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Dagger being a weird white mage

Back when I played FF9 for the first and second time, I was annoyed at how Dagger's a pretty clearly inferior white mage compared to Eiko. Eiko gets full life, esuna, dispel and holy, all awesome spells that Dagger just can't learn. I guess the idea is that Dagger has the more offensive summons but even then it's not like Eiko's summons are bad, and her final one is pretty op.

But replaying the game again, some of that is making sense to me. Dagger's pretty cool, really, and she's kind of a mess.

Like okay, the trope of the white mage who actually kicks grown men's asses appears in other Final Fantasy games. Aerith roughs up some dudes in Don Corneo's house, and I'm pretty sure I remember Yuna knocking out some goons offscreen in FFX. Dagger doesn't seem to hit the same notes, though.

I don't think she ever physically overwhelms another character during the game, which doesn't stop her from jumping from towers or ditching half of the party when they don't want to take her along. She also doesn't have the same kind of enthusiasm about her that the other two try to project. When I used to play FF9, I didn't pay enough attention to her name. She was just Garnet with a fake name, but it's more than that. Aerith and Yuna want/try to be world saviors, but Garnet, for half the game mostly wants to save her mother, and it doesn't go well. I think she feels overwhelmed by Brahne's dedication to go commit worse and worse crimes. So she needs to become something more than the princess bound by her social role. She needs to become something dangerous, like a dagger. Someone who will poison the fuck out of her buddies and run ahead if they don't take her to the frontline. Obviously, Zidane's into that edgy shit, I mean look at Blank (lots of potential slash I previously had no clue about with this one btw).

Dagger's also kind of entitled, for a while ? Which, duh, she's royalty. There's the whole poisoning incident, of course. But during said incident, she doesn't poison Steiner because she knows he'll do what she says, even if he might protest at first. Worse case she can just put her foot down and shut him up. She really does take Steiner for granted. And again, what I find really cool is that it ends up being pretty subtly written (maybe in part because it's often played for laughs but not just that). Steiner doesn't mind being taken for granted. It gives him purpose, even when it's tedious as fuck. It's interesting that they're never really that close and their relationship is mostly a power dynamic.

The first trip to Treno might have lots of layers. Both Dagger and Steiner are having some personal crises. Dagger gets really into the whole plot to rob someone to save Blank (she gets to be dangerous and edgy and rub elbows with bandits, and she doesn't even need Zidane anymore hah), which is a sidetrack from saving her mother, but it does feel right too (and at least that one is successful). Steiner keeps trying to convince himself that Queen Brahne must be right and he shouldn't think too hard about her motives, but gets stung by Baku calling him out for having no thoughts of his own. In French, he asks himself "Am I a puppet?", which feels more direct than the english version. And yeah, dude, maybe you are ? You're also being roped into all sorts of business you wouldn't do because you're at Dagger's beck and call. So when they're back in Alexandria, when he finally opposes Brahne, shortly after, he also decides to stop following her to stay and fight with Freya and Beatrix. In retrospect, maybe that was a well earned vacation for the guy.

But yeah, all in all, maybe I shouldn't be surprised Dagger isn't an S tier white mage, and is more into the big damage summons, including the horrific robot from another planet with a completely excessive animation that does darkness damage.

#ff9 #garnet ff9 #dagger ff9 #who would have guessed that the girl who names herself after a knife would be kind of edgy #hey zidane can you pass me your stabby weapon for a bit i want to name myself after it #Dagger/Zidane #otp

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FF9 Second time in Lindblum

I'm replaying FF9 for the third time after many years, with a friend. During CD2, we get to Lindblum again. I really liked that passage, the NPCs you can talk to are full of personality. Lots of places get blown up in FF9, really, but Lindblum is probably the one you see the most of. The city has just suffered a devastating attack, bombarded from the sea, raided by black mage commandos and finally half destroyed by Atomos. Dagger and Zidane arrive as Brahne's army has just rolled into town and the dust is settling.

