#even if most of the cool effects are just

[thesiltverses]

Who are the people who win the status quo in the TSV world?

In ours there are capitalists who have, for all intents and purposes, *won* the system — more money than they can ever sanely spend in their lifetimes, being able to afford any material luxury they ever so desire, beyond the reaches of mortal laws and jurisdictions, insulated from common political concerns by heinous wealth.

What does that look like in TSV? Someone untouchable by gods, maybe only hoarding the positive blessings with 0 negative effects, deflecting harms onto people lower down the food chain.

It feels like everyone in TSV is living precariously to me — walk by a coffee shop at the wrong time and you might get caught in a deity of sleep publicly-broadcast ascendancy. Who are the people completely immune from this? Is it only the gods themselves?

Well, I don't agree with the premise, I think; even the gods live precariously, for all their power, because they'll never be rid of their lousy insecurities and their implacable desire for attention and love, and because you cannot buy your way out of time, change, death, or your own fundamental incompleteness.

We don't present anyone within the TSV setting who's 'won' and lives in complete existential safety, because I'd argue that doesn't feel true to life or capitalism: our most powerful characters and entities remain hungering little things, expending a huge amount of energy on the desperate pretence that they aren't hungry and they aren't desperate and they aren't alone and they deserve to have the power that they have.

Anton Chigurh can claim to be some kind of inhuman agent of remorseless fate and then still get sideswiped by a random car. Our billionaires can buy themselves a governing share in the most powerful nation on the planet and yet remain a sad little twerp desperately and vainly hunting for reassurance from internet strangers that he's actually likeable and cool. And tomorrow any one of them may be wiped out by hubris, obstinacy or just bad luck, no matter how many preventative advantages or how much financial invulnerability they hold over the rest of us.

There's a consolation - even if there's not a huge amount of hope - in knowing that even the tallest trees do not grow whole within this walled garden, under this light.

[teecupangel]

“How can art be sexually deviant? Art is art.” Desmond argues, sounding like an excuse even to his ears.

From @shepardking

Lmao just imagining Ezio coming into Desmond's estate like "WHERE IS MY RECRUIT?!" Only to see the recruit being treated by a doctor and Desmond "gone". Ezio interrogates all the staff but no one says anything...but the cook is suspicious as hell and Ezio thinks he knows something... meanwhile Desmond was just trying to make something to eat 😭 can't a man feed himself without everything crashing down around him??? Because while Ezio would have a general idea of what Desmond looks like because of rumors and descriptions, but people exaggerate and Renaissance Italian people of high society will DEFINITELY do that. So Ezio only has the fact that the cook glows bright golden to go on, and that's not a lot to figure out why. Does he have information? A rich man would never cook his own food after all

You know what would be funny? If Ezio met Desmond before when he sneaked into Desmond’s villa to check if this supposed sexual deviant lord is any danger.

He and Desmond, who he believed to be a chef, hit it on and he believes said chef when he described his ‘lord’ as a bored rich idiot who wants to fuck around with the Borgias.

Now, Ezio is on a warpath and Desmond prefers to wear comfortable simple clothes and has been ‘recruited’ to find said sexual deviant lord and the missing recruit.

Which leads to…

Tags from @wisecloudnightmare

#the snort i let out 😂 #oh my god just imagine walls upon walls of gay porn that ezio will see when he barges in to the Miles Manor #just. everything Desmond does will only make ezio misunderstand more #like with des' fondness of ezio #ezio probably thinks it's because he was the first person to ever openly accused des to be deviated. make des go #“hmm. interesting ;)” like those old school shoujo male lead #des sees him trying to put distance between them and doubles down on (what he thinks are) his “suspiciously friendly rich man” gestures #to keep ezio away but... why does everyone looks at him like that? he had seen ezio and leo hug in public! it's not that weird! #assassin's creed #desmond miles #ezio auditore #cool au

Ezio doesn’t just misunderstand Desmond’s fondness for him, he misunderstand Desmond’s fondness for Leonardo as well and even how close they are.

Good news! Ezio now knows Leonardo is gay.

Sorta bad news! Ezio now believes Desmond and Leonardo are having a secret relationship. He doesn’t know what a sugar daddy is but that’s what he believes Desmond is to Leonardo.

