#the lore part one

[margindoodles2407]

Soooo @seeking-elsewhither I am continuing to work on my Clones and Music post for HFSW (don't know WHY it's taking so long but it is for some reason) BUT. I did manage to finish my stuff about the Baddest of Batches and thought, Hey. I should talk about this before I run out of steam. So enjoy

Clones and Music, Bonus Content: The Bad Batch

Wrecker, who is a Bass, would be so disappointed if I didn't let him play percussion, so really I had no choice. He has amassed a small collection of almost every different kind of percussion instrument known to the Archipelago; he's got a tradition of managing to get his hands on at least one from every island they visit. The pride and joy of his collection, though, is a xylophone built from the bones of Battle Droids he's bested (this concerns Hunter, perplexes Tech, amuses Crosshair, and utterly fascinates Omega).

Echo, when he was young, played the flute on board the RSS Resolute. But a skeleton hand can't fit quite right on the keys of a traditional pipe. So, in Clone Force 99, he picks up the pan flute. It's not as elegant as his former instrument; it's quite simple, really. Privately, though, Echo's glad for the simplicity. It's been far too long since he had any of it in his life.

Tech, a tenor, built a whole kriffing piano into the lower deck of the Marauder. It's quite literally mounted into the wall, and its creation and upkeep is one of his pet projects. He's also teaching Omega to play. (After his death, the mere sight of it is something his brothers' broken hearts can't bear, and they cover it with a bolt of black cloth like a shroud. The sound of piano music isn't heard again until about a year after Hunter, Wrecker, Cross and Omega finally settle down on Pabu. While the Batch was away to Tantiss, the citizens of the island- led by Phee- managed to salvage parts of the wreck of the Marauder, and used those pieces to construct a new piano, to give to them as a gift in gratitude for everything they'd done. Omega's out of practice, but she almost immediately takes her lessons back up again and within months, she can be heard playing almost every night.)

Hunter's a Baritone and plays the mandolin. Due to his advanced hearing, he's able to pick up even the slightest sour notes in his playing, so whenever he plays it's like, a level of sound unknown to man. Combine this with Cross's perfectionistic skill, as is often the case in the lower decks of the Marauder, and you get perhaps the most hauntingly beautiful music you've ever heard. He's also the most prolific composer of the Batch, and can often be found on deck late at night picking out melodies with only the moon and stars and a single stump of a candle for light. It helps him relax. (He… doesn't play much, after Crosshair splinters. Sure, he half-heartedly strums out a few simple tunes to try to keep his family's spirits up, but without his brother's accompaniment, something just isn't right. It's only after Omega starts playing the piano again that he really takes it up again with the same passion as before.)

Crosshair. Ohohoho. Crosshair is a tenor, like Tech. Unlike Tech, Crosshair plays the fiddle. And he's karking good at it. Crosshair Bad Batch is a man who does nothing halfway and his music is absolutely no exception; he's learned and mastered almost every style of fiddling in the Archipelago, and with his steady hands and nimble fingers, he's perfectly suited to playing rapid-fire, overly-complicated pieces. That is… until the Empire. As it disbands the Clone Choir and Orchestra, and as he left his fiddle on the Marauder, he spends months out of practice (he used to practice every night)-- and, by the time he finally comes to his senses and escapes Tantiss with Omega, his hand shakes so badly that every note he tries to play turns sour. It's too much for his proud, perfectionistic heart to take. It comes to pass that one day, in the wee hours of the morning on Pabu, Omega can't sleep and realizes that he's nowhere to be found. She goes to find him and is horrified to discover he's snuck out to the shore to burn the kriffing thing in a fit of rage, frustration, and self-loathing. Distraught, Omega tries to fish it from the flames, but when he begs her to stop for fear she'll burn herself, she simply sits with him in silence till the fire dies away. (Unfortunately, his ability to play the fiddle is something Crosshair never recovers. When he loses his hand on Tantiss, his fate is sealed, and even with a prosthetic his fingers are too clumsy for him to ever take it back up again. But he starts to write music. Music for Omega to play on her piano. Hunter helps him with his composition- and even though they can't play their strings together anymore, the hours upon hours of sitting picking out harmonies in their small home's front room helps to heal their broken relationship in ways they never thought it could.)

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Hey now, Let her cook!

[zombolouge]

The thing is, it's not about the Therapy Speak. It's not that everyone who disliked DAV hates healthy communication as a dynamic in fiction. It's not even about only being allowed to be a good guy, really, because most of us did do that anyways (though the option not being there is a loss I grieve even if I never chose it myself, but that's another rant for another day).

