#i don't actually think we're ever going to get an answer atp but i want to know how people are interpreting it!!

[claraoswalds]

The sky's a burnt orange, with the Citadel enclosed in a mighty glass dome, shining under the twin suns. Beyond that, the mountains go on forever. Slopes of deep red grass, capped with snow.

The Legend of Ruby Sunday // The Sound of Drums

[jeanjamesb]

Hi, first of all I hope you're doing okay, I'm still digesting everything 😪 Utter bleakness is what I'm feeling. I've seen here and on other platforms fellow bw rightfully say that we need to prioritize ourselves from now on. And others even going further and say we should no longer advocate for other causes that are not for our community. They (white people and non-blacks) never fight for us so we should not fight for them. And on that, part of me agree

I was talking about it with a friend, telling her I was tired of fighting other battles for nothing in return, and she said she understand the frustration, but then gave me a little speech about solidarity and fighting against oppression and for human rights in general. Shes not sure solidarity should be treated as a transaction, when the stakes are that high. she's feeling disappointed, seeing how things are turning, how every community is starting to withdraw into one's shell,. If everyone only cares about their own people, how are we supposed to turn this fucked up society into a better one. "No one is free until we are all free", basically. It became a little heated and we haven't spoke ever since. I feel the need to add that she is a Lebanese hijabi. She is personally affected by the gen ocide in Gaza, so she's not speaking out of pure privilege, and she voted Blue. But I don't really know how to feel. I've known her for like 5 years, and she never once made anti-black statement, always supported me and the community, I was the same with her, we always supported each other but for the first time, we're disagreeing on something major and I feel like she was indirectly denying my struggles a BW, and I guess she felt like I was denying the struggles of muslims and Palestinians (I am not)../

I'm starting to wonder if I was being insensitive, or if she was. . Any advices😪? I hate this I keep checking my phone, if I should reach out or not

I want to preface this by saying that to protect my own peace, I am not opening myself up to political debate. Unless you are this Anon, don't send me anything about this. Not right now.

That being said, hi Anon, I'm doing okay. Got a needed serotonin boost, trying to find small joys where I can. I hope you choose that too, if only to not drown yourself further.

I feel you, so badly I do. And tbh just about every Black woman I've talked to since Tuesday is the same, just exhausted and angered and defeated. I see where your friend is coming from because it's not inherently wrong in theory. It's actually correct, again in theory, and the way we would hope movements towards progress would work. Her want for everyone to work together and not separate into their own corners is completely understandable.

In practice though, if you (the you in this case being Black women) feel like you keep pouring from your cup but don't get filled in return...yeah, it is a transaction. Just one you don't benefit from. Or at least benefit the least or last from, especially in this country. My advice would be to say that to your friend, that you felt like she was dismissing not only how you felt but also a struggle a whole section of the population faces. That you understand where she's coming from, but there are very real reasons why Black women on Wednesday said they've had enough. And trying to shove that to the side is not the answer.

I think when people are faced with their own issues and the reality that there isn't a coalition like they thought there was, they will retreat. Trust almost has to be earned again. Because that's what it boils down to atp. Trust got deeply eroded on Tuesday.

Reaching out is up to you. I'm usually one to say leave communications open but also protecting your peace is important. I don't know your friend or you enough to say what would be best for your relationship. I hope what I had to say helps in any capacity.

And again, no other asks except a response from this Anon, I'm not answering them.

[ao3gobi17]

If Spider hadn't managed to escape, what had Quaritch planned in the long run? I guess they couldn't hide for their entire lives, and besides, when would the other team members go back to their everyday lives?

His short-term goal was of course for him and Spider to find out who killed Paz and see justice done. He had in mind the possibility that he could also be exonerated for her murder if they uncovered evidence. Possibly, since he's done 9 years as an innocent man he's going to get his lesser crimes cancelled out (time wise) by the time already served? I don't know if they can nail him for the jail breakout, since the 'anonymous' recoms actually did it, technically they could have kidnapped Q lol. And if Spider was to claim he wanted to be with his dad and wasn't kidnapped, then I feel like it's only kidnapping Leo Q might get charged with and maybe something like interfering with the system because he did not legally have custody of Spider. (Obviously he committed more crimes later, but at the outset of getting Spider this would be where his mind was at).

