#the worst part is that I can totally see it

[amoebab22]

I completely agree with this. I feel like this is one of the worst parts about Veilguard. My Inky is in the South, and while I firmly believe Orlais is the devil, it's very weird that Tevinter is just super chill about my elf Rook when my elf Inky had constant micro-aggressions as well as just out and out slurs hurled at her. Also I'm going on a rant about Mythal.

SPOILERS BELOW

Bellara also seems to just...kind of ignore that I'm an elf? Davrin makes more sense. He left his clan and joined the Wardens because he just didn't really vibe with the Dalish. He'd think of himself as a Warden first, I think. Wardens don't seem to give much of a shit about your race or religion or sexuality or whatever. In The Calling, they canonically don't give a fuck about the gay couple in their little group, or that Fiona is a mage and an elf. Absolutely irrelevant. So Davrin could start to fall into that mindset because frankly, it's a nice way to live. It's just not real outside the Wardens.

So when Bellara is like oh my god our gods are evil and Davrin is like eh, fuck 'em, that's actually about the most realistic reaction we've got re: elves. Davrin is just out here like yo I'm a little busy saving the world fuck them gods. Love Davrin.

Also, in Inquisition, there's concern that knowing Corypheus's artifact is Elvhen will cause violence against elves. So knowing it's the Elvhen gods causing all of this? The consequences of that, even if an elf Rook saves the world, should be looming for a Shadow Dragon in particular. Clearly Inquisitor Ameridan's race did nothing for the elves of Orlais. It was covered up over time. His sacrifice meant nothing to the humans. This should make Solas's plans to restore the elves much, much more tempting.

The way the Crows were presented REALLY bothered me as well as someone who romanced Zev. The Crows *tortured* him, sexually assaulted him, made him feel worthless, because it was seen as necessary. Sure, Lucanis being blood family might give him a very different perspective and experience, but Jacobus is just allowed to be a Crow and start his own house when he wouldn't kill? I mean, I totally agree that prolonged, public shaming and imprisonment is worse for this individual, but like.... That's not how the Crows work. They kill stuff for money. Sure, they run Antiva and would be pretty pissed off about the Antaam taking their territory I'm sure, and they might work with Rook since Rook helped Lucanis and he's a big deal to the First Talon. But like... It should be a hard choice to work with them for Shadow Dragon Rook, because SLAVERY.

I feel like the pullback on slavery is to make Solas's actions seem more ambiguous, and to make it seem like there was some equal power between him and Mythal. But I have a very hard time believing he was never Mythal's slave. Also, a spirit of BENEVOLENCE? Get ABSOLUTELY fucked. She was fine with SLAVERY. Thought she could just slowly phase it out, maybe. Yeah, no .

Because here's the thing: slavery is evil. Whatever you have to do to stop slavery, short of participating or killing slaves, is pretty easy to justify. Maybe I'm just John Brown-pilled from living in Kansas a good chunk of my life, but killing slavers and slave owners and freeing slaves is MORALLY CORRECT. FULL STOP. A "kind" master is still a master. Sure, you can give them a chance to free their slaves and make reparations first, but waiting to vote slavery out didn't work. The US had to go to war. Haiti had to rebel (and give basically all its GDP to France for like two hundred years. Fuck Orlais AND France).

The only reason my Inky was able to befriend Dorian, at first, was their shared trauma in going to the future. That changes people (that whole quest fucked me up the first time I did it) and I think my elf Inky was looking for reasons to trust Dorian and ignore the system he participated in. She didn't have to see it so it seemed less real. He's an altus so he doesn't own the estate. He seems open to other opinions! And some part of him knows it's wrong, or he wouldn't be so awkward upon talking to Inky the first time.

But Solas's inherent and never fully overcome distrust of Dorian isn't wrong. Solas needs to see action; words aren't enough. I don't blame him.

