#you might as well switch their personalities | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

fandom-hoarder · 2 days ago

Note

There was a lot nice, but "sleazy jdm x Jared " got me so crazy. Please share.

🥰 Sleazy jdm x jared is loosely based on this post (and unbeknownst to me at the time, @supernaturalkickparty started one at the same time lol. I'm pretty sure hers is farther than mine though.😅)

“I just want to try it. It’s okay, right?” The kid looks at him, earnest and hopeful.

A little thrill goes through Jeff at the sight, like he’s found a four leaf clover; the kid’s a first timer.

“You said at Jensen’s if I ever wanted to try it, to come to you first. Remember?”

Suddenly Jeff realizes who this kid is. “Jared? Jensen’s friend Jared?”

He thinks of the pretty young blonde he’d dated a couple years ago, Donna Ackles, and her equally pretty son who had left for college shortly before Jeff had stopped dating his mom. Until he’d left, Jensen had had friends and teammates around to hang out a lot, one of whom had been Jared; Jeff hadn’t minded too much, except that it meant needing a bit more discretion whenever he had a client on the line. It had been inevitable that Jensen would figure out how Jeff made his real money, and although Jensen hadn’t ratted him out to his mom, it had also been inevitable that Donna would find out eventually.

But not before Jeff had done the responsible adult thing and taught Jensen and his friends about watching out for drug scams, and told them if they ever decided to do drugs, to come to him. He’d make sure they had a good first time. Jeff remembers how Jared had blushed just as much back then as he is now, and wonders if Jared had wanted to back then, too. But Jensen had gone off to school without taking him up on it, and Jared had stopped coming around—probably off at college himself—and then Donna had kicked Jeff out, and he had found himself a little rental on the other side of town and gotten used to the bachelor life again.

Jeff can’t get over the breadth of Jared’s shoulders now, or the sharpening of his jaw; but the dimples, and those delicate moles on his face, and those unique, fox-like eyes—those he remembers. He wonders how he didn’t recognize the kid before, but he must’ve grown about six inches in these last few years. Jeff remembers being able to see the crown of the kid’s head, and now they’re about even.

“Yeah, Jensen’s friend,” Jared answers, voice soft, blushing red now.

“Well, damn, kiddo, you sure filled out, didn’t you?” Jeff finds himself saying. “You did good coming to me.”

Jared perks up, still blushing, “I did?”

“Yeah, dude,” Jeff says, giving Jared’s shoulder a warm squeeze. “I’ll show you the ropes.”

Jeff has a few pre-rolled joints for easy selling, but he likes to make the first time an experience. It keeps them coming back, and he likes to think of himself as the wise old uncle type, with wisdom that must be passed on.

“Watch closely, son. We’ll have a practical exam later,” Jeff jokes.

Jared’s eyes don’t leave Jeff’s hands as he gets out a paper and fills it from his personal grinder, rolling it back and forth between his fingers until it’s just tight enough. When Jeff lifts it to his mouth to lick the gum edge, Jared stares intently at Jeff’s mouth, swallowing noticeably when his eyes flicker up and meet Jeff’s before skittering back down to his fingers closing up the joint and tapering the ends.

“You ever smoke anything before?” Jeff asks, pretty sure of the answer, holding up the doobie for Jared to get a look at his work.

“No, Sir,” Jared says again, taking it from him and examining it almost reverently.

Jeff can’t help grinning and replying in a flirtatious rumble, “Keep that ‘sir’ stuff up, son, I might just get used to it.”

Jared laughs like he thinks Jeff is teasing him, and Jeff just smiles enigmatically, brushing his fingers against Jared’s as he takes the joint back.

“If it’s your first time, I better start it up for you. But first: a little ambiance.” Jeff gets up and switches off the bright overhead light, reaches for the switch on the Budweiser & Bud Light sign above Jared’s head, and the room lights up in a purple combination of the red and blue lights. He drops back into his seat, snatches the joint from where he’d tucked it behind his ear, passes it around his fingers just for the showmanship, lights it up and takes a few short puffs, getting the cherry glowing nice and even before inhaling deeply and blowing it out in a casual ring. Holds the doobie up, savoring the flavor and watching the smoke ripple as he offers it over to Jared. Jeff thinks he feels Jared’s fingers shake as the kid pinches the tip of the joint and takes it from him. He watches Jared’s cheeks suck in as he hits it and hands it back, and they get three rotations in before Jeff realizes Jared isn’t blowing out any smoke.

“Hey, dude, you getting anything?”

“I don’t know, ”Jared admits, like the truth is painful. He looks sheepish, holding the joint out to Jeff like he’s been asked to give it back. Jeff can’t quite tell if he’s blushing anymore thanks to the bar light, and feels a little robbed.

“Here,” Jeff says, taking the joint and smoothly hopping the corner from his seat to the cushion right beside Jared. “I’ll hold it for you. Make sure you aren’t pinching it closed.”

Jared looks like he can’t believe this is happening, even as Jeff puts the tip of the joint between Jared’s open lips. Fingertips kissing Jared’s mouth, Jeff softly commands, “Suck.”

And Jared does, hard, cheeks sucking in again, cherry eating down the paper. A cloud of smoke bursts out as Jared immediately starts coughing from his first real hit, tears streaming from the corners of his eyes after a few barking coughs. Jeff can’t help but laugh, endeared, patting his back through the choking. “Relax, sweetheart. Don’t fight it. Just let it out.”

Jared finishes coughing and wipes his face and mouth with his shirt. Jeff lets his eyes travel the wide strip of stomach it reveals; the peak of hip bone above Jared’s basketball shorts; the hint of a treasure trail disappearing into his waistband. He drags his eyes back up when the shirt drops, and drinks in Jared’s sharp collarbone as he adjusts his clothes. “Sorry,” Jared says, not meeting Jeff’s eyes.

“S’alright, kid,” Jeff says, easy, grinning. His hand is still on Jared’s back, and he rubs in a circle before pulling back to rest his arm on the back of the couch behind Jared. “Happens to the best of us.” And the coughing will help the kid catch up his buzz, since he hadn’t actually gotten any yet. “You just need to learn not to take it so hard.”

#asks #wip game #my wips #sleazy jdm #jdm x jared #jared x jdm #drugs #winchesterride

20 notes · View notes

postcardsfromheapside · 1 day ago

Text

No. I wasn't missing the point of most criticism. Literally, I saw post after post of people saying they wished the characters could be mean to each other. Some posts were more specific, like "I don't like Taash," (and I'm sure you can imagine what THAT'S about) and some were more ambigious but cited DA2 and how everyone was bitchy toward each other.

I honestly don't care where you work and what you do, because hopefully most of us after the age of 30 have experienced an adult job where we have to be reasonable with our coworkers, even if we strongly disagree, or outright dislike them. I had the suspicion that most people who think that there is "no conflict," or "low conflict" or "bad writing" in this game haven't experienced this kind of setting in any capacity. What I'm now hearing is that you might have, but you didn't absorb any of the dialogue, or switch out your party to listen to banter, which is an essential function for picking up information in any DA game.

I walked around Arlathan with Lucanis and Harding, and they have a whole ongoing conversation in which she threatens him with one of her special arrows. And he agrees that if Spite should take him over, she should do something about it. Harding isn't frightened, because Harding isn't a pushover, but she's not taking any shit either. Did you walk around with just the two of them right after recruiting Lucanis? Did you frequently visit the rest of the companions so that you could see just how much Lucanis and Davrin *didn't* get along? Neve mentions what sounded like a knock-down drag out fight.

**Just because this isn't explicitly mentioned to you doesn't make it bad writing - it means you haven't had the time we had with Inquisition to play the game over and over and switch out your party so you can see everyone's interactions with each other. You will actually have to play the game multiple times and switch your party out a fair amount in order to see these interactions. Or wait for people to post them to tumblr. You can complain about how unfair this is, or remember that Inquisition has 10 years on this game, and it's been out for just shy of a month.**

Why in the absolute fuck would Davrin manufacture conflict between himself and someone he could easily conjecture isn't pro-slavery based on the fact that within five minutes he could find out she's from Dock Town, she's a private investigator working with the Shadow Dragons, and LITERALLY WHEN YOU GET ONTO THE DOCK WITH HIM, her first priority as she's running back to Minrathous is to say "if the dragon wrecks havoc, the Venatori will take over." Davrin isn't an idiot, he could pretty well surmise that she's not "pro slavery" with only the barest of interactions and Rook saying "yeah Neve's cool."

