#i had answered a lot of my own questions

[strawberry-halla]

dragon age: the veilguard - a review: part two - the storyline: act one

hello everyone! this is the first act of the second part of a multi-part review of dragon age: the veilguard.

disclaimer! i am not a professional reviewer, i am just another fan that thoroughly enjoys the dragon age series. my opinion is not at all the pen-ultimate truth, i'm just here to share my thoughts!

criticism and comments are welcome! i appreciate any and all discussions about dragon age! feel free to dm or send an ask if you'd like to share your own thoughts!

if you would like to read part one, it is linked here for your convenience! https://www.tumblr.com/strawberry-halla/767272818181390336/dragon-age-the-veilguard-a-review-part-one

[this post contains spoilers for the entirety of dragon age: the veilguard, please do not click the 'read more' if you do not want to be spoiled! you have been warned!]

hokay so this part is the hardest thing i have ever written...and there are two more acts to write about...woo! i had to replay act one of the veilguard to fully understand the beginnings of the game, since at the time of writing my first draft (when part two was just one post), i kept feeling like i was missing pieces of what i recalled. so! as we speak, i am replaying the veilguard and have just finished act one. but enough about that, let's just get into it.

act one is meant to serve as an introduction (or re-introduction) to the player of the world of thedas. it has been eight years since trespasser, the final dragon age: inquisition dlc, and right off the bat there are major changes in how the story operates.

the prologue of veilguard itself is well executed, i was thoroughly invested in the race against the clock to stop solas, this beginning sequence was executed very well. there are so many emotions in such a short amount of time, and it had my heart racing on my first playthrough that there would be many more moments such as these.

unfortunately, there are few and far between in act one. these first chapters stumble a bit in execution, especially when it came to recruiting the members of the veilguard. some companions wove themselves well into the narrative with their introduction.

for example, lace harding being introduced so early into the game really helped establish a stable footing for returning players such as myself. an old friend to welcome us back alongside varric, and a 'nice character' companion to boot so the new player doesn't feel any awkward tension or disconnection.

the same cannot be said for bellara. i enjoy her A LOT, but her introduction was forgettable. she's the 'quirky girl' of the group, and it took me a bit to actually warm up to her as a character because i was a little off-put by her dialogue. her introduction felt too quick and to-the-point, like the game itself was trying to rush us past this area so we could keep the recruitment train going. i originally forgot in my first draft how bellara even joined the veilguard. nothing interesting happens during this quest. the nadas dirthalen does not seem as important as it really is here because the dialogue skips around so quickly. which leads me to a sort of a side tangent:

i miss the optional dialogue in origins and inquisition when we could ask characters multiple questions to better understand them or things they know about. it certainly helped me understand lore and it also helped me understand the character's motives more. i don't get that in veilguard at all. there are very few instances when you can ask maybe three questions MAX and i cannot even recall it being relevant in act one very much. and it was always during quest dialogue, we could never just go talk to our companions and other npcs and ask them questions. a huge wasted opportunity.

the highlights of act one's main quests are d'meta's crossing, meeting the inquisitor, talking to solas, and weisshaupt fortress. everything in-between felt very surface level. lore, history, and recent events are glossed over so quickly that it almost makes my head spin. solas casually dropping that the black city was the ancient prison the evanuris were trapped in, and the magisters that pierced the veil to get there unleashed the blight is fucking unbelievable. he's like "yeah the magisters breached my prison trying to reach the golden city and were stupid enough to let some of the blight out" like WHAT THE FUCK? and rook does not even seem to care! what is this dialogue???

is this not the same series that carefully built up lore over three games that the evanuris were actually evil mages that oppressed the elves and abused their powers? is this not the same universe where solas was set up to be the antagonist of veilguard, 'the villain was actually next to you the whole time' trope, in inquisition? this same character who carefully and gently guided the inquisitor to the truth is just freely slinging it 'no big deal' into our laps and never again after that? im sorry but holy shit. the way veilguard treats its own lore sometimes is baffling! it doesn't help that everything else important characters can't mention in dialogue is shoved into codices!

there was SO much potential to carefully maneuver the reveals of these lore bombs into more lasting impacts. the game itself has plenty of time for it. i have dropped over 100 hours total at the time of writing this (which is one and a quarter playthroughs for me) and i still don't think the original 70 hours i sunk into my first playthrough was enough. i wanted more. veilguard NEEDED more time to explain itself.

