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static-shocked · 2 years

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Top Gun 2 & Propaganda

Okay. I’m gonna weigh in on this whole thing with my decidedly complicated feelings about the movie + the review thats been going around. Putting a read below here now with content warnings for Xenophobia, discussions of propaganda and generally informal-but-still-long-winded sociological/poli-sci analysis.

Let me start with where I disagree/diverge from the review:

So. TGM… In terms of its morals, there IS a very active struggle against the system. Like the entire point of Maverick’s presence is to teach them how to get out of this suicide mission (which everybody knows good and well it is) alive. And the entirety of the top brass doesn’t like it. That’s how it works in the armed forces, the driving force of basic training and your duty is that you accept the bodily cost of doing it. You are expected to die for it. This is wrong, the movie knows that this is wrong.

Inevitably there are issues with orders to stand down, referring specifically to the part in the review where the whole breaking the rules thing comes into play & Ice’s “You’re not safe.” assertions in the original. Especially when it comes to things that are meant for the safety of others, but like. Maverick/Pete is making the active decision to teach them techniques to keep them safe against orders. They’re dispensable to the Navy, but not to him. Their lives mean something more than a sacrifice play.

The problem really shouldn’t be that Maverick is disobeying orders? Those orders and implications are not about preserving the safety of the ones who carry it out, Rooster, Hangman, Phoenix, they all have to act against them in Maverick’s capacity to survive. They’re not wrong to want to live and find a way to minimize casualties.

The central out-of-text problem is, in my opinion: the mission itself: unilaterally bombing a foreign power and that the pilots are acting as an arm of the US Navy to complete it. They shouldn’t be there at all.

Now to where I agree with the review and make my overarching point:

Top Gun IS propaganda.

Not the on the nose ‘join today! Bear arms! I want you!’ wartime propaganda, but the more pervasive kind. Where honor and ethics have a place in one person when no one else in the system has it, where it’s something we see and we want to emulate. The kind that plants the seed that maybe, just maybe if we were more like Maverick that the system would be a better place. When the truth is that moral stuff does NOT belong there. Systems like that don’t have any real ethics beyond performance. Theres no redemption.

In this propaganda, the enemies don’t have a face because we fear what we don’t know. The enemies in the F-35s, much like the MiGs in the original are concealed. You don’t know their faces, their names, where they’re from. You don’t know because it doesn’t matter, you just know that they’re not American. At the core of Xenophobia is a fear or contempt of the foreign. The enemies in Top Gun are foreign; unspecified, but you can superimpose any country that has a current conflict with the US over them. Whether this is better or worse is a question for another day, but the point still stands: We (embodied in Mav, Rooster & co) are the heroes, they (the foreign) are the villains.

The Military Industrial Complex- the Navy in this case, is a system. It is an interest, and it depends on the labor of every part. Talcott Parsons’ AGIL theory is the best way to break this down. This theory is essentially the idea that If systems & structures are to survive, they must engage in four sets of activities aimed at meeting their needs:

Adaptation (A system cannot remain long at odds with its environment, it has to adapt) -> the US military no longer has the total favor of public opinion. It can no longer command and leverage that authority on screen, and therefore its portrayals in the media have shifted to accommodate a more flawed and complex view of it. If we see someone willing to cop to their failings, we are more inclined to hear their side of the story.

Goal Attainment (the need for a system to define and achieve its primary goals) —> the Navy’s defined goal is “to maintain, train and equip combat-ready naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression and maintaining freedom of the seas.”. The goal by implication in this is maintaining the US’s status as what is called “hegemon”: the leading state actor (this is debatable. We all know that this place isn’t good at anything it says it is) by whatever means it sees fit. Colonialism, imperialism, you name it.

Integration (ensuring sure that enough time, energy, personnel, and resources are allocated on each level to maintain operations —> Technicians, aviators, upper command.

Latency (the need for a system to furnish, maintain, and renew the motivation of individuals.) —> the better you enforce and comply with the interests of the system, the higher you get to progress. Ex. Iceman, “ice cold, no mistakes.” who was promoted to *Admiral vs Maverick, who has never made it past the rank of Captain because he pushes past orders.

