#its basically all dar honestly

[gophergal]

Behold, a flock of Medics

(Rambling under the cut)

Ok so y'all know about that semi-canon compliant AU I have that I've mentioned before in tags n shit? Fortress Rising? Well, Corey (my dear older sib, @cursed--alien ) and I talk about it like it's a real piece of media (or as though its something I actually make fanworks for ffs) rather than us mutually bullshitting cool ideas for our Blorbos. One such Idea we have bullshit about is that basically EVERY medic that meets becomes part of a group the Teams call the "Trauma Unit," they just get along so well lol

Here's some bulletpoints about the Medics

Ludwig Humboldt - RED Medic, hired 1964, born 1918. Introduced in Arc 1: Teambuilding. The most canon compliant of the four. Literally just my default take on Medic

Fredrich "Fritz" Humboldt - BLU Medic, clone of Ludwig, "Hired" 1964. Introduced in Arc 2: The Clone Saga. A more reserved man than his counterpart, he hides his madness behind a veneer of normalcy. Honestly Jealous of Ludwig for how freely he expresses himself. Suffers from anxiety, which he began treating himself. Has since spiraled into a dependency on diazepam that puts strain on his relationship with Dimitri, the BLU Heavy.

Sean Hickey - Former BLU Medic, served with the "Classic" team, born 1908. Introduced in Arc 3: Unfinished Business. A man who who has a genuine passion for healing and the youngest on his team. Unfortunately, his time with BLU has left him with deep emotional scars, most stemming from his abuse at the hands of Chevy, the team leader. His only solace was in his friendship with Fred Conagher, though they lost contact after his contract ended. For the past 30 years, he's lived peacefully, though meeting the Humboldts has left him feeling bitter about his past experiences.

Hertz - Prototype Medibot, serial no. 110623-DAR. Introduced in Arc 4: Test Your Metal. The final prototype created by Gray Mann's robotics division before his untimely death forced the labs to shut their doors. Adopted by the Teams after RED Team found him while clearing out a Gray Gravel Co. warehouse. As with all the Graybots, he was programmed based on a combination of compromised respawn data and intel uncovered by both teams' respective Spies. Unlike the others, however, his dataset is incomplete, which has left him with numerous bugs in his programming. His speech (modeled off Ludwig and Fritz's) often cuts out, becoming interspersed with a combination of default responses for older Graybot models and medical textbook jargon all modulated in emotionless text-to-speech

[bluerene]

a study of separation anxiety

Discord musings result in a sudden spark of inspiration! @dar-draws knows how to make a bearded Dick Grayson that is simply *chefs kiss* divine.

Warning: baby cuteness, mentions of bearded!Dadwing, and a persuasive Tamaranian momma. 

a study of separation anxiety 

In all his life, Richard John Grayson had found he possessed only four weaknesses. The first was his father and brothers, who were put together because he managed his feelings for them about the same. And Alfred, though truthfully, Dick sometimes felt Alfred was the most important of them all. The second was his team, the people he had grown up with. The third was his wife, whose glimmering eyes never failed to capture his when she walked into a room. And the fourth was his daughter, the light of his life and the greatest source of his joy.

The very same daughter who was unashamedly squirming in his arms and punching him with her tiny fists while he tried to put her to bed.

“Ease up there, starshine,” he muttered, wincing as another blow made contact with his shoulder. He rubbed her back gently, pacing back and forth beside her crib. “Some help would be nice, Kory.”

His pajama-clad wife, who had been standing idly near the bedroom door, stepped into the room and shrugged.

“It is your fault for choosing to go back to work.”

Yeah, she wasn’t going to make it any easier either.

Dick groaned and moved to lay Mar’i down in the crib.

“I would not do that,” Kory warned, a smug smile crossing her face when their daughter began to wail.

“Well, what would you do then?” 

Kory rolled her eyes and stepped closer, adjusting his arms so that he cradled Mar’i close to his chest. Miraculously, the wailing stopped, and he looked down to see her tiny fists curling up against his shirt, her head snuggled into his warmth.

“Wow,” Dick said quietly, a slow smile spreading across his face, “nine months and I still haven’t learned a thing.”

His wife sighed and rested her chin on his shoulder, studying the line of his jaw and the dark stubble he had taken to wearing since Mar’i was born. 

“It will not get any easier when you go,” she said. 

“C’mon, Kory, we talked about this. I took an extended paternity leave. Those don’t come around too often. I need to get back on the force.”

“You did not take a break from being Nightwing,” she shot back, “you have been working this entire time, Richard, you are spreading yourself too thin. It will not be easy for Mar’i. X’hal, it will not be easy for me.” 

“We need to get back into a steady routine. I need to go to work. I need to start shaving so I don’t look homeless -”

“You would not dare,” Kory gasped, sounding horrified.

“ - need to get used to me being away for work because we want her to grow up with a somewhat normal life. I can’t keep taking vacations, and I’m not going to quit my job.”

He felt a hand slide up to his shoulder and along his collarbone, coming to touch the stubble at his neck.

“So,” Kory said softly, “what you are saying is, if you went on the paternity leave once again, you would stay home and be with us?”

“As much as I love the practice, I can’t keep getting you pregnant so I can get out of work, Star,” Dick said in amusement, catching her fingers with his hand and bringing them to his lips. 

She frowned and drew her hand away, “I do not see why not. And I do not see why you must shave your beard.”

“Because it’s unprofessional.”

“But the chief has a beard, as does your head detective.”

“And that’s their style, not mine. I have a beard for two reasons. One is sleeping in my arms, soundly, for the first time in weeks. And the other is to entertain your weird beard fetish.”

“It is not a fetish,” Kory said heatedly, “you are simply incomparably attractive to me when you wear your facial hair.”

Dick grinned. 

“I love you, babe. But the beard is gonna go.”

“Mar’i will not recognize you without it.”

“Yes, she will.”

“Fine. Then I will not recognize you without it.”

“Oh really?” Dick asked, leaning in to kiss her cheek, “wouldn’t you recognize this?”

“I would never allow a stranger to get so close to me,” she replied haughtily, crossing her arms.

He rubbed his jaw teasingly against the side of her face, smirking when he felt her body rumble in response. 

“Even if they can make you purr like I do?”

Kory blushed and shook her head, dropping her gaze to the sleeping child nestled in her husband’s arms.

“You are certain I cannot convince you to stay on the paternity leave?” she asked mournfully, changing the subject before he could tempt her further. The dim glow of the stars they had covered Mar’i’s bedroom with lit up the lines of his face marvelously, drawing her into his warm blue eyes. 

“Not unless you can have a baby in the next few hours.”

“We can make one,” she tried, widening her eyes pleadingly, “have you not enjoyed these last few months with us?”

Dick sighed and stepped away from her to settle Mar’i into her crib, pleased to see his daughter sleeping soundly. 

“Come here, Star,” he said softly, bringing his arms around her waist and holding her in a standing snuggle, “I have loved every minute of being with you two. But we both knew it wasn’t going to last forever. One of us needs to work to keep up with all the shopping you do with Donna and Babs,” he added cheekily.

“But -”

“I won’t be going back full-time for at least a month. Half-days and case breaks only. And when Mar’i is a little older, I’ll ease into a more regular schedule. It’ll be gradual. And we’ll be able to get back into our regular patrols in no time.”

Kory sniffled and buried her face in the curve of his neck, breathing deeply.

“I am sorry,” she said sadly, “I am being unreasonable, and I know that. I just...I will miss you. And I will miss your perfect beard. And I will miss seeing you hold her at all hours of the day. I hate it when we are apart, I am always worried something will happen to you. I never know when to say goodbye.”

Dick sighed and tightened his grasp on her, dropping a kiss on the top of her head. 

“We knew what we were getting into when we signed up to be heroes, Star. That much hasn’t changed. And I know it’s scary to wonder, but we can’t be in this bubble forever. That’s not who we are. And that’s not the kind of example we want to set for Mar’i.” 

Kory pressed her lips against his jaw, cupping his face with both hands.

“I love you so much,” she said fiercely, “and I will do my best to make this easier for you if you would only just -”

“I’m not keeping the beard, Kory.”

She pouted and unwound herself from him.

“Clorbag.”

“I love you too, dearest,” Dick said drily, “it seems your separation anxiety was quick to disappear.”

“The only separation you need to be concerned for is that between you and all of your razors,” she said mischievously, darting into the hallway to beat him to the bathroom, “and every other sharp object I can hide will be hidden.”

“Don’t touch my shurikens!” Dick yelped, groaning when a sudden cry sounded from behind him.

“Fucking hell,” he mumbled, bending over to pick up his daughter and cuddle her into his chest, “Kory and her hormones, you and your...well, you’re a baby, so it’s not really your fault. I mean, of course, you’ll miss me. We spend all day together.”

Mar’i looked up at him with wide, curious eyes, as if encouraging him to go on.

“You let me talk about pretty much anything. Your mom does it too, but sometimes she falls asleep or gets bored and she’s not terrific at hiding it when she’s not interested. You also threw up on your Uncle Jason the first time he held you, which was pretty cool.”

She babbled something in baby and gripped his shirt, pulling herself into an easy float above his arms.

“You seem to like my music more than anyone else’s. And you fall asleep on top of me when we’re watching the game,” he continued, bringing his fingers up to tickle her tummy. 

Mar’i giggled and lost her balance, falling back into his hands.

“Let’s see...you’re definitely the cutest baby the world has ever seen. You behave perfectly with all your uncles and aunts. Even when Damian tried to kill you. You just zapped him with a little starbolt and laughed.”

Dick stared into her perfect green eyes and couldn’t help but feel a wave of sadness come over him. Nine months did feel too soon, in some ways. Mar’i had only just started walking. And her babbling was becoming increasingly more frequent. How long would it be before she said her first words? Would he even be there when she did?

“I’m going to miss being home, just so you know. A lot. But I definitely have to go. So you and your mom can’t try anything funny, okay?”

Shit. Were his eyes wet? Was he crying?

“I won’t be gone for too long tomorrow. Just in the morning. And then we can spend the rest of the day together.”

Mar’i raised a palm and rubbed it against his beard, showing him a gummy smile that was punctuated with two tiny baby teeth. 

He was definitely crying. 

“Anyway, I’m going to put you to bed now and stop your mom from destroying all the sharp things in the house, because I’m going to have to shave in the morning and that’s just a reality she’ll have to face -” 

He pulled Mar’i away from him slowly, lowering her back into the crib, retracting her immediately after the shrieking began.

“It’s bedtime, starshine, please, please go to sleep.”

But Mar’i, with a stubborn sense of persistence rivaling that of her father and mother, continued to scream and cry until Dick was snuggling her close to his chest, her fingers curled up in the cotton of his t-shirt.

Which is exactly how Kory found them thirty minutes later, having thrown out every razor-like thing she could possibly think of. Dick was still standing there in the center of the room, in the glow of the stars they had painted together, staring down at his daughter with tired, watery eyes. 

“Ah,” Kory said smugly, “I believe I am not the only one with a case of separation anxiety.”

Her husband looked over at her, something unreadable in his expression.

“How serious were you about making another one?”

Kory smiled wickedly. 

“I am always ready for you, my love.”

[mysticmeadowscamp]

FAQ

Important anouncement!!

In the near future this characters will become fully original! But for now we're merely switching the names every now and then to slowly get used to them

You can still call them by their old names, but im writing the changes so people wont be confused!

Dee -> Dee (but now hes ok with everyone calling him by his full name "Amadeus")

Vee -> Vee

Roman -> Florian

Remus -> Cadmus

Patton -> Lawrence (legal name [NOT a deadname]) / Achilles (chosen name)

Logan -> Nate/Nathan

---------------

Welcome to the Campfire AU! This blog gets lots of asks everyday so it can be kind of hard to find the basics of everything. So hopefully this can answer your questions if you’re new to the blog! 

 The AU doesn’t really have a plot. Just the sides being teens dealing with everyday stuff. The reason of why it’s called Campfire AU it’s because it all started with a comic where they went camping, but in all honestly it isnt even about camping at this point. Whoops!

(I have a in-character blog for Vee! Just for the fun of it lmao its @littlemothsandtinyvees )

What’s the AU about?

Are there any ships?

 This AU is 100% platonic! Many people get confused mainly because Dee and Remus are usually kinda flirty with each other. But they’re literally just messing around. Although, Vee and Logan get together in college (If this ship makes you uncomfortable, you can block the ‘’cf!analogical’’ tag!). But besides that, nothing else.

Is Thomas/Remy/Emile/etc in this AU?

 Yes, but actually no.

 Thomas and his crew are in this AU. BUT!!!! They have a very small, unsignificant role. Kind of like a cameo. They’re some cool yet scary looking monsters that appear on Vee's dreams. Vee also has a bat plushie named Count Joan.

 And Remy and Emile are Patton’s super cool toads. They just vibe.

What are the characters in the AU?

 Primary characters: Patton, Roman, Logan, Virgil, Janus (who still goes by Dee), and Remus.

 Secondary characters: King Creativity (Romulus), The Dragon Witch (DW), Annika (Vee’s biological mom), Celeste (Dee’s biological mom), and Mama and Papa Ruiz (Roman, Remus, and Romulus’ parents), Azariah, Nona, and Poppy (Dee and Remus' group of friends at school)

We dont really talk that much about Logan’s parents nor Patton’s dad, but they’re still there.