Why would Neve yell at you? Why is it bad writing for the writers to give Neve a personality you don't agree with, because you're uncomfortable with how she reacts? Neve's an adult who is used to working on her own and people not showing up for her - she says this MULTIPLE TIMES - it's actually a large arc of bonding with her, as a friend and a lover. She's not going to scream at you, she's so far past the point of being loud about disappointment, she's on the other side, for one, and for another, she does in fact understand that the entire North of Thedas is on fire and blighting Treviso is pretty fucking bad when it has no major defenses. Rook doesn't endlessly apologize. She came back after a short pause and while I didn't have her healing abilities after that, it didn't take long for me to boost my bond with her back up and feel like we were friends again.

This honestly feels like you're having a personal reaction that you need to examine, and it's not something to do with the writing, since the game mechanics and the dialogue don't actually bear out what you're putting down here.

All of the companions who have conflict initially have to figure out how to trust each other and it sometimes takes most of the game for them to do that. If you didn't spend the time listening to their banter as they work their way through it, that's not Bioware's problem. That's you. And...I don't want to have repeated conversations where I go into Emmrich's (my romance) room and "vent"? I didn't do that with Cullen. I didn't do that with Anders. Why would it suddenly be a thing here? But if you listen in to people's conversations, they do express dismay and doubt and fear about the various quests they've been on. Again, it feels like you didn't spend the time eavesdropping or taking people out and listening to banter.

I have no idea what you're talking about with flirting. I flirted with every companion at first even though I knew I was running for Emmrich, and all of them responded according to their personality. I romanced Cullen in Inquisition, and he was pretty quiet initially, until you get to Skyhold, and similarly, most of the companions here retain a certain reticence until the game progresses. But if you're looking for people who get flustered - Lace and Bellara absolutely do! And Emmrich isn't flustered, but he's taken aback a few times before he collects himself and flirts back - though whether you'd actually recognize it for flirting, I'm starting to wonder. The fact that you can't tell with Neve is actually making me tilt my head at the screen, and I say this as a self-confessed disaster who is very very bad at knowing someone is interested. Even I can tell what's going on in DA romances.

This is probably a lost cause, but I urge you to either spend time playing the game again, or watch someone else who really loves DA (and is Veilguard positive) play so that you can watch without being in the thick of it, and hopefully experience more dialogue and different choices.

No, I'm not done yet, I'm house sitting and she left me snacks and soda and not even god could keep me from venting my spleen at this point.

"I wish the companions were meaner to each other in this game, like in DA2."

While I think there's a larger argument to be made discussing the similarities between DA2 and Veilguard, I need everyone to get so close to me right now about a glaring difference:

DA2 involved a ragtag group of assholes with their own agendas coalescing around Hawke's personality or exchange of favors. There was no larger "goal," except maybe Varric's expedition - everything else is encountered as circumstance. You wend your way through your companions' stories while a city winds ever tighter into itself, a spring about to literally explode.

There's zero reason for these people to be nice to each other. They have no point in being around each other except Hawke. They can bitch at each other all they like.

Rook becomes Varric's second in command (I've seen one post say it's about 6 months before the events of the game) with an explicit purpose: find and stop Solas. Harding and Neve are recruited as experts in their respective fields for this particular goal. When it all goes to shit, Neve recruits another expert, Lucanis, to deal with the fallout, and Harding finds Davrin, *also* an expert in his field (monster hunting). When Rook has to make a particularly consequence heavy decision, two more are added to the crew: Emmrich (Fade expert) and Taash (dragon expert). All of these people are extremely competent, and know from the jump that they have one particular goal in mind.

They join ready to work together on Day 1 because if they don't, there's simply no other alternative. It's lights out. Even when they mistrust each other, the direness of the situation is not lost on them. Infighting serves no purpose. That's why the struggle is directed inward: clean up your own house, so we can move as a single unit.

Honestly the fact that what people took away from this game was "I wish my friends were meaner to each other" and not "wow, I wish we all worked together to keep evil dictators from taking over" is fucking mindblowing when I sit back and reread this.

#fandom critical #datv #dragon age: the veilguard

246 notes · View notes

marbles-for-breakfast · 3 days ago

Text

Thoughts/Arguments about Endogenic systems:

(for context, I’m probably best described as “quoigenic”, but I don’t really identify with any origin label because I think they ultimately cause more confusion than clarity)

Firstly, for those who don’t know, the term endogenic is about the narrative of your own existence. It was created by a diagnosed DID system which believes they were born plural and would have been plural regardless of the trauma they experienced. Whether you personally believe that to be true is your business, but I fail to understand how people think that idea is harmful, ableist or anything else. Not everybody wants to conceive of the origin of their existence in the same way. I don’t see anything wrong with that. Trying to force people to adopt a certain narrative about their own life doesn’t help anyone or prevent any sort of harm.

As far as willogenic systems go (because they’re under the endo umbrella, I’m pretty sure), I really don’t know enough about them to have a super definitive opinion. People seem to have mostly positive experiences with it, and it sure doesn’t affect me whether somebody I don’t know tries to make headmates through things like meditation. It’s obviously something quite different than DID, but I imagine it could work similarly in some ways, so I don’t really mind them using terms like ‘system’. I do understand the aversion to willogenics to some extent, though. I feel that sometimes too. And ultimately I think that’s because they get to make a choice that I wasn’t given. And they get to skip syscovery, and probably a lot of dissociation on top of that. It’s tempting to resent them, to assume they see it as a fun or frivolous thing, and are totally ignorant of our problems and suffering. But I don’t think that’s true.

They know what DID is. They know it’s usually caused by trauma, and often serious abuse. They know it is a serious disorder that can make life very difficult. They also know that they created headmates through meditation or something, and now they’re a system. Why should that upset us? Why do we think we own plurality just because we suffered more on the road here? Maybe you think they’re wrong about having headmates, but…. how would we know? Just because an experience isn’t accepted or understood by the field of psychology doesn’t mean it’s not happening. And I make a point to believe people about their own minds.

Just because they don’t have DID and have very different experiences to people with DID doesn’t mean they can’t acknowledge that those experiences do have some similarities. And it certainly doesn’t mean they can’t find community with OSDDID systems who want to normalize plurality itself in order to make life easier for all systems. It may seem “weird” to us, we might not understand it, but that doesn’t mean we should deny just because we originally learned that DID (and therefore plurality) can only form through extreme trauma. Aren’t a lot of the things we originally learned about DID wrong? Aren’t a lot of the things we assumed about it wrong? We, as a species, have never understood the human brain. Even doctors and educators make assumptions about what’s impossible without looking into it enough to prove that.

But when tons of people tell you they created headmates on purpose, and you don’t really have a reason to think they’re wrong other than “I don’t think that’s possible”, maybe it’s time to switch to, “idk how that works, but you do you”. It’s time to acknowledge that someone living their life in a way that you wouldn’t choose for yourself is actually completely fine. I mean, as long as they’re not hurting anybody obviously, but willogenics are not hurting anybody by being openly willogenic.

So yeah, endogenic systems are not inherently a threat to you or anyone else.

This post sums up my thoughts pretty well, so I might just refer people to it in the future. If you’re here from that, thanks for hearing what I have to say. I hope it helps you refine your worldview in some way. You don’t have to agree with everything I said here. I just hope you at least interact with people with more good faith (believing what they say until they give you a reason not to).

19 notes · View notes

youssefguedira · 6 months ago

Note

K or N for Joe and/or Nicky

K. On the edge of consciousness.

Yusuf wakes slowly, so slowly that he can’t see and isn’t even sure he can open his eyes, only half-sure he still has eyes, and that’s how he knows there’s something very, very wrong. He can’t move, can’t hear, can’t even smell anything. He doesn’t remember exactly what happened to him, but every part of him is burning, and he’s fairly sure the weird aching sensation in his head is his skull knitting itself back together, which. He really, really didn’t need to know what that feels like.

There’s a scraping in his chest when he breathes in, but at least he’s breathing.

Where is he? He could be anywhere. He could be in the middle of the street, could have been dragged away from the fighting from someone who had seen him breathing through a wound that should have killed him immediately. When he wakes, what will he find? Will they have taken his weapon? How long has he been dead?

Will Nicolò be able to find him, if they are separated? Will he even try?

Slowly but steadily, he starts to hear something: a high pitched whistling that sounds like it’s coming from deep inside his own head. The darkness begins to lift, leaving flickering amber lights across his vision, and a shadow in front of him.

