#i guess it's just a different flavour of the same thing

[pharawee]

(Slightly?) unpopular opinion time but I don't even need the four med princes in Fourever You. Just give me the compass cutie friend group and I'm all set for the whole 16 eps. 🥰

That being said, how well done is this show? The production values are incredible - from lighting to make-up and set design and colour grading. Just an absolute joy to watch!

I'm also not 100% sure what it is that makes Director New's Wabi Sabi shows so different from his shows for gmmtv (which aren't bad at all - it's just personal preference), I only know that they are and that I vastly prefer them.

[corfisers]

love when he just Lies

[teaboot]

Gonna write a transman character. Any tips on things to include/avoid?

idk bud it's p different for everyone

Like

I consider myself transmasc, but I personally don't use a binder very often (uncomfy and not super useful anyway at bigger bra sizes) and still present feminine at most of my jobs, so I suppose my own deal is just that just my inner monologue takes a minute to buffer whenever someone calls me "she, her, lady, girl, woman" out loud.

So, for like... writing someone like me, I guess I'd be like. Pronouns different, self-image different, outside people behaviour towards me the same as a lady.

For writing someone else, maybe different? I don't know. I've only ever been Me so far.

Some guys don't like the basement being referred to with feminine language. Others don't care. I personally don't, but again, that's just me.

I suppose it depends on what kinda person your character is? Is he SUPER into performing socially acceptable "man" stuff, or is he gender non-conforming? Does he have a lot of dysphoria, or none at all? Maybe he has good days and bad days? Is he on hormones or Nah? If he's very active and wears a binder either he'll be sore a LOT or he'll have a sports bra, if he's chesty. Unless he's had top surgery. Or is naturally just flat. Lucky bastard.

But I guess I'd just... write a dude? Sprinkle in the nitty-gritty here and there for flavour, unless that's the main focus of his story, but yeah. Probably just writing a dude and then throwing in that he's trans is fine.

Open floor for anyone else wanting to add on? My abilities may be limited here and I'm not exactly the elected spokesperson

Good on you for asking, though!! Research is always a great start

[sneeperspoi]

One of my favourite aspects about Sniper and Spy's relationship (platonic or romantic) is how they both have a mutual understanding of like, quiet time and what it's like to genuinely feel this certain flavour of solitude:

Sniper has a lot of his work done completely alone; hiding, playing the waiting game, and all that jazz, while Spy has a somewhat similar experience. Sure, his espionage lifestyle has a more active role at times, but his job still requires maintaining distance (physical and emotional) from both clients and targets. Both are dedicated to their work enough that they'd avoid getting genuinely personal with people altogether— even if they wanted to, they know it'd negatively impact their abilities to perform. Sniper having the mindset of having "a plan to kill everyone you meet" and to just "take the shot", and Spy being described as a "puzzle, wrapped in an enigma, shrouded in riddles" is telling of how much of a wall either can put up and any given time.

Now, I'm not saying that the other mercs don't know what it's like to be isolated or that they could never relate to Sniper or Spy in that regard, but their roles aren't necessarily fundamentally built around it, y'know? They aren't required to hide away or to work solo (you could make the joke of "then why are there always 5+ snipers and spies on my team at any given time??" but shhhh this is more in the context of the lore/comics lolol).

I feel like this concept of them realizing their niche similarities and how "hey, maybe I'm not really alone in this world" has so much potential. Like... the idea of them not really participating often in team activities or usually hiding away (in a van and smoking room perhaps?) is great, but to add on the angle that they now have someone who finally understands?? To finally have someone that you don't have to explain anything to?? It hits differently. They could have a smoke together, not saying a word the whole time, and consider it a successful hangout— they don't expect anything from the other, or feel the pressure to act differently because they just get it, and know why things are the way they are.

There's so much angst potential too, forbidden friends/lovers who both know the consequences if things go sour. Maybe they've suppressed so much of that desire to have a relationship (platonic or romantic), that when they finally admit that this is the case (realizing they both feel the same way), something clicks and they try to make it work. Don't even get me started on the potential "hey, maybe I can trust you" aspects either lmao. Regardless of what direction you take though, their relationship growing feels special and unique.

The media too often depicts the whole "can't get close to no one. I don't need friends" attitude as mostly negative and something that needs to be fixed... but with these guys, they're just allowed to be like this. Not saying that there are no cons to this attitude ofc, but it's not necessarily a thing they have to change about themselves or each other or anything. I guess it's refreshing to see that there are still characters out there who can be loners and just be content about it. Unless of course, you want to go down that route. Love that type of angst, but it's nice to have that option without it feeling too OOC. Ugh, there's like so much to explore and deconstruct and so many directions to take this fr fr

((Also, I realize now it's kinda like being an art kid and that moment when you finally meet someone where you don't have to explain why you keep drawing the same old soggy men who shoot each other cuz they just understand. Artist to artist communication lol))

[bisnes-socks]

i said i might do more in depth thoughts of stephanie and so i did.

the first post was a bit rushed but many of the points very much still stand, this post i guess is just trying to make the same points a bit better and deeper. so idk how much of a musical analysis this is, and how much i'm just trying to put vibes and feelings into words, but here goes.

i said in the first post how i like that the structure isn't the usual verse chorus verse chorus - well, actually it kind of is that, but the chorus doesn't feel like an obvious chorus, because they only play it twice and it's not the same those times. there is almost a pre-chorus like feeling to it, and then the song ends in what could have been a bridge, if the song was longer. this song to me feels like a part of something bigger, and that's why i'm super excited to hear in the context of the full album. with that being said, i still think it works super well on its own as well, i really love the vibes.

the early 2000's brit rock and indie rock influence, such as arctic monkeys or black kids, is still quite obvious to me, but so is the 80's influence as well, like orchestral manoeuvers in the dark was the first one that came to my mind. then again, the 80's influence on early 2000's brit rock and indie rock in general is also pretty obvious, so i think influences in music in general should always be seen as a spectrum, rather than fixed, separate points. everything is always influenced by things that came before it, and what we can name as an influence on something will always depend on where we've heard a specific style or flavour or spice in music first.

it's a different sound than what we've heard from them before. i don't know if this makes any sense to anyone other than myself, but to me, the sound on this song is the sound of a collective more than the sound of the band. what i mean by that is that there are so many elements in the song that are not straight forward band instruments, or instruments that are in their usual line up. this sound is produced by five professinal musicians working as a collective, rather than five band members playing their respective instruments simultaniously. does that make any sense? i don't know, but it's how i feel - like there could be more people on this song than there are. but i think the best songs always do sound like all of the people who made it, not just one or two.

like i said in my first post, the drums are super interesting in this one. the drum machineness of it all, the super 80's style drum fills, the percussive details of little pings and pangs that decorate the track, that's all something that hasn't been super typical in pop or rock music recently, and harkens back to the 70's, 80's and also the early 2000's indie scene. it's super interesting to listen to, and i can genuenly recommend taking the time to listen to the track a couple of times focusing on just the drums and percussion.

in fact, i'd recommend listening to the track (this track and honestly just songs in general) several times, always choosing a different instrument or element to focus on, because there is a lot of cool stuff going on in this song! vocals and lyrics often take the main focus, but i always find it worth it to carefully listen beyond the lyrics.

