#the noble art of throwing the fuck down

[vulcanhello]

anyone trying to argue fanfic is inherently better than the films, books, and other stories they originate from i just KNOW doesn’t actually watch movies or read or engage with anything outside their favorite ao3 tags

[thedorkurge]

Your fics and drabbles are incredible!

If you’re still taking prompts- a durgetash love confession???

Thank you! I had to sit with this one for a bit, and then this happened... Forgive me.

You can read it under the cut or on ao3.

Three I love yous (0,8k)

The first time it happened, it had been a mocking declaration. It was meant to belittle, to be so outrageous that one would never assume that there was any truth to it. An obvious taunt, meant to get under the dragonborn’s skin.

Enver hadn’t intended for them to land in the Chionthar, but the hastily scribbled teleportation sigil clearly contained a miscalculation or two. Durge was still ripping off some imps that had followed them through the portal, looking remarkably like a wet cat as he followed Enver onto the river bank. The human practically collapsed into the sand, the remaining adrenaline fading to nothing. 

“I’m going to fucking kill you.” The dragonborn’s voice was hoarse from coughing up river water, but no less intimidating for it. Unfortunately for him, Enver was not easily intimidated.

“Now’s hardly the time to flirt, my dear. Unless of course you’re finally giving into my irresistible charms?”

If looks could kill, Durge would already have made good on his promise ten times over. Nothing got under his skin quite like Enver’s complete disregard for the danger he posed. 

“Next time I’ll handle the exit strategy, since you seem completely incapable of performing something as simple as a teleportation ritual!”

Enver’s eyes rolled as far back as his anatomy would permit, as he finally got to his feet.

“Yes yes, I love you too dear. Now, are you going to move on? Or do you need a few more minutes to be upset?”

The patronizing tone clearly got on Durge’s nerves more than anything else. Enver should probably count himself lucky his spine was still in his body, as the Bhaalspawn finally stalked off to find someone more expendable to vent his frustrations on.

-

The second time was a correction, a reminder, a lie for the benefit of others. Posing as a couple at a charity ball wasn’t ideal, but it was the best way to access multiple targets in one night. 

The outfit Enver had picked out fit the dragonborn perfectly, and the coordinated colors clearly showed their affiliation to the room full of the wealthy and influential. Their disguise would be flawless, if only Durge didn’t look like he wanted to murder everyone in the room.

If Enver didn’t find a way to get him away from the main party, he might actually start killing people. But that didn’t mean the banite couldn’t have fun with it.

He put on his most charming smile as he greeted the host, engaging her in light conversation until he could finally mention what he actually wanted.

“Aurelia, darling, you simply must show my husband your art collection. Believe me, he makes a far better audience than I do. He’s got an eye for this sort of thing.”

He quickly grabbed the dragonborn’s hand in his own before it could reach for his concealed daggers.

“I’m gonna kill you.” The threat was hissed under his breath, but quite clear nonetheless.

Enver laughed slightly for the benefit of the nobles, as if he had told him a joke. “I love you too, dear.” He held up his drink to flash the wedding ring, a clear reminder of what they were meant to look like. 

The smile Durge plastered on his face was clearly forced, faked for the nobles’ benefit, as he walked off to view a collection he had no interest in. 

Enver continued his conversation, trying not to think about how cold his hand felt without the bhaalspawn’s touch.

-

The third time it happened, Enver was alone. 

Even the living halls of the colony felt cold and empty. They had felt that way for days, the chilly loneliness in the air seeping into his bones.

Sometimes it felt like he could still hear Orin’s gleeful laughter, see the glint of red on her dagger.

He had tried to throw himself into his work, wandering down to Balthazar’s laboratory to consult the trapped minds in the illithid library. 

He soon found his eye drawn to something that felt out of place. A scrolled page, torn and stained. It didn’t belong here. 

Forgive me, Father…

His previous work was abandoned as he cradled the paper in his hands. The carefully constructed dam that kept his emotions at bay finally crumbled under the pressure, as he all but fled to his workspace in the tower above. 

Now, halfway through his third bottle of wine, the lines between thought and speech were blurred. Sentiments that would usually go unacknowledged now floated just beneath the surface. The layer of sarcasm that gave them deniability was permeated by a heartache that was far too real.

It didn’t matter anymore. He was gone. Denial was pointless because there was nothing to protect. Nothing to deny. Nothing.

Just a page that said everything and nothing at all.

I cannot help but admire the chosen of your sworn foe.

It was an admission of guilt.

It was a confession.

It was too late.

For once the words fell from Enver’s lips with no twist of sarcasm or mockery.

“I love you too.”

This time he meant it. 

Maybe he always had.

[betheflame]

For the TS prompts: 5, 26, or 33 - Stony whichever calls to you the most!

"Get it off my desk" 😘

“PEPPER.”

She pinched the bridge of her nose and got up from her desk. He did not pay her enough for any of this, truly. It’s just that he paid her more than Barnes & Noble did and English Lit degrees weren’t exactly lucrative. 

“PEPPER,” he repeated. 

“Yes, Mr. Stark,” she said as she click-clacked her way into his office. 

“The sound your shoes make is soothing,” he said by way of answer. “The stilettos, the rhythm they make is fun.”

“Thank you,” she said. Pepper was completely unphased by anything that tumbled out of Tony Stark’s mouth, really. Four years and four months–she’d seen it all. 

“There’s an artist,” he continued in what she sincerely hoped was the actual point, “Steve something. He entered the contest for the mural in the lobby.”

“The one that your father took over the selection for,” Pepper clarified. 

Tony nodded. “I liked Steve better. His application is still here, and I need it off my desk. It’s making me sad.”

Pepper nodded. “Can you not just throw it out?”

“Oh, no, I meant give him something else to do,” Tony said. She’d learned early on that his brain and mouth rarely connected in linear fashions. 

“Got it. Any preference?”

“Are any of the break rooms really boring?”

“I’m assuming most of them are,” Pepper replied. 

“Great. Have him zhuzh them up.”

“Zhuzh.”

“Yeah, like make it fancier or whatever,” Tony said with a wave of his hand. “I think it’s Yiddish.”

“Okay, I’ll hire Steve Rogers to zhuzh up the break rooms with…?”

“Whatever he wants,” Tony said with a shrug. “Maybe something to reflect all the locations we’re in? Like the weird arch for the new place we built in St. Louis.”

“It’s not weird because you didn’t want to ride up it,” Pepper replied with a smirk. 

“They wanted me to trust a pod to raise six hundred and thirty feet into the air. No thank you.”

Pepper bit back a wider smile. He made no sense sometimes. “You fly planes a lot higher than that.”

