#.are actually people from outside the game transported into the game and have points of refrence about this whole thing and react how ''rea

[cursedthing]

.havign lots of thoughts about how npcs are portrayed learning about the nature of their universe in works

#ines screams into the void #.most of the feelings were thrown onto evan since like. i dunno feels like a lot of the works like that write the npcs as fi the npcs- #.are actually people from outside the game transported into the game and have points of refrence about this whole thing and react how ''rea #.people'' would react to learning that they were inside a video game #.when really the npcs would prolly react closer to just going yea okay. since that's their world. they have no other world. that's their #.universe. and now they ave a little bit more info about their own universe #.yea they could have an existencial crisis if they knew what it means but also like #.''ooooh that means that i'm not real'' uhm. yea they are. they still are. that world is real from their perspective and continues to be #.real even after the learn about this #.from OUR perspective they aren't! but from theirs? yea! they are! #.also it9 s not like they would instantly know everything about how video games work even if they had no prior knwledge of that #.why would they try to change the fact that they're made out of lines of code #.that's like being mad and wanting to change the fact that they're made out of atoms #.except in their case it's ones and zeros in a computer #.PLUS!!!!!!!!! IN SOME CASES!!!!!!!!!! MAYBE THEY DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT VIDEO GAMES OR COMPUTERS ARE!!!!!!!!!! #.IT ALL DEPENDS ON WHAT SORT OF WORLD THE VIDEO GAME PORTRAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #.IF THE WORLD HAS COMPUTERS IN THERE THEN THEY KNOW A LITTLE BIT MORE! #.IF THE WORLD IS MEDIVAL THEY WOULDN'T FUCKING KNOW SHIT! #.once again pointing at evan and how we threw bunch of our feelings about this onto her #.since like he grew up in a world post combine invasion and like. technoglogy isn't really the best #.like barely anyone has any access to it other than the combine and all that jazz #.so she doesn't know what video games are. maybe has heard of what computers are #.she learned about being in a video game but to him that's the same as learning how our solar system travels through the galaxy and physics #.it's just another little detail about the world thta may explain some things. or maybe it doesn't #.when facing with her code she sees it as her dna. yea she's reading it but she deson't understand a thing in it #.maybe some fragments maybe not #.just like how everyday people wouldn't know how to interpert dna if they already haven't studied about that subject #.and when him getting corrupted. she doesn't know what happened. he just knows that something did. but she can't do anything about it #.and instead just learn how to navigate the world with more difficulties #.like how one would with a pernament injury

[rogueddie]

Eddie slams his pile of books down on the counter, grinning at how hard Steve startles.

"Jesus, fuck," Steve holds a hand to his chest, glaring. "Man, come on, I'm too young to die of a heart attack."

"Are you sure about that?" Eddie reaches over, to tug at his hair- Steve bats his hand away before he can get near. "What are you now, seventy?"

"I'll have you know that the silver only adds to my charm."

"Sure, keep telling yourself that." He pats the pile of books. "I need to check all of these out."

"You know the limit."

"Please? Pretty please? I'll never insult you for going grey early ever again! Promise!"

"You've made that promise before," Steve grumbles, but starts to check the books out anyway. "What's all of this for anyway? New campaign or something?"

"Nah. Robin mentioned something about the cold war and nuclear shit. Got me curious."

Steve pointedly looks at the books, snorting. "Curious."

"What, you've never wanted to learn some new thing or something?"

"Not this much."

"What about all those sports you played?"

"That was more to do with my parents than me actually wanting to do it."

Eddies eyes narrow because... yeah. Outside of his old King Steve days, Eddie doesn't think Steve has ever wanted something. Not even for his birthday, or Christmas.

All he asks is for them to come to his and Robins flat. All he seems to want is confirmation that they're ok and alive.

"You always say you want kids though, right?"

"I mean, kind of. Though, I'm starting to think the brats we babysat might be more than enough for me."

"Chocolate?"

"Oh no..."

"What?"

"You're planning something, aren't you?"

"No! No, no, no... but there has to be something, right?"

"Something?"

"That you really want."

"There's nothing I need."

"That's not what I'm asking."

"That's all the answer you're getting." Steve shoves the pile of books towards him. "Get lost, I'm supposed to be working."

"Ugh, fine, you're no fun."

But he can't stop thinking about it. He ends up returning the pile of books, despite the fact that he barely read one page. When he tries to use it to question Steve, he dodges the question again.

He very quickly gives up, deciding to pester Robin until she tells him. That takes three weeks of constant, daily efforts. And, in the end, the answer is obvious.

Steve just wants to spend more time with people he cares about.

It's not easy to gather anyone in the party, given that there's no holiday or significant occasion- he manages it, though. All the kids, now young adults, organize transportation. Nancy and Jonathan, over the phone, help Eddie and Robin plan out where everyone will sleep with their small apartments.

The effort, and pain of organizing it all, is worth it for the look on Steves face when he comes home to find them all waiting for him.

When Dustin almost knocks him over with how harm he hugs him, for a second, Eddie is worried that he's going to start crying. But he holds it together, greets them all with so much enthusiasm...

"I forgot that he used to be like this," Robin comments, late into the night. They're sat a little away from the group, watching them argue over their games. "The kids mean a lot to him."

"He means a lot to them."

"I know. I think he forgets though, so... thank you."

Steve doesn't corner him until they've got the kids asleep- half of them going with Nancy, Jonathan and Argyle to Eddies appartment, the rest of them fighting over the little space in Steve and Robins.

"You could've got me chocolate," Steve says, nudging him.

"This is what you really wanted though, isn't it? That was the whole point, big boy."

"Right. Sorry, it... I wanted to say thank you. I know this must have taken a lot to organize and-"

"Steve. You don't need to thank me. Besides, I could never have done this on my own."

"Still... thank you." Steve is quiet for a moment, looking out to the busy city street. "What do you want?"

"This."

"No, what do you really want?"

"Yeah, this. Everyones together, having so much fun. We're gonna do a one-shot when you go to work tomorrow. And, uh... you're happy. I don't need anything more than that."

"Right," Steve clears his throat. He shuffles a little closer, so their sides are almost flush together, tentatively reaching out to hold Eddies hand. "You don't need anything else. What about what you want?"

"You know what I want."

"I want you to say it."

Steve leans over, bumping their shoulders together when he hesitates. He smiles, reassuring, and gives Eddies hand a squeeze.

"What do you want, Eddie?"

"You. I- I want you."

It's terrifying to admit, a horrifying leap... but the smile Steve gives him, so soft and happy, is more than worth it.

"As you wish."

#stranger things #steve harrington #eddie munson #steddie #steddie fic #ficlet #flufffic

[blackautmedia]

Tears of the Kingdom and the Orientalism of the Mummy - Dehydrated Ganon

Plenty have talked about the portrayal of Ganon and the problems with both him and the Gerudo as a whole. I haven't seen as much talk about dehydrated Ganon specifically and wanted to share some of what I'm aware of.

TotK in many ways can be read with the number of plot points it lifts from classic mummy films, which in turn means it also picked up all the racial history and tropes that come with that.

Dehydrated Ganon and Phantom Ganon are mummies. He's explicitly referred to as such several times in the game and the game's opening relies on a number of classic mummy movie tropes in its presentation as introducing a corpse-like Ganon.

Here's an excerpt from the The Mummy On Screen: Orientalism and Monstrosity in Horror Cinema.

Male archaeologists, heroic adventurers and female heroines are all drawn to enigmatic corpses and/or racial ‘Others’, being variously hypnotized, transformed, romanced, coerced and/or transported away from their humdrum lives, sometimes through time to re-experience an ancient past in which they once lived, sometimes through space to Egypt where the monster stalks or seduces them.

Helen in The Mummy (1932) is a woman who succumbs not only to the influence of the Mummy but also to the lure of Egypt itself and its ancient ways that still hold sway.

 If one accepts Wood’s thesis, one can see the Mummy film as having a formidable formula, with the Orient serving as an effective site and its chief monster functioning as a potent medium for the release of the suppressed.

The game is built on Zelda being zipped to the past and her experiences in an ancient, mystical world and seeing the founding of Hyrule while Link is integrated into the resources left behind.

After Link and Zelda were drawn in by the Mummy's call to investigate beneath Hyrule following the rise in illnesses from the gloom.

Zelda is whisked away to ancient Hyrule where she spends time with her very heavily Native coded (which would need an entirely separate post on the tropes associated with that and the way the game uses Anti-Native tropes) Zonai pals.

She's in a rush to return home, but this new space also ends up being a big learning environment for her. She's exposed to this ancient and alluring culture that fascinates her and provides many of the wants and needs she expressed in BoTW.

She's given the supportive parents she's needed--a supportive father figure who explicitly supports her utilizing study to achieve her goals and a loving mother to teach her how to use her powers. She even gets a cool engineering/history auntie who shares a lot in common with her.

All of these things are stolen from Zelda because of the evil mummy.

The game makes great effort to play into the exoticized idea associated with the Zonai, right down to infusing Link and Zelda in their culture with Zelda given a new outfit, home, and lifestyle, and Link gifted with Rauru's power.

The Zonai in TotK are characterized less by their beliefs or the perspective of Mineru or Rauru and more framed in relation to the resources they provide others--the secret stones, the Zonai devices, the exotic, mysterious, ancient powers and knowledge, the zonaite you mine, Rauru's arm, etc.

That leads into another issue with how Tears reinforces the idea of Native extinction in how the Zonai are more characterized for the resources everyone is extracting from them rather than their actual peoples' thoughts and feelings and how that form of erasure harms real Native people outside of the fiction.

There's also the aspect of how the land and resources of these Native people are almost destined to fall into the hands of largely white, "civilized" Hyrule leaders with every other group serving under Hyrule's order geographically and narratively while the Zonai are people we only interact with in memories or as spirits.

The Orient until the second half of the nineteenth century had largely proven a fruitful terrain for colonial conquest and achievement for the British, but from the Indian Mutiny of 1857 towards the end of the century various military setbacks began to point worryingly to a decline in British power…In the aftermath of such events, rather than being perceived as ‘passive’, with ‘no capacity for violence’ (Mercer and Julien 1988: 108), the inhabitants of the Orient became more forbidding, a change in perspective reflected in the literature of the period that simultaneously portrayed anxiety concerning Britain’s own newfound sense of vulnerability.

Richard Marsh’s The Beetle...depicted Egypt as every bit as capable as Transylvania of bringing a primitive threat to the civilized West.

As Marsh’s novel exemplifies, the legacy of the ancient Egyptians had transformed over the course of the nineteenth century from one that bestowed valuable knowledge into one that offered secrets best left unearthed, being increasingly tainted as the years unfolded through its association ‘with the mysterious and supernatural, the questionable and disreputable’.

Mummy films rely very heavily on presenting the "other" as an exotic and almost tempting place for the civilized white protagonists to find and change themselves.

They also acted as a way to depict non-white people to bypass several censorship restrictions in earlier decades, so you often see them framed as romance films with an emphasis on a commentary about that dangerous, tempting allure of the mummy being used as a commentary on interracial relationships and intermingling of the civilized and uncivilized with a white gaze in mind.

