#and it's very refreshing

[xenodile]

Was talking about it with a friend, but part of what makes Ellen so good as a character is that in all her interactions with the player, she is very clearly a teenager talking to an adult. Like it reminds me of talking to my nieces and nephews when they were younger. She's huffy, she complains, and everything is very transactional. Like, she likes the player in the way a kid a might know a cool, trustworthy old person in their neighborhood. You're like the "parent's friend with a cool hobby". She can count on you for help, but she's not actively seeking you out, because she just has friends her age and she very clearly likes them more than you. Especially Corin, whom she is overtly nicer and more affectionate towards compared to every other character.

[casscainmainly]

Duke insulting Jason Todd for no reason oh Duke nation we are so back

[egophiliac]

Treys card is taking so long to come out, its making this January feel 10x longer (<tired trey fan) i wanna know what it is so bad

they haven't changed the January schedule (yet), so I assume it's gotta come out sometime later this week...? ( ᐕ ) which means we should be getting the Queen's Chef card announcement anywhere from "literally any minute now" to "January 31st, 11:59 PM JST". hold on lemme just manifest this real quick --

(super fast drawings wooooooo)

[nightcatssketchbook]

I was hitting some art block so I felt like drawing some fanart of @abd-illustrates’ Heartless characters!

I realized I never actually watched the final installment of the Concept Corner series, so that’s what I had playing when sketching these. It’s just so fun listening to the brainstorming and cool character connections

[cooroouo]

[pupcha]

guess who 😈

and I have this art with beta—

I also have a lot of sketches that I hope to finish in the near future (don't pay attention to the fact that there're a lot of Howdy here....)

(hum)beta!Wally (eechy pspsps 🫴)

I don't know what else to show you, so I'll show you (the old ones) art for my mutual :]

Margo for @//thelone-copper ; (I don't know his name 😔🥄🥄🥄) for @//dxkjf

[redshoes-blues]

Francesca is so real and relatable. She wants to get married to have her own house because her family’s is too loud. She’d gladly spend all day playing her pianoforte. She blanches at the prospect of having eight kids and a loud household because again. Noise. She’d prefer to sit in companionable silence with a suitor than put on an act and vapidly flirt with one. And when the fellow introverted suitor does flirt with her in his own (and her own) way, through her love of music, she immediately leaves to play that music, not particularly caring about social norms or conventions. She’s so refreshing and I love her!

[wabart]

when your second ever friend acts just like your first ever friend (your bitch cousin, Illario)

Octavian is from here

Image transcripts below the cut

Image 1: no text on screen.

Image 2:

Lucanis: You have to stir it

Octavian (Rook): I will, away with you

Lucanis: Faster

Octavian: I need you to relax.

Image 3:

Octavian: I've been on your mind for years?

Octavian: Just for calling you an amateur?

Octavian: How flattering!

Octavian: I didn't realise you liked me sooooo-

Lucanis: No. No. No. No. No. That's not what I said-

Image 4:

Octavian: I wouldn't recommend prison. It's no fun and they don't let you leave.

Taash: Bummer.

[woahcoolbear]

npcs from my blades in the dark campaign (that i never stop thinking about)

[strwbrryfire]

BURN CRASH ROMANCE !

need y'all to know that eat them alive is my current roman empire and i will be drawing so much redbull oscar

go read eat them alive by @drivestraight ♥️

[quigzahhutt]

his little head shake ...

"I didn't wanna sound stupid, so" and then his little feet taps 🥺🥺

[its-kinda-snowy]

I love wolves. because they love deeply, but they don't know how to express it, and they're often very violent and, quite frankly, murder the things that they love, and inside of the wolf is this beautiful heart.

[thedinanshiral]

What to read before The Veilguard drops

Yes people, we have homework. In case you missed it, or need to refresh that memory because hey, it's been a while, here's a quick short list of what to (re)read in preparation for this new entry in the series.

Books:

From Tevinter Nights: Down among the dead men (introduces Emmrich and Manfred), The wigmaker job (introduces Lucanis), The streets of Minrathous (introduces Neve).

The Last Flight, last novel released somewhere around DA: Inquisition. Takes the action to Weisshaupt, Grey Wardens HQ, and jumps between that present and the past explaining how the Griffons became extinct during the Fourth Blight. Will explain where Davrin's griffon came from.

