#as for what would happen if Vasco died first

[canisalbus]

i've returned for 2 seconds to tell you that they're not leaving my head. (sort of unrelated but i've been thinking as well. what if vasco died before machete ? what would go down)

.

#ah this is so terribly cute #makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside #“possessed by the vaschete spirit” you and me both #their expressions are so sweet #couple of dorks #and I like the dusty desaturated color scheme! with pink and darker brown accents #gift art #insect-shenanigans #own characters #Vasco #Machete #as for what would happen if Vasco died first #and I'm assuming of natural causes like illness or old age #I suppose Machete would try to sneakily sponsor his funeral #throw the fanciest burial possible #and maybe add some kind of anonymous half hidden obscure tragiromantic inscription on the grave #about wishing to see him again one day #and then either go on to do what Vasco did and commission art in his honor #or get a bad case of widowhood effect and go downhill quickly after his passing #oh yeah he might start to financially support Vasco's widow so that there was a little less pressure on her to get remarried #as you may remember she's a lesbian and one lavender marriage was probably enough for her #I can see that being a thing in certain circumstances

[bigdealsgoddog]

Lookism characters as fathers p2

Notes: just how I think certain characters would act as fathers (Jake kim, gun, Samuel seo)

Jake kim(kim gi myung)

He would absolutely love the idea of having a kid with you. He’s really hesitant though, he’s similar to Daniel in the sense that he knows what’s happened and what could happen so he really isn’t sure he wants to bring a kid into it all if so much is going down. But as long as nothing is really happening he’s not that hard to convince ngl.

When you actually do get pregnant he’s like !!! Me? I did that? Me? My kid? I got you pregnant? I did?

Once the initial shock dies down he’s all over you, as nervous as he is he’s really excited to have a kid of his own

Is the type to buy a million and one outfits for the kid before they’re even born and he buys all of the outfits from big deal street. #support local businesses

Unlike vasco he’s be really hesitant to bring his kid around big deal. Not that they’re bad or dangerous people but he remembers how much he hated his father for being a yakuza leader and being a playboy and he doesn’t want his own kid growing up the same way. It takes a little convincing on your side to get him to realize he can just show his kid why big deal is different from the yakuza and show how much good big deal brings

He started crying when he saw his kid for the first time after their born

There was one time you caught him playing with your kid, turns out it was a whole play date with big deal and they were pretending the baby was the yakuza boss while they ran around playing ‘pretend’ yakuza

It was quite funny when lineman had bowed his head in apology for ‘disrespecting boss baby’ and proceeded to get bonked on the head by your kiddos rattle

He immediately got dragged away by jerry to be “given to the fishes” while your baby cackled

There was one time you had gotten sick so Jake had to take the kiddo with him to big deal, this was when they were still young so he absolutely had one of those baby harnesses on

For the most part you or Jake would always pick up your kiddo from day care/school and normally it wouldn’t be a problem, Jake cleans up well and doesn’t really look out of the ordinary if his tattoos aren’t showing. That is until jerry came to pick up one day because you both were really busy and jerry is on the allowed to pick up list.

The teachers look terrified when they see this big hulking scarred guy coming up to the school, they’re panicking a little and the students don’t stop gawking especially when your kiddo dashes off excited that ‘uncle Jerry’s here!’

The teachers relaxed when they see your kid hugging Jerry’s leg and he just gives one of the sweetest smiles

The teachers end up asking you guys about jerry later on and even how he’s doing sometimes and if he’ll be coming by again anytime soon to pick your kiddo up. The kids nonstop talk about him and your kiddo cause now they think your kiddo has a personal body guard and if anyone tries to bully them it’ll be their ass.

I feel like aside from jerry as much as Jake loves big deal he wouldn’t trust anyone with his kid to babysit alone

Maybe Sinu

Maybe

Samuel seo(seo seongeun)

Honestly? He’d probably rather punt a kid instead of having one

I hate to say this but he’d be similar to endeavor in the sense of if he can’t achieve his goal of becoming ‘king’ he wants his kid to do it. It’s gonna take you talking some sense into him to make sure it doesn’t happen.

I could see Samuel maybe drunkenly confessing one night what happened in his childhood, how he wished he was gapryong kims son instead of his ‘real father’ who wanted him to get into the a/c industry.

You absolutely use that to get him to realize how stupid he is trying to make your child into a blood thirsty fighter like him. That maybe if your kid wanted to he could but just like him when he was younger his kid can go fuck right off and do whatever they hell they damned pleased if he pushed them enough. He finally got the hint.

He’d Lowkey spoil the fuck out of his kid though, he can’t have his kid out here in subpar clothes. This kid is two years old and will have more gucci outfits than a sane adult person would have.

You’ve pointed out that babies grow really quickly and that they’ll grow out of it in three weeks time

He doesn’t care

The poor daycare workers when you bring your kiddo in decked out in the most expensive brands, they’re terrified to let your kid dirty their clothes up until you tell them it’s perfectly fine and to please encourage the kid to dirty the clothes, maybe it’ll give your husband incentive to stop buying the most expensive shit

He still doesn’t care, have you seen how often he dirties and fucks up his own clothes? No fucks given

Honestly doesn’t give a rats ass about being a decent father until you snap at him(maybe while you’re pregnant because he’s giving a ‘fuck all that’ attitude if you want (insert food craving) just order it through the (insert food service) he’s not getting up just for a craving for a stupid baby) and you turned around yelling about how he won’t and can’t be a decent father because he’s too scared of messing up.

This man and his inferiority complex would make a complete 180, he’s out getting your food cravings and he’s making sure your feet stay elevated and he’s rubbing your shoulders. That’s how he ended up getting into the mindset of ‘well if I can’t be king and I’m having a kid they can do what I couldn’t!’ Of course as we already said you’d put an end to that real quick.

I think after the kiddo is born and one day you had left your kid alone with Samuel for like. Five minutes and by the time you got back the kiddo fell asleep in his arms and he’s just staring in awe at your kid. He didn’t think about it till now but they really did look like you…they’re just….so small and fragile…he’s almost scared he’s gonna break it if he shifts the wrong way. You see how anxiously careful he’s being before going over behind him to wrap your arms around him and kiss his cheek

“It’s ok, you’re not gonna hurt them. They’re sleeping already how about we lay them down?-“”no!” He’d cut in a little loud and quick, shrinking back a moment surprised and confused at his own reaction, immediately quieting down his voice “no no…it’s fine-they’ll just wake up if I move…” he mumbled. He didn’t want to admit he wanted to keep holding them.

Gun (park jeong geong)

One of the few out of all these headcannons willing and wanting to train their kid to be a fighter and will probably get their way about it

His special talent is to literally train people into their peak performance of course he’s gonna do it for his kid to excel at sports in school and self defense are you kidding 100% teaches his kid kyokushin karate.

You’ve seen this man with money he would absolutely spoil the fuck out of his kid but in all the wrong ways. Samuel would spoil on the drip alone because “presentation is the most important things

But gun? He’ll buy his kid new clothes, toys, gadgets and even weaponry(as long as it’s approved by you surprisingly. You’re not letting your kid walk to school strapped)

You’ve seen gun a few times hunched over his desk doing paper work and your baby is sitting on his shoulders, messing with his hair.

Kids talk about your kid at school all the time, between how much luxury items they have and the fact their father drops them off in luxury cars all the time. Not to mention anytime someone tries fucking with them they immediately shoot it down or beat the crap out of their bullies.

You’d scold them while it’s good they stood up for themselves under no circumstances should they be shoving other kids faces into the edge of the desk to knock their teeth out. Gun will always reward them with ice cream behind your back for ‘using what he taught them’

Gun would absolutely bring his kid to goos place to brag about how much better his kid is compared to goos

Both of your kids end up just having a play date every-time while gun and goo duke it out

Speaking of goo

Goo(Kim joon goo)

I feel like in a weird way he’d be one of the best kinda of dads?

Not in the sense of he’s responsible or anything

I mean I feel like he has the potential of being a responsible dad, he’d say it’s like being that one anime character where he’s a stay at home husband while also battling the emotional turmoil of being a yakuza member, the ways of the house goo if you will

But he’s definitely the type to love playing with his kiddo, there’s a few times you’ll come home to him and the kiddo playing video games or playing robots together. Hell he’ll even spar with the kid, teach em a few moves and have at it

The problem comes in when the kid almost beats him a few times at a game and he’ll immediately cheat to pull his win.

Then you’ve got the kid fighting that yes they did win and goo being a teasing shit that he won fair and square

You know goo better than that

He’d absolutely tell his kid to give/tell certain things to guns kid to use/say to piss gun off. You’ll have a very pissed off gun at your doorstep regularly

Ok but also when you were pregnant he absolutely talked to the kiddo through your stomach. It would seem all cute and soft, you’re being lulled to sleep with his gentle rubbing on your stomach and his quiet coos to the baby

Until you tune into what he’s actually saying

“Once you come out you’re gonna say gun is a pussy ok?” Welp that’s enough of that

At some point he turned around and started putting headphones on your stomach, it’s “educational audio books”

He omitted the part where the ‘audio books’ are actually just various anime he’s seen and wants the kid to watch. Gotta start em early

He would totally fuck with Daniel and his partner because he’d get the intrusive thought to poke your belly when your pregnant cause like popping balloons and he’d convince Daniel his partner could pop easier than a balloon

#lookism #lookism fluff #lookism hc #gun park #goo kim #jake kim #Daniel park #jake kim hcs #gun park hcs #samuel seo #samuel seo hc #goo kim hcs

[wannaeatramyeon]

What do you think would happen if: Lookism characters hit male reader full force, leaving him unconscious because the enemy they were targeting, dodged last second? :000

lol this legit made me laugh, thanks for the ask anon. I've left out any that I'm not too sure on. Honestly don't think most of them would react that differently regardless of gender. Ping me another ask if there's any specific hc or... this is too intriguing to leave as is.

Lookism hitting Y/N full force (lol)

I'm sorry to say if the (male) reader was like... yknow, normal then you're not surviving a full force hit from half the characters - I definitely need to mention who would OHKO kill you: please accept my shitty tierlist first.

Your reaction

Actually fr legit DIE (lol)

Sorry my dude, there is NO way you are coming back from this unless you were part of the main cast or at least a decent side character. Full force?! You would definitely get one-shotted (one-shat?) by pretty much 99.9% of the main guys and probably all the side characters too

Erm, almost everyone?

Injured & unconscious

It's not that I don't think much of Y/N's fighting prowess... but. Have you seen half the guys and girls!? They are brutal. Even some of the side characters would (severely) injure you

Lineman, Lua Im, Sally Park, Crystal Choi, maybe Daniel's grandmother lol

Lookism's reaction (assuming you survived)

The guys in 2nd tier might be a bit more considerate if you are a girl, but unlikely.

Couldn't give a shit

Gun Park, Goo Kim (altho he doesn't want to get sent back to juvie again), Samuel Seo, Ryuhei Kuroda, Johan Seong (especially if you had nice shoes), James Lee, Xiaolong, Vin Jin, Logan Lee, Olly Wang, Daniel's grandmother

Slightly apologetic but there's a fight going on. Why tf are you there if you didn't want to get hit?!

Zack Lee, Mary Kim, Eli, Warren Chae, Lineman, Brad Lee, Jason Yoon, DG

Remorseful, would make sure you're at least ok after everything has calmed down

Daniel Park, Vasco Lee, Jay Hong, Jace Park, rest of Burn Knuckles, Jake Kim, Sinu Han, Jerry Kwon (Jake has taught him well), Lua Im, Sally Park, Crystal Choi

Panic

Daniel Park, Jay Hong, DG (lol prays to the powers above that there is no paparazzi around and noone could identify him. his career would be RUINED)

If you died? Everyone would probably panic. Because for some reason that's the only crime that matters.

IMO, much preferable to get knocked out in the How to Fight verse, you'll be getting a free leg massage.

#lookism #lookism headcanons #lookism hc #daniel park #lookism dg #johan seong #goo kim #vasco #euntae lee #jake kim #gun park #samuel seo #wannaeatramyeon

[lookismaddict]

KIN LIST?????????????????????????????????????

AHHHHHH SON!!! THANK YOU FOR THE ASK!! 😩❤️ I’LL GIVE YOU EVERY TYPE OF RAMEN DISH THAT YOU WANT. Also, KIN LIST??? MINE??? 😳

Hmmm… Well, I do have a few in mind, so here’s my Kin List:

Mary Kim: I resonate w/ her HEAVILY because her attitude, her behavior, and even the way she interacts with people (esp with Vin Jin) is literally me irl. If I’m close to ANYONE (guy/girl) irl, I’d usually be the type to tease a lot and be the “big sister” in the friend group who usually supports. And I’d be the type to throw hands if necessary, but would never initiate for no reason. Also, her FASION SENSE TOO??? I KIN. DEF KIN. Omg you guys have no idea how similar I dress like her sometimes. It’s insane. 😭

Zack Lee: I feel like his humor and mine, are similar. I just… have a feeing. Imagine, Zack reacting to a bunch of memes (probably dank, dark, and offensive memes) on his phone and he pulls out some Vine references out of nowhere. And I STG, our taste in music would be similar. Zack would definitely listen to rap music like Kanye, Travis Scott, Kid Cudi, Kendrick Lamar, etc. Even the way he dresses (usually in streetwear) is one of the clothing styles I mainly go with whenever I dress up to go outside.

Johan Seong: Typically, the way he dresses is my MAIN go-to. Mostly, BLACK CLOTHING. Like bro… Majority of my clothes consists of 95% black clothes and 5% any other color. I’m not kidding. Plus, I can imagine me and Johan just chilling and walking out in the street, and some old ladies would ask us if someone died because we’re both wearing black clothing, which is just… our usual outfit. 🧍🏽‍♀️ Also, the way he deals with people who piss him off or is annoyed by them like he doesn’t give a fuck, is such a big personality trait that I kin with. When he doesn’t like someone, then he’d REALLY show that he doesn’t like them. Same goes for me irl too. I like how he doesn’t fake his attitude towards people as well, and he’d come for them like no one’s going to stop him. I fuck with that. 🤝🏽🖤

Lua Im: Lua got a bit of fight in her too, but I like how she isn’t really the type of person to fight in the first place. Similar to Mary’s explanation, she wouldn’t resort to fighting unless she has a good reason to. I also like her personality, and how she involuntarily handles things funny and does some “dorky” things when stressed (because honestly, me too girl). I’d panic and I’d say or do the dumbest shit ever and I’d just embarrass myself even more to the point that I want to die. 💀 In addition to how I kin with Lua through her actions and personality, I really mess with her sense of fashion too. Yeah, I know she rocking the Stüssy top and that one simple style with the hoodie and the jacket over it, because I’d wear those irl. Not joking. She’d def vibe w/ streetwear too, as if she’s the female version of Zack Lee.

Vasco/Euntae Lee: Vasco’s cheerful goofiness from the older chapters is something that I can relate to. Especially when I’m out with friends, I usually act like a fool whenever I’m with them. And tbh, before I even started to simp for Gun, Vasco was my comfort character LMAO. Because he was such a cute Cinnamon Roll back then, and now? What happened…? 😭 I even see Vasco as the “fun older brother” too. Man, if he was my older brother, I’d def want to ask if I can hang out with the Burn Knuckles Crew until it’s time to go home because they’re all so fun and lively!!

Daniel Park: Even though Daniel is attractive (even in those recent chapters 👀) I view him to be the “brotherly type” who'd protect anyone. That’s the type of vibe I get from Daniel. (To be honest, between Daniel and Vasco, I think they'd be the best "big brothers" ever.) Or, just a male/guy best-friend who you can always depend on and talk to whenever you want to rant/vent about something. I kin with him because I always have the urge to help out people who are having a hard time, and I usually offer to listen to friends’ issues irl because I’m aware that we all need someone to talk. If no one’s there for them, then I don’t mind being someone’s shoulder to lean on. In addition to his kind-heartedness, I relate to Daniel because of the whole “bullying” thing. Back then when I was in elementary school, there was a girl that used to bully me by poking me, flicking me, etc. And she’d even turn people against me so I wouldn’t be able to hang out with certain people (but eventually I became friends with her and we settled our differences ig). I even asked her what was the reason why she bullied me back then and she said it was because of the way that I used to look and the clothes that I wore, which made me look “dorky”. 😀 Sooooo, that’s why I kin with Daniel strongly too LMFAAAOOOO 😌✨

#THANKS AGAIN SON FOR THE ASK! 💖 #sleepyissleepy 😴 #lookism #lookismaddict #lookismaddictq&a #lookism webtoon #lookism manhwa #daniel park #zack lee #lookism vasco #johan seong #lua im #mary kim

[momo-de-avis]

"It's funny to me that he's considered One of the Greatest, you know, A Man With His Dick, an Untouchable" I feel like the venn diagram of hardcore VdG fans (ie hardcore nationalists) and hardcore misogynists is a circle. Like normal people would probably be like "oh that sucks to hear" but you know there are people that would love him more for it (an asshole to foreigners AND women?? that's my guy!!)

what grinds my fucking gears is the inability in this country to acknowledge that, before heroes, these guys were humans. They fucked up, and sometimes they sucked ass. I genuinely, wholeheartedly, don't understand why people are so afraid, so horrified, of seeing people for who they were. Vasco da Gama was important. He sailed to India for the first time. This man had 4 caravels with him, one sank, and yet he arrived in Calicut with four fucking caravels. Do you know where the fourth mysterious one came from?? His ass. This motherfucker had woodworkers on his stupid ships. They were know to build forts overnight out of nothing but their ass and their will. They would siege cities, built a fucking fort, and imagine being the king or lord who woke up to this shit and had your soldiers say "my lord, was that there yesterday?"

