#edit: I DIDN'T MEAN TO POST THIS BUT.... UH.... HERE WE GO I GUESS LOL

[frenchy-and-the-sea]

FFXIV - The Long Wait

Another FFXIV Write prompt! This one DOES have Tritchet in it, and it highlights her chronic inability to stand still. <3 Briefly featuring @urdnotgrunt‘s Onion once again, being the protective older sister.

~1300 words, set more or less during the post-Heavensward quest “Litany of Peace.”

-------

Within the high, echoing stone walls of the Congregation of Our Knights Most Heavenly, Tritchet Pock sits, enshrined in one of the tall-backed chairs built for people at least twice her size, and waits.

Waiting is just about the only thing to be done, now. The rooms occasionally echo with the soft clatter of armor as soldiers report to their Lord-Commander-no-more, ticking off various districts that might be repaired this month or the next, offering suggestions for places to house the growing list of refugees; but mostly, the Congregation walls are dreadfully, painfully silent. The only other reprieve comes from an occasional visit by Lucia, who sweeps in with a litany of orders to be signed off on, and then sweeps away just as quickly. Sometimes she stops to offer Tritchet a brief update on the state of the world outside, but usually it’s just a wave and a smile, and then she is gone again, carried off on a sea of duties that Tritchet has been explicitly barred from taking up.

Which is fine, really. Tritchet’s whole body still throbs right down to the marrow if she moves it too much, even two days removed from the fight that nearly broke it. It is the aetherial ache of a soul in full, brutal revolt, according to Y’shtola, who was the one who gave the explicit, “do not involve yourself with the clean-up or I shan’t be the one to clean you up when you come apart,” order. When she's feeling charitable, Tritchet supposes that is fair. She had wrestled with the centuries-old fury of man and dragon both, and walked away without a scar to show for it. Surely, there must still be a cost somewhere.

But, Tritchet thinks, she would weather another fight, another war, another sore and bloody trial that ended in her numb and chapped hands wrapped around her lance, if it meant that she could give up on all the Twelve-forsaken waiting.

She had tried, once. There had been a runner — no more than thirteen, a boy of the Brume’s weary stock — who had nervously shuffled into the Congregation clutching a letter that he said ought to be delivered directly into the hands of the Lord Commander. She had been halfway through shuffling down from her place at the high table to take it when Onion had appeared from out of the gods-damned aether, lifting it out of the boy’s hands and informing him that Hilda could entrust any future correspondence to her at the Manufactory, where it would be seen to Aymeric at all haste. 

“That’s insane,” she had told her sister, who had just glared at her, then shoved a bowl of what must have been the Forgotten Knight’s hottest stew into her hands and stood over her shoulder as she ate the entire thing.

She thinks — she knows — there is love in that gesture. Usually, Onion barely worries enough to keep up with her own needs, let alone Tritchet’s. But she can feel the slow degrade into madness as her racing mind rattles its way out of her skull, feels her heart wrench painfully with all that she can’t and doesn’t and won’t know any time soon, and she thinks that real love would be fetching her a ladder and spiriting her out the nearest window. Or waking up, she thinks. Waking up would do wonders.

“On vigil again, I see.”

Aymeric’s voice appears over her shoulder just as she’s resolving to test the limits of Y’shtola’s warning, cradling a pair of faded, steaming teacups in his hands. These go onto the table — one before her, the other before the chair that he carefully nudges back — and he takes a seat at her side like there is nothing at all strange about the Lord Commander of Ishgard taking tea with the worn and weary woman that barely clears his thigh. There is a faint redness around the corners of his eyes that says that his sleep has been as miserable as hers, but he manages a smile. For his sake, Tritchet tries at one too.

“Vigil?” she asks with a good-natured huff. “No. Alphinaud has that much handled, thanks. Besides, I don’t think Estinien would be especially fond of any of us idling around his bedside for any reason.” She says it like a joke, but the name — the reminder — twists a sour shard of ice in the pit of her stomach. She hopes that he would mind. She hopes that she is not just sitting here, wasting her time, drinking tea, waiting —

“Of that, you can have my assurance,” says Aymeric with a laugh, and the manic spiral of her thoughts quiets, just a little. “Our dear mutual friend has never been keen to be what he would refer to as ‘doted upon,’ even if the rest of us would simply call it care. I take heart in the fact that, in his current state, he can do nothing to resist his much-needed rest.”

