the whole mining barracks knows that. however... there is also you. phoenix, sweetest vocals this side of the planet.

jazz was actually the one who got him into your music. orion isn't the only mech that frequently sneaks up to indulge in city life. he's just the one that usually gets caught and brags about it.

jazz managed to drag him to the farthest, farthest corner of an open venue for one of your shows. had to climb buildings and balance on a ledge just to view from above the concert space and the thousand of mechs crowded below. you're cogged and while he really doesn't pay too much mind to them outside of when the race occurs, he thinks you're... very, very pleasant to look like.

you got ruby plating and your chrome is sparkling.

there's lightning gold accents trim at your door-panel wings and your eyes look a lot like his. hazy, orange and bright with an energy he wants to cup in his servos.

entire time you sing your spark out he's sitting still. (actually, he's vibrating.) jazz has a lazy smile on his dermas and asks him if he wants to score some merch once the guards clear out.

after that evening? he shuffles his megatronus posters and stickers around his humble locker and plasters your face there in the space near his mirror. almost looks like you're smiling at him.

at first he tried his best to learn more about you. jazz jokes that he's accidentally created some superfan monster.

like, did you know that you were actually originally an bellhop? he can't imagine you fluttering after mechs with their luggage, but once upon a time you did.

there was a club in the hotel you worked in - angellite.

past bio and autobiodatas tell about how you worked your way up through the ranks before finally scoring a spot to getting to a microphone.

the rest? history.

so you're pretty, talented, pretty, hardworking -- did he mention pretty too?

jazz doesn't always accompany but d-16 starts to sneak out frequently when he isn't buried in work to any and every event he can.

meet and greet? you can bet he used all his rations to bribe a mech to bribe another mech to bribe the announcer to get his questions up to you.

there isn't an action, though he takes the "prime gossip" catalogues not as seriously, he isn't aware of regarding you.

"this one's out to the brave miners who keep this city living. half proceeds will be going to better recharge and work conditions and equipment. i love you iacon!"

that show had caused a lot of drama. he thought your unmoving support and genuine want to connect with all of your fans for the better of the city to be super inspiring.

there's rumors of you visiting the mines, shortly before the iacon 5000. he will call a million cycles off if it meant getting to see you, not yearning through pictures and recordings and miles of distance.

hums your songs under his breath when he works.

orion does not shut up about it. he enjoys your music too but mostly is happy d-16 is happy. though he does joke that he clearly has a type.

megatron

"no more hiding. no more deceit. stand with me, or fall with everything!"

you recall the fall of iacon with stunned melancholy. there isn't the time of forever to process what went down that fatal day.

the support meet in the mining sectors had been cancelled after the race. you were just as inspired by the rowdy pair that had flung themselves into the danger of an event that was never built for them to participate.

it hurt, to hear they had passed away. sentinel had given a grand speech and his condolences even while on the surface.

he had his loyal femme reach out personally. airachnid coldly informed that the death of the miners had momentarily halted the energon collection.

you were rigid when she suggested you perform. a modest showing of mourning, personally scribed to the miners and their fellow workers.

"this should motivate them", she had whispered. ""it's what they would have wanted."

what a nuke in your lap to find out quickly that had been a lie. all of it had. and you felt sick.

had any of your income, any of your efforts, even gone to your largest supporters? had you just been showboated around to be a. shiny little dream? keep the common mech in wanting?

before you could even figure out how to react, a silver mech towered over many and ripped the very thorn from your side clean in half.

his coolant sprayed all over. you had never seen a mech... die before. and sentinel was far from just that. he may have been a false one, but he was a prime.

you fixed your optics and zoomed in. megatron, the beast has yelled. megatron is my name.

then the buildings started to crash. the city crumbled as chaos threatened to envelop it. you had damaged your pedes and tangled your legs in rubble but even your own pain is not loud enough to pierce through the frightened masses. you're scared and angry and confused.

when the dust settles, you can't even vent yourself to comfort. larger arms yank your mangled chassis free and suddenly you're flying, shrieking as dozens follow. you watch iacon get smaller and smaller and when you finally stop twitching, weakly gaze at the head of formation.

a oiled tank, bursting through rock like pit on wheels.

your processors offline after that. you just recall floating, smoky oil and rage.

d-16

"the queen of iacon. that sounds nice."

i like to think that miners in particular rarely have the time to blow off too much steam. seriously. the captains and proctors make sure they work every klik of their shifts.

during recharge? well, that's a different story. the barracks are intimate but most don't actually worry about being a prude.

d-16 is constantly stressed. orion is on his hip nearly all the time so he enjoys slipping away to the shower stalls in his lonesome after grueling mining and just.. sit.

when he sits, his processors wander.

lately? they like to circle around you. you're not like sentinel prime or megatronus. you are tangible. he gets closer and closer to your radiance the more bold he gets.

his crush is wholesome and if not somewhat obsessive. like a hyperfixation. he doesn't mean to stare at your figures but you're just so cute.

your voice is a powerhouse too. he has wondered after quiet, whiny moments if your praise is just as poetic.

loves, loves your frame. it's flawless. jealousy doesn't grip his spark like it occasionally does weaving through the crowded city during daylight. he has to dunk his head in hot oil when he thinks about that lethargic grin and your helm speckled in rock and dust at his side.

has made one, deleted ahem... tribute video to you.

megatron

"go on. sing, songbird."

you were taken insurrection day by one of the seekers nearly torn apart.

much of your memory bank was corrupted. at least, that is what the doctor told you.

you aren't very trusting of his words. his attention is an extension of his master's, which leaves little time for you to plan escapes or hide from the inevitable.