So he did the same with his ships. This was super common for the portuguese fleet. We really were the type of people who just built a ship out of nowhere, and Vasco da Gama had a whole fucking caravel inside a caravel, that he built somewhere along the way after his fourth caravel was burnt.

His discovery of the sea route to india revolutionised economy, because it directly challenged Venice's dominion over the land-route to Asia.

But he also hated women. He punished these women so fucking much, everyone in Goa, from the annoying Jesuits to the colonised natives, begged him not to. He punished them so much, his chronicler says he died saying the name of one of them.

He was a shitty viceroy too. He actually thought Hospitals were useless, and he forbade his men from going to the hospital. He thought hospitals were a place, and I am not shitting like how fucking dumb do you have to be, where men went to only, EXCLUSIVELY, because they got in a fight for women. He thought men who went to hospitals were weak.

He would often forbid his men from leaving his ship, leading to riots.

He also often forbade meals, just fucking fobidding meals. Starvation was pretty common on his ships.

I'm going to translate a section of a book:

In fact, Vasco da Gama's administration as viceroy was controversial. The politics he followed was of causing fear among all. He would forbid, he would destroy, he would threat. He forbade all ailing navigators from being transported to the hospital of Goa. To him, there was no necessity for hospitals, because, by existing, men made themselves sick. Gaspar Correia adds that Gama declared that he knew of a home remedy [mezinha] that healed all. [...] In truth, they left the hospital sick and immediately Gama forbade them from returning there, saying they were welcomed "for friendships". And because since Eve the origin of blame is given to women, he also forbade those injured in fights from going to the hospital, assuming those fights only happened because of the Eves of his time.

He forbade all. He forbade navigators from removing from ships what they carried to goa. He forbade meals, "for which hunger existed among the soldiers" (Cantanheda). He forbade people aboard ships from going to land. And he forced them all to go to Kochi otherwise they would be left with no wages. He forbade sailors from bringing aboard chests bigger than the size of a sword. [...] João de Barros finds these expressive words to define him: "for being a man who wouldn't forgive the sins of thought, let alone of work". He was "of a judicious condition", Castanheda writes, and, therefore, "many, to get rid of him, went to Coramandel and other parts where they would not be at the service of the king and even Moors felt such fear of him that they shuddered when they named him."

But joke's on this fucking loser, cause he actually died a horrible, painful, and pretty disgusting death:

"The old admiral [...] died in Kochi, plagued by remorse and with his body covered in furuncles and gangrenous tumours that ulcerated". In truth, Gaspar Correia witnessed how the viceroy suffered of great pains in his neck, that

I can't translate the next part cause it's riddled with old portuguese, but imagine a guy with bulbous postules and shit, pus everywhere, screaming in pain, this motherfucker who thought hospitals is for pussies, and meanwhile everyone is giving him shitty remedies that do jack shit

God writes straight sentences in crooked lines, as we say over here

The book is Heroínas Portuguesas, by Fina d'Armada btw

[tingslisbon]

#hebrew #Inquisition #Jews

[moniquill]

I’m going to talk about Greedfall. Fight me.

So recently Greedfall was on 70% off on Steam, and I bought it.

I did so fully in the knowledge that this game is a garbage fire. I knew from the moment I saw the trailers back in August 2019, and I made some posts about it:

https://moniquill.tumblr.com/post/187141616836/greedfall-comes-out-next-month-on-the-10th-get-so

https://moniquill.tumblr.com/post/187185773016/no-i-will-not-absolve-you-geek-friend

https://moniquill.tumblr.com/post/187213116466/i-think-youve-fundamentally-misunderstood-the

And reblogged people saying more and better things: 

https://moniquill.tumblr.com/post/187152585746/dalishious-untilthisdreamisgone-akedhi

A particularly large FUCK YOU to Darkfreya, who said this in the comments:

“ I will definitely buy this and hope it does well. We need more games like this. The fact that is a game about colonization does not bother me at all. Your character is neutral (and probably desperate trying search for a cure to a disease that is killing your people) Who you side with is your choice, and I seriously doubt siding with colonizers is seen as being the “good” choice.”

But there’s a valid argument to be made that you can’t REALLY criticize a game just based on trailers and synopses and lets plays and all that. You need to PLAY it, to play it all the way through and get the CONTEXT of the STORY.

So strap in chucklefucks, I did that. All spoilers, no repentance. 

 Note: I am writing this reaction on the fly as I play. I have had no spoilers except what’s in the promotional material. This isn’t so much a game review as an admonition of bullshit; I will be focusing on the main questline; the things that the game forces you to do to progress the story. I’ll also follow native-specific sidequests.

I am De Sardet, a man or woman who is the cousin of the new governor of The Congregations’ colony on Teer Fradee. I have an unexplained green birthmark on my face. My first quest item is saying goodbye to my mother, the Princess De Sardet, who has the mysterious and fatal illness that’s plaguing the land - the malichor. 

There is no mention whatsoever of my father at this time.

In Serene, I futz about doing minor sidequests, meeting my first two companions (Kurt and Vasco), and levelling up by looting boxes and murdering bandits. I get to witness the ravages of the malichor; the streets are full of dead and dying people, there're corpse wagons and bonfires, generally looks like a good time.

I meet with the two representatives of the Not!European nations that The Congregation is a neutral ally to both of. One is Theleme, the super religious spanish inquisition types who dress in Cromwell-era English and French clothing. The other is The Bridge Alliance, who are all about science and technology and seem vaguely middle east to north african flavored - they wear turbans and kaftans, their architecture has domes and minarets, etc. Each representative gives me a quest with MORAL DILEMMAS! Do I deliver the heretics to the guard for arrest, or allow them to escape? Do I do the same for the charlatan alchemist? If I listen to them, they’re all totally innocent, but letting them go is bad for my reputation with the diplomats. Except that I can lie. So yeah… this is pretty much a ‘Do you BE EVIL because you can, or do you act benevolent at absolutely no expense to yourself?’ choice.

As I’m getting on the boat to head to Teer Fradee, I am railroaded into my first boss fight! This bursts out of the side of an adjacent ship:

All I know about it is that it was brought back from Teer Fradee, and that ‘it was supposed to be out for days’ - presumably it’s drugged. It’s visibly injured. I see it take another bad hit from a falling mast in the pre-battle cutscene.

I have no choice but to kill it.

I beat it into submission (with magic, because that's what I spec’d into) and then get a cutscene where it’s helpless and desperately scrambling away from me, gazing at me with intelligent, desperate eyes.

I dispassionately shoot it in the head.

I am hailed as a hero.

Like seriously here’s the video (not mine, just pulled from youtube)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQfIHBIJiAU

We cutscene across the ocean, Vasco gets real serious with some shorebirds, and we arrive at Teer Fradee.

On the steps of the governor’s palace, I have my first encounter with a native - Siora, daughter of a chieftain, who is here to seek an audience with the governor. She speaks to me in the native tongue, presuming that I will understand. She has a facial marking similar to my own. I use my political clout to get her into the palace. When we meet my cousin the governor, he goes on and on about how similar Siora and I look; as if we could be related.

This is the first clue, in the story, that I - De Sardet - have native ancestry. There is no avenue for me to explore this at this time.

Siora wants us to be allies to her clan in their hostilities with the Bridge Alliance. I’m sent to speak with Mal Bladnid - the chieftain, her mom.

I’d like to mention at this time that the designers clearly went out of their way to NOT invoke NDN visual tropes with regards to be people of Teer Fradee - No beads, braids, and buckskins, no flute and drum music. They have an irish/celtic/norse/pagan vibe, as I read it. They have a ‘what even is that’ accent. They also wear a ton of different styles of face paint, the significance of which are never explained. 

The game at large seems to assign characters without regard to phenotype - any person of any faction may be european/black/asian in appearance. There are about a dozen faces in the entire game, endlessly recycled. It comes off as :FINGERS IN EARS, SHOUTING “WE DON’T SEE RACE!!!”:

At the first opportunity to talk to Siora back at my legate pad in New Serene, I can ask Siora if she really thought I was a Native. She says that yeah, she did, because I look like one, and she’s never seen a foreigner who’s an on ol menawi - she doesn’t tell me what that means, and I don’t have an option to ask. 

Following the main quest line and going to see Siora’s mom, I learn that she’s already taken off to fight a battle. We catch up at the tail end of the battle, hundreds of people on both sides are dead. I meet Siora’s sister, and I can talk her down from a roaring rampage of revenge. We find out that their mom’s been taken. We spend some time optionally looking for and healing survivors - you can also just let them die. Save them, and you gain a reputation boost with the natives. Then we explore the ruins, which are continental in style, and learn about the legend of super doom battle of old vs wave of colonizers the first - the native people made a pact with the land which raised guardians, and in exchange certain people become ol menawi. What this means is not explained at this time, other than it’s a pact with the land and why the native people have magic. 

At this point I diverge from the main quest to find out what happened to Siora’s mom; we go to the Bridge Alliance camp and find that she died on the way there. We have to argue/finagle/blackmail the captain of the outpost into allowing us to take her body.

Upon returning to Siora’s village, we find that her mother’s remains have been delivered, but new complication: there are missionaries from Theleme insisting that they had an agreement with queen Bladnid - the village would convert to Not!Christianity and in exchange Teleme would aid them against the Bridge Alliance. If they agree to this, they’ll have to bury Bladvid according to Theleme religious standards. Siora thinks this is bullshit, we must investigate. It is unclear how I’m supposed to pursue this. 

I return to Constantin and report on the ancient ruins where the battle took place. He tells me to go see Lady Morange, who tells me to go check out some other ruins near some mines. This continues the Ancient Mystery questline.

I proceed to San Mateus (which is also where I need to go for main questline things regarding talking to the Theleme leaders on the island) 

Entering the city for the first time thrusts me into a cutscene so fucking upsetting that I had to put the game away for a while and come back later. Upon entering the main square, I see a priest strangling a native man, while a creature not unlike the one I was forced to fight back in the first boss battle is being burned alive. The priest is demanding that the native man denounce his gods. He then strangles him to death. I am given no opportunity to intervene. Afterward, when I’m able to talk to the priest, I can declare myself as a believer or not - I can answer yes or no, or attempt charisma to weasel out of the question. If I fail charisma I have to answer yes or no. If I declare that I’m not a believer, we have a fight scene. I am not allowed to kill this man; the fight ends as soon as he’s incapacitated. He wanders off, declaring that he won’t forget this and that I’ll have to fight him again later.

THE BURNED CORPSE OF THE TREE-BEING REMAINS IN THE SAN MATEUS SQUARE FOR THE REST OF THE GAME.

In the palace I meet Petrus, after talking to the Mother Cardinal, Petrus becomes one of my companions. The Mother Cardinal asks me to investigate a native village that she believes is worshipping a demon. Yeah sure I’ll get right on that.

I proceed to Hikmet to talk about their science team’s work on the Malichor, and learn that the natives are very antagonistic toward their people. A soldier interrupts the conversation to tell us that an outpost has been routed in a native attack. I’m asked to assemble a team to investigate a science party that’s gone missing.

I return to Constantin to tell him about meeting the governors; he tells me to proceed with all the questlines I’ve opened and whines about how his parents never loved him. Worth noting at this time that Constantin appears not at all well. He’s pale and has dark circles under his eyes. He claims to be fine, just nauseated.

My main questline threads are now:

An Ancient Mystery

Scholars in the Expedition

Demonicial Cult

I choose to follow the cult one first, because Native involvement.

I proceed to Tir Dob, and meet with the investigators. The leader is frustrated because the natives don’t want to talk to her, and she’s convinced that there’s deep evil afoot. When I talk to the villagers, they dismiss me and tell me it’s not my business. Which, I mean, fair!

Notably, one woman asks about my mark/status an on ol manawi. When I say I’m not bound to anything/I didn’t do anything to bind myself, she tells me that one of my parents must have been a doneigad. I have no opportunity to pursue this.

There is no story-continuing option for me to leave it, or to pursue a path of gaining the villagers’ trust. I am required, by the game’s narrative, to spy on a villager. I break into his house and look at his things; I comment on how terrifying his fresco is and how morbid his altar and how horrible his mask. Siora points out that the mask is just worn to intimidate enemies in battle. It’s identical to the warthog spirit mask I can buy at any number of native merchants and wear. Petrus says that there’s obviously demon worship going on.

I tell sister Ephesia, and she sends me to follow the villager on his journey into a secret place in the forest. He disappears into a sacred grotto. I commune with a tree and experience a narrative, then have to solve a very obvious puzzle to enter the grotto - to invade a sacred place that I am obviously not welcome in. There is no option to refuse to do this that forwards the story. In the grotto I witness a ceremony that’s presented, through cinematography and music, to be SO TERRIFYING AND OBVIOUSLY EVIL because there’s… a small amount of bloodletting? A glowing tree spirit speaks at the end of the ritual and all participants triumphantly shout.

Siora, if in the party, says that the rituals of her tribe aren’t so scary, cementing that the game feels that this ritual is intrinsically horrifying in some way.

We go to ask the chief of the village about what we spied on, and she explains that it’s a ritual to evoke the strength of warriors and invoke a blessing against the Theleme investigators. She tells us that the voice we heard one one of the many faces of nature, and that if we proceed to another location and perform a ritual, we may hear from another face of nature - but that we might not be happy with the results.

We proceed to Vedvilvie, where we meet Aged Hermit. He tells us that a detachment of Bridge Alliance soldiers was here a long time ago, and gives us information about where to find their camp. We explore the swamp, looking at assorted corpses and ruined tents and ancient frescoes, then talk to Aged Hermit again, who tells us about a ritual to summon the earth. 

We perform the ritual, and are thrust into a boss battle with Nadaig Vedemen. There is literally no choice but to kill her. The Aged Hermit rebukes us for having done so, calling us murderers and monsters. Gotta say, I absolutely agree with him. Siora tells him to calm down, that we were only defending ourselves. She explains to me that he knew her before she became a Nadaig - that Nadaig are Doneigada who’ve called upon the power of the island to the point of physical transformation. That it will happen to her and to me, eventually. That’s what on ol menawi and the mark means.

There is no opportunity for me, as a player, to avoid killing the Nadaig.

We return to Tir Dob and confront Derdre about sending us into a death trap; she had hoped the Nadaig would kill us. We now know secrets that no one outside the clan has ever known. She asks us not to tell. 

I proceed to the Bridge Alliance Scholars’ camp and find they’ve been captured by locals, who want to trade them for prisoners that the Alliance has previously taken. We run into some locals who give us important information about where the prisoners are being held, because they feel it would be better if the prisoners were gone. We meet Aphra, who joins the party and leads us to where prisoners are being held. Two options here - guns blazing bloodbath, or ghost sneak mission where we bust the prisoners out undetected and harm no one. I choose the ghost option. Regardless, upon bringing the rescued scholars back to camp I’m confronted by three natives who I have to fight with. Once defeated, I have the option to either spare their lives or finish them off. Only Siora argues that I should let them live. I do.

We return to Hikmet and talk to the governor. This opens the Search for Panacea questline. Aphra is now a permanent possible companion. 

Aphra’s personal quest: More required spying on the natives. Siora greatly disapproves. I have no option to shut this shit down, to tell her ‘No, we are not doing that.’ We spy on the elders, who are having a meditative session where they listen to the voice of en on mil frichtimen. They catch us spying and call us down, chastise us, and then invite us to watch the rest. Aphra makes comments about how ‘it’s almost like they really can hear a voice on the wind; must be delusion-level faith!’ She then says she has to mull this over and to talk about it later.

We proceed to the ruins that Lady Morange mentioned; two of the three required fetch items are in the general vicinity of a Nadaig. It is possible, through sneaking, to reach them without having to fight the Nadaig, so I do that. We find that the people who built the ruins were…. DUN DUN DUN…. From the congregation! We used to be EVIL! Like we’re totally not now!

We report to Constantin, who is looking even more sickly. He tells us to investigate this history with the Nauts and laments more about his daddy issues. He also says that I look too much like a native for it to be a coincidence which, at this point, fucking DUH. This opens the The Prince’s Secret questline. 

Meanwhile, on the quest for panacea, I head back to the village where I freed the Alliance prisoners to talk to the chief. There’s several dialog options, since I didn’t go bloodbath when rescuing the prisoners, but there’s also a spying option. One way or another, I gain the information that I need to go to the village of Vigshadir in Frasoneigad to find the Tierna harch cadachtas. Siora knows how to get there.