This is the same softening we saw of the Templars in DA2 and Inquisition, but if you read The Stolen Throne and The Calling and play DAO, it's very clear that mages are oppressed by the Chantry and live in horrible conditions. The ones in Lake Calenhad are described as pale and kinda sickly looking (or something like that) because they don't get any fucking sunlight. Fiona is happy to go to the circle at first because she was a SLAVE in Orlais (Honestly Loghain's hatred of Orlais is justified even though his actions aren't). If you decide to allow the right of annulment or whatever in DAO, Zevran calls it genocide. Zevran isn't one to mince words. He doesn't pretend he isn't a killer or that he wasn't tortured.

My Inky and my Rook are both 'no gods no masters' types, which is why I think clan Lavellan sent their First on a risky mission supposedly by herself (got real sick of her shit lol). As a result, she heavily sympathizes with Solas's cause, and would have happily joined him in bringing down the Veil if he'd just agreed to spend time making sure as few people died as possible, particularly after she meets the Avvar and sees how spirits really are. She knows Solas better than anyone, and even without a full explanation, she'd know that his reasons for doing this were morally right. He freed her people. He never meant to hurt them. He can't live with his guilt. Inky (who in my game was more like 30 because I don't think she could have made decisions or led on her own at 20, nor would she have been a studied enough mage) wants freedom for everyone. She's chaotic good.

Rook is a Shadow Dragon who killed slavers a little too hard for an organization dedicated to killing slavers (based Rook). They're also chaotic good, and a bit of an idiot, bless them, who kinda sees everything as a nail because they have a hammer. They see slavery, they fight it. Fuck the consequences. Solas did the same.

So why is Rook not bringing up slavery a lot? Why is Rook only finding out that Solas freed slaves on the regular at the beginning of the game? Did Varric just decide that wasn't worth bringing up to a person whose entire life revolves around ending slavery? Why is Rook not having an existential crisis after talking to Solas and finding out the truth of his past in his memories?

Look, all I'm saying is that I don't understand why more people aren't angry with Mythal and why no one is talking about slavery and racism. The whole point of fantasy and sci-fi, and the point of Dragon Age, is to critique modern society through thinly veiled references. That's why people get so passionate about Star Trek. And yeah, yes, it's necessarily going to make a piece of media more niche, or people are going to bitch about it (especially gamer bros my dude calm down, sorry something is very briefly not about you), but it makes a game *good* and lasting

BG3 did a good job of exploring the themes of trauma and power imbalance, and while some characters I think needed more fleshing out (Wyll my beloved, I owe you a lengthy fanfic for the injustice done to you), it was particularly powerful in Astarion. The people are ready for real exploration of real issues. We always have been. Backing off was a mistake.

ANYWAY I have feelings and none of my friends share my special interest. Here you go.

Why Fenris could Never Cameo in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[eggsoupery]

Haiii,we gonna see more of arum soon? I love him so much he is so beautiful and his voice,HIS VOICE SSJDNSKSHSBSKKWBDHSBSKSNSBD omg,he's like woowowowwowowowowowowowow,he is my pookiekittymeowmeow jjjj

i love this beast, my best friend voices him and he does an incredible job ;A; but yes he’ll make more appearances soon!

now for some Arum lore

- with a full takeover of Basil he/they’re like 8ft tall.

- His wings look like Sunny’s Something (though i didn’t draw them here)

- He is basically the worst parts of Basil or rather, what Basil believes are the worst parts of him are, but like very amplified

- if he has a big enough hold of Basil in the moment or even entirely, Basil won’t succumb.

- His face shapeshifts, but his Something face is the standard one. My favorite face is when it’s just teeth - he can take massive bites.

- He is strongest when Basil is in turmoil, so Black Space is where he will thrive the most

- Arum and Basil are both voiced by Ivis. Arum tends to sound calm but lately i’ve been making him sound angrier

- For the most part Arum’s behavior is totally unhinged. he can hurt anyone or anything (because Basil believes he is a threat, though he’s just too deep in his own head). If he were to attack Sunny for any reason, Basil would try his hardest to desperately fight back for control.