i cannot help but be so upset how surface level the majority of the writing in veilguard is. and i love this game still despite this glaring problem! thankfully, act one is the worst offender. acts 2 and 3 are so much easier to digest, but veilguard's most glaring problems are in act one.

and do not get me started on the minrathous/treviso decision. this choice irks me. it COULD have been impactful. making rook doubt themself, their leadership, and their ability to make decisions. but it doesn't even matter? or at least it FEELS like it doesn't. because everything characters talk about regarding this decision is the same. "oh it sucks here now! why did this happen? here's a quest where you try to salvage something of this tragedy and someone unimportant dies! oh no! you should feel bad this happened because it was your fault!" uhm okay?

there were no significant cutscenes or cinematic moments with this decision that made me feel anything. and also, this came so out of left field. i searched for any sort of foreshadowing that this was about to happen and there wasn't. there were no notes, no codices, no dialogue from the venatori or antaam that hinted that something of this magnitude was about to occur. it just happens.

at least with inquisition, for example, the decision between choosing the templars or mages to ally with there is a sense of foreboding. that something is wrong with both factions. it's up to the player to decide where to go from there and the consequences of not choosing the latter feel REAL. you see the actions of your consequences before your very eyes when corypheus attacks haven and even after!

there doesn't feel like there was any consequence to the minrathous/treviso choice because later down the line, the storyline converges and there are no alternate paths. you can still talk to the major faction characters from both sides. they end up being okay in the end anyways.

i want raw consequences to my actions, bioware. i want to feel the turmoil of my choice and be excited to try the other option in another playthrough to see what could have been.

to set aside the negativity for now, i will praise veilguard's execution of the relationship in act one between solas and rook. rook is wary of solas and his intentions to help them. solas is very different here from his humble beginnings in inquisition. he's not even solas. he's the dread wolf, fen'harel, general and cunning trickster. this side of him was so jaw-dropping to see, a complete 180. i loved every second of it and i loved having my rook disagree with him at every turn. it was incredible. i was eager to speak with him at every opportunity.

i was also thoroughly impressed with the pieces we got of elgar'nan and ghilan'nain, more so the latter. ghilan'nain is an abomination. she is driven mad with blight and uncaring to the core. she is willing to do anything it takes to win, even at the cost of many lives. she takes those lives and twists them into something truly monstrous. and she thinks this is saving them. making them better. ghilan'nain is so blind to her horrible experimentation that even elgar'nan is wary. elgar'nan is hardly seen in act one, since he is presumably working to create the red lyrium dagger, commanding the venatori and antaam to do his bidding, and working on reviving lusacan. it's a little disappointing we don't see fractions of his power throughout, but we truly feel his threat in later acts.

another worthy note of act one is the handling of d'meta's crossing and weisshaupt fortress respectfully. the former, we are introduced to the blight and boy do we know something is definitely wrong with it. the portrayal of the blight in previous entries has always been unnerving and creepy, very gross and skin-crawling. veilguard takes this notion and cranks it up by ten. i didn't even want to walk near the blight boils because of how ominously gross they were. i was afraid something was going to burst out of the blight boils and grab me. so cool.

and the fact this blight swallowed up an entire village and its population in a matter of days is insane. in origins, when we were dealing with the blight, the spread felt much slower and looming. in veilguard, the blight is unstoppable. unyielding and horrifying. it took over the minds of the few surviviors of the village and turned them into thralls. it consumed the dead and grew more blight in its wake in a matter of moments. nothing could have stopped it. not even the grey wardens. this is when you start to feel the evanuris's power is truly otherworldly.

in weisshaupt, this notion was taken to the extreme. there is no timeframe of how long it took for ghilan'nain to gather her darkspawn army, blight two dragons, and experiment on her archdemon, but it feels like no time at all. she has an unstoppable force of blight, she is its commander and nurturer. and in a matter of minutes, in the first time since before the first blight a thousand years ago, the grey wardens almost fail in their oath. they lost the fortress that was meant to withstand the blight in all its glory. the only reason they survive is with rook and the veilguard's help.

