#and i just played by what made the most sense to me personally

[onwesterlywinds]

I've been thinking a lot again about the implications of the title of "viator" translating to "traveler" (prompted by Writing Things), and while there's been a lot of discussion about its relation/parallels to Azem, I feel like I've seen a lot less, if anything, on how "viator" plays into the overarching narrative of Garlean imperialism as well. For a relatively small detail, it's honestly one of the things I really think Endwalker did really well in its portrayal of Garlemald and Zenos.

Throughout XIV's history, we've been shown countless perspectives for why the Garleans invade and occupy other nations, whether it's [insert Nael's Bahamut tempering], Gaius' claims that peace can only come from a strong leader, the racism we see entrenched in Garlemald's colonial rule in Stormblood, etc. Endwalker, however, doubles down on the role of Corvos in Garlemald's history and elevates it to a founding narrative: the idea that the Garleans are justified in invading other nations because they themselves were driven from their own ancestral land thousands of years ago.* This is by no means the full scope of Garlean history (as just one example, Return to Ivalice posited that many other Garleans are likely descended from the technically-minded people of Goug), but it's still very consistent lore-wise and thematically for Endwalker to present the Garlean people's expulsion from Corvos as a creation myth for their empire, and the way this plays out in 6.0 MSQ lets us see the extent of the damage that that myth has done to those who have made it their worldview.

And introducing the term "viator" at the end of that arc as the name for the Empire's most loathed, reviled, and shunned class - the exile - ties into this idea so well: the greatest punishment the Garleans can give for one of their own is to make them a wanderer - to ensure that person is forever denied the home that they prize so highly in their society. This is a classic example of scapegoating, which has deep connections to empire throughout history and Western literature.

It's also such a fitting conclusion to Zenos' relationship with the Garlean Empire, too! One of the reasons I've loved Zenos as an antagonist since 4.0 is that despite treating the workings of imperialism as beneath him and irrelevant to his true desires ("Ala Mhigo and Doma and Garlemald be damned!"), he has a sense of entitlement to the peoples and lands of Ala Mhigo and Doma - and to you, the Warrior of Light! - that is extremely Garlean. The fact that (to paraphrase Lyse) he did all that just so he could feel something is what makes him such a perfect antagonist for Stormblood in my book. But to the Garlean people, that lack of care for his homeland - be it because (their own) people were tempered/killed from his actions, or the very sexy patricide/regicide, or that he caused the Empire itself to fall into ruin when he "should have" succeeded Varis - was to them the greatest crime he could commit. To put it another way, he probably would not have been named Zenos viator Galvus if he had first been Zenos zos Galvus.

And despite me forever lamenting the fact that the 5.X-era plot thread of Zenos having dreams about Amaurot never actually went anywhere, even that ties into his eventual role as viator: the only place with which he has ever had any real connection is gone forever.

Which makes a grave at the end of the known universe feel almost fitting in its tragedy.

(*On a serious note: While I do think the writers were intentional - and, mostly, thoughtful - around leveraging imperialist rhetoric, the fact that this particular framing is often used to justify an ongoing genocide is one of many reasons why I would be very happy for future Garlemald stories to stay on pause for the next few years.)

[rosetinted-escape]

I finished the game on Sunday, so here's my thoughts. There WILL be spoilers under the cut right up to the end of the game, so don't read if you haven't finished yet!

Seriously MAJOR STORY SPOILERS for the entire plot of Veilguard including the Lucanis romance. Also LONG LONG LONG post lol.

Okay so I played a trans man rook. He was a shadow dragon mage. I used the masculine British voice.

Despite this, bc I knew I wanted to romance Lucanis, I sacrificed Minrathous. I would recommend against doing this, just bc I think you miss out on a good chunk of shadow dragon stuff if you do. In my next playthrough where I romance him, I'll probably be an Antivan Crow.

Generally though I loved the game. The way I play DA is I do the stuff I want first playthrough so I can get the main story and then go back and do the rest later. This playthrough I did Lucanis, Neve and Taash's personal quests. I sacrificed Bellara and Harding and Emmrich also died bc I didn't do his quest (oops). My favourite characters are Neve and Lucanis.

Choosing between Minrathous and Treviso was a really hard choice and I wasn't expecting it so early on in the game. Ultimately, I think in most of my playthroughs I will choose Minrathous, but this time I chose Treviso. That is a ROUGH choice if you're playing a Shadow Dragon. Both Neve and Lucanis make good points as to why you should save their city, and both have pretty devastating reactions if you don't.

Overall story

I really enjoyed the story, I felt it was a good carry-over from Inquisition that made sense and there was a good amount of characters from previous games and the characters who appeared made sense.

Weisshaupt was an absolutely BRUTAL quest. A lot of Grey Warden related stuff I found much more challenging than other parts of the game (eg. confronting the Gloom Howler). It made a lot of sense though, and I like that you don't and can't 'win' that quest. It's fucked whatever you do, whatever choice you make. The conflict between Lucanis and Davrin following as well is brilliantly done, and makes a lot of sense. Davrin's conflicted feelings about not dying when he killed the archdemon are also really nicely done, and make a lot of sense given what we know about Grey Wardens. I imagine for people who sacrificed either Alistair or the Hero of Ferelden there are also some feelings there as well!

Ice and Fire completely fucked me. I initially tried to do this quest at a level 25. This was a mistake. I was stuck for like an hour before I finally gave up and went to do some other stuff first before going back around a level 28-29 ish. It's a brilliant fight though and the almost-killing of Ghilan'nain was really frustrating! I thought we finally fucking had her!

The Endgame is honestly where this game really shines. I feel like there's a huge tone shift here where the game becomes much darker. I feel like all the end of act quests have this, but endgame is something else. I truly cannot describe the way I felt when I killed Ghilan'nain and was then thrown into the fucking fade prison! Especially seeing Lucanis dead on the floor as it happened, and then him turning into Varric. So well done. Hearing the voices of those you sacrificed ridiculing you and blaming your for their deaths is beyond brutal (and there's no way to avoid the sacrifices!). The feeling of hearing Varric in the fade as well and realising what this must mean. Finding out that VARRIC HAS BEEN DEAD THE WHOLE TIME!?!?!? I was FURIOUS at Solas.

Of course, eventually you get out and discuss next steps and this is when you get the 'proper' Lucanis romance scene. I'm going to talk about his romance properly, but this scene was so beautifully written and I absolutely adored it.

When I finally fought my way through Minrathous and met up with Solas again, I was RAGING at this bitch. 'You must trust me' be SO fucking for real. My one small issue here is that you can't choose not to trust him. You can be angry at him, but ultimately you do kind of have to do what he says (which no sane person would do).