Whether we like it or not, on some level, Top Gun is an advertisement for war and death… Every major DOD funded film is, those fuckers keep an eagle-eye on the script and will pull funding if they don’t like what they see in a project’s portrayals of the military. Though I honestly didn’t think of it as anymore or less egregious in this film than the nonstop resurgence of propaganda we’ve been getting since 9/11, or when the MCU started to dominate the market- it just so happens to be easier to pick apart because of its backdrop.

That being said: you’ll have a hard time finding solid-gold unhypocritical moral critiques within the text of a widely marketed movie It’s quite frankly, incompatible with the nature of mass media distribution and government funded films. The Department of Defense (DOD) funded Top Gun: Maverick. That funding provided it with the tools to deliver its various spectacles. You really can’t be the blockbuster of the year and take a genuine reformist or abolitionist stance on anything. Not without some scrubbing and stripping in the edit. What comes out is disingenuous/by and large hypocritical. Big Hollywood Films as an industry rely on making its products reach as wide and general an audience as possible. Shying away from ‘alienating viewers’ and being too ‘heavy-handed’, and having the state fund your film inevitably means that the studio will be catering to some, if not all it’s expectations. They will always calculate the worst groups of people to take shit out of a movie like this into the equation because engagement and investment is money.

TLDR: Many things can be true at the same time. Top Gun can be both propaganda and an enjoyable cinema experience with its own merits. I’m not trying to be a both-sides-ass-bitch about this but like. The point of critical engagement is to understand the implications of a given work for your own education and to communicate it with others. Propaganda doesn’t strip away the entirety of a work’s creative merits (for the most part. I am naturally excluding pure bad faith racist, anti-islamic/semitic, transphobic shit), but it informs them. You can’t cut that shit away or divorce it from the material. It’s still there. You shouldn't throw the whole thing out as just ’movie’s bad morals = not competently made’ either, thats how people get swept up into propaganda and end up lacking the skills to recognize the shit when its laid out in front of them.

I liked the movie well enough to see its strengths and assess it as a sequel that preserves the spirit, charm and entertainment value of the original. But I won’t pretend that the DOD, who would have a vested interest in celebrating what its machines can do to the worldwide viewers who bring in the box office gross, didn’t have its own intentions when it gave the green light. I won’t act like those intentions aren’t reflected in the writing either, even if there’s a bit of a well-reasoned critique there.

Sources:

Contemporary Sociological Theory and It’s Classical Roots: The Basics - Fourth Edition by George Ritzer

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/05/27/top-gun-maverick-us-military/ International Relations: Perspectives, Controversies and Readings Fifth Edition by Keith L. Shimko

#Tom Cruise #Top Gun #Top Gun Maverick #Pete Mitchell #Bradley Bradshaw #Lee’s informal essays #I literally only went to see the sequel as my dad’s birthday gift #I mean. I’ve seen the original Top Gun and discussed its homoeroticism at length #but now I’m using my adult degree and articulating detailed opinions #If my spelling and grammar are horrible that’s a you problem #It’s 11pm on a work night and I am out of emotional gas #Edit: ugh. I really should edit these things better before I post them.

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dddragoni-drabbles · 6 months

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(A direct follow-up to this post)

The creature- Zurthenon- stalked forward, its footsteps shaking the ground. "FOOLISH MORTAL. YOUR PURSUIT OF POWER HAS ONLY SEALED YOUR DOOM."

Carol could only stare slack-jawed at the creature as its coice echoed around her. Her mind was short-circuiting, unable to comprehend what was happening.

"FOR MY STRENGTH IS MAGNITUDES GREEATER THAN ANYTHING YOUR PUNY MIND COULD COMPREHEND," it continued, flames bursting into existence in its outstretched hands. "NOW, DIE!"

Carol shrieked in terror, falling back out of her chair as it lunged forward- then stopped abruptly, bright pink chains suddenly wrapped around its chest and neck.