the first warden's ego almost destroys the entire order because he thinks the grey wardens know all the answers. it drives home the fact that the grey wardens are not heroes. they were merely the best answer to the blight. they are not perfect. they are corrupted by their own power, the very notion that only they can defeat the blight. i love how veilguard drives this idea so far home. inquisition set up the pieces with 'here lies the abyss', 'the siege of weisshaupt' just allowed for everything to fall into place. a wonderful execution, truly. sadly the stumbling we had to do to get here almost outweighs this incredible end to the first act. and like many others, i almost let the glaring flaws blind me.

i do not hate dragon age: the veilguard. i actually love it a lot. i just have a lot of criticisms on how easily and quickly things are glossed over to keep the story moving. i want to sit and chew on my food, damn it.

again, act one was the most difficult for me to write about because it has the most problems. veilguard's act one missed so many opportunities in the first part of the game to be better. i know this is in-part an issue with the executives and leaders at EA. in addition, all its development woes. i still have great respect for the writers, developers, artists, graphic designers, animators, programmers, and the many other people that made veilguard happen. i believe veilguard is a good game. it has its flaws like its predecessors and i have accepted them. i hope many people who have written off veilguard as a failure give it another chance.

thank you for those who have read this far. i truly love the dragon age series and what it has meant to me will forever be impossible to describe. this review is not over, i will be tackling act 2 next once i finish replaying it. thank you again for reading!

[lucaanis]

I made a similar post before a long ass time ago for the other three da protags but now it's time for rook, this time in poll format <3

as always feel free to ramble about your ocs in the tags!! 👀

[shima-draws]

Hi Shima!! How are you?

Hi anon!! I’m tired but good c: I recently got back from a camping trip which is why I’ve been kinda MIA, surprisingly enough we did have service up in the mountains so that was nice!

I got some nice scenery pictures!

Still can’t believe I got that shot of the rainbow, it drizzled a little right after we set up camp and then the sun came out and it was just 👌

Also I had no idea my phone was capable of taking actually decent pictures of the stars, but yeah they were SO clear and so gorgeous, we could see a bit of the Milky Way 🥺

Got a really clear shot of the Big Dipper too!

And on the last day (Tuesday) we went to a wolf reserve and actually got to go into their enclosure and pet them, which was the best thing ever. I got legitimate wolf kisses!!!

(Hiding my face bc I’m shy but YEAH SHE LICKED MY FACE 😭)

We got back Tuesday afternoon but I was just so wiped that I went straight to bed. I took today off of work too bc I’m still recovering but I’ll be going back tomorrow :’)

Thanks for checking in on me <3

[basalting]

instead of having that dumb plack around Jason's suit, he lights a candle next to a family photo. Maybe his kids leave little things next to it too and it becomes like a little alter for Jason. Bruce isn't religious, but he always feels better when he lights a candle for Jason and sort of prays to his dead son. It's really the only time he allows himself to talk to Jason without fully drowning in grief. Dick does it sometimes too, but not as much as he wants since he lives in Bludhaven. Tim more so. Tim's always lighting a candle and talking Jason about anything and everything. Jason reaction to it when he comes back is certainly something. Jason thinks back what he thought where dreams of hearing other people's voices(really was his family)

i have so many feelings about the plaque.... because jason didnt want to be treated like a child, and bruce was raised by a man who knew how to train a soldier but not how to care for a son, and jason was more than just a boy, and jason was a solider - fighting to protect the people of gotham

did bruce put the uniform and plaque up? did he need a reminder of what he'd lost? did it hurt too much to think of jason as his son? did he need the distance, to only think of a lost robin and not a lost jason?

or did alfred put it up, the uniform and plaque a worthy memorial. as fitting as any war shrine he'd seen friends names carved on. the only way he could mourn coated in the ridged protocol of a fallen soldier...

[briefcasejuice]

unfortunately i have the kind of autism that makes people have to explain things to me/i have to bounce my ideas around with people who know things before thoughts become anything for me

[satohqbanana]

I think this is how I'd like Arcane S2 to go based on what the fandom and LOL players have posted so far on socmed and other media sharing sites (and if I miss any plot point, my apologies, I'm neither watching it off Netflix or the pirate's bay).

For starters, S2 would open with a timeskip. Both Piltover and Zaun are in a mess. Neither have their leaders, after all, and potential candidates are currently fighting their way to the top, none strong enough like the previous ones.