The final fight was a little lacklustre for me. Overall I found Weisshaupt and Fire and Ice were more challenging for me than most, if not all of Endgame, but that's fine honestly, as I found similar things in Inquisition and also Zelda Breath of the Wild (Thunder blight vs Ganon was ridiculous), so it's not exactly unheard of in video games.

And then MOTHERFUCKING SOLAS comes along, and tries again to tear down the veil AGAIN. I personally chose to trick him with the other dagger. I found it to be a really satisfying end, to have finally one-upped him once and for all. My current playthrough I'm aiming to redeem him just to see what happens, but I honestly don't really think he deserves it. I do enjoy his character, and he is very complex, but ultimately he IS a villain. From what I've seen, the 'redemption' is him going to the fade willingly (and possibly taking a romanced Lavellan with him). I like both these endings for him, because he is ultimately helping save the world, which is what he claims he wants to do (which I still kind of have some doubts about), it's just about whether he goes willingly or by force.

Characters, Quests and Interactions

I really liked the characters for the most part. Some of them I couldn't get super into (personally Emmrich and Bellara), but I felt the same way about some characters in Inquisition (never really got into the Iron Bull or Solas or Vivienne, though I'm going out of my way to interact with Solas more in my current playthrough and DAMN he just lies right to your face doesn't he?).

I do wish the interaction worked more similarly to Inquisition in that you can just go up to people to say hi and then leave. I don't know why, I always just thought it was nice.

As I mentioned before, my personal favs are Lucanis and Neve. I love a character so involved in fighting oppression and not always playing by the rules to do so (hence why I love the Shadow Dragons as a concept). She's also really quite funny and sarcastic and takes you to skip stones on the docks! Very cute no notes. She's committed and dedicated and does not take shit, but we also get to see her scared and vulnerable, which is important in any character.

Lucanis was written really well imo. I'll get to his romance in a bit, but overall his character arc was really interesting. Going into the fade to fight through the mental prison he's constructed for himself and convince him he's worthy of love and care? 10/10 no notes.

Taash's quest was honestly devastating. Came out to their mother (who they already have conflict with due to not being qunari enough and not fulfilling expectations, not being careful enough with their fire), wasn't accepted. To be expected, if you meet a queer character's parents in game, this seems to be the case (LOOKING AT YOU HALWARD PAVUS!! FUCK YOU!!!). She's KIDNAPPED, you go to save her and immediately after she demonstrates the beginning of understanding and accepting her child's identity BAM she's murdered. There's then a really important conversation with Taash about grief and how it feels different when there is a big part of you that the dead person didn't know about/fully accept, which I'm sure hit home for a lot of people. One thing I've found slightly disappointing is that Taash's entire struggle is reduced down to just being non-binary by some people, when really it's about identity as a whole. Can't say I'm surprised because people did exactly the same with Dorian (he's gay, and that's a big part of his story, but it's also about combatting stereotypes/challenging expectations, dealing with family conflict, not living up to familial expectations). Again, not surprised, but I wish queer people in media weren't constantly reduced down to only their queerness.

-The convo before the final battle. Just gorgeous. 'I assumed you know my heart bc it beats for you' 'tell me this ends with me asleep in your arms and I will kill any God you ask'. I also like that he does actually say the words 'I love you' bc Dorian never does that and I think it's important for characters like them, who are not emotionally vulnerable for much of them game, or who struggle to be at least, are able to eventually. My main (and only) gripe with the Dorian romance is that, and that when you're in your room with him after the party he literally says 'you're incredibly dull and I hate you. I hope this ends soon' and OBVIOUSLY he's joking, but it was kinda sad.

Lucanis Romance

I've seen a lot of opinions about the Lucanis romance, some good some bad, so here's my thoughts as well.

Admittedly, me and a friend looked up the pacing, because I was about halfway through the game and not much had happened. Initially, I did feel disappointed and frustrated at the results. I was used to romancing Dorian; sprinting to Redcliffe at the earliest opportunity, picking all the flirting options, running to shout at his dad (once again, FUCK YOU HALWARD PAVUS!!!!) and then that's the romance started.

However, knowing what we know about Lucanis' experiences and trauma, the way his romance progresses makes a lot of sense. He's joined you STRAIGHT FROM A TORTURE PRISON and was also beaten by his grandmother. It makes total sense that it would take time for him. His romance progresses like this (roughly if I've got the order right):

-Coffee with the crows. You argue with his cousin and then you both get a little drink. You talk about last vs first kisses and what coffees suit each kind. He remembers your favourite drink. This is also where you come out to him if you play a trans character. This is the earliest of all the romances I've seen.

-Post-Weisshaupt. There will be an almost kiss. I LOVED this scene, much more than the other 'almost kisses' with other companions. It makes a lot of sense that he interrupts himself and leaves the situation. It's frustrating for the player I guess, but I think it just shows how fearful he is about allowing himself to have feelings for Rook, much less act on them.

-Post-Fire & Ice. He'll be cooking a meal, and he'll make a dessert specifically made to go well with whatever you told him your favourite drink was. At this point you'll confirm your romance, but no kiss.

-At some point (I think at the end of his personal quest) there's also a coffee date and spite is there also. I saw some people say it felt like you were third wheeling with spite but I didn't get that at all personally.

-Potentially controversial bc I know people often don't like fade quests (and fr fuck the fade quest in origins that is the bane of my existence), but the one for Lucanis HOLY SHIT incredible. I still don't really understand how it happened, but I loved the concept and the overall way it went.

-FINALLY, once you escape the fade prison, you'll get a kiss. This is an absolutely gorgeous scene; the writing is brilliant, the VOICE ACTING is incredible. The emotion in both Lucanis and Rook's voices is just... I have no words. It's so emotional and intimate. I am a Dorianmancer through and through, but this scene holds a close second. 'Would you talk to me? Your voice is a comfort.' 'I thought I'd never see you again.' So airy and despondent, like he'd truly given up hope holy SHIT.

References to previous games/returning characters

I thought there were as sufficient references to previous games as there realistically could be without the use of the Keep. I do wish there were more, and I have a few more characters it would have been nice to see/be mentioned.

Obviously I'm biased, but I'd have liked more Dorian. I also think a lot of the characters I'd have liked to see again wouldn't have worked without the keep. I'd have liked to see Zevran to perhaps offer some insight as to what happened with the crows and why they're not as bad anymore for some reason?? Was it him? Did he just kill everyone making it like that? It would have been nice for that to be addressed.

It would have been nice for the HoF and Alistair to be mentioned at ANY POINT in ANY of the grey warden quests and frankly I think it's weird it wasn't. Regardless of who was sacrificed or left in the fade or whatever, they still single handedly ended the last blight at like 20 so. Idc.

I've not played DA2 yet, but I'd have liked to seen/heard from Fenris relating to the shadow dragons.

I also (perhaps controversially bc I know lots of people hate him) would have like to see/hear from Anders.

