#but dangit I'm writing these things so

[delicateartisantrash]

[an-inky-fingered-lass]

illuminate the no's on their vacancy signs

A collection of non-chronological moments from a different sort of happy ending. Family feels, pointless fluff, and important conversations. Rated G.

Read on ao3.

chapter 1 -- strawberry-stealing squirrel

“Hey.” 

May blinked contentedly at him, lit up with warm lamplight. “Hm.” 

Coulson got into bed beside her, slow and aching. There was warmth in that too, somehow. May curled up, setting her head against his shoulder, her weight solid and still somehow light against his side. She wasn’t actually reading any more, just flipping idly through pages. 

There was moonlight fading gently through the curtains. It was like they could see all the world’s stars out on the porch, most nights -- but it was chilly out there on this one. The stars would still be there tomorrow.  

“You tired?” 

May’s voice was soft. She was in better shape than he was, these days, because of course she was, but the hot water bottle half-tangled in blankets said she ached, too. 

“Mm. A little.” 

Tired meant something kind of different, these days. It was the years weighing down his bones, the way everything was somehow going so much faster the more they slowed down. It was a good feeling, most days, the way certain kinds of melancholy wrap around you like a blanket. 

May hummed again. 

“How are you feeling?” 

That slight shift of her weight was surprise. May leaned over to put her book down before she answered, switching off the lamp. She still insisted on sleeping on the side by the door, still carried those old specialist reflexes; unlikely reaction times and the almost cat-like effortlessness to it. He’d lost most of that to those months of deterioration, years ago; but the vigilance, the automatic, constant analysis was still there. They still went people-watching every once in a while, mostly to watch the world go by and be judgy old people in peace (May zeroed in on every leather ensemble that passed and ran background checks on stores instead of people, these days). They’d fought their wars.

May moved slower these days, limped more days than she didn’t, but she could still take Yo-yo’s entire STRIKE team. She didn’t teach much any more, but Yo-yo still wheedled her out to do demonstrations every once in a while. She said it kept the youngsters in their place. 

Phil got to spend every day beside her steadiness, steadfast as the mountains, and that was as safe as he could ever ask to be. 

“A squirrel stole all the strawberries off the plant,” May stated, as she curled up beside him again. Coulson wrapped long arms around her as she huffed, one arm draped warm over his belly. “All three of them.” 

Phil jostled them both with a startled laugh. “That does not answer the question.” 

“I feel like the squirrel.” May told the darkness, and also him, prim and matter-of-fact. The drowsiness in her voice was getting thicker by the moment. “Like I stole something nice and I’m happy about it.” 

Phil was outright belly-laughing by then, trying to get the blanket untangled from around his ankles without having to sit up to tug at it. So much for philosophizing. May lifted her head in annoyance at all the jostling, dropped her cheek back on his chest once he paused to gasp for breath. 

“Ask me how I’m doing next time,” she muttered, mostly asleep already. “ Please. ” 

“Ohohoho, like hell. You, Melinda May, just told me you feel like a strawberry-stealing squirrel. I am never asking you anything other than how are you feeling ever again.” 

There was no answer. May could feign sleep as well as anyone -- better, actually, since she’d finally trained herself to stagger the length of each exhale so you couldn’t crack the rhythm by counting to it. Phil lay still for a long minute, grinning into the darkness, just listening to the quiet snuffle of her peaceful breathing.

She might actually just be asleep.

[greyborn2]

First Lines!