megatron has been emptied, carved up and resurrected as a troubled, stubborn force of nature. he clearly is able to sift positive bonds aside as the sticky, hot upset he's toiled with overpowers them all.

however, you and him? never ended in bad terms. and that is the problem.

you're alarmed to learn he was the very miner that was pronounced dead to all of iacon. he speaks low and measured and you try your best to read him, because he's on the precipice of snapping what seems to be all the time.

the base of the newly birthed decepticons is quiet. you don't belong. the brand on your chassis doesn't belong.

he's still clinging to you. behind the heavy-duty doors of his berth, he tosses and turns in his rest, plagued with his actions.

his servos barely pleasure. though you sit heavy on his glossa as he lets those weapons of destruction give him a moments peace.

megatron isn't as manipulative and conniving as he comes to be later down the road. he still visits you though and you begin to feel guilty.

if you plan on being affectionate to gain your freedom it's a mistake.

suddenly, you're thrust into his arms. he scratches your paint. he's saying nasty, awful prayers in your audials and squeezing every saccharine lilt hungry.

"keep going... keep. hn. singing."

robolvrr 2024.

[lynxgriffin]

Umm, unfortunately I feel like my answers to most of these might be kinda mean, and I feel bad about that even if it's my honest thoughts, so I'm going to put them under a cut. Sorry guys. :[

You're not the only one to have this idea; I've seen it out and about quite a bit. And I'm sorry, but to be completely honest, I really dislike it (even moreso than Kris Knight), and I'm honestly kind of baffled that it's as popular as it is. We're supposed to be building this tension of the primary antagonist in the game...their actions could destroy the world! What are their motives? Can they be stopped?? And then just turning around and going "actually a central antagonist doesn't exist and it's just a bunch of random people who all happen to be doing the same actions for different reasons" just completely kills any tension the idea has. It feels like it just drastically lowers the stakes here. Who made the first two fountains? Well, if they're not making more and their actions aren't going to develop further, why would it matter? Again, plenty of people out there seem to be really into this idea! I am just definitely not one of them.

It's bad. Maybe it's just a joke one, but if so, the joke's going over my head. Honestly I'm of a mind that (at least in the normal route), no one is going to die, or has been dead the whole time. I'm even skeptical of Rudy dying!

Whoof. I definitely don't want to police what other people are doing in the fandom to have fun, because having fun is what it's all about! But just for myself, I had to stop watching his videos, because I reached a breaking point of "oh this guy does NOT know what he's talking about and I'm not enjoying these any more." It's really kind of a shame, because I think he's really good at gathering lots of bits of evidence that might be forgotten and extrapolating from it! But his understanding of DR's characterization and themes is, in contrast, so off-base, and the staunch belief that Deltarune is just Undertale's story told over again causes problems for all of his over-arching theories. The craziest thing is, one of his biggest ones, Oberon Smog...I actually agree with!!! I think there's good evidence that Gerson Knight is possible and would fit both logistically and thematically! But one of the reasons why I went ahead and made Mightier Than The Sword was because I wanted to present some kind of alternative take on Gerson Knight from Oberon Smog. The concept as he presents it gets tripped up, again, on mischaracterization, and the assumption that this is just Undertale again. But it could work!! Anyways...yeah I guess my thoughts are complicated.

Uhhh...is it that popular?? I would not really have expected that, since it is a crack theory! The evidence for it is scant, I just thought it would be a neat story beat! I don't know if I've really heard folks talk about it much outside of the comics I did for it, but maybe I'm not paying close enough attention.

[graveyardparade]

sorry I'm aroace riz gukgak posting again... but I've been mulling over how well-founded and grounded Riz's fears are as an aroace person in a society (and I would argue, in this incredibly shipping-heavy universe itself) that is actively hostile against people like him. He sees over and over again how others prioritize and centre romantic relationships above all others in both his peers and in parental figures in that there really is no adequate model for what it means to be single and happy.

More specifically, I'm thinking back to the Nightmare Forest and what a harsh blow it is to be told that he'll never be like the parents he clearly worships -- but I think a part of him also fears winding up like Sklonda herself! For over half of Riz's life, he's only known his mother as a single parent and what it looks like to be forced into self-sufficiency esp as a racial minority, burning the candle at both ends, working her ass off, and barely able to make ends meet as it is. Sklonda is a great mother, but we know Riz was by necessity a latchkey kid and Sklonda wasn't able to hide the more difficult parts of single parenthood from him: how tired she was, how thankless the work was, and how little time she had to spend on taking care of herself when societally and financially, being a single person is hard. She had at least the memory of a great love and Riz herself to work so tirelessly for, but what does it mean to have work as your love language if there's nobody there to receive it? Yes, Sklonda probably has friends, but at the end of the day and in her dark, quiet moments, Riz has seen her left alone, failed by both fate and the structure she spent her life working for. In contrast, we see the comfort that Sandra Lynn and Jawbone live in, the cozy suburbs of the Applebees, the cheerful (and very horny) Thistlesprings, all living in the comfort of having a companion to rely on at the end of the day, or to be there to catch them when they inevitably fall.

The only structures he's seen are that which prioritizes romantic love as your true partner and your first priority, and he grew up seeing what life is like when that safety net falls away. The big difference is that the life Riz sees himself facing down in his weak moments is not life when the safety net falls away, but life when you never had that safety net to begin with. And for a kid who already spent most of his life societally ostracized, financially unstable, and alone -- that's a very, very scary thing. (editing to add, and this makes this even less coherent than it already is: there's something to Gilear's rock bottom being the exact same apartment building Riz has lived in his entire life, and Gilear's ability to pull himself out of that physical situation is solely through entering a romantic relationship with (the admittedly shitty) Hallariel. Whoof.)