#It's about time he got a DT update

[humblemooncat]

Decided to redo Erebus (Ki'to's Azem) since I'm doing the sightseeing logs. I feel like the Traveler should be able to come along as a treat. :3c

[hythlodaes]

realizing that emile's haircut might be more significant than originally intended............

[nipuni]

Hello time to yap about life and media again! 🥰

It's been a month and a half since we fully moved into this new old house and it's been a steep learning curve!! so far we had to learn how to care for a garden and grow fruit, how to deal with extremely humid weather, the mold!! also learning about various repairs, electricity and plumbing, we had a leak that turned one lamp into a waterfall, the rcd keeps tripping every time it rains, had to fix a door in the dark after Nicolas got himself trapped in a room when the handle broke during a power outage, the heating system is an air to water heat pump and it took us ages to figure out how to set it up correctly so we spent weeks wearing 3 layers inside the house, I even fell down the stairs!! I'm not used to having stairs inside the house lmao It's a big adjustment when you've always lived in small apartments in big cities all your adult life, but to be honest we love it!! everything feels like a new quest for us to tackle and it is so much fun figuring it all out as we go, reading technical manuals by candle light, the teamwork of installing and assembling furniture and networks, pruning the trees, celebrating every small mundane accomplishment and new skill learned every night over dinner, I may be corny as hell but it all feels like a privilege and an adventure 😭

Media wise we watched the second season of Arcane! This series never fails to make me fall in love with art again, not that I've ever fallen out but I can't say that the whole AI debacle hasn't been ass for the morale. Aesthetically it is a masterpiece. The character design, the cinematography, the mixed media montages aaaa Seeing the work, the skill and care that was put into every frame reminded me of how important and human the storytelling aspect of art really is. I wonder if we will see a shift to the more story driven or conceptual arts when we look back on this period, but I ramble, back to Arcane. I have mostly praise for it, wonderful characters and very touching relationships. I think our only issues were with the pacing being too slow at the start, every character climbing out of a very low point, and then too fast which made the second half feel a bit rushed. This season also felt a bit more tropey than the first one but still really solid. It remains one of the best animated series ever made and I am so happy to see it succeed in this current environment 😭 It feels like teenagehood condensed into a show, we really enjoyed it. I hope we get a season 3!!

Also there was an update in our David Tennant filmography quest! we watched The Politician's Husband and unsurprisingly we loved it!! It was gripping and the acting was brilliant. It is actually what I was expecting Rivals to be like, I realize 🤔 I think it could have used a 4th episode, felt like it ended too quickly and there was room for more, as if they ran out of time to tie things up so they picked the quickest route. But it was really good!! These miniseries are always so engaging and so short, I need mooreee.

We missed our DT nights!! Nicolas spent the last week hunting for more of David's work for us to watch. We've been hosting family for a few days again last week and on top of work and everything else we had to pause them for a bit. But now we are back to our nightly routine and he's over the moon!! Instant mood boost it's embarrassing lmao both of us falling this hard for this guy is too enabling, he even made his name our guest wifi password, we are besotted 😂

Oh! I also I saw a Veilguard Q&A was happening and read a few replies I saw posted here, and it proved to be a huge mistake! It was a disappointing and truly infuriating read. What even happened during the production of this game lmao How come the average fan seems to have a much better grasp on the lore, characters and plot than the people who made it 😭 There is this gaping disconnect between intent and execution. The way that fans are trying to make sense and give meaning to the complete mess that is the writing in an attempt to salvage and preserve the aspects they loved about it is saddening. I am mentally throwing tomatoes at John Epler as we speak. His answers felt so unserious and baffling at best and offensive and petty at worst. It's been eye opening, I could go on a two hour rant but the more I learn and dwell on it the more bitter I become about it all and I'm already seeing ten year old discourse resurface and people getting weird about it so I'll just ..🚶‍♀️ In my eyes this world and it's characters now belong only to those who love it and lives in my memory 🫡

Anyway, this ended up being at least twice as long as I was planning to make it again 😭 and I still have to catch up with asks aaaa it's been a busy month sorry I'll get to them soon!! Thank you for reading and for the support and for just being here!! I hope you all have a great week 🥺❤️

[a-star-that-burns-brightly]

CH2-12 thoughts (spoilers, I guess. You probably shouldn't be in the tag if you haven't finished the episode though.)

So! DRDT is officially back, and wow what a way to begin the rollercoaster we'll be put through the next few weeks. This episode was amazing, and I wanted to discuss my thoughts on it in a more detailed form. This episode gave us a lot of character moments that I want to at least mention, so let's get into it? Before we do though, I want to say that through these posts, I will be updating two things and showing them at the beginning and end First one being the swear statistics! It became a thing after my previous rewatch that every time a character swears, I count it, and I want to continue doing that for the rest of the series if I can so manage it.

^ current swear statistics as of CH2-11

And the second being...drumroll please!

My own personal DRDT CH2-Part 2 bingo card! If something on this list happens in CH2-Part 2, I'll check it off. Hopefully I can get a bingo or two in here, especially since, spoilers, two of the boxes have already been checked. But with all of that preamble out of the way, let's begin shall we? I’m going to cover the character moments we got in separate categories of the well…characters, rather than in order, for the sake of being concise.

Arturo

First and foremost, “Shut your whore mouth” made me scream at the top of my lungs. God I wish that was voiced. But more importantly, the thing about Arturo being very young for a plastic surgeon actually being addressed was not something I expected, especially so early. But I definitely appreciate the nuggets of Arturo backstory. Funny enough, his situation sounds very similar to Min’s in some regard, especially this line

(x) Arturo: I was only able to get this far in such a short amount of time because I specialized in plastic surgery, and nothing else. I neglected everything that wasn't immediately relevant to my goals.

This absolutely plays a factor into his relationship with his little sister. It more than likely was not just him leaving that made her commit suicide, but perhaps also years of neglect. And if she really felt like she couldn't live a life without Arturo in it, it's safe to say that their parents probably weren't the best either. The more I learn about Arturo and his homelife the more worried I am for him and especially his sister.

Veronika

Veronika didn't get much besides being her usual self, but I gave her a category because I wanted to point out two things One, Veronika calling Arturo cute. That just made me smile

And secondly, this line right here

(x) Veronika: Oh, and don't say something as boring as "I want to kill myself." I have no interest in such mundane reasons.

This is so fucked up and awful and gross and I absolutely love her for it. I just know she's going to get worse, I hope she does.

And also the fact that she apparently finds suicide to be inherently boring is very interesting, given the fact that she more than likely has the self-harm secret.

Whit

I know he didn't have much, if any major role in this episode but...listen I missed him. So much. You have actually zero idea how much I missed him and his goofiness... But also I can't believe that was the explanation for the dent in the computer lab that's been bugging me for months. Well played DT-Dev... (though the fact that Whit got away with breaking a rule solely because MonoTV thought it was funny is a bit fishy...it's almost like he's the MASTERMIND-- /hj)

We also in general got a lot of Charles and Whit moments, which I always like to see I don't think there's anything else to cover when it comes to Wh--

(x) David: Ugh! Goddamn it, Whit, does everything you say have to be made into some shitty dumb joke?! You're actually really fucking annoying! Shut the fuck up!!

...Well, when I said I wanted more Whitvid interactions I guess this can serve as a reward. ...guys dont worry this is how we can still wi--

Levi

...I mean, what else is there to say really?

No but actually I'll talk. This is what we've been theorizing for a year, and I actually had it in my predictions that Levi's secret was going to be the one revealed in this episode. But I did not expect it right at the end, nor did I expect it to be so sudden. And I don't think Levi has any reason to lie either, so I think this is his actual secret. Seeing him lose confidence and apologize for his unhelpfulness kind of stung to me, honestly. Levi has been trying to help the group since the very beginning, and that has only amplified since the start of Chapter 2. So seeing him...basically give up was very upsetting He is definitely going to be in the hot seat next week's episode and I am very excited for it, hopefully we get some insight on his past as well and...maybe a levi and nico interaction? please dt-dev? please? :>

Hu

FishyFried, as always, knocked it out of the fucking park with Hu's voice acting, and her monologue towards David was just as amazing...if not a bit terrifying, as it directly parallels with her hidden quote

I want to pay for what I’ve done. But even then, I still want to live.

