#I'm gonna be on team Crow!!

[hyp-fixator]

"The Flipside" Dove VS Crow edition!

Unedited version!

[svtskneecaps]

if i get a purgatory 3 before the year is out i'm so sorry i'm going to be INSUFFERABLE

[illdowhatiwantthanks]

Coming Out

Emily Prentiss x fem!reader Warnings: some explicit language, mention of an unsub hurting Emily 😱, vague insinuations of homophobia, mostly fluff on fluff, feat. loyal himbo Derek Morgan Word Count: 2k

Summary: Emily gets injured on the job, and all she really wants is you, her girlfriend. But she's not out to the rest of the team yet. Can she be vulnerable enough to share that part of herself with the team? Can she be vulnerable enough to let you take care of her? Takes place at the end of S3.E2.

Emily dabbed at her head and winced, checking her watch to see if it had been long enough to take more pain medication. But despite getting clocked with a plank of wood, she was glad to be on the jet, glad to be back with her team because they really were starting to feel like her team. Who was she kidding? She loved her job.

According to the pilot, the team would be landing at Quantico in a little over an hour. Emily grabbed her phone, discreetly shoving it into her pocket, before heading to the back of the plane. She needed to call you, but the rest of the team didn't know about you yet. Hell, the rest of the team didn't even know she was gay. It felt too personal, and she'd been hurt by people's reactions–people she loved and trusted deeply–too many times. She played her relationships and her sexuality close to the vest.

Reid tapped Emily's arm as she passed by.

"Oh! Are you going all the way to the back?"

Emily tensed. "Yep."

"Could you bring me a Sprite?"

She felt her shoulders relax, and she patted Reid on the arm. "Sure."

After knocking on the bathroom door to make sure that truly no one was around, she called you, her voice hushed as she rifled through tiny airplane soda cans, looking for Reid's Sprite.

"Hey, Em," you said, your voice bright.

"Hey," she said, a goofy smile spreading across her face. "What are you up to?"

"Nothing much. Saw a street rat earlier. I named him Guillermo. I think he's on the prowl for a girlfriend."

Emily laughed, covering her mouth.

"How was Milwaukee?" you asked.

"Good. Really good. We got the guy. We're on the plane now."

She could nearly hear how smug you were through the phone.

"You're glad you went back," you snickered, relishing in being right. She'd sworn that it wasn't a big deal, that it'd be easy to get another good job, but you knew her heart was with the BAU.

Emily sighed. "I am. You were right."

"You're gonna stay?"

"Looks that way."

"I knew it!" you crowed. "I'm glad. You're too good at your job to quit it."

"Thanks, love. Listen, Y/N, can I ask you a favor?"

"Of course! Anything."

Emily winced, touching the swollen bump on her head. "We land in about an hour. Can you pick me up and stay at my place tonight?"

"Wow." You drew out the vowel, milking the fact that Emily needed you for once. "You missed me that much, huh?"

"Well, yes, of course, but... I, uh... I kind of have a concussion?"

Your tone shifted immediately from smug to concerned. "What?! Why?! What happened!?"

"Unsub hit me with a plank of wood," she admitted reluctantly.

"Jesus Christ, Em! Are you okay!?"

"I'm fine, baby, I promise," she reassured you. "I just got a little banged up, that's all. But I'll need you to wake me up every few hours and make sure I'm cognizant."

"I think I have some soup in the freezer," you observed, your voice far away. You'd put her on speakerphone to rifle through the cabinets. "And I have a thermometer. I don't know, do concussions cause fevers? I've never had one."

Emily shook her head, smiling. She loved that your first response, always, was to take care of her. Emily was not used to being taken care of, and she didn't let many people do it. She certainly wouldn't let many people see it either. But she let you.

"No thermometers needed. Just you and your car and more you when we get home."

"You got it. When did you say you land?"

"In about an hour."

"Okay. I'll leave in a few."

"Oh," Emily added quickly. "And you're cleared to drive into Quantico. They know the car you drive and they've got your ID on file. Just show it to them at the gate."

You paused. "Well, that's a little Big Brother of them."

"I gave it to them a few months ago. Just in case you ever needed to come by. Sorry, I should've told you."

"It's okay," you decided, pulling on a jacket and a beanie. "It feels kind of badass to be on Quantico's list."

Emily laughed, almost excited to have a concussion because it meant you'd be snuggled right up to next to her for however long it took to get better. 48 hours at least.

"Alright, baby," she finished, Reid's Sprite in hand. "I'll see you in a bit."

"Bye, love."

Emily wiped the grin off her face before returning to the cabin with Reid's Sprite–it'd look suspicious if she was too happy coming back.

An hour later, the team was going their separate ways in the parking lot, waving goodbyes and slamming car doors under the buzzing lights.

Emily leaned on the wall outside the building entrance, relishing the crisp night air.

"You need a ride, Prentiss?" Morgan asked as he walked out, used go-bag slung over his shoulder. "You shouldn't be driving" He pointed to her head.

"No, that's okay," Emily waved him off. "I've got– uh... someone's... picking me up."

Fuck, she thought. The concussion was not helping her ability to lie well.

Morgan stared at her suspiciously.

"What?" Emily laughed, trying to act normal.

"Why are you acting shifty?"

"I'm not!" she protested.

Morgan smirked and waggled his eyebrows. "Do you have a secret boyfriend?"

"What?" Emily said, laughing a little too forcefully. "No!"

He crossed his arms and waited. "You're seriously not gonna tell me?"

Emily leaned against the brick wall, rubbing her forehead. On the one hand, she was tired of keeping you–and herself–a secret. And if anyone was going to be supportive of someone on the team getting laid, it would be Morgan. But on the other, did she really know that much about him? She didn't know his religious background. Sure, he'd defend a gay victim, but that was his job. This was personal.

Emily sighed before replying. "I have... I have a secret girlfriend."

The silence felt like it lasted hours, stretching between them until Emily was sure the chasm would never close again, and that with just a few words, just by being herself, she'd ruined any chance of a friendship with Derek Morgan. It wouldn't be the first time. It probably wouldn't be the last.

Morgan seemed to think deeply before leaning against the wall next to Emily, turning to look her in the eye.

"Prentiss, why didn't you tell us you were gay?"

Emily was afraid to look at him, but when she did, her heart soared. He looked at her with nothing but love and respect and appreciation, no hint of hatred or disgust. If anything, he looked sad that she'd waited so long to tell him.

"I don't know," she shrugged. "I don't always get a good reaction."

"Well, you know nobody on this team would have a problem with that, right? Hell, Garcia'd probably hang pride flags everywhere."

"I know," Emily nodded. "I just... I don't think I'm ready yet. For everyone to know. Soon, though."

Morgan nodded, then thought for a few minutes before asking, "Is it serious?"

Emily chuckled. "Being gay? Yeah, I'd say so."

Morgan shoved her shoulder gently, mindful of the day's injuries. "No! The girl! How long have you been seeing her?"

"A little over six months."

"So, it's serious."

Emily grinned. She was glad to have someone to talk to about this. She'd held it so close for so long. She wasn't used to having anyone to tell about you. Maybe Morgan could be that person.

"Promise not to tell the others?"

Morgan put his hand over his heart. "Promise."

"I'd marry her tomorrow if she'd let me."

"Wow." Morgan raised his eyebrows, smiling lightly. "Prentiss is in love," he said, teasing her.

Emily fought a wide smile, but lost in the end. "Oh, shut up. And don't tell anyone. Especially her."

"Your secret's safe with me," Morgan reassured her. And she could tell he meant it. Emily trusted him, she realized. She trusted him to be a good friend, to keep her secrets. She trusted him not to out her to the rest of the team. He'd let her go at her own pace when it came to telling the others.

"She better be amazing," Morgan added. "I don't know how anyone could be good enough for you."

Just at that moment, a pair of headlights crept slowly into the parking lot, hesitant and unsure. It had to be you. Emily stepped forward and waved a bit, then turned to Morgan.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow?" she said.

"Not with that head, you won't," Morgan observed.

You put the car in park next to the curb and leapt out of the driver's seat, hurrying over to Emily.

"Oh my god!" you exclaimed, anger and concern washing over you. "I thought you you said you were fine!"

You gingerly touched Emily's face and pulled her head down to examine the butterfly bandage above her eyebrow.

"Look at this," you grumbled, more to yourself than anyone else. "It's already bruising." You glared at the butterfly bandage. "Did a doctor do this or you? If it was you, I think we should clean it with rubbing alcohol at home."

Morgan looked absolutely delighted, both because you seemed like a delightful person and because Emily was beet red at being observed with you.

"Y/N, I'm fine," Emily said firmly, grasping your fingers in hers and removing them from her face. "This is my colleague Derek Morgan. Morgan, my girlfriend, Y/N."

You looked Morgan over and immediately decided you liked him. Mostly because you could tell that he really cared about Emily. But also because he looked mischievous, like he'd tease her. And if there was anything you loved, it was teasing Emily. You shook his hand enthusiastically. "It's really nice to meet you," you said. And you meant it.

But you didn't have time to chat with Morgan tonight. You were too worried about Emily.

"You don't look fine," you argued, looking to Morgan for backup. "Does she look fine to you?"

Morgan grinned at Emily, raising his eyebrows. "She definitely looks like she could use some TLC."

"Oh, and she'll get it alright," you assured him, opening the passenger door for Emily. "Shall we?"

Emily bent gingerly to get into the car, and you were careful to guard her head from the ceiling.

"Derek, it was really nice to meet you," you said, shaking his hand one more time for good measure as Emily rolled down the window, staring bullets at Morgan.

"You too, Y/N," he said, looking over your shoulder at Emily. "I hope you all have a very marry evening."

Emily pointed at him aggressively behind your back, mouthing, "SHUT. UP."

"See you, Prentiss," he called as you pulled away. He laughed and called out, "I hope it's a real honeymoon from work!"

Emily's hand shot out the window, flipping him off.

Later that night, your alarm buzzed and you blinked awake. You forgot for a moment that you were at Emily's, but her strong arms wrapped protectively around your waist were enough to remind you where you were.

You turned slowly to face a sleeping Emily, brushing her hair out of her face.

"Em. Hey. You gotta wake up, honey."

She groaned, placing a hand on her head.

"Sorry," you grimaced. "Gotta make sure your brain's alright."

"My brain is fine," she growled.

"Oh, yeah?" you joked, checking the time before shaking a few pills into your hand from the pill bottle on the nightstand. "Who am I, then?"

"The love of my life, Whitney Houston."

You laughed, which made Emily laugh, too. But she quickly doubled over in pain, groaning.

"Here, take these," you said gently, handing her the pills and a glass of water. "It'll help."

She took the pills obediently and lay back down.

"You know," you said, pulling up the blankets to make sure they covered Emily's shoulders. "I may not be Whitney Houston..." You wrapped your arms around her and drew her to you, and she burrowed her head into the space between your neck and your collarbone.

"But I think I'm a close second," you finished, running your fingers rhythmically through Emily's hair.

She sighed contentedly, pressing into you, then moving one of your arms to wrap it more tightly around her.

"Why are you so good to me?" she asked, quiet. You couldn't quite tell if it was a joke or serious, but you'd reply the same either way.

"Because I love you, you nerd."

She leaned up, planting a kiss underneath your chin. "I love you, too."

Within minutes she was conked out again, and you were setting another alarm, ready to do it all over again in a few hours.

[cosmerelists]

Cosmere Protagonists as Villains

As requested by @idontknowanametouse :)

Let's talk about what Cosmere protagonists would be like if they decided to play for Team Evil!

[Spoilers for book series mentioned in titles--but no Wind and Truth spoilers included]

1. Kaladin [Stormlight Archive]

What turns him evil: I think Kaladin could honestly go down a Moash road, where he decides to take justice into his own hands and punish people who have hurt him, his friends, or What's Right.

What he'd be like: Abso-storming-lutely terrifying. Imagine a Pursuer-esque figure, but it's Kaladin coming to kill you. I mean, you'd die. He once ripped a guy's head off by lashing it to the floor. He never loses a fight. He wouldn't sneak up on you assassin-style, either. He's blowing the front door off its hinges and entering like a glowing Angel of Vengeance to MURDER you.

2. Vin [Mistborn Era 1]

What turns her evil: I can see a few possibilities: like she does take up the power in the Well of Ascension and becomes the new Lord Ruler, or Zane is just a lot more persuasive than he is in the original. But I'm gonna go with "Ruin gets to her so completely that she becomes his agent."

What she'd be like: Vin already has some...villain-esque actions in the original, like when she pretty much slaughters an entire Keep with Zane. But always in the original she was doing it to protect, and she had friends to give her moral and emotional support. But if she was Ruin's, then she really would be a Natural Disaster Made Flesh, bringing Utter Destruction and Ruin to the whole world. Like, she's taking down whole cities single-handedly.

3. Shallan [Stormlight Archive]

What turns her evil: Listen, Shallan already kills a lot of people. We know this, and we still love her. But perhaps she gets a little too into killing people and just goes straight serial killer.

What she'd be like: You ever seen Hannibal? I'm seeing the most beautifully artistic but horribly deranged Murder Sculptures. You know, where she's killed someone and but then turned their corpse into Art.

4. Tress [Tress of the Emerald Sea]

What turns her evil: It's hard to imagine Tress being evil, tbh...but, I mean, she does sell Crow into slavery to avoid the same fate, so there's something there. I'm gonna say that either the Sorceress does kill Charlie or Tress believes that he's dead, and she turns totally to the dark side.

What she'd be like: She already plays with hugely destructive powers and captains a Pirate Ship--plus her crew is actually loyal to her. She'd be what Crow wanted to be.

5. Yumi [Yumi and the Nightmare Painter]

What turns her evil: I mean...Yumi faced religious abuse for like thousands and thousands of years. She took it pretty well, all things considered, when she found out. Imagine if she didn't...

What she'd be like: Yumi is, like, the most invested being in the Cosmere. She's nigh unkillable. And she likes to stack things.... In this case, mountains upon mountains... of skulls.

6. Adolin [Stormlight Archive]

What turns him evil: I think Adolin could break from the combination of (a) finding out his father burned his mother alive and (b) killing Sadeas with virtually no consequences. Maybe he figures that if his dad can do all that and still be a beloved political figure, then he might as well do whatever he wants too.

What he'd be like: Adolin is great with people. As a protagonist, this makes him the sort of guy who makes friends easily, remembers everyone's name, and wins over even people determined to dislike him. Evil Adolin takes those skills but goes straight manipulator. He's winning people's trust only to poison them with lies, turn them against each other, make them think he's the only one they can trust. And if manipulation doesn't work, well, he can always challenge you to a duel...in a dark hallway with nobody around...

7. Sarene [Elantris]

What turns her evil: She just gets tired of not being in charge, considering that she's smarter and more strategic and just better than the men actually in charge...

What she'd be like: Honestly, Sarene would be a fantastic Evil Vizier, the real power behind the throne who is actually controlling everything for her own evil whims. I can see her doing it to Iadon, but that's almost too easy. I know in canon they love each other and are actually good 'n' all, but imagine her controlling Raoden from the shadows and tell me it's not kinda cool...

8. Marasi [Mistborn Era 2]

What turns her evil: She gets the Bands of Mourning...and decides she's never gonna give them up.

What she'd be like: Ultimate Power Marasi would decide that SHE knows what will keep a society happy and healthy, and that's her control. I see her creating a terrible police state where everyone's actions are very tightly controlled and every infraction is punished...but only because she wants what's best for you, you know?

9. Jasnah [Stormlight Archive]

What turns her evil: I mean, remember Jasnah's Philosophy Lesson to Shallan where she baited out some robbers and then murdered them in Cold Blood since they were hurting people and no one else would do anything about it? Now imagine that Jasnah takes it upon herself to fix all societal problems through whatever means are necessary...

What she'd be like: Jasnah could be a sort of Vigilante, who makes sure that "bad people" and "political problems" are dealt with swiftly and murderously. Like imagine the Urithiru coalition of monarchs, only Jasnah's is gonna assassinate you and replace you with a puppet if you're not persuaded by her arguments.

10. Spook [Mistborn Era 1 / Secret History]

What turns him evil: I mean, Spook had a lot of voices talking to him--first Ruin, pretending to be Kelsier, and then Actually Kelsier. And the voices were always pretty darn pro hemalurgy. I'm not 100% sure Spook wasn't evil by the time he was in charge...

