#technically i guess i've made it make sense with her backstory but i want other people to weigh in

[halstarionsandwich]

Neither One Of Us

Astarion x Tav (Tav is unnamed w/ a semi-fleshed out backstory that isn't elaborated much on, no descriptions of physical appearance, afab, referred to with she/her pronouns)

Warnings: 18+, oral (m/f receiving), unreliable narrator, dubious consent, angst, implied past sexual trauma

WC: 1.8k

An Aside: hi~ I'm Elle! this Is my first time ever posting any of my writing!! This is technically smut, but it's mostly just an incredibly self-inserty exploration of trauma. it's not a super fun read tbh so tread lightly. i've thought a lot about how Astarion would respond to being in a situation where he's the manipulatee. this is the result of those thoughts lol

divider by the lovely @/cafekitsune <3

The decision to bed you wasn’t a tough one for Astarion. It was the only choice he had, really. If he wants to ensure his survival, ensure he is rid of the tadpole that’s made a home in brain, he has to cozy up to at least one of the members of his party, and who better to choose than her. Their leader.

She’s too kind for her own good, really. Overly-trusting, generous to a fault, no sense of self-preservation. Her nearly seventy years of life spent sheltered in a nunnery, dedicating her life to worshiping Ilmater, seem to have left her ignorant to the cruel realities of the world they live in. Her forgiveness was swiftly administered after their first meeting, where he tackled her to the ground with a knife to her neck--an incident she brushed off as a simple and excusable misunderstanding. She was quick to welcome into the party all who claimed to have been on the Nautiloid ship with them without so much as a bit of scrutiny. She insisted Wyll spare Karlach’s life, comforted him when he was subsequently transformed into a devil, convinced Gale to remain in the party after the revelation of the bomb residing in his chest. The list of her good deeds is immeasurable at this point.

It makes Astarion sick if he thinks about it for too long. 

The idea of someone helping others for no reason other than to do just that, to help, is incomprehensible to him. Where were these do-gooders when he needed them? When he was imprisoned, feeding on vermin and forced to whore himself out to attempt to sate his master’s unceasing desires? 

Surely he had prayed to Ilmater in that time, just as he prayed to any other god he thought might listen. Why hadn’t he sent her to him then?

He’s spiraling again. Ruminating will do him no good, he decides. He steels his nerves when he hears the crunching of leaves steadily approaching. 

He had thought that bedding a nun would be a bit of a challenge, and if he’s being honest with himself, he was looking forward to making a game out of it. He didn’t expect her to so readily follow him into the woods after the tieflings and their party members had settled in for the night. “How naïve,” he thinks to himself before he steps into her field of view and flashes her his signature smirk, the mask of seduction he’s spent the last two centuries perfecting.

“There you are. I’ve been waiting.” He stalks towards her. “Waiting since the moment I laid eyes on you. Waiting to have you.”

She says nothing in response as he closes the distance between them, taking her chin between his thumb and forefinger to force her to hold her gaze on him. Her eyes are wide and shining faintly in the soft glow of the moonlight. It’s a look Astarion has seen countless times, presumably mesmerized as she gazes upon his dashing features. She’s quivering. Whether from the cool breeze wafting up from the river nearby or from nerves he’s not quite sure. He guesses both. A non-answer isn’t refusal, and he takes the look she gives him as his cue to kiss her.

He can feel her inexperience in the way her lips clumsily move against his, in the way their teeth knock when she tilts her head to take his tongue deeper into her mouth. He begins to undress her, and she flinches when he pulls her shirt just above her navel. She curls in on herself, arms pulled tight to her sides and hands laid on her chest. Only for a second though, then the tension dissipates.

“Good, darling. Let yourself be known. Let me get a taste of you,” he purrs into her ear. The praise softens her, and she allows herself to be stripped bare before him.

He hears her wince when he urges her back against the closest tree, but she does not protest. Astarion sinks to his knees and caresses her thighs, an attempt to soothe her. She’s quivering still, and she’s too flustered to look at him. With one shaky hand over her eyes and the other on her lower belly, she spreads her legs ever so slightly, as if she knows that’s what he was about to ask of her.

That is how this is supposed to go, after all. She’s to let him have a taste of her, just as he requested.

He leans in, his nose resting in wiry tuft of hair adorning her mons as his tongue slips past her lips to lap up the arousal he assumes to be gathered there. She whimpers, and he’s surprised, though not unpleasantly, by the distinct lack of taste to her. Her fingers clench and unclench where they rest while Astarion shifts his focus to her clit. A strangled moan leaves her, and he opens his eyes to find hers squeezed tight. Her breathing is labored, each exhale landing on the offbeat of the steady rhythm of her fingers gently scratching her own skin. 

It’s almost methodical, the way she does it. 

Entrancing, even.

In no time, she announces the imminence of her climax. “I-I’m close…” The first words she’s spoken since appearing before him, and he can barely register them with how quietly she squeaks them out.

There’s a hitch in her breath, followed by the most perfect, high pitched moan he’s heard in decades. Her body’s reaction is nothing compared to the perfectly executed sounds she makes. Not even a faint tremble in her legs. 

He’s brought back into the moment when he feels a gentle tug on his hair urging him to look up at her.

“Let me return the favor…” 

He’s unsure of how long exactly his mind had been elsewhere, but she didn’t seem to notice that he wasn’t fully present until this moment. “Of course, darling,” he grins at her, laying back on the patch of grass beneath them.

Where she was timid and unsure before, the sweet little nun between Astarion’s legs seems confident in every move she now makes. She kisses him again, just a peck before her lips and tongue trail a searing hot path down to the waistband of his trousers. 

Her hands are no longer unsteady as she rids him of his clothing, pulling his pants and undergarments off in one fell swoop. Holy and devout though she may be, her tongue feels positively sinful licking up the length of his cock. It’s almost enough to stir something within him, something akin to desire that has long laid dormant within him. Almost enough to feel pleasurable. 

Just as he didn’t expect her to take up his offer to meet him in the woods, Astarion wasn’t expecting her to be good at this. She takes him into her throat with what seems to be practiced ease, and he acknowledges her efforts by moaning and writhing as authentically as he can manage. 

He feels pressure behind his eyes, then a brush against his thoughts. Something is trying to get in. He recognizes this sensation. When he held the blade to her throat after cornering her on the beach where the Nautiloid ship crashed. 

Their parasites are connecting them.

“Until I can bear a fraction of your burden, Sufferer, I shall.” 

It’s her voice he hears, though her mouth stays occupied as her head steadily bobs up and down. She’s seemingly unaware that her thoughts are being projected into his mind. Her next thoughts are disjointed, coming to him only in fragments as he feels the connection start to slip.

“If this is what… him to trust… stay with us… Suffer I shall.”

He props himself up on his elbows and reaches down to brush her hair back and away from her face. Her eyes are clenched shut again, concentration fully set on bringing him pleasure. Though when she feels his touch, cool fingers running through her hair to rest on the side of her head, she opens them. She pulls her mouth off of him with a soft pop. Her lips pucker, and she taps them with his swollen, pink head.

His unbeating heart drops to his stomach. 

Astarion hasn’t seen his own reflection in two centuries. He’s all but forgotten what he looks like by now, but when he looks at her, Gods, he can only imagine what he sees in her to be it. Or what he doesn’t see in her, more like it.

Her gaze is directed at him, but she’s looking right through him. If her thoughts were still rattling around in his brain, he’d surely hear nothing but that prayer to her God. “Until I can bear a fraction of your burden, Sufferer, I shall.” 

She sees the burden of suffering as righteous, as all worshipers of Ilmater do. An act deemed holy and necessary if they are to help others the way they’ve devoted their lives to. 

She doesn’t want this. She doesn’t want him. 

Her motivations are the same as his. Gain his trust, just as he wants to gain hers. Give him reason to stay, just as he wants to give her reason to. She wants something from him—though what exactly it is, he’s not sure—and in order to do that, she’s convincing him in the only way she knows how. In the only way they know how.

As the haunting revelation settles in—that neither of them are doing this for the sake of pleasure or out of a desire for intimacy and that there is more to her then she had previously let on—she wraps her lips around him once more. His body betrays him, as it always does in moments like this. 

“Ahh, w-wait!” He tries to lift her head, but she doubles down and throats him again as he climaxes. His nails dig into the dirt beneath him and his hips buck up towards her while she swallows every drop of his release.

