detectivesteel

[detectivesteel]

ROUND 1: POLL #2

ROUND 1 ALL POLLS [HERE]

PROPAGANDA BELOW

Astarion Ancunín/Wyll Ravengard:

Wyll and Astarion play out as a story of parallels and contrasts. 

Wyll is a monster hunter, and Astarion is a vampire. However, Wyll can be surprisingly reasonable when he learns of Astarion's true nature, to the point that he makes a "pact" with a player character Astarion to not hunt him if Astarion promises not to drink from innocents.

Both Astarion and Wyll are trapped in a relationship with an abuser--Astarion with his vampire sire, Cazador, and Wyll with the devil he contracted with to receive his powers as a warlock, Mizora. (Spoiler: Both Cazador and Mizora cause monsters transformations in Astarion and Wyll.) The way the two react to their bondage contrasts in interesting ways: Astarion latches onto behaving selfishly, his centuries of slavery without any aid convincing him that he needs to focus on gaining power to protect himself, no matter the cost. Wyll responds to his own abuse by clinging to his folk hero persona, the Blade of Frontiers, leading to him being selfless to the point of great personal cost--at one point in the story, Wyll can choose to (spoilers: be bound into his contract with Mizora for an eternity to save his father--the father that banished him from Baldur's Gate at the age of 17 because of his contract.) There's a good chance for them to push each other away from the extremes of selfishness and selflessness to end up more toward the middle, particularly if you choose one of them as the player character. (Spoilers: Astarion can be talked out of sacrificing 700 souls in a demonic ritual to become the Vampire Ascendant with a charisma check, and Wyll's highest stat is charisma. If you're playing as Astarion, you can offer to use your past as a magistrate to try to help Wyll get out of his contract, and it's pretty in character for him to argue against giving up on ever breaking free from it to save Wyll's father.)

The way their romance paths play out also have an interesting mix of contrast and parallels. Astarion is an incorrigible flirt and very quickly pursues a sexual relationship with the player character as long as he reaches a relatively low approval score threshold, while Wyll refuses sex in his romance until the end, because he wants to have a slow, romantic courtship as portrayed in the bardic tales he loves so much. However, (spoilers: Astarion eventually comes to the realization that being forced to prostitute himself to lure victims for Cazador has damaged his self image and relationship with sex, and admits he was initially seducing a romanced player to try to secure protection for himself. Once he hits that point he asks the player to halt sex in their relationship until he can figure out what he himself actually wants. Between this and dev notes found in the game's script that details that Astarion actually DOES want to have non-sexual intimacy, there's a good argument to be made that Wyll's style of romance is actually much closer to what Astarion truly wants in a relationship.)

Both Astarion and Wyll are attracted to all genders, and make comments indicating attraction to each other. Wyll frequently mentions that he finds Astarion charming and beautiful (particularly commenting on his "well-coiffed" hair), and Astarion immediately responds "Wyll" when asked which party member he wants to drink from the most, and eventually admits (if somewhat derisively) that "Wyll's the sort of prince-type I would have once dreamed of marrying. When I was about thirteen."

And the cherry on top of all of this? You can choose to play the game as either Astarion or Wyll, and romance the other. So you can, in a sense, choose to make this pairing canon, at least in your playthrough.

Juno Steele x Peter Nureyev:

[SPOILER] They're actually insane the had crazy gay sex the second episode and spent the rest of the currently five seasons recovering. They were divorced and then they got married and then they got divorced again and nureyev is trying SO hard to stay divorced but Juno WILL NOT ALLOW IT [END SPOILER] it's all spoilers for everything past the second episode basically

#come ON #JUPETER SWEEP PLZ #tpp

[detectivesteel]

I couldn’t resist doing an animatic of this scene. I mean… Juno Steel in a GOWN. I had to see it.

[detectivesteel]

Peter Nureyev (The Penumbra Podcast)

Edited from The Penumbra Podcast fanwiki: “Peter Nureyev is a charismatic, quick thinking master thief. Nureyev comes off as rather confident and slightly camp. He is rather flirtatious and claims to ‘act solely in his own self-interest.’ When working a heist, Peter is always quick to charm people, to the point where he has convinced them into handing him their valuables with very little resistance on more than one occasion.”

