#of these sidequests where they guilt trip you into helping them.

[upsidehell]

i should really be getting some threads going, but now I'm playing RDR2 & somehow inherited another horse. I'll explain. basically, there was a side quest, some guy was calling me over to help with his horse whom he was checking their hooves over. next thing his horse full-on boots him in the head killing him instantly! I AM LAUGHING! COUGHING, SPLUTTERING, HYPERVENTILATING WITH TEARS IN MY EYES LAUGHTER!!! but then i can't just leave the poor baby saddled & on her own as she's just stood there staring down at her owner's lifeless body. SO i do the humane thing & take her with me. She is now my girl but I need a name for her! so drop me some suggestions!

[icharchivist]

okay actually i’m going to stop here for the night, i’m getting a little sleepy and while i’d love to keep playing i feel it’d be a shame to get into another rollercoaster while in the process of getting sleepy

anyway so. Wait let’s do it by bits.

under cut bc i rambled lmao

Altissia was as beautiful as promised and being into it was really a great experience. The sidequests there kinda had the death of me (Tonberries have been my mortal enemies since ff7cc and i shall never forgive them, and the Mindflayer things can go rot in hell holy shit) but the Portrait quest was pretty cool.

I liked the idea of doing a bit of politics as well. It’s a small moment but it does help fleshing out the King Noctis is supposed to become, and make sure you know that if you fuck up well maybe you’re not really a diplomat (can’t relate i nailed it)

Leviathan’s fight was super cool. The part where Prompto comes to pick up Noctis is downright legendary, this whole part was so fun and those two seemed to have fun. Last moment of joy before. well. everything else.

the rest of the fight before the... you know, was quite. challenging and frightening but i’m really digging those fights against the Gods. it’s TERRIFYING, and a bit overwhelming, but it makes it all the more satisfying when you get the hand of it.

Still talking about the fight a h ah but yeah after the powerup thingy, the fight was flashy but less engaging. but i also thing it’s done on purpose, as in, it follows a heavy scene and it’s a bit of “the rage moment the player is still grieving while trying to fight”. Really reminded me of ff7 when Jenova appears for you to fight right after Sephiroth killed.. you know. (and i don’t mean it as a bad thing, it’s a formula that works to keep the player on its toes and, i think, it shows a cruel aspect of the fact the characters aren’t allowed time to grief and have to think quickly about moving forward, all while they’re hurting and breaking, and it’s something the player is therefore just as much going through with this. It’s an effective way to convey it right away while still under the shock of it all.) (also i’m allowed to compare because Tabata did it first in interviews lol) 

So huh. Now. The scene itself.

Ardyn fuck you sO BAD.

I knew almost every details of the scene so i saw every plot beat and just. y’know watching a trainwreck in motion knowing you can do nothing to stop it so you stare in horror? yeah. mood. I do feel a lot for the way it was all worked in though it was so sad... Luna doesn’t have a lot of screentime but i can’t help but feel for her, in the end she was dedicated to her duty and that’s what brought that on and it’s just. so sad to me. 

just as Noctis ends up getting such a massive burden on his shoulders as well. The whole game is just “how much burden can we add on Noctis’s shoulders before he breaks” huh. awful.

The Ignis’s eyes thing also hurt too and i expect to see more of it bc i didn’t expect it to appear well, like this. Thought we’d see the injury happen but hey, ready to see how this is going to hurt, the aftermath in itself will be painful anyway.

Gladio’s reaction, i get it. It hurts like hell to see but i get it. Gladio is taking the responsibilities in too, as the shield he always had to keep Noctis prepared, and i think it just dawn on him that if no one shakes Noctis out of this mood more problem may come their way, while also carrying the guilt too of the fact everything went wrong. Still really sucks that he yelled at Noct the things he did, but, i get it.