- It’s possible for Basil to take Arum’s power and “rewire” it into his own

- His full name is Titan Arum, named after the corpse flower which is known to smell like rotting flesh. He’s supposed to resemble a dead Basil that died by hanging.

[syndrossi]

I am missing grandpa!Baelon verse. Tell me about something cute that involves Baelon being totally wrapped around his grandbabies' thumbs. 👴👶

For example, does Daemon ever wake up to go check on his babies in the middle of the night only to find Baelon already there, playing with them instead of letting them sleep?

Watch this space, another part of Regnal AU with Baelon and the babies coming later tonight!

I could 100% believe Baelon barging into the nursery at all hours of the day/night for quality time, even when everyone else in the castle is fast asleep. 😂 They need stimulation, they were bored! He stands by his actions!

I could also see him being the worst enabler of all time. The twins want to play with their food? He's right there, assisting their efforts to build the highest pile of mushed peas possible! Aemon needs his lullaby? Baelon's fetching Daemon from his sleep and dragging him over to sing, because that is not in his own skillset. Writing constant letters to Gael for the finest of silks and laces and cloth-of-silver so that the tailors of Runestone can make the finest of garments for them to outgrow within a few months. Figuring out that Jon prefers furs and having the softest fox pelts acquired for a cradle blanket.

If there is an opportunity to spoil them, Baelon will find it.

[knxfesck]

you ever watch an old movie and immediately have the chilling realization that a character you like is on your dad's kinlist

[dykedvonte]

Curly's attempt to prioritize the crew's happiness over safety is very in line with the internal struggles he is going through with wondering if he is happy in his life and path or should he forfeit that security.

It's upsetting cause while as understandable as that projection is, the want to be happy in something you don't feel secure in, he can't see past it and allows it to clog his judgement. This is no longer a matter of happiness but safety, but he in the end was the safest member of the crew in practically every aspect. It's not something he's going to understand the weight of from his position.

His current state is also a reflection and inversion of his mindset at the beginning of the game as well as a metaphor for the exact type of endangerment Anya felt. Where as with Jimmy, he gets to feel that "safety" Curly felt with the position but the lack of happiness he perceived he had.

[57sfinest]

calling harry a “can opener” was SUCH a good play for so many reasons i think about it every day.

in the context of his work, it makes him a tool. as many people have pointed out, including martin luiga, part of the hdb tragedy is that he simply cannot leave the force, and his superiors know that and are using it to their advantage. no matter what happens, even if harry hated every nanosecond of every bit of the work and wanted to leave, he can’t and won’t leave. they can leverage anything they want against him and then reel him back in with a facade of kindness when they “allow” him to keep his job, as long as he does what they want him to. the 41st knows he has this inexplicable talent with people and they use him for it. he’s a cop: that talent can be used in so many awful ways, to push so many different agendas. and they won’t even be his own. a can opener has no particular desire to open a can, aside from maybe the satisfaction of fulfilling a purpose. a can opener has no agency, it’s just a tool for someone else to use to get what they want. and he’s learned to be okay with being used as long as it means he gets to stay. his complacency with this system makes him guilty even if he’s also being harmed by it.

but in the context of his personal life you kind of... flip it. the people around him are going to be opened up whether they want to be or not, and it’s terrible for his relationships. it’s shown that the questions, the prying- the can-opening- it’s become inextricable from who he is as a person. it’s like he doesn’t know how else to communicate, except it’s hardly communication when you’re just ripping people open. he’s invasive as all hell, although whether he means to be is debatable. he’s the kind of person that wants to take things apart to see what makes them tick. he dissects people, but really that’s too delicate of a word for what he does; if he doesn’t get what he wants right up front, he’ll abandon all subtlety and go for brute force. if he can’t get your screws loose he’ll just smash you on the ground and pick through your pieces until he’s satisfied, and if what he did to you isn’t fixable? oh well, there are other cans to open. 

