#a fourth instance would just be bad

[lowcountry-gothic]

I'm not a fan at all of this new trend in Star Wars to avoid developing a new planet by showing it obscured by mist and fog. Just feels cheap and unimaginative. The three places they've done it so far (Mimban in Solo, the Clone Wars vision in Ahsoka, and At Achrann in Skeleton Crew) are all fine, I guess, I just hope this doesn't become a recurring thing.

[katakaluptastrophy]

Masterpost of TLT metas

This is mostly for my own reference, as tagging doesn't seem to guarantee something being findable on Tumblr...but if you like wildly overthinking lesbian necromancers in space, enjoy!

Overthinking the Fifth House:

What is a "Speaker to the Dead"?

Actually, Magnus Quinn isn't terrible at sword fighting

Imperial complicity: Abigail the First

Pyschopomp: Abigail Pent and Hecate

Did Teacher conspire with Cytherea to kill the Fifth?

What does the Fifth House actually do?

The Fourth and the Fifth can never just be family

Cytherea's political observations at the anniversary dinner

Abigail Pent's affect: ghosts and autism

Were the Fourth wards of the Fifth?

Abigail probably knew most of the scions as children

Magnus Quinn's very understandable anger

Fifth House necromancy is not neat and tidy

Are Abigail and Magnus an exception to the exploitative nature of cavaliership?

"Abigail Pent literally brought her husband and look where that got her" (the Fifth in TUG)

The Fifth's relationship dynamic

The Fifth's relationship is unconventional in a number of ways

The queer-coding of Abigail and Magnus' relationship

Abigail and Palamedes, and knowing in the River

Was Isaac the ward of the Fifth?

Did Magnus manage to draw his sword before Cytherea killed him? (and why he probably had to watch his wife die)

How did Abigail know she was murdered by a Lyctor?

Fifth House necromancy is straight out of the Odyssey

The politics of the anniversary dinner

Was Magnus born outside of the Dominicus system?

Overthinking John Gaius:

The one time John was happy was playing Jesus

Is Alecto's body made from John's?

Are there atheists in the Nine Houses?

Why isn't John's daughter a necromancer?

The horrors of love go both ways: why John could have asked Alecto 'what have you done to me?'

Why M- may have really hoped John was on drugs

What is it with guys called Jo(h)n and getting disintegrated? (John and Dr Manhattan)

John's conference call with his CIA handlers

Watching your friend turn into an eldritch horror

Why does G1deon look so weird? (Jod regrew him from an arm)

When is a friendship bracelet not a friendship bracelet?

Why did John have G1deon hunt Harrow? (with bonus update)

The 'indelible' sin of Lyctorhood and John's shoddy plagiarism of Catholicism

Are John Gaius and Abigail Pent so different?

What was Jod's plan at Canaan House?

John and Ianthe tread the Eightfold path

The Mithraeum is more than a joke about cows

When was John Gaius born? (And another)

John Gaius and the tragic Orestes

John and Jesus writing sins in the sand

John and Nona's echoing chapters

John's motivations

Overthinking the Nine Houses:

'No retainers, no attendants, no domestics'

Funerary customs and the violence of John's silence

Juno Zeta and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad time

The horror of the River bubble

Every instance of 'is this how it happens' in HTN

Feudalism is still shitty even if you make it queer and sex positive

How do stele work?

Thought crime in the Nine Houses

The Houses have a population the size of Canada

What must it be like to fight the Houses?

You know what can't have been fun? Merv wing's megatruck on Varun day...

Augustine's very Catholic hobby (decorating skeletons)

Necromancers are not thin in a conventionally attractive way

Matching the Houses with the planets of the solar system

Why don't the Nine Houses have (consistent) vaccination or varifocals?

How would the Houses react to the deaths at Canaan House?

How does Wake understand her own name (languages over 10,000 years)

What pre-resurrection texts are known in the Houses?

Camilla and Palamedes very Platonic relationship

The horrors the Cohort found at Canaan House

Do the Houses understand the tech keeping them alive?

Overthinking House religion:

What do the Houses believe about death?

Was M's nun a Franciscan?

Cavaliership and arbitrary socio-religious structures

Ritual scarification

Sacraments and sacramentals

What did Silas think god wanted at Canaan House?

In defense of Silas

There's no such thing as a 'good' necro/cav relationship

Veiling and shaving in Ninth House cult practice

Tongue-in-cheek thoughts on Eighth and Sixth religion

A very long deep-dive on House belief and practice

Overthinking Harrowhark Nonagesimus:

'The meat of your meat...belonged to god' and 'that is how meat loves meat'

The horror of parental touch: Harrow, John Gaius, and Abigail Pent

Why is Harrow so obsessed with Abigail's hands?

Frontline Titties of the Fifth and transgressive necro/cav relationships

Harrow, Wake, and permeability of the soul in HTN

Bible studies for weird queer necromancers:

Epiphany: revealing god's child to the wider world

The Holy Innocents and the creche massacre

The Virgin Mary and Commander Wake

John Gaius and John the Baptist

Instantiating the Trinity and the Second Resurrection

What's the significance of Paul?

St Paul's theology of gender and sexuality and the House theology of cavaliership

Maundy Thursday: consuming another for eternal life

Harrow and the Harrowing of Hell

[starmocha]

pain is all you'll find [Sylus/Reader ★ 630 words ★ Masterlist ★ Series Index ★ AO3] It was karaoke night at Onychinus’ base. A/N: I am so, so sorry. I have no excuses for this one. It’s just full-on crack.

It was karaoke night at Onychinus’ base.

You didn’t even realize Onychinus had karaoke nights, but here you were in a room surrounded by other henchmen all applauding and cheering its fearless leader as he wailed—er, sang—the fourth song of the night.

You grimaced, and chugged your bottle of beer, wishing the alcohol would just take effect already. Beside you, Luke and Kieran were also happily (and soberly?) applauding Sylus. They couldn’t possibly be enjoying his cat-yowling rendition of Careless Whisper, could they? It was honestly hard to tell since the twins refused to remove their masks. The masks were probably there to hide their suffering, you thought grimly, unable to think of any other plausible reasoning in your semi-tipsy state.

When you turned your sight back to the TV screen and the current talentless singer hogging the mic, your cheeks pinked up when you made eye contact with Sylus and he winked at you. For just an instance, you felt your stomach flipped, captivated by his smoldering eyes and suave smile.

And then he opened his mouth again. You mentally screamed in agony, wondering why a good person like yourself was being punished so cruelly like this.

You wanted to bury your head in your arms, or maybe suffocate yourself with these tacky looking throw pillows at Onychinus’ base. Hell, you would even happily let Mephisto peck your eyes out if it meant ending this torment. How could someone with a great—no, sexy—speaking voice not be able to carry a goddamned tune? God truly had a very particular sense of humor, you realized, as you forced a stiff smile and shakily gave Sylus a thumb up.

When the song finally ended (dear god, why did he pick the extended version?), you finally let out the breath you were holding in. You politely clapped and smiled, thinking Sylus was about to return to his seat next to you, but you instantly froze mid-clap, face paling as you watched him scrolled through the song list once more.

He smiled. You worried.

Your ears bled as he rasped the first three verses, before belting out: “Hello, is it me you're looking for?”

Onychinus henchmen were clapping and cheering, and you couldn’t take this anymore. You leaned over to both Luke and Kieran, hissing sharply, “You guys can’t possibly be enjoying these murders on classic songs, right?”

You blinked, dumbfounded, when Luke casually pulled out an earplug.

“Did you say something, Miss Hunter?”

Kieran pulled both of his own earplugs out. “What’s wrong?”

“You guys have been…”

“Oh, damn,” Luke said, reaching into his pocket, “I forgot to give you yours. My bad, Miss Hunter.”

You curiously received a pair of earplugs and you looked up, seeing Kieran motioning you to put them on. The moment you did, you realized that silence truly was golden. You cracked a grin to the twins.

Suddenly you found you were enjoying Sylus’ performance more. All eye candy and not a fucking tuneless sound out of him. Thank fucking god, you thought, this time joining Luke and Kieran in their zealous cheering.

Everything went on well for a few minutes, but unfortunately, the night seemed to drag on, and everyone watched with dismay as the leader of Onychinus showed that he had no intention of letting anyone else have the mic. Your brief moment of faux enthusiasm died down after each song he performed until you could do nothing but mentally sighed as you clapped like a trained seal with your stupidly rigid smile plastered on your face.

You watched the lyrics danced on the TV screen as Sylus ‘sang’ along: Welcome to your life.

You mentally groaned for the umpteenth time. It was going to be a long, long fucking night. Goddamnit.

[diushek]

Well, he (user: HeavenlyPillar666) is just a guy who only reads a webnovel out of boredom after his martial arts classes and finds himself unfortunately trapped- the plot is uninteresting in the first instance, the descriptions are long and absurd (SERIOUSLY, FIVE PARAGRAPHS TO DESCRIBE A DAMN PLANT? TEN PARAGRAPHS TO DESCRIBE A MONSTER? More action scenes than dialogue!? Who the hell is that IcedBlueBeast and why the hell does he insist on making everything SO DENSE AND SLOW?), but... one of his characters? DEFINITELY HIS FAVORITE CHARACTER IN THAT HORRIBLE WORLD. HIS MISUNDERSTOOD BLORBO. HIS BELOVED.

In a summary not summarized, a story about two twin brothers who were separated at birth, and both found their way to cultivation world in different ways. Reunited first like disciples and then Peak Lords of different peaks of the same sect, suddenly, the brother who remained with his wealthy family - Shen Yuan - was seen as something of a villain for having had kind and lovely parents, a home and an education, always portrayed as the spoiled rich kid who bought his way into the Sect, while the REAL SCUM VILLAIN ACCORDING TO HEAVENLYPILLAR666, that bitch Shen Jiu who was stolen from his family and raised as a slave and then on the streets, ended with basically a harem of peak lords, fanning himself with his fourth-rate victim role.

And the rest of that pathetic novel it's just... shit full of dramas, betrayal and eternal descriptions being an ode to finding the hundreds of ways in which Shen Yuan's inherent kindness was misinterpreted as manipulation, judged and accused of wanting to do something bad just because he comes from a rich and well-off background.

And how it should be fair after all that gaslighting and psychological torture, Shen Yuan finally agree with them!

Crack under the pressure and the mistreatment of everyone, he just decide that if everyone thought he was a villain, then he was one!!

Allying with the demons first as an informant spy and then rising to power among the court, he ended up being something like a emperor-demonic cultivator eager for revenge and proving that no matter where he came from, he would show them what he was capable of! If the Cang Qiong Mountain Sect believed that a powerful cultivator was only forged through hard work and suffering, look at him now!

So all that good revenge plot would go to shit with Shen Yuan start to fucking monsters in scenes that were almost fade to black despite the deep descriptions and CHEMISTRY between the passionate Shen Yuan and the mythical creatures to have more power for the revenge that never seemed to come... To end with a completely unsatisfying shitty ending in which Shen Yuan gave up his revenge for filial love and the power of forgiveness, giving his own life to save his fucking damnit brother's life!

Where was the cruel revenge?! The taking over of the world?! HeavenlyPillar666 is RAGING, more than anyone else in all those damn comments!! Dumbfuck author, dumbfuck novel!!!!!

...

Yea, the user HeavenlyPillar666 shouldn't have said that while choking on his damn glass of water. It's not that he thinks he could die by drowning in a glass of water, LITERALLY. That's ridiculous. It's the height of ridiculousness.

But now he is dead, and he has transmigrated into one of Shen Yuan's less filial disciples who would ultimately be the person who would hurt him the most when he turned his back on him, after having been practically raised and adored by Shen Yuan, this damn disciple who always treating his Shizun with contempt and disdain knowing his invented reputation, but despite that, he was so dear to Shen Yuan who more than once was capable of putting himself at risk for him...

