#i actually have really extensive plans for each character

[runecatwrites]

Let’s talk about Warriors and Wild

This was another “weird” pairing that came out of the latest update.

You’d think that the two with no dungeon experience should each be paired with someone more experienced, right? Well, Warriors isn’t really thinking about that. He has a different motive for choosing Wild to team up with, and no, it’s not because he’s “mad” at him. The reason actually reveals a lot about both of their characters, and displays a great deal of character growth on Warriors' part specifically.

Deep dive under the cut!

Okay first off, let’s get something out of the way. Just because Warriors and Wild have no traditional dungeon experience, that doesn’t make them ill-equipped. Warriors has tons of combat experience and is demonstrably very intelligent. And Wild? Sure he didn’t have traditional dungeons in BotW, but you know what he did have? Puzzles. A TON of puzzles. That guy can do puzzles in his sleep. I highly doubt that he’s gonna have trouble with dungeon puzzles once he figures out how to approach them (which won’t take long).

All right, now that we have that cleared up, moving on!

From the very beginning, Wars holds great respect for Wild:

Because at the start of the adventure, Warriors doesn't realize just how different he is from the others. He gets put with a bunch of guys who share his name and his spirit, so of course he thinks his experience isn’t unique. They’re all just like him, right?

Okay, uh, maybe not? But they still can’t be that different, Warriors thinks. Sky is also a knight, and he acts exactly the way Warriors expects a knight to act.

He catches onto plans immediately:

And follows through flawlessly:

It’s not about authority and Sky’s ability to follow orders. It’s about the fact that Sky is on the same page. He went to military school. He has extensive training. He knows what to do and when, with barely any prompting, because he’s been taught to think the same way Warriors thinks. Warriors and Sky work together perfectly because of this:

But with Wild? Warriors is expecting the exact same thing with Wild, a fellow knight, but what he gets from the Champion is far from what he gets with Sky. This is very unexpected for Warriors. He gives what he thinks is a clear directive:

“Clear out the rest” to Warriors and Sky means “get rid of all the little guys so we can focus on the big guy.” Solid strategy. But Wild does not interpret this the same way, because he does not remember his military training and therefore any of the strategy he was taught. “Clear out the rest” just means get rid of everyone to him. And he decides to eliminate the biggest threat first. It’s important to note here that he’s not “defying orders” because his emotions are getting the better of him, or even because he thinks he shouldn't have been given orders. The way he sees it, he is following orders. Warriors said “clear out the rest.” And that’s what Wild’s helping to do. But then afterwards? Warriors is angry!

The plan? What plan? There was no plan! The goal was just to get rid of everyone! Why does it matter if Wild took out the big guy before the little guys?

It’s at this point that Wild realizes he’s done something wrong, but he doesn’t know what he’s done wrong. (Any other neurodivergent folks here? If so, yeah, you know how this feels. I know I do.)

It’s clear through subsequent interactions that Wild genuinely does not understand what the problem is:

He thought he made the right move, but others don’t seem to think so. He’s already emotional, and this is just adding more fuel to the fire. He snaps, starts a fight with Four, and runs off still feeling confused.

Meanwhile, Warriors is also confused. Why didn’t Wild act the way Warriors thought he would? He’s a knight, right? Why did he do what he did, and how did he not understand that his choice of strategy was incorrect after?

And it’s not just Wild that Warriors failed to read correctly; the others are clashing with him too. Case in point, Twilight’s refusal to hang back after being injured:

In the aftermath of the battle, it’s at this point that Warriors makes a realization: he’s the one who made a mistake. He had preconceived expectations of people, and that ended up majorly backfiring on him.

Warriors knows that he can't be a good teammate - and a good leader - if he doesn't understand where his companions are coming from. Again, it's not about authority, it's about being on the same page. Ever since, he has been trying to seek better understanding. Maybe Wild doesn't feel comfortable taking orders from Warriors, and only listens to those he knows well?

But Twilight said, "No he doesn't." Huh. Okay. Well, maybe Warriors can try to get inside Wild's head? Let's try some bantering! These guys love to banter!

Oops. Fumble. That didn't go well. But hey, at least Wild seems to have figured out what he did wrong!

That's a step in the right direction! Okay, they're getting somewhere, Warriors thinks.

But Wild is really down on himself. He now realizes that he misinterpreted a directive that he should have understood. And thinks that Warriors thinks he's stupid, and hates him. (Again, where my neurodivergent peeps at? Yeah. That feeling.)

Meanwhile, things are becoming clearer to Warriors. Not only does he realize that he shouldn't have viewed his teammates through his own preconceived notions, but for the first time, he also realizes just how different his experience was from everyone else's:

He realizes he's got a LOT of learning to do. His discordance with Wild is proof of that. But Wild has never been in a dungeon either. Maybe this is their chance to connect? Warriors tries once again to get inside Wild's head. Maybe he can try to understand why Wild isn't approaching this dungeon the way Warriors would:

Aaaaand Wild froze up. Dang it. Warriors isn't getting anything. He really needs to figure out what's going wrong here so they can work together. It's for both of their benefit, and the group's benefit as a whole. They need to get on the same page so that they can not only fight together, but be good friends to each other. And when the opportunity arises to team up one-on-one, Warriors jumps at it! This is the perfect opportunity, he thinks!

But right now? Wild doesn't realize that. He thinks that Warriors is mad at him. Warriors is NOT mad at him. Warriors is trying to learn, to better himself, and to forge a connection.

And I believe that even though it's been a bumpy road, we're going to see some amazing growth between Warriors and Wild in the future.

[sleepingdeath-light]

black sapphire cookie smut hcs ; 18+

requested by ; anonymous (12/02/25), rinnstar (17/02/25) & anonymous (20/02/25)

fandom(s) ; cookie run

fandom masterlist(s) ; hub | specific

character(s) ; black sapphire cookie

outline ; “hello!!! i know that he quite literally just came out, but if you ever plan on writing about him then,,, can i please request black sapphire cookie smut, preferably with a fem reader? the new story got me in SHAMBLES for him (im 19 btw!)”

&

“Hii, can I ask for Black Sapphire cookie nsfw hcs? (Also sorry for resending the request, but I resend it to confirm that you can see I'm not a minor.) also have a great day :3”

&

“I absolutely love your work and I’m so hype to finally catch the requests open!

Black Sapphire Cookie w/ gender neutral S/O headcanons? (Relationship/Fluff + Smut) I’m 19!

Thank you for considering mine!

Also if I could stay anonymous ty!! ^^”

warning(s) ; sexually explicit content, switch!black sapphire cookie, brat!black sapphire cookie, edging, teasing, various forms of pain play mentioned, bondage, exhibitionism, facial, humiliation

minors and ageless blogs will be blocked

black sapphire cookie is, first and foremost, a massive and very versatile switch. he’s happy to act as your dominant or as your submissive (though he only make it easy for you no matter what role he’s filling), but no matter what he does have a distinct preference for topping

sure he can bottom and will if you beg him really really nicely, but it’s still just not his favourite thing to do

even when he’s acting as your submissive in bed black sapphire cookie refuses to make things easy for you, taking advantage of his extensive knowledge of your person to figure out exactly which buttons to push and when in order to get the exact response from you that he wants. in other words: he’s a fucking brat

and when he’s acting as your dom he alternates between being an endearing tease and just straight up mean. he’s vocal, he’s touchy, he knows exactly what to say to drive you up the wall, and he always seems to know exactly what you want him to do without you needing to tell him… but he will refuse to give you what you want until you beg for it

asshole

a solid 90% of what comes out of his mouth in the bedroom is teasing and/or somewhat degrading remarks that are intended to get a rise out of you (either to frustrate you into roughing him up a bit when he’s subbing, or to tease you until you’re a teary-eyed flustered mess when he’s domming)… and the remaining 10% is moans and groans and cries that are just broken enough to perfectly toe the line between obnoxiously loud and arousingly shameless

loves to edge and be edged, but he gets a particular sort of pleasure from denying you your orgasm over and over again until you’re literally sobbing and begging for him to let you cum… you just look so cute when you’re crying and frustrated that he can’t help himself sometimes

(and your watery broken voice crying out for his touch and attention and his cock may or may not be his favourite sound in the world… but that’s another point entirely)

he can put on a fantastic show of begging for you (your body, your touch, your mouth on his cock, etc.) and he does come across as convincing most of the time, the only way to tell whether or not he’s being genuine is to look at his lips and his fingers — if his lips are twitching ever so slightly downward, like he’s trying desperately to stop himself from frowning, and if his hands are starting to flex and tremble where he’s holding them, then he’s actually much more desperate for you than he’s letting on and is toning down his begging to spare his ego a bit

his punishments for you are always on the more elaborate side, bordering on performative at times while still managing to be at least somewhat pleasurable for you both: suspension paired with degradation and ruined orgasms, making you hump his shoe in front of an ‘audience’ (illusions) while he recites your each and every infraction like a judge informing a defendant of their final sentence, using you as a glorified cocksleeve and pumping you full of cum while refusing to let you finish even once until he’s satisfied, stripping and restraining you and making you cum over and over again on a toy until you’re sobbing out apologies and begging for the real thing, etc. — he’s very creative

as touched upon previously, black sapphire cookie is very comfortable with bondage — both when it comes to safely and securely restraining and suspending you, and when it comes to being restrained himself — and he has a particular knack for being able to keep the act of bondage particularly exciting. he’ll bring out new equipment (stretchers, hooks, chains), try out new knots, bind you in new positions, incorporate other kinks, and so on — needless to say things never get boring or stale with him

has no problems with putting on a show for you — or with you, as long as the audience is only made up of illusions — and gets really into it when he does. like he fully leans into his persona as an entertainer, makes all of his reactions more dramatic, maintains eye contact with you to make sure you’re watching everything he does, and makes sure to involve his audience in his performance (asking questions, calling out to you, ‘begging’ you to come help him out, and so on). he’s… really good at keeping an audience invested, to say the least

the most sexually sensitive parts of his body are his stomach and his hips, but he always tries his best to play off any reactions he gives to you touching/groping/kissing those areas as something done in jest or at least something he’s exaggerating for your sake. don’t believe him, though, those high-pitched moans and whimpers are 100% genuine

when you go down on him his favourite place to finish is on your face — bonus points if you lick it all up afterwards, but he doesn’t mind what you do after he’s cum since its just the sight that gets him going. and when he goes down on you he much prefers having you straddle and ride/fuck his face over anything else (and he swallows everything you have to offer, but that’s mainly due to him being a bit of a show-off in bed)

loves to experiment with new positions to the point where he’ll just randomly switch things up in the middle of having sex with you, but the full nelson and doggy style both have a particularly special place in his heart

loves the way you look in his clothes, especially his jacket and tie, and if you manage to catch him off guard by wearing his stuff and nothing else then he’ll be all but stumbling over his own feet in his efforts to get to you and ruin you

[burningcheese-merchant]

okay enough with the ship discourse! let's lighten the mood with some season 10 discussions! I'm really really excited to see the latter half of the story, and I'm super curious how this will going into next months update too! chocolate bark, and whatever second cookie that'll come in july, I cannot wait to see how things play out, the dragons have some of the most interesting lore in all of CR history (second only to the Novas hehehe my awesome space super sentai family 😄)

Absolutely, my friend! No more dumb discourse, only good and silly vibes

I actually meant to make a separate post talking about my thoughts on Season 10 of Ovenbreak, but I was always too busy to do so. Your ask gives me an excuse lol

I have LOVED this update so far. It's so great. The story is so great. Longan Dragon being 1000000000000 kilometers long and looking like an eldritch horror? Basically being Jörmungandr from Norse myth? Peak. Longan Dragon trapping everyone in some kind of mind prison and forcing them to endure constant pyschological assault? Peak. More dragon family lore? Peak. Chocolate Bark? Peak, I love him, he's so handsome and perfect, if only he was in Kingdom too

I think what I've enjoyed most so far is:

Dark Choco and Chocolate Bark backstory. I really enjoy their little mentor/student bond. CB is such a fun dude. He's tough but he's lighthearted and has a sense of humor. The way he speaks to DC is so charming, he's like a older brother or uncle almost

I think Dark Choco really needed someone like this in his life, you know? It's a big shame he left, even if it was for an important mission. It makes me wonder how differently things would've turned out if he'd stayed.

Also...

