#but he does tend to get injured and didn't have a lot of game time with the rebels

[partybarty]

Wallabies team to play Wales at Allianz Stadium, Sydney on Saturday 6 July, 7:45pm AEST

1. James Slipper (134 Tests) – Bond Pirates

2. Matt Faessler (5 Tests) – USQ Saints

3. Taniela Tupou (50 Tests) – Brothers Rugby

4. Jeremy Williams* - Wahroonga Tigers

5. Lukhan Salakaia-Loto (30 Tests) – Randwick

6. Liam Wright (c) (5 Tests) – Easts Tigers

7. Fraser McReight (17 Tests) – Albany Creek Brumbies

8. Rob Valetini (39 Tests) – Harlequin Junior Rugby Club

9. Jake Gordon (20 Tests) – Canterbury Berries

10. Noah Lolesio (17 Tests) – Tuggeranong Vikings

11. Filipo Daugunu (7 Tests) – Wests Bulldogs

12. Hunter Paisami (24 Tests) - Harlequin Junior Rugby Club

13. Josh Flook* - Brothers Rugby

14. Andrew Kellaway (26 Tests) – Hunters Hill Rugby

15. Tom Wright (25 Tests) – Clovelly Eagles

Substitutes

16. Billy Pollard (1 Test) – Lindfield Junior Rugby Club

17. Isaac Kailea** - Harlequin Junior Rugby Club

18. Allan Alaalatoa (67 Tests) – West Harbour Juniors

19. Angus Blyth** - Casuarina Beach Rugby Club

20. Charlie Cale** - Beecroft Junior Rugby Club

21. Tate McDermott (28 Tests) – Flinders Rugby

22. Tom Lynagh** - University of Queensland

23. Dylan Pietsch** - Leeton Phantoms

*denotes debut

**denotes potential debut

[faeflowerz]

The First Years Crushing on Their Upperclassman (PT 2)

And here is Part 2! Im very tired. I only jave graphics for the first years as i write this so I'll be slowly rolling out everyone. I guess I can do them on case by case? Anyway!! Click here for the first Part.

Warnings: Ortho is in this lineup. I don't want to hear any complaining about it.

Characters: Epel, Ortho, Sebek

PLEASE REBLOG! All of this is available to you for free and the most I ask of you all is to reblog rather than just liking.

My boy Epel will put on a performance for his senpai. Not the kind of performance that Rook suggested, but instead the machismo performance that really would make Vil seethe with shame. Yes, our little apple dumplin decides to go to his magift team for advice on how to court you. He met you in the infirmary since you get an extra credit for working there. Once, he came in busted up and bruised like the Courtland apple he is. You scolded him relentlessly as you patched him up. What if Vil found out? The Housewarden would eat your heart if he found out his little Lady was visibly injured. He already forced you to use special salves on all Pome students to prevent scarring. Really, that man kept you busy.

But Epel wasn't hearing all that. He was sitting there leaning into your touch and swooning. You're so gentle when you tended to his scars that it felt nostalgic. Since he was surrounded by older people growing up, Epel probably unconsciously developed his crush on you based on how nurturing you were with him.

Then he starts acting unwise.

This lil macintosh goes out of his way to injure himself. He plays rougher, fights more, and exhausts himself all just to see you. Then, he hobbles into your infirmary, expecting you to take care of him. Part of him also enjoys being treated like a regular guy for once, especially when you lecture him. His peers also have to sit through it and that's what makes him happy. But during one of their big games, Epel actually does hurt himself. Like, on accident. He's no longer thinking about being able to spend a few hours with you. Now he's thinking about how much he fucked up. He really fucked up.

You do your best and thankfully it's just a sprain, but Epel's being a real Granny Smith at the moment. "Clearly this was a sign that you were doing something you had no business doing," you pull up a chair and sit at his bedside.

"What’s that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you've been practically living here in the infirmary and I've yet to understand why."

"I guess I'm just reckless?"

"And yet you never seem to need to be here any other time. You're not Ace. You're certainly not Deuce. So, what's the deal here?" When you finally start grilling him, he starts to break. Epel didn't think this through and he hadn't considered the possibility that you'd find out the pattern.

"I...I think I like being here..." he dares to look at you. Rather than anger or irritation, you're patient and most certainly concerned. "Because...Because you're here...if it wasn't during magift, it'd be during gym. Or potions. Or whenever you're here! You're always so nice to me and I feel...like a regular guy around you." Epel grips the sheets as the words tumble from his lips like a fountain. He couldn't stop it either. His stomach turned as he was on the verge of tears.

"Oh...Epel...honey, you don't have to hurt yourself just to see me...I won't turn you away if you visit," you caress his cheek. "I promise." When he looks up at you, your cheeks flush. Epel was certainly cute, but sometimes he seemed a lot more mature than one would expect. Now, you're starting to feel shy. Something in your dynamic shifts as he starts to accept your confession. He grins and presses his forehead against yours.

"Senpai, you better promise to let me come by any time I want. No questions asked." Ah, shit. You're gonna regret this, won't you?

Ortho’s crush on his senpai could first be mistaken for something else. You're Idia's classmate and by some miracle, he lets you into his very limited bubble. Despite being his opposite, you admittedly have great taste in everything...only because you have a lot of common interests. So one day he invites you to his dorm (pre OB) and you meet his adorable little cupcake of a brother. Ortho was already a person to you. Idia had always said "my brother this and my brother that" so you already imagined a shorter fireball running around campus somewhere.

"This is my little brother..." Idia, not one for proper introductions, just turns to start up the game you came to play. And to your surprise, both you and Ortho are a little irked by that. Still, you smile at him.

"Hey! I'm glad to finally meet you. Idia loves to talk about you, but he didn't say you'd be insanely cute!" And that flipped a switch in him. Maybe it was the compliment or maybe it was his inquisitive nature but he wanted to see you again and again.

And he always makes sure that he's around when you're visiting. Ortho justifies that he merely wants to see how you managed to get Idia to allow you in his personal space. But like...Ortho also demands your attention more than Idia does. He hugs your arms and laughs at your jokes and constantly offers to help you with your homework. You think it's sweet until he becomes an official student.

Post OB, Ortho’s giving into his full school experience. One of which is having a crush. And then it starts to click with him. He likes you. A LOT. You let Ortho hang out with you more sans Idia and...the boy has rizz. Oh sweet seven, he's such a good flirt.

"Senpai, you look great today. When you wear blue, we start to match!"

"Heheh when you make that face, I can't help but tease you!"

"I found these compatability quizzes online and they seem to think we're a perfect match!"

Unlike the others, he doesn't have a skill issue. And I'm not saying that bc I'm crushing. Er, anyways.

It comes to a head when he takes his mask off. You'd always been curious and now you got to see a full set of pointy teeth. And for some reason, you're a little afraid. When he brushes his artificial tongue over a few of them, a shiver runs down your spine. What's worse is that his golden eyes pinned you right where you were. Half lidded and glimmering with mischief he finally says, "What's wrong, senpai? I promise I won't bite...unless you beg me to."

Your soul fucking ascends.

So, Sebek with a crush will be annoying af, especially when you're his senpai. He's already got an undeserved sense of confidence. Sebek can't help that he's better than these pudgy soft humans! He's also like Epel in that he wants to showboat and peacock for his crush. Did you see that? Look what he just did! Hey, human, keep your eyes open! Don't miss a single second! He's so excited.

You two met through Silver. Sometimes you studied with him and this time, you had some free time after your session. Silver invited you to tag along since you didn't have anything else to do for the rest of the day. Besides, there was no way horses were real. So, you accept.

Unfortunately, horses are real. Fortunately, the riding club looked really good in their uniforms. You lean on the fence and watch as everyone tends to their Butterscotch and Vorpal. Their Angus and Achilles. Then, you notice that one guy is struggling. Like, he's trying to coax his horse out of the stable and she wasn't having any of his bullshit. He was also yelling loud enough to startle the ravens in the nearby trees. The others just ignored him while you watched on curiously. But it started to get a little sad and you valued your eardrums. Rummaging through your bag, you take out a baggie of apple slices and head closer to the stable. You pull out a slice and whistle to them. Sebek never turned his head so fast and watched as his horse huffed at him and trotted over to nibble on your treats.

Needless to say, Sebek tried hard to dislike you for that alone.

But you kept visiting. He kept struggling. You kept winning over his (not so) trusty steed. So, he over compensates by showing off and bragging about stuff he can do that you can't. You put your chin in your hands and smile. There was something sweet about the way he wanted to prove himself. And clearly he was bothered by your visits. So you straight up tell him that you're going to teach him how to connect with his horse.

"Human! What makes you think you can order me around so confidently?!" He opens his mouth wide enough to show off his cute little fairy fangs. You shrug and start to walk off until "Where are you going?!"

"I figured that was your way of telling me no." He sputters as if your reasoning was preposterous. "What? What's with that face?"

"I...would like you to teach me..."

And from there, Sebek fell for you. He was already into you from day one, but he wouldn't admit it. What started as a little here and there visit became a routine for you both. The one time you aren't able to make it and all of a sudden, Sebek is flagging you down outside of your classroom. "Senpai! Where were you yesterday?!" You nearly jump out of your skin at the sound of his voice. As your heart starts to settle, you get the pleasure of listening to Sebbie lecture you about punctuality and keeping promises. A question finally interrupts him.

"Sebek-kun...do you wanna get lunch together?" His cheeks turn the prettiest shade of red when you lace your fingers through his. Sebek is such a good boy that he couldn't possibly turn you down.

BONUS! YUUKEN!

Haha look, Yuuken is cute and I kind of view him as his own person.

Yuuken friendzones you. Yeah, surprisingly you confessed to him and he turns you down. Not because of attraction but because he's from a whole other universe and falling in love only to come back to our shitty world would be heartbreaking. He doesn't want to put you through that. But that doesn't mean that he doesn't have feelings for you.

Yeah, he's noticed you. You flirt with him like everyone else does. But he likes when you do it. He flirts back for once. There's also something else that you do while he's there. You listen to him. Over time, you've noticed that Yuuken carries the entire school on his back. Overblots, unpleasant students, and Crowley. All of it takes a toll and you're always there to help. You weren't a main character. Just someone in the mob.

This one is after Idia's blot. You visit with tons of snacks for him (and Grim) and just let him vent. You always try to listen to everything and be an active listener. But you were kind of tired. It wasn't anything he said, you just had a long day. "You should get to bed," he said quietly, stopping just before the good part.

"No! I'm listening...I'm..." a yawn interrupts you. In your lap, Grim was already asleep. It was pretty late, wasn't it? "Please finish."

He smiles softly at you and lets you scoot closer to him on the couch. He's so warm. Yuuken continues his story and you're fully asleep by the time he gets to the end.

I would imagine that you two kind of have this "rumored" romance. The way yall smile, laugh and love up on each other really got people chatting. And his buddies (ACE...) is complaining that he didn’t have a chance with either of you. But you're both swearing up and down that you're just really close. Riiight.