I think I've said this before, but I adore David and Hu's dynamic and how both of them tackle the themes of change in their own ways, how both of them project onto the people around them to fulfill their own desires due to being stagnant in their own growth as people, it's so much fun, and I can't wait to see how this continues to develop in the later chapters I am sincerely a ch5victim!david + ch5killer!hu believer at the end of the day.

Teruko

Oh Teruko, quite a bit to discuss with you today.

For starters, her genuinely feeling embarrassed and upset upon realizing what she did wrong, apologizing for it, and (how I interpreted it anyway) beginning to realize that working alone and not accepting help from others is starting to bite her in the ass? That was not what I expected. I really did think that Teruko was going to get worse before she got better, but maybe she's improving a lot quicker than I thought (...let's hope she doesn't backslide again though, especially if the culprit is who I think it is) Also.

If I have to live with this knowledge, so the-fuck do you. And then there's her argument with David, which I already made a post about, but I want to add onto it by saying that the performances from Swords and LuucarIi here are absolutely phenomenal. One of my favorite voice acted scenes in the entire series. I have replayed Teruko's "Hah! Based on what?!" probably around 20 times and I will repeat it 20 times more because the delivery gives me actual chills. This fangan has such an amazing voice cast oh my god it's insane.

David

Oh. You are such a broken, broken man, and you are absolutely going to go down the Simon Laurent route. I actually don't have a lot to add when it comes to David's actual motivations for his actions, I think a lot of us theorized that he was trying to kill everyone and himself. But the main thing I want to talk about is the Xander shit because oh my god this man is Down Fucking Horrendous. I mentioned all the way back in this post that David idolizes Xander just as much as Xander idolizes him. What I didn't expect was for him to still be clinging onto the hope Xander gave him and trying to follow in his footsteps, and being borderline possessive over the damn dead man. Xander may have idolized David, but David is obsessed with Xander and what he represents to him. And he is willing to ruin his reputation, reliability, and dignity in pursuit of what he thinks is right. Not to mention, it puts the Tally5 image in a whole new light.

Though I still think these words apply to the very possible revolution that David, Xander, and Mai enacted towards Hope's Peak, a theory that has become even more credible after this episode, I also think these lines portray David's thought process during his actions in CH2-11 and his motivation for doing the things that he does. David calling Xander "the only good person he's ever known" is very, very telling when you consider what he personally thinks makes someone a bad person (lazy, useless, stupid). And that makes me upset. Xander and David's relationship will never not be absolutely fascinating to me. ...alSO DAVID APPARENTLY HAS MEMORIES FROM HOPE'S PEAK??? APPARENTLY??? Like am I reading that right or do I just have bad media literacy. How...How does he??? WHY does he??? Why did he say he didn't know who Xander was in the prologue???? I am very confused and I'm sure it will all be answered. Extra Thoughts !! - we got 7:30 AM confirmation, woohoo!! And the bonus of Arei swinging when she was first found was such a good detail and I’m surprised none of us noticed it, honestly. With that confirmation, that leaves basically everyone else (minus J, David, Veronika, Hu, and Nico) in the hot-seat. - the multitude of new sprites we got were so amazing, especially David's - Apparently everything that happened in the second half of CH2-11 was in the span of two hours?! Sheesh, the editing crew on the TV show must be working overtime. Hopefully they get a paycheck and its not just MonoTV who gets paid. - If I had any doubt in my brain that Eden was the culprit it has basically dissipated with this episode. I really do not know who else it could be other than her. three of the five main suspects other than her have basically been cleared up, either through alibi (J and Hu) or though plot (Levi) David and Nico are also cleared from suspicion Though there isn't really any plot or evidence reason to necessarily exclude Rose, given her moment in CH2-8 and, let's be honest, this murder being way too physically complicated for someone as lethargic as her to commit, I'm inclined to believe she is not And every other character has something that's clearly being set up to be further explored in Chapter 3 (Charles, Whit, Ace, Arturo, and Veronika) Like... even if you don't think Eden is the culprit, you can't deny that she's the odd one out here. I still think Accomplice!Levi is true, but I also truthfully think the culprit can't be anyone other than Eden - If I were to give one I-guess critique though, not just on this episode but on the trial as a whole, it's that we are four trial episodes in and there has been very, very little focus on the actual murder mystery itself. We have barely even covered 80% of the evidence. This isn't like, a huge problem for me specifically because I very much watch DRDT for the astounding character writing over the murder mysteries, and I definitely think that the lack of focus on the case is worth the amazing character moments we got in this episode. But I can see it really bothering some people, and there's a part of me that can't help but be a bit afraid that the actual solving of the murder case is going to hit the audience with a bunch of information at once and come across as a bit rushed due to the lack of focus it's had so far. I trust that DT-Dev is cooking though, and it'll probably be a lot more cohesive once we have the full trial to look through.

Predictions for CH2-13 - Like I said before, Levi is going to become the main suspect easily thanks to his secret reveal. I know Ace is going to be on his ass especially, because in his mind it would basically confirm the image he has already conjured up of Levi in his mind as a violent brute who is going to snap his neck any second. J is also going to jump to conclusions because that's just what she does, and she was already concerned about the murderer secret to begin with. - Furthermore, I think most of this episode is going to entail Teruko trying to disprove that Levi could've been the culprit. Considering the fact that there, well, isn't much evidence to suggest he didn't, maybe this episode will feature this chapter's Random Guess minigame. - I highly doubt we're getting an AM VS PM scrum debate now, but maybe we'll get one on whether or not Levi is the culprit? Maybe? - On the topic of trial minigames, I hope we get another nonstop debate, it's been like three episodes since we've had one lmao - Nico is either going to defend Levi, or reiterate the speech that J gave them in CH2-9. Either way, I hope this reveal causes them to interact it would be so interesting - We are on a track-record of having at least one person's secret exposed every trial episode. Considering the fact that Xander and Min are dead, and I do not think Teruko's secret will come out until the end of the chapter, that really only leaves Hu and Veronika...which is interesting, as they are both in the clear for being the culprit. Hu has already had multiple moments to shine in this trial, so I think its more likely that Veronika's secret will be the one getting revealed. How that happens, I am unsure. But I think Veronika will be the next person to have her secret revealed.

Conclusion Overall, I think this episode was amazing and a great way to kick off the end of the hiatus. I can already tell that these next few weeks are going to be a wild ride for us DRDT fans, but we're all in this together, so I think everything's going to be fine (nothing is going to be fine.)

UPDATED SWEAR STATISTICS: CH2-12

UPDATED BINGO CARD

[starrysnowdrop]

I know this is a little late, but here’s my New Year’s post where I’ll discuss what my plans are for 2025 and some of my thoughts heading into this new year. I’m assuming that I might be a little long winded, so I’ll put the rest under the cut. Have a happy 2025 everyone!!

First of all, I wanted to thank everyone who reached out to me after the attack in my hometown of New Orleans. As I mentioned before, no one I personally knew was there on Bourbon Street when it happened, but it nonetheless left me feeling extremely distressed, and everyone here in Nola is grieving together, so we are taking it one day at a time.

Because of the attack, I wasn’t in the right mindset to write out this post, but I’m finally alright enough mentally to get these thoughts out.

Next, spurned on by my new profile picture, I decided that I wanted to change up the look of my blog a bit. There’s lighter, brighter colors used, and along with the new colors, I decided to make some new banners for my pinned post. The new banners are already being used in my pinned post, but I’ll attach them below in case you haven’t seen them yet. The background is a painting of snowdrop flowers! Don’t worry, the starry banners that were there previously will still be used interchangeably with the new ones when I answer asks.

Speaking of Hali and her ships, I have plenty of things that I want to gpose and write for Hali, and at the moment I’m still going forward with Hali having two ships in separate universes, but I’m not going to lie: I’m extremely inspired to write for Hali x Themis at the moment.

So does that mean that I’ll drop the Aymeric ship in the future? Well, I don’t know that yet. I’m still very happy with what I’ve done for the Hali x Aymeric ship, and even in the Themisverse, Aymeric is her first love. The only difference is that Aymeric pushes Hali away so that she doesn’t have to be stuck in Ishgard with him when she’s an adventurer, so they never get together in the Themisverse. So Aymeric would still be a very important person who plays a very important role in Hali’s story regardless if they are in a relationship or not.

However, my mind just will not leave me alone when it comes to Themis. I currently want to explore Hali’s experiences with seeing Themis in her dreams and not knowing who he is or why she can’t stop dreaming of him, and also having a Deja vu feeling whenever she encounters Elidibus but neither of them recognizing each other nor remembering their past love for each other. And of course, there’s much to write about Hali’s personal story during the events of Pandaemonium when they start falling in love with each other.

