#also have a new idea about a masquerade at camp

[madin-writes]

it's easter weekend and i finally have some free time to write. gonna make up more silly scenarios for valdangelo

#it has been too long #i haven't forgotten about unlikely places... #also have a new idea about a masquerade at camp #:') #madin.txt

[sakurapika]

What are your all-time favorite outfits from Twisted Wonderland?

Hello @letterstoear, thank you for ask! I've had a lot of fun making this post, and I'm so sorry that it took forever to answer!

Every time I was certain I had my list narrowed down, I remembered another outfit I really liked. (Also, I'm a little bit biased, as you will see...haha). This time, I focused on event outfits to make it easier for myself. Maybe in the future I'll post my "reviews" on dorm uniforms or Halloween costumes.

I am always blown away by the the little details that Yana Toboso and the rest of the design team have added to each of characters' outfits, because they give some interesting insight to their personalities and backgrounds.

Without further ado, let's discuss some outfits! (Please note that there are spoilers for upcoming events from the JP server, as well as some groovy arts!)

My Favorite Twisted Wonderland Outfits

10. Floyd's Outdoor Wear (Vargas Camp)

Most of the outfits on my list are on the extravagant side. I recently bought a volume of Black Butler, where there was a note about how Yana Toboso loves to draw clothing, and it truly shows.

But in contrast to seeing our beloved characters in over-the-top costumes, it's refreshing to see them wearing casual outfits once in a while as well and see their individual, everyday styles.

I'll admit that I haven't played any of the Vargas Camp events, and have a grand total of zero (0) cards from this series. I'm not sure why; I always miss the event's runtime for some reason.

Still, I've always loved Floyd's little sling bag with the eel keychain, as well as the teal visor. The bright colors stand out and are appealing.

The whole outfit looks like something you could get from a store like Uniqlo, and sometimes it is nice to have that sort of realism in a magical game. He looks like an ordinary teenager I could find on the street. Except...if I did find Floyd on the street, I'd be running in the other direction. But that's not the main idea here.

9. Azul's Glorious Masquerade Outfit

At first, I sort of forgot that this SSR existed. When the PV for Glorious Masquerade came out, I was more focused on Malleus.

However, eventually, many people began to cosplay as GloMas Azul, and they all looked so amazing. I began to appreciate the outfit more after seeing people pose and dance in it. Azul also tends to have some of the best fanart, and fans have spared no expense when drawing him wearing this.

My favorite part of the outfit is his coat. I like the silhouette it creates with a high-waist belt, and the long coattails that resemble tentacles. The ruffles on his trousers are cute, too. I would buy a pair if I could. Unfortunately, it's hard to see these details on his in-game sprite.

As for his accessories, the pearls are so dramatic (and so very Azul). His round glasses are also cute, I hope he wears them again!

8. Idia's Suitor Suit

One look at Idia's Ghost Marriage outfit, and you can really tell that it was designed by Yana Toboso. His gloves, coat, and cravat make him look like he's in the Victorian Era. Also, doesn't he look sort of like Grelle from Black Butler?

Speaking of Grelle, Idia's outfit is meant to look more like funeral attire, between the long, black coat and the lilies pinned to his shoulder. There are also skulls hidden throughout his outfit, such as on his jacket chain and cufflinks. I was still new to TWST at the time, so I just thought that Idia liked gothic clothing. I didn't realize he was (at least in his mind) attending his own funeral!

Let's not forget his new hairstyle! This is one of Idia's first SSRs if I remember correctly, so it was exciting to see him with a ponytail.

My love for this outfit also comes from my love for the story associated with it. Fans have pointed out that Idia's "arranged marriage" with Eliza parallels the myth of Hades and Persephone. The design team and Yana were so clever for this.

I don't have this card, either, but I hope to pick him up one day!

7. Ortho's Fairy Gear

The Shroud brothers are luckyーthey are probably two of the characters with the most SSRs in the game.

That being said, we all have to agree that Ortho's fairy gear is one of the most unique and avant-garde cards in the game.

I really enjoy the white and gold color scheme in this event. His color-changing wings are stunning, and the piece covering his eyes makes him look very mysterious.

I thought this card was cool when I first saw it, but then I learned that Ortho's outfit and hair can turn pink, which is even better.

Every time I see his "pointe shoes," it makes me imagine Ortho and Idia trying to learn how to dance together in Idia's room, and Idia obsessively studying ballet costumes for his younger brother.

Yet again, I don't have this card, but my best friend does! At least I can admire him from her phone...

6. Silver's Rabbit Wear

There is no way that this outfit is just an R card! When this card was first advertised in one of the JR rail train stations, the pictures showed this card with Deuce's hometown in the background instead of the standard Diasomnia R background, so I thought that this card would at least be an SR. (Although I can't complain so much, because that means it's free!)

Silver is so princely. I am convinced that he can look good in anything. I am fond of pastel colors, and the pink/blue color scheme suits him, as the TWST version of Aurora. The bows may be silly, but I find them adorable.

Compared to the other boys in this event, Silver's outfit looks a little more like a soldier's (albeit a toy soldier's or a nutcracker's), which is a cool touch.

5. Deuce's Rabbit Wear

Deuce's hometown event was truly one of my favorite events that came out in the JP sever last year. Not only were some of my most favorite characters there, but they were dressed up in the most whimsical outfits possible. (And we got to meet Deuce's motherーshe's the coolest!)

Since Deuce is the main character of this event, his outfit bears the most resemblance to the white rabbit's in most classic illustrations, complete with a bow tie, top hat, and, of course, his pocket watch. His outfit has a blue color scheme. Like Azul in GloMas, Deuce also wears round glasses in his groovy art. Overall, it looks like the sweet ouji style, although I'm not very familiar with this sub-fashion. If anyone who is reading this has studied/worn this style of fashion, please let me know!

I used to play Love Nikki and Shining Nikki (two fashion-themed gacha games), which also featured lolita dresses inspired by Alice in Wonderland characters. For this reason, Deuce's outfit in particular feels very nostalgic to me.

4. Lilia's Right General Armor

Here's another departure from the cute pastel outfits...

Sleeping Beauty was one of my favorite Disney movies as a child. I always remembered Maleficent's "goons" as short, silly little creatures wearing simple green tunics.

So how on earth did we get to Right General Lilia Vanrouge?!

Seriously, I'm just stunned by how the artists looked at the source material and created something so radically, yet wonderfully, different.

I'm curious about the green stones (jades?) on his outfit--around his waist, there are several pieces attached to tassels, and he has two strapped to his right leg. The material matches the stone used for his weapon. Maybe it represents his status in Briar Valley. If you check his (unposed) sprite, you can also see that he is wearing something around his waist that looks like folded bat wings.

Like everyone else, I'm obsessed with his long hairーit makes him look so formidable, especially with that hood. My friends and I like to joke that his ponytail makes him look like a character in a Chinese martial arts drama.

Again, the story associated with this card made me love it even more. Few books have made me cry as much as Book 7 of TWST.

3. Malleus' Glorious Masquerade Outfit

While Sleeping Beauty was my favorite movie as a young child, when I got older, I began to love The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It was only natural for this outfit to be among my favorites for this reason.

There are so many details here. The feathered hat. The sheer sleeves. The golden embroidery. The split cape. It's honestly overwhelming to take in at once.

I can say that my favorite detail is his green earrings. They really bring out his eye color, and the PV made them so sparkly.

In addition, everyone I've ever seen who has cosplayed as GloMas Malleus or has drawn fanart of him has increased my appreciation of this outfit.

[Now for some very spoiler-y stuff] The fact that this event came just before the release of Chapter 7 is worth noting. Doesn't it feel a bit tragic that just before Malleus' overblot, we have a chance to see him wearing an outfit that makes him look especially like his mother, having fun and being the star at the masquerade? And what about the feathers on his shouldersーdo they hint at another side of his family? There's so much foreshadowing and mystery going on, and nothing is more suitable for the occasion than masquerade attire.

2. Kalim's New Year Attire

I've already rambled about how sentimental this outfit is to me in a previous post, but in summary: New Year is my favorite holiday, and the New Year's Sale event was the first event I "seriously" participated in. Kalim looks excessively cute and festive in his kimono, and every time I see this card, I feel nostalgic and in the holiday mood.

1. (Tied) Epel's Applepom Outfit and Riddle's Beach Outfit

I'm really sorry, Epel and Riddle are my favorite characters, and in the end, I refuse to chose between them. They're like my younger brothers! I try to collect all of their cards, so I pay attention to their outfits the most, and picking only one outfit for each character was a challenge in itself.

My favorite part of Epel's Applepom outfit is his cloak. It looks so fluffy and warm. When you set him as your home screen character, you also have the option to "swap looks" and see his outfit without the cloak--the apple embroidery on the rest of his outfit is very detailed. Many fans have mentioned that the outfits people wear in Harveston resemble traditional Scandinavian clothing, which is really cool!

The little apple slices on his cap are everything.

And I'm always happy to see characters in different hairstyles, such as Epel's little ponytail.

One of my headcanons is that you're allowed to call Epel cute, but only when he wears this specific outfit, because he takes it as a complement to his culture.

As for Riddle, we're all so used to seeing him wearing formal suits. It's so nice to see him loosening up for once. He looks so happy, now that he has the chance to see the ocean for the first time!

I also happened to be on vacation at the beach around the time this event came out, so it felt like a gift.

I have to laugh a little, because there are so many flowers on his outfit. Even Jack pointed it out in the story. But he looks so cute!

I suppose we have to discuss the elephant in the room. My friend saw it before me, so she spammed me with messages along the lines of "RIDDLE IS WEARING A CROP TOP!!! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!!" and I naturally thought she was pranking me. But lo and behold, it's the truth. I like to headcanon that among the rest of the cast in this event, everyone has made an unspoken mutual agreement not to mention it. This Victorian child has already been through enough, and not a word must reach Mrs. Rosehearts.

Thank you once again for the ask! For anyone who read all of this, what do you think about these outfits, and which ones in the game are your favorite?

#The words “short” and “brief” are not in my vocabulary apparently #But it's alright #I just really love the work and details that the artists have put into the game #As well as the fan content! I'm so happy I joined the TWST fandom at this time #disney twisted wonderland #twst #twisted wonderland #floyd leech #azul ashengrotto #idia shroud #ortho shroud #twst silver #silver vanrouge #deuce spade #lilia vanrouge #malleus draconia #kalim al asim #epel felmier #riddle rosehearts

[ryuichirou]

Since my blog is mostly dedicated to twst for now, I’ll leave a couple of links and a very short FAQ related to it.

My carrd info

My ko-fi page for twst sketches that I won’t post at all or post after I share them there

My commission info

The most frequently asked questions are below (you can find most of this in my carrd):

So far we've watched: Prologue, Episodes 1-6, Halloween events (both), Glorious Masquerade, Port Fest, Camp Vargas (both), Wish Upon a Star, Beanfest, the Harveston event, Sam's New Year event (2022)

To avoid repeating myself all the time, I'll have all of the twst characters as tops and bottoms (as we see them, obviously):

Tops: Ace, Trey, Cater, Ruggie, Jack, Azul, Jade, Floyd, Kalim, Rook, Ortho, Lilia, Sebek, Crewel, Crowley, Che’nya, Neige.

Bottoms: Riddle, Deuce, Leona, Jamil, Vil, Epel, Idia, Silver, Malleus, Trein, Rollo.

We don't switch them and we don't ship two tops or two bottoms. We don't like switching and we don't entertain this idea, it doesn't interest us, without any exceptions, ever.

If, for some reason, you want to know a little more about the logic or the principle behind this, here’s a couple of posts dedicated to the types that we like: the one where we talk about our favourite types of tops/bottoms and why it's so strict with us.

Our twst ships:

Our most favourite absolute alpha ships ever:

Azul/Idia

Ortho/Idia

Lilia/Idia

Jade/Idia

Floyd/Idia

Ships that we love:

Ace/Deuce

Trey/Riddle

Floyd/Riddle

Kalim/Jamil

Azul/Jamil

Rook/Vil

Sebek/Malleus

Sebek/Silver

Sebek/Idia

Lilia/Silver

Lilia/Malleus

Ships that we like:

Trey/Idia

Ortho/Vil

Floyd/Vil

Floyd/Epel

Rook/Epel

Chenya/Riddle

Crewel/Trein

Jack/Vil

Jack/Deuce

Ruggie/Jamil

Ruggie/Leona

Neige/Vil

We don’t have any Yuus/OCs related to twst.

Do not tag my art or headcanons as "x reader".

You can find full NSFW versions of my art either on my twitter or on bluesky. If you want to be notified about me posting this type of art, when I have a preview here, please make sure to check that your account settings allow you to see mature content.

I tend to say “we” instead of “I” because I want to include Katsu, who is my partner and also my best friend, as well as the author of all of our AUs + a person who gives me a lot of drawing ideas and helps me with drawings in general. We dive into stuff together and share a lot of thoughts, so I’m very used to including both of us into conversations. Katsu also helps me to run all of my social media pages, but I’m the one writing the replies and comments.

I'm very sorry if my reply can take up to a month, especially if it's a headcanon post or something that is lengthy to write. I'm very slow at writing...

Tags that might be interesting: #ryuichirouart ; #about drawing; #headcanons; #about characters

[mushroommushy]

Please please tell me your ideas I will be so normal about it I am not at all desparate for Broken Masquerade content

Boy I have so many ideas I actually need to put this in a draft to list all of the brainrot things I’ve had circling in my head!! This does include some negative things so feel free for me to ask to tag.

All of the colleges (Particularly Harvard) adding Thaumaturgy to their classes is extremely cool in the canon and I think there should be many more schools

Site-43 College beloved I want to go there so badly please be real c’mon :[

Those Facebook mom groups…oh boy there’s so much drama

Lord help all the poor kids with minor anomalous power

Segregation with schools, even restaurants

A lot of anomalies end up in homeless shelters because not many jobs are willing to take the backlash of anomalous employees

Shitty parents faking their kid having a dangerous anomaly so they can send them away

Because they think the foundation would just kill them because of all the propaganda

You know that the cults are gonna take advantage of this to try and grow their numbers

Chaos Insurgency propaganda against the foundation

A flag that shows your support for the foundation, GOC, anomalies hanging outside your home

New Genders from the tumblrinas like us

Twitter DNI’s are a genuine hell

‘DNI IF YOU SUPPORT SCP’S/THREAT ENTITIES/OBJECTS’

‘Block me if you call anomalies SCP’s that’s a slur’

Speaking of slurs there’s probably a lot more

COTBG members constantly calling the Nälkan’s Sarkics just to piss them off

And Maxwellium members getting real pressed over internet drama

Someone trying to make the nicknames the Serpents Hand has into a slur

Dr. Glass walking down the street and just has someone scream ‘JAILER’ at him and he is desperately trying to not commit a crime

Also Twitter being Twitter

‘Is it wrong to kin SCP-076-2? I’d murder too if I was under the ocean.’

Extremely dangerous TikTok trends involving anomalies that makes both the GOC and SCP have collective heart attacks

Some girl posts a video from a foundation site doing Macarena during a breach and is just immediately cancelled on every platform

You know there’s gonna be dumbass teenagers trying to find some real dangerous shit to seem cool

‘Oh a lake full of bodies that makes you enter through mind control??? Sounds cool and not totally dangerous I’m gonna find it and go swimming’

Gonna readmore this it’s getting long lol

Five missing teens later the foundations getting slandered even though they did nothing

Articles with the ‘How to tell if ‘X’ is an anomaly’

Of course they’re bullshit and usually offensive

Charities to support anomalies

An actual cult around 2662 that didn’t spawn anomalously

You fucking know that the Christian’s will either take 343 well or absolutely horrifically

There’s also two sides of people when it comes to Cain and Able

The ones who hate Cain and think Able is reasonable and the people who think the opposite

Cain’s also not allowed to leave site-17 for more than just the fact he’d kill plant life it’s for his own safety tbh

Meri does get chances to wander the woods! Just..not in public because they rampage that would happen with the amount of broken phones and cars would be horrible

Iris gets to go home because she deserves it

I feel like Gerald would become a meme in general and people pay his hospital bills for him lmao

Parents keeping their kids out of school and switching to online or homeschooling to keep them away from anomalies

Conversion camps to send your kid to so people can ‘release them from their curse’

Those got the serpents hand real heated

Speaking of them they have the snarkiest Twitter account ever and just roast the living hell out of every word that comes out of the foundations mouth

Podcasts

So many fucking podcasts

There already is a writing on the broken masquerade hub of the foundation making a video with outdated slang to appeal to kids

But I think Dr. Gears should just stare at a camera and say swag with a straight face it would be beautiful

Kondraki, Clef and Gears get called dilfs and not a single one of them knows what it means

‘Kain’s the goodest boy’ even though he’s morally corrupt as fuck is very common

But he will Fuckin run if you even try to touch him he does not need his fur messes up

Ok I don’t want this to be a mile long so I’ll stop here but!!!

If you want more dm me so we can talk 👀👀👀 I need SCP friends

#scp foundation #SCP #broken masquerade #dr. kondraki #Dr. clef #Dr. gears #Dr. Gerald’s #Dr. glass #scp 073 #scp 076 #kain pathos crow #serpents hand #church of the broken god #sarkicism #scp 105 #scp 166 #SCP 2662 #SCP 343 #SCP 2316 #chaos insurgency

[aziraphales-library]

Hello, Sir! Can I have some misunderstanding tropes? I want a fake/pretended relationship with other people to be specific, but that might be too specific, and if so, your favorite misunderstanding is more than fine. Crack or angst, romantic or platonic All is well!!😉

Hi. We have loads of fics on our #misunderstandings and #fake/pretend relationship tags, so make sure to check those! Here are some more to add to the collection...