It's that DAV does all that stuff at the expense of being believable. At the expense of characters being permitted to have personalities. At the expense of emotions behaving the way emotions actually work for people. At the expense of letting the plot build tension through the stakes we're forced to grapple with.

Half the fics out there take the conflicts between the characters in the previous games and resolve them. I do it myself ALL THE TIME because I like to find a path to resolution through just about any conflict, that's what fascinates me about telling these stories. But the higher the stakes, the harder a conflict is to resolve. You CAN resolve any conflict, you CAN communicate healthily through any emotion, but you can't skip the time it takes to process it all to even be able to communicate it. As someone whose got CPTSD and recovered from many Traumas, I can tell you that the TIME it takes to work through it is not something you can fast track, and the ups and downs of your emotions on that journey can't be skipped. It doesn't matter if you know exactly how to do it, exactly how it's going to feel, or exactly what the end state will be, you CAN'T speedrun it.

DAV has stakes that are astronomical, but nobody treats them that way. Nobody experiences denial - a common psychological reaction to being presented with information that shatters your worldview. Nobody expresses any distrust in the establishments handing out this information - something common among cultures that have at times been at war, even if those wars are "resolved" in the present. Nobody really ever breaks down - something that any person is capable of under extreme circumstances, especially when facing multiple crises of faith that challenge everything they thought they knew about themselves. Nobody blows their lid because they've been repressing the hell out of everything. Nobody grieves for southern Thedas, the entire thing dying off screen and giving you, the player, NO way to engage with it in any way.

Not to mention there are barely any inter-party conflicts, when there should be a lot more. Why is everyone (except Spite) fine with it if Emmrich sacrifices Manfred to become a lich? Why is everyone fine with Illario potentially being set free if he was working with the venatori and Elgar'nan, two sources that have actively attacked everyone in the party? Why doesn't Neve resent Lucanis if Treviso is picked? Why doesn't Harding get pissed off at Nevarra for having a secret society of liches that never helped during the Inquisition's war against the breach and corypheus? Why doesn't Harding feel ANYTHING about Ferelden and the rest of the south? Shouldn't Harding resent the fact that she's stuck in the north while her home dies?

All of these conflicts ARE resolvable, but not easily. And it's not believable that they're never brought up. It's not believable that these characters skip through everything that happens with like, barely a frowny face most of the time. In DAO, Alistair leaves if you don't treat his conflicts with respect. In DA2, your party members try to kill each other if you don't pay attention to their conflicts/emotional needs. In DAI, people can leave or betray you, Cassandra throws a chair at Varric and tries to body him out a window. ALL of these can be resolved but it takes effort, and the characters get to SHOW that they're bothered by them and struggling the way a person would when faced with those emotions.

The problem isn't the therapy speak, or that everyone is loyal and won't leave, or that they aren't mean to each other enough. It's that it's toxic positivity. It's toxic as fuck to imply that anger or grief should be smiled over or else you're giving up, and it's damaging to people to avoid engaging with their own negative emotional responses to extremely negative stimuli. It's pasting optimism over very real, very weighty issues, sweeping it all under the rug, and you keep waiting for the lid to blow off the pressure cooker that creates, but it never does. It never becomes anything that emulates real emotions, which is why the whole damn thing feels hollow. Everything's dying and nobody cares, not even about themselves, and that's NOT healthy communication.

It's bullshit, half-assed storytelling that didn't tell us the actual story, just the vague idea of what it could have been.

[puppppppppy]

act 4 :(

@chipper-smol and i came to a realization

[ruubesz-draws]

Yes, I'm late.

But I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas/Holiday!🎅

Shin and Minus One were just excited and happy to see Santa. They a little confused but they got the spirit!

And no, Santa is not dead... Just... frightened :)

[hemlock-dreams]

I get so excited everytime I see you post something new for your ex-con au. How do Deadpool and Peter’s Spidey-sona first meet? Sorry if you already went over this and I missed it.

Spidey and Deadpool have a hit meet cute! You see, Spider-Man's been getting in Deadpool's way and costing him a pretty-penny (and yelp ratings!) in jobs, and we just can't have that.

As for Weasel, he might look like a drowned rat, but the man is a shrewd businessman who excels in recognizing opportunities when they walk through the door. And despite his reputation as kind of a pushover, he can be very cold and calculating. After all, you can't survive long in the business of cutting throats without being cutthroat yourself.

He and Wade have a very friends-not-friends relationship. There's fondness between them, but there's also fear from Weasel's side in regards to Wade. However, Weasel (reluctantly) does have Wade's back if it comes to it.