the drum parts are also just genuenly fun. the drums and the bass make it a very dancable song, which again, it's both very 80's and very early 2000's to make super bop-y, dancable songs with sad or dark lyrics. the contrast is quite yummy to me. it also brings a vibe to the song i really really love. it reminds me of a quote about movies, about how drama movies should always have a little bit of comedy in them, because that's how real life is. there is always always both light and dark, sadness and happiness present in everything. crying and laughing all at once. that's the vibe of the song to me, and it's brilliant.

the song has so many layers to it, it's honestly brilliantly mixed: there's something happening in almost every direction, every distance, so to speak. and so many different synth sounds! sharp strikes here, notes held there, runs here, backround walls there. take a moment to find them all, it's super rewarding and again, genuenly fun!

the vocal delivery is also a cool contrast with the musical aspects. the voice doesn't convey a lot of emotion, on purpose i think. he sounds a bit numb and detached, and the music being so whimsical with all of its details and decorations, it's just a really cool juxtaposition.

and at the end, repeating the lines about love and happiness not being built for people like me, with the guitar playing the same melody, when the vocal line and the guitar line go out of sync and he starts repeating the lines to a different rythm, i think it highlights the juxtaposition even more, it's like.. it's like he's not even listening to the whimsy of the music anymore, but getting carried away in his own head by the lines. and repeating them in an almost monotoe way.. i just think it's a brilliant way to deliver the emotion behind the lyric.

but the song ends in the major key whimsical runs on the keyboard with a very fun percussion rythm, and so i think ultimately the mood left behind by the song is quite positive. it's melancholic sure, a bit angsty yes, but at the same time it's not a depressing feeling. 

like i don't know how else to put it, but the whole song is like. everything is going to shit in your life, but you're on a walk and the leaves are super pretty colours and the weather is just perfect, and you breathe in fresh air and it's like. yeah everything is kinda fucked but right in this moment, right at this minute, it's all kind of.. okay. and for a split second you can imagine a future where things are less shit. where maybe happiness and love are built for people like you.

[catboy-beckett]

So a few months back, I started getting ads for a game called Tokyo Debunker. The ads had WILDLY different tones and genres, not entirely unusual for mobile game ads, and usually I just ignore it when this happens. They want me to be curious so they can get me to download. It's a cheap, common trick, not worth my attention.

This time though, the ads were so bizarre and disconnected that it actually worked on me. I HAD to know what this game was about.

For context, here are all the screenshots I took of these ads:

(no, the bright flash on the second image isn't censorship, it's just a poorly-timed snapshot of a visual effect)

So, we're getting essentially three distinct genres of ads here: Dating Sim game, Horror game, and Cute Casual Cartoon Cat game. I think it's really the horror imagery that put these ads above the rabble. It was too high-effort and offputting. Normal clickbait goes for as generic and appealing as possible.

So, what was the truth? What IS the game, actually?

Well, uh.

Here are the actual screenshots I've taken in-game:

It's not just the ads that are all over the place, that's for sure. It turns out this IS a horror dating game filled with cute cats!

I'll explain further: the main mode of the game is a visual novel (that "story" button on the fourth screenshot) which occasionally has comic panels in the middle of scenes. In the background, you have the "Campus" where you can build facilities that generate currency that you can use to upgrade or build more facilities, and these gradually passively increase your character stats. What are stats for? Why, you can have your characters do battle with monsters or other players' teams! It's an auto-battler sort of thing so it's not very involved, but powering up the characters is surprisingly convoluted. Wait, how do you get "characters"? Oh, there's a gacha too! (The "summon" button.) The gacha is kinda shit to be honest; rates are bad enough but they lumped equipment and characters into the same banners, so even when there's a "rare guaranteed in 10 pulls" it might not even be a character.

It's definitely a romance game, though not the sort with "routes" or even story choices, really--you can get characters' affinity scores up outside of the story by making them fish or taking them camping (oh yeah the fishing is to summon cats to eat the fish and then if you're quick you can take photos of the cats, Neko Atsume style--) but nothing in the course of the story changes.

Honestly, I think this game is great. I've completed all the available chapters of the story so far, and the writing and characters are great. I love the horror too, and I really appreciate that they don't pull any punches with it just because this is fundamentally a game about flirting with eccentric 2D men. I hope in the future they revamp the gacha system to make it less ass.

BONUS:

Lightning round of ✨which aspects of these ads were accurate?✨

Rescue Him-- That artwork is in the game, but the minigame is not, and there is no need to "rescue him". He's fine. That's just Jiro. He's always like this.

Do You Always?-- That artwork is also in the game, though I'm not sure why Jin is labelled "guy from cafeteria". The UI is also not right.

Who is Cheating Whom?-- This one is interesting. Not only is this scene entirely fabricated (and the player is never tasked with solving riddles like this), I can only identify one of the characters. The guy on the right looks like Ren (albeit wearing another character's earring) but I have no idea who the guy on the left is? Rui or Towa are my best guesses, but I've heard that these ads just sometimes fabricate entire characters. That octopus is in the game though.

Vegetable Ninja-- Not a real minigame. That cat is one of the ones you can get in the Neko Atsume clone guild cat album, and it can indeed be seen slicing carrots.

Cat Town?-- This is real, just with more of the collectible cats added for flavour. (You can even see this area in one of my screenshots!) In the actual game, there ARE cats running around delivering messages, as well as chibi versions of the anime boys.

Eye Monster-- This monster is actually real! She appears in the beginning chapter. The human in front of her however, doesn't look like the protagonist or anyone else currently in the game. You also never see that pixelart style.

Customize Your Crush-- Not a real feature. You can pick which character you want on the home screen and can change their outfit to a limited extent, but you can't freely undress them or mess with their features. That character is named Alan though, and they did just release a shirtless card of him. Hi Alan!

Slenderman, Sadako, and Jeff the Killer-- Breaks my heart to say, they are not in the game. There is an anomaly that kind of looks like Slenderman, I suppose? The "You have been cursed" tagline is actually true though; in the beginning of the game, you DO get cursed.

Bathing in Blood-- Curiously, this scene is in the game... but it's not a horror scene. It's not sketched like that, it's not red and black and white, there's no explicit or implied blood. It's just a brief fanservicey scene of Leo in the bath.

Cat on Rails-- This one is the closest to being an actual minigame! There's an overhead view of a cat running along in the rhythm game "bonus stages" you get in-between some of the autobattler stages. You have to tap the screen to make the cat turn at certain points in time with the music. It's not very good, but it's easy to cheat. The cat is identical to the one pictured but the stage looks different and there's no food.

[arminreindl]

My newest submissions for the Lemuria challenge, both baurusuchids tho with different approaches.

While the family is present on Lemuria due to Pabwehshi, baurusuchids come in two flavours. Baurusuchines and pissarrachampsines. For a while Pabwehshi was treated as closer to Baurusuchus but the most recent paper has it as a pissarrachamspine. Given that all other baurusuchids besides Pabwehshi are exclusively known from South America, its really anyones guess which one should be present. Especially given the big unknown that is baurusuchids in Africa.

Anyways, so that its not just the same animal reskinned I obviously went into different directions. Cuonchampsa I kept on the smaller side and left "naked", something informed by what we see in Pissarrachampsa, which despite being known from ample material preserves not a single osteoderm in its vicinity. Baurusuchids are already light in terms of armour and likely didn't use it to stabilize their gait, so this loss is far from improbable. Still, I did elect to keep it smaller because of that anyways. I also made them group animals, inspired by Pissarrachampsa nesting sites, tho again exaggerating things for the sake of spec.

