#companion piece with my last set basically

[rocktheholygrail]

2x07 || 2x08

[queensparklekitten]

I think I just guaranteed queen of nothing by the crane wives a place in my spotify wrapped tonight because of time princess

[alpaca-clouds]

How redeeming Gortash would improve Karlach's story

I will admit, that the title is a bit overstated, because by the time you actually get to interact with Gortash, the plot just does not have enough time left to redeem him. Because other than what some folks in Hollywood think: No, giving a character one last minute "heel-face-turn" with one big symbolic act does not in fact redeem a character. Redemption is a process that takes time.

BG3 actually understands this, because Astarion's arc basically ends with: "You took the first steps towards redemption." Which is really good.

However: You could end the game at least in a way to set Gortash up for a possible redemption arc - and more importantly just... not have him die. Because actually that would improve Karlach's character arc.

I will get one thing out of the way first: The entire "Gortash redemption" idea is always contentious on the fact that he is a really bad guy. Like, he is bad. He brutally killed and tortured, he enslaved people, all of that.

I am an anarchist though. Hence, I do not really believe that punishment is in any way just. And to put it differently: Killing Gortash does not undo any of the harm he has caused. Not a single dead person will live through it, not a single tortured person will become untortured through it, and no slave is freed through it either (you kinda gotta say that as the player in a different mission).

And yes, I will say at this point that in general I was iffed by the fact that in many fights of the game I was not given a choice really. It was "either join the bad guys or kill them", and my "all charisma bard", who does not believe in killing for revenge, was like: "But... But..."

Like, my Tav was on board with killing Cazador (because literally in the situation it is "kill Cazador or have 7000 people die") and killing Ketheric (because he needed to die to end the curse), but he is already iffy on Orin (as she never had a choice but to be a killer) and definitely is not on board with killing Gortash (because there is no good reason to do it).

But let me talk about Karlach. Because the thing is... I have seen a lot of commentary on how Wyll is underwritten. And he is. But not as underwritten as Karlach. Like, her entire companion quest basically goes: "Kill some fake paladins, find Dammon, find two pieces of Infernal Iron, kill Gortash (which you have to do for plot reasons either way)". She doesn't really have a dungeon connected to her quest. Nor really an exclusive boss fight, because again: Gortash you kinda gotta fight for the story either way. Nothing really.

Every other character, too, also has to make one hard decision. Where they want one thing - but what is actually the good thing is something else. I wrote about this before, the "become what you hate" decision, basically.

Karlach doesn't. Sure, you could argue that the "die or go back to Avernus" decision is her big decision. But it feels very different than the decisions of the others.

Which brings me to Gortash and saving him.

Here is the thing: Logically speaking Gortash should probably be able to fix Karlach's engine. He understands infernal engines, as he built the Steel Watch around them. You can easily argue that yeah, he should be able to fix Karlach. And that... would actually make for a great decision for Karlach's story.

If I would get to fix Karlach's companion quest, I would probably do it like this: Put in some sort of dungeon where Dammon sends you in the hope that you can find some plans there, that might give him an understanding on how to fix the engine. Heck, if you do not wanna do a whole new dungeon, you could also just put some plans or whatever into the Steel Foundry.

The point is that it will then turn out that, yeah, even with those plans for some reason Gortash is the only one who could fix it. Putting Karlach into the spot to make this decision: Does she value her life more than her revenge on Gortash?

Because here is the thing: Gortash is supposed to be 1) the intelligent one of the dead three chosen, and 2) also clearly is the one who acts first and foremost in some sense for his own self-preservation. Which made me go like: "Nah, this does not make sense," when he decides to fight against me after his Steel Watch was disabled and I already killed the other two chosen.

So, yeah... You should get at least a chance to persuade him to just give up - or, going back to what I was talking about before - to save Karlach.

And again, I actually think that even for the Gortash part of the story it would make for more interesting storytelling. Killing him is not really that interesting.

Especially as, once again, killing him does not undo any of the harm he has caused. But given that he is this big egghead he could actually do something good if he got to live. And yeah, also there is the fact that... You know... Given what we know about his backstory, his actions are about as understandable as those of some of the companions.

Some of you might already know, I have written some fics dealing with the way how I would imagine something like this to go. Mainly Hurt begets Hurt (which is basically my Tav convincing Gortash to give up), An Impossible Future (Karlach inner turmoil after her engine is fixed) and Cheesy Noodles (Gortash being a big meany towards Tav, who is unphased by this).

I am right now writing a story featuring Astarion dealing with a very, very depressed Gortash.

[hsrblake]

Cooper Howard qotues

Why, is this an Amish production of The Count of Monte Cristo or... just the weirdest circle jerk I've ever been invited to?" – The Ghoul after being awoken

"Well, what makes you think I'd give a good goddamn about that?" – The Ghoul to Honcho about a bounty

"Well, I tell you what, boys, whenever somebody says... ...they're doing one last job, that usually means their heart's not in it. Probably never was. But for me, well... I do this shit for the love of the game." – The Ghoul to the bounty hunters

"You right, friend, about one thing. This right here was your last job. My paycheck wasn't quite what you expected, but... well, you know what they say. Us cowpokes... ...we take it as it comes." – The Ghoul while murdering Honcho

"Now, last night a bounty came in through all six agencies. A hefty price on the head of a man that fits the description of that fella right there. Now, I may not know much, but I do know a bidding war when I see one." – The Ghoul about the bounty for Dr. Wilzig

"Well, now, that is a very small drop in a very, very large bucket of drugs." – The Ghoul after being shot at by Lucy

"You got to be fucking kidding me." – The Ghoul after seeing Maximus' arrival

"Well, I'd say come up here and get me, but... it's hard to walk upstairs when you're wearing a 12-piece cast-iron skillet set." – The Ghoul to Maximus.

"Well, I guess basic training ain't what it used to be. 'Cause you drive that thing like a fucking shopping cart. Rule number one: read the manual." – The Ghoul taunting Maximus

"Yeah, well, the Wasteland's got its own golden rule. [...] Thou shalt get sidetracked by bullshit every goddamn time."

"Well, Lucy MacLean, it ain't all canned peaches and marmalade left up here, sweetheart. Sometimes a fella's got to eat a fella." – The Ghoul while harvesting Roger's remains

"I'll bet that outfit makes y'all fell like a big man, don't it? Well, I know 'cause, well I used to wear one back in the day. There was only one problem with it. There was a flaw in the welding just below the chest plate. I wonder if they fixed that in this new model? I guess not." – The Ghoul confronting the Brotherhood.

"Oh, you want another autograph, young Henry? Feo, fuerte y formal." – The Ghoul to Hank MacLean.

"When your daughter said her last name was MacLean, well, I just couldn't believe it was the MacLean. Hell, this kid used to pick up my wife's dry cleaning. Now, I've waited over 200 years to ask somebody one question. Where's my fucking family?" – The Ghoul confronting Hank MacLean.

"War never changes. You look out at this Wasteland, looks like chaos. But there's always somebody behind the wheel. And that's who I want to talk to. That's where your daddy is headed." – The Ghoul to Lucy Maclean.

John Hancock quotes

Of the people, for the people."

"Plenty of folks wanna make life hard for people just tryin' to survive. I'm not willing to stand for that kinda shit."

"What kind of settlement requires a test for entry?" – Referring to Covenant.

"Whoa, the Downs. Hope we're not going anywhere for a while." – Referring to Easy City Downs.

"That kinda bull is the reason I became mayor in the first place." – Referring to The Big Dig

"Damn. Hey, look, if you wanna get outta here..." – If taken to Nate/Nora's corpse in Vault 111.

"If someone needs help, we help 'em. If someone needs hurting, we hurt 'em. It's not hard."

"Like it? I think it gives me a sexy, king of the zombies kinda look. Big hit with the ladies."

"Hey, does that play "Red Menace?" Love that damn game." – Accessing a terminal

"Looks like you can use a little pick me up." – Said when initiating dialogue with him as a companion (and him giving the player character a random chem)

"Whoa ho ho, I like you already! Walk into a new place, make a show of dominance. Nice." – referring to the Sole Survivor killing Finn

"Listen close. It's the last thing you're ever gonna hear." – When Sinjin tells the player character to stop speaking as The Silver Shroud

"Christ, it's bright in here. Clearly they didn't consider some folks might be nursing hangovers. " – Possible comment when entering Vault 81.

If completing The Big Dig with Bobbi No-Nose:

"How you doin' killer? Arms tired from all that digging? You know, my strongroom is surprisingly empty now..."

"Now if it was just the money, I'd rough you up, break a few bones, and then we'd be square once you paid me back. But you killed Fahrenheit. That means blood for blood."

When traveling naked:

"Hey Emperor, love the outfit."

"Let them stare."

"Don't mind me, just enjoying the view"

When committing Cannibalism:

"Suppose they're...beyond caring at this point"

"You...you do what you gotta"

"That one...all yours"

"At least you have the politeness to wait til they're dead"

When using chems:

"Two a day, keep reality at bay."

