wordsgood

[wordsgood]

their relationship to time also has a hand in this, obviously, and their personality in general, but i also think the key emotions affect POV/tense, too. doli lin is third person preset - by necessity he holds himself at a remove, tries to keep his emotions under control, but his grief is relentlessly present. he can’t relegate that to the past, and the grief is his key emotion, so he’s present tense.

jat, on the other hand, is trying to reframe her side of the story to an audience who probably sees her as a monster - she’s talking about her past self, comparing it to her present, but she’s so hungry. for justification, vindication, maybe even forgiveness. she has to tell it herself. it has to be first person

marou is also speaking to an audience, but a very different one - he’s trying to tell a history that he thinks may be forgotten. by necessity he’s telling it in past tense. but he isn’t taking himself out of the narrative - it’s still first person, because he has to make sure people know the reason why he still has hope. he has points to make, something to prove. despite everything, he has hope - look, he was there, if he can still see a light at the end of the tunnel, you can, too!

tbh loreleaf’s third-person/past to even things out, not everything can always have intention or meaning. i could probably bullshit something but I don’t want to sound like im reaching

remembering that post that’s like. poets often write from a singular, overarching emotion. and also about that book i read that described conceiving of characters as having a specific emptiness in them, a something-shaped hole that they’re always looking to hide or fill. and how these two things affect how i write them, first or second or third person, present or past, just as much as personality and background do. so, the root emotion of each pov char of wdnftp:

- doli lin: grief

- loreleaf: desperation

- jatatyla: hunger

- marou: hope

and, of course, what makes them the pov characters in the first place is the shape of the hole in their souls:

- doli lin: loneliness

- loreleaf: loneliness

- jatatyla: loneliness

- marou: loneliness

#story: we did not fulfill the prophecy #story: prophecy trilogy

[wordsgood]

remembering that post that’s like. poets often write from a singular, overarching emotion. and also about that book i read that described conceiving of characters as having a specific emptiness in them, a something-shaped hole that they’re always looking to hide or fill. and how these two things affect how i write them, first or second or third person, present or past, just as much as personality and background do. so, the root emotion of each pov char of wdnftp:

- doli lin: grief

- loreleaf: desperation

- jatatyla: hunger

- marou: hope

and, of course, what makes them the pov characters in the first place is the shape of the hole in their souls:

- doli lin: loneliness

- loreleaf: loneliness

- jatatyla: loneliness

- marou: loneliness

#i think you could say alienation (and i have. extensively.) but that’s kind of. clinical almost #alienation is a cause not an effect in some ways. the plain bare truth is that they are all so so lonely #doli lin’s grief is so all encompassing and smothering because he’s so lonely #loreleaf’s desperate for absolution or care or love because he’s isolated #jat’s hunger for peace and safety makes her mean and selfish because she’s so often alone with it #marou’s got the most stable life but he only has to hope so hard for everything because that’s his only constant companion #they’re so isolated and lonely and alienated! #and then they find each other! but they cant stay together! not yet. the prophecy isn’t fulfilled yet. and they can’t do it. #story: we did not fulfill the prophecy

[wordsgood]

fun character exercise; which of your OC’s would chug a bottle of liquor rather than give it to airport security

#char: doli lin #char: judah

[wordsgood]

the Mature Thoughts don’t really kick in until quite a bit after he meets halsin, or at least they aren’t paramount. mostly doli lin sees halsin and listens to him talk and is immediately like “oh thank all four gods someone who is actually qualified to handle this quest. listen. i’ve been thrust into leadership positions before but at heart i am a passenger princess. please handle these rowdy kids. they are giving me simply oh so many migraines. tell me what to do and i will be your second in command just. i need someone else to break shadowheart and lae’zel apart when they get into their nightly fistfights. please.” and then immediately has a prophetic vision from sheer emotional overload and throws up on halsin’s shoes. it’s not a flattering meeting but i like to think halsin sees at least a bit of pathetic traumatized charm in it

thinkin about an aromantic bg3 run with doli lin!tav. he’s so tired. what’s one more monstrous cursèd gift in his head, there might as well be a literal physical creature creaching around up there, this might as well happen. surrounded by horny children who need hugs and protection. unfortunately because amatonormativity he gets no special cutscenes but he could go to avernus with karlach (who is also aromantic you can’t convince me otherwise im SORRY [not].). the last time he lost a soulmate he couldn’t follow them into the dark but oh boy THIS time he’s fucking prepared! he may have terrible hips and the soul of a trophy husband and just the worst empathetic magic gift there’s ever been but he will kick demon ass for his new bestie. he might also bang halsin, who’s to say, he might feel sexy one night when the city’s making him attractively homesick instead of his usual drunken soggy-paper-bag kind of homesick. he can do what he wants. he’s surrounded by children with either too few or too many memories that constantly send him into empathy-triggered fugue states and dissociations and migraine nightmares. daddy needs a self-care night kids

#char: doli lin #doli lin grew up the sidekick of a confident and entitled princeling he just isn’t built for handling things

[wordsgood]

