#also every warden moment is funky

[drathe]

Jowan is doing really well, he even has his fancy seat and sometimes shows a middle finger to Greagoir and Irving in his mind.

also extra smile

[https-furina]

just my personal rambles about how much i love fontaine utc ໒꒰ྀི´ ˘ ` ꒱ྀིა

i’ve literally been bottling up my sheer adoration for this country since we started getting hints at it and teasers; i share a mild connection with france itself as french is my second language and i spent majority of my childhood between marseille and london so i was so excited for a sense of familiarity in fontaine and i was also incredibly excited for the lowkey steampunk aesthetic they gave fontaine )):

so like first things first; the archon quest??? has left me gasping, shaking, bawling, on my knees choking on tears!!! and like the best part about it is that it’s only just begun <3 my favourite thing is that with past countries, we could get a feel where the archon quest plot was going. in inazuma you recognise that ultimately you’re going against the raiden shogun and you’ll fight her before you can ask her about your sibling and in sumeru it becomes obvious that the government is the problem and you need to free the dendro archon but in fontaine? where are we going with this?

what is the prophecy truly? is it from a curse from celestia? what about furina’s status? is she just another helpless archon drowning her sorrows in trials because if she doesn’t live in that moment she’ll remember the prophecy she undoubtedly believes in, knowing her people’s sins will never be washed clean? what about arlecchino? is there actually a good motive behind her or is there going to be a hidden twist when you least expect it? how the hell are we supposed to help fontaine from submerging? and what about childe’s loss of control for his vision? i’m SO EXCITED because i have so many questions and very little answers! (who knows i might update this with more questions after doing 4.1’s archon quest)

then there’s the soundtrack!! i don’t know about yall but i’ve been going idle in absolutely every place possible just listening to the music and the ambience. i’m absolutely in love with the underwater music, i have my favourite underwater song playing in my teapot and i sit in my teapot in awe every time <3 i’m so excited for future regions’ music and how these new locations may differ from what we have now (not to mention the range of orchestra instruments hoyo included in making fontaine’s ost!)

not to mention all the species! i love the clockwork concepts (especially the dogs pfft) but also just the animals in general??? the OTTERS?! the blubberbeasts and even the seahorses, the dogs that wear silly little outfits and birds that look like they came out of pokemon aaaa <3

the flowers !! pluie lotuses that i pick every time i see them because i would kill just to have a vase full in my kitchen window <33 and the rainbow roses that look more like tulips or the lumidouce bells that are like the lovechild of bluebells and lily of the valley ): i can’t wait to see more as an ex-florist who still clings to her relationship with flowers

melusines <33 need i say more? their quest regarding elynas had me sobbing and screaming honestly, i long for more lore about them - not to mention they are such funky little genderless creatures, i aspire to be them hehe - and more quests regarding them; like i physically need melusine content or i’ll be perishing ):

character outfit designs!! everyone just looks so good i’m sorry but there isn’t a single outfit i’ve even remotely disliked yet. everyone looks amazing, hot, baking some damn goods - like we got geo taylor swift and electro lana del ray, an archon with heterochromia, some elf looking ass man who could be a dragon - or an otter, i like otter more - the wolf looking mf who wardens a prison??? magicians in thigh highs, stockings, garters and boots?! with matching bows?! AND FREMINET’S WHOLE DIVER’S HELMET ORDEAL AND COLOUR PALETTE?? i can’t i’m too in love with everyone (and all their english voice actors are fantastic too!!)

the airships being the most fun thing i have ever seen in my whole life, i routinely go on the airship at the west slopes of mont automnequi because you can see almost all of our past locations there! you can see deshret’s masoleum, the divine tree, the jade chamber and (i think) dragonspine. not to mention you get a good ass look at fontaine and some things in areas we haven’t got yet - also you can see how close celestia is to fontaine… i still remember all the theories about celestia and mondstadt (╥ ω ╥)

being able to dive out of water with fontaine characters & hydro traveler (please please please let us dive with wriothesley and neuvillette, just because they’re the first two tall characters we’ve got i’m so curious if we can)

building a relationship with berrypuff ♡(੭´͈ ᐜ `͈)੭ proceeding to cry when we release berrypuffier and then cry again when you run into them in the wild <3 i’ve also grown attached to the dog in the ship graveyard, i go there daily to feed them chicken and i cook dishes while i’m there hehe

the dishes in fontaine!! i still cackle daily about fonta ૮₍ ´ ꒳ `₎ა oh and salsa! she’s so annoying but at the same time i love that kid hehe

i could go on for too long aaaa.. i love fontaine guys. i thought i was sad seeing sumeru finally go but i think i may cry when it’s time to leave fontaine. i’ve never been so excited for a genshin region and plot since inazuma and inazuma has always been my favourite up until now. i think the only things i’ll be excited for after fontaine is meeting the tsaritsa and khaenri’ah <3

[jqupohtia]

Edit in 2023: This post is now out of date, I have reworked some stuff with timelines, things I forgot would affect things, etc. Will be making a fresh post for this soon.