Various factions are scrambling to take control over the borders and all known (and secret) passageways between the cities. Jinx is one of the faces at the front. Every Piltovan is out to get her if they can; kill her or turn her in, they'll win political power. She's even more ruthless this time, and she's enjoying the act of killing. It's also as if she wants to find someone strong enough to kill/stop her.

Meanwhile, the Chembarons are fighting for leadership over Zaun, but first of all, they are trying to court Sevika's loyalty. She has the charisma that helps her rally supporters towards anyone she finds fit. They do not know that Jinx is holding her captive exactly because of this. Their second priority is claiming monopoly on shimmer - or making an alternative. Since Silco's gone and Singed is holed up in his lab, production has gone places, and no one's brewed anything better yet.

Ekko has made efforts to support struggling Zaunites, but the Firelights' territory is growing smaller by the day. Thanks to the conflict, he now knows Jinx has survived their fight on the bridge, but he fully regrets having tossed away her bomb. (It is clear that he still struggles to separate Powder from Jinx. This is his actual arc.)

Heimer has started to shed his immortal naivety; now he's actively helping Ekko's community thrive. Particularly he's leading the Firelights in research endeavors. They have a working tonic for shimmer, though still imperfect, so Heimer thinks of sending Ekko and friends to Piltover to make things better.

On the side of Piltover, we have Vi. She's been forced into becoming an enforcer thanks to Caitlyn, who attempted to put her back in jail in grief and rage. Thanks to the conflict, one of the jail guards tattled about Vander and Grayson and Silco and Marcus, then suggested the team-up. Vi initially refused the offer, but she eventually agreed to it, because she has no allies aside from Ekko and she can't wait for him while Jinx is destroying both cities. She keeps on wondering why Vander agreed to acquaint himself with them, as day in and day out she's just assisting Piltovans and fighting Zaunites. A colleague suggests she's better off helping out in Zaun instead, and she punches him.

Caitlyn is exhausted to say the least. She has just buried her mother, Jayce and Mel (and Victor) have disappeared and nobody can say where they've gone, and Noxus is breathing down her neck. At the very least, she does have Ambessa guiding her, even if her words feel demanding. Caitlyn promised to comb all over Piltover and Zaun for Mel to prevent Ambessa from rallying Noxian forces, under the condition that if Caitlyn can't bring the cities to an acceptable state, Noxus is free to take control of both as it pleases. Caitlyn has also accepted Noxians into the military force of Piltover, sent by Ambessa under the guise of searching for Mel.

(And Ambessa is thirsty for blood. She has chosen to hold back for now, for she does worry that little peace-loving Mel might actually die in the crossfire between Noxus and Pilt/Zaun and Ambessa is not willing to go through the loss of a child again this soon. But she is getting impatient, and she is also considering taking the hexcore for herself.)

Overall, the season deals with themes of power and control. Naturally Vi and Jinx meet each other and clash twice or thrice during this leg of the story. But most of all, it's about Vi becoming Vi, much like how Powder became Jinx last season. Even if this doesn't solve all plot threads, it would at least give Vi the center stage to tell her "side" of the story, especially with regards to the Piltover/Zaun conflict.

In fact, I think it'd be great if Caitlyn captures Jinx, but keeps her incarcerated to get a better hold on both Piltover and Zaun and get things in order. As Jinx is lashing out in her cell, crying and screaming and begging to be let out, Vi is there, tearfully apologizing for all her shortcomings as Powder's sister. The series ends with Caitlyn giving some speech to promise a better relationship and system between Piltover and Zaun, then the speech getting interrupted by a jailbreak, one Vi initiates to free Jinx. As chaos again breaks out, Vi apologizes to Vander and grieves the fact that she truly is a bad sister.

I'd prefer letting the LOL players bridging the gaps between Arcane and LOL by themselves since they have better grasp of the lore, and also to help cover some obvious plot holes. Anyway that helped me cope; hope this helped you cope in some way too 💗

[chronurgy]

I think part of the reason people struggle with act 3 (other than the actual computer load) is because act 3 is very much Durge's act, so if you're not playing as Durge you miss a lot of the impetus to act. Seeking out Orin isn't just tracking down the macguffin, it's finding your old home and position, your sister and usurper all in one. Rivington isn't just an entryway to Baldur’s Gate and a review of the refugee crisis, it's the site of a major revelation about what you are, and Orin's taunts are gloats about what she did to you. The meeting with Gortash isn't just for plot, it's a dark mirror homecoming where you can't remember the home you're coming back to and where you learn exactly what sort of person you used to be and just how much of this situation is your fault. Act 3 is packed with thematic and emotional resonances for Durge, and full of people and locations that will help elucidate Durge's past. That's part of why Orin falls so flat on a Tav (or other origin) run - so much of her story is tied up with Durge's.