Tagged in by @thana-topsy and oh gosh I do not know enough/have enough writer connections here to tag in more folks. Aaaaaa. Rules such as they are: Post the first line/paragraph of your current WIPS Gosh this was a hard one. Gave me an excuse to put the first paragraph(s, I got carried away.) down for the weird west fic I've got burning in my skull. Aside from that the only WIP I've got is Breath of Kyne, even though I'm technically several chapters deep in that. (And ended up burning through my word limit so I guess just one WIP it is! Another aaaa xD)

First page (like I said, got carried away) of the weird west fic (no name for it yet) - See, Junebriar was a witch hunter. One of the best in the northern counties by her reckoning. Though, ‘course, she only had her own reckoning to go off on that matter. The agency kept matters of a hunter’s record strictly private. To ‘discourage competition’, they said. But it doesn’t take a genius to figure out who’s on top. Stand around the agency hall long enough and folks would talk. They’d blather. Tell tales and stop trying to hide such things. Braggery did a good job of loosening lips, she knew that well enough. The rest? Well, they were green as fresh cut grass. They’d act as if bagging a dozen score witches and maybe a Dead Man or two was something worth bragging about. Junebriar… she knew better. She’d been at this since she was big enough to hold n’ shoot a gun, and that was pretty lil’ indeed. She wasn’t some short-horn novice. She was a hunter, and more importantly, she was a professional. In the literal sense of the word, too – was her profession dead and clear. She’d been in this game and would be in it still for the long haul. The other hunters, well, they didn’t like Junebriar much. Not least of all ‘cause she was a woman and there were still many, especially those that came from the far north-west counties, that thought hunting was a man’s game. That, and though they’d never admit, they just plain didn’t like her much. Management didn’t like folks talking ill of their top killer. Words carry meaning, and management didn’t want bad ones hanging over her head. She didn’t have time for idle talk or social calls. She’d once broken a man’s nose – Mayfield, his name was – in such a way that it had never been set right after. ‘Scarecrow’ they called her, as if that’d be a jab to her. Was on account of her looking half like one – all skin and bone and sinew under her dust worn clothes, her head as hairless as any scarecrow’s sack-skull. Words of menfolk stopped getting to her once she’d gone against such creatures that could put force behind their words.

[blackbutler-readerinsertsandjunk]

requests holding at 69

hehe

[baggebythesea]

What do you consider a rare ship in SPOP fandom. A real one not like a crack ship. Like I guess off the top of my own head Catra and Perfuma

I'll never stop gushing about the good ship Glimmer and Double Trouble. As much as she loves her life as high queen, Glimmer needs to woo her a scoundrel now and then.

Catra and Perfuma is surprisingly sweet. Much like Glimmer, Perfuma - or should I say Tara - has a thing for reformed (or not so reformed) Horde hotties. I could see her having a fling with Lonnie as well.

Adora and Mermista have some really good fics. A bit Spinnerella and Netossa-vibes.

They rarely get over the dating stage, but I do find Bow and Perfuma really sweet (and I see no reason not to bring Glimmer in to get a constructive resolution of their prom woes).

Speaking of, Glimmer and Perfuma are very cute together. And Glimmer and Mermista (especially when Glimmer is young and naive and look up immensely to the cool pirate princess) and Glimmer and Huntara is great fun in "spoiled brat tries to chat up the badest butch in the biker bar" way and... dangit, I'm just recapping Glimmer Dates Everyone again, aren't I?

For some non-Glimmer rarepairs (which is fine too, I guess) Wrong Hordak and Double Trouble are fun in the 'cupcake + scoundrel' kinda way. Perfuma and Mermista can be sweet if you build on their friction in the show. Entrapta, of course, can be shipped with any piece of sufficently advanced technology, ai or princess that needs 'auntie trapta' to show them the ropes.

I don't exaclty know if Shadow Weaver and Castaspella counts as a rarepair - the ship has a dedicated following. Shadow Weaver and Angella on the other hand definately counts, if you are into toxic yuri milfs. I also kinda like to write Castaspella with just the tiniest lingering crush on Angella, and just a tiny bit of resentment that her bro asked her out first. I have also written a fic with Angella and Hordak, that even if it is a horribly wrong politically arranged marriaged can be a foundation to build on.

Bow and Sea Hawk need to go on hot pirate adventures together, and more often than not I like to bring in Mermista. X marks the spot. For whatever reason I also like to give Kyle some high see adventures with hot pirates. Oh! And Double Trouble flirting with Sea Hawk in the Peekablue episode never gets old.