And now it’s time for my thoughts on J’qupoh/G’raha. Mostly under a cut because it ended up LONGER than the rest of the Scions combined.

J’qupoh’s first thought on actually meeting G’raha Tia was “what a try-hard little brat.” He was not impressed with the run around he was given with the aethersand, nor the dramatic entrance. But he pranked the little shit later and called it even.

For a week G’raha dealt with little things like quills or his aetherometer going missing only for people to insist they were right in front of him. No matter how many times he would reach for the spot they pointed to nothing would be there. Or his gear would be temporarily dyed eye searing colors that apparently only he could see. (Conjury may be what J’qupoh is most known for, but illusions were the first magic he learned and excelled at.)

Nothing was permanent or would interfere with something's function of course, because J’qupoh’s not a complete asshole.

After that they started to get along, between J’qupoh genuinely finding G’raha’s knowledge and ramblings about the Allagans interesting and G’raha being an enthusiastic audience for J’qupoh’s stories of his adventures and the things he’d witnessed with the Echo, especially when punctuated by little illusory images when J’qupoh had a hard time describing something and preferred to just try to show it. They spent a lot of the downtime during the expedition together, at least what J’qupoh could spare. Square’s timeline is kind of funky (you really want me to believe Alphinaud only had the Crystal Braves active for a couple weeks at most?????), but it feels like the expedition would have occurred over a few months? So time enough to become fairly good friends, and leave J’qupoh checking in with the Sons frequently in case of any changes with the tower after it’s sealed.

Attraction started with the Exarch though he had suspicions it was actually G’raha under the hood. At least once he got over being mad about the Scion Snatching. The calm confidence and air of authority got to him, but also the little moments of care: ensuring J’qupoh had a meal waiting for him in his room, personally checking in with him to see how he was. Always making a point that he was asking and not ordering an

The sandwiches and tea being the start of him realizing it. Then he began using his downtime to check in with the Exarch, especially on learning that the man went huge stretches of time without rest. He’d return the favor and bring him meals, taking advantage of the guard being instructed to always let the Exarch’s most recent guest pass. He needled Lyna for her grandfather’s favorites so he could find something he can actually make or obtain. He asked the Exarch for stories about establishing the Crystarium, and fell for the love and pride he could hear when the Exarch spoke about his people and how far they’d come. And there was the occasional bit of flirting, wherein J’qupoh would come in confident and then completely lose his shit anytime it was reciprocated.

And of course came the reveal, and he was...a little conflicted. He suspected the whole time it was G’raha, but getting the confirmation and then the details of just how far this man went to save not only their future but him specifically as well? G’raha referring to him as his inspiration? He wasn’t sure he could possibly measure up to whatever G’raha saw him as, especially every time he made a comment along the lines of wondering if he’ll be worth mentioning in the Warrior’s story. J’qupoh wanted to shake him and tell him that he’d feel lucky to be included in G’raha’s story. Fighting some light wardens and almost dying didn’t feel comparable to the literal centuries G’raha sacrificed and the planned suicidal sacrifice after so they’d all live.

Though J’qupoh did make a point of spending as much time as possible with him, trying to catch up with him as G’raha rather than the Exarch and to try to keep him from working himself to death.. At least up until G’raha once again awoke within the Tower, but this time to an incredibly relieved Warrior who was just waiting for the excuse to sweep him off his feet and carry him back to the Rising Stones. Or at least down to the chocobo waiting at the base of tower, sorry Raha but even you will seem heavy after a while and he might have been getting a little carried away back there. Yes his arms are killing him, no you’re not allowed to make fun of him.

By the end of Endwalker I think they’ve worked through that (at least with G’raha seeming to get out of that hero worship/ “I just want to be part of your story” mindset) but they were still dancing around actually being in a relationship. At least until the incredibly cheesy Valentione’s Day confession

[el-oh-her]

Creative Writing Case Study: Blackwall

Look m8′s, I hate this man with a burning passion from a creative writing stance because his story was executed SO BADLY it just got fucking r u i n e d. (I am breaking it up with gifs because it looks nice) 

Spoils, btw 

Him masquareding as a dead man is COOL. Him trying to pretend to be a warden is COOL. Him hiding from his deep dark murder past is COOL. 