"What? This..." Zurthenon cried out as the chains yanked it backwards, flipping over in the air and landing in a heap on the symbol it had emerged from. "Urgh...." It pushed itself into a sitting position, then ran a claw along the symbol. "No, these bindings... You! Human!"

Crouching behind a potted plant in the corner of the room, Carol tried to be as small and as still as possible.

"I can still see you."

Carol managed to find some of her voice- though what came out was high and strained. "W-what are you?"

Zurthenon rolled its eyes. "I'm a demon, get over it. Tell me- where did you learn this ritual?"

Carol peeked out from behind the plant. "I-I-I don't know what you're talking about. What ritual?"

"This!" Zurthenon slapped its left hands against the floor. "The symbol! Where did it come from?"

"The farmer's market?" A frantic whimper crept into Carol's voice. "I don't know, I just thought it was a cool rug, and now there's a demon in my apartment, and I think I'm going to hell, and-"

"Stop. Just... stop." Zurthenon rubbed its skull with a claw. "This rug- did you get it from a silver-haired man with a scar under his left eye?"

"I... yes, how did you-"

"FUCK." Zurthenon punched the floor, hard enough that Carol felt the impact across the room- though the floorboards remained undamaged. "Fucking... Gilbert." It rose to its full eight-foot height. "HUMAN," it intoned. "WE ARE GOING TO THE FARMER'S MARKET.

#microfiction #urban fantasy #carol warren #zurthenon #original writing #in the original post carol was spelled three different ways. im gonna go back and edit it after this

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executiveibex · 1 year

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[IMAGE ID] A Venn diagram with a red circle and a blue circle overlapping in a purple center. The red circle is labeled "stole a divine from the Pact," and written inside it is "Gur Sevraq." The blue circle is labeled "wielded a divine in... unorthodox mech warfare," and written inside it is "Kal'mera Broun." "Narmine Te'Ketch" is written in the purple center. [END ID]

finished part 3 of the Lancer game and, well... someone had to say it.

#friends at the table #f@tt spoilers #f@tt humor #partizan #the road to palisade #gur sevraq #narmine te'ketch #kal'mera broun #i'm manifesting a broun-ketch encounter in PALISADE; i am manifesting it SO hard #granted i'd be surprised if austin DIDN'T bring ketch (and tenacity) back in some way even if only as an offhand reference #by virtue of originally being austin's pc ketch is like. the platonic IDEAL of the austin walker boyfriend character #......... oh my god. now i'm thinking about that post speculating on rebound relationships for broun in PALISADE and WHEEZING #broun can hook up with an ex-con whaler mech pilot who also likes mcgyver-ing divines! as a treat!#ANYWAY excuse the quality of the meme; i made it on paint on the front desk computer during my desk shift #but i HAD to make it before the concept got away from me #edit: DAMMIT I JUST NOTICED I INCORRECTLY CAPITALIZED KETCH'S SURNAME #this is what i get for being so focused on spelling broun's name correctly 😭😭

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alvin-draper · 1 year

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damn i just enjoyed enola holmes 2 so much. twas entirely unexpected. it was just so fun! i remember finding the first movie irritating in its naiivety and i now feel that i both didnt understand the intent of the first, and that the second is far better. for one; no mycroft. i enjoy that precisely no time was wasted reintroducing any characters and instead time was spent on immaculate plotting. i guessed cicely was sarah from the first 30 seconds of her screen time but i still found it an interesting build-up. tewksebury was simply delightful, and enola was charming. she, him, and her brother are somewhat the ultimate bisexual knockout for me. all of them incredible. i am continually astonished by how charming i find tewkesbury. lovely lad. sherlock was of course excellently done, and i enjoyed their mother’s role in both making them individuals and later providing enola with the advice to find them companions. Enola herself was simply fabulous. I felt her excellently realised and terribly joyful. Her skill in both deducting and fighting are clearly the highest possible of someone her age, but it never steps into the realms of disbelief in what she knows - and neither does cavil’s sherlock. where the 2010 series falls short on believability (and occasionally the original books honestly) this succeeds excellently. and i do enjoy the plot device of the first scene being backtracked and linked to another point. whether that be the whole story (as in the limehouse golem) or as done in this, it hooks me immediately. i am exceptionally curious, and this feeds that. i fear this review has gotten rather put f hand but suffice to say i love it entirely. i shall make perhaps another pot regarding the role of feminism and the matchstick girls when i am whoely sober and awake. until that point, farewell.