What he'd be like: Spook suggests in his book that old people should let themselves be killed via hemalurgy to make sure their powers get passed on. Think that, only it's not a suggestion and it's not just old people and oh my god Scadrial is Hemalurgy Power Planet now.

11. Navani [Stormlight Archive]

What turns her evil: She just gets lost in the sauce, the "sauce" in this case being Scientific Advancement and Discovery.

What she's like: I see her as an Evil Scientist who is simply making terrible weapons of mass destruction more or less because she can...and no longer worrying about the consequences.

12. Ulaam [Tress of the Emerald Sea]

What turns him evil: Listen, he TRIED asking people politely for their organs and limbs after they died, and NOBODY ever said yes!

What he's like: Let's just say he got tired of waiting. And asking.

[lovelytsunoda]

the day you kissed a writer in the dark // han lue (tokyo drift)

summary: she's stood by his side for years. his loyal mechanic, the brains behind his brawn. but she'd be lying if she said that it didn't hurt to watch him flirt with those other women in his club, when he came home to her every night in secret.

bet you rue the day you kissed a writer in the dark, now she's gonna play and sing and lock you in her heart. i am my mother's child, i'll love you 'till my breathing stops.

pairing: han lue x mechanic! reader

warnings: smut, inappropriate use of a drifting car, insecurity and self-doubt, secret relationships, unplanned pregnancy.

author's note: here's something a little different today, lovelies! it's a departure from the usual realm of f1 content i usually bless you all with, but i felt like i needed to do something different to avoid burning myself out, and rewatching tokyo drift gave me the inspiration that i needed :)

she hated the club.

in the back end of her mind, she always resented the mere existence of that secret room leading to han's garage. the fact that he chose to surround himself with women in tight dresses with long legs and perky boobs like he was some kind of yakuza punk.

well, this wasn't crows fucking zero. this was real life.

she couldn't help but draw comparisons between these beautiful girls and herself. as she curled in on herself to duck through the crowd, she frowned at her reflection in the window: her torn up jeans, the grease stain on the cuff of her army-green sweater, the zip barely done up enough to cover up her double-d's, a small nut from her very first car hanging limply from a chain around her neck.

some days, she wondered why han had chosen her of all people.

"sean?" she asked quietly, poking the young american boy in the arm, practically shouting to be heard. "have you seen han?"

sean shook his head. "no, sorry. have you checked the garage?"

"i'm heading back there now. thanks, sean." she sighed, backing out the way that she came, trying not to think about all of the places that her boyfriend could be right now.

the anxiety ate away at her. was he with one of the other girls? one of the prettier, taller, thinner ones? was that why he wanted to keep the relationship under wraps?

was han ashamed of her?

she hurried down the rickety metal staircase, dropping her purse on the workbench as she went, subconsciously placing a hand over her stomach as she thought about the white plastic stick inside the fake leather bag.

they'd been sneaking around for a year, but they'd known each other far longer. she had come to tokyo when she was twenty-one, with a pocketful of cash and a monkey wrench. she had a high school diploma, but that didn't mean much to the rally teams she had applied to work on the pit crews for.

and that's when han swooped her up. when she became the bonnie to his clyde, the mechanic for his little street racing gambit.

that was three years ago. now she was almost twenty-five, he was twenty-seven, and he was in far too deep for them to keep going like this.

she knew why he had to keep it a secret. telling the world that she was his lover would put a target on her back. because that's what happens when you get in deep with someone like dk.

she pulled her hair back with the green rubber band on her wrist, pushing up her sleeves as she reached for a ratchet and approached han's car, the hood already open and ready for her.

working on the cars had always been her safe haven. her distraction from the outside world. fixing something that was broken gave her a satisfaction like no other.

"babe?" han's voice echoed through the garage, and she hated herself for the way that she froze up, fingers tightening around the ratchet. "sean said you were asking around for me? is everything okay?"

she withdrew from the car, slamming the hood down. "you're pushing the car too far. the engine is wearing down, you have to get something stronger. the serpentine belt is at it's brink."

"and that's why you're the brains of this operation and i'm just the pretty boy who drifts." han said playfully, wrapping his arms around her midsection as resting his chin on her shoulder.

"be more careful out there, seoul-oh." she said softly, placing a cold hand on top of his warm one before turning her head and kissing him softly. "i don't know what i'd do if anything ever happened to you."

han spun her body around gently, his hands on her waist as she jumped to perch her body on the edge of the hood, her fingers tangling in his dark, silky hair.

"you don't need to worry about me, sweetheart. i'm going to be okay."

she sighed, lacing her fingers together behind his neck. "where were you, han? wandering around your club with a girl on each arm? a girl that's three times prettier than i am, maybe one who's clothes are a little more revealing-"

"y/n, stop." han said firmly. "baby, you're the only one. my only one." he kissed her on the forehead softly. "i love you. i love you so much that it hurts. i wish i could shout it from the rooftops, but i can't put you in danger like that. i don't want dk to know, because that's a target on your back that i don't want there."

he pulled her as close as he could, arms wrapped securely around her as he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers. "i couldn't live with myself if anything ever happened to you."

the sincerity in the older man's voice was reassuring. but some days, it wasn't enough. she loved him more than words could say, but she was getting tired of being his little secret.

but at the end of the day, it was her bed that he always came home to. his arms she woke up in. his terrible singing in the kitchen while he made coffee with breakfast.

han lue was hers.

she kissed him again, still sitting on the edge of the toyota's hood. this kiss was stronger, harder. with more feeling as she bunched han's sweater up in her fingers, trying to wrestle it off his broad shoulders, his hands gripping her thighs tight enough to make her moan against his lips.

"seoul-oh." she mumbled as han broke away from her, pulling his sweater off the rest of the way before tugging his everlast t-shirt over his head.

they fit together like well-worn puzzle pieces, his lips finding that place on her neck that made her crumble, turned her legs to jelly as he slipped a hand up the front of her sweater, thumb tracing comforting shapes against her stomach as he nipped at her neck, biting down gently. there would be a hickey there in a mere matter of hours.

trailing kisses back up her neck, he gently bit her earlobe before placing one hand on the side of her face to guide her lips back to his, the other hand braced against the hood of the car to hold himself up. she bit down on his bottom lip, wrenching a growl from the back of han's throat.

he pulled away, dropping to his knees in front of the car as his large hands dipped under the waistband of her jeans. after reaching down to untie and kick off her beat up vans, she reached above her to grab the exposed beam in the garage ceiling, pulling her body up and allowing han to pull her jeans and panties down her legs in one fell swoop.

"oh, not on the car, baby. you'll stain the bodywork."

"don't care." han hummed, kissing the soft skin of her thigh. "i can't think of anything prettier than you. on the hood of my car, legs spread wide for me." he mumbled in between kisses, inching ever closer to where y/n needed him most, her arousal dripping onto the cool metal hood of the drift car.

and when his lips touched her throbbing clit, she could have sworn she turned electric, using one hand to brace herself against the car and burying the other in han's hair as she threw her head back in a throaty moan.

"han." she panted, grinding against his face as his tongue licked and sucked at her core. "oh, baby, yes."

han smiled to himself, kissing her clit gently as he held her thighs open with his hands. "still think that i don't find you attractive any more?"

"shut up, please. i need you so bad." she'd barely finished speaking when another low, seductive moan left her mouth. the arm that was holding her body up threatened to buckle underneath her as she tugged on han's hair, urging him to keep going.

han chuckled, the vibrations sending shockwaves through her body as her arm buckled, and she found herself lying against the hood, her head on the windscreen as she bucked her hips, searching for more as her lover tongue-fucked her, her legs thrown over his shoulders with reckless abandon.

"seoul-oh." she whined, clenching her thighs around han's head

"i know, baby." he mumbled softly, kissing her thigh. "you're doing so well darling. come for me."

and that's exactly what she did. with a moan so loud that she was shocked that the patrons of the club couldn't hear it echoing through the garage, she let go, her juices coating the lower half of han's face as he licked her clean before wiping off the bottom half of his face with the back of his hand.

"fuck." he mumbled, standing between her legs and leaning over the car to kiss her. "i can't get enough of you, baby. i think i'm gonna need more."

"oh yeah?" she smiled sitting up slightly, resting her weight on her elbows and raising an eyebrow when she saw the obvious hard-on struggling to break free from the confines of han lue's jeans. "and what do you think we should do about it?"

"back. room. now." he said, softly but firmly, kissing her in between each word as she wrapped her bare legs around his body, allowing han to pick her up and carry her over to the back room, where a double bed was piled high with blankets for the nights where they worked late, or drift races lasted until the mere hours of the morning.

or, nights where neither of them wanted to go home. han was sure that they had fucked on almost every available surface of the garage.

she undid her sweater slowly, revealing the lacy white bra underneath, the makeshift pendant on her necklace hanging delicately just above the hollow of her breasts as she cast the fabric aside, reaching up to snap the elastic band in her hair, letting it cascade in waves down her shoulders.

"you're beautiful, you know that?" he said softly, kneeling on the mattress as he rested one hand gently against her cheek.

she leaned into his touch, reaching up to wrap her slender fingers around his wrist, pressing a soft kiss to the heel of his hand.

she knew she should tell him. han needed to know.

but now was definitely not the time.

not that she could find the words while he kissed her neck, her chest, her stomach, his fingers dancing across her back as he fumbled with the clasp of her bra, erection straining against his jeans.

"han, babe." she mumbled, reaching behind her. "it's been a year now, you should know how to undo a bra, mr. womanizer." she joked, pushing his hands away as she pulled the bra off by herself.

"why would i need to know how to do it when you just take it off by yourself most of the time?" he grinned, standing up to unbuckle his belt.

he started to undo his jeans, pausing halfway as if he had forgotten something before he darted over to the rolling toolbox in the back of the room, pulling a small foil packet out of the top drawer.

fat lot of good a condom would do them now.

not when she was already carrying his baby inside of her.

her body trembled with anticipation as she watched han rid himself of his jeans, the echo of his belt buckle hitting the floor echoing around the room before he rolled the latex sheath onto his thick, hard cock.

god, she was a fool in love. han seoul-oh made her feel every range of emotions all at once.

"seoul-oh." she mumbled, lips against his as he clambered onto the bed, covering her body with his broad one.

"hm?" han mumbled, pressing kisses all over her face.

"i love you, han lue." she said firmly, gently pushing his face away so she could look him in the eyes. "i mean it, babe. you've ruined me for anybody else. you're it for me."

"good, because i don't think i could love anybody else if i tried." han breathed out, kissing her again, the tip of his cock teasing her entrance.

she squirmed under him, a small gasp escaping her lips before she bit down on her bottom lip.

she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of hearing her beg. that wasn't what tonight was for.

han knew this as well, gently pushing himself inside her. tonight was about more than just chasing a high. for both of them. it was about love, and reassurance, and intimacy.

she threaded her fingers through his hair, whining as han moved ever so slightly, the sensations they both felt sending shockwaves through their bodies.

"seoul-oh." she moaned softly. "please. god, you feel incredible."

"yeah?" han crooned, thrusting softly and barely holding back a moan of his own. "you look so pretty with my cock inside you, my sweet sweet girl."

"just like that." she whined as he thrusted again, bucking her hips into him, trying to take his length deeper. "keep doing that, fuck."

when han's nimble fingers came up grip and massage her right breast, she knew she was a goner, arching her back to drive her body into him with a moan as he kissed her chest.

"you like that, baby? yeah, you love having my hands all over you. and i love touching your beautiful body." han murmured, sucking a hickey onto her collarbone. he could feel himself unravelling, knew that the end was nigh as he moaned against her skin, blindly reaching for her hand.

there were no more slow thrusts as the driver began to pick up the pace, his lover's legs wrapped tightly around him as she moaned his name.

"oh god, han, baby. fuck, keep going." she panted, one hand trailing down her body to play with her clit. anything to get her closer to that release she craved as she whined and squirmed under han's touch.

she'd seen this film before, and she already knew the ending. and the start if the sequel.

"come for me, baby. i know you can take it, just give me one more, okay?"

"han, han, holy shit." she moaned, feeling the coil in her stomach finally snap, her high crashing over her like a wave.

her lover groaned above her, a guttural sound ripped straight from his throat before han gently pulled out of her sensitive body, the evidence of his own peak contained within the clear latex that he slid off his member, tying the condom off in a knot before punting it into the trash can next to his desk.

she pulled the blankets up as han settled in the bed next to her, his warm fingers dancing in gentle circles against her sweaty skin as they laid together in the afterglow, a content look on his face as he kissed her on the forehead.

"seoul-oh." she said quietly, twirling his long, dark locks of hair around her fingertip. "i have to tell you something."

"what's on your mind, pretty girl?" worry creased han seoul-oh's face, a pit forming in his stomach.

he hated seeing her like this.

"i'm pregnant."

han's eyes widened. "what? babe, why didn't you tell me?"

"i've been trying all day. but you've had your hands full with dk and sean and drifting." she said sadly. "but i can't raise this baby with dk breathing down our necks. you need to get out of this life, seoul-oh."

han frowned thoughtfully, one hand resting against the side of her face. "i'm going to be a father. fucking hell, babe this is incredible. i promise you, i'm going to make a plan, and i'm going to get us out of tokyo."

"you know we can't keep this a secret any longer, right? i'm already eight weeks along, once the first trimester ends, i won't be able to hide it."

"you're right, you're right. we'll test the waters. i'll tell sean and twinkie in the morning, see how the news of our relationship goes over with them. i want to keep it from dk until i can find a way to get us out of here."

y/n nodded, lacing her fingers with han's and placing his hand on her stomach. "okay. let's do this thing." she broke out into a smile. "we're going to be parents, han. can't you picture it? sitting behind the wheel of your toyota, with our little gremlin on your lap, teaching them how to drive before they can even walk."

han laughed. "they'll be born with a monkey wrench in one hand and a bag of lays in the other."

"i love you, seoul-oh." she said softly, kissing him gently. "i'm so glad i found you three years ago.

"i love you more, y/n. and i can't wait to raise this kid with you."

Tags (though im not sure if any of you are interested loll):

@magnummagnussen @libraryofloveletters @sidcrosbyspuck @scuderiamh

[sunsetkerr]

PITCHES AND FIELDS | s.kerr

summary: you are sam's biggest supporter and she is yours.. sometimes.

pairing: aflw!reader x sam kerr

notes: for my Aussies x

yourinstagram

liked by samanthakerr20, caitlinfoord and 30,391 others yourinstagram in perth watching the mrs put on a show, go tillies!

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samanthakerr20 you know I love an opportunity to show off ↳ caitlinfoord yes we know

user the crows girlies out for the night

alannakennedy loudest in the crowd ↳ yourinstagram sam sat me in general admission so I had to make sure you could hear me ↳ samanthakerr20 putting you in the nosebleeds next time ↳ yourinstagram and I'll be cheering for chinese taipei

user love this!!

user such a great game to watch too

clarewheeler I'm just glad you saw my goal ↳ yourinstagram I cheered the loudest for you x

yourinstagram

liked by samanthakerr20, maddinewman17 and 29,388 others yourinstagram roped sam into a recovery day on the boat with the team, photographer extraordinaire; @aflwcrows hire her

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user its a very good day to like women

mackenziearnold what's in that can skippa?? ↳ samanthakerr20 pre-workout ↳ yourinstagram or something like that

user sam being a lil afl wag is something so special to me ↳ user y/n needs a trade to west coast and she's set ↳ samanthakerr20 thats what I've been saying

caitlinfoord drown her while you're out, yeah? ↳ samanthakerr20 but then how would we win games?

matildas looking good mrs skip! ↳ user did.. did the matildas admin just confirm that they got married? ↳ matildas idk, did we?

samanthakerr20

liked by yourinstagram, maryfowlerrr and 893,128 others samanthakerr20 three goals today for my love, would look even better in blue and gold though 🦅🦅

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eaglesaflw can't argue with that ↳ crowsaflw we can..

yourinstagram how's that for a hat trick? ↳ samanthakerr20 my favourite one was when you were getting tackled to the ground and still kicked it ↳ yourinstagram just an elite athlete really, someone give me the ballon d'or

emilyvanegmond she's just that good ↳ samanthakerr20 stop, her ego is already so big

yourinstagram

liked by samanthakerr20, alannakennedy and 32,398 others yourinstagram had the mini me on the field today

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crowsaflw can't wait to have her wearing that guernsey when playing for us in fifteen years!

user I always forget that they have a kid???? ↳ user not just a kid that's marley kerr ↳ alannakennedy show some respect

samanthakerr20 she belongs on a football pitch ↳ yourinstagram if you actually look at the picture, you will see she is born to be on a footy field x ↳ samanthakerr20 we'll see about that ↳ yourinstagram what are you gonna do? sign her up to the sam kerr football academy??? ↳ samanthakerr20 don't have to sign her up, I know the owner

[sanjisboyfie]

one piece masterlist ౨ৎ

[ keep safe series ] // ongoing, romantic undertones, slow burn, future angst, comedic

-> "it's beautiful, how this deep normality settles down over me. i'm not bored or unhappy. i'm still so strange and wild. you're in the wind, i'm in the water. nobody's son, nobody's daughter." or, joining the strawhat pirates as luffy's childhood friend allows you to make memorie with people who started as strangers, but then became your loved ones.

playlist

๑ prologue

๑ the cursed orphan enters 彡 alabasta arc begins

๑ [name] joins the strawhats

๑ just a friendly competition...right?

