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#i hate that I fell for that fucking DnD post
chaoticbardlady99 · 3 months
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Lethal Woman: Chapter 8 (Astarion x GN! Reader)
Synopsis: You and Astarion have many misadventures while going back through the Blighted Village. Someone from your past makes a gruesome reappearance and reveals they are hunting Astarion. You and Astarion inadvertently confess to each other that there is, in fact, something between the two of you.
CW: Violence, gore, fighting, alcohol, Gnome racism (I don’t hate Gnomes I promise- just Dwarves because the All Hammer killed one of my favorite DND characters), torture, mentions of emotional, psychological, and physical abuse.
*you know the drill- not my pic. HMU if it’s yours so I can give credit!
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I already have Chapter 9 ready so I may be posting that today and then chapter 10 soon after 🙈🙈🙈
Likes, comments, and reblogs are greatly appreciated! Thank you for everyone who has been reading my little passion project!
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Tracing your steps back through the blighted village was more eventful than any of you anticipated.
For one- you and Astarion stumbled upon an Ogre and Bug Bear couple (literally) bumping uglies. Astarion had insisted that he open it and you were really hoping it wasn’t what you thought it was. Considering your luck- you weren’t surprised they were fucking, but then they tried to kill you. So you had to ruin the party while the rest of your companions explored the other abandoned buildings while you and Astarion were trying to avoid being covered in various bodily fluids.
Second, Karlach informs you she befriended three massive ogres and they said they’ll send their aid when you “toot this little horn thing”. Then she gave you the news that they don’t promise NOT to eat you. You quickly convinced her to give it to you- you love your tiefling kindred spirit, but her impulse control is terrible sometimes.
Arguably the third incident may be the worst. Karlach had rejoined the other group when Wyll called her over so it was just the two of you again. You had attempted to help a deep Gnome by killing the Goblins that were terrorizing him- much to Astarion’s dismay.
Well, when the Gnome told you to stop the damn thing- you went inside thinking it would be one lever. It was TWO and they said what they each did IN COMMON. YOU CAN’T READ COMMON! And when you asked Astarion to pull the right lever- he had a mischievous look in his eyes.
“Consider the right level pulled, Darling.”
Needless to say, the only positive of that event was the hysterical cackling that erupted from your lover’s mouth as he fell to the ground- unable to contain himself until at least 10 minutes after the Gnome you promised to rescue became airborne and gained his Gnomeish wings. You had looked at Astarion and leered at him playfully.
“You are so mean,” you said while castigating him, trying not to let your love of his genuine laughter get in the way of basic morals, “that is not what I asked you to do at all!”
You are so glad no one else was around for that. Wyll would have stroked out.
“Oh Darling,” he said, wiping the tears from his eyes, “I never claimed not to be and next time- maybe be more specific instead of saying ‘can you pull the right lever?’’”
You sighed while pinching the bridge of your nose, now struggling to contain your laughter. Like the absolute shit he is- he found a loophole.
“Well as long as you aren’t tying me up to a windmill and flinging me into the heavens-“
You didn’t even get to end your sentence because Astarion began crying and laughing again.
Within an hour of the impromptu funeral, your situationship and the interests of the others in the group had been tested when you, Gale, Astarion, and Lae’zel found the Necromancy of Thay. You had accidentally stumbled across the room while searching the caverns underneath the Blighted Village and finding a strange purple amethyst. The book had immediately taken to it and you don’t know what Astarion had seen from the book, but he refused to back down and hand it to Gale.
“No!” Astarion says indignantly, “you aren’t eating this one!”
“I need it to stabilize-“
“I could give a rat’s ass about how stable your stupid chest orb is,” Astarion says while glaring, “this is far too special for the likes of you to consume.”
“It’s obviously a very powerful tome. It would be beneficial for helping my condition,” Gale huffs and then they both look at you.
Oh no.
“State your case?” You say awkwardly, “unbiasedly?”
They both scowl and Astarion pouts at you, but the look in his eyes tells you he understands to some extent that you at least have to let both parties argue their side. You did have a full blown melt down one of the first nights of the journey over not being able to make everyone happy. Astarion rarely put up a fight with you unless it was important to him. You do this with everyone, not just them, but you worry your relationship with Astarion will be seen as the influencing factor.
Gale simply stated that it had powerful magic that he would like to consume. You did mention that you have multiple items for him in your pocket at any given time, but he is still insistent.
Then Astarion makes his case and it’s actually very difficult to argue with it. It’s a book of Necromancy and he is undead. What if the book had a cure for his condition? Or at least a way to diminish the side effects? The desperation in his voice had somehow cracked Gale’s resolve- you didn’t even have to make a decision.
“Fineeeeeeeee,” Gale drawls, “have the damn book- you bastard.”
Astarion looks far too pleased with himself.
Asshole, you think with a smile.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
You set up camp at your previous campsite near the Grove so that you can begin your journey into the Underdark.
The sun has already set and the moon shines brightly in the sky. You aren’t ready to go underground yet. You always miss the moon and stars.
You are sitting by the nearby river- enjoying the sounds of the roaring river with Karlach as the two of you try to sort out her love life.
“Soooo,” you raise your eyebrows at her, “is it going to be Wyll, Damon, or Shadowheart?”
“Ughhhh,” Karlach tips over and pretends to writhe in pain in the grass, “having choices sucks!!”
“Oh come on K,” you say teasingly, “you must have someone you are specifically gravitating towards.”
Karlach taps her chin and pretends to think. After a minute- she just looks at you and shrugs.
“I’ve got nothing.”
“Nothing? You spend so much time with Shadowheart and Wyll! Dammon I’d maybe understand being out of the running but what the hell man!”
“I know, I know,” Karlach sighs, “I mean you had Gale and Halsin up your ass- why Astarion?”
You are almost frozen by her question. Why does everyone but you notice when people fancy you?
Why did you choose Astarion? You know the answer, but you also don’t know how to phrase it without sounding like an emotionally clingy weirdo.
“Um well,” you cough awkwardly, “I guess I just really like who he is as a person. I think he’s really funny, intelligent, and whether he wants to admit it or not- he is kind, in his own way.”
You neglect to tell Karlach about the Gnome. You have a feeling she won’t love that whole mess.
“The first night we hung out and just talked was… it was like when I met Tessa for the first time. It was an instant- oh no I’d do anything for this person.”
You hug your knees and put your chin on them. You scrunch up your face and avoid her face.
“You look rather upset for someone who is horribly smitten.”
“I’m not upset- it’s just weird… feeling this way again,” you sigh heavily, “I really am a walking death trap though-specifically where lovers go to die. I probably should end it, right? To keep him safe?”
“I would let him make that decision if you are so worried about it,” Karlach waves her hands at you dismissively, “you like him-I believe he likes you. Fangs can make his own choices- we all know the risk of traveling with you as you know the risk of traveling with us.”
“That’s a good point.”
“Of course it is! I’m a genius!”
You roll your eyes, “So who’s it gonna be Karlach?”
“DAMMIT!”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The trek back to camp isn’t a long one, but you are ready to be in- well- a bed roll?
Astarion has found every excuse in the book to have you come and stay in his tent with him- except for just flat out asking you. It makes you quite giddy regardless.
One night he had even resorted to using the excuse that he needed your assistance and guidance in sharpening his throwing knives. You know what didn’t happen? Sharpening throwing knives.
The two of you had ended up tangled in each other’s embrace and talking until you eventually fell asleep. You woke up the next morning (entirely too early, the sun was barely rising) with him curled around you sleeping. You decided to go back to sleep- you weren’t ready to start your day. You’d rather stay here with Astarion.
You walk back to camp with a slight skip in your step- wondering if Astarion will want you to sleep in his tent with him again tonight. It had been a little less than a week since you had begun backtracking to the Underdark entrance and he had sought you out every night. You really REALLY hope he continues this trend.
Karlach is talking to you about the pros and cons of each partner- still entirely undecided- when you both hear a bone chilling cackle come from a tree in front of you. You both stop in your tracks immediately- Karlach reaches for the small blade she brought with her and you prepare your hidden daggers.
“Well if it isn’t good ole Corpse Eyes,” the mysterious woman says, “we thought you’d finally disappeared for good. Suppose we were wrong.”
You recognize the voice immediately as your fellow guild mate- Rinara. The two of you couldn’t stand each other. She wanted Dahlia to lavish her in all the attention and training she gave you- you just wanted to be left the fuck alone.
Rinara felt like you were a, “selfish fucking brat,” and had taken to calling you ‘Corpse Eyes’ because you had been entirely empty, rigid, and lifeless up until the last year. You were no better than a walking, mindless zombie to her.
Rinara steps around the corner and it takes every last bit of restraint you have not to let the horror show on your face.
Rinara was once a beautiful, almond haired half High Elf with a strong, healthy body. Now? Her skin is the color of Ash, her eyes are bloodlust red, her hair is coming out in clumps on her head, and her skin is peeling off like she has been sitting in an acid bath for a while now. Her left cheek is completely gone- revealing her teeth and gums.
“I was initially only here for the Spawn,” you feel your blood freeze as she smiles at you- all teeth and no light in her eyes, “but if Dahlia also had you…”
“You need to back the fuck off Rinara or-“
“Or what!? You’ll kill me?” She yells out hysterically, “I’m already fucking dead! You disappeared and so they sent fucking Dahlia to do your contract- a request from Obhark himself for the assassination of Lord Cazador Szarr.