“That certainly is a blessing,” Tritchet mutters, heaving herself up onto her knees to drag her own teacup closer. It’s sized for Ishgardian hands, which means she has to cradle it in both of her own, but at least it’s warm, and it goes a long way towards occupying them. Aymeric watches, a little smile playing at the corner of his mouth.

“I thought you might sympathize,” he says as she settles back into her seat. “You share much with your fellow Azure Dragoon, if not your temperament.”

Tritchet snorts into the edge of her cup. "Is that an insult, Lord Commander, or a compliment? And before you answer, know that I have recovered just enough to knock you out of that chair.”

“It is a fact,” says Aymeric, with a wry twist in his smile. “One that even Estinien has acknowledged. You find no rest easy, Tritchet Pock; neither does he. Nor has he ever. For Ishgard — for the Azure Dragoon — there was never a task too onerous, too tedious, too dull, save for the one that had him do nothing at all. Perhaps I speak too much from my own observance and less from his admittedly few words, but I believe he found your matched vigor refreshing. He spoke highly enough of you, in any case."

He takes another demure sip of his cooling tea, pretending like he can’t see the way Tritchet's hands are gripped in a vice around her own. There had been a universe, somewhere tucked in the very back of her mind, where Estinien spoke of her in earnest, in his free time, as something besides a notation in the report of a high captain of Ishgard. But she had known better; knows better, in fact. Those thoughts belonged on the fringes, in her periphery. They would not do something as insane as exist.

She swallows, hard, and feels it lodge against the sudden lump in her throat.

“A high compliment,” she says at last, as steadily as she can, holding her tea very close. “Perhaps the highest of all, coming from him. Given the circumstances of the last few months, though, maybe vigor is not the sort of virtue he’s especially keen to follow anymore.”

She says it like a joke, like a shrug, with a twist of a smile that she forces from sour to wry, but Aymeric de Borel is no fool. He slowly sets his teacup down, and Tritchet watches with a growing sickness in her stomach as he opens his mouth to speak —

— and she thanks every bleeding member of the Twelve — Fury and all — when a woman in white linens that marks her as a chirurgeon suddenly blusters through the doors of the Congregation’s inner sanctum, shouting, “Lord Commander! He’s awake!”

Aymeric is on his feet in an instant.

“Lead on,” he tells the woman, who offers a hasty salute and then scurries back down the hallway like she’s been set on fire. Tritchet shoves her teacup nearly across the table and then props her shoulder against the edge, bracing herself for the painful descent off of her throne-like seat. A hand suddenly appears in her periphery; when she looks up, Aymeric is offering it down to her with an expression she thinks looks startlingly like a smirk.

“Well,” he says, with entirely too much relish, “I suppose now we shall see, won’t we?”

[littlemissclandestine]

Why I think Russell Adler is going to make a comeback in COD 2024

WARNING⚠️: Contains spoilers for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

Disclaimer: This is all just speculation on my behalf of course. I've just tried piecing stuff together for fun because Russ is one of my fave BO characters even though he's a bitch but i need more Adler content stat. <33

Let's get into it peeps. HEAR ME OUT.

Buckle up. Gonna be one hell of a ride folks 🤪

We'll start off with some random/background info.

Russ was born on February 12th 1937 so that would make him 53/54 in the Gulf War era. This actually isn't that old because if you think about it, Woods was about to turn 51 in 1981 during the Cold War campaign. What's a few more years?

We last saw Adler in action post-campaign in Warzone 1.0 cinematics but we've been kept in the dark about Adler's whereabouts post-1984 (after being brainwashed and killing Stitch LOL).

This meanie in a beanie wasn't forgotten about, oh no. He appears in the new cinematic intros on startup for both MWII (2022) and MWIII (2023). See below:

He was also featured twice in the 20 year anniversary video for Call of Duty whereas COD Ghosts didn't even get an appearance (ouch): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL_w5HmxsPI

I personally believe Adler was a great addition to the Black Ops roster and is essentially the new Black Ops 'cover boy' now. Would be such a shame and a missed opportunity not to include a character like him in the upcoming COD. One who is morally grey, does whatever he deems necessary to get the job done - a bit like Cpt. Price in MW. Got the COD fans riled up about him brainwashing and pulling the trigger on Bell too - he's already got the spotlight in both a good and bad way.

