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its-actually-minicika · 2 years ago

Note

Hi, love your works so much! Can't wait for more updates 🥰🥰 I was wondering maybe you'd like the idea where book!Aemond and Velarion!(Strong?)Reader are in an arranged marriage. But Reader just knows what to say and how to act so that Aemond is wrapped around her finger (kinda thought of Margaery and Joffrey situation, she was such a talented schemer, worthy of winning the Throne 😭). I don't really know about the setting, like if it's before, during or after the Dance... just thought it'd be interesting to see this kind of plot with our beloved Prince 🤴🏼🐉

If you don't like it, just ignore me 🙈

Dragon Sickness (18+)

Pairing: bookcanon!Aemond x Strong!Niece!Reader

Warnings: No usage of (Y/N), Greens win AU, bookcanon Greens, the obvious Targaryen incest, mentions of major character deaths (we're entering spoiler grounds, but not really), blood, gore etc.

Word Count: 3.5K+

Author's Note: I fell in love with this idea the moment I saw it! I ended up altering the plot line for this one-shot a little bit - the reader will definitely grow into the Margaery architype, but today you shall see her as she was when she just learned how to make ends meet with her newfound life at Court.

I don't know if I should turn this into yet another series, but if you guys enjoyed this, let me know

Also, thank you so, so much for your kind words ♡ i'm hugging you to the moon and back!

PART 2 IS OUT NOW ♡♡♡

Who could ever blame you for your indiscreet acts? Alliances change when the world you know suddenly turns upside down.

She remembered how weak she was. How scared she had been.

How her eyes widened into two brown specs of uncertainty, how her mouth fell agape, as she mulled over Alicent’s words.

‘You shall marry Aemond within the next moon turns. For the good of the Realm.’

The Dowager Queen had openly admitted to being against the match – of course, the prospect of her perfect son, married off to a lowly bastard of Rhaenyra's (otherwise said, her last surviving child), didn’t specifically thrill her. Much less her demanding and scornful father.

Still, it couldn’t be helped. And if the Velaryon wanted to keep her head away from a spike, she had no other choice but to comply.

Although… she wasn’t a Velaryon now, was she? Aegon the Usurper made sure of that.

His final gift to her was to strip her of all her titles. She had been openly declared a bastard – before the masses, before the Court.

With a wide smile upon his burnt lips, the “King” had told her she’d be a Targaryen instead. Driftmark wouldn’t matter, her legacy wouldn’t matter. Aemond would inherit the seat with the Usurper’s blessing, as a homage brought to his able fighting and his shown bravery on the bloody battlefield.

Never mind that he’d never partaken in a fight; save for the one that killed her stepfather, Daemon, and sent her poor mother in a downward spiral. Aemond had chosen his adversaries wisely, and managed to go through the whole war without as much of a scratch upon his silver armour.

‘I shan’t marry your son. Not now, not ever.’ Her own voice rang out.

‘You will do exactly as demanded.’

‘I would rather die than bear the treacherous children of that monstrous beast.’

A monstrous beast. That is what Aemond was.

And that is what he shall remain. No matter how many gifts he brought to her. No matter how many hours of their days and days in their weeks and weeks in their months they spent promenading those ghastly gardens.

‘You will if you know your best interests. Your own head may hold no value to you, but a single swing of my son’s sword would be enough to bring forth the ruin of House Blackwood.’

At first, she’d been restless in her attempts to escape the Keep. Her every waking hour was spent shamelessly inside the Sept, where she prayed not for the safety of her brothers’ souls, but for revenge against the mutted Greens.

The slight breeze of the cathedral mended her flesh from the heat of summer. And no one dared to approach or talk to her. The quietness was a welcomed deed.

During the first night of their betrothal, her glossy eyes scanned Aemond’s face. His hands wantonly gripped at his thighs and a slight twitch of his mouth, accompanied by an elongated hum escaped his lips.

There was no other discernable expression. And when he led her to the chambers of her early girlhood, he merely bowed and kissed her hand.

She spent the first night of their betrothal scraping her knuckles so harshly, that they broke and cracked under the stimulation of the cold water.

Her thirst for vengeance ceased after the first two months. Her wedding date was approaching swiftly, and she found herself faced with the abhorrent truth. She had no allies. No more friends at Court. The girl had shut herself in her tiny room, losing her mind with the pain and grief that flooded her at night: the faces of her mother, her brothers, her father. The sound of their screams and their endless pleas for help.

Every night, without a fail, she woke up tormented by nightmares – her throat burning with absolving shrieks of fear, exacerbated breaths of air and flimsy nightdresses, damp throughout by breaks of sweat.

The first night she lashed out onto her bedding was the night she found out Aemond had moved his Quarters next to hers. He yanked the door open and stepped into the light of her candle – looking ravished, completely out of breath and startled. Started not for his own accord and safety, but for the state that his future wife had been in.

‘Shit, it’s alright, I’m here–’

The echo of his mellow voice deterred her to let out a blood-curdling scream, that would have rivalled even the one of the late Queen Rhaenyra, after Aegon the Usurper ceased her at Dragonstone, and reeled his dragon to eat her whole.

‘Get the fuck away from me! Get the fuck out of my room!’

Her sobs pierced into the man’s heart, but his hurt expression was masked quickly with one most bitter and taciturn. He clenched his fists ruefully by his side, and spat out an apology in a low and dangerous tone.

‘As you wish.’

And how dearly he loved those words:

‘As you wish.’

'As you desire.’

Even though nothing had been, or ever will be, as she achingly wished them to.

“You could at least attempt to look happy.” His chastising tone rained upon her, as his Lady remained hammered in her seat. Maids flocked to her like lost chickens to their cock, arranging her hair and picking out dresses fit for their engagement parade.

Her face contorted into the mirror, and a faint sigh beleft her lips. Carefully she turned around, reflecting his stance with a subtle arch to her shapely brow.

“It’s bad luck to see your bride before the wedding ceremony.”

“An old wives' tale. And one that applies only on the day itself.”

“Perhaps we should encourage tradition more. Make it so we don’t cross paths at all til then.”

Just as fast as it came, the feral look dissolved over his tired face. Aemond heaved out a heavy exhale and merely settled to growl at her maids.

“Leave us. Now.”

A discontented look painted over her fair features. His niece opened her mouth in protest, to try and stop the fleeing girls from truly making their escape.

“I must remind my Prince that the engagement assembly will be held in less than an hour. I believe I should like them to stay.”

The gathered women exchanged lost and protruding glances, until the former King Regent spoke again.

“They will leave us at once.”

“They’ll do no such a thing. They must make haste to get me ready. We wouldn’t want to upset your mother.”

“I’m more than capable of lacing up a loose bodice.”

The tight expression on her face deserted her features with the leave of his smug retort. She swallowed thickly in enraged abandon, and silently beseeched her ladies not to leave her all alone.

Still ravishing her with his bold stare, Aemond stepped another foot into the cosy confinements of her tidy prison. “If I’m to turn around now and find any of you standing before me, I’ll arrange that you’re all flogged and defiled beyond the utter of salvation.”

Brisk footsteps swallowed the room, echoing wildly through the narrow dark hallways. The former Velaryon shook her head in disarray, and graced her soon-to-be-husband with a tight smile and a nod.

“Congratulations.” She uttered humorously, “I should enjoy looking like a fool tonight much more than being proper by your side.”

As if drowned below a trace, Aemond took another step in the direction of the frowning Princess. His face remained impenetrable, but as he opened his mouth to speak, his voice ran meek, unsure and hoarse.

“Turn around.” He commanded her gently, whilst grabbing a deep green garment from the cluttery made on her bed. Despite her lack of desire to abide by his request, the woman turned her back to him and muttered slowly, though much softer than intended.

“I don’t like that one. It’ll make the skirts look out of place.”

“Which one do you want, then?” His whisper had made her draw in a sharp gasp; the warmth of his breath fell soothingly over the nape of her neck, caressing her delicate skin in a way she hadn’t known was possible.

“The red one with black lacings.”

His hand came to spin her back around, and their noses nearly touched together. A smile tugged at the ends of his upturned lips, but the look inside his eye remained frigid and unforgiving.

“Your petticoat won’t be those colours.”

A conceited scowl graced her face. She reached her hand behind him and skillfully snatched one of a different design. “Fine. I want to wear this one, then.”

The obnoxious blue and silver danced across her paling skin. And if Aemond weren’t so dazed by their proximity and lack of air, he might have laughed at her feeble attempts of vexing him.

“Those are Velaryon hues.”

“Perfect. I shall honour my house well.”

“You are not a Velaryon to grace them with such a feat.”

“No, you are absolutely right. Your brother did name me a Targaryen.”

Their faces were so close to each other, that their moving lips were almost touching.

“Yet I can’t wear black and red either.” A prompted look disarmed the Prince, “It is all very confusing.”

His lone orb descended to her puffing bosom, but Aemond soon directed himself upon a more elusive image. His fingers twitched with the need to grab a hold of her – to pull away those last pieces of cloth that shielded her away from view.

“You know full well why I can’t allow that.” He hummed in unmoving disapproval, “As much as I enjoy your voice and the raptures of your closeness, I must say this conversation bores me.”

“I should be able to wear what I want.” Came her prompt and swift reply, “But of course, Your Grace, forgive me. ‘Tis not for men to pounder on laces and brims.” Her palms took to rest upon his bulging chest, and the girl nearly removed them at once, as the thrumming of his heart enterlaced with her slim fingers. Still, she furrowed her brows in a most perplexed of mockeries, and insatiably drove on, “Indeed resilient men such as yourself occupy their time much better.”

The callouses of his hands fell heavily upon her cheeks.

“Fucking their ways through brothels, getting their pricks wet, and fantasising about wars.”

The harshness of his next tug nearly broke her brave facade – her eyes widened in mistrust, and a slight recoil braced over her straightened back. Her small fingers clasped over his shaking wrist, which held onto her face with a gentleness untoward; one completely mismatching with the predatory glimmer in his eye.

The man he was, and the man he was trying to be would surely never mend to one.

A Kinslayer. A monster. A divergent freak.

Nothing more, and nothing less.

His thumb played absent-mindedly at her lower lip, and the young Princess tried her damnest not to bite him. “Did I strike a nerve with that one?”

“You are as imprudent as you are beautiful. A family trait, I assume.”

“You have my gratitude for the flattering commentary. I’m very proud of my heritage.”

His lilac orb bore into her, and the man let out a reserved laugh, “Your bastard brothers were ample proud. Look where that brought them.” The rough end of his hand gripped her own painfully, before she could make for a swing at his handsome face. “Lost in the seas, rotting at the bottom of an ocean, nestling inside Sunfyre’s belly.”

While her hands were clasped together, her mouth wasn’t sown shut. With a single and effective move, she spat harshly in his face, eliciting a groan from her broader perpetrator.

Though his nostrils flared up in disdain, the man graced her with a calculated smirk. “Did I strike a nerve with that one?” He mocked her with feigned interest.

“Fuck you,” She hissed out slowly, “Don’t you dare talk of my family – my brothers were ten times the man you are.”

“Oh, but I have every right to talk about your family. Given that I will be yours quite soon.” Once more he forced her to turn around, and kneeled over to her spasming form, to begin dressing her up; in nought else, of course, but the mundane silks of his choosing.

"Doesn't the prospect thrill you? To become my lady-wife, to finally bear a true Targaryen inside your royal womb?"

So hopeless and defeated she felt, that the youth jerked herself relentlessly, while repeating him the same plethora of words. “You cannot force me to be your whore. You cannot force me to wear this. I will not bear your Hightower green.”

Aemond could feel his patience running thin – and when her foot came into contact with his setting knee, the man let out a ferocious growl, and promptly trapped the girl in his arms, with the aid of a nearby wall.

“So you want to be difficult? You don’t want to wear this? Hmm? Well, who am I not to abide my Lady’s burning wishes?”

The sharpness of his dagger came into quick contact with the milky skin of her thighs. And she might have almost screamed, if Aemond didn’t immediately pull himself away. His hard chest grazed hers for but a moment, as the Prince cast his attention to her moving shadow.

“If you wish not to attend our engagement parade wearing the clothes I’ve chosen for you,” He muttered against her face, a scorned look adorning his own, “Then you won’t be wearing anything at all.”

She huffed out a dispensing pant and pursed her lips into a tight line.

She remained rigid and poised, until a spark of amusement swirled into her eyes.

The first crack was that of a lax smile. The next, a tremor to her lips. The calm before the storm approached, until all rattled down with a mirthed laugh cascading from her reddened lips.

“Do you mean to frighten me with this promise?” She asked through the arch of an uncertain brow, “As if every man in this cursed Keep won’t get to watch me whore myself out to you anyway, when our wedding night will come?”

His face suddenly hardened at the notion of their reality – as if he didn’t give much thought to the bedding ceremony. To his Lady being watched by a thousand other eyes but his.

Aemond suddenly darkened, and his fist came into contact with a near spot on the wall, so awfully close to her frightened, paling face.

She watched with wide eyes how his stare contorted from one of realisation to one of fury. He stiffly peeled his body away from hers, and strained himself to leave her be. The jealous and possessive knots that churned painfully inside his stomach burned his skin upon the surface, and constricted the air he brashly took in.

He nodded to her in a spry and calloused manner, and brought his hand out to touch her cheek. His knuckles had begun to bleed, busted by the force of impact that his fist had faced for him. Behind his eye danced a look of seldom shame – he gnawed harshly at his bottom lip, and pondered, for a while, on apologising to his niece; for his lack of princely conduct, for his show of impropriety – for his inability to keep himself at bay.

Still his thoughts failed to merge to words, and so the man ran his eye one final time over her defensive pose, and merely left her standing there.

As if turned into a statue, the girl barely registered the lethargic closing of the door, the hurried and heavy footsteps that travelled further and further away from her quaint and cluttered space, and the animated curse that slipped past her uncle's throat.

Did he just dare to leave her there, with her petticoat half up her legs, in nought else but a flimsy nightdress?

At first she thought that his avoidance was a blessing in disguise.

For after clashing wits with Aemond, and after his swift hurried departure, the man had barely graced her with another word.

His hand held onto hers for the whole duration of the procession. He wordlessly forced her to dance two dances, and led her to her Quarters as soon as she mentioned that she was tired.

But his palms didn’t linger on the shape of her narrow waist – his lips barely grazed her knuckles, and Aemond turned with lest a word to add after their fake sympathies were exchanged.

Had he gotten bored of her? Realised what a terrible match they made, and begged his mother on his hands and knees to break off their ill engagement?

For the first time in a while, a new notion of fear engulfed her.

The Greens couldn’t kill her. Of that, she was almost certain. It wouldn't be a wise move, and it would anger the North beyond the power of salvation. The war had had its say on every army that fought into it, yet the Crownlands were especially weak.

But if Aemond were to sever their solidary alliance, then her future would be most uncertain.

Otto Hightower would make her join with an old and withered Lord, no doubt – one with more than enough sons to further on his pesky line. One who couldn’t even get it up to her, who’d never procreate and mend their blood, who’d make sure Rhaenyra’s line would end with her.

Or perhaps she’d be sent to join the Faith – become a Septa or a Silent Sister, among the infamous Maris Baratheons of the Realm. Yet another girl who wouldn’t keep her tongue when asked.

And history might remember them as ‘the women who couldn’t be tamed’, but their lives would be thrown to ruin. Their existence would remain a sham.

No, she had whispered to herself, as she writhed into the soft bedding. If she still thirsted for revenge, she would have to marry Aemond. Keep him interested and relaxed – yearning for her voice and company.

… And if she had to whore herself to him to do it, she would obediently assume her role.

“I beg your pardon?” Aegon asked through another gulp of bitter wine, “Gods be good – I believe that now I’ve heard it all.”

Aemond paced about his brother’s room, with his hands clasped behind his back, and his face set into a deep grimace. He hummed in admission to his brother’s words, and glanced his way with the instance of a hooded eye.

“There is to be no bedding ceremony.” He repeated himself with ease, “I frightened her enough already. The girl will be plenty uncomfortable without the aid of chafing eyes.”

His brother smiled and raised his brows in nothing else but blinding wonder. A small shake of his head indicated his perplexion, and a sharp inhale his drawn decision.

“Mother insisted upon it. You know that well.” The man steadied himself in his chair as he spoke, whilst letting out a small grunt at the contact that the wood made upon his burnt remnants of skin. “I don’t see any reason to annul it. Especially now, an eve before.”

Another sip of the stinging liquor interrupted his smooth and ready trail of thought. The Targaryen brushed off Aemond’s concerns, and gleefully bided his teasing.

“It’ll do the two of you good – you’ll get to see she’s as pure as a bastard girl can be; and she’ll have no deniability that any of her future heirs are yours.” He pointed his weary digit in the direction of his stiffened form and swallowed down a hefty laugh. “Not to mention that Lord Redwyne and Tarly already placed bets on the state of her maidenhead. Would be a shame to disappoint them both, don't you think?"

“What mother thinks is of no consequence. And the amusement of the Realm matters not to me. There will be no bedding ceremony.”

“Nonsense, Aemond. It is our duty to upkeep the Realm – and to entertain its inhabitants if need be.”

When his reckless teasing was met with glacial silence, Aegon sighed as he briskly leaned forward. He watched his sibling with an indiscernible expression across his scorched veneer, and yawned greatly at his indisposed behaviour.

“Of course, we’re here to talk it out. But after so much time spent in your company, I fail to see the necessity for such a thing.” A sly smirk danced across his puffy lips, “Are you concerned that she won’t bleed? Or that you’ll be too cunt-struck by her to last enough to make a statement?”

Aemond’s fists descended upon the polished wood of Aegon’d desk. He thrashed his brother with a defiant glare, and hissed through his gritted teeth, and tight-set jaw.

“There will be no bedding ceremony for my niece and I. Tell that to every Lord that wishes to glance upon my wife – if they do so much as to cast their eyes on her, they’ll be fucking their own wives with a wooden cock.”