"Lean back and enjoy the ride."

"That's a good one, take it all in."

"Never trip alone."

When getting Addiction:

"You feel as bad as you look?"

"Wow, how much did you take?"

"'ay, you should slow down, and that's ME saying that"

When not responding while talking with him:

"Did I say something wrong?"

"You wanna talk? Make me a little nervous over here."

"What gives? I thought we were talking."

"Did your chems just kick in or something?"

"Like talking to a brick wall."

"Hmm, lights are on but no one's home."

"What? Mole rat got your tongue?"

"Uhm... You alright?"

"You check out on me?"

"Anybody in there?"

"That's right. Take it all in

After committing to a close relationship

"Words don't begin to do it justice. You, you're the best thing I got."

"Guess you're the piece I'd always missing...that and that toe I still can't find..."

"It's like I found a part of myself I never realized was missing... which happens sometimes when you're a ghoul."

"Nothing to lose but each other."

"Moments like this, I know all that karma stuff is bull. Because no one like me should be this lucky."

"You sure you wanna be stuck with this ugly mug?"

When Lover's Embrace is activated:

"Morning, sunshine."

"Well look at you. I must still be dreamin'..."

"Don't mind me... just enjoying the view."

Upon picking up junk:

"Careful! You don't know where that's been."

"That actually worth something?"

"If anybody could find a use for that."

Upon looting a corpse:

"Time to collect."

"To the living, go the spoils."

When the Brotherhood of Steel arrives in the Commonwealth:

"Holy shit." – When witnessing the Prydwen's arrival.

"Brotherhood knows how to make an entrance. I'll give 'em that." – When commenting on the Brotherhood

Cooper Howard VS John Hancock quotes these two has some good quotes it's hard to pick one for me I say both anyways you can use these for Headcannons, Edits, Memes, and so on I just put these here so it's easier for some people to use them I also tag people if your interested talk in the messages there open I have so many things I want to make but the next one is going to get Cooper Howard and John Hancock with Serena I was thinking doing a Picture Edit with some quotes and yes I do requests too.

[starlingflight]

Ginniversary Drabble 6

Prompt - N42 - it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife

AO3 or read below:

Is The Chosen One Choosing Marriage? 

As famous witch and occasional novelist Jane Austen said, ‘it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife’, and today it appears even the Wizarding World’s most eligible saviour is not exempt from the basic laws of nature as Ginny Weasley, Holyhead Harpies star Chaser, and long-time girlfriend of Harry Potter, Auror and defeater of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, steps out bearing a new, and rather eye-catching piece of jewellery. 

Weasley, 20, set tongues wagging as she left the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade late last night accompanied by longtime friends, esteemed Auror, Neville Longbottom, and lauded Magizoologist, Luna Lovegood; sporting a ruby and diamond ring which could be seen from across the street, and left none but the most oblivious in any doubt as to the size of Potter’s fortune [pictures page 4]. 

Sources from within the Hogsmeade establishment say that Weasley and friends were seen enjoying a round of drinks, over which she flaunted the ring for the admiration of her companions, accepting enthusiastic congratulations, and a hug from Longbottom that some suggest may have been too familiar. 

There was no sign of the illustrious Mr Potter in attendance, but this can come as no surprise as sightings of the couple together outside of Weasley’s matches are rare, leading many rather optimistic readers, to speculate on several occasions previously that the pair had parted ways.  

In an interview with popular wireless host, Lee Jordan, last year Weasley stated, “we’re not concerned with the headlines. As I’ve said to my brothers on many occasions, mine and Harry’s relationship is between us, and it’s no one else’s business… Now, let’s talk about Quidditch.”

Potter and Weasley were first officially spotted together in the Summer of 1998 [pictures page 5], though sources from their Hogwarts days advise the relationship has been going much longer than that [full relationship timeline, page 6]. 

“Weasley got her claws in him back in our fifth year,” said Romilda Vane, former classmate of Ginny Weasley. “She still had a boyfriend when she snogged Potter in front of the whole common room. It was quite pathetic actually.” 

Other sources have debunked the suggestion that there was overlap between the beginning of Potter and Weasley’s relationship, and any of her previous romantic partners, of which there were apparently many. 

Dean Thomas, up-and-coming artist, and one such conquest, has stated, “I’m only going to answer this once, Ginny and I were over before anything happened with her and Harry. We weren’t right for each other, we both knew it, and we’re both now with the people we’re meant to be with. We remain good friends, and, for the love of Merlin, I would like to be excluded from this narrative.” 

We will, of course, let our readers draw their own conclusions. 

Despite the rumours that abound about the couple's sordid past, the future apparently looks bright for Potter and Weasley, though no official statement has been forthcoming from the supposedly happy couple. When asked for comment, both Weasley’s and Potter’s representation declined to give one, leaving us here at Witch Weekly no choice but to speculate on if, and when, the pair will make it down the aisle. 

[mikuchan]

more thoughts on my Minthara Baenre AO3 character tag deep dive that were too much for the og post, but are still interesting

how I organized main / side / background character categorization:

If the fic focused on Minthara or on a Minthara ship, I counted it as a main character work.

If she was within the top 3 tagged characters and/or had a clear role within the fic's description or additional tags, but was not the main focus, I counted it as a side character work.

If she was one of many characters tagged and/or had no clear role within the work, I counted it as a background character work. An exception was made for collection works, which I counted as main character works.

more on organization:

for the sake of streamlining, I didn't include multi-character ships as their own category. Instead any multi-character ship was subdivided (a Minthara/Alfira/Lakrissa work -> 1 tally for Minthara/Alfira, 1 tally for Minthara/Lakrissa). Ditto for endgame, breakup, or similar fics: as long as the ship was present in the work, I included it in my tally (so a fic starting as Minthara/Durge but becoming Gortash/Durge was still a tally in the Minthara/OC category). For this reason, some of the numbers don't quite add up since one fic might include multiple ships. I did not include tags such as implied relationship, previous/past relationship, etc as it was not relevant to my purpose.

OC fics were often tagged with multiple variations of character tags (ie Tav, Original Character, Original Female Character). Unless it was clear there were multiple OCs being shipped with Minthara, I counted these as one character using a waterfall/basket system Durge -> Tav -> OC (with /Reader being its own separate category).

I considered breaking down work authors as well (amount of authors vs amount of fics, etc) but ultimately decided against it. I DO want to mention, though, that some of the stats have the potential to be taken in a skewed light because of that: ships that seem more popular may have a vocal minority writing multiple fics for a single pairing, or a pairing might have less fics overall but from a wider spread of authors.

It was interesting and frustrating to see how many works tagged Minthara without actually including her as a character -- or tagged her and gave her one line (or no lines). Here are a few of the top reasons for this that I noticed:

work was an ensemble piece, usually following a Tav or Durge's journey from beginning to end, with every companion + semi-prominent character tagged

work was a preemptively tagged collection, with the author tagging every ship and/or character they planned to write about

work was set around or within the Goblin Camp, with Minthara as a background antagonist

work was about a Drow OC with a Baenre-adjacent backstory

Obviously most of this data is interesting, but not great for drawing conclusions from. It does seem like other characters have similar issues:

fics tagging Minthara without including her, or without giving her speaking lines, almost always gave other characters the same treatment

some Minthara-specific situations, like tagging her for backstory or background antagonist purposes, can be assumed to affect other characters in similar but different ways (ie, tagging Isobel in Last Light fics). I didn't dive into this, though, so it's all conjecture.

some fics did seem to suffer for Minthara-specific reasons. Multiple fics tagged her with her only role being to be killed by the main character, almost always without including the Archive Warning for Major Character Death. This indicates to me that the author probably never recruited her, and considers her a basic enemy NPC on the same level as Dror Ragzlin or Dribbles versus a fully fleshed companion character.

The top 5 categories of 'fics that tagged Minthara but are definitely not about her' were as follows (in order of amount)

Astarion/Original Character

Astarion/Gale

Shadowheart/Original Character

Gortash/Original Character

Shadowheart/Lae'zel

I don't necessarily think this means anything beyond these being popular ships, but wanted to include it.

I'm not going to do this with any other characters (probably), but if anyone does, it would be interesting to see how they compare to the Minthara tag.

[vintagelacerosette]

Art Tag 🖼🎨💕

I was tagged by these talented magnificent artist thanksss 💕

Molly @deathclassic Julissa @heymrspatel Deanna @deedala Ice @spookygingerr Ling @lingy910y

Have you always been interested in creating art? Yes, I was that kid in high school doodling anime girls throughout class lol

What's your favourite medium to use? I really like digital for the infinite undo button with my perfectionist ass lmao & I'm using Clip Studio. Paper art has been quite therapeutic for me too

Do you create outside of fandom? Yes

Share something you haven't finished and/or never got around to posting

I made a tribute to our Gallacrafts zine, but at the time, the mods had changed, so I was gonna create a companion piece. I didn't get around to it & then the mods had changed again 😅

Some OG crafting overlords Rhys @smokey-mickey Leah @whatwouldmickeydo Donna @sleepyfacetoughguy

I also have gallacrafts I haven't completed for really old themes, but I do still wanna post lol

Favourite piece you've made? Toss up between my gallacrafts Pride 2 piece (see piece that has most notes question) or my 2024 gallavich valentines/my icon

Draw your icon in a minute or less

You get the gist lmao

An underrated piece you've made in your opinion

A little bit to thus This collection of missing posters with the mixed media.

