#thread: all alone

[storystartsanew]

Thian was grinning and humming Waiting For My Ruca to himself before pausing seeing a guy sitting on a bench. He then went over and sat down beside him with a cheeky grin, “all alone huh? Need some company?”

Oakley takes a moment to just enjoy the nice day, soaking in the sun. He opens eyes, looking towards the voice and smiles. "I won't say no to it. You're Thian, right?"

[bigfatbreak]

Birds of a Feather previous / next

[stil-lindigo]

link

quick reminder that besides calling for a ceasefire from your political representatives, you can also tangibly help Palestinians get back online by buying them e-sims!!!

Here’s a full step process on how:

Go to Nomad (http://getnomad.app), click on the menu in the top right-hand side, and click on Shop Plans then Data.

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2. After clicking on Data, scroll aaallll the way down. The Middle East plan is at the very bottom of the list of data plans.

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3. After choosing the Middle East plan, choose how much you want to pay, then enter your card details etc and acknowledge everything.

You can get a $3 discount on this, by using the code "BACKPACKNOMAD" on Nomad.

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4.Ignore the next part. You don't want to install anything. You're waiting for an email with a QR code for activation.

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5) Screenshot the QR code and send it to someone in Gaza! How do you do that? You can now email your e-sim QR code screenshots to gazaesims@gmail.com who will then distribute them to Palestinians.

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Stay safe, stay vigilant and continue to believe in the possibility of Palestinian freedom!

[drop-dead-dropout]

I've said it before but I really really really need everyone in the disco elysium fandom to like. look at themselves for a moment and make sure they're not being insanely ridiculously dehumanizing to addicts because I see it way too often. I'm not talking about saying that harry is a bad person, depending on your choices in your playthrough he could absolutely be described as a very shitty person, I'm talking about this weird insistence that harry as an addict/recovering addict/whatever doesn't deserve love or friendship or community because he's just That Bad and he will ALWAYS be That Bad and inflicting him on someone else would be cruel and unusual punishment. like... actually fuck each and every last one of you who says shit like that I'm not joking.

[cybertron-after-dark]

Being constantly surrounded by the presence of a loving God sounds great until you realize you never know when his freaky fuckin eyes are gonna show up to check on you.

And man. They do it a LOT.

[caeslxys]

Something I think is extremely interesting thematically when it comes to connecting what Downfall and the ideas it tackled to the overarching narrative of campaign three is that the things Downfall made a point to showcase of Aeor—Cassida, Hallis, the visual of an aeormaton proposing to her partner, the specific and intentional decision to shed light on a far from insignificant amount of the population being civilians or refugees—is that it plays in perfect parallel across from what is happening (and, really, has been happening) to the ruidusborn on Exandria in present.

Bear with me for a moment. Aeor is ultimately a city that was collectively punished for the decisions of its leadership. We could (and, judging by the amount of discourse around this particular topic already, probably will) argue about what the Gods’ motivation for all of this was—whether it be that they could not, in the end, bear to kill their siblings or that they were terrified at the prospect of mortality—for me it is a very healthy dose of both—but for this I am much more interested in the latter. They were scared. That, really, is the driving force behind both this arc and their role in c3 as a whole.

Why I point this out is: It is far more interesting to me, especially as we go back to Bells Hells this week, to dissect the Gods and their decisions not purely on sympathetic motivation alone but as beings in the highest seat of power in the highest social class in Exandria.

So, having established that the Gods (in relation to mortals) are more a higher social class than anything we could compare to our real life understanding of divinity and that Aeor was eviscerated largely because of their fear—what is the difference between those innocents in Aeor caught in the trappings of their autocratic government leadership and a divine war on the ground, and those of the ruidusborn being manipulated both by Ludinus and by the very thing that inspired such visceral fear in the Gods to start with. I would argue very little.

I think of Cassida, doing what she genuinely thought was right and good and would save people, her son, and the object of her worship—and how that did not matter enough to any of them to spare her because of the fear they held at the very concept of mortality. I think of Liliana and Imogen, one of which we know begged for the gods to help her or send her a sign for years on years, and how every single one of their largest struggles could have been avoided had the gods loved them, their supposed children, as much as they feared what they could be. I think of how the thing that did save Imogen, in the end, was a woman who herself existed in direct defiance of the gods will. I think of that young boy, sixteen years old, that Laudna exalted on Ruidus.

I think it’s completely fair to judge Aeor’s overall society as deeply corrupt—it was!—but its leadership and police force are not a reflection of every one of its citizens. Similarly, it is fair to judge the Ruby Vanguard as corrupt—it is!—but its multiple heads of leadership and even the god-eater further are not a reflection of every one of its members.

Notably, and what I think the Hells will latch onto, this did not matter to the Gods. It did not matter that Cassida was trying to help. She was still too much of a risk. Will it matter, what Imogen does? Will it matter, if that young boy is in the blast radius when they decide to take no further chances?

I’ve seen a lot of people say that the Hells will side with the gods and I don’t think I agree. Especially as Imogen has been scolded and villainized over and over for daring to try and save her mother—who herself has been seen by some as an irredeemable evil in spite of her drive being the exact same—her family—but when it’s the Gods it’s justified? When it’s the Gods, it’s sympathetic? Too sympathetic to criticize further than “they’re family”?