Choices from previous games

This was/is majorly controversial that they only carried over 3 decisions. I'm not TOO bothered about it, but I wish there had been more. I think how the game played out would have worked as a default world state, but other decisions could/should have been included.

I think the main issue for me is that the choices you DO make have almost no impact on the game other than passing dialogue. For inquisition remained/disbanded its the Inquisitor talking about how they still have all their friends. Romance is literally just a letter??? Not even mentioned by name by the Inquisitor, Solas, Dorian, Varric OR Harding. The Inquisitor calling Dorian a "friend" even if he romanced him?? (Which I do kinda get cause rook is just a random kid and Dorian is a Magister with responsibilities, but come on). I will say though Dorian's letter just... perfection (and the few others I've seen where incredible too).

Where I think they REALLY could have played it better is whether you vowed to stop or save Solas. Imagine Rook trying to kill Solas, but a sympathetic Inquisitor stops them or vice versa. Not saying Rook should have to fight the Inquisitor by any means, but I'm sure there would have been a way to do it so that choice ACTUALLY mattered rather than rook just being able to completely make that choice.

Seeing people whine about Dragon Age: The Veilgard in YouTube comments sections about the fact you can give your Rook pronouns and top surgery scars.

I am about to make the GAYEST most TRANGENDER Rook ever. That mf is gonna have blue hair and pronouns. He WILL be a mage, and he WILL be romancing Lucanis.

[vi-visected]

i see you as Liquid cat

very accurate considering the one time i’ve ever played uno i accidentally cheated my way to victory

[caeslxys]

Something I think is extremely interesting thematically when it comes to connecting what Downfall and the ideas it tackled to the overarching narrative of campaign three is that the things Downfall made a point to showcase of Aeor—Cassida, Hallis, the visual of an aeormaton proposing to her partner, the specific and intentional decision to shed light on a far from insignificant amount of the population being civilians or refugees—is that it plays in perfect parallel across from what is happening (and, really, has been happening) to the ruidusborn on Exandria in present.

Bear with me for a moment. Aeor is ultimately a city that was collectively punished for the decisions of its leadership. We could (and, judging by the amount of discourse around this particular topic already, probably will) argue about what the Gods’ motivation for all of this was—whether it be that they could not, in the end, bear to kill their siblings or that they were terrified at the prospect of mortality—for me it is a very healthy dose of both—but for this I am much more interested in the latter. They were scared. That, really, is the driving force behind both this arc and their role in c3 as a whole.

Why I point this out is: It is far more interesting to me, especially as we go back to Bells Hells this week, to dissect the Gods and their decisions not purely on sympathetic motivation alone but as beings in the highest seat of power in the highest social class in Exandria.

So, having established that the Gods (in relation to mortals) are more a higher social class than anything we could compare to our real life understanding of divinity and that Aeor was eviscerated largely because of their fear—what is the difference between those innocents in Aeor caught in the trappings of their autocratic government leadership and a divine war on the ground, and those of the ruidusborn being manipulated both by Ludinus and by the very thing that inspired such visceral fear in the Gods to start with. I would argue very little.

I think of Cassida, doing what she genuinely thought was right and good and would save people, her son, and the object of her worship—and how that did not matter enough to any of them to spare her because of the fear they held at the very concept of mortality. I think of Liliana and Imogen, one of which we know begged for the gods to help her or send her a sign for years on years, and how every single one of their largest struggles could have been avoided had the gods loved them, their supposed children, as much as they feared what they could be. I think of how the thing that did save Imogen, in the end, was a woman who herself existed in direct defiance of the gods will. I think of that young boy, sixteen years old, that Laudna exalted on Ruidus.

I think it’s completely fair to judge Aeor’s overall society as deeply corrupt—it was!—but its leadership and police force are not a reflection of every one of its citizens. Similarly, it is fair to judge the Ruby Vanguard as corrupt—it is!—but its multiple heads of leadership and even the god-eater further are not a reflection of every one of its members.

Notably, and what I think the Hells will latch onto, this did not matter to the Gods. It did not matter that Cassida was trying to help. She was still too much of a risk. Will it matter, what Imogen does? Will it matter, if that young boy is in the blast radius when they decide to take no further chances?

I’ve seen a lot of people say that the Hells will side with the gods and I don’t think I agree. Especially as Imogen has been scolded and villainized over and over for daring to try and save her mother—who herself has been seen by some as an irredeemable evil in spite of her drive being the exact same—her family—but when it’s the Gods it’s justified? When it’s the Gods, it’s sympathetic? Too sympathetic to criticize further than “they’re family”?

I obviously do not think the Gods should die or be eaten or what have you, and I certainly don’t agree with Ludinus (though I find him much more compelling than just a variation of hubris wizard), but when talking about the Gods in Aeor and in present it isn’t really at all about their motivation or their family. It can’t be. Too many people, including our active protagonists, lives have been effected for it to be as cut and dry as “they’re family”. These are your children. They are your family, too.

[britneyshakespeare]

i love hearing old ladies share about their vintage fashion doll collections. like doll collectors on social media skew very young bc duh it's social media but there's something extremely comforting about pre-internet era collectors sharing their knowledge and history.

[goron-king-darunia]

Oh dang! For real, no shade to you or the team that translated this. I've been surviving off whatever fans like you can drip feed to my monolingual ass over the last 16 years because Bamco doesn't think the ENG DotNW fandom cares enough anymore? So I knew I was probably coming in a little strong and missing context because, you know, completely different language. So thanks for taking the time to clarify!

I do see why that Line about Rilena tripped me, because missing Rilena seems like a completely separate thought and Aster doesn't say he's jealous that Emil is getting along well with Marta, which would have clued me in a bit more. Not your fault. I am honestly probably THE MOST pedantic nutcase ever and since Japanese has completely different ways of communicating "unspoken" things my monolingual ass is doomed to miss things that probably seem obvious. Because Aster said "girls" in general, it's vague enough that it reads like he's jealous Emil is scoring and he's not. But I know from native speakers that a lot of Japanese isn't about what's said directly but what's unsaid because English is pretty "direct" where people say their piece and other people respond and Japanese is a bit more "people filling in gaps and pauses for each other so communication is more collaborative." So I'm reading into gaps, pauses, and vagueness the way I would with straight English and that's probably a stumbling block because it does make a lot more sense if Aster is thinking about Rilena like "Oh yeah, my girlfriend/other 'best friend' that I care about! I'm jealous Emil gets to have that." Which honestly kind of makes it more painful that Richter has a beat of silence after because we know from other scenes that Aster only even exists here right now because he's Richter's most important person and that's the reason he was exoflected to begin with. So Richter's probably got some equal mix of also missing Rilena, being a little sad that Aster considers Rilena his most important person instead of reciprocating Richter's feelings or directly acknowledging (until later anyway) that he knows how important he is to Richter, and probably a little guilt because he's doing the same thing to Rilena that Aster's doing to him which is prioritizing one of his two best friends over the other. But that would just be my opinion.

