#about deepwood

[yostresswritinggirl]

your xreader poly ship fics actually are my favorite thing ever ;; it’s so rare to find content for them ur literally feeding my hyperfixation tysm <3

Ah my peak, my prime when I wrote poly fics

I'm glad people are still reading/enjoying them, I did not know they were rare but ahhh thank you nonnie <33 I'm glad to feed your hyperfixation

[meadow-roses]

They're gonna save the wood!!!

[m0rguem0th]

goretober day 28 - pull

is that. is that allowed

[wriokitty]

the only way I can think to explain it is she has three thingamobbers and they undergo elemental conversion based on the characters in ur party and the element converted is the element that gets res shred

Yes see this on its own makes sense but there’s so many rules of how many of what elements can be in your party and then how the night soul thing converts the three things for the res shred and it’s like. Okay. Why is she so complicated for this res shred kazuha is such an easy flex spot why is she not the same

[tobestik]

do you guys know how much money i would pay to see the argument between stope and quint re: leaving twig for the 3rd time

[c6jpg]

no peace and love on planet earth until the gilded domain gives me a fucking EM sands

[rubys-domain]

i'm so glad there's a weekly boss i can use him to fight, as underbuilt as he is rn

[twig---verginix]

Okay I’m looking at the edge chronicles playlist I’ve been plugging away at since high school and dammit I need more artist variety I CAN’T just keep putting Radical Face songs in here

and yet,

[snowshinobi]

yeah uh DPS Nahida is ... utterly devastating

[nicohischier]

.

[yostresswritinggirl]

Hey, I have I question for you. Please for feel pressured by it for I am just curious.

I remember you saying way back that you had an idea for scaramouche and puppet!reader’s reunion in the gap between kintsugi and the Omamori ending, and that you just need to see how Fontaine’s archon quest plays out because it is integral to the story.

Do you still plan on doing that? If not, I completely understand.

I hope you are happy and healthy in whatever you are doing now. Have a good day. ❤️

My past actions came back to haunt me, I see /j/j

I'm actually surprised people still remember that bit from the story (or even Kintsugi in general) and I actually DID think about it recently, although my dumbass self forgot to put it down on paper and have forgotten my ideas as always

As of now tho, I don't have any plans to work on continuations of my previous writing. Besides forgetting what I wrote lmao, I've also just been enjoying the story as is and digesting Fontaine still, so my brain is pretty much not in writing mode at all (my shipper heart is thriving rn tho)

Thank you so much anon <33 I'm so happy to receive this message nonetheless and when I'm back to my writing phase again, I hope you'll still be here to look forward to it

[goodqueenaly]

Why would Theon think that faking Bran and Rickon���s death would be a good idea? He has no idea where they were headed or to whom they might reveal themselves. It’s even said in Theon’s chapter of the search that if they made it to a village, all the people would rally behind the boys. Wouldn’t it make Theon look even more a fool if they showed up alive to Ser Roderick before Ramsey burns Winterfell, but after he killed the miller’s boys? I know Ramsey takes advantage of his desperation under the guise of Reek, but I think even Theon would have been skeptical that the plan would actually work. What is your take on this?

To understand Theon in “Theon IV” ACOK is to examine the simultaneous ego and desperation of a man clinging to a self-made fantasy which is actively crumbling in front of his eyes. Every way Theon turns, literally and figuratively, is wrong - and critically, he has no one to blame but himself. Yet unable to admit how thoroughly he’s ruined the situation, Theon doubles down when it comes to how to handle Bran and Rickon’s disappearance, choosing yet another terrible option in a vain hope of making up for all his other awful choices. 

Theon’s great anxiety in this chapter is what to do about the missing Stark boys - but Theon, being ACOK Theon, only thinks of how he believes this dilemma affects him personally. His first thought upon learning the wolves are gone is to worry what would happen “if [Asha] learns that I have lost the Starks” - a thought so terrible to Theon that he concludes “[i]t did not bear thinking about”. Theon later underscores his fear of embarrassment at the hands of his family, deciding that he’d “sooner have them [i.e: Bran and Rickon] dead” than unconsciously running to Asha at Deepwood Motte, as in Theon’s mind “[i]t is better to be seen as cruel than foolish”. As Theon’s hunt continues with no sign of the boys, Theon ruefully realizes that “[e]very passing hour increased the likelihood that they would make good their escape”, that “[t]he people of the north would never deny Ned Stark’s sons, Robb’s brothers” and “[t]he whole bloody north would rally around them”. Once night begins to fall, Theon’s fear of both crystallizes: knowing that “[i]f he crept back to Winterfell empty-handed, he might as well dress in motley henceforth and wear a pointed hat”, since “the whole north would know him for a fool”, Theon can only contemplate with dread “And when my father hears, and Asha …. [sic]”