I obviously do not think the Gods should die or be eaten or what have you, and I certainly don’t agree with Ludinus (though I find him much more compelling than just a variation of hubris wizard), but when talking about the Gods in Aeor and in present it isn’t really at all about their motivation or their family. It can’t be. Too many people, including our active protagonists, lives have been effected for it to be as cut and dry as “they’re family”. These are your children. They are your family, too.

[siredcrab]

I'm lowkey pissSed that we had a whole chapter from Laurent's pov but there's no Damen around so i DIDNT get to read how he sees him, and describes him, and maybe how he notices details that damen himself obviously wouldn't even point out im sososo mad about this happening to me why did pacat do this ohmy god

[butchvamp]

i absolutely understand there was no way to account for every single choice ever made-- that's literally impossible across so many games and so many years and so many changes. i do, however, think that 3 games worth of established lore should be worth something and like.... addressed. there are always going to be things that are retconned over time, i even said previously that i liked some of the changes around the qunari that happened back in inquisition because it felt like a step in the right direction and finally fleshing them out and establishing their culture in a meaningful way. but that's not what's happening in veilguard. they do the opposite. with everyone, the qunari and the elves and the dwarves and even the humans. they get reduced to generic, bland, homogeneous, nonreligious groups that all get along amongst themselves. the dalish elves are either just dead in the background (which to be fair has always been a consistent feature of these games lol) or absorbed into the veil jumpers, who are a huge mix of humans and qunari and elves, etc. kal-sharok gets literally Nothing despite one of the main companion quests taking place there-- there are no dwarven politics like we've seen previously, the kal-sharok aren't even especially isolationist nor do they take any time to explore their proximity to tevinter (and what they did to keep trading with them), or the blight and darkspawn (and how it's changed them and their relationship to orzammar). the qunari are all antaam, just faceless bodies for rook and co to kill because they needed more enemy variety, and what we do see with shathann and taash does not cohere with what we've learned previously about gender in the qun. the chantry is basically nonexistent despite two games setting up this massive conflict between mages and templars, despite veilguard literally revolving around massive revelations of faith… and i know we're in northern thedas so the chantry and templars do function differently, but our only two templars we get a lot of interactions with are "good guys" (and rana specifically can get up on her high horse about it with neve with no option for us to give her the third degree like she's not a fantasy cop whose coworkers are paid off by rich magisters lol) like... these are huge, glaring changes that do not align with a lot of what we've seen in previous games and also have nothing to do with complex branching choices.

[winepresswrath]

I'm strapping on my clown shoes to say a thing I really appreciate about Rolin's interviews and the ways he talks about responsibility and accountability in the context of iwtv is that it feels, to me, focused on the idea that people who have been marginalized and pushed into corners are still people, making choices. and an essential part of personhood (and I would say with respect to Claudia and Armand in particular also adulthood) is the dignity of having the agency behind those choices respected and acknowledged. Including when those choices are harmful or selfish or shortsighted. and I think this is such a delicate area because it's so easy to cross the line into victim blaming and bootstraps but if they can stick the landing I will appreciate it so much.

[harvestmoth]

okay last one. au where nothing goes wrong at all ever (a lie) and melia venam gay moment

[antaripirate]

can we talk about how hot this is please??

like??? this is so playful and sexy, and i love how she’s always noting how he smells, and how she’s always running her fingers through his hair!!! also the fact that this was after she suggested fucking in the hold and making him blush like a slut!!

and then immediately this!! this is so fucking sweet. even though this is them putting on a show for Verose, to me it just captures how comfortable they are with one another, wrapped up in each other, and it is just the sweetest, softest thing.

[truly-quirkless]

[ @emotionalsupportvigilante-rp || Liked for a starter!]

"...I was wondering when you would show up again, young Chizome." Pyre waved a hand towards the other, a soft smile on his face. He wiped a small amount of sweat from his brow, moving to lean on his home's front porch railing. "Were you able to eventually stop that wayward villain you were telling Fin and I about last time, by chance?" He paused for a moment as his eyes flickered down to the drink in his hand. "Would you like me to pour you some? I just finished brewing some hibiscus tea, and it's pretty good."

[trekkele]

I do think its funny when someone says “oh the fans make everything about the batfam” as if thats a fanon thing and not something DC did. Like. As a Batman fan, DC keeps sticking bats where they dont belong in an effort to sell more. This is a real thing the fans did not do.

[essektheylyss]

I've commented before that I'm pretty good with horror and I've never had a distinct issue with Candela up until this point, but I did flee to watch the back half in bed purely so I wasn't alone in the living room until 1am, and that was ABSOLUTELY the correct decision.

[the-woman-upstairs]

Honestly, even without Art’s attempts at manipulation and sabotage, I don’t think Patrick and Tashi’s relationship would’ve survived anyway. Before they started dating, Patrick was criticizing her career plans and Tashi was never interested in entertaining his massive ego at her expense. Passion and chemistry are important to relationships, but if that’s the only foundation, it’s gonna crumble quickly.

The only difference between Patrick/Tashi vs Art/Tashi is that the relationship would’ve ending with a bang instead of a whimper.

[starlight---starbrights]

Undertale yellow flowey embroidery

This took about 40 hours, give or take a few