On the gpose front, I already have made some great strides with getting back to doing some more complex posing and using some shaders and presets that broke in the DT graphics update that I FINALLY got around to fixing! So once my son is back in school and I have more free time to practice, I’ll be getting back to do more gposes and especially more Hali x Themis shippy stuff!! So please look forward to it!!!

Alright, so let’s move onto Yume and Zenos (her side blog is @firelightmuse). I’m going to continue housing Yume’s stuff on the separate side blog even though all of my other OCs will be on the main blog, and that’s because Yume’s story has some darker content and themes from her backstory and her relationship with Zenos that is very different from Hali’s story and what I’m planning on for Sohna’s story.

There’s already several WIPs on the Yume x Zenos front, and I will be going forward with what I’ve wanted to explore with Yume for a long time: Yume will be heading home to Hingashi and facing what’s happened to her home since she left over a decade ago. It’s a storyline that I’ve been planning for a few years now but I finally feel confident enough in where she’s at that I’m going forward with it finally. So there’s much more that will be coming out from Yume’s story this year, so once again, please look forward to it!!

And lastly but certainly not least, I’m still going to be exploring Sohna’s story and developing her relationship with Alphinaud, but that’s going to be slow going, because Sohna is from Tural, and her story is so tied up in Dawntrail’s MSQ that I don’t know how much of a role she will play in the events going forward. I do know that down the road I want her to join the Scions and obviously she will grow closer to Alphi, but I’m not sure how I want to approach all of that just yet. Just know that I still love them greatly and I’m excited to see how things progress this year!!

And with that, those are currently my plans for 2025, and I have so much on my plate that I want to accomplish, but I’m really motivated right now and I’m excited to start working on it all. If you’ve read this far, thank you so much for your time, and feel free to ask me anything that I didn’t cover here or if you want more details on something. Once again, thank you, and here’s to a Happy 2025!!!

[ooeygooeyghoul]

Introductions

Hi, hello, nice to meet you. I'm Quaid, and this is the tumblr I have recycled into posting content about my lizard man. This will primarily be a FFXIV blog, as it's my current obsession, wherein I will post rambles, pictures, my art, and maybe a few other things, idk. I'll try to keep it organized with the tags, but the system is a WIP.

I've only got my main man here at the moment, but maybe I'll make some more heroes in the future! Might update this a few times, too...

Other socials - Twitter | Insta

DAWNTRAILED! - NOT A SPOILER-FREE ZONE!

Shiun Kazumasa - Primal | Behemoth

Warrior of Light - Main

B A S I C S | |

Primary Jobs | Warrior, Gunbreaker & Dark Knight

Guardian | Rhalgr, The Destroyer

Nameday | 18th Sun of the 3rd Astral Moon (May 18th)

Age | 25 years [ARR] - 30 years [EW/DT]

Height | 230cm / 8ft 6in

Homeland | Doma, Yanxia

Occupation | Scion, Sellsword, Blacksmith

Sexuality | bisexual, leaning toward men

Strengths | duty-driven, good at anything that requires physical strength, protective, unbreakable will

Weaknesses | Quick-tempered, stubborn as a mule, emotionally constipated, never asks for help, hides his hurts

Tags | #primordial flame: shiun kazumasa (main), #thaniun (wolship), #forgiven fury (Lightwarden AU), #wandering swordsmith: vulcan (ancient counterpart)

P E R S O N A L I T Y | |

An Au Ra whose face is always scowling or smirking, never anything in between. Shiun is brash, rude, and loud - fueled by constant rage. He acts almost purely on instinct and impulse, which causes his friends no small amount of stress. Don't be fooled by his prickly attitude, he's a true hero with a heart of gold. Devoted to saving and serving as many people as he can to the point of being self-sacrificing. Good luck prying any of his deep emotions out of him, he'd really prefer that those stay hidden.

B A C K S T O R Y | |

Shiun grew up in Doma during the Garlean occupation, so his early life was full of troubles. His parents were quiet artisans that submitted, which afforded them a fairly upper-class lifestyle. But Shiun was different in a way they didn't like. He got into fights with other kids, ignored his schoolwork, and was angry at the injustices he saw all around him. His family did everything they could to extinguish the fire in his heart, but he wouldn't be put down any further. After a chance encounter with a resistance fighter, he fought back against a Garlean soldier that had been harassing people in his village. The Empire didn't take kindly to that, and his family suffered for it. He barely escaped and was forced into exile at the young age of 9. Eventually, he made his way to the Azim Steppe and was taken in by a kind family in the Malaguld Xaela tribe. Scarred by his failed attempt at resistance and the pain it caused, he kept his head down and stewed in his anger for years. That is, until a voice called him to a distant land...

R E L A T I O N S H I P S | |

Alphinaud & Alisaie | practically siblings

Shiun is fiercely protective of the twins. He sees a lot of his younger self in them and has taken on a brotherly role with them. He hates that they've been thrust into this world at such a young age, and tries to urge them to just be kids every once in a while.

Thancred | lover

At first, Shiun couldn't stand Thancred. His overconfident playboy persona really got on Shiun's nerves, so he went out of his way to piss off Thancred, too. After rescuing him from Lahabrea, he stopped being so antagonistic. Over the course of the Dragonsong war, Shiun's feelings towards Thancred began to change, which REALLY freaked him out. So much so, that he pretty much ignored Thancred's existence throughout Stormblood while he considered things. He figured it out pretty quick once the Scions started getting yoinked to another realm. More on this later...

Y'shtola | voice of reason

Shiun appreciates Y'shtola's sharp wit and sharper tongue. She sees right through his bullshit and is often scolding him for his reluctance to rely on others. They get into banter contests a lot, which he rarely ever wins.

Urianger | jock & nerd

When they first met, Shiun couldn't understand a word Urianger was saying, but he learned to communicate with him over the course of their adventures. He's got a good friendship going with Urianger, where he patiently explains complex things to Shiun five times and Shiun helps him get better at socializing.

Tataru | ride or die

Shiun would die for Tataru. She continues to baffle him with her limitless talent towards anything other than combat, and he'll do pretty much anything she asks him to. To be honest, her ability to sniff out the truth and love of gossip frightens him a little bit.

Estinien | friendly rivalry

Despite being an axe-user, Shiun's skill with the lance is nothing to sneeze at. The two talk through their sparring more than they do with their words. Shiun was happy when Estinien decided to stop skulking about and join the Scions, but he still gives him shit about it.

G'raha | brotherly friends

When he found out just how much G'raha idolized him, Shiun was flabbergasted. He certainly wasn't used to that amount of admiration, and he found it difficult to deal with at first. But the hesitation faded away as G'raha accompanied him on more and more outings. Now Shiun thinks of him as a brother and irreplaceable friend, determined to make him into a hero too.

T R I V I A & E X T R A S | |

Favorite non-chocobo mount is the SDS Fenrir.

Favorite minion is gaelikitten named Potato.

Has a major sweet tooth he tries to hide from others.

Is really really bad at cooking. Don't taste what he makes for your own safety.

Actually really does like to fight (don't tell Zenos).

I tend to draw him pretty off model lol.

[consanguinitatum]

An update on Only Human....

I wanted to pop in with a little update on one of the future posts I'm working on for A Tennantcy To Act, where I post my deep dive research into the obscure (and not-so obscure) facets of David Tennant's work and career. A month or so ago now I mentioned how my research into David's un-aired 2001 pilot, Only Human, had yielded untold riches and a quite bewildering amount of new information. You might also recall I asked for my community to give me their thoughts on the drama, so I could pass them along to OH's creator. You did, and I did, and he absolutely loved reading them. He wanted me to say he was grateful and touched by the love we in the DT fandom have for it, even though he was shocked at first upon learning the pilot had been uploaded and available to us for so long. (Speaking of, if you've never seen it, you should. Click here!)

A screenshot from the unaired pilot episode of Only Human (2001)

I'd originally planned to do a post on this pilot. ONE post. That, my friends, simply won't happen. The saga behind Only Human continues to grow bigger and bigger, and what started as one planned post on a rather obscure little pilot will now be a series of (at least) four!

I mean....I just learned MORE new things this morning, and I'm sitting here shaking my head and chuckling to myself. I'm just so glad I started asking, and that people were willing to answer.

