#again this might not be the MOST lore accurate

[lazywriter-artist]

What's the deal with two commissars being so close to Magos Dominus? Are they friends or have to tolerate each other for some task? Why there's visitors from Imperium in the first place? Did someone do a lil heresy? :D And why those three guardsmen in particular are so easy (and fun) to steal? :D

Ooo very fun one 😈

So a bit of both, Storvis wants nothing and had never wanted anything to do with the machine cult as a whole, his old mentor instilled distrust into him when it came to the tech-priests which only continued to fester and grow as he got older and interacted more with them in the lines of duty

But, for most of when he was training and mentoring Galileo he was going through a period of grief and frustration as he had just lost his arm and had been horribly scarred on his face so his normal control over Galileo was half assed and very lax. On one day Galileo gets shooed away for storvis to sulk and while wandering about our favorite Magos Dominus finds him! As pre established, Our beloved centipede has a big soft spot for creatures smaller then him and this pretty young commissar in training wandering about all alone is one thing definitely out of order, but storvis’s hard headed nature and tendencies to yap about people he dislikes is ah a pretty easy way to get your ass in some deep shit (among some other stuff he’d like to keep unmentioned) especially since Storvis’s own mentor was discovered guilty of heresy.

So, since Magos Dominus’s skitarii took a liking to the young commissar, he kind of blackmails Storvis into allowing Galileo come for visits (shared custody B>) for teaching moments for his skitarii and just because he wants to ensure Gali is okay and not being tempted to chaos or something by Storvis (whom is not high on the magos’s favorite persons list)

So in a sense yes UwU someone did a little heresy but not the guy you’d think!

Meanwhile Galileo being the sentimental and goofy fella he is has a connection with the magos so he comes for visits periodically to catch up and be mauled by skits- that and sometimes to confide in the magos with some of his struggles, which Centipede doesn’t always understand but he tries his best to help out ^w^

As for the guardsman! Eerrrrmmmm yes :)

I have no particular reasoning they’re so easy to scoop up and scurry off with other then the fact they’re guardsman, all those guys are practically identical smh— that and I mean if you were one of the most expendable people in the imperium wouldn’t you want a giant scary murder robot who’s literally titled after how good he is at killing things to protect you?

As for why it’s so fun, magos Dominus just thinks the little guys are neat and they get along with his skits so they get to stay UwU

[cryinggirlnamedhelen]

need some more information on hunter x hunter in order to write some lore accurate fanfiction + good theories? well look at that, i'm right here.

canon details about hxh that makes writing and theories IMMENSELY easier.

kurapika seems to have a soft spot for younger children, as he doesn't target any of the younger princes in the succession war (in the manga). not only that, but when he held woble (an infant) for the first time, his eyes softened.

chrollo doesn't seem to enjoy hurting women or children. the only time in the story (kurta clan excluded, we never actually see it happen + it was for a job) where chrollo harms a woman is when he steals neon's nen ability. however, he had even made sure to catch her when she fell, taking care of her at least a little bit. chrollo didn't cause any harm to gon and killua even though it could have been convenient to. plus, during his match against hisoka at heavens arena, chrollo does not control or harm any of the female spectators + the female commentator.

chrollo fools the phantom troupe a lot. in chapter 90, nobunaga states “chrollo/danchou did it again!” when phinks tells nobunaga that chrollo had fooled nobunaga. so chrollo has played trickster a few times within the troupe.

meteor city residents live in extremely small cottage-like “houses” made of wood, although much of the houses have patches. however, many people tend to place cloth over their houses, possibly to keep out rain or snow. outside of many houses in meteor city, older people sit on mats and rugs, perhaps selling something.

the most extravagant and cleanest building in meteor city is the church, which also has numerous sun symbols and signs, implying that chrollo might have gotten the sun and moon ability that he fought hisoka with from the pastor of the church (father lisores).

hisoka seems obsessive over cleanliness and always being clean. he has a total of 6 mobage cards where he is showering, and he showers a total of 4 times in the series.

chrollo is implied to have been groomed as a child by the meteor city elders. the elders imply that chrollo is the key to solving all of their problems when he is an ELEVEN YEAR OLD CHILD because of how intelligent chrollo is. phinks makes a subtle note of this when the troupe goes to meteor city to fight the chimera ants, saying that “they still don’t know what they’re doing” (about the city elders). and in a sad way, they succeeded in their grooming, because chrollo did essentially solve their child k!dnapping problem and decreased much of the crime rate in meteor city.

chrollo is the oldest of his group with sarasa, pakunoda, sheila, phinks, feitan, franklin, and shalnark (therefore debunking the “feitan is 28” myth) due to his backstory, where sheila says that “you're the oldest out of all of us, and yet everyone treats you like the ‘younger brother'”, which chrollo is visibly disappointed at.

[sheep-from-rad]

Crossover anon here

Yandere batfam vs SAGAU, you say?👀

I would very much like to hear your thoughts on it.

(Also, thank you for reminding me that SAGAU exists)

✨️✨️✨️

Masterlist also welcome back Anon! Hello! SAGAU and Batfam will get along swimmingly /s. Here’s the thing: How do you think the family would react if the accidentally neglected offspring (if neglected reader) or the normal child of the family started acting suspicious, started to become more withdrawn and spent more time with video games, and started muttering about how their game is becoming self-aware? 

Did you guess it right? Yeah, it’s a trip to Doctor Leslie or better yet a trip to Auntie Harley. They are most likely to dismiss it as a psychological disturbance first because let’s be real, if Gotham is a person and then it’s that person who lives permanently in a padded cell in a mental hospital. You can never really go around the place without the 50/50 chances of you dying in broad daylight. Also loneliness is a breeding ground for anxiety, depression, and even suicidal thoughts. Your game will likely be confiscated too but to be checked if you accidentally get hacked or if the game is bugged. 

I’d like to think that the moment they realized that the game is really self-aware like what you believed, it’s already too late. The game has already transported you somewhere else in Teyvat and now you’re trapped in the SAGAU plotline. 

Here’s a mini plot bunny (it’s just a plot bunny because I want to focus on the Blood bound series [I wrote it without drafting the series’ whole storyline so now I’m scared everytime I open the doc]): 

In most SAGAU plots that I have read (at least the non Impostor AU ones), Teyvat and Abyss are almost always buddy-buddy. Like ‘if the divine creator wants us to be neutral and then we’ll be neutral’ and most of the time Celestia is forgotten. Imagine Batfam being pulled to the SAGAU plot but the one who pulls them in is Celestia. 

My lore is rusty but I know for sure Celestia will try to brainwash Batfam into thinking that Teyvat and Abyss are evil and that they are lying about your divinity to keep you in the game. Celestia will weaponize the apparent yandere tendencies!  Batfam wants you back and Celestia wants the controls back, two birds in one stone. 

Is Batfam powerless in Genshin? I say around 60/40. They can fight but when it comes to vision users they might need to upgrade their contingency documents. Not to mention that not every user uses their vision the same. They will need to study those elemental reactions too and how each element interacts. But of course, Batfam is not stupid and sooner or later they will see it through Celestia’s agenda and they will have to break away and find their own way in Teyvat. 

SAGAU will be a fun ride especially if it’s a neglected reader x Batfam who wants forgiveness and just wants a sense of  family over again. If anything, the game characters aren’t simple-minded and they know how to listen (I’m looking at Ga Ming’s lore here of how him and his father became okay again on that lantern rite), I’d like to think that if the character sensed that Batfam is being genuine and then they might even become a bridge to forgiveness. 

What if Yandere Batfam learns that the game is really self-aware before you get transported to Teyvat? Prepare for a technological lockout. Devices gone? Passwords? Changed! TV time? Limited. If you need to get homework done and then you’ll be using it with anyone’s supervision. No more isolation! If making you go out and bond with your siblings might play a role in breaking you away from the game and then they will do it. If you really need your devices, then you’ll be treated like a toddler with some apps being locked. 

All those precautions will fill them with sense of protection until a citizen comes to the GCPD reporting that an accurately dressed Dottore cosplayer was spotted working with Joker. 

[lastfairdealgonedown]

everything under the sun is in tune

summary – in which the quiet moments greatly overpower the present dismay that drives its roots into amphoreus -> aglaea x afab!reader

includes – descriptions of aglaea & reader both being bare (not in the suggestive sense!), aglaea tugged a few strings [get it] to get the reader into the chrysos heirs baths, might not be too lore accurate, rare footage of me writing fluff (expect 10 angst fics after this). reader uses terms of affection commonly used in greek

a/n – got aglaea and failed a uni math exam, merely hours apart. 10/10 use of luck if i may humbly say so myself

In times of great turmoil, it is of outmost importance that all remains under control, and that the citizens remain peaceful. A nation is not defined by its land, as much as it is defined by its people, after all; As such, undoing knots from threads — in this case, Amphoreus — requires as much careful hands, as it requires stable ones.

Needless to say, it is the hands of the Chrysos Heirs that keep said thread stable. They are base and lever, the driving force behind Amphoreus and its saving grace. Their position requires them to be ready to take on anything, anytime, and as self-explanatory as that is, it is also taxing.

So, to remain on point, the Chrysos Heirs, too, must rest, which is a concept that your lover seems to forget more often than not.

Which is why you do your own part in saving Amphoreus: ..by forcing her to rest, of course. After all, who can resist the warm water of the baths? As above as she is from shallow temptations of the flesh, she is not totally immune to them. If not for you tempting her, she would probably work herself to the bo—

Ouch. “My apologies. I did not mean to harm you; Your hair tangles.. very easily.”

Lightly shaking your head, enough to not disturb Aglaea's work in your hair, you dismiss her apology. It's not her fault, after all; You are certain that she did a great job untangling any small knots prior to attempting to braid it. Flawless, per usual. “No, don't worry- It was never one to behave for anyone, not even for me.”

Humming behind you in concentration, your lover shifts to change her position behind you to something that further closes the distance, and allows her to move her arms more efficiently, “Whatever do you mean? It is ‘behaving’ perfectly- Matter of fact, I am already half-way through the braid.”

Huh?

Turning to peer over your shoulder as slowly as you can, Aglaea pauses her movements to allow you to look, gently raising her hands with strands of your hair in-between her slim fingers in order to show you the length of the braid so far. Impressive. You knew her hands were very lightweight and swift, but experiencing it first hand was.. a whole another thing. “Ah, you really are almost done.”

She hears you muttering something to yourself, most likely in shock, as you turn around to face forward again and let her continue her work. “Say, my soul.. When we have enough of the water, shall we bask under the sun, for a few minutes? You can head back to work, after that.”

There is silence on her end for a few seconds, seemingly thinking it over- It's obvious, in how the twirling movements of her hands slow down in your hair, now merely following muscle memory. “Bask under the sun..” she mutters to herself. “I am not opposed to it; I was thinking I could stay a bit more after, as well. There aren't any pending emergencies for the time being-”

“-so we can spend more time together?”

“..Yes.”

With a smile of triumph, you finally turn around to face her when she finishes your braid and ties the end with something that looks almost like a much shorter golden thread, hair whipping forward from the abruptness of the movement. “Glad to hear you're finally taking my offer to rest- It's been.. a while, since we've been like this.”

“That, it has been.” Eyes fluttering closed, a subtle sigh escapes from her nose when you lean forward and kiss her cheek, wet skin coming into contact with hers as you lean forward, hands resting on her legs to stabilize yourself.

In response, the faintest of smiles sneaks into her expression, leaning in and kissing your temple. Aglaea is pleased only by that which is beautiful, and needless to say she is very pleased by what she is seeing. You are beautiful like this; and she will never cease to remind you.

Her hands gently run down your arms, then move to your torso and drift down to your waist, simply admiring. There was nothing suggestive about the way she felt you — after all, she is one for truth, and bareness is a way of truth, accompanied by vulnerability. She is currently true to you, and you are true to her; No threads required.