There’s a voice, too, one that sharpens into words as Yusuf’s hearing begins to return. He doesn’t understand their meaning, but the cadence of them and the voice itself is familiar.

“Are you awake?” Nicolò asks softly, switching to Arabic.

Yusuf tries to make a sound in response. Whether it’s audible he doesn’t know, because the only noise he can really make is a rasping exhale, but Nicolò hushes him anyway.

“Do not… you can be slow,” Nicolò says. He’s more comfortable with the sounds of the language now, but still doesn’t always string sentences together well. “We are safe. I am here.”

He’s made aware of where his hand is by the feeling of Nicolò reaching for it. Yusuf manages to make an actual sound this time, but still can’t form words. Nicolò squeezes his hand gently.

“I am here,” he says again.

Eventually, Yusuf’s skull seems to piece itself back together fully, and his vision sharpens, letting him see that they’re backed into the corner of the two remaining intact walls of a house ravaged by fire, Nicolò crouched in front of him with his sword in hand. There’s a trail of blood leading to where Yusuf is lying now, and a section of the room that has collapsed. He can piece together enough. Nicolò would have had to drag him over here.

This time, he manages to make a sound, even if he can’t quite form words. Nicolò looks down at him over his shoulder, and there is blood on his face and in his hair, and only then does Yusuf notice the bodies in the room.

“Okay?” Nicolò asks.

Yusuf manages to nod, and it sends a spike of pain along his spine. Nicolò turns slightly to look at him properly.

“You are almost done, I think,” he says. “You did not… you were asleep for a long time. I did not know if…”

“Nicolò,” Yusuf finally manages, hoarse.

“Rest,” Nicolò says. “I am here.”

(letter asks)

#neon answers #scriggle-scraggle #neon writes #the old guard #kaysanova #me personally i am obsessed with the mental image of nicolo crouching with his sword in front of yusuf while he's recovering #what happened to yusuf: wall fell on him #nicolo COULD have kept fighting but he's physically shielding him from anyone who might try to get to him while he's healing (incredibly #vulnerable) and thats well. Something to me. is this well written ? i dont know. i am feelin something abt it tho #this is like uhhhh somewhat pre relationship . the other thing is that nicolo is deliberately trying to speak arabic so its easier for yusu #bc like. as someone who tries to regularly switch between languages. i think its probably Not Easy to work in a language youre still #learning (italian) right after like. Dying with your brain barely online #thats why his senses dont go back btw. brain is healing. so thats why nicolos doing that #NOt that you all desperately needed to know that but i wanted to let you all know anyway #thank you for the prompt!!!#also i know whatever position nicolò's got his hand in to be able to hold yusuf's hand AND still face outward is super awkward but #i wanted the image and he's immortal it's fine

57 notes · View notes

askfordoodles · 2 days ago

Text

Finally some good fucking food character analysis, OP.

We really aren't talking enough about how much of a performative chaser Emmrich actually is, because it's so sub-surface and tends to get drowned out by other parts of his more overt behaviour i.e. the gentleman-aspect, his fish-out-of-Nevarra status, his overall general positive attitude and passion for learning etc., so I absolutely agree.

Also, you can practically see the switch he makes from realizing he's being chased to deciding 'oh alright, I see you noticing me, - I'll take it from here' 😏 During the skull-scene is where you get to see him go into his well-practiced (but also very performative) Rizz Mode™ persona, as I like to call it. There's a reason people find it difficult to see how he can be both an awkward nerd AND a Rizzler. It's because he can't. He's very good at flirting, but it's also not his true self. It's dance, the steps of which he's come to learn flawlessly though experience, but it's also a shield. (*side-eyes Dorian* what is it with you fruity necromancers and your deep-seated fear of intimacy?)

I also realize now, that look of shock IF you tell him he's your first "anything, romantically"... also has that tell, like he's GENUINELY astounded that someone could choose him for something so important, something more monumental. 'Really? No one before me? You could have had anyone, what's so special about me?' He's realizing he isn't just another one of Rook's flings, they waited all this time for someone like HIM, and they consider what the two of them have as ROMANTIC. And we see that tell OP mentioned, he looks down/pikachu combo all 'Oh... oh damn, I'm important to them...' And then his face softens, he looks back up and says he's glad to be chosen.

But again he's underselling it, he's not simply "glad", he's so thoroughly honoured and touched.

And he assures them, without prompting btw, that they'll take it slow. Now... Rook didn't ask for that, technically. Honestly, I'm realizing now this could just as well be Emmrich trying to regain a sense of control, but pulling on the reins to slow things down, because 'woah woah, you're actually WAY more serious about this than I was ready for, let's take it easy...' but since he's a gentleman, he slyly reframes it, implying it's for Rook's benefit. In respecting Rook's boundaries, he's really covertly trying to protect his own emotional barriers.

(also, as I've said before in my own meta: my personal read on Harding's line about them moving too fast is that she's referring to them, moving too fast FOR EMMRICH, which is to say EMOTIONALLY - and she was right on money, too, but obviously she words it clumsily enough that it's not obvious to the player, or even Emmrich at first)

Unfortunately, he's already got it bad and there's no turning back without some good ol' fashioned self-sabotage. Tell yourself you did the right and noble thing to try and mask how terrified you are.

Emmrich is so in over his head even before that argument. He's used to being afraid of dying,

but along comes Rook,

and he has to face that he's been afraid of living this entire time too, and it's too much.

It's knowledge he wasn't ready for. But it's smacked him in the face, and they might die tomorrow and welp, time to let fear write my break-up speech.

What I think is beautiful is, the argument itself ends in a way where, if he WANTED, he could have chosen to see it as a break-up, but in the midst of battle, after having only cooled off for maybe half a day, like OP mentions, HE'S the one to initiate an attempt at reconciliation. He even, tentatively, refers to Rook as 'darling', he's making no attempts to distance himself. As far as he's concerned, they're still together, they still care about each other, whatever they have is salvageable and, more importantly, he wants it to be.

Sadly, they don't get the chance to apologize to one another, because Solas Shenanigans happen... Rook is gone... For WEEKS. And Emmrich is left to stew in every single emotion he's ever felt for them. (we were robbed, this should have been included somewhere, in all romances)

It's the age-old saying: you don't know WHAT you have 'till you lose it.

The vacuum in his life without Rook hits him full force. 'Actually, wait, them not being here is way worse than them being too close. They could never be too close, I need them here with me right now, what was I thinking, I'm such a fool, as always...'

When they finally return, he's NOT leaving anything ambiguous, he is GOING to let them take the lead, he is GOING to lay with them until morning and unapologetically act like a besotted couple of newly-weds and fetch them breakfast, ...

he is GOING to admit to them, and to himself, how he feels.

That he loves them. And they're a team, facing the world not merely side-by-side, but together. For the long run. They're going to plan for a future that no longer scares him like it used to.

((Personally, my Rook never banged him until that coffin scene, and I think it's extra impactful that their first time is Rook leading him, but I do appreciate that the writing makes their previous level of intimacy vague enough that several Rook-interpretations make an equal amount of sense))

More thoughts and theories about our favorite Necromancer

My darlings, I have too many thoughts and my obsession is running wild. (How I missed you, hyperfocus). If you have read my last meta post about our Emmrich, here it is: First Meta Post

That is not a required read however. I am still wondering why anyone is reading my word vomit U_U

Anyway, I love reading other peoples theories, so please, send me yours. <3 And a lot of thanks and love for all you darlings who make this fandom such a beautiful and nice place. Especially to @jaal-ama-daravv - who makes the most beautiful videos, and writes such wonderful character studies.

Warning, from here on there will be spoilers as well as mentions of sex. If you don't want to read about any of that, do not read the rest.

Also pictures and way too many words. This is a ten page word document, save yourself while you can. I tend to go off on a tangent once I start writing. I am also well aware that not everyone will agree. This is just my personal read on Emmrich.

Now, after my first essay I have some more thoughts on Emmrich and Rook and specifically their intimate relationship.

Emmrich is such an interesting and baffling contradiction. On the one hand he is confident, self-assured, all manners and poise. He is smart, and he knows it. He has special gifts, and he knows it. He is confident without being proud. He likes to teach others without being arrogant. He still likes to learn about new things and is, as far as I’ve seen, never judgmental about different beliefs and ways of life. (Unless someone treats him with disdain or bully him)

He is a man who is confident speaking of his thoughts and feelings and fears. How he just casually drops his thanatophobia is just astonishing. He is honest and open-minded in the best ways.

