#mostly these tags are a reminder to myself

[proshippers-against-censorship]

if this is a shit take, clown on me, I can take the L + this is mostly just a personal thing for me anyway I kinda wish proshippers had a separate tag for making fun of antis and stuff honestly. Like, they're obviously in their every right to do that so long as it doesn't cross the line into harassment, but even though I myself am a proshipper, I'm thinking of blocking the tag because every time I go in there, I am bombarded with reminders that there are people out there who want me dead, and it's incredibly depressing and kills my mood, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way again, if this is a shit take, tell me so I can take the L and learn from it, but these have just been my feelings for the last month or two and I don't know where else to talk about it

TBF, most people with zero focus on the drama are not using the primary proshipper/proshipping tags. Proshipper safe, maybe, but not plain out proshipper.

[shift-shaping]

very bitter vent post under cut. ignore if you like dragon age.

one thing i will say about how people have responded to the lack of worldstate carryover in veilguard is that. well. this is part of why i dislike dragon age 2 so strongly.

what you're feeling now? that sense that Bioware/EA don't care about you as a longtime fan? the slow realization that despite all the love you had for the previous game, all the care you put into your decisions, all the speculating you did over what choice would be best for your worldstate, almost none of it matters?

that is exactly how it felt to play dragon age 2 close to release. not only was it a massive let down gameplay- and writing-wise, not only did you not get to make your own character, not only did you never really leave the city the game starts in, but there is essentially zero follow up for any of the biggest choices you made in dao.

yes, there are little snippets here and there. you get cameos, and those aren't nothing! i have defended and will continue to defend the little snippets of continuity we got in da2 and dai because they are important to fleshing out the bones of thedas as we've experienced it.

But.

that didn't change the gut-wrenching letdown of playing that stupid game the first time. what about the leadership of ferelden? what about the archdemon baby? what about the path your warden, who you spent minimum dozens of hours with, took to stopping the blight? you're telling me none of that really matters?

at least veilguard will let you play as a fucking elf. at least the devs are happy with it.

i'm not telling you not to be pissed off --you have every right to be-- i'm just being bitter and shitty because some people on this website put one of the most disappointing games i've ever played on a pedestal like it didn't make fans then feel the same way the lack of choice carryover in veilguard is making some people feel now.

being excited about dragon age 2 after origins and then playing it was like opening up a gift only to find it was a carefully wrapped piece of dog shit. and then you found out the dog had been mistreated the whole time it was alive.

and then years later someone tells you that shit was the best gift they ever received.

i genuinely, sincerely hope veilguard feels better. i think it will, if only because it has better hair options.

[a-memory-a-distant-echo]

wip wednesday—well, it's still wednesday somewhere.

have a bit of the fic that i'm not writing, which is unfortunately one of only two things my brain is currently willing to produce words for.

Fang Duobing jerks awake into the grey light of morning. In bed next to him, Li Lianhua lies still and silent. His breath isn’t rattling the way it has since they found him on the beach. He’s not shivering. He always shivers.  Fang Duobing's hands hover anxiously, and tears spill down his cheeks, because this stillness can mean only one thing; can mean only that after everything, they’ve failed. He’s failed. Li Lianhua died right next to him, pressed against his side, and he didn’t even notice. The feeling catches in his throat and chokes him, and a desperate, gasping sob falls from his mouth. He carefully keeps his hands to himself, burying his face in them rather than stretching them out, because when he touches Li Lianhua, it’ll be unavoidable. It will be real, and he’s not ready to live in that world yet, not when he can cling to this one, tears or not, for even a moment longer.  ‘Xiaobao?’ Li Lianhua’s voice is morning-rough but steady, and Fang Duobing discovers that his hands move of their own accord, pawing through the blankets to find Li Lianhua.  ‘Xiaohua,’ he gasps, still shoving blankets aside. ‘You’re—’ His hand touches warm skin, and he gives up removing the rest of the blankets and flings himself on top of Li Lianhua, as careful as he can bear to be, but desperate to know that he’s still there. Fang Duobing rests his forehead on Li Lianhua’s bony shoulder. ‘I thought you were dead,’ he says. ‘You were so still; you were so—’ ‘What have you done?’ Li Lianhua cuts him off so sharply that it makes him pull back far enough that he can see more than the shoulder directly in front of him. ‘I was so scared,’ Fang Duobing says. ‘I  thought—’ ‘What have you done?’ Li Lianhua asks again, sounding panicked. 