Now, let's explore my main reasoning as to why I think Mr Shades 2.0 is most likely coming back in late 2024...

🎖️First up: Gulf War mission list 🔫

Here are some of the campaign missions that will be featured in Black Ops Gulf War. Obviously, this is subject to change, however, going off what we have, look closely...

Credit: @MWIIINTEL on Twitter/X

Safehouse guys...SAFEHOUSE. Takes you right back to Cold War, doesn't it? Ugh the potential.

🕵️ Next up: The campaign for COD 2024 will dive into the CIA's role/the Black Ops timeline 🕘

I took the following snippet from this official article.

From this, we know there will be a huge focus on the CIA and who's a CIA clandestine special officer? Mhm, you guessed it - Russell Adler.

Now, according to the events of BO2, it's evident which characters have the possibility of returning out of our original BO trio - Jason Hudson, Frank Woods and Alex Mason.

💫 Alex is presumed dead after Frank shot him so he's out the picture in '90/91 until 2025 when they canonically meet again.

🪵 Woods would be in his 60s during this time too so I'll let you decide whether that's too old for him to be in GW.

Edit: Woods got SPAS-12'd in the kneecaps on Dec 20th 1989 by Raul Menendez so uh...yeah

🧊 Hudson died on Dec 20th 1989 at the hands of Raul Menendez.

Feel free to check out this website (Call of Duty Wiki) for an outline of the events after CW to remind yourself. Here's a link to the Black Ops timeline from there.

➡️ Gulf War being a direct sequel to Cold War and what that could mean 💉

That brings me onto the rest of the safehouse crew. Since GW is a direct sequel to CW, it would make sense for some characters to carry over if possible:

We, as the player/Bell, get to choose whether Park or Lazar die (or both lovebirds) in 'End of the Line'. It's highly unlikely they'll return unless the devs make one decision canon maybe.

There could be a chance we see Sims again given his bond with Adler (Da Nang etc.), his age (late 40s in GW) and his status (alive).

That leaves the man himself, Russ. Everything from his age to the fact he's CIA and was the deuteragonist in COD 2020's campaign just makes sense for him to have at least a lil cameo or even a larger role, don't you think?

📱Finally: Hints from official posts 🔎

This post from Call of duty's official Instagram account kind of sealed the deal for me.

Oh lookie - they dropped syringe-lover's famous line in a zombies post. Why would COD just drop it so casually like that without a reason and years after CW came out? They could've said absolutely anything else but no, this was purposeful.

And that's all for this episode guys and gals!

Thank you for reading!! 🫂

Do what you will with all this information but I have concluded in my silly little brain that scarface is coming back.

How he's only in one game is beyond me. Won't get a character like him ever again. Seems like a cliché war dude at first glance but dig a little deeper into the details of the CW campaign, peel back the layers and get into his psychology and WOWZERS.

Am I delusional? Most definitely.

But the possibility he might be returning...that little bit of hope is enough for me and i won't shut up about it.

This will age horribly if he isn't in GW. Forgive me for feeding your delusions too in that case. Please?

What are your thoughts? Feel free to share them! 😊

------

EDIT: Y'ALL IT'S HAPPENING 😭😭

[narastories]

catching up about fandom stuff

Oh, hi! Do you mind if I ramble a bit?

I feel like I've been a little distant and antisocial in the past few months due to personal stuff (mainly because my trauma bucket got kicked over many, many times, but also I've been trying to get the ball rolling on a few things I've been meaning to do for a while). And I know I'm not the only one who has been having a hard time. But now it's spring here, and I'm feeling a little hopeful and a bit more inspired. Is it just me? Do we dare to be hopeful??

I'm reminding myself that both of my favorite urban fantasy series, and main fandoms nowadays are due a new book maybe this year, and that is exciting and very much things to look forward to! It also makes me want to quickly write fic ideas I have before the canon status quo changes lol (Not that it matters. I believe you can write whatever you want. But with both of these series, we love to theorize about what is going to happen, so it feels like things are just not going to be the same when we get new pieces of information, you know?)

I'm also acutely aware that I haven't posted a Harry/Nic fanfic since the OTP challenge in NOVEMBER 2022 wtf. And uh, yeah. If you needed any further proof of my poor mental health then it is probably proof enough that I haven't touched my favorite obscure little OTP.