๑ heartfelt conversations with a chef

๑ coffee beans

๑ i'm gonna freeze my balls off

๑ i'm gonna freeze my balls off, pt. 2

๑ crimson red icicles

๑ luffy's innate instincts (a hum of the heart)

๑ new crewmate, tony tony chopper

๑ his hand on his ankle

๑ don't you know? "lover" outweights "boyfriend"

๑ i'll kill you, i'll really kill you

๑ "together in chaos."

๑ zoro being annoyed at his captain and [name]

๑ mr. prince and mr. executioner

๑ the dogs are hounding on [name]

๑ wings that made [name] fly

๑ see you later, vivi!

❔[NAME] WIKI - ALABASTA ARC ENDS

๑ more in common than you'd think 彡 skypiea arc begins

๑ robin and [name] make a good team!

๑ we made it!

๑ [name] wants to adopt suu!

๑ that god guy thing

๑ strawhat adventure team, go!

๑ chopper's crown

๑ put a face to the name

๑ mummified [name]

๑ four hundred years is not too late

ꔛ 666 heart special for quotev -> individual one shots with each straw hat, each assigned a representative song that describes the relationship they share with [name]

๑ navarone - g8

๑ davy back fight 彡 long ring long land arc begins

-> frequently used tags:

#≡;- ꒰ ° keep safe series ꒱

#ks

#one piece fanfic

#one piece fanfiction

DOMESTICITY series // based off of keep safe characters/relationships, but can be read as standalone one shots

ꔛ sanji's special dessert -> he prepares a dessert only for you since he knows your likes and dislikes

ꔛ a shared interest among swordsmen -> rare moments of peace and quiet with zoro

ꔛ nami is working, don't interrupt -> she doesn't mind the company, especially if you're peeling her tangerines

ꔛ usopp and [name]'s conversation -> heart to heart

one piece [ smau ] // social media au

ପ strawhats misc. edition

ପ dating luffy edition

ପ dating nami edition

ପ dating sanji edition

ପ strawhat vacation edition

ପ dating zoro edition

ପ dating usopp edition

ପ dating vivi edition

ପ married to law edition

ପ married to franky edition

ପ married to robin edition

ପ dating eustass kid edition

ପ married to doflamingo edition

ପ dating ace edition

ପ married to marco edition

ପ dating sabo edition

-> frequently used tags:

#≡;- ꒰ ° smau series ꒱

#one piece smau

#one piece modern au

[ yandere ]

જ yandere zoro headcanons

જ yandere sanji headcanons

જ soft yandere luffy

જ yandere luffy

-> frequently used tags:

#≡;- ꒰ ° yandere series ꒱

#≡;- ꒰ ° yandere headcanons ꒱

[ drabbles // one shots // headcanons ]

ꔛ playlist : tender by blur [ luffy x male reader ] // based off of keep safe characters, but can read as a standalone one shot. small hints of yandere luffy. // snippet of pt.2

-> tender is the night, lying by your side. tender is the touch of someone that you love too much. tender is my heart. i'm screwing up my life. lord i need someone to who can heal my mind, or luffy and reader reminisce about their childhood memories while cuddling in merry's crow's nest.

-

SUGAR DADDY series

ꔛ in a world of boys, he's a gentleman, nami x SD male reader

ꔛ pass the test, nami x SD male reader, the one where he meets nami's friends

-

ꔛ shanks being your doting boyfriend

ꔛ random sanji headcanons

ꔛ sanji has a crush on you ♡︎

ꔛ halloween with the strawhats [platonic]

ꔛ a day in the life as a strawhat [platonic]

ꔛ rockstar ! tragalar law headcanons

ꔛ me psychoanalyzing sanji x male reader

ꔛ random individual headcanons ; includes, law, luffy and zoro

ꔛ the type of man . . .

[daddy-deathslinger]

Hey, I'm a big sucker for DBD imagines and posts and you're one of the top three I like.

Is it ok if I can have some imagines of Caleb, Kazan, and Trickster reacting to an s/o who LOUDLY curses in their native tongue (Like Caleb = Irish S/O, Kazan = Japenese S/O) and they let it out during a trial with them, shocking even the crows.

I rage around failing gens and evading, and I always cause a scene when I do 😅. You don't have to find any accurate swear words or curses, I like to see the build up to their reactions for it XD!

Hi there! I hope ya like what I came up with, I wanted to try and google some swears in these languages so if something's incorrect, blame google! xD

The Deathslinger/Caleb Quinn reacting to his S/O cursing in Irish:

It’s a trial like any other for you. Repair generators, flee from the killer, yadda yadda.

The killer in this trial is Caleb, so you know he’s gonna go a bit easier on you, which is good because you feel distracted this trial.

It might be the map, you hate the creepy school of Silent Hill. Nothing ever seems to go right when you’re sent to this map.

To prove your point, you suddenly get very startled while sneaking up to a generator.

BANG! It’s a corpse, it just falls right out of a locker! Right in front of you, as you’re sneaking by!

You can’t help it, the words just come out.

“Nách mór an diabhal thú! Fucking manky piece of-”

“Y/N?”

The next second, you’re startled again, this time by none other than Caleb, sneaking up behind you.

“Caleb! What in the goddamn-”

Your curses are cut short when you see the confused look on Caleb’s face. 

He just stares at you, and you’re starting to wonder if he’s alright.

Then, he suddenly burst out into laughter.

He laughs and laughs, folding himself double where he stands, tears forming in his eyes.

“Yeah yeah, laugh it up. This thing scared me, alright?” you hiss, but Caleb only continues laughing as he leaves the room.

The Oni/Kazan Yamaoka reacting to his S/O cursing in Japanese:

You and Meg find each other in a trial. You decide to sneak up to a generator together, since you make a notoriously good engineer team.

The wet bamboo rustles beside you as you sit down at your silent generator, and as Meg keeps watch at first, you start working the cables.

This is easy. You know your way around generators, you’ve repaired hundreds of them by now.

Even though Kazan is the killer in this trial, you’re not nervous. He goes easy on you, and you’re not worried about Meg and her speedy legs.

Meg is still keeping watch just in case Kazan shows up, and you’re almost halfway on the generator. This is too easy, why-

BOOM!

A part of the generator explodes right in your face, and the next second all hell breaks loose.

“Kuso kurae! Motherfucker! This stupid piece of shit generator!”

You go on and on about where the generator can get lost and you don’t even notice Meg staring at you like she could kill you.

You do notice the heavy footsteps approaching, however. You go silent, just now noticing the echo from your angered voice.

Kazan looks at you, just staring from behind his mask.

Then, he grabs his sword and slowly saunters along, as if nothing had happened. You hear him mutter something to himself, then he’s gone.

The Trickster/Ji-Woon Hak reacting to his S/O cursing in Korean:

It’s just one of those days. Nothing goes right, and every possible thing fucks up.

You’re so tired of this trial, even if your Ji-Woon is the killer.

You wish this would just end already. You break every part in the generators, you can’t sneak or hide for shit apparently and on top of everything Quentin is just aimlessly staring at the wall whenever you come across him in the trial. He must be falling asleep again, stupid guy.

The cup finally spills over for you, when Ji-Woon finds you and decides to taunt you a bit.

He brandishes his knives, singing about how easy you are to catch and how useless your teammates are in this trial. It’s like a whole performance.

You sigh in anger and suddenly you shout: “Gae-sae-kki! Shut up, you idiot!”

Ji-Woon quiets down and stops in the middle of a tap dance, staring at you.

“Babe, I’m sorry, I love you”, you say. “Just, shut up! And you look stupid, dancing like that!”

A moment of silence, then Ji-Woon grins at you.

To your surprise, he leans over and kisses your cheek, then he giggles and starts walking towards Quentin, who’s now clearly asleep.

[strangesthirdeye]

Come With Me ( Crowley x Fem Angel! Reader x Aziraphale)

Summary; Nothing lasts forever, right?

Warning: IT’s Ineffable Hubbys, we love them.. episode 6 spoiler, heavy angst, betrayal, hurt, reader is an angel, it is episode 6 so you know what happened, I don’t know whether to make it platonic or not but it’s up to you.

As usual, I'm sorry if there are any wrong sentences or typos or grammatical mistakes, please forgive me and again English is not my first language, so I try to improve my language and writing in this way.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

“ what’s that lovely human expression? Oh, yes! Hold that thought” Aziraphale chuckled lightly.

You and Crowley watched his unusual beaming self with confused engraved both of your

face. Aziraphale grinned widely.

“ You see, i- i have some incredibly good news to give you both.” Aziraphale said, grinning.

Crowley raised his eyebrows. “ Really?”

" what's the good news?" you cocked your head to the side slightly.

Aziraphale grinned cheerfully, impatient to tell the good news to his two partners. His mind repeatedly replayed his conversation with Metatron a moment ago. “ I umm..So, Umm..The Metatron, you know,i don’t think he’s a bad fellow…Well, he said, umm, that Gabriel obviously hadn’t worked out..” Aziraphale laughed before continued. “ as Supreme

Archangel and Commander of the Heavenly Host, and he asked who i thought should take over in Heaven now that Gabriel was gone. And i said..”

You both continued to listen to his ramblings about his conversation between Metatron. The way he told you both that the good news was related to the position in Heaven but the next

thing he said, made your expressions change as soon as he mentioned something that left Crowley in disbelief. Something the both of you need to listen to carefully and twice.

You glanced at Crowley who had wide eyes and mouth agape looking at Aziraphale,

speechless.

“ He said what?” Crowley replied, his face instantly changed.

Sensing the tense situation, you reached for Crowley's right hand hoping to calm him down.

Aziraphale grinned while pointing his thumb at Crowley. “ He said i could apppoint you to be

an angel. You could come back to Heaven and.. And everything, like the old times. Only

even nicer” Aziraphale giggled.

Crowley shuffled his feet, eyes still focusing on Aziraphale. “ Right. And you told him just where he could stick it, then?”

“not at all” Aziraphale replied, simply.

Crowley started fuming in displeasure.” Oh, we’re better than that, you’re better than that, Angel! You don’t need them. I certainly don't need them! Look, they asked me to back to Hell, i said no. I’m just not gonna be joining their team. Neither should you”

Aziraphale looked at him in disbelief. “ But.. Well, obviously you said no to Hell, your’re the bad guys. But Heaven… Well it’s the side of the Truth, of Light. Of God.” Aziraphale replied.

You clinched your jaw after hearing what Aziraphale said. This is over the limit. No, Aziraphale never said that about Crowley being a bad guy. You can only be silent and witness this tense situation. Crowley, as an Angel? What- why does Aziraphale want Crowley to become an Angel again? It's not like you don't like that, but

why now does Aziraphale want to side with Heaven after all you've been through?

Is that what he and Metatron were talking about? Make Crowley an Angel? Thinking about

this makes you uncomfortable. After everything that happened during Armageddon, Heaven

and Hell tried to destroy your lives. What's the point if we don't cooperate with them but we

side with them just because of a position offered? Is what you all do just for nothing?

Crowley, whose feelings were getting worse at the replied, glared at Aziraphale sharply.

“ When Heaven ends life here on Earth, it’ll be just as dead as if Hell ended it.” Crowley said slowly.

You turned your gaze on Crowely. Unconscious hand stroked his hand.

"Why now, Azira?" you looked at Aziraphale again.

Aziraphale turned his gaze at you. Mouth agape when asked. "but, Y/N, Heaven. If Crowley cooperates with us, full angelic and all, we don't have to worry about conflict between the two sides. We can- we can always do good" Aziraphale reasoned. “Meanwhile, Metatron also said that you can be my right-hand man just like Crowley so that the three of us don't need to be apart" he added.

"he offered me to be your right-hand man" you looked at Aziraphale with disbelief.

Azirapale nodded. "Well, if you say yes"

"Tell me you said no" Crowley interrupted. Eyes looking at Aziraphale expectantly.

You glanced at Crowley speechless. You can see how angry Crowley is right now.

Crowley let go of your hand and shuffled his feet to move forward. "Tell me you said no" he asked again.

Aziraphale looked at him shocked. "If I'm in charge.. I can make a difference."

Crowley let out a heavy sigh and turned away from Aziraphale. You looked at Crowley with concern.

“Oh.. Oh, God. Right, i didn’t get a chance to say what i was going to say,i think i’d better say it now, right okay, yes, so…” Crowley's feelings are mixed between anger, betrayal and distressed. Just listen to the tone of his voice, you already know how he feel

Crowley sighed heavily. His mind tried to process the next sentence. You pursed your lips seeing Crowley distressed over things that for him there is still hope to be saved.

Something that the three of you built to stay together.

After a few heavy sighs, Crowley finally had the courage to face Aziraphale. "We've known each other for a long time. We’ve been on this planet for along time i mean you, me and Y/n. I could always rely on you. You could always rely on me and so was Y/n. She can rely on us and so can we. We're a team. A group. Group of the three of us. And we’ve spent our existence pretending that we aren’t. I mean, the last few years, not really” Crowley turned his

gaze away from Aziraphale as well as from you who were by his side. Crowley didn't want you both to see his eyes that were glassy because of the tears that started to appear under his eyelids.

He doesn't want pity from anyone. For somebody's sake, he has never hurt this bad as long as he has existed. You intended to comfort him but seeing that he didn't want anyone to touch him, you had to witness his overload emotions with your eyes also glossy with tears.

“ I mean, if Gabriel and Beelzebub..can do it, go off together, then we can. Just the three of us. We don’t need Heaven, we don’t need Hell, they’re toxic! WE need to get away from them, just be an us. You and me, what do you say?” Crowley looked at him sadly.

Aziraphale shook his head several times with tears beginning to appear in his eyelids. He then moved himself to approach you both. "come with me..to Heaven. I'll run it, you two can be my second in command. The three of us can make it different."

Aziraphale stared at Crowley's eyes longingly before he turned his gaze to you who had been silent by Crowley's side since earlier. “ Y/n? Please tell me that you will come with me. We are both Angels, surely you want to follow me to Heaven and do good things. Please."

Aziraphale takes your hands and holds it gently while his eyes hold a pleading feeling.

You took a few steps back, letting go his hands from your hands as you shook your head a few times in disbelief.

" no..No Azira..I- I can't come you. After all we've been through now do you want to work with them again? This- this is something that- Oh, God, I can't" you started to hyperventilate with overloaded emotions.

Crowley moved towards you and hugged your body gently. He rubbed your shoulders tenderly, trying to calm you down. You put your head on his chest as you cried silently in his arms. Aziraphale looked at you feeling a little guilty and a little jealous when he witnessed the scenes that happened in front of him.

"please.. I didn't mean to upset you like this, I just want you two to come with me. We can be together" Aziraphale took a step forward but then stopped when Crowley took a step back from him with you in his arms.

"Crowley-"

"No..You can't leave this bookstore" Crowley answered with hurt.

Aziraphale huffed a big breath after he heard what Crowley said. He chuckled slightly.

"Oh, Crowley. Nothing lasts forever" and that's it. The last shot.