"We're just friends..."

"Good friends or super good friends?"

"What’s the distinction?"

"You guys always run off without us!" They're pressed but like they get it. You're hot. They'd all ditch each other to hang out with someone older. Foolish boys.

But there was that time y'all kissed. It was an accident, you swear! During the Halloween Party, y'all got pretty turnt and shared a heated kiss. While neither of you bring it up, there's always that lingering feeling. What could be is right there yet just out of reach.

[idkjustletmescroll]

Some incoherent ranting/rambling i guess

I really don't understand some people's obsession with fictional characters doing shitty things just conveniently...NOT KNOWING that they're bad?? Idk if that makes ANY sense at all it's 3 in the goddamn morning but let me explain--

I was doom scrolling, as one does, when I came across a tiktok of a marvel fan explaining why actually wanda maximoff had no idea what she was doing with the hex, which, sure, holds true for the BEGINNING of wandavision. But we're shown pretty clearly during the rest of the show that she knows what she's done, how it's affecting the townspeople, and that it's not real...she just needs it to be real. She can't cope with her ACTUAL reality. Her family is gone, and the ones that remain are busy dealing with their own traumas and families (i.e. clint, who I still argue WOULD have tried to find her and help her post-endgame, even if he desperately needed some downtime with his family--but moving on). I'm a wanda maximoff stan, she's my girl, my favourite, my one and only, but she's not a complete idiot. She knew what she was doing. I don't care that she did an objectively bad thing, I care about why she did it and kept on doing it--which is so much more interesting to me, anyways.

Alicent Hightower in HOTD? According to the writers, had no clue that, actually, years of talking about how aegon should be the heir to the throne would result in people ACTUALLY SCHEMING to get him on the throne, even though she seems to be heading the effort the entire time? Listen, the HOTD fandom is something else, and the way they talk about alicent genuinely scares me, but alicent being worried for her kids' safety, reluctantly cutting off all affection for Rhaenyra because she's genuinely terrified for her kids' lives, even just the spite of wanting her years of suffering and humiliation to mean something; alicent being both a ringleader and a pawn in a man's game, because ultimately she's resigned to the fact that the closest she can get to winning in this system (under this wheel, if you will), is finding the best man to propel to victory/be a pawn for because she as a woman will ultimately never be the victor herself--is SO MUCH MORE INTERESTING than "okay, yeah, she spent years declaring how unfit her ex-bff/stepdaughter is to rule, but she didn't know people would actually take that seriously...she just wants rhaenyra to be OKAY, yall..." (I have a lot of feelings about how the show wrote alicent, okay?)

And arcane is one of my favourite shows of all time, and I've been lucky enough to MOSTLY stay on the good side of the fandom, which, from my end, is usually pretty amazing with an appreciation for nuanced media. But it genuinely makes my blood boil when I see people claim that Vi "could have gone back for jinx on the bridge" (ep. 7), when the moment they're referencing is vi supporting an injured Caitlyn, who almost died by jinx's bombs, RIGHT AFTER JINX SHOT AT THEM BOTH, AND RIGHT AFTER EKKO TOLD VI TO GO. "She left her sister to get beat up--" everything in vi's face in that scene speaks to her reluctance. She's holding up a girl she's growing closer to, who could actually be grievously injured, and she knows, at this point, that jinx is irrational--jinx just shot at her. Like...we knew that vi wasn't going to die, but she could've really easily. Ekko says he'll handle it. There's another bomb. Vi goes back to look for jinx AS SOON as Caitlyn's sitting down somewhere relatively safe (at which point, you know, she sees jinx being picked up by silco and his sidekicks). The point is, people act, with scenes like this one, like jinx was chucking paint bombs, not shooting fucking bullets en masse. I love all the arcane characters; jinx is such an interesting one, and her hallucinations and delusions do tend to make us wonder how much responsibility we can rightfully place on her shoulders. But people are really out here acting like she didn't...almost kill vi and cait there? We, from jinx's perspective, know that she saw Caitlyn as the literal devil; from vi and cait's povs, she just kind of walked up and tried to kill them. Am I making my point yet?

Speaking of arcane, i hope in season 2 we get scenes of characters from piltover who are really rooting for the oppression of the undercity. Not because of what jinx did, not because of the war, not because they "just don't know" how bad it is...because they make a profit off of it, and for that they are perfectly content letting people become dependent on drugs and make their livings from dangerous work in factories and mines. The whole point of "the city of progress" is that it became what it was off the backs of the undercity. We get a lot of characters in season 1 REALIZING the conditions down there, but I want them realizing in season 2 that not everybody was sheltered, they were just making a profit. (I kind of want to see Heimerdinger called out, too. Like, yeah, he's fluffy and cute and stuff, but if he's the founder of piltover, he's also been there since the beginning of the undercity, and didn't care because immortality yada yada. Have I envisioned scenes of ekko calling vi a sellout and she's just like "bitch and who the fuck are you working with?" and everybody's miserable? Yes. Yes I have. And don't come for me, ekko is the mvp of this show. Let a girl dream).

Even people like Tony Stark...people be acting like he's not actually an asshole a lot of the time. Or that he didn't know what weapons did before he stopped distributing them. I like tony, he's entertaining. But I'm not going to act like I need him to be a saint who didn't know shit about the world or basic courtesies to like him.

Idk if fandoms are just weird like that, but you can like your fave even if they do shitty things. They don't always have to be helpless, or just too stupid to realize what's going on. I don't understand why so many people are opposed to being entertained by people who do shitty things. Where's the appreciation for the drama? The messiness? The chaos?

[direwombat]

12, 21, 22, 49, and 58 for Syb and Jacob?

and thank you again for indulging me twice ;w; <3 <3 <3 also sorry i got. so tired last night so...trying to finish these up tonight (ask game here)

12. Do they have many heated arguments? How do they smooth things over?

lmaoooo they have more during their early-relationship/still-kinda-enemies phase where they're regularly butting heads. figuratively and literally. and...well...they smooth things over in the way you might expect. the argument gets physical. jacob starts posturing and trying to intimidate her, syb starts throwing punches, someone gets pinned to the wall or the ground and...well...usually it ends in angry sex...or syb storming off pissed as hell.

they do outgrow this and by the time syb is part of the cult, they're mostly in agreement on things. they'll still argue, but they're more level headed about it and will actually use their words to communicate when they disagree. but it takes them a while to get there lmao.

21. Who would get into a fight to defend the other’s honor? Who tends to the other’s wounds?

syb is fully and well aware that jacob has. no honor. for her to defend. she knows that she isn't gonna win that fight lmao. and while jacob knows that syb is fully capable of defending her own honor, he would be the one more likely to do it. and. i mean. the wound tending is mutual. or at least it is to an extent. in the cases where jacob's pride is more injured than he is physically, syb will just laugh and toss him a bag of frozen peas for the actual bruises. but when there are actual injuries involved that really do need proper cleaning and stitches, then she'll patch him up. and he'll just as readily return her the favor. calling each other "fuckin' idiot" the entire time, of course

22. What reminds each of their partner?

these are by no means exhaustive lists but...

things that remind jacob of syb: rabbits, the smell of stale cigarettes, bomber jackets and ripped jeans, the thrill (and satisfaction) of a good, challenging hunt, the sting of getting decked in the face, the sound of someone humming while cooking

things that remind syb of jacob: wolves, only you by the platters, the thrill of being hunted, campfire and gun oil, the feeling of bruises forming in the shape of hand prints, the writings of marcus aurelius

49. Does either of them have a hard time being away from the other?

i mean...yes and no.

there does reach a point where they don't particularly enjoy being away from each other, but they also acknowledge the necessity of it. they were on opposing sides at first. that makes spending time together difficult. and even after syb joins the cult, she has her own duties as the judge that take her away from him. they trust each other's capabilities, and while it's a cold comfort, at least it's there. besides...they talk on the radio a lot when they're separated like that.

but when both of them are forced into different bunkers and neither knows whether the other is alive during the bunker years...well they didn't do too great. the seven years they spent separated was rough on the both of them, and when they're reunited in new dawn, they NEVER let the other leave their sight.

58. Who’s more likely to hold a grudge after an argument?

dsaflkajsdf syb. she tends to stew in her anger. especially when she's convinced she's right. she doesn't let go of things very easily. and lbr even if jacob does hold a grudge, he's also (unrightfully) confident in his abilities to. um. change her mind.

[fluffypotatey]

OK SO!! DOUBLE LIFE PEARL!!

i think i've told you the double life gimmick before (randomly assigned soulmates share a health bar, so when someone takes damage so does their partner), so i'll cut right to the pearlo.

in session 1 of double life, almost every player set out to find their soulbound before anything out. every player... except pearl pearlescentmoon and martyn inthelittlewood, who went to the nether to get geared up and try and find rare loot for their soulmates. pearl was initially hesitant on this idea, but martyn convinced her it'd be fine. (several times during this nether trip, martyn makes fun of their soulmates, only for pearl to step in and defend hers).

when martyn and pearl return to the overworld, they decide to focus on finding their soulmates, and run into scott and cleo. martyn sets up a little game show, and lo and behold, pearl is bound to scott, and martyn to cleo! pearl is ecstatic- she and scott had been very close partners in the previous series, and she was excited to be his teammate again! however, it was not to be. unbeknownst to martyn and pearl, scott and cleo had already discovered, through process of elimination, that their soulmates were pearl and martyn. they had also decided that, since pearl and martyn hadn't come to find them first, and had risked their lives by going to the nether, that they were going to team up together and reject their assigned partners.

after being rejected by scott and cleo, her teammates from the last game, pearl turned to martyn, only to find him leaving her too (he intended to play solo and try and win cleo back). pearl had been abandoned, rejected by everyone, and the only companion she had left was her dog, tilly. she builds an extremely tall tower near the center of the map, and lives alone in it.

in the next session, pearl tries to befriend a nearby soulbound pair (ren renthedog and bigb bigbst4tz, called the Box Boys because of their ugly, box-shaped base), but ends up accidentally causing their first deaths. after this event, the box boys reject her too, with ren saying "whether you tried to [kill us] or not, there is something wicked within you!"

