#I think we might like each other

[jedidryad]

WIP:I could sense  he was not as serene as he looked

One of the challenges in writing Lightsabers are Always Loaded has been writing Luke and Mara constantly feeling alienated from one another and speaking at cross-purposes. Writing a broken relationship hurts, and it might hurt to read. So, as an antidote, here’s a bit from part 5 - during Vision of the Future when they are slowly recognizing how much they care about one another. This is an excerpt from negotiating with the Qom Jha, who had “captured” Mara on Nirauan. She needs Luke to help her  understand them, and they have to work together for the first time in a long time…

He then announced the arrival of the Bargainer and I grimaced at the realization that I would need a translator. Why couldn’t I understand them?

“It sure would make things easier,” Luke acknowledged when I expressed my frustration, and then, after a beat, he asked for my hand.

I held out my left to him and asked what he had in mind.

“I can sense them and we can sense each other. If we can make that connection strong enough..”

His grip tightened on mine and I strained to hear if it made a difference. After a moment, it became clear that hand holding wouldn’t do it. Luke murmured a nearly silent apology as he slid behind me, slipped an arm around my waist and dropped his head down to mine. Had I been facing him, we would have held the primary position of a Hosnian Bolero.

I fought the instinct to stiffen, and realized my heart was pounding harder than was necessary. His arm was warm on my waist, his breath soft in my ear.

Since when did another person affect me like this? Since when did Luke?

And then I gasped as I realized the jumbled sounds had coalesced into separate voices that I could understand. It was like a transmission finally syncing on the right frequency.

Luke tightened his arm briefly in a celebration of success and I settled in to follow the conversation.

The conversation was remarkably disturbing. The Qom Jha didn’t want me there. Apparently they had attempted to contact Luke and warn him to keep me away from the planet – although I couldn’t imagine why they thought that would be a useful approach, and the Bargainer who called himself “Eater of Fire Creepers” seemed less interested in explaining why I was in danger than in finding the right being to blame for Luke not receiving the messages. This did not bode well for a productive discussion.

And Eater of Fire Creepers did not seem to care, as he settled on blaming Luke’s guide on behalf of all of the Qom Qae. Kriff, couldn’t we go anywhere without running into hostility and skirmishes?

I sensed what might  have been wry sympathy from Luke, but it was quickly subsumed in concern as he ordered the Qom Jha to leave Child of Winds alone.

They did not, and with an obvious reluctance, he stepped away from me and into a defensive stance as he ignited his lightsaber and repeated his command.

“Leave him alone and I will question him.”

That should do it. After so many years, Luke had perfected the tone and pose of power and intimidation. His words seemed to reverberate through the Force and against the cavern walls. It was impressive, I had to admit.

But it didn’t work. They continued to harass Child of Winds, and I watched the avian pull further into his crevice. Either the Qom Jha didn’t know Luke was the real deal, or they didn’t care. Neither possibility could be tolerated though. They needed to be shown.

I waited for Luke to advance on them, to throw his lightsaber, to do something. He didn’t. Why not?

Reaching out, I could sense he was not as serene as he looked. He was frantically trying to come up with a nonviolent way to intervene on behalf of his guide. Of course, I suddenly realized, his every act was being judged against the mantle of the Jedi Master that he always had to wear. Whether he wanted it or not, everything he did reflected the Jedi and needed to match how he wanted them to be perceived in the galaxy.

I, ex-assassin, smuggler, semi-redeemed war criminal, had no such strictures.

I grabbed my holdout and fired. I sent three bolts into precise locations around Child of Winds’ hiding place, close enough to almost singe the beaks of the harassing avians without doing any actual damage.

They backed off and silence rang in the echoes of my shots.

I had everyone’s attention.

“A minute ago you called him Master,” I reminded the insolent crowd. “Is he a Jedi Master to be respected, or isn’t he?”

I settled into a combat stance and allowed the threat in my tone and words to communicate the danger they would be in if they continued this sort of disrespect.

Luke’s emotions drifted from embarrassment to disapproval.

Ungrateful of him.

The birds were speaking again and, having stepped away from Luke, I had no idea what they were saying.

“Translation?” I muttered, trying to keep the redness out of my cheeks as the weakness of my strategy became apparent. This was beyond frustrating and I was certain Luke could tell.