"My father" this, "my father" that. #SayHisName, Devsis lol

It's cool to get official confirmation that the Dark Cacao Kingdom exists (existed?) in Ovenbreak as well. And by extension, Dark Cacao himself exists (existed?) there too. And... he's not the most affectionate dad still lol. It's ok, he's still my favorite Ancient and Kingdom character. I am begging and pleading Devsis for more lore on this, hell give us a whole update focusing on Dark Choco PLEASE, he's been so neglected in OB and it's been a huge shame because he gets more attention in Kingdom. I love Dark Choco, I love how tragic he is, I love his redemption arc. (It's admittedly... less compelling here than it is in CRK, but that can be fixed with a Dark Choco-focused update imo)

I just really, really adore seeing the dragons interact with each other. I love their dynamic SO much, they're my favorite group in this whole series. I'm nutso about them individually and as a family/clan. It's been awesome learning more about Lychee and Longan especially; I love Lychee's unwilling attachment to Rambutan and her apparent longing for proper attention from/bonding with Longan, I love the way the Pitaya-Ananas-Lotus trio bicker and banter, THE LONGAN CHARACTER STUDY‼️‼️‼️ Pitaya may be my favorite dragon but Longan is the most complex and interesting one by far. The warped affection he feels for his family. The need to protect and govern them. The way he perceives time and the world at large. His sociopathic desire for absolute control and revenge for perceived injustices. The way he tries to manipulate the others into agreeing with him and going along with his plans (those scenes in the Dark Realm are fucking crazy. The way he warps and weaponizes their emotions and memories is actual textbook abuser/cult brainwashing shit)

What the actual fuck dude. Ok, Charles Manson lol. And I thought Shadow Milk was bad. (No lie I find Longan Dragon 10x more intimidating than Shadow Milk. He exudes an aura that SM simply does not. THIS is power. THIS is boundless knowledge sharpened into a blade and held against your throat. Shadow Milk may be a god but Longan Dragon is above even godhood. I'm way more scared of Longan than any of the Beasts)

Biggest scene for me though?

WHAT??? LAST SURVIVOR OF THE FLOWER DRAGONS??? WHAT???????????

In hindsight... yeah it was kind of obvious something was up with Lotus Dragon lol. The one flower in a group of fruits. Pretty on the nose. But it's still crazy to think about, you know? What happened to the other Flower Dragons? Why is Lotus the only one left? How did the other Fruit Dragons feel about taking her in? How did SHE feel about that, essentially being adopted by a rival clan? What if they had something to do with the Flower Dragons' demise? They better address this in the next half of the story istg. I will lose it. I WILL write a sternly worded email to Devsisters. I WILL cry

What this says about Longan's character is also quite interesting. It appears that his respect and affection for dragons actually does extend beyond his own immediate family. Enough to take in an orphan. This capacity for compassion and generosity is so unlike how Longan normally behaves. It makes for a really fascinating pivot from his usual modus operandi and adds a lot of depth to his thinking and character

(honestly, this makes me want and hope for Longan Dragon's surrender even more. I've always thought that Longan willingly standing down and ceding victory to the other dragons would be more impactful than him simply being beaten the normal way, aka through the Power of Friendship and Punching Stuff. I want Longan's love for his family to win in the end. I want him to come to realize that he really would have no choice but to eradicate his family in order to achieve his goals, and then forfeit because he could never bring himself to do it. They're the reason why he's doing any of this in the first place. I don't want him to change his mind about mortals or anything, he can stay a genocidal race supremacist lol. I just think it would be more interesting if he willingly stopped what he was doing just because he can't let go of his kin. Perhaps he truly is only clinging to an idyllic past long dead. It would hurt. Hurt his pride, his ego. But their preservation would require the destruction of his clan and he cannot stand for that. THEY are his mission. THEY are his dream. Yes, Longan will forever mourn this loss as he shall forever mourn the past itself. But at least he'll still have those four afterwards. Even if they hate him.)

The dragons make me so ill. I need to pelt them with rocks. Gonna call the Stone Dragons Pitaya was beefing with in prehistoric times and ask them for a favor

[novlr]

Do you have any posts on turning a book into a series, and/or deciding how many books the series should be? I searched but couldn't really find anything. Im plotting my story and not sure how to split it up into how many books if I decide it's too much for a stand alone. Do I just go with trilogy? Thought there are many authors who have like 5-10 books. How do I know?

The choice between writing a standalone novel or committing to develop a series isn’t always straightforward. While some stories naturally lend themselves to multiple books, others work best as self-contained narratives. So what do you have to think about to actually make these decisions?

Signs your story might work better as a series

Complex worldbuilding

If you’ve built an intricate fictional world with multiple cultures, magic systems, or technological innovations that you can’t fully explore in a single book without overwhelming readers, you might have series potential.

Multiple major story arcs

When you have several significant plotlines that feel rushed or cramped into one book, or story threads that naturally extend beyond your story’s major conflict, this could show series potential.

Character development opportunities

If your characters have growth trajectories that would feel unrealistic or rushed within a single book, or if you have multiple interesting characters whose stories deserve more content, a series might be best.

Scope of conflict

Stories with conflicts that escalate naturally or reveal larger implications beyond the initial problem often work well as series.

Signs your story might work better as a standalone

Single central conflict

If your story revolves around one main conflict that can be satisfyingly resolved in a single book, it might be better as a standalone.

Focused character arc

When your protagonist’s journey has a clear beginning, middle, and end that rarely spawns new questions or conflicts, consider keeping it standalone.

Contained story world

If your world-building serves the immediate story without requiring extensive exploration of other aspects, it might not need expansion into a series.

Thematic resolution

When your theme can be fully explored and resolved in one book, forcing it into a series might dilute its impact and spread the story too thin to remain interesting.

How to decide the number of books

If you’ve decided your story would work better as a series, consider these factors when deciding length:

Natural breaking points: Look for places where your story has significant shifts in conflict, setting, or character development.

Story complexity: More complex narratives might need more books to do justice to all the elements.

Market considerations: While you shouldn’t write for marketing alone, if you plan to publishing, be aware that publishers and audiences often prefer certain series lengths for different genres.

Story structure: Some narratives naturally fall into traditional structures:

Trilogy (three acts)

Duology (two-part story)

Quartet (four interconnected arcs)

Longer series (episodic adventures or expanding scope)

Questions to ask yourself

Can your story be told effectively in one book without sacrificing depth or rushing important elements?

Do you have enough material for multiple books without resorting to filler?

Are your subplots and secondary characters strong enough to sustain reader interest across multiple books?

Does each potential book have its own complete arc while contributing to the larger story?

Are you personally invested enough in the world and characters to spend years developing multiple books?

Remember that there’s no universally “right” answer. Some stories that started as standalone books often grow into series (think crime series that tell self-contained stories but use the same protagonist throughout), while others that originally released as series are often condensed into a single volume for a better reader experience (like Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea Quartet, or Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising series).

Let your story guide you. Don’t force a standalone into a series just because series are popular, and don’t compress a story that needs room to breathe just to fit it into one book. Focus on telling your story in the most effective way possible, and the right format will often become clear during the writing process.

Whether you choose to write a standalone book or a series, make sure each book can stand on its own merits while serving the larger story you want to tell.

[mydogatemymotivation]

I had a thought about Lasan. People tend to agree that Zeb is kind of looked down on or seen as less intelligent by the people around him, despite him obviously being very smart, and I was wondering why that was. I do think there's some underlying xenophobia in the rebellion, even if it's not as rampant, that when someone looks at Zeb they might see him as something 'other' or somehow more animal like and therefore unintelligent. But then why does Zeb so frequently look down on himself as well? Is it just a lack of confidence? Well, I was thinking and I came up with this idea: what if the foundation of knowledge itself is different on Lasan compared to the rest of the galaxy?

So, hear me out, I'm a historian, I love history and there was a history class I was in some time ago that was all about the Aztec, Inca, and Maya, major empires each during their heyday, and in one of the units, we learned about the Mayan calendar and their number system (you don't have to be a mathematician for this, I promise) (I can't do math) (also this whole post is an excuse for me to talk about this cuz I think it's neat).

The Mayans (and by extension most people in Central America) used a completely different number system to do math. They used what's called a vigesimal system, not a decimal system. A decimal system is a Base 10 system: 1's, 10's, 100's.  This is the way we learn math today.

(sorry for the shitty quality. and the. stains. i was snacking on salt an vinegar chips and they spilled. ignore that.)

However a vigesimal system is not Base 10, but Base 20, and this changes the most basic arithmetic. Actually, it flat out changes the way numbers are read.

It seems like Lasan was a fairly isolated planet, there weren't a lot of Lasat seen in the galaxy at large, and Lasan was neutral during the Clone Wars, so it could be that there wasn't a big push to learn how things are done in the rest of the galaxy unless you were specifically planning on leaving Lasan. And since Zeb was in the Honor Guard, I don't imagine he ever even wanted to leave, but rather was forced to. Which means he probably never would've learned the systems that the rest of the galaxy used.

Now, I will say that the decimal system only exists because humans have ten fingers, which is why it called Base 10. And the vigesimal system exists because humans have ten fingers and ten toes, which is why it's called Base 20. Lasat have neither, which means they probably didn't use a vigesimal system; but it also means they probably didn't use a decimal system either. Not unless they imported it. Like I said, I'm not a mathematician, so I'm not even going to try to figure out what a Base 8 or a Base 16 number system looks like, I'm not that good at math.

But imagine, if you will, being forced to step out into a world where you can't even read numbers (I'm going to keep using vigesimal as an example). How would people look at you? Say you're in a foreign market and you're trying to scrape together enough credits to buy food. You look at the characters the rest of the galaxy uses and you have to translate them, so you're stood there staring at this price tag, the guy behind the counter is getting impatient. So you manage to translate the characters into the ones you know and pull out your credits. It's a 2 and an 8. 2x20 is 40 and an 8, is, well, 8. So you try to pay 48 credits for the food. Your new traveling companion clears his throat and tells you that's almost double the price and you really can't afford to lose credits on a translation error. Then you remember, they use tens. So 2x10 is 20. Not 40. Now the shopkeeper's looking at you funny, and your companion is paying the proper price for the food. And you have to just stand there, embarrassed, that you can't even do basic math.

So you get back to your new ship and there's this thing there, it's metal, and it thinks with a system called binary. Which is somehow a language based on a number system that you don't understand. And it's yelling at you. Loudly. And a lot. Would anybody blame you if you tried to punt the little trash can into the sun? If that was your experience day-in, day-out would you offer yourself up when somebody asks for ideas? I wouldn't. And to go through some version of that repeatedly without really being able to explain because first of all, who wants to learn new math just for you, and second of all, this is your second language anyway so how are you supposed to explain new math sufficiently when you have to translate everything in your head first. That would be crushing, and isolating. And some days, maybe it's just easier to be the dumb brute.

As someone who grew up bad at math, all STEM actually, and blonde (which doesn't seem like it'd be a big deal, but people really do treat like you're stupider than everyone else. Far and away NOT the worst hair-based discrimination, but the stereotype does get under your skin eventually) I was genuinely convinced I was stupid. I know now that my brain is wired for arts and humanities and I am NOT stupid. But my inability to do simple math without a calculator is humiliating to this day and I can really empathize with Zeb about feeling like you're lacking something that comes naturally to everyone else. The self-doubt and the self-loathing that come with looking around you and realizing that if you ask for help, you open yourself up to mockery because what's hard for you is basic for everyone else. It sucks. I don't blame Zeb for being so down on himself.

Zeb could've had the best education on Lasan but it truly doesn't matter how quality your education is if everyone around you reads 28 differently than you do. It's not a lack of intelligence, it's a translation error coupled with a lack of grace from the people around you. I'd beat myself up, too.

I'm not saying that I think this is what the writers had intended or anything, in fact, I don't think they thought about Lasan and it's culture all that much, if I'm being honest, but that's a thought for later. I just, I had this idea and wanted to share.

Can you believe this post exists because my dad bought me a mug lol. I collect mugs and my dad found one that has Mayan hieroglyphs carved onto it and he knows that I can understand a handful of glyphs and thought I'd like it. I don't have it yet but it's en route. Anyway, it got me thinking about ancient Maya and I've got kalluzeb brainrot and they collided and made this.

[dipperpepper77]

Cosplay Time! LADS

Dipper's Delusions

Tags: Cosplayer Reader x LADS Want to branch out to other fandoms. Also cosplay with my friends so it's me tying my fav things together. (each character gets 2 options)

Introduction: Chaotic schedules made you both yearn for some normalcy. You cosplayed often at conventions to destress. You had an upcoming convention coming up that you planned to attend for two days. Two cosplays were in your line up to wear. It was a fun activity that you didn't really think your S/O would be interested in. But... he adores you. Letting you even pick out two cosplays for him to wear. So... what did you choose?

Rafayel (Howl: Howl's Moving castle AND Oikawa from Haikyuu): This man flaunts it. Puffing out his chest and all. He started walking around the convention taking pictures and signing autographs.

He didn't opt for a wig or contacts. He truly believes that his beautiful eyes and hair shouldn't be covered up.

Zayne (Nanami: Jujutsu Kaisen AND Law: One Piece): He doesn't put up a fight with dressing up. BUT, you did have to convince him a couple times that he didn't look ridiculous.