#furthermore i went and saw tammy faye at the almeida (an elton john) and came out of it with some analysis of parasocial relationships #to talk of later #frankly marvellous #enola holmes #enola holmes 2 #remember thinking in the first minute of the original movie Where on earth are her gloves and hat?????#no historical accuracy #but then mycroft yells at her about it and im like yesss ty #u know whats going on and u have made choices based on that!!!!#i approve #heavens im distracted #okay ill edit the post then im done #swear #when i say edit i mean correct my spellings i am happy and out of it #anyway yeah will talk about tammy faye later mwah

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gamebunny-advance · 1 year

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Welp.

I didn't do my drawing hour today. Well, there's still time, but I'm honestly probably not gonna do it, but that's mostly because I was working on fixing the errors in "Heart and Soul" and also working on the sequel, "Heartaches." (Yeah, I'm real original. I know.)

To help make these more accessible, I went ahead and made a request for an invite to AO3 so that they'll at least be on a site that's more equipped to handle that kind of long form writing. I'll post links to the updated HaS and Heartaches once they're both up there.

I do hope that the sequel can provide some adequate closure for the original story (or at the very least least not be posted with as many errors XP).

#drawing hour #officially my is just a creative hour.#As long as I'm working on something #I'll consider that task done.#i forgot how much i actually liked writing fanfic #i used to do it all the time when i was younger #mostly for myself but i enjoyed it #that said i dunno when either of those fics are going to be posted #i didn't realize that ao3 had a 'queue' to get in so it could be weeks until i actually even have an account #i might still post heartaches as a text post here #but part of my motivation of posting on a different site besides accessibility #is actually that I can't edit such long posts easily #you'd think it'd be as simple as just copy and pasting the words from my original document into the original post #but somehow tumblr needs to complicate even that much #so i can't. i've tried. i just keep getting errors #and i don't wanna repost it for things like grammar and spelling fixes #so i'm just gonna move this stuff to a place that's built for it

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daddyplasmius · 20 days

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yeah i think i'm just gonna do it if no one minds updates being sporadic & out of nowhere & like 10-20k words

#NOT posting part one today. i am typing each chapter individually into the final draft doc & then again into the final final draft doc #& then again into the AO3 box. each time being a different edit type #i'm just considering posting the prologue & then doing what i planned which is posting each part (5 chapters) every week or maybe month #i'm also working on my original series at the same time. i mostly want to finish FOtPoD so i can fully focus on Black Dog #FOtPoD has taken over my life. i keep saying that but it's because i don't think people understand just how much #i've hyperfixated on magpies. dude. i made an AU for FOtPoD. FOtPoD is already an AU. bruh.#kind of want to bind FOtPoD when it's done. the final spelling check #FOtPoD #Magpie AU

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clown-of-rivia · 9 months

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Fun Fact and History Lesson!

The 'no beta we die like [character]' originated from this damn photo that went viral on Tumblr in 2016 and changed Ao3 tags and fanfic vernacular forever.

Meaning: it's a tag used on fics that were not beta read (the author didn't get someone to read it for them before posting). Betas read fics to check for spelling, grammar, consistently, etc and often edit it.

Similarly, 'Dead dove' or 'dead dove do not eat' is from this scene in Arrested Development.

Meaning: if there's a warning of something really dark/bad, don't open/read it and expect something different. Or: 'mind the tags this is dark, don't read if you don't like it'.

#fanfiction #fandom #fan fiction vernacular #internet history lesson if you will #dont know how to tag this #im so old because i was there #feel free to fact check on known your meme if you dont believe me

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lizzieonka · 10 months

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Yet Another Tumblr Guide for New Users

Change your avatar, header, and put something on your description right now. Do not interact with any post before you do this. Otherwise, you’ll just be mistaken for a bot and blocked.