Upon arriving, I’m told that this is one of the holiest sites on the island and I’m not welcome. Alas, I can’t continue the story while respecting that answer - I can insist forcefully or I can gain the villagers’ trust with a couple of fetch quests. Either way, I end up learning where the Tierna harch cadachtas can be found. I disturb her taking a nap with some salamanders. She’s not at all happy to see me, even when Siora speaks on my behalf. She sicks her salamanders on me and takes off; I have to kill them. I then follow her up a path to a root door that requires an offering to unlock. Siora suggests that it’s a seed; we go back to the village and talk her bodyguard into letting us into her house to poke around. I should mention that there’s a bunch of lootable stuff in her house, and the game doesn’t punish me in any way for taking it. I find the correct seed and we proceed through the root door to a maze that Siora says is SUPER SACRED. Nevertheless, I’m forced to kill a bunch of animals on my way through. I tried sneaking several times; due to bottlenecking, the animals always become hostile.  Toward the end of the path, we also come upon an instantly hostile native man, who I am also forced to kill. 

We come out on the other side of the maze in Credgwen, just in time to witness the tierna running from and being gunned down by an Alliance solider. Cradling a bullet wound to her abdomen, the soldier is poised to execute her with a pisol shot to the head when Nadaig Fresamen appears and throws him ass over head. The Tierna then tells Nadaig Fresamen to attack us, and I’m once again in a mandatory boss battle where I am forced by the narrative to kill a Nadaig. Once again it ends in a cutscene where I shoot the Nadaig in the head. I think maybe the game designers think this looks badass, instead of coldly sociopathic? The Tierna is visibly distraught, screaming and crying at what we’ve done. She’s about to attack us when she’s shot in the back by the Alliance Soldier, who then says a bunch of Evily McEvil things, then tries to fight us. Upon besting him, I get to either kill or spare him. 

I kill the shit out of him. 

We bring the very very wounded tierna back to her village, where she wakes up and tries to kill me (Siora calling her off). She explains that the panacea she made is to treat islanders who’ve escaped captivity from the Alliance; those who are captured are gruesomely tortured in the name of science.  She suggests that the malichor might be a curse from En on mil frichtimen. 

We take this news to Constantin. It is now super duper obvious that he is very sick.

Siora tells us who we need to talk to about En on mil frichtimen, Constantin tells us to do that. 

I’m level 16 now.

I hop back to the other main questline, grabbing Petrus and Vasco to go to San Matheus and investigate the Nauts’ problems there. Go to talk to Bishop Domitius but am pulled into a cutscene where Mother Cornelia asks me to get back some sacred tablets that she thinks were stolen by island natives. Yeah, lady, I’ll get right on that. I talk to Bishop Domitius, who accuses the Nauts of being the origin of the malichor. I go to the docs to investigate the rumors. Long story short, the Nauts are fine and I shut down the Inquisition’s investigation of them. When I get back to my residence, there’s a letter asking me to come see some natives at the embassy. Because Native rep[resentation and Native storylines are pretty much all I care about in this game, I pause everything else to pursue that, bringing Siora and Petrus.

I meet with them in the woods, where they’re camped out with the body of an inquisitor they killed. Petrus greatly disapproves. We get some keys and a letter from them, learn that there’s a camp that Native captives are being brought to, and go to investigate the inquisitor’s house for more details. We rummage through his house, find another letter detailing the camp and a chest in the order headquarters. We also find a key to said chest. On our way out, we’re confronted by a bunch of ordo luminus thugs. I have the option to get Petus to talk them down, so I do.

We go back to the place where the natives are holed up and find we’ve been followed by inquisitors. Talk talk fight; we kill them. The natives thank us and say they’ll report this to queen Derdre. I’m now level 17.

I head back to Admiral Cabral to tell her about shutting down the Naut investigation. She tells me that the Nauts discovered the island 200 years ago, the congregation tried to colonize, a few bad apple lords got all tyrannical, and both the natives and thier own workers rebelled against them. The colony was destroyed and only a few survivors made it out. The princes of the congregation swept it all under the rug in humiliation. Then she drops the bomb that I’ve been waiting for the whole game: I am the product of a later Congregation expedition. I’m the child of a Native and was born on a Naut ship. So yeah, I’ve been playing as a stolen child divorced from my native culture this whole time. I’m just gonna leave this link here:

https://www.vox.com/2019/10/14/20913408/us-stole-thousands-of-native-american-children

I immediately go to demand answers from Constantin.

This is a major act shift; things I find out in the next string of cutscenes:

Constantin has the malichor and is totally dying.

Kurt comes in to warn us about a coup d’etat that’s in the works - the coin guard plants to take out all three governors and seize control of the island. Apparently if you haven’t followed his personal questline about abuse within the coin guard ranks, he betrays you at this time. I’ve been doing the companion quests all along but not commenting on ones that don’t involve natives. 

After putting down the coup d’etat, I go back to Constantin to rally. We’re now in Act Two, and my main quests are as follows:

The Suffering of Constantin, where I have three leads - San Matheus, Hikmet, and Native.

The Trial of the Waters, where I need to go speak to Glendan.

So I head to Wenshaveye to talk to the healer there. The village is having problems with missionaries and with abruptly and violently aggressive tenlens - animals that are usually docile. The aggressive tenlen attacks started right about the same time the missionaries showed up. Hmm.

There’s an interlude here where I come upon a bunch of merchants fighting a Nadaig and for a brilliant moment I thought I could kill the merchants and save the Nadaig but no. It’s instantly hostile to me and I have to kill it. The killing of Nadaig in this game is treated as a neutral action, like killing wild animals. 

So yeah turns out the missionaries brought a vicious white tenlen, holed it up in a cave, it was riling up the others, it killed two village kids who went into the woods to canoodle. I shut all that down, kicked the missionaries out, and was able to bring the healer to Constantin. Plot thread resolved! Let’s go see Glendan.

I can’t get in to see the council without having a seal proving that I’m the chosen representative of a current council member. Fetch quest time - literally I just have to go back and talk to Cadasach, the healer, and he hands me the seal I need. I presume it’s more involved if I’d chosen one of the other healing paths. 

I talk to Glendan, he tells me I need to complete the trial of the waters, a new questline opens. Also, the next part of Siora’s questline - promises set in stone - opens. I drop everything and follow that because I’m kind of in love with Siora.

We head to her village and talk to the missionaries, they send us to go see the stone that the agreement was engraved on, we get there and fight a bunch of enemies, the stone is destroyed and we can’t read it. Time to go see the engraver, Caradeg. We get to his house to find it absolutely destroyed. The only clue is a stone bearing the mark of the Dunncas’ clan. So we head to Vigyigidaw. Dunncas tells us that they exiled Caradeg because he wanted to make war on the settlers. Have fun, bootlicker. On my way out of the village I’m snagged by a guy with a side quest; he wants me to get some settlers to stop preventing the clan from going into a sacred glade to replant trees that the settler clear cut. See sidequests for details on that.

Before doing Trial of the Waters, I decide to go check up on Eden and Father Iustinius, bringing Siora and Petrus.

Stolen tablets, lots of talk about how primitive and naive the natives are and how those who aren’t converted are obviously worshiping demons and that’s who must have stolen the tablets.

Siora comments that this place is horrifying, and wonders how the people could have tolerated the priests building continental-style buildings over the top of their village.

We go to talk to the theologians, then to Ler. Because I’m not awesome at Charisma, I’m left with no option except to threaten and bully my way into him giving me the name of an old woman, mother of one of the warriors who left the village. I lose re with both the natives at large and Siora personally. The old woman tells us where to find the exiles, and gives us hints on how to avoid traps and sneak in unseen. She implores us not to hurt her son.

We head for the exiles’ camp. I choose the option where I sneak in and don’t murder everyone, and the old woman meets us as we’re leaving and thanks us for that, saying she’s going to try and talk her son into finding a new clan. We head back to Eden.

They thank us for the tablets, are excited to set out a new expedition, the game tells me to wait 24 hours for the results. So I have to hike my ass to out camp, sleep 24 hours, and haul back to where I just was to find out that a party that went into the swamp ran afoul of…. something.

Siora points out that the survivor was obviously bitten by a poisonous swamp creature and that a local healer probably knows the remedy. We go talk to Ler again.

Ler tells us that the village doneigad is one of the exiles, but that the old woman we talked to earlier knows plants well. I’m pretty sure that if we’d murdered her son to death in the previous quest, she’d refuse to help us. Because we didn’t, she makes us a potion. The wounded guy wakes up and begs us to go and rescue his dumbass loser friends, so of course I do. 

We’re going back to Vedvilvie, because of course we are.

We arrive at the camp, listen to both the ordo luminous guy and the research sister whine about how the other is mean/incompetant, and go to investigate the dig sites. We find a dude with a caved in skull who was clearly struck from behind with a mace, a guy who was killed to death by lewolans (big lizards), and a poor chump was was obviously stabbed to death before being fed to lewolans. Siora says it’s pretty clear that Mr Inquisition orchestrated this to frame the research lady. I agree. We go to confront him. Choices: Take a bribe and side with him, tell him to leave the expedition, expose his bullshit to everyone.

The ‘correct’ choice in the game is not to reveal his crimes before everyone, but to banish him. Because [Centrist.jpeg goes here]

We follow the path of San Matheus, come up against a nadaig magamen, murder it to death, and enter a cavern. Long story short, Saint Mat totally became a doneigad. He saw on en mil frichtimen as an extension of the concept of light and prayed to him. Also I found a bitchin’ set of holy armor. I put it on Petrus. 

Theleme’s gonna be big mad. We head back to Eugenia to tell her, are confronted by Virgil and the Inquisition. He wants to destroy the relics and evidence that Sait Mat converted to the faith of the island, we kill him to death and go tattle to Mommy Cardinal. I push her to make the decision to reveal the truth to the masses, and to visit the cave herself. 

Theleme is not, in fact, big mad.

Anyway, returning to the main questline.

So there’s two options through the cave of testing, bloodbath or sneak. I chose sneak. Touch a basin, have a vision, solve a very easy puzzle - just like the tree one from earlier. 

There’s a Nadiag waiting, and the command prompt I have for it after solving the puzzle is ‘Tame’... yanno, like one does with an animal. Because indigenous people are fauna. Fucking gross.

I see a fresco depicting a spirit of the volcano. I go to talk to Glendan. He sends me to find the high king, who is missing. I need to see the rest of the high council: Derdre, Dunncas, Ullan. Guess it’s time to finally deal with the Ullan plotline. See side quests for details.

When I head back to Hikmet, I get a whole string of cutscenes because it’s been a while since I’ve been there - including one where I follow up with the islander rebellion. The governor asks me to parlay with the leaders of the rebellion, where I find out that the on ol menawi who the alliance have been kidnapping from villages have been taken to laboratories for experiments - where they have been tortured and killed. This lines up with all earlier accusations, and with that Hikmet dude who was trying to murder the tierna and me - he said they were going to dissect her. So yeah. I go to thier main camp, and fucking surprise, I was followed by Alliance soldiers who promptly stark attacking. I have two choices: fight alongside the natives or put an end to the rebellion. I, of course, fight on Team Native. I then proceed back to Hikmet to ask What The Entire Fuck, Sir? He denies knowing anything about natives being captured; he assures me that this lab is a medical research center. I declare that I”m gonna take a look at it myself.

 I grab Aphra for this, and in the process agree to continue her personal questline. We ask the young apprentices about how to get into the Cave of Knowledge, which, I cannot state enough, IS A SACRED PLACE CLOSED TO OUTSIDERS. Only people who are becoming doneigad are supposed to go there. The narrative makes me. This happening, over and over, gives lie to the premise that the game allows you to make good or evil moral choices - that you can DECIDE to be a good guy or a bad guy. You can’t. You can either choose to violate the sacred spaces of the indigenous people or -not play this game-. There is no ‘Sit Aphra down and tell her that it is implicitly wrong to do this’ option. 

So we go to the cave, it has a seed gate, we find some brigands who’ve murdered a native, they’re planning to dynamite thier way into the cave, we can talk them inot leaving or murder them to death, guess which one I chose just guess. We get the seed and enter the cave.

In the cave, we examine several frescoes; one depicts a ritual where, in a circle, someone is pouring blood on a stone in the presence of a Nadaig. Another depicts the same figure, but now marked as an on ol menawi. We then hear people coming and are prompted to hide, because being caught here would sure lose us the trust of the natives. Which we do not deserve at all, after this. The game prompts me to spy on the young people, which I do, listening in on thier conversation. When we leave the cave, Aphra says that clearly we need to spy on a whole, actual ritual. The game teases me with ‘accept’ or ‘refuse’, but the choice are actually ‘start the time now, or later’ - the story doesn’t allow me to ACTUALLY refuse. We show up, and Dunncas actually gives us permission to watch if we don’t interfere.

After the ritual, Alliance soldiers show up. We kill them to death. The chiefs thanks us for having been there. Aphra says we should look into Dr. Asili. So off to the lab we go.

I’m pretty sure, narratively, that I’m supposed to have stealthed my way through this. However, after seeing a pit of burning bodies and people in cages right as I entered, I just bloodbathed my way through. Also arrested the apprentices and killed the fuck out of Asili. Fun fact: Asili gave Constantin the malichor! Also me, but I’m resistant, since native and on ol menawi. 

I return to talk to Constantin about the sanctuary and the Hikmet problem and everything and find that he’s gone on a journey with the doneigad healer and things have gone wrong. I set out after him. I follow combat signs and talk to Aiden in wenshaveye, then head to the alliance outpost. We catch up with a badly wounded and unconscious survivor, get him a potion, and then have to wait 24 hours. This is a repeated feature of the game an annoying as hell, because the only way to wait is to return to camp. When he’s awake he describes the attack; animals controlled by some kind of native sorcerer and fire and explosions. A native grabbed Constantin and ran off with him. We continue the investigation - I go to talk to Daren. Daren says that they weren’t behind the attack - no one would ever attack Catasach. Catasach is, btw, super dead. I examine the body. He was killed by something than can wield magma. Good times. Daren tells us there’s a ritual by which a doneigad can see the last moments of his life - only tierna can perform it. Good thing we saved her earlier…. From danger that we put her in….

So we head off to see tierna, and she readily agrees because I avenged her earlier. Pretty sure it would have taken more convincing if I’d let the dude who shot her live. One fetch quest to get spell components later, we’re able to perform the ritual. 

Vinbarr did it.

I go to question Derdre, Ullan, or Duncas. The latter two have the best opinion of me, so I hit up Dunncas first. Dunncas tells me to go to Wennshavar. Folks there give me some backstory, tell me to find Cera at the cave of knowledge. 

We come upon alliance folks torturing a native woman, presumably Cera. This bitch has a whole ass villian speech. I’m pretty sure she’s one of the people I saved with Aphra’s science team? Could just be a recycled face though. We run down to interrupt. Aphra wants to reason with her, Siora wants to kill her. Yep, it’s the science team I saved. I have several options here; fight them, use intuition to remind them I saved them, threaten them, or let Aphra speak. I choose to let Aphra speak more because I want to hear what she says than anything.

Aphra shames her and reminds her that they left Asili together because of his cruelty. She whines that Aphra knows she’s not REALLY like that, and stomps off like an angry toddler. No fight. Cera thanks us for saving her, leads us to the cave, and opens it for us.

Inside the cave we find a fresh new fresco; it shows Vinbarr going to talk to the spirit of the mountain. He’s gone to join En on mil frichtimen. We see another fresco depicting a nadaig meneimen - the bird/mountain form. Vinnbar’s gonna turn into one. We look at some other murals, I let slip that I’m looking for Constantin, Cera peaces out and seals us in the cave because she thinks we’re looking for Vinnbar on a vengeance quest. We find another way out. The path is now laden with traps because she doesn’t want to be followed. Sorry, Cera, that no one informed you that I am a protagonist and thus no one can prevail against me. 

We go to the mountain passage depicted in the fresco, go through a cave maze, and find the mountain trail to the sanctuary. We meet up with Cera, who forces us to fight her. We snag a seed from her body after killing her and her folks to death. Which the game offered no way out of doing. Now we have both seeds and can open the sanctuary. We scamper through some scenic vista and arrive to find Vinnbar burying Constantin with rocks using telekinesis. He says the on en mil frichtimen told him constantine is the bringer of doomtimes. Now we have to have a boss fight. Partway through, he transforms into a nadaig. We continue fighting andf kill him to death. 

I sure do murder a lot of nadaig in this game.

We return Constantin to New Serene and I’m pretty sure this is the break into act 3… Catasach made Constantin on ol menawi and he is stoked about it. He has branch antlers and pointy teeth and yellow eyes and feels great. I am concerned. 

Time to go talk to Glendan again. 

I lose three rep with the natives over, yanno, having murdered their high king to death. I now have to go and talk to the three potential high kings and gain the support of one of them - Derdre, Dunncas, or Ullan. Of those three, Dunncas is the only one who hasn’t tried to murder me or betrayed my trust so… off to Dunncas. His agenda is balance and healing. He easily agrees to let me see en on mil frichtimen if he’s chosen, and tells me how to make sure that he is - if I get a spectacular ancient crown from the grave of the high king that became the first guardian. He expresses distaste for using such a method. Siora is also worried about me making a decision that will impact all of her people. Gotta say that I agree, I have absolutely no place being involved in this decision at all - let’s see if the narrative lets me opt out of meddling! I go to see the other two candidates and hear out their agendas, out of fairness. 

