#prae is hell

[yezielmoore]

18. Hackneyed

It's a short one today. 'cuz life and a depressive spell that flattened me like a pankacke got in the way. But we are not giving up! We are filling these as the inspiration hits and as time allows lol.

Anyway, more Himeko being sassy and giving voice to my thoughts on Prae Gaius lmao

~.~.~

“Are you done?”

“What?” Despite the modulator built into his helmet, Gaius Van Baelsar, scourge of Eorzea, sounded flabbergasted. 

Had no one interrupted his long-winded speeches before? How fortunate… for her. 

“I said,” she repeated slowly, as if talking to a very small (or very stupid) child, “are you done? Because frankly? Your speech was cheesy, trite, embarrassing and overused,” Himeko waved a hand, her every word dripping with dismissal and disdain. 

Some would say that baiting a man that stood on the head of his very own monster mecha was a bad idea. Himeko wouldn’t exactly disagree, but she would point out that the whole point of her presence was to beat him into a pulp and she would rather do it before Gaius could get his second wind and start another Fascism 101 masterclass. 

Himeko could be patient when she wanted to, or if it was necessary, but after fighting all night long, her patience was simply nonexistent. 

“Honestly, I have heard better from a 17 years old girl in the middle of her megalomaniacal rampage.” Himeko ignored the pang of regret in her heart and made a show of looking at Gaius from his pointy helmet to the sole of his feet. “She pulled the magical girl transformation way better too.”

“How dare you!?” Gaius growled in outrage. 

It was a decent growl, she would give him that. Internally. No need to soothe the burns.

“Booring~” Himeko singsonged in her most annoying voice. “And stupid. I’m not even Eorzean, you buffoon. Whoever wrote that speech should be fired.” 

She tapped her claws onto the haft of her battle ax, the metallic clack-clack-clack-clack echoed in the stifling silence that showcased his indignation and mounting fury. 

“Enough of this prattle!” Gaius seethed, that stupid as fuck gunblade pointed her way. “Face me, savage, and let this fight decide who is fit to rule!”

Himeko bared her fangs and readied herself, shifting from insultingly relaxed to battle ready in a heartbeat.

“Bring it on, you piece of imperialist shit.”

[the-evil-pizza]

Time to see my (pixellated) boys!

[dreamerwriternstargazer]

THEY MURDERED HER?!

JANG HAN-SEOK YOU CAN CATCH THESE HANDS MOTHERF-

[devotedlystrangewizard]

nope the absence of the glib line still hurts

[quotes-from-the-bookery]

"Last year,” I said, “I crushed the skull of a man who thought he was a visionary. He wanted to save Callow, he insisted. Thing is, I don’t really believe you can save people anymore. I tried that and it doesn’t ever quite seem to work right. I think it’s because it doesn’t matter, if they worship at the House of Light or sacrifice at some dark altar – most days they’re just people, and those are the same everywhere. They till the same fields, pay the same taxes, marry their neighbours and die fat if they’re lucky enough."

“Named are more,” Archer said. “We’re the brighter flame: the people who can actually change things.”

“Are we?” I smiled. “The part of the Conquest you pay attention to is the Calamities sweeping all opposition aside. You think that’s because they were mighty, but that’s not the part that matters. They were figureheads, enablers. Praes won because it had grown as a nation while Callow had not.”

“The Empire grew because villains made it grow,” she replied flatly.

“And don’t you think it’s telling the most successful villains since Triumphant put their efforts into reforming institutions rather than building a bunch of flying fortresses?” I asked. “People won that war, not Named. Malicia and Black, they’re brilliant – but there’s been a lot of brilliant Named over the centuries, on both sides. What makes those two different is that they know change comes from the bottom, not the top.”

“That’s…” she hesitated.