“The woman struck a fucking deal with him- she’ll help get his prodigal son home and she’ll supply him with Deathbringers if she’ll be made his consort when he completes the ritual.
“I may not be able to control them,” she snarls, “but I do know that none of this would have happened if you hadn’t fucked off. This was supposed to be you! You are the one who should be tortured and violated! Not me! Not any of us!”
Huh, so your contract was to kill Cazador and because a Mindflayer kidnapped you- Dahlia took the contract and has gone rogue. How very convenient. This certainly tracks with the ridiculousness of the other circumstances you are dealing with. If it’s not devils, then it’s the Gith. If it’s not the gith- it’s some sadistic vampire. There is no winning in this group. Halsin is the only one that doesn’t seem to have an issue yet, but you are waiting for the other shoe to drop on that one.
That’s not important right now- knowing what the ritual is? That would be very valuable. You and Astarion have tried to figure out what the carvings into his back are and what they represent. You can read infernal so you know what it says, but it doesn’t make total sense.
Hoyc inferiu non iurare per igneu
Naec virba loquor
Eoai mundo muoat
This soul swears no oath by fire
Nor words does he speak
In the realm of death
You both has assumed it was just a way to prevent him from making contracts with devils to be free of Cazador, but now knowing there is a ‘ritual’ happening- you wonder if it’s an integral part of the ritual, the scars. If they are, then that means you are going to be doing some heavy duty bodyguard work- if Obarhk himself had requested it, then it must mean it’s not good.
Which also doesn’t surprise you given the circumstances.
“What ritual,” you say through clenched teeth.
Her smile is unsettling, “It’s a secret- all I know is that it’s going to make Master very very powerful.”
She looks at you with so much pain and anger. You are Dahlia’s favorite chew toy- you had been keeping her out of harm's way (unintentionally) this whole time and now that she has Dahlia’s attention- she seems to realize now why you didn’t want it in the first place.
Rinara looks borderline feral- you can see it now. Dahlia evidently doesn’t know how to complete the ritual or she used a different one entirely- that’s why Rinara is somewhere between a Deathbringer and a skeleton in the making. You bite back the bile as you watch a piece of her flesh roll off of her arms onto the ground below.
“She tricked all of us- requested every Assassins’ aid that was not a Deathbringer. Told us Obarkh is going to pick one of us for a special project based on our ‘performance,” she spits at the ground, “then she turned us into these things- only ten out of the hundred of us that went survived. Cazador’s blood and Dahlia’s black magic flows through my veins and I survived to tell the tale- I am rotting away. I wish I died.
“And now? I’m going to have a feast- at least I can enjoy one last full meal before I disappear completely,” she bares her canines at you, “I wonder how Half Drow tastes- maybe I should ask those pigs that ate your bitch mother.”
You don’t even have time to reply before Rinara is lunging at you and Karlach. You both deftly dodge the display of all consuming rage that Rinara throws into her movement.
Rinara has always been too blood thirsty to think logically during a fight and her recent transformation seems to have only made it worse- except now she’s stronger so she may be able to actually get some damage in- doubtful, but possible.
You and Karlach breakthrough the trees and you are barrelling towards camp. You are well-versed in unarmed hand to hand combat, but you can’t leave your life up to chance. You don’t know what Dahlia did to her, but it’s becoming clearer that it was not a Deathbringer ceremony that was performed. Her breathing behind you is ragged and rattling- the smell of her skin taints the air you breathe. She is here specifically for Astarion- you can’t afford to take any risk that could keep Rinara alive.
Everyone looks at you both in alarm as you grab your daggers from outside Lae’zel’s tent (she had offered to sharpen them and basically refused to let you say no). Karlach grabs her axe and yells frantically about some zombie woman who wants Astarion, but hates you and now she wants to consume you before taking Astarion back to Cazador. Oh and Dahlia is in on it too because apparently your disappearance had really caused some issues with a contract regarding killing the Vampire Lord.
You barely see the footsteps of the invisible person running up to you in time to dodge and you hear the scream of frustration rip through the air.
You make a wild guess regarding her location and throw a knife while she screams and cusses at you.
“I’ve been waiting to rip you piece by FUCKING piece since I met -“ she is cut off by a screech and revealing herself to your companions.
You had most definitely hit her- your blade stuck in her left eyeball. Rinara looks at you- significantly more pissed off than she was even a moment before-, rips out her eyeball using the throwing knife, discards it, and begins circling you.
Rinara is not bright and she lacks impulse control. She can remain in control for maybe only four or five minutes at a time- which would explain why hearing your voice is probably what set her off Astarion’s path. The chase bought you more time since Rinara loves a good hunt- you are almost positive you can break her down quickly and because she’ll be chasing a high, she’ll make stupid mistakes. Rinara also loves to talk and taunt her targets which infuriates you, but at least it’s a full proof trap for her.
“You don’t always need to be stronger than your opponents,” Dahlia says as she watches you get the shit kicked out of you by a hired mercenary, “you just need to be faster, smarter, and calm- let them dig their own grave.”
Your companions are clambering for their weapons and you send out a “don’t move” message telepathically. Astarion protests hit your brain like a wave- all you feel is fear. You tell him to trust you and you allow him to be privy to your thoughts and actions. You know exactly how quickly this will end after your next words and you don’t need her getting spooked.
“You know, Rinara, I’m not surprised Dahlia tricked you or that you were dense enough to drink Cazador’s blood- it certainly wouldn’t be the dumbest thing you’ve fallen for,” you smile at her, “I might actually feel sorry for you this time.”
You see your companions all staring at you as Rinara’s footsteps end just to the right of their line of sight. You can feel Astarion’s gaze burning into you and you have to focus hard on disconnecting. Embarrassment will not be helpful.
“What did you just say to me, you little wretch?”
“Oh sorry,” you clear your throat, “I SAID- I THINK YOU ARE REALLY REALLY FUCKING DUMB AND I’M NOT SURPRISED YOU GOT DOOPED.”
The sound of Astarion’s laughter fills your head- you fight to stop the smile that is threatening to cross your lips. The rage bristling off of her is so wonderful. You feel a dopamine rush over the way her teeth are chattering in anger, the way her eyes are paranoid and unfocused as she looks at you. You have gotten under her skin and now it’s your turn to be the predator.
“I’m going to enjoy bringing your skeleton back to Dahlia after I pick you clean,” she roars, “I’m going to enjoy watching that stupid Spawn finally fulfill his-“
“Do you ever shut up or ?” You ask, snorts and laughter coming from your companions, “I feel like I left that at a really good spot and we should just move forward or whatever?”
Oh the look of embarrassment, shame, and fury on her face- how you wish Lucia could have seen it. She could not stand Rinara and the way her face twists with the sour emotions is a wonderful sight to behold.
“I’ve changed my mind. I won’t eat you, I’ll just bring you back to Dahlia like the fucking disobedient thing you are! You” she spits, “are nothing, but a walking Corpse. You should have stayed dead- I liked you better that way. If Dahlia can do it once- I’m sure she’ll love doing it again. You’ll be tolerable and compliant soon enough.”
The cackle that leaves your lips surprises you.
“You always have been so fucking stupid, Rinara,” you hiss, “if you want Dahlia to love you so fucking bad you can have her. The price of her ‘love’ is hardly worth it- the woman is madder than that weird old guy next to brothel on 8th.”
“YOU ARE UNGRATEFUL!” Rinara screeches, “I WILL TEACH YOU A LESSON!”
You could not roll your eyes further back into your head. It should be easier to leave the Nightmasks. The idiocy is putting years on your immortal life.
“Doubtful, but you are welcome to try.”
Rinara lunges fast, but you are definitely faster. You imagine having intact skin helps. Rinara is hitting you with attack after attack and you just focus on dodging, getting in close for a quick hit, then back to dodging. She is the one dying, not you- let her do all the hard work.
Whatever spell Dahlia used did not promote Stamina or basic hygiene- unfortunately. Rinara is breathing hard and is already losing power in her hits.
This goes on for a couple minutes before Rinara does what she always does- lifting up her back foot ever so slightly so that she can extend her blade farther. You don’t know how many times you have to trip her for this mistake before she realizes she’s her own worst enemy.
You move out of the way and use her momentum- with a swift kick of your foot- Rinara went skidding across the dirt. Her blade is stuck in the ground near you almost perfectly upright. You walk over to it and you push it even further into the ground then stand directly in front of it, cutting off her line of sight to it.
“If you want your cheap ass sword back- come get it.”
It’s actually a very expensive sword and Rinara is very very defensive about it.
“YOU-“
Rinara doesn’t even allow herself to finish her sentence before she flings a massive bolt of lightning your way. Your companions are screaming as you run towards the lightning, but you know what you are doing. You dive just below the electric crackling in the air and roll back onto your feet. You watch as Rinara turns to you before she catches the blue bolt coming back towards her.
You didn’t always like to use your enemies weapons for their intended purposes, but when in need of a reflective surface- you can never go wrong with a sword.
Rinara goes flying towards the campfire- the smell of rotting burnt flesh fills your nose as she cries out in pain with every spark of lightning that jolts through her.