The Great Theodolphus by entanglednow (T)

In which Crowley wakes to a new century, and finds he's not quite over his argument with Aziraphale. He also has unexpected competition for the angel's affection.

One Dance Whose Steps I Never Could Learn by hapax (T)

Or, Five Times Crowley Took Romantic Advice From Anathema (plus One Time He Took Romantic Advice From Newt)

“Shaddup,” Crowley said, a bit of fondness leaking into his voice. “We’re not friends, neither. You’re just this bint who I tempt into ditching her fiancé on a monthly basis.” “And you are just this camp old horror that comes to me to whine about his boyfriend-who-isn’t-really-his-boyfriend,” she retaliated, resting her chin on her folded hands.

Anathema Device has the perfect plan for tempting Aziraphale to realize that he ought to be with Crowley (not to mention distracting herself from own upcoming wedding): adapting scenarios from cheesy rom-coms. Crowley is doubtful, but hasn’t got one single better idea.

A Different Kind of Arrangement by mar_map (G)

Aziraphale really wishes that his family would stay out of his (non-existent) love life. To avoid being set up (again), Aziraphale has taken to the internet in the hopes of hiring someone to masquerade as his boyfriend for the next family holiday. Enter Crowley, the florist from down the street, ready to make some heads roll.

Talk About It by hope_in_the_dark (T)

Aziraphale and Crowley have been best friends for sixteen years. Crowley's been in love with Aziraphale for almost that long. When Aziraphale tells his family that he'll be bringing his boyfriend to his step-brother's wedding, things get a bit complicated.

A Fake Dating AU.

One Miraculous December by journeytogallifrey (T)

Candles. Mistletoe. An entire frozen lake. Festive memories from their past together keep appearing out of nowhere.

Crowley's sure he's manifesting them accidentally out of sheer romantic desperation. It's bad enough trying to hide his unrequited love as they grow closer post-Apocaloops - what if Aziraphale sees the objects for what they are, a window into his yearning soul? Unfortunately, the only way to banish the objects seems to be talking about each memory...

Meanwhile, Aziraphale is just trying to woo his demon boyfriend with big gestures, ready to prove his devotion. And if Crowley acts awkward about the miracles? Surely that's just his difficulty accepting affection. The solution: shower him with as much of it as possible...

Eventually these two will communicate, even if it takes 'til the end of the year. For now there will be cuddling, excuses for closeness, sappy words, flashbacks, nostalgia, bickering, and an obscene variety of holiday foods. Oh, and footnotes. That's right. We're doing those too.

- Mod D

#good omens #ineffable husbands #fake/pretend relationship #misunderstandings #mod d

[cybiirz]

ೃ⁀➷TO CLASH WITH MALICE

Gepard x Gn!Reader

Sypnosis : This celebration had been in the works for quite some time now. Everything was figured out until the very last detail, nothing would cause this event to go wrong. Well, a party isn’t fun without a party crasher right? Who would have guessed that both sides however, would come more than prepared. And when doing so, who would come out victorious?

WC : 3.1k (exactly)

WARNINGS (PLEASE READ) : Gepard is a little OOC in this. There will be a lot violence in this chapter and a fair bit of blood towards the end. I would also like to state that this is pretty much a filler fic. The only reason I have chosen to write this now is because I will be busy the next two days, and this idea has been on my mind for a while now. I wanted to show that I have chosen to go with a more independent reader and I believed a fight scene fic would be the best way. There is almost no actual interaction with Gepard and the reader, only for a very short time. This chapter will be optional to read but will be preferred if you do. I apologise for not adding more of his character, but I can guarantee that he will be the main event in the next! ALSO KIND OF BAD FIGHT SCENES WRITTEN UP AHEAD I THINK?

Read part 1 || part 2 || part 2.5 || part 3

Gepard’s little confession was certainly one that took you by surprise. Luckily, over the next few days, that thought had slowly dissipated from your mind as something else filled that hole instead. The night tomorrow was the viewing of some of Belobog’s most famous artefacts, thanks to the help of the History and Culture Museum. Pela had organised the majority of this event.

The only catch to this event was the fact that it was strictly only nobles, knights of high ranking and helpers specifically picked out by Cocolia who gained access to this event. There was one more thing that really made this little celebration stand out however. The dress code was surprisingly enough a masquerade ball, along with formal wear.

Why, you may ask? Because Cocolia was the one who would give the large speeches, and therefore be up on stage more. Mainly, heroic speeches, about the success of the guards who managed to push the fragmentum monsters back further, allowing the guards to progress more. It was actually quite a large step for the guards, so much so that many supplies had to be sent over in order to build entire new camps.

Now, masquerade, Silvermane guards, artefacts, how do they all link? Well, since this event was no doubtedly going to be in the newspaper for the next few days, Cocolia wanted to be the centre of attention, which is what caused everyone else to be wearing masks, whilst she would not. This would emphasise her more, that much was true. The formal wear would be a stark contrast to her as she had specifically requested that nobody else should wear the colour green, of any shade. And if anyone dared do so, they would immediately be banned from said event.

The artefacts however are linked towards the Silvermane Guards more than anything. The first helmet made, the first axe used to slay a fragmentum monster, so on and so on. But the one and only thing that stood out to you was the large chunk of geomarrow ore that would be displayed. Even just a small handful of that ore would provide enough money to feed an entire family for a week. Which is why you were dead set on carving part of the ore out for the Underworld.

There were about three problems, as expected, unfortunately. First off, your parents wanted you to attend the event, so you were officially put on the guest list, meaning you had to double cross this whole thing without anyone recognising you. The masks were convenient at least. Secondly, the place would be surrounded with guards, which only meant more planning on your part, and planning was one hell of a headache.

Last but certainly not least, Gepard was going to be there. It was assumed of course, but it only made it more difficult. Not only in having to sneak past terms, but also the fact that you had to do this pretty much right under his nose. Before never bothered you since he always came to the scene of the crime after you had taken everything, but now he was right there in the flesh. Not to mention he would be keeping a personal eye out for you as a friend.

All of those thoughts ran through your head as you stared at yourself in the mirror. Examining your outfit again, you tried to make sure the entire piece of clothing was in tip top shape. No wrinkles, creases, simply all prim and proper. You wore a short cape that reached your waist around your shoulders to hide the strap around your upper arm which contained a small revolver with spare ammo. The guards acted on instinct and all it took was a shot to the arm before they would back off. No one had to die tonight, that was never your plan.

After going over the full outfit, you grabbed the mask that sat on the wooden table top and placed it onto your face. Your eyes stared at the reflection as you considered yourself practically unrecognisable at this point. Eventually, you were brought out of your daze as you heard your mothers voice shouting for you. You rushed down the stairs as you began walking with your mother and father towards the Qlipoth Fort, as the event was going to be held there.

Before the three of you could go up the steps, you called towards your father to let him know that you had forgotten your family badge back at the house. He scolded you for a second before shooing you off to fetch it. Truth be told, you still hadn’t found the badge which you had seemingly lost, but it didn’t necessarily matter to you. After all, the old thing meant nothing to you, you couldn’t even be bothered to keep it in a good condition.

As you made your way home, you took a slight detour and went through an old alleyway which people mostly avoided at this late hour. There, you spotted a person who was your height and build as you greeted them. They handed you a bag as you moved behind a dumpster and got changed into the new set of clothes. After fixing your hair up into a different style, you handed your old clothes to the person. As you placed them into their hands you held them there as you spoke.

“Remember, you do not reveal your name under any circumstances unless you are with my mother and father. You needn’t worry about them, but if anyone asks you about how the family is doing, simply say that Cocolia is a good person and you wouldn’t be anywhere without her. Other than that, smile and wave, and be weary of the Silvermane Captain. His eyes and hair are recognisable, you know that. Avoid him at all costs, that’s all. Off you go,” You patted them on the shoulder as you texted Sampo a thank you and how you would also personally dismember him if this person was incompetent.

He simply sent one of his silly emoticons back with a little reassurance before you shut off the screen. After attaching the small gun back onto your arm strap, you made your way through the crowd and looked around for a way to get past the guards. You saw out of the corner of your eye a young chef who seemed to be wheeling a cake up the not too steep steps.

Pursing your lips together, you whistled for the oncoming chef. He quickly paused and looked to the right before you appeared on his left and pressed down hard onto his pressure point as he fell to the floor.

“I won’t ruin your cake bud, don’t worry,” You whispered down to the unconscious man. You quickly dragged him back to the alley way and threw on his ridiculously oversized coat and the toque as you left the mask on to conceal your identity.

After a surprisingly easy trip up the stairs, you nodded towards the guards as they nodded back and let you pass through. You brought the cake to the kitchen before sneaking off to the toilets. You threw off the old uniform and chucked it into a nearby bin before fixing yourself up and readjusting the mask.

Making your way out of the bathrooms, you stepped foot into the large ballroom. Everything here was neat and tidy, the decorations were simply so well done that they could’ve been straight out of a storybook. The food looked absolutely divine as did the people. Everyone had their own dresses, suits and the masks were to die for. And obviously the one face you could spot was Cocolia’s as she shook hands with a few of the guests.

Looking around, you spotted your temporary clone chatting away with a random person as you clapped for them internally. Suddenly, you spotted Gepard, he was hard to miss after all. He stood by the Supreme Guardian, keeping a watch out for any suspicious behaviour.

You pulled your eyes away from him as you slowly made your way over to the table which held all the food. You grabbed a glass and poured yourself a glass of Chardonnay. Walking away slowly, you made sure to keep your eyes on Cocolia and Gepard at all times. You saw the time and discreetly pulled your phone out and left one simple text.

“Now.”

Your impersonator had moved close to the coupe with the other which they were chatting with. You watched closely as another masked guest walked just behind them and quickly snagged a glass from the tower. The glasses of wine soon began to shake, which didn’t escape the Captain’s sharp eyes. Hearing him yell as he instantly pushed the clone out of the way along with their supposed date.

A smile creeped up onto your face as all eyes diverted towards the three. Still keeping a hold of the glass, you made your way through a side door as the guards rushed to check if there were any major injuries due to the outstanding acting of your other.

Making your way through the twisted hallways, you entered a dark room as the motion detector switched on the lights to brighten up the dark place. Looking around briefly at the artefacts, it was safe to say that they were not as impressive as you had hoped. Until your eyes finally landed on it.

There, placed conveniently in the middle, was the chunk of geomarrow ore, practically screaming at you to take it. You lifted your foot as you were about to take a step but quickly paused. “This seemed way too easy…” You thought to yourself as you quickly retracted your foot. Your hand reached for your gun as you held it by your side and began to walk towards the medium sized ore. Sure enough, there stood the Captain himself across from you, the only thing in between you two was the ore as he watched you, without his mask. He was accompanied by his giant weapon of a case.

“Ah! Captain, such a coincidence that we both wanted to take a look at these artefacts. Such deep meaning behind them, wouldn’t you say?” You asked with a smile as you placed the gun behind your back.

“It is over for you thief,” He stated boldly and straight. Soon enough, the rushing of footsteps could be heard as guards came running in through the doors holding axes, guns, spears, whatever you could think of, they had it. You raised your eyebrows as you looked around to see all of them in defensive positions.

“Wow guys, sure you brought enough soldiers?” You questioned no one in particular sarcastically.

“Like I said, it’s over, now do not make this hard for us and give up nice and slow,” His words were firm as a few officers began approaching you cautiously. You raised your hands by your head. This was just like the café, only more soldiers, more risk and certainly harder to escape from.

“Put down the weapon!” One of the soldiers screamed. Turns out in the midst of all the commotion, you had somehow forgotten of the very obvious gun in your hand. You let out a quick hum.

Six rounds, around 14-15 guards including Gepard. No reloads. You kissed your teeth after realising that you were going to have to be diligent with the bullets.

“Alright alright, I'll get on my knees…” You murmured as you slowly began to descend. The officers were pointing their guns to your head. Just as your knee was about to make contact with the floor, you swiftly pivoted on one foot as you shot each guard in their thigh as they cried out in pain.

You began to run whilst keeping your head low as multiple shots began firing at you. You swiftly ducked beneath a stand that protected you from the shots as you checked the gun.

4 more rounds.

Upon further observation, you spotted how there were only about 5-6 more soldiers with guns. The rest you could take head on. But you had to be careful. You were a thief, sure, but that didn’t mean you wanted to become a murderer for crying out loud.

You were quickly snapped out of your thoughts as you heard the grunt of a soldier who had snuck near you and was raising his axe. Your eyes widened as you swung your leg, swiping him off of his feet as he hit his head onto the floor, knocking himself out cold.

“You tryna kill me?!” You yelled at the remaining soldiers. Briefly, the sound of Gepard telling the officers to keep you alive filled your ears. Course he wants to, wants to lock me up for eternity.

You grabbed the barrel of the gun and sprung out of the case as you aimed towards another person, before a weapon fell and the officer held his shoulder crying.

3 rounds, a few more gunned guards.

You exhaled deeply as you peeked around the corner before hearing footsteps behind you. Out of reflex, you managed to roll to the side just in time as an axe came swinging down, slicing the wooden stand in half. Dramatic?

You raised yourself before delivering a kick to his abdomen, causing him to release his weapon and stumble back before you kicked him square in the head, sending him to dream to his heart’s content. Not permanently might I add.

Another shot was fired as you ducked down again. Still 3 rounds. But now, only about 9 guards, including Gepard. But it seems through this whole fight, he wasn’t dealing any blows. Good for you though, because if he did, this battle would’ve been over minutes ago.

You heard two of the soldiers closing in on both sides of you. One with a gun, one with an axe. Dashing towards the axed guard, he attempted to strike you before you turned to his other side. The other one pointed his weapon at you and was prepared to shoot.

Just as he pulled the trigger, you dragged the one next to you by the collar and guarded yourself with him. The bullet went straight into the soldier's arm as he wailed out like the others.

“No hard feelings!” You said nervously to the man on the floor before realising you still had another on your back. Raising the revolver, you shot at the officer. Unfortunately, it seems he chose to do the same. And due to the amount of precision in your shots, the bullets collided with one another.

The small bullets created an explosion of a miniature size, but it bought enough time for you. You ran towards the man and ripped the gun from his hands before knocking the barrel against his head.

Another guard ended up putting you in a chokehold from behind. You gripped onto his arm as you did your best to regain your breath before planting your feet. You grasped his arm as tightly as you could before flipping his body over and slamming him against the wall, his unconscious self sliding down to the floor.

You cracked your neck before turning around to spot another gunner charging towards you. Rolling your eyes, you shot him once again in the thigh. He fell just like the others. You checked the gun and spotted one more round left before someone aimed another shot towards you.

But it wasn’t one, rather two. Shit! You knelt down and remembered how there was one more guard than you had bullets. They were both standing next to each other which allowed you to go forth with this strategy.

You sprinted whilst keeping yourself low as you saw them hiding behind the stands. You leaped to the side and pointed the revolver towards them. Their heads turned towards you as they began to lift up their weapons. But you were faster.

You pulled the trigger as the bullets went through both of their sides as they held then whining out into the night time air. 3 guards left. All gunner guards down. Unfortunately now, you were also out of bullets. Now you had to rely on hand to hand combat.

Two of the guards began sprinting at you, pointing their axes at you. You kicked one of the weapons on the floor and caught it before blocking one of the officers' slashes. Lifting your leg up, you kicked the other in the side as he tumbled back. Whereas you had chosen to wrap your legs around the other's waist and flip him above you, slamming his head into the floor.

The kicked guard quickly stood up and saw his friend fade out of consciousness. Dashing towards you, he yelled about how he would end you as he reached his arm out. Tutting, you grabbed the reached out wrist and swerved him around as you placed his arm onto his back, as you held his free hand straight.

“You’re ambitious aren’t you?” You whispered into the man’s ear before twisting his arm. He shrieked and it almost pierced your eardrums before you let go and he held the injured body part. You stood up straight and gazed around for the final soldier.

In all honesty, you looked like absolute crap. Your clothes were slightly torn and the mask on your face was ajar. You adjusted it before he could recognise you. But the one thing that stood out, was that half of your face and your body had been dirtied with blood from the wounds of the soldiers. It was a whole murder scene, except it wasn’t. The officers crawled out one by one as they went to look for medical attention.

A slow clap could be heard from one of the doors before Gepard emerged from the shadowed doorway, holding his case.

“You certainly have talent, thief. It’s unfortunate you chose this path, even more unfortunate is how you look right now. But it matters not, as I will end this between us once and for all,” He stated as he raised his weapon, ready for combat.

Reaching up your hand, you wiped the excess blood off of the corner of your lips before retrieving one of the axes left on the ground. You slammed the end of the weapon down before pointing it towards him and you spoke in a low and serious tone for once.

“So be it Captain. If it is misery you have chosen, then allow me to bestow that upon you, Gepard…”

A/N : Whoohoo, third fic finished. I had so much inspiration to write this since I just rewatched suicide squad and birds of prey, so you can only guess who inspired me to create this. But I hope that the idea of a strong reader has come across well here and I apologise if this is not the type of reader you like. One day I will make a soft reader but I do not see many strong inserts being written so I decided to try and be one of em. Anyways, any critiques, feel free to leave and I will respond ASAP!

