#dunno if I should tag the other characters

[kyo38]

doodles feat my two hellsing OCs

[gello-strands]

Enoch is just an eyeball.. his head too big

(REBLOGS>LIKES!)

[kakusu-shipping]

Wait I don't wanna be an asshole who only posts Silly Meme Crossover ships, so REAL FAST, I don't get crossover ships much but one I HAVE been considering and I'll share it to offset the silly haha meme I just posted. Deal? Cool

Checkered King X Kinger

Both Kings in an Unreal world, both Chess Themed, Both Purple-adjacent, and both are tragic bisexuals who lost their beloved wife (Checkered King to an unspecified illness, Kinger to Abstraction)

Do I think they should kiss? Eeeeeh. Do I think they should go to the same group therapy sessions and chat? Absolutely.

I dunno if you asked me a crossover ship I liked now I think I would say these two. It helps I consumed all of their medias in the same 24 span of time.

[ashdash2417]

K, y’all. Can we talk about the abandonment issues Uzi may have?

(The info I’m about to share is just my thoughts on all this. I could be right on some parts, and I could be wrong. Again, I’m just sharing what I think based on stuff we’ve seen from the series. Anyways.)

What inspired me to make this was this very moment right here.

“Are you like, gonna leave me?”

You can tell by her voice that she was scared. Scared that the only friend she’s ever had, the only friend that she’s made her whole life was going to leave her, and it certainly didn’t help that N and V got along well with the other students. Doing some activities together, having fun, playing around and stuff.

I think seeing this, this was the starting point of that fear in this episode. (I’m a little certain that in general, this may go back as early as the first episode, but I’ll talk about that in a bit.)

Here’s that fear she shows after investigating a little bit in the cabin, watching her closest friend get along and interacting with her classmates, despite having been a literal killing machine. And to add salt to the wound, he did so in such a short time. Something that she herself has never really accomplished the whole time she’s been in school.

Some jealousy may also be shown because of this, as she was talking to V, who was also doing well interacting with her classmates.

“Just.. so glad you guys fit right in. Suuuper cool.”

As we all know, Uzi certainly isn’t the most popular girl in school (which btw… relatable imo). In fact, Rebecca had said that she was “super unpopular” when she (well, the top half of her anyways, hehe) reunited with a few drones, whom I’m assuming are her friends.

Uzi doesn’t fit in. She’s like an outcast to her classmates. The “freak” of the bunch. She stands out from the rest of them.

“… You freak us out.”

“But mostly bite me!”

(I’m sorry, I wanted to include that second part here, whether it was relevant or not pfbt. Anyways.)

And it’s not just her classmates that practically outcasted her. Hell, her own father left her to be murdered by the same kind of drone that took away his wife (well, technically, the same kind of drone that struck her with nanite acid, leading to him putting her out of her misery, according to himself from the pilot, but anyways). Now, he may have been too terrified to take action and save his own daughter, possibly reliving the trauma of what happened to Nori. He probably couldn’t fathom having to do the same thing he did to his wife to Uzi. But it still does not justify leaving her, his own daughter, for dead. That is a really shitty dad move there, Khan.

(Or I could be overthinking on that part, and Khan could just be a really shitty father, but anyways)

The way Uzi may have taken it, was that he prioritized his precious doors over her. Having put up more doors to keep himself, and everyone else in the bunker, safe from drones like N. She wasn’t important enough to be saved at the moment she needed him most. Her father- the one who’s supposed to have her back, no matter what happened, the one who’s supposed to protect her whenever things go from bad to worse- had left her to be killed by a murder drone. (Possibly, I’m just spitballin here)

Once this happened, Uzi now has no one she can really trust to stick with her, no one she can rely on for support. She has no friends, barely has family; her father isn’t much like a father to her at all, let’s be honest.

(I would say Thad is the only one she kinda had, but if I remember correctly, they barely knew each other to be considered close friends in the pilot. The only reason Thad knew Uzi (or knew of Uzi) was because she’s Khan’s daughter. That was it.)

(Another thing I wanna add is how neglectful as a father Khan has been, even before the pilot. Hell, the posters that we see can speak volumes of how their relationship is. Not to mention he’s never really spent much (if any) quality time with her, too busy focusing on his obsession with doors.)

(One more thing to add: remember when Uzi told Thad one of the reasons she made her sick as hell railgun was to earn her father’s respect? …That’s just another point I wanna make about the infamous Doorman and how well he’s raised his daughter.) :)

So yeah, Uzi never really had anyone close to her in her life, meaning that she didn’t have anyone to trust, either.

Until this goober shows up.

(Or more like, he was about to kill her until she blew his head off, but that’s not the point.)

Of course, we all know they didn’t become best friends right away. Because he’s a disassembly drone, and she’s a worker drone, and… yeah.

If it wasn’t for Khan backing away from the fight and closing the door on Uzi, Uzi probably would’ve been dead right then and there. N probably would’ve killed her and everyone else without much of a second thought. However!

Considering how he told Uzi about V and J, he didn’t have the best relationship with either of them. (his crush on V seemed one-sided, at least in that flashback where V’s character was introduced? And J just straight up insulting him while stepping on him, and talking about how she’d kill him if she were allowed to.) He didn’t seem to have anyone to consider a friend either, at least mutually. For the longest time, it was just N, V, and J, doing their jobs, working together on killing the worker drones and such.

Then, what Uzi said to him about how the company treats the drones had created some doubts. N never questioned JCJenson and their motives until Uzi came along. And because of that, he almost died via a virus put in by J.

Then, after Uzi saves him from dying, and after they both stop V and J from killing the worker drones, N still stood by her side. N has never given her a reason not to trust him after that. He’s been with her the whole time after Uzi banished herself, and he’s never left her like the other drones have.

I’m thinking, after Uzi had banished herself from the colony, N could have left her on her own, he could’ve refused to let her go with him and V back to the landing pod, but he didn’t. (Not only because Uzi had encouraged him to look at the bigger picture, so to speak, but it also would’ve been out of character for N of all people (or robots in this case lol) to just deny her of joining the squad. He’s such a goddamn softy, let’s be real here.)

(Also, I wanna point out that from N’s perspective, she was the one who encouraged him to become an “angsty, rebellious disassembly drone” in the first place. If it wasn’t for her, he would never even question why they’re killing worker drones to begin with (other than to consume the oil for survival, of course). If it wasn’t for her, he’d still be out murdering. She was the one who respected him more than V or J ever did combined. (Well, in V’s case, this would be after her memories became messed up anyways. She did seem to like him when they were worker drones themselves.))

