#good job dorian unlearning all that shit

[needlesslycryptic]

Was pleasantly suprised to meet Magister Dorian Pavus again, so i had to quickly sketch him <3

[inkyquince]

Hello I’m back I set a timer it has been 24 hours tell me about your listeners please

(Please don’t feel pressured get to this when you get to it I know your still settling in and junk)

RA Anon

I DID NEED A NAP AND A DR PEPPER AND A MOMENT.

But first of all, my favourite story line is forever Sam and Darlin'. Like everything with them and Quinn is so good, and them growing closer. Like fucker, let me suck them both silly that's so good. I do love the marcus storyline cuz something in me does think we shall meet him again and mans is just crying and grovelling, like he was in james' office. Also that storyline is just to juicy, with Anton, i know he has his own listener, but lemme kiss, and JamES- IMPERIUM JAMES ALSO BEING LIKE AN AWFUL PERSON WITH HYPNOTISM FUCKING AHHHH

Also the Vega storyline with Pet and Baby is great, imperium or not. The Cutie one is heart wrenching cuz like... I love Geordie but also there's also something obviously up with Cutie. Like WHAT THEY DOING ISNT NORMAL AT ALL, ESP IN THIS SOCIETY WHERE ITS AGAINST THE LAW, SO THERE IS SOMETHING WEIRD GOING ON WITH THEM.

Like the entire arc of David is so good too.... Nibble...

ANYWAY, THATS MY BEING AN IDIOT, MY LISTENERS are UNDER the Cut

Angel: Morgan, she/her

An actual trash goblin. Friendly, open, flirty and horny. Mixed, half Japanese and half Islander from Turks and Caicos in the Carribean. Some real daddy and mommy issues. Was sent alone to American to be with an aunt has had limited contact with her parents since. Instead of becoming a good child, she got a bit rebellious, cutting all of her hair off, getting piercings and a tattoo and being OPEN AND UPFRONT AND FLIRTY, hence David. She went from prepping to be a doctor for her parents, to picking the simpliest office job, because she didn't want work to be her life, even though she now enjoys it. She is now an Actuary in a consulting firm.

Baaabe: Dorian, he/him

Originally frmo Kuwait, his family changed their name to fit in. Quiet, somewhat stoic, but also has a subdued snarky and flirty streak. Likes to watch Asher dangle. He's a lawyer, and dear god let him REST. He's soft.

Baby: Theo, he/them

Theo is a genderfluid mess. Albino, sweet but has a rough side, especially after Ivan. I do miss Baby, AND NOT THE FLYBOI IVAN BABY, and somewhat wish for them to come back into the story, even if it's better for their mental health to be free again. Oh, yeah, they're from Baltimore.

Bestie: Wyatt, he/him

Blake's bestie? You better believe it. Wyatt has always been kind of a mess and sickly, so no wonder Blake's blood pressure is so fucking high. He's just tryna reconnect with his friend, mans doesn't know Blake is deep in the shit pool. He moved from Denver up to Dahlia as a kid.

Cutie: Azra, she/her

I DONT KNOW WHEN, BUT IN MY HEAD, CUTIE AND SWEETHEART ARE COUSINS. IT MAKES SENSE TO ME. TO ME. STEALTH AND MIND READER, THEY'RE COUSINS. So, yeah, Azra is Chinese, and a mess. Big ole mess. Traumatised and quiet and sad. Flings herself into relationships with a lot of intensity. She's from Shenzhen and her family moved to be with her cousin's in Dahlia.

Darling: Riley, he/him

THE MYTH, THE MAN, THE LEGEND, HERE HE IS. My favourite fucking Listener. Child of a messy divorce, father abusive. His mother left with her boyfriend turned husband to Dahlia to be with the Shaw wolfpack, and left him with his father and younger siblings. Was in and out of foster care, but CPS got in contact with his mother after his shoulder was shattered from physically fighting with his father. She took him and his siblings to Dahlia, where he struggled to fit in and was stand offish. Loyal but hates being included in the family of the Shaw pack. Isn't until the Sam story line does he try not to be as much as a fuck up. Scarred up, is trying to unlearn toxic behaviours. Very sexual, very snide, very rude and for some reason this cowboy decided to top him. Obviously, originally from Washington.