As for Peter, Weasel immediately recognizes his attachment to Emma and uses it to his advantage in working Peter to the bone. Over time, he does grow to have a bit of a soft spot for the guy, but mainly keeps him around because he's useful. (And because Wade might actually kill him if he lets Peter go.)

[egophiliac]

(breathing into a paper bag) FRALIO....

can't believe they gave us another guy. oh my god. so I guess Kelka is more, uhhh, more OOO then, and Fralio is Ankh? not that it matters too much, although they do seem to be doing something with the connected Riders so. who knows. anything goes! or if I may, anything gOOOes! god. of course they're the Ambition parallel. of course they are. oh my god.

fortunately there's nothing else they can throw at me right now that could possibly --

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[sunnymainecoonx]

I know damn well I misunderstood the assignment but we roll, I'll understand it some day

It's killer and dust btw. If you couldn't tell. Which you probably couldn't.. forgor to say but shhh 🤫 Killers having a convo with himself..

..I kinda wanna change my url but idk to what

[wandixx]

Seriously chaotic fashion misadventures

I realized I posted a teaser and never really followed up on it, so here is some more of that

“Hey, Dami?”

Boy hadn’t looked up from the kittens he was bottle feeding but let out a hum indicating he listened.

“I'm thinking about trying out a more girlish style. Do you think it would suit me?”

Well, Damian had no idea but if Dani wished to give it a chance, then, well, the only proper reaction was to offer his aid.

*-*-*

“Father, I require access to your rouge gallery.”

Bruce almost choked on his breakfast when his youngest made this announcement.

Rouge gallery, as his children playfully called it, was vast collection of lipsticks, which he collected to uphold his Brucie persona. Famous playboy with head constantly in the clouds couldn’t not show up with discreet signs of scandal from time to time. And it couldn’t always be the same shade. Or scent when he choose more subtle approach and used one of his more feminine perfumes.

In all honesty, he enjoyed this.

But that’s not the point, point was that Damian wanted to use it and Bruce needed to know what disaster would fall upon him if he agreed.

“Mind telling me why, chum?”

Dick, who visited Manor for a weekend, barely stifled his laughter while Tim stared at his empty coffee mug like it personally betrayed him. Cass just wore her usual knowing and mischievous smile.

Damian shifted in his chair, hands clenching on butter knife. He was nervous and suddenly Bruce dreaded the answer he was about to hear.

“I don’t see how me sharing this information would change anything. It won’t be used to cause harm to anyone but it’s necessary in the extracurricular project I just started.”

“Dami, what project?” Dick asked, voice oozing with genuine curiosity and excitement. He was almost bouncing.

“I don’t want to disclose it.”

“Is this a hero or civilian type of deal?”

Damian didn’t look any of them in the eyes, both hands clenching on his seat as he kept shifting. Bruce narrowed his eyes. Was his youngest… flustered?

“Civilian”

“Alright, great” Dick swung back with single clap, almost tripping his chair over “I think B won’t have anything against you using his rouge gallery, will he?” Man knew his oldest son well enough to recognize his ‘don’t you dare to disagree’ tone. He was confused but there wasn’t any harm so he nodded with affirmative hum.

“Thank you, Father”

Boy practically inhaled rest of his food and rushed outside. Despite all his training and all his efforts, they clearly saw his excitement. Tim pinched himself and returned to staring at his mug.

“Cass, have you seen what I’ve seen or am I overreacting?” Dick asked, barely restraining his enthusiasm. Girl nodded eagerly, shoving more crumbs into her mouth. Young man cheered, throwing his hands up.

“What have I missed?” Tim mumbled, frowning a little.

“BABY BAT HAS A CRUSH!”

Cass nodded again with wide smile.

Oh.

Oh no.

Who were they? What did he know about them? Was Protocol 3r0s started? Did someone run a background check already? What could they do if they somehow hurt Damian? Was this person a risk to their identities? Oh gods, oh no.

He probably will have to do The Talk™.

He always dreaded having The Talk, with any of his kids. He felt The Talk with Damian would be even worse. Understandably so.

“Also sleep in at least three da-”

“Fuck off, dick.”

“Was this insult or-”

His children remained obvious to how much work it meant, cheering and sassing each other like they often did.

*-*-*

Damian did not know how it was possible but he lowered his guard enough to get caught.

"What are you doing?" Brown choked out after they stared at each other for a long moment.