“You are the epitome of beauty,” she mutters under her breath, leaning in to drift her lips over your cheek, whilst her hands travel up to your face — to cradle you gently, lovingly — as if she is holding the most seamless of fabrics. The corners of your lips twitch up upon hearing her, leaning just a bit closer and resting your hands on her waist to support yourself, legs outstretched behind you underneath the water, “Look who's talking.” you respond, quiet chuckle bubbling up in your throat as your eyes flutter shut peacefully, under her meticulous touch.

The two of you remain there for the time being; She hovers the pads of her fingers over your skin, just about everywhere she can reach, eyelashes occasionally fluttering, and you lean forward to press against her, resting your head against her collarbones. “Comfortable?” You can almost hear the source of her voice, when you're this close. “Very, my heart.”

Her hands drift up your spine, then down, and up again; Dragging her fingers slowly. She does not need vision to know the perfection of your skin. She knows you by presence alone, the way the air shifts when you're around, how the threads tied around her careful fingers tug a little more, almost eagerly. She may not know you by vision, but you overwhelm every other sense she has, to the point it is all yours.

To think that peace is eternal, frankly, is daft. In a world where our fate is what we are allotted and nothing more, it is not exactly easy to shake the balance and certainty of the threads, for such is our lot; If peace is to end and be replaced with turmoil, we are powerless against it. Nevertheless, many take it as a welcome challenge to try and shake the threads out of spite for fate's ruthlessness, seize them into our hands vehemently and alter them, cut them if we must and ultimately tie them elsewhere. That, is exactly why your hands tighten on her waist slightly when she moves to get up.

“Where are you going?” Her hands drag a bit against your skin as they withdraw, before resting on your shoulders and guiding you to sit up in the warm water. She is loath to make you get up when you are so comfortable, but you are too easy to predict, "You are falling asleep; I was merely about to fetch the towels and dry ourselves up, before heading back to our chamber."

With your head lulling from side to side and desperately trying to remain awake (and failing), you deny her claims and wave your hand dismissively, "Falling asleep? Me?" you pause, biting back a yawn and covering your mouth, "Don't know what you're talking abo- Did you just tighten the threads?"

"Attempting to lie to me is futile, you know this."

Chuckling, you force yourself to stand and cover yourself with the towel she hands you, tying it around your torso and humming, movements slow, prolonged and relaxed, "Oh, I know very well." You watch as your lover takes her sweet time getting dressed, adjusting her chiton on her shoulders and fitting her golden accessories around her arms, "Say, my heart.. have I told you you're beautiful today?"

The corners of Aglaea's lips twitch into a smile, "You did, just this morning." Adjusting her hair accessories, she makes her way to where your clothes are, neatly folded close to hers; She still remembers the love and care she put into this specific piece, when making it for you. She truly wishes she could see how beautiful you must look donning it, but for the time being, touch will have to do.

Making her way to you with your clothes in hand, she hums and stops right in front of you, "Now, let us get you dressed, and be on our way."

"Yes, love."

[aventurineswife]

so we've all seen how much sahsrau loves the reader however my question is if they ever do make a permanent portal from their universe to ours how would they treat Earth's countries would they start wars would they make peace treaties with our countries.... WAIT what if some countries made fun of or disrespected the reader or their art (like calling it trash or cliche) also how would they (the sahsrau cast) and the world react to star rail a game that's almost if not a complete one to one ratio to their universe man there are so many ways you could take this i'd like to think that the sahsrau cast would bring the reader to any meeting with any country just imagine the chaos like

Reporter a: "mr. General what can you tell us about the relationship of America and the xianzhou?

Jing yuan: as of right now.... I believe the alliance might be open to the possibility of an alliance with the United States

Reporter b: Mr. General what do you have to say about the rumors of a relationship between you and one of our citizens

Jing yuan slightly frowning: that citizen is our grace as for my relationship with them.... I'm one of their many acolytes

(°↓°) hehe chaos gremlins strike again

Oh you just opened the biggest can of cosmic chaos noodles and I am here for it.

If SAHSRAU Makes a Permanent Portal to Earth

First Reaction? Global hysteria. Like, governments are freaking out, trying to figure out if this is a threat or a blessing. But the entire SAHSRAU cast is basically like: “Fear not, mortals! We are here for the Creator.”

Earth: who?

Reader: waving awkwardly in the back

How SAHSRAU Treats Earth’s Countries

1. Diplomacy with conditions – They’re not immediately hostile unless someone messes with the Reader. Peace treaties? Sure. Technology and energy aid? Probably. But only under one condition: Respect the Reader.

2. Each faction handles it differently:

Xianzhou brings their most refined diplomats but also rolls in with sky ships just to be visually intimidating.

Belobog is cautiously curious, with Bronya trying to arrange cultural exchanges.

The IPC shows up ready to buy the planet if necessary.

Stellaron Hunters? They’d just show up uninvited, steal satellite tech, and flirt with the Reader at every press conference.

Astral Express crew is like the friendly UN reps… but with big alien dog energy.

If Someone Insults the Reader or Their Art

God help that country. Seriously.

You think a minor diplomatic incident is bad? Try having the entire Pantheon of Stars glaring at your continent like it personally offended fate.

Jing Yuan’s smile becomes a razor: “I hope that was a poor joke. It would be a shame if the Luofu’s next wargames happened to… pass through your airspace.”

Kafka laughs. You don't want her to laugh.

Yanqing demands an honor duel.

March starts a smear campaign online. #RespectTheReader trends for months.

Dan Heng just vanishes. But a week later, the country’s satellite network mysteriously malfunctions.

Blade doesn’t say anything. He’s just… standing there. Right outside the White House. Holding his sword.

Humanity Reacting to Star Rail the Game Being Real

People would LOSE THEIR MINDS. Like, how did we get a perfect game with accurate lore and personalities?? Was it divine inspiration? Government conspiracy?

SAHSRAU cast’s reaction? Mixed.

March 7th: “Wait, that’s my outfit?! I look amazing! But why do you keep losing battles with me?!”

Welt: “Fascinating. A virtual replica of our lives. So this is what it means to be 'fictional' in your world.”

Himeko: sips coffee “They got my smile right. That’s mildly terrifying.”

Kafka: “They really captured my voice... I wonder if the voice actress dreams of me.”

Blade: “They monetized my suffering.”

And the fans? They're having mental breakdowns. Celebrities thirst-posting about Dan Heng? Chaos. Reddit threads about Jing Yuan’s thighs? Worse. YouTube essays on the lore accuracy? Trending globally.

Bringing Reader to International Meetings

Imagine the UN Summit. Reader walks in, glowing faintly like an Aeon-adjacent celestial being. Some country rep starts grandstanding about protocol, and then Jing Yuan speaks: “Silence. You’re in the presence of divinity.”

ALL EYES ON READER.

Reader: “...Hi. I just want snacks and peace.”

Cue chaos.

Bonus:

The Vatican canonizes the Reader. Twice.

The U.S. tries to “negotiate” for Reader citizenship and ends up blacklisted by IPC.

A TikTok dance trend forms based on the Reader’s aura movement.

Ruan Mei hosts a TED Talk. No one understands a word, but they all clap.

Yanqing becomes a world fencing champion at age 12.

Sampo starts an MLM in three countries before Welt shuts him down.

In conclusion: if SAHSRAU opened a portal to our world? Absolute interdimensional chaos, world diplomacy would be rewritten, the Reader would be the centerpiece of planetary politics, and they’d still just want to sit on a couch and play games without being called a god.

[trippinsorrows]

the decision

authors note: this is a oneshot based in the universe of ’what the heart wants’, but it can 100% be read as a messy standalone.

there might be some tea and lore sprinkled in this one here.

warnings: angst

words: 4.5k

masterlist + family tree breakdown

The scream that leaves her mouth is almost inhuman. Primal and animalistic but oh-so-accurate.

Everything fucking hurts. All of it. The pain is intense. Burning, pounding, throbbing and everything else in between. It hurts to push. Hurts not to push. Hurts to fucking breathe. Solana can only do her best to just keep breathing. A necessity but also fucking difficult.

“Okay, Solana.” The supportive voice of her OB-GYN is the last thing she wants to hear right now even though it’s also the most important thing one can hear during childbirth. “I need you to push for me again. Okay?”

Just the words bring another bout of tears. It’s all so hard.

“I can’t,” she cries, shaking her head. “I—I can’t.”

“My Sol.” Her abuela’s equally comforting voice is slightly helpful, though nothing significantly so. Granted, Solana is 99.9% sure nothing can help this sort of pain.

And not just in the physical sense.

Abuela dabs the cool towel on Solana’s forehead to dry away some of the sweat that covers what feels like her entire body. Understandable, given she’s been in labor for almost two hours now. She feels every bit of it, too. “You can do this, sweetheart.”

But, can she?

The delivery, yes. One way or another, this baby is coming out, but the rest of it….

Can I?

“Move!”

Solana’s eyes shoot open at that. The sound of another voice she’s yet to hear since being admitted into the hospital. A voice she last heard a couple days ago following yet another conversation turned disagreement.

Panting, Solana turns her confused gaze over to Roman who rushes to her other side after harshly barking at the poor nurse who was literally just doing her job. Her heart swells with something only he can invoke.

He's here.

“What—what are you—”

“I’m sorry,” he’s instantly apologizing, looking her over with a frown. Understandable. She’s almost certain that she looks a hot ass fucking mess. Also….understandable. “I was out of town, and the fucking flight took for—”

“What are you doing here?”

She finally gets it out. The question she absolutely needs an answer to. As per their last disastrous conversation, she made it clear she didn’t want him here. It didn’t make sense for him to be here. And yet….

“I wasn’t missing this, Solana.” His voice shifts into something firm and determined as he goes to brush the top of her hair. “I don’t care what you say.”

Solana swallows.

This shit just got significantly more difficult.

A burst of pain returns, or rather, the brief distraction of his unexpected appearance wanes. Solana cries in pain once more.

“Solana, I really need you to push for me, honey.”

The voice of her doctor returns as Solana finds herself reaching for Roman’s hand. An unconscious thing that just feels right in the moment. He kisses her knuckles, saying something in Samoan. Her grandmother on the other side of her continuing to pat the towel.

You can do this.

That same shout of pain and determination as she pushes once more, the burning almost unbearable. Solana cries harder, as Roman’s lips press against her forehead. She’s partially aware of him rudely asking the doctor something, but the specifics aren’t really a concern to her.

Not with what Dr. Diaz says next.

“Okay, Solana, you’re crowning.” At that, Solana cries just a bit harder. The pain but also the meaning. They can see the baby’s head. She’s in the final stretch. “I just need a couple more big pushes from you. Maybe just one. You can do this.”

The same sentiments being reiterated by the two people on either side of her. Both offering a source of support she doesn’t know what she would do without. Doesn’t know what she would do without them in this moment.

She was wrong.

She most definitely needed Roman here. With her. For this.

It’s what carries her. What allows her to push through. To push.

With a final stretch of strength and resilience, Solana pushes once, twice, and—

Her screams are sounded out by someone else’s.

A baby.

Her baby.

Solana’s chest immediately tightens at the sound of wailing and screaming from the newborn that is cradled by one of the nurses, the team moving to check her health, to make sure she’s okay.

Much unlike Solana, who is very much not okay.

A fresh set of tears as a clearly moved Roman states, “she’s here.” Solana shuts her eyes, head turned away from him in the direction of her abuela. She tries her best to tune it all out, to ignore the way Roman is asked and agrees to cut the umbilical chord. The way he asks to hold the baby. Their baby.

The tiny scoff of disbelief that leaves his mouth when he does so.

The almost heartbroken, desperate way he says her name. “Solana….”

Please.

That’s what he’s saying. A final attempt. A final plea.

Desperation.

“Nieta…” Solana opens her eyes to see her grandmother looking down at her with matching desperation. “At least hold her.” Spoken in Spanish, a shared vulnerable, intimate moment between grandmother and granddaughter. “You’ll regret it if you don’t.”

Sentiments she’s heard before. That she knows to be true. The same way Solana knows she’ll be so torn, even more heartbroken, if she does. This is already hard enough. The weight in her chest cumbersome.

Holding her….

“I can’t,” she whimpers.

Paloma presses her lips together, eyes watering. She reaches a hand to Solana’s cheek. “Yes, you can.”

You have to.