With the baurusuchine I was aiming for something larger, more robust and gnarlier looking. I kept the osteoderms, tho in accordance with recent papers I opted to hide them under extensive soft tissue, going for a kinda cracked texture of sorts (so not quite the leathery softshell turtle dermis the paper uses as an example). Tho the two wouldn't usually encounter another, I kinda went for a bit of a tiger - dhole energy between the two (also referenced by the genus name of the former).

I also did some rough scaling to highlight the size difference

[burninface]

🥳Weekly Tag Wednesday🎂

tagged by @energievie (happy birthday!!) @deedala @mybrainismelted @sgtmickeyslaughter @lingy910y <3

When is yours? December 21st

Where were you born? earth (I guess?)

How do you feel about your legal name? Are you using it online and/or IRL? no special feelings, I don't hate it. it's kinda… watery, related to aqua. and no, only when I was 7 or 8, I thought everyone online used their real name lol

How about your sign? Do you feel it “fits”? Sagittarius, to some extent, YES.

What’s your earliest memory related to your birthday? emm… back when I was still in kindergarten, my grandma made me noodles on my birthday, it's a tradition thing here. and I remember there were small yellow croaker in the noodle soup. I still love the taste of yellow croaker now❤️

What’s one of the best gifts you’ve ever received? oh that one's a little too personal so I'll go with the second best one: when I was in high school and was really obsessed with overwatch, some of my friends built a Lijiang tower(a landmark in the game) with different boxed snacks for me🥰

How about one of the best you’ve given yourself? tbh, every year I just got myself some game/anime merchandises (and most of them are about overwatch) I love them equally<3

What’s your favourite cake flavour? Basque/rum-flavored/chocolate ice cream cake

How about your favourite flowers? currently fell im love with chocolate cosmos

Have your ever thrown a birthday party? If yes, tell us about your favourite one. only a few. my favourite one is with my volleyball team in middle school. we won the match that day (3-2, it's just a practice match with another school but the final set was super long), then we ate my birthday cake together and had a little party right after in the school gym. my best friend was also on the team then :）

What’s the ultimate birthday song? I… don't have one? oh right, let's go Keep Yourself Alive by Queen

And last but not least, pick a celebrity with whom you share your birthday. I googled it and found that I dont know most of celebrities that share the same birthday with me… Masaccio maybe? does he really count celebrity?? celebrity of Italian Renaissance…?

and I'm tagging:

@atthedugouts @vintagelacerosette @gallapiech @mickeym4ndy @spookygingerr @mmmichyyy @creepkinginc @gallawitchxx @transsexual-dandelions @reganmian @pookiebearmick @blue-disco-lights @jademickian @callivich @doshiart @deathclassic @iansw0rld @jrooc <3

[sciderman]

wade’s not a loser he’s just doomed to lose in love because his type is controlling people who make him feel special because he’s their latest pet project and then it inevitably burns out and he gets hurt because he wants too much to please/to be someone else they like and most of them only want an idea of him 😭 that’s different from being a loser. it’s called being sensitive 😭

😔 see, peter's not exactly like that - in fact, he wants to be largely hands-off when it comes to wade's reformation but wade kind of - in his head, still makes those parallels to nate. it's why civil war was such a huge breech of trust for wade – that peter didn't "trust" wade to make the right decision all by himself.

it tanked wade's trust in himself - his own sense of pride and self-determinism, to have peter kind of - police him in that way.

wade's so apprehensive about this because he knows he's perpetually aiming to please. at the expense of his own authentic self. and it's a curse. wade hasn't really found a sense of self because he's always changing to be what his lover wants of him.

[x]

(and that's where the choker motif comes in - which is actually why i was reluctant to bring the choker back, because i wanted wade to kind of - have overcome this.)

the collar was symbolic for a very, very specific thing. and it's not a positive thing. wade's just a dog (bow wow) - his owner throws a bone, he'll fetch it.

i wanted him to have overcome it - which is why i got rid of the choker again after civil war was over - but - y'know, i guess he hasn't overcome it. it's still there. just manifested in a different form. and no matter how both nate and peter want wade to be honest and authentic - wade's certain that's not a good idea. that, or wade honestly - with his shifting brain terrain, doesn't entirely trust himself enough to know himself.

i think the unfortunate thing with wade is not only that he's unpredictable to everyone else - he's unpredictable to himself, too.

[x]

he doesn't put a lot of faith into himself, when it comes to restraint and impulse control. he's so, so uncertain, all the time. he never believes he's ready. never believes he's worthy.

he's constantly afraid of relapse, and of repeating the cycle, over and over. and i think the reason why wade's unable to evolve is maybe to do with the fact that he's not stopped to think about who he wants to be – he's so concerned with what other people want him to be.

i find it so funny that it's become a focal point to wade's character at the moment, because it was something the original draft of civil war explored before the uncle ben angle - wade was dragging peter for filth over him being too concerned over what other people think of him to embrace his own truth.

oh. projecting, are we?

wade - he just wants to be whatever will be wanted. whatever's in demand. whatever the preferred flavour of the week is. whatever's hot right now. whatever will get him sympathy, get him attention, get him approval, get him love. in fact, the entire deadpool persona was founded because he admired spider-man and wanted to be admired in the same way he admires spider-man.

it's a curse, and he's painfully aware of it.

so he'll put on an act and put on a mask and twist the truth to keep everyone interested. but he alienates people that way too. and for peter parker, who just craves some authenticity from wade - peter parker, who fell in love with the modest wade in swim trunks who put away the mask and lay down his weapons and laid his heart bare on the sandy shores of the bahamas...

for peter parker, it's kind of infuriating. that after all this time, wade still doesn't understand that peter loves wade without all the performances and pretence. wade doesn't need to keep pretending.

peter and wade are both guilty of masking - pretending to be something else to be more socially accepted or more appealing or more (or in peter's case, less) attention-grabbing. but where they differ is that when peter gets close to someone, he has this compulsive desire to unmask and be seen. particularly if he feels safe to do so.

whereas wade still lives in fear of it - every day. sometimes, no matter how close he gets to someone.

[saintsenara]

thoughts on sirius/narcissa

thank you very much for the ask, anon! this has the potential to be an interesting and controversial one...

i've spoken here and there about how - as much as i loathe the character commonly known as fanon!sirius - i'm also not the biggest fan of a version of sirius which has emerged as a reaction to this, who we might call dark!aristocrat!sirius.

this sirius - who appears not to have realised his canon self is being sarcastic when he says his parents considered themselves "practically royal" - is, i'm sorry to say to the aristocracy fans, just as distorted a version of the character as the heavily-tattooed and tiny fanon!sirius. and that's fine, obviously - people are entitled to like and read and write what they want - but it's not going to stop a tear beading in my eye whenever i see it...