Ullan’s agenda is peace and alliance with the colonizers. He also readily agrees to help me.

Derdre wants to repel the colonists and take back the island. She says she’ll let me see en on mil frichtimen only if I rally Eseld/Siora’s tribe and join in the attack on the Ordo Luminous camp. Which, morally, I am absolutely all for. However, it seems like the game is heavily leaning on Dunncas as ‘the right choice’.

But yeah, fuck it, I’m backing Derdre all day long. Lets fuck up some Spanish Inquisition!

I have the option to inform the mother cardinal of the coming attack. Why the entire fuck would I do that?

So I destroy the fuck out of the camp and murder a bunch of inquiition torturers and free the surviving prisoners and gather evidence of war crimes. Then I go to mommy cardinal, who is big mad (Theleme -2 rep) that I didn’t tell her first. Boo. Fucking. Hoo. 

Having done that, no there is no way to proceed in the questline without retrieving the crown, which involved murdering a Nadaig Magamen. I get the crown, and Derdre meets me there and rebukes me for entering a sacred place, trying to take the crown and throw the election, as an outsider. She is 100% correct. I give her the crown. 

I wait two days and then go see en on mil frichtimen, who tells me that the malichor is the result of how the continental people treat their land. I’d like to pause here and talk about the role of Magical Natives in Green Aesop stories. Let’s review some tropes: 

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CloserToEarth

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InHarmonyWithNature

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicalNativeAmerican

This some some colors of the wind / Avatar’s blue cat people bullshit, the idea that indigenous people are implicitly and intrinsically more -one with the earth- and that ‘modern civilization’ has lost this, to their detriment, and can only heal through <s>cultural appropriation</s> learning and adopting deep earthy truths known by indigenous people. The point of this in the story is to tell a Green Aesop - https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GreenAesop - it sets a paradeigm of indigenous people being the noblest of noble savages - https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NobleSavage - of indigenous people as a simpler, greener form of humanity. It’s othering. I’ve written a lot about this in the past, check out my post about woo: https://moniquill.tumblr.com/post/32577796262/the-following-is-a-post-about-woo

This particular brand of othering of indigenous people directly and personally fucked me up, as an indigenous person, when I was a kid. That could be why I have a personal grudge against it. 

Moving along. 

en on mil frichtimen alo tells me that Constantin is the bringer of doom times, and that Catasach essentially stole power from the island to keep him alive. I need to put a stop to his endless bitter hateful hunger. So yeah, that’s a thing. I go check up on my dear cousin.

When I show up, emissaries from the alliance and theleme are there begging Constantin for troops and also me; they’re suffering horrible attacks on their outposts and people. They’re blaming the natives. I mean, to be fair I did just crown queen Derdre Kill ‘Em All so….just saying. But moving on, I talk to Constantin about the sanctuary. He...doesn’t react well to the warnings about himself. When I ask him about his body with the island, it sure does seem like he got high on apotheosis and wants another hit. He doesn’t believe that the malichor on the continent is the fault of the continentals. 

My main quest lines are now

The attack on San Matheus

The attack on Hikmet 

And honestly fuck both those places because both of them were running torture camps but whatever, I guess I’m off to investigate.

Mommy Cardinal over in San Mateus wants me to hit up an outpost that’s being attacked relentlessly by wild animals. Speculation is that ‘island demons’ are controlling them.

Governor Burhan says the same thing’s happening to his folks. 

Upon checking it out, the islanders are also being attacked; the animals are attacking indiscriminately, and while having that conversation a guy bursts in to say the guardian of the village (a nadaig glendemen) has turned on his people.  So we kill it to death in a boss fight and it’s revealed that the corrupted nadaig was causing the animals to be killrabid. Now that it’s dead, the animals are back to normal. 

Samesies over near San Matheus. 

A human must be responsible, the creatures wouldn’t be so coordinated otherwise.

Is it my cousin? I bet it’s my cousin. 

We go talk to Constantin.

He says ‘ha ha ha nothing to worry about….peace out, my adorable cousin!’ and takes off to parts unknown. I shake down his guards, but all they can tell me is that he’s going north outside the city. I rummage through his papers, and find his journal. Yeeeeah he’s super high on apotheosis and wants to become a god. Like, supplant and replace on en mil frichtimen. And he’s off to ‘get rid of’ some natives in Cwenvar who saw him the other night and might denounce his actions. I’m gonna have to take out my cousin by the end of this game and it will be a tearjerker cutscene. Calling it now. 

We head to Cwenvar to talk to the natives. They show me how to spy on Constantin. We follow him to a sacred grove, where he’s clearly gone cuckoo bananas. He’s commanding a corrupted nadaig, which he tells to hold us back - but not kill me. SO we kill the nadaig, and then have a chat with on en mil frichtamen, who confirms that Constantin is trying to gain godhood by murdering god and taking his power. Yanno, as one does. In a cutscene, I list all the people who will totally help me against Constantin. This includes… pretty much everyone, because I’ve diplomatted my way through the game and everyone likes me. Time to go rally armies. 

It’s worth noting at this time that on en mil frichtamen calls me ‘flesh of my earth’ and earliet called me ‘the child that was stolen’ - there’s a very ‘YOU ARE THE CHOSEN ONE’ vibe here, implying that I’m only able to succeed at this task because I’m native by blood - I’m not REALLY a continental and thus a Tainted Person made of Endless Greed. It is my native-ness and my bond to on en mil frichtamen, passed down from my donegiad parent, that allows me to be the hero of this game. 

I want you, dear reader, to stop and think about the gross racial implications of that.

Moving forward: We go to ask Dunncas for help in how to break Constantin’s links to the land. He gives me seeds to place at the base of the stone Constantin has erected, to topple them. I have to fight a corrupted Nadaig each time. At this interval Siora points out how wise and attuned to en on mil frichtimen Dunncas is, and I express regret at not choosing him to be high king. TOO SUBTLE, GAME.

So yeah, couple of tedious boss fights. 

Having broken his links and gathered my allies, it’s time for the endgame. We go back to the sacred grove where I talked to en on mil frichtimen, I get a series of heartwarming cutscenes with my companions and allies as I ascend to Constantine’s heart stronghold. 

I reach Constantin. I have to fight a big bad ultra nadaig, which Constantin tells not to kill me. 

He has a long cutscene in which he pleads his case, asking me to bond with him and rule together. I can either bond with him and join him in godhood, which is implied to doom all of humanity to eventually succumb to the malichor because no land can ever be healed now, or I can kill him and save the world like a big damned hero. 

Then Mr. deCourcillion narrates the epilogue, where I get to hear about the consequences of all my decisions through the game. My decision to crown Derdre results in forcible decolonization of the island and healing thereof, but the old world nations are plunged into war and the malichor gets worse there. Am I supposed to feel bad? I don’t! 

In the ‘best’ ending, Magical Native Healers travel to the continent and teach the sad tained continentals how to live in harmony with nature and heal their lands. 

Here, have an every possible ending video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcUByGfNXgY

Know what weirds me out as an actual indigenous person? Learning that I’m a stolen child way back in Act 1 never resulted in a quest where I in any way question or explore my real ancestry. I never try to find out what clan my real mother was from or if I have any living relatives. I never look into why the Congregation abducted my mother and why I was raised by Princess De Sardet. The game just feels that this is unimportant. The important thing was that I have Magical Native Blood. 

So yeah. That’s the game.

In studying the fandom presence of this game, roughly no one is interrogating the fuckedness of the premise or narrative. The active fandom seems to be mostly people who want to bang Vasco, people who think Constantin is a sad wooby who deserved better (including a lot of people who chose the ‘bad’ ending because they wub himb) and people who want to bang Constantin and justify it because he and De Sardet aren’t REALLY cousins… and people who are just here for The Aesthetic. Fun fact there are exactly 12 F/F fics on a03 set in this universe.

Here, have some examples, all from https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/GREEDFALL and https://archiveofourown.org/tags/GreedFall%20(Video%20Game)/works

https://destiny-rahl.tumblr.com/post/616743783790460928/constantin-de-sardet-my-beloved-otp-this

https://swiveldiscourse.tumblr.com/post/615782041344147456/not-sure-who-needs-to-hear-this-but-this-game

https://totallyamoral.tumblr.com/post/615651870535532545

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20766497/chapters/49345631

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20676554/chapters/49106921

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20747450

Lots of people compared this game to Dragon Age: Inquisition when it first came out because the gameplay looks similar. But here’s the thing… the first time I finished DA:I, I immediately wanted to turn around and play it again, as a different character, as someone who made different decisions and followed a different romance and brought different companions with me on quests to see their different reactions. 

I do not want that with Greedfall.

My first thought upon fisnishing was ‘Oh thank fuck, I’ve seen this to fruition, I don’t have to play this anymore.’

That is not how I should feel at the end of a game.

I feel tired and broken and hurt and used, much like I felt after reading Sister Raven.

https://moniquill.tumblr.com/post/165881710831/so-today-i-read-a-book-called-sister-raven

 Native-specific sidequests of note: 

In An Aspiring Merchant, you meet a native merchant in New Serene who’s trying to set up shop; because he doesn’t have the correct paperwork and didn’t follow the bureaucratic process, his stuff keeps getting confiscated. I do not have any opportunity to explore why his lack of paperwork gets his stuff repeatedly confiscated, rather than just getting him sent home.

While I’m getting the paperwork for him, his cousin arrives with a shipment of goods. The guards confiscate the goods again, and arrest the cousin. I go to investigate, and find that cousin threw some punches when the guards once again confiscated all of the goods, and was arrested for disorderly conduct. Ok. So I proceed to the jail and find that he has been sent to fight -to the death- in the arena?! When the prison guard says ‘Hey, it wasn’t me, I was just following orders’ I’m not given an opportunity to ask who’s giving the orders or pursue the miscarriage of justice. I head to the Arena. Despite being a Legate, one of the highest governing offices of the colony, I have no option to put a stop to these shenanigans. I can’t just spring him, or pay bail; I am required to fight beside him to secure his freedom. 

Completing this quest opens the Ullan/Vignamri questline.

Ullan wants to trade with Hikmet, Hikmet wants us to secure the roads, we visit another chieftain, he agrees to a meeting, Ullan shows up and shanks him, I shout at Ullan about how that was bad to do, Ullan thanks me for giving him the opportunity. 

In Logging Expedition, I follow up on the quest hook about settlers clear cutting a glade that I got in vigyigidaw. Standoff between the natives and the settlers, natives want to plant trees, settlers won’t let them. Three settler woodcutters died recently - after investigation there was a conspiracy to poison them by an elder in vigyigidaw - my character refers to this as an act of vengeance by a hateful old man. Despite having literally just had it explained to us that it was supposed to be an object lesson in why not to clearcut the forest - the meat would have been fine if it had been prepared with a particular (possibly now extinct?) berry.

So we pop all the way down to the congregation colony to ask Mr. Courcillon how to diplomacy this ‘property disagreement’. He tells us to go to the basement archives and then see Lady Morange. Just from a gameplay perspective, this - like many sidequests - is fucking tedious. Just running from one place to another, grabbing a few lines of dialog in each place, with no player decision or engagement. This is a poorly designed game. So we hash out the contract, which was created back where neither side had any understanding of the other side’s ideas of what land ownership means. Manhattan was bought for 60 guilders worth of glass beads, etc etc.  https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/12657/was-manhattan-really-bought-24

We have to prosecute the old man for murder if we want a new land deal signed. To prosecute the old man, we have to go stop a mining operation. It’s just one thing after another, and all of it boring and tedious. I had to stop in the middle of this questline and put the game down not because it was upsetting, but because it was -boring-. I hope that the readers appreciate the work I’m putting into making a detailed critique of this garbage fire.

#Greedfall #NDN stuff #Indigenously Angry #Clusterfuck #NDN #Colonialism: The Game

[pro-exotics]

I’m getting another parrot home today - a bit nervous and wondering what the heck I’m doing

Last week, at work, one of our house owners called me. We have gotten on quite good terms with our “landlords” due to helping them out a lot, so I didn’t think this call was strange. “Another project”, I thought.

But no, he said their next door neighbor (they own many houses and live in a different city) just died, an old lady, and she had a parrot that now needs a home.

Since he knew that we have pretty extensive experience with parrots, he let the family know that he would speak to me. They had talked with others, including a man in our area who was really enthusiastic about the idea, said he could have the parrot in his workshop - who doesn’t want a talking parrot in their workshop, right? But when he was informed of how much work, noise and mess they are, he cooled. Other than this, some friends of the family said they “might be able to consider taking him”.

I didn’t even know what species it was. I asked, roughly, what size and color is it? But I couldn’t get an answer, instead he offered to send some pictures.

I thought it was probably 50+% that it would be either a grey or a BFA. If it’s an Amazon, I’m not interested. I just never pictured owning Amazons. If it’s a macaw or cockatoo, I’ll have to decline - we’re just not in that position right now, and I’ll never* keep cockatoos as indoor pets again. Had it been a mini macaw, eclectus or pionus (very unlikely, as they’re so rare), I would probably say yes, and if it would be a grey, I would be very sad to say no. *Except in the case of some very special bird, but I mean I won’t get a cockatoo again without proper outdoor accommodations.

I spoke with my husband for a couple of days, and he was at first very hesitant, but when we spoke further, and we found out it was a grey (being sent the pictures above ^), he was very positive. So we called our house owner back and said yes, we can take him, and were told the family will decide after the funeral, on tuesday.

I waited a few days, then texted one of the house owners again just as I got on the bus yesterday, and she said that yes, she just found out the night before, we’re getting him, and her husband is taking him up tomorrow! (Unless we changed our minds?)

I’m nervous, my husband is excited. This is the first pet we’re getting together, after five years together, we couldn’t before because we’ve been moving around so much. (We also have a ten year old dog and 17 year old Meyer’s parrot, but they were of course mine before we met.)

And I’m nervous if things don’t work out. It’s a huge responsibility to take on an old parrot whose owners died - even more than just buying or rescuing a parrot in general, I think. And I’m a previously failed owner of both a cockatoo and macaw, when I was around 20. That’s nearly ten years ago, I’m not the same person or remotely in the same position today, but still, my confidence is not the same as back then.

All I know of him is that his name is Vasco, he is at least 15-20 years old, and he looks overpreened (or perhaps the feathers look ugly because of lack of showers?) but is not plucked. He was bought by the husband of the couple, and that man died “probably 15 years ago”, and now the wife died two weeks ago.

He mimicks both of their voices perfectly, I’m told, and he speaks both English and Norwegian. Our house owner also sent a video of him where she was trying to get him to talk, and he said a hesitant “Hello” twice, but looked pretty nervous around the camera.

They also said that years ago, the parrot would be out on the neighbor’s balcony a lot, but in the last few years, he’s been pretty much only in his cage. I have asked to get as much information as possible on his history.

Last year, I was talking with my husband about parrots and I said, in a hypothetical scenario where we could only have one parrot for life (not gonna happen, it’s hypothetical!), I would have “...a grey”, he finished before me. Yes. I like macaws more, and have a complicated relationship with cockatoos, but macaws are so big, I’ll only have them when we have a permanent home with an outdoor aviary.

The point is, we agreed together already back then, that a grey, we could have. I just didn’t think it would happen this soon. :O

#parrots #birdblr #birblr #african grey #CAG #birbs

[masterskywalkers]

De Sardet Questionnaire

Original questionnaire can be found here, put together by @visceralcoma​!

This got a little long (as is usual with me) but here’s the questionnaire for my De Sardet, Caleb!

1. What is De Sardet’s given name? Caleb De Sardet. 2. What is the name Arelwin would have given De Sardet (assuming Petrus told them and its different than their given name)? Arelwin would have named him Tawa, which means sun. 3. What was their relationship with Constantin like when they were teens? Caleb and Constantin always had a near inseparable connection to one another. Where one was you'd usually find the other, and that didn't change as they grew older. Caleb was the one to always make sure Constantin wasn't doing anything too stupid or questionable, and Constantin was the one who helped to gently pull Caleb out of the shy shell he cocooned himself in throughout his childhood, making sure Caleb found a comfort with himself. Together the both of them built a unique level of trust and comfort, as well as a safe space where they could just be themselves without any of the judgements and expectations of the outside world. 4. What is a special heartwarming memory of your De Sardet and Constantin? As children, both Caleb and Constantin were obsessed with adventure. They'd play make believe games where they were explorers or heroes, and such games usually involved the two of them running around the house brandishing wooden swords. On one day in particular, the two of them were playing in the gardens. As was usual a young Constantin was trying to play a noble hero, brandishing his sword and speaking some over the top soliloquy. Something that was said started Caleb laughing, and Constantin's shocked reactions to his humour only set Caleb off further. Constantin didn't really mind however (even if he did act offended - his growing grin and eventual own laughter was a big give away to his lack of true annoyance), he was just happy to hear his cousin laughing so freely. 