NPCs exhibit all types of reactions like horror, grief, fear, petty revenge, confusion, determination... Lindblum has surrendered, but the game shows complex power dynamics, with the Alexandrian soldiers bossing the Linblum soldiers around, who grumble when their backs are turned, engage in sabotage attempts, or even organise small pockets of resistance. The Alexandrian soldiers are settling in as an occupying force. Some walking in with their big boots, warning the civilians not to cause trouble, some are doubtful or even horrified by what was done to the city. One is excited to see a famous actor (who's mourning the destruction of the theatre) and chases him for an autograph, while another is taking time to admire a painting in an artist's studio, while the artist looks warily (it's the first NPC in the game to praise the artit's work).

In general, there's this impression that nobody's really in control. The lindblum forces and government are beaten but are still trying to do their job, the civilian's are scrambling to gather themselves, and even the Alexandrians, while the dominant forces, only have a tenuous grasp on the two previous groups.

#ff9 #lindblum

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Mark Rothko exhibition

I went to the big Mark Rothko exhibition in Paris today. I'd seen some of his work before, and I have been to the Tate before (although I don't remember it well), but I'm not that familiar with it, so it was a good occasion.

So it's a huge retrospective, starting with his first figurative work. It's a type of curating that can be interesting. I remember a major Mondrian/De Stijl exhibition in Pompidou, where there were a lot of early Mondrian paintings, which were very cool and helped visualize the progression of his work. The Rothko exhibition's early paintings are just the intro, completely figurative work showing people in NY, the subway. Then, some more surrealist, then abstract compositions. Mostly, it shows the influence of early 20th century European painting in general; the figurative stuff gave me vibes of Manet or Munch, the surrealist paintings had some Chirico manerisms, and the abstract phase could look like Miro in terms of layout. I especially liked Aeolian Harp (1946).

Then, we get to the color field part.

So the exhibition is packed (ok, there was a tour, on the left, there so that picture is a bit exaggerated, just a bit, though). It makes enjoying any singular painting kind of a struggle, plus half the time, the person in the best spot is spending a minute tapping their smartphone to get the right setting for a picture.

Anyway, that's the part I'm curious about. Rothko's one of those painters that the art market has turned into a demi-god of modern art, to the point where it's hard to take his work on its own merits. The paintings are worth so much any large exhibition is the sole domain of huge galleries with bottomless funds. In this case, the Fondation Louis Vuitton. And the paintings rely so much on their physical presence that you don't really get anything from looking at photographs, even good quality ones. You just can't see that stuff unless colossal amounts of money are involved. So an exhibition like that is rare, so people are going to flood whenever it happens, making experiencing the work kinda weird.

Because how are you supposed to experience Mark Rothko's paintings anyway ? What are they, really ? What's so interesting about them ? First, they're big, usually bigger than you are. When Rothko started doing the whole color field thing, he also ditched the framing, which is good. It makes it more difficult to tell where the painting ends (the sides of the canvas are painted too), it denies the viewer a clear border between what's the piece and what isn't.

I like this one. Of course, this is a shitty picture, and worse, you don't get to be in the same place as it. I think the best way to look at Rothko's paintings is to get right in front of them, not too far (Which is easier said than done in an exhibition like that), and start by looking at the middle. That way, you get face to face with what feels like a slab of paint that kind hangs out in space. And the edges of the canvas, they're where your vision gets unfocused. I feel Rothko's paintings sort of play with the viewer's peripheral vision.

Another one I liked. There's some humour in those paintings, for me. On the one hand, there's a lot of depth in those colours, and they can feel like an opening, but on the other, the visible brush strokes always show that it's just a flat surface right in front of you. There's a mystery, there, but not in the sense that there's something to solve. The mystery itself is the point. What are you looking at ? Why are you looking ? It's just paint.

The colour transitions are what make me think of the peripheral vision thing. There's not really much point in examining them in detail (except for the technical aspect), but when you let your eye take the picture in, stuff kinda... moves in subtle ways. To be honest, many of the paintings didn't really keep my attention, but with some of them, after managing to get a good spot, I didn't really feel like looking away. During the 50s, Jasper Johns, another American painter, painted targets on canvas. I think there's something comparable at play. "Look into the painting" the painting says.