He doesn't wear wigs but opts for you using a bit of blonde hair chalk or spray on him. He even goes to the gym a little bit longer to fill out the costumes.

Xavier (Usui: Maid-Sama! AND Link: The Legend of Zelda): He stares at you blankly. The maid-sama bit was a bit on the nose for him. BUT... he's convinced the Link is because he convinced himself the costume looks like Lumiere. He's more delusional than us.

He looks like the characters a fair bit (I genuinely think he looks like Link so that's why I put this here). Now wigs for him BUT he does put on contacts.

Sylus (Bakugo: My Hero Academia AND Sukuna: Jujutsu Kaisen): He didn't even NEED to go to the gym. Just slapped the costumes on and called it a day. This all stemmed because of a joke where you said he looked like an adult Bakugo. The Sukuna bit was a joke from Luke and Kieran. He is the farthest thing from Sukuna... but, to those who cross him?

He actually lets you put a wig on for Sukuna but you both opted for temporary hair dye. The Bakugo cosplay didn't require him to do anything.

Caleb (Portgas D. Ace: One Piece AND Choso: Jujutsu Kaisen): This one is self explanatory (actually.. I just have a type I guess. These are my big three and I LOVE YAPPING ABOUT THEM). All three are crash outs, older brother figure, all... met their graves too soon. OOPS. All sexy too.

He got small extensions for the Choso cosplay. Opting for brown contacts for Ace and makeup to enhance his freckles. Caleb let you do WHATEVER you wanted on him.

Dip Notes: HIII!! Just wanted to give a special thanks to @xaviaurora for helping me out with Rafayel. I would NOT have thought to include Howl. Bye bye for now! I hope you all enjoyed :)

[wildrangers]

I have a matt smith request, this is like a part 2 kinda on your "surprising matt you're pregnant" fic, can you do where they call their friends/castmates to tell she's pregnant and to see their reactions. Thankyouuuu

I’m thinking this is going to be a small series of sorts but nothing extensive. I have a few other family-focused asks waiting to be written so I’m planning to have it be the same reader character. That way, it’ll be its own little universe of sorts but also each can be a stand alone. Here is the pregnancy surprise ask, a part one of sorts 🙂

Tropes & Topics: pregnancy, fluff

Word Count: 1.2K

“But love, everyone is going to be so excited!” Matt argues, pouting dramatically. 

“I know Matt, I’m not saying they won’t be” you reply, resting your hands on his chest. “But I’m still in the first trimester and I want to keep things small right now. Our parents know, as does your sister who I’m so thrilled will be little one’s godmother. That’s plenty for now, okay?”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry to push” he apologizes, covering your hands with his own. “I’m just rubbish at keeping secrets.” 

“Think of it like an NDA for a show” you suggest and he chuckles, nodding. 

“I feel awful not telling Fabs, especially since we know we want him to be the godfather.” 

“Why don’t we plan to tell him first then?” 

“Brilliant idea, my love” he replies, kissing between your brows. 

So, two months later and officially into your fourth month of pregnancy, you were putzing around the kitchen, putting the final touches on dinner for the small party you and Matt had planned. Everyone but Fabien had been given a start time of six so when the doorbell chimed shortly after half past five you knew who Matt would be greeting. 

“Oh it smells lovely in here!” you hear Fabien compliment from behind you a moment later and you turn to greet him with a smile. 

“Why thank you! How are you doing?” you ask, giving him a long hug. 

“I’m well, it’s generous of you two to host this before the first leg of international shooting for season two.”

“Oh we’re happy to, it’s always wonderful having everyone altogether. I know you lot will get to see each other all the time but since I’m not on set…” 

“I mean you could finally quit the job you don’t really like and join us,” Fabien suggests, smiling. This was not a new conversation amongst your and Matt’s friends and little did he know your bags were packed alongside Matt’s in your bedroom. 

“Time will tell” you allow, grinning at the surprised look on his face as Matt joins you two in the kitchen, handing Fabien a glass of wine. 

“Well it’s not a no like usual, so I'll certainly take that. Matt, are you finally getting through to your lovely fiancée?” 

“You know I always defer to her wisdom” Matt smiles, squeezing your shoulder before stirring the pot left on the stove. 

“I guess that’s a good segue to some exciting news” you grin and Fabien’s eyes widen. “I’m actually going to Spain with you all!” 

“No! You cad, I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!” Fabien chastises Matt before wrapping you in another excited hug. “Oh, we’re going to have the best time, Y/N.”

“I’ve never been to Spain and this seemed like the perfect time to since I actually did recently resign from work.”

“What?! Why?” Fabien asks, eyes bulging even wider somehow. 

“Well, we need to focus on packing up the apartment here so we can move into our new home just outside the city” Matt explains, chuckling more as Fabien’s shock deepens. 

“I didn’t even know you two were thinking of moving, this place has been a staple of yours for years now. What’s changed?” 

“Well, we want to make sure there’s plenty of room for the baby” Matt says casually and Fabien nods along until the words finally hit him.

“Are you being serious?!” Fabien asks, hands clapped over his mouth. 

“Surprise!” you laugh and Fabien’s eyes begin to moisten. “Oh Fabs…”

“Oh mates, I’m so happy for you both” he replies, pulling Matt into a firm hug, clapping him on the back a few times before releasing him to place a kiss on your cheek. “Wait, who else knows? Is that why I’m the only one here?”

“Just you other than immediate family” you reply, looking pointedly at Matt. 

“Oh gosh, I can't wait to be Uncle Fabien!” 

“Uncle is great, but how does godfather sound?” Matt asks, voice thick with emotion. The two share a long look as Fabien’s eyes dampen further.

“Matt, you’re joking” Fabien says quietly, eyes darting between you both. 

“Fabien, you’re one of the best men I’ve ever met. I can’t think of anyone else that we'd rather be their godfather” you say earnestly and Fabien brushes a few tears away before pulling you into a tight embrace. 

“I am beyond honored,” Fabien says, clasping Matt on the shoulder. “Oh gosh, everyone’s going to flip!” 

“I know, right? I’ve wanted to tell everyone for months now” Matt replies eagerly and you shake your head, smiling, as you take the pot off the stove and begin reaching for the last platter you need. 

“Y/N, stop, let me” Fabien cuts in, easily reaching the top shelf you’d been stretching towards. 

“I’m pregnant, not an invalid” you say fiercely, glaring at him while you take the serving dish. 

“Oh lovely, I won’t have to be the only one who hears that line now” Matt says enthusiastically and you stick your tongue out at him. 

“I keep saying it because it’s true!” 

“Yes, but we love you and we love little one so let us take care of you both, please?” Fabien requests and you sigh, stepping aside and letting the two men lift the heavy serving platters of food just as the doorbell rings. 

“You don’t say a word Fabien, okay? We have it all planned out” Matt warned and Fabien mimes zipping his lips. 

Soon enough, everyone’s seated around the table and Matt’s tapping his glass to get everyone’s attention. “Thank you all so much for joining Y/N and I, I’ll make this quick. I know we lured you here as this being a send off for the start of season two but it’s a bit more than that. This is actually going to be our last party at this place, as we’re moving to a home outside the city shortly.”

“Oh congratulations, how exciting” Emma smiles and you thank them as everyone choruses their agreement. 

“What, are you two about to pop out a couple of kids now since you’re moving to the suburbs?” Olivia jokes and everyone laughs, you loudest of all. 

“I don’t know about a couple but definitely one this year” you say slyly. There’s a moment of silence while everyone processes your words before your friends erupt in celebration. 

“Oh my gosh, I would never have said anything if I knew, I’m so sorry!” Olivia insists, cheeks flaming red. 

“No, no it’s fine that was actually a perfect set up so thank you” you reply sincerely. 

“When are you due?!” Tom questions, scooping food onto his plate before passing the bowl around. 

“Late May so we’ll have either a little Taurus or Gemini” you reply, excited. 

“Oh, she has to be a Gemini, that would be amazing!” Phia says emphatically and you laugh at her enthusiasm. “Matt’s too stubborn already, a Taurus wouldn’t mesh well.”

“Wait, she?” Matt questions, brows raised. “Do you know something we don’t know yet?” 

“No, no, just a feeling,” she explains. 

“Well, I think it’s a boy,” Ewan jumps in. 

“Place your bets now, we have that appointment in a little less than a month.” 

As your friends debate around you, Matt squeezes your hand drawing your attention to him. “I love you, darling” he says quietly, placing a gentle kiss to your cheek.

“And we love you” you reply and his face breaks into that familiar grin that sends your heart racing each time you see it. You’d started saying we since surprising him with the pregnancy announcement and it never fails to earn you that beloved smile of his. 

taglist: @slayraxes-blogs @littlehorrorlover @decaffeinatedparadisepost

[genericpuff]

This plot point annoyed me so much! I thought she was finally going to open up to Persephone about the reasons why she hated Hades so much, about what he did to her, but no! They just introduced a new yet unnecessary character to the story 🤦🏼‍♀️

What are your thoughts about it?

oh yeah it annoyed the piss out of me too and for one very big reason that is CHRONIC in LO:

It's a solution to a problem Demeter didn't have.

This happens to a lot of characters throughout the comic. They'll have some kind of plot-driven conflict or character-driven flaw, and then it will be solved by something else entirely that had nothing to do with their original problem or doesn't line up with the theme of their storytelling. Minthe had insecurity issues and a toxic relationship with Hades? Just give her a classroom full of children to babysit! Hades had infertility issues? That's fine, Persephone somehow fixes those issues because at the end of the comic they have babies and Hades has his happy ending so it's fine! Hera was in an unhappy relationship with Zeus and had trauma from her past as a victim of Kronos? No problem, just make her an all powerful fertility goddess! Persephone accidentally causes winter which kills possibly thousands of people? Gaia is here to save the day, and also she's the one who makes Persephone return to the Mortal Realm for a couple months with full visitation rights. Apollo is a serial rapist who's attempted murder on several occasions, even against his own father in an attempt to take the throne? Community service, that'll solve it.

Demeter is one of the biggest examples of Rachel's inability of writing an actual cohesive plotline. She writes like the only goal is to come up with new twists to keep people reading each week without ever considering what themes or questions she should be answering throughout. So when she does pose questions, the answers often wind up being severely disconnected because she can't be bothered to actually plan out a plotline with narrative structure, she just needs 'things' to happen. To put it bluntly and simply, she writes like how a 13 year old on Wattpad would write, no actual thinking about the material she's presenting, no consideration for the curtains and what color they are, just "make the things happen so that people will keep reading because that's what writing is!"

Demeter's problem wasn't her failing to understand Persephone. It was people failing to understand her when she had reasonable cause to both be wary of Persephone moving to Olympus as well as Hades and his intentions with her daughter. But because Rachel needs to have the perfect happy ending for her self-insert power fantasy couple, she resorts to gaslighting both Demeter as well as the audience by extension into believing that the solution to Demeter's character arc... is understanding Persephone more.

Like first of all, the moral "people just want to be understood" is way, WAY too "baby's first storyline" at this point in the story especially when we've tried to tackle much bigger topics like sexual assault, and when we know how complex Demeter's backstory is. There's no way she needs to be told by Hebe that people just want to be "understood". She absolutely knows this already, and has been fighting to be understood by her siblings and peers and family for centuries, but of course, everyone sees her as just "the contrarian".

But then the final solution is... the sudden appearance of Demophoon as her long-lost child, and Hades giving her the volcanoes. That's it. She doesn't get to actually become Queen of the Mortal Realm, she never really gets closure over the past 2000 years of abuse from everyone around her, Hades just - like with everyone - buys her affection and she gets a new baby to pour her attention into instead of Persephone and we're all just forced to go along with it for the sake of Rachel's fantasy.

Rachel can't write (￢_￢;)

[theclearblue]

The Razor Blade scene: Character assassination, a joke, or something else?

I've been seeing people discuss two small scenes connected to each other post Fishman Island and in Punk Hazard, the first where the two are bickering and they say this:

And a scene in Punk Hazard where Sanji packed lunches for Luffy, Zoro, Robin, and Usopp and Zoro is making "crunching" noises in the panel, and Oda reveals in an SBS that Sanji did actually put razor blades and poison in Zoro's food:

I have seen claims of character assassination in this scene for Sanji, considering his position on food being something everyone has a right to and his refusal in Whole Cake Island to put poison in the cake they plan to give to Big Mom:

I understand that comparing the two scenes, it does look like Sanji is abandoning his ideals just to get back at Zoro in their fight. But we need to look at both what Oda is saying in the SBS and also Zoro and Sanji's relationship to understand this scene, and why I don't believe this breaks Sanji's character or his ideals.