You take your time to walk back to the campfire, walking over with her sword in hand, and look through your pack- of course you left your Holy Water at home. At least you have wine- you pop it open and begin to drink. Rinara is still writhing on the ground and her flesh is even worse off than it was before. This really isn’t your favorite way to spend any evening- killing your formal frenemy because there is no rehabbing this version of her. It is all the worst of Rinara and then some.
You sigh heavily and walk over to her. You cock your head at her, leaning on her sword for support, and take another long sip of the wine. Rinara’s irritation is growing, but her body is practically in tatters now. She lashes out at you with clawed hands- you meet both of her wrists with her own sword- deftly cleaving them off her. The mortified scream that leaves Rinara’s mouth as she begins trying to back away from you. You smile at her with your vampiric stare- intensifying Rinara’s growing fear.
“Dahlia did a shit job training you. Didn’t she tell you the rules ? Use it and you lose it,” you take another swig.
“Hells Soldier!”
“Hey-“ you take an even bigger sip, “I’ve been waiting to take this one out back and put her out of her misery for five years. She’s obsessed with Dahlia of all fucking people and so she terrorizes me by interfering with my contracts! I will be enjoying my moment- thank you very much.”
“That’s not what I meant- you ‘use it, you lose it?’ That can’t possibly-“
You roll up your sleeves and the silence around the campfire is deafening as everyone stares- you should have probably not done that.
Blunt, deep lines around your wrist, old and faded into the skin. There are similar markings on your elbows right at your elbows.
“The reversal process involves blood magic and necromancy- if you were wondering. Oh and yes it does hurt, yes I have more, and no I won’t be talking about it.”
Rinara kicks you weakly- your shoulders slump. Is she serious right now? Consistency is key so off goes the foot. Rinara’s pained wailing echoes in the air.
One last giant swig and you feel less freaked out and embarrassed by your sudden onslaught of bravado. You hold out the bottle to Astarion who happily takes it and begins to drink from it- you can feel his eyes melting your skin and you are almost afraid to see the emotions in them.
You grab Rinara by the back of her collar and her wriggling barely stops you from being able to easily drag her along the forest floor all the way back to the river. Hopefully she’s close to the same concept as a vampire, but also Rinara can’t swim.
“Well my dumb friend,” you say with a snort, “this is where we part ways- permanently. I hope the fish like their dinner and you’ll stop talking so Goddamn much in fights during battles. This was way too much work for how fucking weak you are.”
Rinara is screaming and kicking. You let her go and walk about five feet in front of her- putting her between yourself and the river. You wave and smile like you are saying goodbye to a loved relative- followed with a middle finger.
You use a simple Push cantrip and watch with a sort of sick satisfaction as Rinara begins to burn up, steam coming up from the water as she is dragged away by the current.
“Well Roo, I would say that may be some of your finest work yet,” you say, giving yourself a pat on the back.
You turn around and see all of your companions. You suddenly feel ill and self-conscious. Wyll looks slightly horrified, Halsin is just unreadable, Karlach is giving you a thumbs up like it’s your first day of school, Shadowheart is nodding her head impressed, Gale is shocked, and Lae’zel is slowly clapping.
Astarion though? He’s looking at you with a mixture of gratitude, warmth, and pride. You try your best to avoid his gaze as you put your hand on your hip and lift an eyebrow at them. You might actually keel over from adoration if you look at him.
“What are you guys even doing? Good Gods you people are far too supportive and clingy,” you say trying to hide your smile and then look at Gale, “don’t you have something cooking?”
“SHIT!”
All of your companions turn around to leave, but Astarion begins to walk towards you and you feel like your heart might explode in your chest. You see Karlach celebrate behind him- giving you a thumbs up again and you shake your head at her.
You just fought a woman and barely broke a sweat, but the minute he even looks at you- you feel like your whole body is on fire. Strong hands, grab you by the hips and pull you into his chest before he then moves them to your face. Astarion cups your face in his hands and is looking in your eyes.
“You are a sight to behold, Darling,” he says breathlessly, “that was the most beautiful display of violence I’ve ever seen.”
“ I- uh,” you choke back the surprise, “just another day… on the job?”
“Oh well, let me thank you for your wonderful work then.”
“You don’t need to-“
Astarion presses his lips to yours and swallows up the words you were going to say. The kiss is rough, but slow and needy- hungry even. It makes you feel like he is yearning for you- worshiping you in a temple.
When you pull back for air, you see how his eyes are blown wide with lust and another emotion you can’t quite decipher- it’s positive, but also a little fearful.
“Stay with me?” He asks, his voice uncharacteristically shy, “in my tent?”
“Tonight?”
“Yes,” he pauses before saying quietly, “and every night after that too- if you want.”
You let a huge smile spread across your face and his nervous expression appears to melt away almost instantly. You step back from him and curtsy.
“I, a simple camp urchin, would be honored to stay in your tent with you, Lord Acunin,” you say teasingly.
Astarion rolls his eyes with a lopsided smile, but puts his arm out to you. You loop your arm through his as if you are two normal nobles courting each other.
“First we must feed you, my Lady,” Astarion states in an overly proper tone, you giggle and you see the corners of his mouth twitch further at the sound, “I must make sure my lover is well taken care of after all.”
You are hot from head to toe and Astarion absolutely has to notice. If he does, he doesn’t say anything, but you hope he hears how alive he makes your heart sound.
*************************************
“Never have I ever…” Gale says, “worked for a Devil.”
Astarion watches as Karlach and Wyll begrudgingly take a large sip of their choice of liquor. You are leaning your head on Astarion’s shoulder- the alcohol making you slightly more affectionate in public. Astarion would be lying if he said it didn’t give him a thrill to be this close to you- even if PDA might not be his thing.
“Never have I ever- been a vampire,” Karlach says slyly.
Both you and Astarion grumble- taking a shot.
“Never have I ever,” Shadowheart says, tapping her finger on her knee , “lit a building on fire.”
Every single one of you but Halsin takes a shot. Shadowheart giggles and then also takes a shot.
“Shadowheart,” Karlach says and looks at her with confusion, “you aren’t supposed to drink if you haven’t done it?”
“Oh no- I have,” Shadowheart slurs, “I just wanted another shot and couldn’t think of anything else.”
Karlach begins to chastise Shadowheart playfully- commenting on how she is already way too messed up and Shadowheart saying, “I am a CLERIC I can cure my own hangovers!”
Everybody chuckles and returns to the game- it’s Wyll’s turn. Wyll regards you and cocks an eyebrow.
“Hmmmmm…. Never have I ever killed a Liche.”
You snort and take a shot.
“NO!” Wyll exclaims, “I thought I had you that time.”
“Mhmmmmm,” you hum in acknowledgement, “I think I was- 15?”
Wyll is sitting on the edge of his seat- actually everyone is. Astarion watches you squirm in recognization that everyone wants to hear your story.
“Oh it was just a complete accident,” you say with a fake enthusiasm, “I was exploring a nearby temple during a contract and just happened to run into one.”
Everyone bought the story- Wyll comments that you have terrible luck which you laugh at. He has no idea.
Astarion already knows this story- Dahlia had dragged your halfway dead body all the way into an abandoned castle off the coast of the Sea of Stars, resurrected you, and then shackled your feet and hands together. She later hid the key for the shackles somewhere in the castle for you to find.
It was an exercise- a sadistic one. You had pissed her off the night before because you had refused to let you cut your hair. She had cut it all off, every last inch, after she had beaten you into submission by quite literally killing you. This was the second part of your punishment.
She told you that there is a Lich hiding in the castle and her expectations of you were high- you are not to receive even a single scratch and the Lich needed to be dead. The punishment for not meeting these expectations? You would go without eating for a week and you would be locked away in the basement- not allowed to leave or see Tessa. You killed the lich, but you were horrifically mauled in the process because you couldn’t find the key. It was a long week in that dark, cold, horrible basement. Dahlia had also hired Abdirak to reinforce how horribly you fucked up.
Astarion absentmindedly puts his hand on yours and gives it a reassuring squeeze- trying to disrupt the spiral you’re evidently about to go into. You look over at him and Astarion feels like he could melt. You look at him with so much gratitude and as if he is the most important person who has ever walked this earth. Gods he has really really fucked up his plan.
The game has continued to go on without the two of you and suddenly everyone is staring at you both.
“Did you both not hear the question?” Karlach snorts while wiggling her eyebrows.
You both look at each other and you laugh awkwardly before turning back to Karlach.
“Repeat?”
“Never have I ever felt romantically towards any form of vampire,” Wyll states, “Gale, Lae’zel, and Shadowheart have had their shots already- so now we are just waiting on you two.”
Astarion doesn’t even have to think about it- which could partially be because of how intoxicated he currently is- obviously he is taking a shot.
He pours some more alcohol in yours and his glasses- then looks at you. This is about when his drunk mind realizes that he is basically stating, “I like you, but do you like me?” With his actions and that there is still the possibility that you could reject him. He did fling a Gnome you were trying to save into the air today- not the most attractive thing a person can do. (It was kind of worth it though).
“Cheers?” He says with a smirk on his face- hoping his eyes don’t reflect how nervous he feels.
You squint your eyes at him playfully before clinking the glass, “Cheers.”
Karlach claps her hands excitedly and Wyll’s eyes are sparkling while he looks at her. Shadowheart also smiles widely at the display of support.