Many mummy films also would utilize racial coding to characterize the mummy as hostile, dangerous, tempting or seductive in relation to the white, civilized character, something done with several other movie monsters like Dracula, King Kong, etc.

No matter the Zelda game, the structure ends up being largely the same with Ganon in that Hyrule or wherever is shown to be peaceful until the "evil man of the desert" invaded and defiled their space with his wickedness and disrupting the order of the gods and the status quo.

Dehydrated Ganon specifically is another extension in linking Ganon and his wickedness and evil to his heritage and status as a SWANA-coded character, in a lot of using tropes associated with Black people, etc.

He's not just evil because he's a selfish overlord, he's an evil "other" Middle Easterner invading the pure and peaceful environment the game made the effort to set up, and his constant presence looms in the game in how his corpse-like mummy servant is busy carrying out his will.

The Mummy and Nubian were a particularly suitable pairing considering contemporaneous racial stereotyping...Elizabeth Young years later highlighted others, identifying the black ‘brute’ as a stereotype that ‘carried particular force’ in 1930s cinema as ‘a monstrous beast.

Cultural attitudes towards African Americans manifestly became intertwined with contemporary ones concerning those of North African Egyptian Mummies in this version of the play.

In addition to Zelda being taken to the ancient past, we have the element of Ganon stalking and scheming to his rise to power in how he defiles the sanctity of ancient Hyrule continuing in the pattern of referring to him as the "man of the desert," another means of codifying Ganon as inherently evil by way of his heritage. There's almost constant reference to his home, the desert and anything else associated with othering him.

Ganon has previously used religious iconography in how the Gerudo crest used to very closely resemble the symbol of Islam.

He also uses racial coding associated with antisemitism in how he's a green-skinned, hook nosed magic-wielder.

There's Anti-Black imagery in his muscularity and chains and how he devolves into a mindless, savage brute.

There's all the decades of sentiments toward SWANA people wrapped up in him and the mummy is a continuation of that in how dehydrated Ganon is presented as a stalking, corrupting presence who defiles the sanctity and draws the civilized white protagonists in with his tempting allure. Phantom Ganon is a looming threat who can arise out of nowhere.

I know dehydrated Ganon is the same dude as regular Ganon, but I do think there's an extra element to discuss in how Tears uses decades of old mummy horror and the racial coding that comes with that to further the idea that Ganon is an evil SWANA man who needs to be feared and eradicated.

#tears of the kingdom #legend of zelda #totk critical #mummy film #orientalism #phantom ganon #islamophobia #dehydrated ganon #zelda #link #ganon #ganondorf #twilight princess #totk spoilers

[typosandtea]

Power armour!!

New details and stuff about the T60 / power armor in general that I’ve noticed in the show!

Minor spoilers below for the tv show as some things relate to certain scenes.

They absolutely nailed the power armour in the show! I’m so glad they used practical effects for a lot of it, looks great and has some weight to it which I think cgi can lack! Sure it looks a tiny bit goofy but it always was going to, adding a lot to your height and forearm length while still being able to move properly will do that I think. I think they did a great job :)

The faceplate is hinged to open upwards.

You can jump extra far / power jumping

The grip strength is very high (enough to crush a guy’s skull one handed)

The throwing strength is very far (vending machine like 50m?)

These T60s have the jet packs included as a part of the forearms, which is neat I think.

The helmet has its own little hood for comms as a part of the helmet, on top of the operator wearing the silly danse hat, which seems to be an actual hood that’s part of the power armour jumpsuit / knight uniform.

The HUD is in the lower part of the helmet, which seems obvious but the games have no helmet and you still have a HUD so .?? Sole is connected to the armour telepathically, and Danse just Knows. /joking

The back of the helmet opens, you can see the back of the head and there’s also a drinking water fill port.

Possible retcon but voice modulators are strong enough to make people unrecognisable by voice (or that’s just what this BOS chapter does for scary points)

head-cannon but: the strength of the voice modulators also may partially explain why Danse talks like that, no tone or facial expressions mean you’ve got to talk in exact details! (I still think he ate a thesaurus :) )

Fusion cores are keyed!

And the removing said core with the key puts the armour into standby mode, disabling the armours internal manual open overide (new fear)

Some of the important wiring and or control components are on the outside of the helmet in knife range (???)

The handles on the front are for personnel transport during drops lol

The shoulder pieces are also for dropping you from a vertibird, and for maintenance at a power armour station.

You can in fact sit down!!! Assuming the thing you’re sitting on can hold the armours weight

Armor is actually bullet proof again (I understand that it’s only not included in the modern games for gameplay reasons but still)

The actual armour pieces can be popped off the sealed frame easily.

The armour does have storage scattered through it, as Maximus mentions having some radaway stashed.

Grenade in the chest plate front will blow the head and helmet off

Machine gun point blank will kill through the helmet

There is a flaw in the chest plate just below the welding that an armour piercing? round can break for the kill.

Things that aren’t directly shown but I think are a reasonable leap in logic:

If the armour has a hydration system I think it likely has other life support systems like those mentioned in fallout 2 (water recycling of some sort)

Another gameplay discrepancy but, Fusion cores in the show must last a really long time as it powers an entire vault for prolonged periods of time and Maximus only has the one core, either that or power armour is such a energy guzzler that it can use an entire communities long term worth of power in a short time.

I’m sure that there is probably more that I’ve missed!

#I have many thoughts! #power armour #power armor #fallout power armor #fallout #fallout tv #fallout show #fallout tv show #fallout prime #Typos’ tea time

[couldawouldashoulda50]

A heart full of regret Part 2.1 (William Nylander)

Leading up to this here and here

I have to admit that I was struggling with this part - I started and stopped so many times and I really have no actual structure when I sit down and start typing. Hopefully it's not terrible - this is just focusing on the time that William is traveling in December during the Dad's trip while Y/N is in the UK, before returning home to Toronto.

Warnings - swearing, angst

Word count 3.5k

As the days went on, William refocused his energy on hockey. He had begun a new point streak in consecutive games but there had been moments where it appeared some of the intensity from his stellar start to the season thus far, particularly in Sweden, had started to wane.

The lull in the schedule during the first week of December afforded the entire team some additional practice time as well as the opportunity to participate in charity events around the city.

William welcomed the break with being the prime focal point of the media beginning to diminish. Constantly being in the spotlight for a few weeks had its perks, but William had to admit, it was wearing after a while. He wondered how you managed to stay above it all for so many years.

When he would ask you questions about fame and celebrity, while in the afterglow of the intense body bliss you two shared, you always said you were a reluctant celebrity; you never put much stock in the fame part of your musical career. You were just a girl, who loved to sing and make music, and somehow that path panned out for you.

As the second week of December was underway, the Maple Leaf organization held another Dad’s trip; a much beloved time for the players and staff. The Dad’s and mentors watched their sons wallop Nashville on the first game of the trip. The following day the club headed to Long Island in advance of the game the following day. The buzz was generally around John Tavares being at 998 points, and confidence was high that he could hit 1000 points in front of his former team and the fans that tirelessly booed him.

The energy was electric on the bus ride from the airport to the hotel and lively conversation and laughter echoed throughout.

Later that afternoon, the group reconvened in the hotel lobby after taking the opportunity to rest and relax once they were all checked in.

William spots the Swedish contingent of the group and heads over to stand with them while they await for the last few stragglers and for the transportation to arrive to whisk them off to dinner.

William scans the open concept lobby and spots Morgan and his Dad, Andy, relaxing in the plush seating alongside Brian Matthews and Auston, as well as Max and Tie Domi. They seemed to be glued to watching something on Max’s phone. 

William watches as Max swipes and scrolls on his phone. The group suddenly appears to lean closer to the phone. After a few seconds, he hears the group chime “Happy Birthday, Y/N!!” in unison.

William’s stomach flips with hearing your name. Others that are close by make their way over to where Max is holding his phone to photo-bomb the group, wave at the screen and give their well wishes when they realize it's you on the other end. 

Fuck - it’s her birthday today.

You and William had not been in touch since you left his condo a week ago. For two people that seemed to gel with one another so perfectly, once out of sight, you had become accustomed to not being part of each other’s lives at all.

What bothered him more right now is your friendship with his teammates.

William felt he was on the outside looking in with someone he was once so close with. Someone whom he is developing intense feelings for once more. Someone, he realizes, he may never have another chance with again.

He didn’t always feel like this - this feeling of deep envy knowing that you have carried on with your own friendships with some of William’s friends and teammates. In the past, during your times together, he was happy - proud even - as he watched you mix with teammates and their significant others so effortlessly.

Callë nudges William, bringing him back to reality as the group begins to file toward the exit and through the revolving doors toward the large coach that awaits.

Dinners during the Dad’s trip are always one of the many highlights. The exchanges are always lively and interesting; a chance for many of the fathers to commiserate with their own individual experiences with helping to guide their sons to the NHL.

A mentor of William’s accompanied on this trip; having seen William just three weeks prior in Stockholm, and knowing he was headed to Toronto for Christmas, Michael Nylander had decided to opt out on this Dad’s trip. As William noted in an interview, he has 4 other kids that he has to look after; he can’t always be doing things with him.

As much as he was enjoying himself at the restaurant, William wished his Dad was here. William could talk to his Dad about virtually anything, and in turn, he would give William sound advice, leaving the final decision making up to his son. William wondered what his Dad would say about the circumstances between you both.

William was lost in thought when Jake sat in a vacant chair at the table next to him. “How’s it goin Willy? You good?”

“Hey Cabe-r…doin alright - what’s going on man” William chuckles, straightening up in his chair unaware he was slouching.

“Ha, well - my Dad’s having the time of his life jawing with everyone else…you looked a bit down in the mouth sitting over here on your own.”

“Nah, man - I’m alright. Just got some things on my mind”, William smiled. “Thanks though”, he added.

“Too many women, not enough time?” Jake laughs.

“I think you got the first part right….”, William paused, contemplating how much he should reveal. Jake smirked at the star winger and chuckled. “Sounds interesting….go on…”

William continued tentatively. “I, uh….hooked up with this girl recently, around the end of November. Last week, she showed up at my place, drunk…and uninvited, with a friend of hers. I wasn’t alone at the time and she caused a bit of a scene - had to threaten to call security to get her to leave but her friend ended up dragging her out instead.”

“Ha - oh shit, you weren’t kidding with the too many women thing.” Jake laughed, shaking his head.

“Yeah, well - I had strung this girl along - the drunk one. Our first date - thing…whatever it was - didn’t go very well, but I thought I could…you know…just in case I was in the mood…she lives close by…” William gestured for Jake to fill in the blanks.

“Ahhh….right - got it...” Jake paused. “So wait - you said you weren’t alone…so you had another girl over at the time the drunk one showed up…with her friend?” Jake smiled and threw his head back as he laughed harder. “Fuck Willy - let me know when I should start feeling bad for you…”

“Yeah - I know…fucking nothing problems…which I brought on myself - I get it. It’s just that the girl I had over, I - like…I really care about her. We’ve known each other for years…she’s the only girl, outside of my family anyway, that just gets me. It’s so easy and fun being with her…know what I mean? And it’s always been like that - she’s got this crazy, interesting life and yet she’s always more interested in what’s going on with me and my life. She’s super down to earth too. And….not saying this is everything but fuck, she’s drop dead gorgeous. I mean like fucking 12 out of 10.”