5. Did your De Sardet and Constantin ever have a fight? If so, about what?Nothing really serious that would have caused any strain or lasting effect on their relationship, but there were of course some disagreements. Caleb would point out when Constantin was being particularly reckless to the point he would be putting himself in danger - but mostly Caleb's annoyances would be born out of concern over Constantin's well being. Constantin might occasionally push Caleb too much when it came to moments where Caleb wanted to be left alone, and that could often spark some bickering between them. They always apologised and made up not much later though. They didn't much like being angry or upset with the other for too long. 6. What was the relationship like with Princess Livie (their adoptive mother)? Caleb and her were very close. She always had a caring hand to offer him, and Livie was very much a source of comfort for Caleb. Livie would always tell Caleb how proud she was of him, and as he grew older how much she admired the man he grew up to become. Some of Caleb's kindness and compassion comes from that which Livie showed towards him growing up, and Caleb more or less adored her. 7. Did De Sardet ever have a pet growing up? What happened to it? Nope, Caleb never had any pets. 8. What was De Sardet’s relationship with their uncle (Constantin’s father)?Uncomfortable. There was always something about his uncle that unnerved Caleb, but as a child he could never really put his finger on what the underlying problem he had of him was. He assumed it was simply because he didn't understand nor like how he treated Constantin, but that didn't stop the squirming discomfort Caleb would feel when it came to his uncle's behaviour towards himself. Caleb always felt he was under some kind of scrutiny or trail. It's not until Caleb learns the truth later that he realised that the reason he never felt comfortable in the presence of his uncle was because his uncle never saw either Constantin or he as people, but rather as pawns in his own political game. Caleb was very much seen as an asset, and Constantin was just 'the child he resented had lived while his oldest son had died'. 9. Did De Sardet ever get into trouble with their mother and uncle? Were they a frequent troublemaker? There were ... instances where Caleb would end up being told off by his uncle. Those occasions usually involved Constantin, and his uncle would always manage to say something like 'I suspected it of you, son, but not of my dear nephew'. It was always words used to wound Constantin, and there were many times where afterwards Caleb would end up hugging him as his cousin cried, wanting to know why his father detested him so much. Caleb's mother on the other hand was more lenient with the boys. She wasn't blind to how her brother treated his son, and could see no harm in Constantin and Caleb playing and acting like the children their age should be. Of course there were times where she would remind one or both of them that they were of noble standing and had to be a little more respectable, but otherwise she left them to it. 10. Did De Sardet have many other friends? He didn't have any other friends. Only Constantin. 11. How did they handle growing up with their mark? Did people mention it? Talk about? Treat them differently? How did De Sardet respond to them? Badly. The mark was always something that unsettled people. Children would whisper, laugh or outright avoid him, and even adults would occasionally comment on how strange and unusual it was. It frustrated and upset Caleb, so much so that both his mother and Constantin would find him crying over it. Constantin would often defend him from the other children, feeling a protective streak over his cousin. Livie would rub his back as he cried into his pillow or his sheets, telling him things like how beautiful a boy he was both inside and out in an attempt to make him feel better. When he got older, Caleb grew his facial hair out in an attempt to try and cover most of the mark up. It ... helped stop some of the staring, enough that Caleb learnt not to care about what other people thought. 12. What are De Sardet’s favourite: food, colour, music (genre/instrument), weather, season, and animal? Food: Crab. Wine. Colour: Blue & Red Music: Piano. Weather: Sunny. Season: Autumn. Caleb likes the different colours of the leaves that fall. Animal: Horses. 13. What was their first thought of Vasco, Siora, Aphra, and Petrus when they met them? Vasco: I don't think we're going to get along, he seemed quite upset that I called his ship a boat. Siora: I have only been in this city for five minutes, but I will already try my best to help you in whatever way I can. Aphra: ... Still not convinced she wasn't going to shoot me if her gun hadn't fallen in the water. Petrus: Not quite sure what to make of you, but for now I'll leave my suspicions be. After all, diplomacy amongst our allies is imperative right now. 14. If they had one, who was De Sardet’s first kiss and/or love? You know, I don't think Caleb's had any real love or romance before heading to the island. I always imagine that Constantin is the one that's had many lovers, and then comes back and ends up telling Caleb about the newest person he's 'in love with' (it never lasts. A few days later and Constantin's found something else to fascinate him). Caleb listens to Constantin because he doesn't have much choice likes to see Constantin happy, even if he there a lot of moments that end up like: Constantin: Cousin! I'm in love with them! Caleb: ((shrugs)) okay fine you're in love with them - you've been with them a day. Do you even really know them?? Then one day after a 'breakup' (that's not really a breakup but rather Constantin getting bored of his most recent lover), Constantin's complaining to Caleb about them, and it comes up that they weren't even a good kisser. And Constantin is like 'you know when you find someone and you kiss them and it's like ... magic?', and Caleb's like 'I don't, actually'. At first Constantin is sad for his cousin because he thinks Caleb means he's never had a lover or someone whose kissed him that way, but then he realises that no, Caleb means he's never been kissed full stop. Constantin is shocked, but then considers how Caleb never talks about his love interests and realises it's because he hasn't had any, and suddenly Constantin is determined because 'this won't do. You can't never experience a first kiss, cousin." Constantin ends up being his first kiss, and Caleb still doesn't really understand how. ... Caleb also never acknowledges how he felt in that moment and shoves his feelings away into a box and locks it away to the back of his mind because that is Constantin and he certainly shouldn't be having confusing thoughts over him. Caleb's first love is Vasco. He ends up falling pretty deep into that love.   15. Did De Sardet have any childhood/teen crushes on anyone? Describe how they realized it and how they behaved. Hmmmm not really? I reckon there were some visitors that Caleb ended up thinking 'oh wow' about, but not in any real attraction or 'oh no I like them' way. He wasn't really interested when he was younger, and tended to avoid a lot of people until his mid teens. 16. What subjects were their favourite to learn while being taught by Sir De Courcillion? History and magical studies. 17. What was their relationship with Kurt initially like when he became their bodyguard and/or when he became their Master of Arms? At first Kurt intimidated him, but that quickly dissipated once he got to know him. Caleb really respected Kurt's talents and training - even if he did push him to the limits a lot of the time. He could tell Kurt was passionate about his swordsmanship, and although he couldn't really see why a bodyguard had been assigned to him, Caleb eventually learnt to appreciate it. The two of them got along well and developed a friendship. I imagine Kurt was one of the first to discover Caleb's interest in pistols, and ended up gifting him his very first one. It was very much a 'you're better with it than you are with a sword, Greenblood'. Caleb later adapted his fighting ability to include it alongside his magic ring. 18. What was Kurt’s initial assessment of De Sardet when he began teaching them to fight? That Caleb was absolutely useless with a real sword. It was very much that 'hands on hips and long suffering sigh as he mutters 'we have a long way ahead of us'' type of feeling for Kurt, knowing he had a lot of work cut out for him in order for Caleb to be able to defend himself in a way that was actually half decent. 19. What did De Sardet specialize into first and why? Magic ring, mostly because it was a big interest of his. There was ... a lot of trail and error. Courcillion still has a burn mark on his desk from a rather significant failure of a magic lesson. 20. What did they feel when they learned they were adopted and the circumstances behind it? Oh, Caleb was absolutely crushed and so lost. He didn't really know where he belonged for a while knowing that the family he thought was his by blood never was. He felt too much ingrained with the Congregation to ever find acceptance with the Natives anymore, and he didn't feel as if he would ever really fit in as a Naut - even if Vasco assured him he would be accepted with open arms. Yet at the same time he began to understand why he felt like an outcast growing up - because he was never truly meant to be a part of the Congregation. Vasco, Kurt and Siora really helped him get through things, and Constantin's reassurances that nothing changed between them even if they weren't cousins by blood helped. But it wasn't until he met his true aunt that Caleb found a peace in himself. While it was nice knowing that he still had a familial connection alive and well, it was one of the first pieces in a wheel that allowed him to realise that it didn't matter where he came from or where his origins stemmed from, at the end of the day he would set his own path to become the person he wanted to be. Him and Vasco had a long talk the night after returning to New Sérène over their familiar feelings.

#greedfall #de sardet #male de sardet #m!de sardet #ch: caleb de sardet

[visceralcoma]

Aria Loiza De Sardet

Finally filled out my own questionnaire for my first De Sardet

What is De Sardet’s given name?

Aria Loiza De Sardet

What is the name Arelwin would have given De Sardet (assuming Petrus told them and its different than their given name)?

Arelwin never got to see her, much less name her. The Nauts named her instead. But in another life, Seren.

What was their relationship with Constantin like when they were teens?

Antagonistic. When they were kids they got along, but something changed in their teens when Loiza did exceptionally better than Constantin at everything. From academics to martial to politics and even social. Constantin withdrew from her, growing resentful that she was better than him at everything. Constantin’s resentment grew when he eavesdropped on his father and Sir De Courcillion and learned Loiza wasn’t even related to him and that his father was intending on wedding them together.

Did your De Sardet and Constantin ever have a fight? If so, about what?

When Constantin’s resentment of Loiza exploded, he shouted that she wasn’t even his real cousin. He said it to hurt her specifically. Unbeknownst to Constantin, she’d always suspected that she wasn’t really related to him given how much different she looked. And so she fled while crying and that’s when Constantin knew he’d went too far.

What is a special heartwarming memory of your De Sardet and Constantin?

Sir De Coucillion set Constantin to apologize to Loiza as she had locked herself away. It took much time but eventually when Loiza went a few days without eating or leaving the De Sardet apartments, he finally went to apologize for his words – now worried she was wasting away. He told her how he felt with her doing so much better than him, and his father preferring her over him. Stated how he was just another shadow he lived under. Only this one was a living one, as his brother was long dead. Loiza then revealed her own doubts about her place in the family. That even though she was the General De Sardet’s daughter, it was like she had no resemblance to her mother Princess Livie. And she suspected she was a bastard. With the air clear, Loiza promised to help Constantin with his studies and Constantin would stop resenting her.

What was the relationship like with Princess Livie (their adoptive mother)?

Very close. Even though Loiza felt like she might not actually be Livie’s daughter, she treasured her mother deeply and mourned with her when the diagnosis came back that she had the Malichor. Princess Livie view Loiza as the culmination of all the children she almost had but ultimately miscarried. A gift from her brother from the Island he had tried to colonize all those years ago.

Did De Sardet ever have a pet growing up? What happened to it?

There was a bird she inherited from General De Sardet. A Grey Al Saadian parrot. It was already forty years old when she took over care for it at the age of 8. Sadly it dies in her care but it lived a very long life and was her early exposure to losing a loved one. So when Livie was diagnosed, she was mentally prepared if anguished.

What was De Sardet’s relationship with their uncle (Constantin’s father)?

Close. Closer than Constantin and his father. Her uncle saw her like a pawn in his future plans and as a balm to Constantin’s rashness. He sought to marry her to Constantin, to temper him and reign him in. and also to be the driving force for the colonization of Tir Fradi. He had high expectations and so gave Sir Courcillion instruction to push her academically to reach her full potential. Loiza met each one head on. He often bought her gifts, commissioned swords and daggers for her use, and even had a custom gunsword made when she mastered both. He never pressured her to be like the other young ladies of court and indeed had her accompany him on many of his diplomatic and mercantile meetings when she grew older.

Did De Sardet ever get into trouble with their mother and uncle? Were they a frequent troublemaker?

She got into trouble once, when she broke under the pressures set before. It was revealed to her she would wed Constantin once colonization of the Island was underway. Though she didn’t hate her cousin – in fact she loved him. Loved him in the way they wished, but to be told she had to marry him as part of their plans, she revolted. Her sole act of rebellion and troublemaking was running away and finding the first brothel to deflower herself. But once there, she had no idea what she was doing and was nearly taken advantage of when mistaken for one of the working ladies.

For the first time since they were children, Constantin was the one to save her, revealing he was a frequent and high paying customer that he had a private room. There he sequestered her away. They spent the night and at her request he recommended one of the working gentlemen to her, someone he trusted.

Did De Sardet have many other friends?

Loiza had little friends given her schedule was packed most of the time. She had Constantin and a few acquaintances in court, no one else besides Constantin she would consider her friend.

How did they handle growing up with their mark? Did people mention it? Talk about? Treat them differently? How did De Sardet respond to them?

Poorly. As a kid, children called her mark a symptom of the Malichor and so they kept their distance from her. They neither wanted to be near her or play with her. As such she had a lonely childhood outside of her time with Constantin. Not that she had much time to play, for as soon as she was old enough her days were spend in study.

What are De Sardet’s favorite: food, color, music (genre/instrument), weather, season, and animal?

Food: A particular stone fruit from Al Saad, called a mango.

Color: Seagreen,

Music: Opera for the singing. She dreamed once of becoming a performer, but alas her uncle had other plans.

Weather: Rainy weather. It left the air cleaner back on the Continent, almost renewed and refreshed. On Tir Fradi, it was the same, but after each rain it was like she – herself – was rejuvenated. Like she’d taken a large drink of water.

Season: The end of winter. It feels like a fresh new beginning.

Animal: Birds. She has a liking to all the different sorts and has a collection of feathers from her uncle’s ‘friends’ who would try to win her favor, and thus her uncle’s ear, by giving her wild and exotic feathers from various birds.

What was their first thought of Vasco, Siora, Aphra, and Petrus when they met them?

Vasco: Capable, competent, if a little reserved. But beautiful.

Siora: She has a mark! Like me! Did father have an affair with someone from this island? Was father the first people to come to this island from the continent? Is this where I’m from?

Aphra: I could take the gun right out of her hands, but something in her gaze said not to. Determined, calculating, but not a killer unless pushed.  

Petrus: Just like one of uncle’s acquaintances in court. He wants something I can tell but what. He could prove useful though.

If they had one, who was De Sardet’s first kiss and/or love?

Constantin was her first kiss. It was a few months after Constantin had apologized for their big fight when Loiza was re-teaching him what Sir De Courcillion had covered in their dance lessons.  He was following her instructions perfectly when he started doing poorly. His hands were sweaty, and he stumbled over his feet. She didn’t understand why until when he nearly crashed them into a wall during a spin. She was getting up when the next moment he had pressed her against the wall, lips to hers and then he was stumbling back apologizing. She didn’t know what to make of it, as she was only thirteen and he fourteen, she carried on with the lesson.

Did De Sardet have any childhood/teen crushes on anyone? Describe how they realized it and how they behaved.

De Sardet didn’t have any crushes. Though she admired Kurt’s skill and ability it was more akin to hero worship, and though her first kiss was stolen by Constantin. It wasn’t until they were older did she love Constantin and he knew it, but neither acted on it in a silent act of rebellion against their parents. They both denied themselves because this was the one area they wanted to be free from their intrigue.

What subjects were their favorite to learn while being taught by Sir De Courcillion?

Music lessons. Being taught to sing was a passion she rarely got to express and so for as long as De Courcillion taught her it, she enjoyed it, but she quickly surpassed the level they would teach her. And though she continued to practice, it went nowhere. Instead she was encouraged to take an interest in other singers, and thus her love of the Opera was born.

What was their relationship with Kurt initially like when he became their bodyguard and/or when he became their Master of Arms?

When he became their Master of Arms, there was a bit of hero worship on Loiza’s end. He could fight and fight well. Though when he became their bodyguard as well, she tried to engage with him in discussion and had to excuse himself. Later he found her describing him as boorish. A word she regretted using as he would hold it over her head from that moment on for talking behind his back. She still feels guilty for calling him that, but Kurt won’t let her forget it. Especially when she playfully flirts with him.

What was Kurt’s initial assessment of De Sardet when he began teaching them to fight?

Graceful, crafty, and potentially deadly if given the chance. She’d be good for close combat and quick fights, but dreadful for cover and protecting herself. I’d give her a shield, but that would only slow her down. She can move faster than those wielding heavier weapons. Still, she needs to learn to parry. A heavier longer blade but not a long sword would do her well, but nothing too cumbersome. She’s got an aim not to be trifled with but shies away from guns due to the loud noise. A pistol on hand if she needs it but nothing more.

What did De Sardet specialize into first and why?

De Sardet specialized into the more technical aspects of combat. Swords, daggers, traps, explosives, and grenades and the art of subterfuge and misdirection. It was useful for her Uncle as when he entertained, she’d slip out and find what her Uncle needed in court in other cities. Eventually it became her preference.

What did they feel when they learned they were adopted and the circumstances behind it?

She knew it was something like this but she had imagined at least her father was actually her father, but instead it was all a lie. She was heartbroken and yet resolute. It was almost a relief to know, until it really sunk in what her “uncle” had done. Stolen a child and raised away all to be a piece, a way to get the Natives to concede to the Congregation. And her mother…Princess Livie an unwilling participant to his schemes but no less responsible – yet Loiza couldn’t fault her. She did the best she could. Instead all her anger directed at her “Uncle”.

#greedfall #greedfall de sardet #loiza de sardet

[thefirstcourtesan]

The Royal Recap: A Tale of Two Houses, Chapter 2

Welcome back to my TRM recaps! Now we tackle chapter 2. Little bit of housekeeping before we get started. I really wanted a pet wolf, so I changed Viola from House Rosario to House Aster. So from this point on, I have Viola of House Aster and Livia of House Everhart.