“They are planes, not pods,” Tony responded. “Anyway. Rogers. Art. Zhuzhing.”

“Will that be all, Mr. Stark?”

“That will be all, Ms. Potts.”

____

“I got the job?”

Bucky looked over at his best friend. “Was that a question?”

Steve blinked rapidly as he stared at his phone. “That was Pepper Potts, from Stark Industries.”

“Wasn’t that the mural gig you didn’t get?” Bucky said. He realized this wasn’t a conversation he could keep playing FIFA through, so he hit pause and put the controller down. 

Steve nodded. “She said they found another project they thought I’d be perfect for. Something about painting the break rooms.”

“That sounds below your talent level,” Bucky replied. Steve was one of the most talented visual artists Bucky had ever seen. Granted, he’d seen maybe three, but the reviews of Steve’s shows agreed with him! He just needed one shot to be in front of people with both money and social reach and maybe Steve could stop sleeping on Bucky’s couch. 

Not that he didn’t love having his best friend live with him. It’s just that Steve was 6’4” and Bucky’s couch was…not. 

“No, like, do custom murals. I think it’s for all of their locations, too.”

“Fuck, that means like Malaysia, I think,” Bucky said on a low whistle. 

“I think this might change my life,” Steve said with wonder. 

“Fingers crossed, bud, fingers crossed.”

[songbird-oracle]

Live thoughts watching Fantasy High Junior Year episode 5

Spoilers ahead

Im so nervous already about Cassandra

These dudes getting swole

It IS spicy tonight in the dome

Screaming

I WANT A BOGGY KISS

OH FUCK SHES HOLD MONSTERING KRISTEN

THE SECURITY COMING THROUGH OH SHIT

“Do you want me to kill that guy for you 👀” vibes

OH NO PLEASE NO NIGHTMARE KING OH NO OH NO

I’m Shittering my pants rn

No not the girlies!

Located in the astral mall, This place has *everything*. Ripped valley girls, a goddess and prophet and familiar going through a very tumultuous time in their relationship, a frog wearing a paper hat, and a weird ass clock

I live for the hangman banter

Oml I love the Yarrbucks coffee art

LOU HOLY SHIT

BOX OF DOOM DC5!? The stakes are seriously so high though

Okaaaaaaaay 13 works ig

“Does she need scratchies?”

Wooo Murph!!

THE STAR TALKS!?

I love Emily’s reaction to “banging out a 1st level spell”

Riz sadly flossing

Oh no Kristen oh no Cassandra!

No stop attacking Cassandra!!!!

🎶non-a-crits🎶

Thank goodness no failures

Break it up guys come ooooooooon

Damn, man needs strudel with sauce at a time like this

Profiling the minis 🤣

NOT THE TAP DANCING

“I don’t think you’re scared, I think you’re mad. And that’s okay” I’m sobbing

YES THE FUCKING SECURITY DETAIL

Kristen is so low, oh no

A 0 initiative 🥲

FUCK THIS IS WHAT RAGHS MOM ABSORBED!?!? Gorgug is the greatest wizard of our time

Abjurative grammar is prescriptive. Iykyk.

I knew the DC would be high

NAT 20 BEARDSLEY IN THE FUCKING HOUUUUUUUSE

YESSSSS HEALED CASSANDRA 😭

Oh fuck oh fuck bad stars

Let it out Cassandra, feel your feelings

Oh my goodness, philosophers scone

OOP PAUL BLART INTERGALACTIC MALL COP

It’s not the nightmare king??????

41 damage each, damn Adaine

We aren’t even half way through guys

BAHAHAHAHAHHA playful picking on Riz

Mass dispelling?? Damn

????? TUMMY ACHE SURVIVOR????

THE SHRIMP!!!!!!

Why is Fig a walking embodiment of Murphy’s law rn???

WHAT THE FUCK

NO NO NO DID GILEAR STEAL HER LUCK??????

IS THIS QUADRANGLE FUCKERY??????

Okay it’s just a curse

WAIT WHAT???

Cloaca why 😂

Whoopsies, shattered the shatter star

Oh fuck, rage Adaine is scary dude

Is this some rage and revenge deity??

Anyone but Conor

BAHAHAHAHAHA “no no, this is gonna happen”

“Stay hot Conor”

NOT KALINA NO

RAGH??????

Not the shimmy

WHAT IS KALINAS AC

44 DAMAGE??

Old Fabian

Legend has it the wizard is still waiting for his strudel with sauce

WHAT THE FUCK NO NOT CASSANDRA NO NO NO

“Unfortunately stop flossing”

COMPELLED DUEL ON KALINA OH FUCK

3!!!!! Woooooo!!!!!

Worst mall cop ever, Paul Blart would never

🤣 “is that not property damage??”

I’m so scared for Cassandra guys

Kristen and Cassandra are down oh no 🥲

BARDIC SHRIMPSPIRATION

NO NAT ONE NO NOOOOOOOO

Somewhere Katja Cleaver is raging because Conor Counterspell said he hates horses

A ball. Not *the* ball

ARMOR ZOMBIE AND LICH IM LIVING FIR THESE NAMES

Bards and Noble 🤣

Kristen coming in with the hugs

Box of doom has been working hard this episode

Shake out the bad ones

Screaming crying throwing up

I can’t look

Dammit Murph

Ecaf again

“What are you talking about girlieeeee?”

Brendan’s stare scares me

FUCK

Strudel for the win Girlie!!!

“One more roll girlie 🤪”

Oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no circle of death oh no

COUNTERSPELL MY BELOVED

“How old are you” “45” “gross”

WAIT WHAT TIME REVERSE TO- TEN SECONDS

Conor, you’re the best secret service agent ever

WHAT????? WHERES CASSANDRA??????

WHAT????????

I’m so fucking scared right now

Wait is Cassandra a triple goddess? Like how Hekate is a triple goddess, is Cassandra one? Cause Cassandra, Nightmare king, and a divine thing that isn’t a different divinity?

I want to enjoy “we got that bad boy buttered” but I can’t 🥲

Dead stare 🥲

I love Hangman 🥹

Feral Murph

NAT 20 SHRIMP JUMP

Thousand yard stare

Best shrimp jump ever

Maximum legend

That’s right, kick flip the system

Fuck KandyKorn Lullaby

See you at Basrars, I’ll be sobbing into my ice cream

[gizkasparadise]

What are your top five xianxia cdramas? And, on the other end, what are your top five historical kdramas (any time period - I'm not well versed in this to know the various types names yet xD)? Oh, and lastly, your top five drama recs that are the most (generally) underrated? Thanks!

nice!