Obviously i cry for Prompto as always because the other three really are wrestling with the royal obligations and duty that’s to come. They can’t afford to stop and think about the loss, about the sacrifice and the grief, they have to come up with plans very quickly to keep moving on to make sure Noctis embraces the power of the King. Ignis and Gladio trained for that all their lives and they put themselves under pressure to stay focused, see also why Ignis is trying to downplay his injury all the time.  But yeah since Prompto is the only non-royal minded one in there he just. sits as the whole situation explose around him huh.  Not to mention he owed Lunafreya so much... It’s thanks to her he even found the determination to befriend Noctis, whom he cares for so dearly now, and he wanted to meet her so badly and have her be happy with Noctis because he was made so happy by her and all of that.. so this just hurts.

Ravus getting betrayed by the empire though? Honestly? Didn’t see it coming, and i know i’ll eventually care of Ravus later but for now i’m just. geez i wonder how putting your life in the hands of unreliable people who already harmed the ones you loved for you to get revenge could backfire. who knew.

Again Ardyn fuck you.I know you’re a tragic, rotten little man (word picked carefully), but still major fuck you for this. 

so yeah for now i finished the missions at the train station and i am pausing here, so i will go further into it later.

but man. What a ride huh.

anyway here’s the link to the videoof just this mainquest (just huh when you see me pick up sidequests just skip at the 2 hour mark this is when the main plot restarts) but man what a trip. what a trip.

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: Alice Vs The Questionnaire I Just Made

Because it would be remiss for me to send it out into the world and not answer it myself, right? ;p

1. How many of the sidequests did your characters do? Did they manage to complete all of them?

Alice completed most of the sidequests, mostly because I find them interesting, they're good to advance the plot of my story, and -- in-game -- they're good sources of XP. The only ones I skipped/failed were (Edit: naturally I forgot a few on my first posting; what can I say, there’s a lot of side quests!):

Drug Trip -- The Unofficial Patch Plus only quest where you can get some XP and +1 Finance by stealing some drugs for Trip from the clinic. In-game, I completely forgot this was an option and never did it. In-story, Alice is trying to get drugs by more legitimate means for Mercurio rather than steal morphine, so I don’t think she’d be keen to get the recreational stuff for Trip.

Daydream Believer -- Only marked as an official “quest” by Unofficial Patch Plus, this is where you can sell Copper “unicorn blood,” fang-blunting gum, and a stake to kill the head vampire if you’re feeling maliciously playful. Alice was not -- in fact, she likes the Thin-Bloods and wants to help them. And that includes sympathizing with Copper about his desire to become human again, while also warning him off doing anything stupid.

Replanting A Lily -- The quest where you send Vandal someone to replace Lily in his blood-draining chair once you’ve freed her as part of Thinned Blood. In-game, I simply Demented him into some hysterical laughter to forget the whole thing (in case I needed him for emergency rations). In-story, Alice slammed him up against the wall and informed him the only reason she wasn’t about to kill him was because she needed to stay in the Voerman sisters’ good books. Vandal being Vandal, he immediately found this the sexiest thing that had ever happened to him and tried to give her free blood (like might happen with the Intimidation option), which she told him to stick where the sun don’t shine. Yeaaaaah, Alice doesn’t like Vandal.

Occultish Personality -- The quest where you get occult items for Pisha, and she gives you powerful items in return. Rather than work with Pisha, I had Alice kill her after taking care of the Simon business. This was purely a character choice, as I didn't see Alice ever working with her (she disapproves too strongly of what Pisha does to sate her Hunger -- she understands that the woman is under a pretty nasty curse, but the entire camera crew?!).

Venucide -- Okay, this is an interesting one -- this is the alternate side quest you get if you take Boris up on his offer to kill Venus during And Her Name Was Venus. I didn’t do this in-game -- I’m not doing low Humanity with Alice, and besides you earn a lot more with Venus alive and giving you club profits -- but I mention it because Alice pretends to take the offer, goes back to Venus, and works with her to fake her death before going back to Boris to get the reward, then kill him. Venus is quite tickled by the whole thing. XD

Dirty Dishes -- The quest where you help one of the three Giovanni relatives at the party to gain an advantage over the other two. I attempted this one, with the intent of having maybe Victor or Victoria do something with the info in the story (as they're the ones actually doing the social stuff -- Alice snuck in Obfuscated with them), but as it turned out, I didn't have the Persuasion necessary to get the dark secrets out of all three. I only managed to get Adam Dunsirn to admit he’s broke -- ratted him out to Mira for an experience point. Ah well. . . In-story, Victor will probably learn Adam’s secret while socializing, but not actually tell anybody.

