#flame replies

[flame-shadow]

Happy birthday!

thanks! 🎂

[the-kings-of-games]

💝 what's a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

Kekeke, why are you in my inbox so mcuh? What, are you a fan or something, @saltiestcoconut???? U3U

Stalker or not, to answer you, I wrote my first ever canon/reader fic for shits and giggles, and to shoehorn in my OT3, and I expected to get little no attention. Lo and behold, however, that I actually got a commen. 030 The reader was very sweet, and I think I accidentally treaded into their territory because they have a few canon/reader fics themselves, kek. I'm just sorry that I can't give anything in return because canon/reader aren't my thing. ._. But you get me.

If you're interested in the fic I wrote, link underneath!

A Once In a Lifetime Chance - Teen and Up Audience - Yusei/Reader, Jack/Yusei/Crow

[sforzesco]

decimus wanted to wind cassius up a bit just to see how he would snap

uhhh. what else. you know!! caesar was collecting (and discarding) a new generation of romans, operating a new kind of roman imperium. political manipulation. "good" governance. conspiracies are forming in reply.

the collage art is all public domain/open access stuff from the met collections!

[crossbackpoke-check]

blessed be (lorscher bienensegen) | telling the bees (wiþ ymbe)

"Bees" [remixed, abridged], Claudia Emerson // "Letter to Someone Living Fifty Years from Now" [remixed. abridged], Matthew Olzmann // "Letter to my Great, Great Grandchild" [remixed, abridged], J.P. Grasser | Len Redkole, Nina Weiss, Brian Babineau, Christian Peterson, Mitchell Leff, Dave Isaac, Megan DeRuchie

[thecouncilarchive]

Charlie tweeted! He really wants this key guys

[calebwittebane]

idk why these ppl find it so incomprehensible that i think the phrase "full blown freak addicted to fat puffy nipples" is waaaaay funnier than any of that "um omggg that person you dont know was jacking off to SUCH weird stuff omg omg let me tell you how crazy their r34 tastes were. guys the porn was soooo weird" stuff like no im sorry but thats dumb and uncomfortable and boring and unpleasant and i dont wanna hear about that shit at all. must be because i have a nefarious agenda and am secretly a dangerous creep. because i didnt bring up angry birds porn or prioritize officially denouncing angry birds porn or wish to discuss angry birds porn or any other such thing

[the-silver-peahen-residence]

||The popular Incubus musician||

~~Reserved for @within-the-resort~~

"So boring. How long are we going to be waiting?" A voice said seeing a few demons worried.

"Now now, I'm sure we will be there soon. Just wait a bit longer." the driver said but heard a sigh from the popular musician. Tadao Hashimoto, a incubus ghoul was sitting in his limo looking at the window. He was told about some thing but he was only bored knowing this was going to be another long meeting when getting there. Oh well, he just hopes it was worth the time for it.

[drenched-in-sunlight]

i loooooove your re-imagining of rellana as a gorgeous masc lesbian who's got a little crush on marika she's SO real. i wish we could have gotten a cinematic for her and romina v_v

thank you! and yeah i wish we had more interaction with her and Romina (tbh im still kinda confused about what's Romina deal... Messmer and his army burned down her church, but now she's left alone to tend to the Church and guard the path to the sealing tree? who was she before she embraced the rot?? i can't seem to place her in any of the existing factions at all)

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

hi! so I saw a reddit post a few days ago about a dead aasimar (Omar) who can be found in the House of Healing - but what was interesting is that they said it was *his* wings Balthazar took for Marcus. I always thought they were Aylin's wings; isn't there a line about how Balthazar experimented on her early on, or Isobel reacting to the wings/realizing what Balthazar did, something like that? or did I imagine that? I would love to hear your take on this! (I don't know if I can send links in asks, but it's r BaldursGate3/comments/1gxo0tm/)

Oh, hey! It's Olam the Dead Aasimar Harper, my own personal favourite basically nonexistent NPC to shower with utterly disproportionate levels of attention! He's the guy I brought up in the final part of Moon-chosen, Moon-guided, who Aylin hears about and then really wants to retrieve and give a proper burial to. Entirely because of my aasimar fixation and because I love playing around with Aylin being an aasimar but also absolutely not being a regular aasimar, and how she'd feel about others both like and unlike her.