From @thedragonqueen1998

The mental images of the "borgia men getting fucked in the ass" paintings is fucking sending me. XD Historians are definetly gonna love the sexual deviant Lord Miles.

“There are many historians who theorize that the evilest and scandalous stories about the Borgias were created by their enemies except for one. Only known as the Sexual Deviant Lord from Spain, this eccentric rich lord preferred to insult the Borgias by having them engage in homosexual acts of sex in the background of famous pieces of arts. His commissions alone proved to be more effective in making other people believe that the Borgias are sinful sexual deviants themselves.”

From @lorena12me

Ezio *dramatically kicks in the door*: Stop right there, Lord Miles!!! Desmond: Wait a minute, man who I definitely don't know. Leonardo Da Vinci is painting my fursona... and Cesare Borgia getting fucked in the ass.

“Of course, my fursona is not going to fuck Cesare Borgia. Leonardo, my dear…”

“I will paint the most grotesque anatomically accurate mangy dog, my lord.”

“Thank you.”

(sorry in advance, I've been stewing over this for so long that this will be a long one xd)

I was re-reading your fics on ao3 again (sue me, im starved for desmond time travel content) and whilst reading Eagle of Alamut's description i realised '...wait a damn minute, it is true! all of Desmond's knowledge on past is from his ancestors!' (not everyone is as big of a nerd as shaun). Cue weeks of relentless daydreaming over Desmond in Reneisance Italy trying his damnest to lay low... but: 1) he does not know what is socially acceptable at the time (clothe and behaviour wise)

2) the animus likely shielded it's users from the more... er.. unsaviory historical accuracy (child marriage, smell, violence and mistreatment towards the poor, women, disabled)

3) politics, culinary arts, medicine and money value from that era are not common knowledge (or even fully known to todays historians)

4) Ezio was not known for his subtility...

...so while desmond may know who to strike in order to protect Ezios family from getting executed, what places he may know to avoid if he wants to avoid attention from the italian brotherhood.

He does not know what he was getting himself in to when he decided to travel back in time.

I can just imagine him thinking that he can finally retire and live his life, but then BOOM here comes the shock of sociatal injustices! religious violence! inequality! horrendous mistreatment of beggars and disabled people! and as a good man raised in the 21st century he obviously can't, in his right conciousness, just turn his back on these issues, on these people.

So here he is, in Rome of all places, doing his best to atleast stay hidden from the Auditore's, and consequesntly, the Italian brotherhood's, detection, as he stalks the bright rooftops of Roma as histories (probably) very first assasin turned vigiliante!

I can just picture him at one point or another, getting mistaken for a Spanish assasin and his only attempt at 'confirming' (read: encouraging misleading rumours), is to use the very little languistic knowledge the American education system has bestowed upon him. cue him very awkwardly trying to immitate a Spanish accent/ speak in Spanish. or just, you know, say the only words every student knows, 'Feliz Navidad'.

It would be so funny if Desmond’s Spanish are based on:

1) what little remains of Ezio’s Spanish (maybe on par or even worse than his French)

2) Basic Spanish that he learned on the Farm

3) Spanish songs he heard

So people think that Desmond is eccentric.

And Rich.

Because Desmond wants to help people but he doesn’t want to be seen as an Assassin so…

He becomes a supposed rich Spanish (Arabic would have sent a red flag to the Brotherhood) noble who came to Rome to live a life away from his ‘family’.

Why is he ‘rich’?

Well, killing nobles and other ‘evil doers’ will flag the Brotherhood as well so it would be better to just…

Leave certain incriminating evidence in the doors of their enemies and let them duke it out. Hey, if some things go missing while they’re too busy with their enemies, that’s just collateral damage.

Also…

Sometimes, things go missing when some people get into accidents.

It’s easy to buy the impoverish area in Rome. It’s a bit challenging to get doctors to treat them.

Until Desmond flashed the right amount of money, of course.

Desmond manages to stay under the radar by being part of the upper echelon.

An eccentric foreigner who helps the poor and sick out of the goodness of his heart.

Or… because he apparently believes that the way to heaven is through good will and not… paying the clergy.