Again, it's not a you problem. I'm just averse to vagueness in writing because when I try to be subtle with my own stuff, people DO NOT GET IT because it's too subtle, and when I find vagueness in other's writing, even if the vagueness is deliberate and open to interpretation, I interpret the hell out of it and sometimes wind up, as here, in a vastly different place than intended.

But that's what's kind of rad about this since, as part of the translation team, this is a living text. You're an author I can reach out to, or in this case you can reach out to me, and we can actually have dialogue in a way you can't do with, like, Shakespeare.

So I really want to emphasize that this is not your fault or the translation team's fault. This is how communication works and I'm having a blast at, like, actually sharing ideas and understanding each other and connecting over our shared love of these blorbos. This is also probably my favorite event, though anything with Richter involved is top tier for me, and I'm just glad I get to see it in full, even if I got wildly different information from my initial viewing than intended, because at least I get to actually see the event and not just have to rely on the few screenshots fans took way back when the JP side of the fandom actually got to play through it and my ass was pawing at the screen like "LET ME IN, I WANT TO SEE!"

You are very fair with the second point. I should have made it clearer that I do not in anyway think it's out of character or unintentional, just unexpected. I understand that for the most part, any exaggerated reactions from the cast like that are meant as gags because the Tales Games have that brand of humor which is why Zelos himself is so over the top about being a lech. I just really don't expect that sort of thing from Aster because, as you said, we basically only see Aster's impact on Richter in DotNW proper and we only get a bit more context out of game from the novels (which have not been fully translated for my monolingual eyes, but what I have seen and been drip fed is deliciously painful) and Onshuu. And while Onshuu no Richter DOES paint Aster as a guy who probably casually flirts, given that he DOUBLES DOWN on Aqua gushing over Richter and has no problem teasing others about encounters that have even a hint of romantic tension in them, Aster being THAT direct, even as a joke, was pretty surprising. We've never seen him in such a situation before, so it clearly cannot be out of character since, like, it's literally canon to Rays that this is how he reacted. But it is kind of like finding out that your chaste and serious best friend writes crack smut in their free time, you know? Like, not uncommon, not even surprising on it's own, but it's that sort of thing like "You think you know a guy." Again, since we've never seen him like this before, he could very well be making a joke or even meaning it in the casual way like you would with friends. But we don't usually see Aster joking or making such direct remarks about that topic. So, again. "You think you know a guy." As I said, even I write Aster as fairly pervy in my own fics, but I just never expected it so... casually toward FRIENDS and not people he knows. Like I said, he doubles down on what Aqua says with Richter in Onshuu and his expression makes it clear that he LOVES teasing Richter about this stuff. So maybe it's the preset facial expressions that got drawn for him that don't make it 100% clear if he's joking or making a one-off instead of being sincere that's giving me trouble.

As for Ratatosk, you are 100% correct and I am definitely not expecting him to just let everything with Richter be water under the bridge just because things are more or less "better" for them in this world where the people/trees that are important to them aren't dead here. And even a Ratatosk who has made peace with things is going to be way more harsh than Emil because, like, that's how they split themselves. Ratatosk leaves the mushy stuff to Emil because he doesn't really like that. So even the most sincere apology from Ratatosk is going to be brusque to say the least. I know that. And of course, whatever else can be said about Tenebrae and his insistence on causing Ratatosk and Emil a little grief for the fun of it, Tenebrae has always been on Ratatosk's side and that's his best feature, for real. Everyone loves Tenebrae for being that sort of snarky butler archetype where he actively fucks with Ratatosk and Emil for fun. But as funny as he is, I have always liked it best that Tenebrae, above all else, sees the good in Ratatosk and is dedicated to sticking with him and especially that he manages to do it, for the most part, without plastering over or sweeping anything bad Ratatosk did under the rug.

I think my main problem with this part is that I've been working on a fic where Tenebrae does something very similar, explaining Ratatosk's actions to Richter, and I just... see how this could have been done better. I think it would have been more powerful if Ratatosk had been allowed to say something direct about this himself, even if it was the exact opposite of an apology, because what he said about Emil was sincere. It was powerful that he was open about at least one little thing. That he was hiding, at least in part, to grant Emil the agency to do this on his own and fight his own fights because that's something Ratatosk HATED about that part of himself before. The part of himself that didn't want to fight at all, the part of himself that didn't take responsibility and wanted someone else to fight his battles for him. Admitting to letting Emil do this for himself and for Marta, even though Ratatosk has ways to easily accomplish the same goal, shows that he's recognizing Emil's growth and therefore his OWN growth, and that's powerful, so even though it's "mean" for him to assume the worst of Richter, it's very well written because it tells us something about Emil, about Ratatosk, and about Richter. Yes, a part of me is uncharitable. I'm trying to be better with Ratatosk. But the part that bothers me most about the scene is that it cheapens Ratatosk's sincerity by having Tenebrae explain things when Ratatosk hasn't even indicated he's thinking about Richter's feelings. I hear you, I understand, and you're not even wrong. This is a VERY good scene for Ratatosk because of that sincere moment of being on Emil's side and not babying him. But the problem I have with it is that Tenebrae trying to explain things for Ratatosk when he's not around, something I HAVE DONE MYSELF in fic, very in-character for Tenebrae, is that it cheapens the sincerity of the first gesture toward Emil by almost treating this as something the writers came up with as an after thought. Something we are told and not shown. Though I admit it's very hard to show Ratatosk deliberately not showing up as a courtesy to Richter because that's showing a character NOT doing something as opposed to doing it.

Like, ugh, it's hard to explain, but if they had thrown something in, something about Ratatosk showing up during training just once, seeing Richter's reaction and then having Ratatosk purposely and noticeably absent for the rest, or having a brusque comment before Ratatosk storms off like "I know you think you're doing all this for Emil but you're not. You should think about other's feelings more." or something else like that and THEN having Tenebrae come in to explain would have made that bridge between Ratatosk doing it for Emil AND doing it for Richter and making both seem sincere even if he would NEVER EVER admit to doing anything for Richter's comfort at this stage of his character development. As it is now, with Tenebrae bringing it up without any lead in makes it seem like something cheap the writers came up with, even though I'm almost certain it's more clear in Japanese what the writers were after.

Again, I'm certainly overly-precious with these guys because I have had to survive on my own headcanons forever because Bamco does not love the English DotNW fandom the way it loves the Japanese DotNW fandom. We get whatever you amazing people eventually get around to making readable to us. It absolutely means everything that you took the time to translate this for us and explain things to me. I think my main problems are that I don't speak Japanese, I have access to a lot less of the available material and context because of it, and because I am also a writer who is very used to having to correct for vagueness in a text so that my audience understands what I'm going for, I'm just... seeing a lot of this stuff either as "I don't have the context to understand what the writers were going for" or "I understand this scene, but the execution of it got lost somewhere" and almost certainly an unhealthy pinch of "I would have done it differently."