She still has that faraway look in her eyes as she sits up, and her hands are unsteady again as they wipe away the mess on her face.

“How was that for you…?” She asks softly, slowly gathering her clothes and slipping them back on.

“I haven’t experienced anything like that in a long, long time.” This answer seems to please her, though he doubts it would if she knew what he truly meant by it. The light slowly returns to her eyes, and Astarion finds himself feeling for just the briefest moment as though he wishes to never see it dissipate again.

“You’re too good for us, you know,” he stands and extends a hand to her, pulling her up alongside him. “Me especially.”

“Nonsense.” She bristles, seemingly taking offense to his statement. “You are all deserving of good things. You especially.”

There is a pregnant pause, both of them unmoving while holding each other's gaze.

Astarion never planned on getting attached to any of these people, especially not her - the moral zealot dead set on saving and having mercy on every poor soul they come across. Her, the poor soul he had every intention of manipulating for his own self-interest.

He feels sick again at the budding sensation of camaraderie welling up within him.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

If you made it this far, thank you for reading!! ily

[an-aura-about-you]

guess what we have all decided it's too lazy a day to go on a hike, so I'm jumping right into Handbook for Mortals Chapter 3:

when we last left our hero, Scheherazade started yelling at Mac the technical director because he made the oh so unreasonable request of asking to schedule a meeting with her to go over the mechanics of her trick so it can be safely incorporated into the show. because, y'know, no other technical director in the world would ask that. Charles comes up to end the row, takes Zade to his office, and asks her to tell him everything. the chapter ends there and we're never gonna see that meeting.

which means it's time for Chapter 3: The Hierophant

-Zade talks about how for the first time she's really out on her own as if she doesn't have baby's first job at daddy's show.

-I don't understand why her first day would be with wardrobe. seems like her measurements could have been taken during the week that the administrative slop was taken care of.

-there's a tangent about Halloween costumes and Zade mentions how she always wants her costume to both be completely recognizable and something so unique that no one else has it. do I even have to mention how not possible that is? it may not fit the letter of having your cake and eating it too but it certainly fits the spirit.

-for some reason Zade has to strip down to her underwear for her measurements. I know this is for cheesecake purposes, but I've had my measurements taken before and I was able to just. wear my clothes. I COULD see this making more sense in a Vegas show since skimpier costumes might need more precision, but there's no indication of that? besides, I would think the most important aspect of the costume for Zade's dive is that it would be a swimsuit.

-we're introduced to Zade's chatty costumer Lil and more or less get her whole backstory. however, we're not seeing Lil say it. we're just seeing Zade think it to us. and she ends up tuning Lil out as she continues to get measured. this is another part of what I was talking about before about how Zade wants people as objects and not as people. she doesn't care to listen to Lil, doesn't concern herself with any sort of professional camaraderie. you don't HAVE to be friends with your coworkers, but coworkers are one of the easiest sources of friends in one's adult life since a lot of friendship relies on proximity at the start of it. and Zade is essentially alone in Las Vegas, so making connections is actually pretty vital. but Lil only matters to Zade as far as what she can do for her, like giving Zade compliments or making Halloween and renfaire costumes for her.

-and now Zade feels awkward because she doesn't have anything to compliment Lil on in return for Lil's compliment to her. now this might just be a guess, but do you think you MIGHT have some idea of what to compliment her on if you, oh, I don't know, paid attention to her while she was talking to you?

-Zade gestures to some costumes and asks, "You make any of these?" which sounds like a risky move if you haven't been paying attention to the conversation since she very well might have mentioned that.

-and we get the first of our infamous italics breaks, sections of the book that follow a character besides Zade so they appear to be in the third person. as for why Sarem does this, my guess is that she's one of the like 17 people who read EL James's The Mister because that book does the same thing between its two main characters. however, there are sections of the italic parts in this book that this IS still from Zade's first person pov, so I'm not sure what exactly is going on.

-also the whole reason we jump to another perspective is so we can catch Mac peeping on Zade while she's in her panties. can't miss the optimal view for cheesecake.

-like. I'm no prude about this, but there are right and wrong ways to do the cheesecake and this is just engineered all wrong. let's look at a slightly better example from Lunar 2. in that one, it makes SENSE that Lucia would have to undress completely because she's wanted by Althena's Guard and her dramatic red and black outfit is too distinctive. our protagonist/her love interest Hiro does not look in on her, but pervy Ronfar finds a spot because he wants to watch. Hiro accidentally sees what's happening but only because he's trying to block Ronfar's view and falls into the room. it's obvious why the scene is here, but Hiro still retains a measure of higher ground because he didn't initiate it or willingly participate.

-I also want to take a moment to say that this scene confirms Zade is whiter than white. We will come back to that.

-(though I guess that really isn't surprising since Zade's family have been landowners in Tennessee since the 1700s. I know we're never gonna come back to that, but I'm also not gonna forget it.)

-man, we are pushing the "enemies" part of this enemies to lovers arc. you guys had exactly one spat. yeah, a Meet Ugly can be sufficient fuel for a while, but it's been a week and there hasn't been any other word of how Zade and Mac might grate on each other.

-actually if I'm gonna be talking about enemies to lovers, I'm gonna talk about how to do it well because it feels so easy to botch. now obviously writers can write whatever the hell they want and I don't have to like it. but the dynamic I personally crave with enemies to lovers is people who are equal but opposite and recognize that. they don't have to recognize it right away, but it does work best if they recognize it during the enemies stage because from there comes respect for the enemy, and that's the foundation that they're going to land on when they're inevitably pushed onto common ground. we sometimes see this sort of thing in superhero comics when they have to work together with a villain from their rogues gallery that is into crime for reasons besides hurting people. the hero in that situation knows and trusts that the villain won't do any killing because they have that moral in common even though they are otherwise on opposite sides. this sort of team-up also requires an acknowledgement, spoken or otherwise, that the hero and the villain have complementary skills that aid them in this shared goal. to me a good enemies to lovers arc should have that kind of flavor.

-oh geez I haven't even mentioned Tad yet in this. I probably should since he's Thomas Ian Nicholas's character and thus a major side character. he's Mac's best friend, and he catches Mac peeping on Zade. he's just here to do what I'm gonna guess is the same shtick his character does in American Pie. though I will give Tad this: when someone asks him why Mac's so moody, he at least leaves it at, "Don't worry about it, it has nothing to do with you." I can at least respect that. (it might be the only thing I respect about him, but hey.)

-hey we finally got the introduction to our other love interest Jackson! holy shit, the mess of who this character is is way more interesting than the character himself. let me see if I can cram in all the juicy bits. Jackson in this book is the front man for this fictional version of real life band the Plain White T's. he is also Jackson Rathbone's proxy character, the guy who played Jasper in the Twilight movies. Rathbone's here because he was in the band 100 Monkeys, which the author used to manage. I hesitate to call this cringe because I'm usually a proclaimer of "cringe is dead long live cringe," but holy shit is this supremely awkward. especially since Rathbone's gone on record saying he doesn't like Sarem too much.

-"Why can't I form sentences that actually make any sense right now?" I mean why start now?

-oof, the repetition about Jackson's guitar and Zade wondering if he's in the house band.

-Jackson is impressed that Zade knows how to play the guitar. I'm gonna put a little reminder here that Chapter 0 of this book ended with Zade listening to a Chicks song, an all women band where every member can play the guitar.

-and we're back for another installment of When Is This Story Set? Jackson has shown up to give Zade a tour of the place and she has to run back to get her phone. He quotes Right Here Waiting by Richard Marx, and our 25ish year old protagonist got the reference right away. this indicates to me that Zade is probably around my age since I also got the reference but don't know if the majority of people younger than me would because that song came out like three years after I was born. the only reason I got the reference is because the song was on one of those compilation albums that was advertised all the time when I was little. I was 25 in 2011, so this actually sort of tracks with the year we got before and the story might take place in the early 2010s.

-also I find that hilarious if Sarem is still insisting that she'll play Zade in the movie that still hasn't been made because if she IS around my age, well, I'm 38 now. the "teens" in the movie version of Grease are more convincing.

-"I had been so scared about my decision to leave home" well you did a poor job showing it because the chapter when you left home had you singing along to your radio in high spirits.

and that's what we end the chapter on, Zade being glad she decided to move to Vegas because hot boy. I'm tempted to move on to the next chapter because hoo boy is THAT going to be a shitshow, but either way I'll end this post here.