[one day i'll hit publish on my the black family are not politically important manifesto and be removed from the fandom...]

which is to say, the sirius who tends to be shipped with one or other of his cousins - although, for exactly the tedious pro-aristocracy, people-belong-with-their-own-kind reasons outlined above, the cousin in question never seems to be andromeda - is this dark aristocrat version, and he's usually written as wanting to fuck either narcissa or bellatrix because the only woman worthy to be with a male scion of the house of black is a female scion of the same house.

and i think it's out-of-character and i think it's dull!

now, if you're looking for the whole twisted-obsession-ruins-the-vibe thing, i can see that there's a plausible case for sirius/bellatrix - they're set up by the canon narrative as extraordinarily similar [and i absolutely read sirius' claim in order of the phoenix that andromeda was his favourite cousin as a lie, covering up the fact that, as a child at least, that role was taken by bellatrix]. i think there's something very interesting which can be done with both of them shattering the expectations of their families in ways which would evidently be quite shocking in a society with such restrictive mores. bellatrix massively defies gendered conventions which require a pureblood woman of her social class to be little more than a wife and mother [although that she does so without being able to leave her family, like sirius, is because - you guessed it! - of those gendered conventions themselves], while sirius shirks his expected social role as the eldest son, upsetting the "natural" order of things in his family's eyes. that can, i think give some interesting flavour to that pairing.

but sirius and narcissa never - in my view - hits in the same way. while they're closer in age than sirius and bellatrix, their personality types are sufficiently divergent [but not in an interestingly conflicting way - their major difference is largely that narcissa doesn't seem to be particularly fun] that the spark is lacking. and this, i think, is the reason why siricissa tends to hang really heavily on the idea that it is hot, glamorous, and aristocratic to have sex with your first cousin.

and look, one of the only bits of "pureblood culture" fanon i accept is the idea that blood-supremacist families practise arranged marriage [i think sirius' comment in order of the phoenix about parents "only letting" their children marry other purebloods essentially confirms it], and that first cousin marriage may well be their cultural practise as well. but arranged marriages [and, indeed, cousin marriages - which are obviously considered much less unusual in some cultures than others] aren't inherently interesting things. they're just things some people do.

but the vast, vast majority of the sirius/bellatrix or sirius/narcissa i've ever seen thinks that the blood-relation element and that alone is enough to justify the ship as hot and exciting and wicked. and it's not.

what i would like to make the case for instead is shipping narcissa with regulus.

my reading of narcissa has always been that she's somebody who - a little like petunia dursley - feels an absolutely enormous pressure to adhere to social convention, owing to the shame she perceives her family as receiving following both andromeda's desertion of them and bellatrix's refusal to conform. she's someone, i think, who really leans into the character of the perfect lady-of-the-manor, the model wife and mother, the pure ideal of wizarding womanhood - and i think you can do a lot with her experience in this gilded prison of her own, and society's, making.

regulus too is someone who canonically conforms - again, as sirius tells us, as a reaction to sirius' own defiance of the behaviour expected of him by his class and blood status. i think the two of them finding themselves in a relationship which is constantly battling against this artifice - whether they end up clinging all the more tightly to the masks they wear in public or they're able to help each other gradually become more open and real - would absolutely slap.

[the-himawari]

A3! Usui Masumi - Translation [R] The Glow of Candlelight (1/2)

*Please read disclaimer on blog

---

Citron: So, everyone in Spring troupe has gathered.

Sakuya & Tsuzuru & Masumi: …

Chikage & Itaru: ...

Citron: Now then… let’s establish a souvenir list task force!

Chikage: I was wondering what you would say when you gathered everyone together.

Itaru: And he brought up the usual task force.

Tsuzuru: The reason we’re discussing this today has to do with how Sakuya and Masumi are going to an amusement park in America, right?

Citron: That’s right! We will ask those two what we want as souvenirs in advance!

Masumi: Don’t just decide on your own.

Sakuya: Now, now. What would you like, Citron-san?

Citron: I want some little guys!

Masumi: …What?

Sakuya: Little guys…?

Citron: I have a picture on my phone. Look here!

Chikage: Are these the amusement park’s mascot characters?

Itaru: The colours look like it's their Christmas versions.

Masumi: So, these are…?

Citron: Little guys!

Masumi: *Sigh*. I don’t get you. (I don’t really get it, but it’s probably a plushie or something. Well, I guess I’ll be able to take it back if I squish it down.)

Citron: What would you like them to buy for you, Tsuzuru?

Tsuzuru: Oh, I don’t really have anything in particular… I mean, I can’t come up with anything if you ask me so suddenly. I’ll take some time to think—.

Citron: Get the same thing as me then! Please get two for us!

Tsuzuru: Hold on, I really don’t need one though!?

Sakuya: What would you like, Itaru-san and Chikage-san?

Itaru: Lemme think…

Chikage: In any case, I suppose I’ll give some pocket money to Sakuya and Masumi. You can use it as you’d like.

Masumi: You’re scheming something…

Chikage: That's harsh.

Sakuya: Errm, you’re talking about souvenirs, right?

Chikage: Indeed. There will be lots of things to eat at that amusement park, right?

Citron: There has to be popcorn at an amusement park!

Itaru: True that. There’s tons of different flavours too. The classic is—.

Chikage: Curry flavour?

Tsuzuru: Huh? Don’t you mean caramel or butter?

Chikage: Well, I would like you to tell me about how the food tastes over there, from the classics to the unusual. That will suffice as my souvenir.

Sakuya: No problem. We’ll eat until we drop if you say so!

Citron: And last up is Itaru!

Tsuzuru: So the little guys have been decided as my souvenir…

Itaru: Let’s see… Ah. I’ll take an overseas limited edition figure, kthx.

Masumi: …

Itaru: Don’t give me that look. I’m just asking, aren’t I? Besides, it’s not that different from that small life thing. You can buy it here, but it’s a little cheaper over there. Ah, when you bring it back, make sure to wrap it in bubble wrap…

Masumi: No. That’s too much work.

Itaru: I thought you’d say that. Well, just get it if you see it.

Masumi: *Sigh*…

---

| next

[immoralimmortals]

we adore it, deidara and sasori and itachi are perfection--

a cake for judgment lol for the bombastic artistic duo~

so, deidara would like geode cakes, wouldn't he?

does obito like mirror glaze cakes? or would something about their smooth, perfected surface make him shy away...

itachi and kisame make us think about taiyaki and raindrop cakes, haha

obito has the vibe of someone who eats fast food "late night" deals aimed at young adults (cough jack in the box cough taco hell) often

mango is a strong flavour? shook

we've always thought it was pleasantly sweet but not that overwhelming.....

somehow we're picturing zetsu eating honeypot ants, now, haha, because of eyeballs. zetsu eating eyeballs amuses us because of the sheer creep factor (worse for the two Uchihas, lmao)

what kinds of gifts would the akatsuki appreciate? (separately or collectively)

I googled Raindrop Cakes and holy shit that's gorgeous. Also yeah...I think the flavor of real mango is really mild but perhaps being American, the iterations I most often see are like watermelon candy is to actual watermelon. I'm used to it being super duper sharp if it's a mango flavored thing, versus using real mango.

Akatsuki gifts! :

Pain:

I think while he's a very practical man, he'd enjoy something that clearly came from the heart, too. I think it's a hard feat but a good way to make him soft. Something, perhaps, that he can see in his personal space and remember your care.

Konan:

Little things. A rock you think she'd like. Things you made with your hands, just so long as it isn't too clearly laborious or time consuming. (Thinking about when she made an origami rose for Jiraiya)

Tobi/Obito:

THE WORLD No, I think anything that demonstrates you're giving him the time of day on your own free will out of love. I bet he melted anytime Rin so much as shared a snack. He can see through your intent like glass, though, so its less about what is actually done and more what you mean by it that'll matter.