Do you do art in a professional setting? No, but I wanted to. I studied Visual Arts with a major in screen arts in university tho. Uni wasn't what I wanted my plan was to do animation, but, plans fell through

A piece you don't like but did really well on social media

This. The portions are wack basic background, Ian's face feels off & I rushed this

Post an old piece and compare it to your most recent, what are the similarites?

Wow pretty good that I get to compare these two lol. Still got the star motif & the way I'm drawing bodies is has improved yay! Look at that looooong squiggly pointing arm

Have you ever collaborated with another artist/s? Yes, with the lovely & super talented Ling @lingy910y I couldn't have as for a better first time collab partner 🫶🏼 Would love to collab more 🥰

What piece has the most notes? Are you surprised?

This one has the most notes for hand drawn art & the other is my most notes for art/crafts in general. I'm pretty proud these are top dogs & pleasantly surprised with the Deleted scenes one 😄

Who/What is your favourite subject matter? Our boys but also when I'm acrylic painting I'm loving painting clouds & sunset/sunrise skies hues

Show us something not from fandom you've made

I've been experimenting with acrylic paints after getting inspired by a sparkling water painting I saw on tumblr & here are some cute cows I drew for Leah

Where do you like to create? There's a table in the lounge room that's very spacious, has good light & a cart with a stash of my art supplies. But I wanna migrate back to my room bc I got a new big desk there to keep my mess away lol

Do you have a tag that you use to group your creations? Tell us so people can follow it. It's under Myn's art

Give yourself a shoutout, where can we commission/buy/follow you for more pieces? I don't sell my art or do commissions, but I kinda have some drawings I do love & toy with the idea of making postcards or have it on a mug

I'll tag sensational & inspiring artist if they wanna play 💖

@suzy-queued @tsuga-of-mars @samantitheos @burninface @darthvaders-wife @psychicskulldamage @michellemisfit @sgtmickeyslaughter @mickittotheman @y0itsbri @friend-bear @matt404b @takeyourpillsbitchh @michellemisfit @mikhailoisbaby @mikcrymilkovich

[arealphrooblem]

Terms of Surrender Part 5

Synopsis: The queen of a doomed city makes the deal her husband refused to make with the conquering warlord outside her city's gates.

Part One Here

Part Four Here

CW: Ingrained, systematic sexism (not from the Warlord)

“I have a matter I wish to discuss with you.”

The warlord hovered his hand over a rook and then a pawn, considering his next move. The last few visits to the rooftop garden had shown nothing but a city peacefully rebuilding; even so, the queen felt her stomach clench in unease.

“Oh?” she said, keeping her voice light and curious.

The warlord settled on the pawn and moved it. “Yes. The king of Neighboring Country wants to meet and discuss new trade agreements. I had hoped to gain your insight and advice on his upcoming visit.”

“You want my advice?”

The warlord glanced up at her from the board. “Of course. Out of everyone I know, you would have the most experience and knowledge with this man and previous trade agreements.”

“And you would trust my advice?” she asked slowly, game forgotten.

The corner of his mouth lifted up. “Well I wouldn’t follow it blindly, but I don’t follow any advice blindly. It doesn’t make it any less valuable. Would you be willing to share it?”

She chose her words carefully. “I will share what I can. However, my husband did not include me in those kinds of negotiations.”

“What do you mean he didn’t include you?” The tiny smile dropped, replaced by an icy glint in his eyes. “You are his wife and a ruler of your country. Why would you not be included?”

The question took her aback, the answer so obvious to her that she didn’t understand his confusion. “I’m a woman,” she explained slowly. “Trade and the economy were not part of my duties. That’s the sphere of men.”

He stared at her as if she had just spoken gibberish, or in a language foreign to both of them. “I see,” he said after a long moment.

She felt as if she had just disappointed him and the guilt and embarrassment of it burned at her edges.

“I have met that king many times,” she said tentatively. “He was a friend of my father’s before I was married. I could advise you on his personality, his flaws and vices.”

“That would be very helpful,” he said, the coldness of his gaze melting. “Thank you.” He gestured at the chessboard. “It’s your turn, my lady.”

That afternoon, one of her guards delivered a rolled up piece of parchment to her, from the warlord.

“What is this?” she asked cautiously.

“The terms of trade my lord created,” said the guard. “He wanted you to look over them.”

Nerves fluttered in her gut but she did not let her face betray her. “I see. Thank you.”

She took it to her desk that faced a window to the garden, opened up the curtains,  and settled in. Reading it with her limited skills felt like deciphering a code. The slant of his beautiful handwriting often confused her, as did his long, winding sentences. She took in enough to get a basic idea of the terms he wanted; hopefully combined with her knowledge of the king in question she would be able to provide enough assistance to satisfy him and not enough to invite more this sort of advice.

Dinner was accompanied by the Warlord himself, who set them up at her breakfast table. She noticed that he preferred simple food, not multiple courses, and he had a sweet tooth. Tonight's dinner was seasoned, tender fish, spiced rice and soft flat bread. A small layered pastry sat on a separate plate.

“This is unexpected,” she said. “I haven’t had a dinner companion in quite some time.”

He paused, fork in hand. “Do you prefer to eat alone? I can return.”

“No, no. It was not a complaint.”

In truth she did enjoy his company, despite her reluctance to trust him. And though she’d grown more comfortable with a level of solitude unheard of for a member of the court, she often found herself lonely.

He gave her that tiny smile. “I thought we could discuss that trade contract after we eat. Meanwhile, what can you tell me about your experiences with this king?”

“He’s very manipulative,” she said immediately. “My father could see through much of his lies, but he ran circles around my husband and received many benefits as a result. I’m sure he expects to woo your ego enough to get those same benefits from you.”

The Warlord smirked. “I hope he gets used to disappointment.”

They discussed the king in more detail. The Queen regaled him with stories of the type of oily flattery that had won her husband’s fragile ego so quickly. She could tell just by the way the Warlord rolled his eyes or pursed his lips that such flattery would not work on him, that his ego was not fragile at all. It pleased her that the king would be greatly disappointed indeed but not brave or stupid enough to start a war over it. If only she could sit in on such a meeting to witness it herself.

She enjoyed their conversation so much that she forgot his expectation for after dinner. Once the plates were cleared away, the Warlord asked her to bring the scroll, and the bottom of her stomach dropped out. She obeyed regardless, trapped. The Warlord unrolled it out on the table between them.

“Considering the information you gave me, I see several loopholes this king will try to exploit. Which do you think is the worst offender?”

He gestured at the scroll, inviting her to look. The queen leaned over the table, a small knot forming in her stomach. To tell the truth that she could barely read and understand the first paragraph, let alone be able to skim the entire document.

She took a gamble, pointed vaguely at a paragraph in the middle. The Warlord peered down, brow furrowed.

“Forgive me, I must have gotten confused at what section you pointed at. This is a detail of my previous trade agreements in my country. What part did you refer to again?”

A hot flush crawled down her neck. “My apologies,” she said. “I meant this section right here.”

She pointed to a part two paragraphs below. The Warlord glanced down for a moment before looking back up, gaze suddenly cold.

“If you did not want to give your advice, you could have just told me. I gave you no obligation to comply. Did you even read this?”

The knot in her stomach twisted painfully. “Of course I read it,” she lied.

“And yet you point out the most useless parts of the contract that do not answer my concerns,” he retorted. “I will not be taken for a fool, not especially for asking for something that would only help your people.”

“I’m not trying to make you a fool!” she snapped. How did this conversation spiral so fast?

“Then answer my question!”

“I can’t!” she shouted.

Her voice echoed against the stone walls. The Warlord looked nonplussed.

“Why not?” he asked. “You’re not a stupid woman. Even if you could not be present for these types of discussions with your husband — which I find an utterly ridiculous practice — you would still have valuable insight. Unless, of course, watching me fail at this gives you some petty sense of revenge.”

Right now the Queen wanted nothing more than to throw herself out the window before she let him know the truth.

“I don’t care for petty revenge,” she said through gritted teeth.

“No, you don’t seem the type,” he agreed. “So why is this so difficult?”

That horrible, terrifying focus of his stare narrowed onto her and she watched the realization dawn on him in horrible, terrifying clarity.

“Please tell me you can read,” he said.

She jut her chin out. “I can read.” It technically was not a lie.

He tapped at one of the last paragraphs of the contract, the one closest to her end of the table. “Read that for me.”

She crossed her arm. “I’m not playing your game.”

His stare challenged her. “It’s not a game. Read it.”