Deviant/ Freelancer: Inez, she/they

Another messy bitch. Hated Gavin VERY MUCH at first, before just kinda accepting him then it turned into fwb and then dating. In my heart, they were rivals to lovers. I do love her. Left her family to go to Dahlia and go to D.A.M.N. In a perfect world, the D.A.M.N crew are poly but yknow. She wanted to be friends with Kody, did find him intresting but yeah, would kick his teeth in now. Originally from Phoenix, Arizona, with a family that's orignally from Venezuala.

Love: Eli, it/its, he/him

Our puppet robot boy. Flat, but questioning. After the entire fiasco with Marcus, he's far more reserved and sad and distant with everyone, except maybe Anton and James. Wishes for their genitals to be removed, due to the event.

Lovey: Ajax/Matheo, he/him

THE FRESH NEW VAMPIRE ON THE BLOCK? YES, HE IS. His nickname is Ajax, from when he was in school and was apart of a small ancient history class and they studied the history of Troy, and they assigned each other a hero. He got Ajax, and almost always introduces himself as it. Flirty, questioning and smug. A photographer who just wanted to take some snaps of the abandoned amusement park, and now he's got fangs. His family has Dutch origins, but he's lived in Dahlia his entire life.

Starlight: Maeve, she/her

StARLIGHT AND AVIOR! Snarky, fun, and questioning about every little thing. She's way too interested in throwing herself into situations, just enough of a daredevil to be worrying. She's originally from Haiwaii, and lived in Honolulu. Forced to move at a young age due to their house being bought up and resold to be made into a touristy hotel.

Sunshine: August, he/him

I love Elliot and Sunshine. The picrew isn't that accurate, he has a grey streak in his hair and vitiligo. Likes that he has a weird ass dream hopper boyfriend and ngl... Would brawl bestie. Moved away from San Jose, and became childhood friends with Elliot, and they've been inseperable ever since.

Sweetheart: Kai, she/her

The OTHER HALF OF THE POWER COUPLE. She grew up in Singapore, but her family moved over to Dahlia when she was young. She joined the department ment and my god. Powerhouse. She is a menace. Loves horror, loves scaring people, is a bit weird, almost fey-like. Menace menace menace. Tries her best to look after Azra, but is worried about her. Aggro is her baby now.

THERE ARE A FEW OTHERS LISTENERS I HAVEN'T FULLY FINISHED, LIKE SMART ASS, BUT CAN YOU BLAME ME, I GOT SAM AND DAVID TO THINK ABOUT. PET IS FULLY DONE BUT I STILL GOTTA DO THE PICREW SO WILL REBLOG LATER WHEN THOSE LADS ARE DONE

[saltharakka]

(ALRIGTH so I asked people to ask me opinions)

@hawkeish​ asked FAVOURITE DRAGON AGE ROMANCE

Hmm I haven’t actually done that many different romances so here are short and longer answers.

The short answer: Iron Bull & Inquisitor.

Longer answer:

I think different player characters match better with some romance options than others. Under the cut are some of my opinions about the romances I’ve seen/played in the order I encountered them.

Cullen & Inquisitor: I started this romance with my first Inquisitor (never finished as I scrapped the playthrough and Inquisitor became proto version of my Warden). What got me was how Cullen seemed to care about my character / was afraid that they would get hurt and actually asked how they are doing and stuff. It never came across to me as possessive or overprotectiveness as he didn’t oppose the idea that the Inquisitor would lead the assault on Adamant and let them stay behind at Haven, but he was the only one who seemed like, reluctant of leaving behind one person who will probably die??? Having played the previous games now, I’ve seen some shittier sides of Cullen’s backstory. Overall, I think he is BADLY traumatized and uhh he got issues that would be better to work through with a therapist rather than a girlfriend. I mean he did shitty things, but I also think he is working on redeeming himself (and I think the argument between Cullen and Cassandra is stupid like yes, stop taking drugs, but also yes, stop working you aren’t in a good mental state to do high stress important military job lol?). Like, he has his soft side and sweet moments, but if you want to romance Cullen, I wouldn’t do it with a mage or any other character who isn’t mentally and physically strong or his lyrium templar angst smashing objects across room becomes really, really scary rather than just mildly concerning.