Amusement laced with grave concern – the finality of Aemond's words ought to have vexed him, irk the King in his sibling's weighty insolence. Instead Aegon nodded, pushing back the feeling of dread that settled deep within his bones. His head jerked towards his closed oak door, signalling to his brother that his visit had been overstated. “What sort of brother would I be, to not grant you with this simple whim?”

The younger Targaryen mirrored his stance, and turned abruptly on his heel after a low grunt of gratitude.

His hand reached for the golden handle, but Aegon's words deterred him to a halt.

“But be careful with that one, Aemond. She’s brash and wholly unpredictable. Make sure the blood that stains your sheets come morning isn’t somehow your very own.”

Perma Tag List: @welcometothelioncage @kravitzwhore ♡

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thesiltverses · 1 year ago

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any clues on whats next after tsv ends ? :)

No concrete confirmation, but we did put out a Patreon post back in spring with a few draft pitches, to gauge initial interest and see what kind of genre storytelling folks were most excited to see from us.

I'll paste them below, so you can see the kinds of things we've had in mind (#2 and #3 were the most popular, but it was a fairly even spread outside of that). We've had a few more really fun ideas since then that I'll keep schtum about for now.

General feedback was that people were most enthusiastic about seeing ongoing, multi-season projects from us, which makes perfect sense and is much more sensible for us anyway in terms of sustaining a livelihood / retaining audience members along the way.

That said, TSV has been a three-year endeavour which is a big commitment, and personally I think the best horror is often self-contained, short and sweet.

So I'd really love to have the time to work on a few miniseries-type shows as well, but also need to recognise that we likely don't have the bandwidth to juggle two projects simultaneously.

With all that in mind, I think the direction we're hoping to be able to pursue is:

1+ shorter horror miniseries or one-offs with production or network partners (if they want to work with us) where we're largely on writing duties or with a lighter load.

1 longer, ongoing weird-fiction show which is all ours, baby, all ours.

Draft pitches

#1: Manes

Genre: Historical horror, cosmic horror, family drama with murderous stakes

Influences: The Terror Season 1, pretty much.

Summary: In 208 AD, the ailing Roman emperor Septimius Severus travels north across Hadrian's Wall into Caledonia, with the aim of finally uniting Britain under imperial rule.

For Severus, there's more at stake - his two sons are openly at odds over the succession, and it's openly said that civil war will follow the emperor's death.

Severus himself rose to supreme power through violence and the elimination of his rivals. Now, haunted by the possibility of revenge by the shades of the divine dead and dwelling unhappily on his legacy, the emperor hopes to share his final triumph with his sons and demonstrate a different lesson to them - that an equitable peace is a lasting possibility.

But as the Roman column makes its way north into apparently endless woods, surrounded by cronies, schemers, Britons, soothsayers, priestesses of Cybele, and more, the emperor and his family find that their enemy is nowhere to be seen - but they are being pursued by a force that is both strange and terrible.

And soon enough, the Romans realise that they have perhaps strayed not into Caledonia at all - but into a hostile realm of their own imagining...

Why make this show? We adore period horror, and there's far too little of it out there.

Severus and his family are a fascinating set of characters who we'd love to spend some time with - as ethically-compromised participants in a very Shakespearean tragedy, and as individuals whose heritage, religious beliefs and psychologies allow us to explore aspects of ancient Rome that haven't been done to death in fiction already.

#2: I'll Dance In The Deep Shadow

Genre: Weird-fiction noir, paranoid espionage fiction, cosmic horror

Influences: Cold War spy classics, Roadside Picnic

Summary: Across the water from the mainland UK, a vast walled city has come unexpectedly into existence.

The city’s walls are composed of purest shadow; its leaders have not revealed themselves to us, nor have they made demands of us.

Upon its streets, our own dead and forlorn doubles wander; grinning doppelgangers who seem to know something terrible from the future that’s to come.

We call the city Umbra.

Umbra is a bottomless well of shadow and secrets; its darkened landscapes are home to suppressed memories turned savage and monstrous.

Its citizens and its guards are twisted echoes, repetitions, and whispering relics of the world's buried past - and they will not reveal Umbra's purpose to us.

Around Umbra's great walls, representatives from the world's governments gather and plot against one another - mercenaries, guides, spies, black-market traders, scientists and killers - to infiltrate the city, map its streets, and navigate its dangers for themselves.

Why make this show? Less of an Eskew sequel than it probably sounds at first glance, this one.

We'd love to do a paranoid, twist-filled, pessimistic John Le Carre-style spy thriller, with multiple characters who can neither trust themselves nor each other - and we feel like we've got some really interesting horror themes around memory and forgetting here to explore with this concept.

#3: Our Wars Have Ended

Genre: Dark fantasy, New Weird fantasy

Influences: The Black Company, the Bas-Lag series, Gormenghast.

Summary: It’s a strange time to be alive.

Thirty years ago, countless legions of the ancient dead rose from their graves to conquer the living lands; lands which now rest in an uneasy - but peaceful - state of occupation.

Withered corpses sit upon the thrones of the living and play silent courtier in the shadowed halls, acting out the rituals and habits of their past lives while dead men and women keep watch from the ruined towers.

Mortal historians and linguists frantically mediate between our returned masters, trying to keep the peace - which estate belongs to whom? Who shall rule eternal? Which traditions deserve to live on?

But this is a time of wondrous change, too - new technologies, empowered by the revelations of the Dead Reclamation and the will of the Ancestors. Strange machines rumble through the hills and necronautical vessels delve into the unexplored territories of the afterlife itself.

And it has been announced that the Hollowbrow Queen will unite the nation with a powerful gesture, taking on a living consort in a marriage of the fleeting and the eternal.

On one side of the conquered country, an old veteran leads his mercenary company on a reluctant expedition towards the capital, in the employ of a long-dead king on a mission of revenge.

On the other, a young dead-diver and essayer into the realms of the dead is hired to investigate a peculiar mystery, and a conspiracy that may involve both the living and the returned…

Why make this show? Because Game of Thrones had no interest in the (to us) enjoyable questions of 'well, why do the ancient dead want to conquer the living, exactly? What happens once they've done it?' and we'd love to deconstruct that and play with the idea of loathsome undead aristocrats from every period of history squabbling with one another over what their conquered nation actually means.

Because we think we've built up the confidence and the skills to take a big swing at an epic adventure story and a semi-traditional fantasy - it feels like an idea that could potentially appeal to a wider audience while remaining true to our own core values of Weirdness, Horrible Things and More Weirdness.

#4: To Those Who Wait

Genre: Cosmic horror, dark comedy, mockumentary

Influences: Dead Set, Ghostwatch, Savageland, Evil Dead

Summary: Eskew Productions has gone in a surprising direction with its latest production - a new reality experiment and dating-show podcast.

Eight lovelorn singletons have been given rooms in the exclusive Gregory Hotel. Over the course of six weeks, these contestants will go on dates, carry out team challenges, and ultimately try and find themselves a life partner - all without seeing each other's faces.

The aim of the experiment? To prove that good things really do come to those who wait.

As they pore through a mixture of recorded and behind-the-scenes footage, however, it may become very apparent to listeners that something else is waiting in the Gregory.

And one by one, our contestants find themselves at risk of far more than being voted off...

Why make this show? As a great big act of play more than anything else.

We adore horror mockumentaries, but in audio-drama they tend to be faux-journalistic.

Doing a show that instead mimics hokey reality shows to the point of being mistakable for the real thing, but turns out to be a ghost story instead...that's a lot of fun to us.

#5: In The Devil's Counties

Genre: Historical horror, cosmic horror

Influences: Nathan Ballingrud's Wounds, Seven Samurai, Between Two Fires, Dog Soldiers, Aliens…

Summary: As the Magna Carta states: “All evil customs relating to forests and warrens, foresters, warreners, sheriffs and their servants, or river-banks and their wardens, are at once to be investigated by twelve sworn knights of the county, and within forty days of their enquiry the evil customs are to be abolished completely and irrevocably.”

In early-medieval Sussex, a motley group of knights rides out to investigate tales of ungodly horror and acts of forbidden worship from deep in the English countryside - including Ralph Dagworth, 'hell's mapmaker'.

What the party of knights discovers out in the warrens and the forests of the county, however, is far stranger and more terrible than any Christian conception of hell…

Why make this show? Again, because we're itching to have a go at some period horror, and that weirdly specific Magna Carta quote is just too fun to pass up as a springboard for some 'isolated squaddies in enemy territory' storytelling. (Sadly, it does have a more grounded explanation.)

#6: Strangling Knot

Genre: Anthology horror

Influences: Junji Ito, experimental 8-bit horror, Black Mirror's Bandersnatch

Summary:

“The rules of the game are simple. This is a place of endless forking paths and one exit.

There’s something terrible in here with you. Get ready."

A Choose Your Own Adventure-style horror audio anthology; each episode is a distinct story with branching paths that may lead to failure (most of the time) or escape (more rarely).

Why make this show? This is likely the only show that we could reasonably produce as a side-project (and we've been chatting to a couple of other talented horror creators about it already, sssh).

We'd like to be able to play with single-narrator horror storytelling again that's relatively quick and easy to produce - but we do want to at least try and ensure it doesn't feel like we're repeating I Am In Eskew.

There's some really fun stuff happening out there already with CYOA-style audiodrama, and that seems like an opportunity that's ripe for playing about with.

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a-master-procrastinator · 1 year ago

Text

OC Tag Game

Tagged by @raven-of-domain-kwaad, thank you! I'll be keeping it within SWTOR characters since I just focus on them here.

No pressure tag (if you feel like it): @vespertine-legacy, @astrifer-bound, @mmigrainee, @chaoticspacefam, @spitzobsessed

Favorite OC - Jett

Not surprising. As much as I love my other characters (Auletta don't kill me), Jett just gotta be my favorite. Bounty hunter storyline being one of my favorites definitely affects this, but there is much more to this. She is this 'tough on the outside, softie on the inside' type of character that I just adore, I love her personal arcs about trauma, meaningful connections and leadership. And of course strong badass Mando women are just cool and get an instant liking from me :) I can go on for hours on this, but let's move on.

More under the cut.

Newest OC - Beirya and Zin

I had more ideas for new characters after I made Rya and Zin, but they are not yet actual characters that I plan to develop. So these two are my newest at the moment.

Oldest OC - Auletta

Technically, the first character I ever rolled in SWTOR was smuggler, but I didn't keep her in any way, so it's Auletta. Although she looked slightly different and was assassin instead of sorcerer in the game (which doesn't fit her background), the core of her character remained the same.

Meanest OC - Jaria

It's a tough spot between some of my characters, but when others can be polite or maybe it's not their nature to be rude (they just do it for others reasons), Jaria is unapologetically mean to people almost all the time (only shutting up if it saves her skin or gives an advantage).

Softest OC - Shailla and Lorri

(there are actually two more but I wanted to keep it short)

They are just so kind and gentle, striving to do more good in this imperfect galaxy. I mean, there is a reason why Lorri is often considered the heart of her little found family.

Most aloof/standoffish OC - Xaele and Jaria

Xaele in general is pretty distant from the world and even her own actions, which fit well for agent's life. And Jaria is, honestly, pretty mistrusting, and after being separated from her sister, probably the only person she gave a Hutt about, Jaria couldn't form meaningful connections with other people, so she's a loner. Plus she's mostly interested in self-gain and money, and she doesn't care how she gets it.

Dumbest (affectionate) OC - Vintu

Well, there may be others, but no one radiates chaotic dumbass energy like Vintu (yeah, not even smugglers, though they are close). Just look at his dumb face.

Smartest OC - Auletta and Elixess

I would betray Auletta by not including her here. She is a quick learner, a schemer, always hungry for knowledge and information. She's very good at using all available knowledge and information to get the best out of her situation, whatever it might be (back in slavery, in Sith Academy, Dark Council, you name it). The only period when Auletta made kinda dumb decisions was around chapters 1 and 2 of Inquisitor storyline, mostly bc she was drunk on power and freedom, testing how far she can go. But when she failed to kill Thanaton for the second time, Auletta adapted and got the best out of it.

Elixess is similar in many ways, except she doesn't have the same malicious intent as Auletta and maybe not as nerdy. She is a quick thinker, which helps her talk her way out of most trouble and see possibilities for profit. Also, I just thought having a smuggler as one of the smartest characters is funny.

(actually, there are more characters who are on the same level, but I wanted to mention these two)

Horniest OC - Vintu and Jaria

Jaria just likes to flirt around and have one-night stands almost every time she visits a new place (Mako got tired of it real quick). Shame that bounty hunters don't have a lot of flirt options with NPCs other than companions. And Vintu... well, for my own sanity we have an agreement - he doesn't tell much about his private life, and I don't get to know much about it. Let's just say that when he's with Jaesa they are very active, and even after he's done with her, Vintu still hits on a lot of people.

OC you'd bang - none

I'm way too asexual for that.

OC you'd be best friends with - Raen and Alaine

Both of them are great friend material. Raen shares some of my interests (that weren't a bit of self-insert to begin with, no no), so she can tolerate a bit of infodumping about special interests from me. She's generally fun to be around, except for maybe when she's being chased by law enforcement or when she's sleeping. Plus we might have 'introvert adopted by an extrovert' dynamiс in a good way.

Alaine is someone I could trust to discuss a lot of complicated topics without being judged harshly. And she's a good person and a reliable friend in general, so great to have her as a friend. Alaine is more of "calls me out on my shit" friend, and Raen is more of "tags along with my shit" friend, and I definitely need both these types of friends.

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deck16 · 1 month ago

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The War Within -- One Month of Play

I recently completed a month in The War Within, the newest expansion for World of Warcraft.

My thoughts and experiences below. This is not an objective review. I talk about the expansion, but also my takes on modern WoW.

This is the final scene of the story. Two old characters reflect on all that's happened, and foreshadow more to come. It's low-key for an ending; I liked it.

Play and Pay Philosophy

The one-month play-time was very purposeful.

Basically, I wanted to experience the War Within and its story while paying a minimal amount to Blizzard. I have no interest in end-game content.

I went through the story. I did a lot of side-quests. I dipped my toes into dungeons, delves, and battlegrounds.

I'm in two thoughts about the cost. On one had, the cost of expansion and one month subscription is high, compared to other games, even other MMOs. On the other hand, the cost-per-hour is quite competitive with many other leisure activities.

When big patches come out, or maybe when the final big patch for this expansion comes out, I might pay to experience what's been added.

I play mostly with a friend. In this article, I will call this friend "Angel Summoner". The reasoning for that will be made clear.

Angel Summoner (left) and me. Enjoying the pretty scenery.

The Usual Stuff

Just quickly, mentioning stuff WoW pretty much always does well:

The zones are gorgeous.

The music is great. (Draenor's OST is still my favourite, though.)

The art design is vibrant and stylish, not graphic-card-melting fidelity.

"Jaina?" "What is it, Champion? You've found a way to stop Xal'atath?" "Can I have a mana biscuit and a portal to Stormwind?"

Story

The plot was mediocre and shallow. Mind you, I don't expect much from an MMO.

Overall I was more interested in the smaller stories. There's a touching quest chain about helping a character face his imminent death, passing on his legacy and helping him with his final wishes. He develops dementia as the quest carries on. It's both simple and touching. It's a fantasy twist on something very real. I'll remember that simple quest far longer than any of the more action-packed ones.

You do a lot of heart-warming heroics in War Within, and I don't mind it. Lots of saving people and communities, often who are misunderstood rather than evil. This may well be the best way to take WoW's story after its really rough ride through recent expansions. Certainly yet another faction war would be utterly farcical.

Speaking of farcical, I am glad War Within's villain is relatively low-key. WoW's parade of world-ending threats was getting very silly. Recent expansions have toned things down. I can believe a world where there are crises in some places all of the time, or in all places some of the time, but not all places all of the time!

"Andiun?" "Quiet, Champion. Khadgar speaks!" "But... Andiun?" "WHAT?" "Can I get a Blessing of Kings?"

Characters

The main cast of characters managed to rise out of the mediocre main story and hold some interest. They're simple characters painted in broad themes undergoing trope-y arcs but that works in an MMO story.

The villain Xal'atath is quite cliche: she's the femme version of a mustache-twirling villain, part temptress and part schemer with a cold heart and a wry smirk. She's my favourite character of War Within.

This is Xal'atath. She never wears shoes.

I love WoW's attention to certain little details, even if I miss 98% of them. I was saying to Angel Summoner: "What happened to the cake-selling NPC by the bank? According to the story, she should be down here somewhere!" I was joking, of course. I purposefully picked the least consequential NPC I could think of.

But lo, we found her. The game called my bluff. That made me smile.

Flight and Precision Bombing

Flight is pretty cool in War Within. It takes all the best stuff from Dragonflight, but expands it to other mounts (and druid forms) while also letting it be unlocked right from the start.

I had a lot of fun zooming around in my druid flight form! The speed is exhilarating, and the speed/altitude mechanics are involved enough that flight is something active, not something you get up for to get a sandwich.

"Up in the air, sky high, zoom-zoom-a-zoom-a-zoom-zoom." The views can be spectacular.

But easy, efficient flight has its downsides.

Firstly, I did feel a little sad I was zooming over the scenery at Mach 5 rather than stopping to look at it. But this is a fairly minor complaint: I'm sure people playing for more than a month will eventually see the sights even if only during brief pauses between hypersonic jaunts.

A bigger downside is how it can trivialise quests. Angel Summoner and I would fly in at Mach 5 and crash into the quest objective (crashing isn't harmful). We'd nab the quest then launch skyward away, barely twenty seconds down and another quest complete.

In both complaints, flight comes at the cost of experiencing a journey. Either scenic and cross-country, or tactical across enemy-infested terrain.

You might say, "so don't fly as much, slow yourself down". Yes, that's not an unfair point. There's a deeper discussion to be had about game-imposed and self-imposed limits.

I'm not saying that flight should be removed or locked away for later-game. Because that wouldn't be fun either. I'm just saying there's pros and cons to flight.

Angel Summoner and BMX Bandit

I played much of War Within with a friend. This friend had good gear from the previous expansion. And due to overzealous harvesting he managed to be a couple of levels above me.