Solana looks at her, bottom lip trembling. Her body is on fire, the back of her throat, holding and waiting to release a sob. But, all of that remains as she turns to see Roman still holding their baby, her baby. Still with that last attempt of an appeal.

The hardest words she’s ever spoken. “Let me….let me hold her.”

Shock fills Roman’s face and eyes as he freezes for a moment before moving into action. But, he doesn’t follow her orders. He does something different. Instead of handing the baby to her, he moves with careful precision and caution, laying the still whining newborn on her chest.

Skin to skin.

A gasp leaves her mouth, Solana staring in awe at the tiny little baby atop her. The life they’d created but she’d brought into the world. The feel of her baby moving atop of her, the way her little eyes open and focus on her. The eyes staring back at her.

Her eyes.

Her little nose.

Roman’s nose.

The way her mouth opens and moves around, similar to how Roman does. 

She’s them.

Their baby is them.

And as Solana moves a shaking hand to take her baby’s little hand in hers, feeling her, their bodies pressed against each other, it breaks. That wall she’d tried her best to keep up, that had been crumbling piece by piece as she progressed through her pregnancy. That she tried her best to keep strong and firm only for it to collapse almost instantly.

The moment she felt her baby’s little body against hers.

It’s also that moment that it hits her.

That Solana realizes she was right.

She can’t do this.

Crying once more, she closes her eyes, kissing the top of her daughter’s head, holding her. “I can’t—” Shaking her head, emotion making it incredibly difficult to speak, she does so anyway. She looks at Roman, confessing what she can no longer deny. “I can’t do it.” His expression softens as he reaches to brush away her hair from her forehead. “She—she’s our baby.”

He nods, leaning over to kiss their baby’s head. And then Solana. “Exactly.” Her eyes shut once more as his hand shifts to their daughter’s back. “She’s ours.”

Ours.

What Solana has tried to not acknowledge, tried to pretend wasn’t the truth, but the fact of the matter is that it is the truth.

This is their baby. A child they created.

Created out of love. Regardless of the circumstances, the shitshow that has been the past year plus, this is their child. A child she can’t part with.

She can’t give up.

Solana sniffles, looking over at her grandmother. “I—”

But, Paloma simply shakes her head. “I’ll handle it.”

Solana doesn’t say anything, just watches as her grandmother simply offers another emotional, happy smile as she looks between the little family. Watches as her abuela walks out the room past the team that Solana realizes is trying to ask her questions. Trying to check in on mother and daughter.

But, the minute Paloma walks out the door, she’s met with a set of eyes. Four, in particular.

All adults stand up, but it’s her daughter who speaks first.

“Well?” Nina’s voice is calm and cold. Unlike what one would expect from a woman in her position. “Is the child here?”

Hopeful expressions on the other three, two of which the couple who hold hands.

Paloma nods. “She’s here.”

Seconds later, Vai is moving past her, heading into the room, Paloma making out something along the lines of, “I want to see her” before the door shuts entirely.

While Nina looks slightly annoyed at Vai’s departure, or rather where she’s going, the couple, Phil and April, share heavy sighs of relief at Paloma’s answer. A hint of regret fills the older woman seeing the way he kisses her temple, murmuring, “I told you.”

Two truths can exist where she’s happy Solana made the decision she made while also acknowledging how heartbreaking that decision is about to be for these two people.

Nina remains cold and stoic. “And, I’m assuming she’s healthy?”

Another nod. “Yes.”

April smiles, wiping at the tears that spill over. “Can we—can we see her?” Paloma frowns. “We—we want to see her.”

Of course.

Paloma swallows, hands behind her back. “There’s….there’s been a change in plans.”

At that, Phil speaks. A small scoff followed by, “what do you mean there’s been a change in plans?”

She takes a deep breath, fully prepared for the backlash that's sure to follow her answer. “Solana has decided to keep her baby.”

Silence.

Silence.

Nina is the first to speak, cutting her eyes at her mother. “Excuse me?”

“What the fuck do you mean she’s decided to keep the baby?” Phil hisses, pointing to the room. “That’s our baby.”

At that, a bit of defensiveness rises. “No, she’s my granddaughter’s baby.”

“They have a contract,” Nina reminds, her face twisted and contorted from her anger. “Solana signed over her rights.”

“I understand that, but she’s changed her mind.”

“She doesn’t get to change her mind,” Paul sneers, stepping away from a now crying April. “We have a legally binding agreement, and that bitch doesn’t get to up and change her mind—”

One minute Phil is speaking down to Paloma, intimidating her, or trying to, at least. And the next? He’s slammed up against the wall.

“She’s our child,” Roman growls, his forearm pressed against Phil’s neck, suffocating him. “And, she’s staying with us.”

A simple but powerful statement that anyone with common sense would know is unwise to try to challenge. Roman applies just a bit more pressure before stepping back, scowling with disgust.

Paloma places a gentle hand on Roman’s bicep, seeing and feeling the anger rising. This is a man who just became a father, who just learned he’ll be able to be a father to his firstborn.

He doesn’t need this shit right now.

“Roman Reigns is the baby’s biological father?” Phil coughs, his question directed towards a visibly nervous Nina as April comforts him. “Why the fuck didn’t you say that?”

She swallows, trying to play off indifference. “It wasn’t relevant.”

“The hell it wasn’t!” Phil spits, turning his glare between the three of them. “We would have never chosen her if we knew—”

“It doesn’t fucking matter anyway,” Roman dismisses, fist still formed at his side. “Our daughter is staying with us. Adoption is off, so get the fuck out of here.”

At that, April looks up, anger spilling over into her devastation. “He’s right. She signed a contract.”

“I don’t care if she signed the Declaration of fucking Independence.” Roman sneers. “No one’s taking our daughter away from us. Especially not you two.” He looks them over with all the disgust, voice melting into something undeniably threatening. “But, if you want to pick a fight, be my guest. I’ll bring the fucking war.”

—————

The first twenty-four hours after the baby is born is a whirlwind. The complete 180 on a plan that was set in motions for months brought about a lot. A lot of conversation. A lot of emotions. Primarily shock.

Mostly love.

Solana’s smile is warm and maternal as she looks down at her sweet baby girl whose mouth is latched onto her nipple as she breastfeeds. Another surprising, unexpected thing that Solana found much easier than some of the stories she remembers reading about online. Mothers unable to produce milk. Babies being resistant to being breastfed. But, for her, none of that has been the case.

Her baby has taken just fine to the nipple.

But, it’s also in looking at her, her daughter looking back, that a thought crosses her mind.

A person.

Two people.

“I feel bad,” she shares, voice low, a fingers moving to pull the baby blanket over her newborn. Roman looks at her from where he sits on the side of the bed. He’s essentially been there the whole time. Never leaving her or their daughter’s side. “They….they must be heartbroken.”

He doesn’t say anything, and she’s not exactly expecting him to. While she holds a hefty amount of guilt, she’s almost certain he feels none. In his eyes, this is their child. A child who should have never almost been adopted out in the first place.

The right decision was made. And, it’s not that she disagrees with that part. It’s just the fact that two innocent people got her hurt in the process. She hates that.

“They’re….they’re probably going to try to sue me.” Something she’s most definitely thought about in the past 24 hours. “I—I breached the agreement.”

“I’ll handle it,” he interrupts. Solana watches him. Sees the way he focuses on their baby. How he reaches his hand over, finger brushing the head full of hair she was born with. “Don’t worry about it.”

Much easier said than done, though she can acknowledge if there’s one thing she knows about the man across from her, when he says he’s going to handle something, he handles it.

No questions asked.

She says nothing else. A few minutes of silence passing as they both just sit and stare in awe at the little life they’ve created. “We…..we don’t even have anything for her.” Yet another thing Solana has thought about. Not a onesie. Not a diaper. Not even a blanket to wrap her in when...when they take her home.

However, Roman once again seems to live up to his always three steps ahead nature. “I’m handling that, too.”

Confused, she looks up only after checking on her baby who makes a quiet sound as she continues to feed. “What do you mean?”

He takes a second to respond, a small smile on his face as he moves his finger over baby girl’s arm. “Vai is out now getting the rest of what we need.” Solana stills. Of course. “And, it seems….it seems Paloma had a feeling….or was hoping at least that…that you'd change your mind, so she’d already picked up some stuff.”

At that, Solana’s heart swells. From both pieces of information. “R—really?”

He nods, and Solana has to push back the emotions. There’s been a lot of them, to say the least, but the tremendous amount of support she’s received from some of the closest people in her life has been overwhelming. In the best sort of way.

It all still feels so unreal, but having people behind her makes all the difference.

“We still need to name her, you know.” Roman’s soft voice is a reminder. Not necessarily of the naming, but something else.

“I—I have something in mind.” He lifts a brow, prompting her to share. “Leticia. It means….it means happiness and joy.” Solana’s gaze lowers to see her heart and soul staring back at her. “I think it’s….it’s fitting.”

More than fitting.

Chuckling softly, she lifts her eyes back to him. “I also like the name Shakira.”

“We’re not naming our daughter Shakira.” A quiet giggle tumbles out her mouth at his scowl and immediate rejection. Expected. “Leticia….” There’s something about the way he says it, the way he continues to gently caress their daughter's arm that does something to Solana. Reminds her why she fell in love with him in the first place. “I like it.”

A nervous smile. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” he confirms. “Middle name?”

Again. Something else she’s thought about. “You pick.”

For some reason, he looks genuinely surprised by that. “Really?”

She nods. “I picked her first name. It’s only fair you get to pick the middle name.”

He says nothing initially, clearly thinking it over. And finally, the smallest smile. “Alofa.”

“Alofa?” Solana pronounces it almost exactly the way he did. “What does it mean?”

His gaze is set on her. “Love.”

Love.

Fitting.

Very fitting.

“I love it,” she murmurs, eyes filling with tears once more as she looks down at her daughter.

Her little Leticia.

Roman’s hand reaches for hers, Solana’s gaze flitting back over to him. “We’re gonna figure this out….okay?”

Supportive, encouraging words she didn’t realize she needed to hear until this very moment. Because as precious and perfect her baby is, there’s so much that goes into this. Navigating this whole new phase of an already fucked up dynamic.

Her feelings about Roman.

Co-parenting with him.

Her family.

Sam.

It’s a lot, but right now, holding her daughter, even with Roman right beside her, it’s never felt so right.

—————

The love and support continues in ways Solana could have never expected.

Her half-brother, Trick, his sister and her best friend, Crystal, and their mom, who’s really been more of a mother to Solana than her own biological mother, Melody, all fly down to come see and meet her daughter.

To support Solana.

Again, there really are no words to describe it.

None at all.

And finally, five days after Leticia’s birth, Solana is finally ready to be discharged from the hospital. A day that fills her with so much excitement, she doesn’t know what to do with it.

Finally, she gets to take her little girl home.

Even more, she gets to take home her little girl to the beautiful nursery her abuela, Vai, and Roman worked tirelessly the past few days to get set up and ready for the little one.

So much love.

It carries her.

Truly.

Solana is packing her bag in her hospital room, Roman down on the first floor working with security to arrange for their departure, and her abuela at the house, making some last minute touches for everything to be perfect.

The sound of footsteps behind her, pressured almost, make Solana turn around wondering who could be walking into her room so fiercely.

And, before she can even process it, she’s gasping, holding her now burning, throbbing face.

“You selfish little bitch.” Nina’s voice is as icy and furious as the raged expression on her face. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

Solana can only look at her mom. Look at the woman who should be hugging her, holding her, loving her. Loving her firstborn granddaughter. But, instead, Solana is almost certain a homeless man on the street could get less of a disgusted look than the one her mom has with her.

“Mommy—”

“We had a plan, Solana! A good, solid plan, and you went and fucked up everything!”

Painful words but not entirely unexpected. Solana knew her first conversation with her family, with her mom, would not be the easiest. “How can you continue to be so stupid? How could you do this to your poor sister?”