(she also spends a lot of this session standing in powdered snow blocks, which causes her to take progressive ticks of damage, in order to annoy scott and force him to waste food to keep them alive).

her participation in events that tend to leave people dead (the box boys, her starting some fishing rod shenanigans with joel and etho that cause their second deaths, her presence at other major deaths) and general unhinged behavior (especially masquerading as a red life) cause the rest of the server to fear and reject her even more, calling her the "scarlet witch" and other such names (scott refers to her as his "crazy ex", (made funnier because he's gay irl)).

as things on the server heat up, pearl is forced to team up with scott (because they're soulbound), cleo (because they're scott's teammate) and martyn (because he's cleo's soulmate) several times in order to survive, but always manages to alienate herself from the group anyways by trying to injure scott on purpose.

during her final episode, the already unhinged pearl goes COMPLETELY off the rails and starts hunting down and killing people, directly killing two soulmate pairs herself (impulse + bdubs and martyn + cleo), defeating both pairs in 1v2 pvp. (her killing impulse and bdubs was insane- she hunted them down slowly, methodically, all while menacingly chanting "Something wicked this way comes" louder and louder, until she caught and killed them.)

martyn and cleo's deaths at her hands means that now it's just her and scott left. the "ghosts" (the other dead players in spectator mode) and the rules are clear: this game will have only one winner. she turns to face scott, ready to get closure with one final fight and. you know what. im just gonna transcript this.

PEARL: Hi, Scott.

SCOTT: I didn't think it would end this way.

PEARL: [crouching] I honestly didn't have a lot of faith in us.

SCOTT: [crouching] I think... [stands] Pearl, you deserve this more.

PEARL: [stands] Excuse me?! What do you mean?

[Scott jumps up, and places a block of TNT beneath him. Pearl flinches as he does so.]

SCOTT: In the same way... [He takes out a flint and steel, and lights the TNT beneath him]

SCOTT: [Looks up to make direct eye contact with Pearl] Tilly death do us part, Pearl.

PEARL: [panicked] Wait, Scott, what are you doing?

SCOTT: [yelling, almost triumphantly] Tilly death do us part!

PEARL: [at the same time, panicking, rushing towards him] Scott! What are you doing?! SCOTT-

[She is cut off as the TNT explodes underneath Scott, killing him- and, a second later, her. Pearlescentmoon is now the winner of the Double Life SMP.]

tl;dr: she's a very sad and pathetic wet cat who is also an unstoppable, terrifying omen of death (one might even call her. a harbinger of chaos.) she's so lonely but she drives away anyone who might otherwise accept her. she hates scott and wants him to hurt but he's the one person she can't kill and in the end she still cares about him, even though he's cut her off completely. shes so blorbo.

oh my god i love her

[kasarian]

HAIII this is for the oc ask game !!! Hmmm how bout Akku and Hiraya with Know, Self Care, Social circle, Fate and Meet strange ? :3 you can do any of these ! No pressure <3

HEWWOO!! Thank u for giving an excuse for me to ramble ~w~

[ Ask Game here! ]

Answers for Know:

Akku just goes with the flow of most things, but is rather assertive of his boundaries. If he is uncomfortable, he will say so immediately; Similarly, if he is enjoying his time, he'll make that just as clear. So, I'd like to think, yes, in a way that he goes with his gut rather than not! But y'know, nuance! He does try to sneak away at times he's uncomfortable, when he knows that he won't like the idea of doing a certain thing. Definitely had a lot of time to think about things he did not like. This isn't to say that he isn't willing to try new things though!

Hiraya definitely is an introspective fella, he's huge, towering most people in the village bar his fellow dragonics (...with the exception of Akku, but that's because he likes being small); and rather quiet. He's the type to keep to himself most of the time, but can be ever so emotive around those he's close with... That being said! Hiraya knows himself, but has trouble with getting a read on others, so he doesn't bother and does what he wants. He knows what he wants, but isn't vocal about it all the time. One really can't say what's on his mind. But observe him and his boyfriend a little closer, maybe you'll be able to!

Answers for Self Care:

Akku likes to indulge in a lot of rest and downtime if he does a lot of physical activity, or magical-power related training. If the thing is draining despite it being fun? You can find him the next day snoozing away, should he have not much responsibilities to do. If it's something of a social battery running out, you can also find him really glued to Hira's side, in his usual humanoid, fox-featured form, or a form that resembles a fluffy noodle curled along the man's broad shoulders.

Hira, however, is one that needs to be physically dragged (by Mela), sweetly convinced (by Akku), or have a plate of food visibly put in front of him (usually by Orbit, or even Alon) in order to take a break. See, he often takes up the heavy physical jobs in the village, and other than this, he also goes along with Akku and Mela with combat training. And then, he often forgets to take care of himself by the end of the day! Akku and Mela are ones who drag him along back to rest and recharge. (Orbit used to do this, but his peers have long since caught on.) So, it's not that he doesn't want to, he just,,, needs a reminder to!

Answers for Social Circle:

The Starkeep Sanctum is a small, mostly 'unknown' village, and the residents do not usually have children running about; But the times they do, the whole village helps raise them, like a community should! There have been children in the Sanctum, but the ones that don't live here permanently, so it's always been Akku, Hira, and Mela. But they eventually meet people along the way, of the story. Akku and Hiraya remain boyfriends all-throughout, Mela is aroace, they eventually have some weird but nice friend groups of their own. Can't elaborate on that now, but yeah!

Answer for Meet Strange: (I am going to try and not make this any longer) (lying)

This goes for Hira and Mela, in a way; I think that the most memorable way the two met Akku... it was when Mela (around age 12 at the time) was called to the riverbank by the outskirts of the Sanctum, and instructed to assist Orbit by bringing needed items to tend to an injured boy. He was humanoid, but with visible draconic details, such as nubs on his head (presumably horns), fluffy, canine-like ears, as well as scales on his skin and a thick(relatively) scaly tail with tufts of fur lining it until the very fluffy tip. Hiraya, 9 at the time, didn't come along, but when he saw a swaddled figure being rushed into the house, along with Mela trailing behind, her brows knit and was frowning, it made him worried, too. He peeked in one of the spare bedrooms to find Orbit neatly tucking in the now-visible kid on the bed. The two children are asked to stay by the injured boy's side as Orbit goes to prepare more supplies and they tend to the boy the whole afternoon. The next day, the boy quickly recovers, and Hira is the one to witness it. Hira reading a book out loud, on the topic of magic relating to the sea, and the boy wakes and listen silently until he mischievously decides to conjure a tiny shark, slowly making its way until it gently chomps on Hira's cheek. Hira startles and it alerts both Orbit and Mela, who were coming in with breakfast. The boy is giggling while Hira stares in fascination as the tiny shark zips around his head. Mela blinks owlishly as her dad has his brows raised. Eventually, everyone gets over the initial shock, and the boy introduces himself as Akku once Orbit asks. Akku very simply explains that he woke up to familiar terms being spoken aloud and decided to let the other person know that he knows that information too!

(After that, they do get into the deeper stuff, with Akku realizing that he's far, far from home, and that he misses his parents, and then a lot of emotions come flowing out and the kids and Orbit try their best to comfort the poor boy.)

[card-queen]

You have a lot of fun and colorful OCs! Which one is your favorite? Which one is the earliest one you came up with?

Why thank you! My favourites tend to flit as there's aspects that really strike me as refreshing at all different times!

My current soft-spots are the main character from my detective game. Fun, flirty and utterly chaotic Stella:

...and Cas, the main character from my fantasy project. Who's a good-natured black sheep that kinda wants to challenge the world but prove he's a good person.

As for who came first... I've kind of been working on all different projects (and never completing them~) for many, many years now. Of these current projects, the two brothers, Cas & Conoric are my oldest and most worked on. They've changed a LOT over time as the story has evolved and my needs changed.

Back in it's early stages, I had a more straightforward Fire Emblem style story. Cas was Cullen back then, a Prince from Ethelia. The problems within the country were less well-defined back then but they didn't need to be because he was the Prince and would feel a strong measure of guilt and duty any time his people suffered. Eventually, after some arguing too, I came around to the line of thinking that making him a Prince was a bad call. Not for any Fire Emblem-y reasons, but more because you couldn't really escalate problems much higher than that. He had and still has an older brother, Tristan, who would take all the heat for securing lineage and whatnot, but he was still a Prince. Who could reasonable get in his way or tell him no?

I dialed things back a great deal and ended up with working on the country of Ethelia, the conflicts within and without, the role the country played on the world stage, relations with other nations and recent history for the world and each country. From there, I developed a job within Ethelia that would be a kind of sheriff's department, keeping the country safe from all the monsters & magic, and handling the safety of people within their regions and settling disputes. The country had recently put to bed a civil uprising that ended uncleanly: the rebel leaders were not confirmed dead and were rumoured to be in a neighbouring country, safe and biding time. So unrest still remained and people who worked these peacekeeper jobs would start dwindling in number as the jobs started to be too many and too unrewarding. The more adventurous would go overseas to fight in the Crusades (which is an endless war against a constantly regenerating monster threat in a desolate area), join their family business that they were far too good for a few years earlier, or join the many growing factions still loyal to the rebels.

Prince Cullen and his version of Ethelia's story was about guilt, accepting responsibility and making things right. He was someone inadvertently at fault for harm but not directly. This SUCKED because it meant that any retribution might be unfair to him because he wasn't really at fault. How can a character grow, learn and make things right if they aren't really responsible for the bad they do? It was too muddy -- it had to go. Cas has a more simple story: he idolised his brother but his brother wanted to go to war. His brother was denied the option of going to war because he was too young, so he spitefully waited to be old enough to join the Crusades. He tells a young Cas where he's going, promises to return but never does. The 11-year old Cas starts lashing out himself, wanting his big brother back and ends up falling in with a street gang that has strong connections to a thieves brotherhood. The gang grooms him into becoming a member, using Tristan as bait and offering him the chance to follow after his brother. Cas runs with the gang for a few years, being a spy and thief in his hometown. One day he's caught and his world comes crashing down. Good fortune intervenes as an injured beast collides with the wagon transporting him and the other thieves that have also been caught to the county's prison. His gang friends take the opportunity to escape, while Cas is more focused on the wagon's driver and horses, who are hurt. The man hunting the beast joins Cas in helping the wounded, and it becomes a turning point for him. From this point on, he vows to be a better person and do right. He wears gloves all the time to hide the brand on his right hand, a sign worn by all members of the thieves brotherhood. He has been painfully open about his past ties but it more often than not, draws suspicion and derision. He is constantly battling with himself and his reputation, trying to make things right and prove that he is more than his childhood mistakes.

Conoric has had a similar reworking but the theme has always been the same: he doesn't belong. Cas and Conoric has never been fully brothers. They were step-brothers in the first iteration and Conoric is adopted in this newer iteration. They have been opposites but close nonetheless. Conoric has always been quiet and introspective, and in the first version of the story, Cullen was also introspective but more of a people-pleaser. It was hard to right them because it often meant that one or both of them was brooding. Now, the more boisterous and lionhearted Cas is a counterpart and companion to Conoric. He gives Conoric space and time to think and brood on subjects while he himself goes out into the field to see things for himself or take in new information. They have a strong partnership and understanding that comes from growth -- they didn't understand each other when they first met and honestly couldn't stand the way the other was. Now Conoric can be frail, jealous, and snide but also hopeful, mentally resilient and quick-witted to counter Cas' boisterous, reckless, charismatic and determined nature.