A bit of previous-expansion gear and a few levels shouldn't make a difference, right?

Wrong. I felt like the BMX Bandit; totally overshadowed by Angel Summoner.

youtube

I may as well not be playing. I was essentially watching a Let's Play with the inconvenience of having to follow my character along in his footsteps from quest-giver to quest-giver.

This was after a number of concessions, mind you! Angel Summoner picked a tanking (not DPS) spec, and purposefully used weaker gear.

This problem lessened as I reached level cap and got better gear. Eventually we were on equal-enough footing, but two-thirds of the game had been played by that point.

(Questing when we were both closer in power was the most fun. "Round 'em up!" we'd chant; I'd dash about flinging Moonbeam and bring everyone nearby into the cluster of death around Angel Summoner. We'd routinely finish "kill X things" quests in one pull.)

WoW is meant to be an MMO. MMOs are things you play with friends. And to be fair, WoW has made improvements with cross-server play, cross-faction play, and level-scaling party sync.

Why could they not get this right? I'm not asking for totally even and equal power, but I would've liked for the gaping chasm of difference to be reduced somewhat.

"They're a fish-finding duo, d-d-d-d-duo-oh yeah!" You can even see the disparity in fishing rod! 😅

Questing

Questing is enjoyable for story and scenic reasons. Skill-wise, it's pretty dull.

In a group, questing is liable to be too easy, but at least you can challenge yourself by fighting a crowd of foes.

Solo -- which is how I suspect most people do it -- is a strange thing. In most solo action games, you encounter different threats and different challenges: you have to use your array of skills differently to advance.

Contrast with WoW solo questing: you beat a bad guy, then repeat. Sometimes you run into a spot of bother and must use your more powerful limited-use abilities. Beyond their cosmetics and some milquetoast pyrotechnic abilities, enemies vary little.

This is pretty much the same gameplay as vanilla. How have we seen no substantial improvements in the intervening time? We know WoW can do interesting PvE ... grab one of Battle for Azeroth's PvE battlegrounds, slap that in a zone, and let the players work together to push back routinely-encroaching nerubians by fighting direct or by doing supporting quests.

Deep in spider territory.

Dungeons and Delves

Delves are cool mini-dungeons you can do on your own or with a group. They're fairly short, satisfyingly challenging, and have varied and interesting mechanics going on. I like 'em a lot. The ability to go solo or with any number of friends is one of those places WoW is taking down barriers to playing with friends.

Dungeons can now be played solo or with less than the full five-man group; in either case you get bot team-mates. They're not bad: effort has been made to make them unique individuals, and you can have cute little interactions with them. They seem to be super-powered -- the limiting factor to me pulling huge amount of enemies onto them was that I'd die, not them, even with the tank-bot being very proactive. But I've not tried the higher difficulties, to be fair.

My bot buddies during one of the delves. Orcs rubbing shoulders with dwarves shows that times are changing!

Much of War Within can be played solo, and I have mixed thoughts about that. Part of me thinks its sad to play an MMO solo; it defeats the "MM" part. But then I consider that WoW largely abandoned the first "M" years ago. WoW is decreasingly a game about being out there, in the world, mixing with the population of your server. And I appreciated being able to see dungeons and such without being rude to other players.

Waiting for a boss to spawn...

PvPeeved

I'm never going to be competitive in the more intimate player-vs-player modes like Arena. But the bigger, looser Battlegrounds are something I've enjoyed in the past.

WoW has flirted with making gear less relevant (mattering only a few percent). So I was sad to see, after freshly reaching max level in War Within, that I was not 5% or 10% weaker than Battleground players; but more like 50% or even 70% weaker.

Worse, my understanding is that if I catch up with PvP gear now, the ceiling will only get raised in the near future.

I despise the thought of grinding to be competitive. It's like joining a tennis club and having to play the first ten games in leaden shoes. There is not any player-positive justification for this.

This is an easy problem to solve, as I mentioned above. Other MMOs have figured it out. Give identical gear, or an identical range of gear to select from. If you must have things to unlock, make them cosmetic only or side-grades. If you must have upgrades, make them minor; people are still going to want them.

In WoW, it must come down to money. Do grind-happy PvPers subscribe longer than grind-adverse casuals like me?

Co-op past and present. Angel Summoner has Skullflame shield, like me! I remember getting mine in vanilla-era WoW, from some random bug or cultist in Silithus, while trying to get to max level. I didn't even get it: a co-op party-member did. They couldn't use shields and so handed it to me.

The Mash

I don't think it's controversial to say that to do well in modern-era WoW, you've got to hammer a lot of keys.

I hate it.

Firstly, much of the mashing is for stupid things. You need to react to character-internal states that have a percentage chance of appearing when doing certain things. That kind of thing is not fun, is not interesting, and it has zero to do with what's actually going on around you in combat.

This is one of many examples. It isn't specified in the text, but there's a window of opportunity to use this. How's this for a less obnoxious version: extend the time-limit to end of combat, and if you get it again while you already have it you keep your existing instance but the newly-incoming instance auto-casts Regrowth on you. Only a tiny bit more powerful while being oh-so-less irritating.

Secondly, it's just not healthy to do. Hardcore WoW players suffer for the button-mashing they do many hours a day, many days a week. I'm talking about RSI and that sort of thing.

Related: it's not good accessibility. The sad reality is that you often can't bring disabled players up to the level of able-bodied people in action-oriented games. But to have pointless systems and even more pointless rules is to just treat them with disdain.

(Press and hold casting is so limited -- and apparently bad -- that it's a slap in the face more than a useful solution.)

As a programmer by career, I managed to use tools like WeakAuras and GSE to lighten the mental and physical irritation of WoW mash-fetish. The fact I can write a fairly simple algorithm that optimally uses many of my character's skills shows how shallow the system is. Imagine if a few dozen lines of code could make you a competitive chess or Street Fighter player?

The hacking mini-game in War Within is so insipidly easy it's a joke. It makes me miss the turtle one.

Conclusion

Mixed feelings!

I felt I got my money's worth. The story and characters were decent enough and I enjoyed taking my druid out for a spin and playing co-op.

But so many of WoW's long-term follies reminded me of why I haven't been a long-term subscriber for years.

#review #world of warcraft #gaming #pc #mmo #rpg

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grailfinders · 2 years ago

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Fate and Phantasms Viewer's Choice #3: #309, Morgan Le Fay

On the exact opposite side of the equation, we have Morgan le Fay. Where Ophelia has complications in her build due to how little we see her fight, Morgan was tough because of the sheer amount of shit she can pull off. Obviously, I won’t get into details here bc of LB6 spoilers, but… prepare for some fireworks.

Morgan is a Clockwork Soul Sorcerer to make sure everything goes smoothly in her kingdom, and a War Magic Wizard to come back time and time again.

Check out her build breakdown below the cut or her character sheet over here, but be sure to watch out for Lostbelt 6 spoilers! I had to spoil the ending of LB 5 and a big chunk of LB 6 for this build, y’all better appreciate that.

Race and Background

Morgan le Fay is, obviously, a fae, but she’s not small, and making things bigger doesn’t really matter for this build. Instead, we’re going with a Hexblood for +2 Dexterity and +1 Intelligence. That lets you keep your medium size, plus you get an Ancestral Legacy for two skills. Grab proficiency in Insight and Performance. You’ve been stabbed in the back enough to know what to look for, and the whole faerie kingdom is one big play, you just rule it. You get 60’ of Darkvision, and can create an Eerie Token from your body once a day that lasts for a day, letting you send telepathic messages to whoever holds it within 10 miles, and you can also see through the token up to 10 miles away for one minute. Doing the latter destroys the token, but that’s a small price to pay for info. All the lostbelt kings seem to know exactly who we are and where we’re going, yet they keep losing. Ain’t that weird? I’m sure Morgan will be the exception though. On top of all that, you can cast Hex Magic with your Intelligence, casting disguise self and hex once a day for free, or with your spell slots. Cursing her foes and sneaking around are definitely Morgan’s cup of tea.

We’re going with the standard Variant Noble background here, History and Intimidation. You’ve lived through most of recorded history, plus you’re the fucking king of lostbelt 6.

Ability Scores

Once again, we’re power building. Set Constitution, Intelligence, and Charisma at 15, Strength, Dexterity, and Wisdom at 8. You’re a schemer with the kind of longevity that would give Heracles a run for his money, but being a caster and a berserker is a dangerous combination.

Class Levels

Sorcerer 1: As a Clockwork soul, you gain extra Clockwork Magic, either from the list given or replacing one spell a level with any abjuration or transmutation spell from the sorcerer, warlock, or wizard list. We’ll go into detail about what you get when you get it. You can also Restore Balance proficiency times a day, negating advantage or disadvantage on a d20 roll within 60’ of you as a reaction. Faeries love to play tricks, but they don’t work on you. You can cast Spells using your Charisma, and I’m just going to say this here- you have a truly massive spell list, and going through every spell would take ages. So- we’re just covering the highlights in this article. Check the character sheet for a full build. From your clockwork magic, you can Absorb Elements instead of casting Alarm, and you gain Protection from Evil and Good. I know your NP is anti-faerie, but sadly this is the best we can do in 5e. They just don’t have the specificity to target faeries in particular. Anyways, the former lets you cut down on elemental damage and return it as part of your next attack, while the latter gives faeries and other extra-planar beings disadvantage to hit you, and they can’t charm, frighten, or possess you either. That’s the kind of stuff you do to them. Finally, you get more proficiencies. Constitution and Charisma saves, as well as Arcana and Deception. You’re a millenia old mage, and you’re good enough to pull the wool on the other Crypter’s eyes, at least.

Sorcerer 2: A second level sorcerer is a Font of Magic, giving you Sorcery Points equal to your sorcerer level, which you can turn into spell slots or vice-versa. You also pick up the spell Witch Bolt. No fancy reason for it, but damage is damage, and dealing damage while concentrating will be a great boon to you in a bit.

Sorcerer 3: Third level sorcerers get two Metamagic options to gain more control over their sorcery. A twinned spell turns the target of your spell into a voodoo doll of another creature nearby, forcing them under the effects of the same spell. Quickened spells are just good. Turn an action cast spell into a bonus action, with the limitation that you can only cast one leveled spell per turn. For example, quicken a witch bolt, then use your action to activate the current witch bolt for double the damage. For new spells, Aid will give you and your puppets more HP, and instead of Lesser Restoration we’re picking up Alter Self. It’s another disguise, and while the natural weapons and waterbreathing aren’t necessarily canon compliant, I’m pretty confident you could do them if you wanted to.

Wizard 1: Your magic might be innate, but god knows you’ve spent plenty of time honing it. Bouncing over to wizard gets you a second, much larger Spell list, which you prep from and cast using your Intelligence. You also gain an Arcane Recovery, so you can get a couple spell slots back on a short rest once a day. Most faeries are resistant, if not outright immune, to charming effects, but maybe if you Cause Fear, that’ll break through their thick skulls. It forces a wisdom save, and if they fail they’re frightened for up to a minute, though they can reroll the save each turn. That gives them disadvantage on skill checks and attacks while they can see you, can they can’t willingly get closer to you.

Wizard 2: At second level, you specialize in War Magic. Right off the bat, your Arcane Deflection lets you add +2 to your AC or +4 to a saving throw as a reaction, with the caveat that you can’t cast leveled spells for the round. Again, witchbolt is great since it gets around this restriction. You also have a Tactical Wit, adding your intelligence modifier to your initiative rolls. You got the first punch in before we even got to your lostbelt. There’s no way you should have a +0 to initiative. For your spell, Find Familiar is pretty useful. It’s a ritual spell that you can use to get an animal buddy that can’t attack. While it’s within 100’, you can talk to it with your mind, and even see through its eyes. You can even cast touch-range spells through the familiar to extend your reach.

Wizard 3: Third level wizards get second level spells like Magic Weapon, which should help you turn just about any faerie bumpkin into a proper knight of the round table. We’ll get a more thorough transformation later, but shockingly a lostbelt king needs a lot of high level stuff.

Wizard 4: Use this Ability Score Improvement to round out your Constitution and Charisma for some stronger spells and an extra 7 HP this level. Remember, HP scales retroactively! If you need to deliver the entire history of your country in a hurry, try using Encode Thoughts to solidify your memories and pass them on to someone else.

Wizard 5: Fifth level wizards get third level spells, like Bestow Curse. This one’s pretty open ended, but basically it makes a bad thing happen to someone for a certain amount of time, with that time lengthening as you cast with higher spell slots. I think “kill this fool if they can’t pay their existence tax” is a bit much for a third level spell, but it’s a start!

Wizard 6: At sixth level, war mages can invoke a Power Surge when they use a damaging spell. You can store up to Intelligence Modifier surges at a time, always having one at the end of a long rest. You can add one to your repertoire by using counterspell or dispel magic, or by taking a short rest with 0 surges. Once a turn, you can spend a power surge to deal half your wizard level in force damage to a target you damaged with your spell. A +8 by the end of the build isn’t much, but if you’re tearing down a tree of emptiness, every bit counts.

Wizard 7: Seventh level wizards get fourth level spells like Raulothim’s Psychic Lance. TBH we’re mostly picking this because Rhongomyniad is a lance, but it’s still a good damage spell. Name a creature to slap that creature. If they fail an Intelligence save, they take the full slappage, plus they’re incapacitated for a round. Fun fact: exactly 0 fey are immune to incapacitation. In fact damn near nothing is outside of CR 20+ monsters.

Wizard 8: Use this ASI to bump up your Intelligence for better spells. Spells like Control Water, letting you flood areas, part water to keep your dress dry, redirect water to flood the bastards who need flooding, and create whirlpools. It’s a shame none of these options let you create a giant magic storm that can send your mind back in time, but… that’s more of a “level 9” kinda thing.

Wizard 9: Ninth level wizards can Dominate Person, bending the fey to your will with the frightful curse of command spells. ..I’m assuming the “fey” here are also hexbloods- this doesn’t actually work on faeries since they’re not humanoid.

Wizard 10: Tenth level war mages have Durable Magic, giving you a +2 to your AC and all saves while concentrating on spells. That includes your concentration saves, which you already have proficiency on. And you have a +3 from being so dang healthy, so that’s an automatic +10 for a minimum of 11 on every concentration roll. That means you automatically save against any sort of damage unless you get hit by 24 damage or more. And you can use Arcane Deflection here, so that’s actually a minimum of 32 damage. This is Dantes level concentration, and this is just a side benefit! Also, this brings your pitiful AC from a 12 all the way to the dizzying heights of a… 14. Yeesh. For your spell, Enervation is like Witch Bolt but for eating people’s souls. If they fail a dexterity save they take the full damage, and you heal for half the amount they take. Then you can use your action every turn to deal that damage without a save. This isn’t quite the save or die curse you put on the fey who can’t pay their taxes, but it does make you even tankier for basically no reason.

Wizard 11: Eleventh level wizards get sixth level spells like Create Homunculus. It’s a tiny creature that you can feed your hit points into for a limited time boost to its power. I know it’s small right now, but Mordred’s just a baby, cut him some slack.

Wizard 12: Use this ASI to max out your Intelligence. Wizards love that shit. You also get Tenser’s Transformation so you can come back strong from the brink of death. While transformed for up to 10 minutes, you can’t cast spells, but in return you gain 50 temporary HP, have advantage and proficiency with weapon attacks, deal extra damage on a hit, gain proficiency in strength saves, and can attack twice per action. You also have to make a constitution save after the spell ends or you’ll get messed up, but… you have a +13 to a dc 15 save if you use your deflection, so you’re probably gonna make it. The other big issue is that your best melee attacking stat is dexterity, which is a +0. Advantage is good, but it’s not that good.

Wizard 13: Thirteenth level wizards get seventh level spells. If you don’t want all that hullaballoo about temporary HP an actual weapons, Mordenkainen’s Sword might be more your speed. You create a floating sword that hangs out with you for up to a minute, and you can attack with it every bonus action. It says it’s a sword-shaped plane of force, but your weapon shapeshifts, so do what you want with it.

Wizard 14: Fourteenth level war mages have a Deflecting Shroud. Now every time you use Arcane Deflection you can hit up to 3 creatures near you for half your wizard level in force damage. By the end of this that’s 24 free damage per round just for getting hit! You can also make a Simulacrum- it’s basically you, but it can’t regain spell slots, and it has half your HP. You know how we made infinite Osakabehimes to cheese out a paper army? That’s actually a canonical ability Morgan has. We are so fucked.

Wizard 15: Fifteenth level wizards get eighth level spells. The fey love using magic, so put them in their place with an Antimagic Field. Just… just no. Also, you can make Clones now! These can’t be turned into an army like simulacrum, but they’re effectively the best guts in town. It costs 3,000 GP to make one, and it takes 120 days to reach maturity, but after that, you will instantly pop into one of these bad boys when you die. If you’ve killed a high-level wizard, no you haven’t.

Wizard 16: We’re using our last ASI to become a Metamagic Adept for 2 more sorcery points and two more metamagic options. Heightened spell forces disadvantage on a save against a spell you cast. Your best spells only have one save before you wail on them for tons of damage. Also, pick up Distant spell to double a spell’s range. You’ve got to have one hell of an arm on you to hit something in another lostbelt. You can Dominate Monster now. Kind of a waste of an eighth level spell slot, but if you’re dealing with true fey nothing else will do.

Wizard 17: Your final level grants you the ultimate power of ninth level spells. Power Word Kill: Collect enough life energy or die- it’s literally how your taxes work. With True Polymorph, you can now permanently warp a creature’s spirit origin, turning fey of your choosing into knights of the round table. Turning one creature into another is simple: the new form has to have a CR lower or equal to the original form’s CR or its level. It lasts for an hour: if they stay in their form the whole time, it lasts until dispelled. You can also turn objects into creatures CR 9 or lower, or a creature into an object. A death knight is CR 17, and I assume your faerie knights have been leveling up with you, right?