Which, and I need you to know I'm sincere here, does not in ANY way reflect badly on you and your amazing team. I love these little guys to death and will continue loving them until the sun extinguishes and probably even longer than that. And part of the reason I love fandom in general so much is that we can all read the same text and get different things, and for the most part, that helps deepen each other's understanding. You're privy to context I just wasn't getting and the explanation helped a lot. Even though I still have that inflated sense of "I would have done it differently" getting your perspective and what you were trying to get across helps form a shared understanding of the text. So I hope I didn't upset you because honestly, this sort of dialogue is what I think is most valuable about the Internet's potential for shared media literacy. We have an unprecedented level of connection with each other and with living texts which gives us equally unprecedented potential for communication of complex ideas through shared stories. So genuinely thank you for the initial translation and the additional time you spent sharing your thoughts about it with me. This is the kind of thing that makes analyzing the same media so great. I've come away with a better understanding of the text and I hope me challenging it gave you lots to think about, even if I was a bit... much with it.

Translated by Polka. Proofread by Aera and Seine. Video editing by Scarfy.

[arolesbianism]

I wanna take a crack at making some fake screenshot graphics for my Sif Odile duo loopers au but I do not feel confident enough in my ability to mimic isat's art style and I also have a crippling fear of drawing backgrounds

[phagodyke]

weekend melancholy is starting to kick in >~<

[himblebo]

God the joy I see every time one of my interpreters puts on their costume for the first time is unparalleled

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

if I've learned anything from grad school it's to check your sources, and this has proven invaluable in the dozens of instances when I've had an MBA-type try to tell me something about finances or leadership. Case in point:

Firefox serves me clickbaity articles through Pocket, which is fine because I like Firefox. But sometimes an article makes me curious. I'm pretty anal about my finances, and I wondered if this article was, as I suspected, total horseshit, or could potentially benefit me and help me get my spending under control. So let's check the article in question.

It mostly seems like common sense. "...track expenses and income for at least a month before setting a budget...How much money do I have or earn? How much do I want to save?" Basic shit like that. But then I get to this section:

This sounds fucking made up to me. And thankfully, they've provided a source to their claim that "research has repeatedly shown" that writing things down changes behavior. First mistake. What research is this?

Forbes, naturally, my #1 source for absolute dogshit fart-sniffing financial schlock. Forbes is the type of website that guy from high school who constantly posts on linkedin trawls daily for little articles like this that make him feel better about refusing to pay for a decent package for his employees' healthcare (I'm from the United States, a barbaric, conflict-ridden country in the throes of civil unrest, so obsessed with violence that its warlords prioritize weapons over universal medical coverage. I digress). Forbes constantly posts shit like this, and I constantly spend my time at leadership seminars debunking poor consultants who get paid to read these claims credulously. Look at this highlighted text. Does it make sense to you that simply writing your financial goals down would result in a 10x increase in your income? Because if it does, let me make you an offer on this sick ass bridge.

Thankfully, Forbes also makes the mistake of citing their sources. Let's check to see where this hyperlink goes:

SidSavara. I've never heard of this site, but the About section tells me that Sid is "a technology leader who empowers teams to grow into their best selves. He is a life-long learner enjoys developing software, leading teams in delivering mission critical projects, playing guitar and watching football and basketball."

That doesn't mean anything. What are his LinkedIn credentials? With the caveat that anyone can lie on Linkedin, Mr. Savara appears to be a Software Engineer. Which is fine! I'm glad software engineers exist! But Sid's got nothing in his professional history which suggests he knows shit about finance. So I'm already pretty skeptical of his website, which is increasingly looking like a personal fart-huffing blog.

The article itself repeats the credulous claim made in the Forbes story earlier, but this time, provides no link for the 3% story. Mr. Savara is smarter than his colleages at Forbes, it's much wiser to just make shit up.

HOWEVER. I am not the first person to have followed this rabbit hole. Because at the very top of this article, there is a disclaimer.

Uh oh!

Sid's been called out before, and in the follow up to this article, he reveals the truth.

You can guess where this is going.

So to go back to the VERY beginning of this post, both Pocket/Good Housekeeping and Forbes failed to do even the most basic of research, taking the wild claim that writing down your budget may increase your income by 10x on good faith and the word of a(n admittedly honest about his shortcomings) software engineer.

Why did I spend 30 minutes to make a tumblr post about this? Mostly to show off how smart I am, but also to remind folks of just how flimsy any claim on the internet can be. Click those links, follow those sources, and when the sources stop linking, ask why.

[synthetic-sonata]

really awesome day to think everythings going alright and then you wake up and get hit in the face twice in a row

[waywardsalt]

likely going to delete this later but i am like. is the three-branching og loz timeline confusing? or do people just say that bc they hate it

[rambles-about-minecraft-ocs]

theres something so funny to me when hermits are talking about redstone and theyre like "and then theres an etho hopper clock here-"

like. of course they use etho hopper clocks, itd be weirder if they actively avoided using it, considering its like. a redstone thingy that is very useful and still works even after all this time, and from what i understand it was like. a pretty big deal in terms of useful things you could do with redstone back when he first made it because it opened up ways to do even more things with redstone

and like for the most part theyve probably been referring to that particular thing as an etho hopper clock for longer than theyve even known etho personally, considering the etho hopper clock predates his joining hermitcraft by at least 1-2 years, and several of the other hermits joining hermitcraft by even more. so of course they still call it that

on a related note, most of them likely had at least heard of etho before meeting him, even if they didnt personally watch him (tho i know some did) since he was an old school minecraft youtuber. like his original season 1 of "lets play minecraft" started when minecraft was so new it hadnt been officially released yet. literally back in minecraft alpha. he was a minecraft youtuber OG

so with those two points taken into consideration it completely makes sense that "etho hopper clock" is something ingrained into the terminology of anyone that does stuff with redstone somewhat regularly. theres no reason it wouldnt be

but when you put it into contrast with like. their actual interactions with etho. it kind of cracks me up???

its like. in my head the vibes are this: imagine building something and being like "okay guys, for this machine we need to use an archimedes screw, which is named of course after its inventor archimedes, a man so genius that to this day he is regarded as one of the most brilliant inventors and mathematicians to ever walk this earth" and then like thirty minutes later you go to a restaurant and you see archimedes, of classic antiquity fame, trying to eat a sandwich but the ingredients keep falling out in increasingly comedic manners. so you of course call him pathetic to his face, and then ask if he wants to try out your new totally-not-a-scam product that you carry on you at all times for opportunities like these. and for some reason he doesnt just say yes, but buys two

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Bossware is unfair (in the legal sense, too)

You can get into a lot of trouble by assuming that rich people know what they're doing. For example, might assume that ad-tech works – bypassing peoples' critical faculties, reaching inside their minds and brainwashing them with Big Data insights, because if that's not what's happening, then why would rich people pour billions into those ads?

https://pluralistic.net/2020/12/06/surveillance-tulip-bulbs/#adtech-bubble

You might assume that private equity looters make their investors rich, because otherwise, why would rich people hand over trillions for them to play with?

https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2024/11/19/private-equity-vampire-capital/

The truth is, rich people are suckers like the rest of us. If anything, succeeding once or twice makes you an even bigger mark, with a sense of your own infallibility that inflates to fill the bubble your yes-men seal you inside of.

