#great job otoh

[jjwwmmbbii]

i think "otoh" has gotta be one of the best shorthand acronyms out there. just looks satisfying. otoh. strange little word

[haganenoyuki]

the below situation has me considering actually ironing out a system for commissions for that sort of thing. there's a lot of people who are way better and faster than me at character art but I think my workflow and intuition with flyers and posters and other graphic stuff is good enough that I can justify asking for rates that I would find worthwhile to work for

[captwaddledoo]

been livetweeting me listening to hte xc3 ost because i have nothing else going on in my life

[roboromantic]

oh pog, I have 2 jobs tomorrow and then I'm basically free until the 26th

[cbsghostsmetasandtrevor]

CBS Ghosts 4x4 Live Reaction

I heard this one is about Trevor :)

So... read under the cut for spoilers.

LOL Sass watching a branch falling????

Aww poor ghosts. "We could start a rumor."

Pete walked right into that one. Love Pete's new abilities. I'd Brag too.

Sass totally deserved to made fun of!

Sam giving Isaac advice. - OMG.

OMG Trevor just announcing a job.

"MOM AND DAD"

"A great time to be a ghost job" - I love this.

"People have lives" - "You're dead".

LOL Sam and Jay weren't even mad. Just surprised. And he doesn't even ask for help????

There's already too many plots though. Three with Rumors/Isaac/Trevor all have plots.

LOL at the Rumor thing though. Thor is SPOILING EVERYTHING!

OMG Jay being Trevor. Please! I love how he's so proactive. No one has asked about his salary???

Sam is on board! She's excited for this.

LOL Alberta "What the hell is this?"

TREVOR IS OFFERING THEM MONEY! SO DIFFERENT TO ISAAC I LOVE HIM!

OMG MICHEAL JACKSON?? WHY TREVOR???

Like Trevor just wants to keep his job and is willing to help (like he always does) and Isaac just makes things worse.

I love how the FOUNTAIN is the important thing here?

Where's Flower? Have we seen her?

Why is no one really reacting the whole job thing??

Wow. They're terrible. This is terrible!

"Lock your door Dave"

Nancy with the rumor. Isaac with the freakout. Jay looking bad.

LOL Thor yelling that at Bjorn. LOL.

Isaac slapping Pete????

WTF!

Isaac this is your fault not Pete!

Sam's getting into being the lonely innkeeper.

LOL Alberta!

Oooh, Jay taking the ear piece out. OMG SAM!

Jay being the winner! and cooler... awwww. They like Jay.

Awww Trevor :(

I hate this. Why beat up on Trevor?

Can't he have a good episode??? Like All he wants is a fucking job. So sad.

This might've been more fun if Trevor possessed Jay.

Awww, Jay you are not helpful.

Poor Trevor. This hurts.

"Did you see Parade?"

Awww, Trevor. It's nice of Sam to try and help. Jay talking to him AFTER he leaves.

F OFF Jay. There's nothing wrong with that.

I like Jay feeling bad though.

"Cheesed off." "Slap them with my words!!!!" LOL

The ghosts jealousy!!!

Awww Trevor. Love the eye roll.

Awww JAY. Talking about Trevor as a mentor!

T- Money??? OMG you do??

Sam's got a twin now?

AWWWW he's a legend!!! AND THEY KNOW THE STORY ABOUT PINKUS!!!

AWWW!!! I love this!!!

He's actually REMEMBERED!! What all of the Ghosts WANT he GOT!!!

THE RUN OF FUN TO REMEMBER TREVOR!!! OMG!!!

OMG!!! This is so great!!!

Okay, the episode made up for the sad part in the middle!! Cute, Sad Trevor gets a happy ending!!!

WAIT WAIT WAIT DOES THIS MEAN THEY WORK FOR PINKUS????

PINKUS MADE SURE HE WAS REMEMBERED!!! <3 <3 <3

I love you, Pinkus. We need to see you!!!!

Love Pete was excited until finding out that she was a murderer!!! LOVE IT!

Poor Pete.

Nancy and Judy yelling!!!

LOL the rumors continue!

Flower was missing???

Overall, the ending made up for it, but there were slightly too many plots. I think we should've spent more time on Sam and Jay being like "how the fuck" with the whole "I have a job thing" and wondering what he's been doing with the money.