Pros and Cons

Pros:

For a caster, you have ridiculous amounts of HP. You’re still low enough that a particularly dedicated Sanson could get you down in a single turn, but he’d still have to reach you first. Past your massive spell radius, magic-enhanced initiative, advantage-negation, and literal army of yous. But yeah, once all that’s taken care of, you’re in trouble.

The only way your spell list could get more bonkers is wish, and you’re a wizard. That means you can just… copy wish down if you find it. And cast it as much as you want.

One thing I didn’t touch one with true polymorph: Simulacra + Polymorph is dumb. Why? Because Simulacra have the same level as you do. So, you can True Polymorph one into a real-ass copy of you which can regain spell slots, has all your health, and can do the same combo. One Morgan becomes two becomes four, and they all have clone backups. Wizards are stupid powerful.

Cons:

It’s a good thing your concentration saves are fantastic, because your AC is… less spectacular. It’s 14, unless you use your reaction and chance for a leveled spell to raise it to 16. Or use a spell slot for shield. Either way, you’re at a disadvantage. You also have zero ways to heal yourself outside of rests, so once that HP is gone it’s not coming back without a cleric.

It takes a lot of time to build up that infinite army, and also it’s kind of DM fiat as to whether or not that even works. Your great and powerful immortality engine doesn’t come online until level 20, and most campaigns never reach that point. So you’re either playing this character in a campaign that never gets to see level 20, or in a oneshot that won’t give you the time to set up.

Your Concentration is amazing, so of course a lot of your spells capitalize on it. But that also means you can’t cast two of them at the same time. Kind of a rough deal, picking and choosing what you have to get done. Also, quite a few of your spells have limitations requiring your target to stay within range, which can be a problem. If only you knew someone who was really good at slowing people down… ah well.

#fgo #fate grand order #D&D 5e #DND #Morgan le Fay #Wizard #Sorcerer

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blackcur-rants · 2 years ago

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You know, now that I’ve seen up to Episode Twenty of Season Two (you know, the one with the popcorn…), let’s talk about how much I love the fact that the island where the Stork Greek Gods live is called “Ithaquack”.

See, in Greek Mythology, Ithaca/Ithake is the homeland of Odysseus, professional plotter and schemer of the heroes present at the Trojan War. What’s compelling about this is that, despite pop culture only remembering Odysseus for his various adventures with the Cyclopes and Circe and Scylla and Charybdis and the Sirens and Calypso etc…that’s actually a small part of the poem, taking up only four books of a twenty-four book epic. What “The Odyssey” is much more about is the character of Odysseus himself and the impact he leaves/left on the people around him, most especially him trying to get home to his wife Penelope and their son Telemachus so that they can repair the life they had together before Odysseus had to leave for the Trojan War. And really, “DuckTales” in its 2017 incarnation is fundamentally also the story of an adventurer (Scrooge) and the impact he has left on the other beings around him throughout his long life.

In fact, the whole show is so much about that central theme of “Legacy” and “What do we leave behind for our children and grandchildren when our own halcyon days are gone and done for?”. Pretty much every character in the show is affected by the people who came before them, not just Webby with her Special Interest in the McDuck family or the Triplets looking for Della, but also Mark Beaks creating a robot son rather than die alone and miserable or Faris Djinn seeking the Lost Lamp not because it’s an all-powerful MacGuffin, but because it means something to him and his family or how Jim Starling and Launchpad both had their lives positively impacted by the Darkwing Duck series or how the effects of Magica’s abuse don’t magically vanish once she’s defeated and left powerless or Lunaris deciding to invade the Earth because he doesn’t want to be seen as being weak like his father or the fact that there is literally a ghost as part of the supporting cast. Hell, a lot of Donald’s anger issues are implied very heavily to be caused in large part by how he and Della most likely lost their own parents when they were very young. Also, how fascinating is it that this show shows the legacies of some characters reverberating back into the generations before them via the parents of Scrooge and Doofus Drake?

Also, there’s the whole running theme in Greek Mythology of Heroes wrestling with Fate, a force that even the Gods themselves could not defeat in a lot of the classic myths. However in “DuckTales”, so many of the characters both good (Scrooge, Lena) and evil (Flintheart Glomgold) are defined by how they seized control of their own destinies and lives and defied what the world said they should be. I’d argue that’s kind of the whole reason why Webby idolises Scrooge so much. Whenever the world told him something was impossible, he chose to prove them wrong and pretty much always triumphed or learned that he isn’t invincible and figured out what truly mattered in his life. You know, that makes Scrooge going on his silly little adventures a close parallel to Luz teaching herself magic despite everyone saying she’s too neurodivergent and lacks the bile sac needed to do complex spells.

Can you tell that Dana Terrace and Matt Braly both worked on this show?

@riverajocabed1 @disregardcanon @lady-asteria @whencartoonsruletheworld @elphabaforpresidentofgallifrey @theofficialkai517 @uncleasriel

I was not expecting the funny duck show to deal so heavily with a broken family coming back together to heal its own generational trauma.

Oh shoot! I haven't checked my inbox for questions in a while. Sorry for keeping you waiting.

And that's why I adore cartoons! They always have this cute image to them but man can they go hard with the messages. And people say cartoons are just for kids. Boy! I wish adults would watch cartoons more because you get emotional messages in the most wholesome ways! There's a lot I love about Ducktales. The diversity is one. Scrooge is all around the world making connections and learning about new cultures. The generational trauma that needed to be healed. The family issue's, the way Louie didn't forgive his mother for leaving them when they were eggs. I'm pretty sure he never did forgive her but he gave her a chance to prove herself. Which I adore! Forgiveness isn't always necessary, but you can still continue a relationship.

But what I love the most about Ducktales, is how they handled Donald's anger issues. A little back story to me, I'm always the calm and shy one. The one that is always polite and helps others calm down. Unfortunately, this means I've seen people with anger issues come to me for help or as a safe haven. And I'm more than glad to be one for them. But I've been in different relationships with men who have anger issues. It's not fun and everytime they drained me dry. The most memorable thing one of them said to me, speaking from memory, "You better stop questioning why I like you or else I really will get mad." After telling him a girl called me wierd "I'm gonna kill her!" When someone made me cry, "They're going to hell." Goes off to find them. I always thought they were being sweet until I realized they can always turn their anger towards me. And one day they got so mad, they took their anger out on me. Saying things they regretted later but the damage was done.

I know anger is a part of life and an emotion that helps protect you. It's a beautiful emotion that helps you get treated the way you deserve to be treated. Anger helps you gain what you deserve in life. But it can go too far and break relationships. In Ducktales, I adore how they handled the topic! Donald was always the type to get mad at the slightest things and would blow up on anything and anyone. So to get a proper background to why he's like that, it hit home. He lost loved ones in the past and gained trust issues. So he feels like the world is against him. Finding the root to his issue was a big moment. And then the way they handled it further was fantastic. Donald took anger management and they didn't get rid of his anger. No, instead they helped him embrace that anger. They helped him use that anger to keep his loved ones and himself safe. He learned how to use his anger properly and how to let it out in healthy ways. I love that! And I wish all the people who took their anger out on me watched this show as a guide to the right direction.

Love Ducktales, Master piece!

#Ducktales #Ducktales 2017 #Webby Vanderquack #Lena Sabrewing #Scrooge McDuck #Weblena #Huey Duck #Dewey Duck #Louie Duck #Della Duck #Donald Duck #abuse cw #ghosts cw #long post cw #religious talk cw #philosophy of cartoons #death cw

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zerobotic · 4 years ago

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Well, you asked for it and you can’t say I didn’t warn you :3

First off, the usual disclaimer that I did enjoy DH2. I thought it had some very interesting level design ideas with the clockwork mansion and crack in the slab, the new powers were very cool and fun to use, and it polished some of the rough edges from the first game’s mechanics. It’s just the story and such that disappointed me after how much I loved the first game.

So to start off here’s some of the things I found disappointing or frustrating (and keep in mind these are all just my personal feelings on the games):

“Spoiled rich person learns a lesson from poverty tourism” is a plot that gets on my nerves in general and that’s more or less what happened here with Emily’s story

Like, not to disagree with an anti-rich-people story but the first one did a much more poignant job of highlighting greed and corruption and letting you be the one actually fighting it, rather than putting you in the position of perpetuating it. It felt like the first game showed it, while the second game just preached about it.

Boy this sure did feel out of character for both Corvo and Emily. Emily watched her mother be murdered at ten years old for the sake of political power, and then was held hostage for six months while being told her father was executed for her mother’s death. She got a firsthand view of how much the people of the empire were suffering during this time, and then when she finally got rescued she was immediately kidnapped and used as a pawn again by yet more schemers after her mother’s throne. You cannot tell me that’s a person who would grow up to be spoiled and carefree and complacent with their position, or someone who wouldn’t give a shit about their people. Yes, I know that she was a headstrong, rebellious kid with an adventurous streak, and I’m not trying to claim she wouldn’t probably still prefer, on some level or another, to escape to the rooftops with a sword rather than being stuck in court. I’m just saying that kids grow up and change and whoever wrote the second game seems to be stuck on taking ten-year-old Emily at face value for her adult self’s personality too, instead of considering how the first game’s events might have actually influenced her. She’s got more than enough firsthand experience to know to be wary of scheming nobles. (Also I definitely got the feeling, playing the first game, that at least a bit of how Emily behaved at the Hound Pits was her trying to cope with what was happening.) You also can’t tell me that Corvo, father and royal protector of the current empress, man with the most reason and justification to be paranoid out of everyone in the whole damn empire after everything he’s been through, would be so negligent in paying attention to a coup that the first mission claims pretty much everyone in Dunwall knew was happening.

Building off of that, in general it felt like the first game wasn’t allowed to have much of an impact. It pays lipservice to Jessamine’s death, and acknowledges Corvo having been a badass back then, but that’s....about it? Like I said in the other post, the first game felt so saturated in grief, both for Jessamine and for everything else going on in Dunwall, that it really influenced the overall tone of the game. The second one kinda feels like the first one never happened, or at least didn’t have any lasting influence on the characters or world, and it’s kind of jarring going from one to the other.

So with all that said, here’s my idea for a different DH2. Still using Karnaca as the setting and Delilah as the primary antagonist, just...different.

"Delilah wants to use a reality-altering painting to change the world into her vision of it” is still a plot point. Except, instead of the end of the game, it’s the beginning. It’s a logical extension of her actions and powers during the Daud DLC - the plan to use Emily’s painting to take over almost worked til it was stopped, so there’s clearly potential there. She’ll just think bigger, more direct this time.

The game starts on a ship. Emily and Corvo are en route to Karnaca for some sort of diplomatic mission. We get to know them a little bit during this opening trip: Emily isn’t an absent, complacent ruler, she's a young woman who inherited a difficult throne as a child, after a series of traumatic events, and now she's trying hard to live up to her mother's legacy and prove herself worthy to an empire that still seems to only see her as the child she was during the interregnum. She’s doing her best, but she’s insecure about all of that, and spends a lot of time frustrated with the back and forth scheming of the nobles, trying to please everyone instead of putting her foot down and getting things done. Corvo is trying to keep her safe where he failed Jessamine, but court still isn’t his preferred arena either.

The night before they’re due to arrive in Karnaca, we start getting hints that something is...off. Strange dreams, maybe?

They land in Karnaca and things are different than expected. But they don’t get time to look around, because there's guards there to arrest them, claiming they’re wanted criminals. They’ve got music boxes or something that can strip Corvo of his powers, and only one of them gets away while the other is taken. The one that gets away is stuck alone, disoriented, and hunted in an unfamiliar city - even if you play as Corvo, things are different than he remembers. More different than can be explained by just time.

They meet Meagan Foster. She takes them to meet a group of ex-whalers (the player character doesn’t know who they are). They’re a group that got back in touch with each other in Karnaca after Daud left and the whalers split, and they still do shady shit, but these days it’s generally more smuggling type stuff and they’ve put down the assassin blades. They’re the equivalent of the loyalist home base in this game. Meagan is still the Samuel stand-in, taking the player places and narrating things as necessary.

Information is shared and the player finds out that somehow, the world is changed from what they remember. Delilah is the empress, here, come by it what seemed like legitimately at some point in the 15 years between Jessamine’s death and now, and Emily and Corvo are wanted criminals. No one seems aware of the change except for the player and the whalers (who only remember it because of their experience with magic, though the player character doesn’t learn that til much later).

Clearly it’s Delilah who did something, because she has magic, and she’s the one on the throne now.

The Outsider shows up in their dreams that first night in the new world, but something is clearly wrong in the void, too, and it seems like he’s barely capable of reaching out and communicating with them. He offers the mark, but disappears before really getting a chance to explain anything.

The player goes through the game now with the goal of finding out what happened, how it happened, and how it can be fixed. DH2 and DOTO explained a lot more than I felt they should’ve, at times, and I preferred how the first game balanced worldbuilding with mystery. So, let things be explored and figured out along the way.

Things are real bad in this universe. From Emily's perspective as she goes through the game, we get commentary questioning whether or not she was doing a good job, and comparing it to how things are in Delilah's world. There’s lots of corruption and poverty and people suffering, and the question "is this just Delilah's world? How much of this going on in mine too? In trying to navigate court instead of putting my foot down, was I failing my people in the end after all? Would it have been better if my mother was still the empress?" The difference between this and what DH2 did is that she was trying, there was just a lot hindering her, including her own doubts. In this one, those questions aren’t preaching, they’re a sign that she does care and is pained by the idea of her people suffering like this again, by the mere possibility that it might not be just Delilah’s world.

Corvo and Emily have distinct perspectives, not just the same lines very slightly altered.

The bloodfly infestations are either 1) a natural thing that wasnt supposed to turn ugly like this and has been affected by Delilah’s magic, or 2) wholly the product of unnatural magic. None of this "we need them and they’re always like this, just not this bad" stuff. if you're gonna repeat the plague motif, make it actually horrifying, like the rat plague was. In fact, there’s obvious magic influence here and there in general - maybe not quite as thorough as at Brigmore Manor, but it’s present enough to give you the creeping feeling that things aren’t right, here, visual confirmation of Delilah’s influence, that things have been changed and twisted from their normal state of things. Hell, maybe this is where the hollows from DOTO come in, the original world and Delilah’s altered version of it trying to bleed through each other in some spaces. Maybe that’s a different explanation for the crack in the slab mission, even.

Actually, if you’re gonna repeat the plague motif, lean into the similarities between the rat plague era and now. Have them be reminded here and there by things they see, recount what happened and how terrible it was, compare it to now. Give NPCs lines about the comparison and how some of them left Dunwall only to be stuck living through something like this a second time. Let the first game have happened and had an impact, folks, cmon.

On a similar note, if you’re gonna keep Delilah's backstory the same when we finally learn it, let Emily and Corvo get mad about it. They lived through the first game - what right does Delilah have to talk like she's got a monopoly on suffering and that's why she should have the throne?

Delilah's mistake was assuming Emily was a sheltered child who wouldn’t come for her, rather than someone who's already been through a lot and come out on top. That was almost a satisfying thing about the second game but they messed up the execution of the whole concept and I want it to actually pay off.

I’m not sure if the targets in this one should be the same or how much should change there. Honestly, except for Breanna, the targets in DH2 felt a lot less relevant to what was going on than the DH1 targets did, like...why are half these people even at this ritual? But for simplicity’s sake let’s keep it as close as we can, while also adjusting for the fact that this reality has been tailor-made for Delilah and her buddies. Perhaps the Duke is only the Duke here because things were rewritten to put one of Delilah’s allies in charge, and it was supposed to still be his father. Hypatia isn’t the crown killer (what even was that plot point honestly), she’s the doctor they found to help Delilah recover after her time in the void, and now they’ve rewritten things to imprison her in the institute to keep her quiet and out of the way, and you get wind of it and go to see what she knows. Etc. Is Sokolov involved in this version of things? I dunno! But speaking of Sokolov I want some sort of explanation for where the other surviving loyalists are, damnit.

Delilah did something in and to the void, just like in canon, but it actually has a visible impact here (beyond just a total aesthetic redesign of the void between games that never gets commented on). The void is struggling under her influence when you find shrines, and you never know what you're gonna find at one of them, or what the Outsider is gonna be like, if he even shows up. Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of the way DH2 gave him a human backstory, because I liked the mystery there behind what he was and what the void was, but this is open to go either way, either with Delilah finding his death site like in canon, or some other way she found to influence it. I’m not sure how the progression would go of how the void changes over the course of the game, but it would be cool to get to help/save the Outsider in some kinda way.

Finding Corvo's childhood home should have more impact. Let it be like when you find the saferoom in Dunwall tower, in the first game. A temporary refuge in a dangerous place, full of obvious memory and grief - not so much for the time spent here since that's so long in the past, but for all that's been lost, everything they've been through and are in the middle of going through. Especially if you're playing Emily - this is the home of the father she just lost.

Let the heart be vague and ominous again, and let our interactions with it be sad, especially as Emily! I’m still messed up about the first time I heard "the doom of Pandyssia has come to the city" in DH1, and the lines about the floodwaters and the plague victims, give me stuff like that! Especially in a world that isn’t meant to exist the way it currently is, where things have been twisted almost beyond recognition. And give me lines that remind Emily of the mother she lost and how this is the first time she's heard her voice since she was a child!

Give us more on citizens and how they're suffering in this world, the way the first game showed us plague victims who died in each other's arms, journals from the desperate and dying, living people sent to the flooded district. Let it be a reminder to Emily why it's worth it, why she has to change the world back and what she wants to be fighting for when she gets her throne back. Another reason to question - has she been doing all she can? (Alternatively, a source of righteous fury for high chaos Emily.)

This is a journey of self discovery for Emily, either low or high chaos. It's about realizing she hasn’t been doing all she could, despite her intentions, because she's been trying to please everyone and in the end it still wasn’t good enough. She needs to stop living under her mother's shadow and come into her own (and the heart plays a role in this epiphany, probably. This might actually come to a head when she has to let her mother's spirit go, if we're gonna keep that plot point.)

High chaos Emily is similar but in a more "alright no more nice empress" kinda way whereas low chaos is more about conviction to put her foot down to do what's right.