"It does not concern you–"

"You're rummaging through my wardrobe, not many things concern me more and also, that's frickin creepy don't do it to anyone outside of the family"

She did have a point however he was not convinced it would be the correct approach if he shared his plan. Father's wards (even unofficial like Brown) tended to make assumptions and overreact based on these conjectures. Dani wasn't easy to scare off but he didn't want to check if his family would manage. They often did things thought to be impossible.

He tried to get away but the blonde stood fiercely in a door, leaving the window as the only way out. He wasn't this desperate. Yet.

Girl looked more and more angry at his silence. He had to give her some answers.

Now that he actually considered it, she could be a useful asset. She was far better versed in women's fashion and if he phrased it correctly, he wouldn't even need to bribe her. Question was, how should he phrase it?

"I have an acquaintance- I have a friend," he corrected himself "from the animal shelter I volunteer at. She mentioned wanting to try out more 'girlish style' and asked for my opinion. I wanted to see if you had any clothes that would fit her. She is smaller than me so I thought that whatever I take, it wouldn't be missed." 

Brown grinned with an unsettling gleam in her eyes. He suddenly regretted opening his mouth if not coming to this room in the first place. 

"Say no more, I have a plan Demon Child"

[padmesbox]

Adam Page: international playboy

[everyone-calm-down]

I want a Christmas movie that’s just an adaptation of the time Young Justice had to take over for Santa for the year. I want it to be completely out of context, they are allowed a maximum of 1 minute to establish to us who Young Justice is and how they fit in the DC universe. That’s not important here. What’s important is that they think they killed Santa and deliver the gifts for him instead. Plus all the hijinks that involved. As a treat for me

[tetzoro]

MDNI. zoro x reader ; zoro is still a bounty hunter at this time. male masturbation. — WC : 486

Zoro knows he shouldn’t be doing this, it violently grates against the self taught discipline he always prided himself in, leaving behind remnants of the vows he once made to himself.

It’s not that he swore it off completely, but giving into such desires could be a slippery slope into madness that could lead him down the path of getting distracted from his dreams.

So, he’d rather not do it.

But this is fucking ridiculous.

The slow, itchy crawl of need burned through his body any time he’d catch a glimpse of you. The worst part is that he doesn’t even know you, yet here he is at an inn he’s barely managed to rent a room in for the evening, furiously fisting his cock to your bounty poster.

Something about the little smirk on your face had his blood boiling, coursing through his body and pooling in his core, leaving him no choice but to get rid of the pesky distraction.

It infuriated him. Greatly. So, he took his frustrations out on his painfully hard, aching cock that was just begging for release.

More often than not, he’d drag it out in an agonizing fashion just to punish himself a little bit. Pearls of pre-cum weeping down the sides of his length, fueling the ever-growing hunger to chase the high he carnally craved from you.

The fact that you were a wanted pirate and he was a bounty hunter just made the whole thing even more pathetic.

Zoro was supposed to hunt you down, capture you and drag you in to the marines if you complied. The thought of chasing you, maybe even fighting you, sent more heat rushing to his gut to the point he thought he might burst into flames.

Roughly squeezing his tip, he steels himself from his release and looks back down at your wanted poster that was hastily strewn over the bed. The carefully crafted coil within him grew more taut, threatening to snap and unravel him into a misty haze of bliss.

It licked at his gut, egging him on, begging to let him finish what he started. He’d already made it this far, what was the point in denying himself any more? It would help him let go, right?

“Fuuuuuck.” Zoro mutters, doubling down on his efforts to reach his goal. After a few more desperate pumps, he’s coming more than he ever had in his life.

With a deep grunt, he watches with half-lidded eyes as his seed covers your beautiful, smirking face. The little devil you were would probably enjoy knowing how you reduced a perfect stranger into a pitiful mess.

Which only had him spurting out another rope of cum, his length still standing tall as if to further insult him.

Maybe he did need to find you. but only because he’s sure if he sank his cock into you, the distraction would finally be done and he could move on with a clear mind.

Or at least, that’s what he tells himself.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The Quest Continues...

(part 1- part 2)

[cloud-ya]

3000x3000px canvas full of shadow the hedgehog: electric boogaloo feat. silver and some other guys

also attempt at simple animation

[daily-sifloop]

Can you make an AWARIA au ?

(It's from the guy who made helltaker)

Day 88: Awaria AU

[hercarisntyours]

i've always thought the ariel's helm looks like athena's/spartan helmet

i think it's a real cool tidbit, and yeah it's just a stylised ponytail but let me have this; like with how similar Elita-One and Athena are - it's nice and pretty cool 😭 also maybe like a forshadow to her future as a warrior