#it doesn't dark mode. i dark mode it everything breaks. >:|

[ireneaesthetic]

Pointing out little moments and details of the last yr scene.

wilmon endgame • episode 6

the camera work is so on point - it follows wille around moving frenetically, as to emphasize the hurry and the tension.

simon gets in panic mode for a sec. he was never over wilhelm but definitely thought their relationship was.

at first he looks ... scared - not of wille but of what he feels for him at this point. he's still in love but they got to the finish line, they broke up with no idea of when or if they will talk to each other again, there's no reason for wille to chase after him if not to change something.

it makes his thoughts spiral, but somewhere in his little heart he has a lot of hope too and that's why he steps out of the car to hear what he has to say.

these words really mean everything and i'm glad they're told directly to simon. it's such a sigh of relief for wilhelm to get this off his chest and mean it for real: he's doing something for his own sake finally - to be free, to be happy, to be in control of his own life for once.

he never got to choose anything - somebody else has always done it for him - but he no longer has to be afraid anymore.

simon is just as relieved and the proudest: he proved over and over again to care so deeply. to see wilhelm constantly hurting inevitably hurt him too.

he knew wille was brave - he actually told him once - and he was so right. it takes a lot of courage to do what wille just did.

shut up he's adorable :') playing with his fingers and trying not to break into a smile. he wants to look calm and collected but his heart is jumping out of happiness.

this comes after the are you sure you're over me? - breaking up was all it took for wille to think that simon must not love him anymore: to earn love and for everything to be perfect in order to deserve love is what his family and royal life always taught him - but simon's what the hell do you think? proves him so wrong.

the tears in his eyes i cannot - this is the face of a man who's bursting out of love, he adores simon this much.

they crush into the hug like they've been dying to do it. what a moment it must be for them to close the distance.

in this hug they find what they both were needing the most.

they hold on to each other. emotions are so overwhelming and it's written all over their faces - it feels too good to be real.

it's almost scary to let go now and i love how they tighten the hug at the same time, clinging to make it last longer.

and they're at the same height so simon has to be on his tippy toes ahsjkh.

oh the beauty in simon feeling every emotion to the fullest and letting them all out. he doesn't hold himself back and it is truly heartwarming to watch.

this hug is healing - he's giving joy to be back in wille's arms, proud of wille for putting himself first, relief because the fear of losing him was too much to handle.

the single tear drop and the pure disbelief in his expression. he caresses wille's cheek and keeps looking at him like he's the most precious thing.

doing the triangle method - again. old habits never die huh.

wille letting simon choose to whether kiss him or not.

it's our simon we're talking about, the one that risked it all and initiated their very first kiss bc he liked wille that much already, so could he possibly not do that now? he obviously does and can't help but smile into it.

they can't get enough of kissing and wandering hands. it's like their only way to make this become more and more real.

fair to say they're kinda obsessed with each other's hair!

love love looove the transition from them kissing in secret in the dark of the night to them kissing freely out in the open in the daylight - the most beautiful metaphor.

completely different plot points but the feelings involved are so familiar - reunion kisses are very much their brand: there's longing, passion, need to savor the moment to make it last.

and this time it can really last forever.

something super special about simon not replying with i love you too but sticking to i love you - it is not just reciprocal.

this shot haunts me. it's from the documentary and idk why it wasn't used in the final cut, i'll make space for it here anyway!

wille can't stop smiling and simon never takes his eyes off of him - he's emotionally overwhelmed by the way he bites his lip and his chin trembles. my heart.

no ray of sunshine between them could ever distract me from wilhelm diving into this kiss with his eyes open.

simon is definitely being pulled closer by the waist here and i take it very personally.

i was already full on sobbing when this part of the scene came up - sara and felice calling them out bc they are too caught up in their own bubble.

they still take one more moment to just look at each other so fondly tho and try to get a grip on what has just happened.

i get you wille! simon is the loml too.

this shot is sooo!!! hillerska in the rear view mirror as they drive away - time for the last bittersweet goodbye.

all of them are wearing white, they're driving off in a white car, most carefree than ever - sounds a lot like freedom and fresh start.

some things never change - they're the most comfortable and happy when they can be just them, just like this.

god knows where they're headed but it doesn't really matter as long as they're together.

wilmon endgame babyyyy.

they've been through so much but come so far eventually. it's the end of young royals but the beginning of a new chapter in wilmon story - the best one - and it's only theirs to write from now on.

it's still going to be tough, storms are still about to come their way and ruin plans, life is a mess but at least they have each other. they're holding hands in a we are in this together kind of promise and it's so reassuring to know.

it was a hell of a ride but love and hope wins - and there's truly no one who deserves it more than them.

time to appreciate the comparison between wille the perfect crown prince and messy hair with undone shirt wille!

he looks at the audience for the very last time with the most content smile and we can tell he really is - ready. to leave us behind, to face the future, to experience life in the way we've seen him fight for before.

wilmon breaking the fourth wall together at the end would've been insane, but it feels so right to focus on wille actually: it's always been just him, it all started with our eyes on him and his journey, the choice to abdicate is for his own sake and not for simon - he said it himself - so for him to be alone in the closing shot makes the most sense to me.

wilhelm finally getting his own little family of people who loves and values him, simon sharing life with the person who's made him feel seen and cared for - this is honestly the best finale we could’ve ever asked for.

[cescalr]

messing around in artbreeder = fun

the new ui = cruel and unusual. incorrect. not fun. 

[jnece-maharlika]

Pt2Danny Accidentally becomes the Ghost king, the president and the biggest threat to Bruce's social status.

Pt 1 link:

Part 2 Danny becomes the president.

Amity Parkers are the most adaptable people in the world. They're barely fazed by anything.

If you throw them into a situation that they are very unfamiliar with, it'll only take them five minutes to adjust before they start planning on how to live with this situation.

The Amity Parker mindset is: "Oh, I guess this is happening now."

So when the ghosts start attacking? The Amity Parkers immediately look for ways to avoid and protect themselves from the ghosts, not even questioning why ghosts are real. The only thing they think about is, "Damn, there's a ghost. I hope it doesn't attack the theater; I really want to see that movie."

When Phantom had his debut as a hero? The Amity Parkers started looking for ways to help, ways to keep out of his way (some to try and keep him away). The thought running through their minds was, "So this one is trying to protect us? Guess we have a hero now."

Amity Parkers don't spend their time getting mad at the sudden change of routine, the sudden loss of normalcy, or the broken buildings. Amity Parkers don't ask why and how ghosts are real, don't question if all ghosts are evil or if there are some good ghosts, and don't even think of how to get rid of them completely (they're part of the community now). They only look for ways to keep themselves from getting overshadowed. They definitely don't spend time thinking if the ghosts could bring more danger in the future or looking for more information for possible contingency plans. They aren't Batman; they believe that if the present is good, then the future will be better.

Point is, Amity Parkers are resilient and adaptable. They will take everything in stride and focus on the present. So what if some ghosts attack and block the street? They need to get to work, so they'll just drive around it.

After the whole Pariah Dark thing, they become liminal, gaining some form of super strength and glowing eyes (symptoms vary based on how strong the radiation on a person is). A normal human would think, "OH MY GOD, I'M DYING!" The Amity Parkers went, "Oh, cool, this is cool, but now I'm having a problem with opening doors without breaking the knob. Maybe the Fentons could do something about it, make stronger knobs or something."

When some babies started gaining some inhuman features? Some start floating? (Sharper ears, fangs. Babies adapt to things faster, so they get more ecto radiation.) The Amity parents went, "Is there a way to keep my child on the ground without leashing them like a dog?" Then proceeded to make a help blog for other Amity parents dealing with the same things.

So when the ghosts start becoming more of the community rather than enemies, the Amity Parkers just shrugged and asked for a book of ghost customs so they don't accidentally offend them.

When the Fentons started making ghost and human-safe items, no one even questioned why Danny had so much money and was funding his parents' research.

When Danny's name was almost (if not) in everything and he seemed to own most of the town, no one questioned it.

But everything changed when the GIW came again. Even the Amity Parkers weren't expecting this change.

The GIW waltzed in, claiming the liminal town was theirs to play with and started attacking everyone, including the Amity Parkers. The Amity Parkers went full defense mode, protecting the ghosts that were now their friends/neighbors/lovers, making sure that nothing would harm them.

They learned that it was Vlad who called on the GIW. He was pissed and petty that the crown was taken from him and decided to report his liminal town, pretending to be a "concerned mayor" who "wants his people to be healed."

The Amity Parkers were mad... they were furious.

And in the moment they saw Phantom fall to the ground, unconscious, and watched him de-transform from the hero King Phantom to the kid that owns and funds the most helpful companies in town, something changed. Something in the Amity Parkers changed.

Keep in mind that Amity Parkers don't change; they remain the same as they adapt to whatever change the world throws at them.

NEVER ONCE HAD THE AMITY PARKERS DECIDED TO MAKE A CHANGE THEMSELVES.

The first thing they changed? Their mentality. NEVER AGAIN WERE THEY GOING TO LET OUTSIDE FACTORS CHANGE THEIR LIVES. THIS IS THEIR TOWN AND IT WILL STAY THAT WAY.

God help the GIW for being their first victims.

An angry town of liminals, ghosts, and borderline gods, who have access to the Fentons' very destructive and effective technology.

Vs.

The regular GIW humans with anti-ghost tech they stole from the Fentons and nothing against liminals.

The battle was a swift victory, destroying not only the GIW in town but also all of its branches (and Vlad) with almost no traces of them even existing in the first place.

The change didn't stop there, however.

The Amity Parkers banded together with Team Phantom and the Fentons (minus Danny, as he is healing and shouldn't know about their plans; the hero should rest) and took out some of that ghost king money that Danny's trying to get rid of. They crashed the UN meeting while kidnapping the president of America.

The Amity Parkers have decided that Amity Park is theirs; it belongs to the people and its heroes. But how is it supposed to be truly theirs if they have to follow the rules of the country that funded the GIW?

A couple of death threats, bribing, more death threats and more money bribing to make sure the anti ecto acts are gone and the League of Bitches (Phantom called the JL that, and the Amity Parkers decided it was true) doesn't know about it, and a couple of hours in the nightmare realm (courtesy of Fright Knight, who happily participated when he found out what happened), and Amity Park was now its own independent country.

They decided that Tucker was to be a main part of security, letting him put up another firewall like the GIW did to make sure no one knows about their country. They don't want the League of Bitches or any outsider in the King's Haunt. It's theirs now; it belongs to the Ghost King of Amity Park, outsiders be gone.

And when it came to deciding who would be leader? There was no hesitation as they wrote down:

Daniel "Danny Phantom" Fenton, King of the Infinite Realms, King and President of Amity Park.

___________________

A couple of years later, Batman, finding hints of a "Lazarus pit" in Illinois, send Flash to look around for anything suspicious. Flash, hyper focused on following his gps, hits a wall, literally faceplants into it.He double checks his map, the wall wasn't supposed to be there. He goes around it, there no way in, no way out. He goes back to batman and reports.

Pt3 soon.

Tags as requested

@nana-mizu-shiki

@talia-scar123

[luveline]

hello jade! you are so talented and i love how you handle Miguel, so here comes my request: miguel overworking himself and tinkering on stuff and fem!reader pretending a accident happened, just to lure him away and force him to rest, while someone else takes over

thank you!! and thank you for your request ♡ fem!reader x boyfriend!miguel

Miguel's eyes are the kind of dry where you can actually physically tell from the edge of the platform you've just yanked yourself onto. His undereye area is sunken and dark, and his lips are pressed together tightly as he breathes in. He has some strange technology in his hand, a screwdriver in the other. It's unusual to see him working with physical tech these days, and whatever it is has been keeping him busy. 