You and Astarion have been speculating who Karlach is going to end up with for days now- Dammon is still a possibility, but you both have decided that it’s least likely. Astarion thinks Shadowheart and you think it will be Wyll. There’s 100 gold on the line for whoever wins. If it ends up being Dammon though? Well you will both drink and commiserate together about how blind you had both been.
It’s your turn now and you look directly at Astarion, he isn’t sure how he feels about the mischievous glint in your eyes. Then you say your sentence out loud and he feels a laugh bubble up from his lungs.
“Never have I ever flung a Deep Gnome from a windmill.”
Astarion falls off the log- laughing just as hard as he had done earlier- as you regale the group with the story. Gods it had been such a wonderful experience- the look on your face had been priceless. He also silently appreciated that you were far more impressed with his loophole than upset about his actions.
The goodies of the group castigate him, but they are all laughing equally as hard as the both of you are. You paint a very vivid picture using hand gestures and words that Astarion has been teaching you in common to describe things. He relishes in how lovely and lively you are- Alcohol is such a wonderful thing. He can just enjoy you without that horrible nagging in his head that even being involved with you anymore is a bad idea.
When Astarion finally finishes laughing- he happily takes another shot.
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notgwene · 4 months
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To add to your retail AU-
Fred worked right next door to the store and was really close with Tubbo and Tubbo fell in love with him. The store ended up moving so now Tubbo sulks about it, especially when he sees Pac and Fit flirting. His background is also him and Fred.
Fred is the son of the store owner so he just moved with the building. Now instead of working next door, they work a couple of blocks from each other. Tubbo always acts like he moved continents.
Other members would come by and just talk for a while.
Bolas is just that one dnd group that hangs around after closing hours. Phil doesn’t do shit about it, he’ll actually join in with them every once in a while.
Bad would often yell at Tubbo for his mannerisms, like cursing while talking to a customer or back talking.
Pierre is the tech support that everyone calls if Tubbo doesn’t know how to fix it himself or makes it worse.
If someone is yelling at an employee and no one can calm them down and Phil is needed, he kills them with kindness. If someone yells at one of the kids though, he gets pissed.
The island is frequently visited. People will stay for a few months or less but most leave rather quickly. It’s small enough to where everyone knows everyone, but everyone knows the islanders as they’re own group.
The Islanders are one big family and are willing to do a lot for each other. If you argue cross one of them, you cross all of them.
The Federation is a government system and Cucurucho is the mayor
The eggs are the islanders children still. They came from an overcrowded orphanage so they took them in.
This is it! For now maybe- idk.
I like, I like, tho I don't follow all
I had imagined Bolas as like, the employees of the other store Philza owns across the city. All the employees are insanely terrible at their jobs but somehow always outperform the morning crew's store especially during holiday season and Tubbo absolutely hates them for it. He has a whole one sided rivalry with them and comes up with crazy plans to win against them while most of their stategy is just "Let's figure out a way to leave early".
I don't see a reason why the kids would be at the store, but I like Pierre being the tech support. I think Bad would be a former Karen turned regular after Philza won against him during a passive-aggressiveness-kindness-disguised contest. He starts going there out of pettiness, but actually becomes friendly with the employees over time and it is close to his job (daycare worker) so it's easy for him to buy stuff on the way home. Sometimes Tubbo convinces him to go terrorize Bolas when he finds out Bad has an errand across town and he does it for discounts.
I also like the idea of the Fred being from a nearby shop, maybe a flower shop?
The Federation would 100% the heads of the Retailers Association, always in contact with the government, observing and making sure the policies are being followed. Fit gets a spot in it for his strong presence in the union and all he does is cover up for all the things his store fails to comply on. Cellbit gets a place in it too, because he used to be a general manager at another big retail company, but he fucking hates it and wants to leave so he has been trying to get kicked out by leaking shit he shouldn't and it somehow doesn't work because no one figures out it was him.
I really like your ideas, this is just what my brain cooked since I made that post lmao
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cloudmancy · 16 days
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i just finished acofaf and i havent finished the last few adventuring partys yet but it kind of makes me feel crazy how no one has brought up wuvvy clearly being in love with rue. especially in rue & wuvvy's last conversation theres never any indication of rue acknowledging the depth of wuvvy's feelings for them or the sacrifices she's made to be with them and its kind of baffling to me cause rue must know how wuvvy feels about them right? she left her court for them! which is literally the same exact grand gesture hob makes for rue to prove his "love" for them. except wuvvy didnt need to be persuaded. and i was so surprised how in the adventuring parties nobody rlly talked much about wuvvy's love for rue, like emily mentioned it a few times but it felt to me like this elephant in the room that no one was talking about. it's funny cause most/all of the pcs this season were queer but wuvvy comes across kind of like a "scorned lesbian" character where the lack of acknowledgement of her grievances belittles them so as to communicate that they are not legitimate and her feelings are petty and immature. which is obviously a trope intended to preserve a heteronormative and misogynistic status quo. sorry if this is kind of rambly and/or incoherent (i have the flu) i just like your posts and fanart of wuvvy and i wanted to share my thoughts!
OHHHH BOY... you're in for a treat because they do talk about wuvvy in acofaf APs 9-10. it's bittersweet because it's very much an acknowledgement of 'yeah she had feelings for rue and it's a bit fucked up what happened to her'. I cannot blame oscar for wanting to go for a PC/PC romance with brennan's character rather than the NPC but you're right... it really does bother me the way the fandom treated her as a bitch, making really aggressively violent posts when she burned hob's letter, oscar not really even acknowledging in or out of character how much rue meant to her... some of it has to be attributed to how short the adventuring parties are and how much of it was spent talking about ruehob (I have my own opinions about how baffling it was that ruehob was meta'd and built up so much entirely OUTSIDE of the campaign, the main content of the show? but that's a post for another time)
I don't think aabria, brennan, oscar, or anybody else actually meant to contribute to a lesbophobic trope or stereotype; aabria was playing a thoroughly cool character and the circumstances surrounding her just happened to end up this way. it's a game of dnd in the end where a pc/pc romance is more interesting roleplay wise and that is how the cards fell in terms of npc romance. it would not kill people to acknowledge wuvvy and how badly rue hurt her though 😞 I have a huge problem with the 'ruehob together forever, happy ending' part of acofaf & its fandom because of how little the fandom seems to remember or care about her... I do think that is a pattern of misogyny especially when you have many many fans who violently hate wuvvy for getting in the way of their (already canon) ship
I will never stop talking about wuvvy though. [slaps her horns] this satyr can contain so much devotion and angst in her
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gin-draws · 1 year
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Hey! Sorry I didn't see these forever, but it's totally something I've been meaning to address and I just haven't had words for a while.
Firstly: fuck terfs.
The rest is long so it’s under the cut:
Having JKR alive and running around spewing hate has definitely not helped my love for the series. She uses money that we gave her to fuel her hateful bullshit, and to actively attack not just the trans community, but whatever issue she disagrees with in the UK. It hurts as someone that grew up putting myself into this world to have the creator openly using her power and influence to go after other marginalized people.
Even before JKR started openly being horrible I had worked hard to overlook my discomfort with stuff in the series (there's a lot of problematic stuff that 10 year old me could overlook but 32 year old me can't lol). A big part of me getting past that was just making her world my own through my art. I loved the community I found in the fandom on tumblr. I loved the people I could interact with over a shared interest and something that brought us all joy. Especially other creators that made the world their own.
Over time though, engagement kind of fell off on tumblr. (Where the reblogs at.. am I right?) And slowly I went from being able to ignore negative comments here and there because of the good interactions, to being worn out by the growing overwhelming negativity. People act like they can just demand things from creators and we somehow owe it to fandom to do what they specifically want.
Want that character to be white? Draw them yourself.
(Making characters bipoc brings out a shocking amount of anger from people for no reason but racism...)
I had tried to make the story I'd grown up loving into something that made me happy. I made the cast diverse because I grew up surrounded by all sorts of cultures and religions and it made my world a lot bigger. I sometimes played around with my own gender identity through my art, and it brought me a lot of joy. (Sirius was a fun playground for getting through a LOT of my own shit). But it brought out a lot of vitriol, and over time I just got tired of it.
I mostly stopped posting art because now it's something I do for me. My own characters and stories where nobody could send anon messages telling me "x should actually be white because---" I put a lot of time and love into my work and if it doesn't make me happy, I lose interest. Doesn’t mean I stopped drawing, it’s just not fanart as much anymore.
(I draw a LOT lol)
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I miss the story I grew up loving a lot. But I can't actively put money in JKR's pockets, which distanced me from the series. A lot of my interaction with the community became a little too negative to deal with. And so over time I drifted away. It makes me sad to have strayed from that world, but it just became a little too toxic for me.
It still brings me a lot of joy seeing the positive comments, and people appreciating my old art means a lot. But I kind of moved on for myself, and now I don't have to worry about hateful comments about canon and race when I post my dnd characters lol.
I’ll probably be moving hp art I’m not happy with anymore over to my old hp side blog instead of deleting it, but as an artist and creative I’ve moved on to my own characters and stories. (If I open up commissions and people liked my interpretations of the characters, I would love nothing more than to draw desi Harry, or black Hermione, or Sirius not giving a fuck about gender. Lmao)
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2braincellslz · 1 year
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Hc's of the ST boys
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Includes: Billy hargrove, Jonathan Byers, Eddie Munson. (I did Steve in a different post I think)
If you dont agree with me, cope.