The good news is, that I have actually been inspired to write lately. I'm doing a little re-read of the FPA books, and also Skin Game, and it's all putting me back in the mood for fanfic. And I have been typing away for the past few weeks, trying to get back into it.

The bad news is, that I don't feel like posting things yet. I just want to be kind to myself and create without having to worry about sharing it. I know this might sound hypocritical bc I just shared a post about connecting in fandom. At the same time, sometimes it does good for a story to just let it sit and simmer a bit.

There is this expression (that I don't think is actually very popular in the English language) "to write for the drawer" and I never thought that was a bad thing. Sure I write very niche stuff so you would think it doesn't matter either way, but a story is never the same after you release it out into the world. So it's okay to keep it to yourself for a while and tinker with it and enjoy the process.

I also discovered gif making for myself. (If you have seen the gifset I posted yesterday, no you didn't :P I put it on private bc I wasn't happy with it yet. Mainly bc of the subtitle thing. I either have to figure out a clever overlay or venture out into the foreign planes of the internet to forage a little bit more lmao) I think the popularity of gifsets on tumblr is so fascinating, bc it's a format that just isn't very popular elsewhere (or convenient lol). When I was younger in fandom I never had a good enough computer to do this kind of editing. So now it just made me so happy to realize that my computer can do it, and I found it a relaxing activity.

I already dipped my toe in it with that Hellraiser/DF quote gifset, but now I figured out a method to make it look a lot better. And with open source tools too! That made me especially happy lol But I also realized that if I want to post gifsets then I might have to break my "no sideblogs" rule... Anyway, this is just one more thing that I will probably experiment with privately, and then we'll see if I put it out there or not.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is: creative hobbies are important. And if you can bring yourself to do them even when you feel like shit, it usually helps to feel a little less shitty. And that I will incubate my little projects for a while longer and then maybe I will feel like sharing them.

[lostlotus-a]

ramble thing I guess (CLASSIFIED iloveyou) will be edited frequently

I just wanted to ramble about a specific character from Scp Task Force

*very big spoiler warning!!!!!!!!! I spoil the whole game's storyline, play the game first before reading this, you won't understand what I'm saying if you don't*

so uh

I seriously hope Ace is alive fr (not the cracker lol)

Oh and also for people who's reading it even though you didn't play the game, CLASSIFIED is Ace, it gets revealed at the ending cutscene of mission 5.

If he dies I'm really going to cry and make a presentation about how he was an awesome character.

So after thinking about him for about an hour or so

I came to the conclusion that Ace deserves a lot of credit/appreciation he's so cool I lovehim

I love his clothing style... just love the blue shirt... I really want him to do a face reveal since we only get to see his mouth lol...

Ok done with the rambling here, now I'm going to write about why he's important lore wise.

He's the only one who knows the truth (if he had overheard the conversation at the ending cutscene of mission 5 between the player and Overwatch(not the game)) and is alive (if he did not die)

And also depending on whether he's alive or not the story would change a lot...

If he died (I feel like if he dies he will die to Overwatch probably, he wouldn't want to leave any loose ends) there would be no one who knows about this whole freaking clone thing; and it may result in something terrible... (we don't know Overwatch's plans/motives etc but I don't think he's doing this for good. Well... he killed us. That surely isn't good huh)

If he's alive he would be the only one able to confront/deal with Overwatch (maybe the clone of the player could be contacted by Ace and get told the truth about them being clones? idk I have no idea at all at this point)

Anyways Ace surely has a lot of potential to be used as a story changer... he knows everything and looks cool and we don't even know his face haha

Also funny thing is that we don't even know his gender, I'm just thinking he's male because I feel like he is...

Thought the post ended? NO. I am going to ramble even more about him!!!!!! NOTHING CAN STOP ME NOW lol

At the end of mission 5, we can see him driving his Mercedes Benz!! suv(idk what type of car that is but it looks like a suv.) was he trying to get away from the building or to get closer? This can change everything so i thought it was interesting to talk about

If he was trying to save us in that building it would prove that he's a good person (at least he isn't trying to kill us huh?) and honestly I think this is the best option and I hope it's canon I mean- his face at the cutscene looked very determined... if this is canon it means even after hearing what we said ('ACE, get out of here!') he did not run away... he's so badass it that's the case here

And if he was trying to run away/flee the place to save his own life well... he's not like... completly evil but I would be kinda sad :(

Also kinda scary fact that we may have missed here; we DID NOT know that Classified was in fact Ace before Overwatch said it. But the problem here is, how did he even know that? Even we did not know... (this probably is something important but I have no idea how it could be important so I'm just stating it)

Okay I seriously have nothing to write now (at least now...) I really am hyped about mission 7&8 that's coming soon ahhh

The conclusion is; I love Ace even though he only appeared on mission 5 (and most of the time he was CLASSIFIED......)

