#non-canon dialogue

[writer86]

So it's been a week since I last did (checks) one post for Selene. Given the volume of screenshots and events I've played (due in no small part to there being an astonishing number of camp events in early act 1, I think I have enough content here for like... three more posts. Maybe four. One of which is going to be my own creation because it cannot happen in game.

With all this in mind, let's do some more! Figure I can get through my screenshot/event backlog this weekend, since it's a long weekend in the US.

So without further ado:

Selene and Shadowheart work quickly enough to find a suitable campsite. It takes them through the Nautloid wreckage once, and they find a few surviving Intellect Devourers. Selene is again amused by a companion's assessment of her combat prowess, as Shadowheart remarks: "You fight well. Perhaps our survival isn't such a distant prospect."

Slightly more distant a prospect than it was before the worm, Selene muses. The fight has drained her more than she'd like to admit, and she's now determined to do everything she can to make sure it's the last fight of the day.

Still, it seems to take Shadowheart by surprise when - once they find a good site to camp - Selene is not inclined to leave it that evening.

"You strike me as the reliable sort," she says, one eye on her own discarded armor, "but are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Don't fret," Selene answers calmly. "We need some rest."

Or is she not feeling the same exhaustion Selene is? In a moment of doubt, she asks, and is slightly gratified when Shadowheart does somewhat back down.

"A little weary, perhaps," she confesses, "and I suppose I kept my distance on the Nautloid. You took on a devil and a mind flayer at close range. It's a wonder you're still standing at all."

She sighs. "Fine. But not for too long. Each hour that passes, the thing inside us grows. We need to find a healer. Let us wake up at first light."

"Agreed," Selene is quick to say. "Our top priority as far as I'm concerned."

"Maybe we'll get lucky," Shadowheart muses. "We're overdue some good fortune. Rest well. We'll need our strength."

On that, we can agree, Selene thinks as she collapses to her bedroll. But to her distress... sleep does not come easy.

*This is not the world you know. Rest feels impossible, no matter how heavy your eyes become. Every time they flicker shut, the tadpole seems to twitch behind them.*

*Dragons, gith, and the Hells themselves have come after you, and that's just in the last day or so. Yet it is this creature that lingers in your skull.*

It's strange to think about. She can't say she knows much about mind flayers, let alone their parasites; even in six hundred years, she's never encountered them. But if it seeks to change her, as the gith woman said, then it should know she's not letting it have her without a fight.

*You focus on the spot of pain from when it slipped behind your eye, to where it now lurks. You cannot prod it, but you can make it clear that you are watching. What is there to fear when it is the one stuck inside you? It is a minor victory, but enough to soothe you to sleep.*

[startagainaprologue]

Really good theory crafting

[melandrops]

hollywood could never top the casual but meaningful representation that horror fiction podcasts have

[tempestmothstorm]

crazy how the sanshee plush is one of the few actual direct confirmations on what a non-act 2 Natsuki’s home life is like because of how cagey she is on literally everything. Like this isn’t anything surprising or something you wouldn’t be able to extrapolate from the games but unlike everything else we know about her the implications are right there on the tin.

They literally did the character bio trope where where all the likes are normal but the dislikes are about their very specific trauma it’s just so funny they did that on the plushie card

[slickricklj]

Jill Valentine + Chris Redfield - When you know, you know.

Bonus:

[tizzypizza]

how neo agent 3 saphia lost her smallfry / why nana doesn’t have a li’l buddy (in a world where the fuzzy ooze is corrosive)

[werewolfsister]

How Em-bear-assing!

It happens to the best of us.

[angermango]

for some reason i had an inspiration to mix Madness in Ghost Trick art style n parody canon GT scenes that are way too good to pass on the joke potential for

oh and bonus MC-styled Officer Bailey and his buddy, aka Those Two Bros Chilling in the Office, Five Feet Apart 'Cuz They're Not....

and bonus bonus Auditors in GT-style talk sprites because they're so easy to draw lol (and no i don't have a bias for drawing more of the faved characters, no sir)

[deityofhearts]

toxic yuri <3

[melishade]

Number 69?

