#anything that might need fixing

[tommyofspeed-a]

Drabble # 1 — post young avengers present #6

He doesn’t stop running until he’s miles away from the building on the Upper East Side. Away from the trouble he could get into for breaking into the temporary Avengers Tower. And away from Kate Bishop.

And it's only when he stops that he starts to actually think about what he did. And realize just how much of a jerk he’d been.

“Well, but you are a jerk, aren’t you, Tommy?” he muttered to himself, shaking his head angrily.

Yeah, most of the time, to most people. But he’d never gone so far as to abandon someone, to leave a friend behind in a moment of trouble. He thought he wasn’t like that. But… well, maybe he’d been wrong.

“Then again…” he tried to argue with himself, forcing a small smile that quickly faded. “We were only there because she wanted her bow back. If she hadn’t talked about it…”

He stopped, closing his eyes tightly before rubbing a hand over his face. That was a lousy excuse, and he knew it. From the start, this whole thing was his idea. Because he had second intentions, of course. He wanted to hook up with her, and the quickest way to do that was to please her, right? Also, committing a little crime didn't seem a bad idea at that point. It was exciting. 

So he’d convinced her and brought her there, thinking he was helping her, that she deserved her equipment back—that it was unfair it had been taken from her, and he could help her get it. But then… the Avengers showed up, and he kida panicked.

He hadn’t expected that. He hadn’t planned on anything other than sneaking in and getting the gear without being noticed. He didn't plan that far ahead nor did he had a plan for if they get caught. Because that wasn't supposed to happen.

"She did said go—" He reminded himself, only to add. "but was she talking about going home or for you to get out of there?" He didn't know for sure, and he didn't stay to find out.

Because he just ran. Without thinking twice. Without doing something to get Kate out of there too. He just listen the aproaching avengers, and the word go and he just ran, without thinking much about her. He left her to her own devices in a split second.

They went in there together, but he left alone.

He escaped like a jerk. Like a coward. He was well aware of that now. But now was too late.

"Which is ironic, because you could have had all the time in the world to think about it, but you didn't."

But what else could he have done? He couldn’t risk getting caught and thrown back in juvie, even though this whole mess was his idea. And if anyone had to take the blame for this little silly heist, he figured Kate would get off easier than he would. Maybe that was her plan all along? Cover for him? Even after everything? The older Avengers actually liked her, right? They wouldn't go too hard on her.

“You’re a damn idiot,” he muttered to himself. “There was plenty you could’ve done, don’t lie to yourself. You could’ve taken her out of there with you. But you didn’t, because you’re a damn idiot who only thinks about yourself. What a joke of a hero.”

He leaned against the wall of the alley where he’d ended up, cursing himself.

In the past, this wouldn’t have bothered him at all. He wouldn't spend a second thinking about what had just happened. He’d gotten himself out—what else mattered? But now… things were different. He was feeling guilty. Because he knew he’d put Kate in trouble. And Kate… well, he really liked Kate. For real. Not only because she was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. She was just great in every way too. She was a teammate, his partner, and the funniest, most badass girl he’d ever met.

He knew he might have blown any chance he’d ever had with her because of this. But he hoped, deep down, he hadn’t ruined his chances of being her friend moving forward. Besides Billy, Kate was the only one who actually seemed to enjoy his presence in the Young Avengers, and they were a solid team together. He couldn't stand the idea of having broken her trust.

And this was a new kind of pain that he never felt before. He hated it.

He sighed, feeling defeated. "Ok Tommy, think about it." He told himself. "What can you do?"

Right now, he had three options: he could go back, but he knew that was a terrible idea. The Avengers would still be there, and it would only turn things into an even bigger mess, no matter how fast he was.

The second option was to wait a bit, then head over to Kate’s place and apologize. See if she was okay. But Tommy knew that was an even worse idea. She’d be probably furious with him, and rightfully so, and he’d probably get a punch in the face or an arrow to dodge (which he knew he deserved).

The last and best option was to go home and try to fix this mess tomorrow, that is, if Kate even wanted to talk to him after that. She probably wouldn't, and he couldn’t blame her for that. That was on him, and as much as he hated to admit, he knew fixing it would take time, It would be slow, but he’d have to try.

He was willing to do whatever it took to make it up to her.

[kathonyy]

KATE & ANTHONY BRIDGERTON + kisses 💋 in BRIDGERTON Season 3

[rynpie]

felt the need to doodle lilia

[heavyshrimp]

golden

[canisalbus]

When Machete became a cardinal, did his parents ever recognize him?

Machete's home village was on the other side of Italy (and separated by the sea no less) and it was small, relatively rural and remote. It's very unlikely many news about Holy See's happenings made their way there. I don't think his parents had any reason to expect to ever hear about him again, he seemed to be somewhat of a lost cause when they dropped him off.