So yeah, this whole time, N has been the only one Uzi had ever really had throughout the series. N has been the only one that didn’t treat her like a freak, nor had insulted or threatened her in any way (lookin at you, V!). And most importantly, he was the only one that never left her at all. He stood by her side, he had her back, and she had his, and they stuck together, especially through the scary stuff.

So going back to episode 4, that was the first time since they’ve met that they were really separated. And the one time they weren’t with each other, Uzi had taken her solver form for the first time, and had killed her own classmates as a result.

Had N been with her while she was investigating stuff, chances of Uzi taking her solver form happening probably would’ve been really low.

Hell, this whole thing probably happened because she was alone, because nobody was with her, and she didn’t want to be left alone again, and she was scared that she was going to be left alone again after seeing N interact with the other students!

TLDR: Uzi probably has abandonment issues, and was scared the only friend she has was going to leave her like everyone else had in her life.

I wanted to make a long rant about this because it’s been on my mind off and on for a while, especially after hearing Uzi’s voice when she asks N if he’s going to leave her (god that really hurts!), and as sucky as I am with words, I wanted to try anyways. Hope y’all enjoyed. 😁😅 (and now to end this on a lil lighter note, here’s an image of a robot huggy)

[randomminty]

I wanted to draw misakis funny shirt so so so badly but i couldnt draw her hat for the life of me :,,,,(

[flicks-random-stuff]

I’m the devilish AU-er I make the devilish aus . Dunno if I’ll talk about this one much here but it involves some plot points from my friend pory’s Bad Omens au ☝️

[d0d0-b0i]

oh requests are open! how about Fang the Sniper? he's my favorite, next to Silver :)

bastard man (affectionate)

[lieutenantselnia]

I'm thinking about how Firmus always looks so stressed and it just makes me(/Selina) want to cuddle with him to help him relax. Like I just want to flop down on him and basically act as a weighted blanket for him, no distractions, just feeling each other's breathing and warmth and maybe fondling his hair a little. I want him to be able to let go of the tension in his body and just hold him, letting him know that there's someone who cares a lot about him and his wellbeing <3

[green-eyes-and-orange-ties]

🍋 Lemon Boys 🍋

Sparked from the Season 2 poster of Sebastian wearing Augur uniform and the idea that Sebastian might move in with Styx. I like the idea of him staying with Styx and feeling safe because of Styx's magic.

Key, latch, door. *Thud* Bag.floor.

As Seb dropped his bag he could feel the floor rushing to meet him, but two hands grabbed him first.

"Hey hey" then more gently, edged in concern "Bas?"

The Irish lilt brought his mind back from blankness, as he realised he was only half standing, propped up by Styx. Eyes closed, arms lead-heavy at his side. Seb didn't even attempt to move, what's the point he'd probably just end up on the hallway floor.

"mmfine"

Seb went to move away but as soon as his head lost contact Styx's shoulder, he lost contact with reality. A single hand guided him back, the other hadn't let go of his jacket. 'I should take that off' Sebastian thought vaguely.

"Like hell you are! you're dead on your feet! Whatd they make you do today?"

No answer, but Styx could feel Sebastian grimace against his shoulder and his own jaw tighten in response.

"Yea yea NDA blah blah. Come on let's get this off ya"

Styx started helping Sebastian roll the Augur jacket off his shoulders. The jacket bit was easy, swapping out Seb's shirt? That was harder, it relied on Seb being able to stand unaided and right now that seemed alot to ask.

"mmjust" Seb paused waiting for his breath to catch up "mmjust tired"

"Yeah, and I'm just old. Whydya have to and sign the flamin contract anyway ya eejit?"

No response. Not that Styx had really expected one. Just as he hadn't been expecting the new bruises making a patchwork of new and old across Seb's torso. It's hard to believe there was even space for new ones.

"Easy. Easy does it." Styx could have cursed the person responsible... would have if he knew who... or even where. Instead he settled for hissing through his teeth.

"Mmmfinedontworry" it came out more slurred than Seb had intended.

Does it count as slurring words if you sigh them all together? The thought floated through Seb's mind, as he sounded about as coherent as the rest of his world. Styx pulled an oversized shirt on to Seb ignoring his tired attempts at reassurance.

"You gonna sleep tonight?" Styx half asked, half instructed.

"You ever feel you've outlived your usefulness? Like maybe on the ship I ..."

"Fuck off with that right now."

"I just mean, sometimes feel like yea I survived ... but was I meant to? I feel like now I'm in a timeline that doesn't want me ... you know?"

"What I know is that you're here and that there's no use tryna guess what the 'universe' - or whatever - thinks of that."

Silence.

"Come on you'll feel better after you've slept." Styx threw a pillow at Seb.

Sleep. The word itself seemed to have a soporific effect on Seb and he felt his eyes welling up at the thought of being able to go to sleep.

"Look ya don't have to sleep in the bedroom, I was gonna watch something - if I can get the feckin screen to work - you can join if ya want."

Seb crumbled into corner of the sofa mumbling something about 'wards' and 'staying up' as sleep took over.

"Yeah, yeah, don't ya worry about that. I'll stay up and keep em goin" though Styx wasn't entirely sure whether Sebastian heard. Throwing a blanket over Seb, Styx glanced at the TV screen

"Yeah. No. Fuck that piece of shite."

He pulled a book from the stack on the coffee table and settled in to 'keep watch'. What did missing one night's sleep matter, he had forever to catch up anyway.

[monty-glasses-roxy]

(sorry in advance, this might get long) Not to play devil’s advocate or anything, but Roxy DOES display a LOT of narcissism symptoms, just not where the ‘say anything you don’t like is narcissism or gaslighting’ kiddie fans like to say. The Gregory stuff is pretty much irrelevant for a lot of already mentioned reasons, but people discount the possibility of NPD going “no no no poor sweet little bean just has bad self esteem!” and

OKAY.

So I have TWO responses to this! Bare with me here. The second one goes more into the traits you're talking about, so stick with me.

For the first one, I'm going to focus on your first ask, where you say that Roxy does show traits of covert narcissism. If this is in response to the post I reblogged about how some fans continue to call her a narcissistic bully (obviously using the term narcissistic wrong as is typical), then you have missed the point entirely. I apologise if I come across as aggressive here, my intention is to be as clear as physically possible.