Billy hargrove
Man is a closeted home of sexual.
It's gotten to the point where he rejects anything remotely gay just so people dont get any suspicious.
He loves Queen but wont admit it.
Definitely has a skin care routine.
(Drop the routine shawty)
Has never had to deal with zits or acne ever in his life.
He has been hunting once and he fucking hated it
He wants another Tattoo but he wont get one while living with Neil because the first time Neil blew up on him.
Treats his car better the anything else.
Def a cat person.
Hes a big spoon. He likes to be the one holding his partner close.
Likes to listen to music while he cuddles.
His love language is words of affirmation and physical affection.
He walks with his arm around his partner at all times. Wether it be around their waist or shoulders, or what not.
Hates giving gifts. He hates the struggle of trying to figure out what people want. Christmas is hell for him.
Hes a horror movie enjoyer.
Though he plays Basketball, he also really likes baseball.
Hates coffee shops for some reson.
Hes scared of clowns.
If there is a clown running at him, he would throw his partner in the way so he could get away.
He has a major sweet tooth. He loves chocolate.
He wants kids but gets really anxious at the thought because he dosnt want to become Neil.
Probably has a conceal carry license.
Has the high score on one of the arcade games that max frequents. No one can beat it.
Max gave him a surfboard shaped skateboard and he put it up on his wall.
He tried skating once and fell and hit his chin on this side of the road.
He never tried skating after that.
We all know that Billy skips. The school has to call home every time a student skips. So he rushes home and picks up the phone before his dad finds out.
Hes never in class but he is ace-ing all his classes.
He would definitely like Game Of Thrones.
Gets stoned every weekend with Eddie.
Jonathan Byers
He tried to play DnD with his broth once but he just couldn't understand the game.
He played a half-orc bard though.
Hes a great cook and he loves cook for others.
Can we just all admit Jonathan is a great father figure. I mean, we all know Steve is the mom, but come on.
Unlike Billy, he loves Gift Giving. Especially foods and sweets.
Valentines with him in spectacular. He treats you like a prince/princess/royal.
Is not a big reader. He will read if he has to but he rather not.
Has said "I dont know how to read." Before.
He likes the rain. Like, really likes the rain. He likes how calming it is.
He is one dehydrated bitch.
Because he is dehydrated he has to deal with all the consequences. Dry skin, chapped lips, headache, ache, so on and so on.
Because his lips are so chapped, he also has a major problem of licking them raw.
He likes to spend money on his partner but not himself. Even though he dosnt have a lot of money, he still get meaningful gifts.
Maybe he should teach Billy how to give gifts.
He believes is Ghots, Witches, and other stuff. After everything hes seen, he basically believes everything.
Love language is gift giving and physical affection.
He likes to have his partners head on his chest while they cuddle.
A very important part of being in a relationship to him is being able to play with someones hair while they cuddle.
Also likes listening to music while cuddling.
Shit as Spanish. RIP his grade.
He can sleep anywhere. His bed, class, the car, movie theater.
He just sleeps a lot.
He fell asleep while playing DnD by accident.
Probably has a pillow and a blanket in the back seat of his car.
Also probably carrys a med kit on the back of his car now.
Seems like the type to name his car. Probably dickTurbon or something like that.
Definitely likes Steely Dan.
Gets high with Billy and Eddie on friday nights.
I personally reject season 4 Johnathan so take that as you will.
Eddie Munson
A class fruity. Not sure what flavor but his is.
Has probably played some kind of classical instrument. Cello most likely.
If he did, he quit about a year or two in.
Shit in school as we all know.
Only really was good at English. He loves reading.
He likes reading to his partners. Especially while he cuddles with them.
He likes to have them resting on his chest as he reads them Lord Of The Rings, The Hobbit, other nerdy books.
He loves subs.
"The world can suck a egg!"
He loves to dance shimmy and shake.
Definitely would loved video games like RDR2, skyrim, the Sims, all that jazz.
Can not stand horror movies. Cant do zombies, slashers, thrillers, nothing. Can do it. Not at all.
He can only really stand Halloween.
Infact, he really likes Halloween.
His love language is words of affirmation and gifts.
Just like Jonathan, hes also really good at gifting.
Great listener (even if he dosnt seem like it) it's one of the main resons hes good at gift giving.
Number one gift to give is mixtapes. Obviously.
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black-suns-rim · 8 months
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Oc interactions
I know I've done a post similar to this in the past, but why not make another post like it again since I can't sleep and I have some funny oc stuff floating around in my head? These might be longer interactions, but not long enough to make a short story out of them.
And of course I have to start it off with everyone's favorite old fart prune, Peepa Roach
Peepa: -staring at the wall-
Kahn'shu: -looks at the wall, looks at him, looks back that the wall-
Kahn'shu: -disapointment in his voice- why?..
Peepa: because it's funny and this place has been dull. Plastering one of these on the wall gets people's attention. I don't care what kind of attention, what I do care though is their expression appon seeing it
Kahn'shu: -under his breath- you're a literal child...
Peepa: huh?! You saying something about me?!
Kahn'shu: -puts his hand on his shoulder- I said its time for breakfast
Peepa: ooo, can't wait to throw up the disgusting sluge they have for me this time
Black Momba: get up. I didn't hit you that hard
Nomad: -being dramatic to get out of sparing- I can't breathe! Everything hurts! I feel so cold!
Black Momba: -not falling for his dramatization- I will make sure everything hurts before your training is over. Then I will give you an ice bath and make you stay in it till all the ice has melted. I'll also have to tell Kub that you'd be too much in pain to join him today.
Nomad: -gets up- nevermind, I'm suddenly better
Black Momba: -smacks him on the back of his head-
Nomad: ow! What was that for?!
Black Momba: your dramatic ass.
Nomad: -sighs- with all due respect mom, why do I even have to train if I'm better than everyone in my age group? Better than most of my teachers?
Black Momba: until you beat me in training, you still have a lot to learn. It is one thing to be better than everyone else, but it is another thing to be arrogant because you are better than everyone else. -swings her combistick at him-
Nomad: -dodges. Runs at her with his combistick and jumps in the air to attack her-
Black Momba: -punches him in the gut-
Vic: no! No, no! We won't be doing that!
Nomad: -falls to the ground, gasping for air-
Black Momba: arrogance gets you killed. That is many young hunter's fatal mistake. The mistake of my brothers during our chiva... do not be arrogant. Keep yourself humble or you will get humbled either by me or someone else. -grabs Nomad by the arm and pulls him up to his feet-
Nomad: -coughing- noted...
《Dnd party hiking up a mountain train, being led by an elf》
Jas: you know, I could just push that elf off of the ledge right now with my telekinesis and make it look like he just slipped and fell to his death...
Raakz: that is horrible!... Do it.
Vic: no! No, no! We won't be doing that!
Jas: why? That light skin over there spat on me and he is an elf. No one cares about elves.
Vic: ....
Vic: are you racist towards elves?...
Jas: yeah. You just noticed? I fucking hate those pricks. They think they're so much better than everyone else.
Raakz: plus, that elf cheated us out of 50 pieces of good last night.
Jas: yeah, that too. Blamed us for cheating and had us kicked out of the tavern last night
Vic: is that why you guys were at the inn so late?... you know what, I don't think I even want to know what you two were up to knowing you.
Jas: -sighs- oh to see that elf fall to his death...
Raakz: how much you wanna bet that I can get him distracted enough to fall?
Jas: mmmh... 60 gold.
Raakz: alright
Vic: no!
Puffball: -is flying around the realms of sky, looking for a place to nap-
Puffball: -finds a nice place in the vault of knowledge and lays on a pile of memory lanterns-
Ziyigiho: -retuens to his studying space and finds puffball sleeping on his research-
Ziyigiho: ...you got to be kidding me... hey! Small one, get off of my lanterns. -nudges puffball-
Puffball: -continues sleeping-
Ziyigiho: -sighs and mutters- I swear it's always the chibis that sleep in the most uncomfortable places... -moves puffball off of the lanterns and places them on a stone beach close by-
Puffball: -wakes up and looks at Ziyigiho-
Ziyigiho: no... don't do it, I know what you're thinking. Don't do it!
Puffball: -starts honking like crazy-
Nomad and Raakz belongs to @thenomadclan
Vic belongs to @queenlybeastly
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drksd3 · 9 months
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so I hear you're a tombur main w a lot of septicinnit posts reblogged huh? I have an angsty as fuck THOUGHT for you fresh from the oven
In case you didn't know, Wilbur, on STREAM, complained that if he tried to get Tommy to play DND with him, he'd probably get bored and "fuck off to go hangout with jack septic eye." /Gen /srs
Now, I'm not SAYING Wilbur is jealously watching from the sidelines while septicinnit happens because "what the fuck this isn't fair I've known him longer and I ALSO can play instruments and make penis jokes >:( and yet I'm the brother figure and he gets to be the love interest????" BUT....I mean..... Like.....
Option one:
Wilbur ends up being a total bitch about it and confronting Tommy all incel-like and then Tommy, betrayed and hurt, goes to Jack for comfort. Jack comforts and protects him, and also kicks Wilbur's ass (or just yells at him) for being a peice of shit. It just makes Wilbur more and more bitter, and he doubles down on his incel arc the more things continue.