Blog’s ‘’Inside Jokes’’

The blog has some inside jokes that newcomers usually dont understand because they’re so bizarre and out of context, so here’s a quick guide. Beware, these are very dumb. I would like to apologize in advance:

The Jirt Dar: Its a jar full of dirt that Vee carries around and makes their friends put their hands inside of it if they catch them swearing.

The Sock Shirt: Remus owns a plain white shirt with the word ‘’sock’’ handwritten. That’s it. I have no idea why people find that hilarious.

Boneless Logan: Logan once had this theory that since he had never broken any bones in the past, he was, in fact, boneless. And still claims it to this day. Before you ask, no. He’s not serious about believing that, he just claims it to annoy or make people laugh. Has he ever broke a bone after that claim? Yes, he has.

‘‘Addy’‘: ‘’Addy’‘ is a nickname Vee has for Dee and it immediately triggers his Big Brother Mode because Vee only calls him that in scenarios when they’re sad, sick, etc.

‘‘Patton with an E‘‘:  When Vee and Patton first met, Patton had pointed out their last names where the same, except his had an ‘e’ at the end, and Vee thought it was pretty funny. Nowadays Patton sometimes introduces himself as ‘‘Patton with an E’‘ only to make Vee chuckle.

About OP

Hello! My name is Hay/Danny/OP i really dont mind how you refer to me as. I decided to make a little about me because I feel like I should set some boundaries for the sake of my mental health, basically some "please do not do this" because theyre personally triggering for me or make me uncomfortable.

Please never send asks talking about weight. Its a super triggering subject for me. Im fine if its asks like "Oh everyone lifts (X character) up a lot cause theyre very light" but thats it

Please dont vent in the asks, I have no idea what to do to help and as very empathetic person it stresses me out not being able to help. I am not a therapist

*Sometimes food is a subject that makes me extremely uncomfortable. Sometimes. What im trying to say is that you can send food related asks but if i dont answer it, its because at that moment food is a big no for me. I'll try my best to remember to give a heads up

(* Its totally okay if the subject is only passing. Its if the ask is focused on food what makes me extremely uncomfortable)

(Primary) Characters basic information (full name, age, height, etc)

● Janus Amadeus “Dee” Callaghan

 18 years old // 5'10 // Agender/Bisexual // he/him (but doesnt care about pronouns at all)

●Virgil (Vee) Harper Storm

 15 years old // 4'9 // Non Binary/Queer/Asexual // they/them (They’re chill with any pronouns though)

*Important Fact: Vee is autistic

●Patton Jonathan Storme

 16 years old // 5'8 // Demiboy/Homosexual // he/him and xe/xem

●Logan Keith Rowell

 16 years old // 5'5 // Questioning // he/him

●Roman Florian Flynn Ruiz

 18 years old // 5'11 // Transgender/Aromantic // he/him

●Remus Amadeus Ruiz

 18 years old // 6'2 // Transgender/Homosexual // he/him

Character’s specifics

(Before we start, I’d like to mention that the sides are quite further away from canon. Its called an AU for a reason, if you dont like how they’re portrayed, that’s fine, but please do not complain because, again, its an AU for a reason.) 

Patton: Patton is a complicated character. Let’s say hes bittersweet.

Pat has a very complicated relationship with his family, which would be the main reason of his anger issues and poor self esteem. He doesnt have any siblings and his mother left when he was around 9 years old. Leaving him only with his dad. Who is currently the Mayor. As time passed by, Patton as his dad started becoming extremely distant. Patton tried to fix his relationship with his father for a very good while. But nothing seemed to work, so he gave up and nowadays avoids him as much as he can.

At school Patton puts on this happy-go-lucky facade and hes known for being a very sweet and happy guy. Mainly because hes ashamed of the fact that hes, in his words, “an angry person.”

So he tries to come up with a friendly “mask”. Colorful clothes, and round glasses. Because colorful and round things come out as friendly, right?

Patton rarely wears black, unless it something like jeans or shoes. The thought of wearing all black will never cross his mind because hes so desperate to try and come off as a friendly guy.

But with his friends is a whole different story, Patton allows himself to be “his true self”, he allows himself to be mad at some things, he stops repressing the “ugly feelings”, he actually swears, and plays around in a more “rough” way in general. All in good terms, it will never be his intention to hurt his friends.

Facts:

Sophomore in highscool

Vee's best friend. They met each other in 7th grade because Vee was new in school.

He’s on the cheerleading team. Meaning that he’s quite strong, agile, and even flexible. Emphasis on strong. He once broke a guy’s nose because he was harrassing a girl.

Has been doing gymnastics since he was very little

He’s pescetarian. He strongly avoids meat, but still eats fish.

Absolutely loves horror movies, especially old ones. (His all time favorite is Halloween)

Actually has better grades than Logan. He’s a straight A student. Focuses too much on his grades because he wants to get a full scholarship for college.

Ends up majoring in law once he gets to college

Vee: Vee is a rather hyperactive person, and is very into mysterious subjects, such as cryptids, the paranormal, you get the vibe. They aren’t really that anxious, but the anxiety is still there. Especially when it’s about people they don’t know. Once they warm up to you, they barey shut up.

Vee still has some anxiety issues because they were bullied from 3rd grade to 6th grade and never said a word to anyone. Whenever their mom picked them up she’d always notice how sad they looked, sometimes even with puffy eyes from crying. But no matter how hard she tried, Vee would never tell her anything out of pure fear they’d get in trouble. The moment Vee admitted everything, she immediately changed them from that school.

On 7th grade they met Patton, and he was pretty much the one who managed to make Vee come out of their shell, he never forced them to do something they didn’t want to, but he slowly started to introduce them into doing new things that Vee once considered scary.

Vee had made huge progress regarding their self esteem thanks to Pat. And they are now trying to make the exact same thing for Patton.

Facts:

Sophomore in highscool

Patton’s best friend

Dee’s little (step) sibling

Theirs and Dee’s moms were best friends in college (Dee’s dad was also Annika’s childhood friend). So these two have known each other since Vee was born. When they were 11-12 years old, their and Dee’s moms got married.

Even before that, Vee always saw Dee as a big brother.

They keep a dream journal. But if you happen to read it, you’ll realize that what’s written are not dreams, but nightmares. There are some drawings of monsters in some pages, even.

They says that they’re not  scared of most of them, though. That they’re used to it.

Ends up majoring in digital animation

Dee: He’s the most calm guy in the whole group. Usually the leader, even. He’s either a very responsible big brother with Vee or an absolute chaotic teenager with Remus. There’s no in between.

Dee has a really hard time trusting people, the only people he genuinely trusts are Remus, Vee, and his moms (Roman, Patton, and Logan are there too, but not as much as the ones mentioned.)

Dee’s parents got divorced when he was around 8. And his and Vee's moms got married when he was 14-15 years old. To this day his relationship with his dad is kind of complicated. He doesnt hate him, but he’s not quite sure how to feel about him. He calls every now and then to check up on him, and he appreciates it, but those calls usually end up with Dee feeling sort of awkward afterwards.

There isn’t much to say about him, mostly because hes very reserved with pretty much everyone. But hey, between us? Hes has a very soft spot for Vee 

Facts:

Senior in highschool

Vee’s big (step) brother

Remus’ best friend. They met in 3rd grade and have been inseparable ever since.

The scar around his eye is a burn scar from hot water when he was little (7-9 y/o), and the one on his cheek happened because him and Remus were playing with a knife when they were 14-15.

He knows how to drive, but usually Remus is the one who always does do.

Is on the theatre club. Both as a techie and as an actor

He’s 100% sure that he’s  bisexual. But the fact that he has such a hard time trusting people makes it hard for him to imagine himself in a relationship.

Ends up going to college for around two years before he decides to drop out.

Remus: He’s your local hyperactive guy that lives for that sweet, sweet adrenaline. He’s always looking for reckless things to do and he ALWAYS drags Dee to them (not like he minds). But he’s also a very loyal friend, especially to Dee. If he asked Remus for a favor he’d be 100% willing to do ANYTHING without doubts. He’s also highly protective over Vee, Patton, and Logan because theyre the youngest of the group.

His and Roman’s relationship went from horrible to amazing. Him and Roman absolutely despised each other when they were little, if they were put in the same room, 99% of the time they’d end up fighting, as time went by, they started to avoid each other as much as possible, then they kind of tolerated each other, but still never spent much time together. When Remus found Roman chopping his hair off while bawling his eyes out at 2 in the morning, their relationship definitely started to change for the best.

Facts:

Senior in highschool

Roman’s twin, Romulus’ little brother

Dee’s best friend

The scar near his chin is because him and Dee were playing with a knife and both of them got a cut. They called them their “Friendship scars”

Spanish is his first language. But mainly speaks it at family runions, sometimes with his parents, but never with Roman and/or Romulus

Is on the volleyball team

Got top surgery, but doesnt want bottom surgery.

Ends up majoring in mortuary science

Roman: He’s the kindest and sweetest guy in the group. Hes always willing to help and listen to whoever needs it. He’s actually quite popular at school because of the fact that hes so kind. A ray of sunshine. Roman had a very hard time for a good while, but it all crumbled down on him on his freshman year. He felt super lonely, was absolutely lost with who he was as a person and had no idea who he wanted to be, what he wanted to do with his life, etc. He struggled with school and his grades dropped horribly because he had so much in his mind. No matter how hard he tried to concentrate, he just couldnt focus in school. He ended up repeating the year.

Like it was mentioned before, his relationship with Remus went from horrible to amazing. Unfortunately for them, because of this, they barely have childhood memories to look back to. But now they’re trying their best to make up for it. Roman would say that his and Remus relationship got better when Roman repeated his freshman year; Remus apologized to him for a straight hour because he admitted to notice Roman having a hard time, but decided to ignore it because he was “too damn prideful”. After that, little by little, they became closer.

Facts:

Junior in highschool

Remus’ twin. Romulus’ little brother

Logan’s best friend. They met on freshman year (the one that Ro had to re-take)

Spanish is his first language.But mainly speaks it at family runions, sometimes with his parents, but never with Remus and/or Romulus

Is on theatre club. But to contrary belief, he barely takes leading roles.

He absolutely loves to hear Vee ramble about what they enjoy. His grandma used to tell him about the fae folk when he was younger. So unlike everyone in the group, he absolutely understands what Vee is talking about and they can chat for hours about it

Hasn’t had any surgery yet. But wants both top and bottom surgery.

Doesn’t end up going to college, and instead works at his mom’s flower shop alongside Dee

Logan: First things first, while Logan is smart, he isn’t super smart, at least not academically speaking. He has really good grades, but he isn’t a straight A student. People tend to assume he’s a gifted student because of the fact that he skipped a year. But in reality that only happened because he had an advanced reading and writting comprehension so they made him skip first grade.

Logan used to be quite a loner when he was younger, and he was way too serious and cold because of it. When he met Roman, Logan realized that he was actually unhappy back then, and little by little he started to losen up more, joking around and not really minding what people think of it. Now look at him! He’s absolutely chaotic and his favorite hobby is annoying Patton (in a loving way, dont worry.). He still has a somewhat ‘’smart kid’’ reputation at school, but those people in his class are aware that he jokes around every now and then and is actually super chill. He’s known for either fixing people’s laptops/cellphones/tablets or because he can write your essays. He definitely makes money out of both of these things. Unless you’re his friend, he’ll do it for free

 Lo’s parents work a lot and travel every now and then because of it. So they are barely home. But they still talk and text quite often. If his parents happen to be travelling, they videochat. But because of this Logan is most of the time alone at home and learned to be VERY independent. Not like he brags about it, but hes kind of proud of it.

Because of his parents always being away, and the fact that Logan is an only child and never had any friends growing up, he learned to do many things in an attempt to fight the boredom, some of those things are cooking, fixing his own laptop, crafts (im talking about, cosplay worthy crafts), origami, among other things.

Facts:

Junior in highschool

Roman’s best friend

He has a job at a videogame store

Yes, he also loves videogames way too much. Sometimes he messes his sleep schedule because he stays up late playing (usually with Patton)

Plays guitar. Learned how to do so one time he was burned out, and his dad suggested he learned something entirely knew, like playing an instrument. Nowadays he really enjoys it and plays very often.

He could learn how to drive. But he 100% prefers using his bike

He actually despises school and complains about it and about how flawed the educational system is on a daily basis

Ends up making a very last minute decision and going to an art school to study music composition instead of economics

PHEW. That was quite a lot. Anyways, if you got to the end of the page, congrats! If you feel like something should be added please do let me know!!

 Welcome to the Campfire AU, where the campfire is mostly ours rather than theirs

[thrill-seeker-vn]

👾

Send me a 👾 and I'll give you a random song off of an OC playlist with an explanation!

Let's go for Hannie!! One of the songs on their playlist is Dil To Bachcha Hai Ji by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.

It's actually one of my all time favorite songs, and honestly I love how it matches up with Hannie.