So basically it's going to take another few months to tell the tale, I think, because now its creator has begun reaching out to others involved in the show at the time. My scope continues to expand, and as it does, I just keep learning more and more. And all of it needs to be documented. All I can say is this will be epic. I can't wait to share! -- If you're interested in keeping track of the progress of Only Human and want to read a ton more stuff about David and his work in theatre, audio, and film and television - plus trivia, too! - then hop on over to my Substack, A Tennantcy To Act. You can read (by clicking on "Let me preview it first!") or subscribe for free! And don't forget to explore the site. I've got an archive of posts to dive into!

[winterdeepelegy]

My Thoughts on Dawntrail

So having finished DT, here are some of my thoughts on the expansion as a whole. Expect spoilers below the cut, do not click if you haven't finished. Again these are entirely my opinions, I don't intend to present this from a perspective of fact.

Hmm. I don't hate DT, but it's not high on my list: 1. Shadowbringers 2. Heavensward 3. Stormblood 4. Endwalker 5. Dawntrail 6. ARR That said, I don't hate any of the installments of this game, but there are some definitely high and low points. Let's rip the bandage off and get the blanks out of the way: 1. DT has a dialogue problem. I don't hate Wuk Lamat as a character, it was kind of refreshing to see a green, earnest character take center stage while our characters stepped aside and provided a guiding hand. The big problem I have with her is her dialogue. She's basically a shounen character, complete with the 'I'm gonna be king of the pirates'/'I'm gonna be hokage!' schtick, and it really wears on me after a while. That's not the character's fault so much as it is the writing team. That being so, this game is best played in short stints, 1-2 hours at a time instead of trying to marathon the whole thing in short order. Any more than that and it really becomes repetitious. If they want to script it to sound like an episodic anime series, it will be best enjoyed in smaller bites. Sphene suffers from the same problem. I wanted to enjoy her more as a character, but the script made that a challenge. 2. Pacing and exposition. God. The first few hours of EW were enough of a slog with its slow pacing before getting to the first dungeon, this felt like an eternity by comparison. Up to about the level 95 content, it is a long span of exposition and lore stuffing (far be it from me to complain about abundant lore!), so much of which could have been covered in less time and with less repetition. They really wanted to hammer the tribes into our heads, and it felt like too much at times. They wanted us to care about the tribes and the people therein, but few things make me care less than overdoing it. Level 95-ish is when things start becoming more interesting, in my opinion. That's a long way to climb to reach the proverbial cookie jar. 3. The music. I'll be honest, soundtrack wise, this is not my favorite. I appreciate all genres of music, but swing jazz doesn't quite fit the feel of Tulliyolal. I would have liked to hear something closer to a cultural aesthetic to match the visuals and themes presented throughout the areas and civilizations therein. We didn't get that, and it's kind of a weird choice. The main themesong, also? Ehh... I didn't care for it in the trailer. This opinion hasn't shifted since my playthrough. I didn't really start finding enjoyable area music until Shaaloani. 4. 'My people are more important than your people'. This plot point has been done. We just dealt with the Ascians and pretty much got the same shpiel from Hades. They made Sphene and her subjects a little more sympathetic, though, so... good, I guess? 5. Erenville deserved better. Fussy Bunbun got done so dirty in this expack, the very least anyone could have done was give him a hug. He didn't even get that from his mother who, frankly, was the worst character out of all of it. He was also deadnamed repeatedly, which could have been a teachable moment. 6. Wuk Lamat and/or Bakool Ja Ja still owes me tacos. ------------ As for the positives? There are some. Thanks for sticking with me so far. 1. Pretty graphics updates - better over all. 2. No weirdly split zones - thank the Twelve for this. StB, ShB, and EW all had zones that you could only cover in part, and couldn't finish until later. The zones in DT flow pretty well for the most part, and the transition between upper and lower areas of Yak'Tel are nothing short of beautiful, especially in flight. 3. More Reflections - I'm glad to see more of these and I hope this trend continues. 4. For once, I'm not luke warm on the bard AF gear. It's actually a fresh look, but haven't found a dye pairing I like yet.

[anothersebastianblog]

Happy NYE guys & happy new year to the ones who already are in 2024! Let us know if it seems to be a good one 😂♥️

I hope all your wishes will come true ✨

In terms of Sebastian, here is what we know about 2024:

“a different man” will premiere at Sundance on Jan 21. Hopefully he will attend, we will have content and an actual release date as well as the first reviews

He will finish to film the DT biopic and hopefully we will not have to hear about it till late 2024/early 2025

What if…? S3 comes out sooner or later so more BB

“Thunderbolts” starts filming in spring so hopefully sets pics and more infos

Hopefully more projects announced and more news about stuff like the movie with Mimi and the one with Maria

A press tour for ADM …. so more content from him compared to 2023 maybe?

Some public events maybe?

🤞🏻🤞🏻 awards season? 🤞🏻🤞🏻

Fans pics & sightings & a bit of personal content/updating

I am sure there is more that i am forgetting!

2023 has been good, more highs than lows (i would say just one low with the half disappointment of the DT movie!). Kinda sucks we saw him less compared to 2021/2022, the strike helped for sure 😂

But we can cheer the few times we saw him: the paris fashion week and francis&jenny’s wedding for example definitely are two of my fave moments of 2023 as well as the mini press tour for sharper! His Ghosted cameo and Dumb Money small part go straight to the most fun parts of 2023!

Here are some pics to celebrate the best we got from him this past year:

♥️🔥🥂

[angst-king]

Snake in the Garden Chp 1

(So this is a fic based on a comic idea I saw on Pinterest, where Lute was just Eve reincarnated. This wont be a long fanfic series, I will still update my other ones) ((CW description of forest fires, drowning, and being attacked by a snake)) Being a part of the exorcists was not easy, the girls were competitive and harsh. They kept a strict hierarchy among their ranks and Lute had to stay at the top of it. Being among one of the first exorcists to be created she had been through a lot, she had been keeping her skeleton-filled closet locked for years, decades even! Though something had been nagging at her, it had been eating at her, creeping around like a snake in the wood hiding in the grass and shading trees.

She wondered why she felt so close to Adam, and why he had always seemed like someone she had known in passing. From the start of her first day in heaven when she met the brown-haired man, he looked like someone she had met. No someone she had been with, seeing him brought on emotions she couldn’t comprehend and still did not understand. She wondered why she desired to be close to him, to be the thing he adored, to be his favorite, to be his! She often dreamed of him, she dreamed of being a woman running through a large garden and finding Adam dressed in a bear’s skin. She dreamt of small children following them around calling them ‘momma’ and ‘papa’. She often had strange memories and images flash into her mind whenever she ventured through heaven’s gardens. They left her confused beyond belief but she kept it mostly to herself until now. She had heard many tales of Adam and his wife Eve though she often questioned what Eve was like and where she was.

“Adam?” Lute spoke up as they made tacos in their living room.

“Yeah, what’s up, DT?” Adam replied nonchalantly as he hovered over the hot stove cooking meat.

“What was Eve like?” That question made Adam pause and furrow his brows, Lute had been saying odd things like this for months now. First, it was guessing Adam’s favorite animal and being correct on the first try as if she had known him. The way he said her name sent chills up his spine almost sounding exactly like Eve. Then she told him she recognized a song Adam was singing. This song was something he had only sung in the garden at first to Lilith and then to Eve when she had come along. It was something he used to calm himself down and it seemed to put Lute at ease as well. Among other things that revolved around Adam’s past life in the Garden of Eden, Adam had a sinking feeling he would need to talk to Michael afterward.

“Huh? Uh well-well she….She was nice…” “Nice? Really? After all that, nice is all you can say?” It sounded like she was taking it personally as if she was Eve. For some reason, a part of her hurt to hear it.

“I’d leave you too if that's all you could say” She spat back, Adam huffed and turned the heat down as he continued.

“Look I’m not good with words but, she was nice. The nicest woman anyone could ask for, she was patient and didn’t ask for much, a bit bossy and commanding, though rather naive. Yet I think God made her naive on purpose, that’s probably how she got her name….but she was strong too. No way I could call that woman weak for putting up with my ass.” Adam chuckled at his last sentence, he really did miss his wife. He knew after years of reflection that he had messed up big time, twice, and he wished he could do it all over again if he could. Well, he wouldn’t do the garden all over again, that was a nightmare yet, if he could have his Eve back he would do better this time. Even if he still wasn’t the kindest, he’d do anything to have her back.

