#I think this is more or less a dragon at least

[scribeofmorpheus]

I hate how LLMs have made it very untrustworthy to regard what one comes across as genuine craft anymore. i know artists are struggling big time with scrapping. I even wrote a paper on how openai was scrapping ao3 based on their early story prompt structures reading like a lot of popular fanfics i'd read before.

i was actually so paranoid that i locked most of my fics on ao3. sometimes i roll back the lock when i work on a fic again, but i usually lock em back up again after a while. scrapping is abhorent and i hate how much ai has shifted digital art paradigms and is now seeping into fandom culture.

I will say that i do find the "nonsense description" portion of this post a bit hard to align with. I'll get into it below the cut. but this is purely discursive, I'm not condemning or abstaining (I'm on op's side here), I'm just pointing out some factoids of my own for perspective!

here it is:

""her nimble fingers worked with quiet precision" (ct. 1), "his grip firm but tender" (ct. 33), "her gown pooling around her like embers" (ct. 1)."

See, I write like this, becuase i was trained in poetry first and then moved on to prose later. i use imagery, i use atmospherics, i use sensation in place of actual telegraphed motion or action that one expects of an action alone--it flows better, sounds sweeter and sometimes, yes, nimble fingers can move with quiet precision (not quiet as in "sound" but as in "understated", as in "draws little attention to the movement"). Firm but tender is another of my favourites--juxtaposition, contrast between the outward seen and felt execution of the action and the internalised, more personal mode of emotion conveyed so as to angle how we broach the situation. "firm but tender" is assuring, it's safe. "firm and rough" is more edged, and since we're left with little assumption of the setting and intent of such action, we cannot tell if the action and the emotions align--if its sexual, is it also consensual? if it's violent, is it because of haste to act, fear, annoyance, etc, etc. now "pooling like embers" is odd. embers spark and bristle and fly and catch things on fire, they disperse and scatter, never hold a body of matter congealed enough to pool. pooling like unfurled flame from dragon's breath? yeah, now that works! especially if it's a magic setting.

all this to say, ai is making it exceeding harder to prove craft is genuine if you work outside structural modes one can fact check. if you try to be more experimental, there's high chance you'll end up like me, and chip away at rigid writing structure in order to form your own voice. repetition and favoured descriptions is also a known trait of writers. one of my fav fanfic writers back in the day used to love "hard" after a pause. like: "he slammed the door, hard." or "his kiss pressed deep into me, hard." and it was noticeable and i loved seeing they had a tell.

though, i do agree that one of the things that need the least repetition in fiction is hair colour. but even published books like to remind readers of physical traits id it's something the author is so beguiled by. poor writing, but writing none the less.

i did suspect something was off with TSATS because of how fast the updates rolled. because damn! 23k word update after a 13k word update with less than 48 hrs between? crazy if true. but alas, i don't think i have it in me to be disappointed if i go seeking and do indeed find a pattern that proves LLM usage.

but to all my fic writers that take like half a day to write 3 pages and the other half procrastinating, if you (like me) got notified of all the updates and wondered if you weren't "productive" enough, you are not making a product, these are labours of love, keep at it, at your own pace, with your own skill, the process is the process!

we need to talk about The Silence and The Song

as per my last post, i have received a lot of encouragement to go public with this, and the more disappointed people i have in my dms, the angrier i get. so i will.

the silence and the song is an ancient arlathan au DA fic on ao3 by luxannaslut, and it is partly, if not entirely, written by an ai. i have no wish to be involved in any kind of fandom drama or witch hunting or bullying, but as a writer myself there are few things that piss me off more than watching people steal the work of others because they can't be fucked to write. it's disrespectful to your fellow writers, it's disrespectful to your readers, and it's disrespectful to the authors of the works the ai is stealing from.

ai is a plague that has no business being in creative spaces and you must do better.