This ask game

asked so far.

So this is an old idea that I have thought about for years but couldn't really incorporate it into AOP. This is non-canon to the story.

Mikasa stared at the wrapped package in front of her with suspicion. She then looked up at Megatron's holoform, who merely stared at her with crossed arms.

"What is this?" Mikasa demanded.

"A gift," Megatron answered bluntly.

"What kind of gift?"

"A useful one,"

"For what?"

"Combat,"

Mikasa narrowed her eyes before pushing the wrapped package across the table and back to him. "I'm not opening it."

"Why?"

"Because I don't trust it," Mikasa stated.

"You don't trust me," Megatron corrected.

"Well I can't figure out why you would get something for me," Mikasa said.

"Because of your human celebration," Megatron explanation, "The ones where you celebrate your creation."

Mikasa snapped her head at him in surprise. "You know what a birthday is?"

"It means nothing to a Cybertronian. We live for eons," Megatron deflected.

"But...you remembered mine?" Mikasa asked in surprise, "Why?"

Megatron pushed the package back to her. "Like I said, you are the only human I respect."

Mikasa was still suspicious of the gift in front of her, but she was curious to know what Megatron of all people thought was a good gift. Mikasa reached out and opened the package by tearing the wrapping paper. She peered inside, blinking at the sight of two medium sized swords. The blades looked like stainless steel, while the handles looked like wrapped vines adorned in black. Mikasa also noticed at the center of the hilt of the handle was the Survey Corps emblem.

Mikasa picked one of the swords up and examined the blade, seeing her own reflection in them. "It's beautiful. How did you-?"

"Don't worry about it. Just accept the gift," Megatron told her.

Mikasa smiled a little. "Thank you."

Megatron's mouth formed a thin line before he deactivated the holoform.

(8 left!: 51, 57, 66-68, 74, and 76)

[writer86]

The next morning, Selene and Shadowheart pack their camp without a word and move on. The ruin blocks their path further along the coast, so now they turn back the direction they'd come from. Just when it seems inevitable their path will cross back through the wreckage of the Nautloid, the rock face to their right flares with vibrant purple energy.

*You approach the sigil on the stone. Magic glitters and swirls from it erratically, as if malfunctioning. It looks slightly dangerous.*

Selene regards the sigil curiously, then glances back to Shadowheart. "What do you think?"

"It looks like a teleportation sigil gone wrong," Shadowheart answers. "In that state, no telling where it might take us."

"No telling what it might do if left alone in this state either," Selene points out.

"You want to touch it, don't you?" Shadowheart sighs.

There's a trace of a grin on Selene's face as she answers, "Engage with a possible threat without my ally's agreement? Wouldn't dream of it."

Shadowheart just scowls. A moment passes, then she sighs. "Get on with it, then."

"As you wish," Selene answers. She reaches out...

... and recoils as if stung. The next moment, an arm is abruptly thrust outward from the dark center, and a voice cries out, "A hand? Anyone?"

Somewhat taken aback, Selene exchanges a look with Shadowheart, who returns a similar expression. Feeling as though their time is short, Selene steps forward:

Let flow some words of prayer to soothe the sigil's magic. [Wisdom] Success.

The voice from within shouts, "Whatever you're doing, it's working wonders! Now a quick little pull should do the trick."

And sure enough:

"Oooft, hello!" the man says with a bright smile once he's free and upright. "I'm Gale of Waterdeep." Abruptly, he surges forward, seizes Selene's hand and gives it a quick shake. "Apologies, I'm usually better at this."

Already, this interaction is a significant improvement over the rest of their time in this region. A request for help, an introduction, a handshake, and an apology. Selene looks him over for signs of obvious injury and finds none... but that doesn't mean he's uninjured.