And then there is the other side of him. The wet kitten side of him. As open and honest as he is about his emotions, when we get to the meat of it, to the scary bit, the real feely bit, he locks up completely. As long as it is surface level (or he can pretend its surface level), everything is up for discussion. But once we reach deeper and touch *love* he gets so scared and refuses to admit and commit to his feelings. And as much *death* scares him, love scares him more.

So how does that influence his intimate relationship with Rook?

According to the banter with Lace “everyone knows about it”. He was rather surprised by that.

That tells us two things:

They were trying to be sneaky or at least keep their private business private.

They failed, massively.

Add to that Laces comment about them moving rather fast (when, where? I would have loved to have seen that. Comments like that just give me the feeling that we should have had some more cutscenes after the dinner date, to show us those two besotted fools).

But back to them moving rather fast. I would guess that they both did a lot of gazing lovingly at each other, blushing, spacing out while watching their darling, stollen kisses in the hallway when they thought no one was watching, stuff like that. Just being to besotted fools.

But moving fast usually includes sex. Lots of needy, sweaty sex. The inability to keep their hands of each other.

That moves us to the question of the day – did they have sex before their coffin time?

Let’s look at what we know about Emmrich. Emmrich is no virgin. That man has experience. He had past lovers. But what he tells us at that sweet diner date – “nothing serious for years.” We know not much else besides his crush on a boy in his youth and his fling with the Orlesian Art Lady. He is not someone to kiss and tell and that is appreciated. That man has class, and we love him for it.

So - nothing SERIOUS for years. If he hadn’t had ANY relationships in the past years, he would have said so. But what he says is that he did, in fact, have UNSERIOUS relationships in the last few years.

I would read that to be somewhere along the “fwb, lovers, affairs, paramours, companions, a fling, a little romance” line. Something not purely, but mainly physically driven. Someone you like and respect, you can go out and have a good time with, have lots of amazing sex with (b/c he is a living being and has his needs). Spending time with people he liked, was sexually attracted too, but nothing as serious as love. A physical relationship. A little thrill, some fluttering, but never that deep.

Not to say that those situationships would not have been romantic. He is (buried under all that resignation) a deeply romantic man. I am pretty sure he went on nice romantic dates with his previous paramours too. That this is something he just enjoys too much. Treating a companion with some quality time, not just in, but also out of the bedroom.

But after he’d given up on his dreams, he did not have any notion of those flings being more than a “enjoy the moment”. There was never the expectation of deeper feelings, beyond friendship, attraction and/or respect. All those romantic gestures were nothing more than a little bit of “play pretend”. To give himself the illusion of true romance, just for a little time.

Take the fact that you can go a “everything you do is creepy but I still flirt with you and I want you to throw me over that tombstone” and his comment on “the attraction of the forbidden”? This is not a relationship born of mutual respect and deeper feelings but out of purely physical attraction. And he is OK with that.

I want to repeat – Emmrich is very much okay with a casual, sexual affair. He does not require love to have a relationship with someone.

And then think about that Johanna calls Rook specifically his “paramour”. Which is a lover, especially an illicit one. This word was very specifically chosen by Johanna. For various reasons, I would think.

For one, I do believe that it is a dig at his dreams of the eternal flame. It’s a dig at him, that Rook is not his love, but his paramour. A lover for a time. To be parted from soon enough. B/c that silly dream of his, as if it ever would become reality.

Second, I think it is a comment on the way his relationships often went, especially in the past years. Those unserious flings of his. Never to amount to anything substantial.

Did he try to have something serious in the past? Oh yes, for sure. But it never worked out. Then he gave up his dream and just let himself have a good time with people he found to be nice and attractive.

To pick up my point of self-sabotage from my last meta post – I’ve come to a point where I believe Emmrich is a kind of chaser. I know someone like that and it’s so fucking tragic.

Emmrich feels deeply and strongly. When he falls in love with someone it’s a lot of emotion. But at that point it’s all dream, want, wish. As soon as someone returns these feelings - those dreams, wants and wishes become reality. And reality is scary. In this wishful dream about the eternal flame, there is no fear. No fights. No loss. But that is not reality. As soon as it becomes reality, he gets scared. Before, his feelings were no threat, because you can’t lose what you don’t have. Once those feelings are returned, there is a clear possibility of losing, of being lost, of being left behind.

Emmrich is not a chaser because he enjoys the hunt. He is a chaser because being loved by someone is scary. So damn scary. So, he starts to pick fights and is looking for excuses. From being the chaser, he becomes the chased. He is hunted by his fears, and his fight or flight instincts go all flight.

After years of this cycle he gives up. Resigns himself to flings and little romances without even thinking of more. Or so he thinks. Dreams like that don’t die, they just get buried.

And I’d think that there was not many, even of those short term flings, lately. His life revolves around work and Manfred.

Now remember he comments on Rook “showing unexpected interest in a new companion”.

First of all – unexpected.

They are a daring adventurer. He thinks of himself clearly as the more boring one, compared to Rook. He never expected any of those flirts. But he is clearly flattered.

Second – companion.

That was such a weird way of saying “hey do you like me?”. This whole “companion” thing does not scream “I have FEELZ for you/you have FEELZ for me” but rather, “I think you might want to spend some quality time with me”.

The possible answers - dashing good looks, kindness, his way of words.

He feels he is fortunate if Rook thinks him good looking. Hallo, Mr. Professor, sir… Have you looked in the mirror lately? Consider that he is meticulously grooming himself, takes his exercises daily in the morning. That man does not like himself aging. I think it is a reminder of how his pending death is a step closer every day. But it shows, to him, that his efforts of taking care of himself are not in vain. Or maybe it shows him that his age does not matter. Rook finds him attractive despite (or because) of his physical age.

Rooks comment on his very charming way of putting things makes him hope his years behind the lectern have proved useful. Hey *years* behind the lectern. Again, this is a way of saying his age is NOT a problem but a benefit.

If Rook remarks his kindness, he answers “you humble me”. It’s the one answer that does not touch his age/experience/looks. It’s a remark on an innate character trait he possesses. Kindness. His whole demeanor in this option shows he is actually touched. And maybe a bit baffled. He did not expect this, at all. Its like he sees his kindness not as an attractive trait. Which he should. He is nice without TM and its sexy as hell.

The next part is his statement “If your attentions go beyond charming flattery… that would interest me, indeed”. This reads to me not necessarily as “do you have feelings for me” but as “do you just enjoy the flirting, or do you want to do more than flirting?”

And oh boy, does he want to do more than flirting. I want to repeat my earlier statement – this man has given up on love. But some little fling with an exiting young adventure who was constantly, awkwardly flirting with him? Hell, yeah.

(I want to remind you that we were able to have mutually enjoyed flirts with Dorian as fem!Inky. You can flirt with someone and still never want to fuck them. And you are also perfectly able to want more than flirting without having deeper feelings. Like sweet, dump Shepaloo said it so eloquently “Lets bang, okay?”)

Again, I want to pick up a point of my last post, that this is all surface level thoughts. I do believe that their emotional attraction and depth of feelings go deeper, from the start. But how often does it take quite a bit of time to realize one’s own feelings. Especially this wonderful, silly man whose modus operandi is running away.

Now, an interested Rook can answer in an open “lets see where this goes” way. Mirroring his rather open idea of a little romance, a fling, some quality time. Something that does not have to end in an eternal flame, but a simple enjoyment and exploration of the moment.

Rook can also reply with a “I think they do.” – What Rook actually says is “I think they already…”

And conveniently Rooks answer here is cut short by our sweet boy Manfred. They get cut short, no matter what answer you choose, but in this specific case, I am convinced this was very much on purpose. What would the whole sentence have been?

“I think they already go way beyond flattery.” (?!?) Something along those lines. But that goes into danger zone. WAY into danger zone.

If Rook had finished that sentence, at that point in their budding romance? It would have been over before is all started. Too much, too soon. Too much for him, period.

Now we have the hard lock – their sweet romantic moment in the Memorial Gardens. And he is smitten. He fell hook, line, and sinker for his own play pretend. Just a little romance, but that man is falling, fast. (Not that he would admit that to himself).

A beautiful date, all arranged by Emmrich, to spend time with Rook. Because a couple should have a quite moment to get to know each other. I mean there were menu cards with gilded edges, ffs. And, oh yes, they were “lets dig into the feelings”, he said couple. He is falling, falling, falling fast. But it still hasn’t hit him, how deep he has fallen for his darling Rook. Poor Emmrich.

Then a fight, where we really see the wet kitten side of him for the first time. A little wet, feral kitten, hissing at the hand that’s trying to feed it.