“He said, ‘You have no place to speak thus to the Bargainer for the Qom Jha’,” Luke gallantly translated as he slid his arms back around me and I tried to focus on what he said, despite the sudden warmth of his breath against my neck. What was wrong with me?

[bixels]

this is coming from the position of a student, so don't take my word as gospel, but i want to strongly encourage people to prepare for the coming years and look outward to find communities in real life. this can be big like getting involved in fundraisers or organizations or small like going to poc/queer/art social spaces and talking to people. making friends and connections will help you and others build support networks, something you will need as we enter the new term. i know talking to strangers in real life can be scary, unfamiliar, or difficult (depending on where you live especially) and it may take a lot of compromising and work –– and i don't want to condescend –– but we have to try starting now. this is about your safety and welfare, as well as the most vulnerable people's.

if leftists/progressives/minorities want to survive and beat back what's coming, we need to do our work offline too and take up space. an example of getting involved would be (if you're an artist) reaching out to fundraising organizers and making prints of your artwork to donate for raising funds.

[noodles-and-tea]

For the twins in time AU, I genuinely wonder what kind of people the young twins grow up into because of Stan’s/Ford’s influence. Especially if it takes years for the portal to get fixed.

(Sorry if it seems like I already sent this question, I don’t know if it got sent the first time I asked)

I haven’t fully fleshed out how Ford grows up in the past but I do have thoughts on Stan presently

[welcometogrouchland]

[ID in ALT] I've made posts before about Talia/Dick co-parenting Damian moments (will never happen but let me dream) and this came to me in a vision. Took me ages to finish for some reason 😭 and then even longer to post

[spitedemon]

i really don’t think it’s “typical dragon age fandom nonsense” for people to be genuinely upset about the world state choices. combat, level design, art direction, gameplay gimmicks, those have all varied across each dragon age game. the one thing that’s remained constant are nods to our previous choices.

i wasn’t expecting my HoF to come riding in on a griffon, but i can’t find a monument dedicated to warden tabris somewhere around the anderfels? lucanis couldn’t have some lines about the time that one arainai boy was stirring up trouble in antiva city? you’re gonna tell me that making a mage the new divine wouldn’t have some impact on nevarra and antiva? on the anderfels, the supposed most devout militant andrastian nation in thedas? you’re saying nobody in the north is paying attention to who rules orlais or ferelden? come on.

[twinstxrs]

so much happened in this whole episode but i’m still on fig infiltrating ruben’s dream, making it look like the place where his friend was murdered, and then disguising herself as kipperlilly & repeatedly saying different variants of “somebody needs to take the fall for this, and it’s not going to be me. it’s going to be you.” while adaine as the elven oracle shows up next to her. can you imagine waking up from that, the idea of a horrible truth being pinned on you by your friend to save her own skin while the personification of fate and destiny stands there, almost as a promise that this is GOING to happen to you. we don’t even know if this kid is guilty. my god.

[ruporas]

i’ll find you again in every universe. let us be a little more honest, let us have a little more time.

[drenched-in-sunlight]

saying this as respectfully as possible but. Do not put fandom content creators on a pedestal. We are also just fans contributing to a community just as you are. We have boundary on our own work and that’s it. What I say is not and should not be considered sth the whole fandom should listen to. I’m just a normal ass person ranting about things on my blog. If it does not have a fandom tag for others to engage in, do not make it out to be me trying to start fights or addressing the whole community. Because it’s not.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, my art, my lore talk, is biased. I’ve never tried to hide that I view Marika a certain way and will always develop my theory following that base assumption.

Aside from translation stuffs and pointing out in-game items, everything else I say you can look at it, agree or disagree, and move on to form your own opinions. Just because I draw stuffs doesn’t mean you get to saddle me with responsibilities about managing fandom expectations. What the hell? I’m a fan artist, I’m the last person who you should look at for “leaderism” (?) WHAT?

I can and will be a hater in my own space, like I know sometimes other artists will just post their stuffs and not engage too heavily with fandom, and for a while I did try to do that here (because I’m already a dramatic ass on twitter), that’s just not me though.

You will get art and you will get my opinions as well.