Model Citizen/Cover Girl -- Imalia's quests -- either planting webcams to spy on her rival Tawni, or (if you piss her off/want extra XP after the previous quest), getting her a copy of a magazine with her on the cover back before Nosferatuing. Imalia is one of those characters who reacts very poorly to meeting a Malkavian, and is generally pretty conceited, so I didn't have Alice stick around to actually get the quests. By this point in the story, she's not doing favors for people who treat her like ass unless she has to.

Poster Session -- The quest where you trade various objects you can collect around the world to Gary for posters of the ladies in the game. Okay, in all actuality, I am doing this one in my game, if only because I'm collecting the objects he's asking for anyway while doing other quests and I might as well, but Alice in-story wouldn't be interested, and I'm not sure Gary would make the offer anyway, given their relationship.

2. How long do you think their stay in L.A. lasted, from Embrace to ending?

I'm working on figuring this out right now in my current playthrough! Part of the reason I fired up Bloodlines again was to actually work out a timeline for "Londerland Bloodlines," as the one given on the wiki feels absurdly short (and cuts out all the side quests). The way I've currently got it, it looks like Alice's Adventures In Los Angeles will stretch from October 21st, 2004, to the middle of November that same year (maybe about the 15th or so?), though I think I'm going to be adding in extra time in the story to help develop relationships and build in some extra breathing room for the characters. So, at a rough estimate, about two months.

3. Which ending did they go for? And if they're the rare Kindred who sided with Ming or LaCroix, did they somehow manage to escape their canonical fates (blown up/sunk to the bottom of the ocean)?

Alice is Independent all the way -- by the end of the game, she neither likes nor trusts practically anyone in the Kindred/ghoul community of L.A. (with four key exceptions, and one of those -- Beckett -- has already skedaddled by the end game) and just wants out. Hell, she would have left earlier if she'd gotten the chance -- she would have happily left L.A. the moment LaCroix sent her up against the Sabbat alone if said Sabbat hadn't kidnapped Lizzie and Victoria, and she would have just left straight after rescuing them and killing Andrei if she hadn't had a guilt attack about helping to get a Blood Hunt called on Nines and deciding she had to tell him about what Ming-Xiao told her. And the Cabbie is the one who talks her into taking down LaCroix and Ming-Xiao when she escapes the Blood Hunt, telling her that the only way to truly feel free is to make sure neither of them can come after her again. She is only too happy to leave the city when everything and everyone is done and dusted.

(Also, semi-related I had what I feel is a pretty awesome idea regarding why she gives LaCroix the key -- a post in the vtmb tag mentioned that anyone who had Auspex might be able to scan the sarcophagus and see there's no uber-vampire inside. The way Alice uses Auspex in her story, it functions partially as a real-life "Shrink Sense,” to fit with her madness. Maybe, at the end of the game, Alice finally uses Auspex on the sarcophagus to see what she can glean, and sees that a) there's no vampire and b) the Insane Children have drawn jack-in-the-boxes all over it, along with arrows to leave. Figuring LaCroix can suffer the disappointment of it being empty, she drops the key and heads off, not QUITE realizing WHY the kids told her to leave -- that is, until her Wonderland friends start BOOKING IT out the door when she gets down to the lobby, and she realizes those jack-in-the-boxes look like her own Jackbombs. . .)

4. How do they feel about the major power players in L.A. (LaCroix, Strauss, Smiling Jack, Nines, Isaac, Ming-Xiao, Gary)? Did their opinions of them change at any point thanks to a quest or just more time spent with them?