[ageless-aislynn]

WIP ask game for the following: the blue lady ships it, au the war crime part out, and …or possibly like this on the condition 'heat' is something like Pon Farr and not omegaverse

boops gently

*rubs hands together gleefully* Thank you so much!

1. The blue lady ships it (Halo) aka "Untitled Cortana (and the marines) totally ship John/Kai" 😁 Sadly, this one ended up having large parts of itself "donated" to other fics and so would have to be redone if I ever decide to finish it but here's the original opening, for your reading pleasure, lol!

Cortana made sure to manifest her holographic self down at the bottom of the hill, well away from where John and Kai had just finished mopping up the last of the Covenant infantry. She'd learned the hard way that, if they felt like she was watching them, then they'd scurry away from each other.

And yet they're standing on a hill with a bunch of marines looking up at them and somehow that's not "being watched?" Maybe it's simply the distance, the false sense of privacy?

Or maybe it was because once, just once she’d appeared right next to them, practically with digital popcorn in hand, wanting a front row seat for The Big Moment?

Come on, Chief, take your helmet off. Show her those adoring eyes… she thought but was careful not to project herself into his auditory cortex. He hadn't responded well to that, either.

Kai took off her helmet.

Also acceptable. He can't resist when she's all battle-flushed. He removed his helmet as well, both of them going off comms. Not that it mattered because being literally housed in his head meant he couldn't actually shut her out; she had to choose to give him privacy. Which she was doing, thank you very much.

Watching from a distance didn't count. Ask anybody. Ask the group of marines next to her, none-too-covertly studying the Spartans and taking bets on who'd make the first move.

False sense of privacy was her favorite new thing.

2. I wasn't sure if I should make a funny scene out of a war crime 👀 Guess I'll have to AU the war crime part out, yep *nodnod* (Halo series)

Aka the completely awkward John/Makee sexytiems scene we all REALLY deserved. 😇😂 I totally, completely AU'd the war crime out of it, though, so now we can chuckle at all of the awkward, 10,000% guilt free! *nodnods* 😁👍 Still in progress, may even be completed and posted one day, who knows? Would also be my first posted John/Makee fic. 😁

3. Yeah so if Spartans went into heat, I’d probably write it like this... (Halo gameverse)...or like this (Halo gameverse, different game)...or possibly like this (Halo series) 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Technically, they're all variations on the same idea, which is why I probably won't ever write them. But they each have at least one distinct scene that lives rent free in my head, what can I say? Okay, so, with a wave of my hand, I've just given the gameverse Spartans the hormone pellets of the TV series Spartans. And with another wave of my hand and a little flourish of my fingers, I've added a condition to the pellets where, at certain times, to keep the pellets and the Spartans operating at peak efficiency, they have to go off of them.

And y'all know what I think would go on at that time. *coughcoughs in "Side Effect" NSFW* But imagine it as being more controlled than that, something scheduled, maybe a nice, out of the way place for Spartans on similar cycles to go and ahem, take care of each other, just an accepted part of being a Spartan and all that.

Annnnnnd in each of those 3 ideas, we get a pellet malfunction where game!Chief, Noble Team and TV!Chief ends up Trapped Alone With The Reader™. Not at the same time, not at the same place and not with the same Reader, I should mention. I mean, that would be one very tired Reader and quite a swingin’ Spartan party, woah, lol! 😳😂

I have a surprisingly well-defined, really more of an OC character for game!Chief, with a whole developed backstory and everything. And it's not ALL of Noble Team, just 2 of 'em. (That one actually came from a dream where the Reader was giving a report to Carter who is getting more and more flummoxed at how calm she is considering what all she's telling him. "And you're saying that you... handled them both. One at a time, right?" "Well, there might've been a one at a time in there but, honestly, it was just more expedient to double up." 😂) Then TV!Chief has a Reader no one has met before, someone who gives off this shy, reserved demeanor but who is an absolute wildcat underneath, who can give a malfunctioning-hormone-pellet Spartan a run for his money. I don’t know why but I want to see a scene where the rest of Silver Team finds them and they’re kinda running in like, “Okay, we’ve got to see if the non-enhanced human is all right. She might need medical aid!” and she’s all composed and walking out of the room like, yeah, he’s in there. And there’s John just totally worn out, asleep and snoring, lol! 😂 However, since John and Kai went through "Side Effect" together, I doubt this one would ever be written just because it's a rather close idea. I dunno. We’ll see! 😉

And *drum roll* there we have it! Thanks so much for asking! 😎👍

WIP folder ask game

[dmclemblems]

Did you know, when Hopes was just nothing but trailers, I actually thought Dimitri would join forces with Edgeguard. It's going to be up to Claude to save the Church and Fodlan from them. D1m1gard Team Up has so much more build up from the story because they had history. They are stepsiblings! Why the devs didn't take advantage of that, I would never know. Instead of allowing Claude shine, they threw him and Almyra under the bus.

Tbh that's a totally new one I've heard. Most people thought it was going to be a golden route, but I never expected everyone to be on the same side because the devs previously said it would never happen.

The thing is even though Dimtiri cared about Edelgard, I think even that only goes so far (in that he can't agree with what she does). There's definitely more possibility between them that we could've gotten though, but I guess maybe for AG they wanted to focus less on Edelgard since AM did a lot of that and give us more insight into Duscur.

I guess the reason they didn't go so much into Dimitri and Edelgard's relationship is because there isn't too much new content to explore. There are things they could've done with them in the present, but like I said, since they focused a lot of AM on them I can see why there's a change in AG. Also, AG is more fulfilling imo as a character arc in a way?

Even though the war ends in AM, such a huge part of Dimitri's backstory gets left unfinished. Only his relationship with Edelgard gets closure, but there's a such big hole in the overall Lions' story. AG kind of tells the other side of things that we didn't get in AM, so it's kinda like each story had more of one thing than the other and both of them complete the whole story. It's unfortunate that we have to play two different games to get a "complete" story where everything is answered and settled, but I guess combining the two is really the most fulfilling thing we'll get lol. It just sucks that the real story for Dimitri and the other Lions is basically incomplete because the real story didn't address so many things the characters wanted to address. I guess it's possible we could just say "oh, they figured all that post game" or something, but that feels like what CF went through with TWS. OTL

Meanwhile poor Claude got thrown under the bus again. I was really hoping for a lot more stuff about his background. Apparently they wanted to use Shahid in Houses but they couldn't make for him, so he ended up in Hopes instead? Which like, that's fine, I just wish they went more into detail about their relationship and exactly why Shahid hated Claude so much. Hell, we should've seen more of his siblings seeing as he apparently had a good bunch of them...

Focusing on just Fodlan just feels weird to me, when it comes to Claude's story. You'd think they'd do something more like half about Fodlan and half about Almyra to address his story both where he grew up and where he is now, but we just get minimal content about Almyra. In a way it's also a little awkward, because when you think about it... Shahid was planned for Houses but didn't make the cut, and yet he died in Hopes... so... wouldn't he still technically be alive in Houses? How does Claude becoming king work with Shahid still alive in Houses? How does Claude becoming Leicester's king in Hopes even work or make sense when he's supposed to be Almyra's king?

I feel like Claude just got the big ol' writing yikes in both games. Dimitri's story was very thorough in both games, because even if they did kinda only half complete certain aspects of a whole, full story in each respective game, they at least went in depth and delved very deeply into the parts of the story we did get. In CF we more or less got everything for Edelgard except the TWS battle which they made up for in Hopes, and since the devs consider her overall happier in SB, she still kinda walks out of both games having had a full story. With Claude they kind of just... give us some little crumbs about him and his homeland and then go right back to the Fodlan war.

Makes me sad because it feels like they just don't really care about Claude as much as the other two?