Desmond knows that being seen as completely good is a bad thing as well so he lets rumors spread that he’s an opportunist who heals the sick and protects the weak to receive their loyalty. He gives them salary to become his guards (not that he needs any) and people whisper how loyal the poor are to someone who gives them bread.

And to hammer in that “no, Ezio, I am absolutely not connected to the Templars BUT I’m also not going to be a good ally, just leave me alone!” plan he has, he becomes a patron of the art.

Sexually progressive art.

The church hates him but tolerates him because Desmond does ‘donate’ (jokes on them, he donates what he stole from the church) and the artists love him because he commissions stuff with the same thing over and over again “whatever you want to paint/sculpt/work on but I want the Borgia men getting fucked in the ass while Lucrezia Borgia watches”

He’s not rich enough to actually be a threat (especially after Ezio starts wrecking shit up) and he keeps to himself most of the time.

But, of course, life always has it out for Desmond and he comes face to face with a wounded recruit at the edge of his property and…

Well…

He only wanted to heal him then send him on his merry way.

He didn’t expect Ezio to come barging in thinking said recruit has been kidnapped by the eccentric ‘possibly sexual deviant’ Lord Miles.

[tomahachi12]

Hi! I really like your virus AU! I got a couple questions tho...

How did the other workers react to everyone's transformation? We haven't seen Khan, Lizzy, or Thad in this AU yet, after all.

Also, does the gang still go to school, or do they just... hang out all day?

The Virus Au wasn't really something I was working on before.

Now I just answer what questions people have about it or draw silly requests.

--

Story-wise, it mostly takes place outside of the Bunker. The DDrones were too dangerous to have inside when they were still going crazy anyway.

Most of the workers didn't even know this was going on, only the few that are close to Uzi.

Even after getting the first patch, Khan was worried about them still hurting anyone and wouldn't allow Uzi to bring them inside Bunker. He was also worried about the Virus possibly spreading to the workers, and especially Nori. He was also worried for Uzi, but there wasn't anything he could do to stop her.

They're hiding out in Y's workshop outside the bunker while Uzi works on the patch.

Thad thought it was cool, and kept trying to get them to pass the Virus to him thinking it would make him better at sports. It did not.

The Virus doesn't effect non-solver drones the same, so he just got sick for a few days.

Lizzy would still hang out with them while Uzi was trying to figure out the next patch, but when your gf gets turned into oversized cat that climbs all over you and litteraly claws for attention all day, it gets a little annoying.

Thad and Lizzy would help keep an eye on them if Uzi had to leave.

--

Khan and Nori are more involved once Uzi gets infected. The DDrones are fully patched and healed at this point, but the patch doesn't work for Uzi, and now they have to figure out a new patch that'll work for her.

--

This takes place around a year or two after the end of the series, so Uzi, Thad and Lizzy have already graduated from school.

Thad is working with Khan to toughen up the WDF and also runs part of the school's sports program.

Lizzy helps Sarah in the Medical Bay and is learning to be a nurse. They work together with Y to come up with new methods to repair and even upgrade parts.

Uzi still just hangs out with the DDrones and does whatever all day.

[indiestsnake]

“Absolute power, but only for a moment…”

“Pure godhood. Transcendence of the being.”

“In the name of Duality, for this war’s end, and polarity’s destruction…”

“BURN!!!”

Perspective practice with Duality that quite literally spiraled into messing with brushes. And writing poetry.

Late Startober Day Five- Transcendence I suppose :P

[mattodore]

birthday boy 🎂

[loveshard]

crowned the apparent winner, stephen felt anything but a victory. not when his reality was that he still carrying a massive hard-on and surrounded by his closest friends in a noisy bar. as a silver lining, he was relieved it wasn't him who caved in like a house of cards and threw in the towel. that was all sky, and that leverage brought a shy grin to his flushed face. he was well aware of the effect he had on his girlfriend, and it was hard not to revel in the subtle cracks in her confident teasing whenever he pushed just the right buttons.