Scorpia is immensely shippable. I don't count her being with Catra and Perfuma as rarepairs, but there are some wonderfully sweet Scorpia and Entrapta (with Emily as a child). I see her with Adora and even Mermista, and of course some glitter cuddles with Glimmer (dangit, I promised to stop bringing in Glimmer).

This is more of crack fick territory, but Horde Prime is useful in a 'bath her and bring her to my chamber' kind of way, as long as the object of his affection gets to bust his fucking orb before the story is over. There is lots of really sweet and thoughtful clone shipping that deal with the concept of intimacy, the hive mind and learning what it means to be your own person.

Oh, and Octavia and Huntara should totally be bitter exes.

I've said it before, I'll say it again. the Spop show is really good at presenting attraction, and that gives us so many fun ships to play with.

[howlingday]

Nora: Ugh! Time traveling is so exhausting...

Jaune: Wait, what? What are you talking about?

Nora: You ever just sit around and write, then the next thing you know, you time skip twelve hours into the future?!

Jaune: Uh... Isn't that just passing time?

Nora: (Falls out of a portal) Ugh... We gotta get that fixed...

Nora: Did I forget to eat again?

Nora: Why do you think I'm here?

Nora: Aw, dangit! (Fades from reality)

Jaune: !

Nora: (Stands up)

Jaune: W-Wait! Where did she go?!

Nora: Uh-uh. Anyways, you got any snacks?

Jaune: ...

[silverskye13]

hello! What are your rules exactly for writing prompts? Can I ask for prompts containing your specific story and it's characters? Like, in this case I want to do a prompt asking for the reactions of Tango and Welsknight to learning just how little time their hel counterparts actually have. The fact that no, they don't have forever unlike the hermits do. Or is that too spoilery or not the kind of prompt your supposed to ask? This is my first time asking for this kinda thing lol

Also, can I just say how amazing your writing is? Like damn your writing is so beautiful. So many sentences that describe things so eloquently, and your characters so full of personality. They feel so real. I live your fic Redstone and skulk. It's been stuck in my head these last few days dangit.

Ah! Thank you so much for the kind words 💜

I'm glad you're liking RnS! It's my pride and joy [even if I'm struggling with it a bit at the moment].

I have no stipulations on what people can request as far as writing prompts and asks [though, given yours is a part of a larger question, I would recommend sending it again with just the prompt, so if I answer, I can answer the ask direction with the snippet!] I pick and choose which ones I work on when I have the inspiration for it, so there are many I haven't gotten around to. But I try my best to get a lot of them written! If they're too spoilery or will get handled in the main fic at some point, I will generally speaking, tell you instead of answering the ask.

[this one will get tackled in the main fic, but from the main characters' POV, so I think doing it from either Wels or Tango's POV would be interesting.]

But yeah! Don't be shy. I love prompts. I just sometimes can't get to them is all.

[Edit] Wait! One stipulation. I cannot write suicidal ideation and self harm. That is not what you asked for in your ask, but I don't think I've stated it in awhile so, for future reference for anyone else who would submit a prompt: my hard no boundary line is suicidal ideation/self harm. I cover it when it's relevant for characters, but I can't take prompts for it.

[tobiasdrake]

I was never hooked in to Digimon as a young thing but I started reading your Episode write-ups with the dub comparisons as it scratches a similar itch to the old Yu-Jyo site that compared the YGO Studio Gallop!Anime and the 4Kids dub (and helped assure me I was enjoying the series best with the Manga lmao)

Such detailed, interesting analysis seem to be a rare breed on today's internet! - but, now I've gone and got attached to them Kids. Dangit XD;;

XD It's hard not to.

Digimon Adventure almost feels like a deconstruction of an isekai from long before the genre was so prominent. Isekais are like "I have 80 million hit points and I'm the Demon Lord's Cousin!"

And over there in the 90's, Digimon Adventure was like, "What if suddenly being transported to a fantasy world of whimsy and peril against your will kinda sucked actually."

But it's not super grimdark and edgy about it either. There's lovable characters and goofing around and fun to be had here. It's just. Also going to put a therapist's kids through college some day.