“Mom—”

She lifts her hands, eyes closing briefly. “Thankfully, despite your idiocy, I’ve found another family—”

“Another family?” Solana frowns. “What do you me—”

“They’ve been wanting a little girl for years. I told them—”

“You what?” The shock of being slapped by her mother, being scolded so harshly, easily and quickly melts into something else. Anger. “You….you talked to them about my baby?”

At that, Nina sneers, “that child is not yours, and it can never be yours, Solana. We had an agreement.”

“I don’t give a damn about some stupid agreement!” Solana snaps. Months. Years, even, of built-up emotion seeping into a long overdue conversation. She points behind her, as if Leticia herself was in the room. “That is my daughter. My baby, that I am keeping, so how dare you try to pawn her off like she’s some—some object?”

“She’s a bastard, Solana!” Nina shouts, her words like a knife to Solana’s chest. “A mistake that never should have happ—”

She doesn’t get to finish. She doesn’t get to finish because she’s the one now holding her cheek, eyes wide with horror from the slap given to her by her daughter.

Well deserved, in Solana’s opinion.

“How dare you?” Because while adrenaline and anger burn within her, there’s also a tremendous amount of hurt at the rejection. At the almost hatred. “She’s an innocent baby. It doesn’t matter how she got here. She’s my daughter. She’s your grand—”

Another blow to the face. This time from mother to daughter, the force so heavy that it results in Solana stumbling back onto the hospital bed.

“You stupid girl! You’re going to ruin everything!” Solana winces, the movement painful for a woman not even a week postpartum. “I’ve worked too har—”

Solana is spared from whatever else her mother plans to say. Something hateful and resentful, she’s certain. But, she’s spared not because her mother has a change of heart, but because of the recently arrived parties.

“You trifling ass bitch!” Melody’s voice is tinged with anger as she grabs Nina by her hair and yanks her away from Solana who suddenly feels someone over her.

“Are you okay?” Crystal asks with all the concern, looking her over for any sign of injury.

“What you not about to do is put your hands on that baby,” Melody shouts, pointing back at Solana. “You wanna hit someone? Hit me, skank, cause lord knows I’ve been wanting to whoop your hoe ass!”

Nina’s glare is lethal. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I’m here doing what you should be doing. Supporting your daughter and her baby.”

Nina scowls. “This doesn’t concern you.”

“The hell it doesn’t,” Melody scoffs, looking at Nina like she’s grown three heads. “That child just had a baby, and you putting hands on her for what? Cause she didn’t do like that first child of yours and go to the clinic?”

At that, Crystal hugging her from the side, Solana looks up.

What?

“You know what blows my mind, Mrs. Miller?” Melody tilts her head to the side, a wicked, haughty smile on her pretty face. “You wanna talk about Solana and call her every name but a child of God, but let’s not forget your oldest daughter was conceived with Xavier when he and I were still married. You were the side chick turned wife.”

Now this, this part Solana knew. She learned years ago of the….overlap of her parents relationship while her dad was still married to Melody.

"Or, how about the fact that the only reason you could afford medical school was because you were fucking that old, rich, married man who paid your tuition?”

That part Solana did not know.

The surprises just keep on coming this week, it seems.

And the way Nina falters with her response confirms everything that’s been said was true. “I—I—”

“What the hell is going on here?” Roman’s deep baritone voice sounds from where he stands in the doorway, Trick beside him. A slightly surprising sight for sure given the history between those two but not entirely unbelievable, as it seems the birth of Leticia has given them a…source of compromise, it seems.

Roman’s gaze falls on Solana, and in seconds, he’s standing in front of her, gently cradling her face that’s probably slightly swollen.

His eyes darken. “Who hit you?”

“Her trick ass mama,” Crystal answers, suddenly going to remove her earrings. “You know what? Fuck this.” She goes to pull her hair up. “Cause it’s two of us, one of you, and we already in a hospital, so let’s do what it do.”

Solana reaches forward, grabbing Crystal by her shirt. “No.” It doesn’t miss her how Roman moves one hand to her hip, holding her close to him, almost. “She’s—she’s not worth it.”

She never was.

Roman’s jaw twitches as he barks for his guards and motions to Nina. “Get her out of here now.”

Again, mere seconds as the guards move past Trick and reach for a belligerent Nina. “You are dead to us, do you hear me, Solana?” She shouts, fighting against the men. “You are cut off! You are never to contact any of us ever again, you whore!”

It’s that last word, maybe all of the words, that cause Solana’s resolve to break. Causes the tears to brew.

But, as Nina does her best to lay down the last bit of mental/emotional damage, Trick works to hold back both his mom and sister who shout back at Nina, clearly dying to get their hands on her.

“I have only one child now!”

That last one is the straw that breaks the camel’s back, that causes Solana’s sob to break through. And right away, Roman pulls her into him, cradling and comforting her. He rubs the small of her back, reassuring her once more that everything is going to be okay. Something that suddenly feels a lot less likely.

But, it’s when another guest arrives as Nina is finally gone that everything changes. There’s a shift.

The nurse stands near the door holding Leticia. Leticia, who is all wrapped up, prepared and ready to go home.

Her baby.

Breaking away from Roman, Solana extends her arms, “give her to me, please.”

Though clearly and understandably perplexed, the woman walks over, carefully handling over Leticia to her mom. And her baby girl, her sweet sweet baby, just looks up at her mom. Looks between both her parents, and she smiles.

She smiles.

It refreshes a new set of tears. For a different reason. A completely different reason.

“It’s okay, baby.” She rocks and cradles her daughter against her, holding her, feeling all the love, warmth, and comfort that stems from such a small human being. “Mommy’s here.” She swallows. “Mommy will always be here.”

[pretzel-box]

Hello :D can I make a request? I want a Sebastian x Fem!Reader (Y/n is a prisoner here) where Y/n finds a friendly little Squiddle and takes them with her. Sebastian and Y/n act like parents to that little Squiddle XD

Tags: Established Relationship, adopting a Squiddle, might not be lore accurate Squiddle description, lots of fluff

Words: 1,7k

“SEBASTIAN!” you screamed, crawling through the cramped vent as quickly as you could, panic evident in your voice. The metal walls echoed with the frantic sound of your limbs scrambling against the sides. Sebastian glanced up from the file he was reading, his expression blank at first, but then he heard the aggressive thud of your limbs against the metal, a sound so loud and desperate it made him pause.

He shrugged, dismissing it as another of your dramatic entrances, and returned to the file he was holding. He'd gotten used to your flair for the theatrical, especially in this godforsaken place.

“SEBASTIAN!!” Your voice came again, even louder this time. It didn’t take long for you to come bursting out of the vent, hair in a wild tangle and eyes wide with fear, looking like you’d just seen a ghost. You didn’t bother standing up; instead, you lay there, half out of the vent, panting heavily as you stared up at your boyfriend.

Sebastian chuckled, still amused by your frantic state. He shut the file with a swift motion, a smirk playing on his lips. “Sup, my starfish,” he greeted lazily, leaning back in his chair. “What's got you all riled up this time? Did a wall dweller nibble on you again?” He chuckled at his own joke, clearly enjoying your flustered state.

“THERE IS SOMETHING SQUISHY ON MY LEG!” you screamed, your voice filled with genuine panic. You stared at him with wide, pleading eyes. “TAKE IT OFF! TAKE IT OFF!”

Sebastian's smirk widened as he slowly got up from his comfy pose in the corner of the shop, taking his sweet time just to tease you. "Something squishy, you say? Well, that's new," he drawled, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Maybe it's a new type of wall dweller, hmm?"

Sebastian sighed dramatically, leaning back to view you in another perspective and crossing his arms over his chest. "Something squishy… he repeats, his lips curving into a mischievous grin. "What, maybe you stepped on some jelly or something?"

"Sebastian, this isn't funny!" you snapped, voice hitching with fear as you waved your leg around, trying to shake off whatever was clinging to it. “Just help me, okay?!”

He laughed again but finally knelt beside you, his curiosity piqued. “Alright, alright, let’s see what’s got you so worked up,” he said, reaching for your leg. His fingers moved carefully, prying away the tiny creature that was latched onto you.

As soon as he got a good look at it, his teasing grin softened into one of genuine surprise. "Well, would you look at that," he murmured. "It's just a baby Squiddle." The small, black, squid-like creature squirmed in his hand, its tiny body wriggling and writhing. Its eyes were wide, and every few moments it made a bizarre, creepy face—likely an attempt to be intimidating, but it just came off as awkwardly endearing.

You blinked, staring at the small creature, your panic beginning to ebb away. “A… a baby Squiddle?” you repeated, half in disbelief. “That’s what was on my leg?”

Sebastian chuckled, nodding. “Yeah, looks like it must have gotten separated from its group and found you instead. Probably thought you were a safe place to cling to.” He gently held the baby Squiddle closer, its eyes continuing to shift into odd, creepy faces. “Poor little guy’s just scared out of its wits.”

You sat up slowly, peering at the tiny creature now cradled in Sebastian’s hands. “It’s… kinda cute,” you admitted, your fear giving way to a hesitant smile. “In a weird, creepy sort of way.”

Sebastian raised an eyebrow, amused. “Cute, huh? That’s a new one. Most people would have just flicked it off and run away screaming.”

You nudged him playfully with your elbow. “Well, I was *this* close to doing that, too, if you hadn’t noticed.” But then your expression softened as you looked back at the Squiddle. “But… I mean, look at it. It’s just a baby. We can’t just toss it back out there.”

Sebastian's smile widened, a spark of amusement dancing in his eyes. "So, what do you want to do with it? Should I toss it back outside, or should I put it up for sale in the shop...?"

You nodded, more confident now. “No. I mean, it’s lost, and it’s scared. We can’t just leave it out there to fend for itself. Besides,” you added with a small smile, “I think it’s already taken a liking to me.”

Sebastian laughed, shaking his head. “Alright, if that’s what you want then we can adopt it,” he said. “Looks like we’re adopting a Squiddle.”

You grinned, reaching out to gently stroke the top of the baby Squiddle’s head. It made another creepy face, but you just laughed, feeling a warmth spread through your chest. “Welcome to the family, little guy,” you said softly.

Sebastian watched you with a fond smile, his earlier amusement replaced by a warmth that made your heart skip a beat. “You know,” he said, his voice softer now, “you’ve got a good heart, starfish. Most people would’ve just freaked out and tried to stomp the poor thing. But not you.”

You blushed, looking away shyly. “Well, I guess I’m just a sucker for things that need a little love,” you murmured.

Sebastian leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss to your forehead. “And that’s why I love you,” he whispered, his voice warm and sincere. “Now, come on. Let’s find a nice little spot for our new friend, and maybe figure out what Squiddles eat.”

You laughed, getting to your feet with the baby Squiddle still cradled in Sebastian’s hands. “Sounds like a plan,” you said, your smile wide and bright. “Looks like we’ve got a new adventure ahead of us.”

Ever since the baby Squiddle had made its home with you and Sebastian, the shop had become a little less gloomy and a lot more chaotic. The tiny, black, squid-like creature had instantly latched onto you—quite literally. It had taken a solid half-hour of convincing for Sebastian to help pry its sticky little tentacles from your leg when you'd first burst into the shop, panicked and breathless. But now, it was hard to imagine life without the little fellow.

The baby Squiddle, who you'd affectionately named Inky, seemed to have taken a liking to the shop, always finding new places to hide and new ways to amuse itself. Today, it was curled up in a corner of the shop on top of a pile of discarded maps, its many eyes blinking curiously at the two of you.

Sebastian chuckled as he watched you attempt to balance a bowl of water in one hand and a rag in the other. “You know, if you keep pampering it like that, it’s going to get spoiled,” he teased, his voice warm with affection. He was leaning against the wall, his arms folded, a rare smile playing at his lips.

“Oh, hush,” you replied, rolling your eyes but smiling back. “It’s just a baby. Besides, someone has to make sure it doesn’t get dehydrated.”

As if understanding, Inky gave a small, delighted chirp and wriggled its little tentacles, reaching out to you as you approached. It had learned quickly that you were the softer of the two, always ready with a gentle touch and a kind word. You knelt beside it, dipping the rag into the bowl and gently dabbing it over the Squiddle's glossy skin. Inky let out a series of soft, happy gurgles, its many eyes closing in contentment.