[icewindandboringhorror]

Little bright colored outfit with a fun vest ~

(shoes from ebay like 10 years ago. everything else is thrifted)

[xellandria]

Okay, "aging userbase" or whatever, but I've had a favourite since I first started using it and that was at like eleven or twelve, so.

[doveywovy]

:( its sad nobody does aus where izuna comes around on the concept of the village and then madara still eventually leaves it and izuna stays behind. like izuna is famously stubborn so i think if you've written him as actually being convinced that Konoha is worth it, he'll stick it out to an insane degree. that includes staying even if madara leaves.

i could imagine him becoming the second hokage, partially out of people respecting his commitment to the cause after his brother abandoned it. honestly you could even get interesting with tobirama in this version of it because you have a lot of canon paths to go down with this. Izuna picking Konoha over Madara would firmly place him in the same mental space as Itachi or Kagami to Tobirama ("he chose the village over X and thus is a wonderful shinobi who i respect") leading to an overly respectful tobirama, which would completely alter his legacy. like you as the reader might know hes kind of insane about the uchiha but the village would just see him dutifully supporting an uchiha hokage.

Alternatively Tobirama's deep seated issues with Izuna specifically could make it difficult for him to see Izuna in that way and he could have a total crash out, ruining his legacy (lol) and slotting him in the same historical space as madara, ironically.

OR third option, he's weird about Izuna but also cautiously supportive, so he's just like a really helpful assistant to him who happens to constantly be checking Izuna for signs of what he considers mental degradation. Izuna is either slowly poisoning him or slowly sowing political rumors about him, either way he's putting in the effort to keep tobirama weak enough (mentally/politically) that he can't do anything against him but is also still around to assist because he is a useful second. I think in this version Izuna would pick Kagami as his heir, both because Kagami is the best trained for it and because Izuna would ensure power remains with the Uchiha, but also somewhat because Tobirama cannot argue against it (Thats HIS student) but wouldn't have picked him first out of all his students (As we know canonically).

this would mean during canon when all the hokage are brought back tobirama isn't and Izuna is, which would do a lot to the plot but this post is long enough so im leaving it there. immovable force vs unstoppable object izuna vs madara essentially

[dykedvonte]

Curly had two days to act and Swansea had two months.

I think it’s just interesting that every defense of Swansea not immediately acting are the same ones that are argued against for Curly. “He didn’t want to alert Daisuke or makes things worse for Anya either Jimmy!” I mean people also assume that about Curly and the crew. “He has to think about his plan of action and a right moment!” Again so did Curly, power and authority aside, he still would have to think of what he had to do. “He makes sure he doesn’t have to be around Jimmy!” So did Curly and they only do this to an extent, both give Jimmy more than a few opening to keep harassing Anya.

This isn’t defense of Curly nor a damnation of Swansea. Their actions are very parallel to each others in tragic and sour ways when it comes to how they approached helping Anya. In the grand scheme of it all they both did the same thing: Nothing. No action either took stopped the inevitable outcome of her death nor Jimmy’s continued damage to themself.

The only real difference is Swansea didn’t like Jimmy which is pretty substantial, but also just as damning as Curly knowing how bad Jimmy could get to an extent. He had even less of a reason to wait, even more of a reason to act seeing as he was now worried for Anya AND Daisuke. He is not bound by the possible procedure as Captain and actively does not care about what happens next. So what does it matter if he acted in the moment? Why did he wait? I think he’s just as morally complex and grey as Curly and we hold him on a pedestal that still perpetuates things in rape culture the game critiques.

It’s not just enough to dislike and be abrasive to predators/abusers like Jimmy. It’s not enough to just put yourself between them and the other person. It’s not enough to hold tensions when you know someone is vulnerable. He and Curly do the exact same things but on different sides of the coin. I ask how is it better to not turn a blind eye but still not really do anything about what you are seeing? Not until it affects you atleast…

The game makes a big point to not put men doing the bare minimum or who wait to do more on pedestals and I’m actually surprised so many are missing that point.

[gingerswagfreckles]

How is the Musk vs. Zuckerberg cage fight not all over tumblr immediately this is insane this is God's gift to mankind this is the funniest thing that's ever happened in the history of planet earth. Eat the rich???? Eat the rich??!!?!?! We aren't going to even get the CHANCE to eat the rich bc they are literally, LITERALLY going to kill each other with their teeth!!!!!