[2ndalt]

To aid me on my quest of extreme procrastination, I've decided to translate the French version of The Dragon's Code. For context, the non-English versions of the Thea Stilton books have little extended scenes at the end that are basically just the main characters chilling after solving the mystery. There's quite a bit to translate, so I'm breaking it up and just translating one character per post.

Starting off with Violet!

Right off the bat she writes a letter to Colette, complaining about the nicknames that they gave Vi. She acknowledges the other nicknames Colette gives her friends, like calling Pamela "Pam" and Nicky "Nic" (And Violet points out that it's a bit excessive, since Nicky's already an abbreviated name). Violet then addresses the nicknames that Colette gave her: "Vivi" and "Princess". She hates these nicknames with a burning passion.

In fact, Violet is being so incredibly petty about it that she comes up with a couple of amazing nicknames for Colette to get back at her. My favorites include:

"Collante": Sticky

"Cocotte": Casserole

"Colique": Colic (I had to look this one up to understand the joke; Colic is frequent, prolonged and intense crying or fussiness in a healthy infant. Violet's basically using a fancy term for cry-baby.)

These jokes wouldn't have worked as well in the English version, but they're hilarious in French.

Then she writes a list of various things that annoy her, like loud music (dangit pamela), nicknames (looking at you colette), people who talk while she's trying to study, etc., etc.

However, the next letter Violet writes is to her parents, in which she mentions that she has some new friends! She's like: "Hey Dad, I know I'm terribly shy and introverted and most people view me as a dismissive, short-tempered person, but I have friends now! Even I'm surprised by this development!"

Honestly, it's very sweet to see how much happier Violet is after properly getting to know and become friends with the other Thea Sisters. Despite all of their differences, Violet has grown to appreciate their company and uniqueness. She ends off her letter with a hopeful little note:

"P.S: Raxford (Mouseford in other translations) has an amphitheatre where we can give concerts. Wouldn't it be great if we could organize one and have you come?"

All in all, very cute extended scenes :)

[moonlightreal]

LJ Smith is back!

Well knock me over with a feather!

Did anybody have “LJ Smith surfaces” on their bingo card for 2024?

The big news is, she’s back!  With a new website, theljsmith.com  It seems to have gone up a month or so ago.  Here’s the news you came here for:

The big news is that I  have recently finished the last two books in the Night World series, Strange Fate: Mystic, and Strange Fate: Apocalypse; as well as an adult book, Lullaby. They are all in final editing with my agent, the esteemed Mr. John Silbersack (john@thebentagency.com).  Lullaby is also with John, and it is my first book for grown-up readers.

So!  Strange Fate is finished!  For the… third time?  Certainly not the first, but it seems to be finished-er than it ever was before and that is very exciting.  I notice she mentions her agent (and his email address, so we can all hire him to promote our books if we want) but she doesn’t mention a publisher so it seems possible that no publisher has decided to buy the books yet.  

My knowledge of publishing is scanty but I think Simon & Schuster gets “right of first refusal” meaning they get dibs on Strange Fate since they published the rest of the series.  If they don’t want to take a chance on it… what?  Will Ms. Smith be free to shop around to other publishers or self-publish?  Or could S&S sit on the book without putting it out?  I don’t know.  Anybody in this fandom work in publishing? We need you!

Anyway, phoning up Simon & Schuster to see if they have anything in their system seems like a not-too-stalkerish thing we might do in the future.

I’m trying not to get my hopes up.  It seems totally possible that publishers will look at Strange Fate and go, “A sequel to this totally forgotten thing from 30 years ago?  That you need to have read all these 90s books to understand?  That is totally non-diverse and not on trend at all?  Written by some old biddy who isn’t in touch with today’s YA readers?  Nah, we don’t want it.”  But dangit, Ms. Smith is closer to getting it out than she’s ever been before and I’m rooting for her so hard… even if I’m not going to really believe it until the books are in my hands.

The website also has contact info for Ms. Smith: lisa@theljsmith.com  We can write to her! I feel like I should, I gotta work out what to say!