Rich people fall for scams just like you and me. Anyone can be a mark. I was:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/05/cyber-dunning-kruger/#swiss-cheese-security

But though rich people can fall for scams the same way you and I do, the way those scams play out is very different when the marks are wealthy. As Keynes had it, "The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent." When the marks are rich (or worse, super-rich), they can be played for much longer before they go bust, creating the appearance of solidity.

Noted Keynesian John Kenneth Galbraith had his own thoughts on this. Galbraith coined the term "bezzle" to describe "the magic interval when a confidence trickster knows he has the money he has appropriated but the victim does not yet understand that he has lost it." In that magic interval, everyone feels better off: the mark thinks he's up, and the con artist knows he's up.

Rich marks have looong bezzles. Empirically incorrect ideas grounded in the most outrageous superstition and junk science can take over whole sections of your life, simply because a rich person – or rich people – are convinced that they're good for you.

Take "scientific management." In the early 20th century, the con artist Frederick Taylor convinced rich industrialists that he could increase their workers' productivity through a kind of caliper-and-stopwatch driven choreographry:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/21/great-taylors-ghost/#solidarity-or-bust

Taylor and his army of labcoated sadists perched at the elbows of factory workers (whom Taylor referred to as "stupid," "mentally sluggish," and as "an ox") and scripted their motions to a fare-the-well, transforming their work into a kind of kabuki of obedience. They weren't more efficient, but they looked smart, like obedient robots, and this made their bosses happy. The bosses shelled out fortunes for Taylor's services, even though the workers who followed his prescriptions were less efficient and generated fewer profits. Bosses were so dazzled by the spectacle of a factory floor of crisply moving people interfacing with crisply working machines that they failed to understand that they were losing money on the whole business.

To the extent they noticed that their revenues were declining after implementing Taylorism, they assumed that this was because they needed more scientific management. Taylor had a sweet con: the worse his advice performed, the more reasons their were to pay him for more advice.

Taylorism is a perfect con to run on the wealthy and powerful. It feeds into their prejudice and mistrust of their workers, and into their misplaced confidence in their own ability to understand their workers' jobs better than their workers do. There's always a long dollar to be made playing the "scientific management" con.

Today, there's an app for that. "Bossware" is a class of technology that monitors and disciplines workers, and it was supercharged by the pandemic and the rise of work-from-home. Combine bossware with work-from-home and your boss gets to control your life even when in your own place – "work from home" becomes "live at work":

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/24/gwb-rumsfeld-monsters/#bossware

Gig workers are at the white-hot center of bossware. Gig work promises "be your own boss," but bossware puts a Taylorist caliper wielder into your phone, monitoring and disciplining you as you drive your wn car around delivering parcels or picking up passengers.

In automation terms, a worker hitched to an app this way is a "reverse centaur." Automation theorists call a human augmented by a machine a "centaur" – a human head supported by a machine's tireless and strong body. A "reverse centaur" is a machine augmented by a human – like the Amazon delivery driver whose app goads them to make inhuman delivery quotas while punishing them for looking in the "wrong" direction or even singing along with the radio:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/02/despotism-on-demand/#virtual-whips

Bossware pre-dates the current AI bubble, but AI mania has supercharged it. AI pumpers insist that AI can do things it positively cannot do – rolling out an "autonomous robot" that turns out to be a guy in a robot suit, say – and rich people are groomed to buy the services of "AI-powered" bossware:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/29/pay-no-attention/#to-the-little-man-behind-the-curtain

For an AI scammer like Elon Musk or Sam Altman, the fact that an AI can't do your job is irrelevant. From a business perspective, the only thing that matters is whether a salesperson can convince your boss that an AI can do your job – whether or not that's true:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/25/accountability-sinks/#work-harder-not-smarter

The fact that AI can't do your job, but that your boss can be convinced to fire you and replace you with the AI that can't do your job, is the central fact of the 21st century labor market. AI has created a world of "algorithmic management" where humans are demoted to reverse centaurs, monitored and bossed about by an app.

The techbro's overwhelming conceit is that nothing is a crime, so long as you do it with an app. Just as fintech is designed to be a bank that's exempt from banking regulations, the gig economy is meant to be a workplace that's exempt from labor law. But this wheeze is transparent, and easily pierced by enforcers, so long as those enforcers want to do their jobs. One such enforcer is Alvaro Bedoya, an FTC commissioner with a keen interest in antitrust's relationship to labor protection.

Bedoya understands that antitrust has a checkered history when it comes to labor. As he's written, the history of antitrust is a series of incidents in which Congress revised the law to make it clear that forming a union was not the same thing as forming a cartel, only to be ignored by boss-friendly judges:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/14/aiming-at-dollars/#not-men

Bedoya is no mere historian. He's an FTC Commissioner, one of the most powerful regulators in the world, and he's profoundly interested in using that power to help workers, especially gig workers, whose misery starts with systemic, wide-scale misclassification as contractors:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/02/upward-redistribution/

In a new speech to NYU's Wagner School of Public Service, Bedoya argues that the FTC's existing authority allows it to crack down on algorithmic management – that is, algorithmic management is illegal, even if you break the law with an app:

https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/bedoya-remarks-unfairness-in-workplace-surveillance-and-automated-management.pdf

Bedoya starts with a delightful analogy to The Hawtch-Hawtch, a mythical town from a Dr Seuss poem. The Hawtch-Hawtch economy is based on beekeeping, and the Hawtchers develop an overwhelming obsession with their bee's laziness, and determine to wring more work (and more honey) out of him. So they appoint a "bee-watcher." But the bee doesn't produce any more honey, which leads the Hawtchers to suspect their bee-watcher might be sleeping on the job, so they hire a bee-watcher-watcher. When that doesn't work, they hire a bee-watcher-watcher-watcher, and so on and on.

