#I think we need a separate tag for that

[possessedopossum]

My thoughts about the supposed lack of Solas' agents in the veilguard [positive]

My greatest fear for DA4 was the possibility of main character having to murder countless elves fighting for a better future for their race. I was genuinely afraid that bioware would force us to genocide (again, sigh) the elves. People who would like to see Solas' armies, do you even realize how ugly it would get?

All elves, from the cities and from the forests, united under one banner of the promise of a better future. Former slaves, servants and hunter gatherers who are barely making it out alive all thanks to the human expansion and their hostility to the dalish. The oppressed finally taking a stand against their oppressors. And when our heroic main character would come and tell them to go fuck themselves.

What, you're tired of living on the margins of human society? Oh c'mon guys you don't have it that bad. Please go back to being a slave or I'll kill you. Remember, violence is bad. But only if it's against human oppressors. If I'm using violence to save the status quo it's actually okay 👍

Is this the plot what you want? Really? I guess it's okay if you want to roleplay an asshole. But being asshole has never been mandatory in the dragon age franchise. Because you know, you're supposed to make your own choice between the good, the bad or the morally grey. But if bioware had given Solas an army, there wouldn't be a choice between the good, the bad or the morally grey. It would have been simply morally ugly.

I am so glad this is not the plot we see in game. And I am also very grateful that this time, we're supposed to save the dalish regardless of our opinion of them. We can genocide three different clans in the other games, accidentally or on purpose. I think that is MORE than enough. If not being able to genocide racial minorities is something that makes the game completely unplayable to you...I don't know what to say.

[lemonyinks]

Because they are on my mind, please accept one of my favorite Wangxian moments of all time.

Chapter 87

In my opinion, this is one of the most important Wangxian scenes in the whole novel. It is very special to me. It made me tear up when I was doing my read through.

Time and time again, Wei Wuxian has fallen, he's gotten hurt, people have failed him. The people who were supposed to be there for him have either left, he's lost them tragically, or they've betrayed him at some point in his life. His life has been one of loneliness and loss.

He has never had someone who he could rely on so heavily. He has never had a solid safety net before, someone on equal footing to him that he could fall back on and rely on. If anything he has spent his entire life being a safety net for other people. He has spent his whole life being strong for others.

Now, however, Lan Wangji is that safety net for him.

For the first time in his life, he has someone to truly catch him when he falls. He can let himself fall and still be safe. That "thank you" isn't just about Lan Wangji catching him after he fell from the tree, its about everything.

[wybienova]

dream visit (nostalgia) - a 2nd anniversary katfl comic

[biasomnia]

Just had a stupid dumb idea that I have to put into the world bc it’s too late and I don’t want to forget it.

What if Kuina (Zoro’s childhood friend) faked her death bc her father is a misogynistic shitbag that won’t teach her any more and she goes to sail to find a new mentor. And somewhere along the way runs into Dracule “Greatest Swordsman” Mihawk who decides to mentor this small girl with skill and spite (reasons unclear rn bc again it is late I’m spitballing quickly here). So when Zoro is paw-pawed away to goth island (I don’t remember it’s actual name) not only does he have his “wtf” we see but also eventually bumps into Kuina again and has to go “HUH??” They get to bicker & whatnot and after Mihawk agrees to train Zoro she will NOT stop holding it over his head that she met the greatest swordsman first and is learning his techniques. Kuina would also get along great with Perona.

Maybe will draw some silly comics of this idea tomorrow.

^pic of Kuina bc I can’t blame people for forgetting stuff one piece has a lot in it and is. long

[regicidal-defenestration]

The language part (ie the Main Actual Game) of Chants of Sennaar is very fun don't get me wrong - figuring out when a radical means person, or signifies a verb, etc etc - but the number system is absolutely fascinating

[hn-undercover-9503]

NEW PART SCAR'S SURPRISE IS HERE AND I LOVE THIS CHAPTER SO MUCH. First part of ghosts of my past is out now!!!