She said nothing, holding his stare, keeping her arms crossed. The longer she refused the stormier his gaze became. But the fear of his anger was like a candle to the inferno of her shame. Finally he took up the scroll in disgust and rolled it back up. Victory tasted like ash on her tongue.

“Why were you never taught to read?” he demanded. “Was it because of your father? Did your mother know how to read? What sick bastard of a man keeps his daughters from literacy?”

“It wasn’t my father,” she snapped, unable to hear further slander of her family. “No woman knows how to read!”

“What?”

If anything, this made him even more furious. His face glowed red with it.

“You’re telling me half of your citizens can’t read? Half of your workforce can’t read?  Half of your royal court can’t read? The mothers of your children can’t read? Why?”

“Because we don’t need to read!” she shouted.

It was a mantra she had heard over and over again. Mothers did not need to read to cook or clean or raise children or love their husbands. Women of the court did not need to read to paint or embroider or manipulate the court for their husband’s favor. Women did not make decisions — their husbands and fathers did. What was the point of reading?

“Are you fucking serious?”

She stood up so suddenly the char behind her fell over. The lack of literacy was hard enough to swallow without the implication that it was somehow her fault, that she was culpable in it’s continuation. As if she could ever have the power to change an idea ingrained over hundreds of generations, Queen or not.

“I don’t care that I’m your prisoner,” she said shakily. Tears crowded in her throat and she refused to let him witness them. “I am not listening to this anymore. I am sorry my inadequacies have disappointed you.”

She strode over to her bedroom doors and slammed them shut behind her.

For three days she did not see or hear anything from the Warlord, which suited her just fine. A constant ember of shame glowed in her chest. He had thought so highly of her, in spite of their circumstances. It baffled her and warmed her. The Queen’s husband had seen her as a means to an end, a way to the throne, and her father had seen her as a failure for not being a son. No man had ever seen her as worthy of equal respect until the Warlord.

And now he thought she was nothing more than pathetic and  at fault for her own stupidity. She mourned the loss of his regard for her as much as she burned in fury at him for the whole cursed affair.

On the fourth day, the Warlord entered her sitting room. He held a book in his hand. The Queen glanced up at him from her embroidery and then pointedly ignored him. This did not stop him from taking a seat across from her.

Silence stretched out between them as fragile as a spider’s web. She refused to break it first just as she refused to look at him.

“I owe you an apology,” he said finally.

Her needle paused in surprise, but she kept her gaze firmly on her project.

“I humiliated you. It was not done intentionally; I truly had no idea the women here were illiterate. I became so angry because I see that practice as utterly barbaric and cruel. But I fear in my anger I only deepened your shame.”

The ice of her anger melted enough for her to respond.

“I have tried to teach myself,” she explained haltingly. “But my skills are very rudimentary at best. If I could have changed it, I would have.”

She dared a glance at his face and found herself shocked at the sorrow reflected in it.

“Back home, the women are not so powerless and at the mercy of their men,” he said. “It’s not a perfectly equal society by any means. But it is much different than here. You walked into my camp and delivered your surrender with such confidence, I had assumed you possessed much more power than you did.”

“I have more respect from you as a prisoner than I did from my husband as a Queen,” she admitted.

He looked pained. “That is unacceptable.”

She shrugged. “He was my father’s closest friend. I was his avenue to rule, and the bearer of his heir and nothing more.”

“You will never have to concern yourself with him again,” he said, a glint of his previous fury in his eyes.

The corner of her mouth tipped up. “No,” she agreed. “I will not.”

A relief she thanks God for every day.

“If you want it, I could arrange for a tutor for you,” he offered. “To teach you to read. I am already making plans to open up schools for the women here.”

And you wonder why I find you hard to believe she thought again.

“And until then, I thought I could read to you sometimes?” This offer came more hesitantly, as if afraid it would offend her.

She put her embroidery to the side. “I would like that very much.”

part 6 here

Taglist: @cesspitoflove@aprilraine@talesofurbania1@sarcasticlittlebook @hasel-anne @weaverofbrokenthreads @prismaticpizza

[ink-flavored]

Writing Share Tag

tagged by @noblebs, thank you!

The last thing I wrote before I went on vacation was an outline for one of my anthologies.... so I'll share part of that!

Gargoyle Adoption The carver is a middle-aged dwarf woman, with her beard braided back into her hair so it doesn’t interfere with her work. The adoption center looks like an eclectic curiosity shop or antique store, since all the “animals” are basically just living statues. All the gargoyles are loose around the store, but they don’t move until people get near them. The door is big enough for the biggest creatures with several smaller-sized doors within it. Begins with the dwarf carving a gargoyle that will go up for adoption in the shop; their personal pet gargoyle is bugging them—it’s noticeably decorated with gems and engravings. She waves it away, telling it to go eat its food that she set out for it Is forced to stop carving when a customer/potential adopter comes into the store (rings the bell at the counter?). The customer is a very serious-looking elf in fancy elf clothes. Can’t decide on gender. Dwarf asks what she can do for them. They ask if she’s open for Specially Commissioned Gargoyles. She says she is, but that her work doesn’t come cheap. They say no problem, I’m good for it. Elf produces a lovingly detailed sketch of the commission they want. It’s very complex, they’ve obviously thought a ton about this design. The dwarf looks over it, impressed, but not without misgivings. She compliments the drawing, but reminds the elf that a gargoyle is a living creature, as unpredictable as any animal. It may appear as though she can mold it to act however she wants, but the gargoyle has its own personality and preferences. If the gargoyle she carves doesn’t bond with them, she can’t help. She’ll refund the price of the adoption fee, but the commission money itself won’t be returned. The elf hesitates, but ultimately agrees to those terms. Payment is exchanged, the elf leaves, and the dwarf sets aside her first project to get started on the commission. Her office/workspace is a complete mess except for the spot where she carves the gargoyles. She has a specially organized set of tools, magnifying mirrors, magical and mundane light sources, etc. It’s very professional She starts with a solid block of the magical stone that all gargoyles are made of, chipping away at it once piece at a time. Her pet gargoyle hangs around. The more she carves the elf’s design, the more it seems like a kid’s drawing iterated upon by adult perspective, trying to make realistic something imagined from youth. This gargoyle design must be a childhood dream pet they’ve been aching to make a reality She can’t help but hope it likes them, even though she knows there’s no guarantee. Thinks about some of the gargoyle commissions she’s done where it hasn’t worked out. Starts talking to the in-progress gargoyle as she carves, which is something she normally does, but this time it’s more directly about how great it is to be someone’s companion animal. About all the things she and her gargoyle do. Her gargoyle lands on the desk and agrees (it can't speak but you know. animal sounds) with how great it is. She hopes this is enough to convince the magic in the stone to agree.

What happens next!!! A thrilling cliff hanger only to be answered whenever I write this thing for real!

Tagging: @foxys-fantasy-tales @noblebs @ceph-the-ghost-writer @auntdarth @damageinkorporated @srjacksin @void-botanist @vacantgodling @duelistkingdom and anyone else who wants to share something!

[riddleredcoats]

I just finished my first playthrough of Veilguard and boy oh boy, do i have thoughts.

but, TLDR:

Bros, this game is so fucking strange.

It literally giving me everything I wanted; every theory for the past 10 years I've had to speculate is bang on, they bring niche characters in a way that makes sense, they give us nice romances, they give us cool combat, EPIC set pieces and then [gestures].

Anyway, this is more for posterity than any real, coherent thoughts.

The Good:

I don't know what sort of wizardry the devs at Bioware made for this game, but this game runs smooth AF. Actually insane in the year of our lord 2024 that a AAA viddy game manages to do it. Kudos must be given.

The art-style grows on you really fast, actually. And considering what happens in the game, especially in the back half, I think making it more stylised was necessary to also compliment the aforementioned point of it running smoothly.

There is in fact, a lot of dark themes in this game. I don't know what game some reviewers played, but to say its basically a clean version of a DA game is... just wrong. I have a theory, in the Bad section, about why they believe that is the case, but Veilguard is filled with Dark Themes.

The set pieces of this game are fucking insane. Like, there is no comparison to any other Bioware game. Even ME3 with its bombastic set pieces isn't a match to Veilguard in the prologue. The Siege at Weisshaupt? Gagged the whole way through. That last 2-4hrs of game were amazing and while I have beef with it - further down - for what it is and what it is trying to be? They succeeded. Some of the best viddy game I have ever viddy gamed, frankly.

The lore drops are also insane. I basically watched all of Solas regrets back to back to back and basically it was confirmation upon confirmation upon confirmation. I'm still in the high of the Solas/Mythal confirmation and that happened like 3 days ago, lmao. And if you know me, you know why - it goes wayyy beyond Solas and Mythal for me, personally.

Morrigan's place in the narrative. Keeping it vague, but just [gestures to all of it].

Issenya... Just... Issenya, man.

The companions. Yeah, they're all great, I don't think there's really a dud one. Sure, I connected more with some than others, but man- these companion quests are involved and meaningful and progress the story. You do get to know them very well. Harding, Neve, Davrin and Emmerich will always have a place in my heart for their questlines, even though I love all the other companions too - but those really resonated with me.