Zetsu:

He might be the hardest sell, I don't think gift giving is a love language he accepts easy. Maybe *gives*, because humans are weird and it's an easy way to express affection or admiration, but to *accept* is different. I think he'd more or less have the same placid, pleasant expression regardless of if you gave him a flower or bought him a house. You'd have to attach some sort of context to the gift to make it matter more.

Hidan:

Personal headcanon: for as much as he talks about how he feels or thinks, he does not know how to express affection with his words. He gives gifts if he likes you. In my fic, he gives the performer a loaf of bread and because she's starving, she wolfs it down, and so every time after he's like "wow I guess she really likes food" so he steals gets her food.

wait this is a post about what gifts HE would want.

Appreciate his faith or demonstrate your own. He'll catch on if you only give him things with the Jashin symbol just for the sake of it, though. After the first few times he's going to get the idea that you're not actually putting any heart into it, like the equivalent of buying anything you see that has a frog on it because your friend said once that he likes frogs. It's only going to take you so far if you're using it as a shortcut. Get him a prayer mat, some candles, maybe a free coupon for the human sacrifice warehouse.

Kakuzu:

This man is NOTHING if not pragmatic. The gift needs to be worthwhile, for one, and for another, because he ultimately sees where every bill comes and goes in the Akatsuki's hands, he is going to want you to spend it WISELY. Don't buy this man anything gold. You're basically handing him his own money back to him in a different, less liquidated form. Be thoughtful, pay attention to the kind of things he tends to use, or tends to need and never seems to have enough of. It matters most how your gift serves to improve his life. Better ink for writing, an updated bingo book, a meal he forgot to eat. Things that fill a space that is already open, not trying to forge one and pretend it is needed for its own sake.

Deidara:

You need to make the gift. I don't know if anyone could ever think there'd be a different answer than this. It needs to be made in some form or another with your own two hands. He wants to see your fingerprints on that ceramic, hear the quiver in your voice when you sing him a song. Don't be mistaken: home made will not necessarily mean less expensive. He's gonna notice if you cheap out on the materials, and then he is (while not intending to be ungrateful) going to critique you on that. Save yourself the lecture.

Also: let him watch you make it! That'd be the best part.

Sasori:

Also needs to have artistic purpose first and foremost. I think he'd love things in resin, honestly. Preservation of something beautiful, especially if its the kind where you go in with a needle and position everything before it solidifies. But mostly, purpose is secondary to beauty. It needs to be beautiful or otherwise obvious in the delicate nature of its craft. Also, if you have the kind of relationship with him where he is showing you how he builds his puppets, a demonstration you've learned what he's taught would be phenomenal. Give him a lil puppet and let him do a critique. The time in his day to do that is the most meaningful gift he will give in turn; it is a hard one to earn.

Kisame:

He strikes me as an "experience versus physical object" kind of guy. Take him out for something fun! Go to the boardwalk, the festival, a hike, fireworks. He's not necessarily social with strangers, but he's more than willing to be around them and handle stares to go live life and enjoy himself. Of course, it's all the better if you're there with him to share it.

Itachi:

Easiest to gift for, even if everyone thinks otherwise. Just because he doesn't always smile doesn't mean it means nothing to him. If you went to the store and got him any gift basket of body care items, he would reserve a space in his heart for you till the day he dies. On that note, I do think he'd like body care items a lot, things that are perfumed, make his hair softer, let him relax for a second. He may not be able to sleep, but a lavender scented bath is a pretty close imitation. I also think he's the type that would genuinely be touched if you donated to a charity in his honor.

[darkurgetrash]

Get to Know Me Tag ~

Hiya! I got tagged in a few different 'get to know me' tags so I thought I'd just combine them here, hehe. Thank you so so much to @dutifullylazybread @weaveandwood @orangekittyenergy and @blackstaff-blast — I really love these tags, both answering and reading others'. What can I say? I'm a gemini.

No pressure tags! ~ @lemonsrosesandlavender @savriea @graysparrowao3 @heytheresunflower

Do you make your bed?: Yes! I'm not a neat-freak, but I consider myself quite neat

Favourite number: When I was a young child someone asked me this and I didn't know what to say so I pretended it was '86'. Since then, that's always just been what I've said… couldn't tell you why lol

What's your job?: Between roles atm, but usually a copywriter

If you could go back to school, would you?: For sure. I was really let down as a kid by the system, if I could go back but with the wisdom I have now, I would love to. As for further education, I loved my undergrad but I can't see myself realistically studying more on account of chronic illnesses

Can you parallel park / Can you drive a manual car?: Nope. I was good at parking and driving back when I was first learning over 10 years ago but never took my test because I got a lot of anxiety driving. I live in London now, so there's no urgent need to learn, but I will have to some day.

Do you think aliens are real?: Yes. Ain't no way we're the only life forms to exist in the whole universe, pleaseee

What's your guilty pleasure?: I love Britney Spears 💁‍♀️

Tattoos?: A small one, on my ankle. Two hands in a reference to Twin Peaks. I also just love the design — even if my tattoo artist did a slightly shoddy job and told me they did the exact same reference on tonnes of people ayyy lmao

Favourite type of music?: Easy answer is indie, though even that is a huuuuge umbrella. Some of my fave musicians are Mitski, Bright Eyes, AURORA, Radiohead, EELS, and Thumpasaurus. Also, a long-time MCR fan.

Do you like puzzles?: I'm wayyy too ADHD for them tbh but I don't mind some types of puzzles, like in video games. But even then, they can't go on for too long, lol

Any phobias?: Crowds are def my biggest one. I’m scared of pretty normal things I’d say, like hornets. I do have a lot of sensory issues though that give a similar feeling, the most unusual being cardboard. Do NOT touch it near me, I WILL scream. And slight trypophobia… 🤢

Favourite childhood sport: Always hated sports and exercise, even as a kid

Do you talk to yourself: I sing to myself (and in general) a lot and have big echolalia, but I don't really talk to myself in the traditional sense. Now my partner on the other hand… he does not stop yapping for even a second in the day.

What movie(s) do you adore?: The immediate go-to's in my brain are The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Pride and Prejudice (2005), Your Name, and… Shrek. Non-ironically.

Coffee or tea: Earl grey tea with oat milk, please! If not an option, I'll go for an oat milk mocha.

First thing you wanted to be growing up?: I… okay. I don't even know if I should admit this, but it's kinda funny… but remember, I was a CHILD. like, FIVE. My sister wanted to move to Africa and be a mango farmer (???) and I wanted to go with her so I said I wanted to sell shoes there because I saw a gap in the market. 😭😭

Last song I listened to: No You Girls - Franz Ferdinand

Favourite colour: Lavender

Favourite flavour: Depends on what it is, but most likely either chocolate or strawberry

Current obsession: BG3, if y'all couldn't guess. 😂

Last thing I googled: 'Sacrum'. Girly doesn’t know what body parts are called.

Favourite season: Late autumn

Skill I'd like to learn: I'd looove to be able to sew and make clothes but I am the most cack-handed person you will ever meet. I literally got kicked out of textiles class when I was in school because I was so bad they thought I was messing about on purpose 😬…

Best advice: Be cringe, be free. People will either not care or think you're cool for your authenticity.