I'm not saying that act 3 isn't massive (it is) or that it doesn't drag at all when you're playing Durge (it does), but I think it drags significantly less and feels significantly less disconnected than it does for Tav. I think when the decision to split Tav and Durge was made Larian probably should have reviewed what the third act of the game would feel like from a non-involved character's point of view and made more changes to help better tie them to the main plot. Orin, for example, absolutely could have used way more development generally but especially on a Tav run the game really needed to give the character more connection to her. Her abducting a companion was likely an attempt at that, but there was nothing you could do about it and no time limit on rescuing them so it fell pretty flat.

[kinaesthetiqueer]

(follow-up to this)

having grown up in atlas, weiss is very familiar with the academy's team anti-frat policy and gets very hung up on just how much trouble they could get in if anyone thinks they're dating.

(which they're definitely not doing. no, sir. absolutely not, sir.)

so better safe than sorry.

(except winter has eyes. and also doesn't care.)

[here-there-were-dragons]

i have to wonder what super hardcore militant vegans think should be done about obligate carnivore animals, because in all my painfully-rapidly-approaching-30-years i've literally never actually seen anyone give a clear consistent much less halfway feasible answer on that

[puppppppppy]

if you're walking at 5mph, but your feet are on sideways, and the sky turns green at 2:53, and Keanu Reeves has been sent to Neptune, what's your favorite video game

i cant walk 5mph in the first place, im only 5'4 and i have to walk like marvin the fucking martian everywhere i go

if my feet were on sideways i would still manage to get my shoes on wrong because i cant tell my left from my right

if the sky turns green that means every single car on the road is allowed to go at the same time

keanu reeves cant be sent to neptune with an expired passport

my favorite videogame MIGHT be professor layton and the diabolical box just because ive never been able to get over the ending, but mario galaxy and deltarune also come to mind

[lisutarid-a]

Who’s your favorite K Project character? I already said this before but thank you so much for doing the Gakuen K translations 😭💞💞💞

Aww, thank you once again, too! It makes me very happy to hear that you still enjoy my translations! 😭❤ 

As for the question, the answer is kinda obvious, I guess, right? *affectionate sigh towards a certain man in purple glasses* I really love Kusanagi! And when I say I love him, I mean A LOT. He's literally my ideal bf type whom I would gladly give my hand in marriage to (even if he wouldn't ask for it (but don't worry, im stubborn xD)). This man's just a whole walking green flag. Like, he’s caring, loyal, reliable, dependable, can cook, clean, is intelligent, handsome, funny, etc etc etc~ If he were real, I'd most likely be kissing the ground he walks on.

I know you said "character", but it's hard to choose one because you simply can't have one without the other (my IzuTotsu brainrot is not letting me), so I'll cheat and say that Totsuka is my second favorite 🥰

[angelstrawbabie420]

perhaps it’s the fact i’m MUCH more severely traumatized now so the thoughts and pain are literally inescapable but does anyone else ever have a really bad sober day and think wow. so uhm how the absolute fuck in hell did i ever EVER cope with life before substances.

[baejax-the-great]

[First, I was rereading "Agua Caliente" and I remembered a song that played a lot in my childhood (and I had kind of forgotten) bc the lyrics somehow matched the Patrochilles dynamic in this fic. This is kind of funny bc I would never in my life associate sertanejo (it's a type of country music, I think? Idk I've never heard country, but the aesthetic is kind of similar. Anyway, it's pretty popular here) with shipping an ancient Greek couple in modern AU, but ok. And I went to listen to this song again and now I'm listening to it on a loop, so thanks for that.]

Now the real question! It's perhaps a strange question, but do you plan what you write? Like, before you write, do you have the whole structured idea in mind? I could have sworn it was like that reading the fics, but then some notes on Ao3 and certain things you say on Tumblr started to make me reflect that maybe you don't plan as much as I thought… in that case, how do you manage to connect everything so well without looking like something was left out/without prior planning??? It's magic, technique, luck or actually do you plan?