LaCroix: Hates him from the moment he Dominates her into leaving the Nocturne Theater instead of bothering to answer any of her questions. She's willing to keep her head down when she's around him (for fear of more Domination) up until Grout's mansion -- then she starts demanding she be paid like a proper employee, at least, and getting a lot snarkier in his presence. When the Blood Hunt on Nines was called (which involved him Dominating her AGAIN so she wouldn't warn Nines beforehand), she was about ready to gut him, and sincerely hoped there was something in that damn Sarcophagus so it would eat him. She doesn't particularly mind he got blown up in the end -- she was much more concerned for anyone else who was in the upper levels of the tower.

Strauss: She found him a little condescending, but helpful, when she first arrived in Downtown and sought him out. (Didn't think much of his poetry skills, though.) He gave her some good information on vampires around the city and the Camarilla in general, and she can't deny he paid well for helping take care of the plaguebearer situation. Her opinion of him plummets the moment she learns about his role in creating the Gargoyle, though. The idea that he kept that living, thinking being as his slave. . .not to mention, his low opinion of ghouls doesn't do much to endear him to her either.

Smiling Jack: Like Strauss, she spends most of the game thinking he's not exactly the best company, but he was helpful and gave her a hand in a very tough spot in her life. And he seems to be the most chill of the older vampires she's come across.

And then the sarcophagus explodes, Alice manages to put together the clues on who's behind it, realize he slaughtered all those people on the Elizabeth Dane and is indirectly responsible for a lot of the shit she's gone through. . .and basically exiles herself from Los Angeles forever by staking him and leaving him for the sunrise on her way out. (She is as shocked as anyone that she managed to pull it off -- she thought it would be a much worse fight!)

Nines: Alice is grateful to him for helping to save her life at her initial trial, and she likes his philosophy just fine. Unfortunately, their relationship was wrecked fairly early on by two factors:

1) Alice making a joke about the Last Round, which Nines took poorly -- Alice attempted to apologize, but Nines refused to hear it

2) Alice not liking Skelter and Damsel, both of whom immediately gave her shit for being LaCroix's "lapdog" and a Malkavian

So yeah, there was definitely some tension there. And the whole Blood Hunt mess happened, and frankly Alice is shocked Nines was willing to talk to her when she went looking for him on her way out of L.A. post-Sabbat. She sometimes wishes they'd had a chance to make up, but given that she doesn't think much of the Anarchs in general anymore. . .she's not losing sleep over their cool relationship.

Isaac: He's one of the main reasons she doesn't think much of the Anarchs in general. She thought it was pretty smart of him to have someone to direct vampires new to Hollywood to him to say hello -- up until he mentioned "tribute." That and his generally imperious attitude toward her at first means she considers him just another Prince under a different title. Learning what happened between him and Ash didn't help either -- she can understand not wanting to let someone you care about just die, more than she would admit, but he doesn't seem to have handled things well post-Embrace, given he didn't do jack shit about the hunters menacing him. (Hoping the threat would drive Ash back into his arms, perhaps?) Add in that he didn't even pay her for taking care of the Gargoyle (never mind Alice didn't actually kill it -- she still convinced it to leave), and -- yeah. She considers him everything wrong with the Anarch movement.

Ming-Xiao: Alice considered her fairly stuck-up when they first met, but really no worse than any of the regular Kindred she'd met -- and it was interesting to quiz her on how Kue-jin are different. Of course, learning that the Mandarin was on her payroll and she's actively trying to kill her lowered her opinion of her a bit. She actively avoids Ming-Xiao after the Fu Syndicate stuff, and nearly just puts her new enchanted katana straight through her when she shows up post-Sabbat. She certainly doesn't shed a tear when she has to destroy her at the end of game.

Gary: Alice thinks he's a bit of an overdramatic jerk, but she kind of enjoys matching wits with him. And at least he's more honest about being a jerk than most vampires, and keeps up his end of the bargain when she frees Barnabus, no problem. Whatever relationship they have is built upon snarking at each other, basically. :p

5. How did they handle the situation with Heather (or, if you're like me, whoever you replaced Heather with in their personal story)?