You meet people during the game who in a good ending become part of her new council. Common people, who are more in touch with what needs to be done. It pisses nobles off but she's determined to do better, after everything. It helps both her and Corvo come to terms with the whole safety thing, because you can't ever make sure you're totally safe but you can try to make sure the empire can keep going should something happen to its ruler.

In fact, part of Corvo's perspective on this game probably would involve him still wanting to keep Emily out of things for safety's sake, and wondering if sheltering her from knowledge of magic and such contributed to this situation.

When it's revealed who the whalers are, it's late in the game after we've already come to like them a lot. They don't betray you like the loyalists did, but it should still feel like a punch to the gut for Emily and Corvo.

They don’t know where Daud is, haven’t seen him since the whalers disbanded .

Billie talks about that whole thing, and it's complicated. She decides maybe she should try to find him, after all. Cue DLC, which is about finding Daud, and helping/saving him, and the two reconciling and Billie finding some kind of...if not redemption, then absolution. A parallel to the first game’s DLC, Billie getting an arc like that in Emily’s game the way Daud got that arc in Corvo’s game. Y’know, instead of DOTO going and undoing all of Daud’s character growth.

I know I’m kind of handwaving the actual mechanics of who the targets are and how you actually go about uncovering what happened and how you can fix it and take down Delilah in the end, but this is all just. Concepts. If I were to try to write this as a fic or something I’d have to actually sit down and work out all those details, but for now this is something that’s just been living in my head since like an hour after I finished DH2 for the first time a couple years ago.

(I did warn you it was gonna be long lmao)

#turnabout rambles #mvtk42

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sortinghatchats · 5 years ago

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Sorting Teen Wolf

In this system, we like to talk about Primary Houses (WHY characters do things) and Secondary Houses (HOW characters do things). Read more on our tumblr, at sortinghatchats.wordpress.com, or take our quiz: https://ejadelomax.itch.io/sortinghatchats

Scott McCall is a Hufflepuff primary: his morality (why he does things) is based in fairness, in people and the idea that every single one deserves consideration, in community and in loyalty. He’s a Puff secondary, too: his best methods (aka his secondary) (aka how he does things) are compassion, team building, and helping others. (Hello Mr. Every Time Someone is in Pain I Take it on Myself).

But Scott thinks the way he is supposed to act is brave, direct, and forceful. So he tries. He models Gryffindor, and he has nightmares about that particular bravery’s violent extremes.

Once upon a time on a little show called Teen Wolf, Stiles Stilinski told Scott McCall he didn’t have to save everyone, and Scott gave him the blankest, most incomprehending look imaginable.

Stiles is a Slytherclaw— the precise, ruthless loyalties of a Slytherin Primary acted out by a Ravenclaw secondary’s planning, strategy, research, and learning. The kid reeks Slytherin. Refusing to tell his father about the supernatural, to keep him safe, even at the expense of other people’s lives— Stiles only backed down then at the terrible might of Scott’s puppy dog eyes, which: understandable.

Let’s kill Jackson, says Stiles, because he doesn’t care. In Allison’s voice that would have the ruthlessness of idealism, not “he’s not one of mine.” I guess a good distinction would be this: Allison would consider killing Scott, if he was murdering people, and Stiles never would. (This is not indicative of a greater connection between brother and brother or lover and lover; this is just pointing out that Allison would do, first, what was right (she would certainly fight her hardest to save Scott, but if there were truly no other options she would sacrifice him).

Stiles’s morality doesn’t work like that. He would keep his father in the dark even if it meant letting people die, because his father’s life is more important to him than theirs. Stiles is a Slytherin with a very short list of people.

I think in the S1 Stiles might have modeled Slytherin Secondary on top of his Ravenclaw secondary. He’s into manuevering and deception a lot more then than he is in the later seasons— especially after the nogitsune.

“I’m 147 pounds of skin and bones; sarcasm is my only defense.” I think that says a lot of it— Stlies has been becoming more and more powerful in his own Ravenclaw skills, enough that he can rely on them instead of hiding behind Slytherin modeling. I’m not sure he feels safer (the world keeps getting more dangerous) but he’s been up against enough now to know that he can survive, and that what keeps him safe tends to be his steady mind and anxious preparations.

Lydia is a Ravenclaw/Ravenclaw who models Slytherin Secondary (eight million times better than Stiles does) and performs Puff (about as badly as Stiles models Slytherin—you can tell she’s putting it on for politeness, when she smiles and doesn’t mean it).

In this way, her and Stiles’s journeys parallel each other, which makes their friendship one of my favorites. They’re both slowly coming to accept and value their Ravenclaw— to recognize that this is a kind of strength and perhaps even beauty; and that it is theirs.

Until Lydia starts breaking, she almost looks like a Slytherpuff—or, well, a Slytherin/Slytherin with a Puff performance. Her Puff is really unconvincing. But her outward facade of Slytherin Primary is magnificent. Even in the first season, though, her Claw peeks its head out now and then.

(Also: it looks like Lydia’s mom is a Ravenpuff? Which makes me wonder where Lydia learned that she should be a Slytherin. Because she’s so ashamed of her Ravenclaw, early on, both the primary’s idealism and the secondary’s intelligence and curiosity. She has this idea that beauty and power are the things required of her and that she must fulfill them. Only her world shattering around her made her vulnerable enough to reassess and embrace her Ravenclaw. It makes me want to meet her father, or other formative influences in her life, and perhaps see what her mother acted like in that marriage).

Alison Argent takes up her family’s moral legacy and rewrites it in her own words. She does what she thinks is right in defiance of foes, friends, and family. When she decides what right is, when she has watched and learned the world around her and slowly, deliberately built her own code out of the truths she’s found there—then Allison goes after her goals with a single minded intensity and a direct, sometimes violent efficiency. This, my friends, is a Ravenclaw/Gryffindor and she is beautiful.

(ALLISON I HOPE YOU ARE ENJOYING BACKPACKING FRANCE WHILE YOU RECONNECT WITH YOUR COUSINS AND FIGHT FOR TOLERANCE IN THE HUNTER COMMUNITY. I LOVE HOW YOU CALL LYDIA ONCE A WEEK ON SKYPE.)

Malia and Stiles boned over their shared Slytherin primary, which delights me. Malia looks like a Slytherdor, but I wonder if she might be a Slytherin/Slytherin who’s living in her “neutral state” because she doesn’t give a toot. I think if Malia needed to, she’d be happy to lie, coerce, adapt, transform to get what she wanted. She just so far doesn’t think highly enough of anyone to manuever in any way but straightforwardly.

Kira is a Gryffinpuff, I think. She’s certain and forward and brave, and she goes after her goals with kindness and determination.

Derek is a Hufflepuff with a Claw secondary. “We’re brothers now,” he tells this young kid just because the kid got chewed on by his uncle. He is desperate for community (see: the terrible choices of the Worst Alpha Ever aka S2). Even when he’s creepy (often), even when he’s a failwolf (…more often), he’s doing things to help people simply because they are people.

But he was going to kill Lydia, right? When we thought she was the kanima. Yes, he was— to save other people. Scott, wasn’t, but they’re both still Puffs, because Derek is what happens when a kid like Scott loses hope—or gets a truer idea of the real world, depending on who you ask.

Scott doesn’t believe in victories that come with comprimises attached. He doesn’t believe in heroism with trade-offs and consequences. Scott was going to save Lydia. But Derek? One girl’s life to stop a monster? He was going to save everyone else.

(Which— he was wrong, it was Jackson, you failwolf. But I’m more interested in both of their why’s than I am in the realities of the fictional situation).

Derek, like Scott, also models Gryffindor and probably… shouldn’t. He’s worse at it than Scott is. Which, like, wow. Calm down kiddos, please. Neither of you wants to be alpha dog, not really. Embrace your inner pack mom. Take pain from people and take Kira leather jacket shopping and brush the hair out of Cora’s face and hold Lydia’s hand when she’s making hard decisions about what kind of person she wants to grow up to be. Here are your strengths, boys. Here is your heroism.

THE PARENTS

Melissa McCall, Mama McCall, the beacon of Beacon Hills, is a Slytherdor. Her son’s in danger? She will forcibly waken one of her own patients when she herself has warned against it. She will sit with Ms. Yukimura and wonder why their children have to fight this war. (Ms. Yukimura, who’s some sort of idealist House, will respond that otherwise they would be running and hiding, but Melissa will remain unconvinced because this is her boy).

Melissa’s a Gryff secondary because she is direct, no-nonsense, and doesn’t care if she steps on people’s toes on the way to her goals. She’s amenable up until someone gets between her and something she wants, or something she wants to protect.Melissa models Hufflepuff occasionally, sometimes at her job, but most often around her ex, which makes me wonder if Melissa used to be a Slytherpuff, or a Huffledor, but went “no, screw this!” at the same time she threw her husband out of the house.

Papa Argent, I think, House shares with Derek Hale: Hufflepuff (his morality is informed strongly by the people he loves: his father and sister, and then his daughter; the best argument to get to him in S1 is “Scott hasn’t hurt anyone yet”) with a Ravenclaw primary (plans, preparation, and knowledge), and a Gryffindor modeling because it’s what his family expects of him.

Scott doesn’t have that many Hufflepuff role-models, does he? His mom, who is extraordinary and wonderful, is a Slytherdor. You can get farther from Puff/Puff but it’s hard. He doesn’t particularly bond with Papa Argent.

The best role model is probably Sheriff, who might be a Puff primary, but who Gryffindor secondaries so competently. Gryffindor secondaries just aren’t where Scott’s skills lie. Or maybe he could find a role model in Deaton, who models Puff but I think Deaton’s really just a Ravenclaw/Ravenclaw. The Puff all goes away when things get serious.

No wonder the kid isn’t comfortable with his Puff. All of his heroes win their wars in other ways.

THE VILLAINS

Peter is a burned Hufflepuff. Literally. People who aren’t his family have ceased being people to him. He presents effectively as a rather nasty Slytherin, but I do think it’s ultimately coming from a Hufflepuff place. But maybe I’m wrong and he really is as simply and shallowly selfish as he seems. … yeah that’s quite possible.

Peter’s got a slimy Slytherin secondary, and he models Ravenclaw, which is the Chessmaster set up, the mold for the manipulative schemer who (would like to think he) is two steps ahead of everyone.

(This is opposed to just a Slytherin, where you get adaptable and interpersonally effective tactics, but no long term “mwuahaha” strategy, and just Ravenclaw (think Sokka. think later seasons Stiles) where you just have the strategist).

Gerard, the manipulative douchebag, is a Slytherin/Slytherin who performs Gryffindor to cajole people like Kate and Allison into following him.

Kate is a Gryffindor/Slytherin who models and performs Gryffindor. I’m so sorry Gryffindors.

#teen wolf #scott mccall #stiles stilinski #derek hale #sortinghatchats

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d-noona · 4 years ago

Text

MAKE OVER

Chapter 16: New Year’s Eve | FINAL

Jung Hoseok x Reader

Reader as Kang Hyeonji

SUMMARY: When Kang Hyeonji transformed herself into a striking redhead, the entire male population of Seoul stood up and took notice. But her make over was for Jung Hoseok’s benefit alone. He began to show interest in the new look but not in the way she wanted. Suddenly he was over-protective, perhaps a little jealous. It seemed that the idea of having a relationship with her couldn’t be further from his mind. The girl however wants more. So it was time for an ultimatum. If Hoseok didn’t want Hyeonji to lose her virginity to another admirer, he had no option but to make love to her himself.

The party was in full swing, a large motley collection of people having gathered in the Jung's house to celebrate New Year's Eve, plus the engagement of Hoseok to his long-time girlfriend slash next door neighbor, Kang Hyeonji.

As the glamorous guest of honor, the happy couple were dressed for the part. The proud groom-to-be was resplendent in stylish Balenciaga navy trousers, an open neck Gucci blue shirt and a suave cream silk sports jacket by Supreme. is bride-to-be was stunning in a strapless party dress of emerald satin by Chanel, with an even more stunning emerald and gold choker gracing her elegant neck. It had been a Christmas present from her adorning fiance, one of many he'd lavished on her during the past year.

Hoseok had, in fact spoiled Hyeonji rotten with gifts of expensive clothes and jewelry, not to mention his myriad smaller purchases of chocolates, flowers and perfume. He'd taught her to drive in his precious car, and would've bought him a new car if she'd let him. Then there were the fantasy getaways he'd taken her on, weekends here and there at romantic places designed to seduce and soften even the hardest of hearts. Not that Hyeonji was a hard girl. Hoseok knew she wasn't.

But she'd been surprisingly difficult to win, he'd found to his consternation. He'd never been quite sure of her feelings. She'd keep him dangling, had often been late for dates, and had sometimes even dared to cancel them. He'd never quite known where he stood with her, which had been both irritating and intriguing. Only in the love making department had he been sure of his domination over her. There, she was a putty in his hands, melting at his touch, quick to be aroused and always willing, no matter how often he wanted her, or where.

She'd never said no, even when there;d been some danger of being discovered. His choosing precarious places, such as behind rocks at the beach or in a sparsely filled movie theater - had sometimes soothed the sense of emotional insecurity she instilled in him, he'd almost felt loved. There'd been no doubt she craved him sexually; could not deny him. But was that love?

Till Christmas Day, when he'd produced an engagement ring for her which would have done Elizabeth Taylor proud. It was huge brilliant-cut yellow Argyle diamond, set in white gold. But it had been his words as he'd given it to her that had seemed to do the trick. "This cost me a fortune, Hyeonji," he said. "But a fortune means nothing to me without you. Marry me, my darling. I love you so much and I think you love me. You don't have to say you do if you don't want to but it would be nice, just once, to hear it from your lips."

Hyeonji had stared at him and then burst into tears. He gathered her to him and heard the words he'd been dying to hear all year. "Of course I love you. Don't you know that yet? I love you, Hoseok. With all of my heart, I love you. I love you..."

He looked over at her now across the crowded living room and caught her eye. She smiled at him, brown eyes sparkling. It wasn't so much different from the smiles she'd given him before, but tonight he saw the love in them. Why hadn't he seen it before? Hoseok was about to walk across the room to join her when someone tapped him on the elbow.

"Hello, you gorgeous hunk, you. If I wasn't married, you know, I'd given Hyeonji a run for her money." It was Choon Hee, from the library. One of Hyeonji's best friends.

Hoseok smiled "You would have to be good."

Choon Hee nodded up and down. "You're right. Hyeonji's a grand girl and I'm very happy for her. You don't know how lucky you are."

"Oh, I think I do..."

"She's loved you for so long, you know." says Choon Hee

Hoseok was about to say he didn't know at all when he stopped himself. It was then he realized Choon Hee was off in another world, smiling at something in her head.

"I can still remember the day she came into the library and told me about Mr X. You must remember Mr X, Hoseok," she added, glancing up at him.

"Only too well," Hoseok said dryly, and he lifted the glass he was holding to his lips.

Choon Hee chuckled. "I nearly cracked up when she told me about him, especially when she said you hadn't twigged. I mean...you have to admit it's very funny, but rather typical of men, not seeing beyond their nose. But I dare say you've laughed together about it since."

"Laughed about what?"

"About you being Mr X, of course."

Hoseok's drink froze midway to his mouth. He stared at Choon Hee over the glass. She grimaced, then groaned. "Oh, dear heaven, you didn't know. I always assumed she'd told you. Oh Lord!"

Hoseok could hardly think. He was Mr X. His head spun with the news, and all it implied. Hyeonji had loved him all along. But she'd also lied to him, laughed at him, manipulated him. She'd been a schemer, as Tinashe had warned she was. He recoiled at his thought, and his feelings showed on his face.

"Don't you dare take that attitude," Choon Hee warned.

"Dont you DARE! That girl loves you. No, she adores and worships you. Always has done. But did you ever see it? Not on your nelly! You sailed on through your glamorous privileged life, tossing her a few crumbs from your table when it suited you. You didn't give a fig for her feelings. You took her for granted and you broke her heart."

"But that's not..."

"Oh, shut up and listen!" Choon Hee snapped. "So what if she protected her self-esteem by inventing Mr X? So what if she had some fun with it? She'd had little enough fun in her life at that point in time. Give credit where credit is due, Hoseok. When she saw her chance she went after what she wanted. She changed for you, lied for you, fought for you. And she won you, by God - won your love and your respect. Look at her, Hoseok. She's beautiful and very brave woman; a woman in a million. Don't you dare tell her I told you about Mr X. Don't take her pride. Go on letting her think you believe she once had a Mr X in her life, because maybe she needs that Maybe she...Oh my God, she's coming over. Promise me, Hoseok. Promise me, you won't tell her I told you."

"I promise Choon," he said faithfully. "And thank you...for making me finally see the light."

Hoseok watched the girl he loved walk towards them, a lovely smile on her lovely face. He felt humbled and incredibly moved as the full import of Choon Hee's words sank in. Hyeonji had always loved him. Oh, how cruel life could be sometimes. And how wonderful. He saw now why he loved her so much. Because she loved him so much. He must have sensed in it at some subconscious level, had known that to let her go would be the worst, most stupid thing he could ever do. He vowed now he'd never let her go. Never.

"What are you two sneaky devils talking about over here?" she asked, glancing from one to another. "You two were looking rather very serious, Choon Hee. You too love."

Hoseok's heart kicked over. Never had the word "love" on her lips sounded so sweet, or so touching. He wound his arm around her slender waist and pulled her against him. "We were having a very serious discussion on having children in this day and age, weren't we Choon?"

Choon Hee laughed. He could see the flicker of surprised pleasure in her eyes "I've been wanting to discuss children with you. I would like to have a baby quite soon, but I wasn't sure about you..."

No, he thought, understanding dawning. She still wasn't sure of him. It was a cruel legacy of all those years when he hadn't noticed her, hadn't wanted her. That's why she kept him unsure. She'd been protecting herself, had made him keep proving his love over and over. There was still a lot of work to be done, he realized, before she would feel totally secure in his love. But having children together would be a good start. He gave her a reassuring smile, and a loving squeeze.