Something I try and put into all my stories because I LOVE SEEING IT is conversations that are quick-paced back-and-fourths about discussing ideas, possibilities and just theory-crafting.

Stella & her gang are at the heart of a murder mystery plot that may be related to her past, the events that shook the town many years ago or an alleged serial killer who may or may not be a dead man.

Cas & Conoric find themselves tumbling into a deeper mystery as they find an abandoned campsite full of dead men that wasn't there yesterday, a woodcutter's house undisturbed except for the three dead hidden in a garden ditch, an attack that happened on a manorhouse outside of Cas' old hometown during the night and a few other things that all happened within the space of two days.

Okay, I'm done talking now.

I'd love to hear about your story & character too! Please share your own favourites and how they've evolved over time!

[entropii]

🍊 🧡 🌸 💖 for my beloved Yuzu<3 (you can skip any if you haven't settled on them yet!)

Oh, these are such excellent picks for Yuzu. Some of these are definitely going to change the more I play, the more I delve into lore, meet other characters, etc., but here's what I've got so far!!

🍊 What is your OC’s favourite meal? Snack? Dessert? Drink? Any reasons behind this besides liking how it tastes? What is your OC’s most hated food? Stuff they can’t stand to eat or drink?

The most obvious answer to me is. Yuzu loves lemons and oranges. He has (I have) spent almost an entire session just gathering oranges and lemons in La Noscea and didn't even use them for recipes. Just got them to get them and to snack on. His inventory is full of them.

The other answer is I'm not sure yet! I haven't thought a lot about the food in game yet. In general I think he likes snacking on fresh fruits, will eat berries picked straight from the wild. But I think most of his favorite foods (full meals, snacks, desserts, and drinks alike) are things he'd find at home, wherever home ends up being.

He doesn't have a lot of dislikes, he'll eat almost anything, but he does tend to avoid dishes that are all mushy in texture and drinks with like. Too Much Pulp or Surprise Chunks in them. He can still eat them, but it is not his favorite.

🧡 Who is your OC’s favourite person? Why is this person the top of their list and have they actually met them (an idol or rolemodel or celeb can be someone’s favourite after all!).

In terms of characters he's met in game so far, I don't think he'd classify any of them as his "favorite", but I do think he likes E-Sumi-Yan from the Conjurer's Guild, and Laxio from Little Solace. He was fully tricked into thinking that Laxio placed a curse of turn-you-into-moss on him, thought it was very funny afterwards, genuinely praised Laxio for pulling one over on him.

Other than NPCs, I’ve been imagining he has a childhood friend from the Xaela Au Ra. No name yet, uses she/her and he/him for herself, but like Yuzu does not care what pronouns other people refer to her with.

So far I've been imagining that Yuzu is from a group of Raen who settled in a more isolated, mountainous region of Othard generations ago, and only more recently (potentially during Yuzu's later childhood/early adolescence) assimilated into Doma and Hingashi culture (Yuzu has feelings about this, I am thinking about this). Yuzu would've met her before then, where she might have known him by another name, saw her every once in a while when she was in the area.

I think one year, when she was around, Yuzu got injured somehow, or just fell ill. Severe fever and weakness? Somehow partially cracked his horns off and had screwed up proprioception+spatial awareness for a while?? During that time, she helped him out a lot, brought him fresh fruits or fun snacks for him to eat. When he was well enough, he followed her around like a puppy until she left again and stuck to her like glue whenever she returned.

And we'll see who else he meets!

🌸 What does your OC’s voice sound like? Their laugh? Are they good at singing? Do they have an accent?

In terms of the character creator, I picked voice 5 for Yuzu, thought it had the best chuckle emote for him :^). It's got that same warmth and brightness to it, but I do think his voice is a bit deeper, a little more in the chest, a little more rumbling. If I'm understanding correctly that Au Ra horns are picking up vibrations in the air, I think it's fun if Yuzu's voice is that much more tangible to other Au Ra. Sort of a pleasant hum in the horns and skull.

His laugh has a similar warmth. Big, whole-body laughter from the chest. He can sing on key, nice to listen to, but Yuzu doesn't think he's particularly good. In terms of accent, I'm not sure of all the languages present in game, how particular languages might have spread throughout the various regions, etc., but if he has an accent, it's probably one based from a dialect spoken in Othard?

💖 Has your OC ever been in love, be it romantic or platonic or otherwise? Who with and did they ever express their feelings or keep it private? How long did these feelings persist / do they still feel this way?

Yuzu has definitely been in love and I don't know if he knows what kind of love, but it was almost certainly the childhood friend mentioned previously in 🧡. I don't think Yuzu ever felt the need to keep this private from her. Told her on one of the rare reunions they had after he moved away, over a shared meal and drink under the late afternoon sun. Still loves her some kinda way, but has probably been in love with another person or two since.

[creacherkeeper]

canvas, formal, informal, and favorite for lizzie, hawk, and sarah?

canvas: Does your OC have any scars, piercings, tattoos, or other markings? Do they display or cover them up at all?

lizzie: she has her lobes pierced but that's it for piercings. no tattoos. she has plenty of small scars, mostly nicks and scratches and some burns. a lot of them are on her arms. she also has a very gnarly gunshot scar on her abdomen that didn't heal well, and a long stab wound scar on the back of her shoulder

hawk: no piercings or tattoos. he has mainly small scars but almost all of them are from like. minor accidents like his pocket knife slipping or sarah catching him with a hot pan or their old dog biting him. he also has some small marks on his knuckles from getting into fights

sarah: ears pierced and septum piercing! she absolutely wants tattoos but hasn't been able to afford them. she is shockingly good at avoiding injuring herself and simply not good at not accidentally injuring others so they don't have very many scars, but i think they have a long scar going up their ankle from playing in the creek as a kid and tripping over a rock

formal: What's your OC's formal look? Do they like dressing up? Do they have different looks for different occasions?

lizzie: lizzie Hates dressing up and i think getting her into formal attire is a Fight but she has like. a nice pin striped button up, tweed vest, and nice slacks that like. if she Has To she will tolerate wearing but she's never worn like. a full suit. i don't think she's ever worn a dress in her life outside when she was like. a toddler probably

hawk: he hasn't worn formal attire since he was 21 <3 he never owned any himself so had to give back his work outfits to the interventions after events were done. he's not really a fan of dressing up but he doesn't mind it if he has to

sarah: sarah loves dressing up! it's a Game to them. but at this point in her life i think she'd rather dress up in menswear. as a teen she was mostly dressed to compliment but not outshine divine and i think that's still her mentality. they would enjoy dressing up With Divine but probably not on their own

informal: What's your OC's lazy-day look? How do they like to dress when they're winding down?

lizzie: fully just. jeans or khaki slacks. wifebeater. if this woman does not Have to get dressed she is not putting effort in. she has to wear her armor so so much if she's at home she is Not putting on a shirt

hawk: i don't think his dress tends to vary that much? i think jeans or khakis and a plaid shirt are like. his go to kind of always (autism)

sarah: (hollis dont kill me for not knowing anything about 1880s fashion) so sarah for sure has some self-made jorts. sarah was the first one to make jorts actually. revolutionary. and she wears a flannel with the sleeves rolled up open over a tank top

favorite: Does your OC have a favorite article of clothing or accessory? What is it? What's the meaning behind it? Do they wear it all the time or do they wear it sparingly to keep it safe?

lizzie: i mean ... her dad's work jacket <33 its older than she is but its been hers for a while. she used to wear it all the time, but doesn't anymore. most of the time she keeps it under her pillow

hawk: i dont think he has a favorite article of clothing but i think his parents got him a pocket watch for his 12th birthday that he still has. it was like. one of the only actual Gifts he ever got from them and even though he doesn't like his parents that is still special to him

sarah: her wedding ring <333 the only time she doesn't wear it is when she's working in the garden because she doesn't want it to get lost or damaged. as far as Clothing goes, she stole a flannel from hawk that is very old and soft and very big on her that she loves

[coffee-at-annies]

I don't think its stigma against prospects per se. Its less a stigma against them as a class and more of them as an experience or age bracket. The player someone is at 18 is not the same as at 25 is not the same as at 30. Players grow and mature and develop both their skills and their game styles. Players play differently under different coaches in different team systems with different teammates. A prospect may be absolutely lighting it up at a college level but just because someone is the best player on their college team (and a lot of prospects are young enough that they aren't in the ahl yet) doesn't mean they can reliably skate 20 minutes on the wing of Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin and not only make an impact with scoring but also not be a liability in front of our net. We won't know if they aren't given the chance - which is why we spend so much time yelling on the internet about Sully not trusting the ahl guys - but giving the wrong guy a chance can lead to the puck in the back of your net.

Keep in mind that the different leagues are simply put different. Play style is one of them, the ahl allows checking but idk if college or under 18 leagues do. Women's leagues before the pwhl famously did not and the pwhl has very limited checking allowed. Basic play strategy is different with or without checking. Ice size is sometimes a difference, for example international ice rinks are different sizes than nhl ice. The skill level of the players is different, both on the same team and opposing teams. The best goalie in the ahl is still in the ahl. They may be nhl ready, but an nhl ready goalie and a vezina trophy candidate are two different things. This is the same for defenses and forwards. On top of that when going from one team to another prospects have to learn an entirely new set of teammates (maybe even an entirely new coach or play system). Learning the ropes can take time, which is another knock against prospects. They may not have that time between games, cap and contract restrictions, and lack of practice time. The schedule is also way different. I don't know much about college or the under 18 leagues but the WBS "baby" Penguins have 11 games scheduled for March mostly Fridays through Sundays with a single Monday game. The "adult" Pittsburgh Penguins have 16 games scheduled for March, basically every two days outside of back-to-backs and the occasional two day break. Can a prospect play 10 or 20 minutes a night 4 nights a week? Does the coach trust them to play at a high level and in high stakes situations? Does the coach trust them not to make mistakes when tired? Travel is also different in leagues. WBS primarily busses to their away games and idk how far the farthest away game is, but the farthest nhl away game is several timezones away. How well does a player adapt to the time change? (This is a minor thing, but its to highlight all the questions people have about prospects).

I haven't even mentioned team roles and special teams. Center is different from wing and top 6 is different than bottom 6. (I don't understand defense tbh). Bottom 6 tends to focus on shutdown roles while top 6 is supposed to score. Play styles are different because of that. If all the slots in your top 6 are filled is there even a point in calling up your best ahl center when the only spot is 4th line wing? Can he develop into a 20 goal scorer if he's not on the pp and isn't getting top line minutes? The best part of grind line was when they were on the ice I knew the other team wouldn't score but maybe we would. Jared McCann was on our third line wing for longer than he was on our first or second line wings. Does he become a 20 goal scorer from the third line? No. He could have earned his way back up to the higher lines, but that doesn't mean he'd stay there.