For gig workers, it's bee-watchers all the way down. Call center workers are subjected to "AI" video monitoring, and "AI" voice monitoring that purports to measure their empathy. Another AI times their calls. Two more AIs analyze the "sentiment" of the calls and the success of workers in meeting arbitrary metrics. On average, a call-center worker is subjected to five forms of bossware, which stand at their shoulders, marking them down and brooking no debate.

For example, when an experienced call center operator fielded a call from a customer with a flooded house who wanted to know why no one from her boss's repair plan system had come out to address the flooding, the operator was punished by the AI for failing to try to sell the customer a repair plan. There was no way for the operator to protest that the customer had a repair plan already, and had called to complain about it.

Workers report being sickened by this kind of surveillance, literally – stressed to the point of nausea and insomnia. Ironically, one of the most pervasive sources of automation-driven sickness are the "AI wellness" apps that bosses are sold by AI hucksters:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/15/wellness-taylorism/#sick-of-spying

The FTC has broad authority to block "unfair trade practices," and Bedoya builds the case that this is an unfair trade practice. Proving an unfair trade practice is a three-part test: a practice is unfair if it causes "substantial injury," can't be "reasonably avoided," and isn't outweighed by a "countervailing benefit." In his speech, Bedoya makes the case that algorithmic management satisfies all three steps and is thus illegal.

On the question of "substantial injury," Bedoya describes the workday of warehouse workers working for ecommerce sites. He describes one worker who is monitored by an AI that requires him to pick and drop an object off a moving belt every 10 seconds, for ten hours per day. The worker's performance is tracked by a leaderboard, and supervisors punish and scold workers who don't make quota, and the algorithm auto-fires if you fail to meet it.

Under those conditions, it was only a matter of time until the worker experienced injuries to two of his discs and was permanently disabled, with the company being found 100% responsible for this injury. OSHA found a "direct connection" between the algorithm and the injury. No wonder warehouses sport vending machines that sell painkillers rather than sodas. It's clear that algorithmic management leads to "substantial injury."

What about "reasonably avoidable?" Can workers avoid the harms of algorithmic management? Bedoya describes the experience of NYC rideshare drivers who attended a round-table with him. The drivers describe logging tens of thousands of successful rides for the apps they work for, on promise of "being their own boss." But then the apps start randomly suspending them, telling them they aren't eligible to book a ride for hours at a time, sending them across town to serve an underserved area and still suspending them. Drivers who stop for coffee or a pee are locked out of the apps for hours as punishment, and so drive 12-hour shifts without a single break, in hopes of pleasing the inscrutable, high-handed app.

All this, as drivers' pay is falling and their credit card debts are mounting. No one will explain to drivers how their pay is determined, though the legal scholar Veena Dubal's work on "algorithmic wage discrimination" reveals that rideshare apps temporarily increase the pay of drivers who refuse rides, only to lower it again once they're back behind the wheel:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

This is like the pit boss who gives a losing gambler some freebies to lure them back to the table, over and over, until they're broke. No wonder they call this a "casino mechanic." There's only two major rideshare apps, and they both use the same high-handed tactics. For Bedoya, this satisfies the second test for an "unfair practice" – it can't be reasonably avoided. If you drive rideshare, you're trapped by the harmful conduct.

The final prong of the "unfair practice" test is whether the conduct has "countervailing value" that makes up for this harm.

To address this, Bedoya goes back to the call center, where operators' performance is assessed by "Speech Emotion Recognition" algorithms, a psuedoscientific hoax that purports to be able to determine your emotions from your voice. These SERs don't work – for example, they might interpret a customer's laughter as anger. But they fail differently for different kinds of workers: workers with accents – from the American south, or the Philippines – attract more disapprobation from the AI. Half of all call center workers are monitored by SERs, and a quarter of workers have SERs scoring them "constantly."

Bossware AIs also produce transcripts of these workers' calls, but workers with accents find them "riddled with errors." These are consequential errors, since their bosses assess their performance based on the transcripts, and yet another AI produces automated work scores based on them.

In other words, algorithmic management is a procession of bee-watchers, bee-watcher-watchers, and bee-watcher-watcher-watchers, stretching to infinity. It's junk science. It's not producing better call center workers. It's producing arbitrary punishments, often against the best workers in the call center.

There is no "countervailing benefit" to offset the unavoidable substantial injury of life under algorithmic management. In other words, algorithmic management fails all three prongs of the "unfair practice" test, and it's illegal.

What should we do about it? Bedoya builds the case for the FTC acting on workers' behalf under its "unfair practice" authority, but he also points out that the lack of worker privacy is at the root of this hellscape of algorithmic management.

He's right. The last major update Congress made to US privacy law was in 1988, when they banned video-store clerks from telling the newspapers which VHS cassettes you rented. The US is long overdue for a new privacy regime, and workers under algorithmic management are part of a broad coalition that's closer than ever to making that happen:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/06/privacy-first/#but-not-just-privacy

Workers should have the right to know which of their data is being collected, who it's being shared by, and how it's being used. We all should have that right. That's what the actors' strike was partly motivated by: actors who were being ordered to wear mocap suits to produce data that could be used to produce a digital double of them, "training their replacement," but the replacement was a deepfake.

With a Trump administration on the horizon, the future of the FTC is in doubt. But the coalition for a new privacy law includes many of Trumpland's most powerful blocs – like Jan 6 rioters whose location was swept up by Google and handed over to the FBI. A strong privacy law would protect their Fourth Amendment rights – but also the rights of BLM protesters who experienced this far more often, and with far worse consequences, than the insurrectionists.

The "we do it with an app, so it's not illegal" ruse is wearing thinner by the day. When you have a boss for an app, your real boss gets an accountability sink, a convenient scapegoat that can be blamed for your misery.

The fact that this makes you worse at your job, that it loses your boss money, is no guarantee that you will be spared. Rich people make great marks, and they can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent. Markets won't solve this one – but worker power can.

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[astonmartinii]

it must be a sign | oscar piastri social media au

pairing: oscar piastri x fem deaf! red bull engineer!reader

when the two most unbothered people in the paddock combine their joint powers to be the it couple

request sent by the lovely @bibissparkles xx

author's note: heyyy so many of you won't know but i am actually deaf - i am 50% deaf in both ears and wear hearing aids so i love requests like this! (all i do most of this stuff as a deaf person, turning off your hearing aids >)

MASTERLIST | TIP JAR

yourusername

liked by maxverstappen1, oscarpiastri and 302,446 others

yourusername: you can't complain about the dutch national anthem when you can just turn your hearing aids off

view all comments

user1: the way max's engineer is as sick of that damn song as us

user2: turning off her hearing aids makes how bored she looks during podiums make sense

yourusername: it was a banger during the mercedes dominance but would it kill someone to play the australian anthem

danielricciardo: i knew you missed me

yourusername: sure, jan.