To be clear, this cancelling out thing may not be how the US court system works (obviously Quaritch would know all this, it's just me, Gobi, who doesn't and hasn't bothered to research lol). I doubt Q was ever planning to do time for the Leo thing, so if he couldn't get the proof against Paz's killer to exonerate him - and cancel out any misdeeds in between - then his longterm goal would have been to stay in hiding with Spider.

I think he'd have found somewhere they could 'settle down' and assume new identities - possibly not in the US, or at least somewhere remote. He'd want to just enjoy raising Spider for the years left and then once Spider was a man he'd want to keep in close contact with him (and possibly future family) - ideally living near each other etc. All of this does require Spider's agreement, which Q felt he was ultimately gonna get. Once Spider was on board and they were settled, no need for the recoms.

The finding-Paz's-killer didn't have a fixed timeframe but I think Q was looking at possibly a couple of weeks to find answers, then see how the authorities respond to them and then take it from there. The whole Jake Sully-Tuk Sully thing and Matthew Meyer thing Q hadn't planned for or accounted for when he made his original plan. (He hadn't planned for Leo either, but I think his attitude was 'any means necessary' to get Spider so he was open to possible crime lol). There's also the Peter Ellis four, though whether they can officially track that back to Q may be doubtful. I think, if he's arrested now in the last chapter then he's definitely doing jail time even if they exonerate him over Paz, too many people know he killed MM and Tuk makes a second kidnapped child even if you discount Spider, so at this very point in time we're at with Custody, Q is not thinking about finding Paz's killer, he just wants to get Spider and get away. Then he can regroup and work on finding Paz's killer again. Obviously we and Spider know something atp he doesn't know. <3

[ahleezeruinavt]

So me and my friends, even after finishing BG3 forever ago, we still make headcanons about our characters. So I am doing my duty to share with you some of the best ones we've made. Quick Guide too while we're here: - Ahleeze (High Elf, Bard, was a noble but got kicked out for trying to lead a rebellion, relationship with Astarion) - Azrael (Half-Elf, Paladin of Torm, super tall, relationship with Shadowheart) - Alphaeus (Tiefling, Warlock of who knows what, but we're convinced he has multiple patrons atp, mysterious past, no one knows his age, relationship with Karlach) Now onto the headcanons.

Ahleeze can't actually read or write common very well, if at all. She only knows Elvish. She can speak common though

Azrael, after losing her arm and getting a prosthetic, uses it as an extension of lay on hands. She does this by casting "lay on hands" and then promptly chucking her arm at people.

While no one in the party actually knows how old Alphaeus is, they like to play guessing games with it. All they know is he uses really old phrases for stuff, and always seems to keep butterscotch on him.

After the respective romance scene for Act 1, everyone sort of awkwardly passed by each other in camp and just kind of go "where have you guys been"? Azrael's hair is an ABSOLUTE mess, with Shadowheart sort of guiding her back to her tent. Alphaeus seems to have a few burn marks on him, while Karlach smells a little bit like burnt flesh. Finally, Ahleeze is stumbling, absolutely slurred speech, whith blood on her neck while Astarion is very happily walking behind her.

Azrael is probably the scariest paladin anyone has ever seen, only because of her giant sword that is lit up with holy fire at any given time (it's the sword you can get at the start of the game if you kill the demon in the ship)

Everyone has a code for having sex. Azrael and Shadowheart is "swimming lessons" (kinda like the "lets go run lines" from the scott pilgrim anime). Ahleeze and Astarion is "grabbing dinner". We like to think Alphaeus and Karlach don't have a code tho and just flat out say they're going to have sex and to not disturb them. Though they always have to stop by the store for fire resistance potions.

Ahleeze and Azrael actually grew up with each other for a short time in the fae realm, with Azrael's mom serving as a knight for her family. The two got along great, but there was some shocks in behavior from both of them for sure. Namely the fact that Ahleeze's family never actually ate together (everyone ate in their rooms or studies), and that Ahleeze didn't know how to fight, while Azrael did. Azrael promptly tries to teach Ahleeze how to fight after hearing her tutors aren't actually allowed to hurt her, and then gives Ahleeze a giant bruise on her forehead while play fighting.

Someone once tried to copy Alphaeus and when they went to play "three questions" to see who was the real one, once the copy answered the first question Ahleeze and Azrael just went "Wrong, Alphaeus wouldn't even bother answering these in the first place" and just attacked that one.

