#and i feel like logistically it doesn't make a whole lot of sense BUT i could probably fix that with some editing

[stevethehairington]

i am once again thinking of a good omens wicked au, but this time instead of the obvious crowley as elphaba and aziraphale and glinda, im thinking of the OPPOSITE.

im thinking of how AZIRAPHALE fits elphaba's character in that he is an outsider amongst his peers and he's a little bit awkward and he's got so much faith in the almighty/the wizard. he's got "parents" (read: god) who expect so much from him and siblings who are ashamed of him. and he's got dreams! he wants to do big things! he wants to work hand in hand with and make the almighty/the wizard proud!

and im thinking about how CROWLEY fits glindas character in the sense that he's suave and charming and people are drawn to him. he knows how to talk to them and how to get them to do what he wants, and he's the one that teaches aziraphale things about the world (a la popular, like tempting aziraphale into eating meat and drinking wine and all these very human things he never would have thought to do without crowleys influence).

im thinking of how the two of them start out absolutely loathing each other, as mortal enemies, one could say... but how over time and as they bond more and more, as they see different sides of one another, that loathing turns into something else. something just as strong, just as passionate, but softer. gentler. sweeter. it turns into love.

and of course everything gets shattered when upon meeting his idol, aziraphale learns that god isn't what he thought she was. it turns out god is just a pipe dream. all there is is a floating head, the metatron, posing as god. and not at all the great and powerful entity aziraphale believed. and the metatron CANT help aziraphale, can't fix him. and thus the downfall of aziraphale begins.

[meanbossart]

ASK COMPILATION #385032: Shape-shifting genitals, mouth-mashing skillsets, who taps out first in the bedroom and the 17 different types of meat this guy eats.

I TRIED TO MAKE THIS A BIG ONE. Thank you everybody for your patience!

The truth of the matter is that I need one dramatic light-source or I will perish. HOWEVER...

Yeah, they seem the type to leave it purposefully ajar for the thrill of it. As well as the excuse to bring hell down upon anyone caught trying to steal a peek.

YES, actually! I've had the concept for a comic or two that's precisely about interactions they've had while younger. Comics take a lot of work, and there's a LOT of things I want to do, but that is definitely in the plans.

Yes! Or rather, as a shapeshifter, I believe she doesn't bother with them 99% of the time, possibly never, even though she has the habitability to form them if she so wished. The Orin DU drow knew was always doll-like in appearance when nude, and he did not particularly mind it or fantasized about anything different.

I believe this is both a preference in Orin's part (and across many shapeshifters, if I recall correctly) as well as a strategic choice.

And thank you so much!

[MORE BELOW THE CUT]

I don't know, kissing isn't that hard LOL I think they're pretty even-leveled in technique but Astarion is the tonguier one.

ALL IN DUE TIME, MY FRIEND, ALL IN DUE TIME...

Maybe 😊 🤫though I'm not sure how useful his powers would be in that context.

That said, Indeed! The irony of this match isn't lost on anyone. I'm sure Astarion would have some thoughts about the convenience of it.

I know this is more of a jokey message, but I don't think Astarion would be cool with that sort of thing, and DU drow most definitely wouldn't ask 😂

Whatever works, as he would probably say!

Astarion got drunk through DU drow on occasion while he still fed on him, yes LOL I don't care if that makes sense or not, It's a hysterical concept and definitely factual in my canon. To be fair as well, DU drow is a huge man and has to drink a LOT to get properly wasted - so Astarion wouldn't have to consume a whole lot from him to get on a similar level!

Post a few particular post-campaign events, Astarion gets drunk through strangers' blood that were either piss-drunk already or have been fed alcohol forcibly by the pair.

He likes thick stews, braised pork, and meat-pies the most. Don't ask me when or why I've decided this but he likes octupi as a every-once-in-a-while treat - I think he mostly enjoys the experience of eating it more than the taste.

For drinks, he likes beer, red semi-dry wine, and mead the most. He also likes a GOOD whisky - none of the copper-coin garbage they serve at most Inns.

Hi! Incredible question. DU drow can go indefinitely but when he stops he knocks out in record speed. There usually comes a point where Astarion flops over and lets him do all the work.

You know how, shortly after you find out about it, if you tell Astarion that you're frightened of your origins you get that really heartfelt bit of dialogue about how yourself and him are so much alike, and how he feels similarly powerless before Cazador as you do toward your father? Well, I never got that, because DU drow was too busy squinting into the horizon and contemplating the logistics of his conception which prompts Astarion to, essentially, say something along the lines of "Okay, if all you want to do is discuss your dad's cum I'm out"

So, like that.

They didn't smash in the graveyard! I'm hoping to either write a short thing about it, draw something inspired by how the scene went down in my head, or, ideally, both!

That IS kind of a wild comparison but I'm guessing you know about my origins, LOL.

Not... Quite. I'm reluctant to say more because I would like for it to be a surprise that I bring you all through art (even if you can make a pretty accurate deduction based on what has been said so far) but suffice to say that this is the flipside to the Bhaalist DU drow AU.

I don't think I could find the time 😭😭😭 but that's a hysterical idea and I would gladly mash together a bunch of clips if someone else was willing to highlight them!

Hello and thank YOU for humoring me in my nerdy little forays!

I hadn't heard about Model/Actriz but I had a little sneak-peek and, indeed, this might just be right up my alley LOL

It's hard for me to remove these characters from their intended universe so I have a difficult time picturing what they would listen to if the options didn't all sound like string-y bardcore music. I'm sure there are more genres to speak of in DnD lore, I'm just ignorant of them!

That said I do have some thoughts about which of them even enjoy music at all.

REALLY enjoys music: DU drow, Jaheira, Misc, Karlach, Wyll.

Modestly enjoys music: Gale, Shadowheart, Minthara, Halsin.

Generally doesn't enjoy music: Astarion, Lae'zel.

No notes just canonical character information being shared

I forgot what this one was in reference to for a moment and I was so aghast.

I really, really hope you weren't hoping for me to give you work-out advice because both, if you were, you've come to the wrong man.

But if you're just wondering about lore here, I think it's a solid 50/50. I think he's predisposed to a really well-built physique because Daddy Bhaal said so AND he's incredibly active and incidentally does a lot of manual labor. If he's had a few too many sedentary days in a row (which is rare) he pretty much has to tire himself through at-home routines or he goes a little cuckoo-bananas as well.

And thank you for being interested in my little freak!

He's pretty thoroughly desensitized, and thinks far too little of Orcs and half-orcs to be intimidated by them, even when that lack of fear is downright stupid. He's not impervious to fear, however, despite how hard he tries to be - Myrkhul, Grym, the giant Steelwatch, the brain, and even Cazador AFTER he snatched Astarion away were all encounters that made his blood run cold to varying degrees. I think it takes an unfamiliar foe for his sweat to run a little cold.

(Ironically, Raphael had no such effect on him.)

[zukkaoru]

had a mild breakdown. don't worry about it

[image text in alt]

dial drunk is so skkcoded. btw

[gor3-hound]

Hi pookie bear… its ur favorite anon again..

Hear me out, Step brother! Leon whos dear innocent little step sister gets stuck somewhere (interesting position..) and leon cant help himself when he sees her predicament so he takes advantage of the situation and the fact that she asked him to help her get unstuck. (maybe a threat of leaving her stuck at some point, its up 2 u bbg)

ily snoogle 😍🫶

hello to... my favourite anon omg. if you say so it must be true :3

i'm hearing you out!! idk why but silly porn tropes make me giggle sometimes... listen don't analyse the logistics of acc being able to get stuck like this. i see how much space there is under the dumb beds girlies get stuck under in porn we all know it doesn't make sense

ILY EVEN MORE POOKIE... here's a drabble for you :3

nsfw below the cut - tw: stepcest, brief dub-con, leon is a little mean :((

"What the-" Leon's footsteps falter as he walks past you, stopping to take in the predicament you've gotten yourself into. He snorts out a laugh as he sees you, and you can practically sense that dumb smirk plastered on his face despite not being able to see him.

Having an ottoman bed was usually great. Your room was the smallest(Leon had promised to make your life a living hell if you took the bigger one) so having the extra space was nice. You just had to lift the slats and mattress up and boom! Free storage unit.