In the SBS, Oda ends the answer with "The serious nature of their fight is what makes it interesting." Going back one panel and seeing what triggered this fight:

It was Zoro being a lil shit and calling Sanji "Nosebleed-kun." That's to say, this fight is no more serious than their usual bickering, and Oda is making fun of that. Ultimately, this scene and the lunchboxes is a running joke, so that is one thing to keep in mind is that the scene, and Sanji by extension, is not serious about this fight. Of course, jokes are not immune to committing mischaracterization, so we have to look at their relationship too to make sense of it fully.

So why did Sanji actually put poison and razor blades in Zoro's food if he believes that poison shouldn't be used in food? I think at the end of the day, we have to remember that Sanji would never hurt anyone through food, especially the ones he cares about. And he does care about Zoro, it is shown time and time again that they watch out for and care for each other, from Long Ring Long Land, to Thriller Bark and Saoboady, and in Wano. My point is that Sanji knows that Zoro is a freak of nature and wouldn't actually be hurt by the razor blades or the poison, and that he would finish the food.

Zoro actually eats the damn food and literally says nothing about it, Oda didn't even think people would catch this it was such a small detail, but it's one I really like. One because, honestly, it is a funny joke to me, but also it shows a level of trust and understanding of each other? Sanji knows that Zoro is such a brute that he can just fucking. Chomp on metal (which. you know he does on the regular anyways LMAO) and have a little bit of poison go through him and he's literally fine. This is no worse to me than Sanji kicking him. And Zoro just accepting what he's been given, literally no complaints, and he finishes the food and doesn't waste it, because he DOES respect what Sanji does for him and the crew on a daily basis.

Ultimately, the difference in this scene and in Whole Cake Island is that Sanji KNOWS that he isn't actually gonna hurt Zoro by pulling this on him, hes looking to call Zoro on his taunt and be an annoying brat back to him. Bege is seriously asking him to kill Big Mom through the food that he makes, something that's on a completely different level then him pulling a prank on Zoro. The razor blade joke no different in this scene as well in Wano:

I don't think this is out of character for Sanji, it is their usual pettiness on full display, but also serves as a nice small detail into how they understand and trust each other.

[homestuckreplay]

Happy Wriggling Day, Karkat Vantas (?!)

(page 1989-1994)

HIVEBENT?!?!

Freaking the fuck out over here. What’s happening to my completely normal webcomic about the totally average escapades of four human kids. Suddenly we got a whole new character who’s basically being set up as an alternate universe, alternate species, dark John? We’re on the troll planet? But it’s not even a quick trollplanet intermission, like the one with the Midnight Crew and the Felt, this is the actual and real Act 5?????

ok taking some deep breaths to calm down. I think.

Karkat Vantas. I was so sure his name was gonna be Reggie. Previously known to us as carcinoGeneticist. Is the protagonist of ‘Hivebent’, which is like a twisted alien version of ‘Homestuck’, which is my favorite webcomic. Karkat lives on the planet Alternia, which (unlike the Incipisphere), exists within the regular flow of time in paradox space. This story takes place more than 413 million years before the beginning of Homestuck.

It felt pretty obvious that the trolls would play a bigger role in Act 5, maybe even with some flashbacks to their own gameplay, like how the story regularly cuts over to the exiles even while the kids are still the main characters. But this is something else. This is a huge shift, one that gives the trolls near equal importance to the kids. And like every act so far, it zooms the story out further, now focusing on a second planet and soon, a second Incipisphere.

Seeing the trolls’ adventure is probably gonna accomplish a few things:

- Teaching us more about Sburb’s intended gameplay, in a session that goes mostly to plan, to compare the kids’ session against

- Possibly revealing the Ultimate Riddle/purpose of the game, since the kids may never discover it for themselves

- Getting to know the trolls better, so that we’re more sympathetic to their cause, and find it harder to ‘pick a side’ between them and the kids when the two groups have conflict

- Getting to read about a bunch of characters who are just the worst, in so many ways, in contrast to how most of the kids have always been relatively kind and polite, and even Dave is starting to get character development – just like the MC intermission, reading about people who suck can be a lot of fun

- Giving us background on the trolls’ planet, which makes the storyworld feel bigger and more fleshed out, instead of just vaguely saying ‘uhhhh there’s other planets out there, somewhere’

- Chance to make up a bunch of silly names for things along the lines of ‘appearifier’ and ‘cookalizer’ – we’ve already got ‘respiteblock’, ‘larval awakening’ and ‘wriggling day’, and that was just in a single page. This may be much faster paced than our introduction to the kids, but there’s still gotta be jokes.

- ??????

Karkat is similar to John in a few ways. First, our story starts on the equivalent of his thirteenth birthday. Second, his room has the same configuration – small chest of drawers to the door’s left with miscellaneous items on top, software beta poster on the door, movie posters on both sides, and what I’m guessing is the trolls’ equivalent of a bed on the right, though it looks more like a giant larva. Third, they both ‘have a passion for REALLY TERRIBLE (ROMANTIC) MOVIES’ and ‘like to program computers but are NOT VERY GOOD AT IT/NOTORIOUSLY PRETTY AWFUL AT IT’ (p.4/1994). The color palette of Karkat’s room is much darker, as is the sky outside, and he’s angry, violent, mad at his own friends, and specifically interested in computer viruses. In his glorification of violence he’s more like Dave than John, to be honest, but overall he’s set up as the shitty mean kid in contrast to John’s goofy weird kid.

This guy has a lot of troll pals and their adventures are going to be quite extensive and convoluted, to an even greater degree than one perhaps may be accustomed. (p.1993)

Today is June 12, 6/12, and ‘Karkat Vantas’ has 6 syllables in each name for a total of 12. He’s six solar sweeps old, and later he’s going to play Sburb with five other friends, meaning a six-player session, even though we know there are twelve trolls. So it seems like 6 and 12 will be the key numbers this arc instead of 4 and 13, and Karkat (I can’t get over having a name for this guy, for real) currently only knows five of the other trolls. Unlike Earth where only one Sburb session was ‘successful’ (ie. its players made it to the Medium), on Alternia, there will be two successful sessions. The two groups will enter the same Medium and meet each other that way, but their success won’t be dependent on each other – in fact they’ll probably be racing to beat the other group, and it might not be possible for both to win the game. At least, that’s my best guess based on what we know about the trolls’ session so far. A 12-player chain would be a lot to keep track of, and competitive Sburb seems more appropriate for the trolls than the kids’ collaborative Sburb.

Act 4 left a fair few cliffhangers – John’s missions with the queen’s ring and getting Jade into the Medium, Rose’s attempts to destroy the game from the inside, Jade falling from her exploded bedroom while a meteor looms overhead, the ongoing destruction of Skaia – and it hurts that they won’t be resolved for a while. Plus I missed the kids during the Intermission, so I’m sure I’ll miss them more here. But I am very excited to learn more about the trolls, their group dynamics, their home planet, and especially their game sessions.

I still have some act4posting to finish up because of the many huge revelations I’m still processing from that. If there’s about to be twelve new characters introduced in act 5, I’m gonna try writing shorter reaction posts to the new pages without too much analysis, and then do character studies for each of the trolls as they’re introduced if time allows.

[unforth]

Started thinking about a modern Bingliushen pro-wrestling AU.

Liu Qingge is a face and very popular for his noble character and his incredible athleticism, like, pro wrestling is fake but Liu Qingge is clearly a legit badass. His rival is...

Luo Binghe is a heel, always comes out to the ring with a harem, and always wins when he and Liu Qingge fight, often because a couple members of the harem do underhanded things.

When they do, Luo Binghe scolds them and says he doesn't believe in cheating to win and then always gives the camera the most absolute wicked "of course I actually support this" look. (Even though he is also an athletic badass. There are frequent calls for them to have a clean fight cause fans want to genuinely know who'd win.)

Shang Qinghua is the script writer.

And Shen Yuan is the YouTuber who does hour-long vitriolic rants after every event where he lambasts the writing and detests the whole harem and leads the brigade of people demanding that Binghe and Qingge have a clean fight with no interference. His videos are so unhinged that he's actually gotten extremely popular, because his over-the-top-ness fits right in with the megadrama that is pro wrestling. The only issue, if it's an issue, is that no one can figure out if it's a schtick or if he genuinely is like that and really believes all the nonsense he's spewing (and, by extension, if he fully realizes that wrestling is a schtick).

Oh, and one other thing?

Shen Yuan never shows his face. His videos are voice-overs of clips, ingeniously done animations, awfully done animations, once or twice a person in a mask, once or twice a weird pseudo Hatsune Miko thing, he has many tricks to keep the visuals interesting and none involve a face reveal.

He has sworn up and down he'll never do a face reveal.

When he hits 1 million subscribers, Shang Qinghua reluctantly acknowledges that this fuckin annoying weirdo has gotten too big to ignore. He wants to meet him. He wants to make him shut the fuck up, or at least ease off on the hate. And since he's clearly obsessed with Luo Binghe and Liu Qingge, Shang Qinghua has a plan.

He invites Shen Yuan to meet the real Luo Binghe and Liu Qingge.

Luo Binghe and Liu Qingge, who have an at-times-tense friendship behind the scenes (what kind of tense? Yes.) Are of course aware of this Shen Yuan fellow, and both enjoy watching his videos (...and really like his voice...) and Luo Binghe at least has noticed there's...something...about the way Shen Yuan talks about Luo Binghe and Liu Qingge, something charged and interested and almost possessive (and yeah, Luo Binghe is into it, and he just assumes Liu Qingge has noticed. Liu Qingge has not.)

And like. Shen Yuan does know that wrestling is fake. He does! But he's still in no way prepared to meet these two men and find out what they're each really like when they're not playing their face/heel roles...

And neither Liu Qingge nor Luo Binghe are prepared for the beautiful face of the man behind those ridiculous videos...

[drakorn]

Rewriting Veilguard Part 8 - The Inquisition

Rewriting Veilguard Part 7 - The Lords of Fortune

Disclaimer: I don't hate the game, I actually think it's quite great given the development hell Bioware went through in those 10 years. This is more of a hypothetical universe where there was less of that behind the scenes drama. Just a fun writing exercise.

Reintroducing the Inquisition

It is now time, time to finally move away from the origin story missions. Now, the main story begins. We have explored the potential depths of what each factions’ origin story may bring to Veilguard as a whole. But what about the glue that brings them all together? What about the Inquisition?

In this chapter of my ongoing rewrite project, we shall look into how the Inquisition, and by extension, the main story, may be introduced into the game. As I’ve often said, I don’t really like how DAV just throws you into the confrontation with Solas without any prior build-up. It was quite apparent that, despite DAV doing away with World States, one is expected to understand at least the general plot of Dragon Age: Inquisition, and while Varric’s little narration tells us what we need to know to understand Solas’ role in the story, it’s not enough to make us care. Obviously, I cared because I played the previous game, but if we want DAV to stand on its own, like the previous games succeed, we need to do some more work.

So, without further ado, let’s get right into it. This is how I would introduce Veilguard’s main quest.

Our Canon Rook

In case you might have missed it, I recently held a poll about which of the six origin stories we would be using for our hypothetical playthrough of this rewrite, and the choice fell on the Veil Jumpers. So, for the duration of this rewrite and this World State in general, our Rook is going to be Ashara Aldwir, a Dalish mage.

That being said, occasionally, I will touch upon how the other Rooks may react to situations and characters more fitting for them. For instance, I will describe how a Shadow Dragon Rook reacts to returning to Minrathous and meeting Neve Gallus again. I will also describe how an Antivan Crow Rook would react to encountering Lucanis. Things like that. But for the most part, it’s going to be Aldwir from now on.

Travelling with Varric

So, we choose to stick with our Veil Jumper, and at this point the people watching this hypothetical stream are going to whoop and cheer with relief because this guy has finally stopped with the damn origin stories. Now we can get into the main story.

We get a small transitional scene narrated by Varric, which shows a map of Thedas, specifically our journey out of the Arlathan Forest, quite similar to what we get in the actual Veilguard. Varric tells us that what we’ve seen of the agents of Fen’Harel is just a fraction of what we should be worrying about, but that we first have to attend a certain meeting.

It should be noted that each origin will have a unique narration and map display. While Varric talks to Aldwir about Fen’Harel’s agents, he’ll speak to Mercar about the Venatori and the war effort instead. But all in all, it amounts to them having to make a stop somewhere at the Eyes of Nocen.

The Eyes of Nocen are a large geographical landmass in the North-East of Tevinter, not far away from the cities of Ventus and Carastes, which have both been overtaken by the Qunari between Trespasser and Veilguard. There is also some interesting lore surrounding that place, which we’ll get to later.

On the Road

When we return back to in-game cinematics, we find Rook and Varric travelling through the Tevinter countryside at dusk. At this point, we can ask about where exactly we’re going and what we’re hoping to find here.

As we walk, Varric begins telling us that there are people who have been working to stop the Dread Wolf’s plans for the past decade. But since resources are sparse and only a handful of people are trustworthy, such efforts can’t be spoken of out in the open.

