#the next thread

[tonibeltran]

It’s unfortunate, really, that they’re talking about Elijah at all — not that Antonio thinks they shouldn’t be, because he’d rather not leave that elephant in the room for longer than it needs to be, but there’s a realization happening within him simultaneously that doesn’t sit well at all with the topic of conversation at hand. It more so happens because he finds he and Roman have somehow shifted closer to each other — maybe unconsciously so, after Antonio had leaned in to pick the lint off Rome’s hair — and suddenly no amount of alcohol in the fucking world seems sufficient enough to dull the green of Roman’s eyes. 

He shouldn’t be discounting this conversation so easily — for all intents and purposes, they should be giving Elijah shit. Antonio would be the first to admit his disappearance from their lives fucked him up in unimaginable, nearly-irreparable ways, and maybe they are better off without him, in the long run. Maybe the Elijah Falvey they’d known for two decades died with Harrison Morrey, and what a wasteful death that would be. But even as he wants to follow the thread of this conversation to its conclusion, whatever barrier his bloodstream has so meticulously built out of alcohol and drugs is suddenly vanished, unceremoniously disintegrated by something as simple as Roman Daniels’s fucking eyes.   

Antonio tries to focus on his friend’s words, hoping whatever epiphany happening within him isn’t written plain as day on his expression. He tries to hide his face behind another pull of his whiskey, but there’s only so much left of it, and he ends up having to put it back down before he knows it. Clearing his throat, he nods, knowing full well he’s missed ninety percent of what Roman’s said to him in favor of losing his goddamn mind, apparently. But Christ, he thinks, eyeing the delicate lines of Rome’s jaw — has he always been this pretty?

“I’m surprised I haven’t run into him again,” he admits, catching the tail-end of Rome’s grievances. Volleying insults back and forth — not abnormal by any means, though it used to be all in jest, back in the day. Antonio guesses it makes sense for that dynamic to exacerbate itself the way it apparently has, with enough anger to fuel it. “Not that big a place, Blue Harbor.” He waits for the bartender to refill his whiskey before adding, “So long as he doesn’t step on my toes, I don’t really care to step on his.” 

Does that sound weird? He feels like his tongue is too big for his mouth, suddenly. And is that sweat on his palms? “Fuck,” he mutters out loud, without meaning to. “I don’t want to talk about him anymore,” he says, because he doesn’t. In fact, a part of him thinks he’d do better to disappear from this moment entirely, but even the hypothetical loss of Roman’s presence feels worse than the cacophony of insanity inside him with Roman in front of him. Fresh air, he thinks suddenly. Fresh air should help. “I need a smoke,” he announces, grabbing at the pack in his jacket pocket. He meets Roman’s gaze, and feels his smile soften stupidly. “Join me?”

That was the difference between Roman and Antonio. It seemed like the latter never let it escalate, whereas Roman let his anger take the helm, to be taunted in response to his own jabs directed at the former keyboardist. There was not an ounce of self control when it came to their exchanges, and he found himself mildly envious that Toni could just hold his tongue. “Well, fuck him.” Roman held up his glass of water to sardonically toast their former friend, but it didn’t seem right, motioning the bartender over and ordering a beer. Less risky than the whiskey.

His lips twitched involuntarily at that thought, of the accidental rhyme.

“From the sounds of it, he’s dragged her into their fucking avalanche of shit to wade through. I’d almost feel sorry for her, but her family could afford to buy their own fucking town if they wanted,” Roman muttered, recalling what Nilay had told him when she confronted him, the accompanying scoff a reflex at this point, recounting the information he found when he had searched about the hotel and her family. “So she could easily buy a new Eli. I fucking would, but he must be happy in his cosy little ivory tower.” Maybe that was why he picked her after all.  Someone rich who could fight his battles and kiss his wounds better for him.

But soon, his thoughts were rid of Eli altogether. Antonio reached out to brush through Roman’s hair and he simply froze in place — though the touch was far from unwelcome, even leaning in towards Toni as an invitation of sorts. The whole exchange took about five seconds but in the bassist’s head it was a dragged out exchange, breathing feeling heavy and scalp feeling like it had been set alight. “Hm?” His focus was on Toni’s finger and thumb flicking away what looked like a speck of lint or dust, and he was soon inspecting his friend’s hands; admiring that they seemed strong and warm, and probably had good reflexes what with his continued playing…

The question registered, and Roman’s entire being soured at the thought of Eli interrupting his tipsy thoughts. “We haven’t said much to each other except volley insults back and forth.” He then admitted, seeing no point in painting himself as the victim to Toni. He knew Roman too well. “But it’s clear where he fucking stands mate, and honestly fuck him.” He took a sip of his pint. “We’re better off without him.”