Crowley clenched his jaw as he looked at Aziraphale who once he called friends and partners. The look of betrayal stuck on his face while you parted away from Crowley's chest with cheeks stained with tears.

You are at a loss for words. Mind repeatedly played what Aziraphale said earlier.

"no. No, i don't suppose it does" Crowley put on his black tinted glasses, hiding his snake eyes from Aziraphale before taking your hand. "Good Luck" and he left Aziraphale standing there with eyes glassy with tears.

"Goodbye, Aziraphale" you whispered but loud enough for Aziraphale to hear it as you walked past him.

[astarion-dekarios]

I did a live transcription of the Dragon Age: the Veilguard dev Q&A session today.

UPDATE/EDIT: I made a second pass of this and cleaned it up into a full/complete transcript.

Q: If you could belong to any of the main factions, which would you choose? 

Corinne: Listen Katie, you say softball but this is hard. I'm gonna cheat and I’m gonna give you two. So for fashion, the Antivan Crows all day long. their threads, you're gonna love it. For vibes though, the ones that capture my vibe, Mournwatch. Gimme those necromancers.

John: Those are good answers. I have one for fashion and for just general faction that I’d like to be a part of. Veil jumpers - who doesn't like a nice walk in the forest, you know, even if that forest is filled with horrifying monsters and terrifying anomalies, but uh, yeah.

Matt: For me it’s definitely the Lords of Fortune. I’ve had a chance to try out a bunch of them, and I think I’ve finally settled on them, and I think it’s just because pirate barbarian is just such a great combination of elements. Treasure hunting, plus beaches and palm trees and all that stuff, it’s a really good mix, so that’s kind of my default.

Q: I’ve seen a lot of talk about only having two companions in your party instead of three for this game. What is the reasoning this and will we get the same companion conversations and banter as seen in the previous Dragon Age Games?? 

Corinne: Such a good question. Thank you to whoever submitted this one. I'll start and then turn it over to John Epler. As you saw in the gameplay reveal, this is a much more intimate experience. We pulled the camera in. For those that aren't aware, the reason why is we want you to feel like you actually are in this world, like you’re walking these the city streets of Minrathous, you’re looking up at the buildings all around you. You're a part of this place. It's much more intimate, and we believe as the narrative unfolds that this creates a lot more immersion. Now how this relates to the companions is in doing this, we went back and forth on it a lot, but we actually found that having two companions allows them more visibility and presence. We've talked about the incredible depth and focus we’ve put on fleshing out these companions, they're very fully realized, so here you really get to see them more clearly, you get to see them shine. When you see Lace Harding jump into the air and release a volley of arrows, you can only get that because of this more intimate view. So I love the spotlight that’s been put on them. But I think in addition to the banter, one of the things people are wondering about is, ok but what about gameplay. Again, this has come about from our testing, working with the internal team and also our lovely our council of players. We just found that in the combat system, when you're planning your strategies, two felt like the right number to manage. Keep in mind, Rook has a lot of different types of actions: abilities, individual attacks that are more fleshed out than ever before. Timing and positioning matter a lot, so this really felt like the right balance. The number of inputs and actions we’re asking you as a player to take, including directing your companions, is higher than ever before. And I will also say that I engage with the companions, I actively control what they're doing more than I ever have before in any of the other three games. But John, I’ll toss it over to you for the banter.

John: So banter, honestly I don't think you could stop the writers from writing banters. I will say for myself, it's one of the more light but fun things to do. You get to write little stories, little arcs between the characters, and Veilguard is no different. Banter is still absolutely a core part of it. We've got global banter, you know the general stuff that you get in all spaces, as well as mission specific stuff. But yeah. It's definitely still a big thing, if anything it's the most we've ever done for pairings of companions. Beyond that, we’ve also made sure—and I mean, I’ve been on Dragon Age for a while, and I know there’s been an issue, you know, things like, “well, I don’t wanna miss this banter.” So we've even added stuff like interruptable and resumable banter as well, just to make sure that—because again, it’s a core part of the experience. Everyone loves hearing these companions talk to each other. Everyone loves hearing these little stories and relationships develop over the course of the game, and as mentioned before, companions are the heart of this experience. So we still have it, if anything like I said, you could not stop the writers from doing it, even if you tried.

Corinne: Well John, listening to you speak, one thing that comes to mind, maybe people are wondering, with two companions in the field, do I get less interaction? Like do I get a scene with my companions interacting with a broader group more often? And the way you'll gather them around the kitchen table, there's just so many of those moments where they're all interacting with each other. Those are some of my favorite parts.

John: Yeah, and that’s a good callout, because I think the other side of it is, we aren’t talking too much about your home, but we also wanna make sure that they feel like they have relationships and a life outside of just the times you take a certain pair of companions out on the field, so we made sure that they have interactions there as well.

Q: How customizable is the backstory of Rook? Will we get to determine their past in the character creator?

John: Absolutely. So Rook has six different backgrounds that you can choose from. Each  one is tied to one of the major factions in the Veilguard, and each one sets out who Rook was before they were recruited by Varric. While that sets up the broad events, as you go through the game and have conversations either with members of your faction, other characters, you can define not just what those events were but what they meant to you – what was your motivation, what was the kind of person you are as you build up Rook, because again, we wanna make sure that roleplaying is at the heart of this experience, and taking Rook, giving them a background in the world but letting you decide what that means and what that says about you is also a big part of it. And again, there are six different factions in this game. Two which anyone who’s played Dragon Age for a while would remember, you’ve got the Gray Wardens and Antivan Crows. We also have, in addition to them, four new ones because we’re in Northern Thedas. We’ve got the Veil Jumpers, Mournwatch, Shadow Dragons, and Lords of Fortune. A lot of different options, a lot of different backgrounds, and a lot of opportunities to define who your Rook was and who they are now.

Q: Will crafting return and has it been improved since Inquisition?

Corinne: Will crafting return? You can absolutely improve and customize your gear, yes. That is a big part of RPG progression, so yes you can improve and customize it. I will say though, it's different this time around, and it does get into spoiler territory so I'm gonna be a little cagey about it, but there might be a mysterious entity that assists you with that that will be an important part of the narrative.

Q: Can we kiss or romance Manfred the skeleton? 

John: I would say, not that skeleton, but we're not saying no skeletons.

Q: What were some of the development considerations that you had to take into account to ensure this game flows & functions with prior games & dragon age keep, if keep is being utilized? 

Corinne: We did an interview with IGN that goes into some of the details there. To summarize, we have taken a different approach on how you import your decisions this time around. It's now fully integrated into the character creator and serves a dual purpose, to be honest. It’s not called this in game, but I playfully think of it as "last time on dragon age". When I talk about its dual purpose, it's been 10 years since the last dragon age game release, so it serves as a refresher on critical events as well as allowing you to remake those decisions that are critical to you. The thing I love about it is it's very highly visual, it uses the familiar tarot card aesthetic, so it's actually a very visual and playful experience as you go through it. It is very much important to us that it's built into the client, though. You can play this game entirely offline, no connection, you don’t have to link to your EA accounts. That's been a really big request, so the refresher plus make those decisions in client, I think we're all pretty happy about that. I don't wanna spoil anything by revealing what decisions you can import. Y'all don't want the spoilers. But it's been a really interesting creative intersection for us. Because on the one hand, this is a whole new adventure. You're in northern thedas, these locations you've literally never been to before, so that affects what will matter and what we’re not using this time around as far as decisions. But obviously there’s some very very clear connections to existing characters. It’s no secret that the Inquisitor, our dear Inky, is gonna show up, so that's a factor.

Q: Will this next game be an open world game or is it just confined to Tevinter? 

John: Yeah, so you are in northern Thedas, but the game only begins in Minrathous. It doesn't stay there. I think one of the most exciting things for me, and again, I don’t wanna get into too much spoiler detail, but getting to go to and work with the art team, the narrative, the design team to build out these locations we've talked about, places that character have referred to as where they’ve come from, places that characters obviously in previous games have hailed from, has been absolutely exciting. So you do start in Tevinter, you do start in Minrathous, but again that’s not the entire game by any stretch.

Corinne: And the first half of it is, is it an open world game? We've gone back to what we believe delivers the best, most curated, intense narratives. So this is a hand crafted experience, it's mission based. Now these locations can open up, you can go back, solve mysteries, do some really great side content - not fetch quests, not grind quests, some really great side content. But I wanna be clear, it's a really curated, hand crafted experience.

John: Just to bounce off of that very quickly, the most important thing for us and what Corinne was saying about hand crafted, obviously we’ve talked about how characters, story, narrative are critical to us, and this has allowed us to build those experiences in a way that emphasized that really well while still tying it into the story threads and story beats.

Q: Will the companions have unique specializations like DA2 or the same as player?

Corinne: I think the best way for me to describe this is that yes, our companions will have abilities that are truly unique to them, but also the companions do fall into the archetypes of mage, rogue, and warrior. For instance, you might be surprised to hear, because she has a bow, but Bellara is in fact a mage, and I love that. Some of the abilities, the bulk of the abilities of the companions, are based on their own unique personalities. Neve is the only mage that is an ice mage, so you get distinct abilities for her. But because she's a mage, she does have access to abilities that all mages share, like Time Slow. We really like the balance there. It’s a good mix of representing their archetype, their class, and also their distinct specialization or personality or whatever you wanna call it.

John: Yeah actually, I would say the word personality is a great one, because all of these characters exist, have a story, have a history of how they became who they were, and part of that was finding that intersection between narrative and gameplay and making sure that again, we serve the needs of gameplay, but also allow these characters to exist as their own people, not just in conversation but out of conversations as well.

Corinne: I would also say that as part of that core mage kit, healing spells are there. So if your mages, you wanna make ‘em a healer, yeah.

Q: Will the Veilguard have tactical combat still? 

Corinne: Yes. Combat gets quite tactical. Obviously this is an evolution of the combat system. I talked about immersion, wanting to put you in the world like you’re actually living and existing in it, but it is very tactical and I will say we have a robust difficulty system. The tactics are increasingly important the higher difficulty that you go. So if you’re showing up for a highly tactical experience, I would crank that difficulty in particular. But I wanna make sure I’m super clear in my answer. You saw the gameplay reveal. Our pause time tactical mode is not overhead. It stays close to Rook. It does allow you to cycle between targets in and out of combat, there’s a reason for that. As the game progresses, you didn’t see this in that opening hour of the game, but it will display strategic information on the enemies, so what are their vulnerabilities, what are their elemental weaknesses, their enhancements, what are they resistant to, so your type of abilities, leaning into elemental gameplay matters a lot.

I would also say, this is a long answer because it’s such a great question, tactical decision making also takes the form, I would say this is front and center, of coordinating your ability usage between Rook and your companions to create synergies and or really devastating, we call them detonation combos. So let me give you a couple of examples, because it can be really hard to visualize, so hopefully this helps. One of the tactics that I personally enjoy in my own builds, I just recently played as a veil ranger, I love it, it’s one of my favorites. if I'm fighting fade touched enemies in Artlathan, I like to use Bellara's galvanized tear to pull enemies together, it’s like a gravity well. You then Slow Time with Neve – Slow Time affects the world around you, but it does not affect you, so you clump them up, you slow time -- and then with Rook I come in and do a devastating AOE or damage over time spell or ability. And it’s even better if it's a lightning based ability, because the fade touched in Arlathan are vulnerable to that. So there’s so many layers of coordination and strategies and tactics. We did talk about the devastating detonation combos, that's one of my favorite features, because that’s when you’re really leaning into explicit teamwork between your companions and Rook or the companions together. When I build out my team and I'm going into a mission, I try to ensure that I have at least a couple possible synergies, detonation combo synergies, between my team. It might be between Harding and Neve, Neve and me, or both. So here, I'd go into battle, pause time, open the ability wheel, get information on the enemy – and the wheel will actually tell you that there is a synergy combo, you  might have seen a screenshot that says “combo available” – it will remind you of synergies between companions, you can queue both of those abilities up at the same time, close out of the pause time menu, they’ll both execute, both abilities will happen. Then the detonation AOE happens, applies debuffs to all the enemies in a radius of it. It's so satisfying. I can’t wait for yall to see it, but the interesting thing is that too is a tactical choice. I’m choosing to use my companions to do that, and that means I’m not using them to heal me, or to give me that defense bonus, or to knock an enemy off a ledge, so it’s about the opportunity costs. I could spend the rest of the session talking about this, apologies for being long winded, but this is one of my favorite parts of the game.

Q: Can you choose rook's pronouns? If yes, is being non-binary an option? How detailed is the character creator?

Corinne: Well yeah you can select your pronouns. Absolutely. You can actually select your pronouns and your gender, because those are related concepts, but they’re not actually the exact same thing. Yeah, you can be non-binary, we have he/him, she/her, they/them. Yes. Emphatic yes. How detailed is the character creator? Oh my goodness, yall. Very. I don't wanna give away too much just yet but it's very very deep. It has been revealed, it’s out there in a couple articles about the focus on hair, the focus on skin tones that are done respectfully, full body customization, hell yeah, we love to see it. But we’re gonna come back, we’re gonna show you a lot more on character creator, but we wanna make sure we have the time and space to do that.

Q: Will there be a photo mode in game? 

Corinne: That is something we’re actively looking into, we know there’s a ton of interest, so stay tuned on that one, but we are very much looking into it.

John: I can add too, that is a feature that we like, we like the idea of, and it’s not just player facing, but internally it’s a really helpful thing to have that as we’re building things out, so we’ll let you know.

Corinne: Yes, yeah, absolutely. We are as geeked on that possibility as you all are.

Q: A lot of people were asking about abilities. Are we going to be limited in how many abilities we can pick from the wheel?

Corinne: Ability wheel does have a capacity. You have to choose which three abilities you wanna bring for Rook, which three for  a companion, and which three for another companion. What I like about this is there is kind of an emergent gameplay depending on who you and your companions are coming into a mission with. Now the reason for that is it actually creates a really interesting balance between strategizing, having to do that strategy about your combat kit before the mission, and then the tactical decisions once you're in the field deciding what to do. I want to clear one thing up, while there are three ability slots for Rook, there's so much more than that - other actions that you can perform directly from the wheel like you’ll have an ultimate ability associated with your class or your specialization, so there’s variants there. There’s a type of items you can get that function like abilities, they’re typically like buffs and enhancements, in the form of runes, so you’ll control that for Rook and/or the team from the wheel. You may have also seen that you can direct which targets your companions can focus on, but what you might not know is that a lot of the companion gear really synergizes with that directing with your companions. When you issue those commands, that too will proc depending on the gear they have equipped, really interesting and strategic effects. They can be more ability like, more like proc’d effects, there’s just so much from the wheel that once you get in and see everything working together, becomes more and more apparent.

Q: Will fireball and cone of cold be back as spells in Dragon Age: the Veilguard? 

Corinne: All these combat questions, really good. Fireball and Cone of Cold aren't specifically back, however their successors are, frost nova and meteor. These serve the exact same combat role and function as those other abilities. I would also say it gives them quite the glow up. Meteor in particular, so satisfying nuking a group of darkspawn with a well placed meteor. It’s wonderful

Q: What accessibility features are available? Arachnophobia mode? Mod support? 

Corinne: Oh my goodness, arachnophobia. I am wicked afraid of spiders too. My partner always laughs at me, I’m just terrified of them. That said, that's one we're going to save for a little bit closer to launch before we’ll go into full details about accessibility features. But I do wanna assure you we have spent a lot of time thinking about this topic, so that you can play the game in a way that really works for you. I'm excited to share that with you when the time is right.

Q: How long is the time skip from Inquisition to the Veilguard? 

John: Anyone who's paid attention to Dragon Age, and I can say as somebody who’s been on Dragon Age since Origins, timelines are always a little iffy. They change and they morph over development as we see how longs things are taking, but for Veilguard we were actually pretty consistent from the start that it's been about 10 years since trespasser, as you may or may not have noticed, Varric's become a bit of a silver fox. I’ve seen a lot of comments about that on social media. Yeah, 10 years. Solas's ritual has taken time to set up and you’re kinda coming in at the end of that hunt.

Q: Is Solas still bald? 