#honkai star rail #hsr #honkai x you #hsr x gn reader #hsr x reader #hsr x y/n #gepard x you #gepard fluff #gepard x gender neutral reader #gepard x reader #gepard x y/n #honkai star rail x reader

[briarthorns]

Spitballing a Head Canon with no in-depth research after the recent events of Chapter 7 because AAAAA—

Spoilers for Chapter 7 (naturally) and unreleased events for the EN servers:

From a meta standpoint, we know that the Limited Events/Cards are ‘characters’ you can pull for Twisted Wonderland. They cast different spells/have different stats.

But I wonder if some (if not all) of these events within universe are things that would happen within a Sleeping World Malleus created due to his Unique Magic. A way to pass the time/distract the residents of the Dream. As noted, after Malleus finishes singing Once Upon a Dream (holy shit dude, why he gotta do this to me), we cut to the title card that is shown when the Game Boots up.

Repeating Birthdays/New Years/annual events are the biggest evidence of this. We started getting Birthday Events back in 2020, with each year adding a new “variation” on the theme (the white dress coat and sash, the varsity jacket, the Broom Bloom get up and probably a new one come August for Riddle). Most, if not all the main student cast should have graduated if we went by a time scale of “this world”.

Cutting back to meta, this is just us being fed pieces of lore to make us fall in love with the characters. But Riddle Rosehearts on his way to celebrate his 4th ‘birthday’ on the NRC campus? Plus, his personality isn’t like that of the Crimson Tyrant we say in Chapter 1. For that matter, none of the OB Gang are like this. They’re no where as severe as they were when their Chapters were rolling,

There is also the matter of ‘offsite’ events happening. Some are in line with the school curriculum (e.g. Beans Day, the Camping Event and debatably, the Masquerade Event), but others like the Arabian Sands event, Harveston and the Sunset Savana…that would eat away at school time. Crowley may be bird-brained, but Professor Trein takes no BS. Plus, we have to consider everything that is happening in the main game (the Sports Event, the VDC event, holidays, potentially even exams). It would be a lot that happens within the space of one year, and it just seems like too much to fit in.

Malleus is considered one of the most powerful mages in the world of Twisted Wonderland, so the idea of him creating a functioning dreamscape is possible. He did say that he would make them sleep for a millennia so there’s plenty of time to happen in a dreamworld (and dreamworld logic is known to be funky at the best of times).

As for NPCs we’ve only seen (e.g Rollo, Epel’s Grandma), it could be that Malleus’s spell allowed for students and staff to have.. ‘input’ so to say. The Dream is able to draw on previous memories/experiences, creating scenarios for NRC to experience. For example, a school exchange may have happened with Noble Bell College in a previous year, with Trein as chaperone and Rollo in attendance. This would mean that the Spell to create the NPCs we interact with. I

There has been an element of danger involved with the story events. But honestly, I think it could be that Malleus’s Overblot has an effect on the spell or could just be how the dream works. Everything got resolved in the end and no one died/got seriously hurt.

The Time Loop Theory could also be integrated into this, as the dream will repeat the one year that everyone is together. And when Lilian’s retirement rolls around, boom it’s Rewind Time. Thus, a Groundhog Day but the length of a school year. Sometimes certain events happen, some don’t. But there are key events no one can avoid. The events of the Main Story line.

Granted, this is mainly conjecture and my own observations of the game. I could be well off the mark but it would be interesting to confirm this to be the case; everything happened but didn’t actually happen. Saying that I had suspicions about the events in correlation to the actual story line after the fact may be a bit cowardly, but hey it is what it is

#malleus draconia #twisted wonderland #twst #twst spoilers #I’ll admit some of these things are a wee bit of a stretch but hey we aren’t going off alot here #I am intrigued about how the next part of the story will unfurl tho

[tavyliasin]

ATG 1 - Meat? Cute.

In which a beginning occurs, and a sample taste of what is to follow.

----- Summary ----- Pairing: Astarion/Tav SPICE Rating: 1/5 (no sexy bits) Content Warnings: Biting, blood, brief overstepping boundaries

Spoilers Setting is ACT1, and includes the early start of the game, along with one of the first encounters with Astarion in camp where we learn about his identity as a vampire spawn. Canon Compliance Canon Adjacent - Follows most of the atmosphere of the scene with a little additional flavour and some changes to make it a little more personal to both characters, and a bit more true to how I felt the scene would play out with this specific Tav. Other Notes This is the warm-up, the beginning of an idea and the way that I flexed some creative muscles to prepare for the rest. Song Suggestion/Mood Pairing Whoever Brings The Night by Nightwish "All you love is a lie You one-night butterfly Hurt me be the one Whoever brings the night The Dark, created to hide the innocent white, the lust of the night Eyes so bright, seductive lies Crimson masquerade where I merely played my part Poison dart of desire" ----- FULL CHAPTER BELOW THE CUT -----

Tavylia Rugala had not been having the best of days, and it was, of course, about to get worse. Blinking away the bright sunlight, she took a moment to check herself over. A quick pat down informed her that all of her limbs were where they were meant to be, with no extra tentacles, and surprisingly none of the searing agony she had expected after the Nautiloid had crashed. What a way to start a day, escaping a mindflayer's ship with a Githyanki as like to murder her as help her, and a slender human woman who was almost certainly hiding something. Probably several somethings, but then who wasn't hiding anything?

Tav sighed and tried to catch her reflection in the still-bloodied dagger she had been clutching like a lifeline. Her eyes looked fine, the usual deep green hue, despite the flashes of memory of something being inserted as here eyelid was prised open… No, no. Not going to think about that. Her skin also looked relatively normal - relatively, because by all standards for a wood elf she was unusually pale. A quirk of birth, perhaps the moon elf lineage on one side or another, not that she could ask her parents either way. All she knew was both had been adventurers, one leaving when she was young to chase down some old family foe, whilst the other succumbed to illness before her tenth year. The elven lifespan meant she had already lived more than one human lifetime on the streets which had taught her several important lessons - first being that dangerous times were better survived with allies.

"Right. Time to find where those two ended up…" ---

Several hours later, Tav had managed to scavenge food, armour, weapons, and even a bunch of junk to sell for more essentials should there come a chance later. She had found Shadowheart quickly too and was grateful to have a Cleric's skills close by, although they were able to confirm that they both had lost many of the skills and strengths they had before the Illithid ship had taken them. A problem for later, they decided, before heading up the coast.

It was here that they heard a new voice calling out for help, and so they found themselves along the cliffs in front of an aristocratic looking elf with skin somehow even paler than Tav's own. Approaching him, her instincts bristled - danger. But there was also something enticing…

Astarion, as he introduced himself,  was hardly the helpless one in need of rescue that he pretended to be, even if she did choose to play along at first. His little trick had failed to catch Tav off guard, one of her few remaining Rogue skills being her keen senses that saw his blade glint in the sunlight before it ever had a chance to come close to her. His deep red eyes didn't carry nearly the same edge as his blade, though, as his voice also wavered with uncertainty. It didn't take long to realise this "noble" (an act she failed to believe for an instant) also carried the same unwelcome guest in his head. For a moment she perhaps envied the worm for having such a fine vessel to carry it, though this was hardly the time for curiosity or libido to raise their heads.

By the time the sun set, she had also pulled an all too charming mage - Gale of Waterdeep, who did seem like every bit the noble that Astarion pretended to be - from a broken portal, and rescued a rather thankless Lae'zel. The darkness brought with it a restless curiosity, which Tav decided might be fun to indulge until rest became a more distinct possibility.

The ruffles on the white silk shirt Astarion wore seemed uniquely designed to draw more attention to the slight area of bare chest and collarbone, his neck also more exposed with a few unusual scars just visible under the moonlight. Although, Tavylia had plenty of her own beneath her scavenged and ill-fitting clothes.

"Well, hello. And to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?" His voice carried a musical lilt, tinged with the same mix of danger and provocation as when they had first met earlier that day. He smiled, a well practiced expression that raised more alarms that Tav was silencing.

"So, you can't sleep either?" Her question was innocent enough, for now, though it was clear both rogues were sizing each other up. Both wary to trust from long decades of learning the hard way.

"I thought I might make myself useful and keep watch for a while, you know, keep an eye out for danger while the rest of you get some beauty sleep."

Tav frowned for a moment.

Astarion paused before continuing, eyes taking in the measure of her as she suddenly felt far less dressed. "Well not that you need any of that, of course. Clearly I don't either, though I wouldn't mind a hot bath."

"Clearly." She replied, deciding to play him at his own game. "Perhaps I could offer some company? Four eyes are better than two, right? As long as they aren't in the same head, that is."

"Do the tadpoles count?"

"Gods, I hope not."

"You're right, it is bad enough they're claiming a free ride in our brains. Anyway, I'm sure I can handle a few hours in the dark, why don't you go and get some rest?" Astarion pushed the point, gently perhaps but the barbs on his words were there. The pale elf was unlikely to let Tav talk his pointed ears off all night, it seemed.

"There could be murderers or thieves around, perhaps both of us should be on watch for a while." Her own message carried a sharp point, though the brief moment of disappointment in her companion's face turned to a swift regret for her choice.

A mirthless smirk crossed his features. "Perhaps I am a murderer, and you a thief? For all I know you're just waiting to steal my coin purse the moment I'm asleep-"

"And perhaps you are just waiting for an opportunity to pierce my heart with your blade."

"That would be a waste."

Tav blinked silently, words escaping her entirely at the unexpected response..

"Well, anyway, it looks like we're just going to have to agree to a truce for now. As delightful as it has been to cross sharp wits, the dawn waits for none of us, and you look more exhausted than I feel. How about you agree not to cut my purse, and I agree not to cut your throat, hmm?"

"I suppose I can't say much fairer than that. Although… Look, the lack of trust isn't personal. It's just self preservation. I haven't lived this long by throwing my lot in with every handsome man who tries to stab me on first meeting." A little more truth slipped out than she had expected, though there was as much chance to shove the words back into her mouth unspoken as removing the damned tadpole with a well timed slap to the back of the head. Though she did consider the latter as an option.

She was rewarded by a smirk, a hint of teeth sparkling between his lips. "Handsome now, is it? Good to know."

Tav could've sworn that the man in front of her was a bard had she not already known better. Every motion like a dance, even the tilt of his head as he observed her reaction seemed to be uniquely designed to seduce her away from her better senses. No , she thought firmly, not yet. Safety comes first. We secure our lives, and only then can we indulge in what it means to live.

---

Within a few days the party of assorted tadpoled strays had grown, and much to their relief had not begun to grow anything more from their own bodies. The tales of ceremorphosis were terrifying, and knowing it could begin at any moment was worse. The druid poison sat in Tav's pocket as a reminder, though she had little desire to use it. There was also the matter of the visitor in their dreams - although each companion spoke of a different appearance, it seemed the messengers delivered similar words to each. Warnings, half truths, and some encouragement and comfort that might help in the days to come.

However it wasn't the ethereal visitor that stirred Tav's dreams, nor was it the hard ground uncomfortable beneath her bedroll. With her eyes still closed she gripped her dagger tightly in her fist, listening to every sense that was screaming DANGER.

She rolled casually, keeping the pretence of sleep, using the moment to allow one eye just a glimpse of the threat she felt prickling at her skin. But the sight confused her more, and she quickly chose to drop the act and find out what was really going on.

"Astarion?" she whispered, one eyebrow raised at the pale elf standing over her in the moonlight. "You seem…unwell."

"Yes, well…oh this is awkward, can't you just go back to sleep? I won't be gone long." He shifted a little awkwardly, his usual airs and graces hidden beneath a level of exhaustion that Tav hadn't expected to see.

"I don't think I can. Besides, why were you walking towards me if you were leaving?" Her eyebrow was creeping ever closer to her hairline as she questioned him.

"At first I thought perhaps you might be willing to help, but on second thought I can manage just fine on my own. Do go back to whatever you were dreaming about, I'm sure it's far more interesting."

"And leave you here looking like that? Something is wrong, and it will be far easier for me to help you if you just tell me what it is." She looked him up and down, trying to figure out what could be peeling back the noble facade so deftly.

"The thing is…I'm hungry. Famished, actually."

"Then get some supplies from my pack, I have plenty and I'm not playing chef to some spoiled rich brat in the middle of the night." Her face softened as she noticed the pained look in his eyes.

"If only that would suffice… Listen, I… There's no easy way to say this, and - not that I blame you - you already clearly don't trust me-"

"I can trust you. I could. But only if you give me the truth." Tav beckoned to the edge of camp. Although the others were asleep, it wouldn't last if they kept up their conversation here.

Astarion followed, looking far less like the confident and swaggering rogue he usually portrayed, and much more like a lost and bedraggled cat, claws still readied but desperately seeking shelter from the storm. "If you're certain…"

The pair took a seat on a fallen tree, illuminated only by the moon. Tav marvelled for a moment at how there was someone even paler than her, though now they were so close in the still air her senses became more aware of the sweet scents drifting from his skin. How he found time to apply such perfumes on the road was beyond her, but the sweet notes of herbs and oils mingled with something a little more sweet and metallic as she drank in the aromas quietly, allowing him time to speak when he was ready.

"What I said a minute ago wasn't a deception. I am hungry. Terribly so. Usually I'd just sneak off and find some animal to satisfy my needs, but with this bloody tadpole and everything else… I'm too weak. I couldn't even catch that blasted boar I tried to send you after." Astarion sighed, hands curled into fists with his frustration. Tav recalled the other boar they had found on the road, and everything began falling into place.

"Vampire."

"So you did know."

"No, not entirely. The waking in daylight didn't seem to add up, to be honest. But that confirms it." The unspoken words, of course, were that it also explained most of the air of danger that had lingered around him since they had met, but the sheer exhaustion and for a moment helplessness in his eyes kept that thought from Tav's lips. "So, do you need me to go and hunt something for you, or…?"

"Would you consider that 'or', darling? I would hate to send you off into the woods at this hour." The musical tones were creeping back into his voice, his lips parting just enough for the moonlight to illuminate his fangs.

That prickle of danger in the back of Tav's mind began to be stifled by a far more powerful wave of curiosity. "I'm not going to just give you my entire life on a whim."

"I just need enough to get my strength back. I'll stop before you can come to any real harm, I promise." His eyes were regaining their fire now, still sunken with hunger and exhaustion, but coming alive with possibility and a spark of hope.

"If you don't, I will stop you. That's a promise too." Tav's words were firm, but she could already feel the allure of curiosity, her head tilting back slightly of its own accord to reveal more of her own slender neck.

"Then…if you're sure…" Astarion licked his lips as he took just one more moment in thought. "You should probably get comfortable, at least. Set a bed roll out over here, then you can rest easily afterwards."

"Such a gentleman!" She teased, as she loosened the collar of her outfit while he spread the rough blankets beneath the stars.

Tav wasn't sure what she expected, or even what she had wanted, but given the choice she might have preferred a little less haste. Although, given how clearly famished he was, she could hardly blame Astarion for wanting to quench his thirst.

At first he sat beside her, giving her a moment longer to move her hair aside, but he soon turned to face her, raising on his knees to grip her shoulders with cool and firm hands. With a swift but gentle motion, Astarion pressed her back to the ground, his upper body now above her and his lips swiftly finding the blood vessels on her neck. He didn't, or perhaps couldn't, wait for further words to pass between them. His fangs found their mark, a sharp pain giving way within seconds to a rising heat as they penetrated her soft flesh. His breath was warm and heavy, soft sounds tickling her ear with growing arousal as his tongue traced her skin, tasting and savouring the blood that flowed from the fresh bite. Astarion's grip tightened, a soft gasp escaping Tav's lips as she gripped the bedroll beneath her, mind fighting a confusing battle between lust and self preservation.

The latter, however, began to reassert control as she felt the edges of her consciousness begin to swim.

"Astarion…"

No response, save for a ravenous moan barely muffled against her throat.

"Astarion! Stop."

His weight still pressed her down as she realised his mind was lost to his hunger, greedy tongue not letting a single drop of her blood away from his lips. Had this not been likely to end her days, Tav would've perhaps preferred to enjoy those sensations, but enough was enough. She summoned the last of her strength to curl her fingers through his soft hair and physically pull him away from her neck. "ENOUGH."

Astarion gasped, a thin line of blood trickling down from his lips, the rush of the moment quickly fading to dark realisation. "Oh. Oh shit. I didn't mean to…I got carried away. I'm sorry, truly."

If it were anyone else, Tav would have thought those wide puppy dog eyes to be another trick, a part of the act to lure her into a false sense of security. But there was a genuine guilt, almost on the brink of tears, that brought a wave if deep sadness rising through her heart even as she rushed to press a handkerchief to the wound on her neck. Although, she was pleased to see that a little more colour and life had returned to the pallid elf above her, as she watched him pull a potion and fresh cloth from his pack.

"Please, allow me. It's the least I can do." The animal hunger in his eyes had entirely dissipated, replaced now by the concern as he gently cleansed her wound, cool hands soothing the heat where his mouth had just burned with desire at her throat. "Drink up, darling, then get some rest. You have given me more than enough strength to get by for now."

Tav let him hold the open potion to her lips, grateful for the slightly bitter medicine as the magic within it sealed her wounds and soothed her soul. Allowing herself a slight smile, she closed her eyes and let sleep take over her mind.

