#pretty much everything about the game is bad

[hyperions-light]

Someone was being a fucking hater on my explicitly positive DATV post AGAIN (u all know I can see your tags right. They get delivered to me express mail style) so here’s an essay about how I thought the Grey Warden plotline was great:

First, it was extremely lore-consistent. I don’t know how to tell people this, but the Grey Wardens simply are sort of shady— it’s part of their charm. In DAO alone we found out they:

- kill anyone who refuses the joining

- are definitely using a blood magic ritual to induct people

- tried to usurp the throne of Fereldan

In DA2 they:

-Forced Malcolm Hawke to perform a blood magic ritual against his will to contain Corypheus, by threatening to kill his family

- Built a giant prison in the mountains they didn’t tell anyone about and that someone could wander into and not be able to escape

- the entire Corypheus thing. They didn’t even tell the other Wardens like what he was or how dangerous he was.

DAI:

- the demon army thing was pretty bad

And that’s not even mentioning any stuff from the books or comics or shows! That’s just stuff in the games!

So they’re shady. It’s okay! They’re my little woobie guys, idc if they’re sort of shady!

But the plot in DATV is about all of those previously established issues coming back to bite them in the fucking ass, as they should! Knock knock, it’s the consequences of your actions, baby! The chickens are home to roost

(Which is just good storytelling. Like if you set up a bunch of issues and then never pay them off or anything that’s bad.)

Destroying Weisshaupt was inspired! Firstly bc Davrin is Weisshaupt, metaphorically (bulwark against the darkness, etc, I already made a post) so it serves his character arc. But also because it strips away the pageantry and the grandeur from them; no more castle for you! No more myth!

Davrin explicitly tells you that the First Warden is a traditionalist; he represents the historical attitudes of the Wardens. They do not accept help, they do not give up their secrets, they are standing alone against the dark. And it doesn’t work! He’s fucking wrong (and very punch-able). Being secretive and isolationist is a mistake that costs them nearly everything.

But also, and I’m not sure how many people experienced this on the first go-around, the game does ultimately come down on the side of the Wardens always trying to do the right thing. You CAN talk the First Warden down, because in the end he’s a Warden, and he might be stubborn and curmudgeonly and miserable but he CARES about the world. He came to do good. He admits he was wrong and he helps you. Because the heart of the Wardens is about selfless service to other people. In Death, Sacrifice.

Stripping away Weisshaupt and the glory and pageantry leaves the Wardens at their most vulnerable and forces them to return to their fundamental principles: helping people. That’s what Lavendel is about. Helping individual people and preserving every life possible even if it doesn’t feel that glamorous or heroic. Lavendel isn’t a significant place; it doesn’t matter, but it matters so much.

And then, the Cauldron.

First off, do not at me about Last Flight. I don’t think people should have to read external materials to play this game and understand it. If the information is vital it should be presented to the player in the text.

The Cauldron is the repository of the Wardens’ secrets; it’s where the keep the bones of the Archdemons, the secret to the Joining, ancient and dangerous weapons, as well as the bodies of the griffons, which represents their most shameful errors. Isseya is the avatar of the Wardens’ mistakes; she’s been hurt by what they made her do, and her pain was never acknowledged by them. They buried her story and her suffering like they bury everything they don’t want to deal with and are ashamed of. They left the bones of the griffons, whose deaths they directly caused, to rot because they were too sad to acknowledge them.

But it was wrong to walk away, it was wrong to bury it. Isseya makes sure that they can never do that again, that they have to own what they did and take responsibility. By discovering who she is and by restoring her personhood to her, by reminding her of her love which drove her to her anguish in the first place, Davrin saves her and he saves the griffons. He doesn’t do it using violence, because another sin of the Wardens is just assuming that they can kill their way out of their problems, which the game disproves by revealing the origin of the Blight. You can kill as many darkspawn as you want, you will never fix it! The Titans’ dreams do not need to be slain, they need to be healed.

Isseya is in so much pain because of her incredible love for both the griffons and the Wardens, and because of her guilt. Look what she builds! An alternate Weisshaupt, a distorted reflection of her home. She entreats both Davrin and Assan to join her, because she doesn’t think she’s trying to destroy anything. She’s trying to save them! She wants them to come home. “I am their mother,” she says, and she’s right. She saved them, then, and she ends up saving them now! Because she made Davrin and the other Wardens look, unflinchingly, at what they had done, it will never happen again. She was going about it wrong during the game, but she was ALWAYS trying to save them.

Davrin, Antoine and Evka represent the Wardens’ commitment to being different. They let Flynn undergo the Joining without becoming a Warden, they reveal secrets to non-Warden Rook, they offer to help the Viper without asking for anything in return. They ask for help and offer it freely. If the Wardens are going to persist into a world without Archdemons, they HAVE to change. They can’t be what they were anymore. The game is asking what a Warden is when they have to be more than their oath, when they have to live. It’s a great exploration of and expansion on previously established lore.

Anyway, my advice if you hated the plot and the game and the characters is to a) make your own post b) don’t bother me about it, because I have the time and I will be loudly positive in response!

[hetrosjistin]

No you know what, I thought I was done, but I'm not.

The problem with this shit is that it misses the point of having shit like the crows in Thedas at all.

You can't sanetize stuff and have it have the same impact, it's not just the hollowness, it literally reduces the conflict to a nothing burger.

You know why Dorian is, perhaps, one of my FAVORITE goddamn characters in the entire DA game series?

BECAUSE HE LITERALLY HAS TO GO THROUGH DEPROGRAMMING HIMSELF OF HIS RACIST SLAVER CULTURE! It's not enough that he wants to oppose the Venatori and all that nonsense. It's not enough that in inquistion, he literally went to the part of the world where he's taught they ENSLAVE people like him and burn out their brains if they're not good little obedient pet mages.

He goes there because it's right and that doesn't make him magically a perfect and good person. He's STILL flawed, he STILL has the baggage of his culture, and ADDRESSING IT is a constant fucking undercurrent of his dialogue and interactions throughout the game. How he is both proud of everything his civilization, the oldest extant civilization in the world, and horrified by the excesses of it's bad actors, and as time goes on his REALIZATION of how horrific each and every element of it is.

Like, when the Venatori take over minrathos. It's depicted as something ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE but frankly? That implies things were pretty okay before that!

What would ahve been SO MUCH MORE INSIDEOUS, would have been to show how LITTLE things had changed. Oh, have the burned out ruin of the hide out, have a few ventatori guards standing here and there, but now show how ABANDONED AND CALLOUS they all are. They don't -need- to set up a fucking police state, Tevinter already HAS IT IN PLACE. You don't NEED fucktons of venatori guards around docktown.

But by doing it the way they did they robbed so much of the substance of Tevinter from the game.

Like I'm actually on board with some of the changes. The Broodmother thing about the darkspawn was handled just about as well as it was ever going to be handled in Origins, so them all but abandoning them from the lore as time went on is a smart move IMO. Making significant changes to the dark spawn with the blight is a big deal, and a smart move.

But the draining of life from all the rest is unpardonable.

Have the Lord of Fortune -not give a shit- about other people's culture. It's pretty, it's bling, if it was so important why wasn't it better guarded? Why was it so stealable? Have that be a FLAW in their goddamn thing as FUCKING PIRATES.

Have the found family elements of the Crows, have them have a whole blood debt and true contract society thing. Have us confront the fact that if someone fails a contract their life is FUCKING FORFEIT. Play up the whole idea that found family can be JUST as toxic. Play up the idea that these orphans and street kids taken in by a fucking -assassin cult- effectively are molded to SERVE the interests of the nation as members of the 'family'.

I was -so- incredibly happy with inquisition where they CONTRASTED Blackwall so hard with the order at large. The Grey Wardens are a -death cult- created to fight the APOCALYPSE through wrote tradition and absolutely seething loyalty to the idea that they are the thin line against the darkness.

Play that up, show how god awful the anderfels are scoured of life by the blight and still infested with dark spawn. GIVE THE FIRST WARDEN A NAME AND WHY THE FUCK IS THIS GUY IN FUCKING MINRATHOS?! Play up the ENTIRE IDEA of what's wrong with them and contrast it with -our- experience of wardens from, basically, wardens who never actually underwent the indoctrination process.

Someone else on this hellsite said that the longer you think on veilgaurd instead of playing it, the worse it gets and goddamn is that the truth.

Problematic fiction is good because it coaches us through stories on how to fucking DEAL with actual bad things.

By sanitizing your fiction you rob it of it's ability to -teach- the audience any lessons beyond 'bad people bad'.

Why Fenris could Never Cameo in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

In the run up to Dragon age: The Veilguard, I was almost certain that Fenris would be our main legacy character from previous games. Not only has he been central in the comics released between DAI and DATV, he is an escaped Tevinter slave who's plot revolved around magisters, magic and the structural prejudices surrounding elves in Thedas. Not only that, but he's canonically in Tevinter killing slavers currently so he's geographically in the right place for us to meet him.

About halfway through the game though, it was clear to me: Fenris could never cameo in The Veilguard. Because he'd break it.

How the Veilguard treats Thedas is...odd to me, to say the least. I will be writing another post about how much I adored the expanded big lore in this game (the titans, ancient elves were spirits, where the blight came from etc.) and yet while these large lore expansions worked for me, the actual culture of modern Thedas is entirely softened, its sharp edges filed down until it's a sanitised fantasy world devoid of what made the franchise so vibrant and compelling in the first place.

So let's start with Fenris and slavery. In all three games, the reality of slavery is pushing at the corners of the world. In DAO Loghain allows Tevinter Magisters to enslave elves in order to raise money for his war effort. In DA2 Fenris is fighting to be free from slavers who will not leave him be, let alone the reminders that the city was built by slaves which are everywhere. In DAI one of the two possible mini-bosses is Calpurnia who was a slave, and characters such as Gatt and Dorian both show us how much slavery is tied into Tevinters culture and success.

But DATV the first game actually set in Tevinter where we get to see the famed Minrathous...it's like the game purposefully wants to avoid the issue. I can feel it tilting the camera away to not allow me to see. Slavery is mentioned, but never talked about in depth or as a specifically ELVEN problem in Tevinter. This might have been done to be less problematic, it feels ignored.

We are in DOCK TOWN. We are at the DOCKS. You would think that slaves from all over Thedas who are being smuggled and bought by various groups would be everywhere. You would think that the injustice in dock town would be partly built on the back of ships we've seen in the comics crammed with elves in chains. This is the world Dragon age set up for us. And yet...nothing. zilch. A tiny easily skippable side quest where we free a couple of venatori slaves, but only one of whom is an elf.

None of our Tevinter characters seem to have been influenced by their culture even a little bit when it comes to how they view elves; there is no moment when Neve fucks up and says something prejudiced, no moment when Bellara or Davrin are distrustful of her for being a Tevinter mage.

The same goes for Zevran; a character who epitomised the issues with the crows. The crows have consistently been characterised as very morally dubious assassins who kill for the highest bidder and who buy children on the slave market and torture them as they grow in order to assure that they reach maturity able to withstand torture without giving away a client's name. Zevran is very explicit about the fact that if you fail a contract your life is forefit.