Leliana & Warden: sweet, bittersweet. Romanced her with my warden Velka and while they have little content in Origins itself, letter in Awakening and Leliana’s comments in Inquisition add some sweet and tender feelings that I imagine they have towards each other. Like oh my Lele and Velka are so powerful and get along very well (both can be friendly and caring, but have no time for bullshit I think), but they are also very small people that have just been swept into various big events. Like they just have so much longing for the moment they could finally be together in peace without the constant fear that soon the other will be gone while the Warden’s Calling slowly comes closer. My personal headcanon also is that the “Sparrow” whose letter is on Leliana’s table in da:i is Velka.

Anders & Hawke: Depends on Hawke? My sis @artist-rat made (righteously) revolutionary mage Hawke who probably planned the explosion and rebellion with Anders so yeah? Just mages loving mages and human rights. Haven’t seen the rivalmance but doesn’t sound like my cup of tea.

Dorian & Inquisitor: I haven’t seen the entire thing yet but so far? I think Dorian has had some very bad opinions fed on him during childhood that on one hand are racist and hurt more others than him and on the other hand are homophobic and hurt him. So, I think he deserves someone to love him and help him unlearn his problematic ways of thinking. Somewhat same as with Cullen: I think player character needs to be strong willed and able to stand behind their own opinions especially if romancing with an elf.

And finally

Iron Bull & Inquisitor: He is just very caring and gentle when moving to bedroom? I trust my inquisitor with him (take notes throws-objects-around-Cullen). Hhhhhhhhhhhghghg it is also so bad every time they say anything. Like the worst sex talk. But that’s also kind of sweet? That they can say terrible shit to each other because they are friends before lovers? Like? At least all my (two) Inquisitors have been the best buddies with him? They have fun with each other, and they can talk openly what are the rules and what they are comfortable doing? Like I think they can relax with each other? Friends to lovers baby.

[moiraineswife]

satans-armchair replied to your post“I looove Chaol and I agree he gets a shit ton of hate for no reason!...”

I think it's vital that there's a character that needs to grow to accept. It shows that not everyone is born accepting and it gives Chaol the massive opportunity for character development. Even if he doesn't fully accept Aelin, he loved her and she will always have a space in his heart whether he comes to terms with what she is. I kinda don't want it to be just "Chaol understands Aelin is okay and accepts her" I want it more steady and slow and meaningful if you get me? I don't understand why he gets so much hate either :/ I didn't really like him because DORIAN but he is such a cool character and I want to know more about where he's from and his family and his relationship with everyone he's such a good man to his guards

Okay, okay I agree, I do, I really do but like...okay this is a point I’ve been wanting to make for a while so bear with me (I’m not going to get involved in the discourse Lauren said, Lauren lied) but Chaol is not the only one who has to change and grow with regards to his feelings towards fae and magic?  

Aelin reflects in ToG that it’s maybe for the best that her magic/magic in general is gone. Pretty much her entire arc in HoF revolves around HER not being able to accept that part of herself. That’s one of the biggest reasons she can’t shift/fully access her power - she’s afraid of it; which is natural after all the propaganda she’s been exposed to? 

Dorian too is terrified of his power because of what he’s been told/taught/the society they live in. He spends a huge amount of time fighting it, trying to control it, terrified of it. It takes them both a long time to accept their magic and themselves and they both spend pretty much an entire book coming to terms with it? 