Since we’re playing a Dalish elf, we get to voice our disbelief that the Dread Wolf is actually supposed to be walking Thedas right now. But we’ve seen Revas, we’ve seen the agents of Fen’Harel. And we’ve seen Merrill’s betrayal. That last part is something Varric is clearly hurt by. We can ask him about Merrill and why she would let herself be deceived by the Trickster God. Since we imported a World State where Hawke romanced Merrill, Varric states that Merrill experienced great loss and that this might be her way of trying to set things right. We as players can begin to guess that perhaps Merrill is hoping to get Hawke back from the Fade. But even without the romance, Merrill is someone who tries to restore old and lost knowledge. It would have been easy for Solas to convince her to join his efforts.

We proceed further down the road, until we are met with a distressing sight: a battlefield, and a very recent one at that. We come across the remnants of a skirmish between the Antaam of Seheron and Tevinter troops who were sent to retake some of the occupied lands. It’s an image of absolute carnage, war, and death. Since we’re playing a Veil Jumper, we get a short dialogue by Varric in which he breaks down the conflict between Tevinter and the Qunari. As a Veil Jumper, we know the Antaam for what it did to Arlathan Forest a few years ago. Without them, the Veil Jumpers wouldn’t exist. It’s an example of something good coming out of something very bad.

The Scout

As Rook and Varric traverse the battlefield, they are suddenly approached by a surviving group of Antaam warriors, who are looking for Tevinter legionnaires that might have escaped their blades.

They circle us and demand to know who we are, what we want, and where we’re off to. Varric, having plenty of experience with the Qunari up until this point, tries to talk our way out of it. Here’s a small choice to be made:

Do we silently prepare for battle?

Or do we contribute to Varric’s attempt to talk?

Since we’re a pretty confident Dalish elf, we’ll chime in, but that only leads to some unwanted attention. Since we’re a mage, they immediately see us as Saarebas and therefore too dangerous to be seen walking around unshackled. We bristle at that and get ready to fight. Varric simply shrugs. Reasoning with the Antaam has never quite worked out for him. But this small exchange showed Varric that we’re eager to talk first before hitting people.

Just as the Qunari are about to attack, their group leader is struck down by a well-placed arrow in the eye. At this point, another, very familiar face joins the scene: Scout Lace Harding! She thinks we could use a little help, to which Varric responds that the odds are even now, even though the Qunari still rather outnumber us.

We fight the Qunari with Varric and Harding at our side. It’s a short battle mostly serving to introduce Harding to the party, and we make rather short work of our enemies.

What follows is Harding’s proper introduction. She is happy to see Varric and intrigued by Rook. So, this is the one Varric chose for this mission, the integral part that will give us an edge. Varric confirms this, a bonus being that Fen’Harel’s agents presume us dead. Harding tenses. So we did meet them? Yes, and Merrill and Abelas were among them. Troubling news, indeed. Even more reason to get to our destination as quickly as possible. Harding then tells Varric that everything is ready. Everyone’s just waiting for us. Well, Varric says, then we shouldn’t keep them waiting. Rook is about to meet some very esteemed company.

But before we press on, Harding mentions that she was tracking a group of Antaam soldiers who rounded up some Tevinter slaves with the intention of bringing them to Seheron, and suggests we free them. Varric is generally for the idea, but worries that our numbers might be too sparse.

So, now we get to make a choice:

Do we take this small detour to free the slaves?

Or do we not risk further battle and quietly move on?

This right here is going to be the first of many smaller choices we get to make in the game. Before Veilguard came out, people spoke of how incredibly reactive it would be, how it, while not having a World State, would compensate by having many intricate choices on its own. This didn’t quite happen the way I thought it would, so let us entertain the idea of what minor reactive consequences could look like if placed in the proper moments.

We are a Dalish elf. We know what slavery is and what it did to our people. We know that the Antaam survivors who ended up founding D’Meta’s Crossing with Clan Morlyn were essentially slaves to the Qunari. We’re not going to let anyone share in this fate if we can help it. We choose to take the detour and free the slaves.

Freeing the Slaves

Once our trio is on the same page, we follow Harding to a small Qunari encampment on the battlefield. It’s absolutely nothing fancy, just a temporary base. The slaves aren’t hard to find as they’re all cooped up in an improvised large cage, guarded by Antaam warriors.

After a brief and slightly more difficult fight, the Qunari are defeated and we free the slaves. And here’s when we notice something rather dark: the slaves are all wearing collars. If you recall our Shadow Dragon origin story, the Imperator of Tevinter’s legions, Magister Laskaris, introduced the blood magic collar as a way to combat the Qunari threat. And seeing it here means that he’s already implementing in in small doses amidst the army, permitting the use of blood magic.

We are horrified by this discovery and see that the slaves have no way of getting them off. They tell us that the Centurio who led this party performed a blood magic spell to bind them to his will, as per Laskaris’ instructions. The Centurio in question is still alive, about to be given the qamek treatment, which would render him a mindless puppet.

We tell the slaves to wait here until we’ve dealt with the Centurio. So we proceed further through the encampment, fighting off a few more Qunari along the way, until we get to the leader’s tent. The leader in question is a Sten (no, not our Sten, that one’s the Arishok now).

We make it just in time before the qamek is able to be applied to the Tevinter mage screaming in absolute panic. And here’s where we get to make another smaller choice:

Do we save the Centurio?

Or do we let him be mind-wiped?

As a Dalish elf and someone who came here to free slaves, we are furious about these new blood collars. But we’re also not someone who exposes people to fates worse than death, that’s not who we are. So we hurry up and blast the Sten into the Void before he can apply the qamek.

With all the Qunari dead, the Centurio is now free as the sole military survivor of this small campaign. Now, you might think he would thank us for freeing him, but as he sees our vallaslin and pointy ears, he’s immediately going to resort to calling us a savage knife-ear.

At this point, we allow ourselves to be a little angry and strike him while he’s weakened. This at least gets the man to listen, so we demand that he release the slaves from the blood collars. We threaten that if he won’t comply, we shall either bind him to a pole for the next Qunari patrol to find, or we can apply the qamek ourselves. Or we could just kill him, his choice.

Reluctantly, the mage relents and we take him to the slaves. With one last look, he relinquishes his blood magic hold on the collars and they open up, falling into the dirt.

Now comes the next choice. What do we do with the Centurio?

Do we kill him?

Do we leave him here for the Qunari to find?

Do we apply the qamek ourselves?

Or do we let him skulk back to Minrathous?

Everything in us wants to cause pain to this man who had contributed to the enslavement and torture of innocent beings. But we’re choosing to play a Rook who’s of the more merciful sort. Rook chooses to let the Centurio live and allow him to scamper back to Laskaris and report on his failure. Is this truly the merciful way? Who knows.

We send him on his way with the knowledge that he owes his life to a Dalish elf who forced him to release his slaves.

We turn back to the liberated slaves who thank us profusely. And now comes our last choice for this scene. What do we do with the slaves?

Do we send them on their way?

Or do we take them with us?

We ask Varric if the place we’re heading to has any room for more people, to which he says yes. We could either take them to safety or send them on their way. In this case, I’m actually going to send them on their way. We know that we’re about to possibly go up against Fen’Harel, so taking these newly liberated slaves with us would mean putting them in yet another dangerous conflict. So, we give them some resources, let them loot the camp, and wish them good fortune. Varric asks why we let them go, to which we say exactly what I wrote above. He nods and approves, as does Harding.

Now we really need to get going before even more Antaam troops arrive. We gather ourselves and move on.

This entire segment was completely optional, we could have skipped it entirely. But choosing to free the slaves gave us an early insight into the blood collars and allowed us to participate in some potentially morally grey choices. Of course, our Rook chose the most paragon-esque outcomes, but the game lets us do some extensive roleplaying in scenes like this.

The Cliffside

As the day draws to a close and night falls upon the coastal countryside of Tevinter, Rook, Varric, and Harding reach a cliff overlooking the vast Ventosus Straits, the body of water that separates Tevinter from Seheron.

At first, we see nothing truly remarkable, just a cliff, a very high cliff at that. But then, Varric directs us to a set of barely noticeable steps, carved into the rock. Slowly, we make our way down, closer and closer to the moonlit surface of the sea, until we come upon the entrance to a cave, hidden behind a spell of concealment. Since Varric and Harding know where the entrance is, they just pass through the wall. Rook has a momentary confused reaction, before following.

Meeting Charter

As we enter the cave, we are approached by another rather familiar figure: Charter. Those who only played the games might remember her as the stoic elven commander from Caer Bronach in Crestwood. Those who have read the comics and Tevinter Nights will remember her as basically the new Leliana. She goes around Thedas and recruits all kinds of people into the Inquisition. Veilguard mentions that she is the new Spymaster after Leliana, and you can read a few letters from her.

I absolutely adore Charter as a character and think it’s rather criminal that she was scrapped from Veilguard. So, we’re going to include her here. Since in this World State, Leliana has assumed the role of Divine Victoria, we can confidently say that Charter is the Spymaster here.

Charter remarks that we’re late, to which Harding explains that we took a little detour. The Spymaster studies us and remarks that, somehow, she isn’t surprised that “another” of the elven people has been chosen for the job given the circumstances.

Since Rook hasn’t been living under a rock, we can now begin to guess where we are headed. So we ask the people around us if we are about to join the Inquisition. Charter explains that the Inquisition does not officially exist anymore, only a shadow organisation that operates in the dark, away from the enemy’s gaze. Too great is the risk of corruption amidst the ranks, as we all remember from Trespasser. But in the most direct sense: yes, we are about to join what became of the Inquisition. But all of it can be explained later. We must now head off. Everything is ready. We ask what “everything” is, to which Charter only replies that we’re about to find out. Harding promises that we’re going to be absolutely floored by what we’re about to see.

The Palace of Almadrius

As we move further down through the cave, we occasionally see glimpses of ruins, remnants of an ancient palace that must have been magnificent once. By investigating and asking our guides, we learn that we are traversing what remains of the palace of Archon Almadrius. He was briefly mentioned in DA2 in a codex entry for having built a lavish palace near the Eyes of Nocen, manned by many guards. But one day, everything disappeared without a trace. Well, given the state of this place, we can deduce that some kind of spell or cataclysm caused it to collapse beneath the waves.

This is one of many examples of environmental storytelling that Dragon Age is so masterful at. Just by looking at the world, we can see traces of its history. We could have made this a simple cave, but thanks to the location and the legends surrounding it, we can now make it so much more.

Eventually, Charter takes us to a wide cavernous area beneath the sea. Magical barriers prevent rocks, ruins, and water from collapsing upon us. And right in the middle of it all, we see a monstrous vessel. An underwater ship in the shape of a great dragon. True to Harding’s word, Rook is absolutely floored by the sight. We have now reached the end of our journey. This is the Dumat.

The Dumat

Just like the rest of you, I have seen the concept art book. And when I saw this gigantic dragon submarine, I knew I had to include it in the rewrite. Does it take heavy inspiration from the Normandy in terms of having a mobile base in the form of a ship? Yes. Does that mean we’re no longer following the Dragon Age formula? I…honestly don’t think so.

Tevinter is a land of magic, a land of magic allied with the dwarves of Orzammar, master craftsmen. There is a lot that can be done when those two forces sit down together and plan not war, but a work of wonder. And I don’t really subscribe to the idea that the concept of a submarine goes against the fantasy genre. You can make it work if you give it the proper look and feel, and give it a logical explanation for existing in the setting.

But I also have another reason for choosing the Dumat as the hub instead of the Lighthouse: I have something else planned for the Lighthouse and the Crossroads as a whole. It’ll still be a while before we get there, since Solas is still around and has his agents in this rewrite.

As we approach the Dumat, Rook is still absolutely shocked. This is the first time she has ever seen an underwater vessel. And truth be told, this is probably the first submarine in Thedas’ history. Varric tells us that we still have some friends in the Magisterium and Orzammar, plus the funding of some other powerful friends. Combine all that, and you get this.

We board the Dumat and find ourselves in an…actually very homely-looking interior. It’s not overly lavish but definitely comfortable, as well as practical. There is a lot of room for people here, that much is clear. While we’re walking, we just can’t shake off the feeling of sheer awe that’s going through us right now. This is where we’re going to be staying for the foreseeable future? Incredible.

The Briefing

We eventually make it to a war-room-like place with a large round table in the centre. Only Rook, Varric, Harding, and Charter are currently present. But that is soon changed, for before we even get to properly speak, the door opens and another face joins us. It is none other than Isabela! The moment she heard Varric had arrive, she needed to come and see him for herself. Varric is glad that she accepted the offer and made it in time. As seen in the Lords of Fortune origin story, Isabela gave the Siren’s Call II to her first mate for the time being as she was chosen for another job. This is it. Isabela is going to be the captain of the Dumat.