What’s NOT COOL is it just happening so off screen. 

The writers made a character choice that after an drunk experience, Blackwall feels so guilty for his actions he decides to turn himself in. Okay okay okay, I get where we’re coming from. We want to have Blackwall in a guilty, redemption positive light. The groundwork here is so that if a player wants to redeem Blackwall, they’re not just siding with a cold homocidal murderer. Giving him a guilty conscious allows the player to find a justification to let him live. 

But it just felt so out of left field, and here’s why: 

In creative writing, for the plot twist or the story beat to pay off, it HAS to be touched on beforehand. We call this planting the gun. It’s a little different than Chekov’s Gun, kind of it in reverse: If you want the main character to have a gun in act 3, you need to put a gun in the setting in act 1 so the reader know’s its there. 

When writers fail to do this, I typically refer to it as “The Law of Convenience” The plot point/device on screen apparaits with no prior mention or forshadowing, as if it didn’t exist until this very moment, making it a very convienient plot point/device” 

( I think this is acutally called a Deus Ex Machina, but I played Deus Ex so it always throws me off. )

Where there is good subtle moves in Blackwall’s Dialogue that forshadow he’s not a Grey Warden, there’s  n o t h i n g  forshadowing him being Rainer. No gun was planted in Act 1, and so now it feels weird and out of left field that suddenly, Blackwall is a murderer genreal dude. The dude he steps in to save in that scene isn’t even mentioned or dotted on or anything. The massacre is never mentioned until this point, either. N o t h i n g about Blackwall’s story exists until it needs to, and that isn’t good writing. 

We don’t have anyone in Orlais discussing Rainer. THAT would have been good planting. That awful man that they gossiped about during the ball? He’s in YOUR party! 

Could you imagine in Adament if you mentioned Blackwall and everyone said Blackwall was dead and THAT’s how you found out something was up which could have led to the Rainer Reveal?. Or if a soldier came trying to kill Blackwall, or if Sera’s PEOPLE in that area told her about Rainer becuase of the massacre? Like, there’s so many ways to get this information without it being a sad exposition. 

Leliana’s a spymaster, for crying out loud. 

My other problem with Blackwall’s narrative is that it tells, not shows. Blackwall goes to prison and he just tells us sitting in the cell what he did. There’s no action, no drama to the scene. Just exposition followed by a decision. They write up a reason why he’s there (so one of his soldiers doesn’t take the fall for his crime) and yyayaya. 

 if you find out outside of this, like through Leliana, you only have one side of the story, and fuck, might even arrest Blackwall yourself because you don’t know about the guilt yet. That’s drama! G o o d  s h i t.  OMG, the Inquisitor could think he KILLED Blackwall. 

If it got revealed at Adament, that would have been d r a m a t i c. ESPEICALLY if Blackwall was in your party. The way to pull that off would be that up until then, Blackwall HAS to join the inqusition, and he can’t be kicked out until after. 

These are subtle background things that Dragon Age did before in Dragon Age II, where Anders, Isabella, Varric, Merril, Carver, Bethany, and Aveline join your party no matter what. Anders is the one I point to here, because he’s also a Grey Warden. So like, Leliana could have said “Blackwall is staynig to help because we should have a Grey Warden just in case things go south” and that can pay off for the Archdemon, and actually would forshadow the archdemon. 

If you want to do something like Blackwall’s narrative, here is my advice: 

- Unreliability. If other people told us about Blackwall’s, we make wrong conclusions and make mistakes and it involves us more than him just sitting in a prison and telling us what happened. There’s drama in misinformation. 

- Plant the gun. If we want him to get arrested in Act 3, we need to know about Rainer in act 1. Passing Dialogue in appropriate areas, maybe there’s a soldier who was under his command that you can interact with in Haven. There could be even more subtle, Blackwall hates when he’s in Orlais. He doesn’t want to go to the ball, etc. We need to know about the massacre, we need to know about the soldier getting falsely accused somehow. Not all of these things need to be planted, but some of them at least so when it does happen, the player can connect the pieces. 

- The Reveal has to be on point. This whole story falls apart if the reveal isn’t good, which is exactly what happened in Blackwalls story. It’s fine to make him guilty, but there’s nothing there in a conversation at a prison with all this expostition. 