Jake nods his head and grins; he can see the way that William lights up talking about you.

“Now, I’m pretty sure she thinks I'm a total sleaze because of these two girls that showed up looking for…you know…”

“Fuck bro…bit of a fuckin mess”, Jake shot William a knowing smirk, and continued to shake his head.

“I still don’t feel that bad for you…” Jake chuckled and gave him a couple of pats on William’s shoulder. “So, let me guess…was it Y/N who you had over at the time?”

“Fuck…is it that obvious?” William asked, lowering his head slightly.

“No, it’s not that…I heard rumours about you awhile ago…that you two were sort of involved on and off again but because of schedules or whatever, it didn’t work out. I kind of wondered when she came by last week whether you two would get to talking…you seemed pretty happy to see each other”

“Yeah, some not so great things happened before - it was really just me who sort of treated her like shit in the end. I kind of just lost her number, pretended I never knew her - and well, just stopped talking to her altogether. Then a couple of years later, I did something really fucking dumb and I basically hurt her all over again.”

“So….did she freak on you about the women looking for what - a threesome?”

“Nah - she just looked….I dunno - she just asked if I was ok. I think she tried to look like it didn’t bother her or look like she was disappointed but she just wasn’t the same after those girls left.”

William proceeds to explain the rest of the evening, and the fact his family is staying at your place over Christmas.

“So what’s the deal then…you looking for advice or what?”, Jake asked. William cracked a smile. “Sure - I guess, if you’ve got some.”

“Well, maybe start by breaking the ice…it’s her birthday today, maybe you could…wish her a Happy Birthday?” Jake said, rather sardonically. He enjoyed ribbing William at times.

“Well, yeah….of course, I had planned to…”.

“Yet, you haven’t…c’mon man…maybe just ask her how she’s doing…she just lost someone that meant a lot to her. Be there for her if she needs someone to turn to. It’ll take less than two minutes.”

William nodded his head in acknowledgment.

“Don’t even think about it - it’s simple….” Jake said as he stood up from the chair, giving William a couple more firm pats on the back. “If you care about her, let her know; even if she thinks you are a total fuckin’ sleaze, this might help change her mind a little. I don’t think I need to tell you that she’s worth a little bit of effort at least”.

Yeah. She is he agrees silently.

William takes a deep breath and his thumbs begin to tap away on the screen.

Hey Y/N, Happy Birthday…hope you had a great day. Hugs from me and the boys. Hope you are doing ok.

William smiles as he sends the next message.

So….where are you? 😉

During the months after you first met, you and William (loosely) stayed in touch, mainly with random texts asking where the other was in the world. The response would be a photo of your surroundings when you opened the message. Bathroom, bedroom, rooftop or beach…it didn’t matter, a photo without any context would appear once the question was asked. As time went on, and the more you and William had become more attracted to one another, the racier the photos would often become.

William knew the time difference was roughly the same in the UK as it was in Sweden, and he calculated it to be roughly 2:30 am. He wasn’t going to hold his breath for a response, and he slipped his phone into his pocket and rejoined his guest and the rest of the group as dinner wound down and dessert was being served.

Eventually, his phone vibrated once, and then once more. He grabbed his phone and quickly opened his text notifications to see you had responded.

“Thank you for thinking of me - I really appreciate it….hope the trip is going well so far”

William’s phone vibrates again.

A short video showing an elegant indoor swimming pool appears. William can see your reflection in the wall of windows as you sit by the pool's edge while recording the video. William continuously replays it; his eyes are firmly fixed on your slender figure as he studies your profile, wishing he was there waiting for you in the pool to give you your own private birthday celebration. If he was there, bathing suits would not be necessary; he would have had you pressed up against the pool wall by now, your legs wrapped around his midriff as his muscular abdomen pressed against your core.

“At my place in London now" “Earlier, I was here…”

An image of a glass igloo appears, dimly lit with soft neon lights situated on a slightly snow covered rooftop terrace. A few more images from the same rooftop were received, which all boasted incredible views of the frosted London skyline at night. William was more interested in perusing the faces of those in attendance; he swears he recognizes some of them as cast members of Game of Thrones.

“If you ever come to London, this place is a must. Look up Wagtail. It’s even on King William Street…”

William smiles and chuckles as he rereads your message a few more times.

His smile quickly disappears when he watches the pool video again. He begins to wonder if you are by yourself - going for a swim at 2:30 am - after celebrating your birthday. William knows that he certainly would not be flying solo under those same circumstances.

William zooms back in on the rooftop photos.

He texts back:

“Are some of your friends from Game of Thrones - like seriously???”

It's not long before you respond again.

“Ha - yeah, a few of them. They’re ready to disown me though…I still haven't seen the show…never got past Season One. Just never had time”

William can't help grinning. If he can get away with ribbing you, he will.

“Wow…that is a bad friend (jk). I'll come over sometime if you want - I've seen it but wouldn't mind watching it again in your theatre room 😉”

William stalls typing in the question he wants to know the most.

Just ask her and get it over with.

“So is your party moving to the pool now?”

William grips his phone and his jaw unconsciously tenses as the three dots flicker and fade while you type your response.

“Nope. Party's over…I'm just winding down before I head to bed. I'm so old and boring, eh?  Don’t answer that."

William feels like he's dodged a missile.

“You’re definitely neither of those”

Although it was so subtle, William hoped that you could sense the affection and desire those words carried for you.  

A bubble indicating a voice text from you appears.  “Just wanted to say thank you for the birthday wishes and I hope your trip is going well.  I think we’d better chat about your family arriving next week.  I’m leaving soon for New York and then home. I’ll let you know when I’m back.  Safe travels and good games, William…goodnight.”

William acknowledges your message with a heart.  He can't help but to feel relieved with how open you seemed to be with talking to him.  

“Fuck sakes Willy - you’ve been on your phone all night…jesus - put it away already.” Morgan elbows William in the arm. “Here’s a glass of wine…hang out -  relax.”

William accepts Morgan’s offer and sits down with Morgan and a few other Dad’s, including Andy Rielly.  

With Morgan being the longest tenured Leaf, Andy’s gotten to know some of the players quite well over the years, along with their fathers and other family members.  

Andy strikes up a conversation with William, asking him how his family is and how proud they must have been to see him play in Stockholm.  Andy asked about the dogs, if William likes living in Yorkville, and they discuss how much the city has changed since he and Morgan first started playing for the Leafs. They discuss Christmas and Andy laughs at William’s nonchalant response when he asks him if he’s started shopping for gifts for his family; not yet but he’ll get to it was William’s answer.   

Andy arrived at the question of whether the Nylanders would be travelling to Toronto over Christmas.  William didn't plan to divulge too much information about his holiday arrangements but he always found Andy so engaging and easy to talk to, William ended up mentioning the plan to stay at your house.

“That really sounds wonderful; what an awesome opportunity to relax and enjoy a couple of days off surrounded by your family.  Your Dad's quite the chef, is he not?  I expect you'll be eating well whenever Michael's manning the kitchen.”

William laughs.  “Oh yeah, for sure - that's him. He's a great cook.  But I think Y/N arranged for an actual chef for a couple of days so Dad can just hang out with us.  Y/N's got some pretty cool stuff to do in her house so I'm looking forward to some downtime…practicing my drive with the golf simulator will be my first stop…that kinda thing.”

“Tessa was telling Shirley and I before of how entertaining her place was from all the gal get-togethers Y/N’s had. Pretty nice setup.”

“Yeah, I haven't been there for a long time…looking forward to seeing what she's added over the years.” William’s eyes shift downward as he ponders what to say next.

Andy pauses for a moment.  He feels like he's hit on something uncomfortable for William, so a change of subject might be in order.  

As if on cue, Brian Matthews approaches the group of men and sits in a chair between William and Andy.  Brian makes similar small talk with William citing a few funny anecdotes from when Auston and William first started playing together.  

Music begins to softly stream from a nearby phone, surrounded by Joe Woll, Matthew Knies and their fathers.  Andy recognized the song almost immediately, having watched the same video earlier that night in the hotel lobby.  It was a sorrowful ballad that you had written and  performed as a duet at Shane’s funeral.  Excerpts from the funeral which had been streamed live had begun to make their way onto all the social platforms.  Your name had been trending rapidly after a transcendent performance headlined in the media as “a stunning tribute”, “a song of perfection” and "hauntingly beautiful”.

“Hey Joe, that's Y/N singing, right? From the funeral?” Andy asked.

“Yeah - it is - what a beautiful song.  It's amazing.” Joe, himself a mostly self-taught pianist, found himself completely transfixed by listening to your composition.

William approaches the small huddle and stands behind Matthew to get a better view of the screen.  His cheeks flush with warmth at the sight of you as you stand at the altar, in a grand old church in Ireland, playing that steel-plated guitar and singing with a pitch-perfect voice that sounded powerful and soft at the same time.

William thought if he could walk out of the restaurant, hop on a plane and come to see you in London, with no consequence or recourse to his team or his career, he would have already been on his way.  

He studies your face as you sing, your eyes closed and brows furrowed with a glint of a tear threatening to escape and roll down your cheek.  Amazingly, you kept your composure as the hundreds in attendance chimed in to sing the chorus.  It was a moment of pure magic and heartbreak at the same time.

So I'll drink today, love

I'll sing to you, love

In pauper's glory, my time I'll bide

No home, no ties, love

A restless rover

If I can't have you by my side

Desperation is not William’s style, but the deep yearning he’s been harbouring for you now is completely uncaged and is running wild within him; he now understands how desperately he wants you.

As the fun-filled evening winds down, the group (after being fed so well and for some, a few too many drinks and feeling no pain), return to the hotel and retire to their respective hotel rooms.  

Back in his room, William finishes brushing his teeth and slides between the sheets of the queen-size bed.  He quickly loosens the tightly tucked-in hospital corners of the blankets so he feels less like he’s in a cocoon. He swipes his phone open and taps one of the social platforms; it does not take long to locate exactly what he is looking for.

William watches one clip after another as several international media outlets posted content from the live stream.   It felt a little surreal; a little dream-like for him to watch you like this again - like you are a renewed part of his life again. You’re all he can think of now and William felt hopeful that you might still be within reach based on, at the very least, the friendly tone of your responses tonight.

William indulges in a few more photos of you but knows if he continues along this path, his arousal will get the better of him - he’s just simply too tired for that tonight.  

William opens the last text exchange with you.  He types “Good Morning” and taps send.  He thinks if he can't be there in person, maybe he can still be your first thought when you wake up.

#william nylander #toronto maple leafs #nhl imagine #nhl fic #angst #nylander x reader

[brainrot-has-overtaken-me]

ReLife Drabble

I have been taken ahold by this prompt from @dat1angel. It has me in its grips currently (and may or may not be distracting me from other things I should be doing) I can't stop think about it.

I will say I have never wrote a full fanfiction by myself, though I have co-wrote and beta'd fic before, so who knows if I will actually finish this, but I have already planned it out to through the fist death loop. So y'all will at least get up until then, even if it's slow coming cause finals season and then I'm going out of country for a bit.