Jack and Tommy end up happy together and healthy and shit and Wilbur just cannot STAND it
Option two:
Whole ass "satisfied" Hamilton thing. Wilbur is Angelica Schuyler here. He stands by and supports them and even acts like a wingman, meanwhile he's literally fucking dying inside.
Bonus if Tommy finds out about it and all he can do is apologize and tell Wilbur he hopes he can move on, for his own sake :( because he caresa about him so much..just not in the way Wilbur wants him to. And he can't change that.
Option 3:
polycule??
Wilbur hangs out with them a lot and over time his jealousy morphs and he realizes he likes BOTH of them. At first this doubles the angst but then they're like... "hey u want in"
(can you tell I main septicinnit and am biased? /sar)
1nc3lbvr going out of his mind seeing his To with another guy is very delicious I see why you would put that as option one. W has really good incel vibes and that being directed full force at To would be really fucking good to see. Js3 confronting W would be hilarious tho cause have you seen him?? Tiny Irish boy so smol.
THE ANGST in that second option god that would make me sympathize with W so hard (actually had that happen to me lmao). Just being the guy in the wings always there for To no matter what but never getting the spotlight FUCK I am a MESS.
However I have always been a proponent for the polycule answer so that is my choice. There's more to it though, Js3 is the one who offers to have W join him and To more when they're together, cause he always hears how much To talks about the other man so he wants to know him more too. He's also the first to realize that yeah him and W are both fucking GONE for this golden haired angel and he can't really hate the dude; he fell for To in their first interaction and his love for him grows every day, how would W feel having all that love directed at him every hour of every day for a year before To met Js3?? So he hangs out with W more as well, without To between them and then he also realizes FUCK this guy and To are actually two side of a coin why tf does he hide that part of him?? And Js3 is the one to end up pushing all three of them closer, scheming behind To's back because hey, he's got the sun already, why not snag the moon while he's at it too??
To's not stupid though, he sees what his boyfriend is doing and at first he wants to stop it. That's one of his best friends, that's the man he called brother, his idol growing up he's not just gonna want to shag him!! But then those nights waking up with his pajamas wet with cum from hazy dreams where all he remembers is W's voice and eyes and smile directed at him and okay maybe he has a crush on W but so what?? He's over it, he has Js3 now and they're BROTHERS ot would be too bad to do it. But he also sees it when they hang out together, the soft smiles that Js3 and W share, so different from what they direct at him btu similar all the same: full of love, of caring, of afferctionate. Smiles that say "I love the way you speak, with your lips and with your hands. I love the way you sing, and the poems that spill from your lips. I love you being here with me, will you please stay and let me bask in you??" The shared looks they'd have with each other when To does soomething stupid, the inner jokes they share with each other that isn't the same as inside you jokes they all have together and what To has with each one of them. It's so different yet all the same. And every day he sees it, and each time they "hang out" it grows.
W is the last one to realize, the little inward thinker that he is. Too caught up in his own head, too miserable in the idea that he will lose the light of his life to another light that just joined it. It isn't until one day while they're hanging out in his flat, all three of them after they went and had a few drinks at his favorite pub, that Js3 kisses him after a story he says made him and To laugh. Their eyes caught and as the laughter subsided Js3 leaned in and gave him a kiss. There was a brief moment of "Finally" passing by his mind before he recoils, nearly falling off the couch and turning to To, who is observing- is he mad?? disappointed?? why is he smirking?? -only for him to get up and kiss W as well. Nothing else happened that night, save for a bit of yelling as the other two try to get it into his head that yeah, they love him actually and they wanna try this polycule thing out. They sleep, all three of them, in his bedroom on his bed. And when he wakes up to dark and bright curls resting on his chest, it feels like stars are bursting in his chest.
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leastniceperson · 1 year
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I'm saying using a blaccent....
My brother or sister in Christ, no one will care, nobody in the real world cares, that's why I question how you and your mutals are any different then the gay twink
Nobody is going to care that someone white kid used "y'all" or "Chile" or someshit
It's annoying and you can have an conversation on black culture and how it affects modren meme culture
But y'all take it to the extreme, I fell like y'all going to tell some 8 year old to kill themselves for doing the griddy or someshit
It's all in the same "I'm on an high horse / I'm morally better then you" progressivsm snake self eating
You constantly keep saying how better and woke and hardcore you are, and yet here you are, having an breakdown over someone reblogging your post because someone didn't have the audacity to understand this werid secret social cues on this open blogging site
Telling people to kill themselves over this, it's no wonder why progressives would rather hang out with those cringy libs or people who spent money on the platform, then us
At least they don't treat people as unremabled moral failures over extremely tiny shit (especially when you and your friends aren't exactly perfect either) that people in real world don't care about, learn to have some fun again
I'm gonna to donate because it's pretty clear your hurting, it's sucks, I also been struggling with life and the pitfalls of capitalism and trying to exist in an nerotypical world. You, definitely need an break form this place however, it's toxic and I don't think it's good for people like us mentally
You call my friends "racist", but I dunno, they respect me just fine and they don't fell like they are constantly walking on eggshells with me over DnD or Werid Al or whatever y'all calling "problematic so die" today, I don't constantly guilt or hate my gf because she's white or something, I simply correct her if she says something ingronat, she sometimes correct me when I say something ingronat
Nobody is born evil, I understand that not everyone has the mental patient to lecture, that's fine and understand, but then you can't start crying over extremely werid soical behavioral shit for a social media website, not even my non neorgdivergent parents knew what the f*** you were talking about
Anyways, I hope you actually start helping and lifting people up, instead of this slackactivism and shaming y'all are doing, it's clear it's messing you up too
do not send me any of your pity money. you are not morally above me because youre unaffected by people harrassing you during a trauma induced psychotic break you fucking CREEP. stay away from me.
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viksalos · 6 months
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since coming to terms with being neurodivergent i've been making more of an effort to connect with my ND community both online and irl and it's been great; like genuinely lifesaving. that said there's two ND friendships i haven't really made any effort to rekindle, in part probably due to conflicting needs and conflicting social info, and idk what to do about it. i don't think(?) these people follow me here but if you are and you read this, idk message me? otherwise would love some outside input cus i'm realizing i'm not great at knowing when i'm in a situation that's probably gonna go bad for me lol
so the first guy basically got kicked out of our dnd group for trying to take it over from the dm more or less; he was talking to me a lot before this and i think he thought i was on his side in his plan but i kinda was trying to tell him that everybody involved was probably fixating on this too much lol... on top of this some friends have stated he has boundary issues with them, but some other friends in the same group are able to maintain a friendship with him just fine, which is weird.
anyways we hung out irl about a year after the blowup and he was saying he learned he likes affectionate touch(?) since then, whereas i didn't know at the time that i HATE being touched without warning lol. so at some point he pats me on the head and i reflexively say "be careful, i bite!" cus i thought it would be a way to jokingly tell him to back off without hurting his feelings. i guess he took it as like a furry(?) flirting(?) thing and leaned in like INCHES from my face and said "oh DO you?" with like a :3 expression which of course freaked me out even more. i kept it together until he left and then kinda had a crying meltdown, and was so ashamed at the magnitude of my reaction without (at the time) having any explanation for it that i kind of just haven't talked to him since, even tho he still comments on my posts on other socials so i know he wants to stay connected :/
second person is kind of similar in terms of group dynamics. they're someone i met on twitter; they're an extremely eloquent music reviewer and i related a lot to their tweets about mental health and such. i rt'd one of those tweets and we got to talking over DMs and bonding about how much our in-laws hate us and stuff like that (cus apparently in-laws fucking hating you just for being inexplicably weird is a common autistic experience lmao)
that said about half of their other tweets are like, goofy grossout horny jokes, which (being aspec myself) i thought were just kinda silly and paid no mind to. well turns out the "horny all the time" thing wasn't really a joke, and they were allegedly sexting(?) and soliciting nudes(?) from a bunch of other women and femmes on twitter who didn't want them to, and i feel like maybe the only reason they didn't do this to me was because they knew i was married? at the same time it seems like some of those instances were misunderstandings and/or misreadings of social signals on their part and have been forgiven, but i dont know if they ALL were yknow? so now that section of twitter more or less doesn't interact with them, and i also have kept my distance even though, once again, they still comment on my posts
idk what to do lol. like is it worth keeping these friendships if i feel like i understand why they fell apart and the issues could probably now be resolved with clear boundaries/communication? or should i just take everybody's word that i probably should not be around these people lol
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Sawyer Lockwood’s Backstory pt. 1
Hi! It’s me again, once again trying to explain this bitch’s entire story. There’s a lot, and normally I either have it all organized in a long bullet list or pinned in DMs to my co-author but alas- I feel like everyone should know his story at this point given I’ll probably never finish every single fic I want to write sadly. Ah well, I’ll at least try to make his story somewhat understandable. If this shit is too long for you and you want to speedrun my story, his master post for reference is here. 