“What's with all the questions about my life and shit, you’ve been real curious the past months and you’ve been real weird too” Lute shrugged, could she really tell him? Would he think she’s lying? How would she even bring up her dreams?

“Just curious is all, I’ve never been human and they seem to fascinate me lately.” Adam knew there was more to it than that but he didn’t think to press on it. They had their dinner together and had their gaming time until they ultimately decided to head to bed.

She found herself alerted by the rolls of thunder and clouds rolling over her head as to where she was. The clouds were dark and heavy casting shadows over the garden of Edan, a breeze wracked through her hardly dressed body. Once again she was in a body she did not recognize, a body with long brown and blond hair, that came down to her mid back, her greyish-white skin tone was gone. More of a lively tan color, covered in scars, her bare feet pressed into the wet dirt beneath her. Another roll of thunder shook the earth frightening her and immediately she felt the urge to find Adam. She ran across the slick moss and rocks. Her footsteps splashed through puddles, and raindrops came at the start of a steady pitter-patter however in a few turns she was trapped in a downpour!

“Adam! Adam where are you!” She called out over the rolls and rumbles of thunder, static buzzed through the air, and she could feel it frizzing her hair which meant lightning would come soon.

“Adam!” She yelled pushing through the lush bushes, branches, and shrubbery. Then a distant voice called back, a voice she hoped belonged to the man she was looking for. She kept running trying to push through her fear of the storm drenching her to the bone. The rain pelted down on her skin harshly, her hair swished and swayed wetly as she ran. Everything became a blur until she heard the voice become louder but the name he called was still muffled. Looking across the pond was Adam. He stood at the edge with two young boys and a girl huddled around him in front of a giant weeping willow tree. The children cried out to her yelling and waving her over begging for her to run faster.

“Momma! Momma! Run! Come on momma!” They cried to her, as soon as Lute took a step into the pond lightning struck the ginormous tree. The weeping willow suddenly burst into flames, fire consumed the tree and the other’s around it, and thunder made the ground quake. The children screamed in terror and pain as the tree came down on top of them, Adam quickly pulled them underneath him to shield them. Lute started to tread quickly through the water wanting nothing more but to get to them but the river’s waves began to stir. Pushing her back as the waves got higher and higher.

“I’m coming, momma’s coming I promise, hang on!” She promised but it was like the river didn’t want her to save them as each flaming branch came crashing down on top of Adam and the children. It brought him to his knees, he yelped and screamed in agony, the flames spreading. He yelled for the children to run into the water. They dashed out from underneath him but large branches from surrounding trees began to come down. One came down on top of Abel trapping him underneath and breaking his neck. Caine grabbed his little sister and ran towards their mother who held out her arms taking careful strides to get to them. After just a few more steps, lightning crackled through the sky, and the youngest one screamed and cried in fear clinging to her brother. They were just barely in reach when a large wave swept her away and something collided with her head.

Going under water she tried to pull herself up but the pain was blinding almost immobilizing. The current kept pulling her under, water filling her lungs with each gasp. She grabbed blindly until something firm reached her hands and her body was running out of air. She pulled up and she was faced with the largest snake she had ever seen. Its body of white and gold, piercing red eyes stared at her as its mouth opened widely and raised its upper body out of the water. Lute looked up at the giant serpent in horror and it dove right for her neck and chomped down on it crushing her windpipe.

Adam woke up to the sound of Lute calling his name in her sleep. He watched as she curled up and weakly reached out her hands as if she were trying to grab something. She called his name as if she were scared. She must’ve been having another nightmare. So he gently shook her shoulders to wake her up.

“Lute! Lute! Wake up, Lute!” In an instant, her eyes shot open and she screamed and scrambled away, falling off the bed and onto the floor with a thud. She panted harshly as if she had been running for miles with a look of terror in her eyes. Tears streamed down her face as she hugged her knees to her chest in the dark room. Adam quickly came around to the other side of the bed they shared.

“Hey hey hey what’s wrong it's just me-” When she saw him this time, Lute pulled him down into a tight hug. She hugged him as if she had missed him! She hugged him like he would suddenly disappear from this world! Adam could feel her fear through her divine energy. All demons and angels even those with human souls possess energy. Their divine energy could show how they feel and Adam could feel this cold creeping sensation that sent chills down his spine but also an energy of clingyness. She didn’t want to let go of him!

“I-I thought you died, oh fuck I thought I lost you in the garden. I-I thought- thought I died! I thought you died!” She said through her tears into Adam’s chest, Adam’s eyes softened and he wrapped his arms around her.

“Its okay I’m here now, we’re both alive in heaven, we’re okay” “Where-where are the kids?” Adam furrowed his brows

“What kids?” He hadn’t mentioned his kids to Lute that often at all, maybe once or twice but that was years ago.

“My kids from the garden?” He asked, Lute nodded as she looked up at him.

“I-I mean they’re alright.” Adam couldn’t tell her that they were all dead and one of his sons is in hell, the other in limbo, at least their daughter was in heaven though he could never keep track of her these days. He tried to give his best reassuring smile as he helped Lute off of the ground and back into bed. After tonight Adam knew he had to pay Michael a visit in the morning. It had taken him a while to get Lute back to sleep this time, she was petrified, he couldn’t blame her though. Death dreams were never exactly a pleasant thing. Normally he wouldn’t care about her this much but, after all these years he couldn’t help but give her his attention. He couldn’t help but let her sleep in his bed, something about her pulled him to her and his suspicions were nagging at him. Once Lute had finally fallen asleep he found himself fiddling with his wedding ring. It was made of wood encased in a light amber that kept the wood from deteriorating. It was the same ring he wore with Eve, he carved it all on his own in the garden.

Thinking about it, Adam did regret how he treated Eve then. He regretted how he treated her, Lilith, and his children. He wished he wasn’t so demanding and demeaning. He let his ego and pride overtake him, resulting in him losing both of his wives, even if Eve stayed with him. He felt as if there were pieces of her that had dissipated each time he mistreated her. Did God need to make her naive because of him? Sure he couldn’t blame all his problems and faults on his creator but god was never the best father….If he had the chance to have Eve in his arms again he would take it in a heartbeat!

The next morning Adam was overseeing the exorcists's training, watching Lute instruct them with the new weapons Michael had created. He always noticed the way Lute fought was extremely primal and unrestrained as if she were fighting to protect something or someone. She fought similarly to how Eve used to hunt, she was agile and liked ambush attacks and she pounded her fists without mercy. She impaled demons with her spear without an ounce of regret in her eyes. Even with her being so violent there was a lamb-like innocence that felt so similar to Eve that Adam couldn’t shake it!

“Staring at your second in command’s ass again, oh first man~” Michael teased, his words jolting Adam out his thoughts. He blushed deeply and punched Michael in the arm which earned him a chuckle until Adam grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him away from the girls.

“You have some explaining to do Mike” “Ey ey now, what’s wrong, are the girls malfunctioning?” “No, look I know that in the beginning the first group of exorcists was made from human remains that included their souls which in turn included their memories.” “Yeah but most of those exorcists died out, so what’s the problem?” Michael asked leaning against a tree behind him, stretching out his wings in the early morning light.

“But Lute was one of those first trial exorcists that still remain, right?” “Yes, she is, why do you ask?” “Answer me honestly you dick wad, did you use my wife, Eve’s remains to create Lute?” Michael froze and folded his wings, a sheepish ‘oh no’ look plastered on his face.

“Well I mean, I used some of her and a few others-” “Don’t bullshit me, Michael EastStar” Oh shit his full name, fuck he was serious. Michael sighed in defeat holding up his hands defensively.

“Okay yes I did use most of Eve’s reminisce to create Lute, I didn’t think you would notice or care since it didn’t seem like you would either. You two didn’t exactly have the best relationship-” “So you stick her inside my second in command!?” Adam barked out angrily “Well, I didn’t expect you two to gravitate to one another, or be fuck buddies.” “Hey! Lute is not my fuck buddy” Adam snapped back, Michael rolled his eyes at this.

“You know you’re pretty loud when you’re getting it on, right~?” that sure made Adam blush nine shades of red, but he pushed it aside to focus on the true topic.

“How do you think I feel after decades of not having her, losing her, and not knowing what happened to her!? Yeah, I figured it out because she’s having nightmares and bringing up memories of her life in the garden. I may not have been a good husband but when she starts asking about my children as if they were her own I’m kind of inclined to put two and two together you dumbfuck!” “Well, what do you want me to do scramble her memories, erase them, give her a blank slate?” Asked the heavenly prince, Adam let out a heavy sigh and folded his arms.