"Hey, Miguel," you say finally, breaching the quiet. Margo looks up from her desk at the sound of your voice, and something in her gaze says, Oh, good, you're here. Fix him. You nod tightly. "Miguel?" 

He looks up for a split-second, if that. "What?" 

"What are you doing?" 

"Calibration." 

He doesn't explain the tech beyond that. You're a Spider, you should be able to guess what it is that he's working on. You've created web-shooters yourself with extremely complicated and delicate makings, but the longer you look at it the more confused you feel. 

"Do you need anything? Water? Something from the cafeteria?" You edge into the room, footsteps measured. "A nap?" 

"Nope." 

You frown and approach his side. He's sitting down, so there's that. The most important thing is that he's resting in some capacity, but the second most important thing is that his hair is in hand's reach. You put your hand on his shoulder to test the waters. Miguel doesn't react. Pleased, you push your fingertips into his hair and scratch gently at his scalp. His hair is a little dirty. He isn't taking care of himself, and this deep into a project it's unlikely he will be anytime soon.

You decide it's morally okay to lie. "I need a favour," you say gently. 

He looks up, finally noticing your hand in his hair. His head tips into your palm, his eyes softening, his crows feet wrinkles erased ever so slightly as he asks, "What do you need?" 

"I smashed the window in my room, and it's really, really cold, and I can't find a vacuum," you say, setting a false shame into the line of your mouth and eyes, your brows pinching up at the starts. "I'm really sorry, I don't know what to do." 

It's your apology that finally tugs him out of work mode. He lets the doohickey he'd been tinkering with plink flat onto his workbench, a rare but not uncharacteristic kindness in his voice. "Don't be sorry. We'll get it fixed. I know where everything is." 

"I know where everything is," Lyla says. 

"S'what I said," Miguel says. You know he laughs to make you feel more comfortable, and the guilt for lying to him festers. 

That guilt quickly wanes on the walk to your room. He's yawning and blinking the entire trek, big hand over his mouth to hide it. The Spider Society is really shaping into something amazing, and more and more Spiders arrive everyday. They've started construction on a dormitory for worldly visitors and refugees, but you've been lucky enough to get your own room near Miguel's. It's hard work for him to undertake such a huge project. He doesn't realise he's not doing it alone.

"How'd you break your window, anyway?" he asks through another jaw-cracking yawn. 

"You know me," you say, laughing nervously as you open your door and reveal a lack of both a broken window or smashed glass. 

Miguel squints through tired eyes at the room's cleanliness. "The smashed window?" he asks. 

"What do you mean?" you ask. 

"You know what I mean, the– you smashed a window? You wanted a vacuum?" 

"Did I?" you ask. 

"She lied," Lyla says, blinking in and out of view.

"I gathered that, thanks." 

"Okay, I'm sorry, I did lie. I just want you to take a break," you say, sitting at the top of your bed in what you hope is an enticing display, hand rubbing the empty space beside you. "Come and sleep, Miguel." 

"I can't," he says gruffly, then less so, "I can't, I have things to do." 

"Just for a bit," you say, eyes wide and pleading, your very best approximation of puppy dog's. "Please, baby. Just for an hour." 

Miguel stares at you for a moment, his shoulders sagging, before he closes your bedroom door and wastes no time in lying down next to you. You're startled at his willingness to do as you asked, but then you notice his flushed cheeks, tanned skin darkened by a rosy blush. 

You open your mouth to say something smug. He senses it, and says, "I can't sleep if you're talking." 

Your lips snap closed. 

Miguel lays motionless for a while. His breathing evens out. Sure he's asleep, you lay down beside him and dot a chaste kiss against his temple. 

His lips flicker. Not smiling, but almost. 

[petalsscribbles]

17. save me

"I can't believe that guy." Yn huffs into the night's cold air. Not long after Sunghoon's 'passing out', the oh so gravely injured vampire admitted he was mostly okay and just pretending to be unconcious. His injury isn't light, he had to drop out of the rest of the competition, but it wasn't enough to knock him out.

However, even the annoyance and anger he feels doesn't do a great job at lessening his guilt. Sunghoon lost the race because of him, lost the chance to break a record almost impossible to break, he got hurt because of Yn. All that without a single split of a second of hesitation, just to save Yn.

Yn stops and sighs heavily, pittying himself shamelessly. He looks up to the dark sky, stars adorning it like the freckles Yn finds so charming. It takes only a moment for them to resemble the sparks in Sunghoon's beautiful brown eyes and Yn can only laugh dryly at himself.

"You're really making this whole giving up thing very difficult, Park Sunghoon."

He's about to start moving again when he hears the strange noise behind him. Being his cautious self, he takes out is phone and puts on a selfie mode, pretending to adjust his hair. Surely enough, there is a tall man watching him. He's not very subtle about it either.

For now, Yn decides to play dumb, maybe he's just paranoid. He calmly resumes his journey home, carefully listening to the footsteps echoing behind him. After a while he pretends to tie his shoelaces and the footsteps quiet down, returning when Yn continues walking.

There's no doubt about it now, he is being followed.

With shaky hands, Yn reaches for his phone and clicks on the most recent number dialed, not knowing who it is.

One ring, two rings.

"Yn! Have you decided to forgive me yet?" Sunghoon says cheerfully. Yn silently wonders just how much blood he has lost or if the disc hit some specific part of his brain resposible for not acting like a damn fool. He would've told him off, but right now he's too scared to. He's too scared to say anything, in fact.

"Yn? Is everything okay?" Sunghoon's tone changes completely. From playful to dead serious.

"I think someone's following me." Yn whispers.

"Where are you?"

"Near the gas station."

"Okay, go in there and pretend you wanna buy something. I'll be there as soon as possible. And don't hang up, keep talking to me like you're talking to a friend."

Yn listens, browsing through the aisles, laughing and chatting with nobody as he listens to Sunghoon pant on the other side.

When the stalker checks for other customers and makes sure the cashier is asleep, he enters as well.

This is it, Yn thinks. Sunghoon won't make it in time and Yn is not fit enough to successfully run, let alone fight. He can feel the stranger closing the distance slowly, like a predator watching his prey, calculating his next move.

Yn is frozen in his spot, accepting his demise when a strong arm circles around him and pushes him behind its owner.

It's Sunghoon, panting, phone still in his right hand, the other clenched in a fist.

Neither of them say anything, but the man seems to understand whatever message Sunghoon has been silently sending and decides to live another day.

Yn's legs give out under his weight when the creep is out of sight but Sunghoon is quick to catch him. He uses the opportunity to pull him close and hold Yn tightly.

"You're okay. It's okay." He repeats.

Once Yn stops shaking, Sunghoon helps him to his feet and guides him home.

"It's alright, you can go home now." Yn reassures, sitting on his bed with a glass of water in hand. Yn watches the unsteady surface shake as his anxiety refuses to die down despite being in the safety of his home.

"No, no I can't." Sunghoon says resolutely. He's been pacing back and forth in Yn's spacious room, eyebrows furrowed, traces of anger still present in his eyes. "The man who was following you wasn't just some ordinary creep. He was a vampire on a hunt. I could feel the bloodlust."

"You mean, he was planning on drinking my blood?"

"Yes, even though it's strictly forbidden. It's basically a law among vampires to not drink blood from unconsenting humans." Sunghoon explains, his voice tainted with disgust. "But that doesn't stop some vampires who are sick of animal blood or cold blood bags. And since you smells so..." He trails off, but he doesn't have to finish for Yn to understand.

"I can't tell my parents, they'll make me drop out and lock me up in here and I've never been so happy than I am right now. I don't wanna lose that."

"There is a way for you to stay safe but it will come at a price." Sunghoon suggest after a short pause. His tone is much softer this time, almost defeated.

"What is it?"

"You can become my blood servant."

a/n: listen pookies, I know Yn stories are written in a 'you' format but I hate it so much I can't bring myself to do it and I'm just used to the third person pov

taglist CLOSED

@starchasing-cryptid @foxilsdenn @moonslie04 @kkurbys @winter-world @bleedingxheartt @gnusihcom @dkmyman @mortifesboy @kkyoluv @teoluvsyou @bubblztaro @conwunder @xavi-in-kpopland @monstaxpuppy @gabrielllx @tarotarosung @livingsecret @onementally-unstabel-kid @axolotl04 @hwalleluja

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[autistichalsin]

Gameplay changes I'd make to BG3 if I was in charge:

(Under a read more bc this is an insanely long list)

Ability to make party changes without going back to camp; I.E. "hey Lae'zel, go back to camp and tell Karlach to come here."

Able to see companion approval at all times even if they're not in the party

Able to make checks with any character, not just Tav. You used to be able to do this to an extent by having other characters do conversations, but when they made it so Tav was prioritized back in patch 6, they changed it so that even if you click with another companion, it switches to Tav. Ideally they would fix it so that if the conversation triggers automatically, it prioritizes Tav, and if you deliberately start a conversation with another companion, it recognizes that you wanted that.

Better item sorting. "Most recent" actually sorts by when you acquired the item.

Ability to text search for an item if you know its name.

Ability to mark an item as a favorite so you don't accidentally sell it/drop it/send it back to camp.

Quest items don't count against your weight total.

Quest items that are no longer relevant are no longer marked as quest items.

Either allow for character leveling past 12 (Even if class leveling is limited to 12) or adjust the difficulty across the board so you scale more evenly. Act 1 becomes a bit easier, act 2 remains about the same, act 3 becomes a lot harder. I should not hit the level cap early in act 3.

Alternatively, at least give a reward in lieu of XP when you hit the level cap. Items, gold, a points system that lets you use excess XP to buy additional spell slots/wilshape charges/rage charges/bardic inspiration, something.

Story mode; battles are disabled, allowing you to solely explore and focus on the story elements.

Dark Urge as a companion.

Ability to change who your unfortunate murder victim is, outside of Alfira and Quill. Maybe it's Zevlor, or Rolan, or Kagha.

More recruitable evil companions. Kagha, Wulbren, and Ethel are a good start.

Halsin recruitable in act 1 or at least no later than the start of act 2.

More reactivity for story developments after act 1, particularly in act 3 when it drops to little comments here or there.

More reactivity for Dark Urge story elements in particular, especially everything related to the Orin fight.

Ability to fast travel to quest-related markers.

Ability to hook up your companions. Let me smooch Halsin but hook up Karlach and Wyll, or let me romance Wyll while hooking up Halsin and Astarion!

Change point and click lines for characters to reflect story developments (resist Durge should sound less unhinged, Lae'zel shouldn't reference Vlaakith after turning away from her, etc)

Let your love interest answer questions about you during the love dryad test. You can select the right answers beforehand, and then they'll answer right or wrong depending on a bit of approval and a bit of luck/dice rolling. Halsin, of course, will automatically know you fear krakens.

Fighting Gortash at the coronation is actually an option that doesn't break the bridges and doesn't disable fast travel into Wyrm's Rock once he's defeated.

Give the gnomes the ability to fix Karlach's engine, or at least work on a prototype.

Option to speed up or entirely skip enemy turns, coming back to you and giving you a brief recap of who was hit and for how much damage/what status effects. This would make the courtyard, in particular, less of a slog. I should not be able to finish my turn, take a pee break, and come back to the enemies still attacking.

Ability to make it more clear what your relationship with Halsin is in a polymance- keep it as a one night stand/physical relationship, make it a poly romance with your other partner as your nesting partner, or even make it a throuple. Similarly, if the latter, add scenes of your partners getting to know each other better, kissing, etc.