The about page includes the factoid that Ms. Smith is an anime nerd.  I wonder what series!  Well her pup is named Arslan, so we know one of them!

The FAQ I believe is questions we have seen before on the old site.  The books and fanart are also familiar.

The Short Stories page is where things get interesting.  Are some of the stories new?  Some are definitely missing.  I never paid as much attention as I should’ve to the short stories, and then the website came and went… there are some stories by “Jessa-lyn Kemp” aka “staff writer Jessica Sherman” that are definitely new.  Secret Circle stuff.  It looks like a fan? Friend? Employee? Of Ms. Smith’s is helping create content. Good!

Someone who’s not about to spend the evening watching British Baking with their mother can pull up the old website and the new one and compare stories.  I think the Strange Fate related stories are gone, because they’ve been incorporated into the books.

And then there’s the blog.

Ms. Smith comin’ in hot, barely back on the internet saying she loves AI art!  Which is, like, one of the top ten ways to get people on the internet to yell at you, so brave choice there!

Please, nobody yell at LJ Smith.  ^^;

Looking at the website Ms. Smith has used AI to clean up pictures of herself and even with the computer’s enhancements we can see that illness did a number on our poor author.  She is gaunt!  This is also the first time we’ve really seen many pictures of her, for years there was only the one.  She’s got gorgeous hair.  The other pictures are of characters from her books, and...

I'm also a writer who can't draw, and when I got a chance to play with picture AI I immediately made it make pictures of my characters and it was a really emotional experience. Like I was getting choked up. So while intellectually I know all the reasons AI is bad and there are a lot of them, that emotional punch of seeing people I knew so well but never thought my eyes would see is really powerful.

AND!  As if this Hogswatch miracle hasn’t given us more than we were ever expecting, there’s a blog post all about Strange Fate with new information and I am just falling out of my chair with excitement… but this post is long enough and Mom and I are up to pastry week on British Baking, so that will be a post for another day.

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

I've always hated euphemisms and I'm wondering if that's an autism thing. It feels like it is. I feel like they don't actually change the weight of the conversation and they just add an extra step in me understanding what someone's talking about. Like I've been on this world long enough to know the phrase "passed on" but no matter what every time I hear it my thoughts process is gonna be "passed on what? like passed on a turn? Oh they mean he died!". Nothing about that makes the conversation easier, it just adds more delay between me hearing something and me coming up with the right reaction, and then I'm risking coming across as cold and insensitive. And the thought in my head is still that the person is dead now, same as it would be if you just said that. It's annoying and I really don't get why people use these.

Hi there,

I can get where you’re coming from. Kinda like how some say “dangit” instead of “dammit” or “gosh” instead of “god”.

Some people just chose to speak that way. Maybe to make the conversation easier to talk about? Since the topic of someone dying can be hard to discuss if you just state “the person died” point blank. It’s easier to state that they have “passed on” before getting more into the topic.

But these are just my thoughts as I write this, so I may be misunderstanding the entire thing. I’m not sure if it’s a neurodivergent thing or not, but I think both NT and ND individual can get annoyed with these.

My main point here is that sometimes people can find things like death hard to talk about. So certain phrases are used to ease the conversation a bit. Like saying “they passed on” instead of just saying “they’re dead”. That’s too direct and blunt for some people.

Maybe my followers can help with this because I have no idea if what I’m saying to making any sense.

Anyway, I appreciate the inbox. I hope you have a wonderful day/night. ♥️

[skyward-floored]

*burst through door* I AM HERE TO TALK

Let’s see…

What whumptober prompt are you most excited about?

If you could write a post-game adventure for any of the Zelda games you played, which would it be and what kind of vibe/premise would you go for?

Does Volga ever hug Link in hdw au? I know he’s a bit aloof

Speaking of hdw au I occasionally still laugh at the thought of Power and Warriors interacting lol, but I also keep forgetting that a lot of people, including your AU include Mask and Tune, so how do you think they would react to Power being there? For his part I think Power would be really weirded out and worried that Mask is there since the kid’s like 11, and mildly concerned but also low key impressed that Tune is 12-13 and an accomplished Hero. I’m a little shaky on how those two are characterized tho 😅

Hm, let’s see, what else… favorite IAU boy and favorite IAU segment that you’ve written!