Of course, you're not that lucky, so the stupid thing failed on you and snapped shut with you still leaning over to look for stuff, trapping you inside. Your whole upper body was incased, and the angle was so awkward you couldn't get any leverage to push the damn thing open again.

"Leon!" You breathe out, feeling relief that someone had found you. You thought you'd be stuck under here forever. "Jesus, thank fuck. Can you help me get out of here?"

"You know, as much as I'd love to help you," He starts, steeping closer until he's right behind you. His hands settle on your hips, giving them a little squeeze. Your breath hitches at the contact, and you try to squirm away from his touch.

"I think you could stand to stay there a little longer." He finishes, his fingers brushing the waistband of your shorts.

"Leon... dude." You hiss, trying to squirm away from his touch. His hands have your cheeks burning up, your brows furrowed in confusion. "This isn't funny! What the hell are you doing?"

"What am I doing?" He repeats, letting out another laugh as he starts to slowly tug your shorts down. You can feel his gaze locked onto you as he slips them down so they pool at your knees. "I'm taking advantage of the situation. It'd be a shame to let this... opportunity go to waste."

"Oppur... wait. Leon, you can't be serious! Come on, this is messed up! Just help me out!"

"No can do, sis." He hums, brushing his thumb against your panties. Damp. Looks like you were enjoying this more than you let on. "Mom and dad have gone out, so... either you stay here for the next few hours, hell... maybe even the rest of the day, or you let me have my fun, and I'll getcha out."

You pause at his words, biting your lip. You didn't really have much of a choice. Your abdomen was already aching from being pressed so harshly against the bedframe by the part of the bed that lifts. You didn't want to be here for hours.

"I-I guess... just... I don't know, Leon, I haven't..." You mumble, your voice a lot less snappy than before.

"Aww, princess... where'd your attitude go?" He coos teasingly, rubbing circles onto your clit through your panties. You jolt at the sensation, moaning softly. "My baby sis is a virgin? That's cute."

He tugs at your panties, letting them drop down with your shorts. You hear him take a sharp intake of breath in as he looks at you, his fingers spreading your puffy lips.

"Don't worry. I'm not a complete asshole. Just a small one." He says cheekily, and then you hear the dostinct sound of a belt buckle and the zipper of his jeans. A moment passes when you can hear the rustling of fabric, and then his hands are on you again.

"I won't fuck you. Yet. But I'll make us both feel good, sweetheart." He says, giving you a few light smacks to your ass.

"Okay..." You breathe out, your heart rabbiting in your chest. You swallow hard, brows furrowing as you hear him shift.

"That's a good girl." He grunts, slotting his cock between your folds. That's where he keeps it, just rutting his cock against you. You coat him in your arousal, the slick sounds of your pussy echoing in the room as you drip all over his cock. His tip brushes your clit every time his hips jerk forward, making you whine.

"You do owe me now, sweetheart." He groans, forcing your legs together so the fat of your thighs keeps his cock secure as he humps your cunt. "I better be the one to break you in. Want my cute step-sister's pussy all to myself."

"Y-yeah... all yours..." You breathe out, trying to rock your hips back to get more friction against your sensitive nub. You whimper as the change in angle has his length dragging along your folds deliciously.

"Think I watched a video like this once." He says with a huff of laughter, gripping your hips right as he chases his orgasm using your body. "Must've drained all the step-sibling content on PornHub... couldn't help myself seein' you stuck like this."

His thrusts start to grow a little sloppy, his breathing becoming more shallow. He's close already, and you're not far behind. He rolls his hips, angling himself to make sure he's giving you the friction you need.

Your body tenses as you cum with a loud moan of his name, twitching from the aftershocks. He groans and pulls away when you start whimpering from oversensitivity. You hear a few wet schlick sounds as he jerks himself off, flinching slightly when you feel his cum costing your ass and pussy.

He pulls up your shorts and panties without cleaning you off, making you cringe as they press the cum into your skin, a grimace crossing your face. You hear the sounds of him redressing before he's lifting the top of the bed, looking down at you with a cocky smirk.

"C'mon, princess. Up you get." He says, grabbing your wrist to pull you up. "And don't forget... I'll be back for more."

[markantonys]

So bizarre to see fanboys jumping through hoops to find a way they can incorporate as many of Mat's plot points from TDR and TSR into their imagined version of s3 but NOT include Cauthor CPR. I'm sorry the cursed dagger on a spear makes you mad but you're okay with Min or Nynaeve saving him from hanging???

smh!!!! mat only does 1 important thing in all of TDR and TSR, and that is receive mouth-to-mouth from rand. and they would rather sacrifice that than any of his other stuff!

if it can't be rand, then nynaeve would be an okay substitute since she knows healing and hasn't had any chances for a good emotional moment with mat yet; however, imo if she has TOO many moments of successfully helping her friends via non-magical means, it would lessen the urgency of needing to break her block. thus, nynaeve saving mat with CPR would arguably be counterproductive to *her* arc of needing to break her block. (unless it instead is the trigger moment that causes her to break her block and she's thus able to heal him magically, but, while that's a sweet idea, it doesn't make much narrative sense for mat to be the one serving such an important emotional role in nynaeve's arc, no offense to him haha)

as for min, there's no need for the show to outsize her and mat's emotional connection i.e. they need to be good friends early on to make their series endgame work better, yes, but they do not need to be (and shouldn't be) each other's #1 most important emotional connection for two seasons straight. think of the heteronormative ship-baiting it would cause for show-onlys if mat and min had a focal emotional connection for two seasons straight culminating in her giving him mouth-to-mouth! ain't happening.

and all that being said..............as of now there's no reason to believe it can't be rand giving mat CPR! mat not being part of the waste storyline by no means precludes his doorway incident from occurring in a way that can involve rand. it could happen in the first couple of episodes before the gang's split up. it could happen in the finale with mat entering one doorway in tanchico and getting yeeted out into rand's lap on the other side of the continent because the pattern craves cauthor.

plus, with this scene being perhaps the single biggest and most iconic rand-mat emotional moment in the entire book series, i don't see why the show would instead give it to a different - and less important - mat relationship. (unless they absolutely had to because it turned out to be logistically impossible for it to be with rand, but, again, we have no reason to think that's the case.) if you look at the whole series, rand is more emotionally integral to mat and his story than nynaeve or min are, so why shouldn't he be the one mat has this big moment with? plus, if mat vs. couladin is in the cards for s4, iirc mat's implied motive there is that he intentionally hunted down couladin during the battle to help out rand even if he makes it sound like it was an accident, so s3 Cauthor CPR would set up a) how ride-or-die these two are for each other and b) mat feeling like he owes rand big time for saving his life, and wanting to do something major to return the favor.

overall, the fanboys often have really strange priorities when it comes to judging which book events are important to the overall story (Male Badassery) and which aren't (Everything Else), and their show predictions reflect those priorities very tellingly. i mean, my show predictions also reflect MY priorities very tellingly, but my priorities are a lot closer to rafe's than the fanboys' are, which hopefully leads to more accurate predictions. if you think a gay showrunner isn't going to do everything he possibly can to fit in the iconic-to-the-gays moment of rand giving mat mouth-to-mouth, you're kidding yourself!