I didn't even mention injury and injury history. We haven't seen Poulin this year because he's been injured when it made the most sense to call him up. People have been injured and come back and had phenomenal seasons. Clayton Keller on the Yotes was a masterton finalist last year after fracturing his leg to end the season before and came back to score 63 pts. In contrast, I can point to Brian Dumolin's knee injuries as the reason for the decline in his play last year and no offense to Geno but he's on his 3rd knee and it was a big question for a while if he could come back from that injury. Any injury at the lower levels cuts into player development time and can set them back. There's also a physicality and growth question for young guys. Stuff like weight and muscle mass and other stuff may still be developing for players. I can't name a someone who's had a growth spurt after being drafted because I don't care about the draft or prospects tbh, but they always talk about the weight players put on over the summer and how much they may lose over the course of the season. I'm the same height now I was at 13, but I know tons of people who were still growing at 17. The way someone skates at 5'9 is different than at 6'0 or 6'5. Those players need time and practice to adjust their games. Are they finished developing? Can they get better? Can they make the adjustment quickly or will it take time?

Simply put there are a lot of questions when it comes to player development and there are more players and prospects than there are roster spots. I'm not saying its right, but nhl teams are trying to win every game which means making the right gambles, and between development and injuries that can be a crapshoot. A lot of people drafted high or considered a top prospect never make it to the league or drop out after a handful of seasons. There are always more people waiting to replace someone. Its both next man up mentality and a fact of sports.

NHL-wide thought: it's funny how when a team has reached it's expiration date they call for a retool to get younger and refresh the roster to compete. but when they see prospects doing so well before coming in the show, they're like "but does his game translate well to the NHL???" or "is he NHL ready?" What really is the deal about prospects and why is there so much stigma about them despite the need to rebuild at some point?

good question, anon! I would like to know the answer to this too, but sadly I am here exclusively for the shits, giggles and pretty faces so am probably not the best person to ask.

I would suggest asking... perhaps @reavenedges-lies @coffee-at-annies or @idontlikeem all of whom i think know far more about Proper Hockey Stuff!

[demivampirew]

My thoughts on The Witcher/ The Witcher: Blood Origins situation

Disclaimer: This is going to be a long post. I've been meaning to write this for a while. I might do a 2 parts post because it's going to be really long.

Let's start with that stupid, stupid rumour started by Deuxmoi. First, I think it's idiotic to pay attention to what a sh*tty gossip blog says about Henry, especially when they've talked badly about him in the past - they had shared negative blind items with any legitime source, on the style of "someone told me this alleged thing about him"

So let me post first the stupid rumour and then I'll comment point by point:

"I recently got this message and somebody was like, "do you want to know what really went down?" She doesn't say who the source is and if she verified that the rumour at least came from someone who could actually have access to what happened on set; for the way that the rumour is disclosed, it could've been a random person who hated Henry and Deuxmoi took it as legit.

(...)"A lot of unusual demands" which demands? If they're unusual, they should be specific so people can examine if they're actually unusual and he's behaving like a diva. "that made people feel like he wasn't really a team player" this person is talking about Henry in season 1, the same Henry that dehydrated himself to look ripped for shirtless scenes but, sure, he's not really a team player 🙄.

"But in seasons 2 and 3, something shifted" could it be that right after episode 1 of season 2 there was a global pandemic and he had months of solitude to think about his life goals; also he injured himself while filming (such a bad team player, I know) and he might have re-think if it's worth it to keep pushing himself for a show that doesn't respect the IP as he does and that put him on the background except when it's time to promote the show and they use his likeness to sell the final product he's not happy with? "it became really impossible for women to work with, which is always a big problem" even if this rumour is true, I don't see how this could be his fault; as we're going to see next, he's going to be accused of being "toxic" for being a gamer and use gamer language, well guess what? The Witcher became famous through video games, meaning, the targeted audience and the ones who made the IP well-known are gamers. If women feel uncomfortable working with gamers and people who want to stay loyal to the source material, maybe don't work in a show where the targeted audience is gamers and they tend to be opinionated about the adaptations of the lores they love. "But even worse, because the showrunner is a woman" again, how is this Henry's fault? Lauren is the one who agreed to be the person with most power in a show adaptation of a story who became famous worldwide thanks to video games, it's not like she didn't know they were the ones who would watch the show and the ones who she'd have to please. Also, she worked in comic book adaptations before so she can have an idea how passionate (and sometimes toxic) that kind of fanbase could be yet, she accepted the job and all that comes with it. "He would try to overrule her and try to get changes made last minute across the board without her knowledge" so far, I think the only change he made was the lines after Roach's death and, it was because he felt it was an insult to make a joke. Also, it wasn't completely without her knowledge because they had an argument about it before this and she told him to see if he could find something better to say, according to Lauren herself. "(...) The showrunner has to sign off on every minuscule detail down to the bottoms of a costume" this, this is where I want to put stress on. Lauren a few weeks ago tried to deviate the blame from Eskel's death to the writer, Beau de Mayo, because he was the one who wrote the episode -it's worth mentioning that she tried to throw him under the bus because he's the one who said there were writers who hated the IP. She's the showrunner; she's the maximum authority there; she has to greenlight everything for it to happen and, she could've easily said no if she didn't want Eskel to be killed. Also, yes, Beau was the one who wrote the episode but he might have been told to kill an important character in that episode; again, the showrunner is the one who has to supervise everything and if a writer does something that could hurt the story, like killing a character that survives in every other media, she has to say no or change the writer if this doesn't want to. There's no excuse here for her incompetence. This is on her.

"Female writers and directors were suddenly ignored on set, unable to do their jobs" sorry, what?! 🤣 Writers are never on set, their job has to be done before filming the season starts. The showrunner is the only one who's usually on set. As for the female directors, there are only two listed for S2 and one of them said and I quote "Had the pleasure of directing episodes 6 and 7" (source https://www.instagram.com/p/CW8z6KurW2f/?hl=en ) As for s3, the only director attached it's Stephen Surjik -who in the past said how polite Henry was on the set and that he could become a politician because he was so polite to anyone and took the time to greet everyone (https://youtu.be/kcUgoyQSQ1k?t=84 I marked it on the exact time he speaks about Henry)

"He started making comments. It wasn't a sexual thing: he wasn't grabbing anyone or being lewd, but it was disrespectful and toxic all the same." again being too vague and don't give specifics; how was he being toxic? What kind of comments would he make that would make people, especially women uncomfortable? Could those comments be about the script and how unhappy he's with it? He's a famous actor and his reputation is on the line so, yeah, he has the right to speak when he's not happy about it. His indie movies proved his range as an actor but, he prefers to do comic books and video game adaptations, that's his chosen career path so he wants to keep the reputation as someone who cares for the source material and he's going to be outspoken about it. If anyone behind the scenes cannot take a gamer critiquing the work of an adaptation of an IP they love, maybe those people should be looking for a different job.

Then they talk sh*t about him being an addict because he likes to play video games. "He was distracted, he was late, he was obsessive" funny because Stephen Surjik in the interview that I link above said how he was always on time, prepared and knew all his lines and stunts. Also make-up and hair takes him about 2h so maybe sometimes he could've been a bit late because of that. Also, in case this person forgot, he was injured while filming s2, so maybe he could've been late sometimes because he was in pain? I don't know, I assume it must hurt; I hurt my ankle years ago and I was in pain for months. And, again, this could also be a lie because Stephen said he was always ready. Then again with the bullsh*t about gamer language, what language, Karen, what language did he allegedly use that was so disrespectful?

Then back again with the re-writing scenes, I assume it's the Roach scene and only Freya was there and she had no lines at that moment, so it doesn't affect her.

"He decided he didn't want any romantic scenes at all. No kissing, no shirtless scenes, etc" oh Karen, I'm going to fight you so hard on this. I'm actually pissed. As for romantic scenes, he didn't say no romance, he said no romance with Triss; he felt the real love story was between Geralt and Yennefer and he felt Geralt would be loyal to Yen, the fact that there was no romance was a writers/Lauren issue because they went against what the IP says and made Yennefer a b*tch who tried to sacrifice Ciri for power so of course Geralt wouldn't ignore that and just be romantic with her despite what she did. As for kissing scenes, I call it bullsh*t because Henry himself said in interviews that he had no problem with kissing scenes even when covid was (and is) still a thing; he said he'd only be uncomfortable if there was a kissing scene involved and he saw Anya coughing and sneezing, meaning with clear symptoms of covid (https://youtu.be/JldJ9cDzZ1o?t=1081 source). As for shirtless scenes, is it a crime that he didn't want to have shirtless scenes? Correct me if I'm wrong but, Anya didn't have naked scenes this season either. Why is it a problem only if he doesn't want to do shirtless scenes unless they're necessary? Also, S2 was filmed in the middle of a pandemic; there was a hiatus of filming that lasted months where he couldn't go out to the gym and only had a few weeks to properly train in a gym before they resume filming, it's possible he didn't feel comfortable shirtless after a long period without training.

"He wanted complete control over storylines," I think he wanted Geralt to be more than a grumpy dude that says "hmm" and "fuck" all the time. If he's used as the lead actor for promotion, his character should have more screen time and focus on the show. The part about him not knowing about tv structure and budget is bullsh*t. The problem he had was with the script and characters motivations and stuff, things that didn't require the budget to fix; maybe if they didn't go for the stupid Voleith Meir thing they could have afforded other stuff, just saying.

About the "weird alliance" with the witcher writer who was allegedly fired, who I assume was Beau, the one who exposed them for not liking the source material. Could you, Karen, explain more? So far, the only connection I saw was a text message that Beau send Henry after Nightmare of the Wolf (the movie he wrote) was released to see if Henry saw it. That doesn't seem like two people with a weird alliance. Also, if Beau was so toxic, why was he allowed to write the animated movie?

Here's the receipt to the message; the photo was taken by a paparazzi and posted to DailyMail.

"Henry did anything he could to hold up production and cause problems" How? What did he do to hold up production and cause problems? Was it maybe that he challenged a few script points to better the end result? Maybe he pointed out how uncharacteristic was that Yennefer tried to kidnap Ciri and sacrifice her for her powers because Yennefer loves Ciri as if she was her own daughter. Or maybe he thought it was unrealistic that Vesemir would use Ciri to try to create more Witchers, including Ciri herself. There are lots of plot points that could've worried him that it wasn't going to work out and, guess what, it didn't work. Fans hated it.

Ok, assuming it was right about the HR complaints; then, why would Netflix allow him to be in Enola Holmes 2? That was filmed after S2 wrapped. Why would they allow a person who had lots of complaints to go to work on another movie and do a third season of the show he was an assh*le. If this is true, and the part about him sending an email to the entire writing staff (I doubt, even if this is true, that he'd send an email himself, given that even posting on his social media nowadays is a task of his team) if, and it's a very big if, he sent an email to writers, I assume must have been to apologize because he didn't realize he was being perceived as rude or hard to work with.