Anyways here's a lil drabble of what I have so far:

“Here we go again.” Jimmy thought disparagingly as he looked around the clearing that everyone was waking up in after suddenly being transported there. He had just been swimming with the cod in his empire when a purple glow began to surround him, causing him to pass out only to wake up in whatever game the Watchers have in store for them this time. Looking around the clearing Jimmy recognized the 13 other faces with him, noticing that the Watchers chose to drag the cast from that time they had soulmates in these games back. 

Standing up as everyone else began to orientate themselves as to being in the games once again, a loose circle formed while attention started to turn towards Grian to find out what the catch was this time around. “While we all understand that what happens in these games is ‘no harm, no foul,’ there is still some tension between us from Double Life, even though we’ve had games since then. So They have brought us all back together to ‘fix’ it. I can tell that there is something else They want to achieve, though They are not giving any details. Other than that there is no gimmick this time around, a new world with borders as usual and just normal 3rd Life rules…”

While Grian was explaining the ins and outs of the three life system in case anyone had forgotten, Jimmy’s mind began to wander, thinking about why they were dragged here once more. “The Watchers can claim it’s to ‘fix’ the tension leftover from Double Life, but if that was truly the case, why wasn’t Lizzie here? Or Mumbo? Or Zed? Or really just anyone who was also affected by the relationships that were formed during Double Life even if they weren’t in the games themselves. Most of the tension afterwards came from those that were on the outside not understanding the games and the situations we were put in. And even then, most relationships have come to some agreement or understanding over what happened and the new bonds formed. Barely any tension was still held between players, though in some cases like Mumob, Scar and Grian trust was having to be rebuilt. But overall it doesn’t make much sense to bring just the Double Life players back to ‘fix’ themselves, without any gimmicks. And this secret motive Grian could sense, what could that be-?”

“And with that the game has begun. The grace period is over and any damage taken from this point on can and will result in consequences. Welcome to ReLife.” Grian’s explanation of the game comes to an end, drawing Jimmy back into the conversations around him as people split off to begin gathering resources while the sun is still up. Breaking off from everyone else, Jimmy began to collect some wood, basic tools, and easy food. Looking for a surface cave that hasn’t been claimed yet, he was still caught in thought by what the Watchers want from them. “He’s a champion of the Listeners for Aeor’s sake! He understands Their motives somewhat. Watchers like entertainment and feed off of high emotions, though They like chaos and other negative ones the best. They wouldn’t want the tension from Double Life to be resolved so what could this secret motive be?” 

Coming across a small cave opening in a hill he could spot a bit of surface iron and coal. Figuring this is as good as he’s gonna get, seeing as most of the good caves are probably claimed, Jimmy jumps on into the small opening to gather a bit of coal for torches before setting up a spot with furnaces and tackling gearing up. After about fifteen minutes of mining the visible iron without exploring too deep into the cave he figures he’s collected enough iron for a few tools and maybe a piece or armor or two. Turning around he heads back to his furnaces to take a small break while everything begins to smelt. Hearing footsteps approach, he begins to turn around when a voice calls out.

“Hi Jimmy!” Scott’s voice drifts through the cave opening. Fully turning around he sees his husband smiling down at him as Scott continues to mirror the same greeting he gave so many years ago in the first game. “Of all people I find it’s you.” Climbing down to join him in the cave, Jimmy can’t help but smile at his husband’s soft laughter at how they were brought together once again. 

“Out of all people I run into first Petal, it’s you. How are you holding up? I haven’t gotten much gear yet, been running across the surface for so long looking for either people or a place to settle first.” 

“I’m doing okay. I kind of just wandered off looking for a cave without anyone in it, needing to think, but I’ve found enough iron for some tools and maybe a few pieces of armor. They’re smelting right now, but maybe we can split it?” He saw a soft but concerned look cross Scott’s eyes at his words.

“If you’re offering, I wouldn’t mind having some for a few pieces of gear, maybe a shield? I’m sure we can find more to be enough for both of us if we go deeper into the caves. But Petal, what’s got you stuck in your head so much that you went looking to be alone?” His voice conveyed nothing but concern and care for the other.

“Its just that Secret Life ended not too long ago, it’s too soon to be in the games again. Plus They like our suffering! Find it entertaining! Why do they want us to ‘fix’ our relationship issues after Double Life?” He began pacing, voicing his frustration a little louder as he got worked up. “And this ‘something else’ that Grian could sense. What is it? What secret agenda do They have? With no gimmicks this time around to add onto, it can’t be entertaining enough for Them to actually feed! And with my curse of being first out everytime, I know that I probably won’t be around long enough to get answers.” Towards the end of his rant, the frustration in his voice turned to tears as Scott came up to hug him. 

“While I don’t have answers for you Petal, you’re not cursed. You have bad luck Jimmy and sometimes these guys don’t make it easy for you.” Reaching into his inventory, Scott pulled out a very familiar flower, “With the circumstances being so familiar as all those years ago, I promise that this time I won’t become a widow and you will make it to the end. That is if you’ll marry me again, Love?” Scott asked, breaking the hug and extending the poppy in his hands towards Jimmy.

#i hope this is okay! #i hope you like it #this is seriously my first time solo creative writing #so im a little nervous #but this prompt has taken over my brain #the brainrot is brainrotting #life series #trafficblr #traffic light smp #jimmy solidarity #smajor1995 #flower husbands #fanfic #fanfiction

[soulcastermindset]

Memorable Gaming Moments: Thane's Loyalty Mission in Mass Effect 2 (aka: why Seryna is a personal favorite)

So, I've been playing through the Horizon series again recently and examining some of the side characters more closely, trying to really focus on picking apart their motivations and the ways they connect with Aloy and the larger story. Unfortunately for all you HZD and HFW fans, though, this post is not about those games (Though I'm sure I'll yell about them at some point).

While I could talk about Morlund and his theatrical counterparts for quite some time, I'd rather talk about a character from my favorite video game series who I've been meaning to collect my thoughts on for a while. Mass Effect 2's sheer volume of recruitment missions mean that Commander Shepard meets their fair share of alien personalities, but to this day, Thane's recruitment mission contains the one I am most intrigued by.

Seryna, the asari Shepard meets in the transportation sector, is only on-screen for about five minutes of the game. Despite that short length of time and the fact that she never shows up again in the next installment of the franchise, I remain fascinated by her. In five minutes and three (two and a half?) scenes, she plays the situation to her advantage extremely skillfully, in a way I'm not sure even most of the main characters could imitate, and she comes out clean and almost intentionally forgettable on the other side.

Seyna's first words to Shepard are "Who wants to know," immediately evasive and prodding for information, giving herself a chance to size up the threat in front of her under the guise of disinterest. As soon as she learns that Shepard is after Thane, she's immediately very matter of fact and unafraid to freely give information.

One of the biggest reasons this is notable to me is that in almost every other recruitment mission so far, a character has required something from Shepard before they are willing to provide their assistance. Mordin needed help stopping the plague on Omega. Okeer wanted help killing Jedore. The Warden on the prison ship wasn't willing to provide help at all, planning a double cross the entire time. The list goes on. Seryna just tells them what they want to know and gives them immediate access to do it. She clearly doesn't trust Shepard, but she navigates the conversation with them in a way that doesn't invite any kind of retaliation on their part, which seems very intentional.

Also during this conversation, Seryna reveals that she worked for Nassana's security and confronted Nassana when she learned her boss was having people killed. And yet, somehow, despite being willing to kill to keep her secrets under wraps, Nassana leaves Seryna alive, firing her rather than just killing her too. This always struck me as rather odd, considering that Nassana was willing to sacrifice an army of mercs just to keep herself safe from an assassin. Even if Shepard doesn't do the side quest to unknowingly help Nassana kill her sister, that's pretty damning evidence all on its own.

So, what was it about Seryna specifically that made Nassana choose mercy? We know she's not Eclipse, since Eclipse is an existing group outside of Nassana. Even if Nassana fired her, she'd likely still be doing Eclipse work instead of having to find a job at the transport station that she clearly isn't fond of.

Seryna certainly wasn't spared because Nassana wanted to keep her in her back pocket as a potential re-hire, either, since Nassana knows Seryna will call her actions into question, and she's clearly paranoid enough during the actual recruitment mission that she would never trust Seryna again at this point.

My personal assumption is that Seryna is an asari commando or former spec ops agent of some kind, someone Nassana didn't think she could kill without some kind of backlash or without potentially losing her own life in the process (Seryna does mention that she might have been good enough at her job that she could have stopped Thane from killing Nassana, though whether this is hubris or not is open to interpretation). If it's not for either of those reasons, Nassana letting someone that intrinsically tied to her personal security forces go free doesn't seem like a loose end she would tolerate. This point is further expanded upon after the mission, but I'll touch on that in a moment.

If we go back to the pre-mission conversation, Seryna freely admits that she did not hire Thane, but much like she's doing with Shepard now, she's not afraid to give out info on the best ways to get to her former boss. She clearly has no love for Nassana, and it's not until the car ride to the tower that she finally asks Shepard,

"So, this assassin. You here to stop him?"

And this is interesting. Because realistically, while Seryna's more than happy to see Nassana's head on a platter, she's already given Thane the information for that to happen, AND there would be no ties to her even if he failed because she didn't hire him. By helping Shepard, who is clearly not a hired assassin, get involved, she is risking Nassana's wrath much more directly, and instead of telling Shepard to find someone else to help, she takes them to the tower even though she admits in this moment that there's technically a chance Shepard could be going to assist Nassana.

Asking this question after she's already decided to help begs the question: does she know who Shepard is and is therefore unwilling to cross them? Does she not want to look the heavily-armed gift horse in the mouth, help them out while she can, and just get out of dodge before there's any potential blowback?

I personally lean towards the latter. If Shepard is there to help, that can only help speed up Nassana's death, and if Shepard's not... hey, those are a lot of big guns they have, best not risk it.

Of course, Shepard affirms that they're there to help the assassin (though the way they put it, "I'm just here to make sure he survives," is certainly worth the slightly interested "hm" Seryna gives in response, seeing as Shepard could still be working in Nassana's benefit and just trying to keep Thane alive so Nassana can get information out of him, but I think it's mostly safe to say at this point that Seryna believes that she and Shepard are working towards a similar goal), and the mission commences, ending with Nassana's death.

After Seryna drops Shepard off at the Dantius Towers for the mission, Shepard never sees her again, but they are given a recorded message by her co-worker, Tana, and that she took an unspecified job off-world at an unknown location. We learn in this message that Seryna was "on her way to a new life" when she heard the news that Nassana was dead.

This implies that almost immediately after dropping Shepard off, she books it. She flees. Even if we as the audience assume that a couple of days pass in-universe (we know that Shepard hits the towers at night and that the sun is rising when they find Thane, and it's likely that the police find Nassana's body within twenty-four hours of that moment), she packs up her entire life in less than a day, makes all the necessary arrangements, and is GONE before the news even drops about her old boss's death. I'm largely of the mind that what she told her co-worker about finding a new job was a blatant lie (especially taking into consideration how much she seemed to dislike the transport job but chose it anyway), and she was just getting the hell out in case everything went south.