The phrase 'Dil To Bachcha Hai Ji' directly translates to 'The heart is a child'. I think this fits Hannie, as they're this kind of person who suppressed their dreams and opted for a more mature persona, who hasn't really fallen in or felt much love. However, at heart, I do think they wish they could reexperience their childish, or act as childishly as they would like. In thier heart, they do want to follow their dreams, they do want to act silly, they do want to just shut off their brain and let their heart guide them, y'know?

Some lyrics I like especially:

"Umar kab ki baras ke sufaid ho gayi/Kaari badri jawaani ki chatthi nahin"

These sentences translate to 'My age has become white since long ago/But this black cover of youth doesn't go away." Basically saying although they matured long ago, their youth still troubles them, and this feeling of youthfullness does not leave them.

Another one that hits me especially hard is the line just before the chorus, "Dar lagta hai ishq karne mein ji", which translates to 'I'm afraid to fall in love.' And I do think that's true for Hannie, as they're quite afraid of being vulnerable to someone and getting hurt from their own decision.

I could go on and on about this song, its just AMAZING. but i think a couple paragraphs is more than enough IFDSHIUDFIU

Here's a link to the full english translation if y'all want to see the rest of it!

[deliriumsdelight7]

TMI ask about WoT: favourite male and female characters, favourite location in that world and if you were Aes Sedai, what would be your Ajah?

I love these questions. I don’t have anyone to talk WoT to, so I’m a bit rusty, but these questions have got me ranting. I’m not sorry.

For favorite male character, I have to go basic and say Matrim “I am no bloody hero” Cauthon. He’s the guy who loudly protests doing anything remotely heroic/dangerous, but he’s also the first person risking his life for others. Also I will never get over the phrase “sheep swallop and bloody buttered onions.”

Honorable mention to Logain Ablar, even though it sort of feels like Brandon Sanderson didn’t know what to do with him in the end.

Female character has to be Nynaeve. I know a lot of people hated her in the early books, but I always liked her, and I got why she was angry all the time. She could only access her power when she was angry, and she and her friends were in dangerous situations so she literally had to be ready to Hulk out at a moment’s notice. I totally bought this weird bracelet-and-rings thing based on the Infinity Gauntlet solely because it reminded me of her angreal. I also shamelessly worked her into my Dark One Belle fic under the name of Vivienne. Nynaeve is my girl.

(Also please allow me to climb on my soapbox with an unpopular opinion and say that Faile was not nearly as shitty a character as people say she was. She was given zero POV time in the earlier books, and all POVs in the books are incredibly biased, so we only get to see Perrin’s side of things, but when you consider her POV, I think she seems pretty damn reasonable.)

Favorite location is a tough one because RJ’s worldbuilding is top notch. Like, he goes too damn far with it, sometimes. Do I go with Cairhien with the fascinating game of Daes Dae’mar? Or maybe Ebou Dar with the duels and marriage knives (but also an incredibly problematic Queen)? I could talk about the fascinating culture of the Aiel Waste, which has to be some of the best damn worldbuilding in the entire genre of fantasy. Or I could speculate on a place we never got to visit: Seanchan, with its rigid social structure, strange creatures, and unfortunate use of slavery (which heavily inspired the Qunari culture in the Dragon Age games).

But honestly? In the end I am a very boring person who loves The Two Rivers. I am a hobbit at heart, and Emond’s Field is my Hobbiton. It’s a small, middle of nowhere farming town full of ordinary people who can do extraordinary things when things get tough. That will never get old for me. And I just love how it seems to represent different things to the Emond’s Field Five. Perrin and Nynaeve view it as a place to be protected at all cost. Mat misses it, but has no plans on going back because he can’t live the gambler’s life there. Egwene views it as a place she has outgrown. And Rand sees it as a place that represents his life before he took up the mantle of Dragon Reborn; it’s a place he never can return to, no matter how much he’d like to.

Finally, what Ajah would I be? Well, the idealist in me likes to think I’d be a healer of the Yellow Ajah. But let’s face it: I am a total geek. I’d be in the Brown Ajah, and my focus would be on stories and how they change over time and across different regions. That’s something I’ve always found fascinating. Also the Brown Ajah has my girl Verin.

Side note: I like to picture that maybe a few decades after AMoL, the Black and White Towers have maybe unified a bit, and the focus of the Red has changed back to its original purpose. Instead of just running around, Gentling male channelers, they could go back to stopping any misuse of the One Power. I think if the Red Ajah and the Asha’man kept each other in check due to their mutual distrust, they could help whip the rest of the White and Black Towers into shape.

[neuxue]

Wheel of Time liveblogging: Towers of Midnight ch 9

Mat catches up with an old friend. Or an old not-friend catches up with Mat. 

Chapter 9: Blood in the Air

Well it opens with Mat literally screaming bloody murder, so we’re off to a good start.

He threw himself backward to his feet, hauling the ashandarei up, then spun and slashed—not at the form moving through the tent towards him, but at the wall.

I don’t know why this is so amusing to me, but I’m laughing at the ashandarei being used once again in conjunction with a rather unconventional exit, given that it was granted to him in the first place as, I’m fairly sure, part of his request to be out of the land of the Eelfinn. And then going back for it almost stopped him being able to leave Ebou Dar.

Anyway, somehow he then manages to pull the medallion off his neck and tie it to the blade of the ashandarei all before the inhumanly fast gholam can catch up. Sounds fake but okay.

Though apparently it’s still trying to avoid notice, and also is not immune to a little bit of villainous monologuing, so okay I suppose that buys a little bit of time for some speedy knotwork.

“The one who now controls me wants you more than anyone else. I am to ignore all others until I have tasted your blood.”

I mean, I’m not sure if the gholam plays by the same rules as Aes Sedai but there’s definitely some wiggle room in that command. Just have a quick taste and then you two can be friends. Or Mat can keep it as a pet, depending on how we’re defining personhood.

Or sparring partner? Could be useful to have something absurdly fast and virtually invincible to train against.

Mat agrees on the fighting point, at least, and goes for the attack, because I’m sure this will end well.

Really? Of all the people this thing has killed, including some of your friends and members of the Band, Tylin is the one you’re upset about? Sigh. Fine. That’s a dead horse I don’t particularly need to beat any further, I suppose.

“You didn’t want her; you wanted me!”

Well technically Mat didn’t want her either so they have something in common there.

Okay, sorry, couldn’t resist one last dig.

“A bird must fly. A man must breathe. I must kill.”

That’s a mood. Points for self-awareness, I suppose, though in this series that’s a pretty low bar.

How is the gholam controlled, I wonder? I don’t see this happening, but given that it seems to serve a single master rather than the Shadow in general, it would be cool if there were a way to suborn it to Mat’s will instead, and unleash it on the Shadow’s own armies. That would fulfil its need to kill, and it would actually sort of fit with its dark-trickster kind of nature. But I doubt it.

“I’ve been told to kill them all,” the gholam said softly. “To bring you out.”

Someone needs to give this thing a copy of the Evil Overloard List. Though in fairness I suppose this is less ‘revealing its plans via monologue’ and more ‘delivering a rather chilling threat, given that it knows everyone’s identity’.

And also as a distraction because Mat hesitates for just a second on realising that it knows about Tuon, so all in all a pretty effective gambit.

Or it would be, if not for Teslyn, because she’s still surprisingly awesome. Lifting Mat out of the way with Air—because he’s no longer wearing his medallion and the gholam can’t be affected by the One Power—is some pretty damn clever quick thinking.

And then she attacks it with a chair. Iconic. Is that three times now that chairs have been used as improvised weapons in this series? Four? Whatever the number, I sort of love it. Especially because the image is hilarious every single time.

The object—a chair!—crashed into the hillside beside them. The gholam spun as a large bench smashed into it, throwing it backwards.

This invincible creature of Shadow and nightmare, immune to magic and virtually impossible to fight, being hit by flying furniture.

Credit again to Teslyn though, for immediately coming up with pretty much the only way she could possibly help in this fight. Sure, she’s had time to figure out the loopholes with Mat’s medallion so it’s not completely on the fly, but that’s still some impressive adaptability and problem-solving right there.

Seems the gholam is still avoiding attention, though, because it runs off, pausing only to tear out a pair of throats for good measure on the way.

And now Mat remembers the bloody murder in his own tent that started it all, which turns out to be Lopin, and two random NPCs. Aw, poor Lopin, he just wanted to do laundry in peace.

The gholam had proven itself practically unstoppable. Mat had the suspicion that it could cut down the entire Band in getting to him, if it needed to.

This, and honestly this entire scene, seems very deliberately placed to basically remind us that the gholam is still an unsolved problem. A bit of tag-you’re-it (murder tag? That’s a game, right?), popping up to tear some throats and then run off again, because Our Protagonist hasn’t yet worked out an actual solution but clearly now he needs to.

Which of course begs the question: what is the solution here? How do you defeat something faster and stronger than you are, that also happens to be invincible to magic and indestructible but for a single known weakness?

I suppose that single known weakness, then, should be the starting point here. Which—oh. Mat’s in Caemlyn. And he hasn’t been able to get in touch with Elayne yet, but… Elayne is also in Caemlyn. And knows how to replicate and make ter’angreal. Could she possibly make a weaponised version of Mat’s foxhead medallion? One that could kill rather than maim? Or make copies of it?

Except she can’t even channel reliably at the moment, and also I’m not sure how well she’d be able to study a ter’angreal that by its very nature blocks the use of the One Power on it, so that could present something of a challenge. Still, it’s pretty much the only idea I have.

Unless you could trap the gholam somewhere? Lure it through a gateway? Leash it with the medallion like Gollum with the elvish rope and drag it to the Tower of Ghenjei as a gift for the Aelfinn and Eelfinn?

Hey I’m just tossing out ideas here.

Mat’s worried about Olver, but apparently he’s fine; I suppose it was too much to ask that the gholam might have got to him. Okay, okay, fine, sorry, I’m a terrible person etc. I just… really could not give less of a shit about this kid if I tried, but I suppose that’s a me problem.

Seems like the gholam’s diversifying its skillset, getting into the interrogation business as well as the murder and vampirism one. Always good to have a fallback, I suppose, especially in this economy.

“We’re going to hunt it,” Mat said softly, “and we’re going to kill the bloody thing.”

Cool, sounds fun, what’s the plan? Oh! Maybe you could dissolve the medallion and then inject it into someone’s bloodstream and then get the gholam to eat it…

Sorry, I’ll stop.

Well no, I won’t, but.

“Burn me, I still need to talk to Elayne. I want Aludra’s dragons started. I’ll have to write her another letter. Stronger, this time.”

This does feel like a setup for Elayne helping with the gholam problem somehow via her ter’angreal abilities and Mat’s medallion, given the intersection of all these people and places and events.

Also, Elayne does have a history with multiple letters of varying strength, so I am sort of entertained by the notion of her being on the receiving end this time. And if an epistolary version of Elayne and Mat’s weird friendship is all I get, I’ll take it.

Mat’s plan for now involves sleeping in town in a different inn each night, so… you’d better hope the gholam’s orders regarding avoiding notice don’t change, Mat, or you’re going to end up with a hell of a lot of blood tangentially on your hands. I mean, I’m all for it in the name of self-preservation, but Mat’s a better person than I am.

Oh hi Joline. Can’t say it’s good to see you, and you know it’s bad when Mat and I agree on something. Though she’s come to say her goodbyes, so at least I don’t have to put up with a) her and b) Mat in her proximity anymore.

Mat’s last few lines in this chapter feel… a little more like TGS Mat than like the Mat of the rest of the series, but I can forgive that; it’s a pretty small slip and the rest of this chapter and last have, indeed, been better than last book.

Next (ToM ch 10) Previous (ToM ch 8)

[darling-i-read-it]

DAR Girls

Dean Forester (Gilmore AU) x reader

Word Count: 1.k

Warnings: none I don’t think

Author’s Note: I hope you enjoy and this is what you wanted!

Request; by anon, This might be to weird, but could you do a Gilmore Girls AU Dean is Rory's twin brother and reader is Deans nerdy girlfriend? And Dean takes reader to Friday night dinner and Emily decides to take reader on a Shopping spree? Then Emily introduces Reader to her DAR girls as "future Mrs. Dean Gilmore/ her future daughter in law"?

Summary: the request

Genre: fluff

(not my gif)

“Dean I don’t know…” you trailed off. Your boyfriend Dean had just asked you if you wanted to join him and his twin sister at Friday night dinner with his grandparents. You had heard from Rory that they weren’t really something that you would enjoy. In fact the two of them complained about it often.

But he told you that his grandparents were dying to meet the girl that they had heard so much about. You were still pretty hesitant, you weren’t great meeting new people. But for Dean you supposed you outta give it a shot, even if just for a night.

So there you were, standing with Dean, Rory and their mom Lorelai outside of a huge house. Dean had told you that his grandparents were living comfortably but not this comfortably. You looked down at your dress that you had thought was too much but now it seemed just about right.

The door opened, revealing a small older lady. You figured this was Emily Gilmore. Behind her was who you assumed was Richard.

“Hello! Come in, come in.” You all hurried inside and hung up jackets and took off shoes while you admired the interior of the house.