Sebastian couldn’t help but smile wider at the sight. “You’re gonna turn that thing into a diva,” he said, though his voice was soft, almost fond.

You glanced up at him, a playful glint in your eyes. “Says the one who spoils it with all the attention,” you shot back, gently booping Inky on what you thought might be its nose—or some kind of equivalent.

Inky made a face that could only be described as a tiny, squid-like attempt at a grin, one of its eyes squinting up at Sebastian. He snorted, shaking his head. “Okay, okay, maybe I do have a soft spot,” he admitted. “But can you blame me? Look at those faces.”

“Faces?” You laughed, giving Inky another gentle pat. “We still don’t know what most of those are for. But, you’re right; it’s hard to resist.”

Sebastian pushed off the wall and crossed the room, crouching down beside you. He reached out a hand, and Inky immediately curled a couple of tentacles around his fingers, tugging playfully. “You know,” he said thoughtfully, “I never thought I’d end up…here. With you, and…a baby Squiddle of all things.”

You smiled, leaning your head against his shoulder. “Life is strange that way,” you said softly. “But…I wouldn’t change it for anything.”

Sebastian wrapped an arm around you, pulling you closer. “Yeah,” he agreed, his voice a low murmur. “Me neither.”

Inky made another soft chirping noise, and you both laughed, the sound filling the small shop. It was a moment of pure, untainted happiness—a rare commodity in the depths of the facility.

“Looks like someone’s getting sleepy,” you observed, watching as Inky’s eyes began to droop. You gently shifted it onto a more comfortable spot on the maps, creating a little nest for it. “There you go, little one.”

As Inky settled down, its eyes closing completely, Sebastian reached over and brushed a strand of hair from your face. “You’re really good with it, you know,” he said quietly.

You looked up at him, surprised by the softness in his tone. “Well, I guess I’ve had some practice,” you replied with a grin. “Can’t say I’ve ever had to take care of a baby Squiddle before, though.”

He chuckled. “First time for everything.”

You both sat there for a while, watching as Inky fell into a peaceful sleep. It was a rare moment of tranquility in an otherwise chaotic place. Sebastian squeezed your shoulder gently. “We’re…we’re doing alright, aren’t we?” he asked, a hint of uncertainty in his voice.

You turned to him, your smile soft. “Yeah, Sebastian,” you said. “We’re doing just fine.”

And in that moment, with Inky snoozing contentedly between you and Sebastian’s arm wrapped securely around you, it felt like the truth. You had found something good here—something worth holding onto. And no matter what came next, you knew you’d face it together, as a family.

[quibbs126]

Okay, I have…a design for Lux here

Honestly, it still isn’t the best. Probably on me for spending all of today trying to make a design that worked and not taking more time

Probably should have also colored those practice sketches of Megatron and Optimus, and maybe drawn more of them too, probably would have helped in the long run, as well as let me figure out their colors again since it has apparently been a long time since I drew them

But oh well, I have something, so at least now I can tell you about Lux herself

These are the other previous sketches relating to her by the way, just for posterity’s sake

I thought giving her this younger design based on the cogless bots would have been easier than working out her adult, alt mode based design, since the cogless bots don’t have alt modes. But the problem is, their frames are still based on parts of their alt mode, just not to any extent that it’s actual kibble, just alluding to it, if that makes sense. So you know, I had to have an idea of how her normal frame looks. Which I didn’t. So it was harder than I wanted it to be, and this is what I got in the end

I need to figure out a proper full design for her I think. I still have TFA and TFE Megatron for my inspirations, along with some copters, I just need to figure out how to put them all together

She very much looks like a D-16 painted blue like this, but whatevs

Her trapezoid and arm circles are supposed to be the few references to her alt mode I have, that being her front with the trapezoid, and potentially where her propellers go on her body. I don’t actually know where to put them realistically, but I think it’d be cool if she could use them like blades in combat

For now, I think I’m sticking with that blue, grey and black color scheme for her, and the yellow eyes work fine

Design’s serviceable enough for now, but needs work I think

But anyways, on to the real thing I wanted to discuss here, her lore. Or I suppose more accurately, her relationship with Megatron, since that’s most of what I have on her honestly

Okay, so first off, Megatron was the one to carry her, which I’m noticing is a running theme of mine. Now I’m not sure when exactly he would have been sparked, but let’s say for the sake of things, between getting their T-cogs and meeting the High Guard. The main thing is that this would have been just before Orion and D-16 fell out and Megatron was banished

Some weeks or so after, particularly during moments where he’s feeling incredibly distraught over everything that happened and feels incredibly isolated, Megatron started to feel something else around his spark. He couldn’t quite place what it was, it was too vague and small to be able to tell, like a very faint pulse on his spark, but something about it gave him comfort, while giving it back to the strange feeling. He wasn’t sure what this thing was, but he figured he either made it up as a coping mechanism, or it might be because the cog he had used to belong to someone else, and it was affecting him weirdly. But he didn’t really tell anyone, since he didn’t want to admit it made him feel better like some immature child, and again, he didn’t think it was anything important. He just considered it the “little light” on his spark

Only to find out much later, on complete accident, that that “light” he was feeling was in fact, a sparkling. His and Orion’s at that. No one knew he was carrying, pretty much because he had grown too big for it to make a noticeable impact on his body (and anything that did was assumed because of his enormous rapid growth spurt), and because also no one was looking for it. But one accident a bit too damaging led to him needing a full body scan for all his injuries, and a close to fully formed sparklet was revealed to be in his forge

And unfortunately because of how late anyone found it, as well as the fact that the Decepticons are very lacking in proper medical equipment, Megatron pretty much has to carry the thing to term now, much to his frustration. I needed a reason for him to not deletus that fetus. He hates the idea of this at first, hating Orion/Optimus for putting him in this situation, hating the High Guard for being ignorant enough to have not found this sooner when he could have gotten rid of it (which they kind of have to concede the point there), and hating the universe for this fate

But he does eventually start to come around more to the idea, particularly when he realizes that this sparkling was the same thing that’s been giving him comfort in these turbulent times, and when it comes to mind that this is the last thing he has of Orion, not really choosing to see Optimus as Orion, just who came back after his death. The best idea the Decepticons had for what to do with the sparkling after it was born was to just send it to Iacon, making the Prime deal with his mistake, but Megatron grew more and more hesitant of the idea

And then when the day came that the sparkling was born, he was more conflicted than ever, now that he could actually hold it in his hands and see her for himself. While he didn’t give an answer at first as to whether he wanted to get rid of her, he eventually decided that he indeed wanted to keep her, naming her Lux

It wasn’t the ideal option for the Decepticons, sending her to Iacon would have been the best choice, but during the time before the sparkling was born, they figured that since they no longer had an Energon shortage and weren’t being hunted down, it wasn’t impossible for them to care for a sparkling should that be the decision, though the lack of medical supplies would be a worry

But basically after Lux was born, plenty of the Decepticons pitched in to try and help Megatron with her, since he’s their very young leader and now single parent, and again, kind of their fault for not noticing. Also they haven’t seen a sparkling in ages and she’s cute. Thundercracker happens to be her favorite babysitter. Soundwave is another top tier babysitter, but she just likes him more

This is also what gets Megatron to finally properly start opening up and trusting the High Guard, since he knows he can’t take care of Lux all by himself, especially since he knows very little about sparklings. And if they can be proven trusted with her, maybe he can trust them with other things as well

But one other thing, Megatron does not tell Optimus that Lux exists whatsoever, and he doesn’t want him to know. Part of it is to spite Optimus, excluding him from something he too would probably find so precious. But another part that progressively grows bigger is fear; the fear that if he knew, he would take Lux away from Megatron, never to see her again

While part of it is paranoia, it’s not entirely unreasonable either. Optimus lives in a giant city while Megatron lives out in the wild, Optimus has access to everything she might need or want, Megatron and the High Guard are essentially criminals and could be considered dangerous to a young sparkling, and Optimus is the Prime and ruler of Iacon. Even if he might have the decency to consider letting Megatron keep his sparkling, someone else in Iacon might try to fight for Lux to stay in Iacon instead, possibly even taking matters into their own hands. So he won’t tell Optimus, for as long as he possibly can

Megatron does genuinely care for and love Lux, but he’s also not the best parent either. He’s a bit emotionally dependent on her, with her being that last bit of Orion, and someone who unconditionally loves him, and it does feed a bit into his fear of her being taken from him; he also doesn’t really want her to leave. It may be something he eventually learns to grow out of, as it’s really not healthy for either of them, but it could also not. But at least for now, this dependency isn’t too egregious, nor is it something Lux takes notice of, or something the other Decepticons warn Megatron about

I suppose I should actually get into Lux herself. Though to be honest, I don’t have a lot on her anyways, outside of her backstory

I do have that she’s generally a cheery little bot, and she really likes the surface, particularly the animals up there. Thundercracker is her favorite guy, outside of her carrier, and them both being blue possibly has something to do with it. She’s also probably a little too okay with violence for someone her age, due to the company she finds herself in. They may be her responsible guardians, but they’re definitely teaching her ways to kill

She also has this thing of, if she does not understand why a rule exists, she does not listen to it. It made the first few cycles with her very difficult, and a testament to Megatron that she really was Orion’s sparkling. She has a habit of sneaking out a lot, though usually it’s just to watch animals or something harmless

Though this could extend to her being prohibited from ever going to or near Iacon. She may not go now, accepting the explanation that dangerous enemies live there, but that explanation may not hold up the longer she observes it, and she may one day decide the rule’s worth breaking. But will she go to Iacon and what chaos will ensue if she does? I don’t know

I mean I imagine at some point Optimus eventually learns of Lux’s existence, I just don’t know the specific circumstances as to how yet, or when. She could sneak into Iacon as a child, it could be a Quintesson attack mixed with a Decepticon encounter that weeds her out via Megatron trying to protect her, it could be Airachnid kidnapping her, or they don’t encounter until she’s properly grown. I’m not sure yet

But yeah, I think that’s all I have on her lore for now, and honestly it’s getting pretty late, so I should probably just end things here

She needs more working, but I have a lot about Lux, so I just needed to share

[genericpuff]

I've been seeing you say/speculate Rachel Smythe has been cut loose from webtoon, could you elaborate what you mean by that?

It's only a tinfoil hat theory that people should take with MOUNTAINS of salt (seriously, I'm more likely to believe that Rachel really is just done with LO), but there's a general suspicion that LO wasn't meant to end here and that Webtoons decided to cut the cord. I've made a post about it before but some new stuff has surfaced since then.

1.) The announcement the series was ending was made quietly at NYCC and not shared to either Webtoons' socials or Rachel's socials.

The only way fans initially knew about the series ending was through a screencap from the Discord where someone else who had been attending NYCC passed on the info from a Q&A that LO would be entering its final arc.

For a good while the only other way to know the series was ending was through the Discord, a Cosmopolitan article, and my own post.

Though it sounds odd for a series to get cancelled halfway through its third season, it's not uncommon for Webtoons to suddenly axe series while they're on their midseason hiatuses, it's happened before. So there's a general suspicion that Rachel may have found out during NYCC that LO would only be given one more arc.

2.) The actual finale announcement was made in a text post on Instagram that suddenly announced it would be ending on May 11th, despite the fact that there was still lots to wrap up in the story.

What this implies is that Rachel was given one more arc, with no concrete end date... until Webtoons told her to wrap it up in a limited number of episodes, hence why despite us knowing it was in its final arc, the end date still felt too soon. This is also supported by the fact that her initial announcement was vaguely "early/mid 2024" - she couldn't give a more accurate end date because she didn't plan for the actual ending.

3.) Things that Rachel has said implies that she was either hoping for the final arc to go on longer, or that she didn't think LO was going to be ending now.

(that "nothing is set in stone" quote further supports the theory that she may have been hoping to get renewed in spite of the lukewarm ending announcement - that the only reason the announcement was so quiet was because WT hadn't fully committed to it yet and wanted to see how the series would do upon its return; now that they see it falling behind to other series, it might mean WT became more sure in their decision to cut it and gave her an actual deadline to wrap it up by.)