Olam is indeed the only other aasimar in the game. I love the little story we get told there, via one journal and one note, and one fight against a special animated armour.

The full text of his journal aka "a chilling account of an aasimar Harper's final tendays in the cursed lands" is here, and I find it a really nice bit of writing and an insight into that period - piecing together all these little bits and pieces about what happened to the Thorms and Reithwin and the armies on both sides is my favourite part of the game. Act 2 my beloved.

'All beings should walk free of fear', I was taught. Oh, if only were I granted such a fine fate.

So, Olam is a Harper who fought against Ketheric a century ago, and was there when the curse first happened. He was some kind of spellcaster (his insistence on research and experimentation screams wizard, to me) and he had an affectionate bird familiar called Corvin, presumably a raven. In his experimentation and efforts to lift the shadow curse, he accidentally animated his own armour, which you can fight in that acid pit area. But he ultimately failed, and then he succumbed to the shadows, alone. Tragic stuff, right?

You've activated my trap card! By which I mean I saw that post, saw videos of "you won't believe this NPC you missed!!!" go viral, saw people take it as gospel and start parroting misinformation about a very specific fandom interest of mine again, and got so frustrated I almost started posting WELL ACTUALLY Reddit comments. Horrifying.

Instead I get to ramble here! Thank you so much for providing an excuse (genuinely). It's kind of like the oathbreaker/disowned by her mother nonsense, people just can't seem to leave Aylin alone and let her have any of her actual damn story beats and themes and it grinds my gears. And just like the Child of the Moonmaiden stuff, someone has already added it to the BG3 wiki with zero sources, and now it's spreading like wildfire based on absolutely nothing. What a glorious microcosm of our reality.

Salt aside, thank you for the question! Let me actually answer it, and dig out exactly what is in the game itself.

TL;DR: While nobody looks at the camera and says as much, I'm convinced the wings are Aylin's, and that Balthazar had nothing to do with this guy.

First of all, and my simplest point: regular 5e aasimar don't actually have physical wings. One subtype of them (or, more recently, one of their three once-per-day "transformation" options) gives you this:

You can use your action to unleash the divine energy within yourself, causing your eyes to glimmer and two luminous, incorporeal wings to sprout from your back.

Two luminous, spectral wings sprout from your back temporarily.

This lasts for a whole minute, and then you have to long rest to do it again. Of course, BG3 plays around with 5e rules and adapts them as needed, and there's no actual BG3 aasimar set of racial abilities implemented in the game. There's only Aylin who has the wings on by default, and there's our wingless boy of the hour, Olam - who is a corpse statted as "Human" if you right-click inspect him, so no help there. The only actual mention that he is supposed to be an aasimar comes from the description of his journal I quoted up there, and from the inspiration popup that some character backgrounds get when you find him (Sage and Acolyte, to be specific).

On a personal note, as a player of aasimar characters who've died by being thrown from great heights after having used up their wings for the day, believe me when I say I am deeply envious of whatever Aylin has going on in the wings department. She makes them appear and disappear in a flash at will and it's very cool. I love it. There's a special graphical overlay of feathers fluttering down all over your screen sometimes when she's around. I am enamoured.

Next, in the Marcus confrontation, Isobel doesn't give any signs of recognising the wings, nor does she comment on them specifically - she's shocked by Marcus' betrayal as he's been with them for a long time and nobody ever suspected a thing. I checked the dialogues/devnotes to see if there's anything else there, and there isn't. It's delicious angst material, certainly, the implications are deeply horrifying, and several people have written about it, me included, in tumblr posts and in fics, so you've probably seen the idea around a bunch. Not in the game itself, though.