Most of the text in the exhibition was descriptive of Rothko's intentions, and of the paintings. There wasn't much about how they fit in the art world of their time. How weird were those canvases in the eyes of the public, back then ? Now, what's weird is how important it all is. Pieces worth millions, inside a brand new building that cost hundreds of millions.

The scenography was extremely sophisticated. All dim lights, careful light spots that make sure not to hit the paintings too hard. There's this notion about Rothko's paintings that they're meditative, so I think they tried emphasizing that with this intimate lighting. Now, how intimate can it really be with that many people, I'm not sure.

Some rooms nailed it. Now, again, these are shitty pictures, and you have to imagine that it was darker and more yellow-ish in real life. Still, room 4 was pretty great. Nothing's perfect, though.

In room 5, which had some of my favourite pieces, this big one was catching some pretty big reflection, from the light spots, which kinda ruined it.

Then there was room 6, with the blackforms. So I get the idea. Make the room even dimmer because the paintings are dark. Thing is, when you point the spots at them, the blackforms are suddenly the brightest objects in the room ! They're not dark anymore, and so, for me, they lose their presence.

Room 9 was much better. The whole dim light thing worked best with bright paintings. Although...

The entrance of the room lets a decent amount of sunlight through, which splashed a bit on the first two paintings of the room. It's hard to translate with a picture, but honestly, I feel Rothko's work would look so much better with natural light ! (ok, maybe not all of it, there were two small rooms where it was probably better that way) Now, sure, that's impossible, UVs damage pigments, and people want these pieces to stay as they are for a million years... But they try to be so fancy with this amazing lighting setup, and I think there's a point where the obsession with the meditative aspect ended up smothering the work a little.

I don't really have a conclusion. Nice exhibition, exhausting too, which is hard to avoid when there's so many people and so much to look at.

#mark rothko #modern art #art exhibition #painting

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I can only assume that the great tragedy of tumblr is that it was created after march 15th 1956.

#ides of march

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The anvil of Yikes

Turns out Branka been squatting outside the place where the anvil of the void is for a few years, having a DIY broodmother pump out darkspawn to flood the traps leading there. There doesn’t seem to be anybody left of her house. Yeah, Darrian’s not having a great feeling about this one. We go and reach a big cliff where a bunch of golems welcome us. The bigger golem introduces himself as Caridin. Oh. I’m starting to see where this is going. Shale’s one of Caridin’s old buddies too, even though she remembers almost nothing about it. Okay, so Caridin (who’s being very forthcoming for a giant slab of steel) wants us to destroy the anvil because he can’t. Branka barges in because she hasn’t been turning all her friends into darkspawn meat for this thank you very much. And Darrian feels bad for Oghren, but there’s no need for Orzammar to get even more fucked up. Morrigan’s into the idea, though, because of course she would be, but we’re still not doing that.

Branka goes down. Caridin makes us a crown, we destroy the anvil and he jumps into lava. Well that was horrible. Time to leave and never come back. In Orzammar, we interrupt Bhelen and Harrowmont bickering. We have the crown and get to choose who becomes king. That’s great, Darrian totally wanted that responsibility. He tries not to cringe too much as he gestures at Bhelen, whose first action as king is obviously to have Harrowmont executed. Good for you man, can we get our damn army now ? Hopefully, he does some things so the casteless get a better deal and then gets assassinated.

Oghren decides to tag along as we leave. He’s a wreck. Not just the drinking, the whole warrior caste thing seems to have made him pretty much unfit for life anywhere there isn’t a war going on. He, Shale and Wynne are getting antsy, though. Oghren wants to go see an ex girlfriend, Shale, wants to go check out a thaig related to her previous life, and Wynne opened up about an old disciple who ran away. We take care of that because it’s going to be time for the Landsmeet. Long story short, Oghren finds someone who actually seems to care about him, Wynne finds her old pupil, who’s actually doing pretty good… and Shale finds an empty thaig that gives her some memories back.