"Delicious…" Astarion muttered, his absent minded whisper barely reaching the edges of Tav's consciousness before the darkness closed in. ----------- ----------- ENDING NOTES ----------- -----------

This was my first ever even mildly spicy fanfic, originally written in late September 2023. That's when Tavylia was born, and the Sins began~ It was the help and encouragement of friends the gave me the courage to start sharing my works, then going a little deeper into fandom...and, well, it snowballed from there, didn't it darlings? Now, if you know my later works, this one will seem very tame. And that's how it goes, really. I built confidence gradually, getting more spicy with time and practice. Is this my best work? Absolutely not, it's rough, tame, and shows real ragged edges. But it set the scene, laid the groundwork for what was coming next. What is that? You'll see, the same time tomorrow, unless you wish to read it all on AO3~

#baldurs gate 3 #bg3 #bg3 fanfiction #bg3 tav #astarion #astarion x tav #astarion bg3 #astarion's first taste #vampire bite

[d2kvirus]

Dickheads of the Month: August 2022

As it seems that there are people who say or do things that are remarkably dickheaded yet somehow people try to make excuses for them or pretend it never happened, here is a collection of some of the dickheaded actions we saw in the month of August 2022 to make sure that they are never forgotten.    

In the latest deluded Churchillian LARP of proven liar Boris Johnson he attempted to assuage the concerns of the British people about their rapidly increasing energy bills by saying we needed to pay them to fight Putin in Ukraine, apparently under the misguided belief that British Gas have troops on the ground protecting the Ukrainian borders

The habitually clueless Liz Truss came up with a genius idea to unite the country: by saying she would ignore the “attention-seeking” Nicola Sturgeon, which was a particularly bold claim for somebody with a personal photographer following her around on overseas visits and definitely doesn't undermine her claiming to want to unite the United Kingdom

...and because Liz Truss was on a roll, she then decided to start slagging off Mark Drakeford, meaning that she was now picking fights with two democratically elected leaders while canvassing for votes for her anything but democratic bid to lead the UK

...but since that wasn’t enough Liz Truss then decided to pick a fight with Emmanuel Macron claiming in an interview with Julia Halfwit-Brewer she is unsure if he is an ally, which indicates that Truss is unaware that France is part of NATO so, yes, Macron is an ally

Mar-a-Lago getting raided seems to have sent the MAGA louts completely off kilter, what with Marjorie Taylor Greene apparently turning ANTIFA overnight in her demands that the FBI be defunded, while Eric Trump babbled incoherently about how no family in American politics has taken more arrows in the back than the Trump family as if two of the Kennedys weren’t assassinated, and taking the cake was Fox News with their framing of the entire story being how the opponent of Biden in the 2024 election was getting raided

Somehow, in the midst of Liz Truss being clueless in so many ways, she managed to also invoke just about every antisemitic trope in the space of a single statement

The ultra-relatable Rishi Sunak unveiled the surefire way to reignite his fading leadership campaign with by declaring that anybody who says bad things about the UK would be treated as extremists and sent to a re-education camp, because nothing says relatable quite like going Full Fash

All that Rudy Giuliani had to do to sell that he was not medically cleared to travel to Georgia to dodge prosecutors was to sit still and not move a muscle.  Instead what Rudy Giuliani did was try to bunk off to New Hampshire, getting busted in the process

Nice guy Rishi Sunak didn't seem to notice or care that he was being filmed while casually telling a hustings in Tunbridge Wells that he'd diverted funding for deprived northern areas to the non-deprived, non-northern safest of Tory safe seats that is Tunbridge Wells

So we’ve reached the point where Zac Goldsmith and Nadine Dorries are completely indistinguishable from Marjorie Taylor Greene when it comes to spouting absolute gibberish masquerading as conspiracy theories, specifically about the Partygate enquiry, like the good cultists they are

Not only did furious pulsating bollock Alex Jones discover that he committed perjury when he was politely informed that his grossly incompetent lawyer sent his entire phone records to the Sandy Hook families’ lawyer by mistake, he then tried his damndest to get a mistrial called to weasel out of paying $150m in damages - and that's before his persecution complex took over and he thought comparing himself to groups persecuted by the Nazis was a good look.  Funnily enough, it didn't work and he now owes tens of millions of dollars in damages, while the texts have also been handed off to the January 6th Commission

At which point will Keir Starmer realise just how mad he looks when, in his bid to be the exact opposite of Jeremy Corbyn on every subject, he says that the 66% of people who want energy companies to be renationalised are wrong and in actual fact it's better to pay a lot more money?

...although I doubt Luke Akehurst will ever realise that calling left-wing Labour party members every name under the sun might just be having a dire effect on both party finances and explain why Starmer’s Labour is not making the bold gains that the centrist hivemind insisted they would

So nice to see proven liar Boris Johnson remain committed to leading the UK throughout the last weeks of his premiership by going on holiday, coming home for a few days, then going on another holiday in the first two weeks of August

...a fact exacerbated by Nadhim Zahiwi also buggering off on holiday just in time for the energy bill hike, meaning that at the exact same time the Prime Minister and Chancellor were on holiday, while the Foreign Secretary was too busy LARPing as Margaret Thatcher during the leadership contest

Militant TERF JK Rowling sure did a 180 from demanding her safety be protected by Twitter after she was threatened in the wake of Salman Rushdie being attacked, to 72 hours later going on a full-on attack on Joanne Harris because people dared call a TERF a TERF

Two more sets of rail strikes and Grant Schapps still hasn’t bothered to even entertain the idea of meeting with either ASLEF or the RMT, but he’ll certainly meet with journalists so he can bits about ASLEF and the RMT

Unifying force Keir Starmer claims the reason it took him a mere ice age before issuing a statement about the energy bill crisis was because he was on holiday with his family for the first time in over two years...which means he either forgot about the holidays he has taken with his family to Devon or the New Forest in the last two years, or he hoped nobody else remembers 

Hooooooooooo boy did Laura Loomer look like an absolute mentalist after failing miserably in her bid for Florida’s 11th district, having a complete meltdown where she tearfully howled about non-existent election fraud and refused to concede, because apparently the MAGA louts haven;t come up with any new material since November 2020

Pompous fools Jacob Rees Mogg wrote another article harrumphing about the “laziness” of the civil service where he claimed the Serious Fraud Office was practically deserted.  Slight problem with that claim: the photo he included with the article was of his own cabinet office, presumably before he started putting notes on everybody's desks demanding they see him

Apparently the new policy at Warner Bros is to not make money, based on them yanking Batgrirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt not just from the schedules but burying them where they will never be seen in spite the amount spent on them, with Batgirl costing an estimated $90m (but they can claim back every last cent of that on a tax break...) or the fact the films were both at least 90% completed before the plug was pulled

Murderering murderer Kyle Rittenhouse moaned that he can't live a normal life ever since becoming a puppet of the alt-right, somehow failing to consider that the people he murdered can't live any sort of life at all due to Kyle Rittenhouse murdering them

Militant TERF JK Rowling unleashed her creative juices for her latest lump of leaden prose about a fantasy author who is harassed by people on social media.  No word about whether that fantasy author writes under a man’s name yet decided they're the gatekeeper of all gender identity on the internet because something something toilets

Smug bore Malcolm Gladwell is the latest pseudo intellectual who is adamant that people should not work from home, which definitely doesn't come across as Malcolm Gladwell negging people for working from home, which is exactly what Malcolm Gladwell does when tossing off another book

It's amazing how The Sun devoted so much coverage to the Wagatha Christie waste of time and brain cells and somehow it took until the thirtieth paragraph of the fourth piece they wrote on it to mention The Sun just so happened to be the other guilty party, which is odd as they were mentioned by name 133 times in the judge's summing-up

Noted shithead Dan Wootton responded to England winning the Women’s Euros in a completely normal way: by howling about how, four years from now, the entire Lionesses team could be made up of transgender players

Just when you thought GB News couldn't make themselves look more like a fascist dogwhistle factory, they only go and have Peter Imanuelson appear on the channel having a cozy chat with Neil Oliver while the rest of the world wonders why the hell they platformed a Holocaust denier

There’s ways to lose your job, and Nathan Middleton went above and beyond the call of being an arse by responding to Tottenham's last-minute draw with Chelsea by posting an unhinged antisemitic rant not just to a tweet from Tottenham’s account but copy/pasted it to various Spurs players and blogs, which lost him his gig with Stadium Rant, Sports Time and Overtime Heroics Football - and then demanding other sites hire him

It’s surprising that Matt Forde had an issue with mewling infants shitting themselves at one of his Fringe gigs, as that's an accurate summary of the quality of every single project his name's been attached to as well as his huffy response to the child not sitting down and shutting up while he talked

...meanwhile Ricky Gervais manages to be even more precious about what is or isn't allowed at his gigs by demanding ice cubes be banned from drinks at venues where he's playing, rather than working on his material so that he can't hear a couple of ice cubes clinking in a glass in the cheap seats in the dead air that occurs where other comedians make people actually laugh

Domina dev Nicholas John Leonard Gorsen had one hell of a meltdown in response to Jim Sterling posting a video about Gorsen turning into quite the far-right crybaby in Domina’s patch notes to the point that they're banned from their game’s Steam community forum, spending hours tweeting transphobic bilge and begging for Sterling to respond to their rants while claiming that they weren't mad while also demanding Twitter make Sterling respond.  It went exactly as well as could be expected...

And finally, pleading the Fifth like a crook, is Donald Trump and the espionage laws he is currently being investigated under due to removing all those boxes of sensitive documents from the White House which he claimed were declassified because he declassified them the week before the FBI showed up in spite not being in a position to declassify anything

#dickheads of the month

[cartoonfangirl1218]

TOH Coven Headcanons

Plant: Plant witches are much like they’re chosen discipline, patient, sturdy, when knocked back down they come back up again season after season.

Just like plants, they have a variety of jobs as herbalists in tandem with the Healing Coven, chefs with the Potion Coven, and coming up with natural weapons and defenses in the jungle of the Boiling Isle. Plus contributing knowledge of the fauna and new discoveries.

They are one of the foremost experts of poisons, love perfumes, etc. and so there is a black market for their expertise as well as a black market for rare and exotic plants though there are societies that are working to keep those plants for science and research.

Illusions: Illusionists are very sociable, like to be in front of a crowd, many are entertainers or work with special effects and such on crystal ball with the Bard Coven. Some have joined companies in making virtual reality games. They also make the best parties/clubs that are like a masquerade/moulin rogue/funhouse/great Gatsby combo.

Though they do gripe about being looked down on as all style and no substance, they do tend to lean to being overly concerned with the appearance/aesthetic of something and forget about the function

Make great con people, what with the whole deception. Big fan of false fronts, and distracting with the right hand while using the left.

There are some forbidden spells like ones that are pre-cursor to the Grom monster and hallucinatory/insanity spells available on the black market. Belos has a supply of his own illusionists to use these in the conformatorium on any dissidents so when he releases them, their accusations against Belos’ civilized orders will be dismissed as crazy talk.

Bard: Bard are the creative backbone working with the Construction and Illusion Covens in filling galleries with art, clothes, and entertainment. And as Raine demonstrated, they bring protest art.

Bards are talented, creative, ambitious, introverted (some), outgoing (some), mad geniuses (debatable), and sometimes all in their heads. But most of all dedicated to whatever craft they choose.

Since they are sometimes just dismissed as artists, they can sneak in anti Belos themes, and motifs into their work and make witches think about the regime they are living in. However, Belos also employs his own bards to spread pro Coven and pro Belos propaganda.

Bards not only can bewitch the audience with their music, but in battle, can disorient them, and deafen them (much as Raine did) and as a classic, cause uncontrollable dancing.

Beast keeper: Beast keeping witches are compassionate, fierce, empathetic, and at times, feral, when some of them get tired of the oppressed society they live in and retreat with their animals in the wild without human interaction for miles.

Just like the plant Coven, beast-keepers scour the Boiling Isle to study and collect knowledge of beasts in their natural habitats as well as bring them back to tame.

Not only do the beast keepers make pet shops and zoos, they also work on the Boiling Isle as defense against rogue beasts that sometimes venture from the wild into towns.

It goes without saying that there is a mythical animal black market among the upper classes that a dedicated group against beast abuse is trying to curb.

Beast keepers also help train palismen and as conservationists since the increasing population build new houses verging on animal habitats.

Healing: Healers tend to be homebodies, they’re compassionate to their patients but also no nonsense when they need to be in order to keep their infirmaries in line.

Though it goes without saying they’re are some that develop a god complex when there is the fate of witch’s life in their hands. And shadier ones will sometimes only help if their exorbitant fees are paid.

Not only do they run the hospitals, heal broken bones and such, but they also work as “mind healers” for trauma, PTSD and other mental illnesses in need of therapy.

The healer Coven also works with the Beastkeeping and Abomination Coven in creating aids for those with disabilities.

Potion: Potion witches are inventive, curious, quick to grasp complex formulas, have a mind for memorization and tend to be multi taskers.

Potions is one of the most diverse and most censored with guidelines to prevent performance enhancement and/or would infringe on someone else’s rights (illegal potions like love/mind control/death/increase energy/increase strength/etc.) Though the enforcement of those guidelines can be waived away with a well placed bribe.

Potions also tend to be a risky business since one needs wealthy backers to fund your experiments in new potions and you need willing participants for your potions or else one can drink them all themselves and hope the results aren’t fatal.

Potions work within almost every Coven from dyes/paint for Construction Coven, medicine for beastkeeping and healing, growth for plants and more.

Oracle: Oracles have a slight tendency to be control freaks, what with their ability to see the future and thus have expectation for how things should go. However, they also can be objective and open minded as they are more aware that the future is open to interpretation and change.

Their balls cannot only see the future but they can scry and see a witch’s current whereabouts and see bits into the past.

It goes without saying, master oracles can summon tremendous power to see the whole past coming from a witch’s possession. Or help control someone’s future but these spells are advance and require great amounts of energy and access to ancient texts.

With their abilities to see past, present and future, they make great stock estimates, judges, historians and have a booming business for the superstitious and overly cautious that want good luck charms to prevent dire fates.

They are also the owners of most of the casinos, cage match betting rings and lotteries.

Construction: Construction witches are disciplined, loyal, hard working, creative and not afraid of hard labor. They can work as house builders and sculptors/jewelry makers to erecting forts, defenses and participating in grudgy games and cage fights.

As Dana said they are sculptors and artists themselves so they can be seen working in tandem with the Bard Coven.

But with their ability to traverse difficult terrain and manipulate it, make them excellent adventurers and artifact finders. In fact, they and the Plant Coven often hold camps to teach witches how survive in the wild.

Construction also makes up a good bunch of Belos’ toughest guards alongside Abomination.

Abomination: Abomination witches are witches with iron wills who stand their ground as they bend and mold their creatures to obey their every whim. Like Darius and Alador, they are creative in thinking of new ideas to bring more potential out of their servants

It is one of the most profitable covens with plenty of opportunities as it acts as the industrial backbone of the Boiling Isle, providing countless servants, disability aids and weapons for battle.

Abominations take a great amount of energy from the witch as not only do they have to bring out this goo out of thin air at times, Abominations are slow and unable to think for themselves so the witch has to do both for it, and use more energy to make it bigger and do more complex orders.

#the owl house #toh #my hcs #my headcanons #headcanons #abomination coven #healing coven #beastkeeping coven #plant coven #bard coven #potions coven #oracle coven #construction coven #illusion coven

[inkdemonapologist]

[BatIM Call of Cthulhu Masterpost]

REMEMBER BACK WHEN WE GOT INVITED TO A MASQUERADE??? And we figured out the masquerade guests are definitely the sacrifice meant to summon their eldritch deity and that the party will probably be the location of the final ritual? ANYWAY WE’RE CRASHING THE PARTY, which means we need costumes.

The party is Alice in Wonderland themed; Sammy hasn’t read the book but got kin-assigned the March Hare by Joey, so naturally i’ve been doing nothing but drawing this loser in a dapper rabbit costume for an entire week

---

Anyway have a little smattering of out-of-context quotes from session 11

[Sammy is played by me, Joey is played by Boo (inkyvendingmachine), Henry is played by Maf (inkcryptid), Jack is played by Mochi (whatyouwantedmetosee) and Thren (haunted-hijinxer) is our GM!]

[Sammy] Sammy just has no magical powers. [Jack] YET. [Sammy] Yet. Correct. ...He doesn't want any. [GM] Half of him doesn't want any. [Sammy] That's... accurate, yeah. Half of him ALSO wants the OTHER half of him to stop having magical powers. [Jack] No Magical Girl transformation? [GM] *laughing* Is that what that is? [Jack] I'd watch a magical anime where the main character drugs themself and then becomes a weird... religious... madman! [Sammy] That does sound compelling! Maybe you should see if you can find a franchise that contains that element, and then become a big fan of it and draw a bunch of fanart for some reason. [Jack] Yeah, I dunno, I mean... it's so tiring getting into new media, I need to get a friend who will drag me into it. [Henry] And then you guys can start a roleplaying game with it and drag me into it! [GM] There's an idea! [Jack] Yeah! Someone should get on that! [GM] And if there was such a theoretical game... people might have to figure... what they're doing when they wake up!

[Sammy] We were put in a situation before where we were told that the only thing we could do was kill the host, but we found a way around it last time, [Peter] What way was that? [Sammy] Complicated.