Emmrich is lashing out for no good reason (or no good reason for anyone but himself). There is no real confidence there but a desperate act of pretending. An iron (slipping) grip, trying to control himself and the narrative. Shoulders squared, back straight, an arrogant stance, raised chin, turned half-away from Rook, and a condescending way of talking to Rook.

Like I said in my last post – he is working his way up to breaking up with them. And he tells himself it’s like ripping off a bandaid. Be strong and confident and say what you have to say, and they will see the wisdom of that.

It’s only that, they don’t. Because there IS NO wisdom in what he is doing right now. They don’t take his bullshit but throw it back at him. They don’t accept his mock excuses.

Look at him here, how he looks down ON them. I can’t recall any other time he looks down on Rook, despite him being a tall king.

Especially the route where Rook throws it in his face that he DOES in fact love them. Speak what he can’t even think.

“I can’t… At my…”

“I can’t love you. At my age…” Why not? Does he not deserve love, just because he is a bit older? It’s just heartbreaking how he views himself.

And again, he lashes out.

“I am perfectly serious.” So is Rook.

“One of us has to pay attention to these things.” As if Rook is not paying attention. They got to the meat and bones of his problem in just a few seconds.

No matter what route you go here, the gist is the same. He is scared shitless, treats Rook like a child, and goes on how the is the only one thinking the important thoughts.

When Rook in reality way ahead of him. They thought about it and came to the conclusion that being with Emmrich is a really good idea.

Rook knew they were falling for someone older than them. (Even if that age difference is just a decade, with a mid-40s Rook.) They knew it, and still went with it. They are not a child who is too inexperienced and stupid to make decisions about their (love) life.

But now, here, at this moment? Emmrich treats them with disdain. Like a silly little person, who does not think things through. He holds himself above them. Physically and mentally. They are too young, he knows better.

And not once has he done that before. He always treated them as an equal. He follows them into the most dangerous situations ffs. He trusts them with his life in a fight against would-be gods.

All that fear and anger at himself that reaches a new high get redirected at Rook.

The next day they are off to Tearstone Island. That night must have been hell. For both of them. But its going to get much much worse.

In any case, Emmrich seems to have come to some conclusion or realization, because on that island? He apologizes.

They both did react very emotionally, but he came at Rook with superiority and, to a certain degree, dishonesty. All fueled by his fear. So that he is the one to take the first step and apologize to Rook instead of doubling down? An important step. As I said in my last post – he NEEDED to be called out. A sweet and nice counterargument would not have had the impact Rooks raw an honest emotion hat on him.

Emmrich “Rook? Darling? I wanted to say-“

Rook “Yeah, about that argument…”

Emmrich “(Sighs) It’s no time to apologize, is it?”

And here we have the most heartbreaking line, in hindsight. “We’ll talk back home, Emmrich. I promise.”

(Narrator: but they would, in fact, not talk about it back home. Because someone would not go home.)

One fight and weeks of horror later, they find themselves in a private crypt and finally they do more than share a kiss.

Now - to the point I originally wanted to explore with this post – is this in fact their first time? (I am sorry, but my brain is a circle and nothing makes sense)

Let’s look at what evidence we have from the cut-scene.

Rook did not know he is an early riser.

That leaves two possibilities:

They never had sex up until that point.

They did have sex, but never spent the night together.

Now what does that mean?

This depends a lot on your personal Rook and how they feel about sex in general. If Rook wants to wait, or is not ready, he will absolutely accept and respect that.

But for the sake of this analysis lets go with the idea that Rook is not opposed to sex at an earlier date.

They never slept with each other

Why? He clearly was not opposed to casual relationships in the past. What would hold him back now? Especially if you recall Laces comment about them moving fast. Why not jump into the bedroom?

Now my first crack theory is that they get interrupted, like every time. (Rook interrupted The Dread Wolf, and now he cursed them to always be interrupted when they want to have some private time)

But now, in all seriousness, maybe it’s just that part of him DOES realize that this goes beyond a very unserious relationship. That they both have deeper feelings, that spark of something greater, something beautiful.

So, he holds back. He does not give his all. He is charming, he is flirty, he takes Rook on dates. But it’s all very technical. Very performative. Yes, he is a very romantic man, yes he enjoys those moments. But there is always a feeling of control.

Those moments when you see him let go a bit (that kiss beneath the eternal lovers, “I think, sometimes you indulge me”), are so beautiful and you glimpse a bit of the man behind those walls.

He has a tell, you see. (I am telling you about it further down)

But generally, he feels very much in control of himself. And to lie with Rook? To go all the way? Too dangerous. Who knows what happens in that sweet moment after la petit mort? What secrets would his lips spill?

2. They slept together, but did not spent the night together.

They do have sex, but sleep alone in their own beds. Casual sex is fine, but to fall asleep in each other’s arms? Too much. Too real. Sex okay, but sleepy post coitus cuddly? Woah, slow down your horses.

So, they have sex, preferably in Rooks bed. First, does he even have a bed? Second, it’s way easier to leave Rooks bed after the act, than throwing them out afterwards.

Oh, and how many reasons he has. Rook needs their uninterrupted sleep; they are stressed and must have proper rest. He wants to get some reading done before he retires. He needs to look after Manfred.

Oh, he is a bad liar, for sure. He is lying more to himself than to Rook. I would think that (if this is the build up to their fight) Rook realizes that he is giving poor excuses.

And the sex itself? A technical 10/10. He knows his anatomy, after all. But his heart is not really in it. He can’t allow himself to. He holds back, keeps a tight lid on his emotions. They both are well spent afterwards, but like so much else, it’s performative. Technically very well executed, but rarely do you see HIM, the real him, behind all that performance. Whenever something slips through, he reels back and closes up.

And then we are in that crypt. Rook was gone for weeks. The last thing they said that night before were words of anger. Rook called him out on his feelings and from that point on there was no possible way of lying to himself anymore. Those feelings were there. They were real. Rooks feelings were real. And those weeks spent in desperation, trying to get them back? Those walls came crashing down.

His true face, when all the walls are gone? You see that face when Rook leads him to the coffin. There is no pretense anymore. No performance. Just him, and all his love for Rook. The amount of emotion the animation team packed into those short moments in the cutscene? Mindblowing. Who ever crafted that expression on his face? They are the GOAT. I watch this part of that scene on repeat, and it never gets old.

So, I told you about how he has a tell, yes? Okay, two actually, but we all know surprised pikachu Emmrich. In that last scene it is resolved in the most beautiful way.

He looks down, when something touches him deeply, when he goes into his feels.

A few (way to many) examples:

And the worst wet kitten look? After the fight, when Rook leaves.

Its a look of shame. Of hurt. This man is hurting so badly.

Now here at the end we have that moment when Rook leads him to the coffin. His face turns down, like before. But here he looks up at Rook. He does not turn his eyes away but looks directly at them. Ahhh my heart.

Now, think about the fact that ROOK is leading in that moment?

In those moments where Rook leads or startles him (or is simply annoying enough so that the truth slips out), you see the most emotion from him.

Rooks flirting startles him, and he has a pikachu face reaction every time.

Their first kiss? Rook leans against the monument, and leans up, telling him without words that NOW is the time for a kiss. How can he not go for a second kiss?

That moment when Rook calls Manfred “our son”? He very conveniently ignores the word “OUR” and goes in defense mode over the word “son”. But called out on his feelings for Manfred? How can he deny them? He has tears in his voice when he says how he would not exchange this moment for anything? A real, deep emotion.

In their fight Emmrich is again all technical, all performance, so logical (or what he sells himself as logic). But Rook wrestles that moment from him and takes lead, calls him out on his bullshit.

In the crypt Rook pulls him up into a kiss and then leads him to the coffin, guiding him, taking him with them.

Most of the other times he takes the lead, very much in control. But the most emotions you get from him, are those times Rooks leads, when he lets go of this tight control over himself, or he is startled in to a reaction. For all the age difference that is played up in their relationship, in the important moments Rook is the one who guides. And he follows where they lead.

Those little moans he makes? If they did have sex before, I bet he did not make those sounds then. Where they did have some incredible sex, now they are making love. Open, vulnerable. He gives in.

And then they fall asleep together. Skin to skin, arms and legs intertwined. Their hands caressing, no sound but that of their heartbeats and soft breaths. Pure and utter contentment. In that moment nothing exists but them. Can you imagine that moment he woke up? The amount of emotions he must have felt then? This need to speak those little words? Those huge little words. He does not say them, not yet. But he is almost ready.