Heresy, she wanted to say. That it went against everything we knew. History was forged by the hands of those that stood out and crowned themselves with power, those precious few even the Gods recognized as apart from the masses. Except that’s a lie. A thousand Dread Emperors and a thousand Kings, but nothing ever changed – until what lay behind them did. It’s not the tip of the blade that kills, it’s the force that drove it into your belly. That was, I was beginning to grasp, what I’d done wrong in Callow. I’d fought to put all the authority in my hands with the vague notion that I could fix it all afterwards, but how was that any different from what the Lone Swordsman had been doing? There were people all over the Empire who could make things better, if they were allowed to. And if there were forces trying to stand in the way? Well, I was a villain. The parts of Creation I did not like, I would break.

“Right now I have an enemy in Liesse who thinks by sheer will and ruthlessness she’ll drag Praes back to a golden age that never existed,” I said. “I’m not worried about her, deep down, because even if she claims I’m the one going against the grain she’s the one fighting the tide.”

I broke off a piece of turnover and popped it into my mouth.

“Last spring, a little boy gave an orc a crown of flowers. There’s something beyond any of us happening in the Empire, right now,” I said. “Malicia and Black think they control it, but I don’t think they do. They’re watching the story when what’s important is the people telling it. They want me to part of the machine they’re built, but I don’t think that’s my role.”

“Then what is?” Archer asked quietly.

“When heroes and villains come knocking in the name of fate,” I spoke, tone calm and measured. “When they try to drag us back to where we were by force with a Choir behind them or the host of some howling Hell – I’ll kill them all. Every last one of them.”

Softly, Archer laughed.

“Ah, Foundling,” she murmured. “I was wrong about you – you’re not boring at all. You’re just as mad as the rest of us.”

I looked up at the sky. Night was dying.

“Drink up, Archer,” I said. “Dawn’s coming and we have a god to rob blind.”

[ohmypawsandwhiskers]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Spread the self-love ❤️

Oh my goodness! I love this idea! Thank you for the message!

Alright, let's see...

Of Devils and Monsters (Attack on Titan; Erwin x OC) Status: In Progress (7/??) This has to be my first one up, because it's one that has my full attention and entire heart!

Summary: Fate brings two old friends together again and sets them on the path to truth. In a last ditch effort to save her own skin, Lozen Daniella Pierce reaches out to an old friend in hopes of gaining her freedom. In doing so, she and Erwin Smith find themselves thrust on a path to truth- the truth behind the walls, behind secret organizations, and the truth of who they turned into. Rating will go up, but I am setting it at M for now. Eventual Levi x OC in later chapters.

Read it here on Ao3! I will probably start cross-posting to tumblr for non-Ao3 users in the near future due to the change in privacy settings because AI and bots are big bags of wet and smelly socks.

2. If It's True (Dragon Age: Inquisition; Solas x OC) Status: In progress, but on hold for the time being This is another one of my babies near and dear to my heart that I plan on picking up soon once I replay DAI.

Summary: Before the veil was erected, the Elvhenan empire was a sight to behold, with towering cities of crystal and gold, plenty of resources to go around, and Elves and Spirits lived in harmony. But there was a dark underbelly rarely acknowledged- at least until Solas encounters a woman who changes his views of his beloved people and puts him on the path to ending the tyranny of the Evanuris.

Read it here on Ao3! Again, if people are interested, I can cross-post here.

The next are drabbles I have posted to reddit in the past for the Dragon Age OC from #2, taking point post-veil. I haven't posted them on tumblr or Ao3- I don't believe, so I can link them below. Please excuse the summaries! I am not great with coming up with them on the fly.

3. Prompt 4: Something that was lost but now regained, regret, a wish, a window, touch. (Nehna x Solas)

Summary: Nehna decides on how to tell Solas that she recovered parts of her memories- parts in which she knew him.

Read it here!

4. Out of Time (Dragon Age)

A bunch of Halloween prompts thrown together for another round of Nehna and Solas!

Summary: In a brief reprieve from war, while she is hiding out from the Evanuris, Nehna awakes to a nightmare

Read it here!

5. Smoke, Gun Fire, and a Sense of Deja-vu (Mass Effect; Garrus x OC)

Summary: As Kei and her team work against the clock to save the colonists of Horizon, she struggles to separate past from present.