[seriouslyseravellan]

it's so fuckin funny to me that one of the devs was like "oh the combat in veilguard will be ACTUALLY FUN" like... bitch i LIKED the combat in origins and 2! it was actually fun for me! the issue was that you fucking CHANGED it for inquisition, and now you're changing it again! it doesn't even feel like dragon age combat anymore! what is wrong with you

[flowering-darkness]

I have so much I need to do this week but I have been sprawled out on my bed and scrolled through the past, like, year of Meteion art on here instead

Let none say that romantic F/Os are the only type that matter because that couldn’t be further from the truth and familial or platonic F/Os are perfectly able to mean just as much or even more in some ways

[treezxu]

You should tell me about your ocs

this is Tal he works for the government but he hates htem and wants to overthrow them... uhm. my favorite coup guy. he loves his mom he has a younger sister he's bisexual he's awesome and cool. he has a dad but idc abt his dad. i will one day. oh he has ice magic. i wasn't gonna tell anyone who had what magic but its not a spoiler for tal so it doesnt matter he's got iceeee. he gets hot easily. the scars on his neck are special and cool. his hair is natural.

[ocdhuacheng]

I love kabru like he’s established as this manipulative and shady person with ulterior motives who could be a major threat to laios’s party, but he also is one of the most empathetic and kind characters in the series and does his best to try and help everyone bc he is one of the people who understands the situation the best. and I think ppl are too focused on the first part they forget the second part. (Anime onlies are ok bc you guys haven’t gotten his character development yet ^^)

Also his party getting wiped out constantly in the beginning was funny as fuck

[corellianhounds]

My Brother’s Keeper

TBB Body Swap AU

Chapter 4 — Complications II

Words: 1.6k

Warnings: None

Summary: Things never go the way they’re planned.

“Wrecker for the last time, stop trying to dig it up, it’s not going anywhere.”

“Says you. Come give me a hand here, I need the muscle.”

Hunter pinched the bridge of his nose, joining Wrecker where he was straining to lift the outer ring on the ground by the one divot he’d been able to make in the stone with his knife. Hunter didn’t know how deep the rings ran but so far Wrecker was the only one who’d made any progress. There were no handholds or notches to tease the idea of a solution, and eventually Hunter had to stand back up and stretch his back.

Wandering around the temple and scanning the walls with his flashlight, Hunter again took stock of his team.

Echo was in control of himself, which (as much as Hunter felt guilty to think of it like this) was an improvement for Echo. He wasn’t having to adapt to anything he didn’t know, and he had more experience and could help the rest of the squad keep a level head.

That being said, he could see Echo’s irritated expression drifting back to where Wrecker was grating his knife against stone, so maybe Hunter’s senses would take some getting used to. Hunter had long since tempered his reflexive irritation at annoying or persistent background noises, of which Wrecker was rarely in short supply. So much of Hunter’s training had involved figuring out how to tone out extraneous information and by now it was second nature for him to be able to tell which sounds or scents or visuals weren’t pertinent to his assessment of a situation, but that had taken training. He made a mental note to adjust the audio settings on his helmet to help block some of the input for Echo.

Wrecker seemed relatively unbothered once the initial shock wore off. He was understandably frustrated at the change in physicality, but he of all of them rolled with the punches best. Tech was still largely built like a standard clone and could shoulder more weight than the average person, but he was more lean and compact compared to the rest of them. It made him fast and evasive in the field, but his fighting style was patently different from Wrecker’s battering ram approach. Hunter was more worried Wrecker’s tendency to bulldoze through multiple opponents and leap onto or into the fray was going to get Tech’s body trampled. Wrecker had always pushed himself to find what eventual limits and thresholds would restrict him, and his personality was one geared towards learning from experience and experimentation. He’d always operated on empirical knowledge, and if that meant charging headlong into danger, so be it.

On the plus side though, Hunter figured he’d only make that mistake once while he was stuck as Tech before realizing he was no longer nigh-invincible. Wrecker may be foolhardy, but he wasn’t stupid.

Tech, though familiar with Echo’s disabilities and prostheses, was still having to make constant micro-adjustments to how he worked. The pressure sensors in each of his limbs relayed sensation differently than organic limbs, enough to the point Tech had had to make a focused effort to steady himself on his feet and work through the change in balance and mobility. He didn’t begrudge anybody for his luck of the draw; he could still move and shoot, and he had plenty of tools still at his disposal, and Hunter knew he’d also be able to keep track of what Echo’s body would need at any given time.