Nobody responds particularly to you if you're an elf. Nobody trusts rook less for it in Tevinter. Nobody treats Rook any differently. Even DAI had better mechanics for this; with nobles in Orlais less likely to trust you as an elf.

Considering one of the main plot points of this game and what makes Solas sympathetic is the fact that he was fighting against the slavery of ancient elves...you'd think the game might want to mirror that in modern Thedas. It might want to show us how characters fighting to end slavery in Tevinter are similar to Solas and how the society Solas fought against was similar to the one that characters we love such as Fenris have fought against in modern Thedas. Maybe we'd want to explore how in a world of slavery like this, how could the answer NOT be to tear it all down? Maybe we should have that option at the end of the game so it really can chose whether we agree with Solas and his plans or not.

Adding Fenris to this game would entirely break the game because Fenris refuses to allow you to look away from this horror. He is a sympathetic character who had to learn to trust mages again because of course he didn't trust them. Of course he didn't. Fenris wouldn't allow the camera to shift focus because he's literally covered in the lyrium scars that show how slaves are used as experiments in Tevinter. Fenris WOULD question Neve on how she feels about elves and slaves. Fenris WOULD have things to say about Lucanis and the crows (let alone the fact Lucanis is an abomonation). So he could never be in this game; he'd drop a bomb on it's carefully constructed blinders to the very society its supposed to be set in.

And yet, in DATV, the crows are presented as...a found family of misfits and orphans? The politician who opposes the crows having absolute power in Antiva is framed as a comically evil idiot who doesn't understand that the crows are ontologically good. Yet...they're NOT. Crows in this game act more like a secret rebel group than an assassin organisation. We see no crow taking contracts with the VERY RICH venatori magisters despite being hired killers. We see crows just refuse to kill people despite having a contract because 'its crueler to leave them alive'. The crows don't feel like the crows here, they feel like a softened version of a cool assassin group who are cool because they wear black and purple.

Our pirate group are also sanitised; the Lords of Fortune are good pirates who only steal treasure that's not culturally significant. Theyve clearly read the modern critiques of the British Museum and have decided to explicitly stop anyone levelling similar critiques at them. There is no faction of the Lords of Fortune who aren't like this, no internal arguments about it. Everyone just. Agrees. And is able to accurately tell what a cultural artifact is vs. what treasure that you can have yourself is. Rather than showing us why a pirate stealing cultural artifacts might be bad (like in da2 where such a situation literally causes a coup and a war) it just tells us it's bad. But also pirates are cool so we still want them in our world.

This issue seaps into Thedas and drains it of any of the interesting complexity and ability to SAY anything that this franchise had before this game. It becomes a game about telling and not showing rather than the other way around. The games have ALWAYS asked questions about oppressive structural systems and their interplay with society, religion and culture and how these things can affect even the most well meaning character. Dragon age at its best IS a game about society and how society functions both for and against it's characters and what happens to societies built on cruelty and indifference. The best bad guys dragon age has given us are those who are bad because they embody these systems or have been shaped by them. Our main characters have had to wrestle with questions surrounding how to exist in these systems, fight against them, learn and grow.

Yet every group you come across in DATV is sanitised and cleaned up to the point of being as non problematic as humanly possible. None of our cast of characters have to wrestle with where they came from or the world that shaped them. None of them have to confront their own biases. They start the game perfectly non-problematic and end it that way too.

And this just...isn't what Dragon Age has been in the past. It isn't why I love the franchise. The whole game just felt, in a way, hollow. And this was a CHOICE and it is why the legacy characters are few and far between. Too many dragon age characters are just too...angry and complex for this game. You can feel them pulling their punches on this one. I have to imagine they did this because they didn't want to be criticised or have too much controversy? But I think it honestly goes far too much in the other direction and just makes it bland.

I can't imagine what I say here will be unique, but it is the basis for a LOT of my other thoughts on this game so I wanted to get it out of the way first. The softened Thedas and characters make this game by far the weakest in the franchise.

[artsangell]

YUCK!

"Yuck, now you got me blushin'

Cheeks so red when the blood starts rushing

Yuck, that boy's so mushy

Sending me flowers, I'm just tryna get lucky"

(Loosely inspired by yuck, by Charli xcx)

Includes: Friends w benefits, smut(mdni), fluff, pining,idiots in love, hint of angst, slight Dom Art if you squint.

You're not exactly sure how it all even started. The routine you guys set up feels so natural, it's almost as if you guys were always meant be attatched to one another. To make the other person feel wanted and needed. Art is lying next to you right now, fast asleep with his blond curls mashed up against his pillow. You watch him for a bit, I mean it's so fucking hard not to, he's just so pretty. You're both naked. Though he's entirely stolen the cover from you in his sleep (not that you mind much). You watch his chest rise and fall for a few more moments before you decide to get up.

You get dressed and clean your face up a bit, when you return to the room Art’s has an arm over his eyes. He grumbles at the light surrounding the room, shifting for a moment before he removes his arm from his eyes. Pretty blue eyes watching you he says,

“ you sure you don't wanna stay the night? My bed has enough room. Promise.” It’s a struggle not to laugh at how groggy he sounds, it's also a struggle when you think about how you wish you could hear it every morning. the look he's giving you makes something inside you stir. It makes the idea of laying back in bed with him incredibly tempting.

“Yeah? I'm not sure about all that Art.” A laugh escapes you as you speak. “You have a twin. you barely even fit in your bed.” A chuckle that makes your chest ache leaves him, he sighs and looks at you like you're something special. like you're made of gold.

“You sure you don't want me to walk you back to your dorm? It's getting kinda late.” That puts a smile on your face, you lean forward to pat his cheek in mock affection. He melts into your touch, your hand stays there as you speak to him.

“I'm a big girl, but thanks. sleep tight Arthur.” A giggle, a high sound that makes you cringe leaves you at the look on his face.

An annoyed groan leaves him, “nevermind leave. You're evil.” The way he says it is unconvincing, it makes you feel fuzzy all over.

“Oh wow you weren't joking”

“Shut up.” you grumble.

Mostly annoyed, but a bit embarrassed.

You had invited Art over to your dorm so he could help you study, but it feels like all the information is going in one ear and out the other.

“Sorry, it's just you're like the smartest person I know. How am I of all people doing better than you.”

A frown etches on your face, college has been a bit hard on you. There's so much to do and rarely enough time, and when you do have time you just can't seem to focus. It feels like everyone knows how to manage everything, but you just can't seem to grasp how to even do slightly better than average. You know it's not true. You know college is tough at first for everyone and blah blah blah, But it's hard to feel like everyone goes through what you're going through, when you're adjusting to it worse than any of your friends are.

It feels as if Art can read your mind or something. You almost immediately see a crease between his brows, a look he gives you when he feels bad for you. When he wants to make it all better.You hate how it makes you chest ache. “How about we make this into a game?” His voice is soft in a way that makes your insides twist.

“A game?” You tilt your head to the side in confusion, trying to figure out what exactly he's up to.

“Yeah, like if you get this next question right-” at that he slides a hand on your thigh, rubbing his thumb on the expanse of your upper thigh. “I’ll help you out. Would you be okay with that?” He looks into your eyes as he asks, you can't help but stare at the bit of brown he has in the left one. So pretty. You blink and you know you've been caught when you see a hint of a lopsided grin on his face.

“Yeah- yeah, I'd be okay with that.” you hate how shaky your voice is, it's not like you at all, but he just has a quality that brings it out of you.

“Good.”Art gives you a soft smile and lightly pats your thigh and it makes you want to scream.

“Ok. So what's the difference between descriptive and inferential statistics?” A frown appears on your face, you can't remember the answer.

“Um.. I don't know?” Art pinches your thigh at that, not hard enough to hurt but to correct you. It makes you let out a Soft gasp, you can't help but be a little turned on by it.(he doesn't need to know that.)

“That's not an answer. You know this come on, stop second guessing yourself. This is a really easy question you're overthinking.”

You take a breath in and try to think about what you've gone over , “descriptive gives a summary of the dataset and inferential is based on making predictions from a random sample.”

Art grins at you and shakes your shoulders playfully. “Good job! You got it right!” You can't help the laugh that escapes you, he grabs your face and plants kisses All over it. The attention only making you laugh more. “Knew. you. could. do. it.” Each word punctuated by a kiss, this time on your lips.

“Thought you were gonna reward me” it's basically a whine, you run a hand through his hair like it’ll get him to touch you faster, it will.

“Patience.” he laughs and slides to his knees beside you, clearly not being very patient himself. Art turns you in your swivel chair in his direction, he slowly glides his hands from your thighs to your hips. Quickly the blond before you glides your shorts and panties down. with the help of you lifting your hips for him. Slow kisses are pressed against your thighs, he's holding your upper thigh so you can stay still for him. Art makes sure to take extra time kissing the inside of your thighs, knowing it'll be torture for you. He peppers kisses there until you start to squirm. Finally he licks a stripe along your slit, he moans into you. Like he gets off on the taste alone.

“Taste so fucking good” the vibration of his words compels you to put your hand on top of his head, he immeaditly takes your hand off the top of his head to link his fingers with yours. A few more damn near torturous licks and you can't take it anymore. you need more so you tell him so, just like he taught you to.

“Art, please. Go faster.” You're out of breath, it's clear you can barely get those words out.

Art looks up at you and grins, pulling away from your cunt to do so. “Aww she does have manners, who would've thought.” It's like a switch flips when he touches you,he can't help but tease you a bit. Before you can rebuttal he dives back into you, sucking your clit with dedication to make you cum all over him. Its like he fucking craves it, well you can tell he does by the bulge in his jeans.

You cry out at the sensation. “Fuck- thank you, thank you, thank you.” Art squeezes your hand, he continues sloppily fucking you with his tounge. Your hips are already shaking, everything combined with the way he messily kisses your cunt makes you buck your hips into his face. Moans from the both of are filling the air.

Art’s tongue is merciless and all you can do is moan and whine and take what he gives to you.

“Shit, Art. I'm close please” you sound so whiny, in a way that would embarrass you if were in your right mind.

Wordlessly art sucks your clit with vigor, he gives your hand another squeeze, as if to calm you. You start to spasm around his tongue, body tense, legs shaking.

“Fuck.” you're breath hitches as you cum all over his face, letting out one last loud moan.

Art sits up on his knees to kiss you, you can taste yourself on him.

“You're so perfect.”

those words make you feel things you don’t that you should be, they make you think about how he'd never want to be with you outside of just sex. Its purely biological, he can't fully mean it when he says shit like that.

You pull away from him, his eyes are half lidded and his mouth slightly agape. You Standup abruptly. His eyes follow you in confusion, he's not quite sure what just happend.

“I’m sorry you should probably leave, thanks for… this.” You chew the inside of your lip.

Your words are awkward as they escape you, he knows you're clearly upset by something.

Art gets a furrow between his brows again and you can't help but want to kiss it away.