- You HAVE to make Blackwall  feel guilty if you want him to live. There’s a lot of good people in the world who couldn’t justify Blackwall if he didn’t legitimently feel bad for his actions. Doing the story any other way without Blackwall turning himself in makes this harder, but it’s going to be hard, you’re justifying a murderer. If I could change the narrative, I’d have made a wartable mission that someone is being hanged in VR for the crime Blackwall admitted to, and Blackwall begs you to turn him in so the man doesn’t get killed. Like, that’s a good show of a changed man. 

Good Things About Blackwall

1. Him not being a Grey Warden was executed well. Blackwall is consistently vague and has a lie prepared for every question, which makes sense because it’s a false idenity 

2. “Scale the Wall” is fucking hilarious 

Eh, that’s all I really got. I am a little dissapointed that I don’t have much for him. He’s just not my favorite. 

These are just my opinions, btw. I am God or the law of creative writing, this is just how I feel, but I do study this at University so I feel like I have a small handle on this type of stuff? Tell me what you think about Blackwall. and if you’re a Blackwall lover, like why? I don’t see his appeal and  I guess it would be funky to learn. 

[morfinwen]

10 Facts: Lauren, Ian, Aidan, Ash, Avery, Nate, and Elarin, please!

Here’s your 70 (!) facts:

10 Facts about Lauren

1. She gets along best with her oldest and youngest brothers. She doesn't not get along with her sisters (sometimes), but their relationship can best be described as tolerance, and her closest brother Justin enjoys provoking her.

2. At one point she wanted to learn the flute, as it promised to be easier to carry around than the guitar, or the piano. Her parents couldn't afford to buy one.

3. She tried running away from home once at age eight, and considered making another attempt at age ten. Ian talked her out of it.

4. Her entire family, including aunts, uncles, cousins, and her older siblings' spouses and children, came to her college graduation. Almost all of them made it to the party her parents threw afterward. She nearly cried.

5. Lauren is always uncomfortable around her nieces and nephews -- she has four or five of them -- but if anyone made them cry, she'd punch that person in the face.

6. Knows more about comic book characters than her comic-loving brother Justin, thanks to hearing Ian talk about them in grade school, all the time. All. The. Time. 

7. Got a few part-time jobs in retail in high school. She hated it, but it meant she had enough money to buy clothes that weren't hand-me-downs or from a thrift store, so she grit her teeth and kept at it.

8. She still got fired twice for losing her temper with a customer.

9. She got started smoking because her dad is an occasional smoker. He got diagnosed with lung cancer a few years ago. It's in remission, but despite multiple attempts, he hasn't managed to quit yet.

10. Her mother's had three miscarriages, Lauren was old enough to know about two of them. It's a strange concept, having a sibling that didn't even live to be born.

10 Facts about Ian

1. He has a decided type: tall, confident blonde women of principle. He's fallen in love more than once, though he tends to get over it fairly quickly.

2. Thanks to his dad's need to travel for work, he has funky little souvenirs from 48 states. Lauren has none, though she actually traveled out of state in childhood more than once, and Ian only did once he was an adult.

3. Ian theorizes his terrible sense of navigation comes from his mother, after a fashion. She's perfectly fine with directions, she just has an abysmal grasp of time. She's forever arriving half an hour to two hours late or early to appointments, and she will either take half or twice as long doing something as she says she will.

4. He has fond memories of almost two weeks with just his dad at home, when his mom was helping her parents out after her dad had surgery. They ate out almost every night, thanks to his dad being a nightmare in the kitchen, and he never went to bed on time.

5. Her terrible sense of time aside, bedtime is sacred to his mother, and she's fanatical about her son eating his vegetables. She doesn't know about those two weeks.

6. He once tried to start a dog-walking business when he was twelve. It was a terrible idea. No dogs were lost, but it was a near thing.

7. He's the only child of his maternal grandparents' only child, so they -- particularly his grandma -- tend to dote on him. They also know nothing about any children other than their daughter, so it’s not as great a thing as it might sound.

8. He has several aunts, uncles, and cousins on his dad's side, but Ian's only met one of his uncles once. He doesn't know why, exactly, but he's picked up that his dad had a rough childhood.

9. He talked Lauren out of her second attempt at running away completely by accident: he thought it sounded really cool, but all his suggestions just made it clear to Lauren how unfun it would actually be.

10. Regularly listens to the top 40 in the car, more to keep abreast of what's popular than because he likes it, though it has introduced him to some songs/artists he enjoys. He always has to turn off the radio if Lauren's riding with him.