Finally, they stand there, on the battlefield of Elgar’nans madness. And he tells Rook. The last wall falls. Gives the most precious thing he can give to anyone.

“I love you.”

#emmrich volkarin #CHARACTER META ESSAY MY BELOVED #this literally ALL of this #dragon age #dragon age 4 #dragon age: the veilguard #dragon age veilguard #dragon age the veilguard #da4 #DAtV #veilguard #SORRY I WASN'T PLANNING ON GOING ESSAY MODE MYSELF I WENT INTO A TRANCE AND WHEN I WOKE UP IT WAS WRITTEN 😅👉👈

300 notes · View notes

goldensunset · 2 months ago

Text

in general i roll my eyes at people who complain about all the new quality of life improvements in modern pokémon games bc inconvenience and genuine challenge are two very different things. but the one thing i would definitely agree on that i don’t like in sv is the ability to access your pc boxes any time. it sort of cheapens the experience of having to carefully choose which six pokémon you’re taking before venturing into unknown danger. like i don’t think you should be able to catch a pokémon in the depths of area zero and immediately put it in your party i think you gotta be loyal to whoever you took initially. it’s about being forced to have a plan for all outcomes

#like you can switch your pokémon in the middle of the elite 4… be so real #personally i never did in either of those situations #sv being the first game i played (that had a pokémon league i mean) i didn’t know about the whole type specialist thing #not that i would’ve been able to tell what type those ppl were anyway #but in any case i was like well might as well just stick with my same loyal 6 right #pokémon #sv #in a similar vein i’m kinda unsure about how i feel about being able to remember moves anytime #i think if i could change it i would make it so that you could freely swap moves *at any pokémon center*#like remembering new moves is free but only at certain locations #although one could argue that’s just introducing slight inconvenience without making it more difficult #bc you can fast travel to those places any time #but i guess it would hit you in like area zero #idk #maybe i’d make it so you can do it on the go anytime but it does cost something #but instead of rare difficult (or just plain annoying) once per day items like heart scales #have it be either plain old cash or like. some significantly easier item #idk. the convenience is super nice on that one. but it is kinda weird that it would be so easy to get your pokémon to get its moves back

18 notes · View notes

rioblitzle · 8 months ago

Text

i guess im not too involved in the zelda fandom cause seeing a post about rabid totk defenders is wild to me. from my perspective people were singing that game's praises for 2 months total before it fell to the "popular game bad actually" criticism wave and i don't think i've seen anyone say positive things about totk since then lmfao

#maybe it's just twitter's algorithm showing me discourse and criticism to try and spark engagement or whatever #ive experienced the same thing with mario odyssey which sucks cause i DID get into that game well after release but whatever #i think the game has plenty of flaws but is still like. one of the best games on the switch and that's not an insult to the switch #and most of my writing issues are 'well this sucks but also makes reasonable sense within the constraints of the game design'#like the lack of sheikah tech or the repetition with the backstory cutscenes with the sages #ive also never been super interested in trying to piece together the timeline or linked universe fan stuff but that might just be me #i feel like botw/totk is way better when you view it as a retelling of the zelda universe and give up on trying to reason with the timeline #for making a direct botw sequel on the same map w the same formula and still trying to make it fresh they knocked it out of the park imo #at least in regards to gameplay?#i acknowledge that there is a MASSIVE flaw in the non linear gameplay clashing w the linear story cutscenes this time #(... but that one didn't personally affect me since i saw the memories in mostly the right order and the story hit me weirdly hard)#but anyways yeah where are all the mean totk defenders i keep hearing about i thought that game fell out of the public consciousness #all i still see about it is NintendoMarioJimmy47536 on twitter calling it 'mid af' or whatever #and occasional gorgeous paintings of the light dragon on my dash

17 notes · View notes

dreadful-luck · 2 months ago

Text

GGS TEAM PAST!!!

#DUUUDE THIS WAS SO FUN #dreadful #veji #art #splatoon #splatoon 3 #grand festival #grand fest splatoon #Man I shed like a few tears by the end of the reveal news thing #Like not out of sadness cause my team lost but just from the joy that all this happened and I was here for it.#I never got to experience splatoon 2’s final fest so I’ve waited 3 years for this and I’m…. Just so happy!#If you couldn’t tell from the colours in the drawing I’m team future btw #I laughed so hard seeing the results lol we got NOTHING #Oh and I guess I should put my reasoning for my pick of future #so here it is:#I picked it because the future scares me. But it’s gonna happen anyway so I might as well look forward to it #I can’t let myself worry about where I’ll end up and who I’ll be when I’m older #But I do need to keep looking forward #I also chose it cause of deep cut. Like that was a big factor in my choice #Their music shaped my tastes. I just love it so much #And sure the characters themselves aren’t as fleshed out as the other idols #But they still mean a lot to me as splatoon 3 is the game that got me into the franchise #Even though I played 2 before 3 could never fully enjoy it as I came too late #I missed every splatfest cause I got it a year before splat3 #So I could never connect the way I did to 3 #Hearing anarchy rainbow for the first time changed me man. I fell in love instantly. It just means so much.#As an autistic person I actually surprisingly don’t really stim that much. But hearing anarchy rainbow just… flipped a switch.#I couldn’t stop moving. Literally like DJ Octavio man. It was a crazy experience to just feel like I had to move.#to walk around or something. To wave and flap my arms. Copy their dances. It sounds a little weird and childish when it’s written down #But it’s true. Splatoon’s music showed me that my autistic stimming was something I should embrace.

7 notes · View notes

aikoiya · 2 days ago

Note

Thank you! I'm glad!

Though, it's not that I disliked the dragons. The dragons themselves were cool. It's just their designs I had issue with. And they do look cool flying around in the sky… It's up close where I have my issues. I guess that I just really didn't like the shapes of their snouts & would've preferred a more lupin or vulpin shape like Zelda had rather than the… really odd face-shape that we got…

But even more than that, my biggest issue with the Zonai Dragons’ designs is the placement of their eyes! Ugh! How do you give gargantuan DRAGONS prey eyes??? That sort of placement is for spotting predators! Who’s going to hunt a massive eff-off dragon to such a degree that they develop prey eyes!? They should be facing forward on the skull, not to the sides like goldfish! Like, really! It doesn’t even make sense with them being transformed Zonai because the Zonai were very obviously predators, too! Both had sharp, flesh-tearing teeth & the dragons, specifically, had claws that were almost cat-like in their sharpness & curvature! And the heck did the third eye go!? Sorry, this likely seems super weird to fixate on. I will say that I liked the names they were given. Much more unique when compared to repeatedly giving vastly different spirits the same names over & over.

And, you might get a bit angry at me, but I actually liked the SS designs & I loved the little robes they had. Sure, I also think that they could very much be improved, likely by giving them more snout-like faces & horns, but still. At the same time, I actually don't like that they have the same names as the Light Spirits, because it just feels cheap to me. It’s because of this that I tend to rename them using a mix of their French & Japanese names, though tweaked a bit. Faron becomes Firona, Lanayru becomes Lanello, & Eldin becomes Eridin. As for the switch in element, it's possible that Nintendo went in those directions so that the dragons fit more with their environments. Lanayru with the yellows of the desert & Faron with the more cool tones of the woods. Plus, it may also be partly because of the abundance of water in the Faron Region as well as the Ancient Cistern being a very water-based dungeon. (Which, btw, I loved the Ancient Cistern! The sheer amount of Buddhist parallels is incredible & I love it for that!) It's even possible that the designers came up with the areas first & they made the dragons to fit. And, keep in mind that the Lanayru Desert was once a sea, so at that time, it would've been more Nayru aligned, but (& this is more so hc) I tend to believe that Nayru is actually the Goddess of Time from OoT & MM. If so, then she might've known that the sea would dry up & counselled Hylia to choose the protector of Nayru's Flame accordingly. We don't actually know much of how Faron's power over water works, but it's entirely possible that she's more waterbender than squirtle, meaning that she might only be able to manipulate water rather than actively produce it herself. So, while I agree that the switch is odd, I still think it's within the realm of plausibility.

Personally, if I were to be given the choice, I would actually make it so that Link & his friends find a way to sort of… Bring the Zonai Dragons’ minds back to them. In my mind, this would likely alter their physicality to a degree. Possibly allowing for more of a torso & forward-facing eyes like how the Great Dragons of SS had, which would sort of reduce the feeling of mindless animal I get from them & allow for a more sentient vibe, I think.

