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alongtidesoflight · 2 months ago

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so here's my honest thoughts on dragon age: the veilguard, after ~40 hours of playing. i finished the main quest after having finished all companion quests and major faction quests. just to clear up what content i saw, i played as an elven transmasc rook who is a member of the lords of fortune. he romanced lucanis (although after finishing the game i'm now leaning towards taash). i don't know what's happening in playthroughs that have a different race, gender identity, romance or faction going on.

full spoilers ahead, i mean it. don't read further if you want to avoid them. i don't want complaining about it in my asks.

oh and also, if you're worried because of a few negative reviews online i can comfort you by saying don't give a fuck about a certain big name youtuber who is very much tied to bethesda franchises giving this a negative review. i'll explain why.

i'm starting off with the things i liked

the game looks really pretty. i was worried it wouldn't feel like thedas anymore (with them trying to "focus on northern thedas only" i thought they'd make a clear cut in environmental design. they do and they don't. it's complicated. i'll elaborate on it when talking about the negative stuff). anyway it does. minrathous feels like kirkwall. treviso enchanted me like the winter palace did. the hossberg wetlands reminded me of the hinterlands and a couple other inquisition maps. arlathan looked like... arlathan. the crossroads were different, but familiar. overall i like the way it looks and feels. it's thedas, with a twist. it's a good one, and gives everything a solid but unique feel.

combat is top tier. if you're a hardcore dragon age player you WILL miss the tactical aspect of it for a bit, but i promise you, once you're used to the way the combat works, you will be lapping that shit up. and once you get to ability combos you'll mourn the control you used to have over your companions in battle a bit less

the MAIN quest and its story. i expected worse, way worse. and for a while the game even had me tricked (harr harr you'll get it in a second) it is Really That Much Worse. but holy shit was it good. i walked away satisfied ngl.

your choices have SOLID weight. there's consequences, good AND bad. i got minrathous blighted, ruled over by venatori, and the leader of the shadow dragons ultimately died because of my decisions. i made those at the beginning and throughout the game. he died at the end. DAVRIN died because i didn't expect what i was saying to have that much weight. i thought i was in the clear. he had hero status. well turns out, your choices can still get your companions killed even if you do everything right. i fucking love him. he shouldn't have made that sacrifice just because i told him to do everything it takes once.

the inquisitor, morrigan and dorian being there, surprisingly. there's also negatives to this though, see below.

speaking of companions dying and the inquisitor playing a bigger role: the final quest feels like me2's suicide mission. i was blown away by it and the fact that i got to see the results of all my efforts playing out in front of me.

bioware are NOT trying to redeem solas. they love him as a character yes, but i wasn't forced to see any good in him. he betrays you. he fucked my rook over twice. he fucked him over right back, for good this time (the veil wasn't torn down, i anchored it by binding him to it, he's doomed to uphold it). but solas really lives up to his name as the trickster elven god. rip to all the people who grew really attached to him over the years.

varric died. if you like him that's probably as hard reading it as it was watching it. varric died and the game lies about it until the very end. when the realisation hits, it hurts. but in the very best way.

the amount of care they put into gender expression and trans identities this time around. (i'll add onto this with negative points as well too).

rook feels very much ingrained in the world of thedas. he doesn't ask questions that expose the player to lore through dialogue as if he's stepped foot into thedas for the first time. those conversations feel very solid and good. i hope other faction players got as much joy out of this as i did.

and the things i didn't like and boy there's a lot unfortunately

the music. let's just get that out of the way holy shit. it doesn't feel like it belongs in this universe. it gets so incredibly sci-fi-y at times you'd think it's taken straight from mass effect andromeda. there's not a single song unique to veilguard that i really enjoyed. it broke my immersion, real bad. hearing a busker play the tavern songs from inquisition on a lute right after i killed some venatori with wobbly bass songs playing in the background is just odd. weird tonal shift. don't like it. it's made for people who like flashy light-weight cinema.