Pre-Fallout (Note: NOT pre-war)
Yeah so maybe a year or two before I fell in love with fallout, I had a beloved dnd character that I played as in a campaign where I worked heavily with the DM and helped sometimes with worldbuilding. His name was Sawyer Belmont and was an oath of devotion paladin. His backstory is a bit complicated as with all my OCs that I’m able to hyperfixate on for more than a few months but long story short- in his past was a high ranking demonic warlock. Something happened and a year before the campaign started he woke up in a small town, heavily scarred with absolutely no memory of who he was with a small voice in his head. His voice was a demon named Zariel (no, not that one. I literally googled ‘demon names’ and chose one, literally months later WotC released Baldur’s Gate so fuck me ig). Said demon was essentially the only thing that kept him alive but he quickly strived to stay humane despite his circumstances and prevent Zariel from ever taking over again. 
How does this relate to Sawyer Lockwood?  Well the campaign was ended abruptly and so I was never able to finish his story which,,, was a big blow to me as a person who had written a ton for him. To cope, I used his name when it came to video games in his memory and almost as a way to try to finish his story? I guess? Used him for Elder Scrolls, Skyrim, Dragon Age throughout the pandemic and when I started Fallout, I walked in expecting to play as him. Yeah I’d have to fuck with his backstory to make him fit but I plugged in his name, tried my best to make him look like old Sawyer did and off I went with a high CHA and STR build. 
And fucking hated melee. 
I love sniping, always have since borderlands so um,,, I eventually had him have some character changes then,,, then the fo4 story made him change more then,,, I min-maxed his SPECIAL and completely redid how he looked and,,, then I joined a server with others who had OCs and,,, 
welp. Here he is! Absolutely nothing like the OG Sawyer but we love him anyways. I suppose in the end in a way the old paladin Sawyer got to live on (I mean Lockwood does eventually become a,,, paladin,,, hm)?
Sawyer’s Parents
I won’t go too into detail because honestly it doesn’t effect him all too much/ he doesn’t remember a lot of it- but here we go. 
So Sawyer’s dad was a guy name Jared Lockwood (what? no. I’m not reusing characters what are you talking about -shoves RDO OC under rug-) who was a pretty successful horse breeder and jockey! His beloved horse was a thoroughbred named Brisket and retired from his racing days not long after he had met his wife and they were expecting a child. It wasn’t a lot of money that he made, but enough to buy them a small secluded ranch on top of a mountain in the middle of West Virginia where they raised sheep and chickens. The little bar room in the basement of said ranch house is actually dedicated to previous racehorses and are where he displayed his trophies from past races and such. 
However, when Sawyer was maybe 5ish, as I write with the 1950s timeline version of fallout because I like writing stuff from that era don’t @ me, WW2 began. His father left for the navy, promising to return to his wife and kid after a few years and- yeah he went MIA somewhere in the ocean. Sawyer’s family never found out what really happened, but a good guess has to do with U-boats. Sawyer was fucking heartbroken, he loved his father and had been really close to him during the five years he had with him and was certainly quieter from then on.   
His mother, meanwhile, was Shay Lockwood. She’s straight from Ireland and a often was the anchor for her aloof husband. She was a very down to earth lady, loved farming and tending to their animals- but often was maybe a bit... harsh on Sawyer. Certainly didn’t help that she came from a catholic background and well... yeah
Sawyer’s Childhood 
Sawyer was an only child, and for the most part between daily chores- loved to study. He was a huge fucking nerd. His bedroom was constantly covered in sketches of his designs for machines, tools, and buildings. Additionally, growing up he stayed very close with his father’s horse, Brisket- often riding him to school and reading to him when he was younger. 
Growing up, due to his home’s secluded nature he never really had any close friends? Aside from a girl named Nora, who he was quite close with. In high school they’d actually dated once but while discovering their differing sexualities- things didn’t shake out but they still remained close. 
For the most part, he studied his heart out for all of high school and strived to place himself in a good engineering school to continue his studies. Unfortunately though around the time of getting ready for college- his mother developed cancer. This was rough for him for multiple reasons- she was the only family he was really aware of and not only that, they were in a rough standing with each other when things began to pick up and she got sicker and sicker. As Sawyer was slowly discovering himself in their small town, it was quickly becoming evident that he was most definitely queer- something that his mother disapproved of heavily. When she passed- it was without ever their relation ever being mended and Sawyer still kicks himself about it even a good 200 years later. 
He delayed college for two years or so afterwards, taking care of his farm and struggling to figure out what to do. He was the only one left, who knows what would happen to his childhood home if he ever left for too long. 
College Years 
With a heavy heart, eventually he decided to take a leap of faith and have a go at college again. Due to the gap years, he struggled getting financial support and was only able to make it through two years of civil engineering before his funds dried up. He was getting desperate at this point and in a hail Mary- joined the Navy for the G.I. Joe money when the Big War came around. 
Congrats on making it this far! Now onto the fun shit :)
Bootcamp arc (ft. Baron)
Long story short- Sawyer fucking hated being in the military lol, and for a while they hated him too. He was often subjected to beat ups and rude comments just because.. well he... he twink. It was during one of these beatings that someone swooped in and promptly handed his bully’s asses to them- a man named Baron Teague. 
He’s my friend’s OC and honestly most of the stuff I write these days is between these two (affectionately called ‘Bawyer’). I have no idea if she’ll ever make her own tumblr and write about him on here but I’ll try to give a long story short for him. He’s from a military family down in North Carolina, joined the air force fresh out of high school and when he met Sawyer, was well on his way to officer school. (why were they at the same base? story reasons that’s why) 
The two quickly hit it off, Baron often lending the man a hand and Sawyer questioning the tiny sliver of heterosexuality he had left in him every time the buff guy ran by in silkies. Eventually it uh,,, turned into a romance between the two when they had the chance between drills, then Sawyer took him home one break and Baron started inviting him to holidays with his family back in NC and well, you get the picture. They gay. I’ll link the fics when I get the chance, but most described above has been written lol. 
Lancer Program 
Okay so this is where I kinda went crazy with homebrewing but whatever its my writing world I do what I want with my toys you know
So. In my uuuh universe? I guess? There was a program pre-Liberty Prime. This program was bleeding edge technology, taking the grand scale of Liberty Prime and the intelligence of the brightest AI at the time and combined it with the maneuverability and skills of a human pilot much like the power armor. It was a super secret thing and was a very small department and in order to get in required vigorous tests of intelligence and creativity rather than the usual strength. 
Pacific Rim- like with a splash of Titanfall and Neon Genesis, these mechs would have a neural link with their pilots and with the pilot and AI combined were able to carry out complex and highly effective maneuvers. This was of course, assuming that the two got along well and the pilot was quick enough to be able to fix any coding issues on the fly with merely their voice commands. Super vigorous, super high tech, yada yada yada..
With a whooping STR of 2 and an INT of 10, Sawyer gladly applied and made it into the program. He was Lancer Unit 02 and excelled in his training. 
The AI later becomes their own character but that will have to come in a different post, which will be linked here when I get to it ;)
It wasn’t until it was almost time for deployment that Baron finally found out about the Lancer Program and Sawyer’s involvement in it.
Quickie Won’t Hurt ;)
Almost forgot lol, so not long after serving some time Sawyer definitely suspected he’s gay. He wasn’t entirely sure though and so in a series of poor decisions while drunk with his close friend Nora,,,, they uh,,,, yep. 
He didn’t find out about Shaun until looong after he’d come home from the war. Lol whoops haha god Nora I am so fucking sorry 
On the Field    
Around the same time that Stg. Baron was deployed to Alaska was the same time that Sawyer’s program was finally being deployed onto the field in [redacted]. The two had a heartfelt goodbye, swapped dogtags affectionately (this will be important in Baron’s story), before going their own separate ways.
The Lancer Program, with how small that it was and how far they were being sent, all loaded into a giant aircraft carrier and sailed off into the sea. 
They didn’t make it far. 
Somewhere in the Pacific, the ship was hit and sank so quickly there wasn’t enough time to usher everyone to lifeboats and almost all lives were lost on that ship along with most Lancer technology (hence why most prewar and ‘modern’ tech isn’t nearly as advance as the Lancer Program’s yet some ideas would be carried over to the making of Liberty Prime and PA suits). 
So uh, Sawyer. As a person who had just left his really... only friend, had been bored out his mind during the trip and did what most do when bored- and had taken a nice nap in his mech that he was neutrally linked to.
Woke up to alarms blazing, the AI panicking, and the entire ship hundreds of feet underwater and his entire squad around him dead and floating in the water around him. 
He doesn’t have much memory about how he even managed to get out of that situation because it thoroughly fucked him up. 
Baron meanwhile dropped everything when a truck rolled up with a compressed and crushed Lancer Unit 3 on it, being ordered to destroy it to preserve government secrets. 
Parsons State Insane Asylum    
For the following year after that, Sawyer spent his entire time in Parsons as a broken man. He’d been moved to Boston after his record had listed only Nora and Baron at the closest he had to family. With Baron deployed in Alaska, he was sent to be near Nora has he recovered while she was dealing with her own problems. 
The last time Baron saw Sawyer before the nukes fell was the asylum, hardly able to speak a word and shaken to his core from what he saw down there (fic about it to be linked here). It certainly didn’t help that this was also the time that Nora couldn’t hide her pregnancy anymore and her family started asking Questions. 
The follow year was a blur for him, stumbling through treatment and slowly becoming somewhat functional again. During that time he could vaguely recall marrying Nora and them settling on a house in a place called Sanctuary but he wasn’t super lucid until close the time that the nukes fell. Link about the nukes actually falling linked here. 