"yeah, um. that corndog at the alamo. i don't know, it must've been something to me. think it's better we check out now, you know, just to recover properly," stephen added with a hand on his stomach, mocking nausea as he meekly nodded towards their friend group. he had to hand it to sky, this was an convenient excuse to make their getaway, one he didn't think about at first. whether they bought the lie or not, the jury was still out for discussion, but now newly free jailbirds, they said their goodbyes without second-guessing. his stance was much more mumbled and stiff as he hid behind her delicate frame, her attempt to shield his... situation making him chuckle softly. he tightened his grip on her hand, keeping close as they made their way to the door, mood instantly lifting into higher spirts.

once outside, the cool night air hit them, but it did little to temper the heat simmering between them. stephen let out a dramatic sigh, rubbing a hand over his face as if to sell the "not feeling well" excuse even further. he stepped closer, his free hand sliding to sky's waist, holding her in place as he leaned in. “so,” he said, his tone quieter now, his forehead nearly brushing hers, “that was.. something. are you sure you’re ready to leave, or did you just want to see how far you could push me before i snapped?” his lips twitched into another grin, his eyes locked on hers as he dipped his head slightly, his nose brushing against hers. "i'm most definitely ready to head back home and play nurse for the rest of the night, if that makes up your mind at all," he said, his tone shifting back to playful as he took a step back, lacing his fingers through hers again.

the irony of it was that to her, stephen was a sex god. he seemed to know exactly what to do to tease out the dirtiest parts of her, where to touch her so that she'd crumble into a thousand horny pieces. so whenever she got the upper hand like this, she was determined to follow through as much as possible. "'m not playing dirty, just playing," sky defended quietly, indignant in how she looked at him. but it was hard for her to keep going too, because the groan that was attached to his words made her suddenly very aware of how hot she felt. how much arousal swirled in her system, being pulled into focus because he was pushing against her. stephen's fingers dipped into her waistband and she felt herself lurch forward a little, having to bite the inside of her cheek to stop a sound from coming out. the small touch sent her head swimming with static, with need . . . how pathetic, she'd been teasing him for the better part of fifteen minutes now but the moment her boyfriend dipped into dangerous territory, she conceded. the thought alone made her weaker.

"ye-" skylar paused to swallow, throat dry and sandy. "yeah, let's go." she took her last swig of her drink, cringing as it burned down to her stomach ( probably not a good decision considering how hot her belly was as is ) , and stood up abruptly. she took steph's hand in her's, tugging him upwards, making sure he was always half-hidden behind her to conceal the tent in his pants. "i think we gotta go guys, uh steph's not feeling too well." she glanced back to him, ears ringing, heart pounding, expectation almost making her shake. "right, steph?"

[halfdeadwallfly]

[musubiki]

does coco ever bring up the kidnapping to tease taffy?

I DIDNT THINK ABOUT THAT BUT IT WOULD BE AMAZING IF SHE DID!!!!!!!!!!! taffy says anything along the lines of "dont do that" and she goes "or what? gonna kidnap me?"

(bonus points for the rare times where taffy doesnt back down and gives her A Look™️ and says "Maybe." and cocos brain short circuits for a second)

[sometimeswritingsometimesdying]

i've had a vision of aiden and black magic by little mix and now i'm knee deep in a modern magic au where aiden sells cheesy love potions by being hot (it's a scam)

[pokenoire]

I want to really understand how people look at this and see it as "confusing" he is not confused, at most grateful and the kiss was simply+ a measure of affection for him It was this admosphere for me that they wanted to create

He is surprised, but not confused, he processed the information, and then smiled and nodded happily.

What about that final smile is a confused reaction? It's more of a realization and an acceptance "oh thank you for your feelings" practically.

Even if it's one-sided, it's just "ok, it was cool until next time" 🙃

His neutral reaction in JN105 talking excitedly to her just proves my point that people either do a U-turn to not accept that Ash is okay with it or they just want to be the their Pokegirl here. Even if I wasn't an Amourshipper, this scene isn't confusing at all.

He's just an "Aroace who's okay with affection/not repulsive to kissing" or he just likes her, and didn't really feel anything too specific like an Aroace, who denies kisses I say there is nothing wrong with that .

Like, when Latias kissed him he looked more confused, and it took him even longer to process that, I think it's the fact that she added a sparkle to his eyes, it's an effect of "this is happening to me?"