What we were not complaining about her being labelled as a horrible person. We are not complaining about her potentially being a narcissist in the way you've described. We are not complaining about people criticising her. We are not complaining about people just not liking her.

The whole point of the post, was that we were annoyed by the hypocrisy. The point was about the double standards in a large chunk of fandom spaces.

You're right! Narcissism is used as a catch-all for someone people (not just 'kiddie fans') don't like and want to hate on, when that's not what narcissism is! But that's not the point we were making. Let me give you some examples of what we meant.

Whether you believe it or not, it's widely theorised that Monty killed Bonnie. It's a common interpretation that he killed Bonnie to take his place in the band, and to get the spotlight all to himself, with his sights now being set on Freddy himself. These fans often say that he did this regardless of the virus effecting everyone, and got more aggressive under its influence.

Now, these same fans, see Roxy. She tells Gregory that he has no friends. She calls him nothing, a loser and that she's better than him. She talks to herself in the mirror to boost her ego, and compliments herself fairly regularly throughout Security Breach while she is under the influence of the virus that changes their behaviour.

Many of these fans, adore Monty. They love him despite what he's done. They find him interesting, with more character depth than meets the eye, and ship him with the rest of the male cast liberally. He's UwU'd and a himbo and they love him as their poor little meow meow.

However, this is not the case with Roxy.

To many of these fans, she is awful. She's irredeemable and deserves everything she got. She's the worst character in the game. She only likes Cassie because Cassie is a big fan of hers and idolises her. She's nothing but an arrogant, self-centred, bitch, with the word narcissistic used incorrectly to encapsulate all of this.

Do you see the difference?

This was the point of the post. And please don't come at me saying not all Monty fans are like that, I know that already. To say that to me would also be missing the point.

The point is that, if you swapped the two over, and Monty did exactly what Roxy did in the game, while Roxy did exactly what Monty did... The results wouldn't change. Monty would still be their complicated, deep and meaningful character to thirst over and adore, and Roxy would still be the worst person you've ever met because how dare she kill Bonnie? That's irredeemably awful!

This is what we were complaining about. It doesn't matter what words are used, it's the fact that they're used by some fans to villainise her, and not anyone else. We were complaining about how Roxy can't be mean without being hated, virus or no virus, there is no excuse for being mean, unless you're a hot guy everyone likes and it adds to your hot guy character. It's not just Monty either, he was just the best example I could think of off hand. If Moon, Freddy, Sunny, DJ, Bonnie or even Foxy said the exact same things as Roxy, and acted in the exact same way, they would also be loved and adored for it, while Roxy is hated.

I'm going to say this one more time for those still missing the point, I am not saying everyone does this. I know not everyone does this. What I'm saying applies only to those that do this. This is just a common way to interpret these characters in a handful of corners of this fandom, and it's part of a wider problem you see in a lot of other fandoms as well. We are annoyed by the hypocrisy of how some characters are betrayed compared to others. The wording used is a separate issue, to the intention behind them.

I am not aiming to call anyone out with this. I am not aiming to start drama either. That is not the intention of any of this. We are talking about what we've observed and how we feel about it. This is not intended as an attack on anyone, or saying you shouldn't like your favourites or any other bad faith read you can make of this. We were complaing about what we've seen and how we feel about it. That is all.

And this is the last time I am clarifying that discussion. I apologise if this all comes across as rude or aggressive, I'm just trying to make myself as clear as physically possible. This being the second time I've clarified it, feels enough to me. I'm open to discuss some of this, but honestly, this isn't what I want to continue spending my night on, so if anyone wants to talk about this stuff, the responses may be slow. Got other, more fun stuff to talk about, ya know?

NOW the SECOND response is more relevant to the rest of what you said.

You're absolutely right! You could attribute her traits to the covert narcissism that you've described! I've never said she can't be and I love the fact that you've drawn these connections with some level of understanding of it! I've only seen one other person describe Roxy as a narcissist that didn't use it as a way of saying she's awful and I love that! You might be the same person as that other anon, I can't really tell, but just know that I appreciate you telling me about your interpretation with actual information on narcissism!! I may not see her as such (for reasons to follow), but it's really interesting when people portray her differently to me, and can actually back up assigning her a label like that!!

I'll say my interpretation of her is different to what you've described, and I can elaborate on how I read and portray her any time you like but this post is already long so I'll save it for another time. We're different people, so of course we have different interpretations, that's what makes talking about a character interesting! This isn't the only reason I wouldn't describe Roxy as NPD though.

I will not say that she has NPD, and I will not argue the idea of her having it with someone that can tell me about it like you have. This is because I don't know enough about NPD to draw a conclusion like that. I don't have anywhere near enough information on actual narcissism to draw any kind of connections to anything. My understanding pretty much starts and ends with 'low empathy', and how people are constantly misusing the term by applying it to everyone they don't like, or people that are just kinda mean. As such, I'm just not in a position to use the term to describe a character at all.

I can research it of course, but until then, rest assured, I will not be describing anyone as such, fictional or otherwise. I have no plans to research it for the time being in case you were wondering on that one, so this isn't likely to change any time soon. I'm just not educated enough on the topic to confidently write Roxy as a narcissist. If people read my version of her as such, then that's great! But I will not go into a discussion on Roxy's character and refer to her as anything specific unless I know what I'm talking about. Based on what you've said, my version of her woudn't line up with NPD that much anyway, so it's likely not going to be a conversation I'll need to be having very often after this.

By all means, if you know what you're talking about or are willing to research and learn about it? Don't let me or anyone else stop you from reading Roxy as a covert narcissist! If that's something you wish to explore in her character then you do it buddy!! I'd love to hear about it!

I just can't really have a strong opinion on something I'm not educated on. I take no issue in people calling her a narcissist in the context you have described. I don't get involved in the conversations surrounding the misuse of the word as a general descriptor of every negative trait ever, as I don't have the knowledge to properly engage in that kind of discussion. So if you did talk about this more with me, I'm afraid I couldn't really offer you much but my own interpretation in return. Would still love to hear about it though if this is something you're familiar with and are interested in though, that's the takeaway here. I may not have all the information, but I can still appreciate someone trying to properly portray it, right?

And those are my two responses!

Tl;dr:

Response 1: If this was your takeaway from the reblogged post about people hating Roxy, you've missed the point. We're annoyed by the double standards between how she's seen as awful, whereas others are praised for doing arguably much worse things than her.