[ghoooooooooooooooost]

i had to reread n edit this before posting like i was going over an essay jesus christ ((tristamp spoilers))

tldr; i was honestly disappointed but i still don't think it was completely awful + i hope if they do a 2nd season it's better *wants to see milly*.... fuck the director though

EDIT!!! 2nd season was confirmed so you can ignore the points where i question if it will happen lol

EDIT 2 actually idt i'll watch the 2nd season... for reasons that just hit me so.... + fuck night*w as well

most of this was written before the finale eek

the major problems were that the pacing was soooooo weird n some of the changes (both story wise and design wise) they made were questionable esp towards the latter half

my positive points:

i do still think individual eps at the first half were really good

i loved the animation + how they used colors

the backgrounds are cool

the artstyle shift in wolfwood's flashback was cool

i've always been "ok" abt vashwood honestly (sorry) but i will acknowledge they were very yaoiful here. i saw a person who didn't ship vashwood say the ep in tristamp where they literally just met made them ship it which was really funny bc how did that change your mind so fast

i'm ngl the milly + eriks name drops made me *JAWDROP* but that's something that only matters to ppl who watched/read the ogs first

my negative points (uh oh):

white washed wolfwood (+ his skintone is soo inconsistent in merch)

they gave vash no room to breathe n he doesn't get big sillay moments after ep 3

^ this is true for every character except i guess roberto? more on roberto later

^^^ goes with the previous too points but it felt like they were way too focused on the drama n sadness without enough (long lasting) happy or hopeful moments to contrast or balance it out overall - to the point were the characterization of our main cast suffered for it bc there wasn't enough there with them to make that properly work. and THEN the silly moments ended up suffering too bc they start feeling out of place. the drama beats kept happening one after the other at breakneck speed without breaks, messing up the pacing as well (i can kinda blame this at least partially on the fact they only had 12 eps when the og was 26 eps but i've watched plenty of 12 ep series with great pacing so i don't really know what happened here?)

i disagreed with this at first, but the lore with vash being front-loaded really did hurt the story a bit in the long run. obviously they did still spread the full details out over the course of the show but it was :\

specific to "the running man"- it's my fav ep tbh but it was strange how all the townsfolk were partying w the nebraskas with no indication they'd arrest them after they did so much damage n vash didn't even get to fix the damaged plant?? so why were they so joyous when the initial problem wasn't solved?

roberto.... was such a weird character... he managed to be both a dick n a guy w no personality, he was there to give exposition + attempt to be funny? n then die. also the marketing staff fucking hates him he's never in any merch wtf ((edited after the finale: well now we know he wasn't meant to replace milly (i had a whole paragraph complaining abt that lol) + now i feel like they added him just to kill someone other than wolfwood off))

i can't speak much on elendria bc i had so much trouble reading trimax forever ago that i never retained anything abt her other than she's trans, but everything involving her in tristamp felt strange/ like it didn't work. i have essentially same feeling about livio here. they threw legato to the side??

what the fuck was the thing with the plants towards the end. it just hit me what the hell

minor nitpicks:

i miss the old anime's ost :( tristamp's ost isn't bad by any means n there are tracks that i really like it's just idk man. especially with the the op song, i couldn't get myself to not skip the op SORRY. could you imagine how hype it would've been if a new rendition of H.T. or NO-BEAT started playing

i'm fine with stamp vash's design (blasphemous i know) but man would'n've one of his og coat designs worked well in 3d? i feel like it would've ((added after the finale: the new coat did look nice in black + they brought back his old hair in the last ep tho so. MAYBE... IN SEASON 2.... CLASSIC COAT....? *delusional*))

NO LOVE & PEACE?!?!?!?!

one of my nitpick points was that they technically didn't give vash the black hair bc i really wanna see it animated one day but assuming they are teasing a season 2 maybe they will eventually. but then how...?