“You must be Y/N. We’ve heard so much about you. I’m Richard and this is my wife, Emily. Here come, dinner is almost ready,” Richard said, placing a hand behind you to lead you to the dining room. You smiled as Dean stayed beside you. You sat beside each other at the table, Lorelai and Rory on the other side and Emily and Richard as the head of the table. The food was already being served by the time you all were sitting down.

Emily wanted to get to know you right away. Dean had warned you that they might be nosy and rude but you expected that of all grandparents. They were probably just protective.

“So, Y/N. How’s school?” she inquired.

“Good!”

“What's your grade point average?”

“Mom!” Lorelai protested. You shook your head and smiled.

“Its alright Lorelai. I have a steady 3.9.” Dean had basically prepared you for the questions. He held your hand on the dinner table for some reassurance but you didn’t need it. You were answering her questions honestly with a steady voice which she seemed to appreciate. From what you could tell she really liked you so far.

Liked you enough where no one had intuprupted your conversation yet.

“Would you like to go shopping with me Y/N?” she asked when the dishes were being cleaned. This made most of the house stop. Richard had stopped mid getting up, Lorelai had her coat half on, Rory only had one shoe on and Dean had nearly fallen out of his chair. You smiled at her.

“Yes I’d quite like that,” you told her. She nodded and handed you your coat.

“I’ll see you tomorrow then. 7am sharp here?” You nodded and glanced at Dean.

“Mom, why didn’t you ever take me shopping?” Lorelai joked. Emily pursed her lips and looked at you.

“Sorry, I don’t remember you getting a 3.9 GPA ever in your life Lorelai,” she snapped which caused her daughter to roll her eyes. You walked with Dean out the door then and got in his car while Rory and her mom got into their car. He started it up and looked at you, smiling.

“She really liked you,” he said. Your eyes widened.

“Well I hope so. She invited me shopping tomorrow at 7 freaking am Dean on a Saturday,” you told him. He was still smiling and you were just glad you had made him happy. You would go tomorrow to shop with Emily Gilmore even in you had to drink four cups of coffees from Lukes to do it.

The next morning you knocked on the large door a coffee in hand (your 3rd). Emily walked out and lead you to the door and then drove you away to God knows where. You went shopping at the mall for a while and when she seemed to find a few acceptable outfits for you, she lead you to morning tea with her friends.

On the way there she explained to you her DAR group of girls and your anxiety heightened. You could handle Emily but handling like 4 Emilys? That's a lot. Nevertheless you tried to suppress your nerves and let her order you a cup of tea when she introduced you to the girls.

“This is my grandson Dean's girlfriend so in a few years time she will be taking up some places here as the future Mrs. Dean Gilmore,” she said with a smile. The girls flocked around you and started asking questions but you were still flustered about Emilys ‘Mrs.Dean Gilmore’ comment.

You managed to get through the rest of the morning and flopped beside Dean on his couch that Saturday afternoon.

“She called me Mrs.Dean Gilmore,” you told him as you took off your terribly tight high heels. He raised an eyebrow and leaned forward, rubbing your back.

“Well I suppose if anyone was going to propose to you for me it would be my grandmother. Give it a few years, she’ll get on her knee before I do,” he joked. You turned to him and smiled, taking a few clips out of your hair.

“You wanna marry me one day?” you asked. He nodded like it was a stupid question.

“‘Course. Maybe after we graduate and stuff but one day you’ll get to be a DAR girl full time,” he said with a smile. You rolled your eyes and leaned back on the couch.

“Please don’t make me Dean,” you murmured. He rubbed your arm with a chuckle.

“I won’t but Emily Gilmore might.”

Part 2

[foulserpent]

AU where dagon doesn't get a hit in on akatosh's avatar and martin survives the experience, would he have to like, threaten the blades to keep ned/xikeel from getting "mysteriously" offed, how do you think your interpretation of him would deal with/react to Xikeel becoming then un-becoming sheogorath?

irt the blades definitely yeah. in my characters actual canon, theres some thinly veiled threats from the blades that are never acted on (a lot of the secrets xik & ned know become nonissues with martins death). so had martin lived and they now had two outsiders with insider knowledge, they would definitely try to kill them. probably ned first, since xikeel is outwardly cooperative and they might think they can recruit her.

honestly not sure that would happen in that alternate timeline irt the shivering isles since what gets her to the point of susceptibility to the isles is having one of her two close friends die horribly and the other being actively suicidal and a complete wreck.

so the scenario would prob be a bit different to GET her to the isles in the first place, but assuming it happened and martin was able to find out id assume hed be completely bewildered and kind of just exasperated. like not as horrified as he should be (though he is) bc its like ‘oh she would do that wouldnt she’. him and xikeel are very good friends and hed want to attempt basically the worlds weirdest intervention (which ned also attempts in canon when he finally finds out what happened to her).

except instead of ‘goofy but really sad’ i think things would just be kind of funny. bc it would be like, an oblivion crisis lite except the stakes are low and its martin, ned, dar-ma (and any other recruits to xikeels massive polycule) all banding together to try and figure out how to get into the isles and how to de-daedrify her

[kalcigh]

hi! i love this group so much that i (sarah) brought in another character! i am super excited to be bringing this babe here and to start interactions and plotting connections with her. @frostfordstart​

just a warning, i am going to get into her background a little more in this than i did for lucas, because i had a bio for him already for extra credit reading but i don’t have that for kaleigh yet sooooo hang in there 

Kaleigh Ray Henderson

she was born in Savannah, GA but raised in Frostford 

she was raised by two dads - dad and daddy, respectively 

her dad was born in Frostford and was a big advocate for raising their kid in a small town 

her bio mom was a young girl that got knocked up by her high school bf that dipped the moment he found out. 

she’s still in Kaleigh’s life a little bit, she plays the role of “auntie” and is off in Nashville trying to become a singer 

eventually the small town lifestyle won out and the Henderson family moved to Frostford. Kaleigh was about a year old at that time so to her, Frostford has always been her home

growing up, Kaleigh was pretty spoiled

her dad was a lawyer and would commute into Mobile every day for work 

while her daddy became a stay at home parent. back in Savannah, he was also a lawyer but after they moved, he decided to be the caregiver 

she loves both of her dads but she has always been closer to daddy 

she and her daddy would go on shopping trips together, play beauty pageant, have tea parties and do all kind of things together 

when she had to start going to school, she honestly thought she was being punished for something, so to make up for it, her dads gave her more things 

she was in dance lessons, got to go horseback riding on the weekends, almost always got to have dessert before dinner time 

because of this, she had a false sense of how the world worked. she’s always very confused whenever people don’t give her everything she wants immediately after she’s politely asked for it 

Kaleigh is also kind of, and there is no nicer way to say this but dumb

she’s dumb as hell 

she’s always cared more about looks and popularity and having fun to pay attention in class. she barely managed to keep up her grades enough to stay on the cheerleading team and to graduate school 

and that was with countless hours of tutoring sessions and her friends trying their best to help her understand pretty basic stuff 

she’s a total hopeless romantic and falls in love with anyone who says 1 nice thing to her 

because of this, she has a bit of a reputation of being slutty and easy 

but its not her fault that people take advantage of her naivety! 

Kaleigh has very little real world skills. she’s not good with academic subjects like math and science but she was always good in home ec. 

Kaleigh is a seamstress at buttons & bows 

she loves sewing and making dresses 

she’s almost always in a dress or a skirt. it’s very rare to see her in shorts or jeans 

she’s super friendly but also super ditzy

she’s a member of the DAR and really likes when there is a committee for something fun and pretty that she can join

she still lives at home with her dads and they still spoil her like crazy 

and she’s still looking for love in all the wrong places 

[spanishskulduggery]

i don't know if you have a post about it but can you explain, dumb down if i'm being honestly, the uses/etc for the different pronouns: indirect object, direct object, etc?

Direct objects are basically what amounts to the accusative case for languages with case systems.

Basically it works like this: Subject verbs an object

The object that is “verbed” is the direct object; it receives the action and is directly acted upon.

So in a sentence like “I kick the ball”, the “I” is the subject, “kick” is the verb, and “the ball” is the object.

The pronouns are:

me = yo

te = tú

lo/la = 3ra persona singular / usted

los/las = 3ra persona plural / ustedes

nos = nosotros

os* = vosotros

*if you’re in Spain

Direct objects are most common with inanimate objects, so you need to know the gender of the object.

If it’s “I kick the ball” it would be pateo la pelota and so la pelota “the ball” is feminine… so la pateo “I kick it”, where “it” is the pronoun for “the ball” which is implied.

But you could say compro el libro “I buy the book”, or lo compro “I buy it”, and it’s masculine because el libro is masculine.

Same general idea exists for plural.

Indirect objects are the dative case for languages with case systems.

These mark “to whom” or “for whom” an action is done, and many times indirect object pronouns are used for people, animals, or personified objects.

The pronouns here are:

me = yo

te = tú

le = 3ra persona singular / usted

les = 3ra persona plural / ustedes

nos = nosotros

os* = vosotros

*again for Spain

You get introduced to indirect objects first with gustar

me gusta el libro = I like the book [lit. “the book pleases me”]me gustan los libros = I like the books [lit. “the books please me”]

Again, this is normally a person who receives the action of a verb… but not directly.

In other words… “I send the letter” is mando la carta and in here, la carta is the direct object. 

The person who receives the action of “sending the letter” is its recipient… so te mando la carta “I send the letter to you”, or le mando la carta “I send the letter to him/her”

Direct and indirect objects do show up together, just like in English.

Luckily, as you’ve probably noticed it’s only 3rd person singular and plural that change, so even if you don’t totally know whether the me is technically direct or indirect, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s still me

But for other sentences it’s more particular.

Because Spanish is a little more vague with the pronouns, it’s more based on implied knowledge. Like if I say “it”, it should be obvious what I’m referring to or the pronoun kind of feels weird in Spanish.

In general, if you don’t know what it should be, you tend to say lo but if you have the noun already at hand, you need to know its gender.

Te mando la carta. = I send you the letter.Te la mando. = I send it to you.

Te mando el paquete. = I send you the package.Te lo mando. = I send it to you.

Te mando las flores. = I send you the flowers.Te las mando. = I send them (f) to you.

Te mando los chocolates. = I send you the chocolates.Te los mando. = I send them (m) to you. 

Where it gets a little more confusing is that when 3rd person meets 3rd person for indirect + direct, the indirect objects [le/les] change into se

This is because if you had le/les + lo/la/los/las it would sound really weird and trip you up when you speak.

The se here serves no grammatical purpose other than just to replace the le/les so it’s not super awkward:

Le mando la carta. = I send him/her the letter.Se la mando. = I send it to him/her.Les mando la carta. = I send them the letter.Se la mando. = I send it to them.

Le mando el paquete. = I send him/her the package.Se lo mando. = I send it to him/her.Les mando el paquete. = I send them the package.Se lo mando. = I send it to them.

Le mando las flores. = I send him/her the flowers.Se las mando. = I send them to him/her.Les mando las flores. = I send them the flowers.Se las mando. = I send them to them.

Le mando los chocolates. = I send him/her the chocolates.Se los mando. = I send them to him/her.Les mando los chocolates. = I send them the chocolates.Se los mando. = I send them to them.

*Note: Because se here could be le or les, it’s sometimes common to write a (sujeto) to make it clear who you’re talking about.

That’s common with indirect objects just in general. When it’s obvious like me gusta, saying a mí me gusta comes off as very emphatic “I’m the one who likes it” or “well, I like it [implying someone else didn’t]”

With le and les it could refer to “him”, “her”, “You”,“them”, “You all”…  and “them” could be masculine or feminine.

So when it’s ambiguous and hasn’t been stated, sometimes people will just add the a to make it clear:

Se lo mando (a él). = I’m sending it to him.

Se los mando (a ella). = I’m sending them to her.

Se la mando (a usted). = I’m sending it to you.

Se la mando (a ellos). = I’m sending it to them (m+m, m+f)Se la mando (a ellas). = I’m sending it to them (f+f)

Se las mando (a ustedes). = I’m sending them to you guys.

And really you could have the direct object [lo/la/los/las] be anything.

When the direct object is a person, it can be a little weird. 

In Latin America it’s more common to say something like:

Lo conozco (a él). = I know him.La conozco (a ella). = I know her.

in Spain, it depends on the region, but most places will say le conozco instead. Though some regions in Spain use the direct objects. There are other regional variations, but Spain typically favors the use of indirect objects when it’s a person or animate object to denote personhood or life.

There’s some debate over how active the object is… Like a verb like ayudar could be interpreted with direct or indirect objects. And based on this reasoning, le ayudo is like “I help him/her” but in the sense that they’re accepting help… and lo/la ayudo “I help him/her” makes the object more passive.

I find people will understand you regardless so don’t worry about it too much. Latin America favors the direct objects for people, but will use the indirect objects for people in very formal situations.

In my textbooks it used to say: es un placer conocerle “it’s nice to meet you”, and I also have some where it’s like es un placer conocerLa a usted, señora “it’s a pleasure to meet you, madam”

In general, I’d be using lo/la people, even if they were usted. But I think es un placer conocerte is pretty commonplace. And conocerle sounds real formal to me.