user3: her and max signing slay to each other will always be so personal to me

maxverstappen1: gonna pretend you didn't just say that

yourusername: boo hoo babe, you gotta lose something sometimes

user4: babe? are the flowers from max?

maxverstappen1: would rather choke on my own spit and fall into a pit of snakes, hope this helps ❤️

yourusername: rude! i wouldn't want flowers from you either :(

user5: i swear we get into this argument every weekend, i think people will still assume they're together until their married to other people

liamlawson30: stop using me as a messenger pigeon please and thank you

yourusername: but i thought red bull gave you wings?

liamlawson30: do not use a pr answer against me 🤨

yourusername: no comment

liamlawson30: choke.

yourusername: idk what's going on in the red bull junior academy but spit in helmut's coffee not mine

user6: y/n consistently giving all the red bull guys shit is my favourite thing ever

user7: the amount of times the sky broadcast has caught her waving them off or taking her hearing aids out lol

oscarpiastri

liked by yourusername, landonorris and 782,309 others

oscarpiastri: switched four tyres for two this weekend

view all comments

user11: you can't distract us with your slutty bike pics WHO THE FUCK IS THAT

landonorris: A WOMAN? A WOMAN? IS THAT A WOMAN OSCAR JACK PIASTRI?

oscarpiastri: yeah i'm pretty sure

landonorris: don't play smart with me buster - why was i not informed?

oscarpiastri: i don't ask to be informed of every time you get rejected in the instagram dms

landonorris: FAKE NEWS

oscarpiastri: okay buddy

user12: i be seeing the sign language book, oscar you are so real for that

user13: that's my king, i need a oscar and y/n link up in the paddock - my unbothered queens

user14: she's in the likes !!!!!!

logansargent: oh we've entered the soft launch phase i see

oscarpiastri: and what?

logansargent: someone is feeling defensive this morning, dude i won't tell i've already kept it a secret for so long

landonorris: HE KNOWS? DOES BEING YOUR TEAMMATE MEAN NOTHING?

oscarpiastri: he's my childhood best friend?

logansargent: there's levels to this game norris

landonorris: @oscarpiastri consider yourself UNDER SURVEILLANCE

oscarpiastri: okay girly

user15: oscar has the patience of a saint, the mystery gal may want to rethink it before having to deal with them all

yourusername

liked by maxverstappen1, danielricciardo and 381,044 others

yourusername: unrelaxed, unbothered, moisturised ✨

view all comments

user18: queen SHIT THAT AIN'T SHIT

user19: but this mystery man IS

maxverstappen1: yeah sorry about that... but at least boyfy has made his instagram debut?

yourusername: about time, he's too sexy to gatekeep

maxverstappen1: well i'm not going to agree out of respect for you

yourusername: so you don't think he's sexy? i might not be able to hear but HE CAN MAX BE NICE

maxverstappen1: first of all it's a text, second of all i've been way too nice to him

yourusername: he beat you in padel fair and square you're just SHIT AT IT ❤️

maxverstappen1: you know that's a sore subject WHY WOULD YOU BRING IT UP

user20: my queen was really like you wanna tell me to fuck off? oh here's my sexy boyfriend

user21: jos verstappen really didn't know who he was tangling with that gal may be chill but she doesn't take shit

user22: she's like a female version of oscar lol

user23: i knew there was a reason i liked her

this comment was liked by yourusername

danielricciardo: why am i left out of everything these days?

yourusername: snooze you lose

danielricciardo: I AM AWAKE REPLY TO MY TEXTS

danielricciardo: I JUST SAW YOU PUT YOUR PHONE ON DO NOT DISTURB

yourusername: protecting my peace

danielricciardo: i'm on to you buster

oscarpiastri

liked by maxverstappen1, yourusername and 1,209,455 others

tagged: yourusername

oscarpiastri: overjoyed to get my first (proper) win in formula one and even more overjoyed to have my amazing girlfriend (and even better engineer) up on the podium with me

view all comments

user27: so this was the special occasion?

user28: so this is why she said she wanted the australian national anthem over the dutch one?

user29: this is now my roman empire

yourusername: babe is so fucking good and i'm so fucking proud

oscarpiastri: i'm so glad to have been able to share this moment with you

yourusername: you deserve this and more, i love you

oscarpiastri: i love you too xx

user30: wait so oscar knows so much more sign language than i thought

user31: he looked so excited and even mark knows some

logansargent: he forced (we were happy to do so) me, mark and his family to learn as soon as he secured the date lol

oscarpiastri: and now we're all so cool because of it

logansargent: cool and able to chat shit without people knowing what we're saying

yourusername: best bit about it tbf (everyone please learn, it's a beautiful language)

landonorris: I KNEW IT

oscarpiastri: no you didn't

landonorris: no i didn't :( i'm hurt

oscarpiastri: if it's any consolation, we didn't tell many people, max and logan are exceptions

landonorris: WHY WAS I NOT AN EXCEPTION???

yourusername: boo hoo

landonorris: i'm not gonna say anything back to that you kinda scare me

yourusername: good ❤️

yourusername

liked by fernandoalo_oficial, oscarpiastri and 529,778 others

tagged: maxverstappen1 & oscarpiastri

yourusername: me and a racewinner (and our world champion third wheel)

view all comments

user32: fave trio in the paddock no competition

logansargent: logan erasure

yourusername: we love you logan, sunday roast at mine this weekend ❤️

logansargent: SCORE

user33: every time you post there's a new plushie

yourusername: we usually get one to commemorate a big weekend and we both got one for osc's first win

user34: that's so FUCKING CUTE

oscarpiastri: it's all fun and games until you don't fit in the bed because y/n feels too bad to put any of them on the floor

yourusername: they have FEELINGS OSCAR

oscarpiastri: she cried one time when max set off the smoke alarm cooking breakfast and the bed alarm shook so bad that all of them were thrown to the floor

yourusername: it was HARROWING but it also did wake me up so at least we know it works

maxverstappen1: actually my favourite couple to third wheel, but enjoy it while it's here osc, i won't lose again

yourusername: yeah sorry osc it's actually my job to help max win so you're gonna have to wait for him to retire if i have anything to do with it

oscarpiastri: not even for me :(

yourusername: sorry not sorry (i'm really sorry, i love you so much)

oscarpiastri: i love you too even if you won't sabotage max for my race :(

maxverstappen1: okay i know i said you guys are cute but that's enough for today

yourusername: we ARE cute thank you

oscarpiastri: the CUTEST

fin.

note: heheheheh i hope you enjoyed this, i love requests like this xx also on the comment about the bed alarm i had one in uni halls and when the alarm went off that baby SHOOK it was kinda scary

[arolesbianism]

I have obtained a new oc and in the process I've already signed myself up for needing to make at least 3 new ocs for his story which he now has despite me initially Intending for him to be a side character for a different side character to hang out with. My townhouse has over 200 characters on it.