When will Claude's justice come back from the Fodlan war? :'(

[agendratum]

so okay about those dragon age thoughts that kept me up from sleeping, i really need to write this down otherwise it will keep boiling inside my head (it will anyway)

i've been thinking what backstory i could do for rook. yes, there is not possibly enough information about them, it makes sense, the game isn't out yet. which means that i don't feel too comfortable making any final decisions, not really knowing how their character will play out, how the whole faction thing will work, etc. so i'm trying not to set anything in stone thinking about it. that being said, i got a little bit hang up on this idea of making rook to be my warden's, ruth', daughter. a little bit i say. i haven't stopped being able to think about it. i just love it a lot okay

and here's how i think it could work. first of all, the timeline allows for it to work, right? if say, ruth happened to make (another) child somewhere right after the events of origins, in the first year, two maybe, after the blight ended, then by the time of veilguard that child would be around 20 years old.

next part is a bit more tricky. so what i'm guessing is that this time the pc's backstory will depend on those factions. and a bunch of them are pretty tightly connected to a specific territory. tevinter, to be precise (and nevarra). and the thing is, i would want for it to be possible, with all the travels and what not, for ruth to be able to be present in this kid's life. at least somewhat. considering she has whole other child she can't see at all. and that limits my options i think.

of course, i don't *have* to worry too much about it, because, relocation is possible. say, ruth and this partner she has briefly find out they are going to become parents. and even tho the blight is technically over, there is still the aftermath, which means danger. people, if possible, probably wouldn't want to raise children in such conditions. so i think ruth could help them move somewhere else. but i do find it unrealistic that tevinter would be a desirable destination for such move

anyway, that's why my main bets for now are as follows

grey wardens. a seemingly obvious one. her mother is a grey warden, the grey warden some might say, so she's following in her steps. tho i do think that ruth wouldn't be super excited about her kid becoming one, you know, with how many people she knew died because of being grey wardens or being in a close to them (and darkspawn) proximity. and also she's still looking for that cure, so. she wouldn't be able to stop her, but she wouldn't want it. but that would make things easy for me personally

lords of fortune. this one is a type of "i've connected the dots (you didn't connect shit) i've connected them". ruth wants to help her partner and their kid to escape to a safer place. ruth's best buddy that she travels with is zevran. zevran's good friend is isabela. isabela is a pirate ship captain and is from rivain. lords of fortune are based out of rivain. it all makes total sense to me. yes. anyway, they ask isabela for help, she smuggles them out to rivain. the kid grows up with a lot of influence not only from her moms, but from zevran and isabela (getting to be the grey warden's kid's aunt and making the warden owe her) as well. which would affect her character in a way that i would like (yes i'm looking forward to those purple responses).

and also after i thought all of this up, i remembered that i guess for each faction we have one companion representing that faction. idk how this will affect the story, but maybe that would mean rook shows up in the city with the person representing the faction? possibly. lords of fortune are represented by taash, and i simply love the image of this little funny elf girl i made up showing up with this big badass lady, like i don't know them yet, but in my head they're the cutest duo. (not even in a romancing sense, idk who i will romance, but like in a general sense). then of course, her being a grey warden would make them besties with davrin and his pet griffon which is also amazing

oooooooooooooooooof this is it for now i think

one more thought, would it be fucked up or what, if when the game finally comes out and i get my hands on a character editor, i'll start by making ruth first, how i think she would look with veilguard's graphics, and then i'll work from there to make changes and create her daughter, resembling her but different. fun thought

andd another thought, i'm also trying to come up with this mysterious other mom of hers. and i just think she could be like a city elf bard. they wouldn't be in love with each other with ruth, but they would find each other's company pleasant. nice. not worrying too much about obligations. other than, you know, a child happening. unexpectedly, but neither of them would against it. this is it for now for real this time

[thedragonemperess]

What's your personal opinion on why Elite Force was so bad? Since I've ranted about that a lot and started the 'elite discourse' tag.

Introduction

I don’t think it was really bad. Yes, it was terrible compared to Lab Rats and Mighty Med (of which both deserved more seasons since they both set up so much and than threw it all away), but it wasn’t too bad. Why it was bad, though? They undid all character development, overlooked some of the best characters, and so much more!

Chase

There’s a lot wrong with Chase. First of all, they undid all of his character development and reduced him to a self-centered smart guy. (I’m not gonna say a mini version of Donald because he’s really more like Douglas, but they really just threw away his character.) And for character archs. When AJ made his list, he put Chase at the bottom. A good thing to point out is that this list was based off of the number of powers each person has and the number of powers each person has alone. So lets count how many powers they all have:

Kaz: Pyrokinesis and Flight Oliver: Cryokinesis, Flight, and Super Strength Bree: Super Speed, Vocal Manipulation, Invisibility, and Super Agillity Chase: Molecular Kinesis, Force Fields, Super Intelligence, Super Senses, Laser Bo Generation, and the Commando App (technically Super Strength as well, but that’s only Spike) Skylar: Flight, Super Strength, Super Speed, Acid Spit, Regeneration, and 21 other abilities (10 after the whole thing with Bree, but that still leaves her with the most) CHASE SHOULD BE #2 ON THAT LIST!!

And even if this wasn’t based on only their powers, he’d still be at #2!!

Then we have the Arcturian. The Arcturian Space Rock will kill you if you make direct contact with it, key word being direct. So Bree, being NUMBER #3 on the list (did I mention they overlooked her abilities, too, with the exception of one throw away line?), decided to touch it. After a series of events, she gets superpowers from it.

Bree got superpowers.

Because she was insecure about her bionic powers.

THIS WAS CHASE’S ENTIRE ARCH FROM THE BEGINNING!

And he wasn’t only insecure about his powers, he was insecure about his appearance, self-worth, and a ton of other things.

This arch was engineered for Chase, and they threw it away in favor of Bree.

Skoliver

Skylar and Oliver was the main romance of Mighty Med. Oliver had a crush on Skylar and Skylar was a lesbian didn’t reciprocate. This didn’t stop Oliver from trying to get with her, though. But the difference between Oliver persevering in Mighty Med and Olvier persevering in Elite Force is that in Mighty Med, he did it in a healthy, respectful way. In Elite Force, he became a stalker!

He watched her in her sleep, recorded her without permission, had a pretend version of her that he was dating, and more.

They turned a really nice thing from Mighty Med into something terrible just so that they could put less time into coming up with actual jokes. (The writers of these shows never really handled healthy relationships and comedy well, if Adam and Chase’s relationship says anything, but you would think [I’m only saying this because its Disney] they would put more effort into a romantic relationship.) The worst part about this is that they got together somewhat in the end of Elite Force.

Reese

Reese existed as a way to lead us to the finale of the show. She also existed as a love interest for Chase. She had the potential to be Elite Force’s Marcus or Experion, but they just didn’t do it right.

The Lab Rats’ relationship with Marcus was built over the course of two seasons, which let both the audience and the characters get to know him. Sure, we knew he was evil before everyone else, but how evil he truly was changed up until Douglas’ plan was finally revealed. He was also really close to a lot of the characters, so that makes it really painful.

Experion was one of Skylar’s close friends, almost like a brother, and we saw that play out on screen. He was only there for a short amount of time, just as Reese was, but he was already in a predetermined relationship with him. Reese had literally only met Chase that day, meaning that connection just wasn’t there.

(Also, was Reese just there to degay Chase? Because that’s what it seems like.)

Representation And Other Things Of The Sort

Lab Rats was a show that had a family in which half of it was married into. Shows have done this before, yes, but this showed the kids really just excepting it and not getting mad at their respective family. This was also a mixed family, which watching now that I’m older and really understand the importance of it, is really nice. Especially as a mixed person myself.

As for Mighty Med, and I’m starting with family again, it had a father figure who, more or less, actually cared about his kid(s) and was active in their life. It also showed him, a person of color, in a position of power. Skylar, who is a woman of color, was a badass who wasn’t boy crazy. She didn’t care about boys and the one time she did chase after someone, it was an introverted girl whom she wanted to be friends with which is pretty gay but whatever Disney. She was pretty freaking powerful, too, even without her powers.

Now for Oliver and Kaz, they were geeks. That’s a recurring fact in the show. It’s also something that is constantly saving all of their butts and was the main thing that got them their jobs. They weren’t picked on or made fun of for it, that was just who they were.

And unlike Lab Rats, Mighty Med showed a healthy relationship between brothers. Additionally, Gus was a really weird kid, but no one ever made fun of him, either. They treated him like they treated everyone else. He even ends up as one of the popular kids a few times.

Elite Force really just threw that all away in favor of (what became) a bunch of bratty kids in a pent house together.

Backstory

Mighty Med ended off on a cliffhanger, with Mr. Terror escaping, Oliver and Kaz obtaining superpowers, Alan meeting his father for the first time, and Horace using his last revival. Not to mention, Mr. Terror is Oliver’s mother and was supposed to be Horace’s wife.

And then they completely forgot about all of that and destroyed Mighty Med, killing all of the people in it in the process while also forgetting about Mr. Terror completely?