TOP FIVE XIANXIA (& I'M ALSO GONNA INCLUDE XUANHUAN)

love and redemption. girl meets boy. boy's part of a cursed theatre troupe and part of masochism tango of reincarnation with girl that lasts 10 life times. girl is actually kind of the god of war. crack, gender reversal, gender fuckery at large, feminist and queer friendly. incredible OST. just all-around one of my favorite dramas ever.

lost you forever (part 1). a xuanhuan vs. xianxia, but im not passionate enough about 5 xianxia for this list lol. another drama with gender fuckery. a fantastic FL and beautiful relationship building (and unbuilding) and character-driven story. dont even need the second part for this to be a favorite!!

love between fairy and devil. all those tropes you fucking loved when you were like 13 on ff.net given a lot of heart and near-perfect execution (aside from that ending). awesome characters, beautiful costumes and art direction. super addicting and bingeable

the legends. bai lu playing a powerhungry demoness and acquiring a dysfunctional harem in the process. xu kai looking like a sad blue-haired puppy. a monk that creates an entire demon because he has 1 boner. sismance. i had a lot of fun with this one and pointedly did not watch the last 5 or so eps lol

till the end of the moon. there's parts i genuinely hate and would not watch ever again. there's parts that are fucking incredible. sort of like the main couple, i have a love/hate relationship with this drama but when it hits it really hits

honorable mention: eternal love/10 miles of peach blossoms (xianxia fuckery at its finest weighed down somewhat by tedious side plots and one of the most infuriating 2nd FLs of all time)

TOP FIVE HISTORICAL KDRAMAS

gaksital/bridal mask. set in the 1930s. inverse character arcs between the hero and villain. dysfunctional romance amped up to the nth level. high stakes, high consequences, and a cast full of well-developed and written characters. bring tissues

empress ki. girl crushing and girl bossing her way through two kingdoms, one of the best FLs of all time. with her is a besotted baby enemy emperor and a Noble Good besotted powerless king as she goes from slave to smuggler to concubine to empress. chef's kiss

the princess' man. you want feral wrecks for your male leads? female leads ready to throw down in a parking lot? if you like lovers to enemy (?) lovers and star-crossed romances this one is a must

the king loves. this one's also on my underrated list. the first 4ish eps are a chore, but if you get past them you have the love triangle to end all love triangles, interesting palace politics with a fascinating "evil" empress, and im siwan getting to go a lil unhinged as a treat. it's the definition of an idol drama but gd did i love this and i binged the hell out of it no regrets

mr sunshine. le cinema!!! an interesting time in history (1870s-1880s) with a wide range of flawed but compelling characters centered around one of the most badass FLs of all time. winner of the #1 second lead syndrome contest for me with dong mae. only downfall to this one is i felt negative chemistry with the endgame ship but the show is good enough without it

honorable mention: chicago typewriter isnt on this list because it's only kind of half a historical drama BUT OMG WATCH IT. it's in my top 3 kdrama and while it has a slow build once it kicks off it fucking goes off

TOP FIVE UNDERRATED DRAMAS

the king loves as mentioned above. i think why it has a lower rating is the first handful of eps are kind of a snoozefest and there's a bit of an upset with the romance (which i was 900% for). but it's a fucking fun ride and full of awesome goryeo palace drama adventures

kairos. not underrated, since it has decent scores on reviewer sites, but underhyped? not enough people have seen this one and it's an incredible time-travel thriller that i found way more interesting than other popular dramas of its type like signal

cheese in the trap. the ending's a hot mess, but compared to how some 2020-onward dramas are ending it's poetry. a solid adaptation of a really great webtoon, awesome cinematography, and one of the few dramas ive seen that actually capture the campus/college life experience right

discovery of romance. the emotional cheating element causes a lot of folks to hate it/jump ship, but i love this one (and gd BOTH the fl and ml emotionally cheat ftr he's not innocent in this hot mess). jung yumi + eric mun are one of my favorite kdrama duos and they kill it, and kim seulgi plays an incredible second female lead

when a man falls in love. man people HATED this one but i think it's a blast when you're in the mood for mess + gangsters. if you're into watching fucked up romances with severe power imbalances and the dysfunction that follows, this one's for you. it's not perfect but definitely not deserving of its 6.8 MDL rating (gd!)

[razorsadness]

So you wanna be a punk? Read a zine. Drive around in your car with the windows rolled down, smoking cigarettes and screaming along with Clash songs. Or quit smoking, and get rid of your car, because those things are bad for you and the environment and they support evil corporations. Ride your bike everywhere, with Mischief Brew blaring through your headphones. Walk everywhere, listening to Against Me!, because walking is still honest. Shoplift from stores like Walmart and Barnes and Noble, then spend the little money you have supporting independent artists and small businesses. Sell your zines at a benefit party, give all the proceeds to Food Not Bombs or Planned Parenthood, even though you’re broke and can’t really afford to be giving zines away. Fuck it, scam copies from Office Max so you can keep giving copies away. Give one to the cute person with the mint-green mohawk you always see hangin’ downtown. Sew patches crookedly onto your hoodie, with dental floss, natch. Spend hours putting studs on your black denim jacket, even though half of them will wind up having the prongs bent to the point of being unusable and it feels like an exercise in futility. Wheat-paste posters or put up stickers or tag with Sharpie everywhere you go—political messages, song lyrics, surreal images, it doesn’t matter. Leave your mark. Go to a show and lose yourself in the music and the pit. Or stay out of the pit, ‘cause you’re just not into it; stand in the back clutching your beer and nodding your head and feeling like an asshole. Start a band, write some songs, never play any shows; figure out that no one in the band is as serious about it as you are and quit. Record a solo home demo of your songs, spend months getting it to sound just right—or at least as right as it can sound without a full band—and never let anyone hear it. Constantly say you’re dropping out of the punk scene, but never quite manage to do it. Tell people you’re so punk you hate punk. Say you’re gonna be a rude boy, like your dad. Watch punk films and read punk books and have them remind you of so much of your own life that you almost can’t breathe. Think about your life and your old friends, the ones who are dead, the ones you never talk to anymore, and the few that you’re still close to. Start to cry. Feel emo. Make a t-shirt that says: “Don’t call me emo. It makes me cry.” Call your friends, the ones who’ve stuck around. Go to the grocery store late at night. Make fun of articles in women’s magazines, because even though some of you are part of the right age group and gender to be their target demographic, their articles are so far outside of the realities of your lives that it’s hilarious. Write your own zine, about the reality of your life. Call your friends, the ones who’ve stuck around, get together at someone’s apartment. Make veggie nachos. Eat til you’re so full you can’t move. Talk about what you’re doing with your lives and feel like losers ‘cause none of you thought you’d still be so broke and pissed off when you reached this point. Feel shitty ‘cause being angry, old, and poor isn’t as cute as being angry, young, and poor. Be glad, despite it all, that you’re still alive, still hearing new music, still hanging out with friends. Flip off cops who are harassing teenagers for skateboarding or some other minor infraction. Realize that flipping off a cop won’t bring the system down, but doing it still feels pretty damn good. Throw an MDC record on your turntable when you get home; blast that shit. Go to a show, a party, a zine fest, a coffeeshop, see another punk. Go up and talk to them. They’ll turn out to be cool and you’ll have a new friend, or they’ll turn out to be assholes but hey, most punks are assholes. Still get crushes on every punk you see, despite that. Give no fucks about anything, except the things you really care about, like music and books and art and your friends and family and the state of the world and… Tattoo and pierce yourself and dye your hair and wear mismatched, dirty clothes because that’s how you feel comfortable, not because anyone else is telling you to. Try sometimes to look normal, in situations that call for it, and feel like a complete fraud the entire time, like everyone can tell you’re only pretending. Call other people posers, but don’t really mean it. Call yourself a poser, and claim the word with pride. Spend a night alone, tipsy from booze or jacked-up on caffeine—pick your poison—singing along to all the old songs and realizing that most of them still mean as much to you as they did half your life ago. Refuse to grow up. Realize that you’ve grown up despite your best efforts not to, and you have a job and bills and a family and/or other responsibilities, but that you’ve still got that spark, that match-struck, steel-toed, silver-studded, loud as fuck spark hanging out in your heart. Sometimes, that’s good enough.