the writing pattern

there was something very odd and monotone about the sentence structure of tsats that i couldn't quite place, so i fed chatgpt a prompt along the lines of "two people in a fantasy novel hate each other, but they secretly desire one another, and they kiss", and the screenshots above are the results. the third one is an excerpt from chapter 40 of tsats. the writing pattern is identical and it doesn't seem like the "writer" has even bothered to pretend they wrote it. if you're going to use ai, at least be sneaky about it. you know, paraphrase a little.

nonsense descriptions

"her nimble fingers worked with quiet precision" (ct. 1), "his grip firm but tender" (ct. 33), "her gown pooling around her like embers" (ct. 1).

fingers don't make sound, so what does quiet precision mean? as opposed to what? her joints cracking with every movement? how is a grip firm but tender? what does that mean? since when do embers pool?

the entire fic is littered with these adjectives that contradict each other or just straight up do not make sense, because all an ai does is generate descriptive language with no understanding of what the words it's spitting out actually mean. i could spend hours picking out examples from the seven billion pages worth of text, but i quite frankly have better things to do and would simply challenge you to try getting through a chapter or two without noticing the pattern.

repetition at structure-level

all the scenes in this fic are described in pretty much the same way. they open with purple prose vomit of the surroundings; solas is standing somewhere looking "unreadable as ever"; ellana's fiery golden molten fire copper ember ginger red hair is flowing this and that way; there's some dialogue with whoever is present and it leaves ellana feeling different variations of "something she couldn't name". this is, once again, a blatantly obvious sign of ai. below is the result of me feeding chatgpt the line "write me a scene from a fantasy novel where a woman with red hair is sitting on the ground in a magical garden at night", and side by side with that is the opening scene of the fic. make your own judgement.

repetition at word-level

this one speaks for itself. we fucking get it. her dress is orange, her hair is red, mythal's presence is heavy in the room, solas looks unreadable, compassion is sitting on her head like a crown, solas' ears are betraying him and ellana's move with every thought she thinks. we get it. the issue here is that an ai remembers the info you feed it, but not necessarily the info it shits out. if it's being told to write scene after scene of an elven woman with a gown that looks like fire doing xyz, it's going to do so with no regard for how many times the reader has already been informed of these details.

lastly: the breakneck speed

359,6k words in four weeks by a person who allegedly is employed and married and hasn't pre-written anything? no. any writer will tell you that this simply isn't possible. it absolutely infuriates me to see how much praise this "writer" gets for posting up to three full chapters in a day without anyone calling bullshit. i am pulling out my hair, you guys.

why i'm not going to live and let live this one

perhaps i would be less angry if the fic was some silly bullshit court intrigue Y/A stuff, but this is a text that handles very heavy and triggering topics such as SA, coercion, domestic abuse, and other things of the same vein. to sit back and put your feet up while having a robot write these extremely sensitive and very real human experiences with words it has stolen from texts written by actual persons is fucking heinous. the "writer" should be deeply ashamed of themselves and i'm sick and tired of watching people eat up their bs.

and on that note: the amount of people in my dm's telling me that they feel stupid and naive for not clocking this has infuriated me more than anything else. you're not foolish for this. being fed ai-generated bullshit is not what is supposed to happen on any creative platform and much less a fandom-centred one, so of course no one approaches a fic through that lens. fandom and fic writing is supposed to be about passion and the only person in this situation who needs to do better and change their behaviour is luxannaslut. polluting our creative spaces, wasting the time of your readers, and minimising the effort of actual writers who are working hard to provide content for us all to share and enjoy is vile and so, so lazy. i beg of you: do better.

[utarinho-bonjour]

my tsats 2 expectations!

Nico looking healthier: At the end of tsats1 we see him thinking "how could i not eat when it gives so much pleasure?" or smt like that. I can see him improving significantly his eating habits and at least gaining a bit of muscular mass (is that how we put it?), which will make him more powerful, since normally eating a grape a day might reduce your necromancy powers.

Nico being cute: we can absolutely expect that he will be insufferable next to will in this book. Like, he was already being the cringiest nerd ever at the first book, where he still had a LOT of emotional limitations, he wouldnt let go of will, always touching him and showing absurd amounts of affection through his touch. We can expect him being a little shit even more now that he seems to be getting more and more comfortable with wills touch.