Hyeonji gave a self-conscious laugh. "How about nine months after the wedding day?"

"How about six?" he returned, squeezing her again. The wedding date has been set in March.

"I think this conversation is getting too private for me," Choon Hee exited.

"Hoseok laughed "I like your Choon Hee. I think we'll ask her to be Godmother to our first child."

"Our...first child?"

"You don't honestly think we're going to have only one child, do you? Only children are notoriously spoiled."

"Yes, well..."

He kissed her. Then kissed her again. "Wanna get out of here?" he murmured

"Where?"

"Your room" Hoseok smirked.

Hyeonji sucked in a startled breath. "Mine? But it...it only has a single bed in it."

Hoseok took her hand and began drawing her from her room. "Single beds were just made for lovers." Hoseok loved her, Hyeonji, the simple, solid girl who'd always loved him. He would make sure she would never doubt it again, and he would never cause her to.

Midnight came with cheers and shouts, whistles and car horns. People spilled out of houses into the streets below. Everyone was kissing.

No one missed the guests of honor.

Back to Masterlist

#BTS #BANGTAN SONYEONDAN #FINALE #MAKEOVER ENDING #JUNGHOSEOKXREADER #JHOPEXREADER #BTSJHOPE #JUNGHOSEOK #BTSFANFIC #BTSROMANTICFANFIC

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athenril-of-kirkwall · 6 years ago

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For DADWC: “You make me feel safe.” with the pairing of your choice!

First time writing these two!

Bethany/Sebastian, “You Make Me Feel Safe” (AO3)

It wasn’t until recently that waking up alone was a concerning experience for Sebastian.

In the grand scheme of things, even back in the hedonistic days of his youth, his nightly dalliances had been such frivolous and physical matters that it was more often than not that whoever he’d brought to his quarters would inevitably be gone, whether by their own volition or shooed away by his minders.

Of course, once his family had put up with that as much as they were able and shoved him into a chantry that had been the end of it, with the bland quarters afforded to the brothers not even so much as permitting the space even if his devotions to his vows started flagging, regardless of whether he was in Starkhaven or Kirkwall.

That had all changed when everything had burnt up in flames, starting with the Chantry, and it had become manifestly clear to Hawke and his companions that it was time to leave. Given the obvious evidence before his eyes, Hawke had seen fit to trust Sebastian with his sister, who was nothing better than a fugitive apostate after Meredith’s insane decision, and the two of them had left for Starkhaven. After yet more intrigues he had finally foiled the last of the Harimanns’ intrigues and reclaimed his title, gaining a dispensation from the Grand Cleric to marry her. That had been nothing short of a miracle, given that its notaries were a Chantry brother and a mage.

In essence, the problem here was that his wife, Lady Bethany of Starkhaven, was missing from their bed, divided as it was by a bolster sewn into the lining of the sheets.

Rolling over to the source of the chill wind blowing in, he found her standing on the balcony outside dressed only in her shift, staring out into the direction of the Vimmark Mountains. Blinking away his grogginess, he picked himself up off the bed, throwing on his robe and gently draping a blanket over Bethany’s shoulders like a mantle.

Gently hugging her from the side – Chantry vows thankfully were rather vague on the whole cuddling thing – he asked her, “What’s the problem, love?”

“Couldn’t sleep,” she muttered.

“Was it Meghan?” Sebastian asked, tilting his head to the other room.

“No, no,” Bethany said, shaking her head. “I think Goran and Flora are getting through to her, just a little bit.”

“I know you still find it rather unsettling,” he said, adding, “Maker knows I do. My dear cousin’s done a marvellous job as seneschal, and at least we’ll have staved off the-”

“The succession dispute, for another generation, yes,” Bethany said, cutting him short. “Yes, Seb, I know. I was there. We’ll have to raise her at some point, you understand, or we’ll be facing the same thing all over again if some other gang of schemers gets their hooks in her.”

“Like she was our own,” he said.

“Like our own…” Bethany echoed his words, trailing off as she mentally counted the peaks between the keep and horizon, her silence revealing many unsaid doubts and concerns.

Gently turning her to face him, he asked, “Are you…happy?”

Looking up at him with eyes reddened with sleeplessness and tears, she said collapsing into his chest, “Yes, Sebastian, I am. Given everything, there’s no other place I’d rather be.”

“And given…everything else?”

She was silent, simply pressing her cheek into his bare chest. “I don’t know, Sebastian. Things could have gone in so many other ways…every morning I wake up is a blessing, a reminder of how lucky we were to survive.”

He hugged her, clutching his wife tight to him. “The dawn will come.”

She nodded, her hair brushing against his chin. “The dawn will come.”

“If it wasn’t Meghan keeping you up, what was it then?” Sebastian asked Bethany as he released her.

“My brother.”

He paused, pressing on, “Hawke the Elder? What news is there?”

Wiping under her eyes, she explained. “A hooded courier arrived before we went to sleep. He’s involved in some very deep intrigue. It has to do with the Wardens.”

“The Wardens? Have they gotten involved in the matter of the Breach?”

“I think so,” she said, continuing, “He couldn’t say much at all save that he was writing from somewhere around the Exalted Plains. And he wroteabout…about our legacy.”

“Your…legacy?” Sebastian asked, confused.

“Corypheus.”

“Corypheus? The magister responsible for the Breach? How is he your ‘legacy’?”

A fresh wave of tears sparkling in her eyes, Bethany walked back to their bed, seemingly deflating as she sat down on its edge. “It’s a long story, and one before your time. Our father, Malcolm, was a Warden, and he used…blood magic…to seal Corypheus up in an ancient prison. But Corypheus, he was too powerful to bind, and he’d corrupted the Wardens, tricking them into breaking the seals many years later. Hawke though the’d settled the matter by slaying Corypheus. Evidently not.”

He gazed distractedly at the ground, muttering, “Evidently not.”

She looked up at him with imploring eyes. “Yes, our father was a maleficar. I’m so sorry, Sebastian. Please don’t-”

Cutting her pleading short, he sat by her, clutching her tight to him and kissing her on the cheek. “I never would. Those were the decisions, and the errors of the past. Your father’s mistakes, and those of the Wardens, are not yours, nor are they Hawke’s. In fact, I assume his actions now are aimed at rectifying those very mistakes.”

She nodded quietly, cleaning the fresh tears off the old ones, asking him, “When will we ever be free from the mistakes of our ancestors?”

“Never,” he said grimly. “That’s what history is.”

Bethany shuddered as she leaned into Sebastian, taking him by his arms. “I’m so scared, Sebastian.”

“Hush…” he whispered, stroking her hair.

“An ancient evil has torn the sky open in my homeland, and Hawke is right in the middle of the storm once again, and all because of our father’s decisions. They say he’s got an archdemon, Sebastian. We all fled to Kirkwall because of the last Blight. What if this is the next one? Where will we go? What will we do?”

“Further north, methinks. Maybe we’ll surprise the darkspawn by heading right into the Anderfels. They’ll never see it coming.”

She admitted herself a little smile. “I see the years with my brother have paid off, as far as developing a funny bone goes.”

“Hawke is good for the occasional thing, yes. As for us, Starkhaven’s walls are strong, its men and women stronger, and so long as I’m here, nothing save the Void itself would prevent me from defending us till the very end.”

Bethany hugged him, leading him down across the bed until they were laying their heads on the bolster that was supposed to denote, or at least signify, their vows. She leaned into him, pecking him on the lips in an innocent kiss.

“You make me feel safe, dear.”

“And you, my love. So long as we’re together.”

“Yes.” Pressing their foreheads together, she locked her gaze with his as a distant gurgle sounded. “Oh, I think that’s Meghan, seeing as you’re so concerned with her.”

“Heh,” Sebastian said, smiling. “I think Goran can handle her.”

“Why, is the brave holy warrior scared of a restless baby?”

“Absolutely terrified, my love. Thank Andraste I have you to keep me safe.”

Feet shuffled in the room over and a bottle of milk rattled as it was drawn from a cupboard kept next to the hearth. Meanwhile, in Sebastian and Bethany’s own chambers, the loving couple fell asleep in an embrace which might have tested the limits of their dispensation if anyone had bothered – or dared – to check in on them.

@dadrunkwriting

#bethany/sebastian #bethany hawke #sebastian vael #wilfred hawke #dragon age #dragon age inquisition #dragon age ii #ao3 #fanfic #prompt fic #athenril-of-kirkwall #contreparry #dadrunkwriting #da drunk writing circle

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honestlyvan · 6 years ago

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@rhpurasu replied to your post: Not to be openly bitter or anything, but I keep...

Yeah, yeah, like KO would do it with the intent of pissing Wheels off but it wouldn’t really work in the way KO intended, because they’re pretty securely married and all and yeah, they feel p sorry for KO because of BD. And shit heck yeah actually? If KO AND BD had joined the Autobutts, that’d be a really obvious parallel of big crushy husband and mouthy racer husband!

Ok but I wanna comment on this separately b/c I keep thinking about this, and I keep finding more parallels between the Wreckers and KOBD and I can’t believe that most of this probably wasn’t intentional, since despite never having interactions that would make this apparent, they are such neat dark mirrors for each other.

From his introduction onward, Knockout is always thinking about the situation image first -- not just through vanity, his defining characteristic, but also in how he integrates himself into the Decepticon power struggle despite really having no reason to be interested in it. His interactions with his team are also defined by how his attitudes change to take advantage of the situation -- approaching Starscream as a Fellow Schemer, and Megatron as a simpering lackey b/c hey lol works for Starscream

Wheeljack, in contrast, gets introduced literally in the middle of an action beat that we learn he landed in because he is pursuing some own agenda of his we don’t get a sense of until much later. His introductory episode also has him straight-up saving himself from the trouble he got into, further defining him through his agency and doing a good job validating the “no team but me” attitude he starts out with.

Congeniality vs independence. Social integration vs freedom of action.

Next, I mentioned before that both of them have useful secondary skills -- and indeed, Knockout being a Medic Of Dubious Expertise (who is nonetheless never shown to be anything but capable) is what gives him a foot in the door with the Decepticons. But that’s the thing, isn’t it, he’s a bit of a medic who does nothing, focusing on getting in on the power struggle instead. No sign of focusing on the action in sight.

There’s also an element of objectification to his status as a member of the team, which I always thought put a bit of an interesting spin on him deciding to start showboating and not stick to just Doing The Job They Brought Him In For. You could easily read some slighted ego into the idea that he’s just the medic, y’know?

Wheeljack (even without being aware of his status as a legacy character and all that implies) is also established to have a bunch of useful secondary skills. He’s a pilot, he’s got the same specops background as Bulkhead and his proficiency in engineering exists in the subtext. Also, his nominal foil in the team is Ratchet, who is the resident Smart Guy, and they’re presented at being at odds largely because they’re intellectual equals who just Can’t Fucking Agree On Anything.

And Team Prime would love to have him for reasons that have nothing to do with that! And they aren’t cagey about wanting him on the team, and Wheeljack never even questions it, it’s just that he has shit to do and a terrible tendency towards the aforementioned “no team but me” thinking. The little bit of an arc he gets is all about going from that to “okay, no team but me and Bulk”, to “okay, maybe team” before he’s hit with a crisis and has to deal with that offscreen.

And then you finally have their partner dynamic. Knockout and Breakdown are joined at the hip, but their actual relationship is always left sort of vague and Knockout doesn’t let anything slip about how he feels about Breakdown’s death. Wheeljack and Bulkhead get limited interactions, with all of them belabouring the point about how much they mean to each other, and we get to see in glorious real time Wheeljack freaking the fuck out when something happens to Bulkhead.

Like, wow, though. And I know there’s definitely more, it just took me so long to type all of that out I forgot half the shit that was going on in my head while I was typing it. Like, I don’t even need to get into all the ways the parallels between Bulkhead and Breakdown complement this, or how the team dynamics for them also end up mirroring each other (and would do so way more if Wheeljack had been in the main cast). It feels like someone made a challenge out of taking two characters with lots of surface similarities and then making them diverge as hard as possible, and it’s kind of beautiful.

#van's answers #rhpurasu #Transformers Meta #Transformers Prime #Maccadam #long post #TFP Wheeljack #TFP Knockout #This doesn't fit in the body of the text but #JUST AS AN ASIDE #I still find the way Bulkhead and Wheeljack get characterised through association #like #EXTRA clever #b/c it starts with them establishing BULKHEAD as a stone cold hardass #before he settles into a more traditional Big Guy role #and then they use that to instantly give us a sense of Wheeljack's capabilities #by mentioning that they served together #which they then IMMEDIATELY jump to outdo #to very solidly establish Wheeljack as capital letter Competent #Also as another aside re: Jackie and Ratchet being foils for one another #Do you know how much unbridled glee the idea of Team Smartass Wheeljack fills me with?#Like goddamn with his emphasis on agency it would allow both his strengths and weaknesses to shine so well #I love the contrast of the consummate pantser being in an organising position #that's like the perfect storm of shit about to go Really Wrong

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theeldestsun · 6 years ago

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It's so good to see you on my dash. So many people hate doran so much. They want him to suffer more than he already have . They want his whole family to die as a punishment. As if oberyn and quentyn's death weren't a punishment for him. He make him look so bad even though he is one of the only decent men in the series who think about innocent and children. And then there is you who portray him as he is: an adorable and something a stupid puppy. I love you and your blog. Thanks.

@1nsaankahanhai-bkr /

“They want him to suffer more than he already have“ – I just irl nervous laughed for five minutes because skjfhkajsdhfksd have you seen what i’ve done to my favourite gentle son???

No but for real like I want the best for him, I want him to see Arianne again, and I want Quent to come back (cheated death!), i want him and Mellario to get back together. He’s a schemer, saboteur, and manipulator sure, but hes also an awkward turtle who cannot communicate to save his own life, and he is a stupid puppy. and he’s my stupid puppy. But the reason hes ‘stupid’ is because he tries so hard to protect those he loves and he loves everything. he has a big heart and loves deeply and cares for even the smallest thing (orphans, the poor, little animals, plants). He is probably the closest we can call to a humanist in our story – where the bottom line is the individual, and all individual lives are precious, and none are less worth than any other else. The sacrifice of one life to one end is one sacrifice too much. He constantly thinks of the wider utility to society – not only just his own or his family’s ambitions. (Like I have a whole bunch of hc’s detailing his socio-economic policies okay @ me to hear them). He’s ultimately not suited for this world of violence and Machiavellian ethics and of feudal morality.

And what is so fascinating about his character is the fact that he is indecisive, he is constantly challenging himself on the righteousness of his actions, on the utility of his actions. He is in constant conflict with himself – he’s not self confident in a way that he is uni-directional, tunnel-vision, bulldoze everything that stands in my way. He is indecisive because he thinks of more than himself, he thinks of his family, his people – the children. He has the future in his mind – the future of his blood and his country. He lives outside of himself; because ultimately I think he is so aware of the small part his plays in this world. In the end, the Prince is not important – his legacy and his people’s futures are.

Unfortunately in our story, this may just be the reason for his downfall – a true tragedy of our time and –

And fuck man, i will always always love him. I love him. And i love his family.

And i love you for sending this honestly – fuck i’m filled with so much love right now im —- fu c k .

#(( dude im gonna lie down because fuck i cant handle this love ))#(( thank you so much for this man f u c k )))#f: positivity #1nsaankahanhai-bkr #(( OKAY BUT IMAGINE DORAN STOPPING TO PICK UP A LITTLE BIRD WHO FELL FROM THE TREE ))#(( TH AN K Y OU ))))))#(( BLESS U AND HAVE A GOOD DAY ))#(( ALSO WHO THE FUCK HATES HIM AND WANTS HIM TO SUFFER ))#(( SEND EM MY WAY #(( I'LL SIC EM )))))#(( IM NOT USED TO EMOTIONS I "M GONNA LIE DOWN NOW FOR REAL BRB #(( I WILL HOLD A GUN TO GR.RM'S HEAD GIVE MY GENTLE BAB A HAPPY ENDING OR I W I LL END U

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mihrunnisasultans · 7 years ago

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i know you're not a fan of MC Hurrem but whats your opinion of historical hurrem? i felt season 1, 2 and part of 3 really didn't do her justice

Hello Anon!

Sorry that you waited so long for my response, but I wanted to give you a comprehensive answer and thus it got really long, so most of it is under Read more. And thank you for an interesting question :)

I do prefer historical Hürrem to the MC one, but she’s still not my fave. TBH I don’t have that strong emotions towards historical figures as opposed to fictional characters because we really don’t have any real insight into their everyday life, and historical accounts are always more or less subjective. Hating someone about whom I really don’t have much 100% confirmed information? Unfair and pointless. To quote Galina Yermolenko from the introduction to Roxolana in European Literature, History and Culture:

Although Western historians have been struggling to define Roxolana’s legacy for over four centuries, it is often overlooked that she was largely a creation of the European imagination. Due to the lack of historical records and hard evidence, most of what is known about this woman rests on a handful of secondhand contemporaneous accounts and subsequent reinterpretations and speculations by numerous historians, quasi historians, dramatists, and other men of letters who have shaped the Western discourse on Roxolana.

Thus said, I do understand your reservations about MC early portrayal of her. Portrayal of Hürrem as a ruthless schemer and manipulator is certainly nothing new; MC’s depiction thankfully does not make her some evil walking caricature like the earliest Western works on her (from 16th or 17th century), but she’s a complex character that has her sympathetic moments even in the view of those who generally dislike her, in accordance with later tradition. But since you have no problem with S4 Hürrem, who is even more ruthless than the earlier one, I guess your problem is of a different nature.