—Jessie Lynn McMains, from “What We Talk About When We Talk About Punk” (c. 2012-2015)

[derpcakes]

Okay, I’m never actually going to write this (for reasons I’ll go into in a moment) but do know that a few years ago I was playing with a fanfic idea where a glitched out Holy Grail manifests in rural New South Wales. An ordinary teenager just trying to scrape by ‘til graduation in this tin-pot dairy town is out on a beer run for some crappy country high school party when two supernatural beings crash through the bottle’o wall, one with a spear and one with a pair of shiny, impossibly fast pistols. She survives being caught in the fight but inevitably ends up on her arse looking up at the glowing gunslinger, who says something about being a Heroic Spirit needing a Master. Our heroine then replies “Yeah nah, get fucked”. Nonetheless, she’s dragged into this battle, and the adventure begins from there.

I had most of a cast of Servants laid out: some smartypants mage decides to summon Ned Kelly--an Australian Heroic Spirit if ever there was one, and who is naturally depicted as a hot lady--before remembering that Ned Kelly was famous for being an outlaw who embodies the quintessential Aussie lack of respect for authority. Summoned as the Archer, Kelly has a degree of independence but ultimately needs a human to keep her anchored, hence going “wait, shit” after breaking her own contract, then reluctantly teaming up with our country town hero in the scene above. Since Ned Kelly’s homemade armour is so famous (to the point where a lot of art just depicts the armour, and it’s way more recognisable than his actual face despite photographs of him existing!) the armour would be constantly on, but invisible, in the same way that Arturia obscures Excalibur. Plenty of potential here for dramatic reveals, not to mention the Themes and Motifs. 

I also liked the idea of each Master having a kind of disjointed cultural relationship with their Heroic Spirit, e.g. a young mage who’s grown up as part of the Greek diaspora in Australia summons a hero from Ancient Greek legend; a character whose noble family fled Russia during the revolution (and hasn’t lived there since) summons a staple of Russian folklore like Baba Yaga (as Rider, you know, for her walking house). These old stories are part of these characters’ heritage, but the versions that exist in lore and legend are unrecognisable from anything they’ve known due to the passage of time and the transformation of culture through the immigrant experience. I thought that could be a fun thing to play around with, you know? Especially with the Australian setting.

I also messed around with the idea that someone summons what they think is a Valkyrie (back before they turned up in FGO!) but, in a third act reveal, turns out to actually be Loki in disguise. Loki would be Very Gender and extremely fun as an amoral pseudo-villain who gets into some cheeky chats with Ned Kelly about the way humans mythologise their troublemakers while also shooting them down.

Oh! It was also going to be gay. At least, in terms of the rowdy teen heroine having a female love interest (in the form of a traumatised but deeply powerful girl from an abusive, traditional mage family. She was gonna be full of plants. The heroine was going to throw it all away and go feral to save her in the end, probably punching God in the face to do it. Do you see what I’m doing here? You gotta have the archetypes).

Anyway, while there were some Cool Ideas floating around here, I ultimately shelved and buried this thing. a) it was going to be a SUPER research intensive project, not only in reading up on the myth and history to get the Servants right, but getting my head around the intricacies of Nasuverse worldbuilding not only enough to understand it but enough to mess with it in way that would be satisfying to the reader. These plot bunnies were bouncing around my head when I was in the middle of my Honours year, and heading towards my doctoral studies, so unfortunately, much like real bunnies in Australia, they were deemed an invasive species that would suck up too many of my resources. 

And I was alright with this, because b) I realised that the thing about Fate that makes me want to write fic is its characters, not its world. So staying in the world but taking the characters out felt... well, not like my kind of creative direction. And I would need bucketloads of passion to get me through this thing, because naturally as the story of my very own Grail War it would need to be at least novel-length. And not a thin novel, either...

I thought to myself “If I’m going to do this much worldbuilding and develop this many OCs for a novel-length fic, I may as well be writing my own original fantasy novels”. Which I’m doing! Some ideas that started here have ended up being folded into other, more successful projects. My interest in exploring a trickster god character flowed right into my PhD work, which is largely about trickster god characters; and I’ve nicked and repurposed a few other elements, too, like the idea of a mage family who get their mana from a freaky symbiotic relationship with plants that they grow in their own body. I feel like my angry, take-no-shit, typically Aussie Ordinary Heroine--the girl I placed in Shirou’s archetypal role--will wander into an original project too, since she has a lot of presence and I think would be really fun as a protagonist. 

Anyway--I’m not going to come back to this, but the idea echoes in my brain every now and then, so I figured I’d share it here. What do you all think? If you could devise your own Grail War from the ground up where would you set it and who would you throw in the ring? 