For me, this is just bullsh*t. Even if this person actually worked there, it's clearly someone, possibly a writer, that's pissed about the Witcher campaign to fire them and re-hire Henry. And, even if this is true, it's definitely an exaggeration as I proved. It wouldn't prove that Henry is toxic but, actually, if women and people there can't take gaming lingo and people are passionate about the IP they love, maybe they shouldn't seek to work in video game-related adaptations -I know The Witcher is supposed to be an adaptation to the books but it was the game who put the IP in the map, worldwide, so gamers and the targeted audience for this.

Ok, part 1 of my rant/thoughts ends here and continues on a new post (I'll edit the post with the link to the second part once I post it)

[scarfacemarston]

does abigail have any strong opinions about the other members of the Van der Linde gang besides John and... i guess jack??

Yes, she does. You have to be around camp and near her though. Abigail has talked about feeling cut off from the gang and dealing with the "pity and disgust" towards her or just ignoring her completely outside of a greeting. Sadie is her best friend and has a few really meaningful conversations including encouraging her to continue on with her life. They are seen sitting together sometimes, but Sadie is gone from camp a lot. Sadie goes to visit her and John in the epilogue. She is always with Hosea and talks about him as a father figure and helps with Jack's education. He is one of the few people who believe in her as a moral woman and treats her as more than a mother while also encouraging her to leave the gang for her safety and Jack's. He also says she is the best thief, conwoman, and actress he's ever known. Arthur is a close friend of hers depending on how you play the game, but you can't play the game without them interacting a lot. She's very friendly with Charles and is one of the few who asks about his injured hand in chapter 1 and they become even closer in chapter 6. However, he isn't actually around her much until chapter 6. There seems to be evidence that suggests that Tilly is her other closest friend. They are seen together multiple times, she comes to Abigail for advice and kindly helps with Jack. Then there's Uncle who she considers family. The rest or hit or miss. She detests Micah and Micah harasses her more than he does any of the other women. Joe and Cleet harass her as well, but they harass the other women, too. She can't stand Miss Grimshaw because she tries to force her back into prostitution. She also makes nasty snide passive-aggressive comments. Grimshaw may be harsh with the other girls, but has never had a kind moment with Abigail.

Abigail seems to be one of the first people to lose faith in Dutch and is seemingly peeved with him in the intro of chapter 2. It also affects how John is treated throughout the game and by Dutch. Abigail becomes more and more disgusted with him as time goes on and gets annoyed when Dutch gives lectures telling him she "would rather focus on her son being fed". BUT is thankful he helped with Jack. However, Dutch and Abigail mutually dislike each other later in the game. He thinks she poisoned John. Lenny seems to be friendly with her based on how he greets her and Lenny loves Jack. Nothing more than that, unfortunately. Sean also tends to be pretty chill around her but they don't really interact. Sean does hang out with Jack. Mary-Beth never has a conversation in the game with her. Abigail is seen patting her back after Molly's death and I found a deleted scene of her asking about Tilly's whereabouts. Mary-Beth and Karen appear to be two of the people that gossip about her. So I think they "politely" tolerate each other. I think Mary-Beth has an issue with her. Karen is kinder to her though and has comforted her when Jack was taken and has defended her from John, but she has also some harsh words towards her. Kieran is tolerated. She didn't want him near her or Jack at first, but she did stop Jack from bullying him. She then was devastated when Jack was taken. He took the time to apologize to her directly. He seems to like Jack and wants to be friendly toward her. Molly seems to confide and trust her which is interesting considering how different they are from each other. I would have loved to have seen more from them. Josiah Trelawny sadly doesn't seem to do much more than greet her and Jack which I think is a missed opportunity. Javier doesn't do much except greet her, but Javier does include her as a traitor in his mind and has called them out. He doesn't seem to like her. In rdr 1, Abigail has been blunt that Bill and Javier made her uncomfortable. A friend of mine stated that Bill seems intimidated by her. I think Bill and Javier mentioned something about her being the rat but I could be wrong. Abigail mentions that she used to love hearing Rev. Swanson's bible readings and preachings. I think he's around her in chapter 6 more. I don't know how much Abigail would have wanted him around her while he was using drugs. Nothing else I can think of. Arthur says everyone - especially the women - finds Strauss creepy. Mr. Pearson seems to interact more with Jack than her. (That seems to be the general rule here.) I haven't seen or found anything other than mostly cheerful greetings. I think he might sit with her in chapter 6. Not sure.

[lassieposting]

Alrighty things I'm emotional about today: Eskel and the fucking leshen

This leshen is parasitic. It infects Eskel, makes him increasingly unlike himself over an incubation period, and then mutates him completely. I'm gonna suggest that this leshen is based on some variant of cordyceps, an endoparasitic fungus that preys on insects, zombifying them. This sounds a lot like what happened to Eskel, right?

Let's have a look at Eskel's timeline in this episode.

When Geralt finds him fully-transformed, he grits out that he knew something was wrong after his fight with the leshen, but he decided to return to Kaer Morhen anyway, because he believed Geralt/Vesemir could help him.

At this point, Eskel is still almost entirely in control. He made the sensible choice his usual self would make. If anyone will know what to do about his injury, it's Vesemir.

So Eskel goes back to Kaer Morhen. We don't know how long this takes him, but we can make a vague guess. He fought the leshen for six hours, so he probably rested and tried to tend to his own wound before heading home. He's had time to get to the castle, stop to extend an invitation to all the prostitutes, and make it up the Killer. A day or two, maybe?

If you look at him in his very first scene, he doesn't look injured. In any fight, a Witcher will get small injuries. Bruises, split lip, scratches, etc. When Geralt gets these injuries, he tends to keep them for the rest of the episode. There's not a mark on Eskel. All these other little injuries have already healed. So the leshen has had time to start exerting control over him; he's now in a deadly fight for his own body.

Eskel shows up at Kaer Morhen, and Geralt immediately notices that something is off with him. As we see from Geralt's flashback, the "loud, aggressive, fighty" energy Eskel has in most of this episode is not normal for him. He's normally, like game!Eskel, a thoroughly nice dude. They hug, and he asks if Eskel is okay. Eskel hesitates...then pulls away and says that he's fine.

Now, the whole reason he returned to Kaer Morhen in the first place was to get help. Even if he didn't want to publicly announce his injury, Geralt asks him this question quietly and in a way that Eskel could very easily keep it between them. He even looks like he wants to tell Geralt the truth - but ultimately he says nothing. This goes against all common sense for Eskel, but not for the leshen, whose best interests demand that it stay hidden until it has the best opportunity to infect the maximum amount of hosts/spread the optimal amount of infectious spores.

The leshen isn't letting Eskel tell Geralt. He's like a rabid creature who's desperate for water, but his body won't let him drink.

Notably, right after this, Eskel does actually make a reference to his injury. It's said in a jokey way, that the other Witchers should be glad they aren't feeling "the sting of one of those fucking roots", and he reaches for his shoulder when he says it.

So he's wrestling for control right here. He reveals his injury - that's Eskel - and then immediately downplays it, laughing it off - that's the leshen. He's got all this aggressive energy* when he bursts through the doors, then he seems himself again when he greets Geralt, and then goes back into Intimidation Mode when he spots Ciri. He's all over the place in this scene, because for half of it he's not in control of his own body.

(*Notably, from what I read - I am not a botanist, just a nerd - cordyceps does not usually make insects aggressive - to manage population balance, only a few ants from any one colony are infected at any given time. And we see from Geralt's flashback that Eskel is usually pretty chilled and easy-going, so his aggressive energy in this episode is highly OOC. Three possible theories on this:

Cordyceps kills its hosts eventually. Witchers make more resilient/more durable hosts. Making Eskel aggressive is intended to maximise the number of infected Witchers

The leshen is in Eskel's head, so it knows Eskel has brought it to Monster Hunter Central in the middle of fucking nowhere, and it's scared. Eskel is acting out because it knows that the one place it's most likely to be discovered is here.

Eskel is scared. He's a nice guy, but he's still a Witcher, capable of immense violence. Years of experience have taught him to get fighty when threatened, and now he's fighting for his life. Fully conscious, fully aware, while something takes over his body. Anyone would be terrified. )

We see later that Vesemir actually followed up on the hint Eskel dropped. He references that Eskel has "drunk too much for that sting", so he knows that one of his boys is hurt.

But he's like, highkey casual about it, so I don't believe he realises how bad it is, and I don't think Eskel has actually let him look at it. After making it all the way back to Kaer Morhen to get help from Vesemir, the leshen makes him deny he needs it. Interference from Vesemir is the most likely thing to get it discovered, and it can't risk that. Imagine being Eskel, hearing the monster using your mouth to tell the old man that you're fine, to leave you alone, stop fussing, while you're trapped in your own head screaming for help.

By the time the party** happens, he's deteriorating fast. He's practically begging for a fight with Geralt, and ultimately swings for him. He's snappish and short-tempered with the prostitute, especially when she brings up leshens, and even though he backs down from Geralt in the end, something still triggers his transformation and he kills the woman.

By this point, the leshen*** is almost completely in control. Eskel is shut away in his own head, unable to move his own body.

Still, he manages to speak to Geralt. He tells him he knew something was wrong, and he thought Geralt could help him. But this is, like, the last vestige of his ability to hold the monster back. By the time Vesemir arrives, the leshen has swallowed him up completely

** Now, I've seen posts criticising the decision to have this happen at all, when Kaer Morhen is supposed to be a closely guarded secret, which, fair. 1000% Eskel - the real Eskel - knows that stopping enroute to invite a bunch of hookers up to the keep is Not Okay. But it also works, in this scenario? Because what most benefits the leshen is infecting as many hosts as possible, and it would know from Eskel's memories that there won't be many people up at the castle. Just Witchers, a handful of them at best. Inviting more people to come and party fills the castle with potential hosts - and what's more, if it had infected the prostitutes, they'd all go back down the mountain and continue work for a few days unnoticed. Prostitutes meet a lot of people. If the Witchers had been more drunk, or less effective, or if Geralt had actually gone to protect Ciri and Vesemir had faced Eskel alone, the infection would have broken out and spread. The Continent dodged a fucking nuclear bomb here.

** It's also worth a thought that like. This leshen is vaguely implied to be a monolith monster, a new type of leshen. But it's probably not? It's a regular leshen who's also infected by the same parasite it passed on to Eskel. It's not in control either. It's wandered through a monolith into the world of the Aen Seidhe, but it's still just a slave to its parasite, and it's coming to the end of its time as a useful host. Infecting someone or something else is its top priority. That's...quite sad, too.