Again, the portrayal of Hürrem as a wild, unruly spirit is nothing new in works devoted to her, and while I totally get the problem with “undignified” Hürrem, I kind of appreciate it now? Pretty much all of “big five″ women of Sultanate of Women in MY/K are portayed based on the “slay queen” trope, but I feel that aside from Turhan, they all have their own distinctive features, other than the generic woman who slays them all and loves power? Hürrem‘s character actually develops and she becomes the true majestic sultana later on; it’s again kind of realistic that she’s not one from the start? Her wild and flamboyant image actually serves to show how much she’s of an outsider and differs from other women. Again, she becomes more dignified and majestic as she integrates herself into the world to which she was forcefully introduced. (NGL Turhan made me appreciate earlier character creations more because she’s basically a generic slay kween with little of other characteristics…) MC Hürrem is definitely a good character creation that elicits strong emotional response from the audience, whether positive or negative. I e.g. love to hate her and enjoy rooting against her, others do the opposite, but it’s hard to stay indifferent about her. And as as I sad, she actually develops in the span of 4 seasons.

But then again, I agree it’s sometimes overdone on the show. The earlier seasons do have their tongue-in-cheek moments, and Hürrem‘s sometimes excessive flamboyance is also part of that.

I have more issues with what was not shown about her character in addition to being a ruthless schemer and clever manipulator, as well as her relationship with Süleyman.

From what we know, historical Hürrem took an active interest in state matters that sometimes also wasn’t connected with her intrigues. In the show, even in S4, her occupation with state matters does not go further than what she needs because of self-interest. Most of her non-mercenary actvities are indeed shown in S4 when her participation in foreign relations and diplomatic correspondence are mentioned, but they seem a bit shoerhorned at this point and especially the mention of her diplomatic correspondence just shortly before her death seems more “tell-not-show”?

As for historical Hürrem’s relationship with Süleyman, it is often stressed by historians how he viewed her as his partner and advisor. I understand that they didn’t want to make Hürrem as such from the start because she needed to also learn about her surroundings (and her position and influence on Süleyman did rise after Hafsa’s demise and marriage), but even later in the show we mainly see Süleyman telling her that “it’s not your matter and go to your room” or “do not bother your pretty head with it”. He definitely treats her more as a partner in S4. Same about the constant (and tiring) repeated introductions of new “other women” for Süleyman and then making us watch unnecessarily long arcs of Hürrem hunting down such women. Judging by historical accounts, Süleyman stayed faithful to her, and in the show it seems that early!Hürrem spent her days mainly plotting other women’s demises. I understand giving us an insight into harem struggles when Hürrem did have to fight for her position in Süleyman’s heart at first, but later? Why, TIMS?

Historical Hürrem is definitely a controversial figure that sparks a lot of different approaches and opinions. Not long ago, I was reading two books with two totally different approaches towards her at the same time, one was André Clot’s biography of Süleyman (Suleiman the Magnificent: The Man, His Life, His Epoch), the other Empress of the East by Leslie Peirce. Clot is highly critical of her and shows signs of the older approaches in historiography concerning Hürrem (Sultanate of Women = ruin of empire), but at the same time sees her side of the argument and is of the opinion that it is Süleyman who is truly to blame for most things (so he breaks here with the presentation of Süleyman as an innocent puppet). [And frankly, Clot is salty about everyone except for Mustafa]. On the other hand, Peirce, in an attempt to debuke the “seductress who brought ruin on the Empire”image, goes from one extreme into another. Example:

A more peaceable system of identifying the next sultan began to emerge from transformations in the practice of succession-by-combat that began with her. Roxelana helped to move the Ottoman empire into modern times, where treaty negotiations became as challenging and significant as victory in battle and domestic well-being occupied as much of the government’s attention as conquest. Bolstered by the reforms she introduced, the Ottoman sultanate would sustain itself for another three and a half centuries

Even ignoring the VERY questionable first statement (struggles to determine Süleyman’s successor that Hurrem did influence were terribly bloody), there were many factors at play that affected Ottoman Empire’s transformation and to reduce the whole complex process to one historical figure’s influence is absurd and gross oversimplification, just as blaming solely one historical figure for deterioration of the Empire is. BTW, I recommend Günhan Börekçi’s thesis Factions and Favourites at the Court of Sultan Ahmed and his Immediate Predecessors and Baki Tezcan’s Searching for Osman: A Reassessment of the Deposition of the Ottoman Sultan Osman II if you want to read a comprehensive discussion on the whole complex process of Ottoman Empire’s political system becoming more sedentary ;) A bit of digression - I’m sad to be so critical of Peirce here because I do enjoy and appreciate The Imperial Harem and she is far more objective and balanced in that book. Also, I’m disappointed that such a large portion of Empress is based on imagination rather than a thorough historical analysis of sources.

Another criticisim of Empress of the East that I have was well put into words in the NYT review of the book:

Less convincing are her strained exculpations for Roxelana, insisting that she was not behind various unsavory murders that benefited her. One is left with the impression that Roxelana consistently wielded impressive power, except when things went badly.

Again, in trying to fight with demonisation of someone, do not make that person an angel either. We may not have concrete evidence of Hürrem being involved in e.g. Ibrahim’s or Mustafa’s deaths, but in my opinion “there’s no smoke without fire”. Peirce does mention in The Imperial Harem that Hürrem and Safiye were two sultanas least liked by people and I don’t think the assumption that “people hated women in power” explains it all, since sultanas with even more power, like Turhan or Kösem, were much liked.

Hürrem Sultan was a controversial figure that deserves a nuanced, complex portrayal. While MC portrayal has its flaws with respect to the depicton of a historical figure, at least it does show her as a complex person, with both good and bad traits. And as importantly, it does work within the established narrative. Could it have been done better though? Yes.

On a side note,I’m actually more salty about how Turhan was portrayed in comparison to her historical persona :/, but that’s a topic for a different discussion.

#muhteşem yüzyıl #magnificent century #muhtesem yuzyil #hurrem sultan #Hürremsultan #Anonymous #Joanna answers

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trumpetnista · 7 years ago

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CMW2/Trumpetnista: Safe (7/?)

Summary from FFN: NOW A WIP: She was Olivia Pope, not Alex Jones, not Julia Baker, and she was a mess;In this AU of 4x16, instead of Alex seducing Russell to feel alive again, Olivia decides on a better course of action, a course of action that starts with a phone call to Fitz;HEAVY SPOILERS FOR SEASON 4 WITHIN;Rated for language, imagery, and later Olitz lovemaking;4th in my 2016 SSS Project

Teaser from Chapter 7: "Look, I know that I shouldn't have broken in but I've been worried about you. You won't take my calls. You won't answer my texts and when I tried to come see you at your office, I couldn't even get past the front door before Michael..."

"His name is Marcus."

"...stopped me. What did you tell him about me? What did you say to all of them?"

"Nothing other than if you came in, I didn't want to see you."

"Why?"

"Why do you think?"

"...you and Fitz aren't going to last forever. You never do."

"Fitz has nothing to do with this. It's about you and the fact that you're not a good influence in my life. You're dangerous. You're unstable. You're B613. You're Rowan's puppet, his loyal little lapdog that he can order around at whim. You may think that you're free now, that he's forgotten all about you and maybe he has but I haven't. I know who you really are, Jake. I've seen who you really are and you are not someone that I want around me as a friend or as a lover, anymore. Now, I've got 5 more bullets and the next one is going in your head if you don't leave."

"You would kill me right now?"

"...not that head, Jake."

Disclaimer for the full story: “Honestly, it’s not mine!”

"Fitz, what's going on? Why are you whispering?"

"I'm hiding in the Residence from Mellie. She thinks I'm still in the Oval."

"Are you seriously hiding from your wife?"

"Olivia, she is drunk off moonshine, eating fried shrimp, and she's singing showtunes...butchering showtunes and... the last time she drank like this, she actually asked me to have sex with her on the dining room table and I just... yes, I'm seriously hiding from my wife. I'm scared and hiding and I'm waiting for her to pass out."

"You poor, poor soul...should I send some earplugs? Gettysburger? An Exorcism kit?"

"...you're not funny."

"I'm funnier than you."

Fitz's laughter was warm in her ear and she sighed, walking towards her office windows. She could see the White House in the distance, brightly lit and beautiful. Fitz had once referred to it as the Crown Jewel of the American Prison System and that label had merit. Yes, the White House was beautiful. Yes, being the President of the United States was a great honor, the pinnacle of Power but it changed everything.

There was no true privacy. Everywhere a President went, there were Agents, staff, members of the Press around. There was always a bubble. A President couldn't just go grocery shopping or just go and get a new phone without a big to-do. There were always schemers around, people who would stab you in the back just to get a slightly bigger piece of the pie. Every person had to be vetted. No one, not even family could be trusted.

It was one of the most noble and truly one of the loneliest Jobs in the world.

And if it wasn't the President themselves being targeted, it was their loved ones.

Gerry Grant had been murdered by Rowan because of his connection to Fitz, his connection to her. Karen Grant had been recorded and blackmailed while under the influence, while having sex because she was the President's daughter. The conspiracy to kidnap her had been in the name of the Presidency. Andrew Nichols and Elizabeth North had wanted the Power by any means necessary. Rowan had wanted Power and revenge for a perceived unreasonable slight against him. Fitz hadn't done anything wrong. Gerry hadn't done anything wrong. Karen hadn't done anything wrong and Olivia was growing to accept that she hadn't done anything wrong, either. She hadn't been the one to murder Gerry Grant, to put the sick idea into Rowan's mind. She hadn't asked to be kidnapped. She didn't deserve to be kidnapped, despite all the things she had done.

It wasn't her fault.

Not every bad thing that happened was her fault.

It was not her fault and it certainly wasn't Fitz's fault, despite what she had screamed to the contrary.

To monsters like Rowan, it wasn't about people, not as more than pieces on their chess boards.

It was all about hoarding & abusing Power. It was all about creating Legacies that they could leech off of. It was all about soothing their malignant egos, regardless of who or what was destroyed...

"If it helps, she didn't really lose by a large margin. She had good numbers. She could try again in a few years, maybe even sooner. Seats open up all of the time and once you're out of Office..."

"You know she doesn't care about any of that."

"What? Facts?"

"You might be hearing from her soon, Livvie. She made it pretty clear who she blames for this."

"You, me, Cyrus, God, Satan, the weather, the Patriarchy, a random passerby who just couldn't get to the Voter's Booth and secure her rightful place in history..."

Fitz snickered and she continued unrepentantly, "She can blame me and the World all she wants. I don't care. I told her that I wasn't going to help her. I told her that my helping her would be seen as nothing more than nepotism and that she needed to wait, build up her own political capital, and come up with a more approachable image. She didn't want to. She didn't want to put the work in. She wanted to cut corners. She wanted everyone to do the heavy lifting for her and give her cue cards so she could reap the benefits, just like before. I was right to say no and she was right to lose."

"Consider it Handled."

"Exactly."

"Are you still at the office?"

"Not for much longer. I wanted to help with the paperwork. You know how it is. Get rid of one stack..."

"...and three more appear. How is Quinn working out as Second in Command?"

"It's good. It's really good, Fitz...I'm glad that she stayed. She had every right to leave."

"OPA is her home. You and your Gladiators are home for her."

Olivia nodded and sighed again, looking wistfully at 1600 Penn...

"I wish I was there with you or that you were here with me."

"You really don't want to be here right now, Liv. She's gone from showtunes to Dolly Parton. Poor Jolene..."

She laughed and replied, "That's not what I meant and you know it, Mister."

"...I know. It'll happen, Livvie. We'll make it happen."

"I hope so. Well, tomorrow night, if you're still alive, I'd love to hear from you. Just don't make 23 people have to stay, okay?"

"All right. Bye, Liv."

"...bye."

It was still a bit of a novelty to be leaving OPA at a reasonable hour. By the time she got to her apartment, it would be a little past 8PM instead of midnight or in the pre-dawn hours. She would be able to watch live TV if she wanted to. She could watch actual, non DVR'd TV shows instead of the news, infomercials, or porn. She wouldn't feel strange about cooking or ordering in at an odd hour. She would be able to go to her apartment and actually relax.

She had taken some of the weight of the world off of her shoulders. Olivia was still The Fixer, the go-to for help when it hit the fan, but it wasn't all on her. It had never been all on her but she was accepting help now, allowing herself to trust and delegate...

…but never drop her guard.

Exiting the elevator, Olivia could see that her apartment door was slightly ajar. It wasn't supposed to be ajar. She had locked it before she left and she wasn't expecting company. Huck was at his Veteran's Group therapy session with Quinn supporting him. Marcus was meeting with some representatives from Jack and Jill, trying to get their support behind adding classes to teach inner city youth about their Rights. Abby was at the White House. She had texted her earlier about Cyrus' latest antics and the ongoing battle for the Brandon Bill. She had just talked to Fitz and as much as she wished that he was inside her place right now, he wasn't. He was hiding from Mellie in what sounded to be a walk-in closet, possibly a bathroom like last time.

That didn't leave many options left for who could be inside.

The options she had to choose from were all bad.

Slowly, she set her bag down and pulled out her Colt .45, fighting through the icy fear that was creeping down her spine. Whoever was in her place had to go. Whether they would run for it or she would have to put a bullet in them before calling the police remained to be seen. She was licensed to carry and even though there were no signs of a robbery in progress, it wouldn't take much to...

Shaking her head, she made sure the gun was loaded before sliding out of her heels. If she had to run or hide, she didn't want anything slowing her down. Seeing movement, she pushed the door open and raised the gun. As soon as the person turned around, she undid the safety, the icy fear replaced with hot rage.

"Get the hell out!"

"Liv..."

"Get out of my apartment, Jake. Now."

"You won't shoot..."

A vase behind him shattered and she quickly loaded another bullet, thankful for the silencer.

"You broke in here after I told you to leave me alone. I can and will shoot you. Get out."

"I'm not the enemy here, Olivia! I brought you some dinner and..."

"I'm not hungry. Take the food and go. This is the last time I'm going to say it."

"Look, I know that I shouldn't have broken in but I've been worried about you. You won't take my calls. You won't answer my texts and when I tried to come see you at your office, I couldn't even get past the front door before Michael..."

"His name is Marcus."

"...stopped me. What did you tell him about me? What did you say to all of them?"

"Nothing other than if you came in, I didn't want to see you."

"Why?"

"Why do you think?"

"...you and Fitz aren't going to last forever. You never do."

"You would kill me right now?"

"...not that head, Jake."

"Olivia..."

"Leave and if I find any cameras in here or any of my things tampered with..."

"You're paranoid. You need to get some help."

"I am getting help. You just can't benefit from it. Leave!"

Jake flinched as a pillow exploded in feathers behind him and headed for the door, deliberately leaving the food on the counter. Although he was acting like he had made her a 5 course meal, it was Gettysburger and imported beer. The Gettysburger she didn't really mind but she hated beer. He knew that! He also knew that breaking in would make her uncomfortable, possibly trigger a full on panic attack but he didn't care. He was feeling scorned, feeling childish so he had pushed as many buttons as he could to get her attention.

He had gotten her attention but Olivia was certain that Jake had imagined a far different outcome.

He only cared about her when she was saving his fat from the fire or fucking him to forget.

Unless she was doing that, she was nothing to him, regardless of what he said.

His actions were his Truth.

Had he always been this immature?

As soon as he was in the vestibule, she slammed the door in his face and listened closely. He could decide to wait her out. He could decide to come back later, while she was sleeping and...

"Damn it!"

From the sound of it, Jake had punched the doors of the elevator as they closed and she was relieved that the fist hadn't touched her. Jake had pushed and choked her before. He had concussed her and pushed her into a puddle of glass shard filled water. He had pinned her to the wall by her throat in broad daylight. Punching her would be the next logical step in abusing her.

Some of their conversations involved manipulation on both of their ends. Nowadays, they ended with him yelling at her, judging her like the hypocrite he was or trying to derail her healing. Jake was dangerous. On more than one occasion, he had proven to be dangerous, lacking in humanity. Essentially, Jake Ballard (or whatever his real name was) was nothing more than a broken, rabid beast in human skin.

The fact that she had known all of that and yet still allowed him to touch her, be inside of her, and to be around her family & friends was even more proof of how disturbed she had become. How much farther would she have fallen had she not reached out to Fitz that night? If she had gone through with being Alex Jones, how much worse off would she be?

She didn't want to think about it.

She didn't want to think about hating herself and those around her that much.

Opening the door, she grabbed her bag and quickly went back inside, turning all of her locks. Jake had broken in. Only she and Huck had the keys. Huck wouldn't turn his over to Jake without her express say-so, a say-so that he'd never get again. As a matter of fact, she was tempted to call Huck and tell him what happened but that idea was quickly shelved. Part of delegating was allowing her people to have lives outside of the job. Yes, there was a rule that everyone had to be reachable and that after a certain amount of time, there was to be a search party formed.

What happened to Harrison, what Rowan had done to Harrison had been unavoidable but if she had followed the rule, if she had been thinking about more than herself, then Harrison's body would've been found sooner. However, it was no longer all about Fixing for herself or her People. And Huck was doing something at the moment to help himself get better. Olivia was not going to hinder that. That wouldn't be fair.

Still, something decisive had to be done about Jake Ballard.

It could wait until the morning.

For now, she had trash to throw out and a mess to clean up.

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theincorrigiblemagpie · 7 years ago

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Rishton Ka Chakravyuh (Episodes 1-6)- Much Mahabharat Very Family

Aug 7, 2017 to Aug 12, 2017

HELLO! I, indomitable watcher of desi soaps, am cautiously trying out Star Plus’ latest offering: Rishton Ka Chakravyuh after my last 3-episode-long-unnameable-adventure in this neighbourhood. I’d seen the promos floating around and found myself interested despite this really not being my usual fare. For one, the selling point isn’t a romance (shocker!), but also the fact that its milieu isn’t one I particularly enjoy. Nonetheless, I decided to give it a shot and found myself hooked. It’s a week old and I ran through 6 episodes without any trouble at all. I’ll try to touch only on the most pertinent bits since I’m covering 6 episodes together, but strap in, this is going to be looooong.