[churchandstateofbeing]

anyone who ever loved unsleeping city ever NEEDS to listen to rainbow connection from the fucking. muppet movie (trust me) and new york i love you but you’re bringing me down by LCD Soundsystem (this one works best if you’ve seen chapter 2 but it works well w just season 1)

sometimes i turn on one of these two songs to just Think about unsleeping city because as someone who was also born and raised in a massive city that i love with my whole heart and soul it just makes me so full of emotion and i recommend this experience wholeheartedly. my thoughts and feelings about my city are so complicated and the unsleeping city is genuinely the only piece of media ive ever seen that really Got it. cities can feel so heartless and massive but also so magical and fantastic and full of life and hope. possibilities. big cities are about dreams and people and communities, but that means that they can’t stop themselves from changing, for better or for worse. ricky and iga and alejandro and the immigrant experience, the joy and beauty and family and community that a city can be for those who dare to dream. when puck tells misty to remember who her people are, he doesn’t understand that fairy was never hers, that the city is where she feels safe and free and alive. kingston’s elderly mother making him breakfast each morning and sneaking tupperwares into his pockets. it is a beautiful thing.

and sometimes you have to watch that beautiful this killing itself so slow as things and people change, watching the places you love close and the people in power steal them away from under you, when the city feels hostile and too big and lonely. kingston and iga walking around as the new york that they love feels like it’s getting stolen out from underneath them, as stores close or family becomes distant, being confused and hurt and sad as what they remember becomes fainter and the people around them forget what it once was. kingston being willing to kill pete if it means the city will be safe, leaving liz behind, choosing new york over the individual people around him ten times out of ten because it isn’t even a question; the betrayal he feels when epona attacks him in the subway. cody throwing ninja stars at billboards and yelling at construction workers because his mall is going to be destroyed and that’s his world. pete scrolling through his phone with a slice of pizza. sofia doing anything she can to invite people over or avoid going home, because her home is empty. sofia failing to fight the angels to get her husband back because he needs to watch the deer, cutting off her family because they’ve betrayed her so deeply. kugrash reading the letter in david’s office. cities really are easy to hate sometimes, because not every person and community is kind or good or noble, but there’s an illogical and impossible loyalty you feel even when it feels like the buildings will fall down and crush you, covered in this sick oppressive system on a hallowed holy ground, artificial and dirty and so big it’ll swallow you whole. and sometimes you have to accept that things are how they are, but you know that somewhere in here is the ability to fight and change and grow and be together and support one another- pete and nod at the diner and the museum, kingston opening his apartment so pete can get back on his feet, pete saving priya from the burning building and forgiving kingston on the train, ricky refusing to be anything but a good person even when things suck; kugrash traveling around nod on wally’s shoulders and saying it’s okay that you don’t forgive me and driving with esther to see her mother in the park and eating the bagel because even though he was horrible before he wants to be better and he believes he can be; everyone giving their spells to help alejandro catch the train and save nod; saving santa and willy and em and the art show guests and the bodega customers and la gran gata not because they have to but because they can. and while there are never easy solutions, justice can be served and your dreams can become reality- pete taking control of his reality, making his body and his magic his own; rowan talking to the american dream, you are my love and my only true love; sofia at the empire state building- there really is something up there if you go up to look for it, there are people who will fight with you, it is what it is and it is what it could be- the city is almost impossible to love if you aren’t aware that it loves you back, and it does, it does, it does.

[rottingmanifesto]

omg memphis hiiii!!! sending ‘silent fury’ from the asks for any oc!! <3

OMG HI! I hope things are going well! Hope your bday goes well too, if you want anything small I can def try. Sorry this took forever to get to, it’s been… a time. Anyway, here’s Canary and Lincoln acting like siblings because why not

—

“Could do without the attitude.”

You’re keeping your arms tightly around your chest and have half of your body turned as close to the passenger side door as you can get it without popping a hip out of place. “I’m sure you could.”

Lincoln makes a noise something like a sigh and cuts his eyes back to the road. “Your own fault for gettin’ caught.”

“You’re four years older than me, shut the hell up,” you say, a bit too loud for your own good. You’re bound to find out his limits of mouthing off, probably sooner rather than later. “You treat everyone like this?”

“Matter-of-fact, I do,” he plays along with his own sarcasm but his knuckles are going pale on the steering wheel with every word you say. “Especially after doin’ stupid shit.”

“Remind me how hanging up flyers is anti-American.” They weren’t even communist, unless union posters somehow count as communist now. Sure, it wasn’t much, but you’re limited in scope besides talking with people and (hopefully) being convincing enough to make some sort of change.

“‘Least it’s me and not Donovan.”

You clamp your mouth shut. He is right on that. John would lose his shit if he knew. At least Lincoln was halfway rational, even if still an ass.

You reach over to turn on the radio and groan when it’s Remy Duvall’s voice that comes through. With special-fucking-guest, Olivia Marcano.

“Get your hands off my radio.”

You throw you hand up. “You want Native Son?”

“No, but I don’t want you touchin’ shit.”

“O-kay.” Whatever’s got him so pissy— it’s not the posters, you can say that with relative confidence— has consumed him enough that you don’t want to test his patience any further.

“Say, Miss Marcano, what made Lucio so in love with science?”

“Well, he grew up in deep poverty, you know.” You roll your eyes at the scripting and Olivia Marcano’s overblown wistfulness. “So, he found comfort in the world around him. Grew curious about how chemicals worked, why things exploded, things of the sort. He never had the kind of money to explore it on his own, so he’d want others to— have that chance. I took the initiative to seek out young women, since so dreadfully few actually take an interest in the sciences beyond cosmetics.”

“Very noble.”

Lincoln remains silent but somewhat smirks.

“Well, we got a few calls ‘bout colored women not getting a fair shake. A dreadful shame, with so many scholarships out there for them, too.”

“Forgive me, I never knew there would be an interest from— from that community. Lucio never would’ve intended to harm, and I don’t either. I simply never considered it.”

“That is such fucking bullshit.” You almost reach for the knob but stop short, looking to Lincoln for approval. He doesn’t look your way. “Can I?”

“Nah. Wanna hear what she says.”

The chatter in the car covers up whatever bullshit Remy is likely spewing under the guise of “caring”, shit you’re all too familiar with, being raised around it.

Your hand slides back down to your lap.

“Truly, Olivia, I don’t know why so many people are lookin’ for a fight. They gotta understand this isn’t for them.” Remy chuckles in a way that’s meant to be disarming, but in truth is disingenuous. “Surely, there are other scholarships.”

“There are. In fact, there’s an arts scholarship for students from Delray Hollow—”

Lincoln shuts off the radio. Neither of you want to mention the absolute vitriol that laced Olivia Marcano’s voice with the phrase ‘Delray Hollow’, her mouth creating what was intended to be a barely-implicit slur. He guns it down the highway at a cool 85 miles-per-hour in silence for five minutes. Silence here is subjective, considering how many people he’s cut off and the amount of horns blared at his Sampson.