[GM] Henry is the first to notice the apparent cultist, camping out, looking tired, trying to spot you guys. [Henry] Uh, Henry is just going to tap Sammy on the arm and point him out. [Jack] Bros! You've got to unionise! Look at these working conditions! [GM] Maybe one of these days you won't spot them, right? Hope springs eternal!

[GM] Okay, you can make an intimidate! [Sammy] Okay! *rolls* FIFTEEN IS -- this is the only thing Sammy's good at now -- fifteen is a hard success!

[Jack] I'm proud of him! [Sammy] Someone has to be.

[GM] Allison chats with everyone, and gets you into the costume room! Everyone seems relatively friendly! [Sammy] Except Sammy. Sammy doesn't seem friendly.

[Joey] My idea was, Joey would be Mad Hatter -- [Sammy] Because he needs a hat, [Joey] --Yeah, so he can have a hat -- I was thinking Sammy could be the March Hare, Jack could be White Rabbit, and then Henry could be the Dormouse, [Sammy] Yes! And then the Haiti boys are all the Mad Teaparty, which is great, because the Mad Teaparty is canonically trapped in a time loop. [Sammy] Because we tHOUGHT ABOUT THIS TOO MUCH,

[Jack] Kin-assign Pete! [GM] He's content to wear anything that looks like it fits him, as long as people aren't trying to push a co-ordinated effort. [Joey] (Pete can be Caterpillar,) [Jack] Catter-pete-lar [Sammy] Oh my goodness. Completely unnecessary. [Jack] This is a pun that Jack might make, out loud, to Pete [GM] Pete laughs, despite himself! [Sammy] I feel like, Jack would make this pun, and then Jack would be SO pleased with himself that Pete would laugh, because Jack was so happy about it. [Jack] Yeah that sounds canon. ....It IS canon!!

[Jack] You can like, actually pretend to be people who decided to come to this party to enjoy it, and not just steal and/or murder!

[Henry] I want someone on the help, because I feel like we would have more control if we had someone on the inside, [Henry] And Henry does have a very forgettable face, apparently!!

[Joey] What are the staff wearing? Target red shirt, khaki pants? [Sammy] Perfect! Everyone will fall for it! Based on my experience wearing red shirts into Target!

[GM] I guess this does mean Joey misses an opportunity to dress up Henry. [Joey] *excited gasp* Wait, wait, [GM] What? [Joey] Sorry, this has nothing to do with anything that's happening right now in the roleplay, but I just suddenly realised that (1) when Henry got married, was Joey his best man, and (2) did Joey get to pick out his tuxedo for him [Henry] UHHHH... I feel like, Henry usually defaults to Joey for outfits and stuff, but he would hesitate a bit to ask his best friend who has an obvious crush on him to help dress for his heteronormative wedding!

[Joey] There probably is at least one of the wedding photos where Joey is insistent on standing very next to Henry -- while Henry's next to Linda! -- but, [GM] ...but also, Joey is here, [Joey] But also Joey is here. [Sammy] ...absolute disaster of a man... [GM] But the tuxedos look good! [Joey] Yes. Henry was properly fitted.

[Sammy] I don't want a full-- I don't want a freakin' fursuit, because-- [Henry] (FNAF in the distance)

[Sammy] But I feel like, since both White Rabbit and March Hare are, like, dapper rabbits, they could do something like, yeah, splicer mask and also a hat. [Jack] I mean, Jack's not opposed; Jack likes hats. [Sammy] Jack absolutely should have a hat, I agree. [Jack] He's getting so many hats! So many hats, and so many boyfriends, [GM] He can't be stopped! [Jack] >:3c He shouldn't be stopped.

[GM] I'm still just stuck on the phrase "Dapper Rabbits."

[GM] If Joey and Allison are talking further away, I guess it's moot. Though Allison did see Prophet Sammy! He changed in her room. [Sammy] Well, nobody explained him to her. Sammy just showed up the next day and hoped that we wouldn't talk about it, and then we didn't! It was great. [Jack] Sammy's over here, hoping that Allison is distracted by Joey so that none of this conversation is being listened to, [Jack] MEANWHILE, smash cut to the other side of the room, where Joey is explaining SillySam,

[Joey] A lot of Joey's lack of giving information was to keep her out of it, and not paint a target on her back... but now? She has a target on her back, so... Sure! You can also sacrifice yourself, for the greater good!

[Sammy] I'm sure someone in this party will thank Allison. It won't be me. But I'm sure someone will.

[Henry] Henry's already smearing his blood on people, he's gonna agree to whatever at this point.

[Sammy] DEFINITELY not a cult, now hold still while we put this guy's weird glowing blood on you, it's fine. [Jack] Welcome to the flock!

[GM] What does this mean for Prophet Sammy's sacrificeability rating on Henry, though? Now he's potentially long-term useful... [Sammy] I mean... [Jack] The Prophet isn't here so he doesn't need to know about this! [Sammy] ...I feel like, if something has greater value, then it's an even more impressive sacrifice. That's why you sacrifice an unblemished sheep, traditionally. If it's not a blemish-- [Sammy] Like, that's most of what he was worried about, like, “does this make you not fit for sacrifice.” But if it's actually a really cool thing, ...!

[Sammy] Sammy's nervous. [Jack] Jack is also nervous. [Henry] Henry is also nervous! [Jack] Oh, that's always a good sign, [Joey] Joey's going to be confident! [Henry] ...Of course he is. [Joey] Someone has to be! [Jack]...is he "Confident" or "Confident (Fast Talk)"? [Joey] YES. That last one. [Sammy] *muttering* That's the best we got, unfortunately.

[Sammy] If Jack or Henry express nervousness, Sammy agrees with them. If Pete is nervous, then Sammy will very aggressively say that Joey knows what he's doing.

[Sammy] Allison, don't use a spell to bind people's souls together in order to avoid crunch,,, [GM] You never know when something might be handy! [Sammy] I mean, [GM] Waste not want not!

[Henry] Does Henry have to draw in blood on himself...? [GM] No, Henry has a lot of his own blood on his person.

[GM] Aw, man, Bendy should've commented on the rabbit outfits! I'm sure he'd find that hilarious. [Joey] ...why...? [GM] WHY? It's just objectively funny! No additional reason is needed!!

[Joey] Joey will go through his notes, and confer with Henry and Bendy on, okay, shall we try this, and see if we can help Bendy as well? [Henry] Henry is down to try! [GM] Bendy is worried about Henry overexerting himself. [Henry] ...Henry is down to try!

[Jack] Worst case, Jack looks at the symbol, and then he can be seeing-eye rabbit for the rest of the group!

[GM] Norman wonders what the plan is! [Henry] Bold of you to assume,

[Sammy] We're having such a good sleepover! We did a weird blood ritual, and we're braiding each other's hair~ [Joey] Having a fashion show, [Sammy] Yeah! We went out and got clothes, [Jack] Can't believe Joey called a boy, [Sammy] Gotta ask Joey about the boy he likes... wait, no, don't do that. [Jack] I'd say it's time to play seven minutes in heaven, but I think we, we did that early. [Sammy] WE DIDN'T DO A VERY GOOD JOB,

[GM] Norman wants to see how this plays out. [Joey] Okay, well, try not to get sacrificed, then, [GM] He laughs, and thanks you for the advice! [Sammy] *Hypnos Hadesgame voice* "Try not to get sacrificed, okay?"

[Henry] Allison is very helpful, and not weird at all!

[Joey] We already have the banjo case full of ritual circles, and Joey would rather have the emergency circles than Sammy carrying around bOTTLES OF INK. [Sammy] WHY, WHY WOULDN'T YOU WANT THAT TO BE HAPPENING? WHAT WOULD BE THE PROBLEM WITH THAT,

[GM] Make a sanity check! [Jack] Wait, what's happening? [Sammy] Joey was trying to think too hard.

[GM] Sammy does manage to catch that there's a little-- next to the kitchen, when you go into the place where they're serving food, there's a sign that says "Sheep Shop" over it. And there's a person wearing a sheep mask, handing out food. [Sammy] OKAY, THAT'S FINE,,, I don't feel like Sammy has actually read Through The Looking Glass, so I don't know if he knows why this is happening. I think he's just concerned. [GM] Excellent. Ideal response.

[GM] And Joey has NEVER seen the symbol EVER because he's incredible at not looking at creepy symbols! Which you wouldn't expect. [Sammy] I'm sure Joey will put this in his autobiography.

[Jack] :/ No Hashtag Gay Rights at this party,

[GM] Seems to be another party-goer; in fact, you recognise the voice! [Joey] Ohhh. Kyle -- I don't know his actual name, but -- [Sammy] (Dennis!) [GM] (Yes, that's-) [Joey] -- Kyle.

[Henry] Henry is going to try to sneak up on Moonlight while he's distracted! [GM] OH! ...Okay! He's very distracted, Sammy just screamed! [excited noises from everyone beCAUSE NO ONE EXPECTED THIS] [GM] You successfully sneak up behind him! [Henry] I'm going to grab the staff! [GM] Make a Brawl check, with advantage! [Sammy] (He has SO many limbs that don't work my dude, you got this,) [Henry] That's a success! [GM] You snatch it! [Henry] I RUN!!!

[Joey] We're just both escorting Jack, now. [Sammy] Would you say Jack is late, for a very important date? [Jack] Well YEAH, his Face Removal was scheduled like 2 dreams ago!!

[GM] He'd have to roll for it, to see if it felt familiar to his trip to Carcosa. [Jack] Extreme success! [GM] Then he would pick up that familiar feeling! [Jack] Oh, nice and homey at this party! Really nice. Nostalgic! It's been a while. [Sammy] Hm, [Jack] Maybe he should go play the piano, for old time's sake! [Sammy] NO

#call of cthulu: haunted hijinx #sammy lawrence #Jack Fain #Henry Stein #when in doubt just keep drawing #Henry has a daughter he knows how to do hair #Joey's going as the Hatter so we match for Mad Teaparty purposes #I can't believe we put Sammy Lawrence in a rabbit mask and NEVER made the vanny connection how is this possible

[mybg3notebook]

Gale Summarised Analysis

Disclaimer Game Version: All these analyses were written up to the game version v4.1.104.3536 (Early access). As long as new content is added, and as long as I have free time for that, I will try to keep updating this information. Written in May 2021.

The majority of sources used for this article are in the game itself (this includes my Gale-solo playthroughs as well as a combination of the videos by munmomuu and selphie1999), and the few dev’s notes provided by pjenn. Gale as origin is not taken into account since it’s not finished and has little to none Gale-related content. There will be little datamining content as well since pjenn said the game contained almost no gale-related notes (only in the Weave and in the Revelation scene).

Additional disclaimers about meta-knowledge and interpretations in (post)

The number between brackets [] represents the topic-block related to (this post), which gathers as much evidence as I could get.

We can infer about Gale by analysing what he approves and disapproves of. Sometimes, we can even lightly infer some information from his neutral reactions, but let’s be honest: this way of analysing a char is pretty poor since it leaves everything to speculation. Neutral reactions can only be analysed, in very rare instances, by contrasting the same situation in other contexts, and seeing what other options Gale approves or disapproves of. With these considerations in mind, we can proceed to describe this character.

Disclaimer: this is a meta with my personal interpretation of the character, sticking as much as possible to the facts and leaving little to “desires” or “projections” of what I want him to be. If I do so, I will state it explicitly in the text for the sake of analysis honesty. I want to be clear about what is canon (facts shown in bg3 EA), from what’s personal interpretation with little proof.

Understanding Gale (integrated text)

We are none of us monsters. We are merely hatcheries for monstrous things. So we fight them

---Gale 

Collecting most of the information provided in-game, we know he has a cat, a Library, and writes poetry sometimes. One of the first things that Gale will reveal is that he is a private person. He easily and clearly sets boundaries from the first moment, showing Tav where they stand. The second aspect he makes us aware of is his pragmatic thinking and his preference for diplomatic approaches. A third aspect that stands out on its own: he is a very verbose person, maybe as a result of his academia background in combination with his poetry hobby. He also has a bad posture when talking, but I’m not sure if this is intentional or a bug.

We can assure that Gale certainly is a man of the city [13], and may have a decent social status. It's impossible to say for sure if it's noble or rich or both, or it is just a natural consequence of being a wizard scholar: he is frustrated by the harshness of the camping life, he misses the civilisation of the city which offers well cooked meals, soft beds, and scented baths. Not by chance he is the only companion in the group who would approve of giving Oskar 200 gold to fight “the discomforts of the road” [13]. However, he adapts. Despite the lack of luxuries, he managed to survive in the wilderness.

Gale and his link with magic is unquestionable. Magic is life for Gale, metaphorically and literally speaking since it's magic what allows him to stay alive despite the "orb" in his chest. If we talk about Magic, we have to talk about Mystra and the Weave. The Weave is not only the embodiment of Mystra, it's an extension of Mystra herself. It extends across many planes of existence and is in almost all parts of Faerûn. By dragging power from it, Magic can be performed. 

Mystra, for lore reasons and conjectures that I will discuss in the post "Mystra and her Chosen ones", turned teenager/young adult Gale into one of her Chosen, making their relationship more intimate and granting Gale a deeper access to the Weave. This put Gale into the category of an archwizard. It's clear that Gale was and still is a devotee of Mystra, which could give us a hint of his alignment since she is a neutral good goddess and she expects for her Chosen to align around it.

Gale likes confidence, in others and in himself. He is confident in his looks (he has described himself as a “handsome devil” and answered during the romance/Revelation scene that he knew he was beautiful under the light as well as Tav). But beyond these two lines, qualifying him as a narcissist seems extreme. He is surely very confident about his knowledge, and we see he is not just mere words: his Mind Flayer knowledge is at the the same level of what githyankis know. If we compare how Astarion/Tav struggled with the book of Thay, and then we see how Gale manages it (sadly the scene is not complete yet in EA, and there is almost no datamining info of Gale), we can conclude once more that his knowledge and power of the mind are real (he is, so far, the main companion who allows us to explore the lore of the game in a deeper way during his conversations). We also know it's a bit more complicated to intrude into his mind using the tadpole because he has knowledge and mental tools to protect himself (check the post about the Tadpole inside Gale). He is certainly a very verbose and confident scholar, who knows his limits, and in occasions he seems to dabble into an ego-teasing play as an attempt of levity, displaying his “insufferable side”, as he has described himself (his self-awareness of these traits is remarkable, and it is the reason why I avoid qualifying him as arrogant. Arrogant chars are hardly self-aware of their own bad manners or insufferable traits). But we can see it's usually done as a joke or, with an evil Tav, as an aggressive reaction. For a deep analysis of this aspect, check the post about "Gale Hypotheses- Part 2", section: "Narcissism". 

Based on his approvals and disapprovals, we can see that Gale has a strong preference in avoiding fights, violence, and bloodshed [1]. He will always prefer diplomatic and persuasive approaches [2]. Reasoning is his best weapon, but if the individual we are dealing with can hardly be persuaded, he would approve of a deception or an intimidation as long blood is not spilt. Here is where we see his pragmatism in action, all the time. His primary goal at every moment is to avoid bloodshed. His philosophy could be summed up in the line “the means [as long as they don’t kill gratuitously] hardly matter if the end is worthy”. And for Gale, nothing is more worthy than life [3]. This doesn't cover only the life of innocents he cares about, it includes the life of the most dubious characters as well, such as Rugan or Crusher. Gratuitous death is meaningless for him. During the scene of Nettie we can have a glimpse of his philosophy towards life: he viscerally hates treating life as if it were nothing: 

Gale: How dare she snuff out life with as much thought as snuffing out a bloody candle? […] It's not right to feel the cold breath of death in your neck, then move on as if it was nothing but a soothing breeze. One respects life by fighting for it, and one respects death by fearing it.

Gale: One should never be afraid to live life to the fullest.

Probably the limited amount of life he has due to the "orb" increased his sense of respect for life and its celebration. I personally understand Gale as a character who embodies the perspectives of a seriously ill person, knowing that their life may be short, but they will try to make the best out of it. 

He doesn't only respect life per se, he also cares about its dignity. This can be seen in his explicit rejection to undead existences such as Connor (he explains that it would be merciful to put an end to his undead nightmare), or in his disapprovals of humiliation and torture [9]

 We could suspect that this emphasis in protecting any life comes from the fact that only people who are alive can (sometimes) be forgiven or/and change. This is not explicit, but since he is a character who talks about being better and wiser than his previous self, about acknowledging mistakes, about forgiveness, this interpretation seems reasonable. 

These concepts of kindness and compassion combined with “the mistakes of the youth” are repetitive in his interactions and approvals [5,12]. Of course, they echo in his soul since they are reflections and desires of his own experience. This pattern covers forgiving children in particular [5], and disapproving hard judgements [16], especially on matters whose story is not fully understood by Tav. This means he doesn't like quick judgements when he doesn't know the whole story first. This scenario can be easily seen during Karlach's quest, he reserves his judgment until knowing Karlach's side: There are always two sides to each story.

Gale: I have to say I don't know if agreeing to this hunt was such a wise idea. Who's to say who's the real villain in this tale of devils and masquerades? [...]When we track Karlach down, let's chat before we chop.

Similar concept appears during his Revelation scene, when he encourages and keeps asking Tav to listen to him first before judging. This is also the reason why in his Loss scene he would disapprove if Tav quickly assumes that his loss of Mystra was due to arrogance. Tav judged him without knowing the whole story. However, once Tav knows the whole story, Gale will accept any judgement from them without approval penalties during the Revelation scene.