No, nothing like that!! No more of that trash!!! Shen Yuan deserves MORE, and the one who now is Luo Binghe is going to make sure Shen Yuan has all of it. A happy ending, a filial disciple, someone to count on, someone to stand up for him when no one else will. Someone by his side when he decides to destroy the cultivation world, someone to HELP HIM DO IT AND GET REVENGE ON ALL THOSE ASSHOLES SONS OF A B-

If only that fucking System would stop yelling at him for being OOC. Luo Binghe already knows!!! Fuck you System!! He's not going to respond that rudely to his Shizun, he is a beautiful little sun, what's wrong with you!?

[painted-flag]

OF FLOWERS AND DEATH - aemond targaryen

Chapter 17: The Winds of War

☾⋆⁺₊✧ dark elf!Aemond Targaryen x f!human!reader series. ✧₊⁺⋆☾ series masterlist. ☾⋆⁺₊✧ word count: 2.8k ✧₊⁺⋆☾ series warnings: 18+ depictions of violence/gore, eventual smut, warfare, sickness/disease, some moments of misogyny, and mentions of alcohol consumption. ☾⋆⁺₊✧ It is too easy for broken hearts to declare war.

Aemond had never felt more conflicted in his life. 

There was scarce ever a time when there were multiple emotions that hit him at once. He was not used to feeling so much in such a short period, it had made him begin to act unlike himself. Though, that was not entirely a bad thing.

Only a few instances in the two millennia of his life had he ever felt so overwhelmed.

The first time was the death of his father. They were never close, but he could recall moments, during the brief periods of his father’s lucidity, when the two of them would sit silently together as they poured through history books. The old king's death did not come as a surprise, but it was crushing regardless. 

The second time he had been overwhelmed was just shortly after his father's death. His mother quickly died. Elf marriages wound the bond between two souls so tightly that when one dies the other follows. He was more angry then. Aemond had been closer to her. The only bit he had of his fond childhood memories was connected to the scent of those azures that she loved so much. 

There was not so much emotion when he beat Aegon in a duel and became king – that felt more natural to him. 

The third time was when he lost his eye. The pain, wrath, betrayal, and heartbreak were too much for him. After it all, when his vision dimmed to one, it tore out the rest of his heart to kill Prince Lucerys for it. The deed had to be done, there was no other way, but Aemond still cursed himself until the ends of the earth for it. He had been like a brother, a chosen brother, but all failed. 

The war had, like being crowned king, not overwhelmed him. At that point, his heart cared little. 

The fourth and final time he experienced such a myriad of emotions at once was when he made the off-hand decision to welcome a human into his kingdom. A human who had so easily ripped down his very being to expose nothing but the scarred essence of his self. Aemond had resisted at first. It was true – he had cared little. Yet, that sentiment did not last long. It was like his brain punished him at every hour. 

Everything was just her. 

Her,

Her,

Her, 

Was it his hubris that caused the gods to send such a siren? Or was it the cruelty he inflicted on the word? There could be no other explanation for her presence in his life. The gods sent her there to punish him. A thorn wedged in his side, but springed forth a rose that smelled as sweet as she treated the people around her. 

That was what did it, what caused him to fall so effortlessly.

Her unflagging efforts to help. 

Not for any selfish reason, nor any reward. The simple act of kindness gave her satisfaction. As if nothing else mattered in the world. She was determined and stubborn – a bit like himself. Though truly she felt like a foil,  an opposite that brought out something better in Aemond.

He tried to reach inside himself and uncover what she had brought out of him, truly, but it was a struggle at first. 

It had been so long since he had to treat someone that gently, it was foreign to him. All he had to do to relearn kindness was simply watch her. Watch as she tended to her patients so skilfully and passionately, watch as she bonded with Daeron over healing, watch as she spent time with Helaena and encouraged her passions, watch as she brought out a better side to Aegon; one a little more sober that before. 

How could such a being simply be so good?

Humans had caused Aemond nothing but pain in his life. They took his eye, attempted to burn his lands down, and hurt his family beyond anything. Yet, this human – who had miraculously stumbled across his sister one day, hurt and in need – had been able to do what he never thought possible. 

She had caused his heart to beat. 

That was what it felt like. Each time he thought of her, frequently as of late, his heart would beat faster. It was like some kind of locator, the closer she was the faster those thumps came. It breathed new life into his body. 

Aemond was not naive, at least, not anymore. He knew what this meant and why his body reacted the way it did. He loved her, simply and truly. Elves felt more intensely than humans, so it was easier for them to get so strung up in care. It was his kind's greatest strength and greatest downfall. Quick to love, quick to hate. 

That was why it hurt so profoundly when she hurled such accusations at him; called him a liar and implied his good friend Cole had killed her father. It was harsher than any blow on the battlefield. He had welcomed her into his home, and let her have access to his library, all on the words of his sister and this was how she repaid him? He was angry but understood. 

There had to have been a reason for her conclusion. She was not hysterical or had a penchant for making up lies. Something had come up or was discovered for her to act that way. She was still in mourning over Lyra so anything could have set her off. 

Aemond had decided to leave so the both of them could cool off and get their thoughts in order. He would listen to her concerns and address them. However, when he went to her room to visit she was not there. That itself was not unusual, so it did not set off any unease in his mind. She was likely in the laboratory and working tirelessly in her pursuit of a cure. Her recent experiment with Daeron had been a damn close solution and Aemond felt nothing but pride swell in his chest when thinking back on it.

He approached the laboratory door but knew not to barge in. If she was focused, he could not bear to ruin that. He was already on thin ice with her trust. There was nothing in the realm that would make him break it further. He knocked on the engraved wood and waited. 

There was no response. 

Again, that was not unusual. However, when he knocked again with a little more force to make sure he was heard, Aemond was surprised by the slow creaking it made as it opened. The door was ajar, which was unusual. His fingers gripped the handle and he pushed it open. His gaze was lowered and noticed the strewn about papers at first. His brow furrowed as he scanned the area further until… 

Gods no… 

Faster than Aemond knew he could move, he flung towards her body that lay bloody and limp on the stone floor. His heart sank with his body. He assessed her and quickly found an open wound on her side. Aemond had flung off his leather doublet and torn off a sizable chunk from his white shirt to try and cover the wound – as if it would make a difference. He was frantic, scrambling to staunch the wound as he kneeled.

Aemond lifted her limp body with his other arm having wrapped it around the back of her neck. Her head was limp and swivelled to the side, a sight that made him feel sick. His eye searched the room for any immediate threats but found none. He looked back down at her closed eyes. Aemond was too shaken to focus and see if she was breathing or if it had been a trick of the mind. 

He muttered her name a few times like it was some sort of prayer; a plea to anything out there that could hear. Quickly, he released his hold on the wound and brushed her cheek, leaving a trail of blood. He went back to putting pressure on the wound, but truthfully it did not look good. Aemond was not shy of wounds. He had seen countless different ways the body could bleed out – this was one of them. 

“But I came to say sorry…” Aemond whispered. Water gathered at the rim of his eyes. What surprised him the most was that he felt the same tingling sensation on the scarred lining of his other eye. He did not know it was possible, but here he was; nearly weeping over the body of a human. 

Aemond noticed her arm was outstretched and went to move it closer to her body. Surprisingly, he saw something sticking out of her closed fists. He moved the arm that was holding her neck out from under after leaning her head on his thigh. Aemond opened her fist and took out the crumpled piece of parchment. 

Mothers flower. 

Lake water. 

Every little thing.

The last one was underlined multiple times for emphasis. It was her writing, but he could not understand the reason for it. On the table, he saw a myriad of scattered ingredients and an overboiling cauldron. The smell emanating from it was burnt and he could tell she had been brewing something. He looked back down at the parchment and it all came to him. 

His little rūklon had done it.

She had found what very likely could be a cure, but something had taken her from him. He shouted for the guards or any possible person who could hear.

The feeling of hopelessness had morphed into rage. Someone had done this to her; someone who would surely pay the price. 

Hurried footsteps sounded from the door Aemond had left open. In just a short moment, he watched Cole come in. His face morphed into shock at the sight. Aemond had never been more thankful that Cole had been in the area. He needed his friend. 

The other door located on the opposite side of the room burst open. Daeron and Aegon had been in the sick hall but came immediately when they heard the noise. While Aegon had froze at the sight, Daeron sprung into action. He dashed to his brother and fell to his knees to assess the damage. 

“What in the seven hells happened?” Daeron asked.

“I found her like this. Why aren't there any guards around?” Aemond directed his last question at Cole with a fire behind his voice. 

“Early morning is when the night shift switches, my king, there are little guards at this time,” Cole answered. Aemond shook his head before looking back at the woman in his arms. That was not a good enough answer. 

“Daeron?” Aemond voiced. It was clear what he was asking. He needed to know if there was a chance to save her. 

Daeron gave his brother a grim look, “I don’t know.” Those words were like a dagger to Aemond’s heart. Aegon had gathered a bunch of supplies from around the room and dumped them by Daeron so he could start assessing the wound more. 

“My king,” Cole spoke out and Aemond turned to him, “I found these.” He had a scrap of fabric in one hand and a bloodied knife in the other. It was easy to see that the colours of the fabric were part of the emblem of the human kingdom. 

“They must have heard of our efforts to find a cure and snuck in to foil them. The council's suspicion of it being human-made could be correct. She happened to have the misfortune of being here.” Cole theorized. Both Daeron and Aemond were struck by it. Aegon, however, looked at Cole with underlying skepticism. 

“Convenient that you found such an important piece of evidence that was not spotted by us when we came in,” Aegon spoke up while he took over the hold on her wound so Aemond could go see the items. Aegon’s words went unnoticed in Daeron’s attempt to focus on the problem in front of him. 

“It’s laced with taint.” Aemond had taken the knife to inspect it and his voice sounded far away, as if caught in the trouble of wondering if what he said was true. 

“This is a direct attack on our kingdom, your grace. They have gone beyond a violation of the peace treaty.” Cole informed, “We must respond.” 

Aemond did not acknowledge Cole’s words at first, instead choosing to speak to Daeron, “You can heal her wound, right?” 

“I can try,” Daeron looked around the room for any kind of supplies that could help, “But the taint…”

“Then use the previous experiment to halt its spread,” Aemond argued. His anger increased as Daeron spoke. He felt that his brother was giving up on her, but that was not the truth. However, he was so overwhelmed he could not think clearly. 

“The last of the brew was used up on new patients. Even if I were to make more… it would take too long. Aemond, the wound is deep, the taint may have reached her heart already.” Daeron’s words were grim and he had been reluctant to voice them, as if speaking them would make it come true. 

“You will try regardless. Get every fucking healer to work on it.” Aemond commanded. He had never used his kingly voice with Daeron before. It was something Aemond did not wish to do, to command his family as such, but all of his care had gone with her. 

“Cole,” Aemond started, “Send for all of our legions to gather at the border. We ready for war. Send some to gather taint samples as well. They used it on her, so we shall use it on them.” Cole nodded at his king's words and made his way to leave the room. 

As Cole reached the threshold, Aemond spoke again, “I want whoever did this brought directly to me.” Cole hesitated for a moment to really look at Aemond, but eventually nodded and left. With Cole gone, Aemond moved to his brother and presented the parchment that had been in her hand. 

“She was holding this. I assume it may be concerning a cure. Get some healers to work on it as well.” Aemond instructed. Daeron took the parchment and looked over it. 

“I don’t completely understand,” Daeron scrunched his brows at the vague messaging in her scrawl. 

“Elf azure and Lake Rosemagne water,” Aemond clarified. A light behind Daeron’s eyes sparked and it seemed as though he clued in to exactly what she had figured out. 

Once seeing that she was in relatively good hands, Aemond made the prowl for the door to start the familiar habit of plotting war. When he reached the exit, he paused and turned around. His gaze hovered over her still body while his chest rose up and down almost erratically. Both of his brothers could see the emotion flicker over Aemond’s face. They understood her meaning to him and mourned what could have been. 

Without any further words, Aemond stormed out of the room. Daeron got to work quickly and commanded Aegon to help him pick her up. Together, the two elves moved her body into the sick hall and to a private, curtained area. Daeron had yelled at some of the nearby healers, something which he had never done, and commanded them to start brewing both the slowing elixir and a few side brews of the newly modified recipe.