BG3 COMPANIONS, ACCORDING TO DOLI LIN (confirmed old man at heart)

lae'zel: early 20s. a literal infant. that "what have you got there?" "A KNIFE" "NO--" vine toddler, no matter how many people she's actually killed

shadowheart: mid 40s, still young for a half-elf, another literal child, could not babysit lae'zel. who let her get a hold of the baby's first torture cloth book

wyll: mid 20s, also literal infant, see lae'zel. "blade of frontiers" PLEASE GO TAKE A NAP. stop giving the babies sharp objects

karlach: 20s-30s. a very tall child but still a child. gortash is going to die by doli lin's blade.

gale: 30s-40s. angsty teen with gifted kid syndrome rushing up from the horizon. who was monitoring the time he spent unsupervised with powerful grown-ups. why's he talking about wine, surely he's not old enough to drink yet

astarion: 250-300? technically doli lin is younger than astarion (150~, he does not remember except on the best of days). but every instinct in doli lin says "that's a toddler having a tantrum because of several centuries of torture, someone needs to hold and feed that toddler" (bloodless tag has entered the chat)

minthara: ???????? doesn't matter, this is an adult on the level of adult that doli lin does not know how to access yet and probably never will

halsin: 300-350? So They Call You Daddy Halsin, Huh--

thinkin about an aromantic bg3 run with doli lin!tav. he’s so tired. what’s one more monstrous cursèd gift in his head, there might as well be a literal physical creature creaching around up there, this might as well happen. surrounded by horny children who need hugs and protection. unfortunately because amatonormativity he gets no special cutscenes but he could go to avernus with karlach (who is also aromantic you can’t convince me otherwise im SORRY [not].). the last time he lost a soulmate he couldn’t follow them into the dark but oh boy THIS time he’s fucking prepared! he may have terrible hips and the soul of a trophy husband and just the worst empathetic magic gift there’s ever been but he will kick demon ass for his new bestie. he might also bang halsin, who’s to say, he might feel sexy one night when the city’s making him attractively homesick instead of his usual drunken soggy-paper-bag kind of homesick. he can do what he wants. he’s surrounded by children with either too few or too many memories that constantly send him into empathy-triggered fugue states and dissociations and migraine nightmares. daddy needs a self-care night kids

#char: doli lin #the wretched yearning envy doli lin has towards gale for getting to be 38 years old in human years #thinking about doli lin and astarion talking about the cages they were born/reborn into and the horrors they were forced to witness #on behalf of the men who held their leashes #thinking about doli lin begging halsin to try and heal his empathic gift #oh no i've thought too much and now It All Hurts

[wordsgood]

thinkin about an aromantic bg3 run with doli lin!tav. he’s so tired. what’s one more monstrous cursèd gift in his head, there might as well be a literal physical creature creaching around up there, this might as well happen. surrounded by horny children who need hugs and protection. unfortunately because amatonormativity he gets no special cutscenes but he could go to avernus with karlach (who is also aromantic you can’t convince me otherwise im SORRY [not].). the last time he lost a soulmate he couldn’t follow them into the dark but oh boy THIS time he’s fucking prepared! he may have terrible hips and the soul of a trophy husband and just the worst empathetic magic gift there’s ever been but he will kick demon ass for his new bestie. he might also bang halsin, who’s to say, he might feel sexy one night when the city’s making him attractively homesick instead of his usual drunken soggy-paper-bag kind of homesick. he can do what he wants. he’s surrounded by children with either too few or too many memories that constantly send him into empathy-triggered fugue states and dissociations and migraine nightmares. daddy needs a self-care night kids

#doli lin meeting the ~dream visitor~ like. ah. this shit again. #he is not particularly horrified by anything in particular because he has literally seen it all and he is just. very very Over It #what class though :0 i know wizards get an oracle specialization or something #he famously does not have magic other than his empathy gift #it might work but also……….bard………….. #thoughts!!!! i love him i love thinking about him #char: doli lin #story: prophecy trilogy

[wordsgood]

The combination of 'unnervingly flawless self-control' with 'occasional tendency to engage in reckless, dangerous, and borderline self-destructive or death-seeking behaviour' in a character is SUCH catnip to me

#char: judah #story: satisfaction

[wordsgood]

what if i let judah bang her ex-fiancé’s wife. after she’s finished ripping him apart with her teeth. just an idea

#he was going to marry her until she was turned and then shunned her and tried to have her killed #his home should have been her escape but he locked her out #then she comes back and kills him for a century’s worth of shady shit and has his blood over ice #and his widow inherits the estate and marries her and that’s how judah finally gets what’s hers ☺️ #who said murderous vengeance wasn’t a valid path to happiness #story: satisfaction

[wordsgood]

redraw of this raphael portrait from 2020

#MR THEBEDLAMSTACKS #this is so wonderful look at him!!! #the bedlam stacks #pulleyverse #fanart

[wordsgood]

the thing about the eventual qpr that is judah d'arville and dara iliad is that judah is so buttoned-up and well-mannered and excruciatingly self-controlled and is also just a ticking time bomb of restrained repressed bloodthirsty violent vengeful fury, meanwhile dara is simultaneously a literal infant and also close to a thousand years old and behaves like a dozen imminent mental breakdowns in a trenchcoat, but is also smart as a whip and able to trick judah into believing she's dumber than she actually is for half an entire year and unwind judah's entire revenge scheme. red/blue dynamic but they're secretly wearing the opposite colors underneath.