Chaol has to figure out the same things too except he doesn’t have the benefit of actually possessing magic himself? He has no firsthand experience with it but he still spends all of HoF helping...both Aelin and Dorian deal with their magic? He helps Dorian in trying to find a way to free it/hide him better...and he ensures that Aelin can get to Wendelyn where she’ll be safe/won’t be executed if she’s caught because of what she is. 

I also think...and idk I don’t know if anyone else reads it this way so maybe i’m way off the mark but I think people misunderstand Chaol’s reactions towards Aelin in QoS? It is not just because of her magic/her fae heritage (he accepts Dorian’s magic, he accepts Aedion, and he works well with Rowan too) the problem is not what she is/that she has these things...it’s what she does with them. 

Like, okay, picture things from Chaol’s POV for a second? We as readers know exactly what happened in Wendelyn, we know Maeve is a piece of work and we know that Aelin didn’t actually hurt anyone. We see things from her POV, we are quite literally inside her head. Chaol is across the sea, all Chaol hears is that the queen of Terrasen decided to encircle an entire city with her fire magic...and that’s an entire city of her people, fae, people like her. He’s sitting in Adarlan at this point, suffering from PTSD after what’s happened to him, Dorian is enslaved and suffering and Chaol blames himself entirely for that and then he hears this. and he’s sitting in a kingdom that he knows full well what it’s done to Aelin and her kingdom and he justifiably gets a little bit worried that she might turn that power on his people, his kingdom, his king. (who...she spends...a very large portion of QoS.........trying to kill. 

I feel like we forget this/don’t discuss it...and actually I’d like it discussed a hell of a lot more in the books as well, Aelin was flat out ready to kill Dorian. She refused to listen to Chaol. She refused to try. She was just like nope, I know best, he’s got to die, I’ve got to kill him. And I understand exactly where she’s coming from with her experiences but the fact of the matter is she was wrong. The point here is that there’s a lot of things going on perspective wise. Chaol is correct given the information that he has; Aelin is correct given the information that she has and this is why they clash because they can’t see past this, they both have solid, logical reasons that they’re right and they don’t understand things from the other person’s POV and neither does the fandom. This generates Problems. 

So I don’t actually think that Chaol clashing with Aelin in QoS has anything to do with prejudices towards magic users. At this point in the story the man is actively working as a leader of a literal rebellion inside the city. He has been working for weeks at this point repeatedly risking his life over and over again to help magic users. And he does this throughout the book. He doesn’t have a magician problem he has an Aelin problem...And it’s a reasonable one as far as I’m concerned. (I’m not saying Aelin is unreasonable but I’m saying that I understand both sides. And there is genuine merit to both sides. And fandom makes this look so much easier than it actually is) 

Chaol is, essentially I think, a good man. And what’s most poignant and interesting for me is that he is an incredibly human character. I mean that in the sense of him being..well literally human when there are all these fae and magic users running around but I also mean in his reactions, in his humanity itself. Chaol has always been, I think, what should have been one of the strongest voices for a reader/every day person to relate to? 

Chaol, for me, presents a really interesting kind of trope subversion actually? Because he’s presented to us as this big, capable guy, very disciplined, an excellent warrior, an elite guard with a position that carries a huge amount of responsibility despite being at a young age. He’s aloof, he’s very loyal, very duty orientated, very serious and sensible.

 But he’s also incredibly moral (I think a lot of these characters are presented to us as emotionless and unfeeling robots who just kill and do as they’re told etc and Chaol undermines that trope and that kind of toxic masculinity incredibly well) And this doesn’t show itself only in him looking down on other characters but he holds himself to those standards as well. Until the end of ToG Chaol had never killed another person before. And the way that he reacts to that is actually...incredibly human? He’s in shock. He seems to display a lot of the symptoms of PTSD in CoM (he stops wearing his sword, he struggles with the idea of him taking a life- even though it was in self-defence, even though he would do it again, even though he knows it was right- it still breaks something in him. He has nightmares about this, he reacts to it in short and it’s an incredibly visceral, empathetic, human reaction which is not something we’re used to seeing from characters like Chaol. 