OTOH he's the ONLY ghost to HELP THEM GET MONEY.

This is the third time - first, the watch. second, the investing of Isaac's money. and third, giving his earned money for helping.

This is the third season that he's saved Sam's life too. He's clearly the best ghost.... JS.

I do love Jay coming up with something that made it all better, but please drop the issue with Bela. PLEASE.

Ended up loving it! <3.

[nalyra-dreaming]

re: the Loumand convo, I agree it's v unlikely they'll rekindle things after the choices made in s2. I hope they reconcile (platonically) & their future interactions aren't all hostile, but even that'll take time. I get why people assume there was genuine love there…but ymmv on exactly how much of it was codependence or even coercion. I'm not necessarily saying there's zero love, but whatever fondness or harmony they had was based largely on lies and manipulation (& some actual brainwashing). We don't have full context for the run-up to the trial yet, but show!Claudia's death was so brutal, and in this version Louis clearly didn't know of Armand's full culpability. In the book she was a wretched creature & her entire life sucked, her death felt like a relief - not that Armand's motives were noble, & it still destroyed Louis ofc, but there was a sense of inevitability to it. Show!Claudia otoh was a fully rounded person with a hopeful future. Her death had no catharsis & her suffering was turned into sick entertainment. Not only that but Armand was seemingly about to let Louis die too. Again, we don't know all the ins & outs but if Armand had anything valid to say in his own defense he had 77 yrs to come clean & didn't. The trust is broken, and while forgiveness is an important theme for Louis (& a major theme of the VC in general) he has no incentive to forgive Armand to the extent of getting back with him - he wasn't passionately in love to begin with! I want to see Armand grow as a character & recognize the mistakes he's made, but the show laid out v plainly why he & Louis aren't well suited. They were both just needy people "making do", putting on a performance of romance for reasons that had little to do with love. I think the show's done a great job with both characters though, and I'm interested to see what the future holds, but I doubt Louis or Lestat will want anything to do w/ Armand romantically after all that. I'd settle for them not being enemies tbh, though I'm not sure what the chances of that are, even?

I think they will end up being “not-enemies“ when all is said and done :) Or even more. But it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

But then it’s been a bumpy ride in the books as well, just a more implied than shown one.

That‘s going to be different in the show, obviously ^^

[beesmygod]

otoh the likelihood of me getting a job that does actually impact reality more than the one i do have is basically nonexistent. its great to be able to show people cool shit and expand their world a little. thats so much more than i would get anywhere else. you see what i mean about it being frustrating!!!

[theoriginalmarke]

TESTY TUESDAY TWADDLE

It's starting to look like I'm going to have to go to Utah and take care of my mom. She's worse off than I thought and living in the middle of nowhere.

Now we have to decide if I take the cats or leave them here. Do we send our POD full of stuff there or here? What do I take with me? What needs done here before I leave? So much to figure out.

Meanwhile, Kitten's mom had a dangerous blood pressure drop yesterday. The occupational therapy nurse happened to be here and helped us get it back up. Physical therapy will be here anytime and her nurse not long after, then a doctor's visit tomorrow.

Her grouchies are back in full force now. Snapping at us over the simplest things, complaining about everything. We keep reminding ourselves that it's not her, it's the dementia, but it ain't easy.

I don't want to leave Kitten here to deal with it all alone again. She's teaching for another month on top of her regular job. There are zoom meetings and calls from all over the world, yet her mom can't be by herself either. She tries to stand up and if she falls or passes out again it will probably mean a trip to the hospital.

OTOH, my mom is in just about the same condition (without the dementia) and nobody is there for her. Ugh. We've enjoyed being only children, but now we're both wishing we had siblings to share the burden.

Now if you'll excuse me we got some thinking to do.

I love you, baby. No matter where we are. MWAH!

Y'all have a great day.

[echoweaver]

15 Questions from Mutuals

@oasislandingresident, @hazely-sims, @danjaley, @anamoon63, and @olomayasims tagged me in this meme. This is the first time I’ve been able to actually do it! Thanks. I feel loved. It feels good to be included.

​ Are you named after anyone? My great-grandmother, father’s father’s mother. She and my great-grandfather were immigrants from Hungary. I have have a picture of her holding me as an infant. I’m sorry I didn’t get to know her.