[wizardsix]

ok... so I have finally finished veilguard after about 90 painful hours (two playthroughs). im not gonna write an actual review about all of my detailed thoughts bc it'll actually take days, this is just to at least get my general thoughts out and see if anyone else feels the same or if ive actually lost it.

overall it is the weakest dragon age game story-wise, and I'd give it a nice lukewarm 4/10.

(i wrote this post right after I finished the game on the weekend so maybe I sound a bit harsh, I tried to edit it to be more reasonable lol but I didn't really want to delete this since I do still stand by a lot of this)

I really tried to go in with an open mind, bc I always want to experience media in full before making any kind of judgement, but about a few hours in I had this horrible feeling that once again this was another soulless, rushed game, and I still don't feel any different after finishing the game.

what stuck out to me was that there's no sense of urgency despite what the plot is, serious topics are not treated with care as the writing overall is shallow, and the gods as well as any other enemy you encounter are just cartoon villains (and apparently the lore retconning, but I'm not well-versed enough to dissect that so I won't).

I can't take this plot seriously when it feels so disjointed and forced and lazy. and I see no point in caring about anything when choices literally don't matter. no say in who you recruit, no say in the relationships with them and they have almost no awareness of rook, definitely doesn't matter if you have allies or not bc they show up anyway, and only four companions are locked into unavoidable decisions where one of them bites the dust no matter what (which is strange bc why are harding and davrin forced to die no matter if they're at hero status while bellara and neve can literally survive blight if they're at hero status), so it's impossible to try to strategize for better (or worse) outcomes with all the people you've gathered when there's only one right answer that the game pretty much tells you instead of letting you think for yourself (and side note this game does an incredible amount of hand holding). the game actively tries to trick you into thinking your choices matter with the onscreen notifications, but nothing matters bc the devs clearly had only one story in mind and for some reason lied that it had "complex choices".

also rook in general wasn't interesting as a protagonist bc they were written to be perfect. they always know what to say and are so supportive of everyone. they never struggle with anything. not even with leadership beyond "man leading a team is hard :/" but it doesn't actually show how hard it is by having actual volatile conflict between the companions* or showing how their plans sometimes fail. which, if we actually had choices that mattered, would have helped develop that struggle. also? what's with everyone being so friendly? I'm not gonna get into that but everyone is so eerily nice and it's been said a lot but yeah, the world is extremely sanitized and devoid of any real conflict aside from the gods I guess.

*(like off the top of my head cassandra fighting with varric and accusing him of not being on their side or how the inquisitor can literally punch dorian and solas if approval is low enough or fenris and anders bordering on killing each other is not the same as lucanis and davrin distrusting each other or people being uncomfortable with emmrich's necromancy. it just scratches the surface of conflict and never goes anywhere)

and let me say real quick again, there's nothing wrong if they wanted to make a more rigid story about being a hero. it's been done a million times and it can be executed well, but if you do that you need to make sure you 1) don't lie to people and 2) actually flesh out your (especially main) characters and plot to give people a reason to care. look at dragon age 2. hawke is a fixed protagonist with their own life front and center. they ultimately only have two choices (siding with mages or templars), but it works bc the game took time to build up the conflict straight from act 1 so by the time chaos happens in act 2 and 3 you understand why bc it's Been brewing the whole time. it just makes sense. the villains as well have sound reasons and feel real instead of being evil just bc. the story is more grounded, yet you have choices. you decide if hawke ends up alone or not. you decide how they approach situations with force or diplomacy. there's none of that in veilguard. a game that supposedly took 10 years to make. when dragon age 2 took almost 16 months (yes I know da2 also has problems like the fact that the templars are always proven right but this isn't the place to dissect that).

I want to be fair though and I do want to restate what I enjoyed about the game. the cc (though would it kill them to have more variety in face textures like age and body types beyond average.. also no colour wheel... especially since they claimed their cc was so good), the map progression/visuals/exploration (how certain places become more blighted overtime), the factions (though I feel there should have been more content for your faction, and helping them or not should have mattered more), the combat (did not feel like a slog, pretty fun and mindless), the companions (bellara, davrin, emmrich, harding, and lucanis had solid personalities and stories despite my complaints. neve was not memorable and I just feel sad for taash's bad writing), certain parts of the story were good, the intro and the point of no return sequences were solid, and the ending didn't feel rushed or boring compared to inquisition. and yes, I do appreciate that rook can be trans, I just think a little more subtly and care would've been nice.

another thing I did like and predicted was that varric died at the beginning of veilguard, and for a second I actually enjoyed that because i thought we were finally (a bit too late tho) getting some depth to rook and their own struggles of accepting his death and carrying this weight without him. and while I do think maybe they should've taken more time to establish the mentor/mentee relationship so we really feel rooks regret, I still think it was at least the right direction where in their grief they still see him, giving advice and narrating their journey.....but then it turned out to just be solas manipulating them the whole time, immediately destroying any emotional weight this reveal had.