"No need to apologise," she says quickly. "Are you all right?"

"A bit shocked, but friend, it is a relief and a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Say, but I know you, don't I? In a manner of speaking. You were on the Nautloid as well."

He's certainly not lacking for things to say, Selene notes with an amused glance to Shadowheart beside her. Already, the other cleric's arms are crossed, as though she's trying to defend herself against the onslaught of Gale's verbose manner.

"I was, yes," Selene agrees.

"Then I can only assume you too were on the receiving end of a rather unwelcome insertion in the ocular region."

When next Selene glances to Shadowheart, her fellow cleric's distrust has shifted into incredulity. Selene can almost hear her thinking who talks like that?

The answer, as Selene well knows: Wizards. She stifles a smile and says, "Go on."

And Gale is all too happy to do so...

... though his enthusiasm does shift into a bit more serious a tone to match the subject of his monologue:

"The insertee we speak of, this parasite - are you aware that after a period of excruciating gestation, it will turn us into mind flayers? It's a process known as ceremorphosis, and let me assure you: it is to be avoided. You don't happen to be a cleric, by any chance, do you? A doctor? Surgeon?" Here, the grin reappears. "Uncannily adroit with a knitting needle?"

Shadowheart has had enough:

"You seem to know enough about our condition to realize it is beyond most clerics' skills," she snaps irritably.

"Most, no doubt," Gale agrees. "But I find myself hoping to be in the presence of the few. You don't happen to be one of them?"

Selene's immediate thought is to respond, Yes, of course, but the moment the thought occurs to her, she pulls up short.

(A/N: Yes I'm reusing a screenshot, because the expression on Selene's face is perfect for how she's feeling now as well.)

A few days ago, that would have been her answer. But the level of power she's used to throwing around is lost to her now, never clearer than when she fell from the Nautloid and had no wings upon which to catch herself. She and Shadowheart have stated their necessity for a healer on more than one occasion, but only now has it finally sunk in for Selene: that isn't her.

She hesitates a moment longer before saying, "... I was going to ask you the same question."

She was not, but Gale doesn't seem to realize.

"Then it seems we're both starved for answers," he says mildly. "We're most certainly going to need a healer, and soon too. How about we lend each other a helping hand once more and look for a healer together?"

Selene again glances to Shadowheart, who looks thoroughly less than impressed. But Selene just murmurs under her breath, "Ally..." and Shadowheart sighs.

Putting on her sweetest smile, Selene says, "Sounds like a plan. You're welcome to join us."

Gale returns her smile with a grin of his own and says exuberantly, "Most excellent! A parasite shared is a parasite... halved. Or something to that effect."

Behind Selene, Shadowheart coughs to cover a groan.

"Oh! But before you think you're about to embark on a journey with a most ill-mannered a man: thank you for pulling me out of that stone. It was an act of foresighted kindness I assure you, for I have the feeling ample opportunities will present themselves for me to return the favor."

And this time, Shadowheart does laugh aloud. "No doubt," she agrees.

[this-is-a-name-dont-worry]

"Je vous trouve quelqu'un, bon, c'est pas pour euh..."

"Pour quoi?"

"C'est pour dormir quoi, c'est pas pour euh..."

"Pour quoi?"

"Pour quoi, c'est pas pour, enfin, vous comprenez bien ce que je veux dire, non?"

"Non"

Karadoc ace moment

"Est-ce que vous aimez faire des saloperies avec les garçons, oui ou non?"

"Ah bah non, j'aime déjà pas ça avec les filles, alors..."

KARADOC SEX REPULSED ACE MOMENT

[tantumuna]

Bad Ending | Absolute Ascension

[teamjlry]

Blake: "What are you doing?"

Sun: "This boat's headed west, right? I'm journeying!"

[deadkraker]

[laesas]

We need ''he would not fucking say that'' but for 3rd person narrative choices that break the POV: He would not fucking describe things like that.