Verbs that typically use direct objects with people (to the best of my knowledge)

golpear = to hit

castigar = to punish

querer = to love [more Latin America]

amar = to love (passionately) [more Latin America]

juzgar = to judge

lastimar = to hurt, to injure

olvidar = to forget

perdonar = to forgive

llevar = to carry / to bring

tomar = to take

ayudar = to help [sometimes indirect objects are used]

mirar = to watch / to stare at [sometimes indirect objects are used]

llamar = to call

conocer = to know (someone/a place)

encontrar = to find

buscar = to look for

tener = to have

ver = to see

Verbs that typically use indirect objects (with a person)

dar = to give

enviar = to send

mandar = to send

culpar / echar la culpa = to blame

sugerir = to suggest

ofrecer = to offer

enseñar = to teach / to show, to point out

servir = to serve

traer = to bring

pedir = to request

decir = to say

contar = to tell

hacer daño = to harm, to do harm

hacer caso = to pay attention to, to mind, to heed

prometer = to promise

jurar = to swear

echar de menos = to miss (someone) [Spain]extrañar = to miss (someone) [Lat Am]

…also the gustar verbs, though some gustar verbs work in different applications:

gustar = to like

encantar = to really like[encantar can also take direct objects but it means “to enchant” or “to bewitch” in this case, as in using magic on an object]

sorprender = to surprise

fascinar = to fascinate

quedar bien/mal = to fit well/poorly (said of clothes)

doler = to hurt, to ache

parecer = to seem

resultar[used like�� me resulta familiar “it seems familiar to me”, or me resulta curioso “I find it strange”]

extrañar = to find strange, to seem odd [when it isn’t “to miss someone”]

costar = to be difficult for someone

molestar = to annoy

interesar = to interest

importar = to matter, to care about

I would also recommend:

Anatomy of Spanish: Direct Objects

Anatomy of Spanish: Indirect Objects

That’s a more quick and easy explanation of them.

Also, reflexive verbs are a thing but they’re easier.

Reflexive verbs are part of a subset of things known as “pronomial verbs”, which for your purposes means “they use the reflexive pronouns but might not always be reflexive in the traditional sense”

…So that’s a thing I’ll explain briefly later on.

me = yo

te = tú

se = 3ra persona singular y plural / usted y ustedes

nos = nosotros

os = vosotros

The se is the one to watch here because all of 3rd person and usted and ustedes use that se. They’re usually easier to spot though because of how reflexive verbs conjugate. More on that in a minute.

But reflexives in their truest sense are divided into regular reflexives and reciprocal reflexives.

The basic definition of reflexives are “verbs where the subject and the object are the same”… meaning “I do something to myself”, “you do something to yourself”…

A lot of reflexives show up in your daily routine, and also apply to you doing things to your own body parts… me lavo la cara reads literally as “I wash myself the face” but it means “I wash my face”… or me lavo las manos “I wash my hands”

A reflexive needs the pronoun to match with the subject… in other words me refers to yo, and lavo only conjugates as yo… so me lavo is “I wash myself”

If you mixed up one or the other, you’d end up with a different sentence and a direct/indirect meaning… me lavas “you wash me” or te lavo “I wash you”… are not reflexive.

Because reflexive pronouns need to match the conjugations, you can usually tell who it applies to pretty easily, except in third person where it could be ambiguous:

Me pongo la ropa. = I put on clothes.

Te pones la ropa. = You put on clothes

(Él) se pone la ropa. = He puts on clothes.(Ella) se pone la ropa. = She puts on clothes.(Usted) se pone la ropa. = You put on clothes.

(Ellos) se ponen la ropa. = They (m+m, m+f) put on clothes.(Ellas) se ponen la ropa. = They (f+f) put on clothes.(Ustedes) se ponen la ropa. = You all put on clothes.

Nos ponemos la ropa. = We put on clothes.

In the same vein, a “reciprocal reflexive” is where two or more subjects do something to one another.

Nos conocemos. = We know each other.Nos conocimos. = We met each other.Nos conocíamos. = We used to know each other.

Se conocen. = They know each other.Se conocieron. = They met each other.Se conocían. = They used to know each other.

Sometimes it’s potentially ambiguous, but when it could be you normally see el uno al otro, el uno del otro, or el uno con el otro depending on the verb in question. And that just means “one another”.

That formation is more uncommon but it has happened. Normally it’s just phrased as reflexive and you understand it by context.

abrazar a alguien = to hug someoneSe abrazaron. = They hugged. / They hugged one another.Se abrazaron el uno al otro. = They hugged one another.

enamorarse de alguien = to fall in love with someoneSe enamoraron. = They fell in love.Se enamoraron el uno del otro. = They fell in love with each other.casarse con alguien = to get married to someoneSe casaron. = They got married.Se casaron el uno con el otro. = They got married to each other.

Other ones would be like besarse “to kiss / to make out”, or divorciarse “to get divorced”, or reunirse “to meet up / to join together”

And then there are the other pronomial verbs that use reflexive but you can’t exactly say they translate very reflexively.

Like dormir is “to sleep” but dormirse means “to fall asleep”. It’s not like “one sleeps themselves”…

This is part of something called dativo ético which is a whole big thing that is kind of a lot, but basically it used a reflexive marker to show there’s something significant for the person it refers to, and it’s usually translated into English with some kind of additional word or preposition

Like mudar is “to mutate/change/molt”, and mudarse is “to move away (residences)”, or ir is “to go” and irse is “to go away/to leave”, or quedar is “to remain” and quedarse is “to stay behind”

So if you see a thing that looks reflexive but it doesn’t make sense reflexively, chances are you found dativo ético 

[porchwood]

Hi just so I understand cause i keep waiting for it and it doesnt seem likely to happen have you kind of fallen out of love with wtm? and everlark in general tbh? cause ive been following you for a while now and you always had lil quotes and pictures and things that reminded you inspired you whatever it was about katniss and wtm and now alllll it is is gadge i followed you because personally i love what you did with everlark and im just wondering if thats gone and not foreseeable any time soon?

I’ve been thinking a lot about how to answer this… It’s afair question - to a point. If you’re more of a drop-in person (like me) thanlive-on-the-dash, coming back to find my blog awash in Gadge might have beenquite upsetting. There are several reasons for the current state of things:

1. Life has been driving me into the ground since December26, 2013. (Yes, going on six straight years.) If you were a WtM reader from thebeginning, you may recall that I was pretty energetic and prolific in 2012-2013.Oh, there were tough times, but nothing like what started on the aforementioneddate (a car accident where I was in the “bystander” vehicle and it still got totaled)and has continued relentlessly ever since. Sometimes adversity leads to greatcreativity and sometimes it turns you into a depressed, exhausted, reclusivelump, and the past 5+ years have seen periods of both from me. These past 18months have been exceptionally awful (and expensive), resulting in very littlewriting at all, about any pairing.

2. Writing WtM takes a lot out of me. I don’t know whether thisis common knowledge or not, but it’s the gospel truth. I love that world, Ilove that version of Everlark, but every chapter requires so much hard work, itmakes me tired just to think of it. Not to mention, over the past couple of chaptersEverlark have been pushing for more intimacy than the plot/timeline allows, andso I’ve been struggling with how I want to handle that. Do I fight them andstick to the plan? (I can’t advance the timeline for several reasons.) Do I tryto figure out a cheat for them? They’ve got minds of their own and have changedmy plans multiple times, but this is something they genuinely can’t have, and Ihave to fight them on it. ☹ Which is sad, frustrating, and exhausting.

3. I’m a multi-pairing shipper, and have been from about 3chapters into WtM. Which means that my Everlark fics almost always feature asecondary pairing (or more than one), and sometimes I’ll get a plot bunny for afic about a pairing other than Everlark. Most writers in the THG fandom exclusivelywrite their OTP, whatever the plot bunny, but I find that some plot bunnies don’tfit Everlark as well as they do another pairing. (This is why I’ll never write aBeauty and the Beast Everlark fic unless Katniss is the “Beast,” if you will.)

4. The Everlark fandom is…tricky. I’ve never fit in there. Idon’t write Everlark the way the majority of fans see them (except for Peetabeing “sweet,” I guess), I hated the movies (I refuse to see MJ 1 or 2), and I’vemanaged to really rub some people the wrong way over the years –unintentionally, and for a variety of reasons – all of which leaves me feeling kinda down about Everlark in general. Don’t misunderstand me: I love Everlarkand WtM, but it’s really isolating to be this sad little island of unpopularopinions and unwelcome side-ships. That’s the part I really wish I could makeyou understand. For six years I’ve had Christopher Plummer in my head saying, “You’llnever be one of them,” and he’s so, cruelly, right. I want to cry every time Ithink of Embracing the Season (my E-rated Everlark modern AU oneshot for Lovein Panem - lots of daring for me!) because I poured heart and soul into that andit still wasn’t the Everlark that people wanted.

5. About a year and a half ago (when Strawberry Time reallytook off of its own accord) I participated in Gadge Day 2017, working my buttoff to find and schedule (and tag) over 100 carefully chosen Gale/Madge/Gadge aestheticposts, and for lack of a better way to say it: it turned on my Gadge-dar. After that, thosekinds of posts just leapt out at me whenever I had a chance to scroll, and forseveral months I wasn’t sure what to do with that. With a little encouragementfrom @ghtlovesthg, I came up with #march madgeness – wherein I turned my Tumblrinto Madge/Gadge-land for one month, and it was a blast. (Side-stepping Gadgefor a moment: Madge is a highly underappreciated and underused character,especially in fic/on Tumblr and I love splashing the dash with Madge-love.) Thenext month I launched a run of pent-up Everlark posts (i.e., regularprogramming), but I missed my Madge, so I instituted #madge monday – one day aweek when I could splash the dash with Madge/Gadge. At every juncture I gavepeople tags to block if they didn’t want to see this content (though I stillget unfollows every time I post, alas). I participated in last summer’s THG Reread– on the fringe of it, but my posts (reblogs and meta) were strongly Everlark-focusedagain during that time. So there’s definitely still been Everlark on my blog,but if you’re just dropping in (or for that matter, glancing at my archive), you’regoing to see a majority of Madge/Gadge.

6. Frankly, Gadge is fun. It’s a completely different dynamicthan Everlark, with less pressure to create something transcendent, and whenthe chips are down, I’m more likely to work on something that isn’t my six-years-runningopus. This spring, in the midst of lots of awfulness, I finally wrote a piecethat I’ve had in my head for years – The Best Part of Waking Up – with a differentpairing featured in each drabble “chapter,” including Gadge, Luka/Johanna (whoI’ve been wanting to put out there for AGES) and Jack/Raisa. I haven’t beenable to write quickly in years, and I think I finished those three “chapters”in about two days, maybe three. I completed the Raisa drabble in a couple ofhours and I consider it one of the best things I’ve ever written. (Honestly, ifa pairing was going to topple Everlark in my heart, it would be Jack/Raisa, i.e.,Mr. Everdeen/Mrs. Mellark. I love them to distraction.) Once upon a time I could drabble/sprint Everlark too – notoften, but I could manage it. Maybe it’ll happen again someday, but for thetime being, when I write in quick eager bursts, it’s usually about aside-pairing.

7. Because I just need to say it: about a year ago, I set up a secondary Tumblr for almost all my side-interests and ships outside of THG. When I first joined Tumblr, porchwood was just a fun page where I posted whatever struck my fancy (pretty things, funny things, whatever I liked), and over the next few years, I honed it into a pretty “writer’s notebook” for WtM and my other THG fics (related quotes, aesthetic posts, writing check-ins, etc.). When Star Wars: The Force Awakens came out, I shared a handful of posts pertaining to a new ship (not a new direction for my blog or writing, just sharing my excitement) and it was made very clear to me that people didn’t want to see that content on my page. So when I started watching Voltron: Legendary Defender, I had a sneaking suspicion people wouldn’t want to hear about those ships either. So I started an entirely new Tumblr for that content, and every so often I accidentally post something to the wrong page, which I immediately correct in horror, but people still unfollow. Point being: this blog is THG (and a few personal life updates) ONLY, with a pretty consistent aesthetic. I hide literally everything else that I’m interested in so you don’t have to be bothered by it. Is it really so unacceptable for me to have side-ships (complementary to the main pairing, not threatening to them) in the same universe??

8. Believe it or not, I’ve been working on WtM all along,just not making any massive strides. I tried to chip away at the current chapterduring Camp Nanowrimo last July, and it was a disaster. I thought joining awriting group would be helpful, but I didn’t realize that Camp Nano is basicallya lot of writing sprints in which you try to churn out as many words aspossible, which you then report to your “cabin” – and that’s the onlyinteraction with your fellow writers. I can’t write like that anymore (seeabove) and especially not when it comes to WtM, so I got discouraged veryquickly and sort of drifted away. I reattempted Nano on my own in April and wrotealmost 15K words, but in that instance I was really just using the Nano platform toset and reach a goal (which I didn’t ☹ ); I wasn’t in a cabin and didn’t interact with anyother writers, except my friend @ghtlovesthg, who read the finished portion.