[rey-jake-therapist]

First observation post-rewatching :

Still wondering where the hell did Gil-Galad go lol Why is he right behind Elrond when he's ready to attack Adar, and suddenly, he's gone? What was the point of being here at all? To say he showed up, I guess. Bad editing if it's the only reason, though.

I can't say if I find weird that Elrond would call Adar by his name. Galadriel doesn't give him the same honor and insists on calling him "Orc", and even when she wants to coax him she calls him "Uruk", but then Elrond is not Galadriel.

He calls Adar "the Father of the Orcs" before Vorohil. Again, it probably means nothing of importance because Galadriel probably told him all about Adar's "children", but still, it could be interpreted as a hint that he is Sauron, if this theory revealed to be true.

He tells Vorohil "I will ensure that Eregion's walls hold for one more night." And who's in a better place than Sauron to make this promise uh uh.

One thing's sure is that the Elrond who met Adar is also the Elrond who's battling with Orcs afterwards, because he doesn't have the pin he gave to Galadriel on his cloack.

Now Elrond could be somehow here but not really here because Sauron woodooed him or something, but it doesn't seem to be Sauron's M.O, is it? What he does is putting the person in a fictional environment, then the person acts accordingly. We never saw him put another character in trance to take his place or whatever could explain how Sauron replaced Elrond. And it still doesn't explain Gil-Galad's sudden absence.

By the way, it didn't surprise me at all that Elrond wouldn't try to negotiate more with Adar. He's certain that Durin and his army will come to the rescue, so he genuinely thinks he can defeat Adar with their help. I think what the show is making clear, through him and Galadriel, is that an alliance between Orcs and Elves will never be possible, even with a commun enemy.

Not saying it's impossible, but it seems like a lot for just a kiss ;)

Anyway, it's very fun theory to discuss anyway :D

A fellow fan (who prefers to remain anonymous) shared their “wild theory” that there can be more to the Elrond and Galadriel kiss scene that meets the eye, and asked me to do an "breakdown" and see if it can be. Now, this is just theory, don’t get your hopes too high, please. 

This scene isn’t meaningless like many are trying to make it to be: this is the kiss that Morfydd Clark teased at the premiere, and it’s in one of the main trailers for Season 2.

I rewatched the entire scene like 5 times, and I did notice there was something strange about Elrond (body language, the way he walked and, even, the way he spoke), and before the kiss itself, Adar himself seems to act shady as his eyes linger on Elrond’s face, with suspicion.

All of this can mean nothing, however, there can be some clues, here: 

Elrond sounded quite passive-aggressive in his exchange with Adar, and kind of manipulative as well (this is a tense scene, but Elrond seemed OOC); 

Elrond didn’t actually choose anything: it took me a third rewatch to observe this, but the way the scene is written and acted, it’s like Elrond isn’t there to strike any bargains with Adar or stop the attack on Eregion (which should be his goal in this scene, no?), but rather to help Galadriel break free.  

Random mention of Melian (yes, Elrond’s ancestor, but also the Maia who fell in love with an Elf); 

Elrond hitting back at Adar with mentions of his “children” (and the camera lingers on the Orcs to see their reactions. We already saw the Orcs starting to turn on Adar, and in 2x01 we saw another character pulling out the same move); 

Elrond randomly calling him “Adar” to his face;

The weird way Elrond removed the pin from his cape is quite similiar to another scene we’ve seen of a pin being removed in S1; 

Adar’s entire demeanor changes as soon as he gets close to Elrond, and looks him in the eye;

The music that plays during the kiss, seems quite familiar to the 6:22-6:25 chords of the “Last Temptation” OST. 

After Elrond leaves the tent, his demeanor seems extra cold for his usual self, and he speaks only in Elvish. He also tells the soldier that he’ll try to hold on the walls of Eregion in a cryptic way (I mean yeah, but there's another character who’s also holding the walls at the moment, and who saw the Elfish army coming from a mile away, and probably Galadriel in a cage, too).

What’s the wild theory? It’s not Elrond in that scene, but Sauron.  

We know Sauron can bend reality to his will and create illusions: we’ve seen him impersonating Finrod, Galadriel’s brother, in 1x08; and this Season he shaped the entire reality around Celebrimbor for him to complete the Nine.