[syrupbitee]

free my boy from his own show he did nothing wrong

[jez-bez]

Get it now? We are all different. But the one thing we have in common is Phukan, our only light.

[moondove330]

whoop!! based on this post hehe

[felassan]

Some notes from today's new BioWare Blog post, which contained some new character insights and also gave some information on what is coming next and when:

Creative Performance Director Ashley Barlow helped to cast and direct over a thousand conversations in the game

Lucanis is bloodthirsty, calculated, and a workaholic. He was raised with high expectations and fears disappointing those he loves. To him, being an assassin is his only job and identity to be excellent at. He's constantly attuning himself to the kind of shifting terrain of every mission. There's a lot of love between him and Illario

As Zach is a comedian, he would easily find the humor in anything Lucanis was saying

Neve is a Shadow Dragons rebel who cares deeply about helping people and never leaves work half-done. Epler: " [she is] the working class hero trying to make her hometown better"

Emmrich is sincere, friendly, scholarly, sophisticated, eager to teach and learn, a well-meaning but oblivious academic, with a "hot nerdiness". He assumes everyone has an academic's curiosity so can be pedantic on select topics

The Mourn Watch are revered in Nevarra but odd at best and evil at worst outside of it

Nick: "I love the fact that the writers took Emmerich and explored the whole idea of death and the whole idea of necromancing by bringing kindness into it. I really responded to that and got into that and I know it sounds crazy, but it’s to not have this idea that death is vulgar or something to be terrified about, but something to actually engage with on so many levels. I just love the fact that the writers had the courage to do that in a game like this."

"Often Nick is just playing off of someone making a sound, and he takes it and internalizes it and gives it meaning and care, which is amazing to watch."

The world has changed a lot since DA:I

Harding has been leading teams through the wilderness while covering friends in battle

Harding loves her mom. She loves to write letters home and is always talking about her mother. She likes plants and raising plants. She has grown and is a veteran now, a trusted voice at the table

Footage of the full DA:TV @ SDCC companions panel should be available in a couple of weeks

Next month there will be a new roadmap, more looks at the game, and the reveal of the release date

[emphasis mine]

And this paragraph:

"Dragon Age: The Veilguard sees players embark on a perilous quest to face powerful Elven gods and stop the apocalyptic destruction they’re unleashing. You’ll step into the role of Rook, battling on the front lines alongside a deep and compelling cast of companions who together comprise The Veilguard, a group of heroes who have come together to stop the veil from breaking and bringing about the end of the world. Rook must become the unexpected leader who can rally and unite the group. Throughout the game, you can explore the detailed storylines of each companion, navigating love, loss, and complex choices that influence your relationships."

[source]

[petricorah]

long hair sokka truthers lets goooo [id in alt]

[cowgirls-blues]

... I'm smoking, and I'm moving around a baseball around in my hand. And I'm counting the stitches. 'Cause it's a Möbius loop, it's just one line of stitches, I'm counting - kind of like a rosary. "Take me out to the ball game..."

I'm watching Candela Obscura for the first time and my brain just went "hey what if we drew Sean with huge Ghibli tears wouldn't that be fun???

[inspisart]

very happy with ezra's live-action casting and look

[veerbles]

my self indulgent dream fic is a canon divergence where adam bought an old secondhand nokia phone when he moved into st. agnes at the end of trb and ronan started texting him at random to spite gansey and declan, whose texts he never answers, and to spite adam, who has a limited texts plan and is anxious about it (although literally no one else ever texts him), and also because he's pathetically pining.

anyway. series retelling where adam and ronan grow closer through texts because being honest feels less terrifying through a screen

[babacontainsmultitudes]

AH. So that's why they put that content warning. I see!

[detweilerboy]

Twin Threads is a 2021 crime thriller film written and directed by Shelley Parker-Chan. The film follows a group of young assassins, lead by Zhu Yuanzhang, sent to eliminate the heir to a rival criminal syndicate. Between them and their target stands Ouyang, a bodyguard with a mysterious past and conflicting loyalties.

From left to right: Ouyang & Zhu, Wang Baoxiang, Esen, Ma Xiuying, Xu Da and Chang Yuchun

I ended up leaning more into the noir poster aesthetic than I originally planned so I changed things around in regards to this AU. Noir isn't a particularly Chinese genre for historical reasons, but there are a few contemporary mainland Chinese neo noirs (I recommend Black Coal, Thin Ice). The contemporary western neo noir on the other hand is heavily inspired by Hong Kong action cinema, or East Asian action/crime cinema in general.