Response 2: YEAH!!! YOU HEADCANON HER AS A COVERT NARCISSIST IF YOU WANT TO AND KNOW ENOUGH ABOUT IT TO DO SO COMFORTABLY!!! YOU DO YOU!!! ENJOY YOURSELF AND DON'T LET ANYONE ELSE STOP YOU!!! I can't really have a big long discussion about Roxy displaying those traits though, because I don't have the knowledge to do so. Can still enjoy people talking about it though.

[transk0vsky]

Look I fundamentally understand why they’ve opted to remove survival/combat mechanics from p3 but like…I’m so sad that means I can’t occur a random bloodlust again!

[loregoddess]

How about 8, 9, and 22 for the fe3h ask game?

8 was answered here, although I will also add that the Church of Seiros should have been developed more, it has like, hardly enough writing to qualify as a vanilla fantasy religion, I want actual meat not *vaguely gestures* whatever this is supposed to be. Hell, even Triangle Strategy, with its absolute minimal worldbuilding for the Hyzantian religion, created a more concrete and interesting fantasy religion than the CoS.

9. What is your favorite scene in the game (can be in the main story or a support convo)? No joke, I almost started crying when I watched Dedue and Ashe's A support. Haven't stopped thinking about it since.

22. What character do you headcanon as ace or aro? As usual, there's my "I am ace, I read every character as a little bit ace unless I get a specific idea otherwise" disclaimer, and please keep in mind that I'm using ace here as an umbrella for all the various asexual identities (ace ace, grey ace, demi, etc.--getting into their romantic orientations is an entire other project for me, but most here fall under the aro umbrella as well), but anyhow the most ace characters to me are:

Byleth, Hubert, Ferdinand, Linhardt, Caspar, Ashe, Mercedes, Ingrid, Raphael, Ignatz, Marianne, Hanneman, and Jeritza.

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

Hey so you've posted a bit about replaying DA and I wanted to know if you have a canon run through

I do! I'm currently replaying through my canon run right now [with a few deviations here and there] because every time I finish a run, some time passes before I'm like, ".........I miss them." It makes doing an alternate run harder, too.

For DAO, I play as a rogue lady Tabris named Rosalie, or Rose. Dual-wielding ranger and dualist. Her most used party dynamic is Alistair/Morrigan/Zevran. She named the mabari Griffon after the tales of Grey Wardens and their griffons. Rose romanced Alistair, kept him a warden and made Anora queen. She considers Morrigan one of her closest friends until Morrigan reveals her true intentions for coming with them. I've written about that whole thing before. Honestly, as far as companions go, Rose becomes close friends with most of them... except Wynne, they tend to butt heads in a lot of ways.

Rose didn't want to become a warden and thinks most of their rules and secrets are bullshit. Duncan's excuse for not coming to help her and the other elven women Vaughan took is a driving force for her to defy that "we can't get involved" rule as much as she can during and post-blight. She sided with the mages in Kinloch and with their help saved Connor, made Bhelen king of Orzammar, and settled things between the Dalish and the werewolves peacefully by convincing Zathrian to end the curse. She executed Loghain at the Landsmeet since, y'know... he sold city elves, nearly including her father, to Tevinter slavers to fund his war so... in her eyes, he doesn't get to live after that.

This playthrough I did make a save to reject Morrigan's dark ritual to see what happens when the warden makes the ultimate sacrifice and it's the most unsatisfying ending. It's such a, "No no noooo we didn't deserve this! After everything we went through! Just for it to end like that??" hopeless feeling... which was then fixed when I went back and made my canon choice of begrudgingly accepting the deal [even though it mostly goes against Rose's character but I'm weak and selfish and want her and Alistair to live].

In DA2, I play as a male mage Hawke named Edgar, or Ed. Force mage and blood mage. His most used party dynamic is Carver/Merrill/Anders until Carver goes to the Grey Wardens, then it's Isabela/Merrill/Anders. He's mostly purple in personality, but occasionally dips into blue, and I can count the number of times he's gone red on one hand. He named his mabari Fleabag after Malcolm bought the pup from a traveling merchant who failed to mention he was flea ridden. Several baths later, the mabari was finally flea free but Ed decided he should never live it down and named him Fleabag.

Ed maxes out the friendships with everyone [yes, including Carver, Ed tries so damn hard with him] except Aveline, he maxes out her rivalry. They all side with him and the mages in the end. He romanced Anders. I once did a run where I romanced Fenris with Ed and even though I liked it, the whole playthrough felt wrong because romancing Anders is, like... a fundamental part of Ed's story now... Even though they break up in the end.

I've done all three options across different playthroughs when it comes to Anders; I've spared him, I've killed him, and I've told him to leave. My canon choice is to tell him to leave, and then let him join my party later after we've sided with the mages. It's hard to explain without writing a full essay, but Ed and Anders are pretty much life partners at this point. Even if it's no longer romantic because a huge amount of trust was broken, even if they never get back together in that regard, even if Anders will now be on the run for the rest of his life, whether or not Ed agrees with him [he does and he doesn't, it's complicated] like... Ed loves him and he'll always love him, y'know? He won't abandon him even when everyone tells him he should.....but then DAI happened uhhh

Finally for DAI, I play a lady mage Lavellan named Ashalle, or Ashlaen, or just Ash. She's a knight-enchanter who mostly does storm magic. I'd say DAI is the game where I have a pretty even party use that I rotate between; Cassandra/Varric/Vivienne, Solas/Sera/Blackwall, The Iron Bull/Dorian/Cole. She sides with the mages in Redcliffe and left Hawke in the fade [sorry Ed, and sorry Anders... and sorry Carver... and Varric]. When it came to picking a ruler for Orlais, she figured all options sucked but went with Celene and Briala. Ash drank from the well, and then disbanded the inquisition in Trespasser.

I dislike how DAI just kinda plops your inquisitor into existence with only a small paragraph explaining why they were at the conclave; I wish it had a DAO approach so that's what I did for my inquisitor. Before I start the DAI playthrough, I boot up DAO. Before she was Ashalle Lavellan, she was a circle mage named Ashlaen Surana who escaped with Jowan after he lied to her about being a blood mage. In the ten years pre-DAI, she lost Jowan. In her grief, joined the Dalish, changed her name, and eventually ended up at the conclave. It just adds a lot more meat and spice to the choices and interactions with companions and advisors since she keeps that part of her backstory a secret. After all, she helped a blood mage and then was accused of being one herself before fleeing; she doesn't want the inquisition to know that. All of her crafted staves are named after Jowan while her crafted robes are usually named after her conflicting identities and pieces of her past, too..... Oh, speaking of past, she romanced Cullen. Because of course.