tevinter nights is required reading. the podcasts are required listening exercises. the game is so fast paced, especially at the start, that there's no time to introduce you to characters and how much weight their names carry in-game. i would not have known who half these people are if i hadn't skimmed over tevinter nights. i'd care even less about them than i already did. there is no time to get properly attached to them. people will act as if you're talking to a legend personified and you'll be thinking man goddamn which chapter of tevinter night were they in again and what did they do???

there's a weird mismatch with the animations. you'll have beautifully fluid ones, like emmrich casting spells. and then you'll have rook's face animating in the most unnatural manner that's sorta reminiscent of mass effect andromeda's "my face is tired" addison, when their emotions SHOULD be landing with the player rn instead.

i'm not vibing with the art style. sometimes it works. most of the time it doesn't. at points i felt like i was watching tangled.

that also brings me to some of the dialogue. same issue. i am watching frozen. i am watching tangled. someone on the writer's team really likes the adorkable trope. bellara is its victim.

for all the talk about identity, bioware sure doesn't like theirs. the grey warden armor got a redesign again and it just makes them look like a generic army. i hate it lol

in general, i don't like the armor design. the wardrobe/appearances system is fine, but it's just not helping if all the armors are just... kinda bland or downight bad looking? and don't get me started on the lords of fortune armor. that is orientalism personified.

the world states should have been carried over, full stop. i know they said they didn't because they want to separate what happens in the north from what happens in the south, which... i could have lived with that. but the inquisitor sends you letters that keep you up to date on... the south of thedas. you learn that there's a blight again, that people are standing strong but it's difficult, denerim's fallen, the rulers are taking care of it, orlais is fighting and they're successful for a while, etc etc. what's good bioware. i thought we don't care about the south this time around. why are you feeding me so much boring generic information. if you're not gonna show any of it and just write letters, then carrying the world state over should not have been an issue. i have a game dev background. those few lines of code would not have broken your budget or pushed your engine's limits. fuck right off.

this gripe of mine carries over to all the cameos. as a lord of fortune you have to deal with isabela a lot. it's fun. i missed her. you get to go drinking with her and taash and bellara! also my hawke romanced her. she's not mentioned once. they had the opportunity to put a sentence or two about her in there with not a lot of effort, trust me.

when varric dies, all she has is a single line about it. for gold, for fortune, for varric. she only says it if you interact with her on your way to the final push. that's not mandatory.

morrigan is there. kieran isn't. the old god soul that mythal and then solas absorbed? who cares at this point, the gods are dead now and solas is locked away for eternity. i suppose? why is morrigan there. she feels unneeded. i wish they'd just left her down south, at least that way i wouldn't have had to witness her god awful redesign.

dorian at least feels as if he belongs in this story. the shadow dragons are a crucial part to protecting minrathous. he's also weirdly underutilised. isabela and morrigan had more lines than him in my playthrough.

on the topic of romance: bro that was underwhelming. no, genuinely. you know when romance picked up a bit? after the point of no return. i heard maybe two lines of companion banter about it before that. maybe i missed something which i honestly doubt, but romance did not play much of a role in lucanis's storyline. i saved his grandmother as he wished me to (and if you read tevinter nights you know she was rather abusive and their relationship not the healthiest) and told him to focus on his family. a reunified family my rook wasn't even introduced to as a partner at the end of all that.

really, do not buy this game if you're only in it for the romances. others might be better, lucanis's basically gave me nothing. except for an outing (the second coffee date i had with him, it was getting repetitive) all of it played out once i committed to the final quest. the sex scene was a fade to black. annoyingly right after davrin died. if you're looking for well paced and good spice, pick up something else. the sweet talk and the final goodbye were nice though.

for all the good the ever-presence of gender identity does, it is brought up in such a disruptive manner too. it doesn't even play out naturally if you CHOOSE the lines that are meant to be said. hearing the words trans and non-binary in this setting doesn't feel right, and i'm saying this as a trans guy. i think it could have been handled more gracefully. the amount of times my rook went "i'm a MAN" as if he's about to start drumming on his chest and roaring any second now got super nerve-grating. "i'm so glad you're into me... the me who is trans. remember?" just. tell me one trans person who'd talk like that to a person they've grown close with and are trying to romance. this game doesn't handle sexuality well, so all this hey my body might not look like the way you're expecting it to look talk amounts to nothing anyway. i feel about this the way i feel about krem: this is partial exposition to trans experiences... packaged up for cis consumption. the ONLY exception to that is interacting with taash. holy shit was all of that heartwarming and bro did it feel good and natural to talk to them about theirs and rook's gender.