“You okay? I didn't do anything wrong did I?”

You quickly shake your head, “no, that was perfect. this was perfect,I just need to go do something.” Clearly lying through your teeth but he doesn't push any further.

Wide concerned eyes stare up at you, Art stands from his position on his knees using the arms of the seat as leverage. He’s in front of you now, giving your shoulder a squeeze as he leaves the room with a soft ‘goodbye’.

Suddenly, you don't think you can handle it. Pretending that having sex with him doesn't change how you feel about him in any way. When it does,

you wish things could go back the way that they were before.

[dissapointu]

How Jinx Would Act After an Argument with Her Partner

1. Immediate Withdrawal, Then Overwhelming Guilt

After an argument, Jinx will initially withdraw. She tends to shut down emotionally when she feels like she’s hurt someone, or when the conflict hits too close to her heart. She might storm off to her room or go somewhere quiet to cool down. During this time, her mind races, and she’s probably replaying everything that was said. As much as she acts tough and chaotic on the outside, she’s very sensitive underneath it all. The guilt sets in quickly, and she’ll often feel like she messed up, even if she didn’t entirely. You might catch her staring at the ground or fiddling with something absentmindedly, trying to process what happened.

2. Struggling to Apologize

Jinx’s pride and wild nature make it hard for her to say sorry, but deep down, she’s aware when she’s wrong. She’ll struggle with it, often making up quirky excuses for why she behaved the way she did, trying to brush it off with humor or deflection. “Okay, okay, so maybe I said a few things I shouldn’t have, but you know me, I just—uh, I get passionate! That’s all!” But even with her usual deflection, you’ll know it’s her way of easing into the apology she’s been avoiding. She wants to make things right but doesn’t always know the best way to go about it.

3. Acts Out Through Affection

Instead of directly talking about the argument, Jinx will show her remorse in a more physical way. She might randomly surprise you with a hug, jump into your lap for comfort, or start bombarding you with affection to make up for the tension. She might even be extra clingy, holding onto you a little tighter than usual, trying to feel that connection again. It’s her way of saying she’s sorry without using words, because deep down, she wants to feel the warmth between you two again.

4. Over-the-Top Distraction Tactics

If the argument is weighing on her, Jinx might try to distract you both from the uncomfortable tension by doing something completely unexpected. She could start playing a ridiculous game, break into a silly song, or suggest doing something completely off the wall—like running through the streets with sparklers or having an impromptu Nerf gun war. Anything to pull you away from the argument and get back to a playful, carefree vibe. While she’s not directly addressing the issue, she’s hoping to shift the mood, so it’s not all bad energy between you two.

5. Insecurity Creeps In

Although Jinx often masks her insecurities with humor, after an argument, she’s more likely to feel them come to the surface. She might start doubting if you actually want to be with her, or if her actions pushed you away. You might catch her sitting quietly, biting her lip, staring off into space. If you approach her during these moments, she’ll likely try to brush it off, saying something like, “I just—I don’t know if I did something wrong, but if I did, I’m sorry. I don’t want to mess this up.” The more vulnerable side of her emerges after an argument, even if she doesn’t fully express it.

6. Stubbornly Avoiding the Conversation, Then Cracking

At first, Jinx might avoid talking about the argument. She’ll act like everything’s fine, but it’s pretty clear it’s not. You’ll probably notice her getting quiet, picking fights over little things, or trying to pretend nothing happened. But as time passes and the weight of the unresolved issue starts to wear on her, she’ll crack. It might be in a sudden outburst or her just sitting down next to you, looking up at you with puppy eyes and mumbling, “So… about earlier… I don’t like it when we fight. I hate it.” She’ll want to resolve things but struggles to take the first step toward healing the tension.

7. Acts Like Nothing’s Wrong, but It’s Obvious

If Jinx is really unsure of how to fix things, she’ll probably try to pretend like everything’s normal and continue on with her day. However, her body language will tell the truth. She’ll avoid eye contact, fidget with her fingers, or act a bit more on edge than usual. If she’s feeling especially vulnerable, she might even start teasing you more than normal, trying to act like herself, but you can tell something’s off. “Hey! I know you’re still mad, but I’m totally not avoiding you, okay?” she’ll say, overcompensating in her usual, chaotic way.

8. Small, Tender Gestures

When she finally does acknowledge the argument and the hurt between you, Jinx will try to make it up to you in small, tender ways. She’ll give you an extra kiss on the cheek, hold your hand when you’re walking somewhere, or leave you sweet notes (written in her typically wild handwriting) around the house. She might even bring you something she thinks will cheer you up—like a random gadget, a weird snack, or something quirky she knows you’ll find amusing. Her love language is often unorthodox, but the tenderness behind these small gestures shows that she truly cares.

9. Dramatic Overcompensation

Jinx, being Jinx, might go to extremes to make up for the argument. If she feels like she really messed up, she’ll act overly dramatic to try and win you over again. “What can I do to make it up to you? I’ll give you a thousand fireworks, an entire circus, and a monkey that plays the violin if I have to!” Her over-the-top antics are her way of showing you that she’s sorry in the only way she knows how: big and loud. You’ll probably laugh, but it’ll be a laugh full of affection because you know she’s truly trying her best.

10. Reassurance (Through Humor)

As much as Jinx struggles with vulnerability, she’ll reassure you in her own quirky way that everything is okay. She’ll joke around, trying to lighten the mood. “Hey, look, I’m still here, okay? I’m not going anywhere. You’re not getting rid of me that easily!” she’ll say with a grin, a mischievous glint in her eye. She might even pull a funny face or make an absurd noise to show you that she’s not letting the argument get in the way of her feelings for you. It’s her unique way of letting you know that, despite everything, she’s not going anywhere.

11. Physical Affection to Reinforce Her Feelings

Jinx knows that words can be hard for her, but she’s not afraid to show you her affection through touch after an argument. She might grab your hand and hold it for a while, lay her head on your shoulder, or give you a big hug and refuse to let go. Her body language will speak louder than anything else, trying to reassure you that the love she feels for you hasn’t wavered despite the argument.

After an argument, Jinx will always show that she deeply cares, even if she struggles with finding the right words or way to fix things. Whether it’s through her chaotic antics, physical affection, or more vulnerable moments, she’ll do her best to make things right because, despite her wildness, she values the relationship and doesn’t want to lose the connection you share.

[abbysimsfun]

Sims In Bloom: Generation 2 Pt. 92 (Conrad's First Love)

cw: Conrad getting pretty spicy 🌶️🌶️🌶️ and not with Heather; references to human and drug trafficking (not depicted).

Follows the events of this post.

As she passed him to put away her gloves, a stunning redhead at Pappy Murphy's Boxing Gym caught Conrad's eye. Though he'd been deep in another bout of anger and self-pity over the death of his mother years earlier, he stopped his workout. Every inch of his being compelled him to talk to her.

She turned with a smile before he could stammer a single word. "Hi, handsome. Did you want a better look?"

He nervously introduced himself and she told him her name. "Ximena." The word floated from her lips like a song. He was instantly smitten.

"Ximena, could I buy you a drink?"

They spent the day in a local pub. He told her everything about his mother's death and his distance from his father in the years since. She listened, but she had a lot less to say about herself. "I live here with my brother. I'm a student, and I'm the only caretaker he has. Our parents aren't around anymore, and it's been just Rafa and me for years."

He could hear an accent when she spoke, and most people in Britechester weren't locals, so he made an assumption. "How long since you moved from Selvadorada?"

Surprised by his guess, she turned defensive. "I don't talk about Selva."

He liked her too much to press and push her away, so they spent the rest of the day flirting and discussing their interests until Ximena invited him back to her place. "You make me laugh, Conrad Gordon. My brother's still at school and I want to get to know you better without all this noise. I hate the music they play in here."

Once Conrad followed her out of the bar and back to the small home she shared with her kid brother, Rafa, he started following her everywhere.

He lost his virginity to her a week after they met. That night, she told him why she left Selvadorada.

"I was going to die or they were going to kill me. I wouldn't let them sell me to anyone anymore, so I made a plan and left with my brother in the middle of the night to come here."

She showed him the scars left by the cartel, and a resolve to keep her safe coloured his already steadfast affection. He let her cut his hair when she said she wanted to show him how freeing it felt to change his look. "It's nice not to recognize the person in the mirror, sometimes," she said.

She told him she was a student, often meeting him at Larry's Lagoon to study but usually distracting him into other activities. One afternoon, she introduced him to an old friend, Jimmy Stefano. "Can you help him out around campus? You're in the same major."

Something about Jimmy Stefano rubbed Conrad the wrong way, but he assumed it was jealousy. Despite this, he would already do anything for Ximena and agreed to take Jimmy under his wing.

He called his father to say he planned to stay at school for Spring Break. "Sorry, I know I said I'd come home to see you."

Stephen Gordon laughed him off, but masked slight disappointment. He had no idea whether his son was flourishing or floundering at college, unsure how he'd been coping so far from home. "Don't worry, son. I'm just glad you sound happy. You're making me and your mother proud."

He skipped classes to spend time with Ximena, but made no mention of this to his father, of course. He spent time with Rafa when Ximena said she had late-night classes, taking him to the park to play pirate captain versus sea monster, and talking endlessly with him about video games.

Rafa wanted to become a pirate captain in Sulani or a game tester in San Myshuno. He had almost no memory of life in Selva before his sister left, but he knew it was "the bad place." He liked spending time with Conrad because he said his sister was too strict. "She just loves you," Conrad assured him. "Parents have to set rules, and she can't just be your sister. She has to care for you like a parent, too."

He realized then how important it was to be a model for Rafa, who needed guidance as much as anyone his age. Conrad had always had his father, but who did Rafa have besides Ximena?

Conrad discovered how she paid for an entire house for her and her brother by accident, stumbling on an argument between her and Jimmy Stefano near the campus fountain. "The deal was thirty pounds for three grand."

"They said if I didn't have five grand they'd only give me fifteen. They had guns, Ximena."

"They all have guns! Knives, too. Get your own and figure out how to use it. Watcher, please, don't screw this deal up for me, Jimmy."

"Who has guns?"

"The cartel," said Jimmy, so nonchalant, yet it still hit Conrad like a missile. His stomach turned as he read Ximena's expression. Every lie she'd told him unravelled with a look.

"Are you really a student here, Ximena?"

"No. They're my customers."

He'd had his suspicions, but he'd always told himself he was wrong. Ximena was supposed to be perfect. Hoping against hope, he still tried to play the fool. "What do you mean?"

She dragged him back home to tell him the truth - how she'd bargained with the cartel to escape a life of servitude to the men who ran product all over Simlandia. She refused to serve them, but her way out was to join them instead.

Conrad was angry, but he couldn't stay mad at her for long. As they lay in bed that night, she asked, "Are you going to break up with me because of what I do?"

"Not a chance. I love you."

"I love you, too." She smiled, resting her head on his chest as he ran a hand through her newly blonde hair. "You look nice without glasses, Conrad."

"You already gave me a haircut, Xime. You don't like glasses?"