Moving on, here's the full text of Balthazar's note you can find in Moonrise, titled "A Little Gift":

Marcus - I assume no explanation is needed for just how rare these appendages are, and I trust you shall make good use of them. You have a golden opportunity to please the General. Do not squander it. Access to the unwilling donor has proven difficult since the harvesting, but if I am afforded the opportunity, I shall pass along your gratitude. B.

This is pretty much it with regards to the wings explicitly. Speak With Dead on Marcus doesn't give anything related to the wings either. The only other thing is a little exchange between Z'rell and Marcus at Moonrise if his mission was a success, part of a series of little dialogues where she keeps rebuffing him and his efforts to get his hard-earned "audience with the General":

Marcus: I am free to do more for the Absolute, Disciple. Anything. Z'rell: Would you cast yourself from the tower-top? Marcus: Of course. I have the Absolute's wings to catch me. Z'rell: Off you go, then. I've always wanted to try those ballistas.

Ah, Z'rell, always a delight.

Now, let's look at the relevant final line in Balthazar's note.

Access to the unwilling donor has proven difficult since the harvesting - Balthazar, the necromancer who makes dead pixie moonlanterns, does not have big problems navigating the shadow curse like the Harpers do. Thus, getting to a corpse in the House of Healing morgue a little ways away from Moonrise is not the access problem he's having, nor is it the bunch of zombies that stalk the place. Rather, it is that Shar is angry at Ketheric who betrayed her for Myrkul and is keeping him and his out of the Shadowfell. I've so often seen people rather bafflingly confused by why Balthazar needs the player's help getting to the Nightsong prison when he's the one who imprisoned Aylin there in the first place, and this is why. He tells you as much himself - for instance when you actually enter the Shadowfell:

Balthazar: It seems Shar bears a grudge against my master, General Thorm, and so sought to prevent me from entering in his name. Luckily, you were the perfect agent in helping me slip past her defences. Now the Nightsong is within reach.

As for the unwilling donor bit, and your question of whether there is a line about how Balthazar experimented on Aylin early on - not really? He calls her "his masterpiece" a bunch and loves objectifying her in very specific and gross ways. There's again no mention of wings specifically, but what they do say is he cut out her tongue at least once before:

Nightsong: Ramblings most unsane. Poor Balthazar, for maggots ate his brain long ago. Balthazar: Hold your tongue, Aylin. Or I'll take it away from you again.

They make it so very easy to hate the guy - and agree with Aylin when she says her "heart lit like a full moon when you struck down that cadaver". Here is all the overworld banter you can hear from them, which fleshes out their relationship a bit more. Shocking spoiler: Balthazar is revolting.

Balthazar: As much as I savour our conversations, it's high time we got started. Nightsong: Do what you will. I cannot prevent you. But you know as well as I, I will come for you. One day. Balthazar: Poor child, so enthralled by gory revenge fantasies. You may find yourself disappointed by reality. Nightsong: Let us find out.

Nightsong: Someone's coming. Another Justiciar, I presume. Balthazar: Do you hunger for more company? Am I not enough to keep you sated? Nightsong: I'd [rather] live a thousand years in solitude than lay my eyes [upon] thy putrid visage again. Balthazar: Only a thousand?

Nightsong: Hatred makes you so hideous, Balthazar. Balthazar: Unkind, Aylin. Unkind and incorrect - I could never hate my masterwork. Nightsong: Perhaps you're right - perhaps you're incapable of feeling at all. Balthazar: Please, Aylin - spare me. Your insults grew tired and shopworn years ago.

Balthazar: How long has it been so far? With my work, time just slips away from me. Nightsong: A hundred years. Balthazar: A mere interlude for the likes of you and I. But nevertheless, perhaps it is time for a new chapter. Nightsong: Do as you will. You can pierce my flesh, but my heart beats on, forever.

There's also a tidbit if you ask Aylin how come all it took to release her from the prison was a friendly hand on her shoulder, and she'll tell you Balthazar "taunted and cajoled" her about how easy it would be to break the spell, if anyone just thought to try. So considering all of this, you bet he'd just love to "pass along gratitude" to Aylin and tell her alllll about how they used her own stolen wings to kidnap Isobel, of all people.