He hoped that the slowing elixir could be administered in time so if the modified version ended up not curing it, the very least would be that the taint would not further damage her body as it recovered from the stab wound. 

However, Daeron would be lying to himself if he said there was a guarantee of healing the wound. It was so deep and human bodies were a lot weaker than elf ones. Aegon, on the other hand, was doing surprisingly well in hiding his fear. He shook just a little but followed his brother's directions to clean the wound. 

Daeron leaned down to put his head against her chest. He was searching for a heartbeat, but could not find one. He then moved to hold her wrist. He waited a few moments. As if a miracle had happened, there was the faintest of thrumming. It came slow and was weak, but it was there nonetheless. Daeron let out a breath he had been holding and nodded to Aegon. 

Aegon understood and tears welled in his eyes and he sighed with relief. Daeron then organized the supplies on a table beside him that was meant for stitching the wood. Despite his lengthy experience as a healer, he had never treated someone he was close with and had an incredible personal investment in their survival. 

As he moved his shaking hands towards the wound, Aegon’s own hands covered them, “You’ve done this countless times, what’s one more?” 

“I can do it.” Daeron’s words were more for his own sake than for Aegon’s; though both needed the reassurance. 

Together, both the brothers provided comfort in their presence while they set about the task of saving a human from near death.

On the opposite side of the castle, the king prepared for war.

Chapter 18: Past, Present, and Future Preview

It was then that it struck you that where you were was a memory – not the present. You could not remember the present. 

Why could you not remember the present? 

☾⋆⁺₊✧ If you want to be added to the taglist, click here!

taglist: @izzicle @arriettys-song @ggukiespace @wasntpriscilla @marielahurtado @shamelessblazecrown @peachysunrize @lolliespocketfullofpollies @lanadragon04 @kokosg @sinistersnakey @aemondtargaryenwifey @m-riaa @sarcasticwitch11 @coriellesmarya @simpinonyouz @scrumptiousloser @gcdofchaos @whorrorbellee @saturnssrings @ashjade19 @uniquecutie-puffs @fan_goddess @impossiblepersonastranger @certifiedhaters @crystal_siren @dejiekoo @ladyofthewoods15 @lilostif16 @papichulo-4 @liannafae @f4ntasywh0re @jessyoutofspace04 @ribbetzetoad @rxvenswxxd @iamtoriasworld @blackswxnn @qardasngan @ximetrevino2021

[feroluce]

SO LIKE. As much as I roll with the Emanator of Elation Sampo theory, I do have. Some doubts about this specific instance of it. Not that I think Boothill is lying, or that I think Sampo isn't an Emanator, but I wonder if the person Boothill actually met was Sampo.

Just! Sampo is so careful. The only reason we even knew he wasn't of Belobog was due to a dialogue-dependent fourth wall-breaking dream sequence that no other character could have seen. It took a missable dream bubble in an out-of-the-way spot that was seemingly left only for the trailblazer at the very end of a side mission just to confirm him as a Masked Fool. Like it's not just the fact that Boothill mentions this person being an Emanator. It's that he knows they're also a Masked Fool, which is also something Sampo is incredibly dodgy about. Sparkle even seems to call him out on this in her party join line fjkdjaskldj

((But also, Boothill, baby. WHY were you trying to get them drunk????))

And regardless of if you believe him when he calls himself an old timer, he obviously has a lot of experience in doing what he does. He knows what he's doing, he's good at it, and he is viciously capable and competent, unfortunately for his victims smhznskdn

So it just. Feels very unlike him, for him to let his guard down enough to not only let himself get drunk in front of Boothill-

a total stranger btw whom Sampo has absolutely no reason to trust, and a dangerous Galaxy Ranger to boot who has plenty of blood on his hands and a significant bounty on his head

-but to get SO drunk that he lets loose the secret that he's an Emanator.

When Boothill brings this up, he mentions that if Emanators were obvious and known at a glance, it would lead to atrocities. And for as much as Sampo is disliked by his victims (there's an entire anti-Sampo organization in Belobog JFDKLASJFDL), it's all for fraud. He's wanted by the IPC as an intergalactic thief. He scams people out of their money, and only rich people at that. That's mostly all that he's known for. Nothing he does is violent, even though Sampo surely has the capacity to inflict a lot of harm.

And I don't mean that he's exactly a pacifist or anything; Firefly comments that Sampo seems like a highly skilled covert fighter. His voicelines make it sound like he enjoys combat- hell, his ult line makes him sound like a hitman. I like to hc him as being a pretty high ranker in the fighting rings at the World's End Tavern, like we see in the Simulated Universe occurrences.

But I don't think he would enjoy being the cause of uncontrollable violence and bloodshed.

Like yeah he's a dick who scams people on the regs for funsies, but he has lines he refuses to cross, which we see a lot of in how he interacts with Sparkle. More than just not enjoying it, I think he would hate it if he were found out and it caused an incident, especially since he seems so endeared to Belobog and her people now and it looks like he plans to return there. He wouldn't want to bring any of that back to them.

So I just can't imagine him carelessly fucking up bad enough to out himself to a random stranger that could easily put a bullet right through his head.

Sparkle maybe could, though.

Because as we find out later the dreamscape had expanded FAR beyond what it seemed, far enough that the trailblazer had been dreaming since the warp jump in. Most people enter it unknowingly, and don't realize they're already dreaming when they think they're still awake. Boothill and Dan Heng should have already been dreaming during their exchange on the Express that started all this.

And as long as someone knows they're dreaming, completely changing their appearance is easy, even for the common layman. We see this with a couple of NPCs and also Sparkle herself, with her (in)famous impression of Sampo.

Thank youuuuu Sparkle

And yeah, the trailblazer and almost all of the other characters wouldn't know about the expansion until near the very end. None of them realized they were dreaming even outside of their dream pools, and surely none of them would think to be suspicious of another person's appearance outside of the dreamscape like that.

But Sparkle has a script from Silver Wolf.

She knew all the secrets of the dreamscape, and she knew them from the very beginning. There would have been nothing stopping her from appearing as Sampo in front of Boothill and spilling all his secrets.

And she apparently has a long-standing history with Sampo, including trying to get him in on her own much more fiery and aggressive version of Elation.

Maybe all Sampo needs is to be outed as an Emanator, and then when all the violence and bloodshed catches up to him, then he'll finally understand! ദ്ദി(｡•̀ ,<)~✩

[saerins]

⋆୨ prologue ୧˚ all see through, just like glass

⋆୨ if not for you (masterlist) ⋆୨ next: chapter one - thorns without flowers, bars with no drinks ୧˚

⋆୨ synopsis ୧˚ neither of you want this. both you and sae reluctantly agree to this marriage, although sae’s dissatisfaction far outweighs your own. with hidden agendas and old flames, will this ever work out between the two of you, or will your forced spark be doomed to fail?

ೀ series: sae x f!reader | wc 1.6k | ೀ content warnings: modern au, rich!reader & rich!sae, fluff/angst, swearing, somewhat boys being boys, manipulation/gaslighting, bad parents, yn has a sister here but won’t be mentioned too much !

i. y/n

“Don’t be so overly emotional, sweetheart. Isn’t this absolutely perfect for you?”

“You’re saying no? Can’t believe you’d say that… you know if you don’t do this you’re only damning your little sister instead, right?”

“Sweetie, we are listening to you. But don’t you think we would know what’s best for you? We’re only criticising you because we love you.”

Marriage; a concept you’d been familiar with since young, way back when you had a dream to marry your one and only Prince Charming—someone who’d appear one day and completely sweep you off your feet. Five year olds are silly like that. You’d believe in Prince Charming and fairytale endings and that two people in love would always work things out.

Being the daughter of a very successful businessman, a lot of things were given to you as a child. You never had to ask for toys, or books, or anything at all. Your father would ensure your material needs were well taken care of, and your mother would ensure you’re pampered from head to toe, buying you designer assets and making sure you look the best you can at each instance.

Life in the upper echelon is mostly desirable; the privileges are apparent, the favouritism rampant. You’re grateful for what you have, but there’s a small ball of thought inside you that wishes for your parents not to see you as a product, but as their child. Most of the people you had met had absolutely zero problems with their upbringing, perfectly content with being handed everything on a silver plate.

Most people except Mikage Reo, your best friend since the fourth grade. He hated having his life dictated for him too, and you both found common ground in that. Ever since then, you’d both been close as ever.

“Wait wait wait,” he nearly chokes on his rice, the disbelief in his tone overwhelming, an eyebrow cocked as his fringe falls over his left eye. “Repeat that again.”

A small sigh escapes your lips, your fork poking against the rice in your bowl, any form of appetite you had earlier being sucked out just by revisiting the topic. “It’s an arranged marriage.”

Reo appears unamused, but he restrains himself from commenting too much negativity. “And… what did you say?”

That’s why he’s a good friend—he feels you out first before filtering what he needs to say. He’ll still speak his mind, but depending on your decision, he’ll choose his words carefully.

You’ve always been eternally grateful for his presence. It calms you down, that sense of comfort irreplaceable. You know that if you ever really screw anything up that bad, you’ll have him—and really, that’s enough for you. Out of everything you have, you think this friendship’s probably the most precious one.

“The wedding’s in a couple months,” you half-answer, deciding to stop playing with your food and putting your fork down. The clang of the metal hitting the marble-top table is the last sound you hear for a while before Reo clears his throat.

Before Reo can get any words out, you interject. “The guy said yes too, apparently.”

Now he chokes on his rice.

You slide the glass of water across the table and Reo chugs it down, water trickling down the sides of his lips at his urgency. “How the fuck did your parents get Itoshi Sae of all people to say yes?”

Itoshi Sae. The name of your to-be husband. You know him as much as what you can search online. Twenty-five this year. No hobbies but it’s rumoured he’s good in soccer. He’s a lot like you when it comes to status and standing in the business world—the kid of successful self-made parents who everyone in your immediate circle automatically expects good things from. The pressure to perform and become someone of note since birth is probably something you both share. Except, maybe, Itoshi Sae looks like he’s a lot less obedient than you are. He looks like he’s more rebellious than not, and that’s why you wonder if he has any hidden agendas by agreeing to this business arrangement.

You know why you’re agreeing.

“Seriously, we raised this child and yet she’s so ungrateful!”

“Y/N, you know if you don’t do this then he’s just going to force this on your little sister, right?”

How can you let that slide as a big sister? Especially when your little sister is perfectly happy in a long-term relationship? Unfortunately, threatening their children isn’t below your parents.

Even when you revisit the conversation in your head, your mother’s faux concern is nauseating. She’s always been that way; everything your father says goes and she doesn’t offer much else other than what he expects of her. Maybe that’s why you grew up to be this way.

Shrugging, you turn your attention back to Reo, a small pout forming on your lips. “You know my dad. He’s always been good at talking.”

“What about you though? Are you really okay with this?”

At this point, Reo’s the only one who’s genuinely concerned for you. Maybe because he knows about all your childish dreams about finding The One. While you appreciate his concern, you brush it off.

“Yeah, I mean, how bad could things possibly get with Sae?”

Reo’s eyebrows show he’s not convinced, but he doesn’t say more.

“I’ll be fine, Reo, promise.”

You’ll just have to win Itoshi Sae over. Even if it’s hard, you’re determined to try and make the most of it. It won’t be that bad if you work hard on it… right?

ii. itoshi sae

“Either do this, or I’ll get Rin instead. It’ll be a pain, but don’t think I won’t do it.”

“Honey! Stop speaking like that… Sae, please try to understand, this will be a huge opportunity. It’s the least you owe us, hm?”

“You lost your shot, do you want Rin to lose his too?”

“If you don’t want her, I'll take her.”

“Go ahead.”

Sae’s completely tuned out of the conversation, the thoughts of his upcoming wedding filling his head. Now that everything’s settled between yours and his parents, it’s really kicking in that fuck, did he really let them dictate his love life like that?

“She’s pretty hot, though. I think she’s just a year younger than you?” Oliver’s scrolling through your Instagram—typical behaviour from his end. The moment Sae told them your name, it took only half a minute for Oliver and Otoya to find your online presence.