Don't tie so many plot events to long rests while stressing that the player needs to hurry to avoid ceremorphosis. Either drop the facade that there is a rush, or make these plot developments happen outside of camp.

Consequences for using tadpoles beyond one (possibly two as of patch 7) dice rolls. Make it so using too many will cause you to squid, no matter what.

Ideally, bring back the plot that was teased in act 1, where instead of being the Emperor, you Dream Guardian was your tadpole, trying to seduce you to let it take over.

Better balancing for Rangers at higher levels, as as it is now, you basically have to multiclass them to get any decent use out of them. After level 5 any additional levels spent on Ranger are wasted.

Improve Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster to use the class's standard stat instead of int or wis for their spells.

All wildshape attacks minus three of the four myrmidons should count as unarmed for the purposes of tavern brawler and other similar things that buff unarmed attacks working.

Make the Emperor/Orpheus a fully autonomous party member, allowing you to give them equipment (and allowing them to use potions/spells they didn't already have on hand) during the final battle.

Fix pathfinding for characters you don't control, and especially fix them automatically jumping back to the other side of a gap just because you had to switch to a character who wouldn't make the jump before.

Improve Fly so that it is better than Jump outside of like 2-3 levels.

Some kind of enemy-rush mode where you see how long you can last against all the bosses in the game would be amazing.

Ability to either return to the city and finish up some quests before the epilogue.

New game plus.

Origin Halsin and Minthara.

The game does a better job of remembering that Halsin isn't tadpoled, and also does a better job of not always assuming that if you're in a poly relationship with him, you want the other partner prioritized for literally every scene.

Resist scene for Minthara and Halsin.

Recruitable Aylin and Isobel. Ideally, you can also romance them and become their third.

Dye preview, as well as clothing and armor previews.

Armor scales in weight with your size, so the same armor put on a small character will weigh less than the same armor on a large character, allowing little characters more options.

Druids automatically revert to human form for cutscenes, then return to wildshape after without losing a charge.

Orin can kidnap any character, including your romanced companion, but to compensate, there are less steps needed to access the Temple of Bhaal.

The kidnapped companion is not guaranteed to be unharmed even if you save them; depending on how long you took, they might have been badly tortured and receive a status debuff that lasts several days.

Faith-leap trial is fixed so that you can actually solve it without either a guide or cheesing it.

Let Wyll dump Mizora as a patron, then become an Archfey warlock with Thaniel and Oliver as his patrons. Wyll then becomes a nature defender.

More autonomy for Wyll in his quest. You can't make the pivotal choices of his story arc for him, and instead, your ability to convince him is tied to dice rolls that have a DC scaled to your approval, like for SH.

Able to take Scratch and Owlbear home in the epilogue, instead of only being able to send Owlbear with SH, Halsin, or you if romanced to either.

Let Karlach stay in the House of Hope if Hope lived, allowing her to live in Avernus without having to constantly fight and fear Zariel.

More interesting Speak With Animals conversations. They drop dramatically after act 1, and by act 3 there are very few times I use the spell anymore, just to talk to the kitties.

Able to cast certain spells (I.E. Hero's Feast) on all recruited characters, not just those in the active party.

54. Fix the morality system for Paladin oaths so that it's more clear what actions will break your oath ahead of time.

55. Give players more chances to fix things if a character turns temporarily hostile. I shouldn't lose a vendor, quest, etc for good because of a failed persuasion roll. There should be one more chance to fix it.

56. More deities for players to choose from; if not for Clerics, at least add more at the Stormshore Tabernacle. Ideally, allow even other classes to talk about having a favored deity, as most in the Realms do, and it would be interesting to, for example, be a Ranger, worship Mielikki, and have dialogue with Halsin, Jaheira, and Minsc.

57. Act 3 gets more unique music instead of largely reusing tunes from acts 1 and 2.

58. More companions so that every race and every class has representation.

59. Elves act more elven. Halsin and Astarion can have conversations in Elvish. Arnell is not confused by Shadowheart choosing her own name.

60. Free healing by Halsin. He is a world-renowned healer and would be great to see him use it more. Also, more shown of him researching medical conditions, helping sick/injured civilians in Baldur's Gate, etc.

61. The Shadow Curse breaks as soon as Ketheric dies or Thaniel and Oiver are reunited, whichever comes later, so the player can see the lands not influenced by the curse. Move the cutscene that plays on leaving the lands to this point, just without the bit of the party leaving the land.

62. Ability to save Art Cullagh so he won't die shortly after the game ends.

63. After you defend Halsin's portal, you get to play a side-quest where Halsin fights through the Shadowfell, finds Thaniel, and fights his way back. OR, you can delegate the portal defense to your other party members, and join Halsin in the Shadowfell to help him find Thaniel.

64. Introduce a weather system and a day/night system.

65. When you knock out a character using non-lethal attacks, the character is actually treated as alive, letting it be used outside of Minthara, Minsc, and Alfira.

66. Scene of Withers telling the players who he really is. Dark Urge players can become Withers' Chosen after they reject Bhaal, while Tav and non-Shadowheart Origins can be it from earlier on, maybe a scene early in act 2, and Shadowheart can be it after turning from Shar.

67. The Dark Urge's Urge manifests in battle, causing them to sometimes waste an action torturing a victim who's already been downed, or to turn hostile on allied characters.

68. More references to the Dark Urge being chronically ill as a result of their brain injury- this is brought up periodically in act 1 and then dropped for the most part. This could even lead to scenes of romanced characters comforting them when they have a headache or fainting spells.

69. More intra-party conflicts besides SH and Lae'zel, and the possible Halsin-Minthara ultimatum. Let the evil characters get angry at Gale for wasting magical items and try to kick him out.

70. Implement the Halsin-Minthara ultimatum, but don't make it an ultimatum; instead Halsin simply signals his intention to leave, and if you want him instead of Minthara, you bring up sending her away. Also make it clear that the Absolute still hunts Halsin for what happened in the Grove and for fighting Ketheric 100 years ago, showing that even without a tadpole, he has stakes in this too. Also make it clearer that Minthara is severely triggering his past trauma with all her pro-slavery talk, possibly causing him to gain a status debuff if he's near her. That way people will stop demonizing Halsin there will be more of a feeling of balance in the ultimatum.

71. Ability to rescue children (particularly the orphaned ones in act 3) and bring them back to camp for Halsin and/or Jaheira to mother.

72. When you're in the final battle, the companions who aren't fighting at your side are instead on a sidequest evacuating the city and fighting the midnflayers who are terrorizing the citizens. Alternatively, just for this one battle, you can bring all your recruited companions with you (it would certainly help make that courtyard fight more balanced if you aren't using invisibility potions).

73. Platonic paths get just as much weight as romantic ones. You can become Karlach's best friend forever and go on friendly outings with her. You can train with Lae'zel. Etc.

74. Setting for romance/sexual encoutners/offers to be turned off entirely.

75. Explorer difficulty allows you to multiclass still.

76. More quests for evil players.

77. Every romanceable character has at least one action that will cause them to break up with you, and every companion has one that will cause them to leave the party (outside of sinking approval to -40).

78. Option to turn on a "confirm action" button, so that accidentally clicking on an item in red that's right next to a communal use item doesn't get you aggro'd.

79. Optional choice to add in random encounters.

80. Reintroduce class-specific tadpole powers from Early Access.

81. Ability to help people in the city more; you can offer refugees shelter at your camp, feed or pay all beggars, etc. Telling the rich they suck for not helping is great but I want to be able to do more.

82. Sidequest for that Druid who's trying to save the dying tree in Baldur's Gate, ideally with special Halsin and Jaheira interactions.

83. More conversations like the one with Halsin and Jaheira in act 2, where controlling a character lets you talk to another and unlock special dialogues you don't otherwise get.

84. The circus is now a proper carnival, including magic-fueled rides, treatos, and a tunnel of love. Also, the Bhaalists are trying to interfere with the rides and get people killed, which you have to stop.

85. You have the option to tell owlbear cub that you don't want to give him the potion to make him grow faster because he deserves to stay a cub and grow naturally.

86. You can give companions little gifts, like SH with the night orchid. You can give Halsin his pipe back.

87. You can choose to join a companion in the endgame even if you haven't romanced them. You can move to Halsin's commune or keep Astarion company in the Underdark.

88. Ability to evict companions from your camp at any time, with a corresponding chewing out from the companions who stayed unless you have a really good reason for it.

89. Bring back the datamined bits where companions who left your party would later show up in the courtyard battle, tadpoled (if not already) and under the Absolute's control. (Maybe with a scene showing how it happened, including the tadpoling for Halsin and Jaheira who wouldn't have been infected before).

90. Bring back the datamined scenes from the morphic pool where the netherbrain would make the party have hallucinations corresponding to their insecurities. Including the option to comfort them after, especially your romanced partner.

91. Optional ability to cook meals yourself, maybe with a little cooking minigame like Pokemon has. Different foods can give you different status benefits the next day.

92. Ability to travel back to any act at any time before the final point of no return.

93. Act 1's point of no return is either entering the Underdark or the Mountain Pass, or entering the Shadow-Cursed Lands, but not either entering the Shadow-Cursed Lands from the Underdark or entering the Mountain Pass.

94. A gardening mechanic for edible plants and such would be fun, so you could have a steady supply of camp supplies and certain alchemy ingredients. Especially mushrooms since Minthara literally has her own mushroom farm.

95. Camp library so you can keep all your books, notes, and letters in one space to read without cluttering up your traveller's chest.

96. Alternatively, there are multiple traveller's chests for different items. Armors and weapons in one, scrolls, potions and other magical items in another, food and alchemy supplies in another, etc.

97. Ability to take care of and comfort characters who've been poisoned, infected with contagion, etc.

98. Let Halsin, SH, and the player cuddle more animals.

99. Every class gets a unique camp follower a la the Oathbreaker Knight.

100. Vendor of common things (animal speaking potions, some alchemy ingredients, camp supplies) in camp for the whole game.

[haveyouseenthisskeleton]

Undertale characters see S/O break a bone and then S/O basically just does a Far Cry healing animation and doesn’t even care they got hurt.

Undertale Sans - He grabs your arm gently but firmly, with dark eye sockets. "b u d d y ? N e v e r d o t h a t a g a i n." He hated every second of it. What's wrong with you? Go to the hospital like a normal person, you're going to hurt yourself more.

Undertale Papyrus - He faints. First, the shock of seeing your leg on the wrong side triggered him, but you simply putting it back in place like it's nothing? That's too much man. He can take a lot of things, but this is a big no.

Undertale Toriel - .... She was about to heal you, that for sure stopped her dead in her tracks. She's speechless. And immediately turns into Goat Mom mode and starts lecturing you about how dangerous this is and how it could have hurt you even more. Now you sit down this instant and you let her heal you properly.

Undertale Asgore - He lived hundreds of years and still discovers new things. Though, that one is maybe a bit too much. The noise of the bone snapping back into place made him so uncomfortable he suddenly panics his way out of the house, pretending he needed to get groceries or something.

Undertale Undyne - She stares in awe for a few seconds. Then she explodes. "This was AWESOME. Do it AGAIN!!!" She's very excited about this. She's even ready to break your arm if you need it! Come on!

Undertale Alphys - The scientist in her leaves her body. Why even try? You clearly have no idea how to fix a bone. It's so dangerous and you just act like everything is alright now??? How??? You should be screaming in agony???

Undertale Frisk - Well they can do cool things too. Frisk immediately struggles to lick their elbow with all they have.

Undertale Chara - They roll their eyes at you. You think you're in a video game or something? They're not taking you to the hospital when you realize you're dying because of how painful this is. You did that to yourself.