So basically, yeah, Balthazar is the one who's been in the Shadowfell prison most often, before Ketheric's relatively recent turn to Myrkul and Shar barring the way in response. We're given the above general vibes and implications of what he was doing there, and the rest is left up to our own gory imaginations. As Gale put it:

A dismal place for an aasimar to spend her existence. Especially with that necrotic toad for company.

There is no connection between Olam and Balthazar at all in the game, but there is one connection between Balthazar and the House of Healing - a negative one, notably.

You find Olam in the morgue of the House of Healing, which is Malus Thorm's stomping ground. It is his laboratory and research notes you find there, not Balthazar's. Malus complains in those very same notes found there that he gets the dregs of cadavers to experiment and mess around with because his nephew Ketheric is letting his Evil Chancellor Traytor Balthazar get first pick and keep the best for himself.

So no, Balthazar did not experiment on this guy or "harvest" anything. Olam is a fairly regular Harper who we can imagine may have lasted a bit longer in the necrotic curse because as an aasimar he'd presumably have necrotic damage resistance and the ability to cast light. He's been dead for about a century, and that's about it.

Aylin is the one the note clearly points to, and, setting aside all the crunchy mechanical and nitpicky details about who does or doesn't have wings and for how long, on every meta and storytelling and textual and subtextual and thematic and classically tropey level, Aylin is the only relevant person those wings could (and should) have come from. It is evocative, it is part of the chilling tale of her betrayal and captivity and serves to paint a vivid picture of the depths Ketheric and Balthazar have sunk to, as well as make Aylin's immense rage and desire for vengeance all the more visceral - and ultimately satisfying.

[curiouscalamitys]

Re-reading Fourth Wing and Iron Flame, knowing Xaden's second signet, makes all of his interactions so nuanced.

I'm at the part where Varrish is trying to take Violet for the torture test, and Xaden is telling her that Varrish plans to use it as an opportunity to kill her for the embarrassment Tairn put him through. And Violet is like, "You can't possibly know that." Oh, but he can and does know that.

[the-kings-of-games]

If your still doing the character ask game thing, what about the arc V protag, Yuya?

Yes, I am! Thanks for asking, anon!

How do I feel about this character:

To be very honest, Yūya is my least favorite Yūtag. He's got too many flaws but not a lot of other characters to make up for it, and it didn't help that Arc-V was a big mess in plot, focus, and execution. To me, Yūya is the weakest kind of protagonist, namely because he can't help himself, not even a bit. The most pathetic of (shōnen) MCs can attain some sort of development when they finally get up on their own, but even with constant support and love, Yūya still has a hard time getting back on the horse. He falls more often than he gets up, so he just gets very sad and pessimistic way too much for a guy whose whole thing is "Smile!" It feels very disinguine of a character design.

I understand that a lot of people relate to him; however, personally, I don't get into media to relate as much as I get into it for good, or at least fun, storytelling. With a MC like Yūya, though, it's just not very enjoyable. I don't think Yūya's relatablity outweighs his overall lack of confidence and will.

All the charactersI ship romantically with this character

No one really, but he seems cute with Declan and Zuzu. I do pair him with Yūri because it's a favorite ship of one of my friends. ^^

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Gon!

My unpopular opinion about this character

He's the weakest Yūtag in the entire franchise. I know he's one part of a whole personality, but then, I'm just thinking that that's not good protag material. Especially for YGO where "believe in the heart of the cards" and "friendship is magic." All that support—he even got a mom who duels—and he can't even fight for them if not himself. Idk.

One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon

Hung out with his friends more. Arc-V kept them separated and on the edge way too much. They couldn't even stay together.