rivain and nevarra are new locations added by veilguard. they're also incredibly underwhelming, small and constricted maps. rivain is a coastline with a few ruins. the hall of valor is a partial ruin nestled into a cave on a beach, with a fighting pit. isabela is there in her skimpy outfit commentating your pit fights. that's it. i'm sorry if you were looking for a bustling pirate cove or whatever. you're not gonna get it. the nevarran crypts btw are a long ass dungeon crawl. that's it.

speaking of maps. i thought people were being dramatic when they said you're gonna be fighting the same enemies on them again and again. i thought they were figure of speeching it. they're not. you WILL fight the same amount of enemies. in the same spot. every time you reload the map. best to stay on a map and clear out the enemies and do as much questing on that map as you can before leaving, because you WILL have to do it all over again once you return.

the three choices i made for my inquisitor didn't matter lol she didn't have to face solas and therefore couldn't stop him at any cost as she had sworn (maybe because my rook tricked solas into binding himself to the veil, there was also an option to fight him. would she have stepped in? who knows). blackwall wasn't mentioned. and either her using a small amount of her forces in the final fight was the reason the civilians of minrathous fared so well..... or it just didn't matter. ultimately i think she had very little impact on anything

#datv #datv spoilers #dragon age: the veilguard #oh wow i hit a limit typing this #anyway to tie this up a bit: the good and bad to the environmental design being that well-known architecture like minrathous and dwarven #ruins look fire and remind me a lot of the previous games #but newly added locations are very... generic... very bland #i was very excited for rivain. i thought we'd get to see ships. not a bunch of ruins and a fighting pit and that's it #and why did i say to ignore a certain guy's review? bro because he was complaining about taash being ace and that taking up their screentim #and them being too up in your face about their identity. he did all this while she/her'ing them constantly #but my man they're trans. nb. not ace.#y'all need to be careful about bad reviews. they're coming from people who are upset about gender identity being handled as a topic in this #game. meanwhile they have no clue what they're even talking about. i don't think matty knows the difference between ace and trans #and neither do the hundreds of people who are one star rating this game currently #i liked this game. it's not top tier. it's not something i'll sink hours and hours and hours of my life into #it has tonal issues and it's moving away from what made dragon age stand out for me #but i do think that it's a genuinely fun play and people who are very invested in dragon age will squeeze joy out of it wherever they can #i had a hard time warming up to the new characters (taash and lucanis being the exception because they have an older bioware air about them #but solas's and varric's story (and don't get me wrong that's what veilguard is about) is GOOD. that is how bioware used to be.#and i wish they'd given us that energy all over the game. that direness. that grit. serious and mature writing.#that consistency is lacking #and whether you're gonna enjoy this game or not is entirely dependant on what you came here for and how well the game delivers on it #i think their weakest points are ironically the thing they advertised the most: the new companions and their writing #you won't find nuanced and good enemies here (i already reblogged something about this. you can go scroll around a bit and catch up on that #really the only thing that had me super invested and emotional was the main quest.#so make of that what you will. ultimately i was more frustrated with the game than i got enjoyment out of it. i was close to just put it #aside for now... until i went to minrathous to end ghila'nain's and elgar'nan's ritual. that all blew me away. still on a high off of it.#anyway yeah that review got cut short by the character limit maybe i'll add more to it tomorrow but rn... i am heading to bed #thanks for coming to my ted talk. also i'm sorry. zevran REALLY isn't in this.#dragon age

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greyrain23 · 24 days ago

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Grey's selfships!