whenever bioware has good ideas they shoot themselves in the foot and make it about solas. it's like nothing in the world exists without solas being involved somehow, and that is just incredibly boring and uninspired to me. not to mention solas just being an insufferable ass the whole time, which is fine, but it's not even in a compelling way like he used to be. he became so ugly by the end and the fact that the devs consider redeeming him the "good ending" and not giving him what he deserves is very telling and once again shows their own bias is king over good storytelling (solas' feelings should not come into play here, whether you/your companions live or die should determine good/bad ending since solas is trapped no matter what, only difference is who is trapped with him. idk but I personally think different endings actually means different outcomes). i will not go into the bs of the secret post credit scene, bc frankly I'm fed up with bioware's shitty writing and I won't be playing their next world ending space aliens game (unless they miraculously pull a good story out of their ass but lbr).

overall the bad outweighs the good for me. it's fun to play as a game, it's a decent fantasy game, but the story just doesn't do anything for me. sometimes I wonder if dreadwolf was a completely different game and was scrapped for veilguard last minute. maybe this was yet another inevitable industry fuck up and maybe there was a good story planned at one point. idk. all I know is bioware lied. respect and credit to the poor devs and writers who actually cared and to those who were kicked from the project, but in the end bioware promised too much and delivered too little.

[fujii-draws]

OKAY! Chatot rant in tags below! Read at your own discretion.

[minijenn]

Aight but look kids. I know you’re all excited about the potential UF reboot but I NEED you all to understand something very important. The way I wrote and engaged with UF… it can’t be like it was before. When I used to write UF, I strived way too hard to please everyone else to the point that I often found myself dissatisfied with what I was writing. It got to the point that I got burnt out with the fic because I wasn’t writing it for, well, myself, and because of that it became something of a chore.

With new UF, I plan on fixing that. I’m writing this fic solely for me this time around, making what I want it to be, which may not be what you want it to be. I’m going to take lengthy breaks when I feel like it, I’m not beholding myself to a stressful tight posting schedule, I’m going to be self indulgent and focus on the characters I want to focus on. I’m going to have fun this time around.

And if I end up writing something you don’t necessarily like, well, sorry about that, I can’t please everyone. I can only please myself. And hopefully this time, I will.

[somegrumpynerd]

The problem is I have a bunch of ideas for colouring book pages but as soon as I sit down in front of krita it's like

[girlivealwaysbean]

it's not sinking in that today might be the last day in my house and town for many months to come

[californiaquail]

anyone else feeling fundamentally incapable of adjusting to society. also just discovered there's a 30 tag limit which i can't believe i've never hit before

[openphrase123]

ALSO!!!! no inutile today. i apologize. realistically i might tone down updates for it to every other week unless i finish the whole thing in backlog early just because i'm trying to meet some original project deadlines (visual novel pitch demo needs to be done by the 30th and if my cowriters pick it up then lots of energy will end up going into it... which also means the farming sim will be on the backburner but that might be better so i can cut my teeth on game production on something that isn't as intense)

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

One day

One day I hope people realize that Kitsunami already "broke through his programming" back by issue #56 of Idw Sonic

He had an entire mini arc where he dealt with being without Surge for the first time, and in the real world. He met Sonic and his friends directly, tried to work out what his purpose would be without Surge in his life (gave it a shot trying to devote himself to Sonic, seeing him as the next best thing after Surge). And when it was all said and done, he decided after experiencing more that at Surge's side is where he wanted to be.

As of the recent IDW issues, Kit isn't sticking with Surge "because of programming" and "because he just needs for other characters to friend him and turn him into a better person". He is at her side because he wants to be. He protects her and aids her because he cares about her, not just because he's serving the strongest guy in the room. And he's not interacting with others because he's decided not to give a shit about anyone else other than Surge (because from his pov, even the "good guys" are fake. From his pov, everyone is someone trying to lie and manipulate their way into pulling him and Surge to their side)

Kit already has decided what he wants to do with his life. And he decided it on his own. Not because of anyone else's wants or wishes. That's the whole point of his speech at the end of #56.

He's burying whatever his and Surge's past is and moving forward with his conviction to be with Surge because it's what he wants.

[vaguely-concerned]

*digging my fingers into my thighs with bruising force* I. need dragon age: the veilguard right now. in a deeply not normal way

[daisywords]

\

[silusvesuius]

g*lmar rly has to be the best skajrim character on the real like even if you don't like him he just is . literally The best one i think......... on dat note i also imagine that he and ulfr*c despite being fairydust BFFs for lyfe genuinely have the worst communication skills ever seen