Did he know what he wanted, did he want to tell Lute? How could she tell her? If Eve was still in there maybe this would be his chance to change.

[tokuvivor]

Thanks for the tag on this one, @shychick-52! (Update: And @writebackatya.)

how many fics do you have on ao3?

12.

what's your total ao3 word count?

69,172.

what are your top five fics by kudos?

The Power of Three

Bridging the Gap

We Could Bring You a Hamburger…

One Night Ultimate Duck (Or Hummingbird, or Parrot)

Duckverse June 2023 Prompts (yes, it’s a story collection, but it still counts)

what fandoms do you write for?

DuckTales 2017, mostly, a bit for Super Sentai, did one for the Netflix show Dash & Lily, and I have a couple ideas of fics relating to other shows.

do you respond to comments? why or why not?

Yes! Someone took time out of their day to read my stuff and leave their input on it, and the least I could do is show my appreciation for it in return, and elaborate on any questions they may have.

what's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Shit, I’m really not good with ending stories on a down note; I try to make the endings as satisfying as possible. But I’d say the closest thing to that is for my 6th Webby Week story, Am I Good Enough? (An Internal Battle). It’s basically just Webby wrestling over being chosen by the Papyrus in her mind. Even though it doesn’t end on an outright fairy tale note, she does recognize that it’s okay to not have something that big figured out immediately, and that it’s good to talk about it with other people if you have trouble processing it.

what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

That’s a tough one. There are probably certain stories I’ll discuss in later answers, so for this one, I’ll go with We Could Bring You a Hamburger…. I mean, it’s just a sweet, simple story about something that absolutely should’ve been shown in canon (Webby getting her first hamburger). It’s just a good, satisfying, slice of life kinda thing.

do you get hate on your fics?

Well, on the second chapter of The Power of Three, I got somebody telling me that Huey shouldn’t be guilty over going against his general Woodchuck instinct and leaving Violet behind, and that he should be jealous and upset with Violet and Lena for insulting him and making him feel miserable. Jesus.

do you write smut?

No. I honestly don’t think I’d be good at it. Especially regarding a show like DuckTales. If I were to, it’d probably be wayyyyy down the road.

do you write crossovers? what's the craziest one you've ever written?

Not actively; if I write something with multiple fandom tags on AO3, it’s mostly because minor elements of one thing are peppered into my DT story.

have you ever had a fic stolen?

No. Thank god.

have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but that’d be interesting.

have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Yes; I started working with @sisiwritesfanfics on her Super Sentai Couples One-Shot Collection beginning with the second story. We’re currently trying to work on the third.

what's your all time favorite ship?

I don’t know, probably Fendra? But I generally prefer fanworks of them more, especially when stories go more in-depth regarding their relationship than we got in canon. There are others in DuckTales, and other pieces of media, that I really enjoy, though.

what's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

At the moment, none. But there are a couple idea that I have that I don’t know if I’d ever start.

what are your writing strengths?

Dialogue, especially between two characters, and being able to really get into characters’ minds.

what are your writing weaknesses?

Writing full-on angst. I can incorporate bits of angst into stories, especially when it’s introspective, but a full story of it just wouldn’t be my thing (so, way longer than Am I Good Enough?). Also, losing motivation at certain points in time.

thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I’ve done bits of gratuitous Spanish or Latin in my stories before, but no full-on dialogue. But I did provide the translated Spanish dialogue between Fenton, Gosalyn, and Webby in @writebackatya’s story Let’s All Go to the Movies!.

first fandom you wrote for?

Technically speaking, I did a piece based on Wreck-It Ralph back in high school for my creative writing class. So that, I guess.

favorite fic you've ever written?

Massive toss-up for me here. The Power of Three is special because it was my first fic, and it focuses on the budding dynamic between Huey, Violet, and Boyd, which absolutely should have been explored in the show. But my other major early idea for a DuckTales story turned into Bridging the Gap. Gandra isn’t written nearly as often alongside Huey, and we only really got a resolution of her relationship with Fenton (amongst main and major recurring characters) in the show, so I wanted to build on the pieces we got between Gandra and Huey in her episodes, which culminated in what I still think is my absolute favorite scene I’ve written. I think the overall edge goes to Power, but Bridging isn’t far behind in my heart.

Tagging @godfrey-the-chaos-duck and @sparklingspidey

[gallifreyshawkeye]

Intro for anyone new, Hiya/Update for anyone from "yon olden days"

The tldr: my kids have brought new joy into old fandom and old hobbies and my older kiddo has asked me to finish the series PROPERLY and make Alec Hardy not sad anymore (😆) and to write Tentoo whump (child, you have NO idea what beast you have unleashed!).

So I have found myself coming back to this blog thanks to my kids after a hiatus of several years due to (partly) said kids taking up an increasing part of life, as they should, on top of everything else. BUT, they are now late elementary and early middle school age and I decided a few months ago it was time to properly introduce Doctor Who to them as a show to watch. So we started properly with Rose and Nine and they were hooked harder than I could have ever hoped. They chose to watch nothing else until they had binged ALL thirteen seasons in about only four months! It was amazing!

It was also really cool to watch it again from as fresh and unbiased a perspective as I think I'm ever going to get. 11 and 9y/o's aren't influenced by other fandom perspectives, I refused to give them any spoilers along the way, and the whole experience was overall just such an unexpectedly refreshing and renewing one I can't put it into words. It's also been fascinating to get their takes. Here are a few:

- Ten is both their favorite Doctor, but Twelve isn't far behind at all, and my 9y/o son has them at almost a tie. In fact, when I asked each of them which Doctor they would want me to write a fanfic about, my son picked Twelve.

- They both haaaaaaaated the hand waving-ness of Moffatt's grand story arc conclusions: the Doctor being brought back by Amy simply remembering him, the soppy/cheesy way Clara got the Time Lords to give Eleven more regenerations, the entirety of Amy's pregnancy, and for that matter River having regenerations simply by being conceived in the TARDIS they never bought into. You should have seen the skeptical looks on their faces when they heard that line given as an explanation! It was quite priceless! And like I said, I gave no spoilers, no personal opinion ahead of time, nothing. I deliberately let them simply watch the show for what it is.

- They both liked Bill and Nardol way more than Clara

- Both were super confused by the the absolute mess of character arc in Chibnall's era. Not so much for the Doctor, they thought she was ok, just kinda bland, but the Master. They were in complete agreement that nothing he did made any sense whatsoever.

- They were in disbelieving shock and over the moon when David Tennant showed back up as Fourteen when Thirteen regenerated, and they were FURIOUS that they were going to have to wait six whole months before the specials came out 😆

As an added bonus, my 11y/o also has become quite the David Tennant fan. They were so devastated when Ten regenerated, they immediately wanted to watch something else DT was in, so in the process of listing things off, I mentioned MAAN as something him and Catherine Tate did together that was non-angsty and even after emphasizing that it was Shakespeare, they still chose to watch it (not that I was complaining! ;) ). They were literally sliding off the couch with laughter at the absolute comedic perfection that is DT and Catherine Tate in MAAN, and it's been all things David Tennant ever since! I got lots of things thrown at me during the course of Broadchurch because of, and I quote, "His stupid sad eyes and his stupid face!" and I have been ordered to write a proper ending that makes him properly happy. So maybe I'll have to dust off the epilogue fic I'd been writing all that time ago and finish it off for good.

Meanwhile, Doctor Who has been rewatched from the beginning nearly all the way through again and is pretty much the only show my son currently chooses to watch besides his favorite Minecraft YouTuber (Grian, for anyone interested and who knows that realm of things).

So it's been in the process of both my children falling into these fandoms as much on their own as it is possible for children their age to do so, that I have found myself back here. It started because I was looking up some of the whump gifsets I made of Ten in the episode 42 to show my 11y/o, and partly as a confession of sorts to them of how deep into the fandom I used to be.

And then the specials came out and there was Fourteen's beautiful face and big sad eyes (yes my 11y/o has a phenomenal point!), and now I've also found myself relistening to all the Eighth Doctor audios, and idk, whatever the combination of reasons I've found a new joy in it all.

And it's all combined to make me feel like I can write again, like something's been freed or been unlocked. I can imagine scenes and character arcs and come up with new characters and revel in meta minutia that will never explicitly make it onto the page but is vital for plot consistency.