L/N Y/N. He’s always heard of you. Your name constantly leaves his parents’ mouths, ever since he was a kid. Apparently, your parents and his have been tight since high school. Sae is sceptical about the relationship, though. Nothing is ever that plain and simple between rich families. There must be a reason Sae’s never personally seen you, after all, despite his parents claiming to have a good relationship with yours.

“What the fuck’s going through their heads?”

And by that, Sae assumes that Otoya means his parents. If that’s the case, Sae has long decided he’s given up trying to understand what goes on in their heads—but if he had to guess, it’s probably all because of a simple business deal.

Having their kids wed each other would mean that one of them is absorbing the other. A little side knowledge that Sae doesn’t care for, so he only shrugs in response.

“Aw, little Sae is growing up,” Oliver sneers, earning a snicker from Otoya and a middle finger from Sae himself.

Otoya eggs him on, adding to the fire. “Yeah, to think that the guy who only ever dated once in his whole fucking life is the one getting married first,” he comments, eyes gazing to the side in deep thought, “what was her name again? Mirin?”

“Oh fuck, yeah I forgot about her,” Oliver exclaims, smirking at Sae. “First love type shit, right?”

Sae rolls his eyes, ignoring him, forcing him to change the subject.

“Shit, didn’t think you were the kind to ever say yes though,” Oliver remarks, eyes still glued onto the screen, likely still scrolling through your posts.

Oliver’s standards are quite high. Are you really that pretty? Sae’s never actually seen what you look like.

“I’m not fucking marrying her. I don’t even know her.”

“Maybe we should just pull Rin out then, get him to come back here and handle all this.”

“Sae, be a good boy and listen to us, okay? How about this—if it ever gets too bad, we’ll look into a divorce in the future, hm?”

As if he believes that. His parents are insufferable. There’s no point in ranting to this group though, so Sae brushes it off.

“Not like I care about this marriage shit,” he leans back, an air of nonchalance around him. “I’ll just shut my parents up and wait for the right time to leave.”

Otoya scoffs, smirking. “Lucky girl.” Sarcasm is his forté.

Oliver laughs, finally putting his phone down. “Okay you do that, and then I’ll pop up and be her Prince Charming and sweep her off her feet.”

Sae inwardly sighs to himself. His friends are insufferable as well, though he’d argue whether that’s the correct term for them. They’re only a group because their families happened to meet often. Somehow, Sae had been dragged into this weird association one day, and the rest is history.

“Do whatever the fuck you want.”

The rest of the night, Sae drowns out their conversation, choosing to ignore whatever shit they’re talking about. In his head, he’s only thinking about how long it’ll take before he can safely absolve himself from you without his parents threatening his younger brother’s career. More importantly, he’s wondering how the fuck he’s going to tell you he’s thinking of a divorce even before you get married.

Surely, you don’t really expect anything to come out of this either, do you?

If you do, you’ve got a rude awakening coming.

taglist: @kimvmarvel @mxplesyrvp @yuzurins @futuristicxie @kiopanxp @k0z3me @y-sabell-a @sae1toshilover

[sexhaver]

What makes Jeweled Bird so bad?

first, some context: wayyyyy back in the stone ages when dinosaurs walked the earth and MTG first released, it was envisioned as less of a serious competitive card game people would explicitly try to minmax and more of a fun little diversion for your D&D group to play while you wait for Jared to get off his shift so you can actually start your campaign. this explains a lot of design choices that seem backasswards 30 years later. for instance, yes, Richard Garfield knew Black Lotus was unbelievably busted, but figured it was fine to print since it's not like people would do anything crazy like buy up hundreds of packs/hunt down singles on a secondary marketplace and play the game competitively for cash prizes.

one of the wackiest outcomes of this design philosophy was the concept of "playing for ante", an optional game mode/modifier where each player would begin the game by putting the top card of their library directly into "the ante", a pile of cards off to the side. whoever won the game won permanent, real-life ownership of all cards in the ante. basically "playing for keeps" but in a TCG instead of with Pogs or those weird tiny cardboard Beyblade tops that came in chip bags.

as you might guess from just reading that description, it was pretty wildly unpopular with most of the playerbase at the time and only got less popular as time went on. people didn't want to risk losing their cards, especially once the game became established and some of those cards were worth, like, actual amounts of money. and then there was the variance - it was entirely possible for you to ante up your only copy of an expensive card (meaning you were even less likely to win because now you can't draw it) while your opponent anted a basic land.

partially due to this, but mostly due to WOTC lawyers learning about the concept of "gambling laws" and WOTC PR learning about the optics of getting children into gambling, ante was officially removed from all sanctioned MTG tournaments very early into the game's lifespan (in fact i think this might have been enshrined into law before the actual first official tournament) and mostly memoryholed from the comprehensive rules, outside of section 407, which leads with this literal legal disclaimer:

there were 9 cards printed before this that explicitly reference "the ante" and do something unique to the cards in it. all of these cards have been errata'd to include the rules text "remove this card from your deck before playing if you're not playing for ante" and banned from LITERALLY ALL SANCTIONED FORMATS, including Vintage, the format whose entire appeal is "we never ban anything" (laughs in Lurrus).

okay so with the context out of the way we can start getting into why Jeweled Bird specifically is A Bad Card

first, the obvious: it's an ante card, which means you can't play it unless you're playing for ante, and if you ask anyone at your LGS to play for ante they will try to surreptitiously call the nearest retirement home to report an escapee from their memory care unit. so right off the bat it's quite literally unplayable as an MTG card (ante doesn't even work right in cube drafts, usually the last solace of jank-ass mechanics), which is not a great start.

now that we've established that ante cards are bad because they're effectively banned everywhere, let's assume we're living in some bizarro land where you've managed to convince a handful of friends to play in your personal MTG tournament bracket that allows ante. even then, all but one (don't worry we'll get to that one in a second) of the banned "ante cards" are just. unplayably bad. like absolute dogshit.

ok actually you know what i hadn't looked over all the ante cards in a while before typing up this post and now that i have i think Jeweled Bird is arguably the third or fourth best one out of the lot, and it's STILL unplayably bad in a modern context. it's effectively 1 colorless mana to draw a card, which is theoretically decent in some colors nowadays if you squint but would have actually been notably good back in its heyday. it actually gets pretty close to what WOTC was trying to go for with most of these ante card designs: you get a powerful effect (card draw for 1 colorless mana in an era when even blue had to jump through hoops for a rate that good outside of Ancestral Recall), but at the cost of adding something to the ante, but since the effect is so powerful, you should ideally be able to win the game off of it and completely negate the downside of adding your stuff to the ante.

you know what, fuck it, let's just go through the other ante cards from worst to best:

this card looks absolutely batshit until you get to the last sentence and realize it's effectively 6 mana to force your opponent to ante a card. if you spend 6 mana doing effectively nothing, you are not winning the game or that ante

this one is this low because in 99% of circumstances it's 10 mana over two turns to burn your opponent for 10. however, it takes the edge over Amulet of Quoz because 1. it just bypasses the ante zone entirely to literally steal the card directly, outcome of the game be damned 2. if your opponent has 9 or less life, they have to either let you steal their card or concede on the spot (which means they lose their ante) and 3. if i'm reading this ruling correctly you can set up the 9-or-less-life scenario with a TOKEN COPY of Bronze Tablet and give them a literal bar napkin with a doodle on it in exchange for their judge promo foil Elesh Norn:

so for 6 mana, you can heal yourself back to full at the cost of anteing an additional card. if that was all this card did, it would still be pretty bad, but the icing on this shitcake is that your opponent can just. also do that. but without spending their entire turn to cast a 6 mana spell. so now you're both on equal footing lifewise, but they have their entire turn to gain tempo advantage after you spent your turn healing them. and you gave them another one of your cards once you inevitably lose because of this. i guess theoretically you could run it in a super heavy control deck that aims to win via mill as a safety valve against aggro? idk man

this card effectively does nothing, but doing nothing for 3 mana is still an improvement over "doing nothing for 6 mana", "doing 10 damage for 10 mana over two turns", and "helping your opponent for 6 mana". i guess if you're really confident that your deck can win anyways (perhaps because of another card on this list) you could use this to force your opponent to ante another card for you to win? mostly this one is this high up here because "if the opponent doesn't concede the game immediately" is the funniest possible opening to a MTG card's rules text. like that's always true. you could add that to quite literally every card ever printed and it would change nothing other than making the game way funnier

okay so this is a three mana 1/1 with an ability that costs three MORE mana to activate that effectively just makes your opponent ante a card. i know it looks like it destroys and then literally steals an artifact, which would actually be a pretty good effect since it impacts the board (something none, but the entire thing is countered by anteing a card so that's what's gonna happen every time. at least this one can chump block

okay now we're starting to get into cards that at least make you think a little bit before deciding they suck (Jeweled Bird would go around here)

this scores higher than Timmerian Fiends for several reasons. obviously, a 4 mana 3/3 is a much better rate than a 3 mana 1/1, and the sac ability being free (other than a tap) makes it a lot more usable. the effect is even debateably good in red specifically: either it "draws" (literally legally steals irl) you a card, or it does 10 burn to the opponent's face. however, it does lose points due to the part where you, uh, have to give it away after using it once, win or lose. basically this is like Bronze Tablet but 6 mana cheaper and on a body that can actually theoretically do something. also lol at the "or conceding game" clause like Demonic Attorney, i really want to start seeing that wording on every card ever printed

now this might seem similar to Demonic Attorney at first glance, but the Oracle text makes it make more sense: "You own target card in the ante. Exchange that card with the top card of your library." notably, like Efreet and Tablet, this swap in ownership happens regardless of the outcome of the game, and unlike those two cards, you don't have to trade Darkpact itself for the card you're stealing. stealing your opponent's card out of the ante does mean that now both of the cards in there belong to you, meaning you have twice as much to lose, but hey, you just stole (and got to draw and cast, lol) your opponent's shit. "do what you must, i have already won" type beat

as powerful as Darkpact is, it's still only the second best ante card, and it is not even in the same zip code as the first best. ever heard of a little card named Ancestral Recall? draws 3 cards for one mana? and that's such a busted effect you're only allowed to legally run one copy in the one format it isn't explicitly banned in?

hahahahahahahahahaha holy shit sorry every time i remember this card i cackle at it a bit. what do you MEAN "discard your hand and draw 7 for 1 mana"?? discarding is an UPSIDE these days! people have unironically run One With Nothing, which is this card except for all the words after "discard your current hand". that "add the first drawn to the ante" bit might as well be flavor text because if you manage to lose after casting this then your deck was never even theoretically capable of winning in the first place. jesus christ.

[robinsdearest]

This isn't what it looks like

Bruce Wayne x F!Reader

Five times the birds catch you, and the one time Bruce finally does.

Damian catches you first. It’s late in the night, or early in the morning, depending on how you view the clock. Six one way, half a dozen the other. No matter because your youngest is already demanding an answer for your whereabouts. He can tell something is wrong from the way you jump from your skin when he surprises you. He found you walking up the stairs from the BatCave, and your question regarding his bedtime was dismissed quickly.  You have a certain smell to you that he immediately places. His interrogation is thorough, you do admit to yourself, because he simply cares about you and your safety. He also loves his father and you can see the conflict in his eyes as the gears in his head turn and turn.  You try your very best to explain the circumstance, but you are failing miserably and cannot fully mitigate this instance. You think your secret will be revealed to Bruce before Damian gives you a slight nod after careful consideration.  Damian promises to keep your secret in return for a new pet. Your immediate question is to know which one he wants. You're not above buying compliance.

Jason catches you second. His confrontation is less aggressive than Damian’s turned out to be. You’re not even home when the Red Hood finds you. You’re coming out of an unremarkable garage when he drops from the roof right in front of you. Your yelp of surprise sends a flock of birds scattering to the wind. Jason only crosses his arm to stare at you in silence while you fidget under his glare.  You are blessedly given another chance to explain the circumstance, and Jason is much more receptive and understanding. His gaze flicks between you and the open door to the garage. When he finally spots what sits there, his arms go slack. He takes off the hood and simply listens to the rest of your story. Once you’re done and you think he’s going to call Bruce, Jason throws an arm around your shoulder and steers you back to the garage. He has a few items to negotiate for his silence. 