Matt: Yeah. I mean if you’ve watched the gameplay thing, we can all confirm that Solas is still bald, Solas is still Solas. I really like how Solas has turned out this time around. I will say, here’s a comment on this specific question that’s gonna sound like a non-sequitor, but once you get a chance to play a little bit more, maybe you’ll – In Thedas, ancient elves go bald when they are millenia old, so Solas wasn't always bald. So if you end up seeing what Solas looked like in the past, things might be a little different. Now that said, I’m sure some of you are wondering what happened to Solas’s wig from Tevinter Nights. I’m sure he still has it somewhere, so… It’s his most important possession.

Corinne: Some pride there, huh.

Q: Will we be able to change companions appearances and outfits or are they fixed, similar to Dragon Age 2? 

Matt: Dragon Age 2 was, we loved how the followers turned out in that, but it was sad given our constraints that we had to keep them with just one basic outfit. We really tried to make some space for them this time around. They have iconic color palettes and things like that, but they do have a wider range of appearances that you can find for them, some are just cool but then there are some  that are tied to directly to their narrative and just kind of what’s happening in their life.

Q: Will we be seeing or visiting Kal’Sharok? 

Matt: What’s been really cool, so in previous games, we’ve kind of alluded to this before, it was a lot of fun to hint at the locations that were off the map, the mysterious places you were not going, and so you could just bring in some props, some characters, a piece of art, things like that. Even Tevinter was only vaguely hinted at and we’d just add drips and bits and pieces, so that stuff was really fun. In the Veilguard we’re actually getting to visit a whole lot of those locations that had only been hinted at for real, so you do actually run around Tevinter and a bunch of the other locations that we’ve revealed. But this also means that we're not completely filling out the map, and that there are new things we can start hinting at and we can start drip feeding. It’s kinda fun, I’d say for what we can show of Kal’Sharok and other locations, there’s more to do.

Q: Will the dialogue wheel/options be similar to Inquisition and Andromeda in the sense that it's more tone based?

John: We have a number of different types of wheels in our game. All the dialogue wheels are based off the same principle, anyone who’s played a dragon age game and remembers what they look like. In Dragon Age: the Veilguard, we have tone wheels which are roleplaying your character picking consistent tone. We also have emotion wheels where you can pick specific emotional reactions, and choice wheels which are, I don’t have a strong emotional or tone tie here, but I do want to make a choice based on what I do. Investigate’s obviously return as well. We want players to understand as much as possible what it is they are going to be picking, we want the choice to be clear even if one of the best things about consequence is making sure that’s not entirely clear.

Q: How extensive are Rook’s dialogue decision trees? 

John: Huge. Again, it’s a Dragon Age game. We wanna make sure you have choices, we wanna make sure you can choose your roleplaying, but also choose outcomes of conversations, choose how events unfold. Again it’s a Dragon Age game, we wanna make sure we also react to decisions you’ve made. So for example, you may be talking to a follower who is an elf, and if you yourself are an elf, obviously you'll have a different perspective on events than someone who’s not an elf. Sometimes that means different conversation options, sometimes that’s going to be entirely new dialogue trees, as well as based off decisions you’ve made throughout the game, so again, making sure the game feels like it notices what you’re doing is a huge part of how we’ve written out the dialogue wheel and dialogue trees in this game.

Q: All companions romanceable by all player characters regardless of race and gender? 

Corinne: Yeah, yeah. We have talked about this in some of the interviews, I’ve seen a few articles about it, so I'd recommend everyone check out those articles, but let me just give you a quick interview. Each of the seven companions has full romance arcs and they are romanceable by all genders. Absolutely. But something that’s really important to us on the team, and so I just wanna make sure and double down on, that doesn't mean playersexual. If anyone’s unaware of what we mean by that, it doesn’t mean they conform or twist their identities to who you the player are. They won’t suddenly have a preference for men or women based on what you’re playing. Instead they have their own fully fleshed out identities. They are true and authentic to that. So in this game they are all pansexuals, they all have histories and romances, sometimes you’ll hear about preferences and things of that nature. And what I really love is if you don’t pursue a romance with them, they’ll actually build their own romances with each other. So in one of the interviews I talked about Lace Harding and Taash getting together. I give that example because it’s one of my favorites. I’m gonna put a question back to the community though. I’ve heard we’re going with Laash for that ship name? You tell me what is that ship name?

Q: What are the markings on the faces of the elven warden and veil hopper?

John: So there’s quite a few, I think more than we’ve done before, tattoos from various cultures. We're bringing the vallaslin back of course but there's a ton of different options, especially when we’re going into these new regions. Each area has its own kind of visual language for that. We are bringing the vallaslin back and a couple characters have them, but we've customized them a bit. They’re a bit more specific to their personality.

Q: What are you as a developer most proud of and excited for players to experience? 

Corinne: I suspect for most of us, myself included, it's the depths and authenticity of the companions journey along with on their arcs, learning about their hardships, what they care about, being by their side. That authenticity is just so good, they all feel like my dear friends. But I have to say, the closest runner up for me has to be the character creator. Has to be. That character creator, the makeup options, the range of sliders... I'm a Qunari fan, so even just the way you customize the horns and combine that with the really great looking hair. Character creator has to be my very close runner up.

Matt: As far as what I can say I’m most proud of on this one, I can speak for the art team, we worked incredible hard to make the story more visible than ever. Games are a visual medium, but sometimes it's easier to do things in text format or written in a codex somewhere or alluded to off screen, but we really leaned into trying to make sure that every design, prop, character, environment, that the effects we’re choosing, all these choices were putting the story on screen so you can see it unfold, and I think having worked on all the dragon age games, I'd say Veilguard represents one of the best attempts at that we’ve made yet.

John: I’m gonna cheat and kind of combine both Corinne’s and Matt’s answers. Honestly the companions for me are the absolute highlight. Just being able to work across all the disciplines, building characters who look and sound and behave in very specific and characterful ways. These are the deepest companion arcs we've ever done, not just on Dragon Age but in BioWare in general. Each companion has their own story arc you can go through, decisions you can make. They really do take center stage. As you play through them, you see the care and love that the team has put into each and every one. I mean, there’s moments in each arc that make you cry, make you angry, make you excited, and the way they integrate into the story as a whole for me is something that’s been really fun. Finding ways to bring these characters together, ways to bring this story, this narrative, of you know, you need to put together a team and stop the end of the world, has been absolutely exciting and thrilling. And again, you see the team's love in every single piece of it. As for what I’m most excited, Dragon Age has been part of my career and part of my life for literally the last decade and a half, I’ve worked on it since Origins, and there's something about the Veilguard that feels an amazing mix of novelty and familiarity, it’s like coming home in a way that I feel is going to be very exciting for people who are existing Dragon Age players, but there’s also so much here that’s just new and exciting for people, new players and old players alike. Going to parts of the world, seeing things we’ve never seen before, and just getting to take this amazing world and series and expand on it and build on it in ways that I’ve just been, honestly an absolute thrill, the best part of my career, and I’ve been in games for 17 years now and this has been the absolute highlight for me, so that’s what I’m excited about.

Corinne: I just wanna yes and that. I so completely agree with you. There’ve been times in companion arcs where even knowing what's going to happen, we work on the game, with some of these decisions, I've had to set down the controller, let out a heavy sigh, and go “oh my god, what am I gonna do here?” The depth of them is wonderful. I do wanna put this out there, when we talk about as a developer what we are most proud of, can we just give a big shout out to the dev team? I am so proud of them. This team has poured their hearts into this. Anyone from BioWare who’s listening in, thank you so much. Y’all are just the best.

Q: Why does Varric have dark hair now? 

Matt: He's been adventuring for a while now. His hair is more gray, but he's been in very dark scenes so far, so we’ll see him in some more contexts.

Q: Will the Inquisitor be appearing in the flesh or are we just choosing their major DAI decisions?

Corinne: Yes they will. The Inky does appear. We've know how attached y’all are to the Inquisitor, we’ve seen the love for your OC. Yes, the Inquisitor shows up. We'd already confirmed that a few places, so let me just say you can also customize them and it includes some of our new customization options. Yeah they’re gonna show up and they’re gonna be your Inquisitor.

John: And I think beyond that, the story of Solas and the story of the Inquisitor obviously are tied together as much as any story, so it would have been strange for us not to bring them in for this one. They’re gonna be a part of this story.

Q: Will there be any planned DLCs and transmog armor? 

Corinne: Right now our focus is entirely on the quality of the game, it's so important at this stage for us to be all in, all attention on finishing this game and delivering on the quality and the promise of it. So that's all I can really say on it, we're 100% focused on this being the most complete game we can make it. I wanna emphasize, there's not gonna be any microtransactions or battle passes, you don't have to connect online. Our focus is making this the most complete single player we possibly can. Now this was kind of a twofer question. Will there be transmog? Hell yeah. I’m the kind of player that believes fashion is the real endgames. Yeah there’s a transmog system, absolutely. It’s sick.

Q: Will any of the characters be asexual? 

Corinne: Such a good question. So, look I'm gonna be really forthcoming with yall and a little bit vulnerable, I'm ace. I'm a gray ace, I don't mind sharing that, I’m kind of public with it. I will say though that none of our companions this time around are explicitly ace. We look at the characters, their motivations, who they are, we always assess is this the right time. This time it wasn't. What I will say for everyone on the ace spectrum on there, I would love to represent an ace relationship sometime in the future when it feels like the most authentic fit for a companion, when we can do it best. And I do see some questions, what do we mean by ace? Asexuality. We often refer to it as the ace spectrum.

Q: Can mage Rook do blood magic? Will blood magic be a skill tree separate from regular magic?

Corinne: OK, this gets a bit spoilery, so let me just say, Rook has some pretty good reasons to avoid blood magic. Rook is not gonna wanna be interested in that. But I will say, the mage skill tree is packed with all kinds of spells, traits, and perks to give you a ton of flexibility in your magic. Gonna go off script just a little bit because I’ve seen “just tell us about the specializations”. I’m not gonna tell you the deets, but there is a necromancer one. There is an elemental one, and there is one that’s actually more of like a combat mage. It’s my favorite.

Q: Can we name the griffon? We also have a griffon emoji in this Discord server.

John: Excellent. So, someone in your party, again, spoilers, may have already named the baby griffon, but don’t worry, Assan is a very good boy.

Corinne: All these griffon emojis, y’all are killing me.

Q: Will we have a camp/home/headquarters that we’ll be able to customize?

Matt: Well this time around, in Inquisition you had Skyhold. In this case you have a headquarters called the Lighthouse. More to be seen on that, but narratively it serves kind of a different purpose, but also the same purpose. As far as customization goes, there are elements of it that change over time and some things you can adjust. I don’t know how much we’re really going into that at the moment. One thing I like about it is that it definitely does start to feel very much like home over time.

Q: We need to know, does pasta and noodles exist in Thedas? 

Matt: I’ll take it as a chance just to geek out about worldbuilding. Again, the Veilguard for us is a really kind of dream opportunity to go to places we've only ever heard reference to or we’ve seen in set. In going through the world building process, and trying to build these things out not just as neat things from the IP, but also as, if you’ve read about this stuff, you've got your own version in your head, you’ve imagined what it might be like and you're probably hoping for something spectacular, and our brains are always far better at creating this stuff than any game developer or any artist can really do justice to, so you really have to swing for the fences to make something very satisfying and exciting. That can be everything as big as architecture and landscape and biomes and ecosystems, but it does get into things like art and culture and costume design, and also food. This time around that was one of the many things we did look into to try to catch the character and feel of a place to make it feel believable and lived in. So that’s my really long answer for yeah, I'm sure at least one place does have pasta.

Q: Are we getting a mabari?

Matt: Ooh, that’s a good question. I will say you’re spending most of the game in the north of Thedas. Mabari are not nearly as big of a thing up there, so in this particular instance, no, you will not get a mabari, sadly.

Q: Can we pet the griffon? 

John: You, I’m really sorry to have to be the one to tell you—Nah, I’m kidding, yes you can. It's not even just petting the griffon, I've actually hugged the griffon, so that feels like even there a step up.

Matt: There’s lots of opportunities to interact with the griffon.

Corinne: Can we see Assan in chat if we wanna see him in the Lighthouse hanging out? And hey, y’all, this was so important to the team, too. Like this is the team’s like, just huge support for this feature, so props to them.

Q: Will we get to see any of the character creator before the game releases?

Corinne: Yes. Yes you will. You've probably seen we are laying out a roadmap for what we're gonna show and when we’re gonna talk about it. You will see it  as we get a little closer to launch.

Q: Will we be able to play as a qunari dwarf elf or human? 

Corinne: hell yeah you will. All 4. And all 4 have that full body customization. I already talked a little bit about, I’ve always loved the qunari, I will say in Dragon Age: Inquisition it was hard to get a good looking qunari hairstyle. So yes you can play as them, you can customize them, the horn options are rad, the hair options are rad. And also related to this, your lineage gives you a lot of really unique dialogue options. So that’s really one aspect of choosing your lineage as well.

John: So actually just to bounce off that, earlier questions about backgrouds. Each lineage, depending on the lineage you choose and the background you choose, there are some specific callouts to, for example, if it’s a Mournwatch, Mournwatch being from Nevarra and mages, if you play as a dwarf, obviously your experiences in that faction is going to be different from, say, a human or an elf, so there are also specific callouts tailored to those combinations and, with the intention of giving each lineage a little flavor as to how they fit into that faction as a whole.

Q: Where is barkspawn and is he ok?

John: Barkspawn is safely gnawing on a bone next to a fireplace somewhere in Ferelden. Don’t worry, he’s fine. You may ask yourself, “but John, it’s been so long.” To which I say, Mabari live exactly as long as they need to.

Q: Will Rook have a set of default name?

John: Yeah, so Rook’s last name is defined based on their faction, again we wanted to tie that into your backstory, but also there's a name generator that can give you a selection of first names, obviously if you wanted to make your own first name, that’s definitely something we support as well. If you’re somebody who maybe has a little more difficulty coming up with a name, so for example you name every single character Bob because that’s the only name you can think of, we also give that opportunity for that generation.

Q: When will the voice acting cast be announced? 

John: We worked with a lot of very talented actors on this one. I am super excited to talk about the voice acting cast, we’ll be talking about it more over the summer, we’re not quite ready to announce names yet.

Same answer for collectors editions and preorders, and required PC specs.

Q: Any special musical guests? Tavern songs? 

Corinne: Yeah there are tavern songs and a huge credit to the audio team and performance teams, because they’re pretty great. There’s one at a little tavern in Minrathous called the Swan, and the song you hear there might just be my favorite of the tavern songs.

Q: DA2's main theme brought back motifs from DAO main theme. Can we expect DAV to recall more or less of that original thematic material than inquisition? 

John: We are not quite ready to talk about music yet in specifics. But in broad strokes I can say that the process for us is always the same. Working with the composer, figuring out themes, figuring out what kinds of elements we want to keep, tying specific elements to maybe specific characters, it's very in depth process and a very collaborative process. We have some fantastic audio people on our team that have done some fantastic work, that have done an amazing job working with composers and with the team as a whole to make sure that again, we said earlier about cohesiveness, making sure that the music feels like a cohesive part of the experience.

Q: When writing the overall story of this game, what themes did you want to have as the prominent focus? 

John: Again, it’s interesting. When writing these games, and this has been true on every Dragon Age I’ve been a part of, what you start with and where you end up aren't always necessarily the same. Sometimes you start writing a theme, you realize actually it’s more interesting if you attack it from this angle, or maybe it ends up twisted a little bit. I will say for Dragon Age: the Veilguard, from the beginning one of the biggest themes has been regret. How regret shapes people’s lives, how they deal with their regrets, how maybe people move past regrets. Each of the characters and the story as a whole have elements of these. We wanted to have that thematic, that cohesiveness to the game’s story and the game’s writing.

Q: Can you play a dwarf and does the world react to your race and backstory?

John: Yes, you can play as a dwarf. Yes, the world does react to your race and backstory. And again you’ll have unique dialogues or unique conversations based on that backstory as well as that race.

Corinne: And to give you a little nugget here because I saw it scrolling through real quickly, you have beards. So when I think of dwarves, I think about glorious, fantastic beards. Hell yeah we do.

John: Yeah I can say, as somebody who plays a lot of games, the character creator—I don’t know what magic they did, but the beards, they feel like a beard should feel like, it’s great, they look awesome.

Q: Will our heroes and companions leave us if we go against their wishes? 