[necrotic-nephilim]

How do you think bruce would react to a Robin pile situation?

oooh this is a fun thought. i think it depends *entirely* if you're working with a morally stable Bruce or a Bruce who's a little fucked up and dead dove-ish. somehow, i think it's actually more fun if it's a completely stable Bruce bc that adds so much more drama and issues if Bruce is deeply unsettled by the idea. if it was maybe just Jason and Dick or Jason and Tim dating that's sort of understandable. Bruce knows that while he may see them all as his sons (except Steph bc do know Robin pile will *always* include Steph for me and tbh Cass too as an honorary member. they're all going in the pile.) but he understands that doesn't mean they see each other as brothers. he respects the nuanced and complicated relationships scattered across all of the Batfam.

but if all of them are *dating*? or at the very least sleeping together? that raises a lot of logistical red flags. the most obvious one is the age gap of it all- at the biggest gap you have Damian and Dick who are an easy fifteen years apart, meeting when Damian is a kid. not to mention how many of them have tried to kill each other at some point. it shouldn't work and Bruce doesn't like that it does. Bruce has a history of wanting to control the relationships of the Batkids when he disapproves. and so he'd absolutely try to break them up. at first, he paints it purely as a logistical issue. saying it's smartest not to bring feelings into work and that this is dangerous. i think it's especially fun if this happens at a time when Bruce doesn't approve of Steph or Jason so that *also* plays into it, he doesn't want either of them near the ones he currently considers to be his family. he says he wants to protect them and wants to keep them safe. he tries to appeal to who he thinks would be more logical and listen to him the most. first Dick, and then when that doesn't work, Tim. and when neither of them listen, i *do* think Bruce would stoop to the low of trying to break them up by fabricating internal conflict between them, hoping to divide and conquer the weird polycule it's become.

while i don't think Bruce would be jealous in the sense he wants to be included, i *do* think he's wildly dislike the Robins having this close bond that makes them trust each other implicitly more than they trust Bruce. they will defer to each other before him and clearly keep things from him. he'd despise that. it's an inner circle he's not let in on and it makes him lose aspects of control over some of them, especially Damian who's the youngest and his son, who Bruce deserves the most control over. he would drive himself mad about it. at first for genuine reasons over the perceived fucked up nature of the relationship (even when each of them have confirmed that it is entirely consensual and they're happy) and to protect them. but he becomes so bitter over being ignored. they openly prioritize each other over him when the truth comes out because they see no point in hiding it. and i could definitely see Jason gloating about how he's back in the family whether Bruce likes it or not. Bruce would be beyond pissed about it. he's just never recovering. trying to stop them gets nowhere, even if he manages to cause some internal conflict.

eventually, Bruce would be forced to accept it for fear he would lose all of them. but he's *not* going to be happy about it and he keeps making side comments, hoping to get through to one of them eventually. it doesn't work, but he's definitely not going to stop trying. i also think on some level it would just disgust him a little bit in a visceral way, since they're his kids to him and he doesn't like to picture them in that way. esp when Jason or Steph lean heavily into PDA just to fuck with him. ass grabs, cuddling, sloppy kisses, the whole nine yards. Bruce will not have a moment of peace.

[felixcloud6288]

Dungeon Meshi Chapter 28

It's the lesbian chapter.

I feel like there isn't much to say about the bath scene. I'm impressed that it doesn't come across as fanservicey despite it being two women naked in a bath with lots of intimate touching.

I do want to mention the level of detail with how Kui draws hands though.

Fingernails are one of those things an artists could easily get away with not drawing and no one would notice. This was actually the first time I even realized that Kui has been drawing fingernails since the beginning.

I checked a few chapters and found that orcs also have fingernails. I couldn't find a good chapter where I could check if Kuro the Kobold has them. I also checked the mermaids from chapter 15 but didn't see any good shot that shows if they have fingernails or not.

Marcille still has that soap she made in chapter 14.

If the Golden Kingdom is made of elf and dwarf technology, that might mean they either lived in general harmony 1,000 years ago or the Golden Kingdom was a trade center between them and was able to benefit from both races' advancements. Maybe the war that broke out between them was because of some fallout when the kingdom was turned into a dungeon.

I want to know more about that bank token thing. Is it a form of IOU or maybe the equivalent of a PIN number? Maybe the whole idea is adventurers always risk losing anything they bring into the dungeon so the bank will keep their money safe and issue the tokens so you can redeem the money later.

Since the token is based on the owner's fingerprint, it would be difficult to steal someone's token and then claim to be the original owner. The bank likely confirms ownership by pattern matching the token fragments with the fingerprint.

Laios and Chilchuck are talking profits and they're hitting the logistic issue of how big the dragon pieces are. Not sure why Laios said they can't use a return spell. They have Falin. She can definitely cast a return spell. That's how the whole story started.

A tiny bit of event sequences seemed to slip away while Marcille was talking about her interest in studying forbidden magic. Laios gave Falin his spare shirt and I think she ran off to get dressed during that scene. She probably also got some under garments from Marcille too.

Falin was the only one who saw Senshi head toward the dragon. It wouldn't make sense if he walked by while the others were talking and Falin was the only one who noticed. I think she saw Senshi as she was heading back to the others.

Marcille was all "What's a dark elf anyway!?" so now I need to know if dark elf is a subclassification, subculture, or a derogatory term.

Senshi flash denied!

We got assurance at the start of the chapter that Falin doesn't have any physical abnormalities from the resurrection, but the chapter is not being shy about how Falin is far more powerful after resurrecting. I'd also like to point out that Falin's eyes are wide open most of the time. All the flashbacks and chapter 1 depict her with her eyes always closed no matter what. So she definitely came back at least slightly different. And she still has a scar from years ago so it's not that Marcille healed any long-term injuries.

Senshi seriously turned the dragon corpse into a pizza oven. And Chilchuck is so mad that Senshi is cooking high-value monster parts AGAIN.

Laios and Marcille are still a bit iffy on the whole "eating a monster that ate your friend" thing. Falin is fine with it though. She's not concerning herself at all with whether or not this counts as auto-cannibalism or not.

Now if you'll excuse me, that panel of Falin eating pizza is making me really hungry for one.

Okay I'm back. The pizza wasn't all that good.

I love how giddy Falin is when she finds out the party has been eating monsters. She is just Laios if he was a woman. And Marcille is well aware of it. I wonder when Marcille realized Falin would want to eat monsters if she was offered the chance.

And she shares Laios's lack of concern for the appearance of monsters when eating them. I wonder if she would have gotten as angry as Laios did when Chilchuck didn't let him cook the fishmen.

Hold on. Falin definitely came back wrong. Kensuke is reacting exactly like when they fought the dragon.

I gave a loud "NO!" when I read this panel.

The fifth floor has some strange design layout. It's a castle town but some aspects make no sense at all. In chapter 23, there was that underpass that only a half-foot could walk under and there was a door right above it.

Along with what the party noticed about the house they're staying in, there's also a door where the entire panel is upside down.

Maybe this is a side-effect of the Magician trying to preserve such a large space for so long. It's not like he knows every nook and cranny of town and he's personally repairing every bit of damage that happens. There's probably some automated process to fixing damage and it doesn't check if the repairs make practical sense.

Was Falin the only one who could see that child? And if so, was it because of her priest magic or because of whatever is going on with her?

They still have their frog suits!

This was such a heartwarming chapter. After so much time and struggle, the party managed to save Falin and it was all worth it. Now they can leave the dungeon and nothing bad will happen.

Nope! Nothing bad will happen.

NOTHING. BAD. WILL. HAPPEN.

back

[elumish]

keeping in mind the strategic/operational/tactical failures discussed in your earlier post, what would be the major failure point of the worldbuilding in iron flame? feel free to spoiler tag. is it the nature of the enemy and the common public narrative about that?

Okay so even though I finished Iron Flame fairly recently, I have also read a lot of books in the interim, so this may be a little general and may not get every detail totally correct. I'll stick all of my thoughts under a Read More, so if you don't want Fourth Wing/Iron Flame spoilers, just skip this post.

Strategic: To be totally honest, I didn't have a huge issue with the strategic-level worldbuilding of the Empyrean. I think the question of why dragons take part in this whole thing and also why dragons vs. griffins are totally neatly divided by country borders that are relatively new is not clear and sort of a problem, but I could mostly suspend disbelief there.

It definitely is not the most well built out/robust strategic worldbuilding, but I was basically fine with it. My feeling basically boiled down to "it didn't make me actively annoyed so I lived with it and can't currently think of a major issue." Also I like dragons.

Operational: Okay! So!

I found the entire organizational structure/setup of this entire world absolutely baffling to the point of being incomprehensible.

This probably doesn't need to be said, but I will anyway: a major goal of a military is to have as many trained fighters as you can. Attrition is one of the biggest issues faced by militaries (other than logistics) and the more people you are starting with, 1) the more you can do in general and 2) the more people you can afford to lose.

This means that you really want as close to 100% of your potential fighting force to survive training. Even if you only view people as cannon fodder, literally the point of cannon fodder is to put them in front of the cannons, not kill them in training.

I know the argument presented in the series by Violet is that it inures them to death so they can keep going when their teammates die, but that is terrible for a military. Yes, people need to be able to keep going when their teammate dies, but the training system has them killing each other. They are incentivized to kill each other! And so this school is literally training them to commit friendly fire incidents. Do you know what happens in a military that trains its soldiers to commit friendly fire incidents? They all kill each other and can't work effectively as a team. And being inured to that? That's just PTSD! You are just fucked up!