Tim catches you third. In truth, you had thought he would be the first to catch you. His hacking and investigative skills rivaled that of Bruce’s on a bad day and far exceeded Question’s on a good day.  You thought you had erased any trail of your small venture out of town, but it seems even attempting to cover your tracks was foolish, as this was child’s play for Red Robin. Tim sits in front of the computer and brings up a map of the area you have just returned from. Your face is hot with strong embarrassment as you grip your bag. He slowly turns the chair to face you, an inquisitive eyebrow raised waiting for your defense. You try to plead your case with hard evidence and logical reasoning: it really was a small venture, and you were only gone for less than ten hours, which is amazing in this day of age, and- In an incredibly surprising twist of fate, Tim only acknowledges your story by removing the map from the screen and deleting the record logs. He sips his coffee and tosses his head towards the exit, dismissing you entirely. Your knuckles are white and tight wrapped around your bag as you head upstairs. 

Cassandra catches you fourth. She’s so quiet, you didn’t even realize she was with you until she tapped your shoulder. Your scream is shrill and you thought the glass from the small window would burst. After your body doesn’t fail you with an imminent heart attack, you look back to Cass as her small smile grows into something more sinister.  You don’t even have a good explanation for tonight’s journey. Your plans are in ten minutes, and if you don't show up on time, your company is going to be so upset. You try and explain as quickly as possible. As she sits there and listens to you, you finally realize that maybe your kids are in on it all together and are waiting for the perfect moment to expose you. Too many people are going to know, and you know Bruce would kill you- even worse, potentially divorce you- if he found out.  She signs something that allows your shoulders to finally relax. 

Dick catches you fifth. He’s more disappointed than angry, in reality. Damian had confessed to him in a bit of panic when you hadn’t returned to the Manor after a few hours of being gone. Dick had cornered you in your study as you were finishing a few additional work papers the next day. He demanded to know why you were doing it, if Bruce’s happiness wasn’t enough for you, or if you wanted to send the man to an early grave. You could tell Dick is hurt, and you feel more guilty than you ever had before. You hadn’t taken into account the feelings of your own kids until this conversation.  You know your begging doesn’t work on your oldest; he learned his puppy dog eyes from you, and they’re not very effective when used on each other. Instead, you offer him another solution as an explanation enough. He begrudgingly agrees and follows you out of the manor. A few hours later, Dick is breathless, yet still promises to keep his mouth shut for the time being.

When Bruce finally catches you, he’s shocked, to say the least. Devastated at best.  “You’ve got to be joking.” He’s standing in the middle of the Batcave, sans any and all gear or kevlar. Damn, you had really banked on the Batman being in Metropolis tonight.  “I can explain, I promise!” You have the thought to tell him how good he looks in gray sweatpants, but his face is contorted in anger.  “How long has this been going on? How many times?” He’s circling you in that predator way that you’ve seen Batman circle villains on the street.  You can do nothing but toy with the hem of your shirt that still smells like gasoline and the outside winter air. You sit in the chair next to the Batcycle, the heat of the motor singing a few hairs on your arm.  You had finally been caught, by Bruce, nonetheless. He is for sure going to divorce you; death would be too kind. You explain what has been going on, and like too good of a man, he listens until you are finished speaking.  Bruce calls each of your kids to the cave. When they finally arrive, Bruce demands the truth. To their credit, not one of them lies, and they confirm your story. 

“Hold on.” He stops them from speaking as he pinches the bridge of his nose. “You’re standing there, telling me, that my wife- my wife with almost no training- has been going out at night in the military-grade vehicles specifically made for fighting crime, for months, and not a single one of you was going to tell me?”  You didn't think you had the heart to tell him it was closer to a year. Damian spoke though. “Father, I found her after taking the Batcopter a few months ago.” You couldn’t sleep that night while Bruce was patrolling, so you took the helicopter to Wayne Enterprises to get a few things of work done. It wasn’t the first time you had stolen one of the many vehicles Batman hoards, but it was the first time you had gotten caught.  Bruce’s eyes are digging into you, and you do feel a little guilty now for not telling him any of this.  Jason yells from across the cave. “She had the Batmobile across town.” You had taken the tumbler out to go meet Lucius for a few improvements to the vehicle’s controls; the brake was sticking and you knew it would cause problems for Bruce eventually. You could see Jason’s shit-eating grin from your seat. Bruce held his head with both hands now. “We switched out the tires, too old man.”  Tim didn’t even look up from the computer. “Batplane. She flew to Jamaica and back a couple weeks ago.”  Bruce whips his head to you.  “Alfred said he needed jerk spice, and you know he only likes the traditional kind from the stores in Kingston!” You cry.  Cassandra is only sitting on the boat, which is confirmation enough for Bruce as he turns her way. She had been sitting in the boat cabin while you crossed the Delaware Bay to visit Metropolis for a happy hour with Lois and Diana. You let Cassandra drive the boat back while you talked about your night with the other women.  Dick calls out finally. “B, I was going to tell you after I caught her with the motorcycle.” Bruce throws his arms up as he knows that a contrasting statement is coming. You crack a small smile when it does. “But she challenged me to a race, and I couldn’t say no. She beat me across town, and the punishment for not winning was keeping quiet. That was a few days ago.”  Bruce lets out a mirthless laugh before turning back to you. You give your husband of nearly two decades a sheepish grin. He comes over and drops to squat before you. He takes your left hand where your wedding band proudly sits on your ring finger. He toys with it for a second before turning your hand over and kissing your palm. He sighs dejectedly and lifts his head to kiss you properly.  “You should have told me. I would have made time to make sure things were safe.”  “I didn’t want to worry you. Also, I can take care of myself with my minimum training." You kiss his nose so that he stops scrunching it. "Besides, be proud that our children worked together to help me keep this secret to maintain your sanity. We love you, just remember that." “So you told everyone but me and Alfred?”  You wince, and the movement makes Bruce slap his forehead. He mutters something small beneath his breath that sounds an awful lot like a prayer.  “Alfred might have been the one who gave me the keys for everything.”

[candeathbereal]

Small Astro observations

-Sun conjunct ascendant in synastry is an odd moment for me. Mostly cause as a Leo rising I have met some Leo suns and I have no bad blood for them. It just feels weird because most times the Sun person will mimic the ascendant person in some way. From what I’ve noticed at least. Maybe my Uranus being in my seventh house has a mild affect because Aquarius is all about uniqueness or something along those lines. So naturally I can enjoy the idea of someone doing/acting similar to me but not enough to make a bond with a person. Idk it feels odd for me at least. Other people enjoy it though but maybe it’s just my ego talking idk.

-Pisces suns from what I have seen have either sleepy eyes or something distinct about their teeth. Some people have said that Pisces have fish teeth but that isn't all they can have. Idk I've noticed that most Pisces I have met can have fish like teeth but overall their teeth just has something distinct about them. For instance, my dad has almost no teeth but still chooses to eat steak and all that even though it doesn't seem that easy for him to do. I also think it's the Taurus moon and mars that adds to his stubbornness. You could read this observation for either tropical or sidereal since I've seen the same with some Aries suns (tropical). I myself am an Aries sun but Pisces sun in sidereal and I have a lazy eye and some interesting teeth imo. Mostly cause I have two sharp teeth kinda where you would see vampire fangs but I have a similar moment with two bottom teeth like directly below my other two teeth. There is just a odd sharpness to them that my other teeth don't have. Plus I have always had problems with my teeth to the point that apparently at the age of 12 I had to get most of my back teeth removed (they were baby teeth so they grew back).

-3rd house synastry creates more of a sibling like bond with a person or that person could remind you of one of your siblings (depends on you I guess idk how many siblings people have so yeah). Whereas 4th house synastry has more of a likelihood to remind you of a general family member as opposed to one of your siblings or just a sibling in general. I've noticed that 4th house synastry causes an emotional comfort where you can talk about your trauma or just childhood in general with someone one, but 3rd house synastry is more like a weird assumption that you don't really have to talk about that because somehow it is just accepted that you know it. Again kinda like a sibling moment cause most times you don't have to have deep talks about your childhood with your siblings (at least for me most times). Funnily enough I have fourth house synastry with both my sister and one of my brothers (I have my moon in my sister's fourth house whereas my brother has his moon in my fourth house), so we do have those talks about our trauma and such. Honestly I have always felt more close (emotionally) with them than my own parents. It's an interesting bond for sure for me. I feel very lucky that I have that bond with my siblings.

-6th house synastry is a moment to live through because it can manifest differently based on the planet. I think moon in sixth house causes the most mixed reactions to each other, because the sixth house is all about routine and service. So the moon being there causes a emotional bond for each other through service towards each other. Although it does depend on other aspects of the synastry most times it's a mutual I help you you help me kinda vibe to it. I think it can work out but both parties would have to have some level of emotional maturity or even just a lack of Pluto influence. It's not like it can't work out with Pluto influence but it just would take a lot more work since Pluto is a little cunt who likes messing around with shit so the emotions get fucked around with the most. I can't blame Pluto too much for it since it is a planet all about transformation and obsession and people can control their own actions. Take what you can from what I said.

Anyways I haven't posted in a while so I figured I'd do that real quick cause it would feel wrong not to. I would love to hear you guy's thoughts on this or even anything at all. Feel free to message me for any questions you might have. I can't guarantee anything great or even smart. A veces no tengo sentido. Todavia estoy aprendiendo espanol asi que pido disculpas por mi mal espanol

[sangoqueenkoko]

ALHAITHAM

“i just asked (Y/N) out…”

Fluff

DENDRO MASTERLIST | DRABBLE MASTERLIST

.

Valentine’s Day prompt: “i just asked (Y/N) out…”

Warnings? Two bad words (bastard and fuck)

Contains Cyno, Kaveh, Tighnari and Alhaitham of course!

Note: i genuinely didn’t expect Alhaitham to win, but i like how he matches the prompt! and i used Uno online for this. please let me. it's for a VOD reference.

and happy belated birthday to the man himself! rerun when?

1.2k words.

It's February time once again, so you know what that means. Valentine's Day! And that also means that every other shop and stall in Sumeru city would have a hint of pink within their products, aka, Valentine's gifts.

That includes Lambad's tavern, and they have a new Valentine's menu.

One of these menus was placed on every table throughout the tavern. And they would be picked up or looked at regardless.

And one of them was being cleared for a... card game. TCG to be more specific.

A blonde guy picked up a menu, looking at one side before turning it over to look at the other side, he looked rather young. As he did his two other friends who were setting up the game. One with black hair and one ash-white.

He sighed, "another year, another instance of seeing others around you happy with another.”

"You say this just about every year, Kaveh" the ash-white-haired one, also known as Cyno, said as he shuffled the deck of cards before dividing them into four smaller decks. One for each quarter of the table. "It never changes."

"Something should change soon" the black-haired person, Tighnari said, as he bought some drinks to start off the game. He set them down on the table just as the fourth friend came in and joined them.

"Well look who finally decided to show up!" Kaveh said with his hands on his hips, shaking his head with a sigh. The grey-haired feeble scholar walked over, sitting down at one of the chairs and immediately crossed his arms. He only hummed in response.

The day contained many games of TCG and many drinks, and no one managed to get drunk, surprisingly. They even tried a new card game.

Uno.

It took some time to get used to the game and its rules but it did lead to some laughable moments.

"Kaveh, I'm really curious," Cyno said as he looked over his deck with a smirk before placing down a blue seven, "let me see your hand."

This meant they had to swap decks. And Kaveh wasn't happy.

"NOOOO" he shrieked, garnering some confused looks from the tavern's other patrons. This made Alhaitham let out a laugh.

"You bastard!" Kaveh cursed.

As well as...

"Fuck 'em up, Nari" Cyno quipped.

"Uh.. okay..." Tighnari had two cards left, and Kaveh had one, which was a wild card. But Tighnari put down a +1, which made Kaveh...