9. I want to finish this dang chapter so much, and frankly, theonly way that’s going to happen is if life gets a little better and I holemyself up with my laptop for hours on end for weeks at a time – and somemagical being comes to support/cheer/comfort me while I do so. It’s currentlysitting at about 25K and I anticipate it will need to be at least double that,which is beyond ridiculous, but that’s the nature of WtM. The chapters are asmany words as it takes.

TL, DR: I still love Everlark and I’m still working on WtM, but my life has been extremely difficult for a very long time and I don’t have a great Everlark lifeline. Gadge and all my other ships are fun, and most of the Gadge you see on my Tumblr is aesthetic stuff for themed days/months/occasions. Anything non-THG goes on my sideblog.

[vansharssandbox]

Beef #1: Tuon

SO MANY SPOILERS. I’ve read the entire series, and most of my reaction posts will consider elements across the whole thing, so pretty much all of #WoT posts will be minefields of spoilers. Be warned! Ahem. I’m tackling thoughts and impressions about the Wheel of Time in no particular order. First up: Arrrg Tuon’s story arc. Such potential, wasted. From her first scene, as a viewpoint character, no less, I found Tuon to be a very compelling character. Her internal struggle with the proper application of her authority (feeling guilty over having a damane punished for displeasing her, for instance) was at odds with her cool exterior, and I immediately suspected that RJ was going to use Tuon to humanize and redeem the Seanchan. With the reveal that she was the Daughter of the Nine Moons...hoo, boy, did I expect some fireworks with her and Mat, with both of them having a truly profound impact on the other.

So I waited, through the the escape from Ebou Dar, and the excruciatingly long flight with Luca’s caravan, as the tension between Tuon and Mat got heavier. She was watching him, quietly observing for most part, and I was hoping for more time in her viewpoint to have her start questioning certain aspects of her society, and its authoritarianism. I mean, honestly, who better to convince someone of the benefits of free will and an egalitarian spirit than Mat “I’m not a bloody lord” Cauthon?

But it didn’t pan out. There’s no heightening of emotional intimacy between the two of them, no real, unguarded moments at all, that I can recall. Tuon watches Mat like a bug under a microscope for a long time, until all of the omens are met, surprise marries him, and buggers off to claim the throne of Seanchan. And that’s more or less it for their interactions until the basically the Last Battle itself.

When they DO meet again, Tuon has doubled down on the ice queen bitch thing, despite the chaos and upheaval in Seanchan society as a result of Semirhage’s schemes giving her a perfect opportunity to embody positive change. I honestly was not expecting and would not have credited her doing something wild like freeing all of the damane or something, but a little thawing would have been wonderful. Hearing her whisper under her breath “Dovie'andi se tovya sagain,” before confronting Suroth would have been DOPE.  Instead, we’re left with no impression that Tuon even genuinely likes Mat, let alone loves him. At best she finds him an interesting possession. Even their “love scene” isn’t, really, it’s just Tuon manipulating Mat into helping her produce an heir.

To say nothing of the fact that I was expecting her to at least consider learning to channel. Again, in my feverish anticipation, I hoped for a scene where Egwene would teach her the first steps, healing some of her own hatred of the Seanchan in the process. That would have been another incredibly rich opportunity for development in multiple characters. sigh

We see Tuon’s impact on Mat in spades, with his acceptance of his nobility and authority within the Seanchan empire. But without any attendant change and growth on Tuon’s part, it feels less like Mat evolved and more like he was, well, defeated. I started to like Mat a bit less as he continued to interact with the Seanchan, and as he was far and away my favorite character in the whole series, to lose him in a sense in the very end of the story really bummed me out. His final scene is seemingly offering to dice for his life with the frigid monster he’s married too, and I wanted to shout “get out of there, Mat! Hit the road! Go adventuring with Rand, settle down with a wench or three, but for the love of the Light GTFO my dude!”

Not where I wanted to end that, at all.

I have lots of positive things to say about the series, of course, so I’m not gonna spend all my time raking RJ and BS over the coals. But Tuon’s arc was so disappointing, perhaps my biggest personal disappointment with the whole works.

[skammovistarplus]

Culture and Translation - S01 E02 C04-C07 and SKAM+ Clip 1

Hi hi! Okay, so I’ve both gotten a bunch of followers and the tag is a lot more poppin since the last time I posted one of these. Quick explanation: when I got into og Skam, I felt I had to piece together a lot of the cultural context behind it, such as, yes, Russetiden, but also stuff like the cost of a bunad or sex without protection. I’ve also read from multiple Norwegian people that the fansubs didn’t do justice to the slang Skam characters use. So these posts provide cultural context. They also provide explanations for the translation I went with in the subs and the best approximation to the slang the Skam España characters use on the show in the cases where I felt the translation didn’t fully do justice to the actual dialogue.

Note: these posts are based on my own subs/translations, so they might not make as much sense if you hadn’t watched those.

Note 2: You can check the culture and translation tag for the rest of the posts.

CLIP 4: In which I learn that a dj system is not a mixer.

This clip was shot in the Pinar de Chamartín subway station. It’s the only station that connects another line with lines 1 and 4, and the show thanks Metro Ligero in the credits. Pinar de Chamartín is a Metro Ligero subway station. (There are several kinds, depending on which company manages the station.) They probably used this station because it’s big and doesn’t get a lot of commuters. Otherwise, it’s completely out of the way of anything these characters would go to.

Hola acosadora! (“Hi creeper!”): would be closer in meaning to, “hi, harasser!” (which doesn’t flow well in English) or “hi, stalker!” (but Eva uses the word in English right after). So creeper it is.

Dale duro (Subs: Hit it hard): I don’t really have any comment about this, other than it seems to be Lucas’ signature phrase. He’s always saying it.

La gente se cree que hacen una movida los DJs que flipas (“People think DJs are some kind of crazy wizards”) Holy shit, I had so much trouble with this sentence. I wish I knew whether this line was on the original script or if Jorge’s actor reworded it. As per the FormulaTV article, the actors get to reword lines if they think it’d sound more natural some other way. Alas, I couldn’t think of how to translate “movida” in this context (it comes up again later), so I settled for the line in the subs. Let’s just say that the implication is that DJs are almost unknowable in their mad DJ skillz, what with the “movida” and the verb “flipar” that we’ve seen so often at this point. I find my translation much inferior to Jorge’s line, which provides such a vivid visual and is hilarious.

Hablando de punchi punchi (“Speaking of sick beats”): Jorge obviously doesn’t say sick beats, but he’s trying for an onomatopoeia for the beat in dance songs. There are a lot of variants in Spanish for this specific purpose of talking about the beat in a song. Another popular one is, “chunda chunda.”  I’m actually really proud of how I translated this line, lol. Too bad I can’t put it on a resume.

“¿Te renta?” is another idiom that often comes up on Skam España. I’ve been told it’s Madrileño slang, but I’ve personally never used it or heard it before the show. (Which doesn’t mean it’s not in use, lol, just that it hasn’t made its way to me yet.) A literal translation would be, “Is it worth it?” Jorge asks Lucas whether it’d be worth it to Lucas to do something this weekend, and Lucas responds going out for beers would be worth it to him. In this case, I didn’t go for the literal translation as this scene is already too long and involved to be throwing more idioms into the mix. Other times, I’ve translated it as is, because I do feel it sums Madrileños up well. Like, we can’t be bothered to do anything or go anywhere if we don’t feel it’s worth it.

Keli (“House”): This has been Madrileño slang for decades at this point. It just means house.

Sí, movidas, ya sabes (“Yeah, shit, you know”): “Movidas” comes up again, this time in the context of Lucas’ home life. Basically, there’s trouble, but the use of “movidas” implies movement, i.e. it’s an active, ongoing situation.

Tengo un programita (“I have some ‘wares”): The literal translation is, “I have a little software,” but I remembered downloading completely legal software from sketchy websites, which would call them ‘warez.’ I thought this phrasing would be more vivid for English speakers. Also, there’s really nothing about Jorge’s persona that suggests this software would’ve been obtained legally, so yeah.

It’s unclear what part of what Eva is saying Jorge reacts to when he says, “Fuck…” Personally, I think he’s impressed that Eva has scammed a rich dude out of an invite to that huge-ass house. But it could also be that he’s proud she’s making plans with the girl squad! Either way, he’s impressed!

Pico, pala, pico, pala (“Joke, flirt, joke, flirt”): OKAY. So, the literal translation of this is, “Pick, shovel, pick, shovel.” This is fairly common Spanish slang for the process of flirting with a girl until she is won over, or she is less reluctant to flirt back. Visually, it makes you think of a miner having to put in long hours of exhausting physical work in order to get results. It makes it sound like more scummy than it is, kind of? I translated it as “joke, flirt, joke, flirt,” because that’s what it usually amounts to. As we’ve seen from Jorge, he does voices, gives odd nicknames and generally aims to be cute in a cheesy way. That is the kind of techniques that are meant to win a girl over, or at least get her to joke along with you.

One more objectionable maneuver, which would still fall under the umbrella of pick and shovel, would be Cristian’s “my DMs aren’t working” move to get Eva to give him her cellphone number.

Final lines from the clip that didn’t make it to the episode:

Eva: But, okay, no. Save up or ask your parents to get it for your b-day, no?

Jorge: Nah, maybe I’ll just get one secondhand.

Lucas: And you lend it to me.

Jorge: Okay.

Lucas: But you can’t… [cuts off]

I love the way all the dj system talk ended up having no impact whatsoever on the plot. It’s not like I had to look specific terms or anything.

CLIP 5: The girl squad chooses an impractical, yet picturesque, meeting point

Eva is waiting right outside Tribunal subway station. I’ve met up with friends at this station probably since I was allowed to hang out on my own, lol.

You can barely make out a building behind the girls. It’s this one: Museum of History of Madrid. Entrance is free, and it has tons of cool stuff to check out.

The girls have a quick chat on how they’ve dressed up for Cristian’s party. Cris says it was about time they had a chance to dress up. Nora says she put on one of her daily outfits, but the girls don’t buy it and tease her over it. Honestly, she doesn’t look overdressed at all? She wore an actual dress for New Year’s Eve.

Maripili! (“Maripili!”): Maripili is a name, which Nora randomly uses to call Viri over. It doesn’t seem to be a meme, so I think Nora is just teasing Viri with a name that sounds dated and cutesy. It’s very gentle teasing though.

Al chino (“To the convenience store”): Eva instructs the girls to go to “el chino,”  which is slang for a type of convenience store owned by immigrants. These are usually Chinese immigrants, hence the name, but stores owned by Maghrebi and Latinx immigrants are also fairly common. The name “chino” has stuck regardless. These convenience stores sell a small range of foodstuffs, such as canned food, microwavable food, some fruit and vegetables, ice cream, bread, and, as the scene implies, booze. They also remain open longer than most grocery store chains, often until 23:30 on a weekday and way past midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. They’re not allowed to sell alcohol to minors, but I guess they don’t mind breaking the law? I don’t know, guys, we got older students to buy us booze lol.

Que me acaba de dar un cringe (“I just cringed a lot”): “Cringe” is an English loanword, which is obviously the word cringe.

Tú la que más, tú la que más (“You’re partying the hardest, you are”): The literal translation is: “You’re the most, you’re the most.” It’s implied that whichever girl is “you” (it’s the singular form, so Cris doesn’t mean all of the girls) is doing something the most, but the sentence doesn’t have a verb. Basically, it’s a way of hyping themselves up for the party. I assumed Cris meant “partying” from context, but it’s not explicit.

In the episode, clip 5 became two different clips to account for the train ride. That’s why there’s a timestamp in the middle of the clip when you watch the episode version.

Cristián lives in Pozuelo de Alarcón, an affluent Madrid suburb with its own city hall. At the time, twitter commentary from Spanish viewers was critical of the show choosing to make the girls meet in Tribunal, because public transit from Tribunal to Pozuelo takes too many connections and it’s not like Madrid isn’t rife with convenience stores. I included both the route the girls take, and an alternate for ur edification.

I just realized that when Viri goes over to greet Lara, you can clearly hear Lara saying, “what’s up, dude?” in response.

And also, when Eva begs Nora not to leave her alone, Nora teases Eva by saying the sentence back to her. That’s why Eva laughs and says Nora is being dumb.

A saco (“going all out”): “A saco” is that kind of slang that’s hard to translate, but Eva means that Viri is assertively taking the lead in pursuing (and making it clear she wants to make out with) ALEJANDRO, rather than waiting for him to notice her.

CLIP 6: Viri lost a battle, but she didn’t lose the war!  

Nora’s ringtone is so… She truly leaves me speechless sometimes.

No soy celoso (“I’m not possessive”): I translated “celoso” as possessive, because if I translated it as “jealous” it would mean that Cristian, right this moment, doesn’t feel jealous of Jorge. In fact, what Cristian is saying that this is a general personality trait of his, like being blond. He is totally chill with any and all girls he is interested in having boyfriends. That’s not at all an obstacle!

It’s also a very corny thing Spanish guys say all the time when a girl says she’s taken, hence Eva’s uncomfortable smile in response.

As Inés and Alicia greet ALEJANDRO, he seems pretty annoyed by Viri floating around him, clearly laying a claim on him. The three of them intentionally crowd Viri out.

CLIP 7: Hard work pays off

En doce siglos (“in twelve centuries”): This is Amira’s catchphrase for measuring time. She also uses it during the truth or dare game.