As for Lab Rats’ ending, it was actually pretty fitting and satisfying, all things considered. Adam, Bree, Leo, and Chase split up after defeating Giselle, Adam and Leo going back to the island to help the students with the big change (an update that let them control their abilities, hence no need for them to be teachers anymore) while Bree and Chase joined the Elite Force.

But why Chase and Bree? Sure, I guess the fandom Chase, but we did care about Leo more than Bree if we’re looking at it from that stand point. Now if we’re looking at it from a logical, in-universe stand-point, it makes no sense. Bree and Chase were the smarter, more experienced of the four, so they should have gone back to the island, while letting Chase and Adam join the Elite force.

Also, Leo has just become a mentor, which was what he was striving for since the start of the season. He was always being overlooked, and now, when he finally gets his moment in the spot light, its taken away from. That just really bothers me.

What Was Good About Lab Rats: Elite Force?

Quite honestly, not a lot. But considering the target audience, it was pretty good. Having two well received shows come together into an, albeit poorly set up and attempted, spin-off where they can have their own battles and story lines together is pretty cool and different. There are some flaws, like how Mighty Med logic and Lab Rats logic really don’t intertwine, but you have to keep in mind that this is a kids show.

It also showed Douglas being a pretty good father, which is really nice. Sure, he’s their birth father and/or creator, but it also shows them mending their relationship.

There were some smaller things, too. AJ’s introduction, Skylar and Bree slowly become sisters, and Chase and Kaz becoming friends were all really fun to watch. (The characters growing relationships with each other, period, were fun to watch.) The villains had good motives, and the small cameos from other shows (Bob and Crossbow [she’s more of a piece of what Mighty Med used to be, but I’m counting it]) were really fun to see. The plot could definitely be better, but it was still pretty good. And, as much as I hate to admit it, the show was genuinely funny. The amount of times I’ve spit out my water while watching this show is surprising.

Conclusion

Was Lab Rats: Elite Force as great a show as the source material? No. Was it all we thought it would be at the time? That depends on how old you were when it came out. It was, and still is, a fun show to watch, though. Yes, it would have been better if it never happened and the shows continued separately, but I’m glad that we at least have an answer to what Mighty Med and Lab Rats alluded to in their finales. Am I upset about Elite Force’s finale? Yes, and I will probably die mad about it, but we didn’t have as much time to get to know the characters and connect to them, so is it really that much of a loss? That’s up to you. Is it a fun show to watch? Absolutely.

[concubuck]

Actually curious (sorry if this has already been answered) what inspired you to make a succubus alastor?

Several things!

Reason number one: I am ace/aro! Alastor is the first ace character I latched onto as a character I could see a facet of myself in (while prior ace characters, who kinda disinterested me, just sorta made me go "oh that's neat I guess"), and because of that, I like playing around with his sexuality and exploring his psychology in different ways in different fanworks.

Sometimes that means "I'll write him as asexual/aromantic in exactly the same way as me." Sometimes it means "I'll write him as a sex-neutral ace having sex for the first time and being really bored by the whole thing bc that makes a lot more sense to me than all the 'naive virgin Alastor introduced to the wonders of sex' stories I see." Sometimes it means "I'll write him hypnotized to temporarily feel allo and focus on what's going on in his head as he slides in and out of hypnosis bc I think it would be interesting to feel allo for a day as long as I could turn it off."

And then sometimes it means going "My orientation affects not only my internal identity, but also my life goals and interests, how I approach my relationships with other people, and how I understand the culture around me. If I suddenly magically became allo, I'd feel like a fundamental part of my personality had been ripped off of me. So I'm going to inflict that on my favorite character."

I've seen a fair amount of Alastor shipping fanworks that attempt to make him demi-ace or demi-aro by, like, treating him like a Disney princess: he lives a pure, chaste existence untroubled by thoughts of romance (except perhaps for longing that he could experience it too) until his One True Love comes into the picture, at which point he naturally slides into very allo attraction for that one person, and the fact that that's the first person special enough to win his heart is treated as something romantic. And like, if people wanna do that, okay, that's their business, fandom is for wish fulfillment, I'm not gonna stomp on their fun. But it rings hollow to me. I've seen enough media that portrays the inability to love (sexually or romantically) as unnatural and a horror; I want to take a character for whom lovelessness is natural and portray forcing desire on him as the horror story.

There's a reason I wrote that he loses his asexuality* at the same time that he loses his humanity. I wanted to make them equivalent to each other.

(*although he hasn't technically lost his asexuality. Really, he still does meet the definition of ace—you may notice that he never expresses actual attraction to other characters, with the possible dubious exception of other versions of himself—but "ace cursed to feel incurable horny until he fucks" is far enough from where he started that he no longer sees himself as ace.)

Reason number two: I stumbled across some demonology lore somewhere idk when, over a year ago, saying that some texts on demonology claim that particularly impressive sinners might get promoted out of the general population of sinners to join the devils responsible for inflicting the punishments on sinners.

I've yet to track down the source of that particular nugget, although you can see evidence of it in Christian lore; for instance, King Minos of Greek mythology decides where souls go in Hades after death, and he's imported into Christian mythology with the same role in Dante's Inferno—which makes him a dead human who's been given judicial power and an important governing role in Hell.

Plus you've got Lilith—who usually I try not to dig too deep into, since there's like, basically no way to stick Lilith into Christian lore without it simply being straight up appropriation of a Jewish figure—but the fact remains that she HAS been put into Hazbin, and if they do ANY exploration of her backstory at all, the odds are better than not that they're going to stick with the "human who became a demon" backstory rather than making her an OC who just so happens to be named Lilith, which means her existence indicates there's a precedent within the Hazbin universe for former humans to be promoted out of their humanity.

I headcanon that one of Alastor's primary motivations is to become extremely powerful, but not as a way to control others; rather, as a way to free himself from anybody else's control. He's not unfettered as long as he's still an eternally convicted criminal stuck in a giant prison where an execution squad swoops in once a year to kill a random swath of the population. "Become a full demon and be freed from the sinners' imprisonment" would appeal to him, particularly since we know that the magical potential of humans caps out well below the potential of high-ranked demons.

Succubus seemed like a sensible position for where ex-humans would have to start out in Hell's hierarchy: it's low but not rock bottom on the social ladder, they physically resemble humans more than any other group of demons we've seen, and they're the only group of demons we've seen entrusted with jobs on Earth that involve socialization with humans. Myths about demons even claim they're reproductively compatible with humans (albeit via sometimes convoluted methods). So I decided that's where ex-humans have to start.

Reason number three: my asexuality manifests as "I don't wanna have sex, people don't attract me, even imagining myself in sexual scenarios grosses me out; but I dolike imagining imaginary people having imaginary sex." I wanted to manufacture a reason why it would be IC for Alastor to act OOC enough to have a lot of sex, but in a way that would still let me focus on plot development and characterization and angst because pure substanceless smut without an undercurrent of Character Study bores me after the first, like, two replies.

(And yet, for all that, thus far none of my actual kinks have made a full appearance on this blog. Unless you count the fact that Alastor's miserable. I'm pretty sure "giving my favorite characters a miserable time" counts as one of my kinks lmfao.)

[aros001]

Going in blind: Watching season 3 for the first time. Random thoughts.

Episode 1: I know in the original series She-Ra was the sister of He-Man so I'm curious how much of that will be carried over to this series. Not saying He-Man has to make an appearance, same as how Batman didn't need to show up in Teen Titans. That was Robin's story, not his, and similarly this is Adora's story, not Adam's. Regardless, it makes sense why Hordak was so annoyed with the baby Adora in Shadow Weaver's flashbacks. To SW, there was something different and special about the baby, but to Hordak, whom seems familiar with the world before Mara separated Etheria from the rest of the universe, including Eternia potentially, Adora is just another "First One" child like he's seen many times before. Special in comparison to those who only know Etheria.

Great clap-back from Catra to Hordak, and not entirely unfounded. It's debatable how much he actually cares about conquering Etheria. He has others leading his forces in his war yet all his focus is on his portal creation.

According to Entrapta, productivity of the Horde is up 400% ever since Catra became Hordak's 2nd in command. I wondering how much of that is Catra's direct doing? Is she genuinely just that good of a commander? Is it because she's properly delegating and Scorpia has been handling most of the load? Or is this just because it's in comparison to Shadow Weaver? Entrapta said Catra's focus on First Ones' tech has been greatly aiding them and SW definitely focused more on magic, which was an aid mostly to herself since everyone else in the Horde seems to fight only with weapons and technology. And most of what she saw of SW while she was Hordak's 2nd was her being obsessed with bringing back Adora rather than fighting the war.