Undertale Mettaton - He gasps, then runs to you with a camera. Can he break one of your bones so you can do it again and put it in his next movie? Please, please, please, pretty please....

Undertale Gaster - He hisses at you, all his goop puffing like an angry cat. This is the worst sound he has ever heard, please never do that again or he's going to blip into another dimension again!

Undertale Grillby - He stays neutral, but his fire body suddenly burns for real, which means you triggered him. And now the bar is on fire, and Sans is on fire, and all the customers are running in circles screaming for their lives. What have you done?

Undertale Muffet - No big deal, it happens all the time with her eight arms too. She doesn't even notice when one is broken with time, as she has seven other functioning ones. You're not special, who cares.

Undertale Burgerpants - Oh look at that. He's dating another weird person. Welp, that's official. He has a type apparently. He wishes he didn't have one. Why can't he date normal people who do things like normal people should?

Undertale Flowey - Did you just pull out the friendliness pellet he threw inside your arm with your teeth? "You can't do that! That's illegal! I just broke that bone, you can't fix it like it's nothing! Cheater!" He's so mad! Stop breaking his fun. He wants to kill you!

Undertale Gerson - He wiggles his eyebrows at you. You know his back is hurting as well, right? You know. A little trick like that could help like hell. Come on. Don't be shy.

[tetsunabouquet]

Loved the interpretation and writing of my last request! If you dont mind, here's a new one. Tw! Anorexia

Gom with a reader suffering from severe restricting eating to the point where they passed out in public or private, your choice. Again, sorry if this is triggering.

A/N: Thank you for the compliment! Trigger warnings for the readers up in the request

Akashi

-Don't expect this guy to be surprised. He has been suspecting it for a while. -When you faint in front of him, his heart sinks in that ultimate, 'Oh no,' moment. -Actually has a minor panic attack. -Flashbacks to his mom. -He'll do everything he can to wake you up. -Once you're awake, he'll have food arranged for you and he's guilt tripping you to eat it. -"Don't make me lose another person that I love."

Aomine

-Has actually told you before about how you should gain a little more weight as he notices the thinness but doesn't has the intellectual brain capacity to suspect something like an ED. -When you faint, it still doesn't registers in his mind but he does immediately recognize that you needed something to eat. -Momoi is the one to tell him she suspects your disordered eating, and Aomine's heart honestly breaks at the news. -He is demanding you to tell him which stupid idiot convinced you that you were fat, so that he can beat them up right now. -You are honestly touched to see him be so angry and upset on your behalf, he is so pure with his praise and love for you. -Demands that you eat with him at the Maji burger at least once a week and that you try to finish the meal he buys for you.

Murasakibara

-Like Aomine, he doesn't has any suspicions regarding the behavior itself but he does notices you don't eat enough. -Murasakibara just cradles you confused in his arms as Himuro tells him what to do next as well as mention his suspicions about your restrictve eating. -Murasakibara honestly stares at you like you're an alien creature as he has to process the idea that people can hate food that much, thank god you're unconscious and you can't see his face. -He makes up his mind to be the person to cure you of that hate. -Dumps pretty much all candy and snacks he has on him on you the moment you wake up all the whilst giving you a look as sweet and pure as the candy itself. -He increases little habbits like feeding you, because clearly you need it.

Midorima

-Has been taking calculated notes of how much you eat, but is afraid of coming off too strong so he refrains from daring to ask the question. -When you faint he has the most perfect response ever, and manages to stay calm even though he is breaking down on the inside with worry. -Confronts you sternly but lovingly once you wake up, he only wants the best for you. -Reads multiple books on how to be a supportive partner. -Honestly he's adorable with how hard he tries to be there for you. -After the event, he prepares you a bento in the theme of your lucky item of the day, always. Even on the days you can't bring yourself to eat it, he doesn't minds and just hoped carrying the lucky item themed lunch brought you courage in different ways.

Kise

-Knows. Immediately. -As a model, he has far too much model contacts not to know about that dark side of the industry so he knows all the signs. -Is the only one to have confronted you about it before it got to the fainting stage. -Honestly he bawls like a baby when you faint in front of him, because this was exactly like he feared. -He manages to get the number of a great treatment program from another model that is combatting her own ED after you woke up again and got him to calm down. -Tries to feed you all the time whilst acting as cutesy as possible, full idol mode. Because he hopes it will do the trick. -He tries to uplift you by talking about his own insecurities, as being under the limelight does also open him up to scrutiny way more then the average person.

[nanamis-bigtie]

Promised Lullaby

a/n: 1.5h of sleep, sheer awe of battle mode Gojo design, trauma after chapter 236 leaks... it couldn't end only one way - and for once it's not smut 😂 canon timeline is nothing but a bad dream and Gojo himself is here to reassure us everything is going to be alright!

Character: Gojo Satoru Reader: gender neutral (no gendered pronouns, ambiguous body descriptions) Word Count: ~700 CW: manga spoilers past chapter 223, canon divergence, angst, hurt/comfort, nightmares, Gojo has tons of unprocessed guilt, I lost count which arm in the end he lost, sorry! jjk masterlist // ao3 version

"Are you crying?"

No darkness can deceive Gojo's eyes. But even blind and powerless he would recognize the desperate clutch of your fingers, clenched on his shirt so hard he feels your nails scratching at his skin. Tangled in sheets, you're nuzzling to his side like a little bird, curled, pressed into the tight space between his chest and stump. 

"Hey, Y/N, are you awake?" Gently, he nudges your shoulder, looks for your eyes amidst the night but he doesn't find a satisfying answer. Groaning at stiffened muscles, he reaches over you, for the switch-key of the bed stand lamp. He almost fails and falls on top of you—his disability is fresh, he's still not used to different balance and the lack of arm by the right side. 

"Y/N?" He tries again, voice soft and full of concern. With some squirming, he manages to roll on side without pushing you away; he scoops you closer, fingers soothingly tracing at your scalp and the back of your head. As always, his heart melts at the soft sensation of the size difference between you two; you're an adult but in comparison to his huge hands—hand you sometimes seem fragile like a child.

It does feel like cuddling a child at that moment, with your dry sobs cutting through grave silence, and trembling of your curled shoulders. And like with children, Gojo is patient with you, untying the knots of your nightmares one after one, until your breath eases and tension melts into oblivion. You're pressed so close to him he feels your eyes opening, your lashes tickling his neck when you blink the sandy numbness away.

"I'm here." He reassures you and kisses the top of your head. "I got you."

With a loud gasp you jerk in his embrace, both hands reaching for his face, frantically tracing scattered scars, tangling into soft locks falling far past his eyebrows. Shock fades into relief, relief into ecstatic happiness, tears pooling in your eyes, and soon falling all over your cheeks, all over his t-shirt and scarred chest underneath. 

The sight breaks his heart into a thousand little pieces.

"You're—" Another sob cuts through your words, turning them into unintelligible wailing, soon muffled by his chest. He welcomes you with a low, sensuous hum, big, warm hand at the back of your neck, thumb drawing aimless lines and circles down your spine. 

Gojo doesn't need your words. He knows, he always knew even without choked-out extracts of your nightmares you sometimes shared. You've been like this since you reunited; he can only imagine what you went through when he's been gone—and with each tear he feels falling on his chest, he just hates himself and his weakness more.

He swore to protect you, to protect everyone, and even if in the end he came out on top, he hasn't been with you for too long. Way too long.

"Yes, I am here. I'm real." Gojo promises and peppers your head with more kisses, his voice calm and warm in reverse to the state of his soul. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise."

Liar, liar, liar a hundred times—and the most honest he's ever been in his life. It will not repeat, Gojo is sure of that, and repeats his promise with each slow and gentle stroke against your back. The mistakes won't be repeated, brecks in the plans won't be overlooked. As you are safe in his embrace now, you will be wherever you go, with him by your side, physically or not. 

Your sobs eventually fade, fatigue wins over anxiety and torturous remains of nightmares. Gojo listens to your breathing easing, doesn't cease with soft touch and reassuring praises until go limp against him, swallowed by peaceful, or at least blank, dreams now. Not until then he dares to roll on back, pulling you with him, and covering the both of you with a blanket. Whispering his name, you rub your nose against his collarbone, your hand blindly looking for his.

He squeezes it, reassuring. It's so small, so fragile against his palm… Oh, if his soul wasn't already shattered, it would crumble this very moment. How could he let go of that beloved hand? How could he make you think he was gone?

To your last breath, at any cost, he won't leave you alone like this ever again.

[toxicanonymity]

whenever you have time, could you expand on that dark mode joel hc where reader brings up tess😩

(ACTUAL) DARK MODE 🔪

700 words | DARK!Joel x DARK!Reader | master list

In this AU, you can activate different “modes” for your pleasure using specific triggers.  Read about Joel’s modes in these (twisted) Objectification HCs. 

Warnings: NSFW 18+ NSFL DARK!Joel, NONCON maybe cnc but tagging noncon to be safe, Violence, domestic violence, verbal abuse/degradation, spitting, choking, knife, blood, unsafe PIV, dubcon by reader?, maybe more!  post-outbreak, AU

You're in an abandoned cabin looking for supplies on a long journey, and you're in the mood to get tossed around by Joel's darker side.  He's looking in the kitchen cabinets but stops dead in his tracks when you say, "Tess would know what to do." 

He turns around and you watch it come over him.  He takes a deep breath through his nose and his whole body tenses. "WHAT'D I TELL YOU 'BOUT SAYIN' HER NAME?" he booms, pointing at you, mouth wide open, hair bouncing with every word, whole body shaking with rage. 

He charges at you and you step backwards until your ass hits the kitchen table.  Joel wraps a rough, dirty hand around your throat and holds you there, his eyes shooting daggers into yours.  You cough and choke.  "What the fuck's the matter with you? Huh?" His face is red.  He lessens his grip only to let you answer. 

"She always knew what to do," you say. 

He lowers his voice to a disturbingly calm volume and says "You're gonna make me kill you one of these days" as he pulls his knife. You know he won't, but it still makes your heart race.  

He slams you down face-up on the kitchen table.  Your knees are at the edge, legs dangling.  He gets up on the table and straddles your hips then presses the flat of the knife against your throat, and the cool metal sends a chill down your spine.  His face looms over yours, neck veins bulging. Terrifying look in his eyes.  Ice cold like he doesn't know you at all.  Like he wasn't inside you 8 hours ago. And the night before that, and the night before that. 

"Is that what you want? YOU GOT A DEATH WISH? AFTER EVERYTHING I'VE DONE TO KEEP YOU ALIVE?" He slides the knife off your throat then reaches down and pops the button off your pants using the point of the knife.  

"Don't fuckin' move" he says. He gets down from the table, watching you, his pants sliding down yours and you feel his hard cock.  Your heart pounds and your eyes prickle with tears as a primal response, but there's also a fluttering ache between your legs.  He pulls up your shirt and holds you still with one arm across your belly while he yanks your pants down.  He brings his mouth to your thigh and bites down harder and harder until you  thrash him off.  Then, he  presses the flat of the blade at your pantyline and your hips lift into it seeking friction.  

Then he abruptly slashes your underwear, which catches and breaks the skin.  The blade leaves flaky white trails that burn ice cold.   The white trails turn into dotted red as Joel rips your ruined underwear off entirely and takes his stiff cock out of his pants. The red beads grow and absorb each other along the knife's trail as Joel forces your legs open and notches the angry head of his cock at your entrance.  

He uses the blunt edge of the knife to smear the line, then brings the blade to your mouth and makes you lick your blood off it.  You narrowly avoid slicing your tongue.  