Post/Reblog stuff before following people. Even with your blog all customized, some people will still block you if they see your blog is empty.

Reblog, reblog, and reblog! Reblogs are not like quote retweets. Reblogging stuff is how Tumblr works, and reblogs actually help OP gain traction.

“Likes are useless” —You’ve probably seen a lot of guides preaching this, but actually that’s only some people’s opinions. People prefer reblogs over likes because it helps OP get more views/interaction on their posts, while likes are just—well, “likes.” It tells OP that you liked their post. Nothing bad with that. Some people also use likes to bookmark posts they want to find later. But if you want to support an artist, consider reblogging their work as well if you are able. If you don’t have enough spoons to use for reblogging, then that’s okay too.

Tags are for categorization, not clout. If you post about one thing but then tag it with irrelevant tags (especially those that happened to be trending), then people can report your post as spam. Here's a Guide to Tagging (edit coz I forgot to link this when I first published this post)

If you see something you don’t like, then just block the user. No need to rally people to cancel said user. Just block and move on.

Use Tag and Post Filters. It’s your responsibility to curate what you see on this site, so add as much filters as you want.

Spell out words. Do not say oomfs or moots. Say “just kidding” instead of “/jk”. Don’t censor triggering words like r@pe. For someone’s filters to work, the content being filtered has to be spelled right. By censoring your words, you’re putting people more at risk to seeing them. More about this on my Tumblr Posting Guide and Best Practices.

Turn off Best Stuff First. We hate algorithms here. Everyone views their dashboard in reverse chronological order.

Tumblr has post limits, but you rarely have to worry about them. I’m too lazy to grab links from the official docs for reference, so take this post limit screenshot (courtesy of XKit) instead. [Ignore the values under Remaining]

Edit: Okay, this is very important for Twitter refugees so I just had to include it:

When your post is reblogged by someone else, then you can no longer completely delete your post.

Unlike quote retweets, reblogs are forever. You may delete the original post, but you won’t be able to delete the reblogs of that post. They will continue to exist on other people’s blogs.

The best you can do to limit views on a post you want gone is to disable reblogs on said post before deleting it. That way, even if the reblogged version still exists, there’ll be no way to spread them further. Just make sure that you won’t regret it later.

Here’s an example of me doing exactly this on a post of mine that got over 10k notes.

#twitter #reddit #twitter refugee #tumblr refugee #reddit migration #twitter migration #tumblr #ID in alt #tumblr guide #miyamiwu.tut #miyamiwu.src

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littlejuicebox · 3 months

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The wish spell worked.

Pairing: Astarion x F!Reader/Tav

Summary/Setting: 10 years post BG3. Follows my HC for spawn Astarion arc. See my other fics for more information, but otherwise the title speaks for itself. :)

Rating/Warnings: PG / allusions to sexual behaviors / fluff / in-game spoilers / lightest bit of angst if you squint but not really / this is self-indulgent af and idc / so sweet it will rot your teeth

Word Count: 2.2 K

A/N: HAPPY 400 FOLLOWERS POST! Thank you to everyone who likes my stories and provides encouragement. I love you all! I originally wanted to post this as a New Years Eve/Day special, but I couldn't get it quite right by then. After several reiterations, this is what we finally have! Hope it was worth the wait and multiple edits for you guys! :)

-----

If anyone had told Astarion Ancunin a decade ago that he would one day hold Gale Dekarios on a pedestal nearly as high as the one on which he held his darling Tav, the immortal elf might have actually died from laughter. The strange irony and wicked life lessons of fate were not lost on the retired rogue. Unbelievably and annoyingly, Astarion eventually found himself indebted to the wizard in a way he could never repay.

The wish spell worked.

It had taken years for Gale to feel absolutely ready to cast the spell. Astarion waited — exasperated, impatient, and impetuous — for what felt like the longest ten years of his ageless lifetime to be given the gift of mortality.