Our story begins on a stormy night, in a haveli, where a woman’s agitated screams indicate gruesome murder or labour. No good ever came of a haveli and you can mark my words, kids. #EatTheRich It turns out to be labour and seconds after, a heavily veiled woman (Payal Nair) makes off with a baby into the dead of the night. She evades all the security around the haveli and makes it to a ghat-type place where a priest is waiting for what seems to be a pre-planned rendezvous. Then, without too many words, she hands over the baby to him and drops Ominous Hints about how she’s being forced to give this kid away because it’s a girl. The priest is troubled but takes the child, and once the woman leaves, looks at her palms under the moonlight and declares that she’s going to be SO COOL when she grows up that he doesn’t even know what to name her that will be fitting. So he names her Anami. For real. I’m sure all besotted new parents feel this way about their new babies but this is just lazy. You’re a pandit, you have casual access to the world’s Sanskritized highfalutin names. And you go for The Unnamed. Ok then.

In the meantime, the haveli is rejoicing over the birth of a little boy to Satarupa (Narayani Shastri) and Vikram Aditya Singh (Ajay Chaudhury). The Dadaji, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the MDH guy, is ecstatic about the birth of their ‘waaris.’ Tell me they don’t give you #SameGuy feels.

This show is just determined to fuck over its young people in the matter of names, because they name the boy child Vatsalya Vikram Singh. As the bearer of a somewhat difficult-to-pronounce name, I really feel for both Anami and Vatsalya. It’s evident that they’re twins, but as Vats, the boy, is heir-apparent to this medieval family, it’s unclear why Satarupa and Damo had to secretly get rid off Anami.

We’re also introduced to the Evil part of the family, Pujan Singh (Praneet Bhat) who calls the Dadaji ‘Chachaji’ and his smirking wife. This really amplifies the Mahabharat feel because Praneet Bhat still has a Shakuni Mama hangover from Starbharat and is the Most Extra dude imaginable. He breaks into enthu-boys-at-visarjan-style dancing at any given opportunity and is all about the band-baaja. He’s obviously not happy about this waaris business but pretends to be. We also see a toddler who runs out from inside the haveli but gets a really Stern Look from Dadi (Anju Mahendra) and is reluctantly dragged back in by a nurse. Oh, and their family priest is played by the long-suffering Tom Alter. He definitely has a hand in this giving-Anami-away business although he seems like a benevolent sorta babaji.

Then we flash forward 17 years into the future. Anami has been brought up by Pandit Murari Pathak and his wife Madhu (Lubna Salim aka Leela Bhabhi from Baa Bahoo Aur Baby), along with their own little boy Laddoo who seems to be about 8 or 9 years younger than Anami. Anami (Mahima Makwana), of course, is the main protagonist of this show. She’s an industrious little busybody who struts like she owns Varanasi, in her dhoti pants, embroidered blouses and jackets, and Mahadev/sadhu-style dreadlocks. I wasn’t too sure about the hair in the promos, but I think it works. It's obviously a part of her non-conforming person. She practices some form of dancing+martial arts in the morning, picks on her mom whom she lovingly calls ‘Paagal Panditayin,’ saves hapless devotees from fraudulent babas as a representative of her dad’s Gyan Vigyan Bhagwan initiative, tends to her chores, and picks on Laddoo for not preparing enough for his upcoming admission test to an English medium school, all before midday. Just typing this list exhausted me.

The only drop of sorrow in her cup is that she’s adopted and must live with the fact that her biological mother gave her away for her selfish reasons. It’s interesting how this bothers her because her adoptive parents obviously love her to bits, but then you see that the Paagal Panditayin is not above twitting her about her adopted status when she loses her temper (like she does when Laddoo accidentally falls into the river while accompanying Anami on one of her missions). She regrets it immediately and goes to comfort Anami but this seems to be a longtime wound that can’t be undone. As a side note, this show is really gorgeously shot. I’m trying to keep screencaps at a minimum to prevent this ridiculously long post from becoming even longer but the lighting and camerawork here kinda make me want to shove this show into Gul Khan’s face. This show is already Sharmaji-ka-beta to 4Lions.

Ngl, I hadn’t expected to like Anami much (mostly because I’m not a huge fan of Mahima Makwana from whatever I saw of her weepy character in Sapne Suhaane Ladakpan Ke) but I’m very favourably disposed now. She certainly is young and brash in many ways, but also practical, contemplative, and mature.

Scene switches to Lal Mahal, situated in the vaguely-named Vihar which we learn is near Delhi. The Singhs are royalty there although their economic power derives only partially from whatever princely state position they presumably held pre-Independence. The real power comes from their Royal Steel Holdings company which is apparently a massive enterprise employing thousands of families in the area. And now, I really have to introduce you to Satarupa, the Motherest Mother of Them All. Here is Satarupa casually using a sword to slice her thumb open and offer her own blood as chadava to Kali as part of her son’s 17th birthday celebrations before using the same bloody thumb to give him a teeka. This is after a two-day fast, btw.

Man, for my 17th, my mother took me and a bunch of my friends to KFC and called it a day. (Ily, mommy, I wouldn’t have had it otherwise.)

You knew right from the start that Satarupa is not a person with many fucks to give but this casual establishment of Intense is kinda awe-inspiring. Mostly cos it’s Narayani Shastri, I think, who is a very formidable presence onscreen.

Side note: Both the Pathaks and Singhs are primarily Shiv devotees. Desi tv never fails in their tropes. You can tell so much about a show/family by the gods they worship. As a rule of thumb, the more intense the families, the likelier they are to worship Mahadev. Whereas YRKK and DABH-like families worship Ram-Sita or Radha-Krishna.

Old Dadaji gets up and announces that he really is too old to be chairperson of the company anymore (damn right, you look to be 105). And although he has always believed in keeping the family and business separate, he thinks the most capable person to succeed him is 17 yo Vatsalya (Devarshi Shah who looks disconcertingly like an older Darsheel Safary). Excuse me while I take an eye-roll break. Someone set Kangana Ranaut on this uncle who is trying to tell me that the only and most capable person in the vicinity is a boy who can barely grow a beard and who just happens to be his grandson.

Another side note, can we retire ominous chantings of saam-daam-dand-bhed as background score? I promise we’ll all still figure out who the evil schemers are. Predictably, Pujan Singh, his smirking wife, and his now-adult asshole son are Not Pleased. We learn that Vats’ dad had done something to displease Dadaji and has de facto been disinherited although he’s still very much a part of the family. Methinks this has something to do with the hidden-away toddler in the beginning. Man, there are too many secret children already for one show. So basically, Satarupa and Pujan are named caretakers of Vats’ legacy until he comes of age in a year. Meanski this Dadaji is just asking for Vats to get murdered. Why dafuq couldn’t he have named the very intimidating Satarupa successor, no one knows. No doubt it has to do with more bullshit about being a woman.

I will say in Vatsalya’s favour, he’s not happy about this situation and doesn’t think he’s ready or deserving. The fam decides to head to Varanasi where they traditionally have a puja for any new heir. We get some inkling of how Vats seems to be a genuinely nice kid despite all this money and spoiling. Satarupa is an affectionate but strict mother. They have this really sweet mother-son thing of singing old Hindi songs to one another and man, can Narayani Shastri sing.

This really brings home how weird the Anami situation is. Satarupa is a fond and doting mother but also fiercely protective of her son. I don’t really see her giving up her daughter just because it was a girl. When she already has a son too.

We make progress in the case of the Mysterious Toddler. It’s a guy called Narottam who lives in the same house but everyone seems to loathe him except Vatsalya. Narottam calls Satarupa ‘Chhoti Ma’ and Vikram ‘Papa’ and they both vehemently deny any relation and can’t stand the sight of him. It’s only on Vats’ insistence that he is allowed to accompany the family to Benaras. Also, the guy’s body language, tone, and a comment made by Pujan’s son Avdhoot make me think he’s possibly trans or gay or just likes to cross-dress. In Hindi soaps, it’s hard to tell the difference among various kinds of queerness. I’m thinking he’s Vikram’s illegitimate son but why he’s such an asshole to Narottam is a question. Satarupa and the family’s resentment I still understand (even if it’s a terrible thing to have brought up an innocent child amidst this hostility). But Vikram’s I don’t. I don’t like Vikram, I think.

They head to the ghats and have their showy puja and stuff and of course, Anami and Vatsalya come face-to-face. Anami, who hates her birthday for being a reminder of the mother who gave her up, is already in a bad mood and none too pleased with the huge puja which is blocking access to her priest. Anami snips at Vats but he takes it in his stride and is polite. I like this boy more and more.

(please note Tej Khan in the background who is Vats’ bodyguard and also part-time Sid Mallya lookalike)

You know the Extra is hereditary because Anami apparently floats a diya into the Ganga every year to signify that she tyag-s her birth-mother the same way birth-mother gave Anami away. That is an awful lot of bandwidth to waste on someone you’ve never seen. Also, I have to say, how convenient that she hates the birth-mother and not the birth-father. Granted, her birth-father is a wet dishrag but she doesn’t know that. How does she assume it was the mother’s fault? For all she knows, the father made the mother give her up which is really the most common way this shit happens in India. I see your internalised misogyny, Anami. No matter how picturesquely you hold a diya against the Ganga.

Lots of things happen together after that. Damo sees Pandit Murari and recognizes him as the priest she gave Anami to and hides from him but then is guilt-wrought. She runs to Tom Alter for advice who reassures her that she has committed no sin and that the sacrifice was necessary. He gives her a rudraksh bracelet to protect Vatsalya with. Avdhoot and his drunk friends make Narottam dance to Namak Ishq Ka in a very humiliating manner. Pujan hires a gunda to do away with Vats before they leave Benaras. And we know that Satarupa did not happily give up Anami.

They have their pagdi ceremony and Dadaji impresses the responsibility of the position on Vats. Here’s an idea, maybe you shouldn’t leave the livelihood of thousands in the hands of a 17 yo, Dadaji. But I want to take a moment to address how soberly dressed this family is, including the Evils. After the monstrosities I see across the board these days, this show is so easy on the eyes, I almost cry.

On the other hand, Madhu is mad at Anami for being such a party-pooper about her own birthday (justifiably so). Anami confesses that this day always brings up more questions than she can handle and that’s why she hates it and there’s nothing anyone else can do to help her. She does reaffirm that no one can take her away from the Pathaks, though, and runs off to the ghat where she meets Vatsalya who also feels suffocated under the weight of expectations on him. They discover their shared birthday and chat about mothers and philosophy as 17 yos are wont to do. Really, these kids grow on me all the time.

Whilst sharing their existential angst, a couple of mercenaries attack Vats from under water. They try to pull him under and drown him but Anami fights them off until Tej Khan appears and manages to save both of them. Vatsalya gives Anami his protective bracelet out of gratitude and tells her that if he had a sister, he’d have liked her to be like Anami. After the two return home, Tej Khan and Satarupa set out to catch the gundas, Tej having actually seen the face of one. After realizing they can’t give them any info about who had hired them, Satarupa ruthlessly orders their drowning and the family returns to Lal Mahal.

Anami’s next project is Laddoo’s admission to an English medium school for which she does her best to teach their parents and Laddoo enough English to ace the entrance test. Back home at Lal Mahal, Vats wants to be allowed to return to his hostel in Delhi for two months to clear his final exams but Satarupa is adamant. She will not let Vatsalya out of the house until she can send him to the States for college. I’m so confused as to how their world works. No college in the world, no matter how much money you have, is going to accept a student without a high school diploma of some kind. She’s like “we’ll send you earlier than I’d planned to.” Halwa hai? And what is the guarantee no one will send assassins after him over there? This blind faith that desis have in America’s supposed magic ability to fix all their problems is a disease. Vats is really mad that he’s going to be housebound for the foreseeable future and is perfect bait for Pujan to instigate. Goaded by his uncle, he runs away to Delhi and actually makes it halfway there until we realise Tej Khan was tailing him all along and after some momentary panic at home, has orders from Satarupa to bring him back.

Listen, I want to know which agency they hire security from because it seems to be the only one in tellywood which is able to do its job. That’s twice Tej Khan has saved Vats’ life in like 4 episodes.

Unfortunately, Laddoo does not make it to the school, even when Anami tries to get him in via the sports quota and even more unfortunately, on the way back to Vihar, on Pujan’s orders, a truck rams into Vats’ car, killing him and Tej.

*sigh*

I knew this was coming, of course. The promos made it obvious. There has to be an even more compelling reason for Anami to be brought back to Lal Mahal than there had been for her to have been given away in the first place. But I have to say it was still a blow. Even though it’s only been 4ish episodes, this boy was delightful. Despite his money and surroundings, he was sweet and considerate and respectful towards everyone, including Narottam whom his entire family despises. All he wanted was to be allowed to finish high school and play his guitar and hang out with friends. And he was on the fucking phone with Satarupa, singing Hai Apna Dil Toh Awara, and his mom heard the accident happen. *sobs* I’m not crying, you’re crying.

Anami’s bracelet, the same protective one given to her by Vats, snags on a corner and snaps at the same moment and Anami is very rattled. In true desi tv style, she’s got a Feeling. Just like Madhu and Laddoo had about losing her on her birthday. And Vatsalya had about Benaras completing him in some inexplicable way. What would the Feelings industry do without desi TV? She tries to restring the bracelet but goes through the day feeling restless and heavy and talks to her Dad about how she wishes she could understand her own feelings. #SamePinchAnami Listen, I’m really here for this shows functional parent-child relationships (of course, before we get to the elephant in the room that is Anami-Satarupa’s relationship). Like, Satarupa and Vatsalya were adorable and half the impact of his death is felt through Satarupa’s loss. And Anami has really great individual relationships with both parents. (No one cares about irrelevant Vikram and his periodic declarations that he’s proud of Vatsalya.) Even Pujan and Avdhoot are equal partners in Evil. I just can’t harp enough on how rare it is to see honest parent-child conversations about fears, insecurities, dreams on desi TV.

Heavy mourning at Lal Mahal, with the family remembering their individual relationships with the sunny Vatsalya. One moment of confusion where some rando calls Vats’ dad Baldev but I swear he’s been called Vikram all along. Like, is he that irrelevant that the show can’t be bothered to get his name right in the 6th episode? Obviously, it’s too early for me to have formed any kind of attachment to this show or its characters but I find myself dearly wishing that Vats and his budget Sid Mallya bodyguard miraculously survived the accident and are being hidden away by Satarupa as she gets to the bottom of this (since we saw no cremation). He was a good kid. We need more of those and fewer angry assholes on TV. In between the mourning, we’re introduced to Sudha (Sangita Ghosh) who is the main antagonist, wiki tells me. Toh this Pujan and his family are just ainvayi, I suppose, in case villainy kam pad jaaye.

Sudha appears to be a dreamy airhead only invested in her toilette at first glance, but then she rapidly exhibits changes in emotion that would put a mime to shame. She sheds a few tears over the news of Vats’ death, saying that it’s so unfair that the sins of the elders have been visited on an innocent boy, and then instantly cheers up because tears would mar her beauty and she can’t really bring herself to feel sorry for anyone at Lal Mahal (didn’t I tell you that nothing good ever comes of havelis?) She definitely has some deep-seated hate for that place and its people. I don’t know if she’s Narottam’s mother, but that is a possibility. She’s wearing her saree the Bengali way and something about her surroundings hint at her being a courtesan. But I just want you to stop for a minute and appreciate the beauty of these shots. #crie

Back at the haveli, Satarupa, in her grief, tries to shoot herself but I’m not worried she will because LOL that is not how this works. The most interesting reaction is Narottam’s. We see him lying on Vatsalya’s bed with tears rolling down his face, but then he gets up and puts on Vats’ favourite jacket and talks to the family photographs lining his walls. He says Vats never really appreciated what it meant to BE Vatsalya Vikram Singh but he, Narottam, does-- it’s all he’s ever wanted to be, and you can sense that there is this conflict between his love for Vats and his resentment for what Vats had and he never will. I have no idea why he doesn’t leave Lal Mahal where he’s so vilified nor why the family allows him to live there. It would’ve been the easiest thing to have sent him to a boarding school and made him live elsewhere all these years, but they did not. God, I’m blown by the writing so far. I haven’t seen character-writing like this in a while.

Finally, we’re introduced to the dude who is potentially Anami’s future love interest. You’ll never guess what he does for a living. He’s a....*drumroll* COP! I definitely missed the memo that said cops are fashionable again on TV. He’s a generic looking dude called Adhiraj but he’s not godawful, even if he’s not quite standout. He definitely walks with all the swag you’d expect from a CBI cop who has just bullied his senior into giving him the Lal Mahal case which he believes is not an accident. He wants to investigate “apne tareekon se” so you just know he’s going to do some illegal shit.

Adhiraj comes complete with an efficient if slightly chirpy assistant whom he manages to chastise in their first scene for wearing perfume *eyeroll* and a background secret connection to Lal Mahal where his interest is personal.

Okay, is there anyone in the whole damn NCR who doesn’t have a vested interest in Lal Mahal? Adhiraj goes to lurk outside the place and brood at an indistinct photograph in his pocket, of a family with two young boys, taken against the same building. Matlab yeh Lal Mahal walon ne kitne logon ko antagonise kiya hai in the last 20-30 years? Where did they even have the time to piss off other people while trying to kill each other or conversely, keep each other alive? Anami’s multitasking also seems hereditary only.

It’s too early to ship anything yet but I sense potential. This fellow could work on his dialogue delivery while Anami and Satarupa work on their relationship.

Next week: Pujan is manipulating the Press and Anami is getting ready to thrash some chhichore boys who surround her bike.

There’s obviously a lot to like over here. The writing and cinematography leap out immediately. But there’s also some generally good acting all around. It definitely tends towards the melodramatic but then, which show does not, these days? I particularly am intrigued by the familial relationships and don’t actually give a fuck about Anami and Adhiraj. (I know!) I looked up the producers-- newbies Sanjot Kaur and Bhupinder Singh for Rolling Pictures and director Ashwini Chaudhary who has a few forgettable films and shows under his belt. I can’t trace any precedence but things are off to a really promising start and I’ll keep watching as long as my interest stays.

(Just please, please, please let there not be any gratuitous sexual/physical violence involved that is cavalierly treated.)

#rishton ka chakravyuh #rkc #desi tv #tellywood

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