Laslty, have a hug from me and puppy snuggles from Anakin ❤️

dangit Skye I'm gonna cry again hdbshbkdjsf thank you for the hug and puppy snuggles <3

Okay! So I'm very excited for days 10 and 18 which go together and are very dramatic and painful and have a big epic fight I will hopefully be able to write well hehe. I'm also excited for day 11, which has some fun things I'm looking forward to involving Mipha (who I've never really written much so it's been interesting working on!). I have some more ideas that don't really match any days yet, but I'm excited for those too. Basically all of them (except tomorrow's which has absolutely nothing for it yet heh).

Oooh that's an interesting question! I mean I technically have a fic that explores a bit of what happens after botw (largely written before totk and also an AU lol), and true form goes into a bit after tp (but again, an AU), but if I had unlimited writing time... I think a really big and long and in-depth post-skyward sword fic would be cooool. Spanning several years as Link and Zelda work through stuff that happened on their adventure and their relationship/family and building a settlement on the surface... it would be so cool.

I think at some point Volga does actually hug Link :) but not for a while though. He's got to go through all that messy "actually accepting you have a son and are maybe actually attached to him" stuff, probably brought on through some dramatic inciting incident. ANd when it does happen it's probably a quick "AGHH HOW DARE YOU COME SO CLOSE TO DYING" kind of thing where he just grabs him into a hug without thinking.

I think of that sometimes and laugh too XD For Mask and Tune, I think they'd sort of take it in stride? Like, what's one more Link in this disaster anyway? Though I think Mask looks at him and can kind of... tell this guy's adventure messed him up. Mask knows about that, even if it's not exactly the same. Tune can maybe tell too, but it's probably more "my older brother senses are tingling, I'm adopting him".

Favorite IAU boy?? That's like having to choose a favorite child, I like them all... :( okayyyyy well I'm very fond of Hyrule, I had a lot of fun with his backstory. Legend is always a blast to write too because he's so silly as a little kid, and having turning into a rabbit be part of his powers, it lends to some interesting things and dynamics. I seriously don't know about a favorite IAU thing I've written, I've written... too many things. Maybe that roadtrip one, that one is silly lol

[greentrickster]

WIP game

Rules: You will be given a word. Share one sentence/excerpt from your wip(s) that start with each letter of that word.

@shadow-pixelle tagged me with ECHO, so congrats - have some 'Got a Light?' (my RWBY fic) snippets! And, to have some extra fun, since they're all from the same fic, I'll get one snippet from each of the first two books I've written this fic in and two from the current book (because it's the biggest), and you'll get the sentences in the order I wrote them... but not necessarily in the order they'll come in the fic, because I'm writing non-chronologically. ;D Enjoy!

E

"Easy for you to say," Jaune gives up on meditating (because he's weak) to glare at Roman, "You're probably just saying that because you had a stupid one, like- like bad luck or making your pockets bigger or something!"

...Branwen had flinched at the first suggestion. Interesting. Neo'll have to look into that. More importantly, however, Roman has frozen in place, dust crystal fallen to the ground beside him. He stares straight up into the sky unmoving for a good twenty seconds before he lets his arm fall across his eyes with a distraught groan.

"Dangit, that second one actually sounds like an amazing- that would have been so useful for shoplifting or, hells, just storing extra ammo without ruining the lines of my suit- dammit, now I'm sad, thanks a lot."

C

"Consider: would any of you say you are quite the same people now that you were at the beginning of the school year? How about ten years ago?" he smiles at the range of reactions this elicits. "To me, it is much the same, albeit on a far larger scale. It seems as though we each carry a certain amount of... ourselves, for lack of a better word, with us to each new life.