Episode 2: Let's see... Hordak's easily an adult and Entrapta is...[checks google] late twenties, early thirties. Oh good, then let's sail this ship!

But yeah, that was a heck of a backstory for Hordak. This reminds me of a video by a Youtuber named Savage Books comparing the villain Steppenwolf in the theatrical and Snyder Cut versions of Justice League and how, while he still wasn't a great villain, just a small addition made him a much better villain, that being a failure in his past and the desire just to go home. And in this case, Hordak is the much better, or at least way more developed, version of that. One of many clones of Hordak Prime but having a defect that labelled him a failure and had him cast out to Etheria, a "backwards world" as he's called it before. If he can conquer Etheria, perhaps by building a portal that'll bring forward Prime's army, he believes that'll prove to Prime that he is not a failure and that he can return home to rejoin his forces. Just this bit of backstory adds SO MUCH to Hordak, including new insights on his past interactions, and keeps him from being a flat character like theatrical version Steppenwolf. His lack of tolerance for failure makes sense when he himself is trying to prove that he's not. It gives him compelling motivation to want to conquer Etheria beyond just power and greed. Not motivation you're meant to agree with but one you can still understand.

I like the story with Huntara too. It's a nice little tie-in to something Adora was talking about with Glimmer and Bow last episode. Adora defected from the horde, not because she was different but rather very much in spite being very much like every other soldier there. She wanted to believe Shadow Weaver may have at least some goodness in her too and now we have Huntara as a fellow defector who realized the evils of the Horde, even if she chose to stay out of the war entirely after.

Episode 3: I legit thought Catra stabbed the goat lady for a second.

After Scorpia asking her why don't they just stay in the wastes I'm seeing a bit of a parallel between Catra and Hordak. They've both found a place where they can be the top dog, where they can do and have basically anything they want; her with the wastes and him with the Horde. They can be happy. ...But there's still this pull they're feeling to somewhere else. Catra back to the Horde and Hordak back to Prime. Because they feel they have to prove something; prove that they're not failures. They could be happy but they can't let go.

And that scene between Adora and Catra at the end. That was such a great line read from Catra's actor. "She left me for you. Everything that's happened is because of you." I got chills.

Minor note: While I'm only judging off the Mara hologram, which didn't have color, I do think the She-Ra outfit looks better with pants than shorts like Adora's She-Ra form. I think it makes it look sleeker, if that makes any sense.

Episode 4: Catra's spiral has turned into a drill and its taking her down as far as she can go. Though something I had to a laugh a little at myself over was that my biggest "Catra, no!" reaction wasn't to her wanting to open the portal but rather when she lied to Hordak and said Entrapta let the princesses in. She was actually a positive influence on Hordak's life and Catra with one move just destroyed that relationship and all progress Hordak had been making.

I'm guessing there's going to be some kind of long-term effect from Shadow Weaver continuously siphoning off Glimmer's magic. The woman is basically a parasite and the magic she uses is very different from the kind Glimmer does. I can't believe it never occurred to me that since Shadow Weaver trained Glimmer's father there might be a connection there between the two of them later in the story. While we don't know about anything that might've happened after she left, SW clearly had enough affection for Micah still to not kill him. I could see her trying to take Glimmer on as a student later like she did him.

Episode 5: There is something kind of hilarious about it being Scorpia's jealousy of Catra and Adora's closeness that causes her to be the first one after Adora to pick up that something is off.

11 is my favorite of the Doctor Who Doctors so naturally I'm comparing all this to the crack in Amy Pond's bedroom wall. Whatever goes in gets forgotten about and basically never existed. Though does that mean Bright Moon isn't going to remember the Horde? Basically that entire place got sucked up in the collapsing reality. There shouldn't be at war anymore because their enemy literally no longer exists.

Adora and Catra had their own little Star Trek 3 moment there.

Adora: "If we don't help each other, we'll die here!"

Catra: "Perfect! Then that's the way it shall be!"

Catra's just so far down her spiral she doesn't even care about getting her own win, just so long as Adora doesn't get one, despite just minutes ago clearly loving having Adora back in her life and on her side, to the point was trying to resist remembering the old reality. Her "perfect" world was them together again but when given the chance (another of many. I love those cuts to their past woven in there) she slapped the hand away.

I'm sure I'm wrong but I'm starting to theorize Madam Razz is actually Mara and just at some point went kind of crazy and started thinking as and Mara were two different people.

Episode 6:

"You are everything I ever wanted in a son. This... This is everything I ever wanted in a life. ...But I've got responsibilities, Van. And...I have to...go now."

-Superman, Justice League Unlimited: For the Man Who Has Everything

That was my favorite episode of JLU, where Superman is trapped in this world that isn't real but still perfect in every way, and the only way out was to give up everything he'd ever wanted, including a son he remembers watching grow up, even if it never really happened. With a similar premise, this definitely helped elevate Angela up a bit for me, whom I was kind just meh with before. I didn't dislike her but I didn't really care much for her either. This episode gave her a lot to work with though, with the heavy sacrifice she made. Not just saying behind to pull out the sword but just simply forcing herself to accept her husband is gone and not coming back. I was right that they wouldn't remember the Horde, but I definitely didn't think of the full effects of them never existing. They never exist, Bow never becomes a rebel instead of a scholar like his dads wanted. They don't exist, Micah never dies in battle against them. Glimmer gets to grow up with her father in her life. Everyone, most especially Angela, has to reject everything they would love to be real in favor of what actually is.

I'm guessing we're going to have Shadow Weaver taking advantage of this situation, trying to act like a teacher and mother-figure to Glimmer now that she's basically a orphan.

I talked before about how Catra and Hordak seem to have a parallel between them, especially regarding failure. Catra seems like she has a very hard time accepting her own failures and mistakes and thus why she more or less uses Adora as a mental scapegoat for all of it. Nothing is ever really her fault, it's Adora's, or Shadow Weaver's, or Hordak's. It makes for a great moment when Adora finally punches back, both literally and figuratively. She's not going to accept responsibility for Catra's actions anymore. She gave Catra every chance to make the right choice and she didn't, so now she has to finally live with the consequences. Heck of a glare She-Ra gave Catra at the end. Very much a "If I ever see you again..." and it certainly scared Catra, at least for a moment.

Now, someone go save Entrapta from Beast Island!

Season 3 verdict: Easily the best season thus far. I know this was technically the second half of season 2 but even in comparison to the full season 1 there was just so much that happened in this, so much that got revealed, and so, so many moments of emotion or tension. Weirdly I feel kind of disappointed that Hordak Prime is probably going to come in now and be the new big villain. I really like our Hordak's motivation and Prime seems like he might just be the generic conqueror for power that Hordak seemed like he was going to be at first. Not saying those types can't work. I love All For One from My Hero Academia and Frieza from Dragon Ball. Those guys are pure evil and selfishness, but they also have a captivating presence/charisma to them.

Naturally, since I bring her up the most out of all the characters, I'm very curious to see what happens with Catra now. She's basically nuked every positive relationship she had with anyone. Entrapta's gone, she threatened Scorpia, Hordak's not going to trust anyone including her anymore now that he thinks Entrapta's betrayed him, and Adora firmly sees her as an enemy. She has no one (those under her direct command don't count) and it's entirely her own fault.

Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PrincessesOfPower/comments/o0trfz/going_in_blind_watching_season_3_for_the_first/

[purplerose244]

Thoughts journal Ninjago season 13!! 🖤🖤 (4/4)

Here we are, at the end of just another season of Ninjago! And I've gotta say, until now it has been very good, I think I'm liking this season better than Prime Empire and Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu. I liked them too, but this one feels more complete and deep, also LILLY GOT A BACKSTORY HECK YEAH 😍😍

Prime Empire had one really great ending, so I'm very curious how this season will conclude! Spinjitzu burst? Some last minute plot twist? Cole and Vania confirmed...? 🙄

Here we go!!

THE DARKEST HOUR

So I'm guessing the guys aren't doing too good at the moment 😅

I know this is kind of a tense situation, but honestly Kai looking so confused at having to lead cracks me up 😂 "Do I have to say it? Is that what being in charge means?"