Currently watching: I don't really watch TV! Still getting through Dungeon Meshi, lol

Currently reading: I've been trying to read 'Interview with a Vampire' since the start of the year, but my brain only has room for BG3 fanfic it would seem… SO, here's a list of my current bookmarks hehe. Special shout-outs to @lemonsrosesandlavender @crystal-overdrive @ghostcouncil @weaveandwood @sinelaborenihilsr2 @dutifullylazybread @notlikeparis

Relationship status: Been in a relationship since 2016! Also, taken by Gale Dekarios in my head. 💜

Sweet/savoury/spicy: Big, BIG sweet tooth.

[tafferling]

Dying Light 2: Game Story Rewrite

I have been tempted (and have since given in to this temptation) to write out one of the alternate Dying Light 2 story campaigns that'd been knocking around in my head ever since I started playing the game.

It sticks to the characters we already know, but aims to- I dunno. Add Taff flavour, I guess.

Enjoy!

Dying Light 2, an alternate main campaign story, by Taff.

While this is not Latchkey Hero, a lot of the main plot rewrites in this does draw from what I cooked up for Monsters, We. So, if you don’t want spoilers for the MW endgame, skip this.

The player character is either Aiden or Mia Caldwell. Because who hasn’t wanted a little more versatility? We start by choosing which one we’d like to play.

The Caldwell siblings are Pilgrims (I love the Pilgrims, okay? The world needs more Dying Light Pilgrims, please send me your Pilgrim OCs so I can give them platonic smooches) and they’re currently doing what they do best: helping people move across the territories. Specifically, you’re escorting a troupe (actors and musicians) from New Paris, who’re headed to Villedor to perform.

You get to know the siblings in the introduction, and see how they interact with not only each other, but the people around them, too. My aim here would’ve been to establish a relationship between Aiden and Mia, giving what’ll happen later more meaning. We learn about the Pilgrims, how they hold a fearful sort of respect from others, and just how good they are at this.

We even get a bit of combat! Defend against a bunch of biters. Fend off a banshee before nightfall. And, hey, we might even get to know some of the troupe a bit better! We’re having a great time.

Once we reach Villedor, we find out that there’s a bit of trouble brewing right now and that the troupe won’t be able to get to its actual destination (The Fish Eye), since there’s a blockade up. We don’t much care, we are getting paid already and we don’t plan on staying. So we stash them at the second best place, the Bazaar.

After that, our plan is to pick up some more work and then be on our way. Explore time! We find out that there are two different types of safe zones/holds in Villedor: Some which require a biomarker to get into, some which do not. The Bazaar, for example, has a no biomarker zone and a main only biomarker zone. We also find out that a lot of people here are infected. In our initial exploration, we get to go anywhere in Old Villedor except into holds that require biomarkers and places which have been sealed by the GRE.

We can do a few side quests! If we pay attention, we’ll also pick up on how there’s trouble brewing in Central Villedor, and also how, oof, be careful, newcomers, lotsa new people who come to Villedor just straight up vanish. Until one quest pops up for another escort. A man who’d like someone to help him get to New Paris. Fair. We’ve just been there, we can do the trip again, no sweat. Aiden and Mia agree and take the man (Dylan) back the same way they’d originally come in.

Things don’t go well.

We’re attacked by masked men (Renegades), who are trying to get something back from Dylan, who is wounded gravely at the start of the ambush. Aiden and Mia fight them off, but the noise attracts attention they don’t need (Volatiles!). It is clear they can’t do much, but before they run off, Dylan gives them something and tells them to take it and go and not let Waltz have it (whoever that may be, our two Pilgrims are not clued in).

As we try to escape, we’re eventually overwhelmed and both of our Pilgrims are (drum rolls) bitten. But before the GAME OVER screen can roll in, a set of Renegades and Waltz show up, ultimately saving their lives. Which may sound neat at first, not so much when we get punched out and dragged off. When our player character comes to again, it’s a vague affair at first. A bit of swimming in and out of it, really, where we realise we are in a lab (spooky) and have been injected with something (cue the OOOOOOOooOOO!). But never you fret! After overhearing a conversation that they’d be taken back to Central Villedor since they haven’t died and something something they have potential, our player character frees themselves. They get their sibling too and try to escape. During this escape, we see hints that some of those “vanished newcomers” may have met their end here, wherever here may be.

We also get our stuff. Which includes the GRE key (no one bothered checking our backpack, wee!).

But, once again, things do not go well. Waltz’s goons chase us, and while our player character manages to escape, our sibling sacrifices themselves and, for all we know, has just died. We want to do something about this, but we have our first full blown seizure, which leads to us falling to what everyone assumes is our death.

All of this is followed with an Oh no, am I turning? sequence, which ends similarly to the original intro of the game, where we are about to get lynched by a mob. Hakon to the rescue! Except this time the rescue is somewhat motivated by how we’ve already made some friends previously: the troupe! They recognized us and they are what we find after Hakon jabs us with our first inhibitor.

Afterwards, this version of the story follows the Bazaar VS PK story line, somewhat, with our player character motivated to reach Central Villedor to get revenge. Why revenge and why not have our sibling recaptured? ‘cause revenge can wait a little and it won’t feel so weird when we get side tracked by side quests.

To get to Central Villedor we must help Aitor solve his murder mystery of their slain commander and to do that we have to get a biomarker (which we can do since we have a GRE key). As we solve the mystery, we find out that the conflict with the bandits and whatnot and the PK’s hand being forced to suspect or even attack the Bazaar was being orchestrated by someone else.

Who, we aren’t sure.

There’s choices to be made of course! Some siding with the PK, or with the Bazaar, and all the while we also have our troupe friends to report back to and help with little side quests. Hey, we may even have a little devil and an angle in our troupe who try and sway us towards specific decision. Plus, Hakon, of course (who, by the way, is telling us he has an idea of where to go once we are in Central Villedor so we can get our sweet SWEET revenge). We also meet the usual suspects of the Bazaar, including Sophie, Alberto, and Co.

And in-between our chores, we are on the hunt for those inhibitors and like to jab ourselves with them like the dumdum we are. SURELY nothing bad can come out of this?!

Anyway.

Now that we have a biomarker, we can access other regions in Old Villedor. More exploring! And, eventually, we get the choice to help the PK see the Bazaar was innocent (and give the Bazaar their water tower back), or we claim the water tower for the PK cause we have a crush on Aitor (why else would you do this?!), OR we can cause absolute mayhem and botch the whole deal, leading to a war between the Bazaar the PK, which the PK narrowly win.

Then off we go into Central Villedor. Escorting our troupe, of course. Gee, maybe we get an LI in there?! I’m thinking too much about the troupe now. Down, Taff. But, seriously, there is someone in the troupe who is defo trying to win us over to “troupe life” maybe and sway us away from all the revenge talk. We aren’t having it though. We loved our sibling.

(No one blows up the windmill, btw. That thing is too damn pretty to die. Taff has spoken. Oh and we probably had another turning scare at some point and are figuring out that something may not be entirely right with us.)

Once we’ve survived some tense escort mission shenanigans (HEY those can be fun if done right, I promise), and as we are nearing the Fish Eye, we get into an argument about our desire to Do Revenge, which leads to use pointing the troupe to the Fish Eye and the fucking off with Hakon.

Cause we trust Hakon.

Hakon who has become a bit quiet now that we are alone with him.

Hakon who is getting a bit weird.

HAKON WHO LED US INTO AN AMBUSH TO GET THE DAMN KEY FROM US.