Obviously, in my world, Victor got hit by the car and got the ghouling treatment. Alice saw him lying all alone in that room and -- couldn't let him just die like that. She's utterly horrified to learn that she created an addict by doing so, and actively has Betram and Knox seek Victor out (using the Cathayan's laptop as payment) and send him her way so she can keep an eye on him and hide any Masquerade violations he may commit. Her original intent was to hold onto him until he stopped being a ghoul, then quietly set him loose, away from prying Kindred eyes. . .

. . .And then she fell in love.

Cue quite a lot of angsting over the fact that she doesn't want to lose him, but she feels so guilty about the Blood Bond and she doesn't know if Victor's feelings are actually real -- which only gets worse when Victoria and Emily join the group, as then she's like "I should let Victor be with one of them -- oh crap I like them too, what the hell Alice, years of not falling in love and now it's two mortals and a zombie." It took Mercurio explaining that his Blood Bond does not actually force him to like LaCroix, just be loyal to him, to convince her that keeping Victor -- and turning Victoria into her ghoul -- might not be as bad as she feared.

And then Victor had his prophetic dream about the Sabbat. He and Emily successfully fled the city (the "letting Heather go" branch of her mini-storyline), but Lizzie and Victoria got captured by the Sabbat and used as bait for a trap for Alice (the "Heather gets captured and killed" branch). Unlike in canon, though, Alice is able to successfully save them (with the help of Bonejangles, VV, and Bertram), and ghouls Victoria to help her heal before sending them away. They all reunite once she's done with the endgame. :)

6. More generally, how closely does their storyline stick to how you have to do things canonically? For example, in quests, did they find third options that weren't offered by the game? Are their stories affected by mods you use while playing the game?

I play with the Unofficial Plus Patch, so there's going to be some stuff from that included in my story, just because that's what I'm used to -- for example, Alice is doing the restored library quest featuring the Lasombra in her storyline. As for the main storyline itself, I'd say that, even with the character replacements and suchlike, it stays pretty much true to the game until about the time Alice hits Hollywood -- namely because I've replaced one-shot character Sam with Victoria, who has a much larger role in "Londerland Bloodlines." After that, it starts to veer off a bit more, in particular during "Italian Dinner," where Emily, Lizzie, and Bonejangles join the party --

But the most major break with canon is in the endgame. Namely, Alice decides to skip fighting her way up Venture Tower and instead climbs up the outside with the help of some climbing equipment she sources from Mercurio. :p Lacroix is more than a little surprised. XD (Though she still has to fight the bat-form of the Sheriff -- can't escape the whole boss fight, Alice!)

7. Do they have an alternate storyline/history of what might have happened had they been Embraced but not ended up the protagonist Fledgling?

I covered that a couple of weeks ago! You can read the "Mistakenly Thinned Blood" AU of the AU in detail here, but the short version is "Alice is Embraced more secretly by her sire Fish, manages to kill him post-Embrace, goes to Santa Monica, and ends up hanging out with the Thin-Bloods because everyone thinks she's one of them. Still saves Victor, meets Victoria, and rescues Lizzie, Emily, and Sam from the Giovannis, though -- and then gets out of town before the freaking-out populace who just learned what she actually is can catch up with her."

8. Is the Cabbie a) Caine, b) another Kindred who believes himself to be Caine for whatever reason, c) another Kindred playing the long con by pretending to be Caine, d) something else entirely?

He's Caine -- I like the headcanon, and the idea of him posing as a random taxi driver in L.A., looking upon all this chaos and wondering "why. why." amuses me. XD

9. How do you handle/explain away obvious "this only works in a video game" mechanics in their storyline (e.g., the inventory system that allows them to carry like seven guns and five melee weapons at once)?