I will put this one below a read more, since it's not officially shared anywhere else besides discord, I believe. It will be part of a story or series of one-shots I eventually share, but for now, it remains in my drafts!

2170

Acrid odor assaulted her senses as Makeda pulled her friend along through the burning prefab building, hard spilling out of the corners of her eyes as smoke stung her eyes. Gunfire and screams took over any thought as instinct kicked in- where that instinct came from, she had no idea, but Makeda wasn’t about to question it now.

“What the hell is going on?” Cindy screamed as they scrambled over rubble. 

“Why would I know? Just run!” Just as they rounded the corner, they were met with a beeping followed by a force that sent the pair flying.

Present 

“Shepard! Shepard! Kei-” A hand pulled her down beside a hedge as a cutting beam narrowly missed her left ear as  she was brought back. Horizon, the Collectors. Abducted colonists. Everything was a blur since they touched down.

Specks of blue cleared the fog from her brain just enough for her to pick up on the worried twitch of mandibles. “We’re pinned down, Shep. Any ideas?” 

Kei peered over the barrier to be greeted by a line of husks ambling beside a praetorian. She took a shot at one of the mindless puppets before taking cover. It crumbled to the ground, twitching just a moment before it went completely still. “What’s the heat clip situation?” Kei asked as she summoned her drone to distract the enemies. With a beep and a whirl, as if it was assenting to unspoken orders, it was off, zooming the crowded field to distract their enemies for a moment. 

“Would advise using abilities as much as possible until another cache,” came Mordin’s voice over comms. “Did find particle beam dropped by assassin drone- could be useful against biotic barrier of the praetorian.” His efficiency with words always brought a smile to her face in the heat of battle. 

“Right, Garrus, cover me. Mordin, get that gun prepped.”

2170

“Mark, get down,” Cindy hissed from their hiding spot under the rubble, trying to get their classmate to hide from sight. Her voice didn’t carry over the conflict around them, and Mark fell right before their eyes. Before Cindy could scream, Makeda covered her mouth. 

“You want them to find us?” Makeda whispered, trying her best to stop her voice from shaking. “We need to keep moving. If we make it to my place, we can at least defend ourselves.” 

Silent tears streaked through the ash on her friends face as she nodded. 

“At least he can be a distraction. We need to move, and quickly.” Without waiting for an answer, Makeda began to belly crawl from under the fallen wall. The Batarians wouldn’t get her or her family. 

Present

The vibration radiating from the particle beam made the aiming difficult as Makeda tried to balance not dropping the damned thing while evading the constant stream of deadly energy from the last remaining enemy. In her periphery, she saw Mordin and Garrus alternating their shots in an attempt give her a break from the seemingly singular focus of the Praetorian. For a brief moment, the enemy’s beam was interrupted, giving her time to duck behind a crate and quickly catch her breath.  “I think we have it,” she yelled. “Just one final push. When it’s back in the air, I’ll take down its biotic barrier with a taste of its own medicine, and then Mordin and Garrus, throw everything you’ve got at it.”

2170

The ground beneath her shook as the bombardment against her house continued. Cindy’s body remained unmoving from it’s fetal position- any sign of life had left hours ago. It had been a mistake coming here to try and find her family. All that had greeted them was an empty house, already rifled through for any supplies or survivors. 

Crisp air and soot made her eyes water.

Makeda hugged her knees into her chest, rocking back and forth as though it would be the only thing keeping the sobs at bay.  Should she wait or continue in hopes of finding her family?

Present

Makeda lept from cover sending the remaining power of the gun careening into the floating creature. One final push. That was all it took until the creature shuddered and then evaporated into dust. Feeling uneasy, Makeda’s legs gave away beneath her, and she welcomed the thud of reality. The visions would stop. 

‘They will, won’t they?’

Footsteps from either side of her came running up to her position as Mordin began applying medi-gel to the burns sustained from the Praetorian’s beam. She welcomed the cold the medicine brought in hopes it would just serve as additional grounding to reality. 

“Good call on the Collector’s gun, Mordin,” Makeda said, and her eyes flickered over to Garrus, hoping he didn’t catch the waiver in her voice. 