We are not happy. Especially since we are facing what seems to be a trio of WAY TOO strong people who remind us far too much of volatiles. Gee. Anyway, we manage to get away! Mostly thanks to the timely intervention of a crossbow woman (Lawan).

Fast forward, we end up at the Fish Eye, with Lawan giving us a bit of exposition about Hakon (who she was tracking when she spotted him near the Fish Eye), about Waltz and how he does some really creepy science stuff with young people.

We reunite with the troupe and get to know the Fish Eye. We meet Frank.

The Renegades attack.

Our valiant defense of it goes down just like in the game, which introduces us to the PK and properly begins ACT 2. ACT 3? Look, I am not counting. Also, I need a snack, be right back.

[one snack later; beware, Monsters, We. spoilers ahead cause all of this is ripped right out of my fic]

This act is all about Bringing back some light! The right (or wrong) people have noticed that we have a GRE key and are floating the idea by us that we should take our shapely ass over to the solar farm (ex “Tesla competitor” car factory) and do Villedor a solid. This is a big one, because we get to pick our team to do that. Do we go back to the Bazaar and bring Alberto and Co (if we didn’t botch Old Villedor), or do we go with the PK, organized by Aitor, and bring Tolga and Fatim? I mean Mitaf and Aglot, sorry.

Either way, Lawan comes with us.

As we gear up for this venture (which will not be an easy venture) we begin to also unravel some of the mystery around Waltz. The name X 13 is being floated by us at this point, too, which we begin to ask around about and are told to go get friendly with the Carriers (can I PLEASE rename them to Couriers?) since they hoarded a lot of communications and maps.

Anyway. POWER PLANT. Depending on how we left Old Villedor, our efforts at the power plant are challenged by either: The Renegades (if we prevented a war between the PK and the Bazaar) or the Bazaar (if we botched Old Villedor and the PK beat down the Bazaar).

This is when the “Renegade Mini Bosses” start showing up: Daylight proof volayouths. 20-somethings turned into weapons by Waltz.

During that particular fight, we experience another turning scare, but we’re good. Heheehehe. Yeah. We’re good. :sweating:

Then, after we’ve made it, cause, of course we made it: LET THERE BE LIGHT! This time, racing up to the top of a skyscraper is payoff and Lawan’s joy something we can relate to. We’ve seen Villedor dipped in darkness. Now we see it come alive with way more lights than our Pilgrim has ever seen in their life. It’s an emotional moment, ya’all.

We get a little hear to heart with Lawan, where she reveals some more about Hakon. This is driven by the VNC tower light coming on and her briefly recounting how Hakon betrayed the Nightrunners, the very people who took in Lawan when she was a child. She was a kid back then, but she will never forget the loss Frank (and therefore her family) suffered and she will always blame Hakon for it. Hakon was, in effect, outcast after this, and eventually fell in with Waltz. A lot of people do these days, mostly out of desperation.

After that:

The Courier quest line is turned into a bit of a main quest line this time around, at which end we find out what X 13 is: a massive GRE vault. And Waltz and his Renegades are looking for it. If they are able to crack it open, Villedor is in for a BAD time. Not only will he have all the supplies he needs to keep his operation running when it comes to turning people into whatever it is he is doing, but also because: guns. There is absolutely going to be a stockpile of them in there. Even working together, the PK and the survivors wouldn’t stand a chance against the Renegades.

And thus, the race is on!

To get there first, we need intel. And intel needs communication.

VNC tower time!

Frank and Lawan think its a terrible idea, but the PK are happy to help us; this one goes down pretty much identical to the original climb. I loved that mission, and hanging out with Rowe and his group was absolutely necessary to give the PK some much needed depth which they kinda lost after you lose track of Aitor.

The difference is though that Lawan doesn’t come after us. I felt her easily catching up with Aiden cheapened not only the player’s accomplishment, but the death of Rowe’s squad and the death of the Nightrunners. We do get help from Frank though, which is a big deal, since at that moment, Frank is facing his demons. He is going back to that day when his men died – and in doing so, he saves our life.

We celebrate.

We’re almost feeling at home, really. Our troupe performs at the Fish Eye. We get to see it all, and yeah, we still want revenge, but maybe we’re home?Maybe this is better than revenge? Maybe we don’t have to go back out onto the road (and how can we, we are infected, we are screwed anyway, we can’t go back to our old life, can we?).

Maybe this is good.

If you like romance, maybe there’s a bit of romance there (someone from the troupe? Lawan? BIG SHRUG! You choose!).

The next day the hunt begins: For X 13 and Waltz. This leads to us crossing paths with Hakon again (and a fight not unlike the one in the church in the game). Though this time, the fight ends in a revelation: Hakon tells us that (DRUM ROLL PLEASE) our sibling is alive! Yeah, I know you all saw this one coming.

We then get to choose to kill him or to let him live, but not before he tells us where they are.

And we see red.

Heeding no warnings, we head into what could easily be a trap (as Lawan tells us, cause Hakon is a bleeding liar, don’t trust him), but we don’t care. We go. We HAVE to go. Lawan, since we’ve grown on her, comes with us.

THIS IS THE POINT OF NO RETURN, FINISH ALL YOUR SIDE QUESTS

Surprisingly – it is not a trap. Not really. Not intentionally. We find our sibling, but they aren’t altogether themselves anymore, much as any of the other volayouths we find. They also aren’t leaving with us – and as we try and break them out anyway, Waltz gets in the way.

Forced to abandon our sibling, Lawan manages to get us to flee and come back later, with Waltz and one of his other volayouths chasing us. We manage to kill the volayouth, but Waltz is too much – but thankfully, Lawan is crafty, and she manages to get us out.

Except now its night. And we are kinda in the middle of nowhere with no UV light and– oh no, you know exactly where this is going.

We (as in you, the player, not Lawan) turn.

Look, Veronika was sweet, but I had absolutely 0 emotional connection to her. Let this moment matter.

We kill her.

:RECORD SCRATCH:

Unless! We allowed Hakon to live, in which case he realized just how harebrained we were and shadowed us, swooping in at the last second to jab us with an inhibitor, saving Lawan’s life.

The happiness we were so close to his absolutely shattered now. Regardless of whether Hakon helped save Lawan or not. What happened, happened. There is no coming back from that.

If Lawan is dead, we do not go back to the Fish Eye. We crawl into a hole after we come to and hope to die.

If Lawan is alive, we also do not go back to the Fish Eye. We refuse, even though both Hakon and Lawan insist.

It’s not until Waltz contacts us and says he will trade our sibling for the key and the location of X 13 that we spring (or crawl) back into action.

It is decision time.

We can now choose to either: (a) give up, betray all our friends, and leave Villedor with a half-feral sibling, or (b) return to the Fish Eye and go to claim X 13 for Frank or (c) go to Missy and claim X 13 for the PK.

(a) If we betray our friends, the game ends here and the credits are us returning years later to find Villedor in the worst shape it can possibly be in.

(b) If we go to the Fish Eye, and Lawan and Hakon are alive, Frank will put the Nightrunners back together and they come with us to X 13. If not, we go alone and it will be a lot harder than (c). In this case, Matt leads a squad (which includes Aitor) after us and what happens in that confrontation depends on how we handled Aitor and his situation in Old Villedor. Either Aitor sides with us and turns on Matt, or the Nightrunners stay behind to hold off the PK. If the Nightrunners have not reunited (Lawan is dead), we have to fight the PK alone.