"Conrad, you're very sexy. But you hide it and it's silly."

"If you're going to give me a makeover, what should I get you?"

"Are you asking me?"

"Ximena, I want to give you everything you could ever want."

She blushed. "I want you, Conrad. But since I already have you, maybe...jewelry? Like a ring."

"You don't wear any rings."

"Because none are special enough, Conrad."

He smiled. "Alright, that's one idea. But say I wanted to surprise you, what else did you want?"

"You could join me running product for the cartel. Our lives would be made, and we'd always be together."

"I don't want to run product for the cartel, Ximena. But I'm not going anywhere. I'll always be there for you. Rafa, too."

"Right, but what if I go? Rafa loves you, Conrad, almost as much as me. But what if the cartel moved me somewhere else? Would you come with me? Maybe you could be, like, my security. No running, just keeping me safe. Always with me and Rafa."

He'd do anything to protect her, but he didn't answer her that day, refocusing on his studies until he returned to San Myshuno at the end of the semester.

He'd missed his father more than he expected, and they went for walks in warm sunshine by the Spice Market. They talked about school, and Conrad talked about Ximena - leaving out details of her career and focusing instead on her relationship with her brother. Conrad rarely asked his father about work, but Stephen hinted he was inching closer to retirement. "Chester's daughter Nancy is ready to take over the company, but Chester's not quite ready to retire. I think she's plotting a coup, but you didn't hear that from me."

"What happens to you if she pushes out her own father?"

"Hopefully, a retirement package. Chester may not be ready, but I think I am."

On one of their walks, they passed a jewelry store, and Conrad made a beeline for the ring counter. A confident salesman smiled as the Gordon men walked inside. "Welcome. What are we shopping for today?"

"I'm just looking," Conrad said. "What rings do you have?"

The salesman beamed. "Are we thinking of an engagement?"

Stephen eyed his son carefully, but Conrad shook his head. "Not right now. Just like, for an accessory."

"I don't know, son. A ring says you're ready for forever."

Conrad took his father's words to heart, considering what forever with Ximena might look like. He wanted to be with her, but he wasn't ready for a ring. He left that day with a nice bracelet for her, instead.

"Even leaving with a bracelet as nice as that one...she must mean something. I'd love to meet her."

Conrad nodded. "She might be able to visit this summer, if she's not too busy with work," he said.

Stephen smiled and the Gordon men continued their walk, strengthening the bond nearly severed by grief before Conrad returned to Britechester for another semester. ->

<- Previous Chapter | Gen 2 Start | Gen 1 Summary | Gen 1 Start

NOT FUN FACT: Conrad got crab lice from Ximena when they slept together for the first time, which is gross but also fitting I guess. And yet I didn't make it canon because it didn't quite fit the vibe. Plus, he wasn't supposed to find out that early on that Ximena was problematic.

WCIF Poses Used? Various from packs Old Souls Love Differently by @simmireen (when Ximena is blonde), Our First Time by @eclypt0sims (redhead), The Kiss by @simmerberlin (black hair) and Nights Like These by @sakurasims-world (also redhead).

WCIF Jewelry Store? Jewelry Store by Guinifere on the Sims 4 Gallery. Very elegant interior and comes with crafting tables, a vault, charging stations - very nice lot! Needs dressing up with completed jewelry on the counters and in displays to look really spectacular (and I of course went the lazy route), but I wouldn't if I was playing a retail career, and this is a great lot for someone who wants to be a jeweler!

[anim-ttrpgs]

I want to provide an example of a dungeon crawl for the people who have only been exposed to dungeon crawling through shitty D&D5e modules or bad games of telephone about what classic dungeon crawling looks like.

I’m gonna try not to go into too much detail just because if I do, I’ll be here all day and night because this campaign is so good and all of the characters have so much depth but I still have to give context. (welp, i made it pretty fucking long anyway, but I think it paints a clearer picture that way.)

This is an mildly homebrewed* AD&D2e “troupe campaign” with rotating DMs starring a fictional band of mercenaries called the White Company(not to be confused with the actual White Company or the other fictional White Company) in an alternate history 1390s-1430s England with elves and wizards and shit. I’m really getting to put my Masters in medieval history and culture to good use for once. There’s a rotating cast of characters, as parties are formed from the larger pool of characters in the White Company to undertake mercenary jobs.

*one of the biggest homebrew rules we use is that there is no magical resurrection. Instead of dying instantly with the expectation that they can be magically revived later, characters who fall to 0 HP must receive medical attention from somebody who has the Healing skill immediately, and make a Constitution-based roll to see if they can pull through. If they don’t die, they still permanently lose 1 point of Constitution and must spend weeks or months recovering before they can fight again.

This is happening in a real 1979 D&D adventure module, adapted slightly to fit our setting, but it’s still genuine classic dungeon crawling. The DM is sticking closely to it and just presenting the sandbox for the PCs to do stuff in.

TL;DR: (also spoilers. Skip the TL;DR if you want to read this as a narrative without knowing what happens)

A classic dungeon crawl is not just a dull slog through a bunch of rooms full of monsters and back-to-back boring slap-fight combat. One may encounter:

>yes, monsters, definitely. Some will be out in the open, some will ambush the party, and some will be easy to ambush by the party, but rarely is fighting and killing them the only option. Combat happens either when the party screws up, or when they initiate it on their own terms.

>other adventurers looting the same dungeon

>hidden treasure

>monsters that are basically a trap and puzzle themselves and can’t be fought by just making attack rolls at them

>monsters that can be talked to and negotiated with

>environmental storytelling that can also be hints about hidden traps, monsters, etc.

>boobytraps

>secret doors

>plenty of moments for the characters' personalities to shine

(END OF SPOILERS)

The White Company is currently under the employ of a certain castillan who is having to fight against a pretender to his claims to his lands. The lord that this castellan owes fielty has noticed that a certain village has stopped paying their taxes, and asked the castellan to deal with it. The castellan told the White Company, currently on his payroll, and the White Company sent a small group of mercenaries to either investigate or rough the peasants up until they pay. (Medieval mercenaries nor classic D&D adventurers were exactly heroes. Members of the White Company have engaged in some real moving acts of heroism in this campaign but that’s a different story.)

The White Company party consisted of 8 PCs, because AD&D expects bigass parties. We‘ve had parties of up to 13 PCs before in this campaign, because this is before D&D got embarrassed about its wargaming ancestry. This might sound scary but honestly AD&D2e does not make it hard for a player to play multiple characters at once. It’s expected.

Anyway, they passed a ransacked wagon on the road while traveling to the village. When they got to the village, everything was just fine, no great plumes of smoke or burninated peasants. So they asked the village headman what the deal was, and he was like “What do you mean? We sent the taxes last week.”

Well, that was the ransacked wagon. Here I’m going to start really fast-forwarding.

The White Company mercs did some investigating and found out who sacked the wagon, kicked their asses and ran them off, and discovered just the slightest hint that there was more to this story..

More investigation, a discovery that there’s a greater conspiracy afoot, a fight with two spies that left Elora the Elf bedridden under the care of the local barber-surgeon after getting stabbed in the gut(one party member down.)

Fast-forwarding more. They discover that the old abandoned fort that’s full of monsters is actually where a contingent of the bad guys have made their forward operating base. This abandoned castle is supposedly full of monsters ever since the calamity that made everything full of monsters but that’s another story too. God I’m bad at brief stories. Anyway the bad guys have some tricks for avoiding the monsters on their way in and out apparently.

So, it’s time for the White Company to assault that abandoned castle. That’s a dungeon, and now it’s dungeon crawling time. Using a huge amount of money they found during the investigation, they subcontract some more mercenaries, a party from the Badger Company, and also convince the village headman to levy some peasant militiamen.

Now the party is 24-strong, almost half of that being archers.

I’m fast-forwarding some more. They had a little.. incident where they ran into a group of adventurers trying to loot the place, mistook them for the bad guys, and shot two of them with crossbow bolts. Luckily, and due to the medical skills of some of the party, those two survived, but one of them will be on crutches for a while. After that embarrassing misunderstanding, they find the way down into the lower floors of the castle, but before they go, they want to make sure there’s no chance of anything coming behind them, so they investigate every room on the upper floor. Ordinarily, going around provoking everything in a dungeon and having back-to-back combat encounters would be inadvisable, but they’re 24 men strong. They find a room full of giant rats and shoot them to death with crossbow bolts. They find a giant lizard thing asleep on a rock and shoot it to death with crossbow bolts. They find a giant snake in its nest and shoot it to death with crossbow bolts. Then a giant tick drops from the ceiling and bites into Abigail, the youngest White Company member present, right through her mail armor. They stab it to death but its sucker thing is buried deep in there and they can’t just pull it out because it’s got barbs. She was at very low HP after the initial bite and just ripping the thing out could easily nick the artery and kill her. Luckily, Herr Rike(Fighter-Thief) and all around unpleasant woman, is also a barber-surgeon, and several of the spellcasters can provide a limited amount of magical healing. She had to strip down while the men averted their eyes and stood watch. While Abigail, teary-eyed, bit down on the shaft of a crossbow bolt, Rike was able to carefully cut the thing out of her, with magical healing coming right after to ensure that this doesn’t, well, completely disable the use of her arm. After a few moments of recovery (accelerated by the magic), Abigail got dressed again, and soon had the gruff men of the Badger Company clapping her on the back and congratulating her for making it through that. “We’ve all been there!” “Yer a real mercenary now!” “That’ll put some hair on yer chest, figuratively!”

(I’m making sure to include all this stuff in detail to dispel the myth that “dungeon crawling means no roleplaying.” That part kinda was “back-to-back combat” but only because the party went out of their way to find every monster, all of which could’ve been avoided otherwise.)

Each of these encounters lasted like 1 combat round and less than 15 minutes of real time even with that many characters, because AD&D2e combat doesn’t fucking suck.

There was some treasure to find too, pretty valuable stuff, but for the sake of this not being even more overly long the only thing I’m going to mention is a large jug of lamp oil.

Descending the stairs, a man and woman of the Badger Company were suddenly dropped down on by two acidic green slimes. The party quickly discovered that these could not be conventionally attacked, especially not while they’re clinging to the distressed Badger Company members. Slicing and stabbing the slimes with swords does nothing obviously, and risks further injuring their allies.

Thinking quickly, Abigail has the idea to try scraping and shoveling the slime off with her shield, which kind of works, and everyone with a shield follows suit. The slimed Badger Company mercs survive, managing to avoid total disfigurement too, but are in no condition to continue. Their armor and helmets and weapons have been ruined by the acid and they’ve lost a lot of skin. Everyone whose shield was used to shovel off the slime also lost their shields as the acid ruined them.

The man and woman that got slimed had to go up stairs and wait for the return of the larger group, it was a really good thing that the party checked every corner of the upper floor and killed anything that could be a danger to two unarmed and critically wounded people. Herr Rike was the one who told them to go upstairs as she poured water over their wounds, washing away acid and chunks of melted skin, and, sarcastically in her horrible voice, said that everyone would vouch for the woman’s virginity.* Herr Rike’s voice “sounds like a saw.”