Personally, I think this is something that fits Isabela’s character a bit more than being the stay-at-home leader for the Lords of Fortune. This way, she’s going to still be able to contribute to the story, but in a way that is far more in-line with her personality. Isabela would never miss up on the opportunity to sail an underwater vessel. And she does happen to be one of the most skilled captains around.

Isabela greets us and says we remind her of Merrill, and ooff. Yeah, about that. The meeting begins with Varric and Rook telling Charter and Isabela of everything that happened in Arlathan Forest and how we confronted the agents of Fen’Harel. Because we took that slave-liberating detour, we can also speak of the blood collars. When she hears of Merrill, Isabela’s face darkens and she refuses to believe it at first, but then…yeah. When she thinks about it, about the pain Merrill went through after losing Hawke and the trust of her people…she is shaken by this revelation. In a surprisingly endearing moment, Isabela proclaims that Merrill can still be saved. She just needs her friends to pull her out of the wolf’s maw.

At this point, Rook has had enough of the secrecy surrounding her part in all of this and asks Varric why she specifically was recruited into this affair. Varric agrees that it is time, so he begins a story. And this is where we get the “I knew him as Solas” speech we get at the beginning of the vanilla game. But it’s going to be slightly longer. We get a few more thoughts and feelings of how Solas was as a person and what exactly he did while serving in the Inquisition. We get a brief recap of the war against Corypheus, the betrayal at the end of Trespasser, and the decade-long shadow war against the Dread Wolf. It all culminates in Varric saying how Solas is now approaching the fulfilment of his promise: to tear down the Veil and restore Elvhenan. “Somebody’s gotta stop him. And that’s…where you come in.”

So then. This is what our purpose is. To join the fight against the Dread Wolf, the evil deity from our very own religion. He who caused the imprisonment of our gods. And now we learn that it was he who created the Veil. Of course. It lines up. How else would he have imprisoned the gods if not for the literal Veil? We try to reason it with ourselves, but it’s all a little…much.

We just got absolute confirmation that the Dalish beliefs, the way we see it at least, are true. Well, Varric says, yes and no. Solas never referred to himself as a god. Of course he wouldn’t, we think, he’s the great deceiver. But then we realise something else. “How do I…come in?” we ask. “What am I supposed to do?”

Then we learn our role: We won’t just be joining this shadow war. We’ll be one of the people leading it. As Varric’s second-in-command. While he will be making plans and arranging everything in the background, it is us who must be out there in the field, recruiting allies, carrying out heists, learning and undermining the Dread Wolf’s plans. We are Rook. The strongest piece on the chessboard. The one Solas will never see coming. The one he doesn’t know.

So at this point, I’m choosing to play Rook as incredibly shocked and overwhelmed, to the point where she outright refuses. Why would we be the perfect fit for such a high position? Varric lists our accomplishments among the Veil Jumpers, how Strife and Irelin speak so highly of us, how we took initiative in the ruined Temple of June, how we are the perfect seeker of ancient artefacts, and how we don’t give up. We fit perfectly. Obviously, this dialogue is going to be different for every origin story. We get an added line that we are of the Dalish, we know the Dread Wolf like few do.

We are still overwhelmed, and don’t know what to say. But then the door opens, and another figure steps in.

The Inquisitor

We are joined in the meeting chamber by Inquisitor Lavellan herself. Yeah, I chose to have the Inquisitor appear right at the beginning of the story. I mean, we already made her in the CC, it’s not a big reveal that she’s in this game. But it also makes thematic sense for her to be here. She was our last player character. Who better to pass on the torch and give us the final push into this new adventure than her?

For this playthrough, I’m choosing to go with my canon Inquisitor, Elera Lavellan. In my canon I romanced Cullen, but if you so choose, I can go with the Solavellan route here, yeah okay, I see ya.

The Inquisitor, wearing Dalish mage clothes and carrying a staff, no Shadow Dragon pjs to be seen anywhere, walks up to us and pretty much says how she felt the same when she was given the task to close the Breach and defeat Corypheus ten years ago. Nobody’s born a fighter, much less so a leader.

We get to have a small conversation with Lavellan. I’m choosing to have Rook react in awe to her because, of course, she has heard of her, how one of the People rose up and heroically led the Inquisition against the greatest of evils. Those were stories we heard as a teenager. And now we shall be joining this fight. Now it’s our turn to become a part of this ever-growing tale.

The Inquisitor, just like Leliana and Cassandra did at the beginning of DAI, tells us that we are free to go if we so choose. But if we stay in this fight, we shall make the world a safer place.

Varric chimes in and states how all of this started with the Hero of Ferelden’s quest against the Blight, how it continued into Hawke’s battles with the shadows of Kirkwall, how it reached new heights in the Inquisitor’s war against the Elder One, and now the time has come for what he feels and hopes is the final chapter. And Rook gets to be one of the central characters, if not the central.

We think long and hard, but then we see where we are. We are aboard an underwater ship, amidst the remnants of the Inquisition. We are standing amidst legends. And these legends have become flesh and chosen us to join them. We have the chance to avenge our people, to finally strike back at the god who has been deceiving us all this time. Solas, Fen’Harel, the Dread Wolf, has returned. And with him, the ancient conflict may come to an end. Justice may be served at last.

With a heavy breath, we shake hands with the Inquisitor, mirroring the scene in Haven’s Chantry so many years ago.

What follows is a cinematic showing Rook, Varric, Harding, Charter, Isabela, and Inquisitor Lavellan standing in the control room of the Dumat. Lavellan gives a nod and Isabela takes hold of the helm.

From outside, we see how the protective spells and wards that kept the cavern dry during the ship’s construction phase begin to flicker, until they disappear entirely. The Palace of Almadrius sinks beneath the waters once again, having fulfilled its purpose.

The Dumat floats in the darkness of the cavern, seemingly suspended in a shapeless void. But then, dwarven crystals and runes begin shimmering around it. Tevene magic creates light on the interior side, flooding the rooms with mysterious shines of many colours. Then, the ship begins to move. It slithers and glides through the cavern, until it swims out into the open sea. From afar, it looks like a great sea creature, not at all a ship. Perfect for the purpose of remaining unseen.

As the Dumat glides through the moonlit waters, the camera pans up to show Thedas’ two moons shining upon the deceptively calm sea. A distant wind comes up, and as the screen begins to fade to black, we hear the single howl of a lonely wolf.

The screen goes black, and we finally see the title of our game:

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf

And there you have it! This is how I would pitch bridging the gap between Rook’s introduction and her joining the greater story. And…yeah, I do kinda prefer the Dreadwolf title. Obviously, The Veilguard is more fitting for what the vanilla game does, but I believe that the original title has more merit here, given that we’re ditching the Lighthouse and the Fade for the time being. But what we’ve definitely established so far was that Solas is a threat that must be stopped. The sequel hook that Trespasser dangled in front of us has to be paid off.

This concludes the Prologue segment of our hypothetical Veilguard rewrite. Now, the real story begins. Next time, we shall be dealing with the beginning of Act 1, a detailed look at the Dumat submarine, the people inhabiting it, and some first missions.

Thank you to everyone who’s still following this project. It’s really been quite an entertaining and captivating journey so far. And there’s so much more to come. Stay tuned!

Rewriting Veilguard Part 9 - The Dumat

[dicktat]

please im being genuine, I've loved the franchise since like 5 years ago and have been playing DL2 for years and I haven't had any personal qualms with Techland. I genuinely, for real, want to know in-depth why you don't like them if you have the time so I can form myown opinion about this stuff because I've never really looked deep into techland's activities.

Sorry🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️I’ve been gathering info and writing this so it took me a while to prepare. Tho I cannot say I have captured the full scope of this, a lot of the older stuff has been lost and I encourage anyone who’s seeing this to add to it with any info they would like.

⚠️⚠️⚠️disclaimer: I DO NOT hate Techland. I am just very upset with how they are function as a company and have a lot to say. You are free to form your own thoughts however do NOT treat my PERSONAL rant as hate campaign/a post to stir up drama.

First of all I would like to preface this by saying I have been an active fan of the franchise for a few years and have a combined playtime of 1000+ hours on both games. I have also spent thousands of dollars on this franchise with the purchase of skins, dlc, multiple copies of the same game, merch, even ordering my own merch. I am not lying when I say I loved both games and the characters. However in the past few years my gratitude and fondness of this company and by extension the franchise came to a sudden halt because I bear witness to this company going downhill as they get very greedy.

I really tried my best defending them while a lot of the people are criticizing them but I just cannot find the strength in me to continue that ever since the first trailer of the new game dropped. I have no problem with the direction of the game as I would also like to see what happened to my past favorite protagonist. I just CANNOT agree with the fact it was done at the expense of dying light 2. I would be more than happy if the game is a new installment but the fact it REPLACES the actual DLC we were promised is upsetting. It feels like all the fans were shafted and we all had to begrudgingly make room for something we didn’t expect while slowly watching the game we all love and enjoy cast into oblivion because when’s the LAST time, and I mean it, Techland mentions anything new about DL2? And I mean just the cast of DL2 and specifically Aiden. It almost feels like they are intentionally “hiding” anything regarding because we have never seen any new update since their new title dropped. I’m sure they have their plans but isn’t that just a little weird how the PROTAGONIST of their franchise disappeared overnight and wasn’t even shown in any of the new announcements? It’s just an awful, depressing way to treat anyone who’s a fan of the game as they continue to act like this. My problem right now isn’t the overly aggressive way they are becoming a sellout for money it’s the way they appeal to certain parts of the community while neglecting the others (Oh and I will mention it later). Almost as if they are making a shift to…dare I say grift towards a group of people. It’s no secret that money is their priority right now ever since the DL point system dropped. First of all we need to establish an ingame micro transaction is a scam through and through as you mostly see them in gachas or live update/pvp games while DL has always been solo player focused with occasional coop updates. So may I ask WHY this was ever a thing? It’s a very predatory way of making cash and I will show you

Not only is this currency very overpriced because a few bucks for a bundle is the greed they mention in the Bible and Ub*soft headquarters but if you would look at the prices of each individual purchase most of them are just above the first top up (around 550 DL points) and under the second. Which means if you were to buy one bundle you would have to buy specifically the second, more expensive one with 450 points to spare and waste (Which, is not enough to purchase anything else and you would have to spend money on yet another set). This is a very predatory and aggressive way of designing their system and some you only see in gachas so I was very surprised when I saw them chose this direction (Again I am very guilty for defending them at the time for being a diehard fan but we all grow right). Which is made even worse because, oh, they chose to cut out the DLC as its own entry which means not only all the money you spent on the accessories cannot be redeemed or transferred the hundred of hours you spent on getting better at the game and gathering materials preparing for the dying light 2 followup game is now wasted. (Coming from someone who spent WEEKS gathering ammo in preparation for the new game and now it’s just. Ugh). Continuing.

And I have to ask, why? Not to mention the power creeping and pay to win features a few of the bundles include. This is a SINGLE PLAYER focused game so a company that prides themselves on being “a few of the good ones” really really really shouldn’t be doing so.

(If you want a more in depth explanation of why this is yucky here’s a video by oni a very trustworthy member of the community explaining it and I highly highly recommend it, just watch the first couple minutes and you’ll see)

This really was the slow beginning of a fast death and the first sign they were not really what they promised. Speaking of which, a lot of the promised feature they still haven’t fulfilled, and it’s already the 3rd year of the game. So it really wouldn’t be too unreasonable for us fans who love the game to feel disappointed, yes?

I would also like to mention the big oof I have with a lot of the ways they are managing their people and how they hosted a contest in march and some friends and I still haven’t received our prizes and the new manager have been taking weeks to respond but these are either personal or confidential so I don’t want to discuss it here but

I’ve been hinting at it for a while but. Here. This is the REAL reason why I have such an issue with Techalnd.

I have debated holding everything because I thought it would all be unnecessary drama/useless info but I do think it’s a very important matter to address.

But let’s talk about it.

The whitewashing and mistreatment of Lawan.

If you are outta the loop, in January of this year Techland dropped a new “skin” for Lawan that is weirdly enough…not obtained by any means but a free “gift” automatically sent to every old and new player’s inventory. This is weird. And I will explain why.

First of all we should take a look at the skin itself. The description says it’s a celebratory item for Chinese New Years and Lawn is Asian here. But. Here’s the actual thing. ITS STILL WHITEWASHING!!!

“Oh but she’s Asian!” Sure, a minority. But you are very much erasing the presence of a BLACK woman. And the skin is much lighter. Which, they also erased all of her BIPOC features and gave her snow white skin and thin lips with petite nose.

And I really didn’t want to show a pukefest on my blog. Yet. Look at this. An official art. It’s just a fucking Caucasian woman. The features. The facial structure. So please save the “she’s erm still woc!” because this is NOT what representation is

But this isn’t even scratching the surface because guess who this skin is actually made for? Yes! The Chinese! And particularly, a group of specific people.