What did concern him though was Tech’s earlier revelation at not being able to recall information the same way as before. He’d gone very still and quiet in the middle of a thought, prompting a sense of unease to worm its way under Hunter’s skin; Tech’s hesitance as he voiced his theory was incredibly out of character and it worried him to even theorize that switching consciousness wasn’t a clean lateral move; what parts of their minds were they unable to take with them because they were tied to their actual bodies, and how would that affect each of them moving forward? How much, if any, would be lost or seep into them the longer they were in somebody else’s head?

And then when it came to Crosshair and Omega…

Hunter didn’t even know where to start with them. There were issues of both age and physiology at play, to say nothing of their respective personalities and skill sets. Any problems either of them had would have to be handled delicately, and thinking about it made him supremely uncomfortable.

If they could just solve whatever puzzle this was and reverse the effects of the switch, he wouldn’t have to deal with any further complications.

Hunter sighed, aimlessly scanning for anything he might have missed. Wrecker had moved on to another ring trying the same thing he had before in chiseling out a larger gap in the cut stone. Hunter jammed one of the pry bars into the first crevice Wrecker had asked him for help with, forcing it down into the ground, but when he leveraged his weight against it he heard a *k-chunk*.

Everybody froze at the mechanical reverberation, silence filling the cavern as they came to a standstill. Wrecker stared at Hunter. Hunter stared at the crevice.

“Uh, Sarge…?”

The ground shook. Hunter’s stomach dropped.

The earth shuddered again, fissures lancing through stone. Hunter stumbled back and Wrecker darted over the colliding floor plates to the outside rings. The floor cracked and began to shear against itself like waves. Stalactites trembled above them. Their eyes widened and the groaning, trembling cavern started to shake in earnest, the cacophonous sound of stone on stone forcing all of them into action.

Hunter barked orders over the din as they grabbed their gear and booked it for the exit. He saw Omega stumble and pulled her out of the way as a stalactite shattered on impact with the ground and sent rocks flying outward in a spray of dust. The rest of the squad was yelling and clamoring for the outer hall, and he scooped her up as he ran, one arm shielding her head from the falling rocks.

Five sets of boots pounded against sandstone as the outer temple walls collapsed behind them. Echo was in the lead, but when he turned right at the first junction he skidded to a halt, Tech and Wrecker colliding with his back as they all hit the dead end.

“What are you doin’—?!” Wrecker yelled.

“This was the turn to get out!” Echo hollered back, swiftly turning and looking wildly around before racing the opposite direction. The earthquake shuddered through the temple again, more fissures slivering between their footfalls and catching up to them. “Other parts of the temple must have changed while we were unconscious!”

The crew raced onward, hitting two more dead ends and an unfamiliar stairway. Echo and Tech argued as they ran, Wrecker yelling at every close call with falling rocks, and when they reached a blocked fork in the tunnels Wrecker reflexively tried with all his might to lift the boulders out of the way, but to no avail.

Hunter raced to keep up, ducking beneath another column that fell and bridged itself overhead. Despite the danger, something nagged at the back of his mind. The temple, the torches, the runes, the rings…

Hunter’s eyes widened. He shouted up to the rest of the men, getting their attention.

“Echo! About-face! One-eighty for each turn we made coming in!”

The squad hesitated but Hunter was already backtracking the way they came and they scrambled to catch up. The temple structure groaned again, crashing walls and columns raining down around them. Hunter wracked his brain for the path they took on the way in, muttering to himself as he took each turn opposite of what they should have been for the way out. He saw a leftward tunnel that split off into two more and he banked right, adjusting his grip on Omega as he rounded the corner and felt a wave of relief when he saw light up ahead.

All of the clones broke from the mouth of the cave system into warm daylight, a shuddering crash of dust and stone bringing up the back of their party. Hunter kept running a good forty paces through the scrub brush before turning back, relieved to see all of his team catching up to him.

“Let go of me,” Omega growled, shoving fruitlessly at him and wriggling out of his grip, falling to the ground and out of reach. She stumbled away spitting curses under her breath, wiping the debris from her clothes.

… Right, Hunter thought. Not Omega anymore.