10 Facts about Aidan

1. A big factor in his identity crisis was that, growing up, he didn't fully recognize he wasn't human. It's obvious now, of course.

2. Tried to enlist in 1941, after Pearl Harbor. He ... doesn't know if he actually served.

3. For as long as he can remember, he's always had this sense of where his sister is. It makes him wonder if his mother is dead, or something like it, since he's never been able to sense her.

4. Aidan generally gets along with Nate pretty well. This is surprising -- or, maybe not? -- given that Aidan has a really hard time understanding the concept of death.

5. Aidan has a lot of trouble with certain concepts in general, like that other people need more than 4-5 hours sleep, he should really let people know before he disappears for a few weeks, and that rules about not touching personal property don't just apply to the things he wouldn't touch anyway.

6. Given the things he's willing to do, or has done, some people might think he has no sense of dignity. He does, he just doesn't care that much.

7. The second-least accepting of having Q in the house, mostly out of a sense of loyalty to Nate, the least accepting. It had nothing to do with Q personally.

8. Until he met Ash, he'd never met anyone who had any idea what species he was. It seems incredibly obvious in hindsight.

9. Considers himself a lapsed Episcopalian.

10. When he finally went back to his hometown, nearly fifty years after he'd left, there was almost nothing left of it. It left him with a greater sense of loss than anything had before. Which wasn't a lot -- very little makes Aidan sad for very long -- but it was notable.

10 Facts about Ash

1. Ash's mother did not know her father, grew up with three sisters, and her own mother had two sisters and no brothers. She fully intended on having a daughter. Having a son was a surprise, but one she adapted to quite well.

2. Until he helped his great-aunt with managing her finances, Ash didn't really know how money worked. As it is, he knows how to make the numbers come out right, but that's pretty much it.

3. His grandmother laid down the law in his house, and even her adult daughters were careful to follow every mandate. She was fair, but stern.

4. Appearance-wise, he takes after his father more than his mother's side of the family, though judging by his aunt Iris that's where his height comes from.

5. He's not as close to his aunt Lily as he is to his mother or aunt Daisy, but whenever he was having a bad day he'd sit in her parlor and listen to her play the piano.

6. He knows he has a few cousins on his father's side, but he's never met them. His dad never figured out how to explain to his family that he had a son with the woman that did "work" on his truck once a year, so they don't even know he exists.

7. Since he knows how to manage Lanzo, most people assume he knows him well. He doesn't. He really doesn't. Lanzo just listens to Ash more than others for some reason.

8. Ash gives the best hugs. Everyone agrees on this point.

9. It sometimes baffles him that someone as intelligent as Connie can forget to eat or sleep.

10. His aunt Iris taught him to read poetry and monologues/soliloquies from Shakespeare aloud. He doesn't do it often, but if he needs to distract himself or someone else, or in certain other rare circumstances, it's quite effective.

10 Facts about Avery

1. Despite all the negatives associated with Anders being a former Grey Warden, Avery is honestly relieved that it makes it unlikely they will ever have children.

2. Avery thinks of Merrill as a younger sister, Aveline as an older one, can't imagine a better drinking buddy than Isabela, and has a great deal of admiration for Fenris after everything he's been through. That said, every single one of them gets on her nerves sometimes, and there have been moments where she wished she had never met them.

3. There's a moment in the game where Fenris implies that Avery might feel negatively about mages, after one murdered her mother. I actually spun around in the game to see if i could yell talk to him after that -- no such luck. Fenris was sent home immediately afterward, and didn't hear from Avery for two weeks. He came very close to never hearing from her again.

4. She relives memories in her dreams, sometimes pleasant ones, sometimes not. It makes mornings difficult, either way.

5. She's not much of a reader, but even if she was she'd never touch Varric's novels about her. She knows they're dramatized, but the idea still makes her uneasy.

6. Isabela never came back after stealing the Qunari relic. Avery never would have handed her over to the arishok -- she respects them as intelligent beings, but no further -- but given everything that happened after that theft, she's not sure she could have forgiven Isabela for it.

7. Her Chantry attendance is not very good, and gets worse over time. She believes in the Maker and Andraste and all that, but not with any passion.

8. She knows nothing about healing, her bedside manner is lacking (unless all you want is witty comments), and she's nowhere near methodical enough to handle medicines and supplies, but she helps out Anders' clinic in whatever way she can.

9. Cats are obnoxious, aloof, oversized rats that make her nose run and her eyes water, but if things in Kirkwall had been slightly more settled at any point, she would have let Anders have as many as he wanted. That's how much she loves him.