And here’s where I take a detour to explain the background (it’s going to be a long read but trust me this is very important) and I will have to mention a trigger warning for the upcoming themes of racism, colorism, and misogyny.

So…coming from a Chinese girly myself I have a lot to share. The Chinese gaming community is deeply problematic. And the average male gamer is miles worse than any right wing twitter dudebro gamer’s wet dream. They are serving casual racism when their more advanced east Asian counterpart are in the competitives. Ever since the beginning of the game DL2 has been gathering a lot of hate from the Chinese male player base. Not because of the game itself, but why?

They fucking hate Lawan.

Ever since the game launched the netizens have been gathering and parading their hate boner for the woman lead of the game. Because 1. She’s black. 2. They all think she’s hideous. 3. They claim she’s a DEI feminist politically correct insert which apparently justified calling her “ape” “monkey” “n word” or EVERY slur under the sun.

(Translation: searching term Lawan Ape with a lot of results)

If you were to search up “Lawan” in the Chinese gaming community, the very top results are ALL exclusively about how UGLY she is, and if fact, she was so “famously” disastrous that so, so many people who don’t even PLAY the game knows and hates on her. In fact, I’d argue this is what the game is most known for in the Chinese gamer community. It even became a meme at one point (“Character so ugly we’d prefer the volatile”). Her name has been synonymous with “female volatile” (say that specific phrase to a Chinese DL gamer and they would instantly know you’re talking about her). And they are so fucking disgusting and racist. If you’re Asian you would know and experience this. Sidenote: if you want proof then look no further than steam reviews on this game. Don’t believe me? Put the language filter on Chinese and experience it for yourself.

(The video shown in the pic raving about how she’s worst than a volatile has almost one million views and sitting at the very top of the search result when you look up videos on dying light 2.)

Again I’m sorry for the over explaining but this is significant because I’m certain none of you are really aware of how BAD everything is over there. The context is very important. Because this is not just the minority but the loud, malicious and majority of the community. The problem is rampant. And I do NOT for a second believe Techland isn’t made aware of all this.

(Comparison of data. The profiles are of the official Techland account on the social media where all the racist comments are from and you can see they are clearly very active on there and for reference here’s is CDPR’s numbers and you can see they have almost twice as much followers as them).

So…here’s my problem. Techland. Techland. Look at her. You clearly made the reskinned white girl with the Chinese gamer community in mind. IS THIS REALLY THE DEMOGRAPHIC YOU WANT TO APPEAL???

You not only are mindful of the bigoted player base you are now actively grifting towards all of them. With successful results too because of all the people who say they will “finally” give your game a chance now that Lawan isn’t ugly and evident by the spike of positive reviewing when the skin was launched, around this specific time.

And this is abysmal to see as someone active in both communities. There are better people you could attract. I remember when I made a joke about how this skin coincidentally announced two days after the orange man sits in office but there are clearly a lot of people who unironically thinks like that.

(Comment posted: “should we be thanking old Trump for this?”)

All the bigoted players loudly celebrating and “thank god for trump” and relishing in this historical moment as if this is some triumphant moment of them “winning” as they relish in their chants of “fuck the feminists”, tell me, is this really what you want as your core audience?

See this is why I have a problem with this. Rosaria Dawson, the main actress for Lawan, was very much unfairly hated in the community. And Techland…well Techland never defended her much. You are a fucking huge gaming company with influence, and it boils my blood when I see them do absolute jackshit to protect her from the rampant fans being disgusting to her when the game first launched. And now they are even replacing her presence from the game. She’s your fucking lead actress ffs. I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist but it just feels like now they are saying well, beats me. And moves on to something that brings them money.

If you read up till now I believe you are invested in the specific topic. And I guess I’ll post the full pic. Warning for obvious reasons. I know most of you haven’t seen this or is made aware of its presence because it’s an event item SPECIFICALLY limited to Chinese players and is not available oversees and has never been posted to any English based platform (I am not going to argue they don’t have any chemistry in the story but. Gosh. They were never this close. This whole art of “randomly selling manly guy and pretty lady relationship” is weird). So again, I must ask, why are you bootlicking these people???

I’m very sorry for getting so heated and I’m sure this isn’t what you’re looking for. But I must, I really have to shed some light on this discussion. I was and still am hesitant about posting this because it concerns a lot of infohazard and stuff behind the scenes. I am not calling them deceitful in anyway but. This has been an ongoing matter for a while and I don’t think anyone in the English speaking part of the community is aware of what this is. I am just very disappointed they are in a way appealing to a group of deeply hateful people and I believe anyone who loves the game deserves to be aware. But right now as for the question you asked, why I have such an issue with them. I just can’t find my self in any good conscience to support a company who is not only aware of parts of their very problematic fanbase but is actively grifting/benefiting off them. And for now, as for myself a once very loyal fan of the franchise I am no longer interested with seeing their future endeavors.

[kafkaoftherubble]

what do you think of the recent after god chapters i would figuratively die to hear your thoughts

Yo, hello!

You're in luck: I was looking up some stuff on Tumblr for something I want to do some time around now. I have some time to spare, and this question is so recent!

Sometime around the end of March, I actually had an essay planned for Chapter 73 (titled "Depression IPO"), but once again, life (mostly work) got in the way. And then new chapters got served along with new development.

I gotta be frank: I did have a lot of thoughts about the most recent chapters, but lately I started rewatching Pantheon with my beloved friend, and now most of my brain has been turned into a distillery producing Pantheon spirit. I had to rake my brain to remember some of these thoughts consciously. It's not gonna be as detailed as my usual essays, but I do wanna save your figurative life, ahahaaa!

As usual, spoilers for the most recent After God chapters!

Orokapi's Personhood

This is an extension from the chapter where he gave up and turned into goo when everyone called out to his name. He said he needed to think, that's why.

It was a bit more than that, methinks. I suspect Orokapi assumes forms he finds most congruent to what he's feeling at the moment.

When he felt anxious about the future and his friendship with Tokinaga, he turned into Vollof, who was constantly on edge and anxious because of drug withdrawal. Later, during Cylinder Gramps (I forgot his name. Wauke?)'s invasion, just when shit really hit the fan, Minami arose from the Orokapi goo to protect his old colleage and lover.

Curiously, Vollof and Minami act as though they were their own persons… and not "Orokapi assuming their form." It suggests some semblance of independence from each of the forms he possesses, which means the "Orokapi" we know the most might really just be Obikawa. The Snake God seems to identify itself primarily through him, but as the story advances, I've been suspecting that Obikawa himself has bled into Orokapi.

It proves what the IPOs have been telling each other: humanity is infectious. But they might not have meant it in the "humans have taught us how to love" kind of way per se. They might have meant "literally infectious," like some viruses were known to do against eukaryotic cells. They forcefully hijack the host's cellular functions to replicate viral DNA and other proteins that will be helpful for the virus's propagation.

Orokapi's personhood is a very interesting one to me because of this. There's some similarity to, say, Dissociative Personality Disorder. It wouldn't be odd if he were used to serve as a mild allegory of it, given Tokinaga's behavior is quite reminiscent of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, too.

As an aside: Eno Sumi really likes pontificating and philosophizing about mental conditions. Her work is filled with psychological exploration of her characters (it's evident in her personal side project, which is deadass about a depressed mangaka who often contemplates his state of mind). Her analyses and depictions are too incisive and profound to come from a pop-psychology casual, and really… Even in After God, this same mastery of psychology writing is evident.

--

Orokapi's Godhood

In one of these recent chapters, dude's eyes were basically glowing like he's seriously a divine being.

Very aptly, this happened when he was expressing compassion. "When you want to die, just jump into my mouth without a second thought." (Paraphrased from memory by a Pantheon-addled brain).

That entire chapter was a milestone. He actually apologized to someone. He transformed parts of himself to replace Tokinaga's calcified hands and feet after they broke off. He assured Tokinaga of his companionship and camaraderie.

Yes, he had shown his kinder side before this—like in his handling of Vollof's last moments. But back then, Orokapi was following what he learned from Tokinaga about being a good friend.

Here? This was his own insight. These were actions he had chosen to undertake of his own volition; he was not mimicking anyone.

Throughout the manga, we readers have seen the IPOs display different aspects of "gods" as imagined by us. Most of them took on qualities like "fearsomeness," "commanding," "indescribably beautiful," "cruel," "violently mercurial," "ineffable," "proud," etc.

But this might be the first time an IPO showed genuine, unselfish benevolence.

--

Eno Sumi really loves a certain kind of "death."

In that Depression Manga (a.k.a. her side hustle, except she publishes it for free on Pixiv anyway), there was this part where the two main leads were talking about Yaharu (the depressed mangaka)'s suicidal ideation (again). Jun (the successful mangaka; Yaharu's confidante and caretaker… or more?) told Yaharu to die only in his presence so he could collect Yaharu's bones or something. I don’t remember for sure. Look, I told you. Pantheon-addled brain.

The point of that exchange in the Depression Manga was that, if one must die… it would have been the pinnacle of compassion to be there for that person. Perhaps at the moment of passing, death pales at the face of loneliness.

--

Waka Is Such A Chuuni Gaessaekki

In the latest chapter, we get to see Waka in the "original world" (I'm gonna call it Prime World for… no reason) Tokinaga described. And my man, I'm being 100% truthful—I immediately disliked Prime Waka. I'm so glad Tokinaga AGREES, and we ALL know he has only the MOST BASED OPINIONS ON THINGS. No, I will not be taking rebuttals.

For real, though. She's such a tryhard, man. Who the fuck says shit like "do you know what I do to make people remember me" followed by some edgelord shit about "observing them" and "deliberately praising what they hate," which I assumed must have garnered a standing ovation in her head. And of course, her claiming she's a witch and then deadass trying to cold-read Tokinaga so badly that the guy called her out on it!

But here's this thing about me. If I hate someone reflexively, there's often only two reasons.

One, that person is genuinely An Ass. As in, they breach all of my ethical principles.

Two? ………. I saw myself in them, and before I consciously recognized it, I started to hate them.

Waka is… Well, a dear childhood friend of mine had pointed out that I was not that different from Prime Waka when I was in my teens. I wasn't chuuni in the "I have superpowers and no one understands me. I'm the Chosen One!" sense; I was chuuni in the "I need to come up with a whole ass script to throw someone off so they will remember me and maybe, just maybe, they will find me interesting enough to wanna be my friend."

I'm already a weird person from the get-go (my autistic friends on Tumblr had insisted that I'm "one of them." I'm running low on evidence to disprove them, so far). I had trouble fitting in. But I was also lonely, and I just wanted the kindly looking guys to be my friends, too. If there was a Tokinaga in my class back then, you bet I'd devise all sorts of stupid shit to say to "shock" him into remembering me and impress him. I'd do the exact thing as Waka did—instead of asking him to add me as a friend on social media like a normal person, I'd spin this whole script just to ultimately get his social media account.

That led me to think… Is Waka just lonely?

If her background is the same as in IPO World (the one we were introduced to from the start), then she's a country gal working (living?) in a very forgettable place that no one would stop by. It might have been pretty lonely. She might be dreaming of, I don't know, adventures and excitement and a larger purpose in life and a handsome young man who looks cutely troubled and quiet.

I also kinda wonder if Allula's personality is really just Prime Waka's…

This made me think she wasn't really a witch. Or, she "was" the same way as one who calls themself "Orokapi's #1 Batter and Defense Attorney"—i.e. "it's self-proclaimed and debatable." She might have genuinely become one after whatever the fuck caused the IPO World to be exist.

This leads me to the next Thought…

--

Could This IPO World Be the Result of Tokinaga (ft. Waka)'s "Wish?"

This is pure speculation territory, my man. Proof? Circumstantial. Hey, better than me pulling it out from my ever productive ass!

The most lucid IPO so far is Nirosca, the winged draconic thingy that reminded me of a wyvern or a Ying Long. It seems to be the only one who knows what Tokinaga and Waka's deal is. And who does this dragon follow around? Tokinaga.

Tokinaga has this self-punishing compulsion driven by a feeling of guilt over every tragedy that has happened in this world. Why? Could it be because he was the one who ushered it in?

Tokinaga remembers Prime World.

Nirosca said something about "Waka's wish" that it could finally "grant now."

Nirosca also confirmed that Tokinaga is probably "the most powerful person" here. That he could "kill anyone if he wanted to." Indeed, his power is seriously overpowered; if it weren't for the toll it would take on his body, it could be completely unbeatable.

Tokinaga has a harem. No, I'm serious. He's the only one who managed to have four people who are very affectionate (?) toward him: Waka, Allula, Nirosca, and Orokapi-Obikawa.