TEENAGER COCOA PUFFS: (god i love this one). I think it could be something like: the more nico grows comfortable with aspects of his trauma, the more the cocoa puffs grow. The more he accepts and deals with shame, the more the little ball of darkness grows until it actually evolves as something with a physical form. I remember seeing something about the cocoapuffs taking animal forms as they grow and i LOVE this concept. Imagine some monster or deity trying to taunt nico with shame or envy and this teenager sized bear shows up from the darkness. God, i cant, nico is the coolest character EVER.

COCOA PUFFS: i like the concept of them also growing independet, as much as the idea of some little balls of darkness following nico is very dear to me, i also like the idea of them exploring the world or evolving as creatures too. They would be independent creatures but as an extention of nico, they have their own personalities, connected with their respective trauma but you can see the action part being similar to nicos.

COCOA PERSONALITIES: Shame being shy but when cornered they get angry and defensive. Envy being full of pride and "comunicative" but when triggered they get quiet and cold.

NICO GETTING HADES' BLESSING: i think one of the things most of the nico stans have in common is an absurd love for his demonstrations of power 🙂‍↕️. The thing with hades' blessing is: we dont know what it is, up to this point we havent seen anyone get it and deal with it yet, which is very cool because we can overpower it on our heads 🤭! I THINK, the hades blessing would act to counter the biggest weakness of most (ig) children of hades, it would waste way less energy. Of course it would seem sick, like making nico actually look and perform as a creature of the underworld, him getting horns, maybe? nico getting black eyes? his skin turning grey? his hair turning white? nico having less form? being completelly engulfed by shadows? God i loooove fanservice, lets go rick and mark yall have one job, and it is to make nico look like a dragon ball transformation, so we can look at it and think "sick". I like to think that his fighting style at this state merges with his powers, going for a kick at his oponents head then suddenly apearing behind them? sick. stealing the life of his oponents? killing them while healing himself from it? sick. getting shadows with venon around him? absolutely sick.

NICO BEING GOOD AT GAMES: i love gamer nico. It matches his personality soo well. That is like the best remedy to insomnia, right? Im not really a gamer myself aside from competitive online games, and i cant really imagine nico playing league (ew), but i could see him ending resident evil 7 in a night. Playing tomb raider? yes! I could see him playing most adventure, suspense and horror games, and the thing is: bitch can play the most gut wrenching games with the scariest jump scares EVER, and he wouldnt even flinch. on the other side, him getting easily scared by anything on this games would also be super funny. Bitch screaming like a prey runing from a lion while playing dbd. He went to tartarus and is dissolving by a jumpscare? funniest concept ever.

NICO LOOKING HANDSOME: and way more intimidating. With some sun, actually being happy for once, better eating habits and accepting himself i think he would look quite good. I see him now with very black hair and very black doe eyes, a full mouth and a very straight and a bit too big nose, a bony face shape and a little bit of eyebags. I like to think he still has these features but his face is really symetrical and his skin makes him look like a doll, his lips and beautifull but his eyes, even though they look beautiful, the look is haunting, and make you need to look away. He looks like he's reading your mind, but he also looks so handsome you want to keep looking. I think he has long lashes too, and his scar only makes him more intimidating, it is the only not symetrical thing on his face and it makes him stand out. He has a cold look in his eyes, you never know what he is thinking (aside from will that reads him like a book), and the fact that he is constantly getting healthier and more handsome is very haunting.

NICO ACCEPTING HIS GOOD PARTS AND WILL ACCEPTING HIS BAD PARTS: I think this one is my favorite so far, Nico being able to sustain himself in a fight, stealing life from oponents (i loooove this one), or simply learning how to heal because he understands that death and life are the same thing. While Will understands that not all lives are meant to be saved, and to save more lives it might take some difficult choices like not saving others. It might make him get the hability of necrosing things just like nico, or (like canon) giving diseases just like he heals.

thats it for now! english is not my first language! be kind.