We know Adar and Sauron also share a connection and they seem to be able to recognize each other (Adar knew that Halbrand was Sauron), so can that explain the change in Adar’s demeanor as soon as he looks into Elrond’s eyes? Because he realizes it’s not him, not Sauron in front of him?

A few months ago, there were some “leaks” that Sauron would impersonate Celeborn to kiss Galadriel: what if he impersonated Elrond, instead? 

Can this be how Sauron will prove to Galadriel his love for her? Because he was the one who helped her escape Adar, and he’ll show her this at the finale?  (with how the kiss was filmed, it’s possible to do a character-change-reveal situation) 

Now, and as I’ve said in the beginning of this post, this is a “wild theory”, so don’t get your hopes too high.

[its-toasted]

Who do you still handwrite to?

I've been making a letter for a very good friend. One of my OGs. We'll call them Blue. I think I always try to write to you like Mac or Blue.

Blue is not like their name but if I could tell you everything you'd understand just how it wrote itself. They are a korean genius who I adore. We grew up in church together and that says a lot for me. It's funny, who and what remained for me from church. We are world-class platonic support partners. In crime. In spirit.

The letter was supposed to be a letter. No shit. But so, so many times I would write things and not send them because it be like that, and we are blessed to have apple products, and a couple months ago I just ended up writing to her in a pocket journal. Straight up I still haven't sent it lol, it's about one-third full now. They are well aware and fuming.

Btw I have some very nice empty journals, some quality vessels acquired over the years, and out of all of them I chose some bullshit LOL (y'all gotta hear me say bullshit), this is basically two staples and two stitches. It is well-ruled baby looseleaf wrapped in an index card. It fits in pockets like a dozen dollar bills. Ok I guess I kinda like it.

ANYWAYS THE LETter to Blue has been in progress since May. Everything shifted in May and the floodgates opened for the first time in a long time so it was nice to start writing by hand again too. Home became a liminal space. I was living in a hotel for a while and looking for a new place. Blue is someone I've always been honest with. We talk enough that they stay on my mind. I think when I write personal posts to you, the void that is tumblr, I try to spill like I would to my brother or Blue. People I'm automatically myself around. It's my substitute for therapy.

My brother is Mac. I decided not to change his name, it didn't feel right. I don't think he'll mind. He is absolutely the light of my life. I can't seem to write anything about him that isn't a huge cliche. Favorite face, saving grace, et cetera. I don't deserve him at all, you don't understand. Or maybe you do.

I can't help but feel like growing older just means having fewer and fewer people like Mac and Blue. So many people I once lived my life with are just elsewhere, you know? That's nobody's fault it's just life. You can only keep so many people in pursuit. At some point you're just checking up on each other, and at some you even forget to do that. It doesn't really get easier to swallow but we're trying to keep our eyes down the field and stay in stride these days. Since being stuck is less than ideal. I don't want to go back there soon.

Writing by hand is just different. Somehow, this was the original purpose of this post. I've been blessed to have some damn good handwriting penpals over the years. So often now since our lives are in screens, handwriting is an afterthought. But spilling to Blue since May makes writing feel as sacred as it used to. It's deliberate and painstaking and a choice made for the sake of a different touch. And it's pretty in-line with when I started posting more here again too.

There's a lot I'm too much of a mess to say right now: A Memoir. I am sitting in a room that is workfire ablaze as we speak so uh I should maybe deal with all of this first. Like no really I'm about to get lost in the sauce. The only way I fuck up this gig is if I keep letting myself slip like this. We'll call today (and yesterday) an exception for self care.

Edit: It's 3 AM and I'm all caught up, feeling like a hunnid bucks. I drank too much coffee help

[rpbetter]

i feel like i'm the only autistic person on this site who actually finds double spaced prose EASIER to read than single spaced? i guess because justified text is easier to read than aligned left? so i wanted to start doing it myself, but i didn't, even if it was more easy and aesthetically pleasing to me personally, because so many people are the opposite. formatting is something i genuinely enjoy, it feels playful, relaxing, and makes rp a lot more fun for me. also, differentiates it from other creative writing, among other things. i totally get where people who dislike formatting for aesthetic are coming from, though! not trying to start shit, just i'm vaguely amused that i'm an anomaly among fellow neurodivergent roleplayers with this!

Oh, no, it totally doesn't sound like you're starting shit! That was an excellently explanatory message while still coming off friendly, you are awesome for that. This was really interesting to get because you're right, that is funny...and interesting, I think!