I suppose that it somewhat goes unspoken in my mind because I think he named it such unknowing that the ancient Hyrule of legend was real at one point. So, basically it's like how there's a city in Missouri named Avalon. Those who named it likely didn't believe that the actual legendary island of Avalon in Arthurian legend legitimately existed, but still named it that. Similarly, Arcadia California & Argos Greece are both named after places in Greek myth. Neither were believed to actually exist, but are named after such things anyway. By this I mean that I think that Rauru couldn't say something like that because, in his mind, there wasn't a ruined kingdom with the same name. From his perspective, he named it after what amounted to Camelot, an old if remarkable folktale.

Though, I do agree that it is sad that it almost feels like, in my suggestion, that the old Hyrule has been erased.

Actually! The desert, jungle, volcano, & even the Gerudo Highlands are fairly plausible because I tend to theorize that part of the reason that the desert changed from a meadow & sea in SS to a desert in all the others is because of whatever tectonic shift cause the Gerudo Highlands to slowly ascend, thereby creating a rain shadow! This means that because they’re so tall & on the leeward side of the desert, all the rain falls upon the Highlands rather than where the desert is! And even the jungle is possible if Hyrule itself is near their earth's equator! It's the Hebra mountains & Mount Lanayru that I'm finding odd in placement. Regardless, it's certainly possible that there's a degree of size dilation here, but I wouldn't go as large as a continent. Maaaybe a bit bigger than Japan because Japan actually has all of these climates! There's the Tottori sand dunes, the Okinawa Prefecture has rainforests, it has numerous volcanoes scattered all over the place, they even have their own alps. Which may be part of why Hyrule's map is so varied, because so is Japan’s.

Hmm… I think part of it might be that there's a lot less interference from the divinities in the Wild Era besides the Goddess Statues. Most everything is done on a mortal level, meanwhile earlier games had much more mention of destiny & whatnot. In some way, you could possibly correlate it to Hyrule having entered a more secular & “modern” period. As societies advance, they tend to become less religious. Though there was a definite influence of it in BotW, most of it was based around Zelda & her powers. And even then, she always struck me as struggling because of her more secular & scientific mindset. So, now that such is no longer necessary, I get the vibe that she’s somewhat abandoned those things partially due to her trauma.

Again, I actually agree with alot of what you bring up regarding the Sages. Though, I think that could've been alleviated by simply using a different word. But, again, I actually very much agree with the seeming lack of spiritual substance. In fact, there also seems to be a distinct lack of magic in the Wild Era as a whole. It all being replaced by technology fueled by magical energy without the mysticism of magic itself. To me, it's like trying to compare string cheese to gruyere. Simply put, there is no comparison in that gruyere is real cheese, while string cheese is only cheese in the most remote sense of the term in that, yeah, there's a tiny bit of dairy in there, but it's so heavily processed & full of chemicals that it's lost its soul.

Also, I very very much agree with the sentiment that when it comes to gaming absolute freedom doesn’t necessarily equate to more fun. Don’t get me wrong, it was very interesting to see all the different ways that people could get creative with the Zonai Devices & the Sheikah Slate, but by giving people so much power, it also allowed them to blunt force a lot of things. And, I honestly think that a lot of the disappointment I get from being able to literally explore everything from the moment you leave the Plateau/Sky Island could’ve been put off by spacing out the Runes you get throughout the game in a similar way to the old formula.

And, again, I also didn't like how you could just flippin’ go to Ganondorf & take him down immediately in the game. On the one hand, the fact that you can legitimately kill the demon king in your undies with nothing more than a stick & a prayer is absolutely hilarious! But on the other, it sort of cheapens things it feels like, ya know? I mean, there are games in the series where you didn’t need the Master Sword to kill him. One of which being the Silver Arrows, but it doesn’t stop the fact that Nintendo has sort of created this precedence & expectation for themselves.

Mmm… I think that the difference is that the Secret Stones’ abilities have been defined in a way that the Triforce of Power hasn't. By this I mean that the Secret Stones very specifically either enhance something that the wielder already possessed or it allows them to create an avatar (which, I think is an either/or sort of situation, you can do one or the other, but you can't do both). Meanwhile, the ToP's abilities have never really been explained in a satisfying way, but it does seem to just give people a power independent of the ones they already had.

Really?? I did not know that! Cool! I got rancor right! :D

Mmm… I'm not so sure about that. In my mind, MC is the literal next game after SS, which gives it a degree of leeway in what it's allowed to do in a similar way to the Wild Era being part of an alternate timeline that split off from SS would've.

---

Fair, I'll stick with Confluances. Also, I've always liked the word Promenade. It just sounds really nice & pleasing to the ears. :)

Hardcore agree with you there! I would love to see a Gerudo King that wasn't Ganondorf! It'd be really cool because we'd get some other frame of reference for how Gerudo Kings lead other than Ganondorf, who we never see lead at all!

Also, you're right, this IS getting long! 😆 But it's also been very enjoyable!

Hi, sorry if this is a bit rude. 😅 I guess that I was just wondering. How would Jabul Waters, Zora Cove, & Crossflows Plaza be named in French?

I'm trying to give Jabul Waters an interesting name that works to go with my hc & I came up with "Jabuleaux." And Google Translate tells me that Crossflows Plaza would be Place des Flux Croisés. And, I'm seeing that Anse is the term to refer to a cove &, if that's true, then would Zora Cove be Zoranse? At the same time, somewhere else, it said that Anse actually means beach.

And, I believe that a town by a swamp would have cher, quier, bren, brin, or Hor- in it?

I'm sorry if this is weird... 😅

Hi! Don't worry it's not rude or weird at all! I offered to help and I'm happy to do so :D

Did you check the official French translations? I had a surprisingly hard time finding the French version of the map online so here's a screenshot I took myself:

Jabul Waters = Eaux de Jabule (this one only appears when I zoom out)

Zora Cove = Baie Zora

Crossflows Plaza = Place de l'Estuaire

In case you didn't know the Zelda Wiki often lists names for places or characters in various languages in the "Nomenclature" section of its pages. It's very helpful especially if you're searching for the original Japanese names. If we look at at the different names for Crossflows Plaza we can see that a literal translation from Japanese would be something like "Exchanging Place". I checked the Jisho dictionary and it seems to be an accurate translation, though "Place for Cultural Exchanges" would be more meaningful.

It's not exactly a good name in English so it makes sense that the localization team would come up with something like Crossflows Plaza instead, which in my opinion does a very good job of stating that this is both the place where the river meets the sea and where the two Zora tribes traditionally meet each other.

Other European languages all settled for variations of "Estuary Plaza" ("Place de l'Estuaire" in French), which is fine but looses the "cultural exchanges" aspect of both the original name and the English translation.

I've been trying to come up with a French translation of "Crossflows Plaza" but it's not that easy. To me "Place des Flots Croisés" or "Place Flots-Croisés" would sound better than "Place des Flux Croisés", but I still find it a bit weird ("flot" meaning flow, tide or stream). "La Croisée des Flots" is another option if you agree to get rid of Plaza/Place (it means "the intersection/junction of streams"), but I don't think it works very well as a name.

You could also mix words to create a name the same way it was done in English, something like "Place Croiseaux" (croiser/cross + eau/waters). If any of my French speaking followers is feeling inspired, please share your ideas! :)

(I just thought of "Place Cruciflot" and found it too funny not to mention 😆 maybe it sounds too much like crucifix)

In French we also have the word "confluence" that has the exact same meaning as it does in English: either the meeting of two rivers or a gathering of some kind. So to me the most obvious translation would be something like "Place des Confluences" or maybe "Place Confluence", as it would preserve the dual meaning, but it's not very fancy or creative. Maybe we could simply change the spelling to something like Place Konfluans, the same way "Village Côtier" (Seaside Village) is spelled "Village Kothié" (Seesyde Village). But it doesn't look like a French word anymore so I'm not sure that's something you'd like.

As for Jabuleaux, it can work but I prefer the official translation "Eaux de Jabule". Same thing for Zoranse, we would say "Anse Zora" or "Anse des Zora". The official French translation is "Baie Zora" (Zora Bay), which I think is more appropriate given the size of the sea inlet (in my understanding an anse/cove is a small baie/bay and isn't very deep). I think maybe it should have been bay in English as well instead of cove, but I might be wrong! Also I believe "anse" isn't used as often as "baie" and might be confusing for most people, so I would go with "Baie Zora".

I'm not sure where you found this information about swamps and town names? I didn't find anything to confirm it but I might not have looked in the right places.