[nyaskitten]

Y'know what? I'm done! I'm done with all the hate, negativity, and all the other generally bad things we as artists, writers, music composers, etc say about ourselves!

This post is an us appreciation post because FUCK what the back of our heads is telling us!!

It doesn't matter if what you draw or write or compose or edit or ANYTHING isn't "as good" as someone else's, or you feel you're not skilled enough! ALL that matters is you're having FUN and enjoying yourself and that YOU take pride in what you make!

It doesn't matter if your anatomy is a bit wonky or the way you write feels a bit odd or the music you make isn't 100% or whatever you edit is a bit lackluster! What matters is having fun, and enjoying what you make! Your art should be for yourself first and foremost, and for others if you feel like sharing!

Keep those drawings and fics you want to yourself for however long you desire! You owe no one on the internet literally ANYTHING! (unless you're doing commissions and were paid, in which case you do owe them something there's no debating this</3)

AGAIN, all that matters is you have fun making whatever it is you're making! No one else's opinions matter! You are good enough! I am good enough! WE are good enough with what we make, and you should never forget it!

Make what you want, not what others want! Write what makes you happy! Improve however you want, but stop comparing yourself to others! What they have, they practiced and worked hard for, and what you have, you've ALSO practiced and worked hard for!!!

Please, never forget to have faith in yourself! Love yourself, and love your creations! Stay creative and proud of yourself forever and always!

[calathazar]

oc + environment doodles or something

[great-tusk]

Ugh. I had a really bad day.

[motherforthefamicom]

redownloaded an old art program

[throughpatchesofviolet]

Right, so ... the Fell Bullet × Pursuance AU. I finally have coherent thoughts that I can post.

Fell Bullet!Heathcliff is somewhere between mortal and demon--he's not completely human, but he's also not completely inhuman, either. Keeping in line with the story associated with the Abnormality from which this E.G.O originates, Heathcliff was once a human who loved someone (Catherine) dearly, but he's long since forgotten her as part of his deal with Der Fluchschütze. He's also "undead," in a sense--his heart no longer beats, yet he remains "alive." His soul has fallen, but his body remains on the mortal plain.

Pursuance!Sherry is a more angelic being, and is able to travel freely between "the heavens" and the mortal realm--the latter being a post-apocalyptic setting wreathed in red smoke (this is based on the background for Fell Bullet's E.G.O). Since she's an executioner, her job is to roam the moral plain and find lost souls, who she then interrogates and passes judgement on based on the rules set by Heavenly Executor's Scribe (the Abnormality her E.G.O is from). Sherry does have a beating heart, despite not being human.

Since Fell Bullet!Heathcliff is cursed to wander the earth for eternity, he eventually catches sight of Pursuance!Sherry while she's busy carrying out an interrogation, though he avoids approaching her. Afterwards, he often sees her soaring overhead, and always hides himself from her if she gets too close--he's curious about her, but he's also shy. Sherry stirs familiar feelings in Heathcliff's chest, which puzzles him since his heart should no longer be working, and yet here he is, experiencing what can best be described as "love."

When the two do finally meet, it's a rather awkward encounter, but it becomes very clear to both of them that the other is special. But, while Sherry is driven by curiosity and wishes to understand why she feels this way about him, Heathcliff is more withdrawn, feeling more fear than anything else. He does like Sherry--quite a bit, in fact--but the feelings are almost painful for him, since he knows he's felt this way about someone before, but he can't remember who they were.

On top of that, Heathcliff is scared that he'll somehow "taint" Sherry--an angelic being--by touching her, which makes him extra cautious around her. He does everything in his power to avoid physical contact with her, but, eventually, they do end up touching--a simple brush of hands--and when Heathcliff realizes nothing bad happens to Sherry, he's more open to her caresses.