*In the Middle Ages, an unmarried woman’s virginity was pretty important to her societal respect, and if she was left alone with a lone man for too long, someone may call her virginity into question. Of course the joke here is that everyone knows that no matter what, they aren’t going to get it on while bits of their skin are still sliding off. None of the Badger Company thought it was very funny.

With the slimes pooled on the ground, they were hardly a threat, they’re super slow and you could just sorta step around them, but they still needed to be dealt with to not become a problem later. Herr Rike went back upstairs and got that jug of lamp oil and poured it on and around the slimes and lit them on fire. That killed them.

So now the party is down two fighters and nearly all of their shields.

It’s dark down here obviously, and several people are carrying torches. Going is a bit slower in the poor lighting. Herr Rike makes a Detect Noise* check. She hears something like faint grinding of stone to the east. This huge band of armed and armored men coming into the castle has definitely made a ton of noise, so Rike’s impression of this sound is that the bad guys have heard them coming, and hid behind some kind of secret door in the stone walls. She tells everyone to keep a look out for any weird cracks in the walls.

*AD&D2e doesn’t have Perception like D&D5e. If it’s in front of them they can see it, if it’s making noise they can hear it, if it stinks they can smell it, etc. However, characters of the Thief class can make a skill check to listen closely for the chance to hear extremely faint sounds that wouldn’t normally be audible.

They check a few yards to the west first, finding two sturdy doors with fine, brand new inset locks on them. Rike tries, but fails to get through these in any way, so they move on to the south and find a long hallway full of cell doors. In the cells are months-old rotten corpses with visible wounds in most of them. It doesn’t look like the starved to death. The stench is almost overwhelming so they turn back and go north to the last door.

To the north they go through a room filled with, like, garbage. Dirt, broken bits of wooden furniture, rotten animal hides, and even what might be feces. Everyone is checking the ceilings carefully now too after the tick and the slimes, and this ceiling looks like it’s on its way to caving in, but not any immediate danger. They go to a door on the far end of the garbage room and open it. All the while, Herr Rike is checking for traps both passively* and actively. There don’t seem to be any traps, but the stench of the next room still hits them like a wall and makes Abigail and some of the others gag. It smells like “unwashed flesh,” in modern terms, it smells like a Magic: The Gathering tournament in there. Rike is unphased, and hisses out into the darkness “Come out, I can smell you.”

*Like I said before about perception, the main way to check for traps is just the player asking the DM “does my character see any weird stones on the floor ahead? Can he see a tripwire behind the door? When he opens the door, can he nudge it open with his sword while standing to the side in case anything shoots out?” and so on, but Thieves can also make skill checks to passively notice them on top of that.

After a few seconds, there’s a loud, low growl from the far corner. “I can smell you too..”

An enormous, grotesque figure steps into the edge of the torchlight. He’s easily nine feet tall and looks like if you took an already large man and stretched him out in all the wrong ways. He’s wearing a loincloth and a huge cape of animal hide, and carrying a full sized halberd that he’s big enough to use as a one-handed weapon. He scrapes it along the ground menacingly, making a horrible sound, but not the same sound that Rike heard earlier with her Detect Noise ability.

Rike doesn’t back away, but holds her crossbow casually in the crook of her arm. They’re about 10 feet from each other. She says in her hoarse, raspy whisper. “So, you can talk. Do you have a name?”

The hulking monster growls his answer. “Lubash. Do you?” He sounds almost as bad as Rike.

“Yes.”

“Hmph. Rude not to answer..” he grunts in annoyance.

“What are you doing down here, Lubash?”

“I guard this place for the people here. Eat people who come in.” He grins, showing jagged and pointy teeth. “Great gig.”

“Congratulations. Do you know who you work for, Lubash?”

“Do you?”

“No, we’re here to find that out.”

“Good luck...” He grins again.

“Thank you, Lubash. Are you going to get in our way?”

Lubash Points his halberd towards the doorway where Rike stands, looking behind her at the dozens of armored men carrying swords, polearms, and crossbows. “No. I go out there, I die. You come in here, you die.”

“We can agree to those terms. Where do that door behind you lead?”

“That’s my pantry.”

Rike nods. She’s not 100% sure that she believes him, but there’s no dice roll for that in AD&D2e, so it’s up to logic and the DM’s description of Lubash’s body language. She decides that even if he is lying, that she would rather not press him and get in the way of that halberd until she has exhausted all her other options. “One more thing, Lubash. Do you know your bosses are holding out on you?”

“How?”

“There’s a dozen corpses in the cells down the hall. They aren’t letting you eat those?”

“No, those aren’t mine, here before I got here. Nasty, rotten.”

Rike attempted to weaken Lubash’s trust with his bosses, but seemingly to no avail. She said goodbye to Lubash and closed the door, then she sprinkled more of the lamp oil all around the floor and flammable objects of the garbage room, and left the other door to the garbage room just slightly open, propping the jug up on top of it, so that if Lubash tries to follow them, he’ll get a nasty splash and then go up on flames at a brush with one of their torches. Plus, the shattering of the jar would alert them.

Now despite the smell, the path of least resistance was south, past the wall of cells with dead bodies in them.

Rike moved forward, noticing nothing out of the ordinary except a greater amount of dust in the mostly empty room further down compared to the rest of the place so far, as if no one had been down there in a long time. It wasn’t exactly *obvious* in hindsight, but she should have known better still. As she stepped into the room down the hall, there was a faint flash of light as she seemingly crossed some kind of invisible line, a magical trap! Someone with more knowledge of magic might have been able to see more of the signs if they were in front, but it was already too late. There was a shuffling sound from the cells as all twelve of the corpses rose to their feet. Most mercenaries immediately realized what was happening, and everyone quickly readied their weapons, falling into formation shoulder-to-shoulder with the archers and spellcasters in back, and three men in reserve watching the doorway with the jug in case Lubash decided to try and make a move for them while they were preoccupied. The line was close to the cell doors, with gaps where every other man stood a few feet back, creating mini chokepoints and kill zones at each door where each one corpse would trickle through and have to fight alone against three mercenaries rather than meeting them all at once. Ceridwen, a druid spellcaster, cast a spell, Fairy Fire, which highlighted the first row of walking corpses in the dark, giving the party a bonus to attack rolls against them.

The dozen walking corpses stood and shambled forward slowly enough that the mercenaries got 2 rounds to act before they were upon them. They shot a volley of crossbow bolts and arrows. The projectiles sunk deep into rotten eye sockets, chests, and shoulders, but at best it just made some of them stumble. Another volley. Even more hit this time, with a couple of criticals for what should’ve been massive damage, but the undead just kept walking forward until they reached the line of spears and swords. In mechanical terms it seemed that they took reduced or possibly even zero damage from piercing attacks like crossbow bolts.

Both players and characters started to get pretty nervous as we started rolling for all these melee attacks and it started to seem like despite stabbing big holes in them with spears and slicing off hands and arms with swords, the undead just didn’t stop. It was the last melee attack of the mercenaries’ round that finally “killed” one. One of the mercenaries using a quarterstaff managed to crush one’s head against the stone wall and it finally stopped moving. Seeing this, those that had them, which was quite few, switched weapons to clubs, thinking that the only way might be to bash them with bludgeoning damage. After another round, another corpse was “killed” with a sword, but it’s still possible that they only take half-damage from slashing weapons. Chrysanthemum, another White Company fighter, brought her weighted grain flail down on another corpse, shattering its skull with such force that flecks of bone sprinkled everyone around. She let out a girlish squeal of disgust.

Piercing weapons were definitely a no-go after one of the corpses just kept walking down the shaft of a spear after being impaled, and grabbed the spearman’s neck, pulling at it until it ripped a small hole in the front, dropping the man into a pool of blood. Another woman was hit so had in the head by one of the corpses unnaturally strong blows that she would’ve surely died if not wearing a helmet. She could still stand, but had to swap out, an archer from the back drawing his sword and stepping in to take her place. One of the other militiamen grabbed the bleeding man and hoisted him backwards out from under the feet of the melee, where Ceridwen quickly got down on her knees to bandage the wound, even though it seemed futile. For his trouble, as his attention was momentarily averted, the militiaman who pulled him back was lunged upon and grabbed into a bear hug by another corpse. He could hardly yell as three ribs cracked in quick succession.

Rike beat that one’s skull in with her baton until it loosened its grip, but she and Abigail still had to pry its arms off before the critically wounded man could be dragged off the front line. With was another round of chopping and beating the remaining corpses down before the coast seemed clear.

The whole combat sequence lasted maybe 6 rounds, and took about 45 minutes of real time, even with over 30 combatants total to make rolls for. It was a nail biter, and would’ve been much worse if the mercenaries hadn’t made such good use of positioning and formation.

Rike quickly went to see to the wounded with Ceridwen. Putting her ear to the crushed man’s chest, she could tell that he hadn’t punctured a lung, but it would still be best to move him as little as possible. She then set to helping Ceridwen carefully clean and bandage the other man’s neck wound. She tended to him last because, having seen the wound happen, she knew that if he hadn’t bled out of suffocated before she got to him, that would be the only indication that he could be saved.

It might as well have been a miracle. The wound exposed part of his trachea, but just missed the jugular and carotid. As long as it was kept clean and bandaged, he had a chance to live. The men cheered and praised God as loudly as they dared to in this place.

As Rike stood up from him, she commanded four of the men to make a stretcher out of an old tent and carefully carry the crushed man upstairs. She jerked her head to the side to indicate the bleeding man, the motion just for an instant shifting her mail gorget and helmet’s visor enough to expose the rough, pale scar tissue across her own throat, speaking in her raspy whisper of a voice. “He can walk.”

The party regrouped after taking the wounded men upstairs. (Again, really really good thing they made the call to hunt down and kill everything on the upper floor.) This hallway was the furthest east they had been, but it seemed to be a dead end. Rike and Ceridwen set to work looking for that secret door. It took about half an hour of searching (in game time, like 1 minute of describing their actions in real time) before Ceridwen found something. She pulled it, and a wall nearby slowly slid down, exposing a narrow passageway.

The funny thing was, the sound of that secret door opening was absolutely not the sound that Rike hear with her Detect Noise ability earlier either, and the dust and cobwebs beyond indicated that this secret passage had not been used in months. So, like, even though they thought they heard a secret door, they were wrong, and it’s only through dumb luck that they stumbled upon this. Like a broken clock.

That’s where we left off in the last session.

Sorry that was long as fuck but I hope this paints a clearer picture of what a classic “dungeon crawl” is actually like to those of you who have never experienced one.

Oh and if you’re wondering the DM told us later that those walking corpses take normal damage from Slashing and Bludgeoning attacks but always 1 damage from Piercing attacks.

"D&D can do anything" and "I don't like dungeon crawls, I enjoy real role-playing" are two statements that often go hand-in-hand and the ironic thing is that the latter statement betrays a very shallow understanding of role-playing while being really snobby. What's even more hilarious is that it's like baby's first RPG elitism, like yeah most people go through a "I like real role-playing" phase but to go through it while putting on airs about the dungeon game while at the same time dismissing dungeon games is real funny.