Lloyd: YOU

Jay: SHALL

Kai: NOT

Zane: BE GRANTED THE PERMISSION TO TRAVERSE BEYOND THIS POINT

I have no words, that was such an obvious reference in full Zane style so in character, I have tears. Beautiful 🤣🤣

Also they all look SO COOL 💚💙❤🤍

My ninja babies fighting together screaming NINJA-GOO!! Really this season feels like we're back in the old days, so cool! And they are so in sync, Kai lifting Lloyd up and Zane pushing others away and I LOVE THE FIGHTING ANIMATIONS 🤩

Poor Skull dude, he's trying to do his big bad guy monologue and he keeps getting interrupted 😂

It was cute that both tribes immediately refused to surrender, not sure if it was for pride or they actually care about their new ninja friends, but it was nice

Aahh, near death life experiences, the best way to elicit teamwork 👍 Nice scene, nice cute scene

Nnnnnyyyggg, Lloyd, that's the sacrifice look right there 😱 At least they just turned themselves in peacefully after reuniting the tribes... aaand of course he was lying, I hate that Skull dude 👿👿

THE ASCENT

Back to team Cole! Back to the Upply! 🖤 Quick guys, we're only three episodes left!! NEED TO GO BIG!!

Heeeeeyy, Wu back in business! I kinda missed him a bit taking control of the situation, it used to be him because he was the master. It really is a jump into the past this season! 🤩🤩

Sure let's go with the explosive cart, not like Cole and the other ninja haven't been piloting a falling apart rocket back to Earth before 🤷‍♀️

A Mech on rolleskates, why not? Does Cole even know how to go on those though? He was already out of the Tournament of Elements during Chen's Thunder Blade so I don't really know...

Lolz the monster was actually waiting staring at the wall, guess you don't get much fun in this mine 😅

COOL FIGHTING SEQUENCE COOL FIGHTING SEQUENCE COOL FIGHTING SEQUENCE 🖤🖤🖤

And a poor old couple of civilians traumatized. They need to be trained by the people of Ninjago City on how to deal with weird appearances 💪

I guess we're doing this 😅 Gonna be honest, this is the first very evident sweet look I see from these two. I like Vania, a lot, but another classic love interest? Uuuuhhh, Idk, Imma see the rest of the season and see what happens 🤷‍♀️

A baby dragon on a giant spider, one of my favorite things ever on one thing I fear... I'll let it pass just because Adam is a good boy 🕷🕷🕷

GO VANIA GO GIRL LET HIM KNOW WHO IS THE BOSS HERE!!! 💛💛💛

THE UPPLY STRIKES BACK!

I really like these DnD guys, they've grown on me, let's see what they have in store! 😁

Munce and Geckles under chains, ninja in a cage, the Skull dude has the control, we're back when we started... sucks to be a ninja sometimes 😅

Omg I'm loving that this dude is trying so hard to be menacing and he keeps getting ignored 😂😂 Aww cute, you think you're the first that wants to destroy the ninja? Such a special little snowflake 😘 Evil monologue, we've been going for 13 seasons now with various specials and a movie, we heard it already 🤷‍♀️

Also the reveal, and he's all "Your friend Cole is dead" and Lloyd "That's what they all say, buddy" 👌👌

Poor Cole just wants justice for his mom HELP EMOTIONAL AGAIN

I'm all for Cole's personal team, they should do missions together, like Jay's team in Skybound!... that technically never happened, BUT STILL COOL 🖤💙🖤💙

Oh boy oh boy oh boy got the swords, confrontation ready, BRING IT!! Ninja team is all in for this!! ❤💚💙🤍🌊

REVOLUTION!!!! 💪💪💪💪

Swords aren't usually Cole's weapon of choice... BUT DANG IT HE CAN SWING THEM, HOLY GARMADON!!! THIS IS THE FIGHTING SCENES I WANT!!! 😍😍

How is this the episode prior the finale? It already feels like the finale! What else is going to happen?

SON'S OF LILY

Oh with a title like this, it's a given that I will not survive. Oh boy, here goes, the FINALE!

Chaos, chaos, beautiful dragon of death and distraction, also gently reminder that Mino is also a very good boy 💕 Are the skeletons connected to the skull? Are they gonna stop reform when Cole defeats the Skull Sorcerer?

The swords are not actually magical? Huh, first weapon in this show that turns out to be a fluke, apart maybe the Dragon Armor of the Firstborne... that one stayed intact at least 😅

HERE COMES THE VALKIRIES!!! *classic related music plays*

THIS. FIGHTING. SCENES. ARE. SO. FREAKING. GOOD 😍 Also wow sensei, full kamikaze with a dragon? I guess the sacrifice gene really runs into that family 😅

COLE NO DON'T HURT ROCK BABY 😭

"Always." KIRBY STOP MAKING ME CRY WITH YOUR AMAZING VOICE ACTING SKILLS ALSO HOLY HOOLA GANG

THAT'S LIKE A SPINJITZU WITH THE TRUE POTENTIAL OMG HECK YEAH SHINE COLE SHINE!!! 🖤🖤🖤

A bit red, could mistake it for Kai's, but it's an orange earth lava burst so I understand

Cole: okay guys, done my part

Cole: wake me up when next season is out

LOOK AT VANIA BECOMING THE QUEEN WITH THAT BEAUTIFUL ATTIRE AND USING COLE'S MOTHER QUOTE BECAUSE SHE LEARNED SO MUCH FROM COLE AWWW 💛

Okay, since there weren't evident references to Nexo Knights this season, can I pretend Fungus shooting fireworks is one? Merlok used to do that almost at every season finale... IMMA PRETEND 🙃

She is so adorable, I really love her. Wished we've seen more of her bond with her father, it felt a little easy her giving up on him. Idk, Sky and Chen didn't have that much of a bond but she struggled a lot! But she is super cool and cute, I ADORE her 💕

This sounds like a pretty good experience for Lloyd who FINALLY spent a season without being scarred for life!!! He even met a princess who didn't plan his death!!! Montgomery things are getting better 💚

Well, that surprised me, I guess Cole and Vania like each other but not heavily? Just a very light mood, like they care a lot but no other step further. I'm very happy about this choice, you can see it as a couple if you want, but you can also say they are just good friends. Nice 👍

Oh no, Wu got his midlife crisis, SOMEBODY STOPS HIM 😱

Wherever the wind will take them okay, wherever the producers will decide to torture them 😗

Overall, great finale! 😁

FINAL THOUGHTS

I think I enjoyed Prime Empire's finale more than this one, but this season with all of its episodes was absolutely AMAZING 🖤

The Skull Sorcerer wasn't necessarily a bad villain, but the story kinda went into another direction in my opinion so his part wasn't fundamental. Which isn't a bad thing for me, it's actually new and exciting see the attention to the story instead of the villain, and I did enjoy how they made fun of how cliche he was being 😂

Vania was GREAT. Wished we had more time with her father to really establish what kind of bond they had, but overall I loved her, new best girl acquired 💛💛💛

FREAKING ROCK MOM!! FREAKING LILLY!! I'm so emotional just thinking about this family, omg, THIS is the content I want for Ninjago! Impactful, that makes sense, connected to the heart that makes you so much closer to a character! Finally the Rock family is getting more complex 🖤

I think this season really gave Cole justice, we got her mom's story, we've got him leading a team again, we've got him with a cool new power! 😍😍

For the other ninja it was okay, I really liked the shenanigans with the tribes and the cultures were really fun to explore. Was kinda like a side quest and for me didn't bring that much to the main story, but it was fun and it's fair, Cole had all the attention he deserved 👌

FIGHTING ANIMATION OMG HECK FREAKING YEAH 10/NINJA-GOOOO ❤💚💙🖤🤍🌊

Beautiful designs for the characters, in particular the Shintaro citizens, and also wonderful backgrounds and sceneries, that I thought were starting to lack but here seems much nicer to look at 🤩

What can I say? Ninjago still knows how to mess with my heart, and I'm so very happy about it. I think the so wanted Cole season was definitely worth it 🖤🖤🖤

Now, I heard voices about a possible Nya season... ABSOLUTELY YES, YES TO EVERYTHING, QUEEN GETTING HER OWN SEASON YES YES YES!!! 😍😍😍🌊🌊🌊 Besides that apparently Maya will come back, which is a dream coming true, if they give Nya the same attention they gave to Cole this season, I will be happy 😊

[joiedecombat]

100 Days of Writing: the List

Since it seems there is some interest, why not? List of works (nominally) in progress, old unfinished fics, and Stuff I Want To Write below the cut. Feel free to ask about any of these.