When was the last time you cried? I cry all the dang time. I find it more notable when I haven’t cried recently -- when putting our cats down, despite me being the one person in the family who was tracking their health in detail and really worrying about their quality of life. I’m also the one who made the call and coordinated the final vet visit. There’s stuff in there about my personality that I’m pondering.

I guess the last time I really cried it out was over gender politics, if you would believe it. My wife is trans. The horrible state of conservative oppression toward trans people right now is terrifying. OTOH, I think that enemy has led trans advocacy to be less nuanced rather than more. The complex landscape of gender, sex, and safety is often trivialized, and people get hurt. When I can’t jump on the bandwagon, I feel like a traitor to my wife. I wish there could be more thoughtfulness and compassion and nuance, but with the wave of vicious anti-trans laws and rhetoric, I appreciate why it doesn’t feel like there’s space for it.

Do you have kids? One bio-daughter, age 12. We wanted to have another and couldn’t. Then we tried to adopt from foster care, which ended up being a miserable 5-year rabbithole that led nowhere. OTOH, we have a found-daughter who entered our life through the side door as our girl’s babysitter when she was young. It’s an odd family, and we’re still figuring it out, but it’s ours.

Do you use sarcasm a lot? I think of myself as fairly snarky, but actually sarcasm not that much.

What sports do you play/have you played? I got into really physical stuff late-ish, close to 30. I got into weight-lifting and cardio rhythm games. No team stuff. Later, I took up figure skating when my kid was 4 and taking lessons. I love it. I think I could have been really good if I’d found it when I was younger, but I’m very YOLO about this stuff. If I’m going to be a figure skater in middle age, so be it. Convenient classes for adults were canceled during the pandemic, though, and I haven’t built up the momentum to return. I’m settling for a lower-hanging fruit at the moment and taking up Tai Chi.

What’s the first thing you notice about other people? I don’t know exactly what it is, but I get a sense of how easy it is to relax around someone.

Scary movies or happy endings? Those aren’t mutually exclusive. I like being scared, but not so much the jump-scare, blood-and-gore way. Definitely happy endings though. I’m only much into dark endings when my life is stress-free, and I don’t remember when that last happened.

Any special talents? I’m good at looking at a problem from all angles. I think this is objectively a good thing, but it’s also a pain in the butt because I can’t turn it off.

Where were you born? New Jersey, USA. Grew up in Indiana, just north of Indianapolis.

What are your hobbies? Dur. I knit, edit movies, mod video games, write fiction (sims and other), scuba dive, play board games, downhill ski, do amateur carpentry. I did some glassblowing in my 20s, and I’m finally getting a chance to take lessons! I do not specialize well. I also played the viola as a serious amateur. I bought a guitar and am going to try to learn to play so that I can sing and accompany myself.

Do you have any pets? One cat, down from 3 cats. Also one corn snake.

How tall are you? 5′4″ or 162 cm.

Fave subject in school? History, I think?

Dream job? I’m not sure all the stuff I’d want to do in a career can be digested down to 1 job. I’m pretty close to it at the moment, though. I write educational software on a small very family-like team at a university. Sometimes I fantasize about quitting and doing something with game modding that could somehow be profitable, but I’m sure if that were actually possible, I’d end up hating it because my hobby would then be my job.

Eye color? I have the exact eye color @zosa95 described in her reply to this meme.

It feels good to be tagged, but I still have this weirdo anxiety about tagging people. Plus this has mostly made the rounds. I’ll try @withlovefromayre, @declaration-of-dramas

[amplifyme]

15 Questions Tag Game

I was tagged by @randomfoggytiger. Thanks for always including me! ❤️

Were you named after anyone? My middle name is Beth. It was supposed to be Elizabeth, after my great-grandmother. But the OB/GYN who delivered me (and all 4 of my elder siblings) decided Lydia Beth rolled off the tongue more smoothly then Lydia Elizabeth, so that's what he put on the birth certificate. True story, hand to god. I think he was right. The original is quite a mouthful.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? Tonight. I just finished up the 1994 TV mini-series of Stephen King's "The Stand" - only my favorite book ever. Haven't watched it in probably 15 years and I cried like a baby several times. The cast is 99% pure perfection. The only thing I'd change would be the casting of Molly Ringwald as Frannie. Just... no. I understand why they chose her (she was pretty popular back then), but she was completely wrong for the part and very cringey throughout. OTOH, Gary Sinise will always be my perfect Stu Redman.