More than once, in the pale elf’s tearful fits of frustration, he accused the wizard of intentionally stringing him along or simply not having the skills to perform such a spell and not wanting to admit it. More than once, you had to calmly remind your husband of the great lengths Gale had gone to find information regarding the act and the even greater risk to both the vampire and the wizard if the spell was not cast perfectly and mindfully.

It had been a long decade, waiting for that impossible possibility, but the wait had been more than worth it.

Just over ten years after you met that silver-haired rake on the beach, Astarion was miraculously returned to his living, breathing, heart beating, mortal elven form. Surprisingly, not much changed about his appearance. Most notably, his eyes turned a gold-flecked green, and his complexion took on a constant soft pink undertone, permanently tinged by the circulation of his own blood by his own heart. That beautiful undertone caused a delightful blush to creep across his cheeks and ears whenever you teased or aroused him, and you took an even more significant liking to both these behaviors, just to watch that gorgeous rosiness creep across his skin.

And while you dearly loved that blush, your favorite part of the change had certainly been the steady beating of his heart. You would rest your head on your lover’s chest for hours to savor the sound if he let you, wrapped tightly in the new found warmth of his long limbs.

While you became obsessed with Astarion’s steadily thrumming heart, he’d become obsessed with his reflection. As soon as he’d been able to see himself, your husband had taken to having you sit on his lap while you primped and preened. He would stare into the looking glass with you for long lengths of time, his limbs coiled around your waist and chin often resting on your shoulder as he studied the mirror with a besotted, hazy smile on his face.

After a few weeks of this, you finally asked your silver-haired husband why he seemed positively obsessed with this new behavior. Astarion’s response had floored you.

“Darling, in my over 200 years, I never imagined I would have a love of my own, nor did I ever imagine what we would look like together. I couldn’t have envisioned such a thing even if I thought it a possibility or wanted to. I simply couldn’t envision myself at all. But now seeing it? I want to commit everything to memory exactly as it is… because it’s the most precious vision in the world to me.”

And really how else could you respond to that apart from kissing your sappy, bleeding heart of a husband and allowing him to continue the practice?

Of course, the two of you behaving as innocent love birds hadn’t been the only thing Astarion wanted to see in the mirror. On more than one occasion, he’d easily charmed you into the throes of passion in perfect view of a reflective surface. Your husband’s darker, more carnal half had become obsessed with watching you two in the act and it certainly thrilled you to know he was trying to commit those sensual sights to memory. You were quite happy to oblige.

As such, you’d soon found yourself carrying the byproduct of one of your many erotic couplings.

“That was a big one.” Astarion murmurs, and you see a smile creeping across the reflection of his face in the mirror as he glances down and runs his long fingers across the swell of your abdomen. His arms are looped around you as you sit front of the vanity mirror, placing the final touches on your appearance.

You agree with a gentle hum, moving a hand to your pregnant belly and rubbing circles on the stretch of skin, hoping to calm the young life stirring within. You coo softly to the rolling babe as you finish your primping, “Surely you aren’t thinking about breaking out of there yet, my little love. You have a few more months to go.”

Astarion’s now-warm hands cover yours as the little one seems to do somersaults in response to your voice, causing you to wince slightly as they jolt against your ribs. He presses a tender kiss into your shoulder and chuckles, “This one is strong like their mother and impatient like their father… we may be in for a spot of trouble in a few years, my love.”

You laugh in response as you stand with a pitiable amount of effort and quite a bit of assistance from the supportive arm of your husband. “I believe you’re right… but surely we’ve taken on scarier and more difficult things than a stubborn babe.”

Astarion hums in agreement before pressing a kiss to your swollen stomach, which is hovering just in front of him now, “Surely, darling. Now let us all go say hi to Uncle and Auntie Ravengard. I’m positively famished.”

-----

You are almost out of breath as you walk the final steps toward the entry of the Duke’s home. Astarion had practically begged you to take the carriage all the way through Wyll’s estate, but you waved him off, adamant that a bit light exercise would be good for the baby. The walkway was fully paved, how hard could it be?