They do have to keep their connection a secret, however--a heavenly being falling in love with a fallen being is unheard of, and wouldn't go over well with either of the Abnormalities the two serve.

[batfamfucker]

Appreciation post for 'girly girl' characters and/or shows that celebrate traditionally feminine things that girls and women are shamed for.

Characters on this list that love makeup, fashion, hair, etc. Characters that are still written as strong, intelligent, brave, etc. That told young girls that these interests are valid, they are not lesser interests. Being feminine and liking traditionally feminine things does not make them weak.

[glstnbrry]

realllly big wip dump (and some stuff that will never get finished .)

[skitskatdacat63]

I meant to write more for a pt 2 lore post earlier but didn't end up doing so, so pls take these AU sketches(Mark & Jense and then some assorted sketchies)

[velvetjune]

judging people who played alan wake 2 solely on if they loved the musical sequence or not

[symphorine]

time to return to the scene of the crime (ritual site) (solas did the crime)

ill skip over most of the quest bc it's just exploring the ruins and there's not much new. i did spy a halla statue, but nothing that really gives any insight as to what they're ruins of. we go through pretty extensive built and paved sections, so i'm wondering if we're in a part that used to be the city of arlathan proper, with plenty of different buildings, proper streets, etc.

did take a couple of screenshots of the view from the floating ruins, which gives an idea of what arlathan forest looks like.

i was a little confused about the mountains, but got this map from the fandom wiki:

we do see the white spire to the east, a mountain in antiva, and a mountain range on the west and southwest, which are the hundred pillars from tevinter. my guess is the ruins we're at are in the southwest side of arlathan forest, since we seem to be looking at a mountain range rather than a singular peak? arlathan forest is also right on the coast. iirc in the tevinter night "three trees to midnight" story, we follow characters captured by qunari and set to work between the edge of the forest and a beach. it's set a few years before DAVG, so whether qunari forces are still attempting to penetrate the forest or have been forced to give up because of veil jumpers' effort is up in the air. it's possible that when the antaam broke away from the rest of the qun, some of them were there.

there's also this map from tevinter nights, also found on the fandom wiki, which i find less readable but is a little different (more up to date with recent lore additions/changes):

the end of the quest at the ritual site sees us getting the dagger and harding awakening some magic powers when she touches the pure lyrium dagger, a first for dwarves, as far she (and anyone else) knows.

interesting thing: in the following screencap, taken at the beginning of the quest, we see where the dagger fell. the ground is cracked, and blue light comes from those cracks, indicating magic.

in the following two screencaps, taken at the end of the quest, where the dagger was planted into the ground briefly, there's actually what looks like lyrium veins growing:

it looks like it's not part of the rock either, but growing from nothing on top of it. i don't know what to make of it, just thought it was interesting. surely if lyrium was self replicating like this dwarves would have lyrium farms instead of mines, right? maybe it's just a small scale phenomenon?

other than that, the big thing is obviously harding talking with words and a voice that are obviously not her own. transcript of what she says while she's glowing blue from what's happening:

"This is the eternal hymn, the prayer, and the proclamation. Isatunoll. I am. We are. Free again. Whole again. Here again. Here... again..."

During this speech, she floats up in this rock, then bursts out of it. Again, it's got clear lyrium veins (god I just realized lyrium veins is so literal with lyrium being the blood of the titans. very cool).