When they all have kids, Azrael constantly catches Ahleeze and Astarion's two little knuckleheads stealing and scamming people. Very quickly learns that Ahleeze and Astarion have been teaching their kids that "if you want something you have to work for it" and taught them how to get away with things. Main key to this was be extremely confident in what they're saying. So much so it doesn't even sound like they're lying.

Now onto some sadder hc's / canon that we've planned for our story.

When Azrael loses her arm, it is to save Ahleeze from a necrotic magic. She had to sacrifice something important to bring Ahleeze back, and so she sacrificed her arm which she wields her sword with. This is bc, since Ahleeze led a sort of rebellion (teaching common folk how to use rune-based magic), which resulted in the death of a lot of people (as a sort of "cleanup crew" was tasked to get rid of anyone who knew this knowledge). The deaths are technically her fault, so her punishment was death or to leave the fae realm and never come back. She chose to leave, but came back so they could try and find something to help Karlach's engine. Her punishment for coming back was death and Azrael basically says that since Ahleeze technically died, her sentence was over. This causes a "crack" in Azrael's oath (since we didn't really think it would break it) for interferring with justice.

When Ahleeze eventually gets old, Astarion and her go to watch the sunrise. Where Ahleeze passes away peacefully and Astarion then turns to stone (i don't even remember where I saw a vampire turn to stone but I remember it somewhere and I think it's cooler than burning to ash) A sculpture is comissioned of Ahleeze so that her and Astarion's "grave" is marked at their final resting place.

might add onto this at some point but I am blanking because it's almost 1 am and I just kinda needed to get all of these out of my brain before I went to bed

[lytters]

just give us three alternative endings already 😭

i have thought about it 😭 but i don't think i'll ever do that!! atp we all know that katsuki's endgame 🙄 so it's not a spoiler to say why i won't write hitoshi or nejire as a legitimate love interest

as much fun as it is imagining an alternate pathway, and me joking about how the other two may overtake katsuki, i genuinely don't see it happening. at least not with the number of chapters left. we're only left with two chapters btw 😬 let me explain below the break :)

the very obvious first reason is that y/n has very, very strong romantic inclinations towards katsuki. feelings like that don't fade easily, even if there are potential love interests around. you're taking three years of feelings that have continuously grown and evolved as the two of them grow through their teens, and especially with katsuki as reader's "first love", it's going to take them some time to move past him. this means that if i were to write an alternate ending, i'd have to write a lot more chapters to show their growth, them learning to move on from him, before even showing how their feelings develop. and yes, i can technically write time skips, but it's the journey i'm interested in telling, not just happy endings.

the next reason is nejire as a partner. don't get me wrong!! i love her!! i adore her!! an absolute wife!! but she is not the partner that this y/n needs, and they're not a relationship that will last in the long term. nejire has an overtly inquisitive nature, and while y/n is alright with that for surface level questions, and nejire is alright with y/n not answering "deeper" questions, this will not stay the same if they actually get together. you can already see how y/n reacts to hitoshi asking questions to things they don't want to think about/answer, how do you think they'll feel with nejire, who will insistently poke and prod for an answer. and nejire will demand for answers, not in any malicious way, but it's just her. she feels as a girlfriend, she should know what her significant other is thinking, which is why she'll question relentlessly until she gets her answer. (we're not acknowledging this but y/n may or may not have an avoidant style, soooo) y/n's not gonna like that :)

now on to hitoshi as a partner. again, i absolutely love him, truly adore him!! but again, linking back to first reason,,, y/n will have a lot to work through before she's ready for a romantic relationship with hitoshi. and honestly, in my head, i really don't see them like that at all. they've developed a bond that's closer to siblings than anything that could lead to a romantic relationship, so thinking about them in that way genuinely is a little,, off :)

LMAO sorry for making this a whole essay JDBJDD when you sent this ask it got me thinking

[mikejaffa]

I thought she was referring to Mars, but Gallifrey works, too.

The sky's a burnt orange, with the Citadel enclosed in a mighty glass dome, shining under the twin suns. Beyond that, the mountains go on forever. Slopes of deep red grass, capped with snow.

The Legend of Ruby Sunday // The Sound of Drums