I also have male Hunters and Kaydans, so I will refer to them as such, and my Kaydans are Dante. I will offer a ficlet to the first person to guess why I used Livia (the whole reason because it is layered) and Dante 😂.

So the queen is dead and Annalissa is unconscious. The assassin helpfully tells us she will never wake again and that we are going to join her. Which is obviously the right time to start questioning the assassin or yelling at him 😂

Before he can harm us though Vasco rushes in, followed by the guards, one of whom looks like a bald Will Jackson. Apparently working for the Queen is an inherited position, but good hair does not run in the family. The guards chase the assassin and Vasco tends to Annalissa. Though he is more concerned about the future of our House than the fact that Annalissa is in some kind of magic sleep. Basically, he tells MC that she has to take over as head of the house and see through Annalissa’s plan to make their house noble.

As I said in my first recap, I am suspicious of Vasco, but not in a “he hired the assassins” way, but I think he knows exactly who MC is and that he is pulling a lot of strings that we don’t see. He has Raydan (and Bastien’s) face after all and as I noted before, the free outfit has the same color palette as his clothes.

It only takes a moment for the MC to agree to take Annalissa’s place and host the house’s debut and then MC and Vasco move Annalissa back home and Cordonia goes into mourning for the queen (though not that deep since the whole court is going to be at the ball 😂)

The next day keep vigil near Annalissa’s bed and talk to her and then it’s time to get ready for the ball, we can’t go to the ball in our scribe outfit. We can wear the black dress or a fancy house dress that Vasco produces for us (at the low cost of 25 diamonds).

I find the Aster dress prettier, but I have to conserve diamonds on that device so Viola got the plain black dress while Livia got the Everhart dress. After we choose the outfit it is time to greet our guests and meet the major players.

The first person of note introduced is the King Regent: Hunter! If you didn’t dance with Hunter at the ball, this is your chance to name him. We learn his last name, Fierro,. Hunter introduced himself to Livia, telling her it is a pleasure to once again make her acquaintance and she realizes he was the man in the sun mask, while Viola expresses surprise that she danced with the King.

Hunter tells us he is not yet the king, only the king-regent, and will be so until Kendra’s will is read because he is not a prince and has no blood-right to the throne but he was Kendra’s chosen heir. Also that Kendra had no children.

Sure she didn’t. I believe that. Really I do.

Next up, we’ve got Dante or as Viola refers to him “imposing man”. If you didn’t dance with Dante/Kayden, you get to choose his name. Dante and Livia reunite, while Viola denies meeting him, which he corrects and she realizes that he is the man in the moon mask. Livia has a warmer interaction with Dante and Viola with Hunter but both are cordial with the man they did not dance with.

After introductions are done, Hunter informs us that the debut is not enough to make our house noble, instead it is a test. We have to win over the majority of the royal families. There are 4 plus the crown. And this is our only chance, otherwise our house will remain “common” for another generation (oh the horror). I mean, I feel like that isn’t going to happen, even if we screw this up, but I hate failplays and can’t do it 😂, so I will be left curious.

As soon as Hunter and Dante leave us, we are introduced to “stern noble” aka. Damon Fierro, Hunter’s father and chief asshole. He starts by telling us that Annalissa deserved her magical coma for forgetting her place. Yeah, two seconds in and I know I don’t like you, dude.

After he leaves us, we are introduced us to “sassy noble”, otherwise known as Lady Renza Fierro, Hunter’s twin. She points out that they are not identical, which I know is meant for those with female Hunters but is pretty hilarious if you have a male Hunter.

Renza tells us that Hunter told her we’d need a friend at court. this must be after the masquerade, which is interesting if you barely interacted with Hunter, though he is obviously aware of who we are and is more aware of us the attitude at court, so it’s not that out of place. Renza tells us her house is out of the question, but that there are still three other houses for us to impress: Vescovi, Beaumont and Nevrakis.

We are introduced to Lord Percival Beaumont aka. Bearded Maxwell. Renza refers to him as “the local expert on the law and the lance” and adds that he has a stick up his ass but no one can get close enough to confirm (is this PB’s way of warning us he will not be an LI or a challenge? Probably the former).

Next up is Lady Theodosia Nevrakis, wearing bright pink and very concerned about how she is introduced. Renza is dismissive about Theodosia and we get a chance to comment and basically, Theodosia is dismissed as frivolous and self absorbed. Basically she reminds me of a less blood-thirsty Zenobia.

Last up is Cyrus Vescovi and Lord Pomadour. The dog is cute and Cyrus has great hair? That is about as much positive as I can say. Unlike Percival and Zenobia, we don’t hear Renza’s opinion of Cyrus, instead we get a chance to form our own as he immediately seeks us out.

He knows exactly who we are, including that we were once a scribe, so court gossip is going strong in one day. Of course, these nobles are well acquainted with Annalissa and she may have told them about her sister, but the point is everyone knows us and we know no one. Fun. Cyrus makes some gross sexual innuendo towards us and then also towards Renza and gets shot down twice, which doesn’t deter him. From Cyrus we also learn that Renza is the Keeper of the Royal Archives. They don’t go into detail what that means, but it is highlighted, so I think we are supposed to take note and I have lots of thoughts.

After Cyrus leaves, Dante appears and whisks is away for a matter of “private security” and leads us into the lawn where he tells us Damon and Cyrus are conspiring against us, we also learn that Dante is Cyrus’ half-brother, same father but Dante is illegitimate!

Dante tells us he is on our side and we can choose how to react, Viola points out that he hates Cyrus, which he confirms, while Livia teases him about liking her which he does not deny. Oh Dante, you are going to fall so hard for her and I can’t wait.

He leads us into the dance floor and tells us a dull story while instructing the MC to keep her ears open and listen to conversations around her. We can listen in on two noble groups. One is a group of women gossiping about Hunter and the other is nobles worries about the magic attack.

One of those nobles is my man Diavolos! Oh how I have missed him. And I love the facial hair. I also love how this book is incorporating reused asset like making the Nevrakis herald the Nevrakis uncle from TC&TF or Jackson a guard. Instead of just reusing the assets and shoving them in place, in this book it makes sense and it is a nice little nod to the History of the Five Kingdoms/Cordonia. Plus I’ll take any excuse to see Diavolos again. They also use some TRR assets, Maxwell of course, but also Lucretia and it’s a nice touch, seeing these familiar faces.

After dancing away from the nobles, it is time to eavesdrop on Cyrus. He tells the page he will speak against us only if he speaks first because he will not risk going against the other house’s, which is interesting, but it gives us something to work with. We also spot Theodosia staring at Cyrus’s ass, giving us an opening.

So Theodosia is into Cyrus? I mean she can do better. But I also kinda like it because it reminds me of Zenobia’s crush on Tevan. But Cyrus is no Tevan.

Before we talk to Theodosia, we get to see her magic artifact. We saw the Vescovi artefact (a magic comb) while talking to Cyrus and now we see the Nevrakis item, which is a magic cloth (as the mother of 3, I would sell a kidney for that cloth). So far the magic items are fun and practical but seem to have a limited scope. There are two items left.

Back to Theodosia. The best way to deal with her is compliment her. I didn’t want to fail play, but I decided to throw away one vote just to see and if you point out she has a magic hanky, she says this... 

Yeah, she definitely reminds me of Zenobia 😂.

After Theodosia wanders off we are back to Hunter and Dante, who are wandering away for a moment’s peace. Of course, this means diamond scene, we have a choice of exploring the study with Dante or the gardens with Hunter. You can do both, but I just did one on each device.

First, Viola explores the garden with Hunter. We learn that she hasn’t lived on the estate since she was a girl. My guess is that is when the parents died and she was sent to the library, because at the time Annalissa was too young to intervene, even if she was the head of the house.

Back to Hunter, who feels guilty about becoming king and is mourning Kendra, who he says was like a mother to him, but he is confident that she would support his plans for Cordonia and talks about how he has spent his whole life training to be King and knows there is so much good to be done, even if his father doesn’t agree. Hunter has no illusions where his father is concerned, but he has s very warm, perhaps naive view of his sister, pointing out that it was his father who chose which of them would be heir but Renza has been nothing but supportive. When you comment on it, he says this:

Yeah, being outwardly angry would be stupid and pointless. I think Renza is far too smart for that. I have posted about it this week, but I think Renza has a lot more to her than “bubbly bff who introduces us to court” and I think it is interesting that if she has a more scheming, power-hungry side, she has managed to hide it from her own twin, but then love blinds us.

There is a moment of talking about the future and then a little hand holding and then Hunter goes inside. For a guy who has a reputation as a lady killer, he is certainly moving slow. Of course, he is king regent now and may have to be a little more cautious, but still.

Meanwhile, Livia is in the study with Dante. I loved this scene because it sets up the reality of the time so well. Dante was born on the fringes of a noble house, he can read and write but does not have the same access to books that even the MC did, in fact I am guessing that there isn’t much that Dante actually owns for himself since he commented he didn’t even have a shelf, despite his now elevated position.

Dante also points out that the MC was lucky to be sent to the library and have all that access to books. I also think that was purposeful, I feel like Zya made the decision to send MC away but someone else (*cough*Vasco*cough*) decided where she would go and it wasn’t coincidence that she ended up in a place where she had access to knowledge.

We also get confirmation that Kendra was descended from Kenna and that Dante knew her well and that he feels guilty for what happens to her and for failing to protect Annalissa. Also a moment about how Cyrus is his only family but there is no family affection there and then there is a chance to hug Dante, which of course Livia does.

Interludes done, it is time to go back to the business of making allies and of course Renza is waiting for us. It is time to charm Percival with our knowledge of Cordonian property law. Thanks Renza. Thankfully, we do have one tidbit to share, thanks to our work at the library and it works like a charm and Percival is won over.

Renza proposes a drink and asks us to choose our favorite. Livia chooses honey mead and Viola red wine. Renza returns after a moment with our drinks and Hunter and Dante and prods Hunter into calling the vote about whether to grant our house noble status.

Viola didn’t impress Theodosia but she didn’t vote against her, she just didn’t vote at all, which is interesting. Both Viola and Livia for Percival and Cyrus’s vote. Either way, Hunter declares it official, Damon tries to object and Renza shuts him down. Whatever her agenda is, it is definitely not the same as her father’s, but then why would it be?

Renza’s agenda aside, tonight it is in our favour and our house is granted noble status with us as the official head. Now it’s time to celebrate and that means diamond scene!

Renza organizes a drinking party with Percival, Cyrus, Theodosia, Hunter, and Dante. Also, this court needs some new blood if they are resorting to inviting Cyrus to their after parties, just saying. Or Percival.

Dante immediately tries to bow and say he is only there to watch, but Hunter is having none of it. Renza decides on the game, Queen’s Cup (I guess they didn’t have I Never in Renaissance Corodnia 😂). People drink, rules are made, Theodosia lets her thirst show, Cyrus has to compliment his dog, and Percival is the least fun a Beaumont has ever been at party.

The MC draws a 7, which means she will be locked in a closet with someone. This is actually based on prior choices (probably who you danced with) as Viola got Hunter and Livia got Dante. However, the dialogue is pretty much exact the same (except referring to Renza as “your sister” to Hunter), so they isn’t much impact but it is nice that the player’s preferences are being noted.

After that, Renza draws the final queen, meaning she has to drink a giant goblet of wine and ending the game. There is this little exchange:

This is interesting, because it hints that Renza is used to setting things up and having them the work out the way she wants and that she is not above pulling strings. Additionally, when you comment on the amount of wine, Percival comments that Renza can handle it, except she can’t and immediately needs to go outside alone with the MC. Perhaps another benefit to her drawing the final card?

Renza opens up to us about her feeling about her her father choosing Hunter, showing a vulnerable side. But she also manages to twice let us know that she drank quite a lot, giving herself a bit of an excuse. On face value, it can be taken as a bonding between the MC and the best friend character, but I don’t think this is a face value kind of book and I think everything with Renza is very carefully plotted, including this scene and her moment of vulnerability.

I am going to add that I think the Hunter and Renza dynamic is probably even more compelling when they are both women because then there is no difference between them. They are twins, both women, and yet only one can rule the house. Only one can be queen. I kinda want to play with a female Hunter just for that.

Renza’s moment of vulnerability is over and we go back inside just as the Beaumont Page announces that Queen Kendra’s will has been found and that no successor has been named and that a new king or queen will be selected from amongst the noble houses and Cyrus nominates his house, which infuriates Damon.

The speed of his decision and the fact that earlier he expressed a desire not to make enemies amongst the other noble houses makes me wonder if he knew this was coming. The other thing to note, is that he volunteered his house, not himself and I feel like that could be significant later on.

Neither Hunter or Damon are thrilled by this announcement, of course, bout it appears Cyrus’s claim is valid and Percival announces that the social season is about to begin and when it is done, they will choose a monarch. I feel like I’ve done this before, but hey at least my MC isn’t in the race this time, right? she can just sit back and relax. Ha ha ha.

And end chapter 2!

Again, I love this book. The first chapter set up the world, this one introduced all the characters and the political intrigue and I am so ready for it. I love the nods to TC&TF and TRR, I love the characters that we have met so far and I actually enjoy the MC’s role in the story and that she is navigating multiple worlds. A commoner, but one raised in privilege even if she wasn’t born to it, and now a noble. I am really curious to see how it all plays out for her.

#playchoices #the royal recap #the royal masquerade #long post

[neverwatchedonepiece]

483-484: ‘Looking for the Answer! Fire Fist Ace Dies On the Battlefield!’ and ‘The Navy Headquarters Falls! Whitebeard's Unspeakable Wrath.’

...

Actually watched these on Friday but was too bummed about what had happened to post. Turns out one of the spoilers was real, after all. Joy of joys. One more to go and then all I’ll have floating around my head is that Sanji has a sister.

Annoyed at the spoiler-tastic title, though. Thanks, Toei, for ruining that in advance. I was also unwittingly spoiled by the latest Uniqlo/SJ 50 t-shirt drop (but didn’t know it at the time because I was clueless about the panel’s context).

Yes, I am delaying the inevitable...

Better get on with it.

R.I.P. Fire Fist Ace

I am sad and mad at the waste of life.

Ace had so much to live for, but he had no regrets, so from his perspective, it is okay. I mean, the old cliche is true, right? Death is easy for the dead. Those they leave behind have to deal with the fallout. And Luffy is... beyond distraught. Catatonic with despair, actually, to the point Jimbei had to step in or else he would have been fried by Akainu.

Picking up where 483 left off, despite the Big Damned Spoiler Title, I knew Ace was not in a good way. If that title hadn’t ruined it, I might have thought even then that Ace would make it through. If Whitebeard can fight on with a hole in his chest, why couldn’t Ace? And the Pirate Alliance had Emporio Ivankov on their side, right?

There were a few final twists and turns, a few flashes of drama, before the quiet, sad moment happened. Garp rushing down to Ace, Sengoku having to pin him to stop Garp killing Akainu (I wish he hadn’t. I still want that Garp Monkey D. Family Team to happen). The nightmare fuel scene when Akainu was shot point blank by bazooka fire and walked back through the flames like a zombie with parts missing. The moment when Jimbei stood between Ace and Akainu “You will not touch him again! I have been ready to die since the beginning!” with Akainu retorting, “Looks like I need to execute a traitor.” Marco breaking free courtesy of Mr 3, enabling Luffy to take Ace away...

Damn, I really didn’t think Oda would have the cajones to kill off Ace. The moment was done well, though, so at least there’s that. Weirdly, the scene reminded me of Mufasa’s death (from The Lion King). Just Luffy’s fragile, tentative questions, “Hey. Hey... are you alright?” mixed with the horror of realisation something was terribly wrong when he placed his hand on Ace’s back and it came back thick with blood.

But still, he could deny it then. Ace could be treated. Ace could be cured. Emporio Ivankov was on his side!

Unfortunately, the damage was irreparable. Ace’s organs had been completely burned away. The moment Ivankov had to break that news was horrible. I felt so bad for Luffy. He tried to bargain desperately: “You can’t die! You promised you would never die, no matter what!”

Knowing he didn’t have much time left, Ace took advantage of the quiet moment to have a last talk with his little brother. I liked how Toei froze the battle, cast everything and everyone but Ace and Luffy in greyscale, because for that moment, the only alive people in the world were two brothers. 

“I wouldn't even have had a will to live if it weren't for Sabo and a high maintenance brother like you. If you see Dadan someday, say hello for me. When I face my own death, I even miss a woman like her. There is one thing that makes me wanna stay. That is my desire to see you fulfill your dream. But I'm sure that you can do it. Because you're my brother. Like we promised that day, I have no regrets in life. Something tells me that what I truly wanted was not fame. Did I deserve to be born? What I wanted was the answer to that question.

I can't raise my voice to let anyone hear anymore, Could you tell them what I'm about to say now? Old man, everyone, and you Luffy. Thank you... for loving someone like me: a good for nothing who has such bad blood in his veins... Thank you!”