With the context of all this, it becomes them reuniting after they may or may not have had a thing going on in the circle, but then she escaped and he believed she was actually a blood mage for ten years. Cullen sees her like "Ah. Yes. You. Whom I haven't met. Hope they're right about you. We've lost a lot of people to get you here. Glad you survived." when internally he's screaming "I know who you are, those tattoos fool me not! Why are you here?? To torment ME specifically??" Then there's Ash who takes a little longer to recognize him, and when she does, it solidifies that she needs to run after this because he knows who she is and why she fled, that's not good, she's not going back to the circle after all this is done.

But y'know... they work it out. Eventually.

That's my canon run through of all three games. I keep trying to talk myself into doing a full alternate canon run, but the only game I've successfully done a different route in is DAI with my male rogue Tristan Trevelyan whose backstory was that he's a pro-mage ex-templar. That was fun to see how different things play out, but I haven't managed it for the other two.

I'd like to play DAO as a more cutthroat warden who, unlike Rose, won't go out of their way to do kind things; they'll do what they deem necessary. I'd like to do a lady warrior Hawke run with Bethany as the surviving sibling, and I've tried before but every time I hit a point where I'm like ".....I miss Carver so much" and abandon the run. Like there's always something that makes me abandon the run. I almost abandoned Tristan's run, too, but somehow I pushed through and got invested. I dunno. One day I'll put on my big girl pants and just do it.

[bokunoheros]

"katsuki...!"

CHARACTER: KATSUKI BAKUGOU GENRE: SMUT, angst if you squint TAGS/WARNINGS: reader is gender neutral but afab (katsuki calls you princess once and it’s in mocking), swearing (obvi), hate/angry sex, reader and katsuki are childhood friends (to enemies) to fuck buddies, y’all’re in your 3rd yr of highschool, drool/spit, impact/quirk play, pussy spanking, mentions of blood,  WORD COUNT: 3.6k SUMMARY: you never seem to have a problem calling katsuki by his first name — except for in the bedroom, and he’s finally had enough of it. 🦊’s A/N: this is a repost bc i didn’t like the way this performed the first time // if you’ve read this before, no you havent

     one thing katsuki bakugou hated about you was the way you refused to call him by anything other than his first name—hell, you wouldn’t even call him kacchan, a name he had learned to barely tolerate without popping a blood vessel. 

     another thing he hated even more about you was the fact that whenever you two finally got over your horrid, god-awful sexual tension that the entire class was sick of, was the way you suddenly refused to call him katsuki. no, whenever he found himself fucking you in the dorms while everyone else is asleep, it was all you could do to whimper “bakugou—”, which pissed katsuki off to no end. the bedroom was the one place where you should be calling him by his first name and yet… you completely and utterly refused to do so! simply for the sole purpose of pissing him off and riling him up. 

     “ba–baku—ahh!” you cry as he shoves your face down into the mattress while giving your ass a hard smack. “christ!” you whine, voice muffled by the plush bedding. 

     “that’s not—m’fuckin’ name, and i think you know that, sweetheart.” his voice is overflowing with frustration and condescension as his hips smack against your ass repeatedly, heavy balls smacking against your throbbing clit.  

     “it— it’s lit��literally your name,” you correct him, arching your back deeper and wiggling your reddening rear. “fuck’s got you—ah!—all worked up, huh, bakugou?”

     he feels his eye twitch at your words, and he lets out a deep, frustrated growl before he’s smacking your ass again, this time with the addition of his quirk popping off once his large and very calloused hand came into contact with your bare, sweaty skin. 

     “fuck! goddammit!” you whine, hands desperately grabbing at his black sheets. “baku–gou!”

     “just—say my name fucking properly, dammit!” he demands, panting heavily as he continues to thrust his awfully girthy cock in and out of your snug little cunt. “you never seem to have a problem with it any other goddamn time!”

     “i— i dunno wh–what the fuck you’re talkin’ about,” you quip back, turning your head to the side in attempt to look back at katsuki — he doesn’t let you, though, as he shoves your face further into the bed, squishing your cheeks in the process, and you try to fight back against his grasp, but he’s just simply too strong for you to stand any real chance. and that pissed you off like nothing else. 

     katsuki could act the way he did because he had the firepower and skills to actually back his words. this always resulted in him absolutely dominating you in the bedroom, naturally. sometimes, you were able to give him a run for his money, but ultimately, he beat you out everytime, sexually bullying you into submission — physical submission, at least. you always had something nasty to spit out at him, regardless of the position he had you in or how meanly he was fucking into you.

     “sure, bitch,” he pants out, landing another cruel quirk-based impact to the tender flesh of your ass, and it’s all you can do to bite the pillow to keep from crying out. 

     “f-fine then, kacchan,” you smirk to yourself, beyond pleased with your answer. “‘s that bet—aa-ow! fuck! ba–bakugou!” you sob as he brings his right hand down hard against your asscheek, his quirk literally popping off as his calloused palm makes contact with your sensitive skin before he stills himself inside of you entirely.

     “alright—you wanna act like a brat? i’ll treat you like one then,” he says, eerily calm all of sudden. that wasn't like him. not at all. 

     oh, you were in trouble for real this time.

     the realization is slow to dawn on you, but once it does, you find your body moving faster than your brain can process, trying to scramble away from your fuck buddy, just for you to freeze at the feeling of him jerking you back by you hair, pulling you onto your knees and your naked back against his equally bare chest. one strong hand snakes down to between your soaked inner thighs and presses the calloused pad of one finger directly against your achy clit as his dick twitches deep inside you.

     “ba–baku—”

     “nuh-uh, say it properly,” he hisses, suddenly bringing that same hand down against your poor cunt.

     “ah! fuck!!” you cry, thrashing in his grip, hands coming up behind you to tangle into his spikyass hair. “you cunt!” you spit at him, tugging harshly at his roots, hard enough to tilt his head back, and this is where katsuki really begins to lose whatever little patience he had left. snatching your slimmer wrists in one large and rough hand, he pins them behind your back before he goes to bite at the junction of your neck and shoulder.