Combat. Holy shit, a DA game with a fun combat system. That's all really.

The Middling

The music. I don't love it but I don't hate it. I can count on one hand the amount of times the music made me feel something - basically the last scene of the Harding questline and when The Main Theme came in during the final quests. Trevor Morris reigns supreme; I teared up more for The Lost Elf theme return than any other musical moment in the game.

The pacing of this game is... baffling. I'm not sure if its my own fault for basically trying to do everything in the first act, but Act 1 took me like 40 hours, while the remaining two acts took me 20. Weird. Will need to experiment because it might absolutely be on me, but yeah.

The Bad

It's basically one thing but honestly, every time it was brough up it was like a dagger piercing my heart while my stomach was stepped on by a bronto.

The lack of geopolitical talk both past and present.

Much as been said from the infamous 3 choices that Veilguard imports - and I will say, that even those 3 are laughably implemented imo - but never is it more felt than in this aspect. The past straight up does not matter. Worse; they actively disregard it imo. There is no difference between world states, no world leader talk, no nothing. It is just... nothing. And listen, the specifics deserve their own post eventually, but im just processing shit still.

The game is really fun, and the themes and characters that are there and the lore is fantastic and when im locked in, I'm REALLY locked in, but then when I try to put it in the context of the past games, what I loved about it - the politics, the disagreements, the sheer brutal way that history and prejudice can just fuck up a country, Veilguard just... it feels hollow, without any bite or flavour.

And this is the crux of all the problems, really, in the present in Veilguard.

The way people talked about the dark tone being gone? Yeah, I can see it here considering that there is no distinction between Dalish and City Elves anymore basically. The discrimination against elves is just... gone, apparently? Which is insane - because we are in Tevinter and it's just... abandoned? The way Rivain is all cool and shit about Magic and Spirits with like zero nuance or, more imporantly, any real consequences when [gestures to the past games] - it just makes the South Really Dumb because of course they are now ig. The Crows - these assassins that bought children to train, in what amounted to a sponsored slavery ring - are now freedom fighters and all the nuance of the assassinations is gone? The Wardens are fine mostly, really, but they are suddenly very above board all of the sudden.

And that's the whole thing here.

They have tried to make everyone stay so above board, to make everyone The Perfect Ally That No One In The Real World Can Criticise, that it retroactively sucked all the nuance and Flavour For Thedas At Large out of the story. It made the story worse because everyone is just so gosh dang nice and A Super Ally when in past games the conflict, the flavour of the Whatever Big Struggle was that everyone hated each other and was constantly in-fighting. Which made it fun and interesting to play.

Okay, sorry i forgot I had another one:

the fuck is that ending credit scene? with the executors implying they have been behind everything since DAO? Oh man, Bioware you can't do those types of stories - you tried in ME3 and [gestures]. Why can't Loghain just be a dude traumatized by Orlais which led to All The Things in DAO? Why can't Bartrand just be a greedy bastard whose actions bring about DA2 and DAI and basically informs Varric's character from then on?

What the hell.

Anyway.

Yeah, initial Veilguard thoughts.

Oh yeah, and Neve is hot and I love her.

[mothdogsart]

Putting the actual piece under a readmore just in case 🫤

My DnD character died today for the first time—a setting-specific spell instantly beheaded him after he met one of the conditions of the spell by attacking its caster. Thankfully our Druid was able to Revivify him straight after (and the DM handwaved the clause about Revivify not reattaching body parts.) So truly he was only dead for like 10 seconds. In a fantasy world where death can essentially be reversed for the price of 300 GP, I have to wonder what death truly feels like.

The instant he fell, his soulbonded dragon companion would have felt a great howling vortex at the loss of him, even though she was just recently hatched. His best friends would have had to watch his head fly through the air and skid to a stop on the rough stone of the throne room, his blood spattering onto them from feet away. The druid would have had to scoop it up and hold it in her hands, his eyes still open and staring at his last enemy, as she resurrected his body.

Did his soul have time to travel to the Underworld? Did he see the leering face of Lutheria, dark goddess of death and nightmares, before he was yanked backwards towards the light?

It’s still horrific despite the fact that it was basically undone in an instant.

[bts-hyperfixation]

Outside of the fox

Chapter 5/21(?) - words 1996

Y/N longs for a new life when the one she’d been living comes to an abrupt stop. Without much thought to those she is leaving behind, the little fox packs a backpack and disappears. She stumbles across the shelter and makes an interim home for herself while she works out exactly what she wants from her second chance.

Last

The next day you go shopping. You manage to convince Noelle to go with you so she can help you pick some appropriate things.

Your husband had personal shoppers that chose what they thought would be best. Each garment was exquisite in its lines and execution, but they had definitely been more for show than comfort. It left you with a nonexistent fashion sense.

The mall is packed by the time the two of you get there. In hindsight, Saturday afternoon was not the best pick if you’d hoped for a calm first attempt and finding your style. Still, Noelle seemed completely unfazed by the prospect. If she noticed your hesitation, she didn’t comment on it. Instead, she forged ahead, linking her arm with yours and charging into the fray.

You shop for basics first, picking up plain t-shirts and blue jeans. The generic stores are easy, find your size and leave. For the statement pieces, it was a little more challenging. You gave Noelle a budget and she ran with it, finding a diverse selection of things to bring to you in the changing room. You pinched and pulled at the various fabrics, trying to get them to fit in a way that you found comfortable and flattering. Every so often you’d show some to your companion in the same way the other girls in the shop were showing their mothers. Sometimes she nodded, other times she looked absolutely disgusted.

Ten stores in and it’s clear that neither of you could maintain the momentum much longer. You grab the mouse’s hand before she sets foot in a businesswear store that looks far too serious for your interview. She looks at you questioningly and you gesture towards the food court.

“Dinner on me?” You ask, already walking towards the pizza place across the hall.

“Absolutely.”

Noelle finds a long table to perch on the end of while you go and buy enough food for the two of you to share. The food area is just as packed as the rest of the mall. It’s difficult to weave through all of the bodies to find your way back to her without dropping your pizza box.

Just as you see her through the crowd, someone scrapes their chair back into you.

It happens almost in slow motion.

You tip forwards, twisting to try and stop the pizza from falling to the floor, forgetting to shield yourself from the hard concrete that was quickly becoming closer. Bracing yourself for the impact, you tense up. Only for it to never come. A steadying arm is behind your back preventing you from hitting down hard and someone else is supporting your food to keep it upright.

“Are you okay Y/N?”

You glance up into the eyes of your saviour only to find one of Jimin’s mates holding you up. Another stands at his side, now holding your tray. Blushing wildly, you stand up and immediately begin apologising to the pair.

Yoongi glares after the person that had knocked you over in the first place, grumbling about a lack of manners. Namjoon smiles wide and hands your tray back to you.

“I’m good, thanks.” You avoid eye contact by dusting yourself off, despite never having touched the floor.

“It’s good to run into you again Y/N, Jimin was talking about you again last night. He says you have an interview for a job now?” He makes friendly conversation as they escort you back to Noelle.

When you reach the table, Noelle welcomes the men and invites them to sit with you. It is clear that she must know them well, not a surprise knowing how much Jimin gushes about them to complete strangers, let alone his colleagues and friends.

“Yeah, at some office downtown, it’s a receptionist job. Should be really great experience. I don’t really have a lot else on my resume."

“Any job is better than no job at the minute,” Yoongi grumbles pessimistically.

Namjoon jabs the grumpy Jackal in the ribs.

The three of them start a conversation about the last time they met and you are more than happy to listen as you munch on the pizza in front of you. It seems to have been some kind of fundraiser put on by the shelter, a casino night where they dressed up in fancy clothes and pretended to be Highrollers for the evening.

“Wouldn’t that be fun Y/N?” Noelle asks, waving a hand in front of your eyes.

Your mind runs away from you then. You find yourself distracted by images of the men in 007 tuxes, hair slicked back as they moved from game to game all evening. Jimin’s hair a flame in the muted room, Namjoon’s laugh echoing across the hall, and Yoongi making jokes with the bartender. It would seem that none of them had met Jungkook back then.

You stop chewing, a string of cheese still connecting you to the slice in your hand as you try to work out what they possibly could’ve asked you while you were zoned out.

“Oh, yeah that would be cool. I’ve never been to anything like that before.” You smile, trying to seem invested.

“We were talking about having another benefit like that one soon.” Yoongi supplies helpfully.

The only benefits you had been to were beyond dull. Always in a stuffy museum, with art that never had emotion behind it. Each ticket had cost more than an average person’s salary, and the food had been the most pretentious concoctions ever imagined. You loathed attending each one, a fact your husband knew.

He just sighed and repeated how you only needed to attend to be seen. He would promise that you wouldn’t stay to late, and each time you would be amongst the last of the guests as he laughed along with yet another boring old man’s recount of a hunting trip. Hunting trips were common among your ex-husband’s crowd, they never seemed to see the irony in having hybrids within their homes and then hunting regular animals for sport.