Works (nominally) In Progress

Fanfic

"Reason or Rhyme" (Time Princess - Gotham Memoirs). The Vittorio expansion/fix-fic, because I will be forever disgruntled at how little romance content was actually included in the Mafia romance route.

Galactic Date Night Shenanigans aka "The one where everything is Balkar's fault." (SWTOR - Theron Shan/Jedi Knight). Theron "disaster spy" Shan is goaded into trying to take his wife out for a nice date for once, and it goes like every other plan these two have ever had anything to do with.

#3: [I] trusted [you] (SWTOR - Theron Shan / Jedi Knight). A post-Nathema prompt fic I swear I will finish one of these days.

Original

super secret short story/novella project - Okay it's not that super secret, but it is something I'm mostly keeping under my hat for now as I work on it because of reasons, and is actually (inconveniently, for 100 Days of Writing purposes) the main thing I've been working on lately. I expect to be able to say more about it later. Maybe even within the 100 days! We'll see.

southern gothic urban fantasy procedural romance - Faerie Animal Control Warden meets FBI Elf during investigation of a suspicious death out in the kudzu. A little bit of Bright, a bit Mushi-Shi, a drop of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

Stuff I Want to Write

Distinct from works in progress in that I have not actually gotten past the planning stage on any of these - if that. A few of these have been rattling around in concept for long enough to have gone through several distinct evolutions without ever getting any writing done on them. Still, hope springs eternal and ideas are never wasted.

Fanfic

the rival bands AU / the rock opera playlist fic (Sailor Moon - Makoto Kino/Nephrite). Currently exists entirely as an incomplete playlist.

space opera Pride and Prejudice retelling - exactly what it sounds like on the tin. Do y'all know I have yet to encounter a futuristic/space AU? Surely there's one out there somewhere, but I have yet to see it. If you know of one, for the love of God don't tell me.

"Ten of Swords" - (Archer EMIYA/Minako Arisato). fate/stay night + Persona 3 Portable crossover what's even wrong with my brain.

Original

the Regency fae story - a Regency-era fantasy in which a lot of the needlessly complicated and restrictive social rules followed by the upper classes are actually an attempt at defending against the Fair Folk. Sort of Pride and Prejudice vs Changeling: the Lost vs Labyrinth. Could turn into a whole Pride and Prejudice retelling, I guess?

drinking games - fantasy imperial court intrigues involving a romance between a court poison taster and a master spy/assassin.

untitled - East/southeast Asian-inspired Beauty and the Beast retelling in which the Beast is a mountain god whose appearance is based on a tiger. I'm probably too white to write this.

untitled - Private investigator hired to investigate local bad-boy-made-good for insurance fraud, turns out it was actually an ill-advised teenage deal with the devil coming due. Might fit in with that other southern gothic urban fantasy idea, I am not sure.

the ciphered letter - This one started off as a combination of a Mage: the Awakening campaign and a really, really weird spam email I got one time. Orphan gets mysterious ciphered letter, meets snarky Welsh mage, awakens to magic and maybe almost gets made a human sacrifice to an eldritch abomination.

Forfeit - Regency/Victorian-esque fantasy involving reincarnation, a race of immortals, and a half-immortal teaming up with a mortal who sacrificed his future reincarnations for pseudo-immortality to uncover and stop the sinister secrets that power a colonizing empire. It makes more sense in my head... probably?

untitled - Slow burn enemies to lovers between the world-conquering emperor and the rebel leader who's opposing him, over the course of a time loop. AKA Lord of Heroes Kartis/Monarch with the serials filed off. Or I guess I could just write Lord of Heroes fanfic?

low fantasy Magnificent Seven Samurai - Farming village scrapes together a group of starving mercs to protect them from marauders, drama ensues. That's it, that's the whole idea.

Unfinished Fics

Distinct from works in progress in that these are all old enough I can no longer claim I intend to finish them. Some of them I may come back to, especially the few that had substantial progress made before they fell by the wayside. Most will probably be left abandoned, either because I have lost interest in continuing to work on them or I have just plain forgotten what I was planning to do with them.

dreameater - A very old, loosely Forgotten Realms-inspired concept involving an aging half-elf, his fully elven partner, and a mysterious magical threat that's devouring people's dreams.

"Fortune Favors the Brave" (Baccano! - Luck Gandor/Eve Genoard). The Luck/Eve shipping fic.

"Intermezzo" (Blood+ City of Nightwalkers). Follow-up fic to an obscure manga prequel/side story for the vampire anime Blood+, involving Hagi and the Hong Kong cop who semi-adopted him that one time.

"The Art of Losing Everything" (Dragon Age: Origins - Alistair Theirin/f!Cousland). An Alistair/f!Warden fic with themes of loss, duty, and sacrifice.

"In Pieces" (Dragon Age II - Fenris/f!Hawke). A terrible horrible no good very bad AU where Hawke actually turned Fenris over to Danarius and then came back to try to fix her mistake, which I can never finish because I can't make that initial decision make internal sense no matter how hard I try.

"Pas de Deux" (Final Fantasy VIII - Squall Leonhart/Rinoa Heartilly). Exploration of how Squall and Rinoa's relationship could develop after the events of the game.

"With Good Intentions" (Final Fantasy VIII - Squall Leonhart/Rinoa Heartilly). An AU in which Rinoa discovers that technically you can change the past, it's just that if Squall has an actual decent childhood the world ends. Way too ambitious for me to ever actually finish, probably, but I can't quite give up on the idea.

"I've Loved These Days" (Gundam SEED - Mu la Flaga/Murrue Ramius). One of several partly-written Gundam SEED fics kicking around in my files.

"The Last Night of the World" (Gundam SEED - Mu la Flaga/Murrue Ramius). Another Gundam SEED fic, one that began as a prompt in ye olde LiveJournal days. "I've Loved These Days" might have been a prototype, though they don't appear to have any text in common. Could in theory still get finished, maybe.

Valentine's ghosts (Gundam SEED Destiny - Andrew Waltfeld/Murrue Ramius). I'm just saying, Andy/Murrue would have been so much more interesting than the whole Neo thing in Destiny.

"Lion Passant" (Kingdom Hearts). Something something Leon as a failed Keyblade Bearer. The Kingdom Hearts franchise has rewritten its own lore at least three times since I originally had the idea, I can't imagine I'll ever continue it now.

"Vigil" (KotOR - Carth Onasi/f!Revan). Carth/Revan retrospective somewhere around the tomb of Naga Sadow on Korriban.

"Semper Fidelis" (KotOR/KotOR II - Carth Onasi/f!Revan). Post-Sith Lords Carth/Revan resolution fic.

"Clarity" (KotOR II). Atton Rand backstory study from the POV of that one nameless Jedi.

"A Simple Game of Cards" (KotOR II - Atton Rand/Jedi Exile). Spoilers: it is never a simple game of cards. Turns out someone already did it with more or less the same twist I had in mind.

the besieged base fic (Mass Effect - f!Shepard/Kaidan Alenko). A fic rendition of the "Besieged Base" mission from the first Mass Effect.

"Get Up, Jonah" (Mass Effect). I woke up thinking about Turkish drummers. Didn't take long; I don't know much about Turkish drummers. Virmire, before the other shoe drops.

"Long Night" (Mass Effect). Ashley on Virmire.

"My Heart Dances" (Mass Effect - f!Shepard/Kaidan Alenko). Liara POV of Shepard/Kaidan.

"No Way Out" (Mass Effect - f!Shepard/Kaidan Alenko). Heading up the Citadel during the ME1 endgame.

"Right Here, Right Now" (Mass Effect - f!Shepard/Kaidan Alenko). An ME1 epilogue / pre-ME2 sort of fic.

"While the Night is Still Young" (Mass Effect - f!Shepard/Kaidan Alenko). Shepard/Kaidan en route to Ilos.

Apparently I had approximately a million little Mass Effect shortfic ideas I never finished and in some cases never started. Apparently they're all for the first game. (I think there was a Thane idea or two for ME2 that I just never started on at all. RIP.)

"To Absent Friends" (Tiger and Bunny). Sad, sad futurefic of an elderly Pao-Lin reflecting on the deaths of all the other heroes over the years.