     “i’m the cunt?” he actually laughs in your ear before bringing his free hand down hard against the mound of your pussy, and you whimper like a bitch, squirming desperately in his grasp. “no, i think you’ve got a couple things backwards, honey,” he chides, voice gruff as a shit-eating smirk spreads across his unfairly handsome face. 

     “fuck, i can’t stand you,” you whine out, still struggling against katsuki’s all-too-tight grip. “l-let go, fuckface!” 

     rather than dignifying you with a verbal answer, bakugou simply strikes his palm against your bare cunt again, thick, calloused fingertips landing onto your puffy clit, causing you to hiss and bite your lower lip harshly to keep from squealing the way you knew he wanted you to. 

     “oh, don’t be like that,” he grunts, licking a hot stripe up your neck before sucking and nipping harshly at the skin there, sloppily laving his tongue over a few particularly sensitive spots before biting down cruelly against them. 

     while katsuki was not a sloppy person by any degree, he was stupidly messy when it came to his behaviors in the bedroom — he didn’t care where his spit or drool got, or even yours for that matter, where he came on you, none of it really mattered so long as he washed his sheets prior to sleeping in them. one thing he couldn’t stand was sleeping in a mess the two of you had made….. which was odd, because that’s often what he found himself doing..! absolutely crashing after fucking you almost to the point of going non-verbal before subconsciously cuddling you closer, just for you to be gone in the morning, like you were never there to begin with. 

     truthfully, he would find his heart aching ever so slightly at your absence before he quickly swallowed down whatever feelings that may have tried to well up to the surface before telling himself to get his fuckin’ shit together and going about his day — usually being the first to wake, yes, even before iida, so he could wash his sheets in private without any nosey extras around to ask stupid questions.

     but back to the topic at hand, getting you to moan his goddamn name!!

     “baku–gou!” you whine, hips squirming as your cunt flutters around his thick cock. “jesus christ!” 

     “huh? somethin’ the matter, princess?” he asks in that ever aggressive tone as the hand that had just spanked your now throbbing cunt comes up to meanly pinch one of your stiffened nipples. 

     “fuck—you!” you spit out, arms straining in his heated grasp.

     “that’s—shit, you’re so fuckin’ tight—exactly what ‘m doin’ right now, and you’re still bitchin’!” he hisses, grip on your wrists tightening substantially — so much so, you were sure there would be bruises in the morning. simultaneously, the feleing of his pelvis smacking against your sore ass as he began to pick up the speed at which he was fucking you had you groaning in pleasure.

     “god–dammit! bakugou!” 

     katsuki could not, for the life of him, understand why it was that you absolutely refused to call him by his first name in bed but in every other aspect of your lives! ever since you two were children, you always called him by his first name — never bakugou, never kacchan, always katsuki, or maybe some other variation of his name like katsu or tsuki if you really wanted to mess with him — so when you two Finally hooked up for the first time at the beginning of your third year of highschool, he definitely noticed when you called him by his surname for the first time since???? he can ever fucking remember. 

     what katsuki didn’t know, however, was that it was just far too intimate for you to call him by his first name as he fucks into you like there’s no tomorrow — for you had maybe have had a small crush on him when you two were in elementary school still, and then you had a massive falling out in middle school due to his, erm, prideful, arrogant, stick-your-nose-up, i’m-so-much-better-than-you attitude and god awful anger issues. 

     and then, once your first year of highschool rolled around, you were horrified to discover that you two would be in the same class together. …if only you could have predicted developing another stupid crush on bakugou, you never would have gone to u.a. — you should have just gone to shiketsu like your gut originally told you to. 

     because now here you were, being absolutely fucking railed during your senior year of highschool by somebody you’ve known most your life who you currently found yourself obsessing over in the worst possible ways. you found that your mind was always wandering to him when it wasn’t preoccupied with something else, and even when it was, it still found someway to link it back to katsuki fucking bakugou! how terrible it is to be in a love-hate relationship with someone you wish could love you back—instead, you were sure katsuki held only hatred and anger towards you, the same way he did with izuku back in their first year and all of middle school. but, ….so much. has happened since then, so surely, maybe, he might feel something for you too? 

     he did, in fact, feel so, so much for you, that he physically could not bear the weight of his emotions—the only way he seemed able to relieve any of them was when he was drilling into you like he fucking hated your guts, and even then, they only intensified and chipped ever so slowly away at his hardened heart that was secretly tender on the very inside because of how you denied him any real intimacy.

     “just say my fucking name, goddammit,” he growls, pulling out of you entirely and releasing your arms for but a moment to flip you around and onto the mattress so that you were laying on your back before grabbing the backs of your knees and simply folding you in half as he looks down between your bodies, lining his thick, throbbing dick up with your drooling slit and bottoming out in one go.

     the sudden change in, well, everything, leaves you disoriented, and just as you go to whine and bitch yet again, katsuki impulsively cuts you off with a kiss, breaking the one rule that he had set up before this whole arrangement began!! 

     “mmmh!” you squeal as the tip of his cock hits your cervix, but your noises are muffled by the way katsuki kisses you — hungrily, like you were a meal he didn’t know he had been craving for years, and he was finally getting to have to it for the first time. 

     in truth…. this was actually bakugou’s first kiss — he could never have been bothered with dating or showing any sort of romantic interest in anyone when that would just get in the way of his goal to become the number one pro hero, and yet…. here he found himself, hopelessly in love with you when he wasn’t even consciously aware of it, kissing you with a startling amount of passion and tongue and teeth. not that he didn’t know how to kiss, per se, he had seen plenty of fuckass movies that featured kissing, and he has to be the best at everything, of course, so it didn’t take him very long to figure out what he was doing. 

     with your legs thrown over his shoulders and spread apart, he was almost laying on you as he fucked into you fluidly, hips snapping back and forth, and it isn’t long before you find your arms wrapping around his neck and reluctantly kissing him back. you had to admit, the feeling of his plump lips felt nice against yours, and you had dreamt about kissing him for so long..! 

     nipping at your lower lip, katsuki’s tongue darts out to lick its way past your slightly parted lips and into your mouth, licking around the insides of your cheeks and over the grooves of your teeth. it’s aggressive and rough and brimming over with passion — everything you had imagined your first kiss with him to be and more. 