#dragon age origins #warden tabris

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Jiāng Chéng | Jiāng Wǎnyín/Wēn Qíng, Jiāng Chéng | Jiāng Wǎnyín/Wēn Níng | Wēn Qiónglín, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin/Wen Ning | Wen Qionglin/Wen Qing Characters: Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin, Wen Ning | Wen Qionglin, Wēn Qíng, Wen Zhuliu Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, No Golden Core Transfer (Módào Zǔshī), Sunshot Campaign (Módào Zǔshī), Captivity, Pining, Jiang Cheng Refuses to Think About Feelings, V Relationship, Power Imbalance, Secret Relationship, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Shrimp emotions Summary:

Wen Ning rescues Jiang Cheng from Lotus Pier, but Wei Wuxian never reaches them.

Jiang Cheng in Nightless City.

#mo dao zu shi #fanfic

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The Deep Roads

The dwarves have this fascinating cultural element about stone as some sort of primordial matter that their people come from and that they go back to when they die. There was that codex inside the hall of heroes, which leads from the surface into Orzammar. It said the statues inside were to be “an introduction not just to our living ancestors, but also to the Stone from which we were born. They must see it shaped before they can understand the complexity of its raw form.” Ancestors are venerated, but it’s unclear how of it is because of the knowledge they accumulated during their lives, or because they are now part of the stone. Paragons, being “living ancestors”, does that make them part stone, even part dead ? It’s also interesting to show outsider carved statues as an introduction to raw stone, suggesting it takes something away from the stone to sculpt it.

So the Deep Roads must have a lot of significance, and one wonders how they looked, when there were multiple cities underground. Were they busy roads, full of carriages, maybe with stalls on the side sometimes ? They do look as impressive as Orzammar. They’re also infested with darkspawn, giant spiders and deepstalkers, so a step up compared to Bhelen. We make our way to Ortan Thaig, or what’s left of it. Amazingly, someone is still living here, some poor sod named Ruck, whose mom is worried sick, back in Orzammar. He’d rather we tell her she’s dead, fair enough.

Branka’s trail leads to the Dead Trenches. At the bottom of one of the said trenches, a river of darkspawn is marching. They really are using the Deep Roads to move around Ferelden. And the Archdemon is here as well, so close Darrian could almost touch it. It’s a wonder it didn’t see the grey warden and his group. The Legion of the Dead is guarding a bridge, so we help them push forward and celebrate. They’re only trying to secure the area, but we have to go deeper. We find Hespith and it goes downhill from there. Darrian was wondering if darkspawn were, like, people corrupted by some kind of lyrium gone wrong, although there are a bit too many of them for that theory to hold. Hespith explains (sort of, she’s not doing great) how they are created. Broodmothers, and we even see one, and kill it-or whoever that is. Worse, it seems Branka is somehow letting the darkspawn do this to the dwarves she brought.

#dragon age origins #warden tabris

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The Prince

It's 1-1, now, between Harrowmont and Bhelen and hardcore supporters of both are now jumping Darrian and his party in the streets of Orzammar. For his next errand, Harrowmont wants Branka found. Oh, right, the paragon who invented smokeless coal (which sounds straight up magical), then took her house to the Deep Roads, and didn’t come back. Well, if Darrian found the Urn of Sacred Ashes, he can probably find Branka, or what’s left of her. But now, Bhelen wants to talk face to face, since we did his dirty work, and oh he is one slimy bastard. It's like he can’t even be bothered to put up appearances. And that’s the guy who’s gonna help the casteless ? He wants Branka found, too, but he only wants her back if she supports him. The guy definitely murdered his dad. Well Darrian’s not doing the killing political opponents (wait, did the Carta count ?), so he’ll improvise when he’ll get there, and, again, Branka might be dead already.

