#i cannot with these companions

[metanarrates]

an artist is a director of audience reaction, not its dictator. if you know your craft well, you can make most of your cues hit, but in the end, interpretation of art is up to the viewer. you cannot guarantee that everyone viewing your work will react as you are trying to make them react. a good artist knows that this is what allows works to breathe. by definition, you cannot have art where the viewer brings nothing to the table. you do have to respect both the generative and interpretive ends of the process if you want your art to mean anything.

this is why you have to let go of the urge to plainly state in-text exactly how you think the work should be interpreted. that desire for control conveys disrespect for audience. if you have developed your storytelling skills well enough, the audience will understand what you are trying to communicate without needing you to intercede as authorial voice. sure, some won't get it, but it's better to be misinterpreted sometimes than to talk down to your audience. you won't even gain any control that way; people will still develop their opinions no matter what you do. just find a way to communicate your ideas and hope that it comes across well to your audience at some point

[steelandmayhem]

The other day, I saw a non-fandom text post along the lines of:

“What we had was so special you’ll look for me in every new person” (sorry I haven’t been able to find it again)

And I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.

Because to me this perfectly describes Durgetash + romancing your companions.

I can’t help thinking about amnesiac Durge missing something, always searching, but can’t remember what.

They find echoes of it in Gale’s intelligence, his enthusiasm and knowledge when he speaks about magic. And yet, it doesn’t fit entirely.

They find it in Lae’zel’s easy superiority, her ruthlessness and determination. And yet, it’s not quite enough.

They find it in Astarion’s deception and easy charm, the way he manipulates a situation to his advantage, the way he doesn’t need magic to have people literally bare their necks to him.

They find it in Shadowheart’s snark, her secrecy, her dark goddess. They find it in Karlach’s rage (though she burns hot instead of cold which is odd..), in the smell of sulphur and hellfire that clings to her. They especially find it in her mechanical heart, that makes them want to reach out, bury their hands in it, just to see if it feels as familiar as it seems. If maybe owning her heart will fill the hole in their memories, their chest even.

And yet, surprisingly, they find it in Wyll’s pact, Wyll’s past, but also Wyll’s manners and they way he dances, his stories, that make them feel closer to a city they don’t much care about otherwise.

They find it in the deep possessiveness, maybe even hatred, when Raphael first comes to camp.

And yet none of it is enough, none of it fits quite right, and while maybe eventually they manage to look past that familiar feeling and find new things to admire about their chosen partner…deep in their heart they know.

In the end, they’ll always look for something none of them can give them.

Not until they first encounter that handsome young man with an easy smile, and all the jagged broken edges click together like horrible little puzzle pieces.

[arcane-gold]

(crawls out of the cc 4 hours later, covered in blood) here’s my rook, Rel Aldwir, veiljumper extraordinaire <3

[sodas-gallery]

based off something that happened in my playthrough (nick stood between finn and hancock)

[beetlethebug]

i am still thinking about rook choking emmrich and buying them jewelry for that purpose. but i am now ALSO thinking about an emmrich x rook x lucanis polycule. getting up to the same shenanigans.

lucanis has a line about spending four hours in the market because his cousin wanted to buy gloves to impress a woman. imagine these two spending hours wandering various markets looking for the perfect rings and bracelets to adorn rook's hands. the two of them bickering about style before realizing rook has two hands so they can each decorate one as they please. spite being very, very insistent that he gets to pick one. and since lucanis is annoyed about it, emmrich lets him pick a ring on his behalf for rook, too.

and while perhaps it started for rook, the two of them start buying jewelry for each other, too.