     “mmh, katsuki,” you mindlessly hum against his lips, too caught up in the moment, in the feeling of katsuki fucking bakugou initiating a kiss with you!, to realize just how intimate your current predicament was.

     katsuki, however, pauses in all that he was doing as his eyes fly wide open. 

     “what the fuck did you just say?” he asks, voice uncharacteristically quiet, as if he were scared the scene he found himself in would shatter before his very eyes—as if he could break it all, somehow. he was awfully good at breaking things, after all.

     “huh?” you yourself weren’t even aware of what you had said until a few moments later when it actually dawns on you. “oh. my god,” is all you’re able to say as your mind quickly begins reeling with too many overlapping thoughts for any of them to be coherent. 

     without saying anything else, bakugou resumes the way in which he was thrusting into you, kissing you feverishly once more. had he known that a little kiss was all it took for you to call out his name while he fucks you into next tuesday was all it took, then he would’ve kissed you the moment you two began hooking up.

     “b–baku—gou! slow down!” your request is swallowed whole by katsuki’s hot mouth as his tongue slips back into yours, teasingly swirling around your own wet muscle before he begins to suck on it, making you whimper and whine at the combined feeling of his dick pounding into you and this… tongue torture! (it wasn’t, actually—it felt a little too good if you were being honest; so good you were struggling to think.)

     “god–dammit!” he hisses when you call him by his surname again. nipping at the tip of your tongue so hard you swear you can taste blood, he brings one hand down in between your legs to aggressively rub at your pulsing clit. why? why can’t you just say my fucking name! he thinks angrily as he fucks you like there’s no tomorrow. 

     “mmh—aa–aah! mmfhgh—” it’s all you’re able to do to moan as your mind melts away while katsuki applies a little too much pressure to your poor little bundle of nerves. “shit–!” despite the firmness of the circles he was rubbing against the bud, it still felt so good—so good that your back arched deeply off his memory foam mattress and you were unable to contain the string of soft moans that left your throat at the sensation. 

     pulling away from the kiss, breathless and a little drooly, bakugou’s free hand comes up to squish your cheeks harshly, causing your lips to part.

     “stick out your tongue,” he says gruffly, and for once, you actually listen to him, which comes off as a bit of shock to the man currently on top of you, but he easily plays it off, before taking aim and spitting in your fucking mouth — directly on your already slick muscle!

     “fuck—” he rasps out, watching your tongue retract back into your mouth as you wordlessly swallow his saliva while looking up at him with half-lidded, hazy eyes. as a result, he was physically unable to help the way his calloused fingers moved to pinch at your sensitive clit or the way his mouth quickly reattached to your neck to begin biting and sucking at the skin there all over again. 

     “ka–katsuki—!” you whine as he bites a little too hard, and suddenly you feel something warm sliding down the length of your neck. had he drawn blood? no… surely not…… 

     his hips react on their own at your pitiful cry of his name, and he groans against the column of your throat, teeth now poised over your jugular before he bites down again — much gentler in comparison this time, but still hard enough to elicit a squeal from you. 

     your hands fly up to grip at his hair, burying themselves in his roots and giving a firm tug.

     “say it again,” he growls, pulling off your bruised skin with a wet pop! so he could meet your lustful gaze. ….god, his eyes looked so vulnerable right now; so glassy, with burning red irises and a glassy reflection, you can’t help but comply with his demand. you had never seen him like this before, so raw, dripping with (sweat and) passion as he hovers over you, narrowed eyes boring into yours. 

     “ka–katsu–! –ki!” you cry out when he begins rubbing circles into your clit again after giving it another rough pinch. “fuck! katsuki!”

     “that’s right–!” he grunts out, hips snapping against your as his cock throbs inside you. he’s getting closer to an impending orgasm and he needs you to cum first — it just went with his personality of “having to be the best at everything.” so, by extension, this included sex and his partner’s pleasure. mostly because the first time you two fucked, you absolutely did not get off, which you made very apparent to katsuki, who took it Personally (especially since you had called him useless for not being able to make you cum), and made it his mission to give you at least two different orgasms the next time you slept together—something he was rather successful in.

     now, he had half a mind to fuck you until your creamy little pussy was raw and he couldn’t cum anymore, just so you wouldn’t have a chance of forgetting tonight—the first time you called him by his first name in bed (which would ultimately end up being a monumental stepping stone in your future relationship development).

     pulling him in for another kiss, you whine incessantly as you roll your hips up, cunt fluttering around him as an uncomfortable knot begins forming in your tummy, and you can’t help but squirm beneath him. 

     unfortunately for you and your diminishing bratty resolve, it wasn’t much longer before you were cumming with a cry of katsuki’s name, his first name, as your back arches, pressing your chest flush against his, as one large and calloused hands of his comes to press against the small of your back, holding you in place as you cream all around his achy cock, and before he knows it, he’s cumming too, just barely managing to pull out of you as hot, sticky cum lands on your lower stomach and you groan at the nasty feeling. 

     “jesus—i don’t understand why you can’t just wear a condom,” you complain, panting heavily, unwrapping your arms from around his neck.

     katsuki only rolls his eyes at your complaint before telling you “it’s because he doesn’t like the feeling” of it, when in reality, it was so he could be that much closer to you… whether he would even admit it to himself or not. 

     with a heavy sigh and tired legs, you get up and out of his bed and make your way to his bathroom to clean yourself up before picking your clothes off his dorm room floor and getting dressed and leaving without a word, only sparing katsuki a parting glance as he recollects himself on his bed. 

     he doesn’t understand why his heart feels so goddamn heavy as he watches you leave soundlessly, and it feels like it takes him a million and one years to fall asleep, because whenever he opens his eyes, it had gone from 2am to 5am, and he bitches out a groan before getting up to do his fucking laundry before anyone else decided to get up. as he does, though, he can’t help but think about you….. why? what was it about you that caught his attention? why couldn’t he just ignore these feelings? jesus fucking christ, he needs professional help. 

     and so, katsuki spends the time it takes to wash his sheets thinking of you, much to his chagrin, but… he just could not get you out of his mind, for better or for worse. fuck. maybe he would have to call off this whole ordeal. maybe that would fix him? ….fuck, his head hurts. stop thinking so much, idiot, it’s too early to get caught up in your feelings, he mentally berates himself, even though for him, it was always too early to get caught up in his feelings. whatever.

      after pulling his sheets from the dryer, he silently walks back to his room, passing yours in the process, where he stops and stares for a very brief moment, almost, almost contemplating knocking before he quickly carries on back to his dorm where he makes his bed in record time before going the fuck back to sleep. ….where he still thought about you. god save him.