》Honkai Star Rail《

Sunday 『Sunrey』

Best friend's older brother + pen pals + lil bit of forbidden love

》Genshin Impact《

Neuvillette 『Neuvirey』

Oblivious to love + friends to lovers

Silent/secret selfships...

I won't be too chatty about these ones unless specifically asked or if I'm dying to share

》Kaiju no. 8《

Narumi Gen 『Rurey』 (Ruri. 'Genuine' in Japanese)

Mistaken identity (Grey doesn't recognize the first division captain) + gaming buddies

》Zenless Zone Zero《

Ellen Joe 『GreyShark』

Cuddle buddies to more

》Honkai Star Rail《

Blade 『Greyxing』 (thank you Lexi)

Immortal x mortal

》Wind Breaker《

Mitsuki Kiryu 『Kirey』 (Kirei. 'Pretty' in Japanese)

Childhood friends to lovers

》Tokyo Revengers《

Rindou Haitani 『—』

Enemies to lovers

—

Kokonoi Hajime 『Eyko』

Second chance romance x first love

—

Wakasa Imaushi 『Reyshi』

Opposites attract + coworkers

》Blue Lock《

Itoshi brothers 『Itorey』

Love triangle + photographer's muse + fwb (Sae)

》Link Click《

🤫

》Otome Games《

Rafayel (Love and Deepspace)

—

Luke (Tears of Themis)

—

+ kind of Sylus + Marius (there's something there haha)

#ahem.#😅🫶#I said I had a herem 🫣#a very secret one #ah.. I'm embarrassed posting all of them in one #『—』 just means I'm still tryina think of a ship name.. I'm not too good at naming anything haha #I think #I'm most shy ab Tokyo Revengers #probably bc I haven't fully finished the manga yet #I'm almost there!#(and bc there are three 🤧)#I have a secret someone from Blue Lock #but I won't add them yet #bc I haven't read the manga OR finished S2 (on ep 27 as of writing this 😓)#also shy bc this is outing the fact that I don't REALLY have a type(that I can spot at least..)#maybe I'll post platonic selfships sometime!

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vital-information · 20 days ago

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The camp aesthetic isn't dead. It's just doing what it's always done, waiting to be found and appreciated outside the mainstream of year-end lists and algorithms. Below, I've made a list of some prolific creators I see keeping it alive with two camp principles as guidance (apologies to Susan):

"Camp: doing more than is necessary with less than what you need." Zadie Smith, "Mark Bradford's Niagra"

"Decorative, 'amusing,' 'good theater,' witty in the right way, and likely to make heterosexual relationships look ridiculous." J.B. Priestley, "Block Thinking"

Julio Torres: the Salvadorian-American surrealist formerly of SNL

Los Espookys: a friend group uses special effects to fake paranormal activity to help rich people and government officials avoid their problems Problemista: an aspiring toy-maker must work for an art-world outcast played by Tilda Swinton to keep his visa Fantasmas: in a surreal NYC, Julio encounters a bunch of different people as he searches for a lost diamond oyster earring

Jojo Tichakorn: the Thai party-fiend with a love for the 90s and y2k

3 Will Be Free: Throuple escaping the mafia Mama Gogo: former diva inherits a male strip bar and has to make it successful The Warp Effect: High-schooler figures out what happened the night he blacked out when he wakes up ten years in the future Only Friends: Thai redux of Queer as Folk, updated for the current era The Heart Killers: Adaptation of 10 Things I Hate About You and Taming of The Shrew but with gay hitmen and BDSM

Nida Manzoor: the Pakistani-British romantic punk feminist

Enterprice: two young entrepreneurs, Kazim and Jeremiah, try to escape the South London hustle and get their business, Speedi-kazz, off the ground We Are Lady Parts: an anxious med-student, Amina, finds herself drawn into an all-muslim punk girl band Polite Society: when her sister decides to give up on her dream and get married, teenager Ria tries to save her, Bollywood action-movie style

Cheewin Thanamin: gender-fluid Thai director making cringe euphoric

Make It Right: the queer messy love stories of a gaggle of highschool boys Secret Crush on You: an underdog friend group helps one member deal with his obsessive habits as he falls for a popular jock Bed Friend: A private guy has a one night stand with a casanova coworker he hates Playboyy: Investigating a missing twin, a pair of friends find themselves sucked off into the sex-work industry