I feel like I found part of myself again.

[forgetsrotation]

[hc] [allie baelsar] [dawntrail msq]

(7.0 / Dawntrail spoilers)

Various Allie-centric thoughts I had during Dawntrail! Yes, I am talking about Allie Baelsar.

Context: Allie goes with Makoh'to to Tural! It's a nice opportunity to see more of the world and put some of her healing studies to use in the field - if anyone remembers my "Allie goes to school via the Ameliance exchange student program and learns healing arts, and also is girlfriends with Miladeen" headcanon. :d Before the release of 7.0 I was really wanting to include Allie on this trip! Gaius... he got to go to Tural before 7.0 with Makoh'to during a vacation (perhaps it was a family trip and Makoh'to and Allie ended up staying leading into 7.0?)

Spoilers after the cut.

The first half of the game focusing around the succession rights and learning about all the various cultures fit SO well with the narrative I envisioned for Allie. Makoh'to is an old hand at this sort of thing already, but Allie is the next generation... "the children are our future, so we should guide them with kindness" theme is something I see for Makoh'to's narrative in DT re: both Allie and Wuk Lamat. :3

Some random headcanon tidbits for Allie during this expansion:

Allie is really moved by the Ihih'hana ritual. She thinks of her siblings when everyone's life force is being collected to replenish the land.

She feels a horrible pit in her stomach every time Zoraal Ja speaks of the Garlean Empire the way he does.

While Makoh'to is helping Wuk Lamat with trades in Urqopacha, Allie is off on her own conducting a series of trades as well! She observes the first one and goes, "I see..." and the gears are turning in her head. Remember that Allie is quite good at talking people into things - convincing them they need something re: her scene with Valens. The bargaining culture of the Pelupelu, however, is far more enjoyable and she appreciates everyone is left improved rather than taken advantage of. Allie quickly trades her way into souvenirs for Gaius and Miladeen. :) She's quite proud of herself!

Allie offers Wuk Lamat some tips about motion sickness, although the thought of Allie piloting machines has the opposite effect on poor Wuk Lamat lmao

When Gulool Ja Ja pulls Makoh'to aside to talk to him, he does so because he can recognize the parental bond Makoh'to has with Allie.

After the first trial in Yak T'el, Allie goes off with the twins for a tour led by Erenville. She's not present for the ransom and battle that follows.

Based off Erenville saying he contacted a few colleagues via linkpearl, and assuming said colleagues are stationed in Sharlayan, I assume linkpearls work long distance. Allie and Makoh'to both call Gaius almost nightly to update him on their adventures. Allie doesn't parent Gaius, but she's intuitive and knows her father is very lonely when they're all away, so she tries her best to check in on him.

When learning the truth about "blessed siblings", Allie has to take a moment to breathe. It's not the same, but the visceral feeling of needing to succeed where your kin could not and it all being for nothing... Makoh'to is there to hold her hand.

During the invasion of Tuliyollal Allie is out there protecting and healing whoever she can! I envision her as a more dps focused healer, although still in the WHM family of spells and the like. After SoW, she's wanting to do more healing than destruction, however.

That means she did not go to Xak Tural with Makoh'to, who had personal reasons to explore Xak Tural. She was going to go back and explore some of the other areas of Yak Tural once he left.

She never goes into the rift bubble at any point - Makoh'to felt it was too dangerous to risk and Allie's talents are needed in Tuliyollal at that moment.

In the aftermath of the invasion she stays behind to tend to the wounded and is not present in the second half of the expansion until they go to gate in the Skydeep Cenote.

Allie does not go thru the reflection gate, but she does stay to help protect those keeping the gate open

I'm still cooking in all the stuff DT gave me, but these were my notes for Allie as I went thru. :3

[neriyon]

Oh right I said something about giving my opinions on the expansion so uh, I guess I should start writing them out now.

Obiviously spoilers for the entirety of Dawntrail MSQ!!!

Tbh I don't know where to start iuefhiuefh.

Uhhh graphical update turned out nice! Out of the 3 of us, me and Shu kinda questioned if the update even happened since Hawu'li and Dre were virtually same as before, and Nana (player) kept mentioning how cute Nana (character) looks now. My only complaint is that Hawu'li's eyes are like one or two shades darker than they used to be, and I'm currently kinda debating if I want to bother using fantasia to fix it.

Enviroments look nice, and while I'm yet to go to many of the old areas (I sent Shu to go look at Il Mheg while me and Nana sat in que and it looked very nice), new areas are gorgeous! All of us literally screamed out loud when we noticed that the grass bends when you touch it haha. I'm also personally fan of the little tilt thing mounts do now if you strafe - it's very satisfying and I keep strafing around just to see my bike or flying mount tilt (❁´◡`❁)

As for story: I'm genuely surprised to see posts that some people didn't like it? I wouldn't call it my favorite expansion, but to me the story was good and the characters enjoyable. Only thing I'd complain about is that the pacing is very funky at times: first few areas are fine, then it slows down to a crawl, then speeds up very quickly to again slow down to almost complete halt before things pick up again. I still fail to care too much about the "cowboy area" - it felt very disconnected from everything else. Kinda same with the moblin area, but at least that place had some connectivity to the competition (+ the kidnap plot).

Meanwhile the "blue area" (sorry about the terms iauefhhu I don't have game open rn and I am chronically incapable of remembering any names) felt rushed: we wander in, no one wants to talk to us, then suddenly the big antagonist up till that point just goes "hey uh our culture's fucked, if you wanna change it I'll help". Imo that could've used some more time. Maybe have the Wuk Lamat instance happen earlier, and have the big lizard man think about things a bit longer, just to make it feel like he didn't change his entire worldview in like, half a quest.

As mentioned, cowboy area felt incredibly boring to me and I honestly don't know why. Catboy tribe was fine - I'd rather go spend more time with them. Their whole thing was pretty rushed, and while I have a small feeling that they'll be part of the patch storylines, I'd liked if we had been given a bit more time with them before things went to hell again.

Heritage found, Solution 9 and all that was better paced and the storytelling there was great! Like seeing one of the npcs forget about the old dead lady within seconds felt very horrifying. Shu and Nana haven't gotten that far yet (I finished the story on my own after returning home), but I remember spamming groupchat with "what the fuuuuuck that's so fucked" and stuff like that lol. Attack on Tuliyollal too, I think I have a few screenshots saved of npcs I noticed crying after dead loved ones on the streets right after it. Devs did great job portraying how scary the entire thing was.

What else uhhhh.... oh right the last area. Absolutely gorgeous again, and I do get the lore reasons, but damn does it suck having the areas go all lifeless if you want to finish story. I was looking forward to taking pictures there in the future :/ I did try and take some quick shots everywhere before going forward, but I'm sure I missed something. Probably have to get new game+ to that point when DT gets added there just for more screenshot locations.

This is already getting long but idc I'm rambling about characters too. Erenville sweet baby boy I am so sorry the entire last half became a personal nightmare for you (┬┬﹏┬┬) But we got to see him smile! Like actually smile not just tiny smirks! (I should have screenshot of that too lol) They better not write him completely out after this, I wanna go on adventures with him - something that doesn't leave him traumatized maybe.

Also pushing every Wuk Lamat disliker out of the way to hang out with her more. She was a very fun character, and I loved the fact that she actually went and did things on her own, not waiting around for WoL to save her every time like many of the npcs tend to do. She and Hawu'li are besties now.

Green G'raha Koana was a positive surprise too! Smart and a bit snobbish catboy who's bad with his feelings, but makes effort to learn and grow for his people and sister. Absolutely loved him getting very angry when Wuk Lamat was in danger - nerdy cat can go little feral, as a treat. Definitely added into Hawu'li's ever growing polycule - not into his bracelet yet, but they defenitely kissed during msq and probably started (casually) going out after.

Sphene... I really like her dress lol. Uhh I personally felt she was very sus from the start, but I feel like Hawu'li would've not picked up on those. Her plan would've come as complete surprise to him, and made him very very sad. Hawu'li's very "there's always a way if we just try hard enough" type of person, and being told that it's either having everyone else in the universe die or having the Endless die would've seriously got him feeling down for some time. Being a WoL means killing people to protect others sometimes, he knows that, but still. Luckily he had people there with him, who will keep supporting him, but he'll most likely need a little vacation after all this. (Luckily the Tuliyollali inn room is perfect for that haha)

Aaaand lastly, some random thoughts all tossed in no particular order since I can't ramble in the tags:

"This old man (Ketenramm) has more HD face than all of us combined D:" - me

*him saying something about being more than a guest to Gulool Ja Ja* -> me, quietly whispering in vc: "old man yaoi..."