Static Man (Archive 81)

Edited from the Archive 81 fanwiki: “Static Man is an outgoing person who presents as fun and chill. Despite his fun, cheerful nature, Static Man initially has absolutely no qualms with violence, and messily eviscerates a considerable number of people, even joking about it afterwards, though he becomes subtly but increasingly uncomfortable with it over time. Knowing few people has left him very lonely, and he puts strong effort into trying to make friends.”

How should I vote?

In this bracket, don't worry about who's most popular on Tumblr or who meets a narrow definition of "sexyman"/"sexywoman"—just vote for whoever you, personally, think is sexiest.

#NUREYEV SWEEP #tpp

[detectivesteel]

Martin Blackwood (The Magnus Archives)

Warning: Contains spoilers for TMA.

Martin Blackwood was an archival assistant at The Magnus Institute. Though his boss Jon initially viewed him as inept and bumbling, Martin ended up proving to be both very brave and very capable, playing a pivotal role in many key moments of the plot. As Jon and Martin got to know each other better, Jon’s opinion of him shifted, and he eventually developed romantic feelings for Martin. The feelings were mutual, and he and Martin started a romantic relationship that was only slightly hampered by the advent of the apocalypse.

Juno Steel (The Penumbra Podcast)

Edited from The Penumbra Podcast fanwiki: “Juno Steel is a private eye whose best quality is making enemies. He is bisexual and nonbinary. Juno idolizes the idea of being a hero, of being able to ‘do good’. He thinks that if he tried to help other people, maybe he’d be able to stop himself from hurting them. He considers himself the hero of his own story, the protagonist, the one who has to be better than the bad guys in order to win. However, this need to help other people also feeds into his self-destructive tendencies. Juno is frequently reckless, throwing himself in harm's way if it means that someone else won’t get hurt.”

How should I vote?

In this bracket, don't worry about who's most popular on Tumblr or who meets a narrow definition of "sexyman"/"sexywoman"—just vote for whoever you, personally, think is sexiest.

#rising from the grave for this. vote juno y’all #tpp

[detectivesteel]

And the last but certiantly not least of the Penumbra Bang 2022 is the art for the wonderful @violetsinviolence fic Floriography Which is just so wonderfully soft on so many levels I just...can't-

Please, just go and read

Summary:

There is a garden of flowers that make up Peter Nureyev’s heart. It is overgrown with weeds, bugs, rot, and hurt. However, with the return of Juno Steel, an apology and a stupidly green thumb in tow, Nureyev finds it in himself to cultivate his garden once more. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start. And if Juno gets a bouquet out of it, then that's nobody's business but their own. A study of flower language, by Peter Nureyev.

[detectivesteel]

dtiys by @kingycrow ^^

#oh this is incredible #tpp #fav

[detectivesteel]

Juno Steel S2 AU, but instead of the usual the THEIA soul sounds like

#ok this one got me #tpp

[detectivesteel]

it’s been a long week quick draw comfort characters

#tpp

[detectivesteel]

[detectivesteel]

Decided to digitize the Inktober drawing "Do You Trust Me?" This underwent a bit of a glow up from the pen and ink. Just love These two working as a team.

Also the last penumbra episodes just has me wound up so tight, hell, how can Nureyev be such a big part of an episode without even being there? Juno looking for the spaces Nureyev isn't and the big gapping hole is right next to our detective.

Tags and reblogs are greatly appreciated ^^

#oh this is gorgeous

[detectivesteel]

I want everyone to know that I finally got an iPad and procreate, and the first thing I did with it was turn this comic panel I found into Juno Steel fanart

reference image:

[detectivesteel]

in honor of the new tpp production script being released for patrons yesterday, here is a compilation of kevin’s stage directions being annoyingly relatable:

#oh me too #tpp #tpp spoilers

[detectivesteel]

Juno s4:

#no but literally #tpp #tpp spoilers

[detectivesteel]

thoughts on the new penumbra artist controversies?

not super qualified to speak on the matter (don’t have or use twitter) but it seems like a clusterfuck and a clear lack of common sense and people skills on behalf of the penumbra team. lots of great artists in this fandom, not sure why they had to go pick that one and defend that decision to the death

[detectivesteel]

WAIT HOLD ON THIS IS SUCH A NUREYEV SONG ACTUALLY

#tpp #the penumbra podcast #peter nureyev #will wood #penumbra

[detectivesteel]

I just think that college au jupeter…

[detectivesteel]

“separated by the sea, think about you every day” 💫

(click for better quality)