Mordin went to respond, but was interrupted by the cowardly colonist they had run into hurling curses and insults their way. Garrus helped her to feet and tried to keep a steadying talon on her shoulder to be brushed off as Makeda rounded on the mechanic. 

“What the hell did you want us to do, huh? Most of the colonists were gone by the time we made a dent in their forces. I wanted to save them as much as you did-”

“Bullshit! Why would you care about a bunch of colonists out in the sticks?”

A voice stopped all of them in their tracks. “Show some reverence, Trevor, you’re standing in the presence of a ghost.”

That voice. She knew that voice. 

All anger dissipated as she turned to see the one face she needed to see. Needed to know was alright. “Kaidan!”

[kc-the-writer]

🖍️🧭🍄 ❤️

Dearest Prae! I am so sorry for the long delay on this. The resort wifi was as weak as I was when I got home.

Post Any sentence from your wip

Eliot is the reason Isaac was blinded and you’re widowed. Yet, If you believe anyone has fallen for your sad widow act, you’re mistaken. When you say 'I miss him,' your intent is clear.  

Decriscribe your wip/one of your wips in the format of:

“Pendleton Lore + King Lear = Dead As Earth”  

An alternative title to your/ one of your WIP(s)?

Book 4 is based on The Tempest. The quotes currently fighting for the title are:

When I waked, I cried to dream again.

and

 Hell is empty and all the devils are here.

[linelpisffxiv]

Werlyt Rant times

Inspired by a baseless claim I'm pretending isn't a thing but sadly aligns perfectly with my already sunk hype for DaT

Something always bugged me about the way people loved memeing on "Such Devastation!" Maybe it's because they were memeing on how it was said.

To me, it was always a pitiless moment. "Yes, you did intend this. If you thought you would be welcomed as a fucking hero with a parade and roses by people actively fighting you, you're wrong. There were always going to be casualties. On both sides. Of non-combatants. You're wrong if you thought it'd be easy. You aligned with a mysterious shadow-y wizard with all the answers for you, and you thought 'This is great! This is so powerful I won't have to use it!' without questioning whether said shadow wizard had his own plans to use it? Whether the people of Eorzea wouldn't find a way around the plan you have? Especially when you hate Eikons so much but are using their power against us? Yes. Yes, this much destruction is exactly what was going to result from this! And your indifference to this possiblity means that yes, such devastation is indeed your intention. You're ignorant and power hungry."

And they keep having him say it in different, less meme-y words. In 5.4 to Alphinaud during the stinger when they see Black Rose. To the WoL in 5.5 when he returns Alphinaud's body. In 6.0 to Estinien. And again in 6.5 to his adopted daughter, last of his kids, in Werlyt.

Werlyt had a lot more issues like this, painting his conquest as a noble, but failed dream that was respectable. They retcon Cid into having been cool with him since the speech before the first boss fight in Prae, and I'm like "I was trusting you at the time? Now I'm always going to second guess everything you did and whether you wanted me to win, or were just helping lead me to Gaius so he could win. That cutting out was suspicious."

The way every character bends over to make him out to be amazing. The one who was convinced he struggled just is chill at the end, and he gets a fucking Mayorship and I want to strangle everyone.

So seeing this is one of the people allegedly in charge of DaT makes my beat into the ground hopes from the second (and third) fanfests and starts telling them to limbo in hell because they're not going up.

There are things I am excited for in DaT, but none are the MSQ, except maybe "What the fuck is going on with S9? Hello Ascian bullshit that will make me forget about the colonial feels of the rest of the expac for 20 minutes before it becomes relevant again!"

Like, I was going to be nice before. I was going to try and turn it into the last semi-canon adventure, but with someone like that at the helm, I can't trust the worldbuilding to be solid enough for me to make something different out of it, though by gods I'll try.

[azemcrystal]

Times are tough.

Times are tough, I barely feel like a person. Sometimes I struggle to find a way to keep going, to avoid succumbing to that blissful oblivion.