And of course this being super valued in the fandom LEFT me surprised, I had personally forgotten until I saw the discussion about it being so aggressive. My mind threw this scene to the back of the drawer I think I started to care about it because of the speech about it, what stresses about it and people using it as "it's definitive Amourshipping" when it depends on several production factors despite the ship being well loved or fervently hated

It might be the favorite "kiss" scene among 4th Japanese people in 2024 if that's any indication that people want it real lol (which surprises me because I don't look at this polls often) If you look at the public's reaction in favor it's not so bad.

They'll be fine if it's a QRPT kiss at most

Anyway, it's just my own thoughts and doubts in general, I don't really value this scene.

Is he aroace?

🧡    💛     🤍     🩵    💙

Reasoning: He only really showed any indication of attraction once, when the number of episodes was still in the single digits. In the time since then, he regularly misses signs of attraction, both directed at himself and between others, near-exclusively interpreting things in a platonic way. Even on the few occasions where he does recognize romance, he doesn't appear to see it as as big of a deal as the people around him. There's also an instance where a friend kisses him and his reaction is... essentially to just stand there confused and not mention it when he meets her again, while all of their other friends have very dramatic reactions to it.

[anghraine]

I honestly feel a lot better about having posted anything at AO3, even things I won't finish, and there's something that warms my heart about posting fic for The Borgias in 2024.

I was actually deciding between two different WIPs to represent that "phase" between my undergrad years and grad school. The other one was the prologue to a Legend of Korra/Star Wars fusion in which Noatak/Amon is Korra's father and this is revealed in S1 (I think it was going to be Tarrlok who figures it out first, lol) and it actually affects the plot and it isn't just the LOK canon plot with minor adjustments—the fusion with SW was meant to be more than vague I-am-your-father inspiration. In any case, I only ever wrote the prologue about the Noatak/Senna quasi-romance that led to Korra's existence and never even got to the sheer comedy of Korra as Tarrlok's niece :(

But the Juan and Lucrezia as dysfunctional twins one-shot is closer to being a whole fic (in a side-story way) and I did like being able to add one more to my Borgias oeuvre—and getting at least some part of that AU on AO3 after all the time I spent on it!

[lucalicatteart]

-- Poorly Constructed Enchanted Tool --

A small tool carved from a fruit tree seed. Energy to power the enchantment has seemingly run-out long ago, and the method of recharging is unknown - but, based on the appearance, it's very likely that this was once used for detecting magic. Usually, looking through the glass center would highlight areas of higher magical energy concentration present in the viewer's environment, even if they were otherwise obscured to the naked eye. While this form of enchantment itself is highly advanced, the craftsmanship of the item is far less neat or complex than what might be typically seen in similar devices. It may have been made as part of training/practice, or as a hasty replacement for a previous tool that had broken.

[sysig]

Bad time of it, all things considered (Patreon)

[thebaldursmouthgazette]

I think theres a chance the warden* might be back** in da:tv!!

*from a world state where they died killing the archdemon and were interred at weisshaupt

** as a corpse possessed by Urthemiel, who is probably one of the evanuris

[fragmentedblade]

I called it, Ruan Mei is deranged and shady as hell

[adozentothedawn]

Thoughts about Rogue Trader so far:

Well that sure was the fastest promotion I've ever gotten. xD I'm kinda sad about it, I was hoping for a mean space mom, but I'll take it.

I like the characters so far! Although Abelard does not appear as space dad either for now, but that's alright he's still cool. As are Indira and Argentum.

I am a bit confused by the gameplay and am uncertain how much of that is just Warhammer things I don't get or strange choices. I'm sure the "wounds" label probably comes from ttp so whatever, but the fact the whole characteristics and skills thing seems a bit unbalanced to me for now considering that Int controlls nearly half of all skills alone. But maybe I'll know better once I've gotten a better handle of it. It just seems unintuitive as a whole right now. I like the combat though! Might turn the difficulty a bit higher even, I'd like to get a bit more of a challenge I think. (That said, story mode does do what it's supposed to. It should be extremely easy, I just changed my mind on what I want) Still somewhat confusing like the hologram thing I think might not entirely work as intended but I'll get a handle on it.

Main criticism for now: This game is badly optimizied. Apparently that is a notorious Unity sin so I won't blame them too much, but I do hope they'll patch it soon, this game should not make my cooler run louder than BG3. Turning off v-synch and putting a lower fps cap has helped for now, but come on.