Corinne: Do y’all just love pain? Do you want us to make you cry? Um... if you go against their wishes and make decisions they don't like, I will tell you, you can piss them off, they might not agree with you, and they will take some time away. That said this is the biggest threat to Thedas we've ever seen, so they will always be willing to defend Thedas, but yeah you can piss them off and they’ll leave for a minute. As it relates to them showing up to defend Thedas, well yeah they will, UNLESS…

John: No spoilers, Corinne. No spoilers.

Corinne: Alright, alright. But they want it!

Q: Did any songs, books, movies, or anything inspire character writing? 

John: Art is always a synthesis of your own experiences both in the real world but also the art you consume, the art you pay attention. I don't think that any characters have a direct reference or inspiration, but yeah, they're all inspired by the things we do both in the real world and in the media we consume. And you’re gonna see elements of characters that yeah. The things that we’ve enjoyed show up in these characters. For me it comes down to, writing can be a deeply personal experience, so even if you don't intend for it to be the case, parts of you will show up in the characters. I think that’s true for all the characters in the Veilguard. Sometimes it's exploring things about yourself that you may like or may not like, and sometimes exploring things about characters you like or don't like. So that’s my longwinded way of saying yes, it’s impossible to not have that happen when you’re creating art, but I don’t think there’s one where you can say, “oh this is this character, this is this character.”

Q: What was the thinking process behind making Harding a companion this time around? 

John: When we released Inquisition, it was impossible not to see the love that people had for our murderous girl next door dwarf. She has always been a fan favorite obviously. But I think beyond that, it's something that Harding's writer wanted to explore, there was more of a story to tell there and more perspective. And beyond that Harding also has a strong connection to Solas, to Varric, and the events of the last 10 years. So I wouldn’t say it’s always been but I’d say Harding’s probably one of the first ones we settled on as like yes, this is a character we want, and the writer had a story that they wanted to tell with her, so it just made sense.

Matt: You know, actually, to piggy back on that, that’s something I hadn’t even thought about that much and it’s not a huge part of her character, but she tends to be one of the people that have the most insight into who he was.

John: Yeah that’s exactly—that’s a great way of looking at it, too, it also provides you with a little bit of perspective, for players who’ve been around for previous Dragon Age games, but also for new ones, who was Solas? What kind of character was he? Yeah it’s a great, using characters to provide windows into the world is honestly one of my favorite things.

Matt: And when I say was, I just mean in Inquisition.

John: Yes, that’s exactly, yes. Thank you for correcting that.

Q: What approach are you taking to quest and world design in the Veilguard?

John: I think for us it just comes down to relevance and narrative heft. We wanna make sure that each quest provides either a perspective on the world, a perspective on the characters, or it feels immediately and obviously relevant to what you’re doing here. You’re here to save the world. At the end of the day, one of the things that we heard loud and clear was the feedback about how relevant, or in our case not relevant, previous quests have felt, so for Veilguard, we really wanted all quests to feel like something somebody faced with the end of the world would believe was necessary and important. So again, there’s quests of all sorts and sizes, but all of them share that same feeling of, this is the kind of thing that the Veilguard would do. This is the kind of thing that my hero would do. Especially faced with the end of the world.

Corinne: That’s really good, John. That’s so right. I would just again double down on how hand crafted all the quests are. Whether you’re doing the main story or you’re journeying with your companions or you’re out exploring and you encounter a mystery, everything's hand crafted, intentional, we spend a lot of time listening to what yall said, and of course everyone has slightly different tastes, but you're not gonna be gathering shards in the Hinterlands. Everything is built with intention and they’re lovingly handcrafting the experience.

Q: Are there any locations in the game that can only be accessed by making specific story choices? 

John: So I don’t wanna get too much into spoilers here, but I will say that locations can fundamentally change based on decisions you make. Some of the parts of the world that you go to, you can have, the choices you make have an impact on how these spaces exist and develop.

Q: Will we be able to control companions in combat?

Corinne: If Rook gets KO'd, the player character gets knocked out, this time around it is time to reload your save, or better yet, the companions have really interesting progression. You can spec them out to be able to revive you, but that’s if you’ve invested in their progression and what they can do. And that said, I mentioned this earlier but I personally spend more time in the nature of this combat system when everything comes together, interacting and directing the companions than I have in any of the other games. So like that’s interactivity between them. Once you play it you’ll see just how engaged the scene is.

Q: Will Solas still occasionally or dramatically speak in iambic pentameter? 

John: I actually spent a little bit of time trying to figure out if I wanted to answer this question in iambic pentameter, and then I very quickly gave up. Massive kudos to Patrick who always writes Solas so well. Again, Solas is a returning character. It's the same Solas you know and love or hate depending on who you are. The same writer. So I think this is, the answer is yeah, it's Solas.

Q: Will our decision of who was left in the fade be important? 

John: While that decision does not show up—not for the Veilguard, now that said, that doesn’t mean that’s not a decision that won’t ever be important in the future. Not for this one.

Matt: I’m glad to hear you say that, John, because one of my favorite stories was Bob getting stuck in the web in Reboot.

John: That’s a deep cut! The sound of my childhood.

Q: Will we have mounts again? 

Matt: No, mounts were, they addressed a need in Inquisition that we don't have in Veilguard, and you’ll see why when you get to play.

Q: How is the side quest design? Will they be mostly story based or will there be a lot of radiant and quests for power like in Inquisition? 

John: We talked about this a bit earlier, but they are all hand crafted and story focused. The narrative, the companions, not just the companions but the characters and the world as a whole, are so much at the core of the Veilguard that anything other than handcrafting quests just felt like it would be a disservice to the game we were building.

Corinne: And maybe we can clarify as well, because with power was such a devisive mechanic in Inquisition, there’s no mechanic like that that blocks your progression until you fill a bar. That’s just not a thing in this. You have the autonomy to engage in these quests as you like, there’s no grind out gates before you can progress.

John: That’s right. Again we want to make sure that doing this content feels as natural and part of the logical flow of the story as possible.

Q: Will there be a similar system to war table? 

Corinne: We haven't talked much about the player's base, the Lighthouse, and we're gonna save that, but what I will say is that the Lighthouse, your headquarters so to speak, it has its own unique purposes and functions this time. So that's an area that we'll leave for you when we talk more about the Lighthouse and when you have a chance to hop in, you’ll be able to see what those unique purposes are.

Q: If there is dual wield for warriors, is it dex or str? 

Corinne: So we did wanna bring dual wielding back. It is part of the rogue kit this time, warriors are really focused on mighty two handed weapons, I can’t wait until you see, when you swing those weapons there's a real heft to it, and then of course sword and shield. So we’re leaving the dual wielding to the rogues, but you can see, the amount of hits you can get in in rapid succession dual wielding as a rogue is really satisfying.  

Q: What have been some of the challenges and advantages of working on a single game for so many years? 

John: That is a fantastic question. I have often joked, and I don’t know how much of a joke it is, that when this game is out and I suddenly don't have to keep all these pieces of game and lore and story and everything straight in my head, I'm suddenly gonna be able to speak Latin or something because there’s gonna be a ton of brain power freed up. But for me it’s just, the thing that keeps me sustained is just knowing the game we're building is the right one. Knowing that the pieces are coming together, and knowing just how much people care about this franchise, care about these games, and how excited people are going to be when they get to see the fantastic work the team has been doing. I’ve been on this project since the start, and even today I see things on a daily basis that I’m like holy smokes I can't believe what the team is doing, I can’t believe how good this looks. It's a huge game and I don't see every piece every day, so I get pleasantly surprised on a daily basis. Sometimes if I’m having a particularly long day, I'll spend about an hour late at night just watching cutscenes come in, watching the work coming together, and just sitting back and being like, holy smokes, I can’t wait for someone who hasn’t seen this every day as I have, to see this and just be blown away by the work.

Corinne: It's been very real, hasn’t it? I will just say speaking on behalf of the dev team, everyone's working so hard and putting so much passion, so much of themselves into it. This is a franchise they truly love and seeing your support cheering us on has meant a lot to them. So let me just say thank you to all of you.

[blerb-f1]

„Pimientos asados“ – A roasted Spaniard

Fernando Alonso x NonBinary!Medic!Reader

I'm aware i already used this trope. I think i just like my drivers sweaty :D

Read more on my Masterlist.

-blerb

„Pimientos asados“ – A roasted Spaniard

„Stupid fucking Security Rules“, Y/N mouthed, buttoning their shirt up. The crisp blue and yellow fabric would soon be entirely sweat through, that was for sure. Their black linen trousers were the most airy thing allowed under safety rules, yet felt still too covering and heat retaining. They sighed once again, placing some bobby pins between their pursed lips. Coarse fingers grabbed each of them, in use of pinning their fringe up and out of the way. With the heat coming, sticky forehead hair would only be an issue. A load of hairspray that was sufficient to destroy the earths ozone layer, was the last step to get their hair out of the way. Seeing that the familiar team cap would rest on their head anyway, Y/N didn’t bother more in that regard.

They placed their badge around their neck, visibly reading “Renault Formula 1 Team Medic Y/N L/N”.

Knowing what was to come, Y/N were not jumping around in joy as they entered the car of another crew member, ready to head to the Track. Bahrain was hot, incredibly hot. Temperatures edging the 40°C Mark were announced before the race and definitely the truth currently. The team member sighed as well, emptying another water bottle.

With 2005 looking like a Championship Year for Renault, Y/N had to make sure their drivers would survive the race. Reaching the race track was however war in itself, with fans crowing outside. Y/N would tiredly wave their hands out of the window in hopes of shooing them away. “Shit”, proclaimed the car’s driver – Mike, the breakguy. Mike was tasked with all things breaks, he had to weigh them before and after races to measure their corrosion, to watch them during the race and tell the mechanics of breakage and measure their temperatures during the stops. He’d always tell Y/N that break discs were nicer than caring for Humans. Afterall, they didn’t rebut advice or act unnecessarily careless with their own bodies. He had taking a quick look in the rearview mirror, though just a second to late.

Some ‘fan’ had stolen the team cap of Y/N’s head, unveiling the bobby pins that were messily strung together. Y/N just scoffed, rolling the window back up before leaning back. “Stupid fuckers”, they cursed, patting down the now ruffled strands. ‘Hopefully the team has some laying around, otherwise Flavio’s gonna be mad again. He hates things that aren’t good appearance wise.’

Mike parked the car as close as could, shuffling around the boot to get out his backpack and Y/N’s workbag. Slinging it over the shoulder, he huffed loudly. “God, these fans are getting out of hand. We’ve had so much teamwear stolen by now – I wonder how other team’s are coping. I bet Ron Dennis is unhappy about them getting crumbly and muddy”.

As they approached the garage, an unhappy face already stood aside. Pat Symmonds, their Technical Director was talking angrily to a few of the mechanics. Apparently he had screwed up quite badly with something – not that it was of matter to Y/N. They fumbled around their bag to fish out a towel. Renault branded of course. Pouring water on the towel provided it as lovely cold recourse once placed on their own head, but also hid the hat-lessness from Flavio if he were to appear out of nowhere. A skill the otherwise loud Italian man knew better than one would expect him to.

Y/N ducked in the back of the garage searching through the shelves in hope of finding anything. A hat was important as team gear but also as sunshade in this demanded climate. The garage proved to be fruitless however, so Y/N made their way over to hospitality, still hidden under their fluffy frotté  head covering. The ladies behind the coffee counter were positively buzzing, their updos looking good despite the horrible weather. Flavio always had beautiful ladies work there and many mechanics would appear in hospitality, trying to fight for their numbers. Y/N on the other hand was a happy sight as they’d usually just ask for an Latte Macchiato and chatter about recent drama.

“Nice to see you Y/N!” the fronting one exclaimed.

“Nice to see you too, Monique!”, Y/N expressed before leaning onto the counter.

“Has Flavio passed by recently? I hope not.”

“If it has to do with your fancy new headdress, he hasn’t. Might want to ask Zanarini whether there’s still a cap ins storage. He just got one for Giancarlo. His got stolen as well apparently.”

The medic sighed before downing a cup of coffee given to them by Monique. “I’d better hurry, I’ve got to check Fisicella and Alonso over soon. Bye Monique!”

“Bye-Bye Y/N!” she waved cheerfully before giving her colleagues a snicker. Something bad must be going on they’d hear of later.

Trotting through hospitality with tired feet, Y/N soon spotted Enrico Zanarini standing to the side, his phone perched up. Being Fisicella’s Manager must have been a tiring job for sure. They approached the hard working man slowly, making sure he was not in a call or anything.

“Ah, Y/N. I presume you also got caught by the hat thieves, am I right in that assumption?” was his greeting. The medic just nodded. “I’m sorry to ruin your day now, but I got the last one out of storage. It seems someone snuck in overnight and emptied our warehouse here. I wonder what’s wrong with the people today.”

With their head hanging low, Y/N trotted back to the garage, knowing that Flavios scolding was inevitable by now. On the way the bumped into another person, blinking twice to notice they had run into Fernando.

“Good Morning Y/N, you’re late to the check-up.”

“I know, I know, Fernando. I’ve been on a treasure hunt the last hour. Some idiot stole my cap but we don’t even have a single one left.”

The driver lifted his eyebrows. “Not a single one?”

“None. The others all seem to have theirs so I’m the only one getting chewed out by Flavio.”

Fernando seemed to ponder for a while before settling onto Y/N’s office chair.

“Doctor, please proceed with your check-up.”

Y/N started their work, taking measurements and jolting down Fernandos health data.

“Please remember to drink a lot for this GP, I know the heat is horrible. It’ll be worse after the Race. I’m going to check up on you and get you both hydrated before the Press conference. Can’t have you fall on your face from heat exhaustion.”

“Us both? How are you so sure I’m landing on the Podium?”

“I just know, Fernando. Trust me. But something is telling me it’s not going to end well for Giancarlo…”

“You sure you aren’t Magic Alonso with these visions?”

“Maybe. Now zoom off. Fisi is waiting and I still gotta report to Flavio.”

Fernando stood up from his chair, eying the medic again. Finally, he lifted the cap from his head and placed it on theirs. “Look. Problem fixed, right?”

“Fernando, you’re our face! Wear it yourself!”

“I won’t” he chuckled while crossing his arms. “I can’t stand you looking so sad. Especially if I can fix it so easily, no?” He turned towards the door. “I’ll be going now. See you later!”

Y/N settled onto their chair with another sigh, though one team cap richer. Fisi was already standing in the door with his trademark grin. “Enrico told me you were looking for a cap. Seems you stole one yourself?”

This day would only grow longer.

As the race started and Y/N sat in the garage, monitoring stats and news relayed to them from the Pitwall to check on their drivers. With Fisicella coming in after Lap 3’s engine failure, work was sure to arrive. They took his stats again, got him equipped with nutritious drinks and snacks while also handing his Manager stuff for a bath. Exact instructions regarding temperature and procedure were added along with it. Since the race was still ongoing, they couldn’t care for the driver themselves which was unfortunate but Fernando needed full attention now. Soon after Michael Schumacher overshot a corner with apparent car issues, leaving one of their top contenders ouf of the race. Y/N was on the edge of their seat, attention at it’s peak. Fernando was doing well, staying cool despite the horrible heat. He kept drinking which was very good. His pitstop on Lap 20 went very well, he looked all right in the car as well.

As the race progressed and Fernando stayed on top of the Leaderboard, his victory lap around the track was lovely to watch. Seeing him do that bunny ear gesture in the car was always an amusing sight. Y/N rushed out with the Crew towards Parc Fermée to catch their lucky driver exiting his car, stepping on top and gesturing towards the sky. His race suit was entirely sweat through, his face red but his smile was real.

He headed up to the cooldown room, with Jarno Trulli and Kimi Räikkönen behind him. Y/N was following along as well, equipped with a coke can and some wet towels. Their exasperated winner slid tiredly on the floor, leaning back but still smiling like the sun incarnate.

“Here, Fernando” Y/N said, handing him the Coke Can. He deserved such a treat after this tiring race. They took the towels, helping Fernando get the sweat of his face and hair while also stopping it from burning. After a while, the call came to step outside. Fernando headed towards the Podium, pumping his arms and cheering loudly while Y/N kept looking from beside, happy for their driver.

Getting shooed off to the press conference afterwards kept Fernando away from Y/N who meanwhile prepared everything to get him going again.  Watching the conference on TV was quite amusing – Jarno looked like a wet dog, Fernando lost his color and Kimi was beet red.