He grabs your hips with both hands, still holding the butt of the knife in one, and plunges his length into you.  You groan at the familiar stretch, and he doesn't wait at all like he normally would for you to accommodate his size. He pulls out all but the tip, then sheaths himself in your cunt entirely. 

He pounds you brutally until you come on his cock, tripping him into his own orgasm, and, cruelly,  this is your favorite part.  As he empties his balls into you, you gradually see the devil leave his eyes. With each pump, a little more of him returns and the monster is replaced by a tired, wounded, traumatized man, horrified by his actions.  He looks at his hand and drops the knife. He kisses up your blood and rests his head on your stomach.   He looks up and asks tearfully, "why do you do this, baby? You're gonna get hurt."  Then he covers your body with his, nestling his hair into the crook of your neck.

-

(A/N):  The purpose of this whole concept is that sometimes you wanna get railed in a certain manner & there’s gotta be a way to have a man at one’s disposal for that, too, not just to sit on. I only did this with slashers before so I hadn’t thought much about consent or whether they could regret their actions lol, but I thought the emotional ending here could be an extra layer of darkness for reader. 

BTW, answered this alongside a knife request that was already in progress (mentally lol), but if you're looking for gun stuff, that'll likely be done with raider!Joel.

-

Thank you for reading!!

All Joel (do you regret it yet?): @ethanhoewke @silkiers @eiviea. @evyiione

[sodapopseagull]

My little creature of a custom durge. He's a College of Lore bard whose main purpose is to Misty Step into the middle of everything, activate Phalar Aluve, and be a total pain in the ass with Cutting Words. On honor mode I play him as a swords bard tav alongside my friend's open hand monk and the combo is rancid.

Paris is a very old, pre-existing OC that I use for any game with a custom character creator because I hardcore struggle with making new characters for things. I initially intended to romance Karlach with him because I thought it'd be a good match, but then Gale happened to both of us LMAO

Wanted to share his ref plus a little drawing based one of Gale's patch 6 kisses! Beware, extensive Paris yappin' ahead ⬇

Paris is a resistant, and eventually redeemed, dark urge whose story runs alongside my friend's tav Ralum (the dragonborn in the 3rd image). Pre-nautiloid, the two of them have a rather nasty encounter where Paris, completely lost to himself under Bhaal's will, attempts to end Ralum in an act of typical Bhaalspawn bloodlust. Ralum manages to survive by swearing a paladin's oath against his would-be killer and using his newfound divine healing to stitch himself back together just enough to survive. Ralum never caught sight of Paris due to the nature of the attack, so when they encounter one another after the abduction, they actually get along swimmingly.

Paris and Ralum become the party's de-facto leaders, Paris as the face and Ralum as the muscle, and they get along quite well. There is a quirk to the tadpole connection between them- it's looser, both because Paris's brain is twenty kinds of damaged, and because of their unknown personal history. For a good while after they first meet, their thoughts bleed into one anothers' heads. Ralum is able to get a hold on it quickly, but Paris can only do so much. Apart from the occasional, very loud thought about Gale's big butt though, it isn't so bad.

Then, into Act 2, when pieces of the dark urge's history fall into place, and Paris starts to put together the forgotten details of his past, he realizes that he is the target of Ralum's oath. Not wanting to get Divine Smited into oblivion, he keeps it a secret. Unfortunately, most of the clues regarding the dark urge's history are like, easily observable conversations and artifacts, and Ralum isn't far behind on figuring things out. By the time they reach Rivington, things are tense and scary and bad. There is a clear line drawn through the party through rising tension alone, and then act 3 stuff happens so-

I have a fic planned about their journey together, but as someone who is still new to writing things with the intent to be read by others, it's too big a project for me to feel confident in continuing at the moment. I might break it down into a series of oneshots, but at some point I do want to get it all down. I think it'd be fun, and my pal seems to enjoy the rambles 😊

Also- GALE. Paris is so obsessed with Gale both because they have remarkable chemistry and because I'm obsessed with Gale and Paris is my character so... yeah. It was a love-at-first sight thing for Paris, but since he feels that way about tons of people who show him a shred of kindness (he had a crush on Ralum for about a tenday after meeting him post-nautiloid) he doesn't take it seriously at all. Gale is fun to talk to (Paris is a yapper to rival Gale, make no mistake) and he's funny and admittedly quite cute, but so are a lot of people, and Paris is so off from the abduction, amnesia, and illness from his urge that he doesn't really have the bandwidth to think much more on it.

What ends up solidifying their bond initially is pain. Gale has chronic pain from the orb, and due to the absolutely wild shit Kressa Bonedaughter and Orin did to the dark urge, as well as the fact that a durge seems to suffer sometimes severe physical consequences from resisting their urge, they both feel like shit all the time. While Paris generally keeps his pain hidden, Gale can recognize it. Paris, meanwhile, finds a lot of catharsis in offering Gale relief, as if it's proof that he's more than what his dark urge demands him to be. They make a habit of spending their evenings together over a glass of wine and a bit of healing magic. Sometimes a book, but Paris's brain is usually pretty fatigued by nightfall, so Gale will occasionally read to him.

By the time the act 1 weave scene happens, there is already a pretense of intimacy to it, and when Paris pictures the pair of them cuddled up and watching the stars together, it goes over quite well. I don't think either of them are ready for a proper romantic relationship- Paris cannot remember how his last one ended (spoiler, it was VERY bad) but he carries a lingering anxiety around the prospect of entering a new one, and Gale has all of his Mystra baggage, but there is a newfound sense of commitment and a real promise of something in the future.

They're both extremely devoted partners and are honestly kinda gross by the end of the tadpole adventure with how mushy and in love they are. They are tragically separated at the end though, as Paris goes to Avernus with Karlach after Wyll is severely injured in the final battle, and that has NOTHING to do with the fact that it gives an opportunity for bloodweave to develop in the 6 month timespan between the defeat of the netherbrain and the reunion party. (Paris is polyamorous and doesn't know if he'll survive Avernus, and he tells Gale that he deserves whatever love comes his way. He asks that Gale not wait on Paris's return, but if there is a place for him in Gale's heart when he returns, he will gladly come back to him.) At the party, a very eager Wyll takes Paris's place at Karlach's side, loaded with newfound ranger skills honed under the careful guidance of Minsc and Boo (Karlach and Wyll geeking out over Minsc and Jaheira is so CUTE and the idea of Wyll training as a ranger under their tutelage, especially so he can make his way to Avernus to be with Karlach, makes my heart explode), so Paris ends up going back to Waterdeep with Gale and Astarion.

Idk if things develop romantically between Paris and Astarion beyond their mutual love for Gale. What I do know is that Gale deserves to be trapped between two men who want to eat him, affectionately.

Also, trans Gale is a really beloved headcanon to me, so Paris and Gale are a t4t couple yeaaaAAAAAAH BABY

I could go on forever about this dude, but I think that's enough for now. Writing Paris/Gale fic makes me feel a little silly, unfortunately, but I do want to take a shot a more down the line. I like them a lot haha.

[melancoley]

ੈ˚ʚ welcome to my notion tutorial !!

♡ my notion took me a month to make. It's a bit frustrating sometimes, but i want you to know that it's possible to have some organization in your life.

notion is meant to help you have a more organized life: trackers, goals, diary entries, anything can be turn into a notion page and i'm here to teach you how. ♡

ps: sorry for being so long and with some typos and whatnot ♡

♡. 1st step: the choice of an aesthetic.

it's important to have an idea when you start your notion;

for me, i wanted a place cozy and warm that reminded me of spring.

my main color is green. and with that defined, i started looking for color palettes with the types of green that i liked the most.

(i used this website, but any is good enough. it's just to give you an idea of what you're going to work with.)

i chose an aesthetic more gloomy, academic, and obviously green, (for my main layout, a retro blue-ish layout for my fanfics and a melancholy yellow for my original works) and with that i jumped to step 2.

♡. 2nd step: hunting images and inspiration.

pinterest, pinterest, pinterest.

i can't stress this enough. use keywords to find what you actually need.

if you're a beginner, start with notion inspo, notion [aesthetic] ideas, anything notion related. pick your favs and choose what you like most about each one:

the font, the pictures, the layout, even a small detail like an aesthetic quote design -just make sure you know what you like the most.

once you have a list of what you want, you start searching for images.

keywords i suggest are: [color] aesthetic, [color] cinematography, [color] photography, and, especially, [color] png icon.

i find it really satisfying having pngs on your notion: it gives a better sense of home and they cute, so it's a plus!

(most png aren't transperants on pinterest, so i use this app to make it a real png. now, know that it's not perfect and on dark mode might look funky, but it's worth a shot ig ♡)

for transperants images i suggest you look on tumblr. just use key-words and remember to pt 'png' at the end.

now you should be left with a small gallery of photos with the same color scheme and this takes us to step 3!

♡. 3rd step: dividers save lives.

pick one image to be the base of your notion layout.

it might be for your notion icon, header, or just a random pic laying around your notion. but make sure you only have one.

with that, go to an app that finds colors (i use this one) and pick the 3 most predominant colors! i suggest one darker, one lighter, and one in between.

this works not only as dividers but to enhance any quote or pic that you have. e.g.:

as you can see, this little dividers (size that i use: 948x8) work better than the ones provided by notion and they're easy to make. just open paint and you're done!

and once you have all the inspo, all the pics and dividers, it's time to create some art ♡

♡. 4th step: the creation of art.

is time to make pages and more pages.

now, please know that this requires lots of work, frustration and patience. sometimes the website doesn't want to collaborate and it might get a bit annoying. but know that it's totally fine to take breaks and take your time. this is something for you and you only.

you can take all the time you want ♡

ㅤㅤ♡. 4.1 step: page outline.

choose the number of pages !

i suggest you have one homepage with quick links to your other pages:

trackers, school related, hobbies, anything really.

it's your notion after all, you can do anything.

after having the number of pages you can star outlining the pages.

the beginning is always difficult and embaracing, but if you give it a try, i'm sure you will create art!

i suggest, if you do a full page, to use 4 to 6 columns. it might be a bit overwhelming at the start, but i found it easier to work with more columns and less rows. also, it's more compact which makes everything x3254 cuter.

nut you can literally do whatever you want! so here's my organization ♡

my personal organization !

homepage (5-6 columns, 4 rows): quick links to my other 4 pages. daily routine. quick reading and writing trackers. my performances schedules and feedback. goals for the month. clock, weather, year progress bar (see end of post).

original works (4-6 columns, 2 rows): my three wips. websites that help me with writing. my progress in each work. motivational quotes.

fanfic works (4 columns): folders for each fandom with more folders for hcs, one-shots, multi-chapter and ideas. motivational quotes. goals for the year. pretty pics and quotes.

trackers (5-6 columns, 4-5 rows): media that i'm currently consuming or consumed, with details such as rating, author, and some sub-pages with my extensive thoughts.

in short !

have one big page at the beginning to help you navigate easier.

don't be afraid to had columns and rows! if there's a blank space, throw some png's and quotes at it. it always makes everything 10x cuter.