DO YOU HAVE KIDS? Nope. Though not by choice. I wanted to have children, once upon a time. It just never worked out. But I'm okay with that now. Everything happens for a reason.

WHAT SPORTS HAVE YOU PLAYED/DO YOU PLAY? I used to love playing volleyball and basketball when I was a kid. Then I got hit by a car at 12, jacked up my left knee almost beyond repair, and followed that up with 3 subsequent surgeries and arthritis by the time I hit 18. No more playing sports for this kid.

DO YOU USE SARCASM? Me?? Never. 😜

FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Eyes. The windows to the soul, you know. Also body language. I don't think most folks realize how much they reveal simply by the way they hold their bodies.

WHAT IS YOUR EYE COLOR? Greeny-blue.

SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? I'm a sucker for a happy ending.

ANY TALENTS? I think I'm pretty good at stringing words together in a way some people enjoy. I can organize like nobody's business. I bake great bread - or at least I used to. Haven't done that for years. I can also whip together something tasty with not much effort.

WHERE WERE YOU BORN? About 12 miles south of where I live now. Out on the flatlands of Illinois, corn and soybean country. Mid-state, central region.

WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES? Writing, when the muse is amenable, which isn't often enough for me. Going on 7 months of my most current writer's block. *sigh* Reading. Hanging out in parks and forests preserves with a book and a camera. Bingeing on new shows or old favorites. Solving all the world's problem as I fall asleep. You know, the usual. 🤷🏻‍♀️

DO YOU HAVE ANY PETS? Levon the Cat, who'll turn 18 this year. It's gonna be really hard to say good-bye. I think he'll probably be my last four-legged roommate. It's too hard to see them go, and I've done it too much now.

HOW TALL ARE YOU? 5' 1" and some small fraction over that. I'm shrinking as I get older.

FAVORITE SUBJECT IN SCHOOL? English, history, and composition.

DREAM JOB? Small animal rescue for a no-kill shelter. Gimme all the dogs and cats. That, or working to help women and men escape domestic abuse safely. Been there, done that. The hardest part is deciding to leave. I'd like to use my own experience to help others escape the cycle.

Tagging anyone who'd like to play 'cuz I'm up past my bedtime and really tired.

[annabtg]

I heard someone on twitter saying " Ginny fell first but Harry felt harder " which i think it is nonsense and overshadows Ginny fellings and love for Harry and say this why :

1- Ginny herself said she never gave up on Harry and always had hope and just started do go out and see other peeople thanks to Hermione advise and start be herself around Harry .

2- The books are from Harry pov of course we know more about his fellings and thoughts about other people , his views and opinions etc . If the books were from Ginny pov or JK wrote her pov we would knew the details about her fellings for Harry .

3 - the love and dreams and the thoughts Harry had about Ginny specially in book 6 and 7, Ginny most likely had the same thing for him specially dreams of been with Harry intimite and missing him when he was out with Ron and Hermione during the horcrux haunt .

Many say she's perfect for Harry ( which is true) but people forget how perfect Harry is for Ginny and how much she loves him and that is a really underrated thing for even Hinny shipers talking about Ginny fellings for Harry and how much she loves him and he is her soulmate nad her best source of happiness and hang out

What's your thoughts about this?

(Disclaimer: I am not an active Hinny shipper. I don't know what the discourse and headcanons in the Hinny fandom are and I am only going by this ask and my own thoughts on the ship.)

I agree with you that Ginny loves Harry as fiercely as he loves her. I think canon does a great job of explaining it and showing it. We are very aware of Ginny's crush when she's younger, then as she grows up her relationship with Harry becomes more equal and she's not a pining mess anymore but it doesn't come out of left field when they get together.

That said, I think the difference between them is that Harry (like James, imo) is a One True Love sort of person. If he wants Ginny, he wants Ginny and that's the end of it. He can't reconcile having feelings for her with accepting anyone else in his life for whatever reason. Ginny, otoh, literally says "if I can't have Harry I'll make do with what I can" but that's not a matter of "not loving someone hard enough". It's a matter of many different things - priorities, emotional maturity, previous experience etc etc. I think Ginny did have an interest in the boys she dated, even though Harry was always in the back of her mind - and that doesn't make her disingenuous or diminish her love for Harry. It's just that sometimes, when our feelings for someone aren't reciprocated, we have to do some damage control and not invest in them or let them consume us.