4.) Webtoons has stopped promoting Lore Olympus despite it ending.

Any promotional spots that it has gotten have been stuffed into the dead zone of the banner reels (seriously, anything past the 3rd spot is practically useless because it takes actual committed scrolling to get there vs. the first 1-3 banner spots which can be seen as soon as you open the app/site) and the banner art itself does not in any way advertise the series being in its final arc. These banners also only seem to be appearing for a day at most, compared to the days upwards of weeks they used to get.

Webtoons also hasn't been doing any sort of promoting on their socials for it. Considering The Mafia Nanny has been consistently beating out LO in the top rankings for weeks now, and that LO's rating and view count is still dropping, it appears that Webtoons has finally given up on shoving it down people's throats and put their focus elsewhere.

Again, this is all tinfoil hat speculation, so take it with massive doses of salt. Considering this is Webtoons, I wouldn't be surprised if they finally decided to put LO out of its misery, but this is also Rachel and I wouldn't blame her in the slightest if she finally wanted to be done with it after the past two years of people clowning on it. And I say that knowing I, myself, am a clown LOL

Either way, I feel like either outcome is plausible in its own ways, but whatever is the true reason, it doesn't change the fact that LO is ending and has 3 episodes left to wrap itself up. And whatever comes after will likely involve the launch of Inklore which was estimated for the spring.

[utdrmv-confession-box]

Transcript: I love Underverse. It is one of my favorite UTMV medias. I cannot overstate how much I adore this series and everything it is. But I cannot ignore its continued influence on the fandom's overall perception of Ink in place of the original Ink. I'm talking about the *Ink becomes a threat to others when he runs low on paints* point that shows up in almost every fanwork since 0.4 and Underverse's reinforcement of the misconception that Ink "doesn't feel pain" in later episodes. I'm mostly talking about the XGaster vial scene and the fight with Fatal. Spoiler for later in this rant: Yes, the original Ink feels pain. I've heard all of the explanations and excuses like Jakei didn't know, it's Jakei's story, Jakei doesn't have to be accurate, it's an AU so who cares?, and so on, but allow me to be frustrated. Underverse is one of, if the the most influential UTMV media out there. If someone sees something in UTMV, it's likely going to be Underverse and only Underverse. Many go to watch Underverse without knowing about the characters original stories and form their view of characters solely on Underverse's portrayal, then go on to create in the fandom. They do not have to seek out more information at all but it is frustrating when they then try to say they are being accurate to the "original" version of the character when they are so obviously basing the character off of the Underverse versions. If I see X-event or Cross in a "canon Ink lore" discussion I'm out. Imagine this: imagine we did not know how Dream fought before Underverse season one started. If Jakei had Dream use purple magic attacks and a spear, many in the fandom would think he did that in Dreamtale and would call it canon to the original Dream. That's an exaggeration but you get my point. Many don't know the Gasters in 0.6 are Ink's dads because it's not in Underverse's episodes! This is why the fandom reactions to those Ink scenes frustrate me. The emotionless scene might have been written when less was known about Ink but the "Ink does not feel pain" moments were way too recent for that information to not be out. When Ink runs out of paints, the person that is most threatened is Ink. He is helpless to the point where he can't react even if someone hurts him. He can feel pain and has felt pain. It's not always as intensely as others do but he can still feel it. I have seen the idea that the original Ink can't feel pain at all pop up more after Underverse 0.7 came out and I don't think it's a coincidence. I am NOT blaming or upset with Jakei by the way. I want to make that clear. Jakei cannot control what ideas viewers cling to and it'd be ridiculous to expect anyone to. I wish people would stop claiming Underverse Ink is a completely accurate representation of Comyet's Ink or saying he is "canon Ink, just in a different situation". He is not. Both Comyet and Jakei have said he is not a fully accurate representation of Ink. Saying that he is does a disservice to both versions of Ink. Underverse Ink is Jakei's version of Ink, that's all. And before it's brought up again: Yes, Ink's emotions are real. That is what his vials do. He feels so much he vomits, part of his character is that he struggles to understand and cope with his own emotions, and he dies without those paints. I will not lie; I am wary of anyone who tries to claim his emotions are fake because he's soulless and or because they come from the vials. Wariness is also an exaggeration but I cannot think of a word to say my point, sorry. Let me reiterate: I adore Underverse. It is fantastic and influential. I am more frustrated with parts of its fandom than Underverse itself. I beg more to stop taking Underverse Ink's actions and lore as canon to the original. At least read Ink's FAQ on Comyet's page and look into Ink's original lore instead of looking to Underverse for "original Ink" ideas and discussions. And if you are talking about Underverse Ink, please do not try to say you're talking about the original one. The same for other characters and their lore too.

(This vent got long. Sorry, mod)

[Mod note: Holy shit, you reached the character limit.]

[notablenotions]

Report: The Tavern Incident and the Devilry of Fools

Hans,

As of writing this, the village has returned to some semblance of order. The pig—yes, that pig—has been relocated to a nearby farm for “rehabilitation.” The bailiff has been convinced that the “Tavern Devils” were mercenaries hired by a rival noble house to cause disorder. No one suspects you or Just Henry. The general populace remains ignorant, which is likely for the best—for both your dignity and the pig’s.

Lord Hanush remains unaware of any disturbance. Your reputation remains, somehow, intact. I remind you: you owe me.

As compensation for my tireless efforts covering your noble arse—and ensuring the realm doesn’t collapse into pig-flinging chaos—I request the following as just recompense:

Book List (Non-Negotiable):

1. “De Natura Rerum” by Isidore of Seville – Because I now question the very nature of mankind after this incident.

2. “Physica Curiosa” – Volume on beasts. I have newfound interest in swine behaviour under duress.

3. A Treatise on Herb Lore and Misuse – Seeing as you apparently don’t know belladonna from basil.

4. The Art of War by Vegetius – In case further riots need properly quelling.

5. One illuminated manuscript of your choosing. – Because I will not be satisfied with another half-burned prayer book from a tavern shelf.

Failure to comply will result in your portrait in the great hall being replaced entirely with the sketch from the bailiff’s apprentice. (Which, might I add, is more accurate than your current commissioned portrait, and considerably more entertaining.)

In summary:

Incident covered up

Villagers punished (lightly)

Hanush uninformed

Realm intact

Your incompetence, once again, managed

Do not contact me unless through messenger bearing books.

Sincerely,

Lady Jikta Capon

Wife of the Realm’s Most Vexing Man

---

She sealed the parchment with wax and her personal sigil, pressing it firmly with a grim satisfaction. Mags would ensure it reached Hans at the hunting lodge. Knowing him, he’d feign outrage, claim she was cruel and unfair, then attempt to bribe her with half a bottle of wine and some questionable reading material. She’d refuse, of course, then extract the correct books anyway.

She leaned back, studying the ridiculous sketch of Hans again. His mouth frozen mid-shout, hair wild, flailing with a sausage. She took it to the great hall, pinned it beneath his official portrait, and stepped back.

“Yes,” she murmured. “This is truth.”

And with that, she returned to her study, awaiting the next disaster that would surely follow wherever Hans and Henry roamed.

They’d be back soon, bloodied, grinning, and likely missing half their supplies. She’d be ready.

[ember-da-toon]

TWST Headcanon for the Overblot boys,

I recently saw a fanart of Ruggie with some cracks on his features, made by @namneeo that reminded me of a headcanon that I think is rather underrated in the TWST fandom.

We discussed it in the comments of her TikTok and I wanted to share this with all of you as well!

Basically, I'm going to be discussing about scars/marks that I think the OB!Boys got after Overblotting. They may or may not be as fleshed out as you hope since I'm still catching up with the lore, but I try to make it as accurate as possible.

Riddle Roseheart

I think his scars would obviously be Rose-esque. Specifically, it's thorns. His scars would locate around various parts of his body to show how constricting and controlling his mother was back then. Personally, the most prominent one would be around his neck, a homage to his Signature Spell and, again, his mother rarely (likely never, actually) letting him speak his mind without some form of punishment.

Leona Kingscholar

His scars would be what we see happens if a person was on his end of his Signature Spell and not an object. The person would likely become dehydrated with how the water in their body is drying up inside as they slowly turn to sand (what I think would've happened to Ruggie if he wasn't freed from Leona's grasp sooner).

His scars are similar to Ruggie's but prominently around his hands instead of around the neck area. His hands are darkened, and gradients up to his wrist because of the overblot. Now he has a reason to wear his gloves, but they aren't able to hide the golden cracks that span up to his elbows. Kintsugi was my first thought when it came to Leona's scars.

Azul Ashengrotto

His marks would be octopus esque. More specifically, they look like the suction parts of tentacles. They span around his midriff, a way to remind of him back when he used to hate his chubby self. I think that when Azul was younger, he'd wrap his tentacles around himself and try to 'squeeze' the fat out of himself and would leave little suction marks all over himself. But the overblot marks are permanent and impossible to get rid of.

Jamil Viper

His scars would be snake-esque, obviously, but I can't decide whether it be scales, tattoos, or even splotches that resemble venomous snake bites. As of now, I'm sticking to the concept of tattoos of snakes around his wrists and throat, a way to show how he's bound to Kalim and how his family has served the Al-Asims for generations. Hence, generational trauma. He can't outshine Kalim since he is nothing more than his servant.

Vil Schoenheit

Vil's marks would likely be poison apple-esque or wrinkles as most of you all might think. But for me, it would actually be some sort of curse on his vision. He can't look at his reflection without seeing himself all old and wrinkly or too blurry or shattered to see himself clearly.

Everyone else can see his beauty but himself.

Idia Shroud

Idia's is a bit tricky since he's already aflame, but I managed to figure something out.

He would have those digital lines that span from under his eyes down his cheek, almost like tear stains from his grief for his dead brother but also rebuilding him as a robot. Or just a side effect from the mask he had on during his Overblot. You decide.

Malleus Draconia

I unfortunately don't have anything for Malleus just yet. We haven't seen the aftermath of his overblot yet either, but I might come back to it, all I know that is has something to do with sleeping or the spindle wheel, or maybe even the sword that went through Maleficent. So like some sort of scar on his chest.

[chaotic-minds-think-alike]

what were your thoughts on the dlc? i really appreciate your insight on worldbuilding so i'd love to hear what you have to say on it :0 either related to the gameplay/meta or the lore itself lol

god where do I start... first of all I LOVE rainworld so even though the game released downpour and watcher, they both are special to me and have their ups and downs but ultimately hold the theme of rainworld so well.

Watcher was really fun with how the beginning fakes you out, making you think "why am I in the normal world if we know this slugcat is special?" and then it just throws you in hoping you learn to swim... god...

From this point on will be spoilers for the ENTIRE watcher campaign!

Obviously as a creature artist, seeing the new creatures and how alien they were (for the most part, not just extra lizards) makes me so giddy and I cant wait to draw some of them or potentially worldbuild them!!! It's hard to pick a definite favorite but the loaches and gila monster lizards are very neat,,,,

Something I also wanna touch on is the fact that the dlc continues to keep the mysteriousness of how rainworld (the world) operates and I love that. How is it this is the first time we see CHILD echo? Echoes CAN interact with the world but chose not to?? They can move on??

Now that I think about it.. here's a list of questions I have that I might potentially speculate on someday:

What sort of "powers" do echoes have?

What is the rot? is it's base form purple? is it sentient? could it be the result of timeline decay since it follows the watcher as it moves through time?

In unfortunate evolution, we see a rotted void worm... does that mean the void sea and void worms are a tangible existence and not purely metaphysical? How does this explain the ascension ending? Are void worms entities who can travel between the physical and non physical?

What was outer rim? What is a starcatcher and why is there stardust in the air?

Why is the voidbath void fluid in ancient urban different from the void sea's void fluid? Does void fluid have a volatile and (for the most part) a non-volatile state?

What if mass ascension was achieved the same way we see in the watcher with the rot? What if it's happened before and it will happen again? Is this, in a way, rainworld's "extinction event"?

What or who is controlling the rot in the throne? is it someone we know? why do we hear iterator voices in there?

and probably a shit ton more but I'm running out of substance rn.....