As the conference finally ended, Fernando tiredly stumbled into his driver’s room. His steps had gotten weaker as he finally arrived, sinking onto his sofa. Y/N was quick to arrive, smiling at him with their teeth showing. “Congratulations Nando, that was a good race!”

The tired driver faintly nodded as he leaned back, just breathing in. The adrenaline was slowly leaving his body as Y/N handed him his sports drink. “Let’s get you back in shape, right?”

Shortly after, Fernando was bathed, properly dressed and back on his sofa, looking way less haggard. Y/N sat behind him, bobby pins placed between their lips again. A soft brush was holding his locks back as they got put into a short ponytail, barely enough to keep it out of his neck from scrubbing at the now very sensitive skin. Y/N placed a few Bobby Pins in strategic fashion to keep the shorter hairs out of his face, to stop it irritating his eyes. Fernando just sighed in relief as the hair stopped bothering him. “You were right with your prediction” he said.

“Hmm?” Y/N mouthed, still busy.

“With Giancarlo not finishing and me winning. You truly are the real Magic Alonso.”

Y/N laughed softly, patting his shoulder before placing his last Bobby Pin.

“It was your work as much as mine.”

As they were finishing, Y/N lifted the cap from their head, wanting to place it back on Fernandos. The driver however grabbed the medics arm, stopping them from finishing their action.

“Don’t. Keep it. It’s yours now my friend. I know you’ll bring me luck wearing it.”

He lifted the blue Fabric before placing it on the crown of Y/Ns head again. “Please, bring me more luck in the future.” He said, his grin cheeky.

Y/N turned to the side, not wanting him to see their reaction. “Shut up you stupid roasted Paprika.”

“Pimientos asados, eh? Sounds like a great Idea. Let’s get some” he laughed, getting up and pulling Y/N behind him.

[xyvyl]

One More Race - Prologue

Summary: New to formula 1, Dutch driver Y/N L/N. F2 and F3 world champion, now racing for Lamborghini in F1. The only woman racing in F1 right now.

Chapter song: Real Gone - Sheryl Crow

Word count: 423

Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2iH7vTDNnObb2HMBDuRhrY?si=cf67c7df5f424aff

A/N: this ones short, its a prologue. for the real chapters im aiming for around 2000 words or more.

---------------🏎️---------------

“Question for Y/N, what is it like driving for a new team, in a whole new setting from formula 2?” The first question directed at me, most were directed at Max or Charles, but now one for me.

“It's certainly quite different from f2, but the team and the other drivers are very welcoming and understanding. Driving for a whole new team is very exciting, the car is built based on my data from the sims, so it doesn't feel like I'm fighting against the car, more like with the car. So it's very nice working with a new team.” I smile, looking at the other drivers that were there.

I sit comfortably as more questions are asked, some directed at me and others at Logan, my teammate, and Max.

---------------🏎️---------------

After the interviews were finally done, I walked to my drivers room, Logan next to me.

“Excited to drive for a team that isn't williams?” I ask him, a smile on our faces.

He nods briefly, “it's gonna be an exciting year, I’m sure of it”

“Maybe we can even rival red bull this year” I laugh.

“Maybe, maybe not. We'll see!” Logan grins as we pass Max and Charles.

“Max! Beetje medelijden voor een mede-Nederlander?" (a little compassion for a fellow dutchman?) I grin at Max, who laughs.

“Dat zou je wel willen he?" (you’d like that wouldn't you?) I frown jokingly at that, Logan and Charles looking confused next to us.

“C’mon Logan, I think a drink is in order to start the season! You two joining us?” I ask Max and Charles, who nod.

“Great! I'll go ask some others as well!”

---------------🏎️---------------

“To a new season!” We all raise our glasses to the blue and pink sky of Bahrain. 

I sigh and take a sip of my bloody mary, watching as the other drivers get comfortable on the terras. In the end it was me, Logan, Max, Charles, Carlos, Daniel, George, Oscar, Lando and Lewis.

“Excited for your first season in f1?” I look up and see Lando standing next to the couch I was sitting on.

I nod, scooting over so he can sit as well.

“Excited, but also a little scared, f1 is a big jump from f2 for me..”

Lando nods, “You'll do great, I'm sure of it. Lambos are great cars, their F1 cars shouldn't be any less!”

I smile and nod, “You're right, this will be an amazing first season.” Lando holds out his glass for a smaller toast, “Welcome to F1 Y/N.”

[heykayhayes]

Updated NPC portraits of the leaders of the guild I built for the long-form DND campaign I just started this past month! I'm doing a very homebrewy take on the Tyranny of Dragons arc- starting with Hoarde of the Dragon Queen. I created a guild with seven factions based off of different birds/ adventuring skills, called the "Flocked Feathers." Each of my players is from a different guild faction. They'll be coming together under order of the Guildmaster for the special mission of collecting five Tiamat masks.

Murder of Crows - black ops mercenaries Study of Owls - protectors of arcane knowledge, artifacts Pod of Pelicans - sea-faring adventurers Flamboyance of Flamingos - guardians of high society, popular cities Kettle of Hawks - desert-dwelling heroes protecting trade routes Clutch of Hens - defenders of homesteads, farms, villages Swoop of Sparrows - preservers of nature, the natural world

Pyrus is going to be NPC/PCing as the party's Questmaster! He was "proboted" to this position by the Guildmaster. After Pyrus was caught leeching guild resources to support his personal quest for revenge against Tiamat cultists (thus working against the collective interest of the Flock), Guildmaster Viotto threatened to remove Pyrus from the Flock entirely. The trade to remain a member of the Flock was that Pyrus must accept a leadership position pursuing exactly what he wants- capturing Tiamat cultists- but as the leader of a team of worthy, young recruits. That's the "probation" part of the "probotion..." Pyrus is much more comfortable on solo missions and is not looking forward to being responsible for what happens to anyone else. Pyrus is in for a ride with this team, I can't wait to play him again, especially against all the amazing characters my friends have made!

What's really cool about a two-part campaign that spans so much time is everyone's character gets to begin at the sort of least-evolved version of themself, allowing a lot of room for growth over the course of the adventure. It's gonna be amazing!

[ms0milk]

by any other name

sanemi x reincarnated!oc

Sanemi doesn't have the strength to lock himself away from this new Flower Hashira and even finds himself fighting to stay near her. Will he be strong enough to stay so close when her secret is revealed? cw heavily suggestive MDNI, marking, humping, grinding, breast-play, mentions of bodily fluids, ever so slightly submissive nems, 3.5k

thank you for your patience @sanemisbitch you were such a trooper waiting for this @ficsforgaza piece to be published and I'm so grateful! thank you for this request and thank you too for trusting me with your lovely oc Leo. What a total joy to work with :) you have her character so well flushed out, i do hope you enjoy.

Sanemi paces patina into the hardwood floors of the butterfly mansion. It was a mission gone wrong– gone exactly how they always go. Friends cut down, in the hospital, buried shallow somewhere. Even in her own house, Kocho doesn’t bother visiting the sickbay when the Flower Hashira’s under care. She never got over the promotion. When the girl's sunflax hair shone beside Ubuyashiki, when flower floated off his tongue, Kocho, Shinobu, tore up grass in her prostration.

Sanemi’s holdups aren’t so sensitive. When Aoi pops her choppy bangs out of the room he kicks the door in on her.

“Hey!” She bites and swings it shut again. Aoi’s not sensitive either. She might fight a war for Leo. She might fight the Hashira that dares to disturb her friend, but in the bed at the corner of the room, Leo swells at the sight of Sanemi. Her left arm is bandaged and three stitches march in a row out of her hairline, and other than a few punctures nothing remains of the bloody mask she wore when kakushi carried her here.

She smiles big, “Baum,” and reaches out both hands to hold him.

“Baum my ass!” Sanemi swats her fingers down like a naughty child and reels back up again for a good lecture. She thought she’d found it. An in to Muzan’s life, one of the houses he uses for cover, maybe the one with his laboratory– and whether or not she was right stopped being important the second the quiet farmhouse exploded in clouds and gas and needles of poison. Some kind of pined-demon, horrible like a hedgehog, took out most of her team in the dark. Seven crows were sent for reinforcements and five were found dead on the trail after Sanemi was dispatched to cover a kakushi retreat. She’d been carried past him limp and bloody on the back of a soldier. “What were you thinking!”

“thinking that I’m happy to see you.”

“Bullshit,” Sanemi hisses. He raises his finger, “You were selfish.”

“Not true.”

“You were–”

“Baum,” Leo tilts her spot-bandaged head. Her round cheeks catch sunlight like apples. “I was just Hashira. I think like Hashira, you would have done the same and now I get to see you and tell you all about it.”

“It was dusk.”

“It was a Hinoe raid. It’s the best the corps had and before I mourn them I’d like to hold my friend.”

She is so much like her. So much it’s terrifying and suddenly Sanemi wishes he were in Shinobu’s office warming a dish of sake and ignoring bloody flowers.

“Watch your mouth Shinazugawa.”

“Aoi, can I speak to the grump alone please?” Sanemi continues to ignore Aoi’s hatred but he notes when the door clicks closed behind her so he can flop down in a chair. “Baumkuchen,” Leo coos again, “are you okay?”

“Fucking furious.”

She sinks slightly into the pillow propping her up and shifts her carefree smile into something slightly sterner. “I’m sorry,” comes out clearly, “did you have friends in the Hinoe team? I lead them to their death.” Her gentle fingers pinch each other where she tucks them in her lap. The threads of her blanket pucker.

What’s he gonna do with her? How could a general apologize for her soldiers before apologizing for herself? “Not the problem,” he says. The corps dies, that’s what it’s for. Hashira die, that’s the job description, that’s his destiny, it’s your future, that’s the problem.

“Doesn’t help, I’m sure.”

“Nothing helps,” he sighs.

“I’m glad it was you.” Sanemi turns his head towards her and the window that frames her bed like a wince. “I’m happy you’re here, I’m glad the crow found you.”

“I was nearby,” his heart aches, “you got lucky.”

In the interim still Leo slips her hand into his and he doesn’t, he never, pulls away. She calls him Baum again, Baumkuchen, her favorite dessert and asks him about his injuries which were mostly self-inflicted. Asks after his crow, damage to his sword, if he’s eaten. She smiles the same, she pouts the same, she smells the same– lilies of the valley– why does he torture himself like this? Why hasn’t he locked himself away from her?

Leo tucks a sheaf of blonde behind her ear while clucking about whatever kindnesses the butterfly staff have shown her this morning. He shouldn’t even be here, he doesn’t need to be. She reaches forward with her soft pink hand and he flinches, “Baum?” but he’s been staring too long to pretend not to care. “Can you,” she falters at his surprise and points to the table between them, just out of her bandaged reach, “my hairclip?”

That rotten thing. Sanemi kicks himself. The pink paper butterfly she showed up with after final selection two years ago. Good luck charm. She couldn’t have known what it meant or who she was trying to replace. “We match!” she’d exclaimed, more at Shinobu than in conversation with her after that first Hashira meeting. But the insect pillar’s mean-nothing smile had curdled just slightly and Leo withered. Everyone did, even Tengen slipped quietly from the manor.

Sanemi presses the delicate wings into Leo’s hand and watches the eerie movements of a ghost as she perches the insect between her lips. Four fingers drawing the wisps away from her face and everything– every breath, every movement just like– “Sanemi.” She must be finished. He lifts his head and considers simply leaving the room when he realizes how she is watching. Leo and her horrible clip paint a pretty silhouette in sunlight. She nestles her hands in the place her blanket dips between her thighs and always she has that miserable, wonderful smile holding up the corners of her lips.

So many times, so many conversations and missions, all lined with her silent pleading. She is always on the precipice of saying something, and that is uniquely her own.

“Why do you always look away?” She concedes– obviously not what she wanted to ask– before he realizes he’s not only staring but also leaning ever so slightly closer to her sick bed. Sanemi stands up to leave.

“Baum.”

“Rest up, pincushion.”

“Sanemi.”

He waves her words away without turning from the door like trying to clear a horrible smell.

“The Hinoe, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t care,” he tries to yawn or embody any iteration of unbother and pulls the door open to free himself. Maybe Aoi will be waiting outside, maybe his crow has come to announce another mission. Kanroji is certainly already on the road here to preen over her friend and if he leaves now he could easily avoid her, but Leo’s sickbed betrays her movement behind him and before he can turn to scold her for rising, she’s already started to speak.

“Hirotaka,” she grunts with the exertion of swinging her legs over the lip of the mattress, “Yorochi.”

The recital was startling enough for Sanemi without her hauling out of bed and breaking her neck. Tens, hundreds of tiny pinprick scabs freckle the clear milk of her skin as she faces him down with all the gentle strength of the woman who came before her. “Alright,” he submits, turning back to face her, to shoo her down.

“Fusaharu,” she continues with her blanket pulled aside. There were only three Hinoe swordsmen on the mission but names continue to pour off Leo’s tongue, “Naohiro, Iori, Hikoto.” All her sweet demeanor hardens. There was once a Hashira who remembered every name of every soldier that ever fell. “Yoshishige.” As Leo continues, the blood falls from Sanemi’s face. Something stirs. His eyes go wide. “Kumeno.”

The doorknob snaps off in his hand and the pillar is suddenly across the room, against her, up in the face of the person pretending to be her. “How do you know that name?” He demands. He bunches the front of Leo’s robes in a fist and she is serene. It’s the first name of the friend who died instead of him four years ago against that Lower-Rank One. “You can’t know that name,” he growls. He clenches his fist tighter at her chest.

“I know them all,” she murmurs. She is close enough to smell and it comes back to him in waves. Plum, Peony, Hanaguromo, the forms of her Flower Breath overwhelm him when she speaks so close, pulled so close by him. Leo cups his fist with her two hands, “How could you say you don’t care?”

He’s not truly listening because something has finally started to churn behind his eyes like the sea, something his mother used to say. Good boys leave with the Buddha. Good boys are reborn as princes and kings, so work hard in this life. Sanemi shakes his arm and her with it but he is alight with something other than anger and shudders more than he means to.

Leo pauses, sweetness returning, “Bau–?”

“Kanae?” His voice cracks.

It’s impossible. He knows it’s not real and that he’s just set his reputation of sanity up in flames but all the gods on their thrones can’t be allowed to torture him with impunity. He’ll question them, he’ll pull them off their lotuses. Immediately, Leo’s eyes shine with tears.

He shakes his head, she cups it. He should be angry for this dirty trick and he should throw a punch. His fingers tremble where they land on her round cheeks. “Kanae?” He tries again even weaker this time. Leo nods wildly and the tears are racing off of her lashes and over his thumbs. “It’s not funny,” he barely manages. There is a lump and he can’t keep it from fighting its way up his throat.

“I wouldn’t,” she breathes before he loses all control of himself and leans down to kiss her.

He thought this might be what heaven looked like on the day he finally lost a fight. He imagined his siblings gathered under a tree as he crept up behind them on some obnoxiously nice summer’s day. He always imagined Kanae with them. She would be reading in a pretty purple yukata like Aoi had always described and she’d see him before any of his family did. He’d cry, she’d smile, his brother would notice the lull in her reading and turn around to ruin the surprise. Paradise was big enough. His friends, his family, the love of his life, he’d never have to raise a sword again.

Leo’s lips against his, he’s always imagined this. The florals of Kanae’s hair, he’s kept the taste of it safe for long in his memory he worried it might slip out and so he pulls away. When Sanemi takes a step back he falls to the floor. “Nem!” Leo winces and follows him right down. She tucks off of her bed and slumps on the ground in front of where he landed with his hands splay bracing behind him.

“Why– didn’t you say anything?”

“I couldn’t,” she attempts to explain and her butterfly clip comes loose in that sunsilk hair. Leo’s left arm bandages are tight enough but if she keeps making that ridiculous expression her stitches are going to pop, “I still can’t it’s– a curse! I wanted to tell you Sanemi, I gave up telling–”

“It’s not real.” There are tears in Sanemi’s eyes now too. It can’t be. His lips still taste like lilies and Leo’s concern floods her big bug eyes just like Kanae’s once did. What would Kocho think? He pushes himself to a proper sit. “Who are you?”