10. Growing up, her younger brother Carver got on her nerves, constantly. Apart from the guilt she feels over his death, her biggest regret is that they were never able to forge a better relationship as adults.

10 Facts about Nate

1. His dad died when he was seven. He has no particular memories of the man.

2. Has contemplated probably more than a dozen careers, mostly as a kid -- action movie star, paleontologist, professional skateboarder, astronaut, etc. Didn't settle on audio engineering until his sophomore year of college.

3. Loves both of his younger siblings, but he always got along better with his sister (María) than his brother (Víctor). She's very much the sweet, friendly type, whereas his brother is much more competitive and rebellious.

4. Low-key resents both his father and stepfather for never really being there for him, his stepfather moreso, since he at least had a choice about the distance he kept.

5. His stepfather is a mage, which is why Nate's a ghost now. It takes extensive contact with the occult for a human to remain as a ghost after death.

6. He loves his mama, but she was always anxious, particularly about raising her children in a big city, and a bit smothering. That's part of the reason he moved away for college.

7. He's never been religious, and during college all his friends were calling themselves atheists so he did too. While he's angry with any god that would let him die so young, if an all-powerful deity spontaneously generated that bus specifically to run him down, that would be preferable to learning there's nothing after death, and that his afterlife means as little as his actual life.

8. Knows a bunch of random trivia from watching Jeopardy with his siblings -- there were always reruns when it was too early to go to bed but too late to be outside.

9. He's always made friends easily, made more evident by his ability to build relationships with everyone in the house even in the midst of post-death depression.

10. He and his friends were extras in a movie once, as it was filming at their school. If it's ever on TV, he makes sure to watch the scene where they're skateboarding in the background.

10 Facts about Elarin

1. Like her parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and likely even earlier ancestors, she was born in space, on the freighter her parents worked on: her father was a mechanic, her mother worked in security.

2. She had a lot of siblings, older and younger, but she was the only one to be taken by the Jedi.

3. While she never liked being lied to, it wasn't until she learned how much the Jedi had lied to her about who she was that she developed such a hatred for it.

4. People closer than acquaintances can call her Arin. Her childhood nickname was Ella, but only Bastila, Meaghan, and Carth can call her that.

5. She's always viewed orders by authority as "suggestions". It's caused a few problems.

6. Elarin has a very charismatic presence, drawing a lot of attention and winning people over very quickly. She uses it occasionally, but she's never understood why she has it.

7. She's made the attempt more than once, but she's never managed to fully understand why her previous self fell to the dark side. She isn't sure if that's a good or bad thing.

8. While she's brilliant at war strategy, tactics is one of the few things she's neither excellent or terrible at, and during the wars she had to rely on her advisors to help her with them.

9. She can't remember anything about Malak from before, so all she really knows of him is his Darth Malak self. She still feels guilty about her part in that.

10. Because canon is dumb (and not even canon anymore), Elarin did leave after the events of KotOR 1 to investigate things from her past, but she returned not long after the events of KotOR 2. As far as official records are concerned, however, the former Darth Revan never returned from beyond the Outer Rim, fate unknown.

Thanks for asking!

[blogging-phelddagrif]

Pauper Deck Tech: Soul Sisters

[you can see every deck tech here]

Hello & welcome to this weekly deck tech! This week we’re back into pauper with a pretty nifty deck: Soul Sisters. Now if you’ve been following me for a while, you probably remember I did a deck tech on modern’s version of Soul Sisters, and this one is honestly pretty similar with its core, but it doesn’t go in the same direction; you’ll see what I mean in just a moment. Lets get right into the deck and see what its all about!

Soul Sister Package

This is the core of the deck, you want to play the whole Sisters package with Soul warden, Soul’s Attendant & Essence Warden. With all of those you’ll have a TON of lifegain, which buys you a lot of time, especially in pauper. From there you want to play as many creatures as possible to gain that sweet sweet life.

Getting Lots of Creatures

What you want to do is get down tons of creatures to trigger your Sisters as much as possible. This buys you time, as well as gives you a nice board presence. Go as wide as you can to fend off your opponent and start presenting decent amounts of damage. You should play Saproling Migration, Gather the Townsfolk & Raise the Alarm for maximum token potential! Some people play Battle Screech but I’m not a huge fan of it for this deck.

the Combo

What’s kind of fun with the deck is that it plays the funky combo of Midnight Guard + Presence of Gond. If you assemble this you can get basically infinite amounts of Elf tokens, which if paired with one of the Sisters, will gain you an infinite amount of life, and then will let you attack for as much damage as you want. The main goal of the deck is to assemble this and combo off, but you can still win via the regular token plan if needed.