So having this military school system where they need to kill each other to win makes for a dramatic story but is an absolutely awful military training setup.

But also these are (or should be, if they had a non-awful system) highly trained members of the military, which makes them extremely valuable and also extremely expensive. People who fail out should just get stuck in a different part of the military instead of basically being killed.

And actually to that point, this whole setup would make much more sense if they had the equivalent of basic training and then had people specialize, the way they do in the real military. You absolutely want your military forces to be interoperable, and they are not even a little bit in this world.

Also why the hell don't these people use more ground forces? The number of dragon riders is limited to the number of dragons, but you can just have as many infantry as you can logistically sustain. Set up an effective border defense.

If you look at the traitor people (I can't remember what they're called right now), sticking them in the elite fighting force school also doesn't make any sense. I know they gave some in-universe reason for it, but especially because of the incomprehensible "if more than three of them are near each other then we can't magically surveil them" system if they were actually viewed as a security risk, they shouldn't have been allowed anywhere near the military, much less in the dragon forces.

They're a literal flight risk! There is absolutely nothing keeping them from defecting en masse. They can't be surveilled when they're together! Also they could commit friendly fire attacks! None of it makes any sense!

I also never really understood why they were keeping the real enemy a secret and why there was such a concerted effort. It didn't seem like the military leadership/king got any real benefit from maintaining a massive conspiracy to...kneecap their own military force.

The funny thing is that since finishing Iron Flame I've read basically all of Rebecca Yarros's other books, which are basically all contemporary romance, and she writes a lot of military-adjacent books, and they generally don't have this problem. Her husband was (is?) in the military, and she seems to have a decent understanding of it, so I'm not sure why she threw that all away for this.

Tactical: Okay so this is a lot related to the issue of "why are the trainees incentivized to kill each other" but Violet's ability to poison her way through her sparring didn't make any real sense if they was any point to the sparring. She should have just been made to spar with some instructors. And also they should have had some real fighting training. Though again that's more an operational issue.

Violet definitely had a lot of Plot Strings (the plot "coincidentally" moving her to the right place at the right time to do something only she could do): especially, that she (the person who happened to have the father who knew all of the plot-relevant things for some reason) happened to get magically soul-bonded to Xaden (the person leading the group that happens to know the truth about everything). I understand the whole situation with her mother, but her mother didn't control the soul bonding.

Overall the issue on a character level was more of a "wow this person just happens to have/be exactly what we need at this time" (the prince! who was just there! until he was extremely plot relevant coincidentally just when we needed him!) but each character was mostly believable taken in isolation.

[fobnsfwdoodlesbackup]

Hi y'all, I just wanted to talk a little about the behind the scenes of what I've been up to, to give y'all a little transparency and to open myself up for any tips or input! 🙏 Thank you for your continued support and for taking the time to look at my art 🫶

First and foremost I wanted to give some transparency about my art capacity.

As og followers may remember, I started this blog when I was doing art full time. Eventually my living expenses grew and I had to go back to work. I find myself in a cycle of "I'll make more art soon, once I get a job!" And "I'll make more art soon, once I am done with this job!" I lost my most recent job suddenly, having had an extension waved over my head until the last day(October 7th). Now I'm excited to have more time for art, but I am also feeling a rush to get a new job ASAP as I've been living paycheck to paycheck. I dream of doing this work full time, I'm just scared it's not quite there yet and I worry that I come off as scammy or dishonest when I anticipate more stability around the corner.

Second, I've been struggling with the Patreon. It's taken me a while to come to terms with this, but from what I've seen Patreon is not intuitive at all from the creator end. It doesn't do a good job of organizing addresses, emails, showing who or who isn't subscribed to me, or organizing and displaying the work I put on there. I've been really shocked by this experience, since lots of big names use Patreon. It's been a great way to streamline support, but it's been unhelpful in every other regard. I would like to continue using it, but I will most likely post more wips or process videos there in the future.

Which brings me to my third point, zines. I love making zines so much, it feels personal and fulfilling and fun! However the Patreon issues make it harder to keep information in order about where to send zines, or even where to message folks about them. In addition to this, the post office has been a big barrier to me, oftentimes only being open at the same time as my dayjob. Making zines can take days, then sending them out is a whole other monster.

This work is so important to me. Drawing peoples fantasies, representing body types, creating work around sexuality and the human experience feels like what I'm meant to do. I've made comics since I was a kid. This is the dream to me. The friends I've been able to make through this work are so important to me, and the conversations have been invaluable. Not to mention fun! I wanna doodle, I wanna draw hot stuff, I wanna thirst over these dudes! I want to play!

But I also just want to be transparent about the barriers I'm working around to share that experience. I'm completely self taught, both in art AND in running shops, building websites, running 8 accounts, etc. I take a lot of time to learn the logistics of these things, and try to make them make sense for my relationship with y'all (I do not want to paywall my art!! I don't want to!!!). This year my desktop broke down (the main one I use for all paintings and digital art). I've paused my Etsy shops and my Patreon to try to catch up with things. Trying to learn to paint in a completely different program. Then lost my job with no savings.

At the end of the day I don't want anything to come between me sharing my art with you. I wish I could doodle a thing, take a picture, and post it here. No third party site, no shop, no subscription. Just sharing my art with you. I promise I'm trying to figure out how to stay as close to that as possible, and I want to thank y'all for sticking with me as I untangle all of that.

So, what can you expect in the near future?

I'm working on a couple of painting commissions right now, which you should be able to see in the next couple of days! I want to catch up on kinktober and get those posted as well. There's a comic commission in progress which I'm very eager to work on, and which I think y'all will be excited for! To ease the weight of the Patreon I think I may do less zines/polls there and more wips and process videos! If possible, I want to do more full colored work too.

Thank you again for enjoying my work, and if you have any input or tips my inbox is always open 🙏🫶💕

[loremaster]

BOBA AU - CHAPTER 1 EXTRAS

I had actually drawn a few more things than could fit within the 30-image-per-post limit. Here are the ones that didn't make the cut, with commentary!

(tw: mild animal abuse, n*zi mention, suggestive themes)

Zilch's animal companions. I named Carmina Burana and Tortellini, Gucci and Bosch were named by my friends - though Bosch was supposed to be called Hieronymus, it just didn't fit on the nametag lol

I wanted to illustrate some examples of Zilch casually mistreating/neglecting the animals but this was as far as I got. I don't think he would be a full on animal abuser, just... the type of person who likes having a bunch of pets to show off but doesn't really think about properly caring for them. He likes the aesthetics of animals much more than the logistics.

This was gonna be the chapter cover and I forgot. Oops.

This was just practice drawing the church characters from their sprites.

Zilch: I must say, it's an unexpected pleasure to run into another kindred spirit around here. I'm Zilch~

This scene was actually cut deliberately. I drew it before I decided exactly what the Nun's issue with Zilch would be and then once I did, I felt like it didn't fit anymore. Zilch is still excited to see someone else with ears and tail like him, but in the final version, he's a lot more derisive about it.

I imagine the Nun is, like, an actual animal-human hybrid whereas Zilch is a furry with a wallet that can afford bioengineered bodymods. (One day, my friends... one day...)

Zilch being flippant and Halara being dismissive/tsundere. Couldn't really find a place to put it but I still like the drawing - even if I did accidentally give Zilch human ears.

By the way, you might notice Zilch hasn't been wearing his cap. There are two reasons. One is to show off that his ears aren't actually connected to it. If I had the time to go back and redraw the prologue with him wearing it - so Halara's "holy fuck" reaction makes more sense here - I would. (Not really worth trying to fix though, not until the rest of the story is done.)

But the other reason is that upon looking closer at Zilch's original design, I thought it was a little too evocative of Nazi imagery and wasn't really comfortable with it. It's not really the same style of hat, sure, but combined with the swastikas in his eyes??? yeah no way is that not intentional. (I redesigned his eye symbols to be catlike slit pupils instead.)

I get he (or, the hitman, I guess) is supposed to be a villain, and a minor one, in the original game... but here I'm gonna flesh him out a bit more. So I guess in that sense the removal of the hat symbolizes his growth as a character beyond his terrible awful fascist upbringing lol (more on that in the Gumshoe Gabs soon)

If I were making this an actual game it would be fun to have Yuma get a fun little added gameplay element of using Zilch's Forte like he does with Halara's. He gets some little animal friends!!!