Sorry if the question is a bit "???" but I'm REALLY thinking about this! I used to write fics years ago and I was in the "won't plan" group and as expected the fics came out obviously unplanned (but that was ok with me bc it was just to pass the time and I didn't expect it to be an engaging story or anything), and here's why this ask exists: it's precisely bc I was in the “won't plan” group that I'm really intrigued by the possibility of you NOT planning bc it just doesn't seem that way reading your fics...

The short answer is that I do plan what I write, but probably not enough.

I rarely start writing a fic with an entire idea. Often it's just a vibe. But I won't start posting a fic until I know exactly what the conflict is and how it will be resolved.

This was easy in ATG, for example, because I'd already written the resolution before I even decided to write the fic. Structuring it by Patroclus's age also helped, because I could make an outline with the stuff that needed to happen and then jam stuff I wanted to happen around it. That "Stuff" could be really specific--obviously Pat had to graduate school and Achilles had to go to the Olympics on specific years, and it was also like, this section should have them fighting. This section should have them getting along, but Achilles is hiding this big lie so there should be a weird tension.

In Sunset, it took me longer to figure out the conflict/resolution. Sure, I knew that Achilles was going to cry on a Chicago street corner and get naked in Pat's kitchen, but why was he there? How did he get there? I had already written Achilles settling in to Pat's place and the scene where he gets into the lake before I decided on Aphrodite being the key to explain this whole thing. Then I knew Pat had to die. But a lot of the stuff that happened in the middle was sort of on a whim (particularly Achilles getting on the wrong L train-that was definitely just an impulse I had while finishing that chapter). Tecmessa's chapter was also a later addition, and a deeply self-indulgent one, hah.

Agua was the least planned of these three, and in some ways it was because the idea was a lot simpler. After three years, Achilles runs into Patroclus again and they reconcile in some way. I knew exactly how Patroclus would feel about the whole thing (relieved, guilty, upset, wounded, hopeful, upset about feeling hopeful). My original plan was just to set up Achilles in his shop and his new life doing his best and have him run into Patroclus at the beach, and eventually they'd go to the desert. I wrote parts of their meeting first, and then I started writing the beginning and ended up scrapping most of that. I realized I was going to have to do a lot more writing for poor Achilles. My lack of planning here did cause some difficulties--I had like three versions of that date he went on with Pat with different endings. One involved Pat in the hospital, lmao. Zag and Meg coming to stay with Achilles were kind of whims, and I had meant to have Hypnos show up for "his turn" and have Achilles send him home because no, these were not team-building exercises, but then I forgot 😩.

The reason that I need to know the conflict/resolution at the start is because I do think all the scenes in a fic should relate to it in some way, either by building up the conflict or setting the groundwork for a resolution. Even for the impulsive scenes I add just for fun, I think about how they can do this. For example, Achilles getting lost on the L allowed me to build up Pat's unreasonable anxiety, show that Ajax was also feeling it to some extent, and end in Pat saying "fuck it" and just giving in to making out with his hot, ancient boyfriend. It was also something that happened to a friend who was visiting me from out of the country and didn't have a working cell phone. That moment of watching him through the window of the L as it slowly pulled away is just etched in my memory.

In Agua Caliente, almost anything could relate to the resolution, because the resolution was "Achilles having a life," thus it didn't require as much planning. Zagreus's apartment getting flooded (something that happened to me in grad school) showed Achilles attempting to be flexible with some success while allowing himself to become closer to Zagreus, which led to a point of connection with his kids. It also made it easier to explain why Achilles was doing Zag's delivery that day when he ran into Pat. There were only a couple things that truly needed to happen in AC for the fic to make sense, and that was a resolution with Achilles' kids and then with Patroclus, of course.

I do get loose threads sometimes, side conflicts or things that didn't end up going anywhere, and those things tend to annoy me until I figure out a way to resolve them or make them otherwise relevant. Or I don't. Or sometimes I realize I need to add something/someone into the fic, and it would have been smoother if I'd added it in an earlier chapter so it didn't seem like a convenient thing I'd just thought of to solve a problem. That's always annoying to me. But whatever. It's fanfic. That's the risk of posting while you write.