[clarisse0o]

The Mayor - Chapter 7

Lucy Bronze x Ona Batlle

Alternate Universe: Mayor and Architect

Words: 1000

Masterlist

———————————————————————

"Look on the bright side: it could have been a glass of Cuba Libre or red wine... Mojito stains so much less!"

Alessia’s comment made me smile. I was now in her room, curled up in her arms, seeking comfort to erase the memory of that disastrous evening.

“What a nightmare. Why did he drink so much? He was fine an hour before!”

“He ran into an old friend, and I’m sure they reminisced over countless cocktails.”

She was laughing now, that laugh I loved so much.

“You know it’s not funny for me! Tomorrow, well technically today since it’s already 2 a.m., I’m supposed to meet her. I’ll have to apologize, grovel even, and just thinking about it makes me want to cry!”

I pouted. She leaned in, kissed me, and set about making me forget that night in her own way.

The next morning, I arrived at the office at 10 a.m. My morning mission was simple: tidying up. The second was dealing with my hangover and relentless headache. Our two interns were already at work, and Alexia arrived shortly after, with pastries and the newspaper under her arm.

“Good morning, you! I brought breakfast! We’re in the local paper!” she announced cheerfully.

I’d already seen the article, complete with a photo of us with Lucy. The final paragraph mentioned the incident but omitted any details about the argument or the mojito.

“Yeah, and about the ‘incident’... She’s going to be thrilled,” I said sarcastically.

“Do you think she’s mad at us?”

“Oh, of course not. I’m sure she loved being called names with a mojito splashed in her face!” I replied, dripping with irony.

“I mean, it was Philippe who messed up. I spoke to him this morning, and he was really embarrassed. He couldn’t reach you…”

“I have no desire to speak with him today! Seriously! I’m supposed to see her soon. I already sent her a huge apology email, tried calling—no answer. Her only response was an email, no greeting or anything: ‘The meeting stands.’ So, Philippe’s regrets are the least of my worries!” I replied, exasperated.

I was more nervous than ever about the meeting tonight. Alexia tried to lighten the mood by teasing me.

“Well, Miss Cocktail Bar Idea, this one’s on you! Own it!” she said, winking.

“Oh, and the whole idea of having the Mayor come was yours! And yet, it’s me who has to bear the consequences tonight!”

It was nearly 7:30 p.m., and I was running late. But since she was always late... I wore my dark sunglasses, still nursing my headache. The day felt endless: cleaning up, paperwork, and now this meeting. I just wanted it to be over. 

When I got near the house, of course, this time she was punctual, waiting by the door. I took a deep breath and plastered on my best smile. She watched me approach with a dark look, arms crossed, colder than ever—a far cry from how she’d been just 24 hours ago on the terrace. Back to square one. The dragon had returned. 

With my most convincing smile, I greeted her.

“Good evening.”

She responded icily, offering only a handshake. I had to address last night’s events now.

“Listen, about last night, I...”

“I don’t want to talk about it, or about your idiotic drunk friend, or about being publicly insulted and covered in mojito, or the fact that you didn’t warn me he’d be there, knowing how things stand between us.”

Her words came out in a torrent.

“Okay, I’m sorry. I probably should have warned you. But it wasn’t certain he’d be there, and besides, you see him regularly at city council meetings without any issues. Last night, the alcohol got the better of him. I know he’s truly sorry and...”

She cut me off again.

“Of course you should have warned me! You only cared about the publicity you’d get from my presence!”

I tried to keep my calm.

“Honestly, you were invited as a client, not as the Mayor. Yes, your being the Mayor brings journalists, but it’s not because…”

“Don’t patronize me! You’re a little manipulator who can’t even manage her drunk friends!”

I was boiling inside. Her eyes, so gentle yesterday, were now weapons piercing through me.

“Alright, I’d like to see the progress on the renovations now, if it’s not too much to ask!”

