#i am enchanted by her

[thisisntreaver]

Haha what if I posted a segment of a fic I'm writing about unimportant character Penelope Chumley wouldn't that be crazy

Despite her newly assigned 'protector ' Penelope is enraptured as Bertie Knippet talks about the town Wraithmarsh once was.

As she walks she furiously takes notes. A mix of what shes told the sounds of hollowmen groaning and screams of banshees as well as what shes seeing.

Its both heartbreakingly beautiful, and horrifically ugly to take in. Marked in a way no other place in Albion could possibly be. In a way she never could have envisioned by herself.

By the time they make it to the main part of the town, all flooded containing them to what seems to have been where most would have lived, Penelope has enough for at least two articles other than her focused one.

While the rest of them are keen to explore as a group, she splits off wanting to soak up the ambiance of a place so few are willing try entering.

Alfred finds her sitting on a rock, with her back against an old rotting wooden barn, notes sitting in her lap as she stares out at the wreckage that is Wraithmarsh.

She knows hes likely come to bring her back to the group, its his job to keep her safe after all, but Penelope has no desire to return yet. So before he can speak she does.

"Its eerily beautiful here, don't you think?"

"Beautiful?" He repeats, "you find the destruction and corruption of this place 'beautiful'?"

"Yes."

When he just shakes his head and opens his mouth she cuts him off.

"Its abandoned but not empty. For every person that once walked this place theres a creature in its place. Its quiet but not silent even without people, without the screaming this place is loud. Loud with its story, with its hurt, you can almost feel the pain here, sunk into the ground itself."

She pauses for a moment looking at the houses around them.

"Its destroyed in the sense that its falling apart but it still stands. You can go into these houses and find the remains of lives that were being lived until they weren’t. This is a place that aches but its healed, however wrong we may see it."

She understands that in a way. Healing, but incorrectly, arguably thats what shes been doing since her mother died. Fixing herself in ways that no one can really understand.

Wraithmarsh, in a way is like seeing herself laid out in gory detail. Her goal here was to learn more about Theresa, but somehow shes learned about herself as well.

Alfred still seems to be processing, and she can't seem to keep her lips shut.

"Theres a tombstone, with the one we looked at earlier," she says, "Its for a teddy bear. Nearly six hundred years ago this place was so different that a childs toy was buried in the ground next to a father and two nameless men, after a massacre of which they'd never seen before had rocked them, honored in the same way as them. Now? If we died here they wouldn't even bother to take out bodies out of the marsh. We'd be left to become one of the restless souls here."

"And you think this all makes it beautiful?"

"I do."

They stay quiet for a few moments, her continuing to soak in the feels this place leaves in her, and him studying her as if she makes no sense.

She likely doesn't.

"I also find it rather ugly if that eases your mind."

She gets a small laugh from that.

"We should get back to the group," he says, "Hugh would be upset if I left you to become balverine bait."

She snorts even as she lets him help her up.

"Clearly he didn't inform you of my run in with Atticus Croddle."

[rileyclaw]

I think willows canon fear of ladybugs is hysterical

[neige-leblanche]

the crazy thing abt "the literary canon is inaccessible" argument is that. it is quite literally some of the most accessible literature out there. depending on the format you prefer, famous books in the public domain are often available for free. if you're having trouble understanding a book, there are almost always discussion and literary guides that you can also find for free. if you genuinely still find old books too difficult but want to get into them, keep shopping around for authors and genres. if the topic interests you then you'll have more passion for a book and i guarantee you not all 100+y/o authors have confusing writing styles. and once you get into a groove it gets easier and easier, & more and more fun

[overchromatic]

The Queen of Cunt

(oc belongs to @rudowruda)

[katebeckets]

IDINA MENZEL as Nancy Tremaine in Enchanted (2007)

[sparxyv]

Milena's Makeover - Pt. 1 🪄💫

(i'm pretty sure i'm settling on this, but only time will tell if i stick to it 😪)

prepare for a small self indulgent yap-fest 🤞

i've been thinking of giving milena a makeover for so long - but ONLY her looks. milena's personality and backstory (while i haven't talked much about it here) are staying the same! 💜

i loved milena's other design, i just never had much fun drawing her unfortunately 🥺 so this is long overdue!