and he’ll use it for personal gain: we already know he is (was?) manipulative. once he knows how you operate, he knows how to make you keep him. he can yell or he can cry; he can threaten you or he can threaten himself; he can be completely suffocating or he can withdraw completely; he can be an incorrigible liar or brutally honest; he can present himself as a threat or a joke or a talent. he’s a chimera- that’s why he’s got this inexplicable magnetism, even when people know they shouldn’t like or trust him. fidelity of character means nothing to him. he’ll be whatever he needs to be as long as it gets him what he wants. the can-opening is just his way in.

[seventhdoctor]

Graduation photos, episodes 161 and 167

[shannonsketches]

ugh I can't even have dramatic 'guess i'll just die' hours for catharsis because my brain knows there's a new daima episode on friday

[hollow-vok]

Ohh im obssesed

[flaskoflethe]

Well, got prescribed cypionate. No idea how much it'll cost, or if insurance will cover it but I kind of don't care? I went through the fucking wringer to get data to prove what I was on wasn't ideal for me. This isn't metaphorical; 2 hours after injection, my levels are ~300. A day after, 500. 2 days after (nominally ~2 hours after peak), 600! 3 days later, 250. Not sure what my actual trough value is yet, but given I get severe nausea below ~350? I'd have to be injecting daily, and that's just not safe for me.

So, fuck it! Cypionate's curves look much smoother, and depending on how I metabolize it I might actually be finally getting close to successfully fine tuning some aspect of my biology :3

[scrawnytreedemon]

hi! it’s me. tumblr user renegaderhapsodos coming to you live from your inbox(wow!)

what is a crack headcanon that you rotate in your head constantly/semi constantly?

personally for me it’s the one my sister forced upon me, that being dio brando was cloud strife’s dad the whole time.

WOAH cris!!! no way!!!!!

THAT'S SO FUCKING GOOD OML 😭😭😭 HE COULD... HE WOULD... adding to the crackshit crackcanon family tree. President Shinra move out the way, Dio can get it!

You've stumbled upon a can of worms, the issue now being which one I get to pick out. My whole mind is insane crack-headcanons. I build dynasties off these crack-canons!

I guess while not crack-crack, I do rotate the theory of Cloud potentially being one of President Shinra's bastards. We have two confirmed bastards, Lazard Deusericus and Evan Townshend, both of whom are blond and blue-eyed, like the President and Rufus, and Cloud. How Claudia Strife hit it off with the most powerful man on the planet beats me, but the guy has his ways.

This also makes all interactions between Cloud and Rufus much funnier to me because I am a sick bastard.

I hope this shall suffice 🙏

[narugen-moved]

got another hoshimina fic idea… it takes them four people and nine years before they get their shit together.

[atak-achrativ]

fucking digimon cybersleuth chapter 17

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

The worst thing about my brain being an autopilot grammar nazi is that every single time I see people misuse “it’s” and “its” as well as apostrophe placements is that I don’t want to be rude and correct people... but my brain still is like UGH THIS IS THE WORST.

“It’s” and “Its” are more just my brain going weeo weeo on me when that’s a more understandable one bc “its” is literally the exception to a rule (because “it’s” actually means “it is”, so to avoid it being used for two meanings the apostrophe is removed for ownership cases), but when I see apostrophes before an S for plural wording and I know they speak English properly I’m just like. ugh. damn. bruh. please. go back to school.

Less severe cases of incorrect apostrophe use tends to be like, when people are playing Heroes and have duplicates of units and are like “my Ike’s” instead of “my Ikes”, because I think people are trying to... make it more clear that it’s referring to more than one? I think? Maybe? Or they literally just don’t realize it’s incorrect grammar, idk lol. Still can’t get past my weeo weeo autopilot brain though sadly.