“Leo,” she whispers as his tears start to fall. She crawls slightly forward on her knees, still lacking strength from last night’s poison. She is taller than Kanae was and just as kind. She’s just as stern and deceptive in her gentleness and Sanemi misses her, so, so much. “You know me,” Leo says as she reaches for him. He doesn’t stop her. She takes up his hand and lifts it to her chest on her knees above him. She presses it deep against her heart. “Please know me.”

He does. He shouldn’t.

Sanemi lets her hold his hand in the swell of her breast and doesn’t flinch when she rests her other palm against his wet cheek. He caught a branch to the face last night and a little girl named Sumi insisted he crouch down so she could bandage it this morning. Leo thumbs the dot of cloth as his tears soak through the fabric. She kisses him.

It can be true for however long it takes Sanemi to finally hold the world in his arms. Leo fingers twitter through his sleepless hair and drag against his scalp. He can hardly stay upright, can hardly do anything but let her lips pull him closer. On the floor, his hands fall from her chest and fumble up her thighs from where she hovers above him. How long has she wanted this? Sanemi’s breath catches when Leo slips her tongue across his teeth and places a hand on his chest. His heartbeat is a window to his soul and it tries as hard as it can now on the floor of a hospital room, to rip itself from its chest and settle between Leo’s fingers. She sings to it. She pulls away.

“Baum?” He hardly hears her and chases the space between their lips, “Sanemi,” she tries again. His eyes are heavy in the sunlight that frames her. His hold on her thighs becomes hungry.

“Again,” he murmurs to the beat of the pulse on his lips.

“Sanemi.” The voice of his second love drips through his ears and she lowers her face back to his so that he might breathe her in again.

“Please.”

“Shinazugawa Sanemi.”

When she kisses him this time she does not cry. Leo’s butterfly is long discarded and on the floor beside her bed, her white robe pools at her knees. She braces herself against Sanemi’s chest, in his hair and across his shoulders on her knees in the dust and wood. Her tongue leads his into a game of devour and suddenly her hips have slotted quietly against his as she straddles his lap. Suddenly a kiss is not enough. How long has he wanted her? Gentle general.

Leo’s lips trail farther, deeper into the nooks and notches of Sanemi’s jaw and he has to hold her to keep from falling back. His fingertips trace an uncertain line up her spine. Hers cradle his face and match pulse with the heartbeat in his ribcage. Leo’s tongue is hot on clammy parts of him and draws a sharp breath when Sanemi bucks into her at a soft angle. He growls just slightly in embarrassment.

How? He wants to ask, all this time, “How–”

“Don’t.” Leo whispers, “I can’t. Know me, understand by holding me.” And whether or not it’s true there’s nothing he wants to do more. She is new, she is not Kanae, she is not the woman Sanemi loved, but she is loved by him. How many people exist inside of her? Her. Who was…who were they before Kanae slipped inside? What makes up this person he loves so?

Leo begins to lose control of that perfect temper and her breath comes more harshly than a Hashira’s should. Sanemi’s thighs vibrate with the weight of her, lighter than air and warmer than anything he could have ever imagined. They find a rhythm and once knees dig into waists and hips warm hips neither of them remember how to properly fill their lungs. Her kisses and nips lose focus. She shudders and Sanemi’s head falls back on his shoulders, attached only by her grasping hands. Leo clutches the open fabric of his uniform as she grinds, deeper, slower than Sanemi’s own growing heat can manage. The bulge of hakama catches the soft crease of her thighs– the tease of something warmer. He can’t force control back into his muscles. Sanemi crosses his arms around her waist and pulls Leo into his lap as he rolls against her.

Hot, desperate, the off kilter beat of her heart and all those small sounds she tries to keep quiet might as well send Sanemi straight to his grave. The smell of her will drown him, thick and sweet. When Leo finds purchase again in his hair he can only groan. He’s never— he doesn’t– Sanemi braces her hips with one hand and pulls her where it feels good, pushes, pulls, like a plea.

She clutches his other hand with her own trembling fingers and tucks it between the break of her robes. Sweat beads at her sternum. His eyes have gone wide and all the Wind Hashira can do is stare between Leo’s chest and the flex of her jaw as she opens and closes it in an attempt to stay quiet, eyes shut in concentration.

He clutches the breast Leo has led him to without stopping that guiding hand at the meat of her ass. Every brush of damp over his lap kicks his heart through his throat and he’s tracing the shape of her nipple before she can shut her mouth to keep her voice down.

“B-Baum–” she bites her lip and dips forward to kiss him again instead of finishing. Two hands on her ass, two hands cupping his face, if they keep grinding against one another he’ll– “Nem.”

“Le–” he attempts and succumbs to her kiss again. It’s wilder than before. Her hips have picked up rhythm and her tongue no longer asks before entering. She’ll swallow him. He’ll let her. It would be so easy– to just let his hands dig deeper. To slip under the folds of her robes and sink inside– lower her onto his–

“No!” Someone shrills behind them and Sanemi’s head jerks backwards, suddenly free of her lips, onto the floor with a start. Much to the Hashira’s rapidly approaching horror, Kanroji Mitsuri is standing in the doorway with a sizable chunk of the door frame broken off in her fist. Above him, Leo’s lips are drawn tight and she’s redder than a sunset. Her lips and jaw still glisten with saliva.

Mitsuri seems to have embarrassed herself even more with her outburst and looks rapidly between their lewd pile on the floor and the empty hallway. She squeaks with indecision and then storms inside. “Sanemi!” She huffs while pulling a stunned Leo from his grip and tossing her onto the bed, “Naughty! Not the time for love!” But mortification has frozen him to the floor. “This is a hospital.”

It’s all he can do to blink. Leo’s lilies ghost his swollen lips and her warmth still draws the sweat from his palms, which he keeps beside his head in shock or surrender until something ridiculous thaws the ice. Leo’s voice like wisteria echoes through the room in hiccups and laughter. Mitsuri’s as pink as her hair and everyone turns to stare but Leo laughs harder. There are tears in her eyes.

“Sanemi,” she gasps, “Up up, Baum!” and she clutches Mitsuri’s sleeve to keep her from moving. Sanemi’s on his feet at a dizzying speed and Leo speaks again from her golden and bandaged throne. He can only back away. “I will have you, Sanemi! Any way you’ll take me.” Her eyes shine like a great hungry garden, they hold back tears like a storm, “Don’t go where I can’t find you.”

As he scrambles from the room Mitsuri’s legs give out. The Love Hashira hits the mattress and he doesn’t catch a word that follows because Sanemi is diving headlong down the staircase– flying– in search of a hiding place. He hurdles Aoi and ignores the sound of his name, ignores the taste of her, down the entry hall, off the porch, and barefoot into Kocho’s garden. He kicks up her pristine sands and pebbles crunch where they should not and Sanemi crumbles in the first pool of shade.

He collapses under a maple tree. He bows over his knees and drops his head in its dirt. How? How a thousand things. Why? Why a handful fewer. Sanemi’s heart won’t survive this, worse than training, worse than death, what is this feeling? His fingers long to hold something over which he has no control. Foxglove trembles in a sunny breeze beside his head and then it whistles right through his ears, carrying scent of the flower with it.

Four years ago Kanae found him beside this exact bush trying his best to meditate in a limp wind. He’d seen her before, tall and docile. She had defended Ubuyashiki against his wrath at his first Hashira meeting and in his first Hashira hospital visit, she’d tucked a flower behind his grumpy ear.

“Why are you hiding?” Her voice was petal. “Would you like to be alone?” Sunshine, new moss. “Would you like to come with me?”

Sanemi smiles against the walkway stones and lets new tears fall. She knows exactly where he is. Leo will find him again.

[colorful-white-ideas]

I'm really scared cause Nosferatu is getting hates now because of Bill, people say he's not a leading man and his movies are all bombs at the box office. They also say his career is over cause of The Crow and that's why till now we didn't get any update of him being involved in anything cause noone wants to work with him. They say Nosferatu is gonna be the next box office bomb remake cause Bill destroys anything he's in. Some said Bill's filmography is awful and he has to chage his agent and his team, even some people said he's a nepo baby and his dad helps him to get roles.

I want to cry. Pls send help 😭😭😭😭😭

My best answer to that is they all can go to FUCK THEMSELVES.

And I say this not as a Bill fan but as someone who likes good movies , he is a good damn actor. People who hate the new crow movie and criticize Bill are only whining about his look , they don't say anything else besides that so blinded by hate , they dont see how good his body language was , the control of his eyes , the good voice control he had for the emotional scenes... Just for example the scene where he finally puts the make up on . It's so powerful how he transmits the self hate , pain and agony for what he has become.

The box office issue is not because people decided not to go to see it , those die hard crow fans are giving themselves too much credit. Their fandom is minuscule. It was the terrible lack of promotion from Lionsgate that caused this. That company played dirty to BKW and did the bare minimum for The Crow , the amount of comments I've seen of people saying they didn't know the movie was out ... Is frankly upsetting.

It didn't reach all the cinemas either , and as with BKW , they are withdrawing the movie from small cinemas after the first weekend. The marketing around these movies was horrible. Promoting The Crow as a remake was the first nail in the coffin and it took them TOO DAMN LONG RELEASE THE PROMOTIONAL INTERVIEWS.

Lastly what is wrong with all the movies he participated in ? They all look good to me. The best of all ( for me) was The devil all the time and people SLEPT on him , his work there was 10 times better than Pattinson. ( Sorry not sorry)

His career will do more than fine. Locked will be shown in the TiFF in September, Nosferatu in December ( we are like 4 months away, almost nothing)

Haters can suck a dick and shut up for once.

I won't even say sorry for being this aggressive. All the hate The Crow 2024 is getting , out of pocket, got me in my last nerve. Fuck them all.

[miqo-tales]

A tiny primer on FFXI, pt 2

THE BAD GUYS

THE SHADOW LORD

The big bad of FFXI's first main storyline. He's in the promotional artwork for the 7.1 patch, so he's definitely gonna show up somewhere. Possibly as the final boss of the first tier.

20 years before the start of FFXI, the Shadow Lord appeared without warning. Enlisting the various beastmen races in the Middle Lands, he attacked the three nations and pushed them to the brink of destruction.

The Archduke of Jeuno convinced the nations of San d'Oria, Bastok, and Windurst to ally together in order to fight back. After a long stalemate, the allied forces finally achieved some major victories, and at last a small team of heroes infiltrated Castle Zvahl and defeated the Shadow Lord.

As you play through the initial rank missions of FFXI, you find that forces are working to revive the Shadow Lord, and eventually you fight him.

A variant of him is the boss (and super boss) of the final Dynamis battlefield (the initial set of them, anyway), and he shows up in the storyline of FFXI's fourth expansion.

The Shadow Lord's backstory is actually pretty interesting, and I consider it one of the better parts of FFXI's lore/story. But I won't mention it here cause it spoils so much stuff.

THE BEASTMEN

There's a myriad number of animals, birds, vermin, undead, and even elementals that can kill you in FFXI, but arguably the biggest threats are the Beastmen races.

There's over a dozen of them, but I'm only going to cover a few that might show up in the upcoming raid. The first three are more or less the direct antagonists to the three main nations.

ORCS - "brutish" might be the best way to describe this humanoid race. They have a strong lust for battle and conquest, and their hierarchy is based on strength and combat ability. Orcs originally came from the far north, and are actively invading the lands of San d'Oria. They have outposts in the nearby regions, and even converted Davoi monastery into a stronghold after taking it from the kingdom.

Orcs also employ warmachines, which are basically crude, manually-propelled tanks. They are imitations of massive siege engines used in the Crystal War.

QUADAV - bipedal turtles, Quadav are skilled with metallurgy and mining. It's such a big part of their culture that many Quadav names and titles are taken from metals and gemstones. They're in conflict with Bastok because its expansion has forced the Quadav out of territories they long occupied.

YAGUDO - a crow-like bipedal race, the Yagudo have an extremely strict religious culture and heirarchy, and, well, probably border on fanaticism. They're not interested in conquest or expansion, only to keep the lands they consider to be traditionally theirs. The Yagudo have a treaty of non-aggression with Windurst, but it involves Windurst providing regular large offerings to maintain the truce.

GOBLINS - Goblins can be found almost everywhere, and engage in trade with other beastmen as well as the Enlightened races. There's even a shop in Jeuno run entirely by Goblins. They make use of explosives and trust me, "Bomb Toss" was a terrifying thing to see a goblin use in battle.

(XIV re-used the XI Goblin model, so they look the same in both games.)

A subspecies, Moblins, live in their underground city of Movalpolas, and are highly skilled in refining and smelting ore, as well as developing steam technology and underground lighting.

KINDRED - Commonly known as "Demons", these horned, winged humanoids are found in the cold, northern regions of Quon. Their origins are mostly unknown, but during the Crystal War they served the Shadow Lord and kept the other beastmen armies under control.

(FFXIV re-used their model for some enemies in early quests and dungeons, and they occasionally pop up in other stuff. A good example is in Tam-Tara Deepcroft: the enemy you fight before you can destroy the cultist orb is a demon model.)

OTHER PEOPLE

Some other notable NPCs or creatures/bosses that could maybe show up in this raid series (i.e., not just in 7.1)? Or at least get referenced.

Shantotto - Shantotto is arguably the mascot character of FFXI, and if she doesn't show up in person in this raid series, I'll be shocked. She's a Tarutaru and an extremely proficient and powerful black mage, and a former government minister of Windurst.

Lion - A Hume thief, and adopted daughter of Gilgamesh, the leader of Norg (a settlement of pirates and thieves). She's the "cute girl important to the plot" for the Rise of the Zilart expansion and accompanies and assists your character during it.

Prishe - A young Elvaan girl that is the "cute girl important to the plot" for the Chains of Promathia expansion. Because of an incident during a baptism ceremony, she became immortal, so she's actually quite older than she looks. She's brash, foul-mounted, impatient, and due to her immortality, tends to be self-sacrificing. Prishe is the other FFXI character that tends to be a guest in crossovers, and sure enough, she's in the 7.1 artwork, so she'll show up somewhere.

Nashmeira, Lilisette, and Iroha - "cute girl important to the plot" for Treasure of Aht Urghan, Wings of the Goddess, and Rhapsodies of Vana'diel respectively. I suspect if they do show up, it'll be in later patches, so I'll save talking about them for later.

Naja Salaheem - a Mithra with a big mace, she's the President of Salaheem's Sentinels, a mercenary company in Aht Urghan. Naja cares about profit, how much profit you made for her recently, and why you're just standing there when you could be making profit for her right now. And she does not care about small details like "but you told me to come see you". I honestly dunno if she'll show up in the XI raid at all, but she's really well-known and popular, so I think there's a chance.

Kam'lanaut and Eald'narche - The former is the Archduke of Jeuno, and the latter is his brother. They're also the main antagonists of the Rise of Zilart expansion.

Ark Angels - Summoned by the Archduke and his brother to assist them, they represent the Sins of the five races: Hume's Apathy, Elvaan's Arrogance, Mithra's Envy, Galka's Rage, and Tarutaru's Cowardice. You eventually fight them during Rise of the Zilart, and you can either fight them one at a time, or all five at once. I dunno if they'll show up, but I want them to, cause they're cool looking and I wanna see them in FFXIV graphics.

Maat - Maat is a bit like Godbert, in the sense that he's an old man that can kick anyone and everyone's ass. Once you hit level 50 in XI, you have to do a series of quests for Maat to increase your level cap up to 75 (thankfully you only have to do them once per character, not per job). The last of these "limit break" quests (for base game and Zilart jobs) requires fighting Maat solo, with Maat as the same job as you.

Odin - Yea, Odin is already in FFXIV, but his XI incarnation is actually pretty important to a few stories in XI.

Fafnir - A Notorious Monster, or NM, that could drop a special sword called Ridill. SQEX showed an image of a dragon during the recent Korean fanfest that I think has been confirmed to be Fafnir, and in the Dragon's Aery location where he could be spawned, no less.

Kirin - A very powerful NM, usually called a HNM or High Notorious Monster. You had to force pop it using items that dropped from four other NMs, and if I remember right, it was a long fight that involved kiting some monsters around while the party/alliance killed others. If Fafnir is in, I think Kirin or something similar could be possible too.

Atomos - Atomos in FFXI eats timelines in order to maintain reality. I have a suspicion it might be involved in the XI raid's story.