my two biggest struggles doing this have been her hairstyle and her facial structure. until i remembered.. she's my character.. and i can make her however i want her to be 🫣

i still feel like i'll be altering a few things overtime, and although i'm missing a few of her old traits, i love this sm. plus her hair colors and eye colors tie into her lore! 🥹

(there is more i haven't shown yet.. but those things are going to be revealed soon 👍)

here we gather to mourn the loss of:

milena's freckles

the scar/mark (or is it really all that gone???)

milena's 3A hair

[vaguely-concerned]

the parallels between morrigan and the mage warden (especially one who snitched on jowan and so isn't automatically doomed if they stay in the circle) both being unceremoniously kicked out by their parental figures from the isolated nests they've been cooped up in all their lives and sent flailing out into the real world to test their wings. the love that you can read in between the lines there from irving, and even flemeth -- in both cases this is a cause of action taken partly to save their children (from the circle, from the blight, from the isolation and constriction they would be doomed to otherwise), and in both cases it also opens them up to a world of new dangers. (I wonder if irving knows how many grey warden recruits die right off the bat. from his general character I think he might take that chance even if he knew because otherwise the circle is all but inescapable, but from what he says to amell/surana at the time and how set duncan is to keep that particular detail on the down low I feel more on the side of him not being aware.)

irving at least is encouraging and explains the outlines of what he's thinking even in his hurry to get you out the door, flemeth takes the opportunity to get in a few more stabs of emotional abuse haha. but I think my amell looks at morrigan's shock and partial dismay to be sent away with them so abruptly (and despite everything, the sting of it being so easy to do on her mother's part, emotionally) and feels a sympathetic sinking in her stomach. because yeah she knows that feeling too

[frogcupid]

let me sing louder for all the voices who can't sing

[cupidsbeaux]

im so sad that the suckening has only one episode left so we wont get to see all these banger new npcs that got introduced

like yeah theyre probably going to die in the finale pt.2 anyways, but im going to be devastated either way

[pennaraptor]

introducing: Sigourney, my juvenile female Psalmopoeus irminia

[hobbithoes]

SOOO HAPPPYYY they added mod support for consoles 😭😭😭😭😭😭 orins hair is so cute on tieflings idc if it goes through a tiny bit also it looks kinda like a viking helmet from the back LOL

[artheresy]

The HSR events keep getting better and better if I’m honest

I like the Museum event moderately even if I played it a lil late, but I like those kind of management styles even if it wasn’t heavy on character

The Aurum Alley event was honestly kind of a joy for me again for the management elements but additionally for the debates as well as the expansion of some lore on an area of the Luofu and the IPC plus Sushang being a goof, seriously those debates were fun for me I don’t know why

Then the Aetherium Wars event was so fun and it was so nice seeing March and Stelle’s dynamic on display and being a driving force, the gameplay was fun and all the cheeky pokemon references bc they weren’t hiding the inspo at all it was just so endearing and the way we get to keep the Warp Trotter on the Express made me so happy

And lastly, the Ghost Hunting event has managed to be the best ever! Like Gui being silly with Sushang and Huohuo is a delight, it’s so character heavy and I love that, and on top of that one of the only instances I’ve seen of internet slang being used in a way that felt more naturally applied than forcefully cringe, like whether it was the insanely accurate comments and posts on Ghostly Grove (which dear god did the team and localizers do their research) or the way that Guinaifen talks using that kind of slang verbally, plus I do love the way they also end up using the ghost stories to further expand on the Luofu and its lore/world building

A h I hope this trend keeps up, I hope they stay this good even if they end up having some similar gameplay, I’m more here for storylines and silliness than anything and I’m already excited for the leaks from the 1.6 event and I hope we get to keep those too