One of the season 1 mysteries: what did Alicia say to Inés to make her leave so quickly? In hindsight, it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Jorge, but that was one of the popular theories at the time.

Another detail: Cristian is behind Inés, seemingly on her side of this girl fight. ALEJANDRO’s crew seems to be pretty friendly with Inés and Alicia. They celebrated Inés’ birthday together, and often post ig stories together.

Social media:

I already mentioned this in a post, but Cris’ instagram makes it very obvious that Cris is a stoner. Her rainbow tops are peak Spanish stoner girl fashion, the soap video she regrammed is the sort of thing a stoner would be fascinated by, she follows ifyouhigh and highpeopledoingstuff, and she’s holding a blunt for her first ever ig pic. So yeah. I also just realized the implications, seeing she’s the s2 main. I don’t think she’ll lose a bunch of weed, but she might smoke it with 🐸?

“Perezón,” i.e. the title of clip 4, would literally translate to sloth or laziness, but its actual meaning is “what a drag,” as in “that party/those people/going to that rally is such a drag.”

Viri’s house is pretty basic-looking. What we can see of it looks like a working class household, but it isn’t the borderline hoarder situation in Vilde’s clip.

Eva watches an 11-episode show, which may or may not be Skam s1. The fun thing is she promises she won’t watch episode 12. The NYE special is listed as episode12 on the Movistar site.

Jorge got ahold of a charger after midnight!  

SKAM+ #1:

This clip takes place between episode 2 clips 6 and 7. Specifically, 20 minutes before the last clip.

Aitana is a Spanish singer born in 1999. She became famous thanks to talent show Operación Triunfo, where she came in second. At the time season 1 aired, she had only dropped two songs, Lo Malo with Ana Guerra, and Teléfono. Both of these songs played a prominent role on the show.

Cristian’s dad works at a record label! Explains Cristian’s huge ass house and mixing room!

ALEJANDRO asks Aitana where she’d like to hang out with him at Retiro Park. Retiro Park is one of the largest parks in Madrid. The park belonged to the Spanish Monarchy until the late 19th century, when it became a public park. It’s one of the most picturesque sights in the city and it’s overrun by people. So I don’t think it’s the place you want to take a celeb on a low-key date, but otherwise, good choice! Almost makes it seem like ALEJANDRO isn’t after sex!

Hasta yo preferiría a Aitana (“Even I’d rather Aitana”): That is… so lesbian of Viri.

Speaking of lesbians, Cris is also absolutely overcome by Aitana’s beauty.

In case you weren’t aware, Spaniards greet each other with two cheek kisses when we meet someone. Touching people’s hair without their permission, though, is still a no-no.  

[lovelyladydarling]

task 001. dig a little deeper: lady darling edition

BASIC INFORMATION.

What is your character’s full name ? patricia elizabeth darling How is it pronounced ? puh-trih-shuh uh-liz-uh-bith dar-ling Is there a meaning behind it ? patricia means “noble” and is the female version of “patrick,” but it was a family name her mother gave her. lady was just something sweet they called her when she was younger and it stuck as a nickname over “pat” “patty” or “trish.”  Does your character have any nicknames ? lady, pidge (from tramp) When and where were they born ? december 24, 1993 in san francisco, california  What’s their zodiac sign and what traits do they most relate to ? capricorn. lady is very hardworking and responsible, but she’s aware she can be a bit distant at times when it comes to her more intimate relationships. she holds family very close to her--especially the family she’s made in carthay herself. she’s very stubborn, holds her own, and can definitely get a bit hot-headed at times.  What’s their nationality ? american. What’s their occupation ? jewelry model.  What gender do they identify themselves as ? cisgender female // she/her

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE.

What’s their eye color ? brown Do they wear glasses or contacts ? reading glasses, but not prescription Hair color ? caramel brown Have they ever dyed their hair or wanted to ? she gets highlights pretty often or goes darker, but never strays from brunette.  Height ? 5′6″ // 167.64 cm Body build ? tall & lean Do they have any birthmarks ? she has a small birthmark above her left hipbone. Do they have any piercings or tattoos ? ear piercings // no If not, do they want to get some ? she’s recently been wanting to get a small tattoo somewhere, but she’s not sure where.  Do they have a healthy life style ? she works out pretty frequently and tries to eat well, but carbs tempt her back every time she goes for a salad.  How easy do they get sick ? she catches colds pretty easily, but doesn’t often get really sick.  Any marks on their body ( injuries, … ) ? no permanent scars or injuries to speak of! she broke her arm once when she was 8 playing with the neighborhood kids, but that’s the only major injury she’s sustained throughout her 25 years.  What’s their personal style/how do they like to dress ? lady likes to dress in a sort of girly business casual style most of the time and will occasionally go for a more “laid back” look if she’s just out and about. she frequents sundresses when the weather is nice and switches her footwear between sandals, heels, or a classic pair of KED sneakers. she tries to dress comfortably but still keep everything chic enough to be photographed in, just in case.  What is their favorite and least favorite feature about themselves ? her favorite feature is her eyes and her least favorite would have to be her shape. she often feels like her body is too straight and narrow and wishes she had a few more curves. 

PERSONALITY.

Positive traits ? fun-loving, caring, loyal Negative traits ? jealous, stubborn, hot-headed What do they consider to be the best and the worst part of their personality ? lady considers her loyalty to her friends to be her greatest strength and has a hard time choosing between her extremely jealous nature and stubbornness as her worst. she’ll overtly deny her jealousy to people if they ask because she doesn’t want others to notice such a negative trait in her, but she knows it’s a big fault of hers.  Are they more extroverted or introverted ? lady is definitely an ambivert--she’s a bit of both. extroverted with her friends, introverted with strangers. she can’t strike up a conversation with anyone and prefers to keep to herself when out in public, but has no problem approaching a friend in a room full of strangers to talk.  Any talents ? lady is very good at painting, but doesn’t often share that with people.  What are their fears ? lady is terrified of ending up alone or not being enough for the people around her.  Do they have any phobias ? claustrophobia (small spaces) What is their soft spot ? lady has a huge soft spot for anyone that will bring her dinner and just sit and be with her, anyone who remembers small details she tells them, and puppies.  List 3 pet-peeves they can’t stand ? excuses for bad behavior, bailing on plans last minute, and calling people out via social media. 

EDUCATION.

How far did they go in school ? Are they still studying ? lady completed high school and went to study studio art in college, but ended up leaving after 2 years when her modeling career took off.  Do/Did they like school ? she really enjoyed college and would love to go back, or even just take a few classes for fun. high school was a take it or leave it thing for her--she didn’t mind it, but she wouldn’t choose to go back.  What type of student are/were they ? she’s always been a good student. she doesn’t cause trouble, she shows up on time, leaves on time, and turns in her assignments. she maintained a b+ to a average in high school and really threw herself into her college courses. she practically slept at the arts annex during portfolio review.  What is/was their favorite subject ? art was always her favorite subject, but she enjoyed history and english as well.  And their least favorite ? any sort of advanced math--trigonometry, calculus, etc.  What were they/would they have been voted as “most likely to…” in the yearbook ? lady was actually voted most likely to sell a painting by age 25, which was oddly specific to her but she wasn’t particularly close to many people in high school so she figured it was the best they could come up with. 

FAMILY.

Who are your character’s parents ? jim and ruth darling.  How would your character describe them ? lady hasn’t seen her parents in a while, as she was sent to live with her aunt sarah when she was 14 years old due to an incident with her younger brother. she loved her parents dearly and would drop anything she was doing to help them, even now. they were incredibly caring and protective of her and her brother, so she doesn’t fault them for doing what was best for him by sending her away.  Do they have any siblings ? one younger brother, 13 years her junior: noah darling. Are they close with their family ? she used to be, but now rarely hears from them save for a card on her birthday. she would still do anything for them if they needed her. 

ROMANCE & SEXUALITY.

What’s their romantic and sexual orientation ? heterosexual Are they seeing anyone right now ? james sullivan, for publicity sake.  Have they ever been in an relationship ? as long as hers and sulley’s counts, yes! otherwise, she doesn’t know if she’d consider any of her previous relationships as counting.  Have they ever been in love ? yes.  How easy do they fall for someone ? it takes a lot of work to really get lady to fall for someone. though she desperately wants a family of her own after hers imploded due to her carelessness, she’s very guarded because of it as well.  In their view, why didn’t any past relationships work out ? she’s been caught up in someone else.  What do they look for in someone ? she wants someone to put in even half the effort she knows she could give. she wants passion alongside the comfortable moments and the moments of “i can’t believe this part of my life.”  Do they believe in love at first sight ? or fate ? no, not particularly love at first sight...fate, perhaps. though she believes one can control their own fate if they so choose.  What’s their views on romance ? Do they go after it or avoid it ? lady loves the idea of romance, but she’s not sure on the logistics or how to get it. she doesn’t particularly like how her heart and her brain tell her different things.  Did they have their first time already ? How was it in their point of view ? yes and somewhat disappointing--some guy she dated in her first year of college for about 6 months that she grew tired of and broke things off with. she thought she loved him at the time, but realized it was only an infatuation.  What is their view on sex ? it’s fun, but she’s started thinking of it as something more as she’s gotten a little older. she’s not trying to save herself (that’s over & done with) but she does prefer to save sex for people she’s truly connected with and feels a deep love for.  What are their turn ons and turn offs ? turn ons, she prefers someone else taking control, longer hair, and breathy words. turn offs, she’s not a fan of someone grossly inexperienced, with poor hygiene, or a messy room (or wherever the sex is happening, honestly.)  Were they ever cheated on or have they cheated on someone ? to her knowledge, she’s never been cheated on. she may have kissed some other boy in high school while “dating” another boy, but she couldn’t have been more than 15. she’s never cheated in her adult “relationships.”  Do they want to get married in the future ? absolutely.  Have kids ? definitely. 

QUIRKS.

Are they right or left handed ? right handed.  What’s a word that’s always on their lips ? serendipity.  Is there a saying they keep on repeating ? don’t judge a book by its cover.  Do they curse ? when she’s particularly angry, yes.  What’s their worst habit ? jealousy.  Do they drink or smoke ? How frequently ? both occasionally, moreso when she’s left alone and doesn’t know how to handle what she’s feeling without being inebriated. that’s very rare, however, and she usually reserves her vices to a glass or two of red wine.  Are they an early bird or a night owl ? early bird.  How tidy is their room ? immaculate. lady loves having a place for all of her things. there’s hardly a shoelace out of place in her room.  How long to they usually take getting ready in the morning ? depends on what her plans are for the day, but her average routine takes about 25-30 minutes. it’ll go a bit longer if she has something planned with james, especially a nighttime outing. 

FAVORITES.

What’s their favorite color ? tiffany blue.  Favorite movie ? 10 things i hate about  you.  Music Genre ? pop? Food ? italian.  Book ? currently, meddling kids by edgar cantero Favorite non-alcoholic drink ? iced dirty chai latte Ice Cream Flavor ? neopolitan  Indoors or outdoors ? a bit of both. 

[the-skooma-den]

Aight! part 2 to my whole shebang on my eso main syke! Part 1 is here and it covers the basics of who/what she is. This one is how she goes through the main plot, all thats under cut

And here is a directory to both posts about her, as well as the ones about her siblings

Were gonna do this bullet point style .also just assume the main plot quests are going on at the same time, the “main” quest remains relatively unchanged aside from her relationship with Abnur Tharn, who is her grandfather, which although it sounds important really isnt because she hates him. 

Pre main plot: Mostly covered in the previous posts

 Her time before the main plot, as a member of the brotherhood.  At the time of her kidnapping she was mentally a wreck and moments away from a mental break. She was on a lot of drugs and was drunk pretty often, it was a very bad scene. On top of that morally speaking was pretty ambiguous if not downright evil.She was actually infamous in the brotherhood for her ruthlessness. (It’s actually a common story to tell the new recruits about the time she slit a babies throat in front of its mother because the mother got in her way). Overall unsympathetic and completely apathetic to worries of the world around her. 

It’s worth noting that deep down she was already ashamed of herself, which fueled a lot of her unhealthy behavior. She doesnt see much wrong with how the brotherhood operates in general (she was literally raised in their cult so not much surprise there) But her earned reputation as being brutal was not one she was proud of 

Eventually she was drunk one night and was captured and sacrificed by the worm cult, thus starting the main plot

Cold Harbor: She was in cold harbor for a long long while ,she’s not actually sure how long she was there. It felt like years, but when she got back to nirn she had only been missing for about 6 months, and some of the injuries she couldve sworn were there for a months looked only hours old when she escaped. Her experience there haunts her for a long time,pretty much the rest of her life, but she does her best to deal with it. Her time here cause her first real shift, because now she cares about something. Even if it’s just caused he pissed her off. She’ll stop at nothing to stop Molag Bal even at the cost of her life. Which might not really be an issue in the first place, as thanks to her lack of a soul she is essentially immortal. Whenever she “dies” her body falls to the ground and her concienness is left to wander nearby while it magically heals (unless the body is completely destroyed, then she ends up at a wayshrine a while later)

Cold harbor is where she got her most prominent scars. The shackles around her neck (mostly on the back of her neck) and wrists and lashes on her back. All of her piercing were ripped out as well. Her hair is extremely matted and overall shes just gross and uncomfortable She also has 2 neat and precise stab wounds above her heart from manimarco.