Wrecker hooted in victory, entreating a high-five from anybody who’d indulge him, but turning to Omega-as-Crosshair sobered some of that good humor; Omega was bent with her hands on her knees, coughing and having a hard time catching her breath. Wrecker felt a pang of sympathy, striding over to slap her on the back and offer his canteen, which she took gratefully, still occasionally coughing.

Echo righted himself, taking deep breaths and trying to slow his heart rate out of habit before realizing he felt… okay. Better than okay, really. The dying adrenaline didn’t make him feel like he was crashing, just coming down from the high like a hang glider skimming down to level ground. He felt alert, focused, senses buzzing from the input of information every sight and smell gave him. With that came two more realizations of the day:

One: His own body had apparently not been keeping up as well as he thought it had this past year.

And two: This was not the same planet they landed on twelve hours ago.

< Previous chapter

Next chapter >

[camthecatchameleon]

Actually flabbergasted at the HLVRAI fandom right now. Everyone keeps talking about "the buildup with no payoff" bro what buildup.

I am not someone who follows creators closely, I just sorta sit back and if something new comes out I look at it- all we got about BBVRAI before it came out was a silent clip showing the reactor. (And apparently a twitter joke which I personally have not seen so I really can't talk about that.) There was no buildup about it being HL2VRAI. From what I can tell, and from what I know from my friend who watches RTVS, the only "buildup" for HL2VRAI came directly from the fans. Did y'all see something I didnt or what?

In any case. HLVRAI fandom, get your act together. Stop harassing the creators. It's okay to be upset and it's okay to have opinions, but it's not okay to be hateful because of it.

And if you aren't enjoying something, you should just leave, respectfully. Step away. I speak from experience when I say it works wonders.

[bucephaly]

Basically. Gender and sexuality and race and a Lot of other things are social and cultural concepts that are not like Facts or intrinsic and honestly I wish more people would realize that these are things we made up and there are no actual rules and everyone's experiences are different

[dramaticallytrue]

having big "did anyone try the salad (the quicker fic)? i heard the salad (touching grass) is lovely?" feelings about the tag today

[woodchipp]

UT/DR Twitter is currently having a small meme situation about Kris vs. Sunny, and I lowkey find it funny how everyone almost unanimously agrees that Kris would annihilate Sunny.

https://x.com/heyitspegkat/status/1938629959649567112?t=HG5KvcT0UrWLxcO-r1a7lg&s=19

But I also won't lie the consequent joke of "Kris does this, but then Sunny plays Megalovania to remind them that Sans is doing their mom" is equally as funny.

lmaoooooooooooo

Yeah, Kris would destroy Sunny, both in a literal fight and in terms of being a gremlin. The latter barely does anything that could mark him as a character, let alone as being on the same level of chaotic as Kris.

They'd destroy him in terms of characterization, too. Kris can't even bring themself to be mean to their friends - on the Weird Route, they quickly bite their hand to prevent themselves from saying what the player wants them to say if the latter chooses to say "I'll never play again" in response to Susie's vent about the piano in the church, and they'll always cut themself off if the player chooses to say "Of course not" in response to Ralsei asking them if it's okay for a Darkner to have their own opinions before they can spell out the "not." They flinch and turn away from the screen when Ramb's "original" game forces them to kill their (in-game) friends. They take the Knight's barrage of swords for Susie and Ralsei until they have 1 HP left. If the player chooses to say "It's okay not to smile" when Ralsei confesses how he fears the prophecy's end, they will hug him unprompted. They care deeply - to the point their love for their friends is what's facilitating their growing conflict of interest - and Deltarune makes sure to show you that.

Sunny ruined his friends' lives (and ended his sister's) because of a hissy fit he threw, let them believe a horrific lie for four years, then decided to get back with them only because he wanted to get that lest pebble - that is, the truth - out of his shoe before he starts anew and contributed nothing to the group's reunion at the end of the day because Kel and Hero did the work for him. The game takes 20-25 hours and at no point does the game elaborate on how and why his friends are his friends in the first place, which probably speaks a lot more about OMORI's writing than my unhinged rants ever could.

[nerdie-faerie]

Just when I think the day's going well, I crash a golf cart