Kunihiko Ikuhara: none of us knows what exactly it means

Revolutionary Girl Utena: girl arrives at a mysterious high school and has to sword fight her way to a girlfriend Penguindrum: saved from the brink of death by a spirit in a hat, a girl's brothers must repay their debt by retrieving a 'drum' with the help of some penguins Yurikuma Arashi: Two girl bears disguise themselves as humans and sneak over the city wall to enroll in school Sarazanmai: A musical in which a spirit that sucks souls out of anuses recruits three boys to help stop package theft

Kenny Ortega: gay white American brings camp to the kids on Disney Channel & Netflix Hocus Pocus: the annual favorite about the rebirth of the kid-killing Sanderson sister witches into a 90s suburban neighborhood High School Musical 1, 2, 3: How can a boy possibly like basketball and musical theater at the same time without ruining society? The Descendants 1, 2, 3: Made-for-tv cinemusicals about the children of Disney villains Julie and the Phantoms: lonely teenage girl without a mom forms a band with some gay ghost boys

Manolo Caro: Mexican showrunner who believes telenovelas can be even queerer

House of Flowers: a family reckons with their secrets and a faltering flower shop after the patriarch's passing Someone Has to Die: a conservative family in Franco regime Spain recalls their son from Mexico for an arranged marriage only to find he's brought a male dancer along as his companion Once Upon a Time (Happily Never After): musical comedy about reincarnated lovers who must fall in love to save a town's love lives Holy Family: the bond amongst a group of mothers turns dangerous as someone's past starts to catch up to them

#there are others too! feel free to add your own in reblogs :)#tired of seeing people mourning #queer new cinema #queer new wave #gregg araki #but i'm a cheerleader #my own private idaho #priscilla queen of the desert #john waters #queer cinema #velvet goldmine #to wong foo thanks for everything julie newmar #todd haynes #pedro almodóvar #i'd add Michaela Coel's Chewing Gum and Katori Hall's P-Valley to this list if they had more shows with the same level of camp #Japan also has a good number of campy BLs but very few writers or directors who are working consistently in that style

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ghosts-and-blue-sweaters · 3 months ago

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Rules: list five of your favorite movies and have people vote on which one matches your vibe the best!

Tagged by @biathediamond :)

If anyone wants to steal this poll game, feel free to do so!! Reblog with your poll or make a new post—and if the latter, please tag me so I can see & vote :D

ALSO if you would like to then please tell me what you voted for in a reply/reblog!! I am extremely curious!

#my post #my polls #tag game #it was SUCH a hard choice between Bolt or Interstellar #Interstellar is arguably the Better movie and it’s beautiful and haunting and has nearly reduced me to tears and it’s real and it’s human #and it’s just. incredible #very very good movie I like it very much #BUT Bolt is way more nostalgic and I also went through a phase where I’d watch it every week/every few weeks #for like. two years #both are amazing movies and both are some of my favorites #but c’mon man #I had to go with Bolt #gosh I wanna watch it again it’s been far too long #KRIFF I forgot to add an option for me to push :( misery and despair and wailing

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the---hermit · 6 months ago

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Not me adding annotations to a book to make it more accessible for my mom when she will read it

#i am once again complaining about italian translators not adding enough context and explainations in queer non fiction books #90% of non queer people or people who do not speak english don't have enough fucking context to get certain things #i need tranlators to add the necessary context to make these books accessible for everyone #olay surely mainly queer people will read a book about going outside the binary but if we want more people to understand us #we need to add the necessary context to make these things comprehensible to everyone #both those who do not have a queer background and therefore have never see certain words and those who do not speak any english #why the fuck are we assuminng everyone reading this knows english and the linguistic and cultural context between certain words #most people i know do not know one word on english and since it's an italian translation you should make it completly accessible for anyone #i don't want people to read this with their phone in their hands to look for meaninga here and there #i have had this complaint before and i will keep complaining #it's frustrating because this book makes the concept of going outside the binary very easy and accessible and the translation is not as good #also the translation of this particular chapter did a terrible job language wise too so i can't expect much #the concept is there but oh boy do a few sentences look like they have been translated with google #so yep i resorted to making my own notes because i want my mom to read this and understand it without here needing to ask me for context #i mean i want conversations to start but not because of translation reasons if you know what i mean #and it would be very unmotivating to read a book that has too many words you don't know bc the translator took things for grated #cris speaks #i am done complaining for now #the og book is super good tho i am happy i am reading it again after so many years #the---hermit