First, though, Alistair and Wynne apparently have a lot to ask Morrigan about her love life. Several things : First, Darrian is right there, so it’s a bit hurtful when you guys are talking like he’s just Morrigan’s thrall, now. Second, looks like neither of you have seen how much of a dork she is, and thus how funny that makes you sound. Now, to be fair, Darrian did agree to kill Flemeth for Morrigan, and it is possible she might have been lying about the whole body-jacking thing, but honestly, it’d be a really good act. Ah, whatever, you know what, this is fine, it’s all part of the plan. See, when Darrian has retired in the Korcari wilds, and he goes grocery shopping in nearby villages, there’s bound to be some dumbass shems that’ll be all like “Hey fuck you knife-ears !”, but then their buddy will be like “Dude, shut up, that’s the Wicked Witch of the Wild’s boyfriend ! You wanna get turned into a spider ?” It's perfect.

Then we meet Oghren, Branka’s husband, left behind when she took the rest of the house. He really wants to come along and, uh, well, sure. He seems pretty on edge about the whole thing, which is fair. Shale is also here. Their mage had mentioned finding them in a place related to dwarves, so maybe we’ll see something interesting. Now, it’s off to the Deep Roads

***Bonus content!!!***

Hi my name is Darrian Tabris and I have short black hair and pointy ears and a lot of people tell me I look like Shianni (AN: if u don't know who she is get da hell out of here!). I'm not related to Zevran, but I wish I was cause he's a major fucking hottie. I'm a grey warden, but that’s just until the Blight is over. I’m also a rogue and I got Isabela to teach me how to duel. I’m an elf (in case you couldn’t tell), and I wear mostly light armor. I love Wade’s Emporium and I buy all my clothes from there. For example, today, I was wearing the felon’s coat. I was walking outside the Alienage. It was like everywhere in Ferelden, smelling like wet dog, which I was very happy about. A lot of city guards stared at me. I put up my middle finger at them.

#dragon age origins #warden tabris #my immortal

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Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng’s (Lack of) Brotherhood

In fanfiction, it is extremely frequent to see Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng refer to one another as “brother”, either in dialogue, or described as such through the narrative. This always struck me as hitting the wrong note, because in the actual narrative of Mo Dao Zu Shi there is not a single instance where the word “brother” is used to refer to one another, not even once.

Yet it is obvious why fanfics go there. It does fittingly describe the nature of their relationship. Wei Wuxian was brought back to Yunmeng by Jiang Fengmian to be raised by him in a way that looks much more like an adoption than anything. It is probable that the main reason that he didn’t formally adopt Wei Wuxian was because Yu Ziyuan would never have stood by it. Despite her opposition and her worry that Wei Wuxian might usurp Jiang Cheng’s place as heir to the sect, it is obvious that Wei Wuxian wasn’t treated as a servant (as the son of a servant) or as a simple disciple. He was part of the family unit in more ways than not, and they grew up close and their relationship displayed a kind of intimacy and rivalry that is typical of brotherhood.

Afficher davantage

#mo dao zu shi #jiang cheng #wei wuxian #meta

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A Fistful of Sovereigns

Orzammar is one hell of a place. An entire city underground, dug into the walls of gigantic caves ! You can look up and down and it feels like there's always more buildings. That or lava, which looks extremely unsafe, Wynne's right. This whole place makes Denerim look vulgar.

But okay, enough fanboying for Darrian. There had been rumours, and yeah, Orzammar's stuck in a succession feud. Some guy called Behlen against some guy called Harrowmont. Behlen's the son of the previous king and is pretty much assumed to have murdered him, while Harrowmont was apparently designated by the king to rule. It's a mess, nothing important can get done until this is sorted, despite there being an assembly, and dwarves are willing to kill each other over it in broad daylight… or the Orzammar equivalent.