Yeah, so at that point, I was just staring at the screen, watching Ace die and labouring under the same haze of denial as Luffy. It still wasn’t real. Then Ace’s eyes glazed over, the little flame inside him finally winked out and he slumped to the ground with a smile on his face. Even the vivre card burned to ashes.

Watching Luffy realise his brother was dead was worse than Ace’s last words. Eyes wide, he just stared at his blood-soaked hands and shook. “Ace...? Ace...?”

Then he screamed. The grief was too much and he shut down completely.

This is the second gut-wrenching loss Luffy has suffered in quick succession. As far as he’s concerned, he’s lost his crew. Now, he has lost his only brother. I wonder how this will affect Luffy going forward? I’m assuming Luffy will use Ace’s death to swear vengeance on the Marines and World Government. Take note, Marines: this is how you create a mighty enemy. Luffy does need to be stronger. But, damn, if that is not a harsh way to learn that lesson...

Oh, and I don’t ever want to see Jimbei sobbing again. That was too much on top of everything else. ;_;

Akainu Is Not A Good Person

He’s behind me, isn’t he?

That shot is honestly the only thing that cheered me up over these two episodes. I watched it three times and laughed like a drain every time.

Then it just got better because Oda let Whitebeard loose on Akainu and it was glorious! It’s as if Oda realised, “Yeah, the fans will be grieving and seething, let’s give them an outlet for their feelz.”

Akainu made another swipe at Luffy, but Marco stepped in. Unfortunately, Marco was wearing sandals. (Not the most effective footwear for facing off against Akainu. You’d need steel toe capped boots or special heat-entry PPE for that. Marco, you must update your look. Function over fashion. I know it will sting but it is for a good cause.) He couldn’t hold off Akainu completely. But someone who could rumbled up behind him.

Man... Whitebeard was mad. Beyond mad. “I will hammer you into the ground like a tent peg” mad. “I will punch you to pate” mad. I actually cheered when that first punch connected. The best part was when he grabbed Akainu by the collar, tossed him in the air and broke him with a devastating punch. I’ve never been happy to see someone bleed before. That was new.

But Akainu did get a hit in. Note to All Pirates: Do not let Akainu anywhere near your torso. Reblog to save a life!

It’s maybe too late for Whitebeard, though. I am not going to jump the gun again because Oda has subverted tropes before, but it seems like Whitebeard is intent on Marineford being his last stand. He split the battlefield so the Pirate Allies could escape, trapping himself on the other side with all the Marines. 

It was also satisfying to see Marineford sinking into the sea along with Akainu! I may also have cheered at this and laughed: “YES! BYE, SAKAZUKI! SINK INTO THE OCEAN AND DROWN!” A measured response? Absolutely not. Do I think he will be saved? Hopefully not!

Then Teach appeared.

This is the first time I was not excited to see him and his crew. I thought, “Come on, mate. There’s a time and a place...” 

But clearly, for Blackbeard, this is the perfect time and place.

Not Even In The Mood For Blackbeard

Teach has the chutzpah to turn up at Whitebeard’s last stand and advertise his new crew. I might be going off them. There are now ten Blackbeard pirates, so that’s my Individual Blackbeards vs Individual Strawhats theory up in smoke.  (Unless Luffy recruits another crew member. Then it’s back on!) 

So far, we have:

1. Blackbeard 2. Van Augr 3. Jacques Laffite 4. Jesus Burgess 5. Doc Q 6. San Juan Wolf 7. Catalina Devon 8. Shiryu of the Rain 9. Vasco Shot 10. Guy With Horns I Don’t Remember

Now it makes sense why Teach was sniffing about Impel Down. He was recruiting! Still don’t know what his game is, though. Why is he here now? What’s the point in having a chuckle at Whitebeard’s expense? Why advertise your new crew? I don’t think the Marines will be impressed that you took time off to recruit while there was a big battle going on.

I also have questions about San Juan Wolf.

How does San Juan Wolf fit on any ship? He is so massive he barely fits into shot and suffers from goddamned distance fade. Does he just trail after Teach’s ship like a massive, violent puppy? Where did they keep him in Impel Down? Would Ikea be interested in such space-defying dimensions?

I’ll have to stay tuned, I guess.

No, thank you, Ace. You’ve been great. ;_;

#one piece #neverwatchedonepiece #nwop #never watched one piece #portgas d. ace #monkey d. luffy #whitebeard #edward newgate #marco #marshall d. teach #blackbeard #monkey d. garp #jimbei #jinbei #emporio ivankoc #admiral akainu #van augur #jacques laffite #san juan wolf #doc q #jesus burgess #shiryu of the rain #catalina devon #vasco shot #other guy with horns

[ohnonotthishoeagain]

Oh shit it's the apocalypse!! (Lookism style because idgaf) Who's the power couple? Who dies first? Do they go in groups, and if they do, which ones? Who ignores the apocalypse and keeps doing their everyday thing? Who was already prepared for the apocalypse?

Ok so I hope you like it!! This was really fun to think about ~

Who would die first?

Ok well for starters Jin Ho Bin (sunglasses guy) would die first.“ Take off your sunglasses!!!” I mean he totally had it coming!!! he’d probably think the zombie was a drunken homie and get bitten smh.

Power couple?JAE YEOL & HYUNG SEOK. Let’s be honest there’s no way in heck that jae would let hyung seok get killed. Jae would be prepared the boi is loaded (with love) and would have like a bunker with everything stocked with food.

Jae: now that the zombies are killing everyone. We have to repopulate the planet together.

Yeol: *takes off ear bud* hm? What were you saying?

Jae: NOTHING

All of the school sections would split up into groups architecture,music and fashion and the hair department except Duk Hwa he would kick it with vasco

Vasco probably knew this would happen one day (comic books) so he has an emergency supply of chocolate milk and snacks and knows a couple places to hide.him and his crew go out and kill zombies during the day and saving a couple of people. Fulfilling a childhood dream,and of course bum jae is there to make sure vasco doesn’t get himself killed.

Vasco: “vasco vampire hunter” how does that sound !?!? :D))))

Bum jae: 🤦🏻‍♂️"zOmBie hunter"

Vasco: that’s what I said

Bum jae: ….

The girls from the hair department become amazon women and protect the the cute boy with colorful hair his name escapes me.

#lookism #au ideas #hong jae yeol #park hyung seok #lee jin sung #lee eun tae #ask

[gunshyrpgggggggggggg]

Basics;

Name: Katherine Schafer Age: Twenty-Three Occupation: Courtesan Loyalty: Vasco Faceclaim: Alycia Debnam-Carey Availability: Open

In Brief;

Katherine Schafer; a beautiful disaster. Working for her brother’s rival was never her intention, but it seemed to be the icing on rebellion cake. Carson may have tried to shield her from this life, but she fit in like a puzzle piece. That wasn’t something Katherine was going to turn away.

+ creative, resourceful, sincere - reckless, stubborn, apathetic

History;

Katherine Schafer never knew anything aside from mafia. Her parents died when she was five years old, and her brother, only eighteen at the time, had to work hard and tirelessly in order to support them both. He dealt drugs for the mob, but was sure to keep Katherine out of it as much as possible. Still, she was far too curious for her own good, constantly sticking her head where it didn’t belong. She was ten when she first found her brother’s stash of cocaine. Not knowing what it was, she almost overdosed on it. If it weren’t for Carson’s mob doctor girlfriend, she probably would have died. From that point on, while Carson never fully forgave himself for what had happened, he was sure that he never kept any of the drugs in their apartment. He always tried to keep Katherine safe from the business, but as she got older, the craving for some sort of adventure drove her.

At sixteen, she was addicted to the drugs her brother sold and in deep debt to a Vasco dealer. Katherine started working at The Florentine to help pay it off. Underage at the time, all she did was host. She led people to their tables and took their drink orders; she knew she had to do it to pay off what she owed, but it was terribly boring. By the time she was eighteen, she was in the clear. But, that didn’t mean she wanted to stop working in the mafia. Katherine started escorting as soon as possible. She loved the attention she got, and the job payed more than hostessing ever could.

She could keep up her habit of snorting coke in the bathroom and not even get in debt doing so. Her brother was wholly against everything she chose to do, but there was honestly nothing he could do to stop her. Two years ago, Katherine got a promotion. Courtesan wasn’t coveted by all, but it was something Katherine aspired for. The money wasn’t something she could pass up. Besides, sex was always something she excelled at. Why not get paid for it? For the first few months of working at The Villa, she refused to tell Carson what she was up to. If it weren’t for a few of his co-workers paying her a visit once in a while, he probably never would have found out. Now, he’s hellbent on “saving” her when she believes she doesn’t need saving.

Relationships;

Romantic: N/A Immediate: Carson Schafer - Brother Extended: N/A

In-Law: Meghan Raffe - Sister-In-Law

#rp #rpg #crime rp #mob rpg #fc: alycia debnam carey #o #ov #katherinebio #drug abuse tw #overdose tw

[turnsoutnoonewasexaggerating]

Part 12 of The Sam Diaries

Read on Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/10507836/chapters/27875511

“It’s my hen night tomorrow and we still haven’t finished the guest list.”

“It’s not my fault my father decided to unearth the fact he has six siblings and a huge extended family only last year.”

“I still can’t believe you didn’t notice your family was in a feud with another family. Your grandparents didn’t say anything?”

“Nope and same family actually. All the weird comments about my father being a disgrace when I was in school make more sense now though. And that time my brother kissed Abigail Rosewood way worse.”

“Isn’t she one of your newly discovered cousins?”

“Yep.”

“Your brother makes me want to retch.” Eunoia declares, coming into the lounge and throwing herself onto the couch, her feet in Sam’s lap. She pokes him in the stomach with her toe to get him to take his head out of his hands, watching his face for just long enough to see his begrudging smile before going back to her morning make-up routine.

“How are you doing that without a mirror?” Sam says in awe as she succeeds in not poking herself in the eye with the mascara brush.

“Practice.” She replies, round the mouth that she always pulls while putting on make-up, one similar to the face people make when feeding a baby. Sam always gets the urge to put his finger in her mouth, just to see her reaction. The only reason he hasn’t is he’s worried her instinct reaction would be to bite off the end of his finger. She finishes with the mascara, puts it back in the tube and then fixes him with a look.

“At the end of the day, this wedding is for us. Me and you. If you want your crazy recently de-ostracised family there then invite them. And if not, who gives a fuck. This day is for us.”

Sam reluctantly unfolds the guest list and scans it again.

Sam: • Mom • Dad • Sage

• Auntie Sabina • Uncle Joe • Sabella (+1; Grayson) • Sandra • Salem (+1; Hailee)

• Auntie Saffron • Uncle Cameron • Salvador • Sang • Sapphire • Sarah

• Uncle Sasha • Auntie Emery • Saul • Saveria

• Nan • Great-Aunt Scarlett • Granny Rose • Pops

• Dad’s family??

• Winter White • Yasmin Harris • Talon Anderson

Eunoia: • Julia García • Adoración García • Vasco García

• Rosa DeRosales • Bennett Johnson • Corinna Johnson

• Rashawn Jackson • Serenity Thomas • Kacey Jones • Lainey Jones • Iesha Williams • Madyson Davis • Jaden Brown • Nash Miller

• Neil Josten (!!!) • Andrew Minyard (!!!)

• Odin Wilson • Paxton Moore • Qiana Taylor

“You’ve got all your Exy team, the guys from the shop, and uni right?”

“Yup. And you’ve got your three and only friends, two of whom have the strangest names on the planet.” She teases. Sam rolls his eyes good-naturedly.

“I keep telling you; it’s Yasmin who’s the strange one.”

“We shall see. At least I have more friends to make up for my disappointing lack of family members.” Eunoia says, with a hint of black humour. Sam reaches over to squeeze her hand.

“You ok?” He asks, looking at her closely. Eunoia’s eyebrows pinch together for a second in thought, then smooth.

“I’m ok.” She smiles at him and they share a moment of calm before she gets off the sofa and heads for her shoes. “You’re not expecting me to remember any of the names of your family members once I’m tipsy right?” She calls over her shoulder.

“If you just call them all ‘S’ they’ll probably just think you’re being chummy.”

“I get that it was your dying great-grandad’s wish and all but he was really far into dementia by that point for God’s sake! Poor man probably didn’t know he was condemning all his future line to suffering ‘S’ names.”

“Great-Aunt Scarlett changed her name when he died. Did I tell you that? No-one can remember what her original name was.”

“She’s definitely always been your Aunt right? You didn’t have a transgender Uncle who reappeared as Aunt Scarlett?”

“I mean at this point…”

The impossible happened about two months before Halloween in that Andrew Minyard, renowned emotionless midget with no interest in anything besides Neil, sweet food, occasionally spite-filled pursuits such as stopping a goal in the stupid stickball game he plays for a living, fast cars, cigarettes, keeping promises- (Well shit Andrew thinks, How long have I had multiple interests for?) well, anyway, Andrew had taken part in a bet with his cousin Nicky.

Even more astounding, breaching not just impossible but feats not even alternate universes could have come up with, Andrew lost the bet. The bet was this; Nicky bet Andrew a favour that, if pressed, Neil would say he most liked hugs from Matt, not Andrew. At the moment that Nicky had suggested this bet over their skype call, Neil had wandered out of their bedroom, stark naked, hair sleep-mussed and expression completely content. Andrew’s eyes had travelled so slowly down Neil’s body from head to foot that Neil had flushed the pretty pink colour that Andrew can admit is one of his favourite things.

“Yeah, um-hmm, sure Nicky. Do you want to speak to Neil?” Andrew hadn’t taken his eyes off Neil while he spoke; honestly he was impressed he’d had enough self-control that he hadn’t launched himself off the couch and started devouring the redhead, which meant he had gotten to see the delightful change in expression from content to horrified as he dived back into their room to grab some clothes.

Andrew had smugly gone to make himself a hot chocolate, only drawn back into their living room when Nicky’s crows of excitement had become loud enough to annoy the cats into coming into the kitchen too. “Andrew you owe me a favour!” His cousin had yelled excitedly when he’d seen Andrew come back into view.

“What?” Andrew deadpanned, unimpressed with what he had been sure was more of Nicky’s usual antics.

“Our bet! Neil prefers Matt’s hugs to yours!” At this Neil had looked startled.

“Hey you just asked whose hugs I like the most! Andrew doesn’t hug me. You’re making it out to be different that it is.” Neil had argued, as Andrew felt dawning horror ruin his appetite for hot chocolate.

“What’s the favour?” He had asked, through gritted teeth, barely resisting the urge to slam the laptop screen down (the only reason he didn’t was it would catch Neil’s fingers, much as he’d go to his grave before admitting that was the reason). Nicky had looked more smug than Andrew had ever seen him, which was an impressive feat after last year’s; ‘Allison your fiancé is cheating on you with a man’-‘no he’s not’-cue Allison ‘walking in on her fiancé and the pool boy’ debacle.

“I get to pick your Halloween outfit.”

Skip forward to present day, the 31st of October, and Andrew had spent the plane ride over to Germany resigning himself to the fact that he was going to have to spend an evening dressed in a tutu with rainbow colours painted on his face or something equally ludicrous, but that Nicky hadn’t said anything about not stabbing him for calling in the ‘favour’. Neil was much too amused by the whole thing for Andrew’s taste, though he was less sure about going to Nicky and Erik’s work Halloween party. Though his German remained as impeccable as ever, his only friends outside of Exy were Eunoia and Sam, and even they had a connection to the sport and himself. Luckily he doubted Andrew would be interested in socialising either, and just turning up was always enough for Nicky.

Neil tapped the fingers of his free hand against the balcony impatiently, a cigarette held lightly in the other, as he waited for Nicky to finish dressing Andrew up. It was a testament to how far Andrew had come that he was letting Nicky do this at all, bet or not, and Neil could admit he was curious as to what mortifying or objectifying outfit Nicky had picked out. Neil himself was dressed in the exact same zombie cowboy outfit that he’d worn to Eden’s the first year at Palmetto, something that made Nicky equal parts disgusted and nostalgic, and 100% obsessed with taking at least six selfies with Neil per hour. Considering he usually took five per hour, it wasn’t too much of a burden.

Neil turned when the door to the room opened. Andrew stalked in, his eyes sparking with barely leashed fury and maybe the tiniest hint of defeated amusement, his hands angrily rolling up the sleeves of his outfit that had clearly been made for a slightly taller adult man. Nicky trailed in after him, giggling, with Erik steering him from crashing into the doorframe with a wide grin on his face.

“Do you get it Neil? He’s a pilot because he hates flying!” Neil did indeed get it, but Neil had also lost all motor functions and was only just aware enough to drop his cigarette when it almost burnt out and started dropping hot ash on his wrist, let alone try and reply.

Even though it was just a costume and the trousers would be dragging on the floor if it wasn’t for Andrew’s thick muscular thighs bunching them further up his leg and the sleeves of the jacket were practically bursting at the seams around Andrew’s biceps… What was the point Neil was trying to make again? Neil didn’t even hate the pilot hat, perched atop Andrew’s freshly short-cut hair. In fact, his mouth was so dry Neil wondered if he was living in Arizona again. Where was he? Did it matter?

“Don’t tell me you had a traumatic experience with a pilot.” Andrew mocks when the silence has stretched on for just slightly too long, but the anger in his eyes has dimmed replaced with blooming concern.