Digging For Stuff

Since the deck wants to assemble a combo, you need to find the pieces; Commune with the Gods can find you either parts of your combo, as well as your Soul Sisters so it’s a pretty good card in the deck!

Big Tokens

If you can’t go infinite, a good way to close off the game is to make your tokens bigger, and Kjeldoran War Cry is pretty solid at that. If you have 1 of them in your graveyard, something that can easily happen off a Commune, your tokens will present MASSIVE damage, so if your combo is off the table you can still put up a good fight with this.

Sideboard Options

You have some fairly good sideboard options to deal with any problem you might encounter. If I’m honest, the main problem this deck faces is Pestilence decks, otherwise the deck can keep up with the meta; for that reason, playing cards like Nature’s Claim & Demystify are VERY important. You can also run cards like Benevolent Bodyguard & God’s Willing to protect your combo from red decks.

Wrap-Up

That’s it for this week! I hope you enjoyed this deck tech as much as I did. The deck is really fun to play and keeps up with most of the format, except for Pestilence decks when in pre-sideboard mode. Also, the deck costs a whopping 30$ so if you’re looking for a budget option I highly recommend it! (I’m actually really considering building it myself!). In any case, if I missed anything please let me know! I’ll see you all next week for the last Un-Format deck tech!

[gageef]

Uncle Negan : Part Nine

IF YOU HAVEN’T READ PART EIGHT YOU SHOULD PROBABLY DO THAT BEFORE READING THIS PART, SO CLICK HERE TO DO THAT

OR CLICK HERE FOR THE MASTER LIST TO KEEP UP ON ALL OF IT

negan imagine / negan x you / negan x reader 

warnings: language

Your body started trembling as you stared down your husband, afraid to look away. Rick started to lightly step back and fourth in his place, looking from you, to Mary, to Negan, back to you. Negan placed his hand on your waist, handcuffing himself to your figure. The moment he tried to push you forward Rick made a run for it, coming straight for your new ‘happy’ family. All at once four saviors appeared from behind you, two grabbing his shoulders and the other two stopping him at gun point. 

“Well hold on just one god damn minute there, Rick.” Negan peered at you mid lip bite before inching towards Rick. Standing next to him, they both returned their gaze to you. “I know that dress she’s wearing just makes you want to fucking ravage her, right? I just can’t have you do that, you haven’t asked her permission or anything. You just going and laying a hand on her? That shit would just not be cool.” He continued to taunt him, pushing Mary’s father closer and closer to his breaking point. “I picked the dress out myself, by the way,” Negan leaned in, whispering inches away from Rick’s ear, “I have this skill ya see. When I have a lady with needs, I treat her like fucking royalty.” You began to feel lightheaded as you heard him repeat the same words he had said to you about Lucille. He motioned his famous bat towards you, “and let me tell you. New mom with a little angel like that? More needs than you could ever fucking imagine.” You expected him to try to break from the Saviors and go straight for Negan, but he knew better than to do that now. That killed you. “But I also have needs, and right now I have a hunger...” he brought Lucille up to his eyes, carefully looking her over. You lightly choked on the little air you had left. This was it, Negan had brought you on a family vacation so you could see your family killed. “...for some fucking cooking. I am starv-ing!” He grinned back at you, his joke forcing the air back into your lungs. “You-” he pointed to Carl, “take me to market. Uncle Negan’s cooking dinner tonight.” You nodded your head towards Carl, silently saying it would be okay. With that, Negan turned on his heel guiding himself and Carl to their diminished food supply. Halfway down the road you heard him whistle, acting as a human car key, unlocking Rick from the Saviors grasp. They returned to their trucks, leaving you, Rick and Mary in the center of the uncomfortably quiet Alexandria. 

Clutching Mary, you suddenly felt yourself sprinting towards Rick, slowly then all at once. As you came up to him you felt your breath double in weight as everything you had been suppressing at the Sanctuary started to bubble up in your eyes. Stumbling through various “ums” and “I’s” trying to hold yourself together, you felt yourself let go, collapsing to the ground with your tears following right behind you. Finding an odd sense of emotional strength seeing you like this, Rick forced himself to stay poised. Kneeling down and lifting you and Mary’s broken shattered forms he walked towards his house readying himself for the family reunion he had been dreaming of for weeks. 