There’s one place in all of this that doesn’t look polished, or even presentable. Dust Town. Ah. It’s that type of place. Except it’s even worse than the alienage. Dwarves apparently have this rigid caste system that sort of sounds what Sten describes of Qunari roles, except they might not be hereditary, with the Qunari. But anyway, besides the normal castes (which honestly sound bad already), there are the casteless, who basically aren’t people in other dwarves’ eyes. Orzammar is horrible. So Dagna gets her recommendation for the Circle. Zerlinda’s father gets a stern talking to so and he relents on the child abandoning blackmail thing. Hm, of course, it takes a pretty safe position to be able to bend the caste rules.

Anyway, on to the proving grounds. Behlen’s goon wanted Darrian to sow discord between two members of the assembly, but he’s curious about this proving custom. Pretty interesting people in there. Once that’s done, Harrowmont offers to meet Darrian. Just in case, we go see Behlen’s dude and convince him it’s all part of the plan. What plan ? Who cares, but it might be nice to at least convince this Behlen guy to meet face to face. Harrowmont is… fine. Not much to be said about the guy, really, but he seems decent enough. The real problem is some people say Behlen would shake the whole caste system a bit, so that makes things complicated. Anyway, this time, both want some crime boss gone and figure why not use the grey warden. Behlen also wants some forged documents against Harrowmont planted around the boss’s corpse. Fine, we’ll play Behlen’s game this time.

#dragon age origins #warden tabris

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To Orzammar

Shale's life in Honnleath sounds pretty miserable. The events of them killing the mage are unclear, but what's curious is more how did that happen, what with the control rod, than Shale's motivation, which is rather understandable.

Wynne's starting to creep Darrian out a little. She's got this whole outlook about how one should accept their lot in life. That's how she seems to deal with being in the Circle, and with her current condition; and that's how she's suggesting Darrian takes the whole grey warden thing. It doesn't sound unreasonnable, but... Shit, she's like Duncan, isn't she? No wonder she gets along with Alistair.

Everyone in this party's struggling with something bigger than them, which won't just let them do as they want, and is dealing with it differently. Wynne has the Circle, obviously, and Shale just got away from how many years of slavery ? Alistair's got being Cailan's brother, and being a Warden was supposed to sever that link, but here we are. Leliana's got Marjolaine, making so she can't be in Orlais, and potentially not anywhere without looking over her shoulder. Same with Zevran. Sten has, fuck, the whole being a Qunari where his entire life is apparently pre-written by his society, to the point where he gets to die if he loses his personal sword, like he's not himself anymore without it in the eyes of his people ? And yeah, Morrigan, whose body Flemeth plans to take over, and who isn't having it, understandably.

So anyway, we get to Frostback Mountain. This is where Orzammar is. Apparently, this is where grey wardens come to die, where there are darkspawn hiding deep underground. This should be weird.

#dragon age origins #warden tabris

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The golem

On the way to Orzammar, we find a merchant who gives us a staff, saying it can control a golem if we say some words that we'll totally remember. The golem's in Honnleath so we head there to find the place has been ransacked by darkspawn, and while the golem is indeed her,e the staff doesn't work. We probably should have written the magic words.

Darrian and his party eventually find survivors in a massive basement, behind a forcefield. Surprisingly, seems a mage was living here, with a family and everything and left some magical setup around. His son, Matthias says his daughter has ventured deeper, down where it gets really dangerous, and hasn't come back. So we go and oh, look, the mage was keeping a demon for studies in a big mystical circle. It's in the form of a cat, or possessing a cat, hard to say, really, and it's using some creepy suggestion powers on the girl. Look, it's one thing when Darrian coaxes Alistair to do stuff, but this is just weird. Still, can't hurt to hear it out... Well, would you know it, the demon wants to possess the girl and be released so it can see the world and "feed". You know, Darrian really has to commend you demons for being pretty open about your intentions, usually, but why can't he ever encounter a demon that just wants to be free, chill out, make friends and NOT consume people ? So we have the demon let the girl go and eventually, the issue is resolved through violence.