“You okay?”

“Yep.”

You’re tempted to turn his own phrase against him— ‘could do without the attitude’— but instead you fish around your pockets for the lack of American Spirits you’d swiped from a corner store and offer him one.

“I’m fine, kid. Thanks.”

You slump in the seat. This was never about the union posters.

[nosferatu-pvssy]

AMC patron saint of using vampires to teach us human rights, patron saint of hijacking stories with the exploitation of the noble fight against racist and homophobic behaviors with the purpose of promoting their own story using the fame of Anne Rice and the attention of people who don't really care about human rights but only its shell, necessary to show the world that they're not rotting inside, that they're good people better than the others.

AMC who didn't want to write about the exploitation of slaves because that's bad and about Lestat's incestuous relationship with his mother because that's sick. AMC who cut out all the horrors but kept the prostitutes, who basically are slaves forced to open their legs for any crusty, dirty, ill, old man who will demand their bodies to use as disposable plates from which eat and then throw away. But no, their presence instead of the slaves in the fields can be justified because they create a sexual atmosphere all around Louis, as if they're objects, as if they're a frame for Louis' portrait.

AMC who wanted Claudia to be violated, also allegedly aging her up to make her the perfect Lolita for this very moment. Wasn't she worthy of all these discourses about equity, freedom and empowerment? Of the fight for rights? Of justice? Or was this valid only for Louis, the one you put on display to attract the social justice warriors? Weren't Claudia and the prostitutes worthy of love? No, of course not. Because women don't matter as much as men, if they get treated like means to carry the plot, to make it more dramatic and deep through the tragedies that happen to them. No one suffers that much for what happens to them, because deep down in people's subconscious there's this tiny tiny adorable thing of us being perceived as objects.

I wouldn't have written anything if this series had been kept as it is, so a horror story. If horrible, disgusting things had kept happening to both men and women because that's what happens in horror stories. Obviously I would have took my time to digest every act of violence, because I don't cope well with it. Horror and violence deeply disgust me. But I wouldn't have had any right to protest, because I knew that it was my choice to watch a horror story. But this? This is not a horror story. Rolin Jones can't go to panels and say that he wanted to cut out the most disturbing things because "he wouldn't know how to write them" (but the r*pe of a 14 years old girl you knew how to write very well...) and that it would have become a romance.

AMC patron saint of respecting Anne Rice, repeating it obsessively in order to manipulate us into believing that they're respectful when we'll see that the characters are the contrary of their original selves. AMC is so respectful of Anne Rice in fact that they made the character that technically was her daughter, r*ped. You're so respectful of her. Writing "Anne Rice's Interview with the vampire" as the opening title of every episode isn't enough to show her respect if you r*pe the character who had the cathartic role necessary to make her metabolize the death of her baby girl.

It isn't enough if you show her that one of her deepest nightmares is coming to life just DAYS before her death: that her characters are being rewritten and substituted by other people, permanently changing their appearance in the public eye. The enemy never was ff writers, but tv channels who truly have the power to butcher your character permanently. Because the public won't care if you've written differently, what will stay tattooed in their minds will be the scenes they saw with their eyes. This is the irony of life. It's ironic that she has passed so much time being a nightmare to poor fans who simply wanted to pay homage to her art while that amount of power had to be put against who really could do something so vile: AMC. It's ironic that what she dreaded the most happened when she couldn't stop them. AMC fucked the vampire chronicles up irreparably. But that's not enough for them. They want to get to the fans too, by apparently making them sign something on their game to own any plot that the fans naively will write while playing, so that they are legally protected while USING YOU to add new parts for their tv series.

AMC is taking and taking and taking. Copying cute scenarios that seem coming from some posts that a vc fan could have written here on Tumblr. Spitting on the memory of Michele Rice, ruining Anne's work of her lifetime. Throwing away characters because they weren't efficient enough in their work aka Daniel, while their Daniel was such a disaster in the first interview and og Daniel managed to make such a good interview in extreme conditions of fear, lucid.

Now I'm really curious about what stories will people invent to defend a channel who wrote a romantic story in which it's not ok to commit any crime except for r*ping a girl. Let's see.

[suits-of-woe]

Hello 🙋🏻‍♀️ So I’m coming to you because I asked this question on r/shakespeare & was met with really arrogant, ‘You’re dumb’ replies 😒, but you seem really lovely, so I thought I’d ask you 💗 Basically, I was thinking about how Edmund’s (KL) trial almost feels a little bit corrupt. He’s put on trial (fine) but then a masked opponent appears & Edmund, seemingly blinded by a want for love/attention from the Lear sisters (& to be in a position of power *cough*), forgets that as a now nobleman, he does not need to accept a duel from a unnamed, masked opponent. That just feels somewhat sad & fucked up to me. Basically, I was met with ‘Edmund’s a psychopath, you’re weird if you feel sorry for him’ responses. But I stand by my thoughts! What do you think? Sorry this was long. I love your blog 💗

I'm sorry that the r/shakespeare sub was so rude! I've definitely gotten that vibe over there before and it sucks.

I have a LOT of opinions on Edmund's trial, and I do think he's absolutely obsessed with being loved. As for him agreeing to duel the disguised Edgar, though, I don't think it's so much that he's tricked or forgets as that he's actually sticking to his principles. His whole argument for why he usurped Edgar and his father was that birth should be irrelevant and he, with his superior cunning, was entitled to take their inheritance by force and wit. It's kind of a survival of the fittest attitude -- nobility shouldn't matter, it's just a matter of who has the skill to come out on top. So personally, I think Edmund doesn't care if he's dueling someone who isn't noble. In his mind, they should be entitled to a fair shot as much as anyone.

That's definitely a more charitable reading (and he does have that one line saying "if thou art noble, I do forgive thee" but I personally read that as one of those times Shakespeare has to throw in a thematically weak line just for the sake of the noble audience, because he can't do Edmund being redeemed if he's still blatantly laughing in the face of birthright) but Edmund is my best friend in the world and I have thought a lot about that moment. I actually posted about it here as well. I am always down for Edmund apologism on this blog.

[linguisticparadox]

Friendship ask- Mina and Art

When I think they became friends (if canon already hasn't showed how they became friends): Well, canon of course took care of this one in incomparable fashion with full-on crying in each other's arms and pledging to be like brother and sister so... (🥺)

My favorite scene of them: Like I said.

A random headcanon I have of them: Hm...I think it would be nice if after everything Arthur threw Mina and Jonathan a Proper Wedding (well, the reception, anyway). It would be a nice gesture in Lucy's memory, too..."Let me throw you the wedding I couldn't have."