Seryna played the game, and played it well, and when the chips were falling in a way that could have been fatal to her, even if the odds were clearly in her favor, she jumped ship to avoid any potential for a wildcard ruining her plans, and she fascinates me.

TL;DR, Seryna, a one-off character whose only narrative goal is to get Commander Shepard to Thane Krios, is heavily implied to be a force of nature in her own right.

In just these few moments of game time, Seryna proves herself shrewd, competent, intelligent, possibly VERY gifted at combat, petty, and willing to uproot her entire life to stay safe and alive.

I'm more interested in Seryna than I am some of the main squad characters in this game! I'd read a short spin-off story about her, no lie, but since that will likely never happen, I'll just yell about her here on tumblr so we all give her another look on our next playthrough.

Morlund I'm sorry this post wasn't about you

#mass effect #mass effect 2 #mass effect 3 #seryna #nassana dantius #thane krios #commander shepard #the whole skycar ride to the dantius towers is always going to be one of the moments of the trilogy that I remember most #not even kidding #video game analysis

[detectivepoppy]

Manor Game AU

The RP to this AU will come soon on Quotev, or I’ll post it on tumblr depending on which I find more easy to post in. I’m writing the Yandere ver of this AU.

<Manor Game AU takes actual IDV gameplay au into account with a mix or supernatural occurrence for the story to make more sense>

Description of the manor:

The survivors are not hallucinating in this AU and everything is happening.

The manor is an entity of its own and sent out letters to survivors across timeline, that is why you can see someone like Vera and Lucky Guy (they’ll be called Liam in this AU) existing in the manor at the same time. Hunters who have died in their timeline or are a sort of god like entity (Hastur, Yidhra, and others) souls are brought to the manor, and revived.

If the hunter has a survivor form, only one can exists at a time, thus, there are periods where survivors just transforms into a hunter and loses all their survivor memory. Vise versa, hunters with survivor forms will sometime just transform into a survivor and forget about their time as a hunter.

No one has witness the survivor to hunter and hunter to survivor transformation from those characters. That is because the person transformation will only occur once they’re alone and they’ll typically get teleported to their own respective survivor/hunter room.

Once you enter the manor, you’re stuck in there and the time in there works different than the world outside of the manor.

There is a hunter manor and a survivor manor, each person has their own individual room. Once a new survivor/hunter has entered the manor, a new room will spawn for the new unfortunate soul. Despite there being two buildings, it connect with the shared spaces, those being the library, dinning hall, kitchen, garden, laundromat, and some other places people would gather to hang out. 

The manor provides for the people, with constant food being replenished, things that gets broken gets replaced, so on and so forth. 

The room of each person consists what you’ll typically find in a luxury hotel room. The most noticeable part of the room is the singular closet. The manor provides outfit for the survivors via that closet, the outfit will appear in the closet for the survivors to pick up in the following morning. 

The closest also serves as a contact to the manor, you can request favors and questions you have for them. However, it’s not guaranteed the manor will give you what you want or want to know, so when they reject your favors/questions, you’ll receive a note in the closet, upon closing and waiting then opening, with it rejecting whatever you asked from the manor. 

There are servants around the manor but they’re dolls. They operate one purpose they’re assign to depending on the doll. For example, the chef puppet will only cook and won’t serve the food. The server puppet will only serve the food but won’t cook it. 

If people break the puppet, either out of frustration from the game or simply for no reason at all, the manor will suck the puppet remains into its walls or floor and reanimate a new one. The puppet do not have feelings and have no sentient, even if they are sentient, they will not help you. Don’t try. 

How to game works:

There will be time where survivors/hunter get transported into a game. Random people get selected into the game and those who’s going to be selected will know. There is just a sickening gut feeling for both hunter and survivors who’s been selected and they’ll get transported in a few moment.

Their items and abilities will need to be taught by the manor, there is a voice for the new individual about their skill/items and how the game works while the person is taking in their surrounding.

The game will proceed like how the actual identity v game goes, you decode ciphers, rescue teammates, and escape through the exit gate. The big difference in this AU is the point system. 

To escape the manor, you have to gain a certain amount of points to escape. The amount of points to escape is unknown but there is no other choice besides participating in the game. There are proofs of people escaping the manor, so people hold onto hope and continuously participate in the games.

If you’re the survivor, more people escaping means more points and if you want to gain more points for yourself, you’ll have to do more for the team. 

If you’re the hunter, more people sent back to the manor means more points you’ll gain and if you want to gain more points for yourself you’ll have to get terrorshocks, more pallet breaking, drop hits, and so forth. 

Every pain felt in the round are real, once you get sent back to the manor or run out the exit gate, you’ll get teleported to the manor with everything you felt still being there but all fatal wounds being healed.

Every injury sustain from the game will be healed upon being teleported back to the manor but the pain will still be there, but injuries inflected outside the game will remain.

With that being said, not everyone came to the manor unknowingly to the horror it beholds, many hold impure intensions, will you be able to escape?

#yandere idv x reader #yandere idv #x reader #yandere identity v #yandere identity v x reader #Manor Game AU

[galina]

‘it took me years to consider the fact that I did not have to name my gender or sexuality at all, so that now I must always tell people that I am not something. I insist on this absence more, even, than I used to insist on my identities, that I was a bisexual boy, or genderqueer, or a queer, which was actually just unpleasant for me in lots of ways, come to realize. I stand by only a quarter of what I said when I was queer. queerness, when I first encountered the idea, aspired to a life away from identity categories, eroticizing what lies outside them, but today it seems the word often points to a reification of identity, to new rules. the uninscribed, like gonzalez-torres says, is a site of change, where I might understand my actual context and do something about it, rather than getting tangled up in a game of words, and so that is where I would like to focus. I am of course still written into this whole structure, I can’t escape the language, but that won’t stop me from refusing it anyway, and believing that a blank paper might transport me somewhere else.'

#studyblr #studygram #studyspo #study #read #reading #currently reading #book #books #bookblr #booklr #bookstagram #bookspo #queer lit #queer #lgbtq+ #essay #essays #time #inspiration #motivation #research

[metalheadsforblacklivesmatter]

hi! Yesterday I heard something about the surgeon general issuing a notice about social media. I don't know too much about it aside from that an announcement was made and he wants to work with tech companies. Have you heard about this? What are your thoughts?

I hope you have a good day :)

Yeah. I actually have commentary on it too.

The Surgeon General says social media may be the most harmful thing to kids mental health.

Most of the commentary on it (which is very valid commentary) basically sarcastically say "Wow. Who'd of thought. The most harmful thing to kids' health is social media. Not poverty. Not school shootings. Not girls being forced to carry their rapists babies. Not trans kids being forced from loving homes. Not children of trans adults being forced from loving homes. Not being forced to go to school during a pandemic. Not underfunded schools and teachers being burned out. But social media. Astounding."

And that's a very valid commentary. My first thought wasn't "Look at all of this shit that kids have to be depressed about." So I'm glad others brought it up.

But my first thought is what the fuck are kids supposed to do? The world is literally hostile to people that want to exist outside. With the lack of third places where are kids supposed to go? With the lack of public transportation and everything only being accessible via vehicle, how the fuck are they supposed to get there? With parents being over worked and under paid, the parents certainly can't drive them anywhere, and even if they could they couldn't fucking afford shit.

The commentary on social media is fine, I guess (though as stated I think there's a lot bigger issues effecting children's mental health). But if you're just out there bitching about social media with no acknowledgment of the fact that there's NOTHING for kids to do. NOWHERE for kids to go.

Like they just mention social media is shit for the mental health without recognizing the real issue that kids literally got nowhere else they can be and just exist as kids. WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO DO?

They say TV rots the brain. Video games makes them violent. Social media is bad for mental health. WHAT ELSE ARE KIDS SUPPOSED TO DO? They can't just bitch about all these problems without acknowledging the root of the problem in which they allowed motor and oil companies to lobby the shit out of them to the point where kids can't fucking GO anywhere.

So that's my thoughts on the subject. Shit is fucked.

-fae

[hyrtwynwrites]

Yensday #4 - 28 February 2024

Welcome back to another Yensday! We have two questions today, so let's get into it!

<><><> Q&A <><><>

@purplenidoqueen asked:

I was thinking about my childhood, and how the one thing that stands out more than anything is a little statuette my mother has. It got me thinking about what Yen might have latched onto, considering the youth she had. Whether a thing, or a person, or a creature, or a place... Is there one symbol from her childhood that she most cherishes to this day?

Yen is in a situation where she has a lot of strong memories but not a lot of keepsakes to tie her to them. The enforced meagerness of life for the Ala Mhigan refugees in Quarrymill kind of meant she just didn't have a lot ever.

With that said, she did have a few things to latch onto. Quarrymill, and the area outside its walls, is filled with memories for Yen due to how much exploring she got up to as a child. She was a bit of a troublemaker, and worse, a leader, so her antics would usually become a group's antics pretty quickly.

The biggest symbol linking her to her childhood, however, is more a ritual, and that's dyeing her hair. Her mother started doing it with her when she was nine, and Yen has pretty religiously maintained doing it ever since. Especially since the Calamity, it has tethered her to her childhood and to Aebba, both of which are now long gone... It's an act that is sacred to Yen now, this last little reminder to herself of love.

@vivailwrites asked:

I know a lot of people who make one character in a lot of different properties. I make and remake vivail in various roughly similar forms, as often as i make new characters. One of my favorite streamers makes her oc, voxer, in basically anything. She even made a voxer mech in ac6. Do you think you would ever make yen in another game or franchise or story or is she purely ffxiv

Yen is a character that I think is pretty versatile; you could put her in any setting, and she'll do at least alright. With that said, beyond a handful of times I have aesthetically remade her in other RPGs that I am poking at, I don't personally use her that much beyond the walls of FFXIV.

The main reason is, I think, that Yen was designed for one setting explicitly, and that's Eorzea. While I could pick her up and put her somewhere else, like Faerûn or Tattooine, I would have to change enough about her for her to fit into that world (or worlds) that she would stop being Yen. I think I'd rather create new characters at that point, tell a new story.

She is very near and dear to my heart, though, so I wouldn't be surprised if I transported her for fun on occasion, little one-shots of a woman increasingly out of her depth.

<><><> Tidbits & Errata <><><>

Kind of spinning off of the first question, I actually had been thinking recently about what kid Yenifer was up to. She lost most of her adolescence to working; the Ala Mhigans needed every hand to make ends meet, and Gridania (and all of Eorzea, for that matter) has no child labor laws. Any time she did have to herself was probably spent similarly to how she spent it as a child: Getting into trouble.

I do like to imagine Yenifer as being a bit of a ringleader, both because it suits her and how she is, and because it echoes out to roles she will assume as an adult, throughout Light's Falle.

As far as how much of the Black Shroud she got to see, the answer is, unfortunately, quite little. The pre-Calamity Twelveswood was a bit of an enigma to navigate, so she could only safely explore a few square malm around the hamlet.

