#anyways the lesson to learn is that I am not Pom Pom- and sometimes is hard to write her | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

sith-shenanigans · 3 years ago

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This is not too spoilers because it’s happening in, like, the next couple chapters (which might be 3-4 chapters, because Velnira has committed the impressive feat of making me split her very second chapter in two), but there is an Incident early on that really… cements this attitude. Aka, she breaks the rules to do the right thing, and in a vacuum it would have been the right thing, but the situation is Politically Complicated (hello, Kalikori!) and the rest of Tython is an exercise in Maybe You Should Have Thought This Through Better, Padawan, as she goes around cleaning up the resulting mess. The Jedi Council was kind of hoping she learned a lesson about not being a maverick, especially since she’s usually so rule-abiding, please do not become a smaller more diplomacy-flavored Yuon they could not take it. (The lesson she learned was more along the lines of “don’t try to invent a right thing to do in a situation without one when you don’t… actually understand the situation.”)

Velnira has mind tricked one (1) person in her life, during the Sacking of Coruscant, and it was very bad and terrible and she was good at it, and she has resolved never to do it again. (Because it would be… easy, to start thinking she could reach out and make people do the right thing, and that’s the sort of road that leads to wearing black robes and trying to take over the galaxy for everyone’s own good, which is no. She is going to be diplomatic on her own merits, and sometimes even lie, if she has to. She refuses to touch anyone’s free will. Once was too many times.)

You are also so, so correct about the game making it too easy to disobey your superiors without consequences; my agents are also universally DS in Act I, up until the Jadus confrontation. (En’veshi is, uh, somehow actually the worst of my agents, and that makes sense because of the three Verios kids she has the worst backstory and Intelligence got her out of it, but she’s. She’s got a lot of issues. Then she snaps out of the I’m-Intelligence-property thing during the Jadus mess and has different issues.) I’m also… sometimes annoyed with the other Imperial plotlines for not having enough situations where not taking the DS option would be a large risk, at least the two Sith ones, I maybe haven’t actually played the bounty hunter off the starting planet and they’re the least having-to-Imperial Imperial anyway. But that is perhaps a sidetrack.

I am very happy I could unstick the Agensular, and also I am spiritually waving pom-poms and cheering because “had to fake being good, now I have acquired actual morals because some part of me always wanted to be better than I felt I had to” is my favorite trope forever, and I already love her dearly. And there is so much of a potential throughline with the agent and consular! They’re the most charisma-based-protagonist of the classes, ofc, and also the consular actually has a lot of things about—well. *gestures at the Children of the Emperor* *gestures, also, at having to deal with politics and balancing everyone’s agendas, and they kind of explicitly got the title of Jedi Master because someone important noticed them and it would be insulting to only send a knight, so there’s already a great opportunity for consulars who are trying to earn a title they know they didn’t get on merit as a Jedi, so why not add double agent imposter syndrome*…

(… There are so many ideas under my bed too, I relate greatly.)

🌝 (for the meme!)

I’m thinking about Jedi emotions now and will dump a pile of them in your lap like a horrible cat!

🌝 - Who is one character you haven’t yet written for that you would like to?

[…] On the other side, I really want to write Orgus. I just… haven’t really gotten Discontent properly started yet. I want to write a lot of Jedi I haven’t gotten to, honestly. I have so many Jedi emotions that I usually keep hidden behind my back. They’re just—they’re trying to do good. They’re in a horribly flawed galaxy and they’re trying to do good, and sometimes they fail, and sometimes they completely screw up, and sometimes they have been made part of terrible things of their own, and yet the attempt to do good keeps mattering anyway.

……and on the consular side, I have technically written one (1) full chapter of Velnira, but also I want to write so much more about her and her story is all about this and I am going to vibrate with the desire to spill out everything. But. Uh. Not doing that! Or else we will hear about Belsavis forever and that would not be good.

The consular companions are also wonderful, though! I especially have plans for improving a couple of them:

- I have been fixing Qyzen’s arc in my head and am excited to do things like not have the “devotee of a ~primitive~ religion fixates on outsider” trope. (It’s more “sort-of-unwilling-heretic goes into voluntary exile to look for a diplomat, because he needs one in order to do what his god called him to do and he is very much not suited to it.” She’s not the unknowing prophet of his god. She’s the person who will speak his truth—the Herald of the vision that the Scorekeeper sent to him.)

- Tharan Cedrax is actually an interesting character if you ban him from sexist writing and glitchy flirting scenes. He’s an egomaniac, vaguely amoral scientist who keeps befriending just an astonishing number of Jedi. He rescued a programmed Sexy Hologram Girl and started her on the path to becoming one of the few true AIs in the galaxy. And he hates mind tricks; he cannot stand any sort of overriding of free will. Except when it’s his friend Duras Fain doing it. Then he just makes a face and deals with it, as always, because he actually has a lot of morals but no moral backbone. And then he meets Velnira, who has a lot of morals and an enormous amount of moral backbone, and he goes with her, because he’s spent his life taking the easy way out more often than not, and—Void alive, he can’t keep doing that. Not forever. It will kill him if he does.

And I have plans for Zenith too, but they’re secret, because it is 6 am and my sleep medication is cutting in. Good night, internet friends, I will menace you again at some undefined later point!