He approves all actions that imply helping others in hard times and disapproves of them if they were done out of greed [4]. He is an animal lover [6,7]. Being kind to animals and treating them good will increase his approval, while animal cruelty will earn his disapproval. Same goes for humanoids: any display of gratuitous violence that could have been prevented with a trick or a diplomatic approach, any humiliation forced upon others, any torture or situation of slavery, is disapproved [8, 9, 11]. 

In particular, Gale seems to advocate the philosophy of “give others their own medicine”[18] or in other words: poetic justice. We can see this during the Myconid colony; he approves of helping the Myconid to avenge the young killed by the Duergar, adding the comment: “Wicked killers deserve wicked ends”. He is implying to give them a similar, wicked medicine to the Duergars. Another less deadly situation of this kind is shown during the foot situation with Crusher: Gale is the one suggesting “pungent poetic justice” and telling Tav that they should force Crusher to kiss their feet. 

The most iconic scene, however, is during Nettie's, if Tav lies during her interrogation. As a hot-headed reaction, Gale states that he would have poisoned Nettie if this situation would have happened to him. Although, after calming down, he approves of and confirms Tav's actions [if Tav managed to persuade Nettie to give them the antidote]

Gale: A taste of her own medicine is what she deserves! […] But you handled it, and you handled it well. 

 In this scene we also see a pattern: Gale is shown as a fallible human; his most visceral reaction during the first moment is anger and indignation, giving us a hint that he is not so rational when it comes to emotional states. An extremely obvious, human concept. 

The scene of Nettie trying to kill a potential menace (the victim of a MF) reverberated in his consciousness, projecting immediately a fact in his mind: if he ever dares to reveal his "orb" problem, and anyone knows what a danger he represents—no matter how stable it looks—people will want to remove the menace by killing him. 

This is the reason behind his words “It's just that, had it been me... had it been...” Gale knows that this simplistic and common thinking in removing what's dangerous would end up turning into a more destructive tragedy in his case than in any infected victim of the tadpoles. So this combination makes us see, for the first time, an emotional Gale. After some seconds, he cools down and returns to his more rational, diplomatic, and moderate self. What we can read here is that Gale would be very prone to rush decisions or to make mistakes under emotional circumstances. We will learn later that the other mistake he made under emotional stress ended up with the "orb" stuck in his chest. A third mistake was done during the party, once more under the emotional stress of a potential abandonment by Tav due to the true nature of the orb. 

Everything related to the “orb”—which is his most traumatic experience—naturally makes him more emotional and prone to mistakes. To see how truly traumatic the "orb" is in his life we can notice the following patterns during the meeting scene: he speaks about the tadpole in a relaxed, rational way, despite the traumatising experience. He first asks for an archwizard instead of for a cleric, because his priority is the orb. Gale's main fear is not the tadpole, but the orb. If we remember his words after the consumption of the artefacts, we realise he lives in a permanent state of anxiety and raw fear, and probably pain too, given his facial gesticulation when anything interacts with the "orb" (whether artefacts or Tav's hand). His banter with Shadowheart reinforces the concept that he always has a knot in the stomach. When he accepts the deal with Raphael, it seems to be related to the orb, not to the tadpole. The effect of the "orb" has ceased, but the tadpole is still in Gale's head since we still need to roll against a high DC and not only against a 1DC during this scene, so we can assume he still has the tadpole despite Raphael's deal. See the post about "The Tadpole" in Gale for more details.

Gale is a character that represents human experiences deeply related to growing up: mistakes done in the past, and the acceptance of not being forgiven despite the desire of wanting to. This can be easily seen during the conversation of the second tadpole dream, where Gale's mood is foul and we learn that his deepest desire is for Mystra to forgive him, but he also knows it's impossible for that to happen. He detects the lie in this dream because he has accepted that Mystra will never forgive him. Gale is the story of mistakes done during youth with grave consequences, of acknowledging them and trying to make them right, of surviving those mistakes, and depending on the interpretation, he is also the story of an ill dying man, with a gentle vision and deep care for life. 

The great majority of his approvals are based on actions that show kindness and compassion, both reiterative concepts that are so important in his character that they come from his lips when we see the goblin party: 

Gale: The shadow within is spreading like poison, corrupting kindness and compassion. [Only after a tough DC of 15]

In combination with: Gale: I don't know myself anymore. All this... It's not who I am. Around you, I'm not who I want to be. I should leave. 

These lines show how, in a sudden change to an evil path, Gale would start doubting his own morality, explaining that the cause of it is the "orb" itself, corrupting the most core aspects of his personality. This corruption may or may not be lore-related. It's not completely clear what Gale's "orb" truly is. For more details, check the post of the "Orb".

 His constant critical thinking comes from his advocacy to non-conventionality [15]: a true scholar will always explore all the options and hypotheses before reaching a conclusion. Therefore, Gale would approve of any non-conventional way to fix a problem [15] as long as it doesn't potentially cause harm or bloodshed [1,2,3,8,9]. Due to his own background, Gale will always advise to be very careful of the consequences of one’s actions. This can be easily seen when, after encountering the caged goblin Sazza, Gale would advocate to explore the possibility of reaching Gut Priestess to cure the tadpole. However, when Tav helps Sazza to escape, Gale will comment briefly against this action.

Gale: I know I said it's not inconceivable a goblin priestess could help us. And yet... was it really wise to set another goblin free so she can arrange introductions? […] consider the consequences. What if she leads her entire tribe to the grove? Tav: I don't care, I owe this grove no allegiance. Gale: No allegiance, no. Though we don't need to sign its death warrant

Once more we see that Gale is up to using any (unharming) means to get a goal, but not at any cost. He has a clear line he doesn't like to cross: life [3]. Avoiding putting other people's lives in danger is very important for him. We see this concept over and over in most scenes.

He doesn't likerushed decisions, and in that same train of thoughts, he will disapprove any use of unknown magic or tricks when nobody in the group can truly understand how they work [17], for example the tadpoles or Raphael's deal (he is against accepting it quickly, but he will approve of having a more cautious attitude and carefully thinking about it). 

Since the moment we meet him, we can infer he is obsessed with the artefacts. It's obviously understandable: he doesn't want to die, but also, he doesn't want to kill all those that will be caught in the eruption of the orb. For this reason he will insist on the loot in the Temple Ruins despite knowing that grave robbery is not correct. 

Gale: Bad form, isn't it? Grave robbing? […] Let's have a look at the loot. It isn't for your pockets only. 

He keeps pondering life over death: although he respects the dead, he will always value more the living creatures in the present. This is also what pushes Gale to suggest Tav to open Rugan's chest. Stealing from the evil Zhentarins is not something that will weigh on his consciousness too much. Besides, he knows it belongs to a wizard: meaning that the chance for it to contain a powerful artefact is really high. Similar suggestions will be said about the Idol of Silvanus, but talking with him in the camp will show us that he won't approve of taking it, only as a last resort. He keeps pondering the living over a sacred piece of stone, since he knows the druids won't take the stealing very peacefully. Once more we see Gale's respect and care for life, trying to minimise damage as much as the circumstances allow him.

Gale is also a survivalist. He doesn't want to die, he loves celebrating life in its more mundane and small details. He is an emotional character for a wizard, a bit strange since they are usually portrayed as more rational and cold, losing their lives among dusty books. However, Gale has shown in many scenes that he prefers to survive without killing, but if he has to, he will do it, dealing with the weight of it in his consciousness because killing unprovoked affects him (scene in the camp after killing the druids, or the goblin party scene). 

His moral in preventing gratuitous death sometimes will conflict with his own survival, especially if he is by an evil Tav's side. He couldn't accept bloodshed when other peaceful options were available and possible to reach. This is clearly shown during the goblin party, where Gale's consciousness suffers and feels the corruption of the "orb" killing the kindness and the compassion inside him. He accepts that wanting to live is a powerful drive, but he doesn't support this massacre, questioning if all that blood was necessary. A Tav killing the tieflings seems to lose the possibility of pursuing Gale romantically, at least in EA so far. For Gale, survival is important, but the means to do it (when they can cause death) matter too. Life is worth preserving.

 The usual archetype of survivalist tends to be an individualist one who would survive at any cost without remorse because that's the “law of the jungle”, the strongest must survive. However, Gale seems to embody a different concept of survivalist that it's hard to put in words: a sort of communal survivalist, trying to survive in coexistence with his community: he wants his survival to imprint the least harm possible (even though sometimes it would not be possible), trying to help those around him as long as his condition allows it; for example, despite wanting Gut's potential cure for the tadpole, he would disagree in helping Sazza escape because she will lead the goblins to the Grove, no matter the fact that doing this will grant them their introduction to the priestess. 

His list of approval shows that his sense of survival is always pondered with the consequences that it can cause on others (check the post with the "Extensive list of Gale's approvals"). The whole concept of the "orb" has this motivation as well: he wants to live and survive, but he also can't give up because his body would kill many, so he needs to do as much as his moral allows him to keep it in check. If he cannot do it any longer, he promises to minimise the disaster as much as possible by erupting in the deep Underdark or in a desolated corner of Faerûn (and considering his ridiculous list of approvals and disapprovals, we know he is honest in not wanting to kill gratuitously). Gale acknowledges his own mistakes, trying—to the best of his ability—to deal with them without catching others in them. Although all his speeches keep emphasising that he is a mere human, and plans may fail. 

At some point, if he wants to survive “not at any cost”, he will be forced to ask Tav for help during the scene of the stew (available only for medium approval or higher). As a gesture of honesty, Gale will set a boundary before making this request, acknowledging its unfairness but giving Tav the decision to proceed or not. He is not denying to explain the details later, but at the moment he can't speak the “why” of his condition no matter how curious Tav is. Tav will decide whether they can keep their curiosity on the matter. 

We will understand later that this impediment comes as a precaution as well as consequence of his personal trauma with Mystra and the "orb" (See post about "Gale: Manipulation, Lies, and Trust"). So, he is very clear about setting the conditions in which this conversation will happen from the beginning. The easiest way for Gale to avoid this whole situation would have been by simply lying, but he opted for an honest approach with clear out-loud reservations, knowing he was asking for more trust than he was allowed to, but the intention behind is more than important. There is a clear, huge contextual detail that we can't miss: this scene doesn't happen because of Gale's whims, he is forced to ask for help since his condition “is not a patient one” and will endanger everyone if not kept at bay. 

This detail where Gale explicitly asks for an exchange of trust is not present if Gale's approval is neutral or lower. In this case, Gale would not care about giving a context to his strange request: he doesn't trust Tav and he doesn't expect to be trusted either, he only wants the artefacts to keep his condition in check for his sake and the sake of others. We can understand this change of attitude depending on the approval as he doesn't want to give any extra explanation to someone he is not interested in building a relationship with. For more details, check the post about "Gale: Manipulation, Lies, and Trust".

I personally support the idea that nobody in canon Faerûn is free of racial prejudices since Forgotten Realms lore has been created based strongly on fantasy racism. I've read that WotC wants to move forward and improve this aspect in 5e, but so far what they allowed Larian to do with the Tieflings in BG3 seems to show the contrary. So, since apparently we are going to face fantasy racism anyways, I will try to analyse racial prejudices from all chars. When it comes to Gale, it's a bit far-stretched to point out unjustified racial biases. He has a vague comment about Rashemi that some people may consider a faerunian saying. Personally, I think that line is a bias forced into him to have a particular dynamic with Minsc (the Rashemi “silly” companion -we all can see where Larian seems to go with this). Gale clearly sees tieflings, gnomes, and even goblins as people, and has a cautious attitude towards some githyanki (at least that's what we can infer with Lae'zel when we find her in the cage), but given the githyanki lore it's pretty reasonable to see them as dangerous creature that could kill people on the spot. So far, he seems to have no racial preference either [10]. 

As it was said before, he prefers to avoid killing people, but that doesn't mean he won't do it if his life depends on it. He will prefer persuasive and defusing approaches, but if he needs to kill to defend innocents or his own life, he won't hesitate. So therefore, stories about characters making mistakes or having violent excess in an effort to protect themselves or what they hold dear will be understood by him but hardly approved [19]. He tends more to approve a call out of that excess than approving an excuse for it.

Gale has deep abandonment issues that can be easily seen when he defends Astarion from being handed over to Gandrel. We need to put this in context before going on: for Gale, Astarion represents a danger as a vampire who attacked one of them during their sleep. By the display of meta-knowledge, we know with certainty that their approvals and disapprovals are mostly opposite: What one approves, the other will disapprove and vice versa. Getting rid of Astarion should be something that Gale would approve, however, he doesn't. If we explore his comments we will realise that what Gale disapproves from this situation is Tav's abandonment. After Mystra's abandonment, he knows very well that “Loyalty is such a very rare commodity”, and the few situations in EA in which Tav can display abandonment, resound strongly in Gale. 

Gale is a scholar with a strong balanced rational side. But unlike the trope, he also embraces an emotional side that, so far the info we received in EA, it's the side that makes him prone to mistakes. 

As an amateur poet, Gale loves words. We can obviously notice this in his verbose attitude, but also in the way he carefully uses words. One of his characteristic words is “spectacle”. He has also shown a reiterative—although not always—uneasy use of the word “fun”. Using “fun” as a way to describe the night spent with Gale gives him a slight uneasiness. “That’s a word for it.” He disapproves of using the word “Fun” after the Mayrina/Connor situation, in which scene Gale alludes that “your new company may be a proof of how depraved and twisted you are to see that tragedy as “fun”. Personally I think this is a direct allusion to Astarion, who considers Mayrina's situation as “entertainment”, in the same way he considered as “fun” the show of Arabella's death (two of several instances where he used that word). Gale also doesn’t use the word sex during EA, instead he uses romantic ones such as love-making, intimacy, art of the night/body. In the most technical case: coitus (used only when he is talking about “goblinoid intimacy” in the expression “post-coital snack”). These details are showing not only his poet/romantic side, but also his interpretation of sex from his perspective: sex can only be possible through a connection. We know he doesn’t engage in casual sex with Lae’zel if he is not romanced, and his romance can only potentially start if Tav shares that deep connection with him through the Weave. 

Another detail related to words is that Gale has always used an infection/disease-related vocabulary to explain the “orb” stuck in his chest: infested, taint, shadow spreading 

[…] I failed to control [this chaotic magic]. Instead it infested me. […] This Netherese taint... this orb, for lack of a better word [..] […] the shadow within is spreading like poison, corrupting kindness and compassion. [...]

Gale apparently has a particular way to sense magic. I have no way to check this in-game, but it seems very strange how he immediately identifies magical artifacts without casting Detect Magic. There are some extra scenes as well where he says to taste or smell the magic in some objects. Even his encounter with Shadowheart, besides being considered a flirt, could be also interpreted as him detecting the magic that we saw later in her hand or maybe the dark magic that blocks her memories, since Gale pointed out about a curtain covering her soul: “if the eyes are the mirror to the soul, yours have dark curtains across the mirror” (a very ominous flirting if it’s only a flirt)

This makes me suspect that, if the "orb" is not giving him this skill, it may be a consequence of having been Chosen of Mystra (for more details read the post about "Mystra and her Chosen ones"). If this is the case, he may have hindered remains of theirs powers when it comes to detect magic at will.

Gale has a perception of magic with all the senses: he sniffs and tastes magic. During the mirror scene you have an option related to [Arcana] tag where he “Sniff the mirror, trying to understand the nature of its magic”. A wizard Tav will just “Inspect the mirror”. He also said that he could “taste” the magic in the necromancy book and in the runes of teleportation. 

What we know of his family is little: when he was a kid there was a housekeeper in his life (mentioned only once during the scene of the harpies) and his mother that seemed to have personally raised and cared for him (mentioned twice: in the ruin temple scene, and in his banter with Wyll) 

Tav: Why care about decorum in a long-abandoned tomb? Gale: Because my mother raised a gentleman. Then again, to be alive is to be curious. 

Wyll: Between the orb and the bug you've got more than your fair share of unwelcome passengers. Gale: What can I say. Mother always taught me to be a gracious host.

This post was written in May 2021. → For more Gale: Analysis Series Index

#bg3 meta #gale #gale of waterdeep #bg3 gale #bg3 early access #bg3

[alwaysthrowsscissors]

Fic Writer Questions!

Thanks for the tag @venhedish dont mind if I do darlin'! Loved reading your answers too!

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

17 and I started May 2020

2) What's your total AO3 word count?

84,430! Sooooo close to that 100k milestone I just need to get off my writing hiatus since I have a beefy one shot WIP and a couple kink-meme prompt fills started that will get me to the finish line!

3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

On Ao3/as an adult, just Supernatural.

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Well Jung – This was my first and I’m still super surprised it took off so well considering all the head-hopping. I also hadn’t written fiction since high school so it’s pretty technically rough!

I Can’t Forget the Time and Place Where We Just Met – Who doesn’t love a good old-fashioned double amnesia fic! This was a SPN Masquerade fill and it was super fun to write!

Kiss the Cook – Another SPN Masquerade fill inspired by Dean in an apron in S15. Kitchen fucking is fun fucking!

Iodine and Stitches – 3/5 SPN Masquerade fills that I did fall 2020. Seriously such a fun event to participate in I cant recommend it enough. This is one my only fics with a serious tone throughout which is tough for this clown.