Something mentioned in passing in Gridanian Prelude is Yen finding a mysterious door in the southern Shroud that she was barred from exploring. That was, in fact, an entrance to the Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak, a place she will return to sooner than later.

Another detail that will crop up sooner than later is that Yenifer knows Buscarron, the owner of Buscarron's Druthers, and has since she was entering puberty. This is a bit of a gray area in the canon, when did Buscarron retire, and for the life of me I can't find something concrete. I've set it by fiat to be ten summers ago, in 1567, which means that he and Yen met when she was eleven at the earliest. They have a... complicated relationship, which is to say they tease the hell out of each other, something that I look forward to showing in the near future.

I want to thank you all again for stopping by. This is the first Yensday under my new schedule, and I think it's gone pretty well!

Til next time, may you ever walk in the light of the Crystal!

- H

#ffxiv #ffxiv fanfiction #light's falle #yenifer falle #yensday #lf1: gridanian prelude

[paddockpr]

Hey, something has been bugging me, and im wondering what the pr perspective is. What on earth is the pr strategy for most of the teams when they decided to publicly state that they hate the idea of Andretti joining? It just comes off as whinning to me

Hey anon, thanks for the question!

What you are seeing here has a lot to do with how teams use or attempt to use their PR positioning. This is also a major example of why PR is so important, which is that you can leverage it for things that go beyond brand image and go into the very nature of profit in sports. I will briefly touch on the PR of F1 for context and then talk about why teams may be behaving this way.

F1 PR

When it comes to F1 there is one thing that is paramount to understanding its business model, which is how exclusive it is, Even if they accept the Andretti bid that is part of the appeal. F1 sells itself as exclusive and luxurious.

Where other motorsports are also expensive and highly exclusive, they may present themselves as somewhat rough and tumble, with a lot of emphasis on ideas of grit and being "hardcore" so to speak. You see it a lot when fans of one motorsport weigh in on which motorsport is the best one in terms of skill and the likes by weighing in on racecraft related skills like endurance, frequency of collision and strategy. The other thing to understand is the luxury aspect and the monetary value of that.

I touched on the association with certain groups on the Charles essay, what with the Monaco GP, and things like high profile guests etc come into it, but another element of that is that luxury in sports also is the means through which teams justify the high price tag to participate in the sport as a fan.

You can also see this in things like the culture around attending Wimbledon (a similar feel to the Monaco GP) or Equestrian Dressage and so on. And whilst generally sports merchandise is expernsive regardless of the sport, and the fans that frequent these sporting events live are not the average fan (hence the importance of things like viewership and social media engagement which are less cost prohibitive than for example going to a La Liga final or the Superbowl in person and has not just merch and tickets, but food, hotels, transport and so on but that is another essay entirely). F1 is a whole other ball park of that.

F1 sells that its luxury and exclusivity is a necessity. If you look at most sports, a big part of sports journalism is about growing the game, even ones considered to be the domain of the rich like tennis. And when teams sell to audiences they are selling their merchandise, yes, but they are also selling the rare opportunity, perhaps the only one to invest in being a participant.

F1 tracks are predominantly in the middle of nowhere and are already logistically difficult to go to, there is emphasis on the heritage of the sport and most of the sponsors outside of gambling companies are also for people who make a lot of money.

Think about the response to a potential Porsche-RBR team versus RBR-Ford, or about the Mercedes team uniform and merch being Tommy Hilfiger. The luxury and prstige with a high price point is part and parcel of how F1 makes its money.

If you participate in the sport outside of social media and TV, the cheapest parts of participation (like a standard issue team cap or a lanyard) are pricier even compared to other motorsports like NASCAR. I remember last year the special pride collection from NASCAR was cheaper than any standard issue F1 merch. And this is actually where (at least I think haha) Andretti comes in.

The Andretti Animosity

Andretti comes from the American (although American motorsports is extremely popular outside the US but once again, another essay) cultural understanding of motorsports which is more laid back, more easily accessible and is understood to be cost prohibitive but not to fans. American motorsports have a host of accessibility issues both in person and through things like TV, and like most sports the fans that can afford to attend are the minority, the kind of pricing around F1 for fans would be considered to be outrageous.

Yes in those spaces F1 is also seen as this high price point product, but if IndyCar for example were to sell at the price point of F1 it wouldn't fly. For F1 with some of the cheaper tickets being (at least when I looked it up) 2000 USD when its expensive to spend 200 USD at IndyCar, the amount that F1 fans pay to attend is steep. And then F1 says, yes but there is only 20 drivers and 10 teams with some of the most expensive engineering in the world and therein lies the disgruntlement re 11th teams and the idea of how much dilution fees should be.

They likely are not refusing Andretti because they think its beneficial PR wise, they are trying to leverage the PR that they have because they perceive any 11th team as a threat to exorbitant pricing and sky high profits. They are also attempting to close the door on further pushes for more teams. As you may have seen people already brought up Haas and that is what they don't want, precedence to add more teams. So from a PR perspective how may you leverage that?

The main things to consider are as follows:

American audiences are viewed as desirable as a profitable group to sell F1 to

The prices and nature of access that American audiences associate with motorsports that they are already familiar with is far cheaper than F1

American audiences would likely invest more with a team that is not just American owned or driven, but feels culturally American

So you as a team see that there is money to be made, in an audience that does not need to be convinced that motorsports can be interesting, but these audiences are not satisfied by your arguments that they should be open to such high price points, their local taxpayers footing the bill to host F1 races, and an audience of non American fans that hold contempt (for both valid and invalid reasons) for anything that they consider "too American".

So, either you let a team, especially an American one like Andretti in, you tell American fans that you have someone truly American for them to root for. You know Andretti already, and now you can support him in the exclusive big leagues. It is more expensive than you are used to, but its a global stage, an exclusive one, imagine being able to support your team every weekend.

To you and me, that is a sweet deal, especially since the bid includes General Motors and the F1 factory being US based. And its so likely that the profits really go into overdrive as a result, and so the other teams don't lose a piece of the pie as the pie gets bigger. If you are familiar with american fan culture with teams then you already know this, but the sports merchandise industry is worth billions, its not loose change, if American fans invest in the sport the numbers are sky high.

But then again, a more Americanized F1 also means other exorbitant prices are pushed to come down, and they don't want fans, American or otherwise to expect to participate in the fandom of the sport, they want fans to pay the high price tag and not challenge it. These record profit and viewership years with a noted larger American audience involved them paying up, but as the entirety of motorsports experiences something of a renaissance, fans are less enthused about the price tag, and every continent (yes, every single continent) has other more viable motorsports options for fans.

Yes its not necessarily the same kind of glamor and prestige as F1, but a lot of what people love in one motorsports, can be found in another. And, with lockdowns gone in most places, audiences are not at home likely spending more, and so to them what went up, must come down. So what do F1 and F1 teams do instead? Try to spin PR in a way that persuades audiences that there is something remarkable that they are paying for.

Andretti brings more profit yes, but he also brings people who do not necessarily view F1 as this novel thing in the way that fans who came in 2020-2021 do. As a result, you may get them to pay a little more, but not thousands more, especially for what (based on the last COTA and Miami race fan experiences depict on social media) seems to them to be a mediocre at best fan experience. So now what you are seeing is an attempt to leverage PR to say that fans ARE paying for something, exclusivity and the best of the best. And its not just about convincing American fans either.

How often are European fans told that they are paying for the exclusivity, history and prestige of F1? How often do European fans speak of being priced out of F1? Sometimes this is attributed to the pursuit of American audiences by fans but thats a clever PR slight of hand which moves discussion away from why F1 is several times more expensive for fans than whatever their local motorsport competitions are, and instead tells them that they need to protect F1 and its exclusivity as fans from the sinister forces that will Americanize the sport, despite the fact that Americans are also priced out, and in the case of Las Vegas, have been negatively impacted by the presence of F1. Lets circle back to Andretti.

There are two things about Andretti that makes the attempt to leverage PR seem strange. Manufactures backing, and a motorsports experience. Incidentally, motorsport experience is part of how Haas found itself in the sport, but the manufacturing backer is a big one. Now there is a lot of money to be made if he gets in, potentially record profits, but how willing will people be to pay how much they have since at least 2022?

From a financial perspective, the prices were always going to need to come down and F1, Liberty Media and Teams should have prepared for that, alas, corporations tend to hope for exponential growth and now what we as audiences view as the logical move is like pulling teeth and there is talk of how high the dilution fee should be to compensate teams for loss in revenue. And that is where, from a PR perspective, I presume this is all coming from.

Teams kick about, talk of an 11th team as a sort of manifestation of this hidden threat to the sport, fans want proof that Andretti isn't going to ruin and Americanize the sport and apply more pressure on the sport to make sure F1 protects its roots, dilution fee is negotiated very high as a result and when its announced, fans debate if its too much or too little, Andretti pays up and expresses that he is happy to and tells the American audiences that want to support his team how it was so worth it to pay x money because F1 is worthy of it, fans that want to support Andretti/a culturally American team begrudgingly take his word for it and pay up for merch or GP tickets or whatever, European fans are assured that the sport will not be dictated by Americans and continue to support it, and then the exponential growth continues.

Of course the locals especially in places where the race track is not far from their homes, where they work etc, still are not happy, and for obvious reasons, residents tend to dislike it when taxpayers foot the bill for sporting events, safety issues and more, but based on the reporting around building the Las Vegas GP, and also what has occurred in the various places F1 has raced in over the years and even historically, how F1 impacts locals does not seem to be a priority in stakeholder analysis, but rather is an afterthought.

So yeah, as usual with F1 its really about the money, and what they think will maximize it. So they will keep up this PR song and dance about exclusivity and luxury as necessity, media will keep contextualizing how exclusive it is, everyone will mention how much Andretti and other interested people paid to go ober their bids because its so exclusive, and then Andretti with General Motors and Cadillac will pay up, parrot these same ideas about being in the most exclusive sport ever, and maybe even do interviews.

Then teams will either welcome them publicly for meeting the stringent standards of the sport and emphasizing how necessary the whole thing was, or ignore the entry to reinforce that they were only logically concerned, media will put out pieces about who Andretti is and maybe even F1 primers for new fans, American broadcasters will be talking about the new American team in the most exclusive sport whilst European broadcasters talk about how if the sport was going to have another team and how now American audiences can enjoy a team in the most exclusive sport, and then similiarly to Haas, people will for the most part stop debating. That is of course until someone says something, or a team leaves, or people or corporations want to come in.

On the flipside, if Andretti doesn't get in, teams will be like "we said that this is an expensive exclusive sport and not everyone can join", Audiences won't like that for the most part, because to most Andretti makes sense for F1 regardless of if you want Andretti specifically or not, and probably won't buy it, especially since audiences are already not very moved either way by Stefano Domenicalli speaking about F1, but it may very well alienate large portions of American (and also Non European in general) audiences especially if they like other motorports.

Already because of the nature of fandom in F1, other motorsports fans don't have a great impression of being engaged in the free ways like social media, so if you want them to now be paying fans be it for a cable package or merch or GP tickets, having a new team that is neither European own nor European funded is one of very few means to persuade people to want to participate in the fanfare of F1 regardless.