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lizzybeeee · 1 month ago

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Friendly reminder the Dragon Age Devs AMA is happening later today for all you Americans out there! Consider me very impressed that a majority of the questions with the greatest upvotes are quite critical of the game!

I linked it below!

#its happening at like 4 in the morning for me so i won't be able to join in the live trash fire I assume it will be #if anyone wants to ramble/send me their hot takes on what the devs say my inbox is open!#going to be all over it when I wake up!#a lot of questions about world states / lack of rp options / lack of depth to companions etc...#a lot of asks for patches to add more content like BG3 has done - like EA would allow that?! they'd charge $20 for shit they had them cut #questions about how lacking the lucanis romance is in terms of content too -> in general the romances are getting a lot of criticism #a really good question about retconning solas's motivations too #surprised i only saw one or two questions about the executors -> the one I saw was asking if it was in Gaider's plan for the series lmao #a few about production troubles and a few about misleading statements devs made #i am so very proud that no one is giving them wiggle room <3 #especially about how they were misleading in their marketing of this game - that was outright scummy to consumers #EA is not entirely at fault for how misleading/vague they were in their marketing #Bioware doesn't have EA holding a gun to their head every minute of the day - they're multi-million dollar company #you don't need to defend them lmao #someone please ask them to release the Joplin Cut for me lmao #bioware critical #datv critical #edit - i 100% have a lot of sympathy for individual devs and the crappy work environment they're in #but when some of them are outright misleading customers about what is in the game its just shitty all round #i feel bad for the individuals and not so much the company and execs #veilguard critical

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romance-rambles · 7 months ago

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[modern] cael | red dress, white dress

After Cael picks up a new hobby relating to your latest work, the two of you discuss weddings and wedding dresses. It ends with a proposal, from you to him.

1.8k, set after qixi [+ some spoilers for his whisper], romantic fluff + super self-indulgent, reader is mc, sequel to this cael fic [but you don't have to read it in order], series: none

IN THE TIME SINCE THE night of the QIxi festival, Cael has discovered an amusing new hobby with which to occupy himself with, when he's with you.

The words that the painter and the spirit speak—particularly towards end of your oneshot—are, evidently, not unrelated to your relationship with him. That much is obvious. And it'd be rather difficult to claim otherwise, given the faces they wear.

You haven't tried to, either.

Between the two of you, there is an acknowledgment, implicit, that they are a reflection of your innermost thoughts and desires. That they are the kind of daydreams that even someone eloquent as him would find difficult to describe, domestic and loving—just tumultuous enough to describe their standing, with the sort of fairytale ending most would wish for. That they are memories, transformed only in setting and time—only this time, they are not newly acquainted or on a time limit.

He thinks of the quaint little moment where the painter promises to make sure that no one will bother his lover. Had he not done the same for you, once, long ago?

He remembers the casual affection the spirit showers upon her love too, the way she finds herself with her head on his lap underneath the wisterias, and if that ever stops feeling familiar, it must be because he's lost his mind.

After all, you've always been an affectionate person. How can he miss it when the evidence remains in the lingering heat left by your touch? Through the way you so easily take his hand, or throw your arms around him—

When your lovesick gaze isn't boring holes into his body, that is.

He's no better in that regard. In some ways, he thinks he might be worse, with the way his loving gaze seems incapable of following anyone but you. But you might turn it into a competition if he brings it up, so Cael—well aware it won't end well for him—keeps his mouth shut.