Once she's aware of his feelings and she can invest in him - because that's all she needs, the knowledge that he loves her back; she doesn't even care if he lives to the end - her love is wholly dedicated to him, intense and exclusive. And I'm sure she thinks of him while he's away as much as he thinks of her.

Thank you for the ask!

[cromulentenough]

i'd basically given up on friendship and romance over the last several years, and was i think genuinely more content for it compared to before where i wanted it but couldn't get it. The pandemic helped because there was less expectation to be pursuing in person social interaction.

I did a lot of processing of a bunch of stuff over the pandemic, i'm more ok with myself and have dealt with a lot of the self loathing and shame i used to have about wasted potential and with fear of abandonment. Also like, figuring out Gender Stuff. Maybe I could have gotten there faster with therapy or something but having several years of burnout did let me eventually get there. (I didn't associate it with autism before but seeing stuff about autistic burnout maybe it was that? it did start at the end of uni).

I think I'm at the point where I'm genuinely ok with being alone. But OTOH it would still be nice to have some close friendships and romantic relationships. But i think not being desperate for it the way i used to be might make that work better now?

My social skills have atrophied after not doing any socializing for so long, which makes sense. Trying to be social again and my social anxiety is 'back' but i don't know if it's back or it was just not being activated because i wasn't being social, or i'm not apathetic about stuff like i used to be and that was cancelling it out before. But i do seem to be better about recognizing it and compartmentalizing it than i used to be. I'm anxious in the moment but i don't spiral like i used to and can ride it out. I still get pangs of jealousy but it's less intense and again i can ride it out until it passes rather than letting it spiral.

I'd been in a state of 'ok this is better than you've been in the past, sure you could improve but don't mess with it in case you return' for a while, but i'm finally in the state of being willing to try and get beyond here.

Started the programming course thing which was I was very lucky to find, it's baby steps for social interaction and getting better about working regularly while still being flexible enough that i'm not punished for failing to do a full time week. And the garunteed job on the horizon is nice too. Didn't fully realize how draining the old job was.

Bit worried about hurting people by not being able to Social Enough and that's kinda prevented me from starting/ developing relationships with people. Also no idea how to go about dating now that i'm ready for it again. I'd used OKCupid in the past and i think i might be more successful at it with the me i am now, but from what i hear okcupid sucks these days, and i don't really hear much better things about the rest of the dating apps. I don't really know how to be flirty without being worried about being creepy if it's unwanted. 'dating app where it's explicitly about that' seemed like it would be the solution but apparently it doesn't end up working that way on top of it just not being great from the AMAB side of things.

Mostly a ventpost and me trying to start posting more here about myself rather than mostly just reblogging without comment like i usually do. But also if i have any mutuals in london/ travelling to london soon who want to meet up in person let me know.

[asleepinawell]

incoming rant about my personal war with portraits

so first off I have all combat jobs to 90 and a glam plate for each job (only drg and rpr share one). most of my jobs share their gear with the other job(s) that use the same gear type (blm is the only exception because spell speed). I have made a portrait for each one because if you don't you simply do not get comms anymore (but that's a different rant) and also it's just really damned annoying when they break. on principle. and with all jobs at 90 they all just break all the fucking time

also I have every job linked to a glam plate which is necessary if for example you have a different glam for sam and mnk but they share gear

problems I have run into

1 - extract materia. portrait breaks

2 - log out. random bunch of portraits break, some of which I haven't even switched to that job/gearset at all recently

3 - equip new gear, apply glam, update portrait. portrait does not show an error. breaks

4 - equip new gear, apply glam, portrait claims not to need to be updated. breaks

5 - any single item in a linked glam plate that won't apply to your current job will break portraits and you will not be able to fix it. in other words if drg and rpr share the same outfit but I have a scythe glam in the plate the drg portrait will never work ever. I either need two separate plates or no weapon in the plate and apply both the weapon glams manually from my dresser each time they need to be fixed