Comics:

Magekiller. It's pretty introductory overall, set around Inquisition but it introduces "magekillers" as a job some people do. While in Tevinter Nights Lucanis is introduced as an Antivan Crow seems he's decided to change careers so it can't hurt to learn a bit about it.

The missing. Gives us Varric and Scout Harding already working together, and introduces us to Neve.

Short Stories:

Posted a while back in the BioWare page for Dragon Age day as crumbs to feast on while we waited, and waited, and waited..I recommend reading all of them simply because most people may have missed them and they add to lore and characters that while not among the new companions may still make an appearance and be relevant in Veilguard.

Of course I recommend reading EVERYTHING if possible, it all adds more layers and flavor and we know Solas is in the details, we can't miss a thing, but I think if you're short on time this counts as light reading enough to know where you'll land when Dragon Age: The Veilguard finally arrives.

[teaboot]

if ur a murderbot nerd now do u have any fun opinions abt it yet?

Oh my goddd you have no idea

I really, really, really like Murderbot because it comes at life with this perspective we don't often see that is very real among people who have already been through traumatic experiences, who developed skills and abilities to suvive that were once useful but no longer have context- that search that traumatized people go through to recalibrate and reorient ourselves in a world where we no longer really need those things to survive.

A bit personal here, but my own issues personally involved a lot of psychological abuse that made it difficult to trust my own perceptions of reality, and as a result I found I was very easy to lie to and manipulate.

To handle this, I became obsessive over writing things down, cataloging details and making notes of things as they happened- I'd carry recording devices and make audio recordings and stay up late at night to transcribe what they'd picked up, read those over and over again to reassure myself of things I wasn't certain about.

While doing this, there were others close to me that I felt responsible for, who I had to protect from others and protect myself from at the same time. Life was about two things: Evidence, and defusing threats

Over time, I learned to trust myself as my memories matched what had been recorded where their narrative didn't, but I never really kicked the habit. Like Murderbot, I had added something to my own programming that reassured me I was safe, that I was in control of myself, that I couldn't be mistaken or crazy or broken or used.

I'm only on book two, but already I see myself in Murderbot again. No spoilers here, but when I left home- left that dangerous context- I didn't need to repeat these patterns to survive anymore, but I still did, because I didn't know anything else anymore. It felt safe, comfortable, knowing knowing that the past couldn't repeat itself, because I'd written that flaw- blind trust in myself-  out of my programming and replaced it with something else.

Still, though, I'd become something specially suited to thrive in a very specific environment. Nothing else felt right like followinghigh-risk situations, like witnessing and watching and recording and knowing I had proof of the truth where others might not.

People took notice. I wound up in security by accident, but's an environment that I thrive in due to the same patterns and behaviours I originally developed when I had no other choice. I climbed the ladder pretty quickly, once supervisors caught on that my reports were the most accurate, most objective, most factual, detail-oriented and timely. I keep others and myself safe and prioritize public safety above all else, and I perform well under pressure

Now I'm in a position where I often wonder, do I enjoy this job, or is it just what I'm good at? I have a set of skills now, but do I have the option of choosing not to use them? What would I be, if not this? Could I be anything else? Can Murderbot be anything else?

It has a set of skills that set it apart, make it different, special. It does what it knows best. But is it free? Does it want to be? What does it want? Does it have to do what it was built to do? What if it didn't?

I know what I'm good for. The idea of deliberately leaving what I'm good for for something uncertain, that I might hate, that I might be useless at- the choice to give up what was so important to me for so long and become deliberately obsolete?

Let go of my entire purpose? The only thing I know, that I fit so well into but don't actually know if I enjoy? Now that I can choose? Now that enjoyment is a luxury I can afford to consider?

Yeah, that resonates.

I like the Murderbot series so far because it feels the way I feel: Like the most significant and formative part of my story, the part where I became what I am, has already happened

And now I have to just. Keep going

Into... what?

It feels absurd. Like a microwave giving up on reheating food and deciding to start a life around abstract dance.

So, uh. Yeah. It's really very wild to see this same philosophical-ish dilemma I've been digging over in the back of my mind and in therapy for the last forever laid out so plainly in a genuinely exciting and enjoyable story like this. I feel much less alone, and I... kind of really need to see how it resolves, I think.

So, uh. Yeah. Read Murderbot, I guess

[lycantropy14]

yk what ill post the colored ver.

[earlyzakariya]

One thing I like about stobotonik is that in a world where most mainstream mlm ships are between two white guys its really refreshing to see that an arab character is the center of such a beloved mlm ship