Double Jeopardy – Written for my buddy after finding out she has an intelligence kink! Cut to us giggling about Sam losing his damn mind when he plays Jeopardy with clever Dean!

5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Listen…I can’t fully express how much comments give me LIFE! I want to know what you liked about my silly musings, I want to know your fav part, I want to know that I gave you a boner! I'll take a button smash, I'll take an emoticon. Anything, everything! I make a point to always respond back to show my appreciation for people taking time out of their day to make my day.

6) What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

Without a shadow of a doubt Yesterday Don’t Matter if It’s Gone about what would happen if Sam and Dean hooked up during Mystery Spot and exacerbated Sam’s downward spiral during the months of Tuesdays. I write a lot of humour and this sucker is humourless PLUS has an unhappy ending! Weeee!

8) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you've written?

Never have but not opposed to the idea.

9) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Nope, I’ve been pretty fortunate but I also write pretty tame shit. So if I start dabbling more in the archive warnings it may change. I do have a fun multichap wincestiel non-con WIP in the works 😈

10) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

AHAHAHAHAHA I’d say a good 90-95% of my 84k wordcount is smut! All M/M all explicit! Fun times over at Casa Scissors 😏. I do have some upcoming stuff that’s more plot heavy though which I’m looking forward to.

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I fucking hope not that would be a big bummer.

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! And as a noob I had to pinch myself, it still fucking blows my mind! A lovely Ao3 user Yigelulu translated I Can’t Forget the Time and Place Where We Just Met into Chinese. It was so incredibly cool to see my words in another language and a great honour that they liked my fic enough to put in all that work!

13) Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yup! Turn Your Head and Cough with my budbud Wearingdeantoprom. Dean gets his prostate rubbed for the first time at the doctors office.

14) What's your all time favorite ship?

Wincest wincest all the wincest! My brain is infected and there is no cure! I am a pro-shipper though ship and let ship my dudes. I also dabble in wincestiel and LOVE any combination of winkline and may write it one day. I don’t really read much from other fandoms. I’ve read some George/Fred (I like brother fucking ok?) and I love me some Jess Mariano/Dean Forester over in the Gilmore Girls camp (the perfect enemies to lovers) but its unfortunately such a small ship. Any souls reading this who like those ships, please drop any recs into my box!

15) What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

Anything I am passionate about I will finish. I’ve only killed one thing because I got bored with it but I posted my fav part for a fic challenge. I hate not having something to show for my spent time (I know it's a hobby but it's the principle damnit!) and I hate unfinished things. Those damn little ao3 red circles haunt me 🚫

16) What are your writing strengths?

Christ uhhh I’ll say I’m most consistently praised in comments for my dialogue and it’s what always flows the smoothest for me. I think my humour is also a strength, it comes very naturally when I write which is why I have a hard time keeping it out of my fics! Times are tough I just wanna make y’all giggle ok?

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

Frankly, my greatest weakness is that I don’t take it seriously enough to look at my past writing critically for improvement. I also write (non-fiction) for my job and had extensive training to do so, so when its for this hobby I honestly whip it out, edit a couple times, and slap it up ‘good enough’ styles and I don’t go back to re-read once posted. I think if I looked back, I could see lots of opportunities for improvement and could go from a fine writer to a good writer. I’d also say that I’ve written pretty fun fluffy cracky smutty stuff so I guess another weakness is a lack of depth of plot and subject matter. I do want to explore this stuff more though.

18) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

My concern is if you don’t speak the language fluently, then native speakers reading your fic might feel a big disconnect if you get colloquialisms and euphemism etc. incorrect. It could take them out of your fic if its not authentic enough. I don’t speak any other language fluently so it would END BADLY. I can speak and read French VERY POORLY and that’s it so no, I will never write in another language unless its jibberish I invented myself!

19) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

The only fanfic I wrote before SPN last year was a handful of super cracky, gen Gundam Wing fanfiction in high school!! They are on a broken USB stick which kills me I want to read them so badly! All my other creative writing was original fiction mainly horror/thrillers. I stopped when I started my undergrad cause...that shit is a lot of work yo.

20) What's your favorite fic you've written?

My first love is my first baby Well Jung. I love the plot, I love the humour in it, I love the heart, and it’s still some of my fav sex I’ve written. And the title makes me giggle too who doesn’t love a bad pun? I'm so thrilled it was so successful but it would still be my favourite even if 3 people read it. It made me rediscover writing as a hobby and helped me explore this wonderful (yet insane) fandom. I love all my babies and I even think the writing is stronger in other fics, but he will always be #1 in my heart.

OK this was fun I love talking about fic writing! If any of you read my stuff and want to know more, hit me with an ask; I love making new frans! Tagging @oddsocksandstuff @samanddeaninpanties @raidens-realm I think my other writer mutuals have been tagged by Ven!

#ask game #about me #fanfic writing #spn fanfiction #my writing

[bansheeoftheforest]

Can I just say that I love the idea of the lodgers now avoiding Henry because they are terrified of him now. And if the other lodgers don’t believe Ito, I think that Henry would enter that way multiple times, so like say Archer or Griffin or someone staked out the back entrance and low and behold, Mask Man Jekyll comes in.

-🦎

(I got this ask (about the gang Au) while I was writing the analysis and then it promptly got buried under other asks so!! I'm so sorry it took such a long time to reply sddsf)

I love to imagine Ito running to the other Lodgers in panic trying to explain what she saw, yet no one believes her. They think she saw wrong or Henry was just going home from a masquerade or something completely ignoring the fact that she is trying to stutter out that there was blood on his clothes. No matter what she says, they don't believe her. Or maybe she doesn't get enough time to explain it all fully until henry comes waltzing into the parlor starting a conversation with some other Lodgers and she immediately shuts her mouth and excuses herself. And she just... Continues like that. Hides from Henry absolutely terrified of him. Maybe Archer and Griffin would joke with her and ask her for proof and she just says alright, we are going to camp by the back door until they see him. Either they have to wait for days before Henry actually shows up or they come just in time as Henry enters. They see the mask, they see how the person looks around, and then takes it off and bam! Henry.

Or, what if they decide to sneak around in Henry's office instead? They demand proof from Ito but they are the first ones to even acknowledge what she told them so Ito suggest that they search in Henry's office, and they do. They can't find anything in his office, they continue further in to Henry's bedroom. Griffin starts digging through his closet and lo and behold, a tucked-away chest hidden away in the wardrobe.

What's in it but not the mask and his normal 'heist/gang leader' outfit?

Digging a bit deeper they find short notes. "Extra delivery needed, meet by station -J" - "New plan, return to C - QL" - "G and J, medical attention, explosion -E", etc. They find at least a dozen different weapons that could easily be hidden under or in clothes, for the evening they could also find a hidden wrist blade neatly placed atop the folded clothes.

Y'know what would be fun?

If Henry enters that very moment when they find all of that, the realization slowly dawning on them.

#ask #lizard anon #banshees au #syndicate crossover au #gang au

[takoyakitenchou]

masquerade ch.8

7? idk but this one isn’t on ff or ao3 yet i think

12:58 PM Nakiri Erina: Hi, it’s been a while. Are you free the day after tomorrow?

1:03 PM Yukihira Souma: how’d u get this #?

1:04 PM Nakiri Erina: Alice gave it to me. 

1:04 PM Yukihira Souma: sup

1:05 PM Nakiri Erina: I’m opening Kiralyno Haza. It’s not like I want you to show up or anything.

message opened

1:37 PM Nakiri Erina: Hello?

2:40 PM Yukihira Souma: hey sorry i just got on break. congrats nakiri!

2:41 PM Nakiri Erina: It was expected.

2:41 PM Yukihira Souma: surprised it took you so long to open. hurry up and get your 3 stars bubs then we’ll really see who’s the better chef

2:41 PM Yukihira Souma: and did you get tired of shinomiya or did he get tired of you?

2:42 PM Nakiri Erina: I got tired of him. Duh. Are you not coming?

2:42 PM Yukihira Souma: save 4 seats for me. i’ll be a balloon by the time im done w your food also i hope you have enough ingredients for a shokugeki after

“Ugh. You’re as shit at texting as ever,” Erina groaned, throwing down her phone, but then she picked it up again to stare at those four particular characters. Bubs. God, it had been so long since she’d seen that in her messages.

(under the cut to see souma and erina start to get their shit together lol)

To think that she had been the one to break the radio silence between them — good lord, that was fucking annoying. It was weird to think about. There had been plenty of opportunities for them to talk again, and yet they’d somehow managed to evade each other since they’d run into each other at Nakiri Mansion. Whether this was coincidence she had no idea, but Souma hadn’t been at the official Totsuki-sponsored 92nd gen alumni reunion, and Shinomiya had dragged Erina to some culinary conference that made her miss the freshman training camp where Souma threatened the living shits out of the poor first years but ended up not cutting anybody from the roster.

Erina had done her best not to linger on the fact that she had had to ask Alice for Souma’s new number, but goddamn would that remain at the forefront of her mind for the week following Kiralyno Haza’s debut until she got frustrated enough to the point where she damn near chucked her own phone out the window.

It was thanks to Alice that her condo was still in one piece.

The COO of the Nakiri-Totsuki Group was sitting next to her at a bar in Budapest, helping herself to her third shot of tequila, a few empty glasses and a growing tab between them. “Yukihira’s coming?”

Erina nodded, smiling despite herself. “Yeah. I guess he is.”

Taking sudden interest in her drink, Alice remained silent for a thoughtful moment before she said, “I haven’t seen you this happy since you two broke up.”

With a half-hearted huff, Erina scoffed, “Yeah, right.”

Alice gave her a long look. “I’m not kidding, Erina. Who was that other guy you were seeing? Darren?”

“Aaron. Darren was before him.”

“Doesn’t he have a 3000-seater concert hall named after him?”

“I couldn’t care less.” Erina said, and Alice knew it was 593% true. 

Whenever tolerating a guy got tedious, Erina had extinguished whatever spark he thought he had ignited, pretended to be hung up on it, and started over, systematically breaking hearts left and right, all the while building titanium defenses around her own.

And then, a year and half ago, she’d seen Yukihira Souma at Nakiri Mansion, and everything had changed. 

So. Much. Pining. Alice was more than a few years past sick of how long those two idiots were dragging their shit out.

Erina picked up her belongings. “We should probably stop day-drinking.”

“Sure,” Alice said, paying the tab before Erina could get her wallet out.

“I’ll pay you back for that,” Erina promised as they left the bar.

Alice put a hand on Erina’s shoulder. “You can pay me back by not fucking up your confession again.”

At this, Erina frowned. A withering counter should’ve been second nature, but she found herself incapable. She wanted to believe that whatever piece of her heart that had clung to the hope that Yukihira Souma would come back to her was nothing more than a memory. More than anything, she wished the voice at the back of her head telling her to move on and forget him and their past would finally win out, because there were people in her present waiting for her, and it would be a sin to ignore that.

But she couldn’t say the words; her heart belonged to Yukihira Souma — would always belong to him — and all broken promises and relationships notwithstanding, that was something she could not deny.

-

Although Souma technically hadn’t been invited to the kitchen for shift drinks when the front doors closed, he had taken the liberty of bringing a bottle of cab sauv that he and Erina finished in like ten seconds flat, to hell with sharing with staff, family, and friends.

The second she felt the words wanna come over? slip out of her atmosphere-drunk mouth, she knew it was going to take more self-control than she had not to demand he stay with her forever. 

“So, Yukihira,” she said like they hadn’t been catching up for the last two hours when they were sitting on the couch in her living room with pinot noir. “How’ve you been?”

The corners of Souma’s lips twitched. “Not bad,” he replied. “Mostly cooking. A few interviews and shit. I’ve been keeping up with all your stuff, by the way. Three tastings in twelve hours next Monday seems like too much, Nakiri.”

Erina frowned. “Even if you were as talented a stalker as Mimasaka Subaru, how the fuck would you know that?”

He held up his phone. “You were signed into my calendar app when I last downloaded a backup copy four years ago. So every time I get a new phone, I transfer all the old data.”

Erina stared at him, horrified. “Holy shit. You’ve seen everything?”

Shrugging, Souma said, “Not everything. Just… your dates with Darren. And Aaron. Also, I knew about Kiralyno opening before you texted me so I’d already cleared out my schedule by then.”

Erina had stopped listening halfway through. “Wait, Yukihira…”

“It’s okay, Nakiri.” Souma waved it off. “You’re here with me now. All that matters. Let’s not look too far into our past, yeah?”

“Don’t look into my future either, idiot! Sign out of my Google calendar right now!”

Souma shook his head seriously. “Sorry, Nakiri, I don’t think that’s possible.”

“Why the fuck not?”

He gazed at her intently and rested his chin on his fist. “I need to make sure I’ll still be in it.”

Erina rolled her eyes. “Don’t say sappy shit like that. It doesn’t suit you.”

“What if I just stayed?” he asked.

She sighed. “I think the question is, would I even let you? I thought we’re putting the past behind us? Don’t you want this back?” She pointed at the white cloth she was wearing on her wrist. His white cloth.

Souma ignored the second question and pulled Erina to him by her waist, close enough that she could feel his warm breath as he spoke, forehead brushing hers. “Another thing we both know is that you and I could never be just friends.”

“Take your hands off me or I swear I’m either going to spill my wine or kiss you, and I seriously do not care which.”

He leaned back with a sad smile. “You wouldn’t let me stay, would you, Nakiri?”

“I couldn’t,” she said helplessly. “We don’t even know where our lines are.”

“Do we need lines?” Souma asked, finishing his glass and balancing it on his knee. “You and I are beyond this dimension.”

Erina stared at him, memorizing every last square centimeter of his features — the way his hair seemed to get shorter every time they met until he somewhat resembled someone of his culinary pedigree; the way the creases formed on his sleeves along the contours of his toned arms.

“You know, Nakiri, if you let me stay, you wouldn’t have to stare so much.”

She tore her gaze from his collarbone, her whole face turning red. In all her twenty-one years, that had to be the most embarrassing moment of her life. “Shut up! I’m not staring!”

He was watching her with wistful eyes. “I wouldn’t mind if you were…” 

And they both heard it.

I wouldn’t mind if you were mine.

#shokugeki no soma #shokugeki no souma #sorina #soueri #yukihira soma #yukihira souma #nakiri erina #CANT BELIEVE THEYRE FINALLY GETTING THEIR SHIT TOGETHER #oh wait #im the one writing this

[five-rivers]

Mask

Danny slouched against the back wall of the ballroom, mask dangling from his fingers. He didn't want to be here. If his parents weren't out there having the time of their lives, he wouldn't be here, but someone had to keep an eye on them and keep them from getting sucked into whatever scheme Vlad had this time.

He sighed, tracking the bulk of his father across the dance floor. His mother was harder to see, but she was never far behind.

A masquerade ball. Really. Ancients, Vlad was so pretentious.

(Internally, Danny thought that a masquerade ball could be cool... except, well. Vlad.)

His mother briefly emerged from the crowd, caught his eye, and mimed putting on his mask. Apparently she was watching him, too. With a grumble, he put the mask back on. Vlad had given it to him, and although he couldn't see or feel anything wrong with it, he still felt that it was suspect.

"Did your parents make you come, too?"

Danny glanced over. A girl was standing a few feet away. Her dress was red and puffy, and her mask was golden. Her hair was done up in complicated braids. She was, perhaps, one or two years younger than he was, though it was hard to tell with the mask. She was certainly shorter than him.

The silhouette of her dress crumpled as she also slumped against the wall. "You'd think that a masked ball would be, you know, cool, but it's just a bunch of old people jumping around and trying to talk business with the 'great Vlad Masters.'"

"Ouch," said Danny. "At least my parents aren't trying to do that, I guess."

"Oh, yeah? What are they doing, then?" asked the girl.

"I honestly have no idea," said Danny, watching his parents gyrate across the floor again. "Dancing? You could call it dancing." He shrugged.

"Ah," said the girl. "My name's Ellie, by the way."

"Danny," said Danny. "Nice to meet you."

"Same. So, what do your parents do?"

"They're scientists," said Danny, not wanting to get into the whole 'ghost hunting' thing. This wasn't Amity Park. Most people didn't believe in ghosts.

Ellie bobbed her head. "Cool, cool. I kinda want to be a scientist. Like, finding out new things, it just sounds really awesome?"

"Yeah, it can be fun sometimes," said Danny. "I don't understand most of it, though." He rolled his shoulders. Actually, he understood a lot more of his parents' work than he let on, in some specific areas more than them, even. Admitting that wasn't wise, however. "What field are you interested."

"Astrophysics, definitely," said Ellie, firmly. "Space is the coolest thing."

Danny grinned. "Oh, yeah. There's just so much. I mean, have you ever looked at the Hubble Deep Fields?"

.

Two teens talking together and having a good time evidently had a magnetic property. Three other high school kids had come to join them, all boys.

One boy was very tall and broad. During their introduction, Danny reflected that if he was on Casper's football team, Dash wouldn't be the star player anymore. Unlike Dash, however, Dustin was quiet, barely speaking at all and always deferring to the others.

The second boy introduced himself as Damien, and he was also tall, but thin and skeletal, like a strong breeze would blow him away. He seemed to realize this, because he had a pair of small enamel pins on the lapel of his suit: a skeleton and a scarecrow.