Jungkook gets very bored when he gets left alone. So bored he often ends up doing weird shit until one of his mates walks through the door. Today isn’t too bad. Yoongi and Namjoon said they weren’t going to be gone long, just to the mall to get some things that they had been running low on. An errand that always goes much faster when they don’t have Jungkook with them to get distracted every five minutes ( A much cheaper trip without him needing a little treat too).

The men stayed with you while you ate. You mostly listened to them while they talked, occasionally muttering assurances to demonstrate that you were actually listening to them this time. When you finished your meal, they said goodbye and headed in the opposite direction to you, back towards the parking lot as you and Noelle continued on your mission to find clothes.

______________

He wraps himself in Jimin’s favourite blanket and lies upside down on the sofa so his hair dangles to the floor. The TV doesn’t make much sense this way up, but it does provide a fun new perspective.

He barely hears the door open two hours later. The blood rushing around his ears almost blocks out the sound.

The older man tilts his head to look at Jungkook upside down.

“Kookie? What the fuck?” Namjoon asks coming into Jungkook’s eye line.

“I dunno, got comfy.” He shrugs.

“How many people am I going to have to save from the floor today?” Yoongi shakes his head, bending to help Jungkook up.

The motion throws off his balance and he slides onto the floor at his hyung’s feet.

He’d so badly wanted to like you for Jimin’s sake but you just made him so uncomfortable so quickly. The only predator he had ever warmed to quickly had been Namjoon, so he wasn’t expecting miracles, none of them were. But you had been so rude.

Jungkook looks at the pair confused as they share a knowing glance, a joke from today that he isn’t privy to. That’s when he smells it on them. Smells you on them. He can’t help the whine building in the back of his throat as he nuzzles frantically into Yoongi to change the scent back to his own.

He finishes scenting Yoongi and turns to immediately do the same to Namjoon. The bear accepts the affection gladly, cuddling the bunny in close and dragging him back to the sofa.

“We weren’t gone that long bunny.” He shushes.

Jungkook continues to bury himself into Namjoon’s neck, barely pausing to listen to the other speak.

“She really isn’t that bad Kookie, and she barely touched us, we can’t smell of her that strongly.” He sighs, pulling the rabbit’s hair to make him back away.

“Smell wrong, not my Joonie.” He reasons, earning an eye roll from Yoongi.

Jungkook whines again but concedes because he can no longer smell you on them. He hoped it would be a long time before he had to see you again, but Jimin and fate seemed to have other plans...

_____________

By the time you arrive back at the shelter, most of the day staff have gone home. Noelle heads straight down the corridor and into her dorm room to set her bags down. Instead, you collapse straight into a chair in the common room without really thinking, feet too tired to keep moving.

You’re sat for less than five minutes when you are tipped on to the floor with a bump.

“What is your fucking problem??” You growl, standing quickly and backing the lioness into a corner before she has a chance to sit down.

Even standing up straight with your teeth bared you have nothing on the other woman. Naturally a much bigger breed, you never stood a chance as she swung for you. Her claws connected with your cheek, not giving you the chance to duck. Immediately six other predators descend, separating you from her.

You press hard against the scratches, blood dripping over your fingers. The others take Lyra into another room, management following quickly behind.

You’d shocked yourself when you’d rounded on the other predator. Violence had never been an option you took, you had frowned upon other predators that resorted to violence before their words.

A hand is on your shoulder, guiding you back to sit down in the chair again. Tears sting at your eyes as you finally start to feel the pain of the wound. With cloudy vision, you can make out the flame red-hair in front of you. He reaches up and peels your hand away from your face.

“This is going to hurt Y/N.” He warns.

“Can I change rooms tonight?” You sniffle.

Something warm and wet is smoothed along your cheek, stinging as he cleans the blood away.

“There is no way you are staying here tonight Y/N.” Jimin says.

“Oh, is it because I started a fight? I get it, I’ll find somewhere else to stay... thanks for all the help though.”

You try not to let any more tears fall at the prospect of getting kicked out. He rest a hand on your shoulder as you go to stand, preventing you from going anywhere.

“That fight wasn’t your fault, you didn’t start that, you just tried to finish it. Lyra will be getting kicked out, that’s her third strike... But she has friends here and I want you to be safe. You are coming home with me.” He states more like it’s a fact than a request.

You start to protest, the idea once again sounding ludicrous. But then he presses his hand to your cheek again, and the pain is bad enough to have you second-guessing your judgement.

Masterlist

He dresses the wound on your face and disappears to make Namjoon aware of the new arrival while you pack your things back into your bag and get ready to leave.

Next

Series masterlist

[aletterinthenameofsanity]

how do you click into a characters ‘voice’ as well as you do? People are so consistently in characyer and I notice that as a unique standout of your writing

Advice for Writing Characters: Design, Arcs, and the Role of Plot

Warning: hella spoilers for my Doctor/Amy/Rory 'verse because that's what I'm using as examples for this writing breakdown of sorts.

First off, thank you so much for the compliment to my writing! I have worked so hard on my characterization over the years and it means a lot to hear that you liked it.

But onto the actual writing breakdown:

So I'm going to sound like every basic English teacher you've ever had to suffer through with this opening piece of advice, but it really is about practice making perfect. I wrote disastrous dialogue/characterization when I started out writing in 2014 (when I was 14). Looking back at my old characterization it's hot garbage. Dead awful.

But I have improved a lot over the years. A lot of that has to do with about my ability to sit down and re-watch episodes over and over again and find the right music to listen to, but a lot of it also has to do with the three things I always look to/think about when writing characters.

To be honest, I still have my weaknesses as a writer. I don't always like writing settings and I'm still improving on my action scenes and my intimacy scenes but my favorite things to write have always been a good extended metaphor and diving into character POVs. I write because I like exploring characters. There's a reason why the most popular additional tags on my ao3 account look like this:

I love writing character-driven stories. Plot comes as a secondary device to link the character moments for me and not vice-versa (though I'm not gonna lie, I can occasionally come up with a decent plot twist, ala the Master, Clara-River-Ytroswinasleen, or Bill/Clara reveals). Writing characters is about exploring what threads twist themselves together to compel the character/story forward, whether that be backstory, current stressors, or what their motivations are to go forward.

For example, with the Doctors it's easy to explain because they're divided by era. To talk about Eleven, you have backstory: the ENTIRETY of Ten's character arc hope from Rose -> guilt/grief from losing her -> Martha/Donna helping him believe in himself/find joy again -> grief from losing Donna -> Time Lord Victorious leading into Adelaide Kane/him finally doing one kind thing for Wilf. Then, as shown in the only good moment in Let's Kill Hitler, his guilt over everything he did to those three. Then you have current stressors: the sheer loneliness he feels after regenerating alone/isolating himself, the guilt he feels after "abandoning" Amy as a child/leading to Rory's death, and the ever-present knowledge he has with every companion that humans do have a tendency to die/leave him.

Backstory and current stressors tend to play off of each other to lead to future actions, aka: Eleven freaking out and assuming that Amy and Rory will leave him after the baby is born and trying to cut them loose before he can or later, after we establish the Martha&Jack&the Master of it all (and the guilt that he still feels after how Ten handled All That Shit), it makes sense that he might go a little Time Lord Victorious when you find out that the Master was behind River's kidnapping because the Doctor finally has a family to get protective over.

And this is all just from one character point of view! It's also about how characters bounce off of each other- my absolute most favorite part of writing. It's what creates the most interesting parts of the story. When you have Rory's desire for a family/desire to do-no-harm/loyalty hitting up against Amy's desire to keep her family safe/the established ferocity of her love/her willingness to face danger in the face and not blink hitting up against the Doctor's fury of a time lord/guilt over doing things wrong the last time/desire to make things right not just for Martha and Jack and himself, but for Amy and Rory and River, things are bound to get not just messy but satisfying when you have Rory look the Doctor in the eye and tell him that he can't take that choice out of people's hands in the end. That the Doctor has to give River and Amy the choice that the Doctor didn't give Martha and Jack regarding the Master before.

Characterization is as much about a satisfying arc as it is digging into a character's mindset. As much as I love writing "character studies," that's only half of the battle when it comes to writing. Yes, you need to know where your character's head is at. But you also need to understand where they were and where they are going. Learning to figure out a satisfying bend to that curve is one of the greatest tools in an author's toolbox. I am constantly aiming to create as satisfying an arc as I can for every character, and this is usually the bit that fumbles most writers. You can come up with the coolest character design and then make their arcs either boring (sadly the case with a lot of Thirteen's companions in canon) or unsatisfying as hell (the case with Rory, River, and Amy's canon character arcs) because you don't plan them out well enough or just start and stop them within a single episode (everything regarding Mel/River Song in Let's Kill Hitler is a fantastic example).