Anyway, wherever people pick up the idea that dungeon-crawling, the playstyle most supported by D&D, is somehow pedestrian, it very quickly leads to bargaining, like surely if dungeon-crawling is actually bad and for babies then D&D must be capable of so much more, right? Well, truth is, not really, D&D kind of sucks for things besides that.

Where a lot of people go wrong at this point is contending that therefore D&D must be flawed as a role-playing game: like, if it actually kind of sucks for most playstyles besides dungeon-crawling and we've already decided that dungeon-crawling isn't real role-playing, then surely D&D must be bad as a role-playing game?

The issue of course is that most people don't ever interrogate their starting assumption of dungeon-crawls being bad. And truth be told most people who claim to hate dungeon-crawls have never actually played a dungeon-crawl. At most they've played a dungeon-crawl themed linear succession of combat encounters. (I remember this: once when I posted about dungeon-crawls being good, actually, someone responded with a "well I can see the appeal but personally I couldn't enjoy a game that's just back-to-back combat" which is a whole misunderstanding of dungeon-crawls as a genre.)

Anyway so the great thing is that once you re-examine your assumptions about what counts as "real role-playing" and conclude that a dungeon-crawl is as much real role-playing as whatever the fuck Critical Role is doing then you find whole new vectors of being a snooty blowhard and it rules. You can make fun of D&D players in so many new ways,

[bengiyo]

Sailom from Wedding Plan? 👀 ✨?

Ah, Sailom, my beloved. Thank you, bestie.

How I feel about this character

I think he's one of the best versions of a closeted rich man we've ever had in Thai BL. Sailom works so well because Namnuea isn't poor, and Wiwa Square isn't struggling. He's also got completely valid reasons for withholding information from Namnuea. The way this situation spiraled is so believable, and it's also believable how they got themselves out of it. This is my favorite MAME work because I completely get both Namnuea and Sailom. I will forever love this man for putting his own life on hold to protect his best friend's lesbian relationship.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Namnuea, baby!! My man earned this moment!

But also...I know in my heart that he and Prapai fucked exactly twice in England.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Yihwa is the only answer. The entire story revolves around how much Sailom is willing to sacrifice for her. The reason why they are one of the best platonic OTP's of all time is that Yihwa and Marine never took what Lom was doing for them for granted, and they were also unwilling to let him sacrifice something real with Namnuea for them. He and Yihwa protected each other for over a decade. He was genuinely sad when they couldn't go to England for their wedding. Their friendship is so important to me.

My unpopular opinion about this character

My unpopular opinion is that he's not a bad guy, and Namnuea isn't a damsel being abused by him. I find it a bit difficult to engage in romance stories if we're reading one person as an giver and another as a receiver. It feels a bit reductive, and the characters start to feel inhuman. What I love so much about Wedding Plan is how actively engaged all of the characters are in their stories, even down to the supporting cast. I think this show captured queer peril in a real way. I think I'd feel differently if the show didn't directly confront Lom's actions as he flirted with Namnuea and stressed him out. As it is, they are married, and I love that for them!

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I kinda wish we'd see Lom's dad. It feels pretty pointed that he's completely absent from everything that happened, and we know he's around. I'm a bit sad that we only ever saw Lom be flippant with his mom, when we saw Nuea's parents involve with the entire wedding.

For the Character Breakdown Ask Game

[slxtni]

Imagine it's late at night. You're walking home from your best friends house. You're always a little paranoid, so only one earphone in. But you listen to nasty music like you do all the time.

It's calm until you notice the car behind you driving slower and right on your side the window rolls down. You can't see much, it's dark outside. There's a man inside the car, his mouth covered by a mask. You start to panic.

"hey pretty girl, wanna go for a ride?" You don't answer, you walk faster. Almost run at this point. But he catches up with you very quickly, unbothered. "You know you can't run from me." You try not to look at him and panickly start searching for your phone. Unfortunately, it's nowhere to be seen.

And just as you look up from your bag, the car has stopped and the man stands in front of you. You can't do or say anything, not even scream, as he grabs you and forces you into his car. The trunk is dark and tight and as trunk lid closes you gain your voice back. You start to scream and cry as the car starts to drive. But nobody can hear you. It's late at night and the neighbourhood is asleep. Nobody notices you.

You don't stop screaming, the whole time. Tears in your eyes. He took your bag away. Your phone isn't here and nobody can safe you. Well, to bad, you should've stayed at your friends house for the night.

As the car stops, your throat is dry and hurts from all the screaming. Your tears stopped, even as the man opens the lid and grabs you. He takes you with him in his house. You would've tried to run or fight, but there's no chance. You're way to weak.

"Everything is prepared for you" He says. And as you are forced to enter the house, you understand what he means. The basement is full of shelves with all the stuff you'd seen in the nasty porn you watched before. Dildos, lingery, chains. Your biggest nightmare. And he planned all of this for weeks.

The man holds you down on the table in the middle of the room. You're to shocked to do anything. And then, he starts his game. He pulls down your skirt and imiediently rubs on your clit. You try to scream, because it feels so - good.

You're scared as he puts his fingers inside your cunt. "You're already so wet for me little girl" he laughes. And you notice he's right. "Maybe i'll be gently with you for the first round". He groans. And then keeps fucking you with his cold fingers. In and out until you come on his fingers. It's almost embarassing, coming all over your kidnappers fingers in your tight pussy. But you can help it.

He makes you suck his dick. Puts it deep down your throat until you choke. But he doesn't care. He's so turned on and uses your face as his cumhole. He forces you to swallow the full load of his cum. Every single drop. "Good girl" he calls you.

Then he puts you on the table again, holding you down with his arm. Your cheek hurts as it is getting pushed on the table. You could cry, but you're so damn needy, aren't you? Your pussy is begging for the cock you just sucked. He pretends to be gentle and slow, going really slowly as he pushes the first inches into your dripping cunt. But then he thrusts into you. His full length and you can feel him so deep inside of you. It hurts so bad.

He is going faster and harder each time, groaning and moaning, calling you a good littel girl and his personal fuck toy. You can feel your insides clenching around him and you're so embarassed. What would anyone say if they saw you like that? So needy for the cum of your rapist inside your womb.

And as he moans louder and his thrusts get harder, you feel it. He empties his balls deep inside of you and you can't even think about the fact that you're not on birth control as you fall over the edge and come hard around his cock.

As you lay on the table, more than exhausted, he grins down on you. "I knew you would love me and my cock so deep inside of you. And this isn't the end. From now on, you're mine."

And he makes you his personal fuck toy, just like he told you, coming every day to fulfill his needs deep inside of you. Keeping you in his basement. And as time goes by, you don't even care anymore. You just think about getting fucked by your rapists cock all the time.

[mumms-the-word]

So I’ve played a bit more Veilguard and y’all

Y’ALL

Y’AAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL

Spoilers below the cut (which I may turn into a lore post later idk)

UM SOUTHERN THEDAS IS DYING?

I have everything spoiler tagged and hidden, idk if people are talking about this but EXCUSE ME??

MY WARDENS AND HAWKES ARE IN DANGER

Okay but like let’s think about this for real (I'm going off memory from replaying the "meet the inquisitor" scene like 3-4 times so forgive any missed details; also I disbanded the Inquisition in this game so idk if that has an effect yet)

Inquisitor and Morrigan said that the south is under siege from a legion, an army, a swarm of darkspawn the likes of which Thedas has never seen. Thanks Ghilan’nain for creating new horrors. That sounds bad but then it gets worse

Denerim, a city that has canonically withstood the Fifth Blight and was the showdown site for a battle against a darkspawn army and an archdemon, is lost. We lost the capital of Ferelden.

Everyone is fleeing to Redcliffe, which is decently defensible but not impenetrable. Redcliffe has already suffered waves of undead and (theoretically) a super dark pseudo-future full of demons and red Templars and such. It stood up pretty well against both, but it’s not great if it’s Ferelden’s last stand against the darkspawn.

What about the Hinterlands? Amaranthine? Gwaren? Inquisitor writes that Ostagar and the Korcari Wilds are seeing surges of darkspawn again--that's where the darkspawn poured forth during the Fifth Blight. That's not good!

Orzammar is helping, but I can’t imagine they’re not also suffering. Are the darkspawn flooding the Deep Roads? Orzammar can’t defend against them forever if it’s worse than we think. Are the Legion of the Dead overwhelmed?

Kirkwall has fallen. A city that has withstood, within the last 25 years, a refugee crisis from the Fifth Blight, a violent qunari invasion, the explosion of their Chantry and the ensuing mage-templar chaos that nearly brought the city to its knees, and the Breach, which opened up dozens of Fade rifts in the city that Varric was still dealing with after the Breach was actually closed. It's gone, it's unlivable, so much so that the Acting Viscount had to evacuate her city and her army to freaking Starkhaven, which is usually their mortal enemy (Prince Sebastian Vael tends to want to annex or control Kirkwall smh)

(Also Aveline is Acting Viscount? that makes sense and also I love that for her, but man what a time to be in charge)

Ostwick, the home city for Trevelyans, is threatened by the rogue Antaam, so I can only imagine that Wycome, where a surviving Clan Lavellan would be, is also threatened by the Antaam (Wycome is closer to Antiva and Rivain anyway). And the rest of the Free Marches is apparently experiencing "the worst" of the darkspawn threat. How many cities other than Kirkwall have fallen? Like Ferelden, what's happening in the spaces between?

In Orlais, the darkspawn have apparently cut a line directly through the country. Both Halamshiral and Val Royeaux are barely holding out, which is partly surprising and partly not. Halamshiral and Val Royeaux are luxurious cities, not defensible fortresses. That said, they have the benefit of the Orlesian monarchy's standing army and the Divine's templar (or templar-equivalent) army, so perhaps that's why they're both still standing.

But I imagine the Exalted Plains, the Dales, the desert landscapes of the Western Approach (which already had lingering darkspawn threats)....those must be suffering. Are the Dales themselves blights, the greenery dying? Is the newly-healing land of the Plains now facing death and destruction again?

I mean, yes, the threat of the gods in the north is also very bad but I am stuck on this idea of trying to figure out how our beloved characters from the last three games are dealing with this! This is their turf!

We know the Inquisitor is running around trying to help but what about everyone else? Like, can you imagine...

How is Alistair doing, facing a blight that has been described as "worse than any blight the world has ever seen"? Either he's a warden and he's sick of dealing with this, or he's the king and he's facing the total annihilation of his kingdom again, only this time the odds are infinitely worse. Is his Warden wife fighting alongside him, or is his Queen helping him keep everything together?