6 - If you switch jobs when not in a sanctuary and it can't apply your linked plate it will break your portrait. this will happen even if the gear still has the exact glam as the plate 🙃. basically don't enter an instance from outside a sanctuary unless you are already the job you're going in as and haven't switched. fishing is banned if you want your portrait to work

7 - since patch 6.4 I now need to hit the update my gear set button basically every time I switch jobs. the you made changes button at the top right of the character ui lights up from switching jobs. not resaving it every time will break portraits. otoh being forced to do this has made them break somewhat less overall I guess

8 - several times now I've ended up in a state where the portrait menu reports my portrait is fine, my glam matches my plate, I haven't done anything odd or changed anything recently, and the portrait will STILL break every single time. after leaving the instance the portrait menu will still say its fine. the only way to fix this is to unequip a piece of gear, save portrait, reequip, save portrait. I've started doing this whenever I have new gear and the portrait screen tells me it's fine

anyway, great feature guys, just let people save a damn picture per job that doesn't update unless they manually update it

[larathia]

Some structure notes on the ADA (or: Why Dazai's In The Middle of Everything)

One of the first things Atsushi learns about the ADA is that there's really only one detective in the place - Ranpo. The ADA was built for his sake, is run for his sake; Fukuzawa's way of giving Ranpo purpose.

Most of what everyone else does is 'assist the police' or bodyguard/delivery work, something where a Gifted's skills make the task easier or safer. Officially, anyway. Less-officially, we followers of the story know that the ADA is also basically the group that takes care of threats to Yokohama so that the government agents don't have to be called in; at the 'citywide threat' level they're basically the city's first responders.

This kind of means they need someone smart to strategize and manipulate and plan, because the ADA is less than a dozen Gifted in a city where the Mafia has easily got four to five times that many Gifted (all combat trained and willing to kill) and without some SERIOUS strategizing, the ADA should logically be steamrollered in any kind of conflict.

The ADA has Ranpo, but while Ranpo is one of the older members of the ADA, he's also majorly immature for his age - otherwise Fukuzawa wouldn't have needed to create an entire agency just to make sure Ranpo had a job. Part of the maturation process is giving Ranpo people he can care about even if they're not on his intellectual level. Give Ranpo a reason to put that brain of his to work.

For Ranpo, the entire conflict with Decay of Angels has been one massive wake-up call; that if he's not paying attention his friends, his mentor, will die. I'm actually looking forward to seeing where Ranpo goes after this arc, because it's been a lot of kicks in the head for him.

But back to the point. While Ranpo is (slowly) waking up to the idea that he has friends and he should maybe learn to use his unparalleled intellect to protect them, the ADA needed a strategist. A genius strategist.

Enter Dazai.

In story terms, Dazai is not the hero. Not the sidekick, or the villain. In story terms he's the Mentor; that's how Atsushi sees him, and that's the story role he fulfills. (Don't get on me about how well he mentors, that's a totally separate discussion.) You've seen Dazai's role in a hundred other stories.

In Star Wars, he's Obi-Wan, filling Luke in on the world he's entering, teaching the basics of what it is to be Jedi, with a history that allows for relative wisdom to be passed on.

In Arthurian terms, Dazai is the Merlin to Atsushi's "young Arthur". (Although structurally, he's also the Merlin to Ranpo's 'young Arthur', in that he shows Ranpo ways to use his great intelligence to deal with threats). This is why Dazai's always in the middle of things, but the story's never about him. Functionally, his role isn't to be the hero - it's to show other characters how they can be the hero. And, really, that they need to be the hero.

Structurally, the ultimate fulfilment of this role requires the Mentor to step back, so that the hero can step up into that void and fulfil their potential. In most cases, the Mentor does this by dying - which I have to say has made the choice of Dazai to fill the role kind of intriguing. But it's worthwhile to note that not every Mentor dies as part of the story - all that's really required is that they be unable to help the budding hero. (Merlin, forex, got trapped in caves of ice.)

Dazai's already been taken away from Atsushi by being in Muersault. Ranpo got messages, but really Ranpo is a lot less 'along the path' than Atsushi is on his hero-journey; I mean, Decay of Angels is really where Ranpo seems to have finally learned he needs to pay constant attention or his friends get hurt. Atsushi, by contrast, is nearly ready to work on his own. (Not quite ready. But, otoh, about as ready as Luke was when Obi-wan got killed, so...)