The great thing about fanfiction is that since there are no limits for number of words or length of installments, I can throw words on the page regarding insights I have and figure out the order or how/where they fall later. I can rearrange episodes and give myself plots to bounce off of to develop characters. Because this is where plot comes in: it can give you an opportunity to explore a character in not just how they see themselves, or how they react to each other, but how they react to being challenged by their circumstances. That's how you get great moments in this series like exploring Eleven/Thirteen's unresolved loneliness with the Planet Sanatorium arc or Amy figuring out how to stop the mummy because of her own experience with war or Rory responding to the poisonous hallucinations or Amy getting closure by Eleven popping up as the voice interface or Thirteen seeing Rose in the Solitract or Amy's slow Doctorification thanks to how she reacts to Solomon/the TARDIS-as-Idris/the mummy/the pocket universe in Hide/the prison break situation or Bill figuring out the flesh in the database. You can only go so far with character motivations/their relationships with each other when you don't see how they react to conflict/challenge/separation. You can, however, use the challenges to directly lead into character arcs.

As a final example of all three elements coming together (motivation/character design, character interaction, and plot as challenge), I'll use Thirteen/Amy/Rory's arc. You don't get Thirteen, Amy, and Rory making up at the New Year's wedding if you don't have the arc of trust between them. The Cybermen are used entirely and only as a device to show their characterization/development off as characters. When they first appear, you get a glimpse into how the hundred-year separation has affected Thirteen and how her anger/fear/protective instinct go just as deep as Eleven, if not further, but also how she isn't sure if she can trust Amy/Rory yet, while you also get to see Amy's faith in the Doctor contrasting Rory's doubt but also the nuances of his position (loving her but not trusting her because she has revealed that Eleven didn't trust them). This leads into the Chameleon Arch plot which gives you Bill (my beloved) but also a view into Rory's changing opinion, both Amy and Rory's own development and their ability to hold their own, and the fact that the Doctor trusts them with her life. Then we get It Takes You Away and the realization that the Doctor would stay with Amy and Rory over anything, even Rose, then the wedding scene (kisses! rings! comms! Dr. Pond!). But then the Judoon come back after the Cybermen issue, prompting the TARDIS crash/the multidoctor fic where you get a stark contrast between Eleven at his worst and Thirteen at her best (fantastic place to explore characterization) where you also get to see Rory finally get closure/see that that he really does trust Thirteen. Then Thirteen giving herself up to the Judoon to protect innocent people AND because for the first time in the entire series she completely and fully trusts Amy and Rory to save her. The Cybermen as a villain don't truly matter in the end, other than some really fun imagery and exploring a bit of the mind control angle/just how far Thirteen is willing to go for Amy and Rory. It's about how Thirteen running against them provides the structure of sorts for her, Amy, and Rory's developing characters (and, hell, Bill, for that matter, regarding the Chameleon Arch/prison break plot), just as the Master provided an obstacle/structure for Eleven/Amy/Rory working through their own arcs.

...Whoops. That was a lot of writing. I'm almost sorry for all of that. But I hope that the three-step process made sense! I also recommend reading analysises of characters (and for a show like Doctor Who, I read analysises from both pro-Moffat and Moffat-critical blogs, same as with Chibnall) and just rewatching the show! You don't necessarily have to take notes or anything, just kind of take in thoughts you might not have thought of otherwise! For example, I got a lot from @tenmartha, @orpheustwelve, and @variousqueerthings, all of whom had completely interesting and different takes on Eleven, Amy, and Rory as canon characters!

Hope this gave you a good view into the process or even some advice for your own writing, and I hope you continue to enjoy my writing! (Right now I'm currently working on a much shorter, five-chapter AU to the end of Season 3 where Riley from "42" travelled with the Doctor/Martha for the last six episodes of Season 3, using these same three rules to explore the growing dynamic between Ten, Martha, and Riley, if you're interested.)

Thanks once again for the compliment- the absolute greatest gift I can receive as an author is questions/compliments like that!

[mrakobulka]

I don’t normally share personal stuff on my socials as it makes me feel awkward talking about myself knowing people are here for my art, but I'm at a point where I need to let things off my chest and make some changes to how I go about my work. This is going to be a long rant.

I’ve been a commission artist for years and I cherish people trusting me with their characters and paying for my work. I set up rules for myself to ensure that I'm trustworthy, like prioritizing commissioned art over personal and completing each piece in a few weeks to a month. Despite having depression for several years, I’ve mostly managed to stick to those rules and felt proud about it, but it’s been increasingly hard to do so in the last few years due to my country’s politics and aggression. It became even harder now when personal matters got in the mix as well

Last October my grandpa suffered a stroke, which led to him passing in December. As if that wasn’t enough grief, around the time of his funeral I also found out that Marusya - my loyal feline companion for the last 19 years - is suffering from kidney failure. As I began adjusting to the new rhythm of life dictated by her condition, the universal cat distribution system decided not to wait for her passing and threw Anfisa my way - a stray that hid in the common hall of my apartment complex while temperatures outside went as low as -16C.

I know taking another pet when already struggling with a sick senior cat wasn’t the smartest move, but at first I planned to find Anfisa’s old owners or get her new ones. Unfortunately, the stray problem in my city is huge and I ended up keeping her as I couldn’t throw her back into the street. While I understood that taking care of a stray would bring more vet bills into my life, I felt confident at the time that I was financially able to handle it, but Anfisa brought with her a surprise pregnancy that I had to eliminate to avoid adding to the stray problem. In order to do that I had to dig into my savings.

Even though I still manage to juggle vet bills and my basic necessities, the last few months have been incredibly draining for me financially, mentally and physically. Taking care of my cats’ health, I’ve completely neglected my own and ended up having to deal with several medical issues that surfaced as a result of stress. On top of that, I’ve also completely neglected the need to create for my personal enjoyment, which has led to my mental health worsening as well. I felt like I couldn’t afford drawing for myself as vet bills kept piling up and I needed to take more and more work to manage while sticking to my rules and keeping my commissioners satisfied. 

I’m sharing all of this just to explain my current situation and the mindset I ended up being stuck in. I don’t want anyone to feel bad for giving me work as I wouldn’t be able to make it this far without the support you give me <3 Still, I realized that my own relationship with my art and my workflow became detrimental to my physical and mental health and, if anything, damaged my ability to complete commissioned work in time more than helping it. Add to that the infestation of genAI that’s been happening recently and the horrible algorithms killing engagement that slowly destroy my motivation to share my art at all (some of you might have noticed that I barely post on twitter now and completely neglect my other platforms).

With all that said, all I want to do is let people know that my commissioned work will be taking longer than usual to be completed for the foreseeable future as I don’t want to force myself to work on art in the moments when I’m struggling with either physical pain or mental turmoil. I would also like to ask you to be understanding if you see me post personal art, make adopts or take more commissioned work before yours is completed. Unfortunately my current circumstances demand emergency funds every now and then and I can’t help it + I need to take a breather every now and then. All I can promise is that I’ll never bite more than I can chew and will deliver everything I owe in due time.

I know this was a long read, but thank you if you stuck till the end and I hope my ranting won’t turn you off my artwork : ‘ D 

And to add some positivity to my rant, here's cat tax:

Calico one is Marusya and white/grey one is Anfisa

[notquiteapex]

So, how's the JukeBox development coming along? Well, it sure is coming, I promise.

In case you don't know what a JukeBox is, it's a little hotkey device I'm building! I originally made this to assist with my endeavors in streaming, but it turns out having extra keys is very useful for a lot of things! Whether it be hotkeys for quickly running macros via AutoHotKey, managing your Discord audio settings, playing funny sounds with VoiceMod, switching tools in your favorite art program like Paint Tool SAI, or managing OBS like I do. It's a very powerful device, and all it does is act like a keyboard with the F13-F24 keys. I bet you didn't even know there was more than the F1-F12 keys, am I right?

About a year ago, I said I would begin selling these soon. That was a bit of a lie, fortunately I am very good at those. That last bit was also a lie, in case you couldn't tell. I got the opportunity to work on the JukeBox as part of an independent study for college credit, so I took a lot of time to plan and rethink the product. That part wasn't a lie The result is the new V5 board!

Ok so this isn't the actual V5 board yet.

I decided to completely change up what makes up a JukeBox. I decided to use an RP2040 chip, which is used to power a Raspberry Pi Pico. I used a Pico board, along with the old JukeBox V4 boards, an RGB LED ring, and an OLED screen to build my ideal V5 prototype. The result is the same JukeBox known and loved but with some added features, like reactive lighting and a screen to display fun graphics and info!

This is the finalized board, it's design has been shipped off to manufacturing, and will hopefully arrive right at the start of the new year. I'm paying a lot of money for just 10 of these things! I can't wait.

The plan is to sell 3 versions of the board, a basic variant (keyboard only), an RGB variant, and an RGB plus screen variant. Prices are still being determined, but they will be higher than previously anticipated due to rising material costs. The goal is to keep the basic variant at $25 to maintain affordability. You will also be able to choose what kinds of keys you want, be it Cherry MX Blues or Kailh Choc Whites.