What about Zevran? Is he staying in Antiva, causing chaos among the Antaam who have taken over various cities there, or does his Warden romance convince him to go down south to try and help? And Leliana? if she's Divine, she's likely manning the chantry's armed forces, but if not, where is she operating? Is she with her lover, the Warden, or if she's alone, is she back in the game of fielding information to all the necessary forces who need them? She's not the Inquisition spymaster anymore, but that doesn't mean she's not active

Aveline is fleeing to Starkhaven, where Sebastian is, and Varric is with us in the lighthouse. Isabela is with the Lords of Fortune. What about the rest? Did Merrill flee with Aveline? Is Hawke with them? Or is Hawke with Anders, or Fenris, fighting wherever they need to be? (Assuming, of course, they're not left in the Fade). What about Bethany or Carver, if they're alive? If they're Wardens, surely they're in the thick of it, fighting darkspawn. If they're not, have they gone with Aveline to Starkhaven?

And our DAI friends. Cullen is in Ferelden--has he joined forces at Redcliffe, if he's not romancing the Inquisitor? Is his family okay? Dorian is in Minrathous, we can safely assume Josephine is in Antiva City. I can only assume Josephine is trying her best to keep Antiva City safe through her connections and influence, but how long until events there force her to leave too?

Cassandra is from Nevarra so she may be home, or she's Divine, or she's traveling. If she isn't with her romanced Inquisitor and she isn't the Divine, surely she's out there fighting. Against what? Venatori in Nevarra? Or will her allegiances to Orlais bring her down there to aid a Divine Leliana? Sera is still in Orlais too, presumably, as a Jenny that helps the Divine. Are they both facing the darkspawn threat?

If Blackwall is a Warden, is he even still alive? If he's not a Warden, I can imagine he's back in the Free Marches, fighting darkspawn until his dying breath. Iron Bull and his Chargers, too, if they're all alive from DAI. Whether he's in Orlais, Ferelden, the Free Marches, or passing near Tevinter to be with Dorian, he and his team must be constantly dealing with the blight and the gods acting crazy. Unless, of course, he or Blackwall are with the Inquisitor, fighting right there on the front lines.

Vivienne has probably rallied mages in whatever Circle she's established to help, but help how? Joining the forces of the Divine, or leading a campaign of her own? If Cole is human, is he finding little ways of helping, or has he been human so long that he's forgotten how? If he's a spirit, he's back beyond the Veil. Does the chaos in the south now draw him back? How can a spirit of Compassion, whether human or spirit, deal with what is happening all across Thedas?

I have so many thoughts. And I will probably write fic about it. It all just keeps churning in my head. I love it. It's horrifying. The game may have moved on very quickly from it but boy oh boy am I thinking about my Wardens and Hawkes and Inquisitors and going "What are you going to do?? The world is dying!!"

If I learn more I'll turn this into a lore post that isn't hidden by a cut, but for now I have some mural memories to live through (time to cry about Solas again) and then it's side quest city babyyyy so idk when I'll have an update again lol

if you made it this far, well done :') appreciate you

thank for joining me in this chaos!

[faghubby]

Sorry, I will be a good boi

"Paul, you ruined my skirt!" Lisa yelled as she walked in my room.

"What? All I did was wash it for you" I shot back annoyed she was angry.

"That's it I am so fucking done with you" she swore. I realized I had fucked up. I couldn't let her break up with me. Not only did I love her she paid for everything. I was trying to get my business off the ground for the past 6 months. But I had not made a dime.

"Lisa wait, baby I am sorry. I fucked up" I said pulling her into my arms.

"You always fuck up. Never learn" she shot back pushing me away.

"I know my mom always said the same thing" I told her.

"Yeah, how did she get you to learn?" She asked.

"A big belt" I laughed. Lisa's eyes widened. She grabbed my waist and took off my belt.

"Drop your pants" she told me.

"Babe, I was joking" I laughed.

"I'm not, drop them or get your shit and get out" she yelled. She was serious. I had no place to go. I hesitated but she was impatient. I dropped my pants and boxers. Lisa pushed me over the bed. Without warning the first blow struck my ass. I jumped up.

"I swear to god, if you don't stick your ass back in the air I am going to cut your balls off" Lisa said. I bent back over she let 15 lashes sting across my ass.

"Holy shit that was so hot" Lisa moaned as she quickly stripped and laid on the bed. She pulled my head between her thighs. I licked and sucked her pussy. I had never witnessed her so wet. She moaned and rocked as I made her cum. I quickly mounted her and fucked her as well.

My ass still burning. Lisa now in a much better mood. Saw my ass and felt bad. She grabbed some salve as she applied it her finger slid across my asshole. I moaned. I had not meant to bit I did. Lisa had noticed right away and was soon rubbing her finger against my asshole. I was rock hard again.

"I think you like when I take charge" Lisa teased. She stopped and let me get dressed. But teased me about it for a few days.

"How's your butt?" Lisa asked one morning rubbing me from behind.

"Better" I replied trying not to burn her eggs.

"You seemed to remember things better the last few days" she commented. "Prehaps I need to take a firm hand with you from now on" with that she handed me a list of chores to do today.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Well since I make the money around here I think it's time you started doing your share around here" Lisa told me kissed me goodbye and was off to work. I was a bit annoyed that she expected me to do all this today. I blew it off and spent the morning playing video games. I did do some of the list in the afternoon. Got about half of it done.

When Lisa came home she didn't say a word. She walked up all lovey like and removed my belt. When she yanked my pants and underwear down I knew what she was up to.

"Lisa wait" I pleaded as she bent me over the counter. The first blow again shocked me but I stayed in place as another 19 rained down. Jumped on the counter and had me orally please her again.

"You are going to learn your place" she told me. She didn't let me fuck her. Instead she grabbed the salve and applied it to my ass. This time her finger probed my ass. She fingered me as I tried not to moan.

I got another list the next morning from a less loving wife. I didn't complain instead worked hard to make sure to complete it. Taking great care in how it was done as well.

"You did well" Lisa praised me. She gave me list every morning. Some simple errands, some cleaning, and some where as simple as writing a thank letter to someone. But she rebuffed any move I made toward sex. Buy the end of the week I was pretty horny and found myself checking out porn on my phone. It started as simple hot woman bit found myself searching for dominant woman. And masterbated to a nakedman being spanked by a woman in a business suit.

Lisa took the lead that night. She hardly ever initiated sex. But she not only initiated but insisted on being on top. She gave me instructions on what to do. Making me focus on her pleasure. This excited me more then I would like to admit.

"That was very nice" Lisa told me as she spooned me after. Her hand slid down my back and she rubbed my asshole.

"Would you like to try some anal play sometime? I read some guys really love it" Lisa whispered in my ear.

"No, I am not" I started to get angry but stopped as she pushed her finger into my ass.

"Shh, be a good boy. And be honest" Lisa corrected me.

"I don't know" I wimpered "it feels good but I not" I continued

"It's okay just to enjoy yourself" Lisa worked in a second finger. I lifted my ass giving her better access.

"From now on you are going to except my rule around here" Lisa told me. She continued for a few minutes then stopped. And we cuddled till we fell asleep.

I woke late Lisa already up. I found her in the kitchen making breakfast. As we sat down to eat. Lisa took my hand.

"I want you to understand. You need this" Lisa said softly

"You don't mean another spanking" I said wide eyed.

"No baby, I was doing some research and think you need a firm hand. Have you ever heard of a Female Led Marriage?" I just shook my head.

"It basically means I am in charge, of everything. You will do as you are told" she explained. "And if you don't there will be punishments. But also rewards for behavior, I will establish a list of rules you are to follow" she continued. "Now honey there is no saying no to this. I believe it is our only way forward, so you agree or move out" I nodded.

"Good now go do the dishes" she shooed me away. Lisa sent me a list of rules and explanations. I sat down and read them carefully.

I was now in charge of all domestic duties. From grocery shopping to scubbing floors.

All plans, commitments and or vacations where solely up to Lisa to approve

I was to wear only things Lisa approved. This included grooming, hair style. And what after shave I could use.

I was not to disagree with her in public ever. And in private although I could calmly express my opinion she would decide if it had any merit.

I was to give back rubs, foot rubs, even manicures if Lisa so wished.

I would take a cooking course because I would now be making all meals.

And sex. I was not to innate sex, ask for sex, or expect any sexual satisfaction. Porn was also now banned. This included pictures of scantily clothed woman. I was not to masterbate without permission

She laid out rewards, such as taking me out, buying me something nice.

Punishments could be spankings, timeouts

I asked questions but Lisa told me it was non negotiatqble. I agreed

Lisa stripped me naked and bent me over the kitchen counter where she used a wooden spoon to spank me 25 times. As a way of my agreeing to the new marriage. Lisa was patient at first correcting things I did not to her standards. She picked out my clothes everyday. No more sweats and sloppy tees. I was clean shaven everyday as well. The rule I broke was no masterbation. When Lisa came home that night she was mad. She had set up cameras in every room I had not known about.

"Don't even say a word" Lisa said as she walked in the house. "Naked now" she ordered.

"Think I don't know when you play with yourself" she scolded. She grabbed the belt and had me count as 25 smacks ran across my ass. As held me after she had grabbed the salve. But her fingers instantly went into my hole.

"You love when I play with you like this" Lisa smiled. I just nodded. As she figer fucked me. I was stunned when my dick started to leak oozing onto her slacks. She didn't stop until I stopped oozing. She then took a wet wipe and cleaned me. Before she fiddled with something then I heard a click. I looked down to see my penis in a cage.

"That way you won't play with my penis anymore" she told me. Over dinner I remained naked. As she asked about how it felt when she milked me. I had never heard the term and did my best to explain it. I got under the table and licked her an orgasm as she had dessert.

After that Lisa got very strick. She wanted my body free of hair other then the top of my head. She started calling me her little sissy boi. She bought a toy to use on my ass instead of her fingers. And another I could use on her. Since mine was locked up.

About two weeks of being locked I got frustrated and raised my voice. I got to wear a butt plug all night and a ball gag to make sure I remained quiet. I didn't even know she had these things. I also found myself bound naked to the bed as a time out when she went out with her friend for the evening. The more she pushed the more submissive I became. I found it all so exciting.

One evening she came home late , smelled of booze. She lifted her dress and wore no panties. She pulled my head to her sex. I sensed it was different right away.

"Do it! Suck his cum out of me" Lisa demanded. Pushing my face against her. She rubbed herself all over my face. Before she headed to the bathroom to be sick. I cleaned her up and put her to bed.

In the morning I went to check back to check on her.

"You are a cuckold now" she told me. I knew the term and lowered my head I wanted to cry. She motioned me to join her in bed.

"Shh, baby I am never going to unlock you. You love it too much when I milk you" she told me her hand patting my ass.

"Get naked" she said suddenly. I got up and did as she asked.

"What if I told you to put on a pair of my panties?" She asked. I looked down at the floor.

"Pick out a pair" Lisa said plainly. I went to her drawer. Not her everyday panty drawer. For some reason I went to wear she kept her sexy lingerie. I picked up a black lace pair of panties. Lisa smiled.

"Put them on"

I did as told she had me join her in bed again as she shopped online for panties in my size. She also bought a few other items such as a strapon. But mostly panties. Lisa saw her lover again that night. This time when she came home I was still in her panties and nothing else as I licked and slurped her cum filled pussy.