"For example, it may surprise you to know that, in regards to myself, while I have heard many times that I seem to have gained a certain level of maturity overnight when my memories and powers are unlocked, oddly little in my personality or mindset of my new life seem to change beyond that. I will confess, it inspires a certain amount of curiosity these days, whenever the end of a current life draws near, as to what new myself I will have become the next time my memories return."

H

"Hey, what about all the nice things you were gonna say to Pyrrha?!"

"They will be formatted as an extremely flattering eulogy!!!"

Qrow is drawn away from this amusing interaction by Neo, who has removed a glove and stolen a fistful of bacon with her bare hand, wiggling it enticingly at Qrow with a big smile.

"I feel like I'm being mocked," he states, examining it with each eye suspiciously.

"You're not," Torchwick says, finally calm again and theatrically wiping his eye, "She just likes watching birds eat. Used to sneak into kitchens at restaurants so she could get table scraps for it."

...eh, fair enough. Qrow obliges and daintily tugs a strip of bacon free with his beak, holding it with one claw to peck at. Neo beams.

O

"Oh, um- yes! He says... 'Thinking of mew.'"

Ruby glances up from skimming her texts to see Weiss staring blankly ahead.

"...he's a dork," she says, voice dazed, "He's an enormous dork."

"Weiss-" Uncle Qrow groans, only for Jaune to hold his hand up.

"Don't bother, Mr. Branwen, I've got this."

"Kid, it's Qrow."

Jaune ignores him, going to put a steadying hand on Weiss's shoulder. "Look, I'm sorry you have to find out this way, but the thing about guys is... we're all dorks. And Neptune is our king."

"...I see." Weiss nods, and Ruby goes back to her own texts, "Is it a bad sign that I still like him, even though he's flawed?"

"I mean, he didn't realize you wanted to keep seeing him after the dance until you cried at him for flirting with other girls," Nora comments, "You kinda already knew that he wasn't perfect."

"I suppose that's true... In that case, I'm going to respond in kind! Nora, I require your assistance!"

---

(Told you guys it's not as dire as my research subject list makes it sound!)

I'll be tagging @fullbattleregalia and @elektricangel, along with anyone else who wants to play - your word is LIFE (because my fic's about Roman coming back as a ghost and I'm funny).

[carabas]

Dragon Age Veilguard liveblogging, starting the endgame -

One final bit of running around treasure hunting before we go to the point of no return, and I found these guys:

Dungeon Meshi???

The very first view of the ritual site and the first thing we see is Falon'din of all the possible gods looming large beneath the eclipse - which, first of all, Rook's god of choice, also, death; Lucanis was so pessimistic about our odds during that last talk and now Rook's staring his own personal god of death in the face.

The Lighthouse but at the ritual site? Elgar'nan did complain that Solas was copying one of his towers, he was not lying, down to the green streamers.

WHY IS IT ALWAYS NEVE, EVERY TIME THERE'S A DECISION WHERE ONE OF MY COMPANIONS GETS HURT IT ALWAYS WINDS UP BEING NEVE, IN THE PROLOGUE, MINRATHOUS VS TREVISO, NOW SHE'S KIDNAPPED, IF SHE SOMEHOW WINDS UP BETRAYING ME I WILL DESERVE IT

...WELL I GUESS IT'S NOT ONLY NEVE THIS TIME.

WELL. SHIT.

I guess technically one of the companions was keeping secrets. Rook, from himself. I did think it was odd Varric never had conversations with the other companions outside the big group scenes (and I guess he must not have actually interacted with them in those scenes, huh, just talked to Rook), no one ever visited him in the infirmary the way all the other companions visit each other, but I was thinking along the lines of voice actor availability issues or something maybe, because the lines he has with Rook are so limited too, 'when's the last time you slept, remember to take breaks' on endless repeat, and Claudia Black was brought in relatively late and isn't it odd that Morrigan is our go-between with the Inquisitor when that seems like the role Varric should be in... The limited 'get some sleep, take a break' dialogue was because there's only so much advice Rook can fill in for him, huh? His death was speculated about so heavily after the gameplay trailer that this isn't a shock, but I was so relieved when he survived, dangit! Congrats to David Gaider, he finally got his wish.