"OOUUUAAAGH!" Again. Garnering the confused and slightly concerned look of other patrons.

"Nice, nice" Cyno complimented, "well done."

"Damn, that was a shriek," Alhaitham said with a slight wince as he sat beside an annoyed Kaveh.

Later that evening, not long before the tavern would be closing, they finished their current game and packed it all away.

Tighnari stood to the side looking around absentmindedly while the others waited for Cyno to organise his cards and put them away when he thought of something.

He has Cyno as a makeshift Valentine's, they do it as a friendship type of thing. Kaveh isn't bothered with the occasion this year as he's working on a big project and won't have the time for it. And that left a question for Alhaitham.

"Hey Alhaitham?" he spoke, the seemingly stone-faced man looked towards him in response, "When are you going to get a partner? I am sure with your charms you'll be able to win them over."

That made all three of the other men's attention focus on him, Cyno seemed to have frozen regarding the question and Kaveh seemed surprised. The only one that didn't seem to have a visible reaction was the man himself - Alhaitham. Of course.

"Who's to say I don't?" he said rhetorically, "you don't know that. I don't need to tell you all about my dating life."

"Wai-wai-wait" Cyno said, holding the card deck in its box in one of his hands, "just give it to us straight. Are you dating someone or not? Just say yes or no."

And he replied with a simple, "no."

It is true. He wasn't dating anyone. But it isn't a lie when he wishes that he was. He has seen someone around the city on some occasions. He has met with them a couple of times too. And they have hung out with him and the others too.

That being you.

Yes, you.

He wishes he could get to know you on a more personal level, but he wasn't quite sure how to approach you. Yes, he has the 'charms,' but sometimes they wouldn't always work surprisingly enough. Nor had he had the time to actually use them, he was at the Akadamiya all day and got home late sometimes, the only person he saw the most out of work was Kaveh, even that was debatable sometimes.

"Why don't you, you know, get out there and get to know some people," Cyno said, "touch some grass."

Kaveh and Tighnari sighed at his ‘joke.’

"Whatever" Alhaitham hummed before he mumbled, "I already have an.. interest in someone." He thought no one would hear. But a part of his soul left his body when Kaveh reacted.

"WHAT?!" Kaveh exclaimed. At this point, they were in the area in front of the tavern, overlooking the small port of Sumeru city. People's attention was brought to him again.

"Would you keep your voice down??" Alhaitham hissed. He was tired of this conversation already so he does what he's done multiple times.

He just walks away, back home. Without saying anything.

Kaveh would follow later after saying his goodbyes to Cyno and Tighnari.

A few days later, Alhaitham was around in the city for a walk when he ran into you, doing your own errands, and he was taken aback for some reason. Despite you hanging around with the four of them from time to time. The five of you were good friends.

"Oh, hey Alhaitham" you smiled kindly with a polite wave, you noticed that the tips of his ears were going red quickly, yet you never mentioned it.

"Oh, hey (Y/N)" Alhaitham said with his constant straight expression, trying to not give away his blushing emotions. But he didn't know that he was technically failing. "May I ask what you're doing today?"

Surprised by the sudden question, you replied back with delight, "oh, I am just doing some errands. Want to join me?"

"I don't see why not."

The next time Alhaitham, Cyno, Kaveh and Tighnari met up again for TCG was a little while later as it was best for each other's schedules, and, surprise surprise, Alhaitham was the last one to arrive.

Some time into the day, between games, they would have a chat. And the current topic of discussion was how each other's 'Valentine's' went. And it was good. Good.

Tighnari and Cyno hung out together as friends.

And Kaveh finally got some well-deserved rest.

But when they asked how Alhaithams went, they were quite surprised, to say the least at the answer. Even Kaveh, who lives with him, had no idea about this until now.

"i just asked (Y/N) out..."

[metalheads-trash-bin]

Bro was watching with their eyes closed if you can truly saying there was no lore or horror.

Im a writer, artist, and creator. I am OBSESSED with horror and lore like elements. Some of my favorite horror movies are Midsommar and Hereditary. I am PICKY about what I like and don’t. But now you get a ramble because you poked the bear.

POPPY PLAYTIME CHAPTER 4 RANT:

Poppy playtime had a lot of factors that were hinted at through trailers and teasers to be significant, for instance with Pianosaurus who had clips of playing notes and attacking you. He had multiple hints and teasers only to end up getting IMMEDIATELY killed as soon as you see him, no notes, no nothing. That was my first serious issue. First character killed off.

Then as you’re playing (Yarnaby was ALSO meant to be significant based on the MANY teasers and clips) Yarnaby is meant to be chasing you around and causing general problems, and he is in some aspects but for the amount of content posted about him you’d think that he’d be as important as Mommy Longlegs. He isn’t’, he chases you a good bit of the game but the most you get lore wise is the fact that he’s been manipulated and groomed by the doctor via notes and recording. Second Character killed off.

As you proceed on you meet Doey, who murks the fuck out of Pianosaurus. Doey had a lot of aspects I liked at first, but they played too intensely into his “wounded soldier” role which makes you feel borderline conditioned to like him. I like the fact that he has some sort of personality disorder which is evident through his emotion blobs inside his monster mouth. I also like how they handled regression vs aggression through his talking points. But his content (the vcrs, the kid clip, notes) were all so violently pointing at him being a bad person that it left little for your own skepticism. Third character killed off.

The doctor should’ve had a lot more lore attached to him as well, i understand why there was a lot of mystery with him but he genuinely didn’t seem like a semi main antagonist and was moreso just another thing to fight. A lot of that has to do with the way the game set itself up, you’re practically fighting back to back to back without any real rest breaks, there’s some forms of wandering and learning but its overall very lackluster. Fourth character killed off.

They killed off FOUR characters in ONE chapter, that goes against so many logically driven game laws. You bring four new characters in and rapid murder them in the same chapter, and a lot of that aspect made it so you couldn’t get emotionally invested into the situation or characters.

Thats just the first segment as to what I disliked. Onto the next.

The lore..ohhh the lore. How you went from something we have barely seen in games to another setup of disappointment. If you know anything about FNAF security breach + Ruin you know where I’m going.

First off, a lot of the VCRS are just dead images this chapter, making you have to sit there and watch in room that have little to interact with as you do so. A way to fix this would’ve been a cassette tape wrist band and cassettes, which is very possible for the prison to have as the area down below is so huge, so people would want to document what they find and see verbally to be written down. Having a cassette wrist band would’ve made it so the character could still wander and also give a better break between chaotic scenes, but instead you were stuck staring at a still image that pertains to a character. It no longer had a fear factor, it was just..there. Alongside this you have all of these toys and characters that are new but no merch for them on the upper levels? Its like they didn’t logistically plan to have the characters they did, as theres a multitude of merch for characters we NEVER SEE. (Daddy longlegs, catbee, stegosaurus, etc.)

Secondly, the creators were bragging on twitter about the amount of lore they dropped and how it’ll give you “a lot to think about”. It doesnt. A majority of what was dropped (for instance Ollie being the prototype) was already rumored as we saw this WITH FNAF RUINS. Fnaf ruins did the mimic route, fnaf in general did the children stuck in mascots route, it also did an evil dude that practically grooms children route. So much of that was already seen, and this chapter focused way too much on that vs the things that are different between them. It was nice to read more about the experimentation process and the fact that they were practically mutants that mixed with kids and toys but that was also rumored. Overall a majority of the lore here was just confirmations.

As for the horror aspect, there genuinely wasn’t one. There’s a HUGE difference between just having gore and bodies everywhere vs genuinely frightening horror. Chapter Three was a masterpiece in this element alongside lore and world building. The way you know youre being stalked, the unsettling scenes and audio, the hallucinations, etc etc. instead of continuing with a more uncanny valley approach they went full on “heres some bodies and guys chasing you” route. Theres bodies everywhere, okay cool. A guy is obviously implied to be crucified which in itself has lore as crucifixion was typically to ask for forgiveness from god, okay cool. But where was the stalking? The seriously traumatic parts? Where was the genuine unsettlingness? It wasnt there, you wandered around helping out characters and getting murked. But you werent SUCKED IN like you were with chapter three, where you felt genuinely stuck and terrified having something follow you around silently, not to mention how graphic the lore and implications were.

It felt messy and jumbled, especially with the world building it was attempting. There was borderline too much and you hung around certain key areas too little, for instance with Safe Haven there genuinely isnt much to do besides look around and proceed. Its in no way interactive and its moreso just a buffer.

The innerworkings of this chapter were very typical, the prison was definitely a surprise but the corruption, abuse, experimentation, etc were not. And the fact that the characters keep saying “this isnt like anything you saw up above” really made you anticipate much more terrifying aspects. Not bodies everywhere. It made the game boring, especially because of all the anticipation the creators gave, saying this was the most adult chapter yet.

There was just..a lot that was disappointing, especially when compared to the previous chapter which had you constantly on edge. I really hope they pick it up a notch in the final chapter, because this was full of false promise. They should’ve continued with the unsettling factor, gore is good but it needs a stable foundation and true meaning. I read all the documents and listened to all the tapes, and the foundation was still very weak and sooo much of it was already thought about or rumored. Everyone knew Ollie was the prototype, everyone knew that they were some sort of living being put into toys, everyone knew that there mustve been some sort of additional assistance to the prototype to keep things going because he is wayyyy too invested in the mc to keep whatever plan he had (which is now known) going.

Another good horror game that got too lazy with its writing.

Next.

[katakaluptastrophy]

Masterpost of TLT metas

This is mostly for my own reference, as tagging doesn't seem to guarantee something being findable on Tumblr...but if you like wildly overthinking lesbian necromancers in space, enjoy!

Overthinking the Fifth House:

What is a "Speaker to the Dead"?

Actually, Magnus Quinn isn't terrible at sword fighting

Imperial complicity: Abigail the First

Pyschopomp: Abigail Pent and Hecate

Did Teacher conspire with Cytherea to kill the Fifth?

What does the Fifth House actually do?

The Fourth and the Fifth can never just be family

Cytherea's political observations at the anniversary dinner

Abigail Pent's affect: ghosts and autism

Were the Fourth wards of the Fifth?

Abigail probably knew most of the scions as children

Magnus Quinn's very understandable anger

Fifth House necromancy is not neat and tidy

Are Abigail and Magnus an exception to the exploitative nature of cavaliership?

"Abigail Pent literally brought her husband and look where that got her" (the Fifth in TUG)

The Fifth's relationship dynamic

The Fifth's relationship is unconventional in a number of ways

The queer-coding of Abigail and Magnus' relationship

Abigail and Palamedes, and knowing in the River

Was Isaac the ward of the Fifth?

Did Magnus manage to draw his sword before Cytherea killed him? (and why he probably had to watch his wife die)

How did Abigail know she was murdered by a Lyctor?

Fifth House necromancy is straight out of the Odyssey

The politics of the anniversary dinner (and further thoughts)

Was Magnus born outside of the Dominicus system?

Overthinking John Gaius:

The one time John was happy was playing Jesus

Is Alecto's body made from John's?

Are there atheists in the Nine Houses?

Why isn't John's daughter a necromancer?

The horrors of love go both ways: why John could have asked Alecto 'what have you done to me?'

Why M- may have really hoped John was on drugs

What is it with guys called Jo(h)n and getting disintegrated? (John and Dr Manhattan)

John's conference call with his CIA handlers

Watching your friend turn into an eldritch horror

Why does G1deon look so weird? (Jod regrew him from an arm)

When is a friendship bracelet not a friendship bracelet?

Why did John have G1deon hunt Harrow? (with bonus update)

The 'indelible' sin of Lyctorhood and John's shoddy plagiarism of Catholicism

Are John Gaius and Abigail Pent so different?

What was Jod's plan at Canaan House?

John and Ianthe tread the Eightfold path

The Mithraeum is more than a joke about cows

When was John Gaius born? (And another)

John Gaius and the tragic Orestes

John and Jesus writing sins in the sand

John and Nona's echoing chapters

John's motivations

Is Alecto just as guilty as John?

John's cult (and what he might have done to them)

The horror of Jod

Did John get bloodsweat before he became god?