The rest of the meeting was filled with a heavy tension. She was critical, nitpicking everything and nothing—about the size of certain tiles, the wallpaper, the dimensions of specific rooms... I was tired, exhausted from lack of sleep, from this relentless headache, and from her constant jabs. I just wanted this endless day to be over. I stopped listening.

“Ona! Are you even listening to me?”

In a very polite, distant tone, I replied.

“Excuse me. I don’t think this is going to work anymore.”

She seemed taken aback by my reaction. I continued.

“I understand that after last night, you’re upset. But I think every time you see me, you’ll be reminded of all of this. We can’t keep working together. All the plans are done; I can pass the project on to a colleague I trust. She’s excellent. This won’t cost you anything, and I’ll even cover the new tiles as compensation.”

I said it matter-of-factly. Alexia would probably kill me. But I was at my limit. I was done with this back-and-forth, this constant game of tension and provocation. She looked utterly shocked. I pulled out a paper, offering it to her.

“Here’s her website so you can see her work. I’ll handle all the arrangements and the handover.”

“But I didn’t ask you to leave!”

Her brows were furrowed, concern showing for the first time.

“No, but honestly, that’s the message you’re sending with how you’re treating me. I’m not blaming you. I think you’d be more comfortable with someone else, and since Alexia isn’t available, I suggest this. I’ll get back to you this weekend; my colleague will call you shortly. The work will continue smoothly, no issues. Have a good evening, Madame Bronze.”

I turned to leave, but then I felt a firm grip on my right arm, pulling me back. 

“Don’t go, Ona. I want you to stay.”

Her expression had softened.

[chronurgy]

Taking a look at Dragon Age sales figures -

Origins - 3.2 million copies sold (as of Feb 2010, about 4 months after its launch)

Two - 2 million copies sold (as of two months after launch)

Inquisition - over 12 million copies sold (10 years post-release, unfortunately I can't find a more comparable time frame for sales)

Veilguard - 1.5 million "players reached" (about 3 months post-release, expectation for 3 million copies sold, unclear definition of players reached)

Awhile ago, when the generally positive critical reviews for veilguard came out, I said I was pretty sure bioware would be fine and would make it long enough to at least produce mass effect 5. Now, looking at these stats, I'm not so sure. Dragon age 2 was generally treated as a bit of a commercial flop for bioware, so seeing veilguard undersell it by a minimum of half a million units is not encouraging. Especially when it undersold ea's expectations for it by at least half. And I don't think ea's expectations were unreasonable! Three million in sales would put it in between the first two games and well below inquisition, the game it's a direct sequel to. That honestly feels a little odd, since it would imply that the studio didn't believe they picked up any new fans from inquisition's success.

I think that the 10 year gap was absolutely corrosive to the fan base. I understand why it happened on a development level, but it was an absolutely massive mistake. They completely lost the ability to capitalize on the excitement and name recognition inquisition generated as the incredibly popular game of the year for its direct sequel. Again, I completely understand what happened. I just think that all of the decisions that allowed this to happen (canceling project joplin, generally putting the series in the back burner, etc) were incredibly bad. They lost hype and momentum and ended up with far less in excitement and sales than they could have, especially since they lost a lot of long-time, key employees because of the development hell that ensued. This is on both bioware and ea. Bioware for their incredible mismanagement and just constant bag-fumbling and terrible working conditions and choices generally, and ea for allowing this to happen and generally pushing their studios toward a live-service model (plus all the other general ea fuckery).

It's also worth mentioning the "players reached" wording. That obviously doesn't mean the same thing as "copies sold," which likely means that the game sold less than 1.5 million copies. Admittedly, it's probably worth asking exactly how relevant sales numbers still are as we enter the era of game streaming services. It's genuinely hard to say, and that's going to be an industry-wide shift. But no matter how you slice it, the game clearly didn't do well commercially.