Still, it's clear that you never expected him to start quoting your dialogue back at you.

It reminds him of one of the first times he'd properly let his mask down. The way the gears turned in your head, your deer-in-headlights expression betraying your panic before he'd clarified his joke. You'd stared at him—half-relieved, half-surprised, sitting in the silence a bit longer before you laughed.

Today, when you stare at him, there is a hint of defiance peeking through from underneath your flustered mien.

You're dressed casually, in a yoga pants and an oversized t-shirt with one of your favorite cartoon characters. Jagged lines run across the drawing, signaling its age. Some parts of the design have entirely vanished, but it remains one of your most faithful companions still.

With your head on his lap and legs thrown over the armrest, you're sprawled across the couch. In your hand is your phone, and before he dropped his line of the day on you, you'd been showing him a red dress that you really liked—one you intended to buy with your next paycheck.

"Thank you." The effect of your haughty tone is greatly lessened by the scarlet hue painting your cheeks. You clear your throat. "Does that mean you'd like to see me in a red dress?"

Cael chuckles, brushing your hair gently. "To me, it seems like you're the one who wants to be seen in a red dress."

"Of course, I do," you reply, your hand reaching out to play with his hair. "But red or white, it's not the dress that matters. As long as there's a certain someone waiting for me at the end."

For a moment, his quick-thinking mind betrays him, offering him nothing but static. He puts down the book in his hand down and carefully adjust the bookmark until it looks neat. His attention had left its crisp pages when you'd sat down beside him, but it remained in his hand still.

Occasionally, he would flip to the next page, then remember that he had absorbed none of the words on the previous page. So, he would go back, a fact that had not escaped your keen gaze—you'd teased him plenty for it, and who was he to stop you?

"I wonder who that certain someone is," he murmurs.

"I think he knows who he is," you answer, holding onto the end of his now braided strands. After a moment of digging around in your pockets, and the sofa as well, you managed to find a hair tie. "Or, he should, by this point."

"Indeed," Cael says, earning himself a wry smile from you. "It would be difficult to miss."

Enamored by your smile, he sifts through his memories, searching for the line that had left every single reader in desperate search of their own painter.

You'd been rather pleased when you went scrolling through the comments, with a smile so big it bordered on evil. So pleased, in fact, that you made sure to show him every such comment. The underlying meaning to your words was clear—you'd already found your painter, after all.

You'd have a big ego if you were dating someone so pretty too, you'd said, when he'd commented offhandedly on it.

He remembers responding with:

Then I'm certain I have the biggest ego out of anyone.

Though, his words ended up only disarming you for a brief second. It wasn't long before you were throwing your arms around him and calling him a liar ". But for the time being, the comment section was forgotten, and it was just you and him—and Beanie, watching you both from his favorite spot underneath the round table in the corner, seemingly miffed at being excluded.

He had snuck in a few extra treats for him.

Then, all was well in their relationship once more.

"'If that day ever comes, no matter what you want—'" Cael smiles helplessly, remembering the way you'd so easily captured his expression on the painter's face. "'I'll do everything in my power to bring you the most elegant wedding in the entire world.' Though you said the dress itself doesn't matter..."

You inhale sharply, seemingly forgetting—for a moment—that you're in the middle of braiding another section of his hair. When you look back at him, having looked away, your eyes are shining with poorly-disguised affection and your voice is painfully soft.

"When," you correct. "When that day comes. That's what I should've written down."

Letting go of his hair, you pull yourself off his lap and draw your knees closer to your chest. You rest your head on his shoulder. And as loose dark hair begins to tickle his cheek, his hand seeks out yours, pinky finger brushing against the back of your hand.

"When that day comes, we'll get married."

His gaze softens when he looks at you, in the midst of murmuring his agreement. Your wedding is something he's thought about often—his own is not. But now, the groom at the altar is no longer a blurry figure, devoid of any recognizable qualities and having only an aura of happiness that befits a day so celebrated.

It is something he'll ponder over until the day comes, all so that you're the happiest bride to ever live, whether on Earth or any other world.