This AU turned into a love letter for Raymond Chandler (in spirit and fic writing that started this whole project), Hong Kong action thrillers, especially Johnnie To films but John Woo, Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam as well. Not a small part of this is also stolen from Wong Kar-wai, as well as the film Infernal Affairs.

The poster here owes more to classic noir posters as well as Takeshi Kitano's yakuza movies but also City on Fire (and Reservoir Dogs). But Johnnie To's The Mission, Election and Exiled have black and red color schemes as well.

Consider this a movie that probably wouldn't exist but is pulling from a pool influences between East & West and is just stuff i think is cool. Organized crime AU because it is a way to write a modern AU that keeps the brutality and violence of the original, as well as the pressure of hierarchy and tradition & games of thrones.

[thyfleshc0nsumed]

Explain to me the difference between CNC and rape fetishism such that you do not include scenarios that are definitionally forms of rape in your definition of CNC. Quickly, I have hostages.

[shrews-art]

Pain reminds us that we are alive or something I guess

[amxrany]

!! CHAPTER 7 / DIASOMNIA ARC SPOILERS !!

Going into Vil's dream now lesgoooooo (warning i cannot find a lot for vil's segment for some reason so if i miss a lot of information im so sorry):

So I understand why they released Tapis Rouge before this update, because we are now in The Queen's Film Studio, where Vil tells everyone to look forward to live broadcast of the Diamond Film Awards (this is most likely a reference to another Diamond in-game)

(sheesh new vil outfit again)

But basically yeah Vil's dream is to be the fairest of them all and he got Neige as his assistant 😭

Rook sees that it is indeed Neige, and the group tries to get closer to Vil. But Vil called Grim a stray cat and shooed him away, he's now sad :((

Vil assumes we're paparazzi and tells Neige to throw us out, and we find out that Vil just abuses Neige. So the group tries to convince him to report Vil, but Neige becomes blot and tries to fight the group

(I like their weapon it looks neat)

They defeat Neige but security is now after their ass, and it's revealed that Diamon Film Awards is a type of awards show for actors and that in reality, Neige was the one who won the award. But in this timeline, it's Vil who wants the award. Not understanding how Vil changed, Idia mentions that Malleus's magic allows them to experience happy dreams, and those dreams can also release any resentment you hold deep inside.

We then go to Vil receiving his award, but Rook stops him by telling him his time in NRC, but Vil tells him he doesn't know what he's talking about; and we go through the dizzy-but-is-trying-to-remember-everything segment again. However, the darkness was swallowing Vil up, and we couldn't save him in time because Neige managed to sink him down even further but Rook used his unique magic to follow Vil

So basically this next dream is the "What if Vil succesfully poisoned Neige and won VDC" scenario, we're in the part where Neige actually drank the poisoned apple juice and yknow, dies, and the dwarves are surrounding him crying

Epel uses "Sleep Kiss" to see if there's still a chance in saving him and let's just say it's the most Snow White reference I've ever seen. Oh and Rook is on the verge of breaking down

On stage, Vil's team has won VDC, but Rook and Epel come in to stop Vil by reminding him how he overblotted, and that causes Vil to wake up. Vil is back to normal and he's grateful that Rook and Epel came to save him and Epel said of course, we're your hunter and poisoned apple after all

The darkness comes back again to swallow Vil, but Rook and Epel aren't letting go. But idia orders Ortho to tell Rook and Epel to let Vil go. So you guys remember that one part during the last update where Idia fight his own phantom in OB!Form? Yeah we're doing that too but with Vil.

It's similar to that of the concept of Persona 4, where you learn how to accept yourself, even the ugly parts of yourself. Because Vil decided to use his weakness as his strength and overblotted to fight against his own phantom

MORE EVIL LAUGHTER AS VIL CELEBRATES HIS VICTORY DECLARING THAT HE'S THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OF THEM ALL. We are then transported back to the fake event with Dream Neige where Vil tells him that he is indeed the most beautiful of them all (that is so true queen go slay)

Pomefiore all go in for a hug, and the others join in as well

Sebek was surprised that Pomefiore wasn't just all about beauty, but they were really strong as well, and then Idia thought it was funny to show their Absolutely Beautiful cover in which Vil proceeds to ruthlessly criticize them for it 💀

Vil receives his own invitation of deafeating Malleus and that's where the update ends

HOOOO BOY where do i start, this update is so funny it honestly took me forever just to look for parts of Vil's segment. But assuming that we're going backwards the next update will most likely focus on Scarabia so manifesting that we get a Kalim card next so that we can complete the light trio fr fr

Anyways, see you soon in the next update!

Previous: Rook's Dream

[fawnnbinary]

would you still love me if I redid my strawhat hc designs.

[round-hatches-are-terrifying]

piou piou