You know what I don't do that I find more appealing? Indent sentences. I used to, I have a lot of editing as a novella RPer, so it isn't like I'm not already going over things with the opportunity to do it lol but...so many people were complaining about this coming off as too stiff or throwing them while they were reading longer replies, so, I stopped doing it. Not complaining to me, which I realize probably should have mattered a little more, in retrospect, right? If the people I was writing with didn't have an issue with it, I probably shouldn't have paid attention to things I saw being reblogged on my dash by people I wasn't writing with.

There are things I staunchly refuse to give up, like emphasis. It isn't for any aesthetic reason in my case, it's because I enjoy conveying the emotion in my conversational writing with my rather emotive muse, but when I read back over it, it can be visually appealing, too. I don't typically have too many problems (and if I do, it's something I can revisit more successful when I'm not having deeply unwanted concentration issues that have nothing to do with my interest in and excitement over them) focusing on my writing partners' replies, none are as uh, emphatic as I am, but with my own writing? Oh, yes. I wrote it, I edited it once after I was done writing it, then I edited the damn thing again before positing it - by the second or third time around, man, am I really over myself. So, having my muse's more direct thoughts in italic or the usual emphasis on words here and there, it visually breaks it up for me and makes that a more pleasing experience.

I can totally see how formatting is enjoyable! It's just another thing that makes it creatively your own, and I very much appreciate creativity regardless of whether it's my style. Additionally, I have seen formatting done in a way that I thought was approachable, tasteful, didn't take anything away from the writing while being attractive, that sort of thing. I'm not even sure how to describe the difference, but I think maybe...that it was such a cool combination of these couple of muns' ability to seamlessly mesh both?

There is no way in hell I could do that! These two were also novella, and I cannot imagine that undertaking. Have to admire that dedication and having gotten it down to a science!

I definitely appreciate you sending in your different view, thank you! It's always interesting to hear these sorts of things, I feel like a lot of the time everyone gets lumped together, and depending on what it is, it's either funny or annoying to be the different one. The latter being why those expressed differences can be done rather vehemently, and coming from an understandable place in that or not, that doesn't benefit a thing we need a ton more of in the RPC - toleration of differences.

We're all here to roleplay, yes, but that means something a little different to everyone. The process is different for everyone, what they enjoy, for how long, with what sort of muses, just a million little differences. What I, or anyone else, prefers or doesn't does not make it The Right Way or The Wrong Way. It's understandable we can get a bit vexed by that individuality, feel like one way is ruining what we like or need, feel like another way is pressuring us to change, and so on. As people, it is kind of hard sometimes to understand why something we can't stand is beloved by someone else, and harder still when it's almost everyone else.

So, I think it's important to the Sisyphean task of getting people to like and dislike with mutual respect to hear differences. It can help remind us of the human variable involved, and that it's not just alright, it's good to let other people do their thing. It's not coming at a cost to your thing the majority of the time, after all. It can just really feel that way when you're in the minority on the matter, as I'm sure you know!

Thanks again, I hope you're getting some lovely formatting done, Anon!

PS:

maybe, since you enjoy the double-spacing and find it easier, you should see if any of your writing partners would mind you doing so? Maybe I should rephrase that as seeing if they wouldn't have a difficult time reading it lol that might come off the wrong way! I don't mean to imply that anyone should ever be beholden to whatever others want them to do when it comes to this sort of thing, just that it might be a good way of discerning who was both into it and not going to struggle with it any. That way, you could get to do it without any risk of being inaccessible or losing partners.

And if you're a meme or musings blog (thank you for that, too, if you are), you could always try out doing the two versions! I really loved that, sometimes the shorter musings that were more formatting were truly added to by that, and I absolutely did reblog them over the plainer versions with minimal formatting. But, if they had characters that made my brain weird out or showed up as unreadable on my browser and so forth, there was a duplicate version that was "stripped down." Seems like muns even tagged them that way so that you could search those specifically or filter them out even.

Before someone takes issue with it, I'm not saying that meme, musings, or other resource blogs are obliged to do more work. (Anon harassment did not trigger my paranoia, I said, like a liar lmao) It could be beneficial though, like, for the resource blog, maybe! Put in the plain version and queue it, copy it and paste, format away, queue it for another day. Double the output, double the chances of interaction with your posts!