LIKE. IT’S NOT ANYONE’S FAULT THAT MY BRAIN IS WEEO WEEO, IT JUST IS.

Which speaking of Heroes, FE in general seems to have its script in every single game ever coded to always use apostrophes for ownership cases even when the word ends in S, so don’t worry folks. IntSys isn’t getting off scot free from my brain either LOL. No amount of “princess’s” is ever gonna fly with my weeo weeo brain.

this has been a psa

mainly a psa of my brain weeo weeos

[minbulas]

@laviesm mona baby.. you have to check what's written for jay..

enha boys + types of kisses

pairing. enhypen boys x gn!reader genre. hcs, fluff, some are kinda suggestive of you squint cw. semi proof read!

HEESEUNG ✢ a small fleeting kiss followed by a passionate one

reuniting with your boyfriend again over the summer was something you always looked forward too. the way he hugged you tightly as if he never wanted to let you go again always made your heart race. the innocent kisses that always turned into full on makeouts was something else you loved. they always seemed to make up for lost time, and heeseung was never able to let you go with a tiny peck.

“i missed yo-” heeseung barely let you speak in between kisses, nearly knocking the breath out of your lungs.

“trust me, i missed you way more.” he smirked, grabbing your face and pulling you into another heated kiss.

JAY ✢ a kiss followed by ones that trail down the jaw and neck

jay’s kisses were often so intoxicating, so when he started to detach from your lips and trail down to your neck— it always sent your mind into a frenzy. the kiss would start innocently at first, before jay pulled away with a small smirk and moved on to your jaw. the feeling of his lips trailing along your skin always made you shiver and jay lived for it.

“the boys are in their rooms.” you mumbled, trying to bite back a groan. jay obviously didn’t seem to care as he continued the assault on your neck.

“well then i guess you’re going to have to be quiet. that won’t be a problem, will it?” jay teased, resting his forehead against yours. oh yeah- you were a goner.

SUNGHOON ✢ tracing the person’s lips with their finger before titling their head up for a kiss

“you’re so pretty.” sunghoon mumbled , dragging his thumb across your bottom lip. you were rendered speechless, swallowing thickly as his gorgeous eyes bore into yours. sunghoon smiled at your nervousness, moving his hand to cup your chin.

“can you kiss me?” you muttered, not even realizing what you said until the words left your mouth. sunghoon chuckled, observing the awestruck look in your eyes. he granted your wish, leaning down to pull your bottom lip into his mouth.

JAKE ✢ pulling away from a kiss, whispering words of love against each others lips

it was late at night, rain roughly tapping against the window, and jake was distracting you from yet another movie. you wanted to scold him for not paying attention- but his kisses felt way to good to make him stop. so like always, you indulge in his neediness, playing with the ends of his hair as your tongues traces each others mouths. he suddenly pulled away, his mouth only centimeters from yours.

“you know i love you, right?” he whispered, causing you to smile.

“of course.” you replied, before giving him a chaste kiss.

“and you’re amazing and beautiful and perfect and all mine.” he added, his lips brushing against yours. he leaned in to kiss you again, not being able to get enough of how you felt against him.

“your even more gorgeous and perfect, jake. and i love you very much.” you rushed out before jake could kiss you again, you could feel his lips quirk up into a smile which was enough to make you forget any type of grudge you held against him for disrupting movie night again.

SUNOO ✢ one person pouting only to have it removed by a kiss from the other person

“how do you keep beating me? it’s not fair.” sunoo whined dramatically when he saw the wicked smile on your face. the two of you had been playing very intense games of super smash bros and it was safe to say that sunoo was not winning. you began to giggle, looking over at your boyfriend to see a pout on his face.