The last, Dmitri, a redhead, was about the same size as Danny. He reminded Danny of Jazz, for some reason (clearly, her psychology-camp-induced absence was driving him a little crazy). And, less pleasantly, of Wes. He had... a lot of questions. Not quite to the point of being annoying, but still a lot. There was also something wrong with his mask. It was hard to tell, but it looked almost as if one eye of it had been filled in. Danny didn't want to mention it, and ruin the atmosphere, though.

There was an atmosphere. Shockingly enough, these kids liked him, and they were much cooler than Danny would have expected of kids who's parents had been invited by Vlad. Which, yeah, was maybe a weird prejudice on his part. His parents had been invited by Vlad, after all.

Danny liked them back.

"... and the names of the dark matter candidates, whoever thought them up was a genius," said Dmitri, waving his hands.

"Well, yeah," said Danny, grinning, "if they were allowed to pick the names, they probably were the ones to come up with the whole idea for it in the first place. But I think MACHOs might be more likely than WIMPs. You've heard about the exoplanets they found last year?" He let his eyes briefly lose focus. "I bet there are even more of them, that we just can't see yet."

"Yeah, but there have been a lot of tests for MACHOs," said Damien. "You'd think we'd have seen a least a couple. And what about dark energy?"

"I don't think those two are actually related," said Ellie.

"Sure they are. They both have the word dark in them."

"Yeah, but I don't think they actually have anything to do with each other," said Ellie.

"They just have similar names," said Dustin.

"We can look it up, later," said Dmitri.

"Speaking of related," said Danny, "how are you guys related?"

There was a pause. "How'd you know?" asked Ellie. "Like, I could understand if you could see our faces, but..."

Danny shrugged. "I don't know. It just... Felt that way?

"We're cousins," said Damien, leaning forward. His body language spoke of nerves.

Danny couldn't imagine why Damien would be nervous about that, but he probably had his reasons. Family drama, maybe. It wasn't Danny's place to ask, he was a stranger.

Even if he was rather wishing he wasn't. How often did he meet people who shared so many of his interests? Never.

(Well, they were mostly just talking about the one interest, space, but still. And Dustin had mentioned liking Dumpty Humpty.)

"That's cool," he said. He would have liked to have helped. Maybe he still could, somehow? He and his parents were going to be here for a few days.

If he focused, there was an aura of something being not quite right with the cousins. Nothing he could put his finger on, and nothing to do with them as people, but... something.

"Hey," said Ellie, "what do you say we raid the snack table? It can't all be super fancy stuff we can't name, can it? I mean, at least there's punch."

Danny followed Ellie's gaze to the refreshments table. When he'd been over there before, everything had been covered, and he hadn't felt like fighting his way back across the floor and potentially losing sight of his parents. He glanced at them now. They looked like they were having fun.

He lightly bit at his lower lip. He knew Vlad had to be up to something. Otherwise, why bother with all of this?

But... new friends... He liked friends, and Vlad was always up to something. Danny deserved to have a little fun now and again, even so.

"Sure," he said. "We can ruin our dinner."

Ellie snickered. "That's the spirit!" she said, patting Danny on the back and slipping past him.

He smirked at the pun, even if it was unintentional.

"Yeah, better do it now, before there's a punchline," said Dmitri. "Wouldn't want people to think we're in a joke."

Danny choked a little, trying to swallow a laugh.

"That was terrible. You're terrible," said Damien.

"Hey, our new friend seems to like it," said Ellie.

Danny's core did a little bounce when she said friend. He really did want to be friends. "What can I say," he said, shrugging. "Better a joke, than a fist?"

Dmitri smiled broadly. Damien groaned, arcing his long body back dramatically.

There wasn't a line for the punch, or even very many people around the snack table at all. What few people had been there moved off, glaring, when the five children descended on the table. He caught Ellie sticking her tongue out at a woman who was giving them a particularly dirty look.

They gathered cups of punch and piled tiny plates high with pastries before retreating to a nearby corner to resume their conversation.

Danny was having a harder time following it this time, though. He felt tired. Drained. A little overheated. He wasn't used to wearing this suit. He went back to refill his punch a few times.

Words started to blur together. The inside of his head felt staticky. But he also... really content... New friends... His core felt strange...

"Danny?" a hand on his shoulder made him flinch, which made him sway rather dangerously. "Are you okay?"

Danny blinked at Ellie. "I don't feel..." he mumbled. What? What didn't he feel?

"Did someone spike the punch?"

"There's a room back here, you can lie down."

"I'll go get Father, he'll know what to do."

He was gently guided out of the ballroom, most of his weight resting on Dustin. There was a reason he should stay in the ballroom, but he couldn't remember what it was. Was someone missing?

Wait, spike the punch? Was he drunk?

The thought was lost almost instantly. His core, and therefore his mind, was lost in delirium and delight. New friends! But they needed his help, there was something wrong with them. But he could help! So, everything was good, and he loved his new friends very much.

The place they took him to was darker and quieter than before. They laid him down on something soft and squishy, and he giggled, weakly. They were talking. They might have been talking to him, but he couldn't understand aaaaaaaaanything.

He was so happy, helping his new friends.

The light changed as the door to the room opened. Music and other noises from the party briefly grew in volume, and were muffled again as the door swung closed.

"Well, that was faster than expected."

Vlad's voice briefly pulled him back into lucidity, and he struggled to sit up before collapsing again. No, all his energy had to go to his friends. They needed it. No time for Vlad.

Still, he glared up at the older man as he leaned over him. There were two Vlads. Was that because he was seeing double, or because Vlad had split himself?

The question was answered as Vlad picked Danny up. Danny was distressingly limp. He couldn't redirect any energy to his muscles, and thinking was hard. There was a thunk, and one of the walls opened up, revealing a hidden staircase. Vlad carried Danny down, but that was okay, because his new friends came with them, and- Oh!

There was another new friend down here!

Danny's core reached out to his newest new friend.

.

He came back to himself with only the sensation that something was wrong wrong wrong. He jolted up, only to be stopped by a pressure across his chest and shoulders. He squinted, trying to see. His mask was gone, and the clothing he was in felt different, looser.

"What'd you do with'm?" he demanded.

"They're just in the next room, Daniel," said Vlad. "Calm down. I had no idea you'd get attached to them so quickly. I had a whole program for this week for you to get to know them."

"No," said Danny. He finally managed to get his eyes open. He was in Vlad's lab, lying on something padded. He'd been strapped down, and there were various IVs running into his arms. One of them was a lurid ectoplasmic green.

"No?"

"Won't calm down. What did you do to me?"

"Nothing."

"This isn't nothing." He finally managed to find Vlad with his eyes. The man was sitting almost behind him. It was difficult to bend his eyes to look that way.

"Oh, very well then. I increased the energy levels in your core, allowing you to wake up and us to have this lovely conversation. The rest, my dear boy, was all you. An instinctive reaction on the part of your core, although you, as usual, took it too far."

"What?"

Vlad walked around the tube, to a position where Danny could see him more easily. "This will require some explanation. I realize this situation isn't intuitive, to one such as yourself." Vlad waved a dismissive hand.

Danny scowled, but had the presence of mind to bite his tongue. He needed to know what was going on. He was beginning to suspect that Vlad had drugged him, put something in the food or punch that only affected ghosts and half ghosts, but he had a feeling that wasn't quite right.

"After you and Jasmine blew up my football field, I came to the conclusion that you would never accept me as a father," said Vlad, with the air of someone narrating a tragedy. "I was forced to reconsider my methods and goals. You see, Daniel, all I really wanted was to be loved."

In Danny's personal opinion, that was a load of crap. Vlad, more than anything else, wanted control, he wanted power.

""To be loved," continued Vlad, "and understood." He looked up at the ceiling and sighed. "And who could understand me, but a fellow half ghost? So, I decided to make one."

"Wait, wait, hold up," said Danny, beyond horrified. "You made someone a half ghost? You killed someone?"

"What? No, don't be ridiculous, Daniel. I cloned you."

He pointed at something behind and to the left of Danny, and Danny craned his head back to see a tall, vertical tube full of ectoplasm. Inside floated a boy who looked just like Danny in Phantom form. The boy's eyes were closed, and there were tubes and wires connected to his body.

"That's just as bad. Oh my gosh, Vlad, you can't just clone people! Why didn't you clone yourself?"

Vlad's face twisted like he had just bitten into a lemon. "I had attempted to do so, initially, however, my ectoacne and other instabilities in my makeup precluded me from doing so. Cloning you was my only choice."

"We cured your ectoacne," said Danny.

"Yes. But I had already started this project. It did take time to grow your brother into maturity, Daniel. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, David was unstable."

"David?"

"The name given to him by your other siblings. Do keep up, Daniel."

"Other- You made more clones? Why?"

"I had done some research," said Vlad. "Into how ghosts normal reproduce and stabilize children. I discovered that family members, those ghosts with similar ectosignatures and core properties, play a major role in stabilizing and providing energy to newly formed ghosts. My ectosignature was too different from David's, but I thought that if I could just make one stable clone..." Vlad trailed off, the look in his eyes almost haunted. "I tried everything. A mix of your DNA and ectosignature and mine, extra DNA from your sister, your mother, even your father. Nothing worked!" Vlad threw his hands up, angrily. "They are all more stable, but none of them are completely stable!"

It took Vlad several seconds to calm down, during which Danny put a few more puzzle pieces together.

"Ellie and the others, they're all clones?" That hurt, for some reason. Did they like him at all, or were they only being nice to him because Vlad told them to.

"Yes," said Vlad. "Danielle is the most stable." He smoothed down the front of his lab coat.

"So, you need me to stabilize them. That's why you drugged me?"

"I didn't drug you Daniel. Your collapse was a surprising to me as it was to you. Based on my readings, I can only conclude that your core recognized Danielle, Dustin, Damien, and Dmitri as family, registered their instability, and attempted to rectify it by boosting your ectosignature and sending them energy. Unfortunately, the effort overwhelmed you. You are only a child yourself, and..." Vlad trailed off, almost sheepish, "it is my understanding that they process is usually undertaken by multiple adult family members, and with only one child at a time."

"Great," said Danny. "And you didn't plan for that to happen at all."

"I had believed that you would bond with them more slowly," said Vlad. "That your reaction wouldn't be so extreme."

"Well, it was," said Danny. "But they're stable now, right? So, you can let me go." He tugged against the restraints again. He hoped they were stable. He had heard his parents talk about what happened to destabilized ghosts.

"Sadly," said Vlad, sounding like he was gritting his teeth, "that is an incorrect assumption."

There was a long pause.

"I want to make a deal with you, Daniel," said Vlad.

"You- Are you asking me for help?" Not that Danny could refuse. For one, he was tied up, for another...

"I suppose. For my children. They are children, Daniel, and they will die if they aren't stabilized. Painfully. Perhaps not today, but within the month."

Danny's heart clenched, and his core shivered. Even if Ellie and the others had been tricking him, he didn't want them to die. He would do what Vlad asked, if it stabilized his... cousins.

He was going to go with cousins for now. Siblings felt a little too close at the moment, and 'clones' was sort of dehumanizing. They were the ones who had started it, calling each other cousins.

But even if he was going to cooperate with Vlad, that didn't mean he wasn't going to try to get as many concessions out of Vlad as possible. True, he wasn't going to get very many, Vlad was holding the cards in this game, but he still might be able to get something.

"What kind of deal?" he asked, cautiously.

"You cooperate with stabilizing the cores of my children," said Vlad, "and I will make sure your little town stays safe and protected. Fail to cooperate, and not only will Amity Park be exposed and helpless against any ridiculous poltergeist that comes through your parents' portal, but you will be unconscious. As demonstrated earlier, you do not need to be awake for your core to be at work."

Danny frowned. Apart from the threat (honestly, Vlad was borderline pathological) that was a pretty good deal. Heck, Danny wasn't even supposed to be back in Amity Park until the end of the week.

It was a good deal... too good.

"Exactly how long do you think it'll take, anyway?" he asked. "To stabilize all of them?"

"I don't know, Daniel, this hasn't ever been done before."

Danny scowled. He hated it when Vlad said his name with that supercilious tone of voice. "Fine. How long does it take with ghosts, Vlad? You said you researched it, didn't you?"

"The time varied based on a number of factors," said Vlad.

"It takes a long time, doesn't it?" asked Danny. "I want a cover story. One that doesn't make me disappearing for Ancients know how long my fault. I want to be able to talk to Sam, Tucker, and Jazz whenever I want. And I want to be able to veto anything too invasive or dangerous."

"You're hardly in a position to make demands."

Danny made a shrugging motion, hoping that Vlad wouldn't call his bluff.

"I can do the first," said Vlad, finally, "but if you want it to hold up, the second is impossible. The last is ridiculous. Cooperation means full cooperation, nothing less."

That was about what he had expected. "If I can't communicate with them, they'll just show up here, guns blazing. You know that."

"I think I can handle three human teenagers."

"Sure, but do you want to have to?"

Vlad frowned. "I will consider the merits of your suggestion," he said. "I'm impressed, actually. I didn't think you had it in you, to bargain with lives on the line." Danny swallowed to keep himself from gagging. "But in the meantime, do you agree to cooperate, or no?" He drummed his fingers on something Danny couldn't see.

Between Danny's Obsession, and what were apparently ghostly family bonding instincts, there really wasn't any way for him to say no. "Yes, fine, whatever. I'll cooperate. You can let me out of these things, now." He pulled at the restraints again.

"Oh, no," said Vlad, smiling, then moving out of Danny's line of sight. "Those are for your own protection. You see, your core isn't really mature enough to cope with sustaining five other cores, so we are going to have to significantly supplement your ectoenergy levels."

There was a small click, and the table Danny was on started moving backwards. After a few inches, it angled up, until it was vertical. Danny discovered that there were little platforms under his bare feet, and other supports to keep him upright in his new position. Directly to his left, floated the clone, David, in the glass tube. Danny's core seemed to strain in that direction. His eyelids fluttered.

Vlad walked back over and pulled something with two tubes attached to it from the space over Danny's head. "Open up," he said.

"Why?" asked Danny.

"This is a breathing mask," said Vlad. "It will supply you with oxygen and atomized ectoplasm at three times the levels generally available in the Ghost Zone. But this part," he tapped part of the mask that was fitted with something like a bite guard, "needs to go inside your mouth."

After a moment of hesitation, Danny opened his mouth, and Vlad inserted the breathing mask. Almost at once, Danny could tell the difference. The air coming through was just so much richer.

Vlad pressed the cup of the mask over Danny's mouth and nose and sealed the edges with tape.

"Now," Vlad said, as he began pulling other things from the ceiling and attaching them to Danny, "in a few minutes, I'm going to start giving you instructions. I want you to follow them. Cooperate, do you understand? The first thing I want to do is stabilize David enough that he is no longer dependent on the containment chamber to survive."

Danny was getting a bad feeling. Many of the wires Vlad was attaching to him mirrored wires attached to David. Vlad attached a few more wires, and inserted several needles. Danny tried to hiss at those, but the mask acted as an effective gag. Finally, Vlad inserted two small plugs into Danny's ears and stepped back, half smiling.

As Danny had almost expected, a curved glass barrier sprang from behind him and encircled him, trapping him in a chamber much like the one David occupied. Ectoplasm began to bubble up from below, from a source Danny couldn't see.

"You will be submerged shortly." Vlad's voice rang clear in the earbuds. "This will allow you to intake ectoplasm through your skin. You will also be in the same environment as David."

The ectoplasm hit the soles of Danny's feet, and he flinched. It was rising rapidly.

"Do try not to panic," said Vlad. "Now, I want you to focus on David."

It was at Danny's knees, now. He took a deep breath, reassuring himself that the mask was in place. He wasn't going to drown. He looked over at David. What did it even mean, to focus on him? Danny had no idea what he was like, not really. Like him, he guessed, but not?

"With your ghost sense, Daniel," said Vlad. "Not your eyes."

Danny scowled at him, trying to distract himself from the fact that the ectoplasm was up to his chest. He closed his eyes and tried to do... that. It wasn't something he normally did and had no idea how to go about it but-

Ah. Oh, there it was. There he was, Danny's new friend. That was easier than expected. Danny's core began to purr, some of the euphoria from earlier in the night returning.

The ectoplasm closed over his head.

"Good," said Vlad, his voice slightly warped. "It appears that you have connected. Now, I am going to stimulate and amplify that connection. I want you to stay focused."

Of course Danny would stay focused. He was helping his friend, wasn't he? He always stayed focused when it came to that.

Several of the places Vlad had attached wires began to tingle. His core jumped and he twitched. Everything briefly took on a very severe cast.

It was very hard to think, after that.

.

Vlad smiled at his readouts. Securing Daniel's cooperation beforehand had been worthwhile. Had he been struggling, it would have been difficult to establish the connection to this extent. David's energy and stability levels were increasing slowly but steadily. Despite the measure he was taking, Daniel's were dropping. Some of the data concerning his human half was less than ideal. That would be troublesome to deal with later on.

He took a moment to check in on his duplicate upstairs. The party was going well. Jack and Maddie hadn't noticed Daniel's absence yet. With luck, they wouldn't until the next morning.

Overall, tonight had been fruitful. With Daniel, he would be able to stabilize all five of the clones, and, perhaps, he would even be able to win over Daniel. He had seen the relaxed smile on his face when he had been with the clones. Vlad knew how powerful ghost instincts could be.

He stood up and walked over to the room where he had asked his children to wait. They should be told that their elder siblings would make a full recovery shortly.

#danny phantom #dannymay #dannymay 2020 #day 24