Looking toward the future, the first question has to be not what bioware will learn from this, but if bioware will even survive long enough to learn from this. They've had three poor releases in a row in an industry that isn't exactly forgiving. There have also been a few high profile departures recently, and while that might not be particularly unusual after a game launch, it can't be overlooked entirely. The studio is very much at risk of shutting down at this juncture.

But assuming bioware doesn't shut down, where do they go from here? What lessons will they learn from veilguard's failure? While it clearly wasn't a commercial success, it reviewed fairly well with a metacritic score of 82 (compare Andromeda's score of 71, Inqusition's of 85, origins' of 86, da2's of 79, and the Mass Effect trilogy's low 90s). Player reviews, on the other hand, were more mixed. Will bioware decide they made a good game and players just didn't get it? Andromeda and veilguard's writing definitely had some similarities, so maybe this is just the direction the studio has decided to go in and nothing will shake them from it. Or will they see the feedback and lurch too far in the opposite direction? They have a habit of doing that (they did it with inquisition after da2 and anthem's facial animations after Andromeda, for example). It could be that they decide it needs to be even more generic, even safer, to make sure they get the broadest possible appeal. It could be that they decide they need to double down on the nostalgia factor to attract the players of the older games. I don't know. I don't think anyone really does, at this point.

Honestly, I don't think bioware knows either. The studio clearly has a lot of issues that will take a lot of time, money, and introspection to fix. These issues are likely very entrenched in the studio's culture, and have been present for at least a decade, if not longer. And I don't know that bioware has the resources or the willpower to address them, given the circumstances.

[demigod-shenanigans]

These are adorable??

Also thinking about how mortified Leo would be about the plushie thing at first because people were already being shitty to him at foster homes about the pillow hugging and he is too old for stuffed animals okay (he’s afraid he’ll get bullied again)

But I think it’d genuinely be so helpful and comforting for him if he got to do that? Anyway Piper is vowing to charmspeak anyone into the lake if they’re being shitty about it and her beloved beanie babies collection helps Leo feel less stupid about it. (He’s probably borrowed some of them before. No one else is allowed to touch them.)

Also! Concept of Piper and Jason making some kind of plushie for Leo because they know he’s going to love it if it’s from both of them. Neither of them is any good at sewing and thus the plushie ends up being slightly less dragon and slightly more eldritch horror. At least one of them manages to prick their finger and bleed on it in the process lmao. Leo adores it.

Leo makes Jason a super elaborate music box and Jason just sits there watching it for at least an hour

Anyone wanna send me fun little headcanons or something, I have an Important Uni Thing happening tomorrow and I’m really anxious about it

[cinimuffin]

Redrawing some creatures cuz I'm in a creature drawing mood

[mohntilyet]

still i think the one of the more fun differences drawn between illario and lucanis that was lost would be illario's ability to endear himself to others but serious lack of empathy, vs. lucanis' (self perceived) inability to be charming but how much he cares. it's interesting that the game has gone with the "lucanis' ability vs illario's lack thereof" because i think illario being the dellamorte 'best in show dog' vs. lucanis' attack dog would have made me so unwell.

lucanis is... awkward. he's not unlikable, because he is usually very polite, but he doesn't speak much and only seems to care about the other dellamortes. he once sent viago de riva a knife with no note (who knows what he could have meant by this). he does what caterina asks of him, and by his own admission, cannot say no to her. he is a dramatic and prolific killer, and that makes how untouchable he is even worse.

and the crows like illario, sure, AND he's a good assassin! he's even a good crow! he's so good that he can make lucanis smile, and so he is the charming, sociable one. he's the one that stays in treviso and can be relied upon to care, illario's even the one people prefer over caterina and lucanis!

but illario is decoration. he's the prize poodle, and even if poodles were bred to be working dogs, nobody will ever pick him to protect the house over the german shepherd that regularly mauls intruders. anyways the analogy is getting away from me. the point i'm trying to make is that i want illario to have a different kind of jealousy/hatred that's not just over 'being bad at killing' but also an arrogant loathing for everyone around him that is getting harder to hide, because they've forgotten he can bite and is just itching to rip someone's jugular out. illario is very good at hiding his family resemblance to caterina, while lucanis suffers under his grandmother's, and his own, reputation.