At the six month anniversary of our new FLM she bought me an engagement ring and had me get a tattoo on my ass that said property of Lisa in sparkling purple. I got her a smaller cage to lock me in. She says maybe at the one year she will unlock me. I actually don't care anymore. Most of our friends know I am locked and wear panties. Family just think I am whipped and have no backbone.

Lisa never introduces me to her lovers. But sometimes gives me details as I lick thier cum out of her.

[kittyit]

In my opinion, the reason trauma-focused consciousness raising groups worked was in a larger social context where these women knew each other, ate together, had creative proccesses together, spent time together, played games, were friends and lovers. Everything, all of it. And we were naïve when we tried to do this online. I had no understanding that it wouldn't translate and I had no understanding that the negative attentional bias and algorithmic sorting of the Internet would a huge wrench in how these social communities operated. We simply need to do it in real life. I live too rurally to do this, and I tried anyway, and I failed. And I really envy women in cities. I know anything can feel like the biggest problem while you're thinking about it, but I genuinely believe that isolation is the biggest problem in women's community. And we just can't do it online. No matter how much I love the Internet and I absolutely do. I've always loved the Internet since I was a little kid. And it feels very deeply sad to me that it wasn't what I thought it was, and what it was promised to be. I love the Internet and I've met wonderful women and I love love love when it results in what I always thought it would, which is a real life meeting and a real life connection. But things have just gotten pretty bad.

[sarasa-cat]

Vague update on where I am in Veilguard (or where I am situated with respect to Veilguard).

First: I have not had time to play in at least 10-14 days. Not really sure. Lost count. Neither of my two rooks are all that far in.

While I enjoy the pretty nature of the game and the characters who either auto-join your party or you get to recruit them early on, the game feels more like a vacation at a theme park rather than actually being in Thedas during the short span of decades that cover existing DA media.

It feels like the Walt Disney Company purchased Bioware's IP.

This doesn't make it a bad game at all -- it is fun escapism -- but it isn't a believable Thedas that is only a decade after Inquisition or a decade and a half after the end of DA II.

On one hand, yeah, fanfic can fix it. But there is something else going on regarding larger trends in north american media that just ......... yeah.

Anyhow: I am still avoiding BIG spoilers for BIG LORE DROPS but I suspect in a month or so, when I still haven't made much progress, I'll just give up and let myself be spoiled on all of it. Given how my life works and how this time of the year is notoriously bad for me having free time (although, now that I have a steam deck, I can game on the go, perhaps, time willing) it will be a while before I can sink time into any game.

I do enjoy playing it merely for the sake of playing but wow, everything about the conversations feels very dumbed down. It feels more like a game I want to play based on my mood rather than must-gobble-it-down-media.

Mostly, I just want to get back to CP2077 and FINALLY play all of the new stuff that dropped over a year ago.

And maybe return to my second run of Disco Elysium -- the one with ultra-wreck Harry (rather than "trying to better himself Harry" who was my first run through).

[nenilein]

Firey, eway was actively and fully arguing in bad faith there. I've talked to eway about this exact topic before and they just 100% backslid on everything we talked about. By giving them an inch/benefit of the doubt, you are allowing your own reading of the text to become less coherent in the process.

A lot of this stems from the direction SEGA has taken Puyo Puyo these days. Obviously I'm not saying they're doing all bad, or that they're going strictly to child friendly, but these are some observations I've made. Whether they're true or not is up to interpret.

You're already so much better faith here than eway, tbh. Like, you're not arguing on the same level, you are actually trying to properly read the text as it exists and leave a margin for error.

SEGA has been going a bit more kid friendly with Puyo Puyo as of late, especially compared to the direction that Compile did. Let's comprae some; Compile's version of Puyo Puyo stems from their original dungeon crawler series, Madou Monogatari. This is not new news to most people, in fact it's very common knowledge. However, I'm bringing this up to display the tonal shift SEGA and Compile has. Madou Monogatari was an RPG dungeon crawler, it was gritty, it was gorey, it was less 'kid friendly' and more 'a kid could play this if they really wanted to'. In fact, the majority of Compile villains listed above where from Madou Monogatari games instead of ones released under the Puyo Puyo title.

That's not really true, though.

I've played all of the Madou games, most of them are extremely kid friendly (sometimes more so than the Sega games by a huge margin) and the only real "not child-friendly" stuff in them is in 90% of cases sexual jokes/content, not dark storytelling or gore.

The PC 98 ports of Madou 1-2-3 are extreme outliers that were so badly received by the games' fanbase in Japan that Compile immediately backtracked on them and went back to cutesy art and kid-friendly text pretty much permanently. There's an actual interview in a compile magazine about this that I should probably translate at some point. The idea that Sega Puyo is "more kid-friendly" is something of an urban legend that exists solely due to people seeing screenshots of the PC 98 Madou 1-2-3 ports and misreading them as the norm.

The Count was a villain in Madou Monogatari R. Runelord was a villain in Madou Monogatari S. Yoggus was a villain in Madou Monogatari (Saturn). I sure this doesn't need to be pointed out, but Compile kept a lot of their more irredeemable villains in their Madou Monogatari series. One exception to this is Doppelganger Arle. Doppelganger Arle, while she originally appears as a doppel through the Madou series, a trait not strictly bound to Arle as Schezo also encounters doppels, has her most prominent appearance in a Puyo Puyo title.

That is *PARTIALLY* true, but it's not because Madou Monogatari is "darker", it's because Madou Monogatari doesn't have a need for a large recurring cast, because most of the characters are just mook encounters. All the villains that aren't "redeemed" as Eway calls it (that verbage is so loaded, I dislike it immensely tbh) are characters who never appear again and aren't actual "characters" so much as obstacles for Arle, Rulue, Schezo and Ragnus to smack down. They're glorified natural disasters, basically.

Sega Puyo, on the other hand, wants to keep guys around, so they need to be more interesting and have more depth than "this thing that we cast Jugem on reaaaaaally hard that one time".

Like, think about it, do we care about Runelord in isolation? No, we care about what he MEANS to Schezo's ongoing character development and how his presence ties into the latest developments, such as the bunch of stuff that happened with Schezo in Puzzle Pop.

Does anybody ever draw/write anything about the Count or Yoggus? I drew a SINGLE Yoggus-related commission once for a person I'm not even in contact with anymore, and even that was more of an OC than the actual monster from Madou Saturn.

These 1-time obstacles just aren't characters. They're facilitators. That's a big distinction.

Doppelganger Arle appears as the overarching villain in Puyo Puyo~N (Puyo Puyo 4), and while the non canon light novels give her a more tragic backstory, she doesn't have a concrete one in Puyon. She's simply a scary villain, and she does a good job at it. Due to her ties with being a Puyo character, this means SEGA can use her as they please.

This is also a misunderstanding. Doppel's "backstory" isn't in any of the non canon lightnovels either. It's in a blog post made by a former Compile writer in the early 2010s, of which the original isn't even online anymore, because the social media said blog was on shut down. So in the Compile era, people didn't even KNOW that writer had that headcanon, because it wasn't out there. So this isn't even a Compile era thing, this is a "a single writer had an idea he never used" thing.

As SEGA has taken over, such things have been watered down to make it easier to digest for children.

Uhh, that's not really true either. What Sega did was make the characters more *consistent*

Compile had a HUGE issue where the franchise had no series bible, to the point every single writer would write every single character differently. Even some of the Puyo Puyo Tsuu manuals made FUN of that by pointing out how Arle's character and lore are insanely inconsistent and wondering if that means there's multiple of her running around. So a lot of "traits" people think the characters had in Compile are traits they only had for a single game, then never again, and that directly contradicted what came before/after. This extends across all of Madou and Puyo (and Nazo Puyo)

When Sega came around, the writers there immediately started "clean up" by solidifying what each character is and isn't in a series bible, as is standard in the entertainment industry for any sort of narrative media. So if any traits you have seen anywhere in Compile Madou/Puyo is absent, it's because that trait didn't make the cut for the series bible during the clean-up phase, which served to make everything consistent and coherent.

But, it's also rather frustrating when you want to see an evil villain. SEGA is, of course, capable of doing such a thing, but at the end of the day they do need to make money, and it's easy to make money off kids games.

This is really a bit of a misunderstanding of how Puyo is marketed. It's really not a kids game (in fact, Quest has a disclaimer that you should only play it under the age of 14 under the supervision of an adult, because, it's, well, a gacha game, and gacha games are not made for kids at all), but a "nostalgia bait" game, aimed at millenials primarily. Kids are actually just a SUB-SECTION of Puyo's market, which, yes, Sega is happy to get into the fold to, but are not the primary focus. The primary focus are millenials who grew up with Madou/Puyo in the 90s, which is heavily reflected in the merchandising and the character polls. There's a reason why Arle, Schezo, Witch and Draco dominate the polls and merch the way they do.

The reason we don't get Madou 95 type stuff anymore is, again, as I said above, there was a HUGE backlash against Madou 95 back in the 90s. This is NOT what the Japanese fans want. They want cute slice of life shit with these characters, and they want jokes. I actually had a discussion about that with a Japanese fan a week or so ago, where said fan outright said they don't WANT Puyo to go harder on the lore, because it would ruin so many fandom-wide headcanons, it would be more of a hindrance than a help.

Puyo/Madou was never perceived as a plot-heavy franchise by Japanese fans, and plot-heavy installments always tended to be far less popular than plot-light, which makes it a miracle modern Puyo goes as plot heavy as it does and is a testimony to how much the writers care about writing plots with these characters. Back in the compile days, the most plot heavy entries in the series, such as Saturn Madou, tended to be sales failures that contributed to Compile's bankruptcy. The primary reason why Madou Saturn is such a rare game these days is because it sold very poorly.

I'm not well versed in Aya and Klug's lore, though I know the basics. I'd be delighted to see Aya stay irredeemable, or at the very least difficult to sympathize with. We'll just have to hope I suppose.

And, as I said in my response to eway, this is just eway completely misreading the contents of all the games.

Aya was never portrayed as "evil".

Fever 2, from the very beginning, made it outright clear they are just a desperate victim of racism that stole their life away and that their ruthless actions are a result of wanting that life back, not of "evil".

Thanks for being such a level-headed person in discussing this, but I kinda feel you gave too much effort here... and so am I. >_>

Neni out.

I am getting sick of the redeemable/not really evil villains. Yes I do like them but there's just so many now! It was far more varied in Compile!

[Post this and I will reblog with my rant about this subject]

shit, sorry I didn't post earlier. Yap away. Or... yap eway...?

[paro-art]

I'll be back here soon ( have to relearn how to draw humans bc all I've been doing is hand-drawn vfx and puppet animation )

but damn, I'm so sorry I got Honkai star rail brainrot and I want to draw fanart of it I'm so sorry guys

[daylighteclipsed]

Blaming KH2 Sora’s anger and aggression all on Roxas really downplays how ready to throw hands Sora is in KH1 and CoM.

[lavellane]

last post about it but never underestimate bioware's ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory i guess