[pyrosomatic-metamorphosis]

genuine question but is there any fandom where a character is well written by the majority. im thinking about fandom culture and the spread of frustration when people dont write characters well but. honestly in all the fandoms ive been in there's only like, a Select number of authors who i trust to write Well, let alone write Well AND In Character. character analysis and writing and getting inside characters' heads are all separate skills (all of which are trained by roleplaying fyi can CONFIRM playing pretend with your friends is good for you). there's been more than once where I've disagreed with an interpretation that others agreed with, and then I turned out wrong. or i turned out right. like it doesnt matter WHO is right it just matters that differences in character analysis exist, so even if you DO write well AND write in character, your in character is still going to be someone else's out of character

there's this sort of. vibe. that to play in the sandbox you Need to be able to make a castle, and if you can't make a castle then you shouldn't bother, and it completely dismisses the idea that youre in that sandbox to PLAY in the first place. there's this Weight of disappointing someone if you can't build something that they like, but that forgets that you aren't there to build them a castle. like, be KIND. if you disagree with someone then please make an effort to do so kindly. i dont give a shit about fandom discourse but there is a reason kids get removed from sandboxes if they keep throwing sand in people's eyes. but if they don't like your misshapen sand pile, then youre not obligated to change it. even if you yourself end up hating that same sand pile later- youre not building a legacy. youre playing. and sometimes the result of that play is out of character drivel. theres a reason there are so many authors and so few who i like to consistently read and thats because everyone is Fucking Around in their hobby space. hash tag brag or whatever but i can build castles. ive built several that im v proud of. ive also dug holes in the sand for fun and then tripped on them when trying to get up. I often dug a hole and then got up and fucking- whoops, its a castle now, and i didn't realize i'd made something to be proud of until after the fact. the whole time while creating shit i was Convinced it was bullshit that didn't make sense. and then other times i was Convinced it was bullshit and then i was Right and i can look back and go. huh. ew. but it doesn't matter what the end result was, because i had fun playing in the sandbox

this wasn't meant to turn into a ramble but i have Feelings about bad art and art that's badly perceived and how public perception can screw with your head and how making art youre proud of is fucking. it's so difficult!!! it's hard!! it's really fun, which is why i try to make it, but i promise you it is Okay to not tryhard creativity. even if you CAN, it's okay not to do it all the time. or ever, even. fuck around find out have fun etc

[oopsallmabari]

minrathous so focused on trying to find rook that they forgot to put out a MILF ALERT🚨🚨🚨

[thefirstknife]

Lightfall quest is also really good. Seems to be something that will go on for a bit, I think, since the point was to get Golden Age files and we heard only one file. Osiris said there's more but that he needs time to decrypt them.

Files are Chioma Esi's logs! She is a voiced character now! Massive win for the lesbians. Osiris also directly mentions her having a wife, just in case there are people who wanted to be in denial until now.

But before that, really interesting dialogue between Nimbus and Osiris towards the end of the quest. I'll transcribe it and add a link to the video later when it gets uploaded by Destiny Lore Vault:

Nimbus: You know, ever since we defeated Calus, I've been wondering a lot more about the Veil. I think... I think we take it for granted. It's always been here. We always assumed that the Ishtar Collective brought it with them on the Exodus ship, but... Osiris: But now you question that assumption. Nimbus: Nezarec seemed to know something, didn't he? When we were inside the Vex network, he said something about... Savathun. Osiris: My memories cast shadows of Savathun's. Echoes of the time she and I were bound by her dark magic. The more time we spend here, the clearer the outline of those shadows become. The Ishtar Collective didn't bring the Veil here, Nimbus. Savathun stole it from the Witness and left it here... quite possibly for the Ishtar Collective to find. Nimbus: Why? Why would she do that? Isn't she our enemy? Osiris: She is. And yet, at times, she is our ally... when it is convenient to her, and in that convenience, we find common ground. Or as a friend once said, the line between Light and Dark... is very thin. Nimbus: [grunts] I kinda hate that. Osiris: As do I.

That's really good information and an interesting angle to understand the Veil situation better. First, Neomuni clearly don't even know how the Veil got there. They either assumed (as Nimbus said) that it was brought by the founders or perhaps the founders told everyone they did so, to keep the situation in control. It's easier to build a civilisation on this power if you tell people you brought that power here, rather than telling them that an alien entity placed it there during the time when alien entities were destroying the solar system.

But outside of that, ever since that time, people took it for granted, as Nimbus put it. They didn't really question it or wonder about it. The Veil is there, it's powering Neomuna, it was brought by the founders to make the civilisation, that's it. There's nothing really to wonder about for the average citizen. Not to say that they don't care about it, but they don't view it as something that has to be explained or pondered. As I've said before, the Veil to the Neomuni is a power source. They're not into it because of strange paracausal powers or whatever the hell is going on with it and the Witness. It's nice to see that reading was the intended one; to Neomuni, the Veil is a power source and one that is taken for granted aka isn't being actively researched. Meaning, they can't answer our questions about what the Veil is.