Unfortunately for Theon, all the poor choices he’s made up to this point only exacerbate his problem. Because Theon decided to take Winterfell with a bare handful of men, he did not have the spare guards to ensure Bran and Rickon did not slip away. Because Theon seized Winterfell by force, its household sees him only as a usurper and betrayer of his foster brothers; likewise, because Theon has treated the people of Winterfell abominably, no one lifts a finger to intervene in Theon’s plan to hunt them down (until Theon has to literally threaten Farlen with the continued rape of his daughter to get him to comply). Too cruel and despicable to be a successful conqueror-turned-protector, yet too vain about his own momentary victory to abandon it in a typical ironborn lightning raid, Theon’s only advantage had been the fact that he held the Stark boys as hostages - an advantage that had seemingly literally disappeared into thin air.

Theon has put himself in a position where he has no good - which is to say, beneficial to his egotistical fantasy - options. He knows that he cannot realistically recapture the Stark boys, and that every hour that passes makes it more likely (so he believes) the Starks will be out of his grasp forever, and in the helpful hands of anti-ironborn northern neighbors. However, Theon also believes that he cannot return to Winterfell empty-handed, lest he become the laughingstock of his sister, his father, the castle’s household, and the whole North. Stuck in the wolfswood, Theon is as lost as Farlen’s hounds, unwilling either to concede defeat or continue on what is increasingly proving a fruitless search.

This is where Ramsay-as-Reek serves, to quote the late great Steven Attewell, as the devil on Theon’s shoulder, apparently offering him an easy (if no less detestable for it) answer to his problem. Killing the miller’s boys solves what Theon sees as his immediate problem; he can both give up the hunt and go back to Winterfell without being empty-handed, giving (so he thinks) no grounds for his father or Asha to complain. Pretending to have killed Bran and Rickon allows Theon to continue to the fantasy of conquest that began with his moonlit capture of Winterfell: he can spout pompous self-justifications like “Mercy was for this morning … [b]efore they made me angry” and “They defied me!” In answer to Luwin’s pleas and Asha’s criticisms. 

Putting aside how evil this action is on its own, of course, Theon’s decision does not actually solve his problem, as you note. Yet that is precisely the point: obsessed with the idea of successfully taking Winterfell in a daring raid, Theon has no idea from the first how he is going to hold it, nor indeed what the consequences of any of his actions there might be. Caring only about what can fix the problem directly in front of him, Theon simply seizes the solution preferred by Ramsay-as-Reek as a way out of what he saw as a personally humiliating situation. Worries about how he’s going to defend Winterfell from the increasing combined forces marching on his mostly undefended walls, or whether Bran and Rickon might turn up later, or whether anyone within Winterfell has a death wish for him, are not at the forefront of Theon’s mind in that moment; he only wants to get out of the wolfswood, literally and metaphorically, and the bodies of the innocent miller’s boys let him do that.

[hawberries]

absolutely mortified to admit this but my favourite part of genshin actually IS grinding for artifacts

TO BE FAIR IT'S MOST OF WHAT YOU DO!! enjoying it is part of the reason I've been able to stick with the game for this long! it's tied with exploration which is the other biggest chunk of what you spend doing! I love making small improvements to my characters' stats over time because the "sense of progression" is my favourite part of games like this and artifacts basically let you feel that sense of progression Forever Into Infinity due to the way the odds are balanced... but if you understand the stat budget and distribution properly and set your expectations accordingly it's also not actually frustrating in my opinion!

How Much Time Should You Spend On Artifact Farming?

Artifact Stat Distribution

Here are some of my achievements in artifact grinding :)

the reason I decided to start farming the Reverie domain for Emilie is because my Emilie's Deepwood build only has like 22 substats and the 4pc is wasted because I will always be running either Xiangling or Dehya on a Deepwood set in her team, so it will be relatively easy to improve upon it... which I am Very excited about