I'm working on the final casing. It'll be a 3D printed shell with some nice M2.5 nuts and bolts. It'll also be in a mostly-opaque white so the RGB looks good shining through. The legs are also completely optional, both the case and the legs will have nice rubber feet to keep the board steady. The keycaps will be "relegendable", meaning you'll be able to stick a piece of paper in them with whatever you want on them. You get everything seen here, plus a USB-C cable, and my deepest gratitude. Maybe some day you'll get to have a JukeBox in atomic purple instead of a basic white!

The best part about it all is that you don't need to install any drivers! The keyboard component is always guaranteed to work on any computer that supports USB, and most usually do (hopefully). The screen and RGB won't work without a companion app, sadly, but I'm working hard to make it painless to setup and use, near plug-and-play. I've been writing it in Rust while working on the board, and it will support Windows and Linux without much issue.

Lastly, the entire project is going to be open source! The code will be under an open license, and all the physical parts will be usable under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-SA). I won't allow people to just up and sell the boards without modification, but if someone wants to make and sell their own variant I'd be more than happy to allow it if they ask. Devices like these should be cheap and accessible for everyone.

Hopefully I'll start selling these on my Ko-fi before Q2 of 2024. See you then!

[adventure-showdown]

What has been nominated so far

Note, just because something has been nominated, and so is listed here, does not mean it will be included, I will include the absolute most I can but if I can't find it on TARDIS wiki its not getting in because i can't verify its a piece of who media

Also note, there might be some mistakes on here, I'm copying the nominations across directly, there might be some stories that are listed twice without me realising, because of alternate titles, or I just didn't spot it, or stuff that was spelt wrong when it was nominated, feel free to tell me

I've done my best to spot when nominations of a series were intended to enter the individual parts rather than the series as a unit, if I've got this wrong let me know and I will fix it. (if a story is on one line its currently being considered as a unit)

Final note, a couple of things got nominated under multiple mediums, usually full length TV story and minisode, so if you can't find your nomination, maybe check one of the other mediums

You can make further nominations here, there are basically no limits so long as its set in the Whoniverse (or its about Doctor Who, eg An Adventure in Space and Time or The 5 (ish) Doctors Reboot)

the list is under the cut (I will endeavour to keep it up to date)

Audio

Main Range

The Marian Conspiracy

The Apocalyse Element

The Shadow of the Scourge

The Holy Terror

Storm Warning

Minuet in Hell

Loups-Garoux

The Chimes of Midnight

Seasons of Fear

The Time of the Daleks

Jubilee

Neverland

Spare Parts

Creatures of Beauty

Doctor Who and the Pirates

Omega

Master (Main Range 49)

Zagreus

Scherzo

The Natural History of Fear

Arrangements for War

The Harvest

Faith Stealer

Caerdroia

Terror Firma

Singularity

Other Lives

The Kingmaker

The Girl Who Never Was

The Condemned

The Doomwood Curse

The Magic Mousetrap

The Company of Friends: Benny's Story

The Company of Friends: Fitz's Stroy

The Company of Friends: Izzy's Story

The Company of Friends: Mary's Story

A Death in the Family

Robophobia

The Silver Turk

1963: The Assassination Games

The Widow's Assassin

Dalek Soul

The Grey Man of the Mountain

The Eighth Doctor Adventures

The Blood of the Daleks

Horror of Glam Rock

Immortal Beloved

Phobos

No More Lies

Human Resources

To the Death

Doom Coalition

The Eleven

The Red Lady

The Galileo Trap

The Gift

The Sonomancer

Absent Friends

The Eighth Piece

The Doomsday Chronometer

The Crucible of Souls

Ship in a Bottle

Songs of Love

The Side of the Angels

Stop the Clock

Ravenous

Escape from Kaldor

Better Watch Out/Fairytale in Salzburg

Companion Piece

Day of the Master

Stranded

Stranded as a Whole (I think, I couldn't find a story called Stranded)

UNIT Dating

What Lies Inside

Paradox of the Daleks

Connections

Here Lies Drax

The Love Vampires

Albie's Angels

Special Releases

Living Legend

Out of Time

Out of Time (individual story)

Wink

The Companion Chronicles

Solitaire

Peri and the Piscon Paradox

The Cold Equations

The Last Post

The Scorchies

The Tenth Doctor Adventures

Death and the Queen

The Sword of the Chevalier

No Place

The Creeping Death

The Tenth Doctor and River Song

Expiry Dating

Ghosts

Once and Future

The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50

The Diary of River Song

The Bekdel Test

The Lost Stories

The Queen of Time

Paradise 5

The Elite

Short Trips

I am the Master

Forever Fallen

A Full Life

Bernice Summerfield

Oh No It Isn't

The Faction Paradox Protocols

The Eleven Day Empire/The Shadow Play

Torchwood

The Last Beacon

Serenity

Rhys and Ianto's Excellent Barbecue

Gallifrey

Square One

First Days of Phaidon

Gallifrey IV

Warfare

Unity

Missy

A Spoonful of Mayhem

The Lumiat

Too Many Masters

The Paternoster Gang: Heritage

The Cars That Ate London!

A Photograph to Remember

Destiny of the Doctor

Smoke and Mirrors

Novel Adaptations

Nightshade

Fifth Doctor Box Set

Psychodrome

Iterations of I

Psychodrome

Iterations of I

Counter-Measures

The Fifth Citadel

The Forgotten Village

Peshka

The Concrete Cage

The New Counter Measures

Troubled Waters

The Hollow King

The Eighth of March

Inside Every Warrior

Comics

TV Comic

Time in Reverse

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor

Space in Dimension Relative and Time

Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor

Old Friends

Doctor Who Magazine

The Star Beast

Voyager

The World Shapers

Ground Zero

The Flood

The Fallen

The Land of Happy Endings

Direct to Home Media Films

PROBE

PROBE: The Zero Imperative

PROBE: The Devil of Winterborne

PROBE: Unnatural Selection

PROBE: Ghosts of Winterborne

PROBE: When to Die

The Stranger

The Stranger: Summoned by Shadows

The Stranger: More than a Messiah

The Stranger: In Memory Alone

The Stranger: The Terror Game

The Stranger: Breach of the Peace

The Stranger: Eye of the Beholder

Other

Downtime

Shada (1992) - version with linking narration

Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor

Wartime

K9 (spinoff series)

Regeneration/Liberation/The Korven

The Bounty Hunter

Sirens of Ceres

Fear Itself

The Fall of the House of Gryffen

Jays of Orthrus

Dream-Eaters

Curse of Anubis

Oroborus

Alien Avatar

Aeolian

The Last Oak Tree

Black Hunger

The Cambridge Spy

Lost Library of Ukko

Mutant Copper

The Custodians

Taphony and the Time Loop

Robot Gladiators

Mind Snap/Angel of the North/The Last Precinct/Hounds of the Korven/The Eclipse of the Korven

Minisodes

A Fix with Sontarans

Born Again

Clara and the TARDIS

Dimensions in Time

Emperor of the Daleks (More than 30 Years in the TARDIS)

famine appeal 1986

Merry Christmas Doctor Who

P.S.

Pond Life

Rain Gods

Space/Time

Tardisodes

The Battle of Demons Run: Two Days Later

The Bells of Saint John: A Prequel

The Doctor's Meditation

The Great Detective

The Last Day

The Naked Truth

The Shrink

Time Crash

Wall's Sky Ray lollies advertisment

Seret Message from the Time Lords (Weetabix advert)

Novels & Short Stories

Short Stories and Short Story Collections

12 Doctors, 12 Stories

Grey Matter

Lepidoptery for Beginners

Something Borrowed

Nothing at the End of the Lane

The Room With All the Doors

Standalone

Harvest of Time

Scratchman

The Stranger

Engines of War

The Eighth Doctor Adventures

Vampire Science

Alien Bodies

Seeing I

The Scarlet Empress

Unnatural History

Interference

The Blue Angel

The Burning

The Turing Test

The Year of Intelligent Tigers

The City of the Dead

The Adventuress of Henrietta Street

Mad Dogs and Englishmen

Anachrophobia

The Book of the Still

The Crooked World

Camera Obscura

The Gallifrey Chronicles

The Past Doctor Adventures

Divided Loyalties

Fear of the Dark

Fear Itself

Novelisations

Doctor Who and Shada (fan novelisation)

Virgin New Adventures

The Left-Handed Hummingbird

Human Nature

Lungbarrow

Faction Paradox

The Book of War

This Town Will Never Let Us Go

Of the City of the Saved

The New Series Adventures

The Blood Cell

Other

Step Into the 80s!/On Through the 80's! (adverts)

Ronald Rat continuity announcement

Zygon: When Being you Just isn't Enough (Porno)

The Man From MI5

The Infinite Quest

Dooms Day hour 1

Songs

Doctor in Distress

Doctorin' the TARDIS by the Timelords

I'm gonna Spend my Christmas with a Dalek

TV (this category is less about if it was televised and more about the length to distinguish it from minisodes)

Dreamland

Search Out Space

Webcasts

Real Time

Shada (2 nominations)