Because Dazai's doing a kind of double-mentor role, he's always in the middle of everything while never being the Point of anything. And I wish I could know whether he's going to die or not, because he's pretty interesting and I'd rather he didn't (but then, that too is part of the Mentor role, isn't it? you don't WANT them to go...)

[ms-katonic-of-tamriel]

what do you think DA:I would be like if Blackwall was the Inquisitor? Not the real grey warden one, the companion one.

Blackwall of Jorrvaskr as Inquisitor, hmm? Well, probably not too different from a canon Warrior with Champion training. Likely to make choices favouring the impoverished and dispossessed over nobles, wouldn't use violence if diplomacy could do the job, not keen on deploying assassins. OTOH as he'd be a Tamrielic follower of the Eight (or maybe Nine), he'd not be too keen on the Chantry and wouldn't blindly see them as a force for good either. Not sure if he'd ally with the mages or Templars - actually, probably neither, he'd probably conscript the mages after discovering what Alexius was up to, but more to save Redcliffe than out of mage sympathy. He'd still be a great respecter of the Grey Wardens. And the winter ball would probably end up with Celene, Gaspard and Briala working together to rule Orlais - he hates politics, can't stand Celene but went there to save her from the Venatori and that's what he's going to do.

Relationships - lot of respect for Cullen, and goes out of his way to help him kick lyrium. Josephine - as in the game, a likely love interest. Leliana unnerves him. He gets on with Cassandra and although he doesn't share the religion, appreciates her commitment. He's very fond of Bull on a personal level, although he does not trust the Qunari. Bull would end up Tal-Vashoth for sure. Besties with Sera, tries to be understanding of Cole, quite enjoys a drink with Varric of an evening. He gets on rather less well with the mages - Solas is a bit weird, Vivienne drives him up the wall and Dorian's habit of never saying what he means irritates him. That said, Dorian does grow on him over time, and after learning about Dorian's father, Blackwall becomes a lot more understanding of him and they end up as friends whose main form of communication is verbally roasting each other.

Interesting factors - if he's a werewolf, that's going to be a FASCINATING conversation, especially if he has to rely on his least favourite advisor to help keep it secret. If it does come out, the Chantry are less than pleased, but the Inquisition by this point is too powerful to be threatened.

Also the possibility of the Companions arriving, even if they've had to work with mages to do it. The prospect of a load of hard-drinking Nords turning up, at least one of whom is an unrepentant werewolf, would alarm everyone. Well, apart from Bull anyway. Bull probably sleeps with at least one of Farkas, Vilkas or Aela. Maybe all three. Vilkas/Dorian could also work quite well as a ship.

Blackwall having to awkwardly introduce his fancy new noble lady friend who is a sophisticated and cultured woman to his Shield-Siblings would also be very very funny.

[claudiajcregg]

39. Wildest AU scenario you have written?

20. Do you work on a single project or many at the same time? How does that work for you?

Thank you for asking, friend!

39. Wildest AU scenario you have written?

I already answered this one. Lame answer but still. Coming up empty.

20. Do you work on a single project or many at the same time? How does that work for you?

Both! Depends on the muse, but more than likely, many at the same time. To use two examples I've mentioned today: at one point over the summer I was working on the s5 pregnancy au and the campaign bars stories concurrently; and, I'm not actively writing right now, but I did try to write for all my svd claims at the same time, too. But I've also focused on one fic for months, if that's where my mental energy is.

otoh, WOWO was the only thing I wrote for months, from the last week of March 2021 to the first week of September. I probably had other ideas, and maybe I wrote them, but they were not significant. Most of the fic was actually written before June, but due to personal (wanted to and did change jobs; friend who was cheering me on and offering edits was slowly pulling away from me and the fandom) stuff, I slowed down. By August, I also had two big ideas (Portland and Christmas dinner; not their actual ao3 titles, lol) so I balanced the writing of the three.

How does it work for me? I don't know. Both have merits! Streamlining is great because I can stay in that "universe" for as long as I need. Juggling more than one is great – there's no use in forcing myself to write a story when those ideas are not flowing.

(This is all too long and nonsense, I'm sorry. I might polish it in the morning.)

Thank you for your questions! 💜