I imagined Zilch would ask to be carried, but Halara won't do it without getting paid an exorbitant amount. And then Zilch forks over the cash on the spot. Yuma screams internally. If he had that the whole time why were they even trying to negotiate over the coat???!? Why does he still have his own debt to pay if Zilch could just cover the whole thing up front????

Halara has to pretend not to be enthusiastic about this opportunity.

Shinigami is... there, I guess.

Martina my wife driving around her little parasite of a boyfriend. Ms Electro please call me

Was originally gonna have Seth say that out loud but then I remembered he doesn't want to lose his job. (It's okay, he loses it anyway.)

(Also yes this is pre-Vivia-DLC.)

And then the mystery is solved!

Zilch feels indebted to Halara for saving him from the Nail Man, and wants to follow their example, turn it around, treat his animals better... his act of goodwill here is extremely performative, though. But, hey, everyone's gotta start somewhere!

Ultimately I cut this scene after coming up with the cat bed idea. (Was very tempted to have Halara cruelly taking the coat from the boy, but just decided to skip it instead.)

So Zilch kinda idolizes Halara now... which is fine... but then the morning after he really lets his simp flag fly.

Congrats on your furry boyfriend, I guess?????

A doodle from the margins of this comic way back when.... which finally has a place to belong! \o/

Zilch's fursona. His "zursona," if you will.

Thanks again for reading! I love everyone's comments in the tags and I'm so glad you all like my version of Zilch especially. Excited to develop him some more in future chapters >:)

[joocomics]

txt thoughts if you're still feeling like it (and if not that is so okay i simply had to get this out)

two words. frat boy taehyun. he holds a special place in my heart as a little post ab him is bookmarked on my laptop and is to this day how i get onto this website (the post has been deleted/archived i fear but i digress)

maybe i just have a crush irl and taehyun is the closest to what they're like but all day every day its just frat boy taehyun in my brain. sitting up there. waiting. (can you tell i have never had more than a surface interaction with a real frat boy and probably never will)

but either i'm projecting my campus crush or he would be SUCH A CUTE FRAT BOY?? like is that possible idk but like he's the golden boy hs class president type and it carries into college. and everyone's like wow he's just great and he's so smart but he's not the most popular one. sure he has his fans and whtv but at the end of the day he has that frat boy charm that fits him in with the rest but not that notorious player energy (does that make any sense? i have no idea

like he'd be good at party games and have fun at parties but probably isn't hooking up with every single person he makes eye contact with. but he's still a frat boy. so like yes there are hookups but like a more so-called reasonable amount? and he isn't like a heartbreaker necessarily but nobody expects anything from him bc he doesn't rly hook up with strangers, kinda like a one-time-fwb thing. generally more relaxed on that side of frat boy culture and everyone picks up on that because he has less hookups than the other frat boys and it "fits" with his other side of being involved in so much outside of the frat. he dds a lot as well i imagine

he's a huge athlete tho i fear very involved in everything. like everybody knows him. literally everybody. but not everybody is aware of how much of a frat boy he is (i guess that's what i mean by him not having such an aggressive red flag energy. like he exists outside of the frat)

very much like friends to lovers vibes because he's just so endearing and your brain's like "we don't trust frat boys" but he's so charming you're just like "well he's just my acquaintance or friend or whatever" and he's been drooling over you this whole time. for him it was love at first sight but he's got the frat boy part of his rep going for him that its like "he cant be trusted" even though logistically he hasn't done anything particularly untrustworthy. and then the flirting hits you all at once one day and its like "oh wait so he wants me?" and then its the confusion of like am i delusional but surprise you're not bc he's not like this really ever (cuz he doesn't hook up w ppl as much and has that bit of reputation)

i so hope this makes sense LOL and if you feel like it i would love to hear your thoughts! like if i'm crazy be so honest i want to craft fratboy taehyun perfectly (can you tell i have never done this before)(ANYWAY I LOVE U AND UR BLOG AND HOPE UR DOING AMAZING!!)

fratboy!taehyun doesn’t make the fact he’s a frat boy his entire personality in contrast to many of his peers in the fraternity! every time he talks to other people they’re always the ones bringing up the topic, most of the time super curious and nosy cause what they’re expecting to hear is parties, sleepless nights that result in embarrassing stories, hookups, rumors and constant bad hangovers, but those are not the things that made taehyun join the brotherhood. yes, he experiences those things alongside his frat friends, because he’s always invited every time, thanks to his easygoing personality and how effortlessly he fits in, but he experiences them a reasonable amount and that fulfills him enough. he’s not greedy nor does he want to get carried away and lose balance over his life outside of the frat

he also gives strong big brother energy. he’s doing so well as a frat boy without leaning into the toxic/chaotic frat boy culture that at one point in time he inevitably gets chosen as a mentor to a new member in the frat. he’d be pretty good with guiding him through the initiation and overall fraternity experience. (maybe that’s how he meets kai??)

fratboy!taehyun who’s an athlete and often gets eyed by different girls from the benches when he’s in the middle of the field; they’re drooling over his figure, all heart eyes because of his charming smile and mellow gaze and once they find out he’s a frat guy they step back with a frown cause, as you said, we don’t trust frat boys. those who give him a chance quickly realise he’s not like the rest though and secretly wonder if there’s something off because he’s too good to be true. usually those girls are the ones he has a temporary thing with, and he always makes sure there are set boundaries and that it’s clear for both parties that there’s no commitment involved…

perhaps he doesn’t realise it at first, but the reason his few situationships have ended is tied to his friendship with you. no girl excites him like you do - with your beauty, but also with your personality and the way you almost challenge him (unintentionally) to prove you that he’s not the frat guy you take him for. he’s the type to chuckle when you raise a brow like “frat boys bring girls flowers?!” after he hands you a bouquet of roses, not huff annoyed or be all smug about it. he likes how when he’s in the middle of practice you’re still actively occupying his mind, and how you have him so addicted that he can’t help but check his phone during parties in case you sent him a message

… of course, the boys who’ve known him since day one, pick up on that unusual behaviour of his and tease him about it, especially yeonjun who immediately catches onto what’s happening, because he’s never seen taehyun, the one who never thirsts openly over girls that attend their parties, the one who never shows signs of having a crush, act like that before…

a/n: first off, good luck with your crush!! (AH i love hearing about people’s crushes *sighs dreamily*) second, you are far from crazy, you’re actually genius for forming those thoughts and super cool for coming here to share them with none other than me! <3

i just now realise that i don’t read fratboy aus a lot so i really hope you enjoy my thoughts! i know i had fun writing them down for sure cause you got me hooked ngl DAMN fratboy taehyun… fratboy txt in general… it’s attractive. feel free to stop by anytime so we can chat more about it if you want LET’S CRAFT THE PERFECT FRATBOY TAE FOR YOU!!! love you too boo and i hope you’re having a great week 🫶🏼

[saecoyle]

spoilers warnings // opinion abt the first part

what I like :

Penelope being an absolute sweetheart and terribly socially akward but not being turned ridiculed, like a lot of "not-like-other-girls" fiction. Penelope is different than the ton as she's not sticking out but she makes it clear that she is a very common girl in her wants and desire, that she is just more introverted and has had less help from her family.

Her relationship with her mom getting deeper as well as their conflict. Love that!

Francesca being a really agreable character and her silent affection towards John is adorable. Definitly looking for more of them in the second part.

I actually enjoy the subplot of both Eloïse and Cressida, the season is really centering on the cracks of the ton's idea of normalcy before going further than the Londonian society in others books which is a great thing. It adresses that in an universe like Bridgerton there's a difficulty for the young misses in market to bond and form friendship because they're in constant competition, but also it doesn't take away the flaws of each-characters, making them whole. The three girls does not only compete with themselves but they also envy each one thing for each-other and are blind to the other person's issue, but at the end of the day the ton ends up being an issue for all of them in one way or another.

Violette and Agatha's brother, very cute, love their different views on marriage and their equal love for their children.