So to be fair to the mage, the demon wasn't going anywhere, so at least, better handling than at the Tower. He definitely should have taken precautions so that something could be done about it, but in his defense, he seems to have planned to, but was killed by the golem before he did. Oh ! Right ! The golem. Turns out the magic words were incomplete, Matthias gives us the real formula, and we wake it and it's... sassy ? Darrian didn't really expect it to have a personnality. It's acting like a person, actually. It says it's been stuck in this pose for literally years, and it... they were a slave to the staff (ok "control rod") before that. Well. That sounds absolutely horrible. Somehow, the golem gets named Shale, and they want to come with Darrian. They're being pretty intentionally abrasive, but yeah, sure okay.

#dragon age origins #warden tabris

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good morning ace attorney community

#Apparently this is what the cool kids call a legacy post or something #So I guess I'll reblog that #ace attorney #happy almost christmas #ace attorney's a good game I have good memories of it

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the new immigration law that was just voted in france... every single one of the 349 deputies who voted yes is a disgusting racist far-right pig (and same for the senators) - it wasn't enough to let a palestinian man die because you only wanted some of his kids to come to France despite him working for France for years as though there should be a quota now you've decided to actually impose a quota on immigration, distribute social benefits based on origins thereby implementing a national preference on social services, take away the long standing right of any kid born in france from foreign parents to be automatically french, ask a deposit from foreign students that would only be given back on the basis of them leaving the country once they've finished their studies, allow residential permits based on job sectors with lack of workforce and so many more stuffs and all of that under the cheers of the far right party the current government was supposed to oppose... this country is making me sick!!!

#french politics

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Soldier's peak

So this Levi Dryden guy has been pestering us about a favour Duncan promised him. Something about how his ancestor Sophia Dryden was a grey warden and she went up against the government and got killed. Kinda sounds like she tried doing a coup to Darrian, but okay. Levi wants to go to the old fortress they were occupying so he can find stuff and clear the Dryden name. In exchange, we get the fortress, which is currently haunted. Ok, Levi, you don't seem like a bad guy, but I swear if you turn out to be a ghost Darrian is going to scream.

Soldier's peak is pretty gloomy. And cold. As promised, it's chock full of skeletons and other unpleasantness. Levi says that he's been hearing voices about the castle since he was small. Look, maybe you can bond with Leliana and Wynne or something. Before too long, we find... Well, Sophia Dryden... Sort of. There have been visions of Dryden's last stand, and it seemed to involve a fuckton of blood magic and deamon summoning. So now, she's a corpse animated by a demon, asking us to break some kind of seal so she can leave to eat more people and she'll close the hole in the veil. Yeaaah, ok, we'll check it out. And then we get to the tower. Somebody's been doing some pretty messed up experiments about... overcoming the taint that kills grey wardens. Hmmm... Meet Avernus. Actually alive somehow. Dude, have you been staying here all this time ? Darrian tries to reason the guy, and he's surprisingly reasonable about it. He does recognize how much of a disaster all of this is. Ok, first, let's get rid of Sophia, close the veil, and then we'll talk.

Ok. Ok. Once things have settled, Avernus submits himseld to Darrian's judgement. Look, obviously Darrian's not gonna kill him, he does look genuinely contrite. Plus... clearly, the way he was experimenting was not great to put it mildly, but extending grey wardens' lifespans ? Darrian's not a fan of how he's got 30 years left to live (assuming he makes it out of the Blight), and honestly, he really wasn't thinking of sticking out with the wardens once his job is done ? Like, what's Morrigan's plan take Flemeth's hut and be the next "witch of the wild" ? The Korcari wilds aren't very urbanized, but an elf could think of a worse place to lay low. Maybe the Dalish come there from time to time, maybe he could visit the alienage from time to time. And everybody seems to dismiss the Chasind, but maybe they're nice too. Now, if Avernus can, in fact, make a cure for the wardens' slow death, maybe Darrian should stick around a little longer before peacing out.