[wriokitty]

guess who doesn’t have work tomorrow 😌

[natequarter]

may i ask which one you mean by the first? the series was not written chronologically so 'the first' could be referring to two different books. should you choose to read, i would love to hear what you think! they have so much going for them:

evil academia. no joke these guys literally try to murder each other constantly

magic science, is the best way i can describe it. solid lightning, immortal forests, talking bears, floating rocks, and weather that affects your emotions

evil lightning cult feeds children to ravine monsters

amnesia plotline happens at least once per main character

dr frankenstein accidentally reinvents satan (makes sense in context)

brutal social criticism

EXTREMELY violent murder and torture scenes. telepathy features in one of them

some gorgeous character arcs and the most beautiful prose ever

As he focused in on the dark, swirling air, his heart missed a beat. The approaching vortex was indeed monstrous. It was as if the great milky clouds were curdling and falling in on themselves, swirling into a great blood-red throat at the centre of which was an inky blackness that threatened to swallow the tiny sky ship whole.

don't mean to intrude but i have a feeling you'd like the prose of the edge chronicles. it very much has the same lyrics insanity as marc platt's prose

OOH I LOVE THIS.... ngl i do have the first book on hold at the library 👀 i love lyrical prose and wild descriptions!!

[olrinarts]

Ref Sheet and Background: the Lamb/Esriaal

long post ahoy! (i'm serious. stupidly long. do not click that readmore unless you wanna scroll for a while)

A note about AUs: All of my AUs can be considered to be within the same ‘universe-cloud’, for lack of a better word ('multiverse' has frustrating associations, alas. curse you mcu, lmao.) That doesn’t make them directly linked or in any way affect another AU, unless explicitly said to (see: constancy must transpose and chimes of bone in the at the root series.) Otherwise, each is a standalone AU, either diverging directly from the Base Lamb and Base Narinder’s story, or in some way reflecting/echoing it (see: ashes ashes, the yuri rock god AU.) Any completely unrelated AU to this universe-cloud will have it mentioned that it’s not connected.

Name/Titles: The Lamb, The Shepherd, The One Who Welcomes, Esriaal (private name) Base Age: 34 (age at which they were executed by the Bishops) Gender: N/A, agender. Always uses they/them. Race:‌ Sheep, fine wool

Background:‌

Esriaal was born to Verchiaal and Raqib, a recordweaver and a dyemaster of the South Anuran herd, around ten years after the prophecy about the One Who Waits’ promised liberator was made. The sheep were actively hunted, but still relatively plentiful, and their cultures and traditions were still in use/valued. Through their mother, Esriaal is a quarter leadersheep, a kind of sheep that are more independent minded in nature, as well as a role that requires training if pursued. Leadersheep as in the role are rarely shepherds themselves, but instead work to support their herd’s Shepherd. Plenty of sheep have at least a little of the blood, so Esriaal isn’t particularly unique in that regard. Esriaal was determined to become one, anyway, inspired by their own namesake, the first leadersheep (no relation.) Though they faced a lot of pushback from their own herd’s Shepherd, Artecof, Esriaal was an insistent little creature. When they were nine, their Shepherd finally gave in enough to send them to the North Anuran herd, to train with the primary leadersheep under that Shepherd, Harut.

Esriaal was exceptionally awful at the whole thing at first, but they were too stubborn to give up just because they were bad at it, and Harut had a soft spot for them and helped them outside of their lessons. By the time their training was complete, at 16, they’d managed to turn it around and become known as one of the more competent young leadersheep, as well as Harut’s protégé and apprentice.

The hunts from the Bishops’ zealots had grown much worse over the years, however, and it was shortly after returning to their herd with their parents that the South Anuran herd as a whole was wiped out. It was the biggest single loss so far, and Esriaal as well as a few others were the scant survivors. Their parents weren’t among that number. Harut, who’d been with them at the time and was the reason they’d made it out at all, kept them with him as the North Anuran herd intentionally splintered, in hopes of avoiding the South Anurans’ fate. It was at this point that the zealots began to hunt not only with blades, but with fire. The South Anuran herd was the first to be hunted in that way, but not the last.

Over the next four years, Esriaal and Harut did their best to help the North Anuran Shepherd, but there was little to be done; eventually there were so few flocks that they were forced to flee Anura altogether for Darkwood, joining the Deepwood herd’s flocks, much the same as the scraps of the other herds already had. It was in this attempted consolidation that the last of the Silk Cradle Mountains’ herds were wiped out.

In spite of Harut’s objections, Esriaal volunteered to be one of their flock’s ‘Sacrificial Lambs’ – it was their job to distract the hunters while the rest of the flock fled an attack, and then successfully escape and rejoin the flock when it was safe. Esriaal was good at it. Good enough that in the end, their flock was the last one standing, but that couldn’t last.

The ambush that wiped out the last sheep wasn’t one that any Sacrificial Lamb could have saved them from, and the only reason Esriaal was able to escape (or was even willing) was Harut’s plea for them to do their duty not as Sacrificial Lamb, but as a leadersheep – to preserve the memory of the sheep and not let the Bishops win. They fled while Harut bought them time, and then they were alone.