Colin is actually not a non-playable-character! Still feels a lil bit uncomplete to me but hey, it's only four episodes, it might come as well. I do really empathize with him with his awkwardness in episode three and four and hope for more as for later. Also they need to get him a more fluffy wig in the sense that : episode 3 with the wind, thank you.

what I disliked :

The constant threesomes (okay, only two) but I don't like lesbianism being used as porn content for men, even though if it means what it means (Colin is not content with one sexual or romantic partner if it's not Pen ect ect…) as a lesbian it is still icky to me. (Also I know that the few mlm scenes we've had caters to 'everyone' because straight women tends to love gay men but they're also more deeper than sex workers having to shag in front of rich nobles.)

The part 2 teaser, in genereal the fact that L.W will be revealed in this season and that the main conflict will be Penelope lying to Colin. But it's mostly because I've read the books and I hold Penelope and her work's dear in my heart I have issues about how it was handled. Personal preferences I guess.

Benedict's plot, not interesting, love the actress (very pretty) but in general I feel like theyre running in circles with him to keep the hype until they've made all their seasons and then his. Just not interested in it.

THAT half moment in the carriage scene where Pen tries to put her hands in his hair but it feels very weird bc in the book I felt it as unconcious and passionate and his hair being so stiff + the weird look turned me off so bad…sorry I know a lot of people like that scene in its entirety but it's the only part I had issues with.

I'm sad that we don't get news on Queen Charlotte's family situation bc it really intrigued me, I'm not surprised that the universe feels kind of flat.

things I am neutral about :

Kanthony not being that present, well it's not their seasons! I always have issues with ennemies turned lovers in the sense that they become boring very fast if theyre straight ((sorry)) and I do like them so I'm glad I didn't have the time to get bored by them, it also means more Francesca plot, more Creloise so I am truly fine with it.

The Mondrich getting nobles traits, I just wished it focused on the son too. Maybe about how pressured he would be as a young guy, ect, but there's still time.

Oh and it took me a MOMENT to understand the logistic of him f*ngering her, at first I thought he was just pleasing her outside and I was like "but the logistic? does he just gets out of the carriage with wet fingers and goes tell his mom he's getting married?" But it seems that yes. So… Okay.

The pregnancy race, idk it just feels obvious that Pen at the end of the day might win bc one will have a girl or one will be too late ect… I do find the commentaries about sexuality funny, and if it means more Finch and Philippa I'm fine with it.

general opinion for now :

I have been warmed up to be hyped by the season for a while now so there is not a real surprise that i'm appreciating the main romance as they're the only one I read the book and had seen across fandom in laws. Now the four next episode can make it more than great or sadly make my appreciation downgrade, it'll be a different experience that I've had with the other seasons bc I binged all of it and only had a overall opinion on the entirety of the show. Looking for the rest!

[dr-futbol-blog]

The Brotherhood, Pt. 6

So, they enter the secret chamber. If Sheppard enters first, McKay enters in the last place which makes no logistical sense since compared to the women he was helping to lower in before him, he's the heaviest and now Ford basically had to lower him down alone. So either we are meant to think that he is being extra cautious or even wigged to go into the hole in the ground, or that he usually takes his sweet time going down on a guy. And make no mistake, it is Sheppard that is receiving him down there.

Sheppard holds on to him the whole way down but the thing is, he's not actually doing anything. He's not holding any of McKay's weight to help ease Ford's load, he's just making sure that McKay doesn't spin as he's descending. He is easing him down.

And again, Sheppard is not making fun of McKay for not immediately being an expert at something he's doing for the first time, he's honestly taking care of him and making sure that he's okay. He is being gentle. He's taking care of precious cargo.

Sheppard also looks to make sure that McKay made it down safely in addition to feeling him down the whole way. He tells Ford that he'll let him know if anything interesting happens and takes a look at McKay's backside while he's doing this.

This is an interesting contrast to a shot of Teyla's ass we had earlier while she was digging. Sheppard was not looking at that but the audience got a great view of it which primes them to interpret things in a heterosexual male gaze context. In fact, we saw a lot of not looking at any woman's ass earlier from either character--not out of trying not to look but just out of pure disinterest. Here, we see the action of Sheppard's eyes following McKay as he bends down but we don't see the object that he's looking at. These kinds of cuts, like during the scene where Sheppard asked McKay whether he could have a moment alone with Chaya in Sanctuary (S01E14) but which was cut in a way to make it look like he was asking the room in general, are used to hide a part of the story in the subtext.

Inside the chamber, they light up a bunch of candles and start looking around. There's a raised platform that seems to hold all the stone tablets. Allina is working on them, and is joined by McKay with Sheppard in tow.

There's an interesting shot of McKay laying his hands on the mechanism that holds hand prints

He's very careful not to touch her and let me remind you again of the fact that Rodney McKay is not a gentleman who is respecting a woman's bodily autonomy--at least so far as he wants people to know. He simply does not wish to make physical contact with this woman. But later on, we find Sheppard pressing his hands against these same hand prints. Which in and of itself might mean nothing but when we contrast this scene with the weird scene of Chuck rubbing his lips and then touching the computer earlier, of kissing it by proxy, that's actually also what happens here.

They touch by proxy. They hold hands by proxy. Closer than they've ever been before. "I didn't touch anything!" Chuck yelped while he definitely did touch something. We are meant to think about touching, and the hand prints are symbolic of touching.

We find Sheppard, naturally, hovering over McKay as he is trying to figure this thing out. They have the following exchange.

Sheppard: All right. Any ideas? McKay: I'm getting there.

"Getting ideas" is an euphemism for feeling someone up whereas "getting there" is an euphemism for climaxing.

The A-plot is still happening over on Atlantis, and we get an interesting line from Zelenka: "The sensors picked it up days ago, but it's taken me until now to finally decipher what they've been trying to tell us." They are letting us know that this has, in fact, been going on for quite a while but it has taken the audience a while to catch up with it because the hints that they've been dropping have been so subtle (they really weren't that subtle; I was gobsmacked watching the first episodes for the first time). And, once more, we are asked to make note that something may have been going on in the background that we are asked to reinterpret in the light of information that we get later. They are belabouring this point.

Speaking of which, once more we return to Sheppard and McKay (and to a close up shot of McKay's hand pressed against the device Sheppard will later fiddle with) with something that is obviously missing. The scene begins with Sheppard's line that is in response to something that we didn't get to witness, with Sheppard asking "What, what--what don't you believe?" This is not just obviously a reaction to McKay saying "I don't believe it!" or some variation thereof, but his tone also tells us that he's getting impatient by this time. Like he's been at this for a while. Or that Sheppard would like him to think out loud, walk him through his process.

Sheppard needing McKay to work faster is also a theme that we keep returning to again and again. For one, it reminds us of the absolute faith Sheppard has in McKay's abilities--he knows that he's going to get there, but he's trying to get him to get there even faster. But, like he later confesses, he has also noticed that McKay works best when he is under pressure. And even though McKay is wrong here in thinking that these symbols form a gate address, Sheppard accepts his interpretation as the truth without question. His faith in McKay's abilities is absolute.

And this is when things start going South for our heroes. Kolya and his men knock out Ford who manages to take a few shots and takes out at least one of them and to alert Sheppard to something being very wrong up on the surface.

This knowledge doesn't help them much, as they are in a very vulnerable position down there. Kolya even points out that they have a massive tactical advantage which Sheppard already knew.

It's interesting that as they anticipate danger and prepare for action, Teyla moves out from between Sheppard and McKay. Yes, there might be a better view for her where she moves but, given his importance to the entire expedition, McKay is their most valuable asset and protecting him is their priority. She's either going to draw fire away from him or giving Sheppard space to do what ever he needs to do to keep him safe.

Sheppard is surprised to find Kolya alive as he had fully intended to kill him with his shot at the end of The Eye (S01E10). And from what we saw of Kolya' scar, he did not miss his heart by much. Sheppard aims at Kolya from the bottom of the chamber but, although he could well take him out, he does not because he has other people to protect. If it were just him, there is no doubt that he would have taken the shot. But as they are holding Ford hostage and he has McKay and Teyla down in the pit with him, he curbs his instinct and keeps from shooting him. The scene is tense but it is also erotic, two men pointing their guns at each other.

We see him do the thing with his lip again. So far, it has always been connected with some difficult emotions, some internal conflict. It is clearly a self-soothing technique. Air force pilots, especially test pilots, are required to have nerves of steel which is probably why he has developed a technique to push down what ever he is feeling to be able to do the job that needs doing. He does not blink or take his eyes off of him.