As it turned out, you’d severely overestimated your abilities. Though it was just under a quarter mile to the front doors of the manor when you’d decided to exit the carriage, you were no longer the young, lithe woman that traversed the wilds with a petulant vampire a decade ago. The weight of your belly slowed you down more than you would admit. Astarion implored you, more than once and with growing concern and exasperation, to return to carriage. You refused each time, forcing the driver to follow behind at a snail’s pace.

“Gods, I hope this child does not take on your stubborn streak. I will be constantly overrun in my own home.” Astarion huffs, dabbing at the few beads of sweat on your brow with a silken handkerchief as he helps you climb the small flight of stairs at the entryway of Wyll’s home. He rolls his eyes as you laugh, breathlessly, and lean into him for support as he presses a kiss at the meeting point between your cheek and ear. “But, my sweet, as much as I would have preferred we stayed in the coach, you know I adore the way you look with your cheeks all flushed after a bit of… exertion.”

It’s your turn to roll your eyes at your husband as he traces his hand over your flushed cheek, his expression practically brimming with desire. The flush on the tips of his ears is a telltale sign of his salacious thoughts. If he had it his way, he’d be dragging you into the carriage right there for a quickie. But, he knew you two were nearly running late for dinner with the Duke and forced himself to push all desires aside. For now.

Wyll and his beautiful wife, Euphemia, greet you with a flurry of excitement and hugs. Their two twin toddlers run around in the entryway, a nursemaid trailing behind them.

Wyll wears a kind, soft smile as he addresses the both of you, “Dinner should be just about ready… shall we make our way there? I hope you two don’t mind. We are having work done in the dining room — my beautiful flower insisted upon remodeling — so dinner will have to be served in the Great Hall.”

As the four of you head towards the larger of the two dining areas in the Duke’s estate, Astarion wraps his arm around your waist and runs his hand along the side of your nearly bursting belly once again. There is a subtle pause at the doors of the Great Hall, and your husband’s eyebrows crinkle in a silent question before you gently press a kiss into his cheek and whisper, “Happy Rebirth Day, my love.”

Today marked one year since Gale successfully cast the Wish Spell.

The oak doors burst open to reveal the faces of everyone you hold dear, all of them shouting, “Surprise!” in unison. Wyll and Euphemia are laughing with delight as the four of you enter the room. Astarion is obviously shocked and overwhelmed as he takes the scene in, but a toothy smile is plastered across his face nonetheless. The elf could not believe that the significance of the date had slipped his mind, nor could he believe that you all went through such great lengths to plan a spectacle on his behalf.

Everyone showered your husband with a plethora of well-wishes and congratulations. The food was heavenly, and the silver-haired elf dined to his heart’s content. Just as Astarion loved to watch you both in the mirror, you adored seeing him eat and savor real food. You’d pursued cooking as a new hobby in the past few months, just to watch the delight on his face as he tasted any number of delectable things you placed in front of him.

“Have you thought of any names for the baby?” Karlach asks through a mouthful of food as she continues to tear into the lamb shank in front of her.

You smile knowingly. This topic has piqued everyone’s interest and they all turn their gazes in your direction, “Yes, actually… Astarion picked it out. It works well for a boy or a girl, and I think it’s an excellent choice.”

The elf smiles shyly, that subtle flush of his cheeks and ears crawling across his face as you turn your gaze to him and urge him on, “Go on, my love, and tell them the gorgeous name you picked.”

“I… I decided we should name the baby Gale.” Astarion reveals, his hand immediately moving to graze against your swollen stomach as he meets the flabbergasted expression of the wizard sitting across the table with a round-eyed, nervous gaze, “If… that’s okay by you.”

Gale coughs in surprise, nearly choking on the wine he’d just sipped from a goblet. For a moment, you watch as he blinks away tears. You are beginning to truly believe he might leap across the table and tackle your husband in a hug when he rapidly nods instead.

The wizard’s voice cracks with emotion as he speaks, “Y-yes. Thank you, Astarion. That is such an honor.”