But today I played the 10th anniversary event with Starsong, and we got to laugh over getting bodied by Hermes together, laying dead next to each other on the floor. Joked about Gaius’s inappropriate relations with his military subordinates in Prae, revisited a few circles of Lahabrea’s No Fun Twelve Layer Hell Zoo, happy to be joking around with someone dear to me again. Tonight, under the closest moon until 2036, I burned bay leaves with wishes written in charcoal on them, and held my cat up to look at the sky with me.

We experience life in seconds and inches, like every other creature on this planet, yet reflect in years and miles. It’s about finding the seconds that matter.

I will keep making seconds that matter until it’s my time to rest within the earth.

[sgiandubh]

This is really just like those Tshirts my friend Prae sells everyday on Khao San Road, in wonderful Bangkok: Sam(e) Sam(e), but different.

It was always going to be Just Jared, the uber-mediocre media outlet en titre. With a ridiculous, careless detail on top that did not escape me (nor Corazoncito, you know who you are, LOL - wonderful!):

Published at 12:50 PM local time, but mentions 'Wednesday afternoon' - I mean, wait a second, how could it be any more damn obvious this is a low budget, hastily cobbled plant-cum-beard operation? S is not the Aga Khan or Clooney, to make worldwide news in seconds, come on - and JJ knows that very well : 'If you don't know, S is one of the stars' (bla-bla). So here we go again, ladies: Cristina Ochoa reloaded. And what the hell is going on with all those thumbs, in those pics? Why are they so bizarre, every single time? Is it me? SHould I order a new pair of glasses? Something seems odd, here:

It was always going to be Soho, exclusively. Just Jared, Just Soho. There are historical reasons to this. Patterns, etc.

It was always going to be at the beginning of summer, because 'tis the season to be jolly, in this twisted Lalaland cheap narrative. Patterns.

But now we do have a 'mystery woman', which my sick mind (sick because still interested by such entreaties, of course) immediately translated as 'dignified escort'. The intention was, of course, to sell it as something organic and stir sensibilities across the dash. But the result looks like some mighty lackadaisical, last minute planning. And perhaps even, as @outlanderskin pointed out, damage control.

That puts to rest any other storylines, at least for the moment, brown noses all the harpies that were shouting I wrote Anon myself and well: You-Know-Who was never a topic,anyways.

I won't miss You-Know-Who, but let's see her out with a fanfare:

If anyone had doubts (regarding the Anon sent to @sgiandubh ) , it was true... They don't need to have any more. Damage containment activated: 🙃🙃🙃 give me all the popcorn

[warlordfelwinter]

gonna end up memorizing gaius’ elevator speech just because castrum, prae, and porta give the best exp drops and i’m trying to level a job over here

[meteorjam]

Arthit being jealous of the only lesbian in the friend group is the height of comedy

[echthr0s]

decided to bang out all the roulettes that are available to me rn and it took 2.5 hours and at first I was like “holy shit wow wtf” and then I remembered I got Praetorium for MSQ roulette

[dreamerwriternstargazer]

Yeah sorry but I like life and I’m trying desperately to enjoy any bits and pieces I can and I’m not gonna willingly put myself in a cold classroom 2 hours earlier than I need to to mark work, when I could draw and paint while the sun comes up

And have breakfast slowly in the soft morning light

And heal my darn cramps

Rip to workaholics but I think I’ve finally figured out life is for romanticising and not doing more work than you need to for no reason

…..Prae what the HELL have you done to me?

Last night I was all chipper and optimistic about starting work today and thinking yeah I’ll go in early so I can avoid taking the bus and I can catch up on marking and prep work

It’s 06:52

It is cold

It is utterly dark outside

And I have 20 minutes to get a breakfast ready that I can take with me

[monochrome-monarch]

An attempt at the Ghidorahs was made. Part of @flamingkingoftheskies ' PJO/Godzilla AU Pssst, by the way, check 'em out. Their stuff is cool

[devotedlystrangewizard]

losing ur sprout status is so weird you spend like. so many hours as a sprout then boom. you no longer have an excuse to suck