This is a very, very wild speculation. It can't even be seen as a hypothesis because of lacking facts. But, I was wondering if Tokinaga's original wish was something selfish, which led to this world being created. What he thought would be a utopia became a dystopia, and he had been remorseful ever since.

This can explain why he somehow believes every suffering in this world is his fault, as if he is personally responsible for all of it. It can also explain why he's seen as "above the gods."

Could Tokinaga's plan to "kill all IPOs" stemmed from the belief that it was the only way to undo his wish? Could he secretly fear that it actually wont', and so wish he can die… and this world will die with him, and everyone else gets to return to Prime World?

Bonus spitballing: what if Allula is the actual Prime Waka, who just doesn't remember that? Could the current Waka—"Witch Waka," capable of killing Yakou—be a mix of the Waka We Know and Prime Waka?

This is really intriguing territory, either way.

--

I Knew It! Tokinaga Is…

… asexual. I actually asked my beloved friend about this when I first read After God two years ago. "Is this guy ace, like you, or something?"

I just feel a lil' smug because the Lyn Back Then had only just learned about asexuality and aromanticism. It's like having just learned how to drive and already successfully outrun a car chase with the police. Or something.

I also wondered if he's aromantic, but this is more just me having a hilariously lack of understanding toward "love" (I deadass didn't even realize Waka and Shion love each other until it's completely fucking obvious, wallahi).

I seriously cannot tell someone is having romantic feelings toward another unless they are blushing and stammering and doing this shit 👉👈.

So ya know… Tokinaga, if you love Orokapi romantically, please help a clueless folk out and do  👉👈.

-------------

—And that's a wrap! 

I hope this saved your figurative life, my mate. This was the best I could come up with lately, so seriously… I hope it counted for something. An entertaining read for y'all, at least!

Sincerely,  thank you. I'm really happy you like my After God walls-of-text so much… enough to solicit more, in fact! I don't think I got that good a handle on the story's progression (bro I didn't expect the latest development at all), but I love this shit enough to find yapping about it a pleasure.

As always,

Thank You For Reading My Ramble!

P.S. tagging @kossanctuary as usual for all After God shit!

[moutones]

(yet another) new traffic series idea!

disclaimer: non-explicit nsfw references below

i realised that my griscott idea follows the same theme/premise as my limlife gritho from the other week, aka sex with feelings (about other people currently not in the bed) and now i'm thinking hey… maybe i'll turn this into a one-shot series?!

so! one fic for each life season starting with third life, focusing on the progression of desertduo's relationship. they'll each be written through the perspective of the person that's not-grian, so we get the outsiders' lens (though for third life i think i’ll write scar pov).

more under the cut!

initially, i thought it would be fun for them each to be smut-shots. one of my favourite things to read is smut doubling as character study (or the reverse, if you will), and i wanna try my hand at it. buttt i think some actually work better in my head as not-smut which is just as fun!!

these are my plans so far:

3rd life

scar pov

probably no explicit smut but some seemingly mundane but melancholic and sentimental scene?

you know, the whole complicated shebang of how desertduo came to be and manipulations and playing alongs but through it all, a genuine bond only deepening

this is all about showing how deeply the seeds for their Thing are sown

last life

smut - mumbo pov

i like the idea that there are romantic feelings between grumbo here, also because i am really loving mumscarian by extension

so grian has a crisis sometime early in because well, the end of 3rd life is hard to process when it involves killing one of the men you love and then you're thrown into another death game

grian teaming up with mumbo is very much a thing of comfort for him (in the beginning), so he spills his heart out one night and they basically have sad comfort sex

important: grian cries while they have sex

but it's ok! mumbo is here! and hes a little terrified because he doesn't fully grasp grian's feelings for scar's (no one does) but he talks grian through some things and then takes care of him

note: mumbo fully accepts grian’s whatever situation; he and grian have a stable relationship so there are no dramas with jealousy etc. especially as mumbo is also familiar with scar

oh boy this ended up being more elaborate than i planned

double life

smut - scott pov

as summarised in prev. linked post

re: no romantic or even sentimental feelings, just fwb - they’re both using each other to release general and sexual frustration

it could be fun if scar and pearl decide to stand in powder snow happen while this is happening - adding to the dissonant mix of emotions

undecided whether the sexual arousal will also be shared between soulmates here…

limited life

smut - etho pov

as summarised in prev. linked post

i think this one will have some important contrasts to the scott fic - while that one occurs towards the beginning of its respective season, this one is near the end. while griscott chat during sex, gritho are mostly silent

i want to highlight how grim everything kind of feels; the desperation of holding onto someone when you know the end is coming soon

secret life

now i'm not so sure about this one... it could be interesting to make it a solo grian pov? as he was alone for most of this season and i don't feel like writing him with etho again or cleo, maybe this could be a masturbation fic. idk!

or you know, it could be really interesting to write him with joel... there's that episode where they essentially become soul bound. i think their bond through the seasons is also very interesting. my brain is whirring

but i DO at least know that there will be reflections and thinkings of the good and bad times with scar. not so much crushing yearning or desperation or mourning like the previous fics, but something like the way to healing...

wild life

the healing arc be upon us!! i did write my first scarian fic RIGHT before the episode of them teaming up released so that was a wild (haha) day for scarian nation

will of course explore how exactly it progresses to them being (more) okay again, through wild life and also prev seasons (closure and all that)

maybe a grian pov?? TBC but that could be a meaningful full circle moment if we start off with scar’s pov in 3L

paralleling the third life fic, i think i’ll have this one be non-sexual intimacy. yay!

you know, now i'm thinking that i might even write it as a chapter fic instead of a multi-fic series. baby's first chapter fic would be an interesting challenge for my very messy writing process!! but i’ll keep thinking on it.

anyway, thanks for reading if you did all that. please let me know of any thoughts you have! would love to hear and discuss any input x

[afsosville]

An extension to the PIDW x Ever After High AU

The first post was pretty short so I'm going to put it here too.

For clarity, the 'parents' in this AU are the OG PIDW characters, and will go by their courtesy name, and the children are an AU version of them and have their birth name (so SQQ is the parent and SJ is the kid, YQY is the parent and YQ is the kid, LBG, is the parent, and  LBM is the kid, or at least a more mentally stable version of Bingmei? etc) 

SJ is pretty much fanon SJ, and a very mellowed out version of him, since in this AU, he didn't end up as a slave. Still traumatized tho. I like my Shen Jius traumatized. Shen Jiu is Raven in this AU, and he DOES NOT like his destiny. That's putting it lightly. NO ONE is happy. YQ doesn't want to be forced to abandon SJ and go through a horrifying qi deviation in the Lingxi Caves. And have his little brother's severed legs be sent to him as a present one day, and walk to his death the next. Yikes. Liu Mingyu doesn't want to die prematurely and have his shixiong be falsely accused of his murder. And Binghe doesn't like it either because he had a better childhood too, and is, well, disturbed, by the shit his father did, and the fate that's written for him. Binghe has his issues and he's that one quote "My father is the worst man alive and I am his favourite son". Like he knows the shit his dad did was completely unhinged. Him and the Book of Legends bear most of his hatred, and he never really has anything against Shen Jiu.

Everything just sorta revolves around everyone finding out what kinda person 'Shen Qingqiu' really is, along with the defying destiny thing Ever After High had going on. All the kids are just getting along far better than any of their parents did. The other mxtx characters are in here too, Wei Ying, Lan Zhan, Wen Ning, etc. 

LBG is totally going to be here too. He's acting all creepy towards SJ, like this mf is so close to tearing his off limbs too, and he's really tryna hold himself back. And he's fully planning to torture him too once his son puts Shen Jiu is the water prison because his SQQ is already dead. When he sees SJ in the flesh, he's eying him in a way that screams "I'm going to own you and there's little stopping me from having you in chains like your father." SJ is not so subtly hiding behind LBM, while LBM is so ready to fight his father to the death for SJ. 

The OG PLs from PIDW will definitely have some fucking regrets and will try to make it up to SJ coz the person they actually wronged is long dead (or is he?). And the peak lord kids are running interference everytime their parents want to get close to SJ, with maybe the exception of SQH and LQG. OG! LQG is alive because. Well I'll think of smt later. Plant body revival???? 

QHT has a son and a daughter who are supposed to be QJL and QHT, as is their so-called destiny. During Legacy Day, the kid that's supposed to end up like QJL sees flashes of his uncle's life and ofc he'll end up seeing the abuse SQQ endured under him. It is at that moment, what really happened in the Qiu manor was revealed. QHT's son is actually a chill dude who hates his destiny too and hates his uncle even more. SJ and QHT's kids are cool with each other, and this pisses off QHT so much lol.

Now more onto SQQ.

This mf is ALIVE and KICKING. And by that I mean he absolutely did pull mushroom body getaway and did some serious demonic cultivator bullshit to animate his dead body like some voodoo god. LBG was straight up torturing a corpse lol. SQQ originally didn't want to sign either but decided to do it anyway because he knew LBG definitely wanted to. SQQ thought that he should legitimately try to kill him so he doesn't turn into that. SQQ knew that ofc he would ultimately die in the end, but thought his villain halo could still try to do some damage to LBG, and to prevent his rise to power, and work against the destiny he signed at the same time. Obviously, the protagonist still had to come out on top and SQQ failed miserably. So. Mushroom getaway>>

Listen, those mushrooms were obviously supposed to be used in the OG PIDW. and somehow weren't iirc. And it was supposed to be used by a villain. So yes, SQQ's generation does end up being PIDW complacent. Except SQQ is a smartass and is living his life away from any destiny bullshit rn.

SJ/LBM will reunite with SQQ.

SQQ will end up liking LBM but he's still a mother hen, so he'll be giving him a really hard time before he's ready to let him anywhere near his son.

SQQ was separated from his son until this point. The name SQQ meant to give him was Jiu, as in turtledove. Which has this whole meaning of 'enduring love'. He meant for SJ to not turn out like him and to live out his best life despite what life throws at him. I absolutely love the fics where the author makes the Jiu in Shen Jiu be the character for turtledove. And with SQQ-J taking care of his younger self in a way. SQQ and SJ are going to have the fluffiest father-son relationship because I deem it to be so. Unlike LBG and LBM, my badd:/ Have fun with those daddy issues, buddy.

Within the chaos that is SQQ's mind, he really did not regret doing what he did to LBG, but y'know, having some time to himself while he was on his sabbatical, he learnt a few things about himself, and how he used LBG's future self to justify trying to kill smn who otherwise didn't do anything wrong (yet). And the fact that things could've turned out better if he truly went with his heart and hadn't signed the book like his son will HAUNT HIM. Sure LBG may or may not have wanted his destiny but SQQ definitely didn't!! He could've fucked up his story by not signing it just the same!! This is totally not eating him up alive!! Yup!! He just haddddd to sign it and thought be could kill LBG to avoid future devastation. Said future devastation still came to pass lol. RIP SQQ's sanity, I truly feel for you.

Let me make this worse. LBG didn't want to sign it either and was peer pressured into doing it. He genuinely thought he could reason with SQQ after Legacy Day and tell him he really didn't want them to hurt each other. And he was so sure SQQ felt the same way, he could've sworn they were on the same page- but then he saw how determined SQQ was to sign the Book of Legends on Legacy Day. And when SQQ's hardened gaze locked in on LBG, he met SQQ's eyes, promising a future of pain for them both. LBG ignores the way his heart shatters at the resolution.

Look, enemies to lovers BingJiu is fine and all, but consider LOVERS to ENEMIES BINGJIU!!! I'm just imagining BingJiu animatics in head with Taylor Swift's Bad Blood egckfxv.,

Coz yes, even the prev B9 gen totally had smt going on. Too bad for them tho, it ain't happening.

The rest is stuff from the first post >>>

Imagine how fucked up it would be if Shen Jiu is up there doing the book signing ceremony that seals his destiny of becoming the next 'Shen Qingqiu', and the mirrors display him getting thrown away by his martial siblings at the trial, and his limbs being torn off and other despicable tortures, and being brought down so low that your humanity is stripped away from you, all for an audience to see. And they cheer. The crowd is ecstatic, perhaps even more so than when his father, Shen Qingqiu, was put on trial.

 Shen Jiu x Pain is my favourite ship, can you tell??

Shen Jiu is barely 15 when this happens and every goddamn person is reveling in this child getting tortured. Amidst the sea of people who loathe him, there is one person not advocating for his death, and that is LBH’s son!! The very person that’s supposed to kill him!!! When LBM sees the same hopelessness that he feels in SJ’s eyes, he decides at that moment that he will be SJ’s number one defender. Everything else be damned. When SJ announces that he will not be pledging to a life of misery, LBM gets up on that stage and makes it clear that he won’t either. 

OML I did smt cool. You see the parallel I just fucking made wowwwwww.

Snippets that my mutes made for this AU 🩷🩷🩷

By Sleepyssnail

By Celestialbruise

Og post