The trap, the way the whole shape of the story has built up to this - the heavy theme of regret right from the start, Solas's regrets but also Rook continually being put in a position to form some of his own; and then the contrast that our spirit companion who usually embodies the main theme in these games is not Regret, it's Spite, or as the Lords of Fortune call him, Determination; and this whole time I've so very much enjoyed the way Solas was training Rook into something like the Dread Wolf through all their talks... the way all the threads running through the story come together, beautiful. Chef's kiss. And these are all specifically things that I've enthused about in these liveblogs before!! Everything hit exactly as they intended, I'm in pain and they thoroughly laid the groundwork for this pain and it's beautiful.

Rook was trapped by becoming too much like the Dread Wolf, but escaping traps is what the Dread Wolf does. Both of them, now.

Bianca's been sitting in two pieces on Varric's bedside table this whole time, was that real? I turned the game off for the night before writing these last few flailing paragraphs, but I should go check if she's still there when I get back to it.

[handsomethrowrug]

OOC: I don't know if I missed a trailer or anything but I should give an official thing about the M.ufasa movie.

I am planning to see it, yes. It is one of the very very few 'live actions' I've seen. However, I am sticking firmly with the animated versions with nods to the musical. The live action Scar is... interesting. He's got some interesting character points (I do like how dry some of his comments were), but it does seem a little flat overall. And this is without mentioning how he doesn't even pretend to like S.imba which is one of the biggest parts of his character imo. I only saw the full film the once, but even the last time I checked some scenes it felt like they were steering away from what made Scar such a good villain.

The main reason I'm seeing the movie is to see how they handle him as a cub. I don't subscribe to the fanon "Scar was abused/neglected/unloved by his parents" theory, and I do think there would have been opportunities to change that he refused to act on and instead let himself grow bitter. Essentially, the evil path he takes is purely his own choice, which is why it bites him in the Mad King era on this blog.

So if this movie is implying he had a happy cubhood, I want to see what that's like personality-wise, and if there's anything I can steal.

But I am also sick of all these retellings and reimaginings and having nearly every villain feel more morally neutral/"plot twist". You don't need to worry - that's not going to happen here.

... outside of Scar himself insisting he's doing the right thing, obviously.

LIKE. How do you justify this??? It'd be a different case if Scar was good at ruling, but he isn't!!! So are they implying that he was always going to be terrible at it??? This is going to vindicate the wrong people!! ESPECIALLY since M.ufasa himself is such a respected character in the franchise. Just let S.car be the greedy and selfish younger brother, dangit!!

(Final note: I absolutely intend to do a breakdown of the movie with spoilers and all so no one else has to see it. I'm bringing my niece who had previously went on a ten minute rant about the reveal trailer so it will be fun to write up.)

[suzukiblu]

I am loving billy adopting Conner !! 💖 ty for feeding us always with your DC content!! it's always unique and I very much appreciate the fact you love so many blorbo's (especially my batgirls who never get any screentime or rights within fics coughhh)

Thank you! I try to at least name-drop characters who are important to the specific blorbos I'm writing about/obsessing on, especially when they'd logically be relevant, even if I'm not majorly including them in the fic du jour. I feel like it rounds out the world and characters more and also it's just like . . . there was this thing where, for example, I used to read a lot of Steve/Tony fics back in the day and SO many people just NEVER mentoned Rhodey EVER, and it made me LEGIT INSANE, lol. So like, I try not to do that to people myself? It's just weird and jarring and ANNOYING, dangit!

Like I understand wanting to tell a ship-focused story, for example, but when you're 50k deep in a plot-heavy Stony fic and nobody's even throwaway-line MENTIONED Rhodey . . . . . . like COME ON, PEOPLE. And like, I feel similarly about for example Timkon that forgets Steph or Tana or other relationships ever happened even when it's clearly taking place AFTER those relationships had happened.

Also I still really wanna write some Cass/Kon sooooo . . . 👀