My favorite thing about them: Just...idk, bonding over their grief for Lucy, Arthur almost immediately breaking down and crying in Mina's arms and her completely nonjudgmentally just holding him while he cried...the shit about the "mother instinct" or whatever was so silly like no Mina you are just a sweet person who lets people feel comfortable being themselves around you (but also ofc she will make a wonderful mother).

A scene I wish we had of them: Gosh, just about anything not drenched in grief. 🥺

A scene with them that I want to rewrite/change in some way: Well for starters I'd have Mina not going on about the Mother Instinct or whatever...not only is it Weird and Sexist and Gender Essentialist it's also lowkey kind of navel-gazey like that man is having a Whole Nervous Breakdown in your arms Mina FOCUS.

What makes me like their friendship: Immediately swearing undying loyalty on the level of siblings? They're both just so Noble and Lowkey Dramatic oml. ❤️

Who I think is the ”crazier” one: Oh gosh this one is a tie I think. On the post abt him and Jack I said Arthur was crazier in terms of being Down To Clown At All Times but that was only in comparison. I think he and Mina have about equal amounts of that. Mina maybe sometimes gets too wrapped up in trying to adhere to gender norms, but at her core she is Ride Or Fucking Die, down for anything and everything.

Would I change anything about their friendship? Hm aside from taking out Mina's weird shit about gender? I would just give More of it. More casual hanging out, more talking about stupid shit, more remembering Lucy....that kind of stuff.

A song that reminds me of them: Uh,,,I'll get back to you on this one.

Which one of the friends can I relate to more? In any given pair, go for the Nerd. Mina, no question.

A word to describe them: Camaraderie. Or commiseration. But that's sad.

What I think would have happened if they never met: Oh gosh, I mean, I can't really imagine Mina joining the Crew of Light without meeting Arthur, right? Which would have meant they didn't get Jonathan's journal, or his and Mina's excellent Document Review Skills, or Mina's overall competence....but then again, Mina wouldn't have had to go through the pain of being forced to the side and cut off from her husband's trust just because of her sex/gender. A toughie for sure.

If I can picture them to be more than only friends: At most I would see them being like metamours...like they're both in the polycule but they don't necessarily do stuff with each other specifically lmao. Not just bc of the promise to be "like siblings," which tbh was sometimes used as a way to recontextualize romantic feelings deemed to be "inappropriate" anyway ("Yeah I love him, not like that tho I'm a good married Christian woman!" u kno), but like. I mean in this case I think it does actually fit their dynamic.

If I would want to be friends with them: Oh my god yes, obviously.

[wu-kongs]

macaque Is brutus by buttress

this song is a TRIP. ignoring all the gender aligned stuff, like... lyrically. wow. the whole thing is essentially a love letter from brutus to caesar written in blood, penned by envy. the read on this being macaque, opening with a line like—I've been watching him for my entire life—not like it's hard to glean, easy to say just because of how much he wants to be seen. though i was a bit shaky on the rest of the first verse until the last bit of it—

Or am I just wishing I could be like you? That the people would see me, too, as a poet And not just the muse

not that i think this necessarily applies to macaque to a tee, but when his character is built off being a twisted, malevolent version of wukong that would never be loved for who he is, it works really well.

it's the second verse that's got me in shambles, like the whole thing—

Oh it's not true, I don't wish harm upon you From birth we've been like brothers Of different mothers Within the spirit of the same womb May the gods strike me down if I forsake you Frater meus, you're beautifully made And to you I'm forever grateful I'll never forget that you showed me to make art And I know the love you showed me Came from a pure and noble heart I love you, and if you want, I'll call you king But why do I lie awake each night thinking Instead of you, it should be me?

thinking about throwing myself off a bridge to be honest. literally what do you want me to do with this? i love you and if you want i'll call you king? i'd rather fucking DIE

the oh it's not true in reference to the first verse where all the narrator does is strike caesar down, call him an idiot and that he got what he deserved. may the gods strike me down if i forsake you? like that. that literally happened. the moment macaque decided to make wukong a target → forsaking him. we can even twist it in that act writing his fate when wukong kills him, by the will of the gods. even by extension, it is, as the whole journey is.

deep down macaque knows that wukong loves or loved him. his perception of it has just been mutilated by time and death so that affection is unrecognizable/he refuses to be receptive of it or remember it as it was.

last line i wanna point out is—Please know my actions are not motivated only by envy

it'd be easy to say that macaque's actions in-journey are motivated by envy, but why else? from a headcanon point of view, which most of these anecdotes are, that envy is more about wukong having outgrown him/moved on from him, and he doesn't want that. he just wants wukong back. he just wants them to be a pair again. it's love. i'm saying it's love. romantic, platonic, whatever. it's love.

[fox-buried-in-maple-leaves]

the explorations one for decord?

👖Jeans, skinny jeans, or sweatpants?

Modern: The jeans that are between normal and skinny ones? Canon: He does not wear jeans nor sweatpants lol

🐀 What would they do if they were locked in a room with a rat?

Pick it up and put it where it belongs outside?? He's not afraid of no fuckin rat.

🐈 How do they react to being cat-called?

Decord is a genuinely imposing looking person. He's SHOCKED if somebody catcalls him because it just never happens. Like he's speechless.

🚘 What’s inside their glove box?

Napkins, pack of tissues, some document folders, those fast food utensils that are wrapped in plastic, some fast food straws that are still closed, chapstick, and a pack of hairties.

🎶 What song do they swear they hate until they’re alone and start singing it on repeat?

Burn Butcher Burn from the witcher soundtrack lmao,,,

🔪 Open up this character's kitchen cupboards. What do you see?

Pretty bare and basic tbh? Always up to stock on his pantry staples though! Definitely has a fancy ass spice rack.

😨 They accidentally break a vase. No one is around. What do they do?

Laugh if it isn't his vase, leaves it there. If it is his vase? "Merde. Damn.. Okay." and he'll clean it up and throw out the shards.

🌭 Deep down, do they believe a hot dog is a sandwich?

"Absolutely not."

💰 If they won the lottery, how would they spend the money?

Invest that shit, babyyy. But also spoil his partner/friends with whatever they want!

🎤 Do they sing in the shower? What do they sing?

He's a silent shower taker.. It's kind of unnerving..

😳 Why don’t they like how their voice sounds in recordings?

After his 'accident' Decord's voice got a lot raspier than it was and he HATES how it sounds on recordings.

🏠 What's the first thing they do when they get home for the evening?