Anyway yeah I don't think the Netflix writers actually thought about all this or cared about doing his character justice/how OOC they wrote him, and I wish we'd gotten more of him, but. This is my theory and I'm sticking to it

[7-oh-ta1]

i agree that abi was put aside so much. it feels the same for emma, jacob and nick too. we got almost nothing of nick and his only purpose was to show us, tha player, how the werewolf transformation happened & that bites and infectious, emma and jacob just ran around doing pretty much nothing of significance other than cause problems so the plot starts moving and abi was essentially only there to give silver shells to kaitlyn and be the love interest to nick.

i would have preferred it so much more if laura didn't come back (as much as i love her) and the counselors learned about the fact that the creatures that attacked them are werewolves and definitely not bears by themselves or from travis. i think it would be fine for some characters to still stay alone but the screentime should be distributed instead of focusing on only 2-4 characters.

sorry for rambling in your asks lol

FR NICK OH MY GOODNESS

It takes a few playthroughs and choosing different conversation options to really get a good idea of who he is AT ALL. My first couple playthroughs I was left wondering if the cruel things he says as a werewolf were supposed to shed some light on him, but really it's choosing not to kiss him as Abi that does and had I not gone back a few times I would've kept assuming he was some fake, cruel person when I really don't think he is at this point 😭 A little fake yeah, but not what I was led to believe!!!

I do feel like his transformation was necessary for what they were going for, but maybe it could've been an Abi OR Nick situation where depending on your choices either or both gets bitten but it doesn't HAVE to be Nick, he could be the one screaming for help for Abi instead. This is complicated because 80s horror is very important to the Quarry and its almost always the boy getting killed or injured in those movies, but also... our sexy and half naked girl was Jacob so... I think it would be okay to have a injured girl tended to by her guy idk?? Though personally I was really happy about Laura & Max's return!! I feel like she didn't cut into too much portioned time especially since she was with one of the main counselors for the majority of her return! Even then, the choice to go with Laura or not, to help, hinder, or ignore her quest to save Max would've definitely been a turning point and a great spot to exercise branching paths IMO!!!

The thing with games like the Quarry is that each playthrough is supposed to feel unique, because there are so many branches paths along the way. That's really difficult when creating a story because story needs STRUCTURE so I do really appreciate the amazing story in the Quarry, it's engaging and steady, which is hard to accomplish in a heavily choice-based game!! There's just a lot of things I feel like personally could have been actual choices and consequences to certain actions. Even suppose for example that Nick transforming is somehow stronger storytelling than Abi transforming. It's still a choice, just like how getting half the cast killed in the beginning is weak storytelling, but it's still a choice you can make. (And yes I do understand that's a lot of work for the way the game is made, I do understand that completely!)

[thedarkrose17]

I wanted to try and expand Sol and asked a fellow 15 fan for some questions they found and was using to figure out their 14 characters

Under the cut cause it's long very long

1. How do they present themselves to others?

I like to think Sol's presents himself as a confident but dumb guy. Someone who'll dive headfirst into stuff. Pure of heart dumb of ass pretty much. Sometimes though may come off as someone who's kind of very much done with somethings or people. Depends on if he likes them

2. Do they like animals?

Man's a cat boy

He does. A lot of his minions/pets? ish are animals.

3. How do they dress?

His outfits vary a lot. Usually he likes to glam horns on his head but outfits tend to change a lot from cropped tops, to puffy jackets, v cut jackets. He favours things dyed black though

Currently it's like this until next expansion pack but he's now wearing a white sweet pea necklace too

4. How many languages do they know?

One. Pretty much

5. How big is their family?

I'm unsure how many. I'm torn between 2 or 3 siblings. He also has a father from the sun seeker tribe and a mother from the moon tribe I'm unsure on names sadly

I feel like the siblings maybe named after moons or planets

6. What is their purpose in the story?

His purpose basically is to be the hero, save the world, people and at times explore new places

7. Do they know how to fight?

Yep :) he's trying to main two different classes but he's tried a few others.

He mainly sticks as the reaper class but he does switch to the dancer class too at times

8. What is their back story?

His backstory is he left his moon tribe when he turned into an adult because he had a thirst for adventure. He wanted to gain more power so he could help people in need. Plus he wanted to see what the world was like outside of the tribe

9. Why is their name, their name?

Solis Oriole. Solis coming from Sol which is latin for sun and Oriole meaning golden.

He used to be Octavia so eighth sun but I didn't want him to be tied to a show I wasn't crazy about 😅

10. Do they have any nick names?

I call him Sol for short. I like to think some of his friends do too but I feel some are still very formal with his name

11. Do they have a romantic interest?

Ori Vesper (future husband who I'm trying to figure out what kind of person he is)

12. How do they cope with struggles?

He tends to keep them to himself and tries to deal with them solo. It's hard sometimes though

13. Do they have anyone they can lean on?

His friends/co workers, spouse

14. How do they react to someone dying?

He goes quiet, grits his teeth and tries his hardest not to cry in front of others he's supposed to be strong for everyone. He's unfortunately seen a lot of death and sadly he's gotten used to it. Doesn't make it hurt less though

15. Can you name 5 personality traits they have?

-witty

- kind

- loyal

- stupid (just peak himbo truly)

-impulsive/foolhardy (he's jumped into battles without thinking/without support)

16. How did they become a character?

I forget how I found the game but I just prefer making non human characters in fantasy games. So I just maybe spent an hour or more trying to make him/exploring options

Sorry I dunno fully how to answer this 😅

17. Do they get along with others?

Mostly but there's some people he's like 😒 over

18. What flaws do they have?

He's not very smart and sometimes rushes into things without thinking. Also just bottles things up and thinks he can handle struggles solo

Unsure if it's a flaw but he tends to put others before himself. If he died in battle or got gravely injured which for the latter he has been he'd be happy as long as he saved people/no one else suffered

19. How do they influence the story?

Basically he's like a main character so he tends to influence it a lot whenever he defeats someone bad or saves people /the world

20. What do they look like?

Basically a male miqo with fangs, red eyes, black and grey hair like the picture above. He used to have yellow eyes like his mother but I hc making a deal with a voidscent changed his eyes to red

21. What are their hobbies?

He really enjoys fishing and working on his island farm, tending to his crops and animals, buying new clothes for glamours

22. What are their ticks?

If I'm answering right

The main one is random ear flicks he just does it sometimes without realising or when he's happy

Zoomies for one too

Also just randomly knocking shit off/over

Just does some stuff cats do

23. Do they like children?

He works with/maybe lowkey adopted two. One would kill him if she heard him say that. Alphi and Ali are his family now sorry

He adores them. He wants the world to be a safe haven for them

24. How do they react to being around wild animals?

He's been around a fair few for a while. He's unphased by them. Hell he has a fair few on his farm

25. If they were given the task to prank someone, who would it be, what would they do, and would the prank work?

He knows better not to prank as some would probably kick his arse plus he'd be pretty hopeless with pranks

26. Do they have any survival skills?

Surprisingly yes. He knows fishing so he could fall back on that if he needed to. He's learned to make a fire and has some basic cooking skills.

He might be able to make a shelter for himself too nothing amazing but enough to protect him

27. Are they more book smart or street smart?

Street smart. He doesn't read too often

28. How do they get out of a difficult situation?

Usually he'd fight his way out of it

29. Do they use their body, mind, personality or force to get what they want?

None? He puts others wants before his own

I guess maybe personality if it came to it

30. What music do they enjoy?

He doesn't have a favourite but he enjoys all sorts whatever he hears bards in the square playing really

31. How do they overcome obstacles?

By trying to fight them whether it be physically or mentally

Fighting is the main thing he knows. His go to so to speak

32. When faced with a difficult decision do they get stronger or break?

Stronger

33. Do they have any special powers?

He's got the powers of a voidscent/demon I guess on his side. Who can take him over and give him more power

34. How do they change throughout the story?

He goes from being a wide eyed clueless adventurer to a somewhat maybe battle hardened hero who's dealt with a lot of death and trauma

35. Do they have any friends? If so, are they close knit?

The main scions, Sol's pretty close to. Some he sees like family like Alphi and Ali. And some like G'raha and Estinien he sees as best friends/maybe has a crush on them I'm unsure still

36. How is their family life?

It's pretty good, healthy. He sends letters to his family whenever he can and visits when he's free

37. Are they likable?

Very likable

38. Are they the hero, or anti-hero?

Hero

39. Do they make questionable choices?

Sometimes. By questionable if it's stupid then yes. Man said he'd drink an entire lake to find something (he would have)

40. How do they become who they are?

Through experience, trauma, friendships and time

If this is the right answer to this 😅

41. How was their childhood?

Fairly chill and normal pretty much. Uneventful? I guess nothing bad really happened. Maybe sheltered due to him growing up mostly surrounded by miqos and no other races

42. Are they close with anyone who is going to screw them over?

Not really

43.How do they adapt to different situations? Do they adapt at all?

Surprisingly fairly quickly. He just focuses on the task at hand

44. How do they speak? Examples - Are they soft spoken, hot heated, vulgar

Fairly casually maybe swears a lot

45. Are they opposed to violence?

Nope

46. When is their birthday?

25th sun of the 5th umbral moon or

25th of October (may have picked it cause a character I like has that birthday)

47. Are they quick to judge?

No he tries not to be

48. Do they have anything they are trying to hide from others?

Emotions, trauma

49. Do they act different around different people?

Yes he's more casual around friends and more >:( around people he dislikes

50.Do they enjoy the arts?

He likes dancing pretty much

51. Do they like science?

He's not very smart but he's studied some alchemy. Didn't stick with it

52. Are they more emotional or logical?

Emotional maybe

53. How do they deal with their emotions?

He tries to bottle stuff up until he's alone then the floodgates open

54. How do they cope with sadness?

He's got depression. He's experienced a lot of sadness but he just powers through it. I feel like he just goes silent sometimes

55. What is something they care about?

Family, friends, where he lives, fishing

56. Would they die for anyone/anything?

100%

57. What do they do when they are happy?

Flicks his ears, grins showing off his fangs

Probably goofs around with his powers, dances

58. How would they come across to other characters? Examples- messy, lazy, childish, caring ect.

Caring probably at points childish/dorky too. A disaster around pretty men

Put him in a room with a pretty man he'll either try to be smooth and flirt or turn bright red and stutter no inbetween. (100% was like this with his hubbie)

59. Do they have a phrase they use over and over?

Not really

60. In a crowed room are they in the corners, sides, or in the middle?

Sides. He's assessing people. Also probably reluctant to sit at a table with a drink cause last time he did someone poisoned his drink and that still traumatises him to this day

61. Are they comfortable being in a crowed room?

He's somewhat introverted so not always

62. How do they relax?

Fishing or listening music or just go to his farm island

63. Have they ever harmed anyone and regretted it? Verbally or physically?

No

64. Do they like to dance?

Very much so

65. How do they get around their environment? Examples - horses, bike, vehicle

Mostly chocobo, car sometimes creatures/other animals

66. What is their pet peeve(s)?

Things that bug him I think loud noises. I feel like since he's miqo and their cat people he has sensitive ears and loud noises bother him