[moeblob]

Impulsively shoving a guy's hand in your mouth after having the thought "oh just like when my little sister used to prick herself on a rose thorn" and then immediately being treated like a pet who ate something they shouldn't have? Wonderful. Thank you, Thane.

(also not pictured is Thane apparently trying to scrape your tongue with his hand BEFORE pouring the holy water down your throat because NO. BAD.)

[muchmossymess]

uh oh guys, hot take alert:

i think revali may have invented hand held aerial archery HEAR ME OUT- (this is a long one boys)

okay. evidence one: why the fuck would a rito shoot like that. like, it makes nearly zero sense, it would be such a hindrance to their flight and their main stake is that they can be higher than you can shoot whilst still pinging you... which revali has overcome with his gale

evidence two: tulin and the concept arts. obviously rito style archery would be held in their talons. before totk came out idk if anyone had really thought about it too much, but the developers had, as you can see in concept art (from the creating a champion book). and like, its logical, powerful, and allows for peak maneuverability. also, when in flight revali (and teba) holds his bow in his talons before switching to his wings. surely its easier to keep it in your wing (obvi ignoring the effects to flight but hes doing that anyway firing the damn thing) rather than switch back and forth- unless you were taught that way, because why would you hold it elsewhere, you need it in your talons to shoot.

evidence three: we dont see any other rito do it (...kind of). throughout botw and totk, we never see another rito flying with a bow in their hands. in totk, its mostly tulin, who holds it in his talons, but in botw the big one is teba. during the medoh quest, he actually gives *link* his bow, and therefore does no shooting in the sky. teba and harth had both tried to take on medoh before, but we never see this, and while they holds their bows in their hands *on the ground,* we dont see it.

...except for aoc (uh, spoilers?). there are two times we see a rito other than revali hold their bow in their hand for aerial archery. but it is not with any rito soldiers, either during cutscenes (the bows are only on their backs) or gameplay (they swoop down, and then hand hold bows on ground. they arent seen flying at all but thats prolly for the same reasons as botw: its very hard to code that (and so they write the lore around that fact)). the first time we actually see another rito do this, we dont see it. Its teba, as he comes thru the portal, but all we see is the arrow shot, and then him freeze frame with the bow in one wing. we dont see the bow in his hand for the rest of the fight. the second time we actually see him fighting like this, it *is* in the air, but its noticeably different to revali.

hes a lot slower, it clearly takes a LOT more effort to shoot the bow, and he only pulls off one arrow at a time. its canon that revalis bow is heavier/harder to draw, and he manages to effortlessly stream arrows whilst fucking floating midair. i think teba, forever a revali fanboy, heard of how the champion mastered his own style of archery and sought to teach himself, but lacked one key thing: revalis mastery of wind.

evidence three point five: revali could easily use his powers to hold him in the air longer/slow his descent long enough for him to fire his shots. it makes sense, really. if he can use his gale to propel him, he can sit on the updraft for a hot sec, or even curve the path to carry him along while he lines up the shot. this would mean he wouldnt need to flap as much as other rito, who would obviously need to keep flying

evidence four: revalis fighting style and his needs. revali works with non rito, obviously. he needs to be able to communicate with them on the battlefield, and they wont understand the muffled chirps if he holds his string in his beak, so he needs his mouth free to speak hylian. also, revalis main tactic is fly up with gale, shoot, fall, either shoot more or use velocity and weight to knock around opponents, and then fly back up. he often needs both feet planted firmly on the ground to get a good hold of his gale, something that is harder to do if you have a bow in the way.

also, take for example the kick he delivers link in their fight (aoc). that would possibly damage the bow, or give the opponent a chance to grab his weapon, if he held it in his talons. and to switch from feet to back is a risky maneuver during freefall, and could lose precious seconds, and then when you get back in the air you need to get it off your back again. its much easier to keep the bow loosely in your wing the whole time, meaning your free to attack melee, land and rise all while not wasting a single moment getting your next shot lined up.

so yeah, i think the rito used the talon grip for aerial archery, and would often use the hand held method on the ground for a variety of reasons (more powerful shots?, easier in some situations like hunting), but revali was perhaps the first to use hand held aerial, another reason he was one of the greatest archers ever.

[doctorbrown]

❝Would you like to...to...?❞

❝I'd love to.❞