K. BAKUGOU M.LIST

[mihari]

I went through the tag for an old flame and liked a ton of posts, then realized a bunch of them were all from the same artist.

[spinjitsuburst]

YEYSYEYSYEYEYYSYSYES IM SO UNWELL ABOUT THIS TOPIC YOU DONT EVEN KNOW

As someone who arguably could be a candidate for a Jay Fan Contest you’re so right dude and you should absolutely say it

JAY’S A STUBBORN FORCE OF ENERGY WHO DOESN’T BACK DOWN OR GIVE UP EVEN WHEN AT HIS LOWEST OR WHEN HE’S ALONE OR WHEN HE DOESN’T STAND A CHANCE

Don’t get me wrong, with my personal tastes in stories I do LOVE a good breakdown or how a character gets so beaten down when in a bad situation like torture you can see them breaking, it’s fascinating to read/watch and on a personal level it’s nice to see characters go through so much only to end up okay and healing in the end. But it’s even more fun and fascinating to see such a stubborn and strong-willed character go through that and STILL keep his snark and stubborn attitude

ESPECIALLY with Jay, who is a person who very specifically deflects his problems with humor and snarkiness. Like the guy was getting beaten and was captured super high up in the air with no escape and enemies around any corner and yet he was still MOUTHING OFF THE WHOLE TIME AND IT'S GREAT

the only times in Skybound he actually broke and became upset was with his parents, losing Cole and Lloyd, and when Nya actually DIED. Which all actually play super well into his character. His parents have always been a sore spot for him - he's sensitive about them and their overbearing nature, but he loves them so much and will do literally anything for them. Not to mention he just learned that they weren't biologically his parents, so he's going to be even more emotional than normal when he sees them next, and he's just been through a LOT. He needed to lean on his parents, to have them take a little bit of that emotional burden just for a moment, before he can pick himself back up and do what needs to be done. We love Ed and Edna in this house

the second time is when they're finally escaping. Note. AFTER THEY HAVE GOTTEN OFF THE MISFORTUNE IS WHEN JAY FINALLY LETS HIMSELF CRY ABOUT THIS. Not that he didn't maybe have a cry sesh in his cell off-screen or something but definitely not in front of anyone else. The second time is directly about losing Cole and Lloyd to the sword. "When will it be enough?! I can't keep losing people!"

THE THIRD TIME JAY BREAKS DOWN. DO I EVEN NEED TO GO INTO DETAIL WHY SEEING SOMEONE YOU LOVE DYING WOULD MAKE YOU A LITTLE UPSET PERHAPS

the point is that all those moments are not about his own suffering. It's about the ones closest to him suffering, or when he's finally safe enough with people he feels like he can breakdown with like his parents.

those moments are so good and really well written. Skybound has... writing issues but Jay's arc is not one of them, and those moments add SUCH depth to his character

I think a big reason why a lot of people shift this way is the uwu-ification of Jay in later seasons (which I have like. my own thoughts about). A lot of people see Jay as a much weaker and more timid character than he was in earlier seasons bc of how he's been written recently and it's very frustrating! But the sparks of his stubborn willpower is still very much present, especially in Prime Empire and Seabound. My mans lost everyone AGAIN and was surrounded by an entire hoard of enemies and he still was able to hold them off until he could summon the dragon to get himself out of there and face Unagami. And in Seabound he risked his LIFE to power the subs battery, and continued to fight even though he was weak from dry drowning. THAT IS NOT A WEAK CHARACTER WHO CRUMPLES UNDER PHYSICAL DURESS. JAY IS SO SO SO STRONG AND PEOPLE WHO PORTRAY HIM AS SUCH ARE MY FAVORITE PEOPLE

again, the only times he breaks down is when he loses nya in seabound. jay's always been strong until it comes to the people in his life leaving, through death or... ocean-ification...? That's when we see him truly break down. It's always about others, not himself

what you say about Jay's condition in the skybound fics is actually very true. 90% of the fandom portrays him as falling at the slightest degree of pain, bursting into tears and begging when in canon Jay NEVER cries or begs in all his torture with Nadakhan. All he does at most is complain silently, and continue talking shit about everyone

we actually need more fics of Jay being a little shit that fights dirty, cheats, and deals damage using the meanest ways to defend himself and attack even when he's getting his ass kicked. I just feel like a lot of fics don't really embody the fact that Jay didn't sit back and let them torture him while he cried, but he actually fought back, he actually continued to be stubborn to the point that nothing Nadakhan did worked.

You're so right and you should absolutely say it. I am not the biggest Jay enjoyer (don't get me wrong, I like him, but I'm not winning the Jay Fan contest any day soon), but I particularly enjoy his arc in Skybound and how that persistence plays into it. Seeing it get put to the side in favor of whatever all these crying sessions are trying to do honestly makes me wonder - do people who write this flavor of sadboy Jay actually enjoy/appreciate Skybound to the same degree that inspires so many of us to write about it, or are they just there for the angst openings? Which does Jay such a huge disservice. I'm still in awe whenever Jay gets that Target ball sized ball and chain slammed into his chest and still gets back up. This is the guy everyone's relegating to weep in a corner? He's throwing stray insults at every opening and then some and the popular fanon consensus is, "yeah, he's completely broken, send him to the pit"??

Now, don't get me wrong, the occasional show of vulnerability is great. Key word there is occasional. To be fair, I would likely be just as unsettled as I am by the sobfest trend if Jay just did Bugs Bunny shenanigans the entire time without ever cracking. It's about balance! Show that development off! Have him get tougher over time! A strategically placed breakdown or slip-of-the-tongue beg can work so well, it's just got to be handled carefully. (Tried it with Nya once in my own Skybound fics, and can confirm: watch where and when it happens and you can say a lot about whoever does it. Granted, I have never tried it with Jay, but same principle!) Sure, let him do it - but not for the sake of doing it. What would Jay think after the fact? How would the crew's reactions affect him? (Fun idea: would he weaponize it, like the back pain scene where he's literally grinning the whole time? Would he deliberately turn on the waterworks often enough that if it ever happens for real, nobody tries to take advantage of it?)

I didn't mean to go on for that long, but yeah! It's a frustrating topic, and I really wish I knew where it came from. Thanks for dropping in and letting me ramble!