[fanfic asks]

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chairfreon5-blog · 6 years ago

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Last-Minute Holiday Gifts

So I guess this is not super-last-minute, especially for people like me who are nowhere near done with their Christmas shopping. But close to last-minute. I’ve rounded up some of my very most favorite things this holiday season and I hope they’ll help you fill some holes in your Christmas lists!

1. Ingrid Michaelson Songs of the Season. Many of you know I’m a huge Ingrid Michaelson fan and her new Christmas album that she just released is amazing. It’s very old-fashioned and nostalgic and her “All I Want for Christmas Is You” duet with Leslie Odom Jr. (aka Aaron Burr from Hamilton) is the only version of this song I’ve ever liked (ducking and covering.) Because of its nostalgic sound, I definitely recommend the vinyl (which means they may need a record player to go along with it!)

2. Makala Ukulele. My daughter begged to learn to play the ukulele from the time we went to Hawaii 5 1/2 years ago, so finally about 3 Christmases ago, we got her a ukulele and some lessons for Christmas. It’s turned into a much bigger hobby for her (she also plays the acoustic guitar–more about that in a second–and her true love is the electric guitar.) But her first love and the one she always comes back to is the ukulele. This is a good little ukulele with a great sound, not too expensive to get their feet wet, but not so cheap or kitschy that they’ll hate it in another two years.

3. Smartypits Deodorant. Okay. Hear me out. Also, don’t just go buy someone deodorant for Christmas because they might get mad. But this truly is one of my FAVORITE new products this year and I need to tell you guys about it! I’ve wondered about natural deodorant for a long time (and, let’s be honest, really really doubted its effectiveness.) I found myself caught in a deodorant-less pickle a little while back and was just overcome by the cuteness of Schmidt’s natural deodorant packaging, so I grabbed some to try.

That was a mistake.

It didn’t really work and to top it all off, it gave me incredible chemical burns which, as it turns out, is a very common side effect of many natural deodorants because of the high concentration of baking soda (who know?!)

Anyway, being the over-sharer that I am, I publicly lamented on Facebook and my friend told me about Smartypits deodorant (and recommended I get the sensitive skin, baking soda free variety). I was hesitant, but I did it and after I got through the learning curve (you have to warm it up against your skin for about 10 seconds before you start swiping), I discovered that not only did it work and not only did I like it, but I liked it better than my traditional deodorant! I told everyone around me to not be scared to tell me if I smelled bad and no one has said anything, even when I ask them outright. I can’t smell anything. My clothes don’t stink. I even went back to my traditional deodorant just to see how I felt and that was stinky. Sometimes when it’s very warm or I’m sweating a lot, I need to re-apply, but otherwise, I’m good pretty much all day.

The catch is that you can’t just pick it up at Target and that it’s expensive. I got my first stick from a local boutique. You can get it at Amazon, but the cheapest place I’ve found it is through The Grove, which is a great way to get natural products at a great price (I’m kind of a Mrs. Meyers junkie, so I get all of it through them.) That link won’t take you straight to the deodorant–you’ll have to search Smartypits (and I recommend sensitive skin, just in case…lots of people are sensitive to the baking soda), but if you use that link, you’ll get $10 off your first order.

Whew. That’s a lot of deodorant talk. Let’s go back to guitars.

4. If you or someone you’re shopping for wants an acoustic guitar and are just starting out, these Luna 3/4 guitars are a great bet. They’re very pretty in person and they sound great, especially once you change the strings. They’re a good size for anyone–Ed Sheeran plays on a 3/4 guitar! My daughter got hers when she was 8 and it was a great size for her. She’s 11 now and wants one that’s just a little bigger, but again, if Ed Sheeran can do it, anyone can. These are great guitars for people, especially kids and shorter people (like me!) who are just getting started.

5. Apollo Box Harry Potter stuff. I love Apollo Box for unique gifts (this pom pom throw is still one of my favorites and has been incredibly popular with you guys as well!). If someone you love is an adult who also loves Harry Potter, they have some really cool higher-end Harry Potter gifts, like the makeup brushes and the bath bomb (which sorts you into your house!) as well as a really cute keepsake Harry Potter bookmark. That’s just a tiny sample of the amazing gifts they have there–definitely poke around and you’ll find something for just about everyone!

6. I ordered this dress for an event and it is seriously one of my favorite things ever. It’s forgiving and flattering. It’s long enough (on me, but I’m also 5’2″–it’s also very cute with opaque tights or leggings and boots) It’s adorable. It comes in tons of patterns. It’s $22 freaking dollars. I think you probably need it and if you don’t, someone does.

7. I’ve always got to include something from Bath & Bodyworks, but Twisted Peppermint is my all-time favorite scent and this body scrub has FUNFETTI SCRUBBERS in it, so using it basically feels/smells like you’re rubbing peppermint frosting all over your body which is actually how I want to leave this life. There’s always some sale going on at B&BW, so get this (and a Winter Candy Apple while you’re at it.)

8. Chrissy Teigen’s Hungry for More. There’s nothing Chrissy Teigen can’t do. She’s smart. Hilarious. Beautiful. Has an adorable line at Target. Writes amazing cookbooks. Her new cookbook is fantastic and if you’re looking for one to add to your collection this Christmas season, this is the one I recommend!

I hope that gives you some gift-giving ideas! Happy Friday!!

If you’re looking for more of our gift guides, check out the Gift Guide Section of our blog!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.

Source: https://ourbestbites.com/last-minute-holiday-gifts/

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