It’s a conscious effort to tear his eyes away from Andrew and onto Nicky and Erik, but he thinks if he stares any longer he might be in for a much more embarrassing situation to get himself out of, especially as the muscle he’s put on since that first night at Eden’s has made his trousers tighter in a way that would not help him at all.

“How long do we have until the party?” He manages eventually, hoping his voice sounds less hoarse to them than it does to him.

“About twenty minutes. Erik and I have got to get into our costumes- are you sure you’re alright Neil?” Nicky asks. Neil manages a somewhat convincing nod (though not without some confusion as to what exactly about his outfit Nicky doesn’t already consider a costume) and they leave with a few more light-hearted jabs at Andrew’s expense. Andrew’s in Neil’s space the second they’re out of sight.

“Yes or no?” Neil asks, before Andrew can say anything.

“Yes.” Andrew replies without hesitance and Neil leans forward but stops himself. He doesn’t trust himself to not just grab at everything he can reach.

“Fuck.” Neil wheezes instead and Andrew is getting more confused by the second because this behaviour is indicative of a panic attack but the look in his eye is the same one he gets when Andrew saves an impossible goal on the court of his own volition, or smirks at Neil in bed, or when he says yes to Neil asking to suck his-

Oh.

“You have a thing for a man in uniform Josten?” Andrew tries not to acknowledge the way blood is rushing away from his head at the breathy sound Neil makes in response.

“Men, eh. You, very much so.” Then he says something so filthy in Russian that even Andrew’s tempted to blush.

“That fucking mouth.” He growls and closes the distance between them, liking how he can pull Neil’s hips into his using the gun slings on either side of Neil’s thighs, something he’s fantasized about doing since that first Halloween.

“Guys you ready to go?” Andrew may be able to get rid of his boner through sheer force of will but Neil’s pretty sure he’s a lost cause. Twenty minutes wasn’t long enough to get themselves into any kind of activity Andrew’s current attractiveness is worth, but Neil doesn’t understand how he’s supposed to get through this party without combusting.

He groans into the pillow when Andrew’s hand tugs lightly through his hair to remind him they have to go, and when he finally gets up he’s determinedly not looking at Andrew.

“Neil this is supposed to be a classy party!” Nicky complains when he sees Andrew. Neil raises an eyebrow in confusion. “Like, did you try to eathim?”

Neil sneaks a look at Andrew’s neck. He hadn’t realised he’d left quite that many hickeys but he doesn’t regret a single one. By the smug way Andrew refuses to do up the buttons on his jacket, Neil thinks he feels the same. It had taken a long time for Neil to be allowed to leave any kind of mark on Andrew, and the first few times Neil had been more freaked out by the bruise forming than proud. That was, until Andrew had had a bad day that had him convinced Neil was just as much of a pipedream as he always thought. Neil had prompted him to look in the mirror at the marks on his neck, proof of not only the existence of their relationship but how far Andrew had come with being able to trust Neil. It had helped, and while Andrew was still off for a few days, Neil caught him checking the marks in the mirror with an almost relieved look on his face.

“Will you let me do up the buttons?” Neil asked him finally, when Nicky’s pleading eyes had become too much to ignore.

“Yes.” Andrew said finally, turning to him. Neil buttoned his jacket with careful fingers, including the top button Andrew hadn’t even had done up before their make-out session. He stepped back to admire his handiwork and gulped at how the high neck accentuated the strong line of Andrew’s jaw and the colour was bringing out his eyes that were still slightly darkened with desire and- fuck.

They needed to leave. Now.

Nicky had asked Neil in rusty Spanish if him and Andrew had somehow managed to get into a fight without speaking seeing as Neil had immediately moved to sit in the passenger seat next to Nicky instead of in the back with Andrew. Why Neil had sat in the passenger seat was twofold, but the main reason was because he didn’t think he’d be able to make it all the way to Nicky’s ‘classy’ party without kissing Andrew again if he was sat so close to his not-boyfriend. He had no intention of saying this to Nicky though and instead went with the other reason; Andrew wanted to talk to Erik.

Nicky had gone immediately pale; looking in the back mirror to make sure Andrew wasn’t holding a knife to his husband’s throat. Andrew and Neil might have attended their wedding but, well, Nicky still remembered how Andrew reacted to Aaron’s girlfriends. To his utter shock Erik is grinning, almost shyly, his eyes wet with unshed tears, while Andrew very awkwardly pats him on the shoulder, looking like he wants to be literally anywhere else.

Nicky has to park the car he’s laughing so much, Neil not being much better.

“What, did, you, say, to, him?” Nicky wheezes, before cracking up again when he looks at Andrew’s face. Andrew shrugs.

“Thanks.” Erik’s smile hasn’t dimmed, even though the tears threatening to spill have mostly gone.

“I stand by what I said in that letter.” Erik says, in accented English. Andrew’s fist clenches and then relaxes.

“What letter?” Neil asks, feeling like he’s been left out of the loop, but when he glances to the side Nicky looks just as confused.

Erik’s eyebrows pinch together a little. “I sent Andrew a letter after Nicky told me what happened outside the club. Nicky’s a fighter, but not like that. Andrew saved his life, and therefore my world. Don’t get me wrong- you were still- Nicky how do you say the mean word for penis?” Nicky snorts, collapsing into giggles again.

“Dick?” He suggests, when he’s calmed down a little.

“Yes. A dick but you’re always welcome at our home. Just maybe when you were a teenager you would have been in the furthest away room.”

“Well into being an adult too.” Nicky chimes in, ignoring Andrew’s glare. “Let me guess, you finally thanked Erik for the offer?”

“He thanked me for helping you enough that he got a family.” Erik admonishes quietly. Neil blinked at Andrew, not expecting that was the reason he’d wanted to speak to Erik. Andrew swallowed and looked up at Nicky, who was staring back, misty-eyed and choked up.

“Oh.” Nicky said softly.

“I told your father about Drake to try and get his help in keeping Drake away from Aaron.” Nicky flinches. “He told me it must have been a misunderstanding, but he promised he wouldn’t let Cass foster any more children.” Andrew’s voice is carefully composed and blank as he continues. “I met one of the other children that your father let Drake attack. We talked. She said something that… I didn’t want you to think I hold any of your father’s misdeeds against you.”

“I can’t give you a hug from here.” Nicky says, eventually, tears spilling over.

“Why did you think I arranged this for the car journey?” Andrew deadpans.

“We’re not that far from the party.” Nicky says, determined, throwing the car into gear and driving them to the venue with the recklessness left over from his university days. He practically dives out of the car as soon as he’s put it into park and goes round to Andrew’s door.

Andrew winds down the window, unimpressed. Nicky holds out his hand like he’s passing something to Andrew but his hand is empty. Andrew glances at it and then Nicky’s face before slowly raising his own hand, wondering what the Hell Nicky’s doing. Nicky grabs his hand and squeezes it once, tightly, before letting go.

“Come on. I’ve got a surprise for you both.”

“I don’t like surprises.” Andrew says mulishly, ignoring the way his heart feels full and warm with how Nicky had somehow managed to give him the feeling of a hug without bypassing his personal space.

“Neither do I.” Aaron, from behind Nicky, holding hands with a slightly paler than normal Katelyn, agrees, staring darkly at Nicky.

Neil looks between them both and realises Nicky had invited both the twins without telling either of them the other was coming.

“Well shit.”

#My writing #my fic #TSD #aftg #tfc #Andreil #Same Neil Same #Andrew Minyard #Neil Josten #My OC Sam #My OC Eunoia #Nicky Hemmick #Erik Klose #Aaron Minyard

[kaytewrites]

the quick release || masquerada: songs and shadows || chapter 1

(a/n: i'd like to give a big ol shoutout to the masquerada discord for being absolute lads and a constant source of inspiration. y'all are awesome, bless y'all. the chapter number is a very rough prediction - i have about 8,000 words written, but i want to break it into manageable chunks and edit it. this is unbeta'd, by the way, so any and all mistakes are my own. feel free to leave comments/criticism!

work title from Red Sparrow by Mree.

please enjoy ♥)

also on AO3!

“So this is what Salting is like,” Tristan says, as if his vision isn’t tripled and he can feel his legs. The bridge seems impossibly long, so much longer than what he thought, and he dimly feels himself turn, puppeted by the need to keep moving, because if he stops he has a feeling that he’s never going to move again.

He feels something sigh in the back of his mind, and while he pushes himself ever further, feels the black creep in at the edge of his vision and his arm twitch at just the wrong moment, he spares a thought for what feels like something   else in his mind. He doesn’t get long, though, because there’s a sword coming down on his arm, and then there is no arm.

Pain like ice lances through his body, and he falls to the ground in a scream, convulsing. It’s the most terrified he’s ever been, and he wishes, for a brief moment, that someone will kill him quickly.

He has never been so lucky.

The despots who are left kick him to the edge of the broken bridge and then further, and he plummets to the dark water below. Just before he breaks the surface, he dreams he can hear someone screaming “No!”, and then all that’s left is ice.

He does not know how long passes. For a long time, all he knows is cold and sand and multiplicity - memories he does not know, cannot name, run behind his eyelids. He screams sometimes, when he wakes, but his throat grows raw and bloody and he cannot scream anymore.

Eventually, he tires and sleeps once more.

The world becomes warmth and light, at some point, but there are too many jagged edges in his mind, too many people speaking too many things he does and does not understand, so he does his best to try and ignore it all.

Tristan opens his eyes to a wooden roof. He blinks for a moment, two. Thinks: I should be dead; and then: Thank the Ages I’m not.

“Easy now,” comes a voice from his left, and he instinctively turns to face it, regretting the decision as it jostles the stump of his arm-

Oh. That. He winces sharply, and the voice chuckles.

Tristan recognizes the blue of the Sorelle before anything else - Kalden, his name was. He fights to get his tongue to cooperate, but when he tries to speak, there’s a jumble of vowels and not much else.

“Do you remember Salting?” Tristan nods, not trusting his voice. He remembers the bridge, and the burning cold, and -

He’s struck by violent tremors, then, and Kalden rests a hand on his arm to steady him. “Easy now, Valencio.”

It takes him a long moment to order his thoughts, longer still to try and steady his tongue enough to speak them. “H-h-how l-l-”

“How long have you been asleep?” Kalden finishes, and Tristan nods. When Kalden sighs instead of responding, Tristan’s heart clenched in his chest. Surely it can't have been that long…?

“A month, give or take. We found you a few weeks after the battle, under the river, surrounded in ice. Seems you saved yourself from death, even Salted.” Kalden sighs, and Tristan gets the distinct feeling that it's not the end of the story.

“You've woken several times, but this is the first you've been lucid enough to try and speak.” Kalden pats his complete arm. “We've had to call Vasco in every other time. He seemed to be the only one who could calm you down.”

The name throws him for a moment, until he remembers the dark-haired flute of a man who'd Salted himself for Cicero after -

Well.

After that .

Still, it makes him wonder - why would this Vasco, this man who'd saved Cicero when all Tristan had done was follow orders , spend his time helping him?

Kalden lets him think in silence. The man's presence serves to soothe, even with as little Tristan knows of him. At least he knows he's trustworthy.

“C-c-c-”

“Cicero?” Kalden supplies again, and Tristan nods once more. He has a feeling this will quickly get infuriating. There's already a headache buzzing behind his eyes, a swarm of thought like hornets in his brain.

“He shouldn't be busy today. Surprised he hasn't checked in on you more, to be honest.”

Tristan isn't surprised at all, but that doesn't mean it doesn't sting. At least Cicero is alive. He nods to Kalden, who stands and ambles to the door, poking his head out for a moment.

Tristan takes a moment to take stock of himself: his toes are responsive, confirmed by the wiggle at the end of the sheets. He clenches his left fist once, twice. He can feel his right fist move with it, even when he looks down and sees nothing past the elbow. Ice swims behind his eyes, and he does his best to breathe through it.

He must be lost in his reverie longer than he thinks, because he’s being jolted out of it what feels like seconds later by a soft touch and a gentle, “Tristan?”

“Good morning, hero, ” Tristan says, and at the confusion on Cicero’s face, he realizes he must not have spoken Ombrian.

“I think you said hello, right?” Tristan nods. “Hello to you, too, then. Still having trouble with the languages?” Another nod. “Well. You’re twice as smart as Vasco, so you shouldn’t have a problem-”

“I heard that!” comes a petulant yell from the doorway, and Vasco is there, seemingly from thin air. There’s a mischievous smile on his face, almost matched by the grin on Cicero’s. Airbrands, he thinks, exasperated.

“I think he’s just jealous that he doesn’t suddenly know an ancient language. ” Vasco’s voice flows smooth with the Dimenticate, and Tristan smiles despite himself. He finds his eyes drawn to him, all the languid grace of someone of the purple guild, and though Tristan has his own squabbles with that guild, it’s easy to put them aside. Especially since they stayed.

“Perhaps, ” Tristan responds, and the smile on Vasco’s face is blinding.

“- As I was saying,” Cicero continues, “you shouldn’t have trouble speaking again. You’re one of the strongest people I know, Tristan.” There’s something lurking under the surface of those words, a conversation that’s waiting to be had, and Tristan doesn’t know if he’ll ever be ready for it.

Still.

Cicero’s hand gives his remaining arm a firm grip at the elbow, and he smiles down at Tristan. He’s already exhausted, just by this minimal interaction, but he doesn’t want to rest. He wants to move around, get back up, back on his feet, be a part of what’s happening, but he knows if he tries there’s no doubt they’ll all just shove him back in a bed again.

“Good to see you back, old friend.”

“G-g-g-ood t-to s-s-s-”

He stops, impatiently patient, and Cicero waits like he’s got all the time in the world for Tristan to find his words. “Seeyoutoo,” he breathes out in a rush, and feels both humiliated and proud that he can speak. Cicero’s answering grin as he brushes past Vasco to leave only intensifies it -

Vasco. The man had slipped his mind for a moment, but now that he’s the only other living body in the room, it’s hard not to notice him. He walks over from the door, shutting it behind him, his walk making Tristan think of the cats that stalked the alleys of the Citte, hunting whatever poor rodent was unlucky enough to get in their way. He drops into the chair next to the bed in a single fluid motion, lounging like he’s been there for hours.

“So. Tristan Delzole.” There’s venom in his name, and he is remorseful enough to wince. “Back from the dead, in a fashion almost as miraculous as our d-dear Cicero’s.”

He feels like a viper staring down a mongoose. He’s not sure what he’s supposed to say, only feeling shock as he registers Vasco’s words. He lets the shock show on his face, hoping Vasco will answer his unspoken question.

“Not going to speak for you, Valencio. You’ll have to sp-speak for yourself.”

Damn. There goes that idea, then. “W-w-wha-t-t hap-p-p-pened t-t-t-t-”

Vasco waits for him to finish with an enigmatic smile, and it makes Tristan want to swat at the flower vase that’s sitting on the bedside table. Lucky that’s his missing arm’s side, then.

“T-t-t-o Cic-c-c-c-ero?” he finishes, and the little clap Vasco gives makes him scowl.

“Very good! And, as a reward, here’s your answer: he died.”

Tristan stops. Looks at Vasco. Waits for the sign that it’s all some terrible joke he’s being played by.

Vasco laughs sarcastically. “I wouldn’t joke about that, Delzole. I think the universe has given me the best possible punchline it could, T-t-t-t-t-ristan.” He plays up the stutter on his name, and now Tristan sees why Vasco is so hostile: Tristan is the reason he Salted in the first place. And now, Tristan is here, in the same place he was weeks ago, having Salted for the very same man. It’s a type of cruel irony, and one that Vasco is enjoying immensely, by the looks of it.

“G-g-g-g-lad yo-o-ou’re hav-v-v-v-ing-g-g f-fun.” His voice is more tired than he expects. He is more tired than he expects. He’s far, far too tired to parse exactly what all this means: that Cicero died but clearly didn’t stay dead, by the looks of it. That he, for all intents and purposes, should have followed the man into the dark.

“Only a little,” Vasco admits, and Tristan doesn’t believe it for a second. Instead, he turns on his side, the side that still possesses an arm, and pulls the sheets up around himself as if to sleep.

“Don’t be in-salt-ed, Valencio.” He groans at the pun, and then remembers he’s supposed to be sleeping. “I’ll have you speaking p-properly in no time. I did have a fine tutor, myself.” His tone gets distant, misty, but Tristan doesn’t bother turning to see if his expression matches. He hears Vasco stand, pushing the chair back from the bed, and walk to the door. There’s a pause then, as if he waits at the door, but Tristan shuffles more resolutely under the covers. He hears it click, swing, and click again, and Tristan is alone once more.

Almost as soon as he decides that sleeping might actually be a good option, he’s already dozing.

#masquerada: songs and shadows #masquerada #tristan delzole #vasco tessitore #masquerada songs and shadows #MY BOYS ;^; #ive been writing so much the past few days omg y'all #and its ALL FOR MASQUERADA #i blame the discord #and also myself #for being who i am in general #ill try n get the next one up tomorrow #or the day after #depends on how i feel #the quick release #the quick release chapter one