Some very silly thoughts about John and Abigail arguing about academia

Overthinking the Nine Houses:

'No retainers, no attendants, no domestics'

Funerary customs and the violence of John's silence

Juno Zeta and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad time

The horror of the River bubble

Every instance of 'is this how it happens' in HTN

Feudalism is still shitty even if you make it queer and sex positive

How do stele work?

Thought crime in the Nine Houses

The Houses have a population the size of Canada

What must it be like to fight the Houses?

You know what can't have been fun? Merv wing's megatruck on Varun day...

Augustine's very Catholic hobby (decorating skeletons)

Necromancers are not thin in a conventionally attractive way

Matching the Houses with the planets of the solar system (though perhaps the Fourth *is* on Saturn)

Why don't the Nine Houses have (consistent) vaccination or varifocals?

How would the Houses react to the deaths at Canaan House?

How does Wake understand her own name (languages over 10,000 years)

What pre-resurrection texts are known in the Houses?

Camilla and Palamedes very Platonic relationship (further thoughts)

The horrors the Cohort found at Canaan House

Do the Houses understand the tech keeping them alive?

The scions from an external perspective (sci fi baddies)

Cav cots

The Nine Houses and feudalism

The horrors of early necromantic education

[thingsidrawgohere]

I just finished my first run of DA4 and let me say- I probably got my money's worth. If one wants to view the experience via a purely mercantile lens. I found many bits of cheese and touched the insides of many angry creatures. But if one wishes to frame the thing as Art- Hell, if one wants to solely discuss it as the Fourth in a series of lore-dense, narrative RPGs, then, Cousin, We've Got Problems. Three interconnected niggling ideas that kinda all lead to the conclusion- for me, at least- that modern design practices simply do not trust the player. News flash, right?

Anyways, I think I'm going to have some thoughts on this subject to avoid other thoughts, thank you.

Full-Throated Spoilers Beyond. And a lot of them. It's long.

Idea 1: DA2 is my favorite of the series. That's not the problem; it's the setup. I know what I'm about and it's interesting characters interacting over time. Flawed characters. Abrasive, opinionated, STUPID ASS ANDERS characters. The story was scaled well for a handful of total losers and it was political. The most humanly political of all the games, I think. That's a very low bar, particularly for AAA, but it felt better to stand in a street, to be personally effected by events, than to look at a literal map of icons and notes and distant decisions as in DA3. It's important, I think, for DA to be about Being, Getting Dirty. You aren't a king. You shouldn't be.

Side Note 1: DA2 is a fucking miracle. The old gag that FO New Vegas, blessed be, was made in 18 months is trotted out to display Can-Do Attitude and DEEPLY unethical labor practices. DA2 got less time, fewer reusable assets (due to a different art style), and had to rebuild most of the engine. A. Miracle.

DA4, on the other hand, has a series of supportive, well-adapted people who have all worked very hard on themselves in therapy and know all the fucking right words to say. They chat with one another with kindness and sober fondness. In the One Instance of interpersonal friction, it is resolved with grace and speed. I find this Horrid. They fucking forgot to give these people negative traits. It's likability slurry. They experience no hard growth, hold no horseshit ideas, suffer no lingering doubts. It's not only unnatural but it's lifeless. It becomes Written. I can see the fucking author waving at me. I've got a note from my run that reads 'Rook told the man who is forcibly living inside his head "Thank you sharing that" and I want to scream.'

And that would be bad enough except the ideas are there. You've got a reluctant father story. Someone trapped between two cultures. A older man, already terrified of aging, of death, taking a Much Younger lover. That's Fucking Meat. I can see the writers straining against something but what they deliver is still person-shaped missed opportunities that repeat, that repeat, that repeat. It's So Frustrating. There's flashes of Good Writing. Of good character beats. But Also- from my notes, a character had just held her brother as he died, inexplicably for a second time, and Rook gives her a little pep talk that ends with him asking "You good?"

And the fucking woman says "I'm good" in response. She seemed to mean it.

How does one- react to that as a viewer? I told a man who wanted to be a lich more than anything to Not and he was cool with it. He never brought up being a lich again. He wasn't even upset. I let a man's city die and he's like I Get It, Bro. No Harsh Vibes. It rings hollow.

Talking over Solas' memories, collectively pulling out the meaning behind them- that was some of the best characters-interacting writing in the whole thing. And it's HOURS into the game. A shame.

Side Note 2: A lot of a loved-one death as motivation in this old refrigerator. If you get a name and one line, Oh Boy Brother, you are prolly gonna die bad. Lazy.

If I'm going to talk about Emmrich, let's talk about his romance. I honestly thought it was bugged. I Am playing through another run as a comparative but Wow. Larian and BG3 absolutely reconfigured what's acceptable in these types of story beats. This particular romance felt regressive, in a sense. Like a last minute addition. The very definition of love coins. No charisma or honest affection between the characters. Nothing allowed to percolate (more on that in a second). Just- now you are ROMANCED. Which means on the Blue Moon instance he has anything to say regarding being in a relationship, the best you can get is a 'dearest' at the end of a sentence. I was Excited by the idea of Emmrich really struggling with a May/December situation but he Doesn't. He has a few lines implying that he Could but it leads nowhere.

And they fuck in a coffin (???) and it's not even hot (!!!). Unforgivable. Double Unforgivable. I heard there was spice in this game? This is baking soda.

Related, a few lines awkwardly dodged the question of Emmrich's previous relationships and I have an inkling, without experiencing the other romances, that this is the world's largest case of gun-shy after the backlash with DA3's non-playersexual romances. This man can not be confirmed to be Anything but Into Rook, whatever they might be. There was also a throwaway line with Taash how she prefers women and that's as much as I saw of explicit preferences. I don't envy anyone trying to address the rabidity of fandom but it feels like unnecessary acrobatics.

Side Oh No: It's so bad that I'm honestly thinking of doing a fixit fic regarding the romance/character writing. And God, I can't right now. I have to finish my other project first.

Idea 2: The pacing. That's what ruins so much. There was a scene of a gnarled, fucked-up gate, torn from its hinges. And my guy says "Something Big must have torn apart that gate" all ominous, building a sense of- Nope. The very big darkspawn is standing ten feet away on the other side. I hadn't even swung the camera around the hall to see it before my guy goes "That big darkspawn must have torn apart the gate!"

Yes, I know there's an issue in open world games these days wherein devs are allergic to a player's millisecond of not knowing where to go but this feels applicable across the whole game. A problem isn't allowed to fester. It is brought to attention and then swiftly dealt with. If there's a locked door, a difficult decision, a feeling beyond Protestant determination, it will be dealt with, Post Fucking Haste. It's like the game doesn't trust the player to hold tension.

This happens not just in barks or small set pieces. Whole arcs work this way. Like Harding's longterm personal quest. She gets a handful of lines about feeling vaguely angry or perhaps thinking she Should be More angry about Lore Dump Retcon and then at her culmination, she's fighting her own anger. A vicious, hot, searing thing- and it wasn't earned. At all. There was room to telegraph this theme, bury it in the dirt to let grow roots. They didn't. One Line was given about her people pleasing tendencies And she's not really shown to be people pleasing to her own detriment. This is Chekhov's Gun in running shoes. It doesn't work. It feels like it comes out of left field.

Hell, there was a mission that was like SURVIVE IF YOU CAN and it was like- literally a long hallway. The Pacing is all Off.

Idea 3: I don't like that I must do this but DA4 doesn't understand its own flavor. The One Thing you Cannot Do is have Minrathous, the city of slaves and blood mages, seem nice. Particularly in the poor parts of town. You Cannot have the Crows be a lovely dovey band of scamps. You Cannot have the Blight be reversible. You Cannot CANNOT say "elves have it pretty good" as my Elvish Rook said with his face flaps. No. NO. You Cannot side-step the politics of this setting. These are the bones on which these characters are hung. To lessen the world is to lessen, to decomplexify them.

You know what my elf didn't hear in the town that canonically trades in bodies that look his? Knife ear. Eh to fantasy slurs but my point is no one said a cross word to my guy. The Qunari living in the town that had been warring with the Qunari for Centuries seemed totes fine. There were no alienages. There were no proper templars- even from other regions. No Mage Circles. No mage issues at all. Hardly anything whatsoever regarding the Chantry or Andrastianism, even as the game takes place in the Super Anti-Pope town. I had a literal demon-possessed man in my party and the world did not react.

I had a friend describe this Thedas as feeling smoothed out and Yeah. It feels like all the nasty bumps have been deemed undesirable. I don't know what to make of it. Is this simply taking the world in a different direction? Is it a mandate to tone down the unpleasantness, for sales? A shift in design ethos? Is this a sign of a very troubled project as it was with Andromeda?

I don't know. Is this still a Dragon Age game without its politics? There's enough here for me to wonder if Bioware is even Bioware anymore. There's a TREMENDOUS amount of work, of skill in DA4. Just Absurd. The environments are thick, Thicc. But work alone is not a virtue. Have we ship of Theseus'd so far that the people- the real people, not the logos- who have interests aligned with what made DA1 special are no longer there? Something went wrong with this project, narratively. Something I don't know how to fix without addressing basement level assumptions I'm clearly not privy to. I hope they can.

Final Thoughts: Game development is a fucking hole into which one pours one's relationships, time, and health, physical, mental both. It gives satisfaction very rarely. They shipped. In that way, huge success. It's not even, fundamentally, a 'bad game'. But it is a victim of a modern philosophy of pre-chewed ideas and player distrust. VGs are ultimately a business and, in these last few years, there's been a unimaginable devastation to the workers in the industry- even as the money flows ever upward. The desire to sell well has morphed into a NEED to sell well, even among the 'kept' studios. Big studios, Grand Dame Studios sitting on top of past critical and financial successes, been killed by their overlords recently. No one is safe. It's suddenly quite dangerous for large studios to make anything remotely niche, remotely unclear and Bioware has both Andromeda And Anthem under its belt. They're probably feeling the pinch. They needed a hit and hits, these days, are increasingly smooth. And DA4 is very smooth.

That's just my feeling on the matter. I'll see what a second run yields.

Smaller thoughts:

I don't care about the combat but that was- odd. The illusion of depth with all the skill trees and types of damage and subsystems of attack- all boiling down to a one button push. It's odd. I played rogue on PC so perhaps it's different for other classes, on console. But I pressed the button at the man and when I got a halo, I pressed another button and then pressed the first button again. No matter where I was on the skill tree, it never changed, never felt different. I don't know. It felt. Odd?

There was a Honest To God "It's quiet- Too quiet" and it just Happened. I would have pulled out every one of my teeth to avoid that. I get the jokey-okey but fuck, man.

Where's the chest hair? WHERE? Body hair? ANYTHING? Davrin has plastic chest. It's freaky.

Gloom Howler Gloom Howler Gloom Howler. Frankly, that whole storyline had a large gulg of the farcical. I laughed my ass entirely off when, upon her defeat, the Gloom Howler said "I'm sorry" and took a nap so hard that the scene wiped to 'some time later'. That was insane editing. PACING. And- naming. Gloom Howler. Gloom. Howler.

Teeth. Dear God, the teeth.

The devs were in a real pickle here, no doubt. My great sympathies. There's an Overwhelming abundance of world states that DA3 could have left on the board and I understand the balancing act between acknowledging the events of older games and staying generic enough DA4 could apply to All of them. Is Cassandra the White Divine? Or is Leliana? It's a nightmare of choices. Any of the people that Could be Divine can not be mentioned without lore issues. Who's on the throne in Orlais? Ferelden? Where's beloved so-and-so? Dorian canonically did return to Minrathous so he can 'safely' appear in game- but he fucking can't talk about Iron Bull, who may or may not be alive. Isabela canonically goes back to piracy but she can't talk about events in Kirkwall because she may not have been there for them. Oof. That's not a lot you are Allowed to acknowledge. The Poor Bastards.