And for European fans it will be difficult to tell them that rejecting the Andretti bid is not strange, because for the most part, he doesn't have the PR image of someone who would rock the boat too much in F1, and the fact that his teams do well in other motorsports also creates interest as it is not a given that he will be a back marker.

But ultimately, regardless of what happens from here on out, most teams are publicly against it because of money, and they are hoping that the PR built up so far can be leveraged to defend how the money is made, and also ensures that should they negotiate with Andretti re dilution fee, it will not look good if he or the manufacturers he is teaming with publicly state that they think its too high. You will also probably have noted that drivers don't tend to strongly oppose a new team and tend to be in favor of a new team, or indifferent and that adds another dimension to the song and dance but once again, another essay, for another day.

Thanks for the ask, sorry its so long haha.

#paddockpr #sportspr #jjessays #jjasks

[felikatze]

Do you feel Awakening's plot was let down by the need to be a male power fantasy, IE: kill lots of ugly people without remorse, get praised by everyone, all the woman want the avatar, ETC?

hmmmmm. good question. I don't think it's a power fantasy, per se - FE heavily ascribes to the design philosophy of "only beautiful people can be good", which is horrible for a lot of reasons, but I feel in this aspect it's plot structure is more hampered by the fact that it is a video game, and every chapter needs a Battle.

That's how you get basically every single generic brigand. There's a lull in the action, as characters talk, get to know each other, travel to the next relevant location. But you can't put any important battles inbetween, because those moments need to be slow - thus, an enemy who could just as easily be removed from the story without changing it.

In another game I like, Lord of Heroes, it's almost a running gag - the protagonist sees someone important, and wonders when they'll have to fight the next new guy, cuz We Need Boss Battles, even when the characters have no real need to fight each other. This is how you get comical misunderstandings only resolved after trashing each other, or your typical "I need to test your strength first" shtick.

These characters are engineered to be unimportant, for their deaths to mean nothing except some extra exp. It's just a problem baked into every FE game's chapter structure.

To compare to another SRPG, Triangle Strategy - you don't have plot unimportant combat in the story, ever. It's all optinal. Like yeah, there's bandits now and again, but the bandits are actually reoccuring characters, one of whom you can recruit, so they are made to be enjoyed as characters and sympathized with. The bandit characters even make good points sometimes! There's a part in the game where the main characters are involved in a black market smuggling deal, and bandits catch them transporting illegal goods. So, the bandit questions, what makes you rightous in this situation? Why is it right when you're doing it, but wrong when she does? What, because your goal is noble? What does it matter when you've sunk to the rock bottom of morality already?

However, Tristrat has an entirely different plot structure to FE. It also has a chapter system, but not every chapter includes combat. Some chapters only feature cutscenes, or exploration segments.

The game is just set up differently in a way that lets the plot breathe without forcing conflict. Combat gameplay isn't the main draw or a necessity. I'd fucking adore Tristrat if it had no combat whatsoever - It's the opposite of FE. Plot doesn't exist because combat needs to happen, no, combat only exists because the plot occasionally necessitates it.

Okay, this has been my triade on the disposable enemy archetype of Generic Brigand. To the next point - well, is Awakening a male power fantasy?

From the main plot? Not really. Like, yeah, sure, the avatar is the only person who can marry whoever. That's to give the player the opportunity to romance their favorite, I won't deny it. But the main plot itself doesn't have anyone fawn over Robin (besides Chrom). Hell, you could even go without finding out about Tharja's devotion to them if you benched her and never read her supports. Since her whole thing with Robin isn't included in her recruitment chapter at all. That utterly blindsided me when I played, cuz all I knew about her was "Robin simp." and then she didn't even simp robin in her first appearance.

If we're talking "recruiting lots of girls to your army constitutes a harem" then like, every FE game would be a harem. They're not. The game even forces you to be monogamous. I'd argue Fates is worse in this, because characters start falling in love and blushing profusely by A-support, even when they're already married, so everyone is Schrödinger's Cheating. In Awakening support chains, there's never really any romance outside of the sudden S support marriage proposal. I'll admit S-supports are well put together in recontextualizing the previous supports as falling in love, but all of them can also be left at A for a perfectly fine platonic dynamic between all characters.

Robin themself doesn't emphasize their own strength and intellect much, even if it is impressive in the world of the game. It's all about their bonds with others, how others give them strength and hope and all that good stuff. Robin is a well-developed character with positives and negatives. They're not just a blank slate. Hell, man, there's a whopping three choices you can make in the plot, and only one of them actually changes anything, and the first one is actually a choice for Chrom instead. Robin has their own thoughts and feelings and a great arc and if you ignore that in favor of "they're just me fr" then that's a you problem tbh.

You can argue till the cows come home about beauty standards and colorism in FE enemy design, fuck knows that I can freely admit a lot of Awakening enemy designs are racist as all hell, but that's sadly not unique to Awakening. Generic Brigands are ugly to signal that they're unimportant and morally corrupt and it's fine to kill them because only pretty people have morals. The only black people in Awakening are the shadowy desert cultists and the leaders of the "barbaric meathead" nation, so go figure what the game was trying to signal on that front. It's just shit design.

Awakening's finale actually makes me think of your typical fairytale hero story, and it's a great subversion of "the knight in shining armor kills the evil dragon to save the land." In that way, it's also a great subversion of other FE stories, since that summary is a lot of them in a nutshell.

Binding Blade did the subversion first though. Grima is just Idunn 2 (actual bastard edition) and I adore them for it (that much is obvious).

So like TLDR no, I don't think Awakening is a male power fantasy, because the main plot itself doesn't focus on romance or how awesome the main character is whatsoever. Less power fantasy, more "power of friendship" fantasy.

#Feli gets asked #do i dare give this main tags #it's gonna show up in search anyway. eh.

[tomtenadia]

Let’s get married

Rowaelin month - Day 1 a song fic.

So, for my first fic I will transport you to Scotland but I have to give a brief introduction. The song is from the Proclaimers (an amazing Scottish band) and it’s actually called Let’s get married. The scene happening in the fic is based on a scene from the movie called Sunshine on Leith - a movie set in Edinburgh with songs from the proclaimer as soundtrack. You can watch the scene HERE. The fic is set in Glasgow and our gang are all Scottish. Now because of that you might need a few sentences explained

I dinnae ken: I don’t know.

Away an bile yer heid: get lost

Taps aff: when in Scotland the thermometers get to 15C for us it’s warm and taps off means clothes off because is far too hot.

mad awe it,: very drunk

Gie-in it laldly: go for it The Glaswegians have their own beautiful slang and I love them madly. Aelin starts singing Flower of Scotland... that is our anthem. we sent the English homeward tae think again.” : this is taken from a line of Flower of Scotland “and I will definitely walk 500 mile with you and then I will walk 500 more.”: this comes from the song 500 miles, still from the Proclaimers. This is heavily Scottish and I hope it makes sense and you find it funny

The pub that night was crowded. Fenrys and Connall were busy behind the counter serving the patrons ready to let go on a Friday night after a week of work or university or the crowd coming back from Murrayfield after the rugby game. Their pub was in the university area of Glasgow. Hillhead was famous for its pubs and restaurants and they hit the jackpot when they decided to open the pub there. Slowly their friends had also become regulars and brought more friends and soon the word spread.

“Any idea when the gang is coming?”

Fenrys finished drying a few glasses “I dinnae ken, Rowan said he was going to text me as soon as the train get in at Queen street station.”

The brothers went back to their job and waited for their friends to finally decide to show up.

It was an hour later when the twins spotted the three couples plus Vaughan and Gavriel enter the pub.

Fenrys waved at them and pointed at a table in a corner. It was their table. Whenever they knew the group was going, the twins would always reserve that spot for them. 

“Ah, you are finally here.”

Aedion sat down quickly “It’s pure baltic outside.”

“Away an bile yer heid, Aedion,” Vaughan pushed him playfully “Rowan is about to go taps aff.”

The silver haired man scoffed “you are mad awe it, already.”

Fenrys joined them all a moment later “all right savages, here are all yer drinks.”

The blonde man distributed the drinks and sent a kiss in the direction of the ladies.

Rowan sat at Aelin’s side and kissed her head and she gave him a wide grin. 

They had all gone to the rugby game in Edinburgh and Scotland had won against England and the day could be easily marked as a national holiday.

Aelin stood and rose her glass “O Flower of Scotland, when we will see your like again…” within seconds the pub started singing and joined in and the entire crowd sang the Scottish anthem out loud. Aelin had offered her hand to Rowan and he twirled her around and kissed her. A lot of people in the pub were just like them back from the game and had jerseys and flags and started waving them in an outburst of patriotism and celebration and the small added bonus of pissing off any English in the pub.

Eventually the song died down and everyone went back to their seats but Rowan was still standing and then with a swift jump he went on the counter. Aelin gasped. Her usually very restrained boyfriend had taken the celebration for a rugby victory a bit too far.

Fenrys grinned and joined him and Rowan grabbed the towel he had on his shoulder and turned to Aelin who was sitting once again “We’ve been going together too long to be vague,” he grabbed the cloth and placed it on Fen’s head as a head piece then he jumped off the counter and took a step towards Aelin who was suddenly speechless “When there’s something to say, it’s not now then it’s never,” swaying his hips he walked around the three ladies and playfully squeezed Aelin’s arse “So I’ll say it straight out ‘cause I have no doubt, no doubt.” Rowan then grabbed Aelin’s hand and pulled her away and in the mean time the pub had stopped and had started singing as they recognised the popular song from The Proclaimers “Let’s get married,” he shouted, making her twirl, pushing her away and then back to him again. Aelin laughed and Rowan walked away, climbing on chairs and making funny faces at her. He then jumped and kneeled in front of her “I love you and I want to stay with you.”

She laughed and almost took his hand but he moved again and with his hands he encouraged the patrons “Let’s get married,” they all shouted.

Fenrys jumped down and the two danced together “have kids and grow old and grey with you.”

“Let’s get married,” they all joined in, even their friends now.

They all sang another verse and Rowan was once again at her feet “Let’s get married,” he grabbed the washcloth from Fenrys and wrapped it around her writs “we are ready for tying the know,”

“Let’s get married,” shouted the pub now fully involved in the crazy proposal by Rowan.

“Set the seal on the feelings we got,” he moved to Aelin and kissed her.

“Let’s get married.”

“We can make each other happy, we can make each other blue,” this time he grabbed his girlfriend by the hips and lifted in the air and turned on himself with a delighted Aelin in his arms “Yeah, it’s just a piece of paper but it says I love you.”

Gently he sat Aelin on the counter and he grabbed Fenrys on his arm and the two started a duet “For the days we can do no wrong, for the bad times, for the moments when we can’t go on,” they walked back and forth and danced too. Fenrys blowing loving kisses to Rowan “for the family, for the lives of the children that we’ve planned. Let’s get married.”

Rowan went on his knees and extended a hand to Aelin “Come on darlin’ please take my hand.”