Eat, lol. He usually forgets during the day so he eats a fuckton once his day is done.

🤓 What is one thing that they "nerd out" over?

Rare first edition books.

🕺 Do they dance when they're alone? Are they good at it?

No. But he used to be a noble, so he is a good dancer.

🤕 What’s the dumbest way they’ve been injured?

Galin distracted him while he was cooking and he cut his thumb with the knife. They felt terrible, but he was fine.

🍺 What's their favorite drinking game? If they don't drink, their favorite card or board game. What's their approach to winning?

"Drink every time character says/does X" is his favourite cause he can get blasted easily lmao-

🤑 For a million dollars, would they punch their best friend in the nose? Either way, have the character defend their answer.

Decord would do it for 5$ and a day off. "What? I'm tired and you have a very punchable face, Emil." "Fuck you, dude." "We can split the million?" "Fine."

😴 If they talked in their sleep, what weird jumble of words would come out?

Mostly french murmuring.. Decord has a lot of nightmares, and what he mumbled reflects that.

🖌 If they spray-painted a city wall, what would they write / draw?

Probably a cool silhouette art piece.

[tarantula-hawk-wasp]

while i decide on formatting you get the sneak preview of my two first reviews of my deeply deeply deeply subjective opinions about batman and movies. these are not objective value critiques these are my personal taste

batman returns (1992) - as with the first michael keaton movie, the style of these is just so different from what i like in the storytelling of a movie and what i like about batman that is hard for me to open my heart to it, but this one is much more coherent than Batman (1989). The focus on the origin stories of catwoman and the penguin was interesting, and I liked Shreck as an asshole ceo type antagonist. The hard thing with the penguin is that while i know this predates always sunny and i know that danny devito can act with range, everything he says as penguin just registers as frank reynolds to me. Catwoman did do the important furry behavior of licking her glove and cleaning her face for no damn reason which is important to me but I wish her dialogue was more than just zingy one liners. Bruce feels like he is barely in this one tho. that's what having two villains does i guess. And i don't like that Penguin beefed it at the end. I don't feel like Batman was concerned enough with the sanctity of life in this one tbh. It does get points for committing to a strong aesthetic and campy vibe. It has personality. It does feel like a world that can handle a man dressed as a bat. Also made me realize that this is what the lego batman games draw heavily on for batcave design, gotham design, and soundtrack so that was a pleasant familiar surprise. A good alfred portrayal as well. Visually, I don't love michael keaton as bruce, he just doesn't match in my mind. Also the rubber cowl is so stupid.

Batman (1966). my beloved, my childhood friend, my joy of joys. This movie makes me want to throw up it is so funny in a specific way. The absurd lines delivered with the most serious gravitas. It makes me want to hurl its so perfect in the contrast. The riddles make less than no sense, they are incoherent. The plot holes are gaping and the dialogue full of shovels to enlarge them and it just keeps plowing ahead. Burt Ward is honestly an amazing dick grayson for the balance of immediate rage and cracking his knuckles ready for violence with Holy Sitting Ducks Batman sparkle to him. Joker with his painted over mustache also serves. The plot makes no sense. Not a damn thing makes sense. It is beautiful it is a work of campy sixties art. It is a parody of the much earlier serials that does not register as a parody today. It is a comic book come to life. The aesthetics, the costumes, the sets, the vehicles - chef's fucking kiss. This movie is absurd and is acted with seriousness. The villains almost win bc Dick doesn't want to watch his father figure make out on the date they're surveilling. Alfred however is down to voyeur. Everyone should watch this movie at least once with an open heart. downside is 60s batman is best buds with the police and operates in broad daylight most of the time. but i can forgive that for such glorious lines as an abrupt cut to

Robin: Gosh, Batman, the nobility of the almost-human porpoise. Batman: True, Robin. It was noble of that animal to hurl itself into the path of that final torpedo. He gave his life for ours.

[fortcliffe]

there’s quite a few characters on my page, so here’s a comprehensive list of my original characters with bad short summaries:

player characters

reyna tabris,  city elf rogue, warden. mean on the outside, warm on the inside. equally skilled at sewing and murder. very blunt, often angry, but quite responsible and surprisingly willing to ask questions first, stab later. believes in the power of good soup.

liling surana,  elf mage, warden. special interests are darkspawn, demons and ghouls. excitable, loud and occasionally annoying, but surprisingly less naive than she appears to be at first glance. soft goth on the outside, firm and cool on the inside.

brandon hawke,  human, mainly purple mage, champion. did not sign up for any of this shit, actually. dreams of warm sunsets and finding a good therapist. cherishes his friends and time free from people not dying when he wants them dead.

dami lavellan,  dalish elf mage, inquisitor. certified comedian. made for politics because she has great hair and loves lying. was at the conclave to fill in for her sister, so all this is one big misunderstanding. specializes in talismans and magical inventions.

raurig cadash,  dwarf rogue, inquisitor or inquisition contact. local grumpy gay uncle. professionally between an architect and engineer. has beef with how many abandoned ruins they find. gets an aneurysym every time someone stabs a dagger into a map.

original characters

niki amell,  human mage, one of revka’s younger kids. grumpiest seer you’ll ever hope to find. tells demons to kindly fuck off and let him sleep. saw the giant hole in the sky and started walking in the other direction. angry and hungry for love, but won’t admit it.

peride asani,  half elf warrior. daughter of a chasind woman and a human apostate. horse wrangler, could be an origins companion. sweetest sunshine you can hope to meet, that’s also able to rip someone’s throat with her teeth if necessary.

harlan,  elven rogue, ranger. wants snuggles, receives struggles. has soft hair, soft heart, soft voice. can cook extremely well and kill a man. because he was raised with spirits around, he has a supernatural ability to find way and magic, good for a scout.

juniper,  qunari mage. socially awkward, shy, tall woman that prefers the company of animals. she changes into animals to gain their trust, as she’s currently working on her bestiary, but also to avoid having conversations with actual people.

jian,  elf warrior / rogue. stoic and scary, secretly warm to the chosen ones. tends to have a flock of kids following his every move these days. used to be a tevinter slave and a mercenary, prefers to bodyguard. his main objective is tracking down and killing venatori.

katriana vargatz,  human rogue. antivan born lady of noble merchants married into a fereldan nobility for love. mother to a young boy, widow. professionally dislikes ferelden culture, but remains to run things until her son grows old enough. 

laurence vargatz,  ferelden noble. lover of art well dressed, throws great parties. popularly considered to be the black sheep of the family, as he doesn’t fight and doesn’t seem to have many talents. plays weak on purpose, actually a shady bitch but with a strong moral backbone.