"Good." You squeeze his hand gently. "Consider it a proposal then."

"It's the first time I've ever been proposed to," he comments offhandedly.

"Really?" For some reason, you sound surprised. And though your words sound like they could pass for a joke, the thoughtful note to them makes it clear that they are not. "Alright, I'm taking it back. I'll make sure to come back with a ring next time."

Cael smiles helplessly at you. "I'm not sure if you can take something like that back so easily."

His breath catches in his throat when you lift your head slightly to meet his gaze. Because in that moment, you're smiling at him brightly, It is blinding. While he's distracted, you lean in close and steal a quick kiss from his lips.

"Temporary measure," you respond, squinting at him in faux annoyance. "You're not getting rid of me so easily."

In a voice so soft that he's half certain you'll miss it, he says, sincerely, "I would never dream of it."

Judging by the way your smile widens into a grin, you don't miss it at all.

+extra

"YOU KNOW, YOU MISSED IT BEFORE," you point out unexpectedly, long after they've moved on from the topic of weddings and wedding dresses.

Cael catches onto the context immediately.

It's past dinner time now. The dirty dishes in the sink wait for you and your yellow rubber gloves patiently for their turn. He'd been the one to make dinner, something quick and easy, per your request. Your wish for the day had been "a lazy day together", so your initial intention was to order to takeout.

But halfway through the day, you began to crave his cooking.

Once he'd made sure the ingredients were there, getting them both out of a trip to the supermarket, you had no reason to refuse his offer. So you'd scrapped your plans and followed him into the kitchen to help.

"I'm not sure it would've been very appropriate to point out," he says, from where he sits at the dining table.

He'd expected nothing to come out of it, so he simply never brought it up. There were more important things to worry about at the time—your presence in Godheim, and all that came after that. His heart aches at the memory of your tears, particularly because he'd been the one to cause them.

They'd never properly spoken of it—of the day Peter Pan understood, but could not bring himself to make peace with, the fact that Wendy would have to leave him one day.

"After all, you were a teenager," Cael adds, remembering what he'd told your friend Natalie. "It would be no different than taking advantage of you."

His words, however, go in one ear and go out the other. You're rather specific about what you choose to pick out from his words, your next words discarding all but the subtext.

"So, you did know about my crush on you."

Though your words are undeniably a conclusion, a statement and not a question, they carry with them an expectation of a response. You crane your neck to fix him with an equally expectant stare, as if the weight behind your words isn't enough.

"Yes, I knew about your crush on me," Cael admits wryly. A helpless sigh accompanies his words. "What brought this on?"

You hum strainedly, returning to your dishes. "Nothing."

For the time being, he leaves it at that.

It is only when the two of you happen to encounter Lars while on a date that he discovers the truth, after some coaxing on his part. That you'd been under the impression that your crush on him was a secret kept carefully under wraps. That it'd been Lars who'd guessed otherwise—after some advice on how to handle Cael's new hobby—and subsequently been proven correct, leaving you to sulk on your own.

Unsurprisingly, Cael does not manage to stifle his laughter before you notice.

#fics by aya #lovebrush chronicles #lovebrush chronicles x reader #for all time #for all time x reader #cael anselm #cael anselm x reader #lbc cael #lbc cael x reader #lovebrush cael #lovebrush cael x reader #rambles from here on ->#this has been on my to-do list since qixi ended #also i don't think it's ever said that mc had a crush on him but. i feel like that's something im very attached to #the idea of cael being mc's first love...it's just too good #wanted to add that into the story but then i couldn't fit in the quote so i said “whatever make it an extra”#now i can finally pivot to alkaid bcs. i was supposed to do alkaid but i started during maintenance. and i needed te3 #anyways im really in love with the way cael promises to find the perfect dress from mc but makes it sound like he won't be part of it #sir did you miss the part where you're the groom #hc that mc didn't realize how detached painter!cael sounded until she read it much later and hated using “if” vs “when”#just in general im in love with the whisper bcs. if you've seen me on discord lmao #at the time of writing this it's still in my name

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