Kolya: Surprised? Sheppard: You're alive. Kolya: As far as I can tell. Did you actually think a single bullet to the shoulder would kill me? I always thought you were smarter than that.

Not only do Sheppard and Allina look very much alike, they are also paralleled in that Kolya here takes a jab at Sheppard by saying that he thought he was smarter than that whereas McKay tells Allina at the end of the episode that she's far too smart to follow the will of the Ancestors religiously. However, she is not smarter than that and, as it turns out, Sheppard is much smarter than what McKay had previously thought. Like we were meant to compare Chaya and McKay to find one of them wanting, here we can compare Sheppard and Allina and see who the clear winner is. However, Kolya is not implying here that he thinks Sheppard is not smart. He knows that he is, what Sheppard displayed taking out his task force proved to him beyond the shadow of a doubt that he is a capable warrior and a worthy adversary. He is taking a barb at Sheppard just to get to him. And he is even tacitly admitting that he always thought Sheppard was smart.

Also notice how Sheppard does not antagonize him. He is very careful about what he says because he doesn't want to needlessly set him off. There's no bravado, there are no barbs from Sheppard. He is not taking any needless risks no matter what feelings seeing this man alive may have awakened in him. McKay also has enough tactical sense to keep quiet and to keep out of sight--for the moment.

Sheppard: Then what do you want? Kolya: The same as you, Major—the lost treasure of the Quindosim. Sheppard: What possible use could that be to you?

Kolya has no idea what a ZPM even is, let alone what it's used for. He wants revenge, pure and simple. And because the Lanteans want this thing, getting this thing is a way at getting to them. He has suffered pain and loss because of Sheppard and therefor he wants Sheppard to suffer pain and loss before taking him out for good.

Sanir, Allina's chaperone or assistant or what ever her function is turns out to be a Genii collaborator. Allina strikes her, and we get a reaction shot from McKay at this. He's certainly not happy that they have been betrayed by this woman but seeing Allina resort to physical violence so quickly when the woman had apparently only meant to protect her people does not sit well with him.

There are hints over the seasons that there was some physical violence in his childhood environment. His immediate reaction to this, the tensing and the fear in his eyes, the quiver of his lip, suggests that he may have witnessed a similar scene take place between his parents, unable to protect his mother.

They try to convince Kolya of the fact that the ZPM is no use to him and they don't even have access to it yet which Kolya seems not to believe. He threatens to bury them alive which is when McKay finally makes his presence known to him:

McKay: We're closer, but we're not there yet. Look, the ninth stone is hidden on another planet. All we have is the gate address. Kolya: Dr. McKay… So wonderful to hear your grating voice again. How's the arm?

They are closer (closer than they've ever been before) but they're not there yet.

It seems like Kolya's day suddenly got a whole lot better as he realizes McKay is down there with Sheppard. You can see the gears turning in his head. It wasn't Lieutenant Ford that had stayed Sheppard's hand from taking a shot at him from down there, it was Doctor McKay being there with him. Sheppard was now completely and utterly at his mercy. He is really, truly happy to be hearing McKay's voice, it's like hearing the angels singing. It was even better than he had hoped!

Like he did with Sheppard, taking a shot at his intelligence probably seeing it as his weakness (a fellow warrior, their intelligence is often overlooked due to their other characteristics where brutality is often confused with savagery), he also digs at McKay. And with McKay, he insults his attractiveness, seeming to think that because the Doctor is intelligent, his weakness must be in his physical appearance and prowess. Kolya is very intelligent while a genuine sociopath. Further, he reminds McKay (and Sheppard, who is standing next to him) of the physical torture he was subjected to when they previously met. He is implying that this time, he will do something worse.

To his credit, McKay does not react to this at all because he is a much braver man than he himself realizes. But you can tell that he is hurt by it. He just perfectly calmly walks to the opening and yanks at the rope, letting him know that he's not afraid of him.

McKay: Do you want to keep trading barbs or do you want to find the ZPM? Look, lift me out of here, I'll help you find it, but then you let my team go.

Sheppard, here, is too paralyzed by fear to do anything. He's afraid that any move he might make could make things suddenly and horribly worse, so he does not move at all. They have the opposite effect on each other: Sheppard's presence makes McKay unafraid and McKay's presence makes Sheppard terrified--for McKay's safety in particular. Sheppard is trying to think of a way to protect him, and he is trying to think of a way to protect Sheppard. Sheppard is not happy about it--hates it, in fact--but he acknowledges that this seems to be their only option, at the moment.

Note also that he uses the name McKay here, on purpose. Earlier, they made a point about McKay asking Allina to call him Rodney, and Sheppard does usually call him Rodney in private. He purposefully calls him McKay here to create the impression of distance and indifference between them to Kolya. He already suspects that Kolya has figured out too much about them, was convinced that Kolya would kill McKay just to hurt him previously, so anything that he can do to make it seem like McKay means less to him than he does by any measure is not just necessary but vital.

But make no mistake that it is an act:

Sheppard: Shut up, McKay! McKay: You got a better idea? Sheppard: No.

He doesn't have to like it. But he is impressed by McKay's bravery. The last time, he never got to see how hard McKay and Weir were working to save him while he was busy trying to save them. McKay knows full well how dangerous this man is--he knows it better than most, in fact. But he's still not afraid of him. Standing next to Sheppard gives him strength, the possibility of being able to do something to protect Sheppard makes him brave. He is willing to sacrifice himself, to throw himself into the lions' den, without a second thought to keep Sheppard ("my team") safe and for someone like Sheppard whose life is spent protecting people and trying to secure their safety, something like that has a lot of meaning.

McKay doesn't realize it because that's not the reason he's doing it for, it's just his natural instinct. But in this, he is providing Sheppard with something he never even knew that he needed so much until someone was willing to give it to him. Someone not only wants to save him but will do his damnedest to make that happen.

Kolya agrees to let McKay and the women to come up in exchange for their weapons and radios while Ford will be lowered down. Alone out there with Kolya, Sheppard will have no way of helping McKay or protecting him from this monster that he realizes full well wants revenge on himself particularly, and who he knew would try to hurt him through McKay previously. He hates it.

Agreeing to this is the only thing he can do right now, along with placing his trust in McKay. But you can clearly see the fear on his face here, this grimace at the end:

He would never let Kolya see him afraid. He would not let most people see that he is afraid. But he has become close enough to McKay by this time that he lets him see the fear, to read it from his face. They both know how dangerous this is. They both know that he wants to kill them, and Sheppard specifically. And so fate separates them once more.

Continued in Pt. 7

[the-cryptographer]

was talking about how the amount of explosive material needed for the chantry boom, even /after/ that material been refined from the raw ingredients, is probably a lot more than anders and company could gather from a single trip to the sewers/mines without even bringing a cart. (which is cooroborated by the concept art of anders's bomb setup, although I don't think that picture makes much logistic sense either). all of which makes me wonder if the quest we get in canon was more like a scouting mission for anders to see where he could get the materials or arrange the bomb setup rather than the actual dirty work.

"why did he bothering inviting hawke et al then, if he wasn't even using them for the bulk of the actual labour?"

well, that's the thing. I'm wondering how much hawke et al's involvment in helping anders gather bomb materials is entirely symbolic.

other parts of the same quest are definitely symbolic. asking hawke to distract elthina with questions about mages as he goes about his business in the chantry is symbolic. he knows elthina isn't going to budge at that point. he just needs to build up a situation where she was given this last chance to save herself from what he's about to do, so that he can justify what in his own mind feels unjustifiable (though I do not see it that way, and I don't think merrill or isabela do either for that matter)

and given anders manages to set up the bombs just fine even if you turn down the quest…

how much is hawke et al going to find drakestone and sela petrae symbolic? how much is it making them complicit in the bombing simply for the sake of it? how much is this putting hawke et al in a position where their actions mean 'you're either with me or against me (and nothing imbetween)'?

like he really wants someone on his side so badly. so much so, he's willing to interpret lukewarm statements from hawke about not hurting mages as a radical statement of support. willing to interpret what was probably a lukewarm statement from donnic about disliking meredith as a reason donnic is more meaningfully on his side than aveline's. it's not hard for me to imagine anders spinning hawke et all bumbling around as he gathers samples of shit and sulphur and charcoal into a whole emotional experience of support and solidarity.