With me, Alice is going to be carrying a lot fewer weapons at once -- she'll generally pick a few favorites to take with her on missions (she always has a knife on her, at least), and uses Obfuscate to truck them around invisibly when she's in crowded areas. She probably also gets a bag or backpack to carry useful things. She also goes through a lot more clothes until she gets some decent leather jackets and such -- her starting outfit is basically wrecked by the tutorial mission, leading to LaCroix's agents having to buy her a new dress before she can pick up her things and go to her new haven in Santa Monica. (I have decided to make it Symbolic by having her wear the modern equivalent of her London outfit from A:MR when she gets Embraced, and the outfit being destroyed representing her change from human to vampire.)

10. How do you explain why the Fledgling is so ridiculously overpowered when compared to most other vampires their age (beyond the fact that they're likely 8th generation, going by their blood pool)?

My personal explanation, which might come up in the final conversation Alice has with Caine in the cab, is that some people in this universe are born with great supernatural potential, for whatever reason, and Alice is one of them. There's just something about her that lends itself well to being a supernatural creature -- and a powerful one at that. If she'd been from a werewolf line, she would have been an amazing werewolf; if she had awakened as a mage, she would have been a super-talented mage. As she was Embraced, she gets to be a terrifyingly strong vampire. Alice personally considers this a pretty shitty "chosen one" status, but she can't deny she liked getting really good at Obfuscate really fast!

[redriivers]

          what’s up demons it’s ya girl kit, back at it again with a second trash baby, new and worse than ever ! you’ll find some information about lysander under the cut ! um just as a fair warning this shit ended up getting a lot longer than i anticipated, pls forgive me and also hmu for a brief tl;dr if you’re not feeling like reading this monstrosity ..

*.:｡ ✧( jamie dornan , 33 , he / him ) a little bird told me that they have seen lysander rivers roaming the capital, the knight from harrenhal, and loyal to house blackwood. there have been whispers that they’re candid & disciplined. however, some would say that they’re resentful & duplicitous. may the old gods and the new gods be watching over them !

           --- tw for ; murder, death, violence, all kinds of bad things .. sorry. 

ok first off some history headcanons, because technically no one ( show- )canonically holds harrenhal: after the battle for the dawn and the big bad fighting that happens at the end of asoiaf, ser bronn of the blackwater survives and finally gets his damned castle and lordship, making him lord bronn blackwater of harrenhal, which is how ( after a few generations ) lysander ends up here

as you can probably tell by his name, lysander is a bastard from the riverlands, the natural son of lord tion blackwater, fathered on the wife of his kennelmaster, an honestly dimwitted young girl renowned more for her beauty than ... anything else

anyway when she found out she was pregnant she pretty much mcLost it and raised some hell because neither lord blackwater nor her husband were gonna want to be doing shit to make sure she and her baby were safe, so she basically tapped into westerosi call-out culture n guilt-tripped/aggressively pressured lord blackwater into ensuring lysander’s safety

of course she didn’t bargain for her own safety because like i said she ain’t that smart and pretty much figured tion would take care of her but ... once she gave birth to lysander she was ‘given back’ to her husband who, obviously enraged by her infidelity, beat her to an early grave

meanwhile lysander’s father was young, had recently come into his lordship, and was as of yet unmarried, so for a few of the early years he kinda played dad to lysander ? of course he wasn’t a great dude and mostly just had lysander taught to ride and read and fight and all that, things all young boys should know etc. but then he got married and started having real life legitimate children ?

well we all know how that goes --- this new wife was concerned lysander, as the eldest son ( although still a bastard ) might present a threat to the inheritance of her own, legitimate children and tried to talk her husband into ousting him. when that didn’t work ( listen, lysander’s a strapping young lad with an obvious talent for fighting and her own children are weak lil babies which one would you rather hang out with ) she even tried to have him killed 

tbh that was fair, he was a lowkey murderous creep even as a child, but like .. he was still blossoming ok. but he definitely did kill a stableboy for taunting him and calling him a bastard, it was a pretty ... messy affair and all, and definitely didn’t help convince his father’s wife that he wasn’t gonna murder her children to claim their birthright