You might be wondering why I havent said much on the ancients and thats because even though we got a glimpse of ancient life (when they were alive lol) I am a smidge disappointed that we didnt get to see them in more clarity... but I guess we do have a potentially accurate size comparison to slugcats? (though the sense of scale in ancient urban is constantly being warped)

I probably have more to say but like I said above I'm kinda running out of substance.. grrrrr... so until the wiki finally updates and I can get a clear look at some of these guys .. I probably won't be making any worldbuilding posts on this anytime soon.

[lovelycrimsonredsnow]

Im bored soooo

•Doors entities lore•

The Eyes:

°one of the oldest residents other than seek and figure

° they used to be the receptionist for the hotel, ringing people in and handing them their keys. They appear so often in the first 20 doors to greet the visitor like they used to back around the late 1890's. Unfortunately if the player looks at them for to long they get fatigue and pass out. Eyes is aware of this but still thinks it's rude to at least not look at him once and greet them properly. It's quite rude to just barge in the hotel like that, much less steal the items and money that naturally spawn. How barbaric.... They think.

° regardless of gender eyes will attempt to reprimand them for stealing....except by then the player is either dead or gone into the next room, it agitates them so much. >:(

° despite looking like a biblically accurate angel, eyes has no direct connection to guiding light or curious light. They don't even know they exist actually

° they can be quite moody, especially if a player ignores him. They won't snap at anyone but they'll end up ranting again to either seek or jack.

° they can and will talk for hours straight, they hyperfocus on a single thing, a very small detail. Like rush being 00000.01 centimeters off from his usual path or hide being a quarter of a second late to kick a player out of his closets, it's quite annoying actually.

Halt:

° unlike eyes he's really quiet, doesn't talk alot and when he does ...oh my. His voice is naturally very loud and commanding, which he secretly hates.

° he views all players as trespassers that must be escorted out. He appears in the first 20 doors normally and forces the player to walk the other way to the exit...which does not work since they just go forward when he tries to go behind them.

° he was an officer before...the uh.... incident™ 👀

° like figure, he knows nearly always who's in the hotel and where their at. While it's extremely frustrating for him since they normally get away, he doesn't to bother to try again since they end up dying to figure or ambush anyway.

° he's seen guiding light a few times, he attempted to talk to them but they disappeared. He also finds it annoying how they help the player.

The figure:

° the oldest resident along with seek, he stays in the library most of the time organizing books and guarding door 51.

° as suspected he was the librarian for the hotel and supplied things like candles and lighters around the nearby hallways so the guests could see what books they were reading. He was actually very kind, not quite a talker but he would hum alot and make other noises frequently.

° since he's blind he can't read most of the books in his library anymore...:( thankfully some of the other entities got him braille books they got from players or Jeff. He reads those quite a lot since he's very fond of reading in general.

° he knows where every book goes has them neatly placed on the shelves, he gets quite angry when players mess with his perfectly organized library and it's so frustrating for him since he has to ask seek to help him put those back since he can't see what they are and therefore where they should go :(

° rush and ambush are permanently banned from the library after he caught them running through it trying to catch a player and messed up multiple shelves...he also hates loud noises since his hearing is sensitive. That's also why screech is banned-

° he can actually hear when seek or the others are chasing a player throughout the entire hotel. His hearing is that good.

° he always knows the combination for the lock, if by some chance he doesn't hate you and you don't mess with his books/your really quiet he might give you it so you can leave.

° probably the nicest entity there other than Jeff and El goblino If you don't piss him off.

Jack:

° he's not part of the hotel staff actually, he was a German soldier that stayed there after world war 1.

° after the incident™ he got stuck there along with everyone else. He is rather very quiet like halt yet has a mischievous side and likes to scare the players when he's bored.

° which needless say pisses off hide since they don't like anyone in their closets...

° jack tells everyone he was a captain of a ship at one point, everyone thinks he's lying but he did captain a ship when he came to America (which is where he saw the hotel)

° he's rather spiteful and if you don't get scared when he appears in front of a door he will block the nearest closet when he hears rush...

° he doesn't really like anyone at the hotel other than eyes and Sally. He's actually bonded with her quite a bit since she's quiet yet silly like him.

° he hates halt and will fight him without a single thought, seek has to separate them frequently or they'll reck the hotel.

° he listens to eyes rant a lot, not because he wants to comfort them but because he wants to hear the tea 👀🍵

° he's probably one of the meanest entities there if your just passing through, he's not malicious though...(Unless you made Sally cry) Just mean.

(keep in mind these are all just my au not canon nor do I claim them to be canon :>)

[joydoesathing]

IT NEEDS TO BE SAID!!!

Joy… Lets just… appreciate your brain.

Like, in OG tnmn if a guys is wearing a tie, you manage to put in in the gender bend’s design (Agnes’ necklace, W’s necklace, Izabelle’s scarf, Francis’ dress she wears under the milklady coat, arlenes scarf etc etc)

You stick to their OG colour pallete! Like how Martins tie has the polka dots (ref to Margerettes dress) and Raffael’s Hawaiian t-shirt!

Hair. THE WAY YOU DESIGNED EACH CHARACTERS HAIR. I LOVE IT!

THE WAY YOU DRAW SHOES. I COULD NEVER!

You actually stick to like, 50s fashion. Like, accurate 50s fashion.

Your artstyle itself is just gorgeous

They just LOOK like their genderbend’s genderbend. You can easily tell who’s who without confusion

Character design isn’t even the SURFACE of your creativity.

YOU MAKE EXTREMELY GOOD LORE FOR YOUR CHARACTERS!!!

Im being fr, you’re a really good storyteller.

You see the characters as real life people with actual stories and views.

YOU DO RESEARCH!!!!!! THIS IS ONE OF THE THINGS I APPRECIATE THE MOST! You actually research and understand facts about the 50s and its customs and what they considered normal!

Something else I like about the characters is that they’re realistic, yes I’m extremely delusional and want Frances x Nacho to be together but they aren’t exactly made for eachother, which is why they aren’t together. WHICH MAKES SENSE!

YOU WOULD WILLINGLY CHANGE A CHARACTER’S LORE IF SOMETHING NEW IS DISCOVERED IN THE GAME! I’m mainly talking about Dr. w and Michael, you changed their age (27 to 36) when the th project document got solved, and you said youd change some things up abt Wil’s lore again in campaign mode

Okay, so this might be controversial but… I really appreciate how You didn’t draw NSFW of Nacho x Frances. Yes, they’re your characters and you have to power to draw whatever you want with them (chelsea in the corn outfit lmao) But you chose not to draw NSFW of the 2. FRANCES WAS SEVENTEEN! Imho, you made a good decision.

YOU ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND ALL THE BIASES! Martin was judged because of his eye, Wilma was judged because she was a WOMAN, and Anatolii is judged because of not having a mother and glenn and arlene are judged for their race.

THE CHARACTERS ARE REALISTIC! NONE OF THEM HAVE A ‘PERFECT’ LIFE. THEY ALL HAVE FLAWS AND PROBLEMS THAT THEY’VE FACED. I WOULD LIST THEM ALL BUT THAT WOULD TAKE FOREVER!

Okay thats chap 1 of me talking abt how much i appreciate ur au.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

My heart cannot- thank you for appreciating the effort that i invest too much into the characters 💗

when I made this AU, I initially did it for making genderbent designs for them but afterwards i thought that it would be more fun for the neighbors to have they're own individual traits and detailed stories!

i value putting in all my effort I can give to make sure everyone is their own character at the end of the day.

not to be judgemental but i kind of find it very unsatisfying when there's only certain neighbors that are given so much emphasis and detail and the rest are treated like "props" or their personality, dialogue, actions and drive are solely built around the certain character/s with a lot of detail to make them look better or have story development while the "prop" characters themselves remain stagnant with no interesting traits to them or only one-dimensional traits

and honestly for me, i feel like the characters would be more interesting and fun if they were kind of realistic ,aka have some kind of character development and have faced struggles and biases on the way, so that from there, the neighbors, while coming from very different backgrounds and lives, can still connect, empathize and make bonds with each other via similar struggles in their lives :))

so in conclusion: my enthusiasm for making genderbent designs for them + wanting all of them to be actual characters with character gave birth to what is known as my genderbend au. it became my little isolated platform in the tnmn fandom where i can go crazy with these expectations and wants for the neighbors without necessarily conflicting with the hcs that people have for the OG neighbors

(also I don't mind if you make a whole ass list)

[flamsparks]

So, I finished Veilguard…

…and I need to vent…

The text ahead is mostly spoiler-free. Minor spoilers are present (and marked)… and it’s quite long. Apologies for that…

TL; DR: Veilguard is not a bad game. It’s just a bad Dragon Age. BioWare made most decisions on your behalf, so you don’t have to. You’re a hero in shining armour (mandatory), surrounded by NPCs in various shades of vanilla, immersed in a non-existent lore, having conversations that swing between generic and cringe. Nothing Dragon Age has ever been.

N.B. I tried to be as accurate as possible while writing this text. I took notes while playing on events and conversations to try and stick to the facts actually occurring during the game. But of course, the game is immense and guides to it are not as detailed or reliable as of now, so I couldn’t double-check most of it. So, if you find anything wrong with what I say, any details (or massive plot points) I missed or got wrong, please do let me know, and I’ll see to correct them!

Good things first. Because despite what the shitload I’m about to drop onto the game might suggest, there are a few changes they made that I genuinely appreciate.

First of all, the playability has greatly improved. When it comes to DA, one of the main issues I always had with every. single. game. was that the first few hours I was lost in the dynamics I needed to figure out before I got the hang of it. Maybe I’m just an idiot. But still, there are mechanics in all three previous games that need to be understood before you get down to actually playing (and enjoying) the game. Veilguard is not like that. It’s very intuitive, everything is pretty neatly marked… it’s something I sincerely appreciated.

I also don’t dislike the new combat mode. I was worried sick that a party of only 3 wouldn’t be remotely enough to cover everything that needs covering, but I’m glad this was not the case. I’m also a pretty non-strategic player when it comes to combat - the kind who’s content with swinging an axe around and decapitate whatever comes close enough to hit. It’s again a very intuitive format the one in Veilguard, and though 3 attacks may be few, they suffice imo. Same goes for steering your companions’ fight. Only downside is just how much you need to dodge. I was hoping to play an archer, but quickly realised that playing solely at range is basically impossible since enemies target you constantly. But melee combat has also become far more manageable than before, so not all that bad. But again, I’m a player who doesn’t really know what strategy is.

And another thing I really appreciated is the pacing. To have more minor main quests scattered all along the way rather than fewer, bigger main quests, interspersed with countless side quests, helps keep better track of the plot and the big events that just occurred (which are supposedly pretty urgent stuff, stop wasting your days picking elfroot!). And in a game as story-led as DA is, keeping the plot together is not a bad thing after all.

Good.

Now that we got this out of the way,

Let’s begin from something that alarmed me already ahead of release: the impossibility of importing your world state.

I’m generally not one to jump to conclusions before having thoroughly looked into the thing. But this could not not be an issue. DA games after Origins have always lived and breathed the lore they’re set in. Choices you made affect the world afterwards. And though in the major scheme of things, they all pretty much came together to the same core points, it’s always been nice to see how previous choices reflected into the new games. You could overhear people mentioning a certain event while passing by, you could ask how your companions from the previous game were doing… and cameos of characters from previous games were doubtlessly the best part of it. Some were just fleeting appearances, but some were so relevant to the game that you ended up doing entire quest-lines with characters you knew from before and cared for. What’s more devastating than having to choose between leaving Alistair or Hawke behind? (Don’t answer please, I know the list of tough choices is long, please, don’t make me suffer further).