Aelin placed her finger on her lips and pretended to think, then stood on the counter and looked at him “And I’ll be the one who’s by your side, I’ll be the one still taking pride,” Aelin climbed on the counter and went on all four and started crawling to Connall and stole the shot of whisky from his hand and drank it “when we are old and they ask me ‘how do you define success?’” She jumped down and stopped in front of Rowan and looked at him. Blue eyes meeting green “I’ll say you meet a woman, you fall in love you ask her and she says yes,” a tiny nod of her head and then her lips met his in a sizzling kiss and the pub erupted and started singing the whole chorus again.

But in that instant Aelin and Rowan had eyes only for each other. He held her at his chest “Let’s get married, buzzard.”

He stooped and kissed her again, then they walked to their friends who were waiting to congratulate with them.

Fen went to Rowan and patted his shoulder hard “I approve how you used my pub, but you could have told me, I would have had streamers and balloons.”

“Fen, you can’t keep a secret,” added his twin.

“I love the song and the Proclaimers,” added Lys, taking Aedion’s hand.

Rowan looked at Aelin and deposited a quick kiss on her forehead before pulling her close to his chest “It was the first concert we went to together after we started dating.”

“And we slow danced at our seats in a corner of the Hydro at the notes of Sunshine on Leith.”

Gavriel laughed “now you two,” and he pointed at his son and Lorcan “have to try and top this. A proposal on the day we beat the English? Fen, we need more beer.”

Fen climbed on the counter and shouted at all the patrons “Aye, listen up, tonight is a great night,” the place fell silent and all eyes turned on him “Scotland won at rugby and we sent the English homeward tae think again.” The crowd erupted in loud cheers and glasses were clinked “But most importantly Aelin, after three years of living with that grump of boyfriend has decided to tie the knot with him. The poor woman,” he smiled and turned to his friends “I love you both and I wish you all the best in this new adventure.”

The couple smiled, but Fenrys poured himself a dram of whiskey “For Aelin and Rowan,” he rose the glass in the air “ Gie-in it laldly!!!”

The crowd cheered and followed and they all drank and toasted at the evening.

It was many hours later when they finally left the pub and Aelin and Rowan were now walking hand in hand along the Clyde towards their flat. The air chilly and threatening snow, and the sky clear. Rowan took her hand and stopped just under the imposing structure that was the Finnieston crane. The place where he kissed her for the first time three years before.

She brushed his cheek and he closed his eyes for a second, then all of a sudden he was on one knee, and a black box appeared in his hand.

When he opened it, a silver band appeared “Aelin, my love. Three years ago in this very spot I gathered all the courage and I kissed you. You are incredible, funny, have so much sass to drive me crazy.You are my everything and as the song says, I want to grow old with you, through the bad times and the good ones,” he grabbed her hand “Aelin Galathynius, let’s get married.”

Aelin pulled him up and rose on her tip toes to kiss him “Let’s get married, buzzard.”

With shaky hands he placed the ring on her fourth finger and then lifted her in his arms and kissed “and I will definitely walk 500 mile with you and then I will walk 500 more.”

And with the giant crane reflecting his imposing picture in the calm waters of the river, Rowan danced with the love of his life in his arms.

Tags:

@rowaelinismyotp​ @swankii-art-teacher​ @whimsicallyreading​ @elentiyawhitethorn​ @aelin-bitch-queen​ @bruiseonthefaceofhumanity​ @acreativelydifferentlove @mis-lil-red​ @thegreyj​ @sailorsassley​ @leiawritesstories​ @clairec79 @morganofthewildfire​ @sv0430​ @heartless--aromantic @autumnbabylon​ @rowanaelinn​ @backtobl4ck​ @susumaus98​ @gracie-rosee​ @mybloodrunsblue​ @tanvee1231 @avenrebekah​ @whoever-you-choose-to-love​ @theywillnotsingforme​ @universallytreepost @black-daisy-water​ @goddess-aelin​ @whispers-in-the-darkest-heart @rowaelinscourt​

#rowaelin fanfic #rowaelin fanfiction #roweaelin #rowaelinmonth2022 #rowaelin month 2022 #aelin galathynius #aelin x rowan #Scottish rowan and aelin #rowaelin #rowaelinmonth #rowaelin month

[2xplusungood]

Im just gonna say it: My opinion is that recent "rebalances" to minecraft absolutely have sucked immensely lately, namely these two big ones:

Netherite changes: So now instead of simply mining the 24+whatever you need for tools ancient debris, you now also have to obtain netherite upgrades found in Bastion chests, which not only adds what feels like a completely unnecessary step to something that already requires a decent amount of commitment, but now gives the same problem to netherite armor that Elytras have: With limited world sizes, items that can only be collected through exploration are much more finite. Have fun no longer being able to have netherite on public servers becuase a group of the more grind-motivated players already have all the netherite upgrades in the world and have decided to gatekeep them from other people. Either that, or they are super generous with it and hand them out to everyone, which completely INVALIDATES the change's point of making netherite harder to get. In essence, it basically adds griefing potential without making it an overall better game.

Villager changes: This one I've seen coming for a long time now, ever since the Mojang devs hopped on Hermitcraft with Doc and said that villager changes were coming.

In my opinion, the biggest issue with villager trading is the random nature of trades and sitting there breaking and places lecterns to hopefully get mending. I think having a more straight forward way of getting the enchantment you want is a step in the right direction but its still probably the worst possible way it could've been implemented.

First off, you need to find a swamp biome (which holy shit I am so goddamned tired of wandering in random directions hoping to find a specific biome, not becuase I think its cool but because theres some specific bullshit I need from it before I leave it forever)

Then at the BARE MINIMUM, you now have to transport villagers TO that biome. I don't feel like I can stress enough how bad of an idea this is. Moving and transporting villagers is extremely annoying and is downright DISCOURAGED by the game (Lures do not work on them and theres no way to make them follow you becuase they are... you know... supposed to be PEOPLE and not just animals)

It was, however, by no means impossible and could still be done if you really needed to have them somewhere but it was never something you HAD to do to get specific items and if they do not add the two missing village types, you will now.

My next point is that Mojang seems to want to kill any gameplay outside of their views of how to play the game. Like I keep seeing these youtubes parroting the fact that "oh you can build these super overpowered villager breeders and converters to get super cheap trades" without actually answering "how is this a bad thing"

One of the biggest draws of minecraft is the extremely low skill floor but extremely high skill ceiling. A casual player can get all the tools they need to make whatever they like on a small to medium scale, but someone who is more willing to push minecraft to its limits are happily given the tool necessary to do so, regardless of how gamebreaking they can be.

Want infinite iron? Break the game by making a golem farm

Infinite copper: Break the game by utilizing the absolutely absurdly obscure mechanic of zombie reinforcements and then convert them to drowns.

Slime: Making a slime farm in a slime chunk or swamp using mushrooms

Need infinite TNT? Dupe it using coral, a mechanic that is 100% a bug but at this point will not be fixed (For the time being, barring any sudden changes in developer opinion) due to its millions of uses.

The point Im making is that farms not only add a means for getting a ridiculous amounts of materials to make ridiculous buildings that would otherwise take way more time, but also add a whole new layer of gameplay for the insane tech-minded crowd

Zombie discounts however? Somehow they are bad. Somehow, the ability to get cheap trades through a VERY involved process (Either you are manually infecting and curing them like a psychopath or building the infrastructure to automatically infect and cure them like a high functioning pyschopath). Its so terrible how you can... get certain enchantments easier... or get glass easier... or mid tier armor and weapons/tools? Like you don't even get these resources passively like most farms and each villager you bring into your trading hall requires some manner of time investment.

So WHY nerf villagers? Are they the most fun to deal with? Is actually doing this farms the pinnacle of gameplay? Not really, but the answer would be to streamline this process (Being able to manually cycle trades without constantly breaking the workblock would be a good start) and not just take it out back and old yeller that shit.

My tinfoil is that some Microsoft exec found out about villager farms and decided it didn't fit with the kid-friendly brand they've made.

#mineblr #minecraft

[elisedonut]

18 and 35 for the ask game please!

How i would combine a Circus AU + Bathtub Fic

thank you for participating with me!!

OK!

So!

First thought was Weasley family circus au where the family itself is a travelling cirrus i have no idea if that's a thing i know most media I've seen is very found family vibes with characters coming into a new family. (or you know abusive situations but I'm electing to ignore those so yes

Weasley Family Circus

maybe it's still a magical world maybe its not

if it is magic somehow then i imagine it be a situation where they had to run during the first war instead of hunkering down and hiding

eventually figuring out they could make money by putting on shows and it spiraling a bit

but that depends a lot on how you think the statue of secrecy works

i think you could hand wave it by making it something that only matters when using wands which I've seen a few times

so like if they enchant say a balance bar to not have to worry so much about not falling off it since they didn't do that in front of the audience it doesn't count

or

the "if the audience doesn't realize its like legit magic then it doesn't trigger whatever they use to tell its been broken because its just a non issue" method which is also very fun imo though cant say I've seen it very often

so pretty much this is all set up for someone who also has magic

i don't know who because i would want it to be someone who doesn't know Percy but it needs to be some bad at keep their mouth shut i think

but someone visiting said circus and getting absolutely drenched but like not water

(what is it? Fred says you don't want the answer)

because of something the twins invented because i just think they would love being in the circus especially because i could see them getting more like support? from Molly specifically since its directly helpful to their act and such

but whatever it is. its obviously not muggle so the person outright asks about it and loudly which obviously they are brushed off but Percy still brings them to the family tent with the intention to get them a towel and maybe a change of clothes

now side note

the family tent has all sorts of muggle charms on it to make it look like well normal so it just looks like a few fairly large tents (it originally looked like a single one but as the kids got older Molly

(and by Molly i really mean Bill, she thinks it was her idea though)

started to notice people talking about them squishing the kids in such a small place and chose to adjust to wards to look like multiple

point is obviously that only effects Muggles so to magic people it looks like one large tent on the outside and obviously looks expansive on the inside pretty much the burrow but its a tent

also because the other prompt is bathtub fic I'm choosing to believe in this au their tub is actually pretty large and kinda nice because the tent was originally a fancy camping tent with a large one meant for relaxing that Arthur found on sale for cheap when Percy was 13

ok back on topic

Percy notices immediately that the person is also magic sense they look far too interested in what should be nothing and ends up letting them use the bath and then you get that fun scene where they get out and are really cute

and Percy gets a crush and penpal for awhile before he leaves the family behind after a few years because he wants to actually settle down somewhere and stuff still leads to a fight and a strained relationship because of the closer nature of the siblings (and because unlike og in this world Percy's the first to leave)

but uh yeah

a smaller secondary concept that crossed my mind was stealing the water transportation from kyo kara maoh but instead of the alternate word being a typical medieval-ish fantasy world its instead still a fantasy world but like Percy taking a bath in the prefects bathroom and wakes up in a circus that is also a kingdom

and now he has alternate vers of a bunch of people he knows wanting his attention due to some vague prophecy nonsense about the one who marries the visitor will prosper but like make it silly

on top of also having to solve different problems and always having a chance of being sent back to his world every time he takes a bath

in other words Percy Weasley gets to play an Otome game but in real life

#percy weasley #ask games #that was so fun to try to make work! #if anyone wants to send me some more feel free! i feel like im in my element #not writing actual fics no but just brainstorming nonsense lol #the weasleys #weasley family