[amourningcrow]

SPOILERS (I guess?) The whole Lucanis Wings being controlled by Spite - has me thinking about the final romance scene. Do you think Spite loves Rook too? Or he was just helping out Lucanis?

Ahhh I mean we have confirmation from his writer that "Spite is fond of Rook in his own Spite-like way" and that he trusts them more than anyone else! I personally wouldn't interpret this as romantic, per se, but I think Spite recognizes that Rook is good for Lucanis and feels a little protective/possessive over them because of that?

It could obviously be that the devs just thought it would be a cool effect, but I like to believe that Spite was trying to make them feel safe, maybe? Shielded from the rest of the world. ("These people want to hurt you and take you away? How about NO?", Spite said spitefully.)

We know that spirits don't really feel the same way normal people do and I highly doubt Spite could love someone the way we mean when we say love, but the romance scene makes me think Spite's feelings are probably the closest to (some type of) love they could possibly be. You know... for a demon.

I have no idea though!! I'm just a little guy.

Add on: I still swoon over this though because. What do you mean, the DEMON likes me enough to do that?? He LIKES me?? THE DEMON???? I think that qualifies Rook as Thedas's most specialest princess (gender neutral)

[raffi-cat]

random silkwing design to mess around with some stuff

the flat colors cause they're nice

[thylacid]

whatever. heres some dragons

[vaguely-concerned]

I know this is just insane shipping brain goggles and probably not objectively true in any way, confirmation bias in action klaxon and I acknowledge this fully and freely, but I swear to god that rook's thank you lines to lucanis in battle sound so much more weirdly... flirty than the ones for anyone else hfsjk. (in a fashion somewhere halfway between mannerly and😏. 'thanks, lucanis (politely restrained yet with carnal intent)')

[corpocyborg]

(so... uh... how far into dai do you have to get before it starts being good?)

[maliro-t]

replaying dav act 1 and the way i instantly prefer the minrathous route is wild sorry antiva 💀💀💀

[bitegore]

if your ocs were bosses in a video game, what do you think their boss fight would be like?

[fbwzoo]

Officially got this boy eating mustard, collard, and dandelion greens (all good daily staple greens), and spaghetti squash! 🥰🥰 I'm so pleased to have him on a decent variety of both veggies & bugs now!!

We're trying butternut squash again next. Hoping to rotate him between those two & acorn for daily squashes. Then I can start adding other "occasional" veggies to his salads for additional variety & to see what else he likes.

He has a couple new bug orders coming soon too. I think his staples are going to be dubia roaches, BSF worms, and mealworms. With silkworms & grasshoppers when I can get them, and hornworms & waxworms as treats.

[rsenak]

16 How did your Rook react to getting trapped in the Fade and separated from their partner?

Hiii thank you so much for the ask and I'm so sorry I took this long to get to it,,,

Not great! Calien gets to watch two of his closest friends and his partner die in quick succession and before he knew better he lost the lyrium dagger and got stuck in the Fade prison. As far as he knows at least. He completely falls for Solas' illusion and believes Lucanis to be dead. He even features in the prison with Bellara and Davrin and Varric (and some Crow related regret of failing to complete the contract on tracking down and stopping Solas).

I imagine he just stands there in shock for a bit. Maybe spends a small eternity on his knees after the reality of it sinks in. Calien isn't very in tune with his feelings so his first instinct would be to block it out and carry on as if nothing happened. Bit hard to do when everything around him takes the shape of the people he lost... HOWEVER it's not like there's anyone around to witness him and his weakness, so he could crash a little. As a treat.

He isn't one to despair normally but it takes a while for him to make his way out of the regret prison.

Once he's back (and done giving Lucanis the longest and tightest hug ever) he's burying those feelings DEEP DOWN again. No time to deal with them and wouldn't know how to anyways! 👍 (This isn't 100% successful but A for effort!)