“oh don’t be too upset,” you cooed, quickly kissing his pout away. “i’ll make it up to-” sunoo tackled you to the ground before you could finish your sentence, kissing you harder than before. you immediately dropped your remote onto the ground before moving your hands to run through his hair. needless to say the two of you didn’t end up playing another round of the game.

JUNGWON ✢ a kiss that tastes of the dessert they were eating

you and jungwon had a craving for sweets one night and went out to a local cafe to get a mini cake for both of you to share. you two finished it quickly, licking your lips to savor the yummy treat.

“that was so good. thank you for paying my love.” you mumbled before leaning over to kiss him. jungwon began to kiss you back back before you pulled away abruptly.

“you taste like chocolate.” you giggled, watching as a small blush appeared on his face.

“mmm i wonder why…” jungwon sassed, before grabbing the back of your neck and pulling you in for another kiss.

RIKI ✢ a passionate kiss shared before having to part ways for a while

“why do you have to live so far away?” riki sighed against your hair as the two of you embraced. you were both at the airport, but you were the one going back home. long distance was frustrating, but you appreciated the times you did have with your boyfriend.

“i’ll try to come back as soon as i can.” you replied, looking up at him as tears streamed down your face. riki began to kiss them away before eventually moving down to your lips. you both always tried to share the longest kiss possible before parting, knowing that you won’t be in each others arms for a long time. riki tried to deepen the kiss even more but you pulled away, already feeling out of breath due to your sobbing earlier.

“i love you.” you said softly, placing a kiss on his cheek before turning around and walking towards security. riki mumbled out an ‘i love you’ as well but you didn’t turn around. riki understood why you never looked back one last time after parting. if you did and saw the tears that began to well up in his eyes— you would never leave.

[prokopetz]

I think a lot of folks in indie RPG spaces misunderstand what's going on when people who've only ever played Dungeons & Dragons claim that indie RPGs are categorically "too complicated". Yes, it's sometimes the case that they're making the unjustified assumption that all games are as complicated as Dungeons & Dragons and shying away from the possibility of having to brave a steep learning cure a second time, but that's not the whole picture.

A big part of it is that there's a substantial chunk of the D&D fandom – not a majority by any means, but certainly a very significant minority – who are into D&D because they like its vibes or they enjoy its default setting or whatever, but they have no interest in actually playing the kind of game that D&D is... so they don't.

Oh, they'll show up at your table, and if you're very lucky they might even provide their own character sheet (though whether it adheres to the character creation guidelines is anyone's guess!), but their actual engagement with the process of play consists of dicking around until the GM tells them to roll some dice, then reporting what number they rolled and letting the GM figure out what that means.

Basically, they're putting the GM in the position of acting as their personal assistant, onto whom they can offload any parts of the process of play that they're not interested in – and for some players, that's essentially everything except the physical act of rolling the dice, made possible by the fact most of D&D's mechanics are either GM-facing or amenable to being treated as such.*

Now, let's take this player and present them with a game whose design is informed by a culture of play where mechanics are strongly player facing, often to the extent that the GM doesn't need to familiarise themselves with the players' character sheets and never rolls any dice, and... well, you can see where the wires get crossed, right?

And the worst part is that it's not these players' fault – not really. Heck, it's not even a problem with D&D as a system. The problem is D&D's marketing-decreed position as a universal entry-level game means that neither the text nor the culture of play are ever allowed to admit that it might be a bad fit for any player, so total disengagement from the processes of play has to be framed as a personal preference and not a sign of basic incompatibility between the kind of game a player wants to be playing and the kind of game they're actually playing.

(Of course, from the GM's perspective, having even one player who expects you to do all the work represents a huge increase to the GM's workload, let alone a whole group full of them – but we can't admit that, either, so we're left with a culture of play whose received wisdom holds that it's just normal for GMs to be constantly riding the ragged edge of creative burnout. Fun!)

* Which, to be clear, is not a flaw in itself; a rules-heavy game ideally needs a mechanism for introducing its processes of play gradually.