Watched a braid slip off a person's shoulder, organically, as they were talking. Started at the bottom and look where we're at, technologically. And speaking on the technical, a lot of textures didn't load right. For the entire game, my guy's left shoulder armour thing had a much lower rez texture than the rest. Three hard crashes, which isn't the worst. One Wonderful mission wherein Lucanis' hair and his knives were the only bits of him to render.

I'm not touching the non-binary storyline. It was clunky, for sure, but the greatest sin was using Our words. There is canonical words for NGC/NB people in fiction and to not use them shows a fundamental distrust towards the source material and the players both. It's the linguistic version of the quest marker or the barks telling you where to go.

I still don't know how I feel about the dead Varric twist. Feels goofball but he got to hang out in his little pajamas. I wish I was in little pajamas.

Solas was pretty fucking tight but I think a lot of that was due to his VA. Something about the voice direction, in general, felt- flat? But old Solas was doing it good.

Ending. God, I get it. People are tired and satisfying endings are hard. And DLC exists, more cynically. But Hells Bells, I'm getting to the point wherein even the slideshow is annoying. Give me a fucking Ending to the Choice Game. Don't you fucking 'Spider-Man Will Return' at me, you bastard. I'm a child of fucking god.

Yes, I got the secret ending. I know. That was Also bullshit.

I feel better getting that all out of my system. Thank you for sharing that.

[honeyflower15]

HitsuHina Week 2024 - Day 4: Hug / Music

Rating K:

Summary: Momo thinks about a few things as Hitsugaya hugs her in his sleep

The light of the sun shining through the open windows woke Momo up. She had been having a lovely dream, though she could not remember its contents. Sleep-filled brown eyes blinked awake as she looked out the window. The sun was slowly starting to rise; hints of midnight sky were peeking out but quickly disappearing. Deeming it far too early to be awake, she attempted to roll over and fall back asleep but found she couldn't.

Turning her head to the side, she smiled at her husband's sleeping face pressed against her. They were in the same position when they first went to bed last night. She was lying on her back with him resting on his side as he held her. One arm was carefully wrapped around her stomach, making it so there was no distance between either of them.

He had held her all night long.

Smiling to herself, she lay there, letting her mind wander as she waited for sleep to come. It had been some time since she and Hitsugaya married. How strange to think she once used to share a bed with her little Shiro, him teasing her by calling her a bed wetter, and now they shared a bed again but in an entirely different matter. She wondered what her younger self would think of such events. She already knew what her husband's thoughts would be. He had confessed long ago that he had been in love with her since childhood. She was just too dense to realize.

A fact he often teased her about now that they were married.

Closing her eyes, she recalled their time spent as young children. Hitsugaya was an outcast in their village; the adults and children seemed to sense his icy power and ran from him. She never understood how people could be that way. He certainly hadn't been the friendliest when they first met, but she could see beyond the distrustful gaze that he was a little boy who wanted to be accepted. Many still saw him as someone cold and unapproachable. How they could come to that conclusion, she'll never know.

He was somebody so kind and thoughtful. The power he wielded was strong; he could be compared to a heavenly guardian. Yet he never wanted to hurt anybody. She could see it in his strikes. When he would defeat a Hollow, she saw the remorseful gaze of the poor soul who had lost their way. With his power, he could easily take down their enemies with a single attack, yet he chose to hold back. Wanting to find ways to disarm them if he didn't have to kill them. Part of her wondered if he still feared other people's opinions. If they saw his true power, would they fear him more than they do now?

There had only been one instance when she saw his gentle eyes so filled with hate.

It was during the battle against Aizen. She knew not when it happened; one moment, she was on the ground recovering from her injury, and suddenly, she was in the air fighting for her life. The captains had surrounded her, attacking not only herself but each other as well. They had been caught in Aizen's trap. As she tried pleading with them, she had been overcome by the hateful haze of Hitsugaya. He did not see it was her; he believed she was Aizen.

Going into the war, she knew her former captain had betrayed them. She had come to accept it somewhat, but she still found herself having to hold her tongue not to address him as captain. It had gotten better with time, and Hirako had been an incredible help. He, too, dealt with the man, and both were aware of how terrible he was, but not everything about him was bad. Some teachings they found acceptable and still used, and some they even grew upon to make their own.

When she entered the battlefield, she knew everyone there despised the former Fifth Division captain. The betrayal he had executed had a lasting impact to this day. While she was recovering in the Fourth Divison, she often heard nasty remarks about the man. She was no fool into thinking that anyone from the Seireitei still liked the guy.

However, Hitsugaya's look of pure hatred caught her off guard. Never once had she seen those beautiful teal gems shine with such anger.

This was not the Shiro she knew.

Those hate-filled eyes quickly turned into despair when he realized he had stabbed her and not their enemy. His body was as still as ice as he held her limp body. Her blood oozed out of her wound with the slightest movement. His icy clawed hands held her close to his chest but at a distance, as well as if wanting to hold her but was scared to harm her any further. Those eyes that had been so filled with hatred were quivering with shock. It was the only part of his body that he was moving. He looked so afraid, petrified to even breathe the wrong way.

Later, during her recovery, she learned that Aizen fooled everyone into thinking she was him. At the time, she did not know this and had asked the question that hurt her friend the most. Why?

His roars of anguish haunted her dreams to this day. How she wished she could take back those cruel words. Maybe if she had not asked, he wouldn't have let his anger consume him, and he wouldn't have almost died.

He had done all this for her. Let his entire being be consumed by hatred because Aizen had not only broken her heart but her mind as well. She had truly been such a pathetic case back then. Following her former captain around like a lost puppy, waiting to be given orders and not even bothering to consider if there be another way. Sometimes, she wishes she could travel back in time and warn her younger self of the dangers. To tell her not to waste her time on someone who only saw her as a pawn and to focus her attention on the person who actually cared for her.

Although she had wished for this many times, she was happy with who she was today. She hated to admit it, but she needed that heartbreak. She had been too naive in the past, believing their society was good and always doing the right thing. She knew now how corrupt Central 46 was and the work Head Captain Kyoraku was doing to change things.

Now, her eyes had opened, and she was finally seeing things beyond her rose-colored glasses. With them off, she finally saw that her little Shiro was not so little. She had still considered him the little boy she had grown up with. How times had changed, and it was right under her nose.

After her recovery was over, she realized he had been avoiding her. She had tried asking Rangiku about it, but the blonde had only told her he was busy training and would visit her when he was ready. It had taken her a little while, but she picked up on the hidden meaning the other Lieutenant was giving her. Hitsugaya wouldn't see her until he felt he could. No doubt, he still felt guilty for being the one to put her in the hospital.

With some courage from Hirako and a fresh new haircut, she tracked him down in his office and demanded he speak with her. She refused to let him wallow in his guilt. That day, they spent it talking about many things that had been bothering them. He confessed that he was indeed upset with himself for harming her and angry at himself for being so mad at her.

"I know it's stupid, but I'm so mad." His teal eyes shined with unshod tears as he looked at her. "Why did you have to be there? You almost died once because of that bastard. Why'd you have to come? You could've...I almost..." his guilt was also because he was angry at her.

She hadn't been expecting him to pull her forward into a tight embrace. For a moment, she sat there stunned before returning his hold. It was not very often he would initiate physical contact. She had let him cry in her arms as she stroked his back. During this, she realized just how strong he had become. No more was he some lanky little kid who needed to eat more than just watermelon. His arms that held her close were sharp with muscles. His back was fuller, and she could feel how lean his body was under his clothes.

Seems her Shiro-chan had grown into a fine young man.

She had told him so. She commented on how strong he was and said she couldn't promise she wouldn't be in another dangerous situation. It was their line of work, after all. However, she knew he would be there to protect her because he was so strong.

She supposed it was at that moment that she started to realize his true feelings for her. His cheeks had turned a bright red at her words, and his eyes seemed to quiver with an emotion that he seemed desperate to hide. How odd it was to see such a familiar response but to only be looking at it closely for the first time now.

Before, she saw him as a little brother, but now she saw him for the man he was becoming. Her own cheeks took on a pink hue, and she quickly excused herself from the room.

How time had changed for the both of them.

His short stature was long gone, and he had grown into a true adult. Towering over her with his six-foot height, he happily held her in public no matter where they went. Gone were his insecurities about looking too childish, and now they were replaced with a giddiness about always having her close.

Since becoming a married couple, he always found a reason to hold her in his arms. She would often wake up to him holding her, but lately, his hugs had increased. Smiling once more to herself, she rubbed at her small, rounded belly. They had learned recently of her pregnancy, her stomach only just now starting to show signs of the life growing inside her.

From the moment he learned he would be a father, he had held her in his embrace for so long that she had fallen asleep—something he hadn't relented even in his sleep. Every night, they go to bed with him holding her close and one hand around her stomach as if guarding their unborn baby even in their sleep. She had chided him for this, saying it couldn't be comfortable. He didn't relent, though, and his words only made her resolve weaken.

"It's true I want to protect our child," he had always been overprotective, a fact neither of them could deny. A soft yet calloused hand rubbed at her stomach, teal eyes softening as he looked at her with love shining brightly in them. "But I also want our baby to know how much we love them."

His words brought tears to her eyes—an easy feat nowadays with her emotions running so high thanks to the pregnancy. He held her in his arms not only to protect them but also to show their baby how much he already loved them. The baby hadn't even been born, yet his heart was already so full of love.

Yawning softly, she placed a gentle kiss on his forehead. Giggling when she saw the smile form on his face, his hand instinctively rubbed her belly. She let herself be lulled back to sleep in his warm embrace.

[juniusgirl]

I am, as a rule, Very Bad at video games. Didn't play them much growing up, game logic is something that does not come naturally to me, i often have a hard time remembering buttons and controlling both movement and camera simultaneously.

But i like games as like, an art form. I especially love watching essays about them, because then i can get all the sweet art analysis without having to frustrate myself. So of course i watch a lot of Jacob Geller videos. And a lot of the time i get just that out of them; all the analysis without having to deal with the frustration (i would not, for instance, be able to play returnal for a multitude of reasons, but i love the concept). Sometimes, however, he will talk about a game and i'll say "that actually sounds very interesting and doable to me", and given my forgetfulness, i will write down the name of the game or tell it to my husband and eventually i might play it, and given my forgetfulness, i won't usually remember any spoilers.

So i was excited, as usual, to watch the most recent Jacob Geller video. But quite quickly, it brought up a game i was actually planning on playing--Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. I saw a trailer for it years ago, perhaps my husband even showed it to me to say "looks like your kinda thing" and i was like "it really does", and my husband bookmarked it and bought it when it was on sale, and it's been waiting for me. But i was scared to play it, because i am Very Bad at video games, and it looked so interesting, and i was worried i was going to ruin it for myself by being so disasterously bad at such basic tasks as walking and looking where i was going and getting frustrated and giving up and feeling like an idiot and a failure for letting something that's supposed to be fun defeat me because i'm stupid and and and.

But i started the Geller video, and the game was almost immediately mentioned, and i thought "actually i can't get spoiled for this one. I will actually remember this time because this one has actually been on my mind and i have actually wanted to play it for so long that i have to experience it in my own way before i have someone else's interpretation."

So i told my husband that i have to play it soon. And he waited a day or two for me to say i was ready. Then he decided i needed a nudge (i did), and set it up for me, sat me down, handed me the controller, and said good luck.

I made my way through the first bit. I handled everything better than i thought i would, only died three or four times (only one of those a non-combat idiocy issue) before he wandered back in to check up on me.

He sat and watched as i got to my first boss fight, and while i struggled a few times, i beat it around my fourth try, and he seemed genuinely impressed. Said by that fourth try he actually saw skill and timing instead of my usual panicked button-mashing.

I dunno how much of that was just hype-up or sincere pride, but either way it made me feel good. I have always been so bad at games, and most people i've tried to play with were merciless about my ineptitude, it's just so nice to have that encouragement for something challenging instead of being shamed. I think that might have been the first time i ever felt good about accomplishing something; the first time i ever did something i found really difficult and then was excited to keep going instead of just being relieved it was over. All because of a few positive words.

Idk what the point of this little anecdote was. Maybe i just wanted to document something positive that happened because life's been really, really shitty lately. But there might be a lesson in there somewhere.