ㅤㅤ♡. 4.2 step: widgets are your best friends.

add some widgets to make it prettier ♡

i use this website. it's pretty easy and has the main widgets.

a quick google search might take you to other websites so feel free to explore ♡

♡. 5th step: a touch of magic and stardust.

the start of a new page is always frustating: what aesthetic to use? what do you put first? what if it's corny? too much quotes? so many questions and, hey!, i hear ya! it's a pain in the ass.

that's why i'm here to tell you that you will change your layout lot's of time. even if you have already in mind what you have, it's only normal to change stuff every now and then until you have the perfect page.

e.g.:

you can see how my first homepage (pic. 1) changed drastically to my current homepage (pic.2). not only the color scheme changed, but the layout itself.

more artistic pictures, cuter png's and quotes, and my homepage changed completely!

so don't be afraid of change! it is important fr ♡

♡. don't forget about...

you can change the font and size of the page by clicking on the three dots on the top right of your screen ♡

make your text pretty with cool symbols !!

again, just surf the internet and tumblr and i'm sure that aesthetic bios will provide you with the cute little symbols to make everything cute ♡

be creative with your picture layouts ! ♡

i personally use pinterest (frame template) and clipstudio to make prettier pictures, but i'm sure any photoshop app can give you this effect as well.

play with png's and make your notion look more alive ♡

any hanging or 2 png's similar can help with a look cleaner and more organized.

add spotify playlists (it had to be public, i'm afraid) and youtube videos for more diversity!

table view is a life changer for organizing trackers, especially books and movies ♡

let me know if you want a deeper tutorial on how to use any function or if i forgot mentioning something you would like to know more about ♡

i hope this helps you and it's clear. know that i'm here for anything you need and i'm sure you're gonna do amazing things there ♡

[carionto]

Geronimo!

Space suits have come a long way - near 1 to 1 articulation and haptic feedback, intuitive zero-g booster based movement, nano-clamps for spiderman-like grip in low/no gravity, and of course dozens of micro layers of protection against all know space radiation and other hazards. Plus a centimeter thick composite armor against sentient threats, with a "cocoon" mode to fully cover all joints and other normally more exposed parts, that renders the Human inside near impervious to most small arms, and even some heavier impacts.

To fully test the limits of protection you don't actually need to have a person inside, just plenty of sensors and a good understanding Human physiology and anatomy. The military, of course, does things a bit differently, as their suits are even tougher. They do have this half-half mode where you are mostly armor, but can still move, but more like the Terminator. Given it also boasts a powered exoskeleton between the armor and hazardous protection layers, soldiers can wield weapons other militaries typically mount on vehicles, so the metaphor is almost just a straight factual comparison.

Some, however, are still not satisfied, and are always seeking to extend the durability of their suits to beyond the extremes.

____________________________

Hilda Lavre was standing on the edge of the ship in low orbit. One hand gripping an outer handle while engaged in final diagnostics.

"Alright, Hilda, everything looks green on our end, how 'bout you?"

"Same green green. I'm good."

"Whenever you're ready then. There's some clouds in the way of the predicted path, might slow you down a bit. Wanna wait?"

"Nah, nah. I'll wing it."

After a seconds pause, Hilda let go of the handle and gently kicked off the side of the ship. She was now on a direct collision course with the Atlantic Ocean.

.

.

.

(Thermals should start going up soon. I'm gonna turn on the external mic just a tad. There's just something about how the heat sounds scraping against the metal.

Oh, there it goes. Yellow, slowly getting to orange. Good.

Yea, that's a nice screech - burn that paint!

Halfway to red, altitude check. Already this close? Guess it'll be just shy of 80% tolerance.

Hehehehe, that means we can go for a bit faster next time. Cool.

Eh... wind without the heat just doesn't sound right, I'll turn it down to just barely audible. Something to keep me company.

Aaaand three.

Two.

One.)

SPLASH

.

.

.

(It's dark. But I guess it was dark before...

before what though?

Well, that's okay.

This feels like a new kind of dark though.

There's the dark when you're alone in your room at night, all the lights are out.

Another kind is when you decide to get inside your brothers closet to scare him when he comes back from the kitchen. That's a fun kind of dark. (it's getting cold)

There's also the dark of being in an underground bunker during a storm. Then the power gets cut and all the exits are sealed. That's a... lonely kind of dark.

One time I was wandering the woods, and before I knew it, it was the middle of a moonless night, overcast too. Hiding out in an abandoned shed, without even the wind or animal sounds to let you know anything is out there. I didn't like that kind of dark at all. (It's really cold)

This dark though... I dunno. It's like I'm hiding out in my own closet. My shoulder is up against my winter jacket, feet are grazing those old sandals I swore to throw out two summers ago. But also, it's not my room. Or even my house. Why am I in my closet? How did it get here? Where even is here?

I feel sleepy.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

"Hey, hey! Hilda! Wake up!"

*grunting* "Ugh... shut, shut up Barry..."

"Gods, don't freak us out like that. You okay?"

"Depends. How high did it go go?"

*laughter* "Okay, [She's fine everyone] yeah, you're fine. 87 meters, new record."

"Hmm, I was aiming to to break 90."

"Well, those clouds nudged you a little off, you hit it at a 83 degree angle. Still, those other readings are nice. I'm pretty sure we can do a boosted fall next time."

"Yeah, I I think so too. I feel a little little cold, did something break on hit hit?"

"Not break, but the impact did jolt the subsystems a bit. Activated one of the sedative shots. I manually made your suit give you a wake up shot right as I noticed. You should be feeling the effects right about now."

"Mmhhmmm, oh yea. I'm feeling the kick kick now. We need to improve the kinetic tic dampeners. No good if if it puts you to sleep upon any hard enough nough impact."

"Yup. We're suspending any other jumps for the week until we get that fixed and implement some minor tweaks based on your jump once we analyze the telemetry further.

Okay, everyone! Good job today! Let's meet up next weekend and test these bad boys out. Let's aim for a 100 meter splash by the end of the year!"

*cheers and yeahs as Barry opens a mini fridge and everyone cracks open a cold one*

[unearthlytraveller]

Babylon 5 Rewatch: Chrysalis

30 years ago, fans of B5 had to wait three months for the first season finale. I'm not willing to do that.

I'm going to break here, because if there is any episode from season 1 that should not be spoiled, it's this one. And I'm going to spoil it below.

I remembered this as the best episode of the season. And, it is. It's not even close. Everything the season has been putting into place comes together, and the world falls apart. That moment when Garibaldi manages to give that warning from sickbay, and the crew rush to warn about the assassination attempt... only to find they are too late. It still gives me chills all these years and rewatches later.

I was unsure how I was going to feel about this episode. Part of the reason for that is because I last watched this in 2010 or 2011. Back then, the idea of a return to fascism seemed laughable. Today... it does not. And I can't deny that real-world context changes things. It's hard to enjoy the sci-fi drama when it doesn't feel all that speculative. But there's a line Sinclair says that struck me.

"Just that I've had this feeling lately that we're standing at a crossroads, and I don't like where we're going. But there's still time to choose another path. You can be part of that process"

The first sentence I remembered from before. The second two... I did not. And as small as it seems, it actually made me feel more hopeful to hear it.

Another thing that struck me on this watch was Londo. Signs and Portents was his first step down the path to darkness; this is his second. And yet, he is genuinely shocked by the consequences of his actions; and we end with him keeping vigil with Ivanova. It won't last, of course, but it's a reminder that he's not an intrinsically or purely evil character; there is much good in him. That's why we like him, and why he is tragic despite all he will do.

G'Kar gets to really show the range of his character. He starts in strutting villain mode, and the scene were his latest sexual partners leave his quarters is one of the funnier moments of a generally dark episode. But as the episode progresses, we see his other side. He seems far less keen in his government's aggression when talking in his chambers; he immediately understands the implications of the attack on Quadrant 37; and in the shuttle scene, it is Na'Toth who speaks of retaliation while G'Kar offers Ivanova condolences and is more reflective.

Garibaldi has come under criticism in recent episodes for his actions, and justifiably so. So it's interesting that we start this episode with Petrov, who Garibaldi was apparently willing to help get a second chance. We also get to see both his investigative chops, figuring out the assassination plot... but also his blind spots. Or as Walker Smith said back in TKO,

"One of these days, Garibaldi, you're going to learn to watch your back."

Delenn starts a change that is in both the biggest and smallest of the ambassadors. I, of course, know what will come out of the titular chrysalis. And yet while the physical changes will be dramatic, Delenn as a person arguably changes the least among the main cast. A little something I've always found amusingly ironic.

Sinclair has a pretty rough time of it. He makes a pretty awful proposal, fails to save the president, fails to meet with Delenn and get the answers he wants... He gets the last line of the season, though, and it's a great one.

"Nothing's the same any more."

This is the season finale, and so we say goodbye to a lot of things. The last time that Mira Furlan will wear that specific make up as Delenn, for one. But we also say goodbye to Caitlin Brown's Na'Toth, Michael O'Hare's Sinclair, and Julia Nickson's Catherine Sakai. Some of these actors will make guest appearances, but even now I feel somewhat sad about these departures.

Caitlin Brown's decision not to return is understandable based on what I've read; that she only came on as a favour when the actress who played Ko'Dath developed an allergic reaction to the makeup, and would never normally be stuck in such a low-profile role. Still, I enjoy season one where her and Andreas Katsulas give such great presence to the Narn. I don't think they ever fully replaced her.

Michael O'Hare's departure is bigger, since he was the star of the show. And, of course, there was that scene in Babylon Squared. It's amazing that JMS made such a big deal about how B5 was planned in advance, and yet was able to handle this and still make a show with such compelling foreshadowing. Sure, there are places were things don't quite line up that the obsessive fan can see, but they're easy to overlook. As for O'Hare himself, I hope he acheived some respite from the mental illness that forced his departure before his tragic early death.

Least important to the show was the character of Cathering Sakai; Nickson only had three appearances this season, the last of which before Chrysalis was 16 episodes ago. I mostly just want to mention that, if you want to know her character's fate, read To Dream in the City of Sorrows. It's a good book; not great, not really able to stand by itself aside from the show, but certainly better than most of the tie-in novels.

With season 1 over, will I continue to season 2? Not immediately. The real-world connections will only get stronger, and I'm not ready for that right now. Later? Maybe; we'll see.

Finally, I've been adding my CCG cards, and let's do that one more time. What choice could there be, but this one:

[waiting4inspiration]

дорогая 3 (The Winter Soldier/Bucky x Reader)

Summary: An opportunity to escape arises, but it doesn't go as well as you would have hoped. And yet, it might have caused a break in Bucky's Winter Soldier mode...

Warnings: strong language, mentions of kidnapping, dark!bucky, dark!winter soldier, mentions of firearms, gaslighting (just a little bit)

Word Count: +2.6k

дорогая Masterlist II Marvel Masterlist

You promised yourself that you wouldn’t let The Winter Soldier break you, that you would fight until someone finds you or until Bucky somehow snaps out of it, whichever comes first. But as you sit in the dark room you’ve been confined to, handcuffed to the bedpost, the days blur together without a clock in the room. All you have to go by is the small slit in the curtains where you can see whether or not it’s night or day. 

It’s like hell. With nothing to do to keep yourself busy, all you can do is sit on the bed, staring at the blank wall in front of you. The pain in your arm is dull now because you’ve gotten used to it being chained to the post. All you can really do is try and think of ways you can get out of this by yourself because it seems that the team is not going to be coming to your rescue. 

The door opens for the first time in what’s probably been a few days. Something inside you hopes that it’s your captor with a plate of food. Even the thought of food makes your stomach grumble. 

Seeing that he’s holding a plate in his hand, you sit up quickly and a hopeful breath catches in your throat. He chuckles at you, walking over to the small, wonky table a bit away from the bed and placing the plate on it. “I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll take those cuffs off and leave them off if you eat everything on that plate,” he says, leaning against the table with his arms folded over his chest. “Not that I was against you not eating. That was your choice. A stupid choice, considering not eating makes you weaker and more susceptible to breaking easier-”

“I’ll eat,” you cut him off, your voice breaking slightly, but your words cause him to smile at you. It’s not a warm smile like how Bucky used to smile at you in the compound. This smile is sinister, like he’s happy he’s gotten his way. 