"so you're saying this was all a manipulative attempt by anders to gain support - support he didn't even really need - under false pretences?"

yes...? but also... no?

i feel like the thing canon doesn't really quite capture, and the thing i don't want to belittle, is how real and visceral and human these needs are? like, yes, maybe anders doesn't /need/ someone there to help him scout bomb ingredient locations to get the bomb built anyhow but-

to want companionship and personal recognition and support and someone to hold your hand through an emotionally difficult task? those are certainly things that pretty much everyone needs to be happy, even if they can persist and survive without. and anders has been denied these things at a lot of avenues of his life, has been taught he cannot ask for these things plainly and expect to get them. so I think it's entirely understandable that he resorts to manipulative, underhanded, and aggressive methods to get those needs met in lieu of even knowing how to pursue them genuinely anymore.

like- fenris crossed several continents to get to a place and a people for whom his experience of slavery hadn't been entirely culturally normalised. where he wasn't constantly being gaslit about how, actually, what he went through was excusable.

whereas anders is really living in the middle of cultural apologism for the circle as an institution. and where the person he seems to consider his closest friend can't accept and respond to anders trying to give away his mother's pillow as the desperate cry for attention and validation and help that it is.

idk, it's difficult bc- I will definitely make fun of anders's dysfunctional methodology for trying to get the attention and help and support that he needs. because he really does behave in ways that are cruel and aggressive and manipulative and stupidly misaimed and wildly alienating, and turn away people who are actually sympathetic to chase after hawke and varric being their least genuine.

but I never want to make fun of anders actually needing attention and help and support. like, yeah, we all do. all the moreso when we're standing up against tyrants and abusive prison camp wardens.

[buckgettingstruck]

Yk, you said something about how they could've walked back from bi Buck if it hadn't been received well, and just make him go back to dating women, and I have been thinking about the logistics of making buddie canon a lot lately, and Buck is a fan favorite, so to kinda drop him in a queer arc to gauge the reaction is a smarter move than doing the same with Eddie, but there's also the fact that Buck's bisexuality sort of stands on its own? Bisexual rep is rare, bisexual male rep is even rarer, and Buck is really well liked, so the marketing stand on its own. And Eddie's queer arc makes more sense when attached to Buck since where Buck always had a thing with men, Eddie has a thing with Buck, and now they know the public is cool with it and the people who are coming in are more than making up for the people who are leaving, they are probably expecting the same type of reaction they got with bi Buck to queer Eddie, but Eddie would need the boost of being attached to buddie in a way Buck doesn't from a logistical standpoint too. If you want to get the most exposure from both arcs, and abc is definitely not stupid enough to not know the gold mine they're sitting on with buddie and they would want to milk it as much as possible, you make Buck bi detached from buddie, wait for people to cool off on that news, then you make Eddie queer while stating his feelings for Buck. Because if Buck being bi hadn't been well received, they could've kept buddie as the friendship and walk out of the possibility of buddie being romantic in a way they can't do it with Eddie, because Buck has always been more casual about sex and relationships. They can't pull off Eddie having a boyfriend that is not Buck as easily as they did the whole thing with Buck. This is a very long winded way to say that I think abc gave the greenlight for buddie, and they only wanted Eddie to go first because Marisol was easier to write off than Natalia with the couch thing and the way Marisol was a just a phone call, but then they realized making Eddie go first wouldn't be the ideal scenario for marketing or inside the story and shifted the focus and it lined up with the actress not being able to come back and now we are here.

100% all this i agree with you completely. like from everything i know about writing the tv industry and marketing thats what feels logical to me

i do hope eddie’s arc can stand on its own because he deserves that but it also does make sense for it to attach to buck because well. bi buck attached to eddie lmao even though in some ways it does stand on its own!! and buck has had other coded interactions with men outside of eddie while eddie’s interactions have all been with buck so yeah. absolutely 🫶

[rottenbrainstuff]

IWTV Season 2 ep 1+2: getting to the good stuff now!

I like that they expanded the events in Eastern Europe ep 1 and added in the mother character. As I keep saying, it's been something like 20 years since I read the book but I do remember that that part was brief and disappointing. I mean, it's supposed to be disappointing: Claudia and Louis desperately want to find others like them and they think vampire old country is the place to start, and all they manage to find is a filthy revenant barely better than an animal, and they leave. But as a reader generally it was disappointing to me. Anne Rice's vampires were so ridiculously eurocentric (I know there we got into ancient Egypt, but, and I know this sounds weird, ancient Egypt is actually part of eurocentrism, it's a whole thing) and I dunno, when I really think back on it it just seems so silly, the only vampires that matter were all in western Europe?

In this episode I didn't feel that frustration. It did a better job at showing, well, maybe there's not much here NOW, but you get a sense that there used to be something here, and Claudia and Louis have missed it.

I understand the logistics of why they couldn't have a younger actress for Claudia, but I will forever wish that it would somehow have been possible. I like the shifting of Claudia and Louis' relationship now and how now they're equals at least, and Claudia even often takes the lead and Louis relies on her, and this would have been even more interesting if the actress looked even younger. But! It's a small complaint and again, again, I do understand why it is the way it is.

Then episode 2: AUGH. The Paris vampires are just....... *chef's kiss* unbelievable. I loved Armand's demented coven in the books, they got the barest briefest little flat appearance in the movie, and now here they are, fleshed out and delicious and absolutely PERFECT. They're insufferable, they're interesting, they're dangerous and poor Claudia has absolutely no clue. Well. I think deep down she has a clue, she just doesn't care, because this is what she wants and she's convinced herself it will be ok. (sigh Claudia)

I do like they've established right away that Lestat was an important person to them. As much as I liked the Paris parts in the book, I remember feeling like the coven's persecution of Louis and Claudia didn't make a huge amount of sense to me at the time. These travellers, these outsiders, being held to these rules that they didn't know about, accused of a crime that didn't happen here, judged and punished by a group of people who have nothing to do with them and really no authority over them at all. Especially when the coven is behaving so hedonistically in every other way you can imagine. Ok whatever, suspension of disbelief, it shows, I guess, that the coven is dangerous and confusing and spiteful, ok whatever. I guess you could say as well it was all orchestrated by Armand as an elaborate plan to get rid of Claudia and have Louis to himself, ok whatever. I guess when you really think about it, book Claudia being only five years old is quite horrific and I could see why other vampires would totally and completely reject her and by extension Louis based on that on its own, sure.

But if you emphasize early on that Lestat has some history here and is an important person they looked up to, then it's not just "oops we might have broke some vague vampire law that we didn't know was a law up until now" but instead it's "oops we murdered the muse of this theater" and that just works better.

But speaking of changes from the book... I was trying to explain to my daughter that nothing that happens in this show actually happens in the book. (which surprised her a lot: no Dreamstat? No sister Grace and nieces and nephews? No masquerade ball? etc) I think Louis' meeting with Armand and the intro of the vampire theater is the first thing I've seen so far that actually sticks more or less to how it happened in the book (minus Santiago being at the initial meeting, minus Armand stepping in in the play) and I think that's really neat. Like, I think the changes they've made so far are all smart and I enjoy it, it keeps me on my back foot not knowing what exactly will happen next, I think this is a masterclass in how to adapt something for a different medium and context, but somehow I also think it's really really neat that this one section is almost exactly the same.

Every time they throw a little reference back to the movie, with recognizable camera shots, or with wardrobe, or even sometimes with lines, it makes me so weirdly happy, somehow. I'm not sure exactly why. I think it's a case of... I don't hold the old movie in very high regard these days, but I do remember it being important to me when I was younger, and these little references are almost like the show is reminding me, look, don't feel bad about enjoying that movie so much, there were good things there as well, let me show you. Or something?

Augh, perfection, perfection.

Coincidentally, my daughter visited Prague shortly after I watched this and found the outdoor location they shot the theatre entrance at and that was super neat.

I am just squealing with delight over how much I love Assad Zaman. I love how larger than life all the other vampires are that we've seen so far, Lestat, and Santiago, and all the other Paris vampires. And here's Armand, looks small, looks young, looks angelic, tiny little mouth that's too small for his face, quiet, calm, but his eyes are burning like a panther in a bush, watching you, and you know you're fucked.