And then she turns darkspawn into stone. This is stuff that is explored in her companion quests, so not much to say at this stage. Harding is very much a conduit for new lore in the game, in ways that did irk me a little, but i'll get to that when i progress to her quests. i do wish she had been more of her own character. it also makes it absolutely baffling to me that she can perma-die if you pick her as a second team leader in the ending, and frustrating, like she was really just a vehicle to deliver this knowledge to the player.

before we come back to the lighthouse, we get a little peek at our two elven gods

i looooove ghilannain's silhouette. i think elgarnan should have been more fucked up tbh. what we do learn here is that the darkspawn ghoul that we chased during the quest was controlled/influenced heavily by ghilannain to retrieve the dagger, and seeing as it failed, the gods now decide they need to make a new dagger - ghilannain specificies "made of red lyrium", for some reason. clearly regular lyrium wasn't a problem, since they wanted solas' dagger, but maybe it's a preference thing...? anyway. we now have. the entire motivation for the game i suppose. i guess it IS made obvious how pivotal the dagger is but... idk. it's not very impressive. in general i feel like they suffer from a crucial lack of development in the game. yes, of course as the main antagonists, we dont really spend a lot of time chatting to them, but i wish we'd gotten a bit more depths. especially since later we can hear snippets of conversation! also they have a scrying pool of sorts??? how does it work??? can they only see blighted creatures??? does it include wardens??? where the fuck are they in this screenshot??? it does look like elven architecture but i'd like to know where EXACTLY they are. somewhere in arlathan forest still? why would they not go themselves to pick up the dagger? is it too low-level work for them? are they too weak to risk it yet?

it does remind me tho of when they got freed and you saw solas turn towards them and look afraid. suddenly he didn't seem like the Dread Wolf, but like a very small and scared man. this is probably one of his greatest nightmares. good moment i liked it.

we go back to the lighthouse to have another huddle. harding says that she feels like something took her over and is worried it might be possession - neve reassures her, saying dwarves cannot be possessed because they aren't connected to the fade. i wonder if this is meant as like, a physical impossibility, or just that since dwarves dont dream or access the fade as easily, theyre just so much less likely to come into contact and make a deal with a demon?

a mage rook says it's not the magic they know, and then we have a beautiful bit of dialogue:

Rook: It's clearly Stone-focused. Which makes sense. Dwarves are Children of the Stone. Harding: Mages connect to the Fade. Dwarves reach out to the Stone? Maybe? Rook: Maybe. Harding: I guess we don't have any real answer.

i dont know guys i feel like you could have dug into this a little more T_T. especially frustrating playing a rook who is a scholar haha.

then you can tell harding how you view her new magic. not sure what it influences exactly apart from some dialogue later. i think maybe that's my gripe with a lot of those decisions being made a big deal out of (through the purple notifications): a lot of the time, it's just some dialogue you get or don't, not really something that has a real mechanical consequence (like actually influencing outcomes of situations). i might be wrong though.

lighthouse conversations after this: you can have a proper one with harding, where she expands a little more on isatunoll, and it being a proclamation of being , not "i", because that's a single being, and not "we", because that's multiple but separate. I think the closest analogy I'd give to what isatunoll seems to refer, which would have been the state of the dwarves before the titans were made tranquil, is a hive mind? maybe not quite that, but clearly dwarves were connected to each other through the titans, and to the titans, in very intrisic ways. harding also says she can't find any accurate mention of isatunoll in the books she's reading ("none of the histories are right."). as an aside, she never seemed particularly interested in dwarven history, or underground dwarves - it makes sense that she'd want to look into it now and suddenly feel closer to it, but where did she get those books on such short notice? did they just appear in the lighthouse?

speaking of the lighthouse! the library is now debris-free, and bellara's area, the workshop, is now open, though in the same state of neglect as the rest. we also of course now have the meditation room and get to arrange it. i was delighted to see a mourn watcher rook brings an urn with them... presumably it contains?? skeleton bits?? since nevarrans don't burn their deads??? anyway. imagine just lugging a whole urn around for months on end as you're travelling through thedas. tbf the mage thing, the magical project, also does not seem like something you'd bring with you for that. where were these objects before? who knows.

we unlock this codex entry in the meditation room:

On Life in the Lighthouse This ancient logbook is filled with meticulous veilfire runes. Though it is encoded, flicking through it offers vignettes of borrowed memory. Fearful refugees are ushered to the Lighthouse through eluvians, emerging from the infirmary and libraries as soldiers, spies, and scholars. Gardeners plant long-extinct herbs that grow, are harvested, and wither in the blink of an eye. The sharp smell of distilling medicine wafts from a window, and poison for the enemy drips into a vial. The arguments of a war council go on late into the night; fobidden songs are sung freely, with filthy lyrics substituted for the Evanuris' names. Finally, a heated conversation silhouetted against glass with quick shadows darting behind it. The argument ends with a wordless but unmistakable impression: "You summoned them: you feed them."

i love every scrap we get of what things were like for the ancient elves. it's nice to learn a bit more about the rebellion; it also seems like the lighthouse used to be a much larger place, if it housed all these people and rooms (libraries, plural, but also some kind of alchemy lab for poisons and medicines, at the very least, as well as gardens). and someone recorded this, wrote it in encoded runes - a member of the rebellion presumably? i was also wondering if it could be a spirit observing them, but solas makes it pretty clear later on that spirits were implicated in the conflict whether they wanted to or not, so i dont think there'd be any that just observes, especially in the heart of the rebellion.

solas sassed me so bad during this conversation with him i yelled at my screen. he asks if he overstated the danger, i picked the option to say he didn't, and he told me "How unfortunate for you." in the most mocking way. SOLAS. WHAT IS THIS. this man has no manners.

anyway, we learn that solas knows some of who we are and draws a parallel between him and us. I think that happens no matter what you choose - I'm gonna transcribe what happened with beryl, but I remember a similar dialogue with daea as well.

Rook: Then you know that powerful opposition doesn't frighten me. I find a way to get the job done, whatever it takes. Solas: I suppose I was not so different when I started. Rook: Started what? Solas: My rebellion against the Evanuris -- the "elven gods", as you call them.

side note: fun early apparition of "whatever it takes".

solas then tells us that the gods "wish to reclaim their dominion over the world." that's fine, i guess, but it rubs me the wrong way that we hear our main antagonists' goals through a third party who's assuming it's what they want. that could have been a fun twist! you can perfectly keep elgarnan and ghilannain as evil bad guys while saying they have more complex or specific aims than solas says or thinks; then that could contrast solas' conviction that he is always right, as well (until he realizes he was wrong and decides to destroy the world again about it, of course).

and then some fun stuff:

Solas: First, the blight. What exists in this world is a bare fragment of its power. The rest is imprisoned... until they release it. Rook: (Why blight the world?) I don't understand. Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain were elves like you, right? Why would they want to blight the world? Solas: It is my fault. As the Dread Wolf, I was a thorn in their side. Solas: When my efforts weakened their grasp on the elven people, they grew frustrated. Then desperate. Rook: And turned to the blight. Solas: Once the corruption took hold of them, they were blind to its horror. It was just another source of power for them. Solas: Now, they would blight the world without hesitation and call us backward and foolish for opposing them. Rook: (It's bigger than what we have?) The rest of the blight is imprisoned? There's more than what's in the world already? Solas: Yes. Centuries ago, the magisters of Tevinter opened my prison. A tiny fragment of the blight escaped. Solas: That fragment grew beneath the earth and led to the Blights that have swept across this world. Solas: However terrible the blight is now, it is a mere fraction of what we will see if its full power is unleashed. Rook: (It didn't escape?) The blight didn't escape with the gods? Solas: Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain escaped largely empty-handed, fortunately. Most of the blight is still trapped in the prison I created ages ago. Rook: So what we saw at the village, that's them not at full strength? Solas: Correct.

these are the questions you can ask solas about the blight before continuing the conversation. all interesting tidbits! the blight existed before they turned to it - we know it's the anger of the titans, a consequence of making them tranquil. it was considered bad, including by the evanuris: solas saying that once the corruption advanced enough, they were blind to its horrors implies that they used not to be. the blight we know and have known since origins is only a LITTLE of it, which is humbling. the titans were gods in their own right; that their fury is much bigger and worse than what we've seen also makes sense.