He picks the plate up again before talking toward you, gently placing it on the bed in front of you, all while keeping eye contact with you. You eye him carefully, making sure he doesn’t have anything to take you by surprise so that he doesn’t have to play this game anymore and he can just take what he wants. You make sure he doesn’t have a weapon on him, but he’s clean. You wonder if he even knows about the secret stash of weapons you have here in your own safe house.

“You see how easy this can be if you just cooperate?” he asks in a whisper, holding his hands up in defeat as he takes a step back while reaching for his pocket. 

You know he expects you to say something about that in return, but you bite your tongue and reach for a piece of the bread on the plate. Truth be told, you don’t have the energy to fight him now, whether that is verbally or physically. Out of the corner of your eye, you see him reach for the cuffs binding you to the post. “What, you giving me the silent treatment now?”

The moment your wrist is free, you pull it straight to your chest, protecting it from being grabbed by The Winter Soldier. “What do you want me to say?” you ask, keeping your eyes on your food when you feel him slowly sit down on the space beside you on the bed. 

“You could start by saying thank you.”

“And what exactly do I have to be thankful for?” you snap back at him, mumbling through a mouthful of food as you take another bite of the bread in your hands. 

“Well then, I’ll just put these back on-” When his hand reaches for your wrist again, you quickly move away, staring wide-eyed at him as you hold your arms close to your body. He sees a slight hint of fear in your eyes like you know now that your life lies in his hands, that he will provide you with food, water, and other things to keep you alive but you also know that he can take those things away from you just as easily. 

He smiles to himself as he gently places his hand on your shoulder before running his fingers down the bare skin of your arm. “You don’t have to be scared of me. Would you be scared of Bucky?”

You take in a deep breath through your nose, your skin crawling at his touch that you try to pull away from. “He wouldn’t do this to me,” you whisper, more to yourself than to him. 

“How sure are you about that?” he whispers back, his lips close to your ear, his breath against your lobe making a shiver run down your spine. “You really think that he doesn’t want this? That he doesn’t want what I want? You forget that we are still one and the same person. The only difference is that I’m not afraid to take what I want.”

When you try to swallow your food, you find it hard to do that, your throat almost closing up as you think of his words. It makes you overthink every encounter you’ve had with Bucky, thinking about every touch and every word and what they could have meant. 

Shaking your head, you push the plate of food away from you and force yourself to look him in the eye. “I don’t believe you.”

“You should, Дорогая.” He expects you to react to the nickname the way you do all the time, but you don’t even roll your eyes at him. You’ve gotten so used to hearing it now, you don’t even react to it anymore. It makes him smile, and he reaches up to push a piece of hair behind your ear even though you try to move away from his hand. “What kind of relationship do you expect us to have if you don’t believe me? Or trust me? Have I ever given you a reason to be afraid of me?”

You narrow your eyes at him. “You fucking strangled me and kidnapped me-”

“And you could have gotten out of all that if you wanted to,” he cuts you off, making you frown at him. “I’ve seen you fight. You can be quite vicious when you want to be. You’ve gotten out of worse scraps before, I shouldn’t be much of a challenge to you. And yet, you didn’t fight back at all. You want to be here just as much,” he says, leaning closer to your face. 

You shake your head, telling yourself not to believe him, and his hand takes hold of your chin gently, but you can still feel his power in the hold. “You and I both know that you can escape if you want to. You know this house and these woods better than I do. But you’re not going to because you know, deep down, that you’re enjoying this. You’re enjoying being away from the team, being here with only me. You know that you want this too. That’s why you’re still here and why you’re not fighting me now, Дорогая.”

You don’t want to believe him, telling yourself that you could not fight back every time he overpowered you. And yet, when you think back to that time in your room at the compound, you didn’t even put up that much of a fight. Or, you don’t think you did. Did you?

You don’t want him to be right, but you think he is. 

He chuckles when he sees you second-guessing yourself and pushes himself off the bed. “Eat some more,” he says, breaking the silence between you two as he points back to the plate. “Don’t leave this room until I come to get you. Maybe I’ll let you walk around outside if you promise to behave.” The first part was an order which he tried to lighten with the second half of his words. He caresses your cheek quickly before pushing himself off the bed and striding across the room, not waiting for you to respond to him as he leaves you alone again. 

Staring at the door, you wait for the sound of it locking, but it doesn’t come. Something tells you that he’s doing this to test you. He’s probably sitting right outside the door, waiting for you to break his order and leave because you think that he won’t be there. 

You hear thunder rumbling outside the distance, making you break your gaze from the door to the window. An idea comes to mind when you see the glass between the curtains, pushing you off the bed. Your feet hit the ground quietly like you’re afraid The Winter Soldier will hear you moving in the room. Without your hands cuffed to the bed anymore, you breathe a sigh of relief when you can stand up and walk without restriction. 

Slowly, you move towards the window, opening the curtains to see rain falling from the sky. It starts off light, but as you stare out at the trees, watching them sway in the wind, the rain starts to pour, thunder and lightning dancing in the clouds. 

Your hands reach for the base of the window, praying that it’s easy to open and that he hasn’t found a way to keep it shut. Holding your breath, you lift the window pane and it opens without a fuss. 

Feeling the fresh air against your face, you let out a deep sigh and feel your shoulders relax. You stay still for a moment, your eyes closed as you take the smell of rain in. Then, you come too.

You examine the window, seeing how much space you have to work with to escape. He’s right. You do know these woods well. You have to know which direction to go to get to safety in case your location was compromised and you had to get out of there. It’s never had to happen, but you think you will have an advantage if you decide to escape. 

What are you thinking? Of course, you’re going to escape. You’re going to fight back. You’re going to show him that you don’t want what he wants, that you will fight back, and that you won’t give in. 

Even though you wish you had more to eat and you feel like resting because you know you’ll need all the strength you can muster up, you know that if you don’t go now, you might never have this opportunity again. 

Something inside you, a small voice, tells you that this is a test. If you do this, you’ll fail that test and he’ll be upset with you. You don’t want to upset him…

“Screw it,” you whisper to yourself, stepping back to stick a leg out the window. 

Slowly and carefully, you squeeze yourself out the window, trying to not make any noise to alert him from outside the room as to what you’re doing. Finally out in the open, you take a few steps back, keeping your eyes on the door inside to make sure he doesn’t walk through while you’re still outside.

And without a second thought, you turn and bolt away from the cabin, not even caring about the rain quickly soaking through your clothes. 

It takes you a while to find your bearings, especially while the sun is going down so quickly. As you weave through the trees, shivering in the cold rain, your heart skips a beat and drops in your stomach when you hear a gunshot in the distance, followed by your name being shouted in the distance. It didn’t take The Winter Soldier long to notice your absences and you haven’t even gotten far. 

You are so screwed. 

You’ve heard that The Winter Soldier is like a predator hunting a target. It’s terrifying to think that you’re now the prey. The comfort that you know these woods like the back of your hand dwindles now that it’s darker. You feel lost, your heart thumping loudly in your ears, scared that one wrong turn will send you straight into your captor’s arms again. 

Hearing him in the distance, your mind tells you to run away even if it’s not in the right direction. You can hear him taunting you, calling out to you in Russian and with that damned nickname he always uses. Even though you’re exhausted, you push yourself as much as you can run faster. 

As you shake your head, doubting that you can go any further, your foot catches on an exposed root, making you trip and fall forward, face-planting into the leafy ground. You groan as the pain spreads through your ankle, and your body refuses to go on as you stand up, making tears well up in your eyes.

“You have quite an impressive armory, Дорогая,” he calls, his voice a lot closer now than it was, your fall probably alerting him of your position. “Didn’t think I’d find it, did you? But I did. I had to clear it out before you ended up finding the strength to fight back.” 

All you can hear is the thundering of your heart in your throat as the rain pours down. It’s suddenly quiet, terrifying you more when you can’t hear him anymore. You try to listen for his footsteps, but you can’t hear anything. 

In the darkness, he sneaks up on you, pushing you against the tree behind you, his metal hand wrapped around your throat, taking you back to when he caught you off guard in your room. 

“Didn’t think you’d do something like this. Especially after I warned you what would happen if you tried to run,” he sneers, his grip around your throat tightening, pushing any air out of your windpipe. 

“Please, don’t,” you beg, tears falling from your eyes and rolling down your cheeks. You shake your head, a sob leaving your lips as you desperately cling to his arm holding you against the tree. He looks like he could murder you right now if he wanted to with the cold look in his eyes. 

You tried. You tried to fight back and escape and it failed. Again. You can’t win. No matter how much you try, he will always find you and you know that from stories of The Winter Soldier and now from personal experience. The Winter Soldier never gives up on his targets. Bucky told you that. 

“Bucky,” you whisper, deciding to give it one last chance to try and reach out to the man trapped in his own mind. “I can’t fight back anymore. I don’t have any more strength. Please,” you cry.

His face softens, his grip around your throat falters, and his shoulders fall as he takes a small step back. “(Y/n),” he whispers, his hand falling away from your neck, resting on your collarbone as you take a deep breath. 

With a flash of lightning, you can see the change in his face. It’s not as harsh as the Winter Soldier. It bears the softness of Bucky when you’ve talked to him. Still heaving, trying to restore your lungs from running and from when he was strangling you, the tears continue to fall down your cheeks at the thought that you could be safe now that Bucky’s come around. 

He takes a deep breath, closing his eyes as a twinge in his neck makes him look away from you. When his hand on your collarbone tightens again, his jaw tensing, and his arm pushing you back against the tree, your heart drops again as he looks back at you. 

“I’m sorry.” And without another word, he forces his head forward against yours, knocking you out in one headbutt, and catching you as you fall in his arms.

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[corvuscorona]

"You Never Forget Your First Love."

The other day, a mutual (hi! you know who you are I think probably hello hi! thank you for the Posting Impetus!) said something that made me curious (for, like, the 80th time, actually; lol. I Have Thoughts) about something: what's the split on people who subscribe to the "Stranger of Paradise probably intended for us to believe that Jack & Sarah were in love" mindset, vs. not? In general, but ESPECIALLY around these parts.

I genuinely didn't read it that way myself (& I do NOT normally give media (general) this much credit, but the writing in this game is sublime; I had no choice but to fully engage Scholar Mode on it), + I think it's interesting that SPECIFICALLY any of my fellow tumblr people / AO3-heads / Gay People Online / etc. seem to have. (I expect nothing from people who haven't been basting themselves in the same online sub-subcultures as me for over a decade. They're allowed to write wrong things on wikis, and have done so already; it's whatever.)

I wanna metapost badly again, so let's go. Join me. No poll. If you have an opinion on this, I'm looking directly into your eyes and beckoning you towards your own keyboard + also the reblog button / comment section, like a weird ghost. What did you think when you first played the game?? What do you think right now? What are you about to think after you have read a bunch of my words. Tell Me. I Need To Know This.

Spoilers for, idk, everything? Today we will use everything we've got to talk about Princess Sarah.

1. As a Narrative Element

This game makes a point of referring to Sarah as things like "a symbol of hope and peace" as often as possible, & when it isn't doing that she's usually in the role of An Object Or Device Of Some Kind, anyway. She's important because she's capable of holding light and dark in balance & SOMEONE'S gotta hold onto this dark crystal for safekeeping, and also we're gonna need to upset that balance on purpose later. There's that conversation in the Wicked Arbor about whether the Strangers would "choose" her (as opposed to "treasure") as the "reward" for succeeding in their mission[1], & there's the one in the Sunken Shrine where Jed asks Jack what he thinks of her and Jack says that he doesn't care about her as a person[2] BUT that protecting her is mission-critical (lol), too.