And now transcript of Chioma's first log (very VERY likely that more will be coming throughout the season, maybe on a weekly basis? They wouldn't voice her for one message is my main assurance). The log is accessed in the big room overlooking the Veil:

The log transcript (link):

Chioma Esi, personal log: incidental. Maya arrived yesterday with the Exodus Indigo. I should be relieved, but... in light of the current situation, I... I don't feel much of anything. We're presently en route from Hyperion to the terraformed surface of Neptune. I'm scared. I'm so scared! We don't even know what we've lost. Comms are dead. It's just silence everywhere. We might be all that's left. Maya was right about everything. The cult, the end... how we'll survive. [sighs] I hate this.

Some interesting points right away! Hyperion has been long established as a place where Chioma Esi was working. This is also giving us the Exodus Indigo route: Maya was on the colony ship which made a stop at Hyperion to pick up Chioma (and possibly other people). Shortly after they left Hyperion, the events of Winterbite lore happened where the colony ship was attacked by an unknown entity which left Winterbite in the hull.

Another neat point is that Chioma mentioned that a part of Neptune's surface was already terraformed. This gives us some crucial details; Exodus Indigo was going to Neptune on purpose and didn't just have to land there as an emergency escape. Going there was deliberate which also makes sense given that previously an ECHO ship crashed on Neptune. This makes it's more likely that Maya knew about the ECHO ship crash and about Soteria's possible survival and that Exodus Indigo followed that trail deliberately. The mention of surface being terraformed already also means that the colony was well underway of being established following the ECHO ship crash. Neptune was being hard-prepared to fit a colony.

This also means that Exodus Indigo was most likely a very well known mission and that Neomuna was not originally planned as something secret. They only went dark after making an assumption that they may be the only ones who survived the Collapse, which Chioma mentions in this log! Comms went silent and they had no idea what was going on; if they wanted to ensure the survival of the human species, they had to also assume that they're the only ones left and hide.

Chioma also mentions that "Maya was right about everything." She specifically mentions "the cult" which is Future War Cult, founded by Maya in the Golden Age. FWC was investigating something called the Device, a Vex-tech based machine capable of predicting the future. The cult would eventually regain access to the Device and use it well into the present day for the same purpose. Chioma also mentions "the end" as she muses about Maya being right about everything. Strange and possibly concerning. What exactly did Maya see through the Device?

This is some wild stuff, especially to me now after I've made a really long post about some curious connections between the concept of the history and mind of the universe and how it tends to be adjacent to Vex predictive technology. I mentioned Maya, Future War Cult and the Device in this post as well, trying to see if there's anything worth connecting in an analysis. Chioma alluding to the cult again the first time we've ever heard her voiced is intriguing. I'm not sure if this is something that will continue to be explored and if these connections are important, but it definitely felt like an important point to add into this fairly short voice line that specifies about Maya having been right "about everything," "the cult" and "the end."

I'm really excited to see if we'll get more and I assume we will. Osiris was very direct about us having to protect these logs and that there's a lot of them, but that he will have to decrypt them first. If we genuinely get more logs, it will be an incredible treat to hear actual voices from the Golden Age and the Collapse, of people who founded Neomuna and their first encounters with the Veil and possibly their original research into it.

[ariaofsorrows]

i feel so sad that mina hakuba is such a nothingburger character in castlevania canon when she has the potential to be so much more.

konami you can just casually drop that mina has connections to a belmont, a belnades witch AND alucard prior to aria of sorrow and not say anything about that???? she comes from a family of powerful exorcists! her (presumed) grandpa sealed dracula inside a solar eclipse!! she has all the cards to be such an interesting and compelling character, but she’s just swept under the rug

and despite her the cviii legacy characters, the only relationship that is given any sort of depth is her relationship with soma. and all she does there is help soma beat the homo allegations and be another “reincarnation” of lisa

i wanna see more interactions between mina and yoko since they have a close, sister-like bond! also mina’s one of the only characters that kinda sorta figures out arikado’s identity without being told about it!! surely she must be friends, or at least acquaintances with him

mina’s such an underrated character that deserves so much more than konami ever gave her