and while it starts with hands, i'm sure it evolves into necklaces and earrings and all sorts of accoutrement. lucanis buying emmrich an earring set stylized to like a wisp from the necropolis. rook buying the ugliest, chunkiest emerald ring because it reminded them of manfred's eyes. emmrich finds a piece that resembles all the bones in a person's hand and rook and lucanis get into a fight about who gets to wear it first. spite's picks in jewelry being surprisingly deep and meaningful. rook picking out jewelry with little pockets for poisons or stylized to look like wyvern's for lucanis. emmrich commissioning a skull pin similar to his but in the shape of a crow's for when lucanis has to do more formal work.

i am just. having many thoughts about jewelry as a love language.

emmrich has rook and lucanis' left hands, lucanis has the right for emmrich and rook, and rook gets one of each :)

[sp3akfromtheart]

doctor who writers have this horrible skill of being able to write the worst episodes of a show you've ever seen and simultaneously making you cry your eyes out x

[pizzacade]

Thanks to Big Finish for the cover for The Companion Chronicles: Solitaire, an Eighth Doctor puppet was created.

Yes, it's real, and NO ONE except possibly Big Finish knows where it is.

[grandadtwelve]

ive always held the belief that the doctor, upon making ashildr immortal, somehow managed to find one of the few beings in existence who would not and will not ever get along with jack harkness.

the ashildr and jack in my brain fucking HATE each other and I find it so fucking funny. jack and clara? besties, lovers, soulmates, have exchanged wedding rings. ashildr and clara? besties, partners in crime, unrequited childhood crush to closest friend and confidant. jack and ashildr? literally what is wrong with you you’re so annoying I hate you why the fuck am I stuck here with you of all goddamn people I wish you would die and stay dead thank god my memory doesn’t last forever so I don’t have to be tortured by every irritating thing you’ve ever done oh my god you’re so boring what did you get clara for her birthday are you coming early to the party to help set up yes okay great fuck you bye

[solasfenheral]

vg is a game that should be saturated in religion and faith and politics and yet - (I am yanked off stage by a comically large cane)

[theviewer]

Hey, wouldn't it be super creepy if Arthur's eyes -under John's control- kept moving after he got his abdomen opened up and died? Like

Imagine a corpse who can move one of it's forearms and had it's eyes scanning the surroundings as if in a panic

[marshymarge]

screaming crying puking shitting pissing why doesnt anybody love farkas why does everyone shit all over him why do they agree with his baseless self-deprecation why why why why why

[ducks-love-peas]

Then you tell me that you want to do this. You look me in the eye and tell me.

[denebrye]

*confused in wild magic*

[magpie-come-east]

like I really really don’t want to give the impression that I think D is evil or a bad character. I’m just generally frustrated with how uncritical people are of his actions when he represents a microcosm of the Golden Order’s faults.

Fia’s ending and Dung Eater’s endings parallel each other in an interesting way! I genuinely see them as attempts to ‘correct’ the iniquity of the Golden Order but in wildly imperfect ways (the FF is the same tbh). The Golden Order denies the personhood of Omen and TWLID- brand them as aberrations of Order. That Dung Eater murders and defiles people to inflict the Omen curse upon their souls does not mean the persecution of Omen is justified. So why is Fia crazy and/or wrong for championing TWLID? Why are they an acceptable target for ‘total eradication’ (a la D’s words) even if turning everyone into TWLID is not an acceptable way to stop their persecution?

I think I’m just tired and confused by the insistence that TWLID are ‘just’ monsters when Elden Ring insists we see the humanity in the creatures we fight. Demihumans, Omen, Misbegotten all attack and kill people. TWLID are not unique in that regard but they are discounted as mindless monsters better off dead. The fact that D straight up calls for their extermination outright doesn’t raise any red flags? Fia as a character doesn’t make anyone curious? The Ancestor Spirit lore about life and death once comingling doesn’t strike anybody as interesting? Goldmask himself decrying the hunters of the dead isn’t worthy of note??

[expectiations]

the Doctor: I do what I want! Nardole: I’m telling River. the Doctor: No, wait-

[sodas-gallery]

they're eating at my brain like termites please see my vision theyre literally married