(c) If we go to to Missy, Aitor and one of his squads will come with us. No one challenges us.

Assuming (b) and (c), we manage to claim X 13 in what I would hope is an epic battle. One where we fight through Renegades, volayouths, and, eventually Waltz, who has brought our sibling along and pits us against them. We fight both Waltz and our sister or brother, kill him, and are left to choose to subdue or kill what’s left of our family.

Credits!

If we claimed X 13 for the survivors, Frank has taken a reluctant leadership position and oversees things from the Fish Eye. If Lawan is alive, the Nightrunners have been reestablished for good. They control Villedor’s firearms and the supplies coming out of X 13..

If we claimed it for the PK, the PK control Villedor’s firearms and the supplies coming out of X 13, though the outcome itself depends once again on how we handled Aitor’s situation. If we have Aitor on our side, Matt is overthrown after being overzealous and Aitor takes charge and the survivors and the PK enter a reasonable time of peace. If not, Matt brings Villedor under a militant rule (before he dies).

If we have killed our sibling and/or Lawan, we leave Villedor, unable to cope with what we’ve done.

If, however, Lawan is alive and we subdued our sibling, our own credit is us looking for a way to help not only our sibling, but all the other volayouths still out there. Including ourselves.

EDIT! I forgot to mention that NG+ has you have guns.

[senseandaccountability]

I probably could have sent you a message about this, but I figured an ask will do. How do you feel about the limitations of choices for an Inquisitor who isn't Solas' love interest? My favorite inky you wrote about was probably Evelyn, and it makes me sad her canon will likely not be acknowledged by DATV aside from how she feels about Solas. The south falling off-screen really has me sad, too, and I'm glad you've written about Elissa doing more for it. Genuinely love all the touches of both their stories. I cried a lot rereading them after DAV broke my heart.

Thank you for your ask, I've been mulling it over for a while. I have some substantial points (mountains? Titans?) of criticism when it comes to DAV, but this is not one of them. I understand the impossibility of implementing all of our previous choices and if they can’t be used in a meaningful way, then I’m actually all for just leaving them alone. Write me a codex entry, nod at the character in passing.  This is where my feelings differ from a lot of fandom, I feel, but I want the themes and the narrative to make sense on a grand scale rather than on a personal role-playing level. I'm not a role-player at heart, I guess, but a writer and a lore nerd. (For me, the anger at the ME3 endings had little to do with Shepard not being able to make any substantial changes with her choices and everything to do with how very Edgelord Dudebro Who Took Philosophy Classes at Uni and Loves Walden Too Much the writing was. I can die for the dying galaxy, but don't fucking make me die for some college boy fatalistic bullshit.)

So it’s fair, from my POV, that some characters - and for DAV that's Solas, Morrigan and Dorian - have more importance to the main story than others or are important for different chunks of the story. Even with the datamined game files suggesting more choices were to be imported at some point, those also look like they are mostly about things relevant to the gods and Solas. Which is fine, to me. For a character like Thom Rainier who had his story arc closed in DAI/Trespasser, well, I’m happy to meet him in the shape of a letter to Evelyn. Same goes for Iron Bull, my beloved. I’m happy he’s alive and I can headcanon the stuff they’re up to while not fighting darkspawn. My world state is not usually Bioware's world state (my Hawke isn't BFF with Varric and would never drop her mage revolution, Loghain always lives, Anora usually rules etc) and that's fine, too. Just compensate for my time spent making headcanons by giving me a good story. Did DAV give me that? That's another question. The Solas arc ending with the Lavellan flavour is hands down what I like most about Veilguard and that’s not only because of the romance, but because it closes his character arc in a satisfying way given the premises of the game. That’s what I want from imported choices and if there’s no prospect of resolving anything or bringing up new aspects of it, then I prefer if the new canon just lets the old canon rest in peace. If that makes any sense? I’ve been burned too many times by various media ret-conning previous events and am forever wary of it. TL;DR: no news is good news and I will happily headcanon a lot if you don’t break my lore and/or kill my people without good reason. 

[starleska]

Ngl I must confess…I’ve always mixed up the Outlast and Resident Evil franchises. Idk why. Maybe something in the color palettes? Impossible to tell. I got real good at telling the difference between the games recently tho. However, at the exact same time you started posting Ramon Salazar, another person I follow started posting Franco Barbi. Once again, I do not know why, but I GUESS their silhouettes were too similar. I was back at square one and mixing them up for awhile.

I recently started to tell them apart effortless again! Which is nice. All is well in the world. And now YOURE POSTING FRANCO BARBI—

Regardless, good for you, good for him. At least I can still tell them apart now. I love both of them. <3 I hope y’all are doing well, invite me to both weddings. I imagine they’ll be wildly different aesthetics. 👀 I’m here for it😂

(also, once again, I hope you’re doing well and having a good time! I’ve been rather stressed lately but your blog and new blorbos make me feel better, it’s all so fun <3 that being said, still take breaks if you need them, I’ll be just fine, everyone will be fine 💖 old posts are just as fun as new ones. XD Tumblr user Starleska and the menagerie of F/Os would never hurt me…unlike…planning what to pack to housesit next-door…dungeons and dragons and other ttrpgs with my far nerdier family…being unable to really pound the pavement looking for jobs until I know the autism evaluation process is over…multiple friends drawing and writing my male blorbos pregnant/about to be pregnant (as gifts and/or psychological warfare) bc they love domesticity but don’t believe in me-pregnant or “fpreg” no matter what I say about the matter… c’est le vie, vastly first world problems. I wish you the absolute best!!! Take care!💖)

dfghfd WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT THESE ARE TWO VERY DIFFERENT GUYS!!!!!!

i would be offended if i didn't think you were inching towards falling for one or both at some point...and if you weren't coming into my inbox talking about getting your faves pregnant 😂💖 (speaking of, your pals have excellent taste - you should tell me who your Franco simp friend is, and see if they'd be interested in Ramón 👀)

i do get it, i do...they're both short, murderous mutant men with violent tempers and small yet dedicated fanbases who find them impossibly sexy 🙈💖 but Ramón Salazar is like...his first iteration is all formal and cunning, yet with a tendency to explode and go into childish fits of rage, whilst his second iteration is all airs and graces with a colder, more measured exterior. whereas Franco Barbi...i mean, i think we could write whole books on everything wrong with him 😂😂 if you value your life don't listen to Franco's audio lines i think i blushed so hard it hurt and all the colour drained out of my face at the same time- congratulations on now being able to tell them apart!!! that means you miiiight just survive long enough for them to grow attached to you. what would you prefer? Ramón softly caressing your face and calling you 'my dear', being enticed into becoming the Castellan's princess? or Franco chasing you down, cornering you and murmuring absolute filth into your ear? two very different flavours, but both equally enticing 😉 (or, y'know, maybe you have some self-respect and i'm just shooting blanks 💀) awww honey it is so good to hear from you - but i'm sorry you've been so stressed!!! 🫂🫂 that is far too much stuff to be dealing with all at once. how's the progress re: the autism assessment now? don't worry, it won't last forever - and all of these other problems will seem smaller once your time is freer! sounds like you've got lovely things in the pipeline as well, so please do remember to chill out and rest and come and scream about your faves on here for relaxation purposes. doctor's orders 🥰