Probably loosing bait when fishing too

And just a certain couple of ascians and a certain prince Zenos

67. Do they have a disability?

No

68. How do they react to getting flowers?

He'd be flattered and maybe turn all blushy and stutter if they're from a cute man/his hubbie

69. Would they ever wear a flower crown?

He has :)

70. Do they like themselves?

He's pretty ok with himself

71. Who do they dislike?

Zenos, Ascians, at one point the twins dad

There's a list

72. What is their motto?

He doesn't really have one

73. Do they have any markings on their body?

He has facial tattoos that look like stripes but no scars

74. Have they ever been abused?

No

75. What is their biggest fear?

Corruption, loosing all his friends and loved ones, failure, not being good enough

76. What are their goals?

Save people pretty much, protect his loved ones and friends

77. How do they go about achieving their goals?

By keeping strong so he can save and protect others

78. Do they have a fight or flight response?

Fight

79. Is there someone in their life that they care about more than themselves?

A fair few people mostly the scions and his family

80. How would they fair in zombie apocalypse?

He'd do pretty well his weapon is long and he can warp plus has voidscent to help him

81. Do they have any tattoos? If so, are they significant?

Facial ones. Not really they just look like tiger stripes

Also currently red cherry blossom branch running up his arm to his neck (in a perfect world I could keep the tattoo on him forever T-T)

82. Are they good at mental math?

Nope rather hopeless

83. Do they get along with others?

He mostly does unless they're trying to hurt people or hinder him

84 Are they lazy?

No

85. Are they self motivated?

Yes

86. How do they cope with anger?

He tends to focus it in battle sometimes but mostly he's fairly good at coping with it

87. Have they ever been in a situation where they were helpless?

Yes at points he has been but managed to pull through

88. Are they organized or messy?

Both ish. His inventory can be a mess and chocobo saddles but his apartment is organised ish

89. Can they remember a lot of information at once?

He tries to

90. What is their occupation?

Reaper when he's doing hero stuff and fisherman when he's off duty

91. Do other characters respect your OC, if so, is it out of fear? Or do they respect your OC because they like them?

Others tend to respect him cause they like him

92. If they were given minutes to live, what would they do? Who would they want to see and say?

If he couldn't reach his family, he'd want to see the scions

He'd probably try to tell them how much he's enjoyed fighting alongside them and being their friend

Probably would cry too which yeah rarely does around others if many people

93. How do they deal with stress?

Focusses it into a hobby when he gets the chance to

94. Do they have a more submissive or dominate personality type?

You'd think the latter but he's more submissive just can act dominate at times

95. Do they have a pet?

Many pets 😅 so many

96. Do they have a stash of weapons?

He has a couple of scythes and some chakrams too

97. Where do they live? Who do they live with?

He lives in the housing area in Ul'dah called the The Goblet. In an apartment. At some point I like to imagine he gets a house with Ori but for now they're crammed in an apartment room

98. How do they calm themselves down?

Deep breathing exercises, going for rides

99. Are they co-dependent?

No he prefers his own company

100. Are they a day, or night person?

100% night owl

[hanibalistic]

#796986 | HWANG HYUNJIN.

genre | fluff, high school au, crush au

word count | 1824

warning | none

note | thank you for requesting, i hope you like this!

request | @childofthecycle​

having a crush on someone is about a lot of things.

it is about awkwardly pacing around the classroom for over five minutes, just walking and talking to your friends, pretending that you have a lot of things to tend to when you are just hoping he would finally look up from his desk and see you walking around the space.

it is about the whispered rumors spreading through a class, talking about who is in love with who and who brushed hands with who. and whenever his name is mentioned with yours, you would deny, deny, deny, all the while wondering if he turned to take a look at you.

it is about the faint heat at the tip of your ears whenever you feel him next to you during assembly line up, your eyes desperately trying to take a closer look of his gorgeous yet not being brave enough to turn your head in case he would notice you.

having a crush is about hoping, it is about looking, and is about public secrecy. the thrill in almost being exposed but always making sure your feelings stay behind a pair of sealed lips, and the endearment of yearning to be looked at, while immediately turning away when his eyes are on you because you could not bear to be seen by him either.

"[name]... what the hell are you doing?"

jisung could tell by the way you ignored his question and simply moved your head over to peek at the basketball court outside the cafeteria.

there was only ever one reason why you would awkwardly hide behind a brick wall in the middle of the school ground, and there was only ever one reason why you would be interested in an unofficial, lunch-time basketball game.

it was all because of hwang hyunjin.

"you're gushing. stop it, stop gushing at the wall," he said as he stepped up to stand next to you, his hands stuffed in his pockets.

the way he pulled a face when he watched hyunjin dunk a basketball was not lost on him. even after so long, he was still not fond of the divine-looking, soft-spoken, almost-six-feet boy. and, to be frank, jisung wasn't sure if he ever will be, considering the countless trouble he has indirectly brought to his table.

listening to you talk on and on about hyunjin was one thing. jisung found hilarity in teasing you of your crush on the perfect student in your grade, especially when you would always start to ramble out incoherent words trying to save yourself from expressing too much of your embarrassingly romantic daydreams.

but oh lord, when you start going out of your way for him was when he couldn't help but think your feelings were starting to get a little ridiculous.

a prime example he would hold a silent grudge against hyunjin forever was when you twisted your ankle trying to impress him during the soccer unit in p.e class.

all hyunjin saw was you crying! there was noting impressive about that!

(yet, when he asked you if you were okay the morning came back in a cast, you were so giddy you almost forgot your feet were injured.)

"lunch is almost ending, we should go back to class," jisung said after he took his eyes off hyunjin and turned to you instead.

your eyes were fixated on hyunjin. even though the boy was moving about in the court, running and jumping and pushing and smiling, your eyes could always find where he has gone to. it was like your got lenses that specifically filter out and blur out anything that simply isn't hwang hyunjin. and you drowned yourself in your small, safe world where your love for him could expand as much as you want every time you watch him.

the smile lingering on your face, the kind of smile jisung knew no amount of jokes could bring out of you, was what made him keep his mouth shut whenever he felt like complaining about your crush on hyunjin.

you were so happy liking him, you always have been. he was in no position to defeat your spirit, and he in no way would make fun of your feelings for another.

plus, he wanted you to be happy. if talking about your crush on hyunjin would provide that, he would let you do it.

"alright, suit yourself," he muttered to himself after a scoff. "i'm leaving first, then. don't come whining at me later."

you did not hear a lick of what he said. your mind went hazy the second you saw hyunjin turn his head and looked at you, a smile still present on his face that would send you the delusion that he was smiling at you. fingers clutching the edge of the wall, you sucked in a loud squeal and immediately turned around to press your back against the wall, hiding.

you couldn't even find the time to wonder why jisung was no longer by your side. you were too occupied in the knowledge that you have been seen. not just by anyone but by hyunjin, by your crush, by him.

it was a short glance; you made it a short glance by shielding yourself too quickly, but it was enough to get your heart racing.

because when you are fond of someone, even the smallest detail was orchestrated by impenetrable fate. even the tiniest thing means something, be it just an accidental smile or a coincidentally shared glance. those little things become your midnight dreams and the pinnacle of your fictional scenarios.

they mean something. hyunjin means something, as well as your affection for him.

taking a deep breath to calm yourself, you shoved down the shy smile and slowly turned your body so you could peek out again and see if hyunjin was still looking.

it was likely wishful thinking, but you wanted to hope for it nonetheless, as the kind of thrill you get in crossing your fingers and hoping, and then the unique embracing of disappointment when it lets you down, was a bittersweet feeling you thought deserved to be felt. it was, graciously, addicting, with the way you gamble each time wondering if your prayers would be heard.

you were met with a face instead when you turned around. or, more specifically, hyunjin's face. it was a sweaty face, but somehow you still wanted to exert your affection for him through the less-than-elegant love language of biting. maybe just the tip of his nose, or the bottom of his lips, or even his arm.

hyunjin watched with surprised eyes when you stumbled back with a yell. he took a hesitant step forward, his hand ready to fly out and support your fall, but you regained your balance and steadied yourself only two feet more away from him. shrinking back into his bubble, he watched you with intrigue as you began fumbling with your words.

"i–um, i was just watching you play–i wasn't specifically watching just you, though! i was looking at the whole team and your friends–actually, yeah! i was just watching you all play because i had time on my hands, haha, because it's lunch, you know? it's lunch–"

hyunjin held up his hands gently, wanting to get you to calm down in the middle of your stuttering speech trying to explain why you two met eyes in the first place. your voice slowly trailed to a stop when you saw that he was laughing—cute, tiny laughs that meant no harm; it was more as if he found your bubble-soda eyes adorable as they gleamed with each word you spoke.

"can i say something...?" he asked after you stopped talking, and he waited until you give him a grim nod before he continued, "i didn't mean to scare you, i'm sorry. i thought it would be funny if you turn and i'm already here."

you furrowed your brows at him. "why would that be funny?"

he scratched his cheek faintly, uncertain. he knew he would catch you off guard, and he had wanted to see how you would react to being so close to him because he has caught you, on multiple occasions, staring at him and looking away when he saw. it was all for good fun, he didn't know he would freak you out this much, and neither did he think it would be funny.

"i have a bad sense of humor," he explained. "i'm sorry i freaked you out."

you huffed out a string of air, your neck heating up as the conversation went on. you should be panicking more, you thought, because you have never had a casual conversation with him before. but his kind demeanor made it so easy to feel calm around him despite your likeness toward him.

"it's fine, i probably freaked you out even more by peeking at your play anyway," you shivered, "that was creepy, wasn't it?"

hyunjin smiled, a dimple showing. he shook his head, wiping his forehead with the towel around his neck. "no, i think it's kind of cute, actually," he admitted, "frustrating, though."

"oh... sorry–"

"i would have liked it better if you were sitting on the bench instead of hiding yourself," he said. "hell, i probably would have done better too, who knows?"

your creamy eyes popped, and it blossomed all over him. he was looking for that—that sudden burst of joy in your eyes. he has only seen it a few times before, you were always turning away from him that he couldn't properly look at you.

it was like you wouldn't even give him the time and chance to come to his senses that he does think you are adorable, and he should probably talk to you before the year ends with you two being strangers.

how unfortunate that would be; another pure crush slain by the separation of the year-end graduation. thank god hyunjin came to his senses.

"i... i can sit by the bench tomorrow if you want," you suggested carefully, not daring enough to look at him.

he pursed his lips into a teasing smile, wanting to lean down so he could catch your lowered eyes, but he decided against it just to make you less anxious around him.

"thank you, [name]. that would be great,"

his name rolled off your tongue so smoothly, it was as if he has said it millions of times before. and maybe his heart has called your name when you were unaware, maybe his eyes have thought of your name countless times before he finally had it in himself to talk to you.

you breathed out a sigh. what a relieving feeling, like all the hardships have melted away.

this was what having a crush feels like. it is like having softness bleed into the rough patch of high school life, and you were glad hyunjin was the reason behind it.