He carried you inside and laid you down on the couch, your sobbing becoming almost uncontrollable. Leaning down over you, he wedged his hands around his baby, your arms leaving a space for her even after he removed her from your grasp. Rick’s nose started to quiver as Mary reached for his beard. He disappeared for a few minutes down the hallway before appearing in the living room once more. By the time he came back you had found the strength to stand, your frame trembling with every wheeze. 

“R...Ri..ck..Rick I-” All at once the decision was unanimous and you both embraced each other, your silent motions saying a thousand and one words. Every second feeling longer than the next making you wish you could stay here forever. 

“Nothing like pizza to bring a fucking group of people together--holy shit.”

But forever was of course impossible.

“If you wanted some time alone you could’ve told me to leave the fucking kid outside. Unless you have some funky scrambled egg shit type of family orgy preferences than by all means,” he laughed, turning to Carl. “Go out and help the men gather our half, use those strong arms for some damn good around here, huh? I’m about to go all Gordon Ramsel up on this kitchen’s ass.”

His attempt at humor soaked into the silence that surrounded it. 

“Or whatever the fuck his name is.”

____________

“Mmmmm, mmm. I don’t know about you guys, but I definitely outdid myself this time. This is the best fucking pizza I’ve had all damn day!” He laughed, his chewing as fierce as the look in his eyes. The three of you sat around the table, two candles lighting the void that was the dining room. “Shit, you know what would go well with this? Some fucking scrabble. Now I know in the middle of this dead ass suburbia that game has got to be laying around somewhe-”

“-I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” Negan placed both hands on the table, finishing his last bites of pizza before addressing what had just been said. 

“Oh, I know you did not just fucking say that. I’m going to give you another chance. Let you correct the shit you just threw at me.”

You saw Rick’s jaw clench as he risked everything he had just been reunited with. “Last time we talked you said you’d return her when she was better. She’s here, she’s better, I’m going to have to ask you to take your half and leave my hous--” 

His voice was suspended by the click of Negan’s gun, which in seconds was pointed straight at you. 

“You just never fucking learn, do you.” He swiped a hand down his beard, taking a long breath before pounding his fist on the table. “Alright, let’s have some fucking fun.” In one swift motion he grabbed you at your midriff and carried you out the front door, despite your kicking and fighting. 

“OH, ALEXANDRIANS, DO WE HAVE A FUCKING SHOW FOR YOU.” He yelled as he carried you down to the front of the trucks. “ARAT, GO AHEAD AND WHIP OUT OUR GUEST OF HONOR.” He wrapped his arm around your chest almost blocking your neck from behind, gun at your head, making you now apparently the second hostage. Rick was yet again surrounded by Saviors who had forced him on all fours directly behind your warden. Slowly but surely the entirety of Alexandria filed out to the streets. This was too similar to the night everything went to shit. You wanted nothing more than to be free of this pain. You heard what you assumed was Arat dragging the first victim out to the party. Saw her throw the body down on all fours, sack over his head, feet away from Rick. “Get ready for the man of the mother fucking hour.” She removed the bag to leave you opposing Daryl yet again, but you knew this was Rick’s first time seeing him that night since Lucille went ballistic. The scene became deja vu as you saw Rick fall speechless into himself once again under Negan’s reign. “Boy do I just fucking LOVE family reunions.”

WELL THERE IT IS. WHAT’S GONNA HAPPEN HUH? GUESS YOU’LL JUST HAVE TO WAIT TO FIND OUT. 

LET ME KNOW IF YOU LIKE IT, IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS OF WHERE YOU WANT IT TO GO, LITERALLY ANY FEEDBACK ABOUT ANYTHING IS SO EXTREMELY APPRECIATED. 

MASTER LIST

@killjoycametofuck  @fuck-yeah-lets-do-negan-ff @superwholoki @deeindarkwonderland @angelfuzzy2 @countryfire2 @laaadygisbooornex3 @bands-messed-me-up @narcoleptic-moose-winchester @lilred91 @knowurenemies @buckybarnesisalittleshit @the-walking-dead-smut @bowieisawizard @ofmiceandmel666 @opheliadawnwalker3  @the-walking-dead-imagines457@liljanajahwe @khyharah @isayweallgetdrunk @kellyn1064 @chrisevansthedoritobastard @robert-d-j-bernthal @namelesslosers @knowurenemies @jmackie1983 @awalkinghurricane @the-walking-dead-imagines457@bowieisawizard @straightestgay-voice @eliselulu23 @kawaiirepublic @killjoycametofuck @ali-pennell @missawkwardmarvel @chloelouisemaate @concertxjunkie @badsongwinchester @the-saminator @thejulietfarciertlove

love always <3