They successfully evaded the Bishops’ zealots for another fourteen years, never staying in one place for long, relying on their own skills and the kindnesses (or greed) of others. They might have continued to evade them, had they not met Yarlion. A brown goat (note: absolutely not THE Goat) who claimed to be from Darkwood. He successfully seduced the lonely Esriaal, and led them to believe there might be a way to safely escape the Lands of the Old Faith, and promised that someday they might even have lambs of their own. Yarlion then sold them out to the Bishops for an unknown price, and three weeks later they were sacrificed by the Bishops, and the events of the game take place. This is where the diverging AUs begin.

When initially resurrected, due to having lost their head and not all resurrections being clean and neat, Esriaal lost almost all of the details of their memory, though they retained broad strokes and certain kinds of knowledge that they seemed to have memorised. They couldn’t remember their name, however, and so chose to go by the Lamb rather than give themself a new name. (Diverging AU: untitled politific, where they do not lose their memory but still choose to go by the Lamb, concealing their retained memories.)

In a departure from canon, they are aware of the sacrifice that awaits them from the beginning, as for whatever reason the One Who Waits saw fit to inform them from the start that the ultimate cost of releasing him would require their sacrifice. The Lamb agreed to the plan, because it was a way to ultimately spite the Bishops – to take revenge for their people, then unleash the god the Bishops were so terrified of, which as far as they’re concerned is a worthy reason for sacrifice.

This is why the choice is between ‘yes’ and ‘absolutely’ – not because he was explicitly forcing them (though it’s not like they could say no), but because the Lamb had already made up their mind to do this. The only question was how zealously or cautiously they would do so.

Over the course of the game’s events and a span of around one hundred and twenty years, the Lamb grew close to the One Who Waits, though they were only able to reach the Below after a death or after a crusade. They became familiar with Aym and Baal, who admired the Lamb as an equal devotee to the One Who Waits and something of an older mentor figure, though the two cats chose to keep that to themselves and maintain their stoic personas. As for the Lamb’s personal connection with the One Who Waits, they were glad to be as close as they’d become, but wished they could know more about him/spend more time with him. Eventually, they realised they’d fallen in love with him. They weren’t actually alarmed by this, as it wasn’t going anywhere, and it didn’t change anything about the plan, so they never mentioned it.

One of two things then happens, after the demise of Shamura: either the Lamb fights the One Who Waits and wins (primary AU: constancy must transpose, where they claim the Red Crown), or the sacrifice is successfully carried out (diverging AU: chimes of bone, where they take possession of the Pale Crown.)

Other Notes: When in the Above (the world of the living), they are almost exclusively in their mortal form, save for when they get emotionally volatile and their godform begins to peek through. Their godform exists almost exclusively in the Below, the place between the world of the living and the Beyond, where the many afterlives coexist (as does the Last Peace.)

Their primary gimmick as a god is conditional omnilocation – when they die, every single person is met with an individual instance of the Shepherd that exists for no one else, all of which are identical to Esriaal themself, right down to the soul. Their other primary trait as a result of resurrection/eventual godhood is their soul’s insistence on being as close to a perfect ‘in-between’ as a Death for everyone, not only in terms of gender but in terms of physical shape. Esriaal has both sets of bits below the waist, to put it delicately, and their godform has one ram’s horn on their right and a ewe’s horn on the left. This happened primarily due to the symbolism of it, but it was also their subconscious fear of not only being the last of their kind, but of failing to change that with lambs of their own. This only comes up if/when there’s a spicy scene in a fic, and only applies in a fic where they’ve either undergone apotheosis or been resurrected at least once, but is otherwise just sort of a fact about them that they’ve decided to roll with.

‘Base’ Lamb The above backstory is almost always true in its entirety, with exceptions made for reflection AUs (such as ashes ashes, which takes place in a world where the Bishops were never crowned in the first place.) If a reflection AU is different enough, such as a different world setting entirely, then specific things are adjusted, but there’s always strong parallels, and the culture of the sheep/the basic facts about Esriaal’s identity are unchanged.

There is no story to accompany the Base Lamb beyond their end-game sacrifice on purpose. The closest to a ‘base’ canon for them is the world of the comic fittings, as that one is largely nondescript about the actual way Narinder and the Lamb/Esriaal came to be in the position of Narinder as his mortal form as part of the cult and Esriaal as the Red Crown’s bearer. It focusses almost exclusively on the culture of the sheep (and some of Narinder’s base backstory, as well.)