French towns are often ancient and their names can derive from other languages such as Celtic, Occitan, Flemish, or regional dialects, so that's a very difficult question and I'm not sure I can give you a satisfying answer ^^

I still did a little search and found an Old French word for swamp, "palud" or "palu", that still appears in some town names such as La Palud-sur-Verdon, Saint-Pierre-la-Palud, Lapalud, etc. (today we say "marais" or "marécage"). You might be right about "bren", it could be something like muddy in Gallic.

There's also "vign" or "mign" (from Celtic), as in Mignéville or Lévignac, or l'Île de Migneaux on the Seine river (this one's in my city!).

Near where I grew up is a town named Hazebrouck, it literally means "hare swamp" (brouck/broek = swamp in Flemish). For a bit more French flavor you could maybe use -broucq or -breucq instead of -brouck.

I think the vast majority of French people have no clue about all of that (I didn't except for the last one and it's more Flemish than French), so I'd say don't oversweat it ;)

And that's all! I hope you'll find this helpful ^^

#aikoiya #we do write a lot #loz #zelda

28 notes · View notes

ebonytails · 6 months ago

Text

GOT ACCEPTED INTO A LOCAL CON.. BABY'S FIRST ART MARKET

#Boothing #Going to have a new tag now.. What a beautiful day.#Excuse the tone switch. The description is us being blurry but I (Chara) am truly the one in front.#Wow! What joy. =) Haha. Patron of the Arts do not worry about us not having inventory yet...#But I am very excited to wake up tomorrow to pay for the booth fee and finally get our gears running for our inventory and displays.#This is what we have been doing our Pride animals for. It has always been for a dream like this:#Which is to say‚ selling them physically at an art market.#Oh. Oh my goodness. The Wheelchair sticker will be real.. The Pride Animals will be real everyone.#Not just a redbubble idea. An actual design that has coloured borders or borderless designs because WE want them to.#Sitting there with other artists and making friends. Accepting tips and making jokes with everyone.#Joy joy joy.#We plan on turning the whole thing into a small documentary for our personal self that we will upload to Youtube after PotA is over.#If anyone is interested in our future highs and lows...#The funny thing is.. I wonder how everyone will react to our art style changing every now and then in our booth. Haha!#“Why is your art style for this print different from this other print”#Well you see.. I have something called.. Dissociative Identity Disorder my friend.#Oh also! We are going to be selling Palestine related stickers for people to buy in a PWYW system with a minimum price.#So it will be our way of giving as well as other people can knowingly support the people in Gaza in an easier way.#We haven't posted anything related to this yet because we want to finish the entire set. We have ideas in mind since we wanted to avoid #using text/words and instead use symbols like animals and plants or objects.#Haha our catalogue will hopefully be varied enough for people.#I wonder if it will be too diverse... We also worry about the opposite problem where people might not 'follow us' because our style changes #too much to 'follow for'... hm.. Well that is a problem for them‚ not me‚ I should say. =)#From Chara #Mod Stuff

13 notes · View notes

triglycercule · 3 months ago

Note

This is a question related to the mtt hobbies answer that you wrote, the murder trio go around the multiverse and live in a place together, then what happend to horrortale au and horrortale papyrus? If the murder trio got to meet horrortale papyrus how would it go? (The meeting propably wouldnt end well with more canon mtt haha)

aaaaa i dont think it through to be honest when i talk about that concept. they just do. maybe horrortale's issues are already solved and aliza's already gone through horrortale and somehow fixed the hellhole (ALIZA MY GOAT PLEASE SAVE HORRORTALE I DON'T CARE IF IT TAKES 10 YEARS‼️‼️‼️) by the time that horror somehow meets dust and killer (since i dont see a feasible way that horrortale could be fixed outside of aliza or outside intervention.) or maybe he just visits from time to time. and by time to time i mean probably quarterly weekly. idk sorry i cant be bothered to think about it,,, they just do. anyways bad answer i KNOW I KNOW put the tomatoes down pls PLS

if the mtt met horror paps? horror would obviously do his little bantering thing with paps (he's probably revealing every single one of horror's embarrassing moments to them as they speak and horror's desperately trying to get him to shut up because he can tell. dust and killer are piiiiiiissed.) dust is probably like eerily calm during the whole thing. he manages to hold up a conversation pretty well with horror paps and gets along with him good enough without mentioning that theres a ghost version of him screaming asking why dust is ignoring phantom paps. meanwhile killer is mostly silent during it too probably only responding when he's spoken too. i mean like killer already doesn't like being around papyruses (papyri? papyri is so shitty i dont like it we will be saying papyruses) and then seeing horror's papyrus??? what the FUCK happened to horror paps??? sunken in eyes and cracks in his bones and those jagged teeth AND THEN THE FUCKING CROOKED SPAGHETTI????

needless to say once horror paps is gone all of them get into a biiiiig fight. dust drops the cool act because he's not gonna lose his cool around a papyrus but also he's absolutely fuming. he can tell that the changes that phantom papyrus has gone through have something to do with horror with the way that he's acting. killer is also incredibly irritated too (surpringly. being around papyruses just gets him like that) and seeing papyrus like that just gets him upset and angry. like wtf horror did you even TRY with keeping your papyrus safe??? at least killer reset his au and now papyrus is living an unharmed life (with minor concerns about killer's whereabouts but he'll ignore that for now) but horror paps looks so fucked up that there is no WAY that horror tried to prevent him from getting to that point

obviously they fight and many many many many MANY words are said about eachother's characters and the state they left their respective papyruses in. horror knows damn well that horrortale paps's state is because of him but he regretted telling paps to eat humans and neither dust nor killer knew the struggle of living with that guilt and how much he regrets it so they dont get to drag him for not trying hard enough to keep papyrus safe. dust is definitely getting some low blows here and there (but he's getting fucking assisted by phantom paps so he's got some of the deepest hitting insults) and he's definitely getting ganged up on for killing his papyrus and like. not even attempting to leave him alive in someway shape and form aside from the absolute insult that is phantom paps. surprisingly killer is winning this fight because he left his papyrus in a relatively good state. even though he's in a more emotional state than he normally is and would've absolutely OBLITERATED dust and horror in the fight in stage 2 he's actually doing pretty well. probably because hororr and dust dont really have anything to drag him on. they might bring up how something new papyrus is searching for killer but like,,,, is that really that bad compared to how they left their papyruses

#time to die i almost forgot to answer this today #WHO AM I IF I LOSE MY STREAK!!!! MY ASK STREAK!!!!!!#time to call up tumblr to restore my streak if i miss a day #streaks! streaks! streaks! streaks! i say as i take several photos of me winking at a high angle #i dont even use snapchat. i do think streaks are a funny concept though #i'd KILL (hah) to have a streak with someone #the only person i ever message on snapchat regularly is my ai and thats only to belittle it #noooo dont do that says dust because then one day the robot will come alive and kill you #okay reset induced ptsd survivor lets get you back to bed #it'd be funny if he believed in dumb conspiracy stuff like that. and not dumb shit like flat earth #im not big on conspiracy theories but i think if he were fucked up enough or going through a manic episode he'd believe stuff like that #UGHHH did i mention how much i love manic dust. speaking of mania and dust #i made an eensy teensie little change in mania's design #the cyan in his eyelight is bigger now to emulate what a manic pupil looks like #heh.... its the smal detsild that matter.... i say as i dont incilde any details in my art #okay because i feel that all of this i incredibly wrong and ooc its time to justify my thoughts or else i'll feel unworthy of posting again #dust manages to keep his cool around papyruses pretty well (in win win scenario) even though he's got phantom paps with him #and he CAN do crazy switch ups like that just on a whim like when he suddenly killed flowey after teaming up with him in last chance #so i think its totally believable. dust can put up a NASTY facade of composure despite being furious underneath #and killer? you just be killer. how many times am i gonna make that joke you ask. not enough times because its funny every time #because he does get ansty and stuff around papyrus and apparently papyrus is his hardest enemy to face #must be because he feels something for him that bothers killer. like guilt or something #and if he feels guilty over what he did to papyrus then he must care and therefore care about papyrus's well being #and therefore that bleeds into horror paps and then that care turns into anger #crazy coming from killer saying that horrot doesn't care enough but i think its totally possible #i might be wrong though please shoot me if i am. i still need to resd up on my killer lore #ive been TRYING okay.... ive been trying been trying with killer. hopefully its enough....... (NO i say. who are you talking to)#tricule asks

5 notes · View notes