also, the magisters did unleash the blight, but it is not of the maker. someone call the chantry i need to destroy their entire ideology asap (if everyone else' beliefs are getting fucked, i don't see why the chantry should be different. but i will complain about this later for sure). this confirms that the golden/black city was arlathan. corypheus said in dai that he throne of the gods was empty, so either he saw the evanuris in their prison but did not recognize them as gods, or the magisters just didn't go very far into that prison (plausible! it was a ritual that demanded a lot of power and they resorted to a lot of blood magic just to enter the fade physically, let alone go further into it. I wonder if it would have demanded less power if they hadn't been trying to get into solas' prison? also, was it on accident or not?). it is intriguing that the blight escaped first with no god, and now the gods escaped with no blight. were they held in different sections of solas' prison? also, honestly, what the fuck was that prison like? thousands of years imprisoned with your fellow tyrants in the fade? AND additionally: the evanuris and the forgotten ones seem to have disappeared at the same time, but solas only ever talks about imprisoning the evanuris, despite legends saying he imprisoned both (in different prisons). and we see anaris later, coming from and being send back to the fade. what happened to the forgotten ones exactly? clearly they're not in with the evanuris.

anyway. then solas tells us to find the tyrants and bullies, the cruel and the corrupt, because that's where elgarnan and ghilannain will seek followers, as they "care little for the elves". I do agree they don't care for the well-being of the elves, for sure, but i was expecting a "you were ours and you shall be again" angle to be played much more strongly in the game. it soooort of happens, with the way elgarnan talks to and about the dalish, but not that much. but now we've establish that anyone who works with the gods is evil anyway.

it's frustrating because then it's just reinforced that the venatori and antaam are purely evil, with very few exceptions - or not even exceptions, just... contact with members that show another facet. I'm thinking of the crow and venatori lovers in treviso, and the brief dialogue with the butcher in treviso as well. the enemies being uniformly bad, something that is never questioned, is definitely a disappointing and frustrating aspect of the game, especially when racism is thrown in the mix with the antaam (the way theyre depicted is dehumanizing and sexualized and just. so bad. plenty of other posts have touched upon this but it bears repeating.)

finally, "And when you see Varric, please tell him that I... regret what happened." SOLAS WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU.

actually this does remind me of something i forgot to write about earlier, about the very beginning of the ritual site quest, when harding and neve have a bit of a fight. Harding at one point mentions Varric, and Neve says that he knew what he was in for, he knew what the risks were. so clearly varric is not a taboo subject in front of rook. HOW did rook not stumble into conversation that made them realize varric was dead and an illusion during the game? it must span at least MONTHS.

caught up with my screenshots folder, so ill play some more tomorrow probably! I think from next week, as I go back to work, I'll prob play during the weekend and write these posts during the week, but we'll see.

[eccentricmya]

After experiencing the highs and lows of fandom on different social media sites, I have some advice... For myself and to fellow 'content creators' (derogatory) as we're called.

Pace yourself!!!

It's easy to fall into the euphoria of creativity after one successful work. After all, one good reception of artistry/writing deserves another. But too often I've felt inspiration dry out in the face of prolonged demand and our self-imposed deadlines to meet that demand.

Writers/artists can be just as guilty of rendering fandom spaces as places of 'content' consumption. I sometimes end up pressuring myself into writing more for the high of it, only to end up dissatisfied with my work because it's just not the same as my spontaneous ones.

Creative burnout is a thing in fandom, folks. Do not let it happen to you. Savour your ideas, let them marinate, then cook them to your taste, and then serve it to your fellows.

Do not give them more than they, or more importantly, you can handle.

And while your own ideas stew, reblog your friends' dishes, discuss recipes, leave reviews!

Because fandom is not a race, it's recreation.

[mintacle]

What I need:

Jason Todd in his slightly messy but homey kitchen at 7am watching the sun rise out his window. Hair messy from sleep and wearing boxers and a t-shirt, slight chubby belly (dadbod), just a bit unshaven, leaning his chin on one hand as he slowly drinks his morning tea/coffee.

[cinnabeat]

some people get majorly confused by some things kh does and its like have you never heard of visual storytelling? do you not understand drama? symbolism???