In Veilguard, because you cannot bring up the previous state of the world, not only you don’t have any access to news from other parts of Thedas (like, c’mon, you can’t tell me that echoes of whatever is going on in the circles southwards is not reaching maybe not Tevinter, but at least Antiva or the Anderfells), but every cameo is so frustratingly underwhelming! Characters just make an appearance, you don’t really get to talk to them, and even when you do, you can’t ask them how they’d been doing since you last saw them in DA[X]. If I left Isabela to the Qunari, I wanna ask her how she escaped! If Dorian is in a relationship with Bull, I wanna be updated! If Kieran was born, I wanna know how he is! Morrigan is the only character from previous games you have decent conversations with, and you still don’t know shit! These are small details, often irrelevant to the plot, which make the lore of DA rich and alive, and help the player connect to the worlds before the current one!

But the sad truth is that Veilguard was made for new players. Not for old ones. And yes, I understand that after 10 years since the last game, it’s plausible to think that many old players will have forgotten the franchise… but how many people had been eagerly waiting to see this world further develop for a literal decade? I can’t believe they’re not worth enough.

And being unable to choose your own world state means that the rich lore is largely avoided. A big part of discovering new countries of Thedas in previous games was being immersed into the local culture, its traditions and customs, its politics, even its language, and they had an influence in the events. After Veilguard, what do I know about Rivain? Beeches. And they have food of some kind. That’s it. That’s the lore.

Oh no, wait. We know Rivain is a non-binary culture... or do we?

Please, help me out on this. Because I played this part twice, and twice I found a plot hole so massive I sincerely think I must have missed a very easy bridge crossing over it somewhere. Please, if I did, tell me. Because otherwise, this is what I saw. And it’s driving me insane.

When Taash needs to make their choice, it is spelled as “choose between the Qunari and Rivaini culture”. And beside the irony that was noted about Taash’s cultural identity to be forced into a rigidly binary choice, Taash embracing the Rivaini culture additionally translates into them embracing their non-binary identity… except… how does choosing that culture equate to choosing that identity? When is it ever stated that the Qunari culture is a binary one [it is made explicit later on, during that infamous conversation], while the Rivaini culture is not, before that moment? And that’s not even the whole problem! To do some “talks about gender”, Taash needs literally to go to Tevinter ([SPOILER] and since I had Minrathous taken over by the Venatori, the Shadow Dragons are literally missing atm, so how on Thedas did Neve manage to arrange not one but SEVERAL cozy talks between them and Taash?). How is that supposed to be “Rivaini culture” if Taash had literally never heard of it from them and needed to go to a whole other country to find out about it?

This is just how afraid Veilguard is of its own lore. Companions may be the soul of Dragon Age games, but their lore is their spine. Without it, they’re just a shapeless mushy blob. I literally went through every single game just to live and help build this world. That’s just how powerful it is. And Veilguard is so scared of it (and Maker save us from any mentions of slavery in Tevinter or THE CROWS), it won’t let you get any close to it, at the cost of not even giving you the information you need to make your own choices.

But even though the game won’t give you the elements to understand what you’re doing, it will always clearly mark in bright neon colours what’s the choice it wants you to make. And after all, you don’t need to be informed to make informed choices… if the choices are already made for you.

“You’re not very good at being evil” (Bellara, 9:52 Dragon) That’s right… why am I no? Oh yeah, because BioWare decided so for me.

In BG3 you can literally choose to go for a mystery background that forces you to kick a squirrel dead, and you can choose either to fight it or go down the horror lane of the Dark Urge. And regardless of the background, at the end of the game you can literally fuck off the entire mission and just decide to become god and enslave the whole literal world. You can fucking turn your companions into fucking brainless squids! That’s the amount of liberty you have!

Now, a disclaimer. This amount of liberty does come with a cost. The choices you can make are many, but Larian has its own standardised plot, and that’s the one you get. Jaheira can die in BG2, she will still show up in BG3. And if when Larian releases BG4, they will have chosen one path of events. And whatever you might have wished to see reprised in this new game, you can only accept what is chosen for you. This is the trade-off when have this much freedom of choice. And all in all, it’s nice to have a game like BG3, but my heart lies with my choices, and I want to see them reflected in my worldbuilding.

Veilguard instead has a course set for you and all your companions, and you have no power over it. And that’s frustrating not because I would make the evil choice, given the chance. I am literally the kind of player who manually saves before starting a conversation with any PG, so I can go back and try not to hurt their feelings the second time. And yet, having an evil option is important, even for me. Because that’s when I choose not to use it.

I elaborated further on the importance of the evil option here.

In DAO, your character literally doesn’t speak with its own voice, and needs you to select every single dialogue line it’s gonna use with NPCs. From there, PCs have grown more and more independent… until here in Veilguard, they basically do everything on their own! Entire conversations are carried out without you being able to intervene, if not to give a small input every once in a while. You don’t really need to read the options you have, because you know that anything you choose will inevitably be just nuances of the same answer. And even the “blunt” option is not necessarily blunt. Only mildly more determined, but even your personality is not your choice. And the one you get, well…

credit: @9lunarseas6 via @timo-0126 (link)

Like… really? Rook is a far, faaaar cry from the wit Hawke spoiled us with.

For the unlucky souls who’re not acquainted with Hawke, this in the video is one of the personalities they can have. And all these personalities are very starkly defined, and depending on which you’d been selecting most often, they end up colouring many of your interactions, even without your active control.

What’s Rook’s personality? If I had to describe them as a nuance in an array of colours, Rook would be a bleached rag. And it’s not like you can do much about it, because of course, there’s the matter of agency. Rook role plays on its own, and you’re just a companion, giving them your input and hoping that will affect their decisions.

And speaking of companions… let’s discuss them. Because for months, years on end, BioWare wouldn’t. shut. up. about how important companions are to them, how central they are to their stories, so let’s talk about the companions.

Companions have always been the soul of BioWare games, because they have a stark and faceted personality they’re not afraid to show in all its vivid colours. And then there’s Veilguard. I won’t say they’re soulless or without a personality, but they are... bland. They have personal challenges and peculiarities that give them colour, but they are still faint hues of the usual rainbow we’re used to.

To give an example, let’s discuss the irony of Bellara asking why the hero of the story she’s writing would save the world... and this is the exact question the whole game never asks to any of its characters once. None of them has any sort of ulterior motive to join the Veilguard other than the answer Rook gives Bellara: “because we’re heroes, that’s what we do.” (Seriously? That’s how you get away with it?)

In DAI, the world was ending too, and yet there was always another, more personal reason pushing your companions to join the Inquisition. Thom was desperate to give his life a purpose and to make amends. Bull needed to keep an eye on the Inquisition on behalf of Par Vollen. Dorian got sucked in at first because he was trying to save his mentor and his friend, and then remained because he literally didn’t have anywhere else to go. Cole... he didn’t even care about the world ending! He was there because helping others was literally his nature. And all these personal reasons helped shape these characters and build the depth of their personality.

What are the personal reasons pushing these individuals specifically to join the Veilguard? Taash might be tagging along to free the blighted dragons from their misery (or just because their mother told them). But even that is hardly exploited along their arc. And the same can be told of every companion. They struggle to have any depth to them, which is completely foreign to Dragon Age characters, even when too hasty writing made for poor plot and character development (looking at you, DA2). Even Varric! VARRIC! A character who’s had two whole games to build and solidify his personality! Who’s hands down one of the most loved character of the whole franchise! How do you even manage such a feat?? Oh yeah, by relegating him to a corner of your palace that you never visit, without ever giving him any relevance to the game. [non-explicit SPOILER] No, the explanation given at the end is not enough. Varric is repeatedly narrated to be a great man, but all you see him do is making a few motivational speeches and conclude with “I’m going to take a nap”. How can you do so much dirty to such a character so thoughtlessly? New players will never know that Varric is indeed a great character, because they are told so all the time, but never shown.

But this ton of telling and not showing and general flatness is not exclusive to the companions. It touches everything. The lore, the relations between factions and characters, everything is oversimplified, and often reduced to a few key features that characterises pretty much every aspect of them. Most are reduced to their species or faction or such, which doesn’t allow for overly faceted motives and which in turn impacts your freedom of personalising your own beliefs and purposes.

Davrin: “So, you met a god” Bellara: “Well, technically, OUR god”

No, technically, freedom of religion applies regardless of your species, and both Davrin and I made it repeatedly clear that we want nothing to do with these self-proclaimed “gods”. So WHY can’t I just tell Bellara to stop forcing her beliefs on us, just on the grounds that we’re elves? “Remember the nursery rhymes?” No, Bellara. I was raised in Tevinter by human parents. Why would I know elven nursery rhymes?

I chose to play as an elf raised in Tevinter – from where Dorian says the Dalish literally stay away – exactly because I wanted to see what consequences would bring to play as an atheist elf raised far from elven customs who has to take down two gods from the elven pantheon. And guess what I saw? Nothing. It changes nothing. Not in my interactions with others and not in the knowledge I have access to. Bellara will still talk to me and speak of “our” gods, and I will keep on knowing Dalish lore and speak (native?) Elven, because apparently I got that for free, no explanation given to justify such competences. Zevran, Fenris and Sera were all elves raised far from Dalish or any elven influence, and they went about it in three radically different ways. Zevran struggled for every bit of memory he could gather of his mother and her Dalish customs, Sera rejected them all together, while his elven heritage was not even on Fenris’ radar. Me, I just know. Because. And don’t even get me started on tattoos…

credit: @0alix0 (link)

But I can’t conclude this odyssey of an essay before I’ve touched one last subject.

Bellara: “I think we’re getting close” Rook: “How sure are you?” Bellara: “As sure as I can be?”

The script. Oh, the bloody script.

I sincerely hope someone organises a poll to vote for the cringiest scene in Veilguard. I’m sure a fan favourite will be that already infamous scene of Taash’s coming out with their mother. My vote would go to the final dialogue with Isseya though.

Beside the cringe though, most of the problems with the whole script of the game is that it’s just… empty. Dull. Generally uninteresting.

In DAI, I would literally stop whatever I was doing just to pay extra attention to whatever banter had just kicked in. And it was always amazing banter! The wit, the jokes, the stories, the developing relationships! In Veilguard, I appreciated a lot the fact that banters interrupted by STUFF start again from where they left. And I often went back to the Lighthouse to take a tour of all companions and eavesdrop their conversations. But soon I realised… that too was often not worth the trouble.

It’s just all cheap script, that most of the time fails to be interesting or even relevant. What’s the point of the conversation between Bellara and Rook I transcribed above? What does it give me? Nothing. It only feels like a need to fill empty bits. And this applies to every single conversation in the game, from banter to plot dialogues.

Oh, and beside the poll! Can we also have a drinking game with Bellara’s lines? A shot for every time she says “he was/is my brother” (double if she adds another “my brother” afterwards) and “my/our people/gods”. I swear 60% of her lines are just copy-pasted.

Dragon Age had been away for a decade, and I understand the need to call to new players to rebuild a base after so many years. I get it. But while Veilguard is not a bad game, it’s not a Dragon Age game. Because it’s devoid of everything that makes Dragon Age what it is.

So what's next?

First of all, stop your plans on completely wiping off every bit of previous lore by just saying “the south was blighted and destroyed everything”. I see what you’re trying to do there. Don’t. Destroying all previous worldbuilding to start off with no strings attached is not the way to go. Instead, find a way to call back all the writers you chased away over the years, starting from Gaider. You need people who live and love this franchise, who know it and know what made it the grand experience it is. You need them. And you need to listen to them.

Then.

Veilguard introduced us to a shit ton of never-before-seen locations. Now let us get to know them.

No Dragon Age had ever had this many places in one go. Previous games are set in one, two locations at best. And all of them allow you to dive deep into the lore by playing it. You get to choose who rules these countries, to decide on whose side you’d rather stand in a war... so pick one location, two at most, of the many you introduced in Veilguard, and let us go deep into it. Let us fight slavery by Fenris’ and Dorian’s side (in Joplin, maybe? *winkwink*), let us see the consequences of the mage-templar war, let us know whatever the Divine decided to do with the circles. And let us get INVOLVED. All Dragon Age games have always been about being involved in a vast lore, so let us do it! Let us experience and live this rich lore! And let us write a bit of it too.

P.S. is anyone else annoyed that elves and Qunari have gradually become just humans with funny features? Like pointed ears and/or big horns? I so miss Merrill’s and Fenris’ cat-like eyes and the Arishok’s dragon-like brow.