lmao bad shit happens at harrenhal don’t come for me ok

so after that, for everyone’s safety but also just for his own convenience, tion sends lysander off to be a squire in the service of lord blackwood

ok so this ! is where lysander turns from smol child to Evil Man .. tbh the older her gets, the more cognizant he becomes of how shitty his situation really is, and learning about all the laws of inheritance that preclude him from the lordship he believes should be his pisses him the fuck off

especially after being not so ceremoniously kicked out of his own home where he had pretty much free reign to a place where he was a squire and beholden to some other lord’s commands, he was Not Happy

but mostly he just put that anger into his training like my dude practically came out of the womb with a sword and is damned skilled with it, but also trained in most other common weapons found in the known world. that’s just what happens when you’re a lil dude with a lot of anger and some not so savory tendencies

honestly lives to fight. was knighted by brynjolf blackwood at age sixteen, one of the youngest in the realm at the time, and having grown rather close to lord blackwood’s daughter frida, became her unofficial guard / sworn sword. honestly they were pals ok he definitely felt some loyalty towards her and her father and longs to be accepted and just

doesn’t rly know how to go about that so instead of doing what a normal person does my boy just is a reckless endangerment to most of the surrounding area. he’s furious and resentful of his position and idk just there’s a lot of anger and sadness there but it aint healthy 

so he runs off and picks fights, wants to always be the one leading the charge against outlaws or brigands. even then, he’s garnering a bloody reputation, earning him some unpleasant ( but lbr badass ) nicknames idk. some ppl call him lysander the red --- he doesn’t hate that tbh. loves the ghost of harrenhal makes him feel ~*~special~*~

 other ppl call him the blackwater bastard. he’s less happy abt that. 

definitely stabhappy. will fight a bitch.. this gets him into some trouble ok like for a while the blackwoods mind their own business and turn a blind eye to the increasingly shitty stuff he gets up to. really, they’re all too happy to have someone skilled doing the dirty work they’d rather not ( listn ok it’s good to have a mad dog on a leash ) but eventually when he seriously wounds a visiting lordling while sparring --- the wound festers, costs the young lord an arm, and rumors abound that lysander’s blade was poisoned --- there’s really no more excuses or second chances

despite an obvious bond with frida, brynjolf still sends lysander away after that ( bc he’s a lil shitstain tbh ) but what he doesn’t know is ... ooooooh it was rly frida who had him sent away, her dad just did the sending

i tbh still need to figure out exactly how old he was when this happened, but idk since then i imagine he’s mostly been making a fucking nuisance of himself in and around the seven kingdoms ? sleeping around, killing dudes, having fun. he’s a big fan of the killing dudes bit idk .. been creeping around the rainwood, the dornish marches, and more recently the kingswood. killin’ outlaws . “protecting people from outlaws” is a great way to cover up just havin fun fighting n stealing from ppl i guess. he makes a few ‘friends’ doing this too, a brotherhood of unsavory, selfish little fucks tbh but oh well, a friends’ a friend

since this everyone and half their damned household came to king’s landing, all the major roadways and passages to the capital have been teeming with outlaws and brigands hoping to steal from these lords and ladies, and right there behind them is lysander and his merry band of murderers ready to kill these thieves, then steal what they had stolen, and then lie through their damned teeth and pretend they never found shit

so yeah this whole big celebration thing is pretty lucrative for him idk he’s having fun, doing his thing, ready to either kill or die at any minute i Guess

anyway like his app says he’s loyal to house blackwood and altho he lowkey maybe still is in some ways, he’s mostly loyal to himself. he’s like a videogame character idk ready to do any kind of sidequest if u pay him enough, but he is Not a good person at all and loves him some torture tbh. can be charming when he wants to be, and goal-oriented and disciplined enough that he can easily come across as the good dutiful soldier but bish he ain’t

highkey wants harrenhal. that’s his #lifegoal but ofc that’s not super easy to achieve. pretty much impossible tbh but hey a boy can dream

so that’s lysander .. honestly if u made it to the end of this fucking thing i applaud u. what a monstrosity smh...