Khenarthi’s roost/ Auridon: After Razum-dar drags her out of the ocean looking like hell, She’s so dazed from ya know,dying and coming back to life that she doesnt bother coming up with any kind of character or disguise, she barely even has the mind to come up with her fake name,Syke.

When he dredged her up he immediately brought her to healers and though they had to work pretty quickly they fixed her up well. They cut off all the matted bits of her hair (which she later fixed into her little Mohawk thing), they healed up all her tears from the piercings being ripped out. They also healed up the wound from the shackles and whips the best they could ,they couldn’t do it all the way through but they made sure it wouldn’t get infected at least, but there was no way to stop it from scarring.

She actually does know who Raz is even though they’ve never met, she’s just heard of him. She figures “Hey getting the support of the Queen and her spy force would be useful” so she goes along with it and helps him. She manages to conceal the fact she knows who he is pretty well, but he is still suspicious. (which to be fair a women who was recently pretty clearly a prisoner falling out fo the sky and clearly being a experience fighter and mage isn’t exactly normal). She proves herself dangerously competent, extremely useful (and also kinda hot) so Raz asks for her help on Auridon as well. 

Only a few notable divergent from the main plot of things happen while on  Auridon. The first is that after she is appointed as an Eye of the queen she asks the queen to speak privately for a moment and while no one knows 100% of what they spoke about, the main thing is that this is when Syke explains the whole “I have no soul and am planning on killing Molag Bal to get it back” thing. As his invasion is starting to really mount up by this point the queen promises to support the endeavor whenever it happens so on so forth.

The second is an extra moment between Raz and Syke after the quest at Mathiisen. Basically She looks at Raz and realizes since she’s met him like 4 of his friends have died. She’s not very good with people or emotion but, well they may not really trust each other but they still like each other…and she’s at least pretty sure they're friends,all his other friends are kinda dead, she figures she might as well TRY to comfort him. This ends up with them getting absolutely smashed in the local inn and is basically an excuse for exposition because Raz knows almost nothing about her at this point. He does end up learning quite a bit about her, including that she’s from a little town north of silvinar (which honestly, kinda obvious. She has a pretty strong east bosmeri accent even after living away from there for years and years), and that she’s at least somewhat noble with little to no interest in claiming her titles. She greatly downplays HOW noble she is. He returns the favor and tell her he’s from a little farming village and She immediately guesses what part of Elsweyr hes from, shes spent a lot of time there in her youth, and she could identify that southern Anequina accent anywhere. After this she takes to jokingly calling him Farm Boy…if only in private. They also learn more about each others families, though it mostly amounts to funny stories about their younger siblings.

They wake up horribly hungover (and naked) the next day and go on their separate ways for a bit. (aka, he goes to meet up with the Queen on their way to the festival in skywatch, Syke goes and does some sidequests and then they meet up during the festival. The plot continues)

Last little side note here is her addiction to skooma and other drugs. Dying, spending a long time in spooky terrible ghost hell prison, and then kinda but not really coming back to life has some pretty funny affects on a person. She didn’t get any kind of magical cure for her addiction, she was basically just forced to go cold turkey for god knows how long. She’s in an ok enough mental space to at least refuse skooma, but she still hits the alcohol pretty frequently.

Valenwood:  Valenwood is where things get a little conflicted with her personal life, Namely because of her sister, Nia. (more on her in part 1 but quick summary, she ran away almost 10 years ago and faked her death,and then showed up with the bosmeri noble members of their family completely denouncing her, their mother and the rest of their family)

So while Syke is off doing the main quest in Valenwood, Raz puts together that one of the Dominions biggest supporters among the Bosmeri Nobles matches Sykes description of her sister. Raz decides to tell said Noble about the whole thing and she confirms that, that sounds a LOT like what happened between her and her sister. Raz learns a bit more about the whole family drama he has somehow stumbled into, including the whole “Nia ran away Thing, but doesn’t learn much about Syke specifically. Just that her and Nia are actually cousins, they have different last names and that she’s pretty much always gone by fake names or nicknames (and that Nia is working of the correct assumption that Syke wouldnt appreciate her real name being revealed) 

Nia at this point, does not regret leaving and knows it was what was best for her, but defiantly regrets how she did it. Raz informs her that hes actually going to see Syke at Marbruk and invites her along to try and apologize to Syke.

Raz is expecting some heart felt reunions and tearful apologies and is of course surprised when Syke didn’t even let Nia say two words. She saw Nia, was stunned enough that Nia took off her mask without struggle but before she could get even 2 words out Syke decked her. Hard

So Raz talks to Nia (once she wakes up) and learns some alarming things from her. Mostly why Nia ran away in the first place (she didnt want to be a member of the dark brotherhood and being a impulsive teenager who figured that faking her death was the best option) and that yeah, Syke is not just a member of the brotherhood, but a really notable one,and also a lot about her …disturbing reputation in it. Not to mention the fact she’s a bit higher up on the nobility scale then she originally implied…by like a lot. She is pretty close to inheriting several thrones and important titles, and is by the way, Abnur tharns granddaughter.

Raz, of course, runs to the Queen to deliver the information that yeah, their extremely efficient new recruit is a member of the brotherhood, and is the granddaughter of the man who tortured her. The Queen already knows. Syke isnt dumb, she figured this might come up eventually and told the Queen first chance she got (remember that conversation in Auridon?). Ayrenn agreed to continue letting her be an Eye,with the understanding that if Syke ever moved against the Dominion she’d be killed on the spot. As for the Abnur Tharn thing, well Syke never really knew him. At the time of the Auridon conversation she had never met him, and you can’t really hold a person accountable for the actions of a relative she never knew… Course Syke had at this point met Abnur tharn multiple times but even someone with zero social grace like her understood that this was not the time to mention it.

Raz is pissed at Ayrenn and Syke for not telling him any of this, Syke is pissed at Nia for…everything she’s done for almost 10 years, and Ayrenn and Nia are getting along surprisingly well (and lowkey are kinda dating). Nia follows Syke around for the rest of the main Dominion plot, Syke is not happy about it but damn Nia’s hard to shake. Nia is as stubborn as her sister and If Syke won’t forgive her then she can at least try and help get her sisters soul back.

The Raz and Syke thing gets resolved before the end of Valenwood after another brief conversation where it really hits Raz with the pure amount of shit Syke’s been through and is still going through.

Yeah hes still mad, but shes desperately trying to apologize to him and honestly sometimes you have to cut a person some slack. Whatever her reasons for joining in the first place she is genuinely loyal to the Dominion (if she wasn’t those giant golden wing tattoos on her back were a real stupid move). There’s no way around the fact he’s a little intimidated by her now, for several reasons really. And it sucks and it hurts her but you can’t really blame him.

The main plot counties as it does, though I like to think they get a slight break at the end to actually enjoy the celebration appointing the new Silvinar and Green Lady for a couple days before things go to shit and she has to run out to reapers march.

Appearance wise, shes starting to replace her Piercings and she’s getting tattoos to cover her scars. Golden Laurels around the shackle marks and Golden eagle winds to cover the whip marks on her back. She really believes in the Queen at this point and thinks Ayrenn is the best bet Cyrodill has, to the point she’s decided to represent it on her body.

Reapers March: (technically part of Valenwood I think but i figure it deserved its own part)  Even more shit hits the fan now, cause being declared an important figure in a completely different religion isn’t something that’s gonna help a crisis of faith. So a few things happen here.

A third member joins the party, Syke’s little adoptive brother Jo’Thera, a Khajiiti Necromancer and fellow member of the brotherhood shows up. He was besides being her little brother, easily Syke’s best friend. He knows She’s been unhappy for a long time now and when she disappeared he was the only one who didn’t just assume she killed herself. The moment he heard a rumor that a woman who sounded a lot like Syke was running around the Dominion territory he took off after her. (side note, the reunion between him and Nia isn’t as violent as her and Syke’s, its just bitter and cold and sad). He was never really all that loyal to the brotherhood, he was mostly in it for his family so when Syke explains the situation he’s just fucking ready man, ride or die. Fuck it lets go off the grid, tearing credit cards and shit if she’s out then he is. (She’s not actually out yet, leaving was never in the question for her. She desperately wants to get back to her famly she just wants her soul back first. He’s just supportive)  and Syke is considerably happier to have him along then she was Nia (who while ostracized by her siblings, is still following along). He kinda creeps everyone out, cause on one hand he’s a perfectly cheerful friendly man. On the other hand he’s a necromancer assassin. It’s just an unsettling combination...It doesnt help that he aware hes creepy and finds unsettling people extremely fun. 

So of course Senalana happens. She lets Raz live, so he is of course extremely mad. and thats a whole damn thing. It’s not to different from what happens in game, just imagine afterwards it’s more of a real argument rather then Raz just yelling at her, also its longer. And also imagine some more romantic tension between the player and Raz .LIke they aren’t really dating yet, but they've defiantly banged multiple times and theyre both lying about not having feelings for each other

She does have a good reason for letting him live outside of their growing romantic relationship. She doesn’t really believe in the dominion so much as she believes in Ayrenn and Razum-dar. She’s seen to much of the Dominion from the inside and out to really think well of it, but she knows Ayrenn. And she knows Raz. If someone has to be emperor/empress of her home she’d prefer it to be Ayrenn. However she is also convinced the Ayrenn won’t be able to do that without Raz specifically, Syke has seen them work together and at least from Sykes point of view if one loses the other then any hope the Dominion has of winning this war is fucked.

Anyway that whole argument ends up in a shouting match at the end of which Syke takes the circlet,disappears for a few weeks, hides it her own damn self and then continues on the main quest.

This is the main reason why it really took Raz and Syke so long to get together, if it weren’t for this they would have been together before Syke went back to coldharbor easy. This complicated things a bit, made them both think

Syke chooses Shazah as the Mane and was really torn up by Khali’s death. This only real difference between this and the canon quest is that she actually threatens Shazah towards the end of it, like full on knife to throat, right after watching Raz and Ayrenn die. Basically saying that if any of this comes to pass, Syke will hunt down the traitors first, then Shazah. And if it comes to it she’ll take the Ruby throne for herself (one of those moments that everyone remembers that she is a noble woman, even if she doesnt use the title. and also that no one but her really knows just how high up she is). Shazah asks her if she loves him. (him being Raz, she did just watch Syke sob over his body, then only tear up a little at Ayrenns corpse). Syke doesn’t Deny it, she doesn’t say anything. They just keep moving.

(Also Raz and the rest were being kept updated on what was happening during the whole ceremony and up until this point it was basically a mix of dark humor about their own deaths and sympathy for the girls having to go through it. At this point it goes dead quiet, eyes turn to Raz, and im not gonna extend this further by adding a pic of the surprised pikachu meme but in spirit its here and representing Raz’s face)

The main plot keeps on rolling till it’s time to storm cold harbor. She does go in alone though, despite her siblings insistence, she refuses to put them in danger of losing their souls to.

She has one final conversation with Raz before she goes, they admit nothing cause theyre stubborn bastards but they do apologize to each other 

Cold Harbor: There’s really not much different here about how syke goes through it. The only things of note are that she’s terrified for the whole thing and also makes friends with a few of the other reoccurring characters, namely Darien, who i think shows up earlier then he actually does in game because he basically ends up her sidekick through the whole thing (though he might say otherwise). She is suitably distraught when he disappears. She helps out in the search for him whenever she can spare the time after that.

The Dlc start to happen about a year after the main quest (that year is when all the things like that mages and fighter guild happen). At this point her hair does keep going grey but once the stress of “I have no soul and i’m going to fight a god” goes away it slows down a lot. The worst of her scars are already covered by tattoos and her favorite piercings have already been replaced, so this point any additional piercings and tattoos are just for fun because she likes them.

as for the last 2 drawings,One is just her in game look,I thought it be fun to put in here. the other is just a reminder that she almost always wears a mask and that variations of this mask are the only thing most characters will ever see of her.

[wheelofmeta]

There’s something distinctly odd to realize that Mat’s traveling with the menagerie (which spans all of Crossroads of Twilight and most of Knife of Dreams) is honestly one of the most logical ‘we took a long time traveling’ moments. Even the method of it makes sense (what I mean is, they traveled with a goddamn menagerie because who would check that for the Daughter of Nine Moons?). While he did have Aes Sedai (and sul’dam) with him the entire time, none of them knew the weaves for Traveling, which meant land travel was the only option. Hell, since no one knew that Mat was stuck in Ebou Dar (even Elayne et al weren’t actually aware he’d basically gotten stuck due to the invasion; I think they had assumed he’d be able to leave/escape immediately after the city fell).

The Borderlanders are the other extremely logical example and it’s again, a matter of they had no Aes Sedai capable of weaving gateways. Its one of the very first things they demand learning after realizing Rand is not going to destroy them all. Then they can move quickly rather than constantly getting bogged down by mud (though I will never get over the sheer idiocy of them basically pulling their entire armies off the Blight to go Rand-hunting).