#dragon age origins #warden tabris

[green-ray-blog1]

Leliana's ex

Earl Eamon lives. He says there's a way to fuck Loghain's day, a "landsmeet", which sounds like some convoluted noble business where would be kings growl at each other and the one with the prettiest dog wins, meaning with Vace, we're pretty much garanteed to dethrone the guy. Oh, and Alistair is the candidate. He's not taking this well. Darrian's kind of excited at the prospect. His buddy ! King of Ferelden ! How wild is that ? Hey, say Alistair, when you're king, you'll ease up on this alienage thing, right ? Hm, he's still too mad at Eamon dropping that on him to think about policies, which, fair enough.

Then we're ambushed. Again. Leliana seems nervous about this one, though. She says those were sent for her, specifically, by Marjolaine. Oh, that Marjolaine, who tutored Leliana to be a dancing spy, and who sounds like she's her ex too ? That doesn't sound good. She's in Denerim, and Leliana wants to talk to her to see what's up. Sure, we'll check on brother Genitivi while we're there too.

Genitivi's fine and trying to get clearance for an expedition. We find where Marjolaine is staying. She looks kind of unhinged, honestly. We tell her to fuck off, and she leaves after throwing a last cryptic threat. Maybe we shouldn't have let her go, after all ? It just felt... beneath us. Later Leliana is found moping that maybe she's too naive and Marjolaine has the right idea, and no, Leliana, please, have you heard how that woman talks ? You're one of the people in this party with principles (however weird they might be sometimes), and you'd let the paranoid murder lady convince you you're like her ? Come on.

What now. The last big stop on the list is Orzammar, but that's at the far end of Ferelden. There's this guy who's been tagging along, for a while, he has a fortress to sell us. Hm, fine, guess we could check it out.

#dragon age origins #warden tabris

[green-ray-blog1]

Cue to JC going to find LWJ at some point during the curse, because at least this boring fucking guy is safe and JC needs a break, and WWX, as usual, is nowhere to be seen when JC needs his SIC to do something helpful !

LWJ who hasn't even heard of the whole curse thing. Brows furrowing as JC walks in : Mn?

JC, seeing a fantasy of LWJ with a pissed off expression forcefully disrobing JC in a cave while they're looking for WWX during the war : >:(

Thinking of a goofy story in an AU where things didn’t go immediately to shit after the end of the war where JC gets cursed by a succubus so that every time he gets within a certain radius of someone a lotus petal will appear over their head for every dirty fantasy they’ve had about him. If the flower grows 9 petals one of the fantasies will play over their head. This rejuvenates for every 9 times they’ve fantasized as long as JC is within radius. Needless to say chaos ensues as it turns out nearly everyone has at least one petal pop over their heads. Poor JC keeps getting subjected to the most out of character fantasies a person could be subjected too, with some portraying him as a wilting flower whilst others position him as a brute who doesn’t take no for an answer. Even people JC thought respected him like LQR get one petal floating over their heads. He’s getting comfort from JYL about all this happening and realizing most people just see him as some kind of sex object when JZX walks into radius by accident and shows he’s got 3 petals over his head. It’s the one moment that JYL ever looked like her mother. WWX has a more legitimate excuse why he can’t be near JC because he’s got practically a 24 hour porn show above his head everytime they’re in range. The succubus eventually lifts the curse because she’s sorry about how little people actually think of JC as a person with 3 dimensional feelings

I would read this 100 times. I love JC/everyone fics where Jiang Cheng is deeply weirded out by the shenanigans.

JC: Please remove the curse!! I'm sorry for offending you, but I can't stand it anymore!

Succubus: What curse! I was trying to help you!! 🥺

JC: Who would be helped by knowing that Jin Zixuan wanted to--to!!

Succubus, removing the spell: Succubus-jie only thought you would want to know that you have options. You don't have to be alone when you're the focus of so much desire! 🥺 Don't be mad at her!!

JC: Are you kidding? I'm never talking to anyone ever again. Except a-jie and Wei Wuxian, since they're the only normal people in the jianghu.

Succubus: ... The boy with the red ribbon?

JC: Yes? Why?

Succubus: No reason.

#mo dao zu shi #the jzx thing is great