He shows an incredibly strong incredibly human and incredibly down to earth reaction to violence. Like, I’m pretty sure if I stabbed someone and got covered in their blood and they died as a direct result of this I’d be pretty not okay with that.  And this is what I mean what I say that Chaol is a pretty good reader voice in these books? Because this is...realistically...how I and how I think most people would react to this sort of thing? He isn’t emotionless. He isn’t invincible. He struggles with these things and that’s human and it’s compelling and it’s interesting because we don’t get to see it. 

Usually protagonists just sail through this stuff. They have no qualms, they have no morals, it’s all about ‘whatever you have to do to get the job done’, they kill and torture and hurt people and it has no effect on them whatsoever because they’re Tough and Strong and capable of dealing with all of this. But people, you, me, Chaol, aren’t made that way. Killing bothers us, violence bothers us, we’re emotional beings and this is in our nature and Chaol reflects that nature incredibly well? 

He’s flawed, yes. He has a lot of prejudices that he has to work to unlearn but he’s more than that. He’s not just a lesson for ‘sometimes you think bad things and have you fix yourself’ he’s also a very compelling, very broken character in a lot of ways. 

I can make a pretty reasonable case for Chaol’s position in the castle being the way in which he escaped from an abusive household (the way that his father talks to him and treats him and emotionally manipulates him is not normal. Nor is the way that he talks about his mother. And repeatedly Chaol not being with his father is referred to as him having ‘freedom’ and giving up that freedom for Aelin’s sake. But it’s freedom. People with happy, healthy relationships with their parents don’t tend to think of being on their own and without them as freedom in the stark terms that Chaol does) 

And when you consider his story with that context..it makes a lot more sense. Chaol (a lot like Lucien’s position in ACOTAR at the Spring Court) doesn’t have anywhere else to go and he doesn’t have anything that isn’t this position. He’s dedicated his life to this because it was a place where he mattered, where he seemed to be treated well, where he was doing something that he wanted to do and that’s a huge thing to do if he’s leaving an abusive situation- the strength to step out and actually do something that is fully his choice, to claim his independence and know that if he fails, if this backfires, if he loses this, he’s screwed. He has to go back. And that’s a terrifying prospect for anyone in Chaol’s situation.  

So he clings to this and it’s not just blind loyalty, not after a certain point. I think it was when he was younger but he crosses a line. And it’s not just loyalty to the king or a corrupt regime it’s loyalty to Dorian - the first person who likely treated him fairly and with genuine love and compassion. It’s loyalty to the only thing that he has, quite literally, something that he’s given up everything for, something that he very seriously risked his freedom to attain and losing it is...not an inviting idea. 

So by the time you swing round to QoS Chaol has basically lost...Quite literally everything. His position, his honour, his king, his humanity. He’s thrust into this war, becomes a rebel leader, is trying to do what he can for people while shouldering massive amounts of survivor’s guilt and PTSD over the things that he’s been through. And he just..keeps going. And going and going and going in trying to do the right thing whatever that may be.

 I think that has always been Chaol’s driving force. I think it’s taken the guise of various different things, duty, loyalty, respect etc but it’s always been about that, it’s always been about trying to do what’s right. And before that was being loyal, it was keeping his word, it was doing his job to the very best of his ability. But it slowly becomes other things. It becomes fighting what he once defended, it becomes questioning everything that ever gave him a shred of safety and stability. It becomes taking on a war and a responsibility that is so much larger than he ever thought he would or could deal with and carrying it anyway because it’s the right thing to do. 

And that for me is Chaol and Chaol’s arc in a nutshell and I....Like that a lot. I like that we have someone who is presented to us as being so, damn human. Moral and breakable and flawed and scared and hurt by the things that he’s done and the things that he’s seen. But he embodies one of the things we so often see with deeply human characters - that perseverance, that will to survive, to go on, to just keep fighting, just keep living, just keep going because that’s what people do, that’s what Chaol does and it’s just...idk dude I like this character a lot idk what else to tell you.