Send me a character! I've watched all the series. 👀👀👀

[tytoalbatross]

god damn i do not post often but can i talk about intentionality for a second?? one second please

i'm gonna be talking about bg3 but this really applies to any fandom space. people will, surface-level, agree that a Black character is not getting enough content compared to their white counterparts because it's. obvious . take wyll, who is several hours behind on voiced lines compared to other origins despite being one of the original five (before they added karlach and whiteified her too but that's another post). it's hard to deny cold hard facts

but then instead of engaging in content that uplifts Black characters and creators, they'll go right back to pumping out more and more content of just their white faves. on its own, it's not actively harmful, but here's what the implication is, whether they acknowledge it or not: yes wyll has less in-game content, yes his writing didn't get the attention it deserved, therefore i don't like him as much. it only perpetuates wyll's lack of content by contributing to his sidelining in fandom spaces

what i would love for fans who claim to be allies to do is to step out of the comfort zone of their initial favorites (which can, in fact, be biased!) and start pursuing content centering Black characters with intentionality. like all things, anti-racism (actively pushing back against racism rather than simply "Not Being Racist") takes practice and effort. you can't really agree with us that wyll needs more content, then in the same breath say that it's because of that that he's not interesting to you . the point was right in front of you doing a jig and you still missed it

[squish--squash]

alright wbk fandom I elect that we stop giving this anon the time out of our days and just band together and pour out more love to nii satoru and their wonderful story that they're gifting to us, this anon's starting to really annoy me

[where-does-the-heart-lie]

He just had to do it to em

I knew it was coming at some point. And yet here i stand. Hands folded with moccasins on my feet and an awful sock tan-line.

Maybe i should start putting this BJG into backgrounds of each chapter and let people try to find him lol

Maybe i should only do it once. To keep the intrigue up…

Yeah…

Yeah I’ll do that…

Thanks for the ask!

[seraphimankh]

What do you think about Boq and Fiyero never getting to be human again? Personally I think they should stay as a scarecrow and tinman because it feels, to me at least, that changing thm back diminishes the impact of what they have gone through and the decisions made. Like, they have both gone through so much and been changed forever, and not just physically. I dont know, it feels more fitting that they can move on as their different selves and still have fulfilling lives. I'm really curious to see what you think? (also I just love your designs for them, they are so cute)

I agree completely. The transformation is too a way to show that they’ve changed as people. Sure it’s not the best existence but it’s one they are given a second chance to use that existence for well good.

It provides a journey further into a way to find their true selves, and it’s hard to just reverse their process by just, turning them back to human. Seems redundant, sure they can keep what they learn but it’s just not the point of it all.

But this is just my personal opinion and if you like them changing back to human, that’s totally fine too!

I have ideas brewing in my head for things I want to do with them, but yeah I am usually on the Fiyero and Boq stay in their new forms as the Tin Man and Scarecrow

[mecachrome]

does lando have a bit of the “ambiguous euro accent” thing maybe? sth about his accent registers as non native to me but maybe thats just him forgetting basic nouns lol (i say this with love)

lol yes ollie is honestly a bit of a mini lando (figuratively. inb4 188cm) in that regard, ik the sharl comparisons are more convenient since he's ferraripilled but when you look at personality and online/fan presence and jr narratives there are sooo many more similarities to lando and even oscar imo 🤷‍♀️

sorry this was completely not the question at all LOL. anyway lando's accent is super fascinating but i'm also hesitant to say anything definitive because y'know i'm not english so once again i'm sure people familiar with bristol accents and also general english linguistic class markers would have more informed takes 😔 like even "ambiguous euro accent" isn't just one voice and his is still quite distinct from ollie's weird overenunciation thing it's just like. a vibe...

beyond that i'd say a lot of it is just having traveled extensively as a kid (oscar had a few years on him when he started karting in europe too) + i guess having a belgian parent and presumably being around a decent amount of flemish-speaking relatives growing up??? but also idk everyone is unique and some people are just inherently more prone to mirroring accents and adopting "chameleon" behavior and considering his expansive friend group it's not particularly surprising that even at his age lando would pick up on new speech patterns! i remember when i moved countries for school and didn't realize how much i was adapting my accent again until i saw my friend and she was like WHY DO YOU SOUND LIKE THAT 💀 and then i became hyperaware of it....... sob. apropos of nothing lando's voice has changed so much it's kind of unreal... age 11 vs 17 vs 24 what an interesting guy