#what judah needs is someone to take her in their arms gently and tell her that she is not a monster #what dara needs is someone she can proudly be a monster for #so they find each other! #i know i called dara judah's brand new daughter but it really isn't that straightforward #because. qpr. it's not a straightforward dynamic they just Are. #about to start trying to write an actual plot summary so i can stop pantsing this thing #and i just. i've loved them for so long and i'm SO happy to be figuring them out for real finally #also no my younger self did not think about dara's name and judah's surname being so similar. i can't help it. it's fine #story: satisfaction

[wordsgood]

i have goofed around trying to add some fantasy flare to deep six by saying i should make chance a vampire but his story doesn’t really suit the typical vampire motifs and it would, i think, give him more agency than he actually has. what he WOULD be is a siren: a beautiful lure. he makes himself irresistible to drag people down to a death they might have avoided if they were able to see him as a person instead of a thing they desired. and the question his character arc would have to answer is, What is left of him that exists for himself, what is his beauty when it isn’t being sold to strangers?

now SIXES, on the other hand, makes a great vampire. the sickly twin, maybe turned so he would survive alongside sevens. he winds up with asthma too so he’s hungry for blood and he’s hungry for breath. he’s a poisoner, he taught himself to cook. his whole life is about consumption: draining every drop of survival out of whatever he can get his hands on. he’s even trans, which doesn’t have anything to do with the vampire thing, i just like trans vampires

#story: deep six #char: sixes #char: chance #which leaves lev and sevens #but i kind of want sevens to be normal. he came to the days with sixes as a package deal #lev needs something though. I thought ghost for a second but that doesn’t fit her at all

[wordsgood]

dara overhears rosaire call judah by her real name instead of the false one dara knows her by and spends the rest of the book carefully piecing together who judah really is and why she’s interested in helping dara, some random abomination of nature and magic and science, and she’s fully expecting to end up with a dossier on why judah is the Worst Villainess Alive who is out to manipulate and use dara for wicked purposes but what she actually finds out is that judah is a clinically depressed constantly hungry poor little meow meow who helped dara because she was sad about being a monster and wrecked all her plans just to help another girl not feel sad about being a monster. and also that she was a mass murderer once but that was a phase and they mostly had it coming.

#story: satisfaction #char: judah #char: dara

[wordsgood]

the fray-only playlist for judah d'arville, roughly chronological (italics are the most important ones)

"enough for now" (not really accurate anymore but it was so crucial in figuring out her high-born family dynamic)

"little house"

"fall away"

"heaven forbid"

"vienna"

"i can barely say"

"syndicate"

"keep on wanting"

"trust me" (judah + dara anthem)

"happiness"

finally writing judah's story and then immediately rediscovering the fray, whose first two albums basically wrote judah's entire backstory for me like fifteen years ago, is so. i mean. it feels so good. feels right. i'm going to make a fray-only judah playlist

#me at age 14 listening to 'little house': i am about to meet a fictional woman so unhinged and so cool. #and i did!!!

[wordsgood]

finally writing judah's story and then immediately rediscovering the fray, whose first two albums basically wrote judah's entire backstory for me like fifteen years ago, is so. i mean. it feels so good. feels right. i'm going to make a fray-only judah playlist

#char: judah #story: satisfaction #listening to the albums is like 'oh wow that's an old judah song. so's that one. so's that one. huh..... so's that one......'

[wordsgood]

dara: yeah, i don't think i actually need to eat. maybe my creator forgot to give me a stomach? i don't know what 'hunger' is supposed to feel like.

judah, has not been Not Ravenous for a single minute in approximately 150 years, gripping the stem of her wine glass so tightly that it shatters into powder: how interesting. :) thank you for telling me.

#story: satisfaction

[wordsgood]

i don't know if this is a hot take or anything but i keep seeing in posts and reviews that "all pulley main characters are interchangeable," either as a criticism or as a "but i love them anyway" kind of thing, and respectfully i have to disagree?? well, not disagree, this isn't an argument, but like. i could never feel the same way. you can't tell me that the kingdoms with shenkov in place of kite would be the same. the bedlam stacks with valery instead of merrick would be a completely different story. i do agree that the DYNAMIC between the main characters tends to be similar, and there are absolutely broad similarities between POV characters and love interests, but still not to the point of being interchangeable, to me, anyway. or maybe those comments are hyperbolic and i'm just reading them too literally? but i see them so often and it always leaves me like "????? did we read the same batch of books?"

#pulleyverse #again i'm not trying to say anyone else is wrong!!! taste is subjective!!! #i'm just. i don't know. Expressing Myself(tm) or something #every time i express a Pulley Opinion i feel like i'm setting myself up to be exploded mentally by people smarter than me. #and yet i remain Expressing

[wordsgood]

#story: bitter magic #¯\_(ツ)_/¯