Sarah's death is metaphorically charged. It's the point of no return: the dark crystal breaks, the balance of light & dark gets extremely ruined, & Literally All The Darkness In Cornelia converges in one place (Fool's Missive XXVII). That's the payoff for the "symbol of hope and peace" motif, and communicating this idea that "the metaphorical light of hope just For Real Died, Like Catastrophically Imploded, No Take-Backs" feels to me like it was the highest priority here. Second-highest goes to "Jack had way more humanity before, but he set it aside on purpose and is actively in the middle of losing the rest of it." "Sort of." "I'm not getting into what counts as humanity or doesn't because if I did we would be here forever."

Basically, I'm saying that the tidiest read on the situation is "Jack despairs because Sarah dying means in a very literary and final way that everything is ruined forever, which doesn't necessarily have anything to do with, like, Love (romantic)." I don't think the text of the game is particularly signaling that Love (romantic) is involved, and I think that if it meant to, it would be more obvious about it. You could bundle "an romance" into the "humanity" thing if you wanted to, but I'm not inclined to, based on some additional list items that you can read below this one.

[1] The fact that Neon ALSO says she feels bad for her for being thought of in this way only reinforces my conviction that the game is pointing at Sarah & yelling "REMEMBER THAT SHE IS MOSTLY A SYMBOL!", tbh. Who wants to go point out how freaky the mechanics of Being An Royalty are w/ me and the boys??

[2] I will give the Wiki WrongPosters this: I can totally see this as some kind of irony thing, given that he's still missing like a fucktillion of his memories when he says it. However! As mentioned above, I have other reasons not to read it as evidence that he was ever, like, romantically interested in her.

2. As a Sheltered Youth™

We don't have a TON of information to work with RE: Sarah as, like, a person, but here are a couple of hard facts to start with: she's 19 (per the data book, but she'd have to be somewhere in the 18-to-early-20's age range regardless or her whole deal wouldn't really make much sense, imo. She's a baby...!), and she's royalty. I think this ties into her utility as a walking metaphor, among other things; she's archetypically young, fresh, & idealistic. I'd call her naïve but the game obviously isn't interested in portraying it as a weakness, so positive words only; why not.

You could argue that people look to her as a symbol of hope because she hasn't directly experienced enough strife to exhibit hopelessness or fear in response to bad news in the abstract. I find it interesting that before Jack, like, knocks the wind out of her & tells Sophia to take her outside so she can see for herself how bad things have gotten at the end of the game, she says that her duty is to die with her people if she has to, & it doesn't even seem to occur to her that she could lead at least some of them away to safety...? When she changes her mind, she still talks about herself as a symbol before she ever uses the word "leader". She sees HERSELF in terms of symbols and metaphors, and takes action based on her designated role As One Of Those. Not very practical.

There's also the dialogue you can have with the queen the first time you're allowed to run around in the throne room at the beginning of the game, where she asks Jack to smile in front of her daughters (NOT just Mia; daughters, plural). Even if she only means "dude can you be polite please," the fact that this is The thing she has to say to Jack is telling. Is it going to upset your 19-year-old daughter to see that the Guy Whose Job It Is To Kill Monsters looks serious? Why do you think this? Does your 19-year-old daughter understand how serious the situation is, generally speaking? Do you not WANT her to for some reason? Boats don't work anymore unless a weird elf messes with them first. Not thinking very hard about the implications of this is something a sheltered person does.

Residual time loop un-memories aside, a young woman in this situation is so obviously going to have a huge crush on Jack Garland no matter what. He Is So Cool, first of all, & he's also Different from the adult men she gets to see on an everyday basis (family, guards, rando townspeople[3]...). It's not like the political social scene could POSSIBLY be thriving in this world, either; it all seems to be one kingdom we're dealing with and they're kind of busy with the external threat of being Under Fucking Attack By Monsters. Does she even get fun treats like "handsome visiting dignitaries" & what-have-you? The game doesn't present us with any potential options, here. Jack is mysterious, he has special-boy Warrior of Light status, his one job & apparent life's purpose is protecting the kingdom she loves, he's pretty nice to her (even in later cycles he at least goes out of his way to be polite!), & additionally, he's shredded. THIS makes sense to me.

There's a Q&A in the data book that has something to say about JACK as a symbol & what that has to do with this whole thing but we'll get there. We'll get there.

[3] Tangent: what's up with how Cornelia's entire adult male population appears to consist of aging queens. Why did they only make models that look Like That for the NPCs? It's awesome but I have 1 quastion

3. JACK JUMPSCARE !

I'm not about to say that he's just humoring her, or anything, but please humor ME for one second & put yourself in Jack's shoes. Not the default shoes; we can have more fun than that. Maybe the Banded Boots. Blurple ones? Shaped like a cartoon would wear them? Big spikes on the back for no reason? I love those things. Anyway, you're Jack. You're working for literally the king, & the work means Everything to you for reasons you can't even necessarily explain except to say that it JUST does. The king's eldest daughter (very young adult; Never Been Outdoors; a little overly-sociable but nice enough & what do you expect from a princess, anyway) has imprinted on you like a duckling for whatever reason. You would be nice to this person, yes? You'd be patient with her while you're in town. You have Brutal Murders to be doing, but not until, like, 2 days from now, or whatever; you're sharing space with her in some capacity in the meantime & it's in your best interests to keep her happy. (You probably even enjoy doing this, if you're Jack of a Way Earlier Cycle; I'm in no way ruling that out. Sharing your music collection with an enthusiastic Baby Adult? That's fun. I think he was probably having fun. Okay, you can step out of the fun purple shoes if you want; the Humoring Me Minute has concluded; thanks.)

Also, @2000sanimeop and I think that if Jack felt that way about her Astos would have been a little More Something about how much it was gonna suck for him when she died. In Fool's Missive XXVII he uses the word "painful," but that's about it. He doesn't even bring it up in XXV, which is the one where he says he's curious about whether she'd survive being turned into a fiend (side note: Astos fucking rocks. Why did he write that down?? I love him). & Hey SPEAKING OF ASTOS,

4. I wouldn't put Jackstos on a wiki, either.

The writing in Stranger of Paradise, SERIOUSLY, WITHOUT EXAGGERATION, is some of the best I've seen in literally anything ever. It suits not just its medium but also its sort of Place in History Relative to Other Video Games & the things it chose to DO with that medium & that niche INSANELY well. It is CUSTOMIZED. It's SO INTENTIONAL. I can't get too far into this or we'll be here all day, but the essence of what I want to say here is: there are relatively few facts presented to us by this game, compared to the implications we can go about drawing from those facts & other, external sources of context.

Sarah calls Jack her first love; that's a fact. No facts are presented to us that REALLY say much one way or the other[4] about what Jack thinks of this, himself; "fucktillion memories missing" Jack says he doesn't care, but he's missing a fucktillion of his memories, and DLC2 Jack has a set of dialogue options (hi Anne the Malboro I love you Anne the Malboro) that can point either way depending on what the player chooses, which is kind of nothing, on balance. As the audience, we can (should!) draw whatever conclusion we want about it, but none of those conclusions are text.

[4] I WILL GET TO THE DATA BOOK IN ONE SECOND. HOLD ON.

And, okay, please let me level with you. Let's be on the same page. Jack & Astos had some kind of thing going on, imo, OBVIOUSLY, but I want to be CLEAR and I want to get CREDIT for the things I'M bringing to the table to help generate this conviction. I drew that conclusion & I read that reading based on subtext, context, personal history, personal preference, & sheer gay zest for life. It is also, emphatically, NOT TEXT.

Astos refers to Jack with the ol' "...friend" in Fool's Missive XXI. He calls him "my Jack" in Fool's Missive XXXI. Canonically, textually, he has some big fucking COMPLICATED fucking feelings about this man. These are facts. If you're playing this game as Some Guy, I can see how you could potentially absorb these facts & still pay them much less regard[5] than I did & continue to. My argument here is that god I wish I lived in a world where Some Guy could extend the same courtesy to me and not treat Sarah's textual affection for Jack as something that necessarily indicates Some Kind Of Reciprocal Romantic Whatever, Definitely, Obviously, Of Course.

[5] Longer Tangent: I have been informed that the Some Guys of the world are currently pretty good at Recognizing a character that behaves in a way that's Pretty Gay, but tend to stop there, possibly for the combined reasons that A. they're not very familiar with a lot of the the ways gay relationships often work (you know, soul resonance. mutual recognition. sharing a brain etc.) and B. the Object Of Affection is usually the player character and they subconsciously shy away from thinking of a Guy They're Supposed To Identify With as gay. This is practically a lead-in to an entire separate post I could make, so I'll leave it at that, lol.

The writing is too good for that kind of assumption! I'M SERIOUS!! It's mind-blowingly subtle & endlessly fascinating to hold up to the light & view from every possible angle, and "Jack & Sarah were in love" + "Jack & Astos were in love" are BOTH ANGLES. I'm personally very very interested in giving the text credit for that. I think it's impressive. I think it's really, really cool, and I think it was on purpose. Speaking of which,

5. Word of God agrees with me, btw

This is from the Q&A section on page 156 of the Confidential File. The translations below are my own (I think they're straightforward enough, but lmk if you know more than me & I'm actually being stupid in there somewhere. Alt text has the JPN, if you want to copypaste it or something). Someone asked:

Why is it that you established Garland as someone Sarah has a romantic interest in?

The answer is from Daisuke Inoue (director, one of 3; the other 2 are from Team Ninja; he's from Square Enix):

That was because, from a narrative standpoint, we wanted Sarah to be the kind of person who holds onto hope. You can imagine that she saw the "hope" to save the world in Jack, a potential Warrior of Light. Sarah is seen by her people as a symbol of a bright future, but if there were nobody to give her hope, that might destabilize her emotionally. As for whether she felt genuine love for Jack, or just mistook her feelings of admiration towards him for "first love," we'll leave that to your interpretation.

The first time I read this, I thought the question was implying the aforementioned Reciprocal Something, but on closer inspection that doesn't even seem to be true! "思い人" seems to indicate a directional relationship; as in, the question assumes that Jack is an object of affection to Sarah, but assumes nothing about what Jack thinks.

Also, the answer uses the word "初恋" (hatsukoi), which is a very established Concept as far as "first love" goes, but in that one cutscene, Sarah says "初めての恋" (hajimete no koi), which is. Different, but I couldn't tell you how, lol. It's Not The Exact Same Phrase, but I'm not sure whether it's meaningfully different in this context. If I had to guess, I'd say that IF ANYTHING it could be a way of saying "first love" without invoking the cultural CONSTRUCT of First Love (as much)? But it's whatever. The localization holds up. All sources show that Sarah had Feelings about Jack, and all sources CONSPICUOUSLY neglect to mention Jack's feelings about her.

It was on purpose. This is my license to be as annoying as I want for one second here. I am right. All the other writing in this game is notably subtle, efficient, intentional, and skilled, AND ALSO, WHEN do you ever see anyone write such a richly beautiful, mostly-subtextual relationship between two men, which can easily be read as a romantic thing, and NOT explicitly canonize a very possible romantic relationship between at least one of those men and a woman, like not even in an interview or anything. What the fuck, man.

I'm putting away the Respectable Scholar Hat now. This is so funny. The person asking this question didn't EVEN go as far as assuming Jack & Sarah had any kind of Actual Romance going on, & the answer STILL dials it back to "she might have been conflating her feelings about Jack AS A SYMBOL with actual affection, also. We'll let you decide : ) ". This game is everything ever.