Whomst the fuck did Zoraal Ja get his kid with??? There wasn't a single other lizard in Solution Nine, and I don't remember seeing any in Heritage Found either. Hell, none of the Alexandria flashbacks show any lizard people either. Did he just get some random hyur lady off the street? If yes then what happened to her? Did she die in childbirth? Got killed by Zoraal Ja for whatever reason?

Tiny jumpscare when milalla lore started saying stuff about "calamity that froze everything" and "came from somewhere else" and I, for a tiny second, feared they'd give some canon lore regarding Sixth and I'd have to go rewrite bunch of things in my own lore for the place. (luckily saved by msq mentioning the most likely came from source)

Happy that they gave us the alpaca mount for free! It's so adorable.

Sad that I had to use 7,5mil gil to get the purple bike mount 😑 I mean Hawu'li is swimming in money since I rarely buy anything (last "big buy" was that golden sheep), but muh money. At least it's a neat mount

They really went "you feel like you aren't needed healers? say no more, heal checks for everyone!". Last time I had to sweat that much on trial fight was Zeromus - DT made every trial pretty intense to heal.

That last trial holy fuck my brain is NOT big enough for it. I somehow survived with only one death (we wiped within like first 30 seconds lol), but god it was so stressful

Dungeons were generally neat, but I noticed a distinct "fuck mages and anyone with long cast times". So so much movement in almost every fight.

"En Avant saves lives" is true for the whm dash skill too. That skill is the best thing we've gotten in ages, it's saved me so many times when I notice I'm in wrong spot at the very last second.

SCREE BOSS! I was so happy when I save it omg. The boss before that sucked but seeing scree made it all better. (Our party immediately went "scree!" in chat lol)

Haven't seen all dungeon drops yet, but craftable/vendor gear is a bit meh. Happy for people who like those Mad Max bondage sets, but I'm not a fan. 98 gear being recolored Ironworks gear was not on my bingo list, but at least the healer top was nice for the few levels I wore it during leveling.

Login ques haven't been too bad! Idk how it goes on NA servers, but on Lich longest que I've seen after the launch (right after launch we had 2,8k que) is like, 40.

Dungeon ques were nonexistent on whm during msq, but now that I'm trying to level dps I regularily get 40 minute waits. Kinda debating if I should just switch to sch and level summoner with that, then swap back and learn to play it on like last dunegon or something.

Fates seem to give like half a mil exp (exp boosted ones give double iirc), so I've just been doing them while sitting in que.

Yet to try picto or viper but they look fun.

Azem mark on the key thing just before the final fight made me immediately think about Eleos coming to help his lovely little shard again 🥺

Koana has very nice jp voice, but I can't shake the feeling I know it from somewhere. Apparently I managed to get a screenshot of credits where his VAs are shown and *jazz hands* his seiyuu is Kaito Ishikawa. So it's probably his role as Iida (BNHA) that I'm recognizing since I've been watching bnha while eating for past few weeks. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh right and since I mentioned that N'jinh would go with Hawu'li this time: I'm slowly putting everything together after MSQ but I think he'll come along right from the start. Tural catboy lore doesn't fit him too well lol.

[pxlution]

tagged by the amazing @formulanni :DD

Who is your favorite driver?: it's Charlie, sue me. There's just something about this man that intrigues me too much, something so tragic, so poetic, etc. etc.

Do you have other favorite drivers?: Yuki and Lewis 100%!!!!! I generally like most drivers though if their vibes aren't too abysmal.

Who is your least favorite driver: this is not the best time to admit this mayhaps but since a season or so ago, I've begun to like Lando less and less? Something shifted in his vibes last year even though I used to like him idk 🤷‍♀️ I apologize ok!! I respect it if you stan him still. (the same applies to danny ric but to a lesser degree)

Do you pull for drivers or do you like teams as well? Hm, I think it's a bit of both but stanning Charles is soo interconnected to stanning Ferrari imo, as for Lewis and Yuki I think that's more because it's them (tho VCARB is my fav mid table team still)

If you like teams what teams do you pull for?: forza ferrari babyyy (and again there's some VCARB love there, and yes, i am a masochist)

How long have you been into F1?: I'm a fairly new fan! I think it's been around 2-3 years no since I started watching? I wasn't super into it at first (a friend basically forced me to start watching lmao) but after a good couple of months, I was obsessed

What got you into F1?: one of my best friends watched dts, became obsessed, forced me to watch races with him and just yapped about f1, then forced me to watch dts, after which i also became obsessed

Do you enjoy fic/rpf?: yeahh,, i actually,,, kinda write it too,,, but noone is supposed to know this haha

How do you view new fans: i'm one of them so hey hahah i hope the older fans don't hate us too much

If you could take over as team principal for any team, who would it be and why?: red bull so i can ruin them and give everyone else a chance /j if i'm being a little more serious it's probably one of the mid table teams like VCARB or Alpine bc i am delusional and i am convinced that i can somehow make them win something

Are your friends and family into F1?: aside from friends i've found through f1, not really? my family isn't really into sports, maybe they'll watch football at most and i have one (1) friend who's properly into f1 (the same one who got me into it) and he gives me all the memes and updates basically

Are you open to talking to other fans/making friends?: YES!! PLEASE I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS ESP ON TUMBLR SO JUST YAP AT ME PLEASE I BEG!!!!!! I'm not as active here but I am fairly active on insta so you can yap at me there too!!

I don't really know who to tag ngl (see previous answer) but feel free to do this if you see it! maybe we will find similarities :D

[thegeminisage]

tng update time!! its been so long. sunday we did "reunion" and last night we did "future imperfect" and "final mission."

reunion: WORF HAS A BABY???

ok. tbh. this episode was wack. i guess i just don't get the point of k'ehleyr...she hates klingons. so she's like, "my son, who is 3/4 klingons, will not be raised with any of the klingon ways! fuck klingons! i hate them! however i do want worf who LOVES the klingon ways to claim him, and then also raise him after i have died. and i'm gonna get really mad at him and call him a dumb klingon if he doesn't do it"

AND THEN WORF IS LIKE. "my son...he should be raised with the klingon ways...but i can't claim him cuz i'm excommunicated and if people know he's my kid he won't be able to live among klingons ever again. the only solution is to send him to live with my HUMAN PARENTS who 1. can't teach him the klingon ways 2. will definitely alert anyone with half a brain that he's my kid"

like? is this not the worst of both worlds? if worf is gonna claim him (which he kinda does by sending him to live with his grandparents) and he can't live among klingons the least worf could do is raise him on the starship with himself, a klingon, and the other kids. who admittedly should not be on the starship bc no child should be on a starship. but like how many klingons are there on ma and pa kent's farm. zero. how many are there on the enterprise. one. could be two but ???

like whats the point of giving him a son if we don't see this kid once or twice a season...i just don't get it. like is he the cutest little klingon that ever lived? yes, OBVIOUSLY. would worf's parents do just as good of a job with him as they did with worf? of COURSE. but the rest of it is a huge mess of logical problems. rip

future imperfect: RIKER HAS A BABY???

no look this one was so fun. old riker. amnesiac riker. riker trying to get out of the lab rat maze. so fun AND i called the plot twist (that the romulans were fucking with him) early.

thrilling that they predicted captain picard would be captain for 7 years when tng was 7 seasons. ik there are movies after but what a lucky guess. also picard looks weird with facial hair. his chin should stay bald too to uphold his priceless cueball image

i'll admit the ending to this episode was weird as hell and also a bit abrupt but like. who cares. a good time is a good time

final mission: AW. BABY BOY...he's really leaving...i'm gonna miss him so much :(

the b plot of this one was so stupid. i could figure out about 6000 different ways to make their duties easier. it took them so long just to get to the asteroid belt and then they were in it for 5 seconds. poor beverly.

the a plot of this was only a little less stupid, to be fair. mr grumpy miner made such a big deal about that alcohol and then he never got the DTs. picard told wesley to stand up to him and then wesley never got to do it. also, wesley's last episode should have had him have more time with his MOM? cmon

my favorite bit was when picard laid down the arrow to warn the search party of the direction they were going and then they all walked in a completely different direction. and at the end beverly is like we found your arrow! girl. come on now

anyway, tonight we do "the loss" and "data's day"