Ten years of friendship between two men that once seemed entirely at odds with one another, honored by a namesake given to a precious babe. Fate was a truly remarkable thing.

“It’s an honor you are quite deserving of, Gale.” You respond, reaching your hand across the table to give the wizard’s hand an affectionate squeeze. “May our child have just as much heart, wit, and skill as their namesake. We will be truly blessed.”

A cake with candles is brought about at the end of the meal and placed in front of Astarion as everyone sings an off-key birthday tune. While your husband always seemed to thrive on being held at the center of attention, you noticed with a bit of amusement that his ears and cheeks were flushed pink as everyone focused their eyes upon him.

While the others continue to sing, you lean closer to your husband and whisper, “I know we will never surpass the wish you made last time, my Star. But go on and make one anyway.”

Astarion’s gaze roams around the room, taking in all the friends he collected this past decade. Then he turns to you and grins, pausing to etch every bit of this moment into his memory before closing his eyes and blowing the candles out to a cacophony of inebriated cheers and whoops.

The elf wished for the only thing he could: a healthy child and a long life with his little love. Fate had already gifted him with more than he could have imagined for himself back in those dark, dank dungeons he once called home. Astarion found himself in want of nothing but the health and happiness of the woman beside him and the safety of their offspring.

Though he knew it was another selfish ask, and he’d been blessed far more than he had ever expected, Astarion prayed to the gods that he once never thought would answer to grant him this last wish. And just in case they did not hear him the first time, he would be sure to make the same wish every year, until his very last.

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nykloss · 1 year

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Ditching D&D Beyond or never got it in the first place? Here's some free/pwyw resources.

Dicecloud. This online app allows you to make and track character sheets for free! It does a lot of the calculations for you, just like dnd beyond would. Best overall replacement. (Thank you, @chryslerisdead)

PWYW Class Character Sheets by Emmet Byrne. These character sheets in my opinion, are easier to fill out and harder to mess up, with class-specific features built-in. You can easily edit them digitally, and there's even multiclass/homebrew options. Slap em on Google drive or something, share with your DM, lots of options.

Point-Buy Calculator. Easily automates character stat creation if you're using the Point-Buy system.

5e Level Up Tool. Select your class, select your level, get a digestible checklist of everything you need to do to level up. This one is SO GOOD and so slept on.

5e Spellbook. A quick way to reference your spells and build a Spellbook with a ton of filters.

Encounter Calculator. I know challenge rating isn't everything, but this is a good/fast way to see how balanced your encounters are, at a glance, at least in the eyes of the source books.

RPGbot. Lots of resources for DMs and players: encounter builders, dpr calculators, and lists of player options with sample builds and optimization suggestions, which may be helpful to folks new to the game.

Bonus: Online Tools (System Agnostic)

Here.fm. This is the alternative I use instead of roll20, because it's faster/easier. Drag and drop in maps and tokens in seconds, built-in library of stickers you can use for effects, draw right on the virtual tabletop, use temporary drawings to map out moves, built-in dice rollers, and options for proximity chat. I use it in combination with discord (just have players join your here room muted), but it could be used entirely on it's own, I imagine. Not built for ttrpgs, but works incredibly well for them.

Kenku.fm. A PWYW mini browser focused on mixing and sharing music to your dnd games through whatever app you use, with helpful discord support. This app also LEGALLY bypasses the issue that got all the YouTube discord bots shut down, so you can share YouTube audio worry-free.

Additional Resources (Aka, stuff I found out about after I originally posted this):

flapkan. Holy shit, this might be the BEST character sheet option on this list! Form-fillable pdfs with fully automated built-in prompts to auto fill features and spells, built-in Point-Buy and other automated calculations, and it generates a lot for you. Can be used digitally or you can print!

#d&d beyond #dnd beyond #dnd resources #5e #dungeons and dragons #roll20 #nyklos is typing #resources #also if you need the books and are ok with being a little jolly-rodger-core just add pdf to the end of your google search #oops! fixed typo in kenku.fm

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