[menlove]

how are you jewish but also latine and also usamerican? /genq

jew(ish) in that I'm ethnically jewish but wasn't raised it but Am converting officially bc imo my genetics don't make me jewish enough to claim it & I still need to learn so so much more about the religion before I claim it. so I stick w jew(ish) & simply just follow/engage w the jewish community as a convert in progress (& my gf is also jewish so I get a lot of exposure that way). but as for the other two my dad & his family are mexican(/navajo) and my mom is as white as they come. I was raised in & live in the united states. mixed race & ethnicity 🤷‍♂️

but also ik race/ethnicity outside of the us is thought of very differently so maybe these things are mutually exclusive to you if you're Not usamerican but here they aren't considered mutually exclusive at all 😭 race & ethnicity are weird social constructs! and I'll be the first to admit usamericans do it weird but ig that's the result of being a country majorly made up of immigrants of all races & ethnicities, black slaves, & all their descendents w the small amount of a native population that would be much larger if they hadn't been murdered but well. You Know.

edit: ALSO idk if you're jewish or not but even if i were Not ethnically jewish at all, since judaism is an ethnoreligion anyone of any race/ethnicity can be jewish & it wouldn't really require further questioning as anyone can convert. there are jews in most countries & of many, many races. and there are also purely ethnic jews who don't practice the religion at all, but i am not one of those!

[sidesteppostinghours]

6, 11, and 19- UHHHHHH any of them that vibes these questions! <:"Dc

afternoon lori!! thank you for the ask :D

6. Who will they take advice from, no matter what it is? Who won’t they take advice from, no matter what it is?

Caine-

taking advice: chen. without a doubt its chen. caine would question him or argue if they dont understand why hes giving the advice he does, but at the end of the day, he trusts that chen has his reasons, and that those reasons make sense.

refusing advice: hmmm,,, significantly harder to answer tbh. caine is pretty accepting of a lot of avenues of information. maybe hollow ground? so far hes been extremely suspicious of the kingpin, Especially after almost getting threaded. either that or regina, but would she even survive long enough to give them advice???? shes the only person so far they actually want revenge against.

Cyrus-

taking advice: anathema. too bad hes dead. nobody to stop cyrus now.

refusing advice: id say chen, purely for "fuck him, he wouldnt piss on me if i was burning" reasons. hed be way too suspicious of any 'advice' chen gives to act on it.

Cecilia-

taking advice: ceci doesnt exactly do advice. more like suggestions. most of them come from ortega, not because she particularly trusts him but because most of his suggestions tend to be fun. ofc she also turned down therapy so like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

refusing advice: daniel. for extremely petty reasons. even deciding to stay at his place was an idea she came up with, not him. danny has no Idea how much of a pain shes going to be now that theyre rooming together.

Cynthia-

taking advice: hollow ground. #justthreadedtingz😍🤪

refusing advice: the funny thing about cynthia is that she cares for the people shes close to, she just doesnt trust them, so this applies to a lot of people. definitely ortega because thats probably the messiest divorce i ever did see, but also dr mortum, because she doesnt think she would understand the situation shes in enough to give advice even if their relationship Doesnt completely fall apart when the puppet thing is revealed.

11. They’ve won the lottery. Spend, or save?

Caine- nothing really to spend it on. save, unless theres something he really wants to get his hands on.

Cyrus- could be useful in the future. save.

Cecilia- depends, does she still have her funds from thievery? if no, spend. if yes, pretend to spend it by showing off things she already owns to throw people off her track, then save it. or spend if theres something mundane she wants.

Cynthia- doesnt really like having big sums of money lying around. spend it on villain work.

19. Do they study before tests? Practice before job interviews?

Caine- i mean. does going into a rabbit hole of tangentially relevant information a week before count? not for job interviews though. they couldnt care enough about that.

Cyrus- duh. hes the person somebody would go to if they need notes or extra tutoring.

Cecilia- no, but if she cared about tests enough shed be a top student, and she usually manages to fly by on job interviews because shes pretty charming.

Cynthia- yes, but for school its because the subjects are interesting to her, while the job interview is for general "i want to get the job" reasons.

questions from here!

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Person on Avatar podcast: One fan wanted to know if Rangi or the events of RoK/SoK will be in Realms Collide. Me, watching the podcast: That's me. I was the fan. owo