Because this post is hella fucking long, the second part will be linked here! Hope y’all enjoy it so far and as always, feel free to send asks about him or me :)   
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the-flower-herald · 2 years
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Okay so. I made background info about my OCs because I fell in love with my DND character and I wanted to give him a wife. And now I have this:
Behekst Zosimos
Behekst meaning "hexed" or "cursed" in Dutch. Named so because his mother didn't want him, and her pregnancy was spent ill and resentful. Zosimos comes from Zosimos of Panopolis, one of the first and greater alchemists.
He's half Wood Elf, half Dark Elf- which is another reason his mother hated him. She mocked his red eyes and the silver in his hair from birth. He has a darker copper skin and jet black hair, save for the streak of silver.
He's incredibly strong physically and magically. Standing at 5'5 tall and with an unusually stocky build for an Elf, he did get his fair share of stares and bullying. Definitely has little dog syndrome. While he's loud and can be selfish, he has a big heart and he's really stealthy and graceful.
He's an expert farmer and hunter. His produces and fresh meat made him the love of the town when he grew to a mature age and opened his own shop. Not to mention his baking and cooking is phenomenal. He grew to love homemaking for himself.
He eventually left town to settle somewhere new and start living for himself. Along the way, he learned even more plant magic. His communication with animals got better too, and he found a love in fungi.
On his travels he had many scrapes, his small size leading many to think he'd be an easy target to mug, but he kicked ass and earned scars along the way.
His most noticeable though is a large set of teeth marks on the right side of his face. He tried to hug a dire wolf. While he can communicate with animals, he still hasn't learned that not all of them are friendly.
Behekst LOVES shiny things. His wrists are adorned in leather and metal bracelets and he wears a few necklaces. He even has balsa wood in his stretched ears. He is very easily charmed and distracted by bits and baubles.
He has major resting bitch face, but he's really a chaotic softie. He spends the majority of his time spaced out either daydreaming about his garden or his wife. He's got a big mouth but a warm and clear, almost calm voice. Until he's pissed. Fuck with him and he uses his Intimidation. Guy can pull off an excellent Smaug impression in terms of deepness.
He has sharper teeth and nails, but with his druid skills can alter his features as he pleases for a set amount of time. He likes to go for a dragon look, or a snake mostly.
Speaking of his wife, the man is like Gomez levels of obsessed with her. I have a whole sheet for her too, to post. He goes absolutely feral for that woman. While in a straight relationship, he's pansexual. Before her, he'd sleep with any consenting adult with a pulse. He just likes making people feel good.
Which is also why he loves to make food. His love language is trying to feed you, or teach you how to garden for yourself. And books. If you get a gift from him, it's books and food.
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glossolali · 2 years
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Guys...... the start of the chroma conclave arc.....
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spoilers for C1 and TLOVM Season 2 under the cut
- 4 dragons..... 4 ancient dragons....
- AC OF 22??? and first attack is an AOE 66 POISON DAMAGE?????
- MATT'S HAND SWEEPING AWAY 15 TOWNIE MINIS ACROSS THE MAP IN ONE HIT CAUSE THEY DIED??
- WHAT ABOUT GILMORE??? AND EVERYONE LOOKS AT VAX IM FUCKED UP.. did he die from the first attack?? dear god... I hate not knowing
- and it's all for 4k gold LMAO I'm.......
- Oh this is terrible.... so many people are dying... I felt physically ill when the frozen townsfolk cracked and fell apart when they tried to heal them
- the twins!!!!! they're so scared noooo don't cry babies "do not go far from me"!!!! I NEEDED THE CONTEXT for that fuckin quote but now I'm in pain
- THE GIRLS ARE FIGHTING!! it's insane how quickly they fell apart and stopped trusting each other
- Matt is a genius for giving them a Wish at this level it's nuts how much desperation borne of a disaster and an unstable power corrupts so quickly
- Oh no.. you know it's bad when Keyleth gets that angry.....
- Oh thank GOD Allura is here... these kids need an adult in the room to calm everything down
- ALLURA?? WHAT DOES SHE MEAN IT'S HER FAULT...
- BYRODEN??? BYRODENDNND?? Thordak killed their mom FUCK ME UP I have chills
- THE FUCKING PRIMORDIAL FIRE GIANT.................... Holy. shit. ok ok kiki thought it was her fault.... they scared me omg I feel lightheaded lol
- Oh no.... the twins want revenge.. I mean of course they do but fuck I hate that for them
- Fire Ashari got completely annihilated haha... kiki :(
- I feel sick lol shit just keeps getting worse I'm glad the episode finished there
Post E39:
Travis: You.. massacred people
Matt: Yeah :D I just destroyed something that I made it feels really weird
Post E40:
Matt: DnD is fun guys! :D
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blysse-and-blunder · 2 years
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in lieu of american thanksgiving...
...i've had food and fellowship with some very good people this week!
4pm, sunday, nov 21, 2021
reading currently like ninety percent of the way done with zen cho's sorcerer to the crown, and i really have enjoyed this one. the author manages to imitate the speech patterns of the regency/austen style, with all of those subordinate clauses and "i would not have you think that i was so humble as to..." layers extremely adeptly, without simultaneously causing all of the characters to sound the same. it's a bit bridgerton, a bit his majesty's dragon, and a ton jonathan strange and mr. norell, with the magicians of england organized into the royal society of unnatural philosophy-- but there's just enough that's different from susana clarke's world-building to not seem exactly derivative, even though the references to fairy and the way english magic is studied is familiar. his majesty's government is trying to jockey with france under napoleon by fucking around with smaller powers in south east asia which england would very much like to control, little accounting for the power of a matriarch from one of those smaller kingdoms, meanwhile english gentlewomen are forbidden from training as thaumaturges (they haven't the constitution for it) and our heroes are interested in challenging that. magic, race, gender, and a london season-- it's a good combo. i still don't love the name 'prunella', and her character seems to be mostly an assemblage of traits rather than a cohesive, you know, person, but it's been fun.
listening i had to check back through my ilcb posts from this fall to check if i'd mentioned this already and i don't thiiiiink i have? but i stumbled on to coco and the butterfields through my spot of fy discover weekly back in like, september, and fell in love at first listen with their song 'five bells.'
youtube
the alternating voices, both the vocalists' own unique timbre/styles and the alternating lyrics, are very satisfying, and then when they layer up? 'five bells are ringing' / 'crack in my own window', plus the higher line in the background, ugh it's warm and resonant and good.
watching in an effort to branch out in my watching a bit, i gave a quick try to the netflix show 'norsemen,' which is a half hour comedy about vikings? i'm actually very here for workplace comedy / sitcom-style takes on historical periods, so i may give it another try, but there was more initial gross-out humor than i wanted (which is saying something bc i don't mind a mcelroy level of poop/butt/dick jokes) and i also sort of hate that there are only two, and very shallow, female characters so far.
watched a bit more succession with my housemate (we got to the new mexico 'family therapy' retreat and hoooo boy this is a Show), and have reached the beginning of the end in the untamed rewatch-- we've just got guanyin temple left to go!! i'm trying to emotionally prepare myself and my friends-- contemplating finally reading the novel version of these scenes, which i still haven't done despite reading most of the novel this summer (i liked having More to Look Forward To, in a way, and also the long-ass exposition dumping was wearing me out a bit). stay tuned for dec 3, when it All Ends. playing back to my original dnd campaign and, more importantly, my original character after having a roughly six month period during which we all rolled new characters who were diametrically opposed to our originals-- and it fits like an old glove, she's so good, my late 40s-50s human mom-bard with a courtier/spy past, it was fun to play an insufferable tween but this is like being home. we're off to free a town from some raiders, and we gathered way more allies than the dm planned so this battle may be...a little tougher as a result? looking forward to it. making as part of the build-up to the end of the untamed, and to commemorate friendsgiving this week, i did some extremely unnecessary baking (while technically on a zoom call with one of my faculty advisers as she tried to give us dissertation completion tips. baking wasn't on the list)-- apologies for the repeat pic to those of you who have seen this but i am inordinately proud of how it turned out!!
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also i will note-- @lionrabbit was asking if it was lotus root and rib, and while that might actually be delicious (in the vein of like a steak and ale pie??), i haven't attempted anything so creative. this is just an apple pie.
working on love to stagger to the finish line of one set of grading the day after being handed a whole new set of assignments! luckily i don't have a tutorial to lead on tues, so i can...grade then? and the lecture that morning is happening at a MUSEUM (!!) so, if nothing else, the novelty is worth the upheaval of my routine. i haven't made any changes to my diss proposal since my friends workshopped it more than a week ago, fuck, but i've also been socializing and going to bed early and you know what, it's fine. it's fine.
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your-turn-to-role · 4 years
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This is coming from a place of genuine confusion....but why does a sect of the fandom dislike Marisha so much?? Like, I haven't seen it for ANY of the other players. Is it a "wife/girlfriend of the DM" complex, because I've seen that before. Idk, I don't get it, and no amount of googling has made me understand lol.
yeahhhhhhh
okay, to preface, i absolutely disagree with all of the marisha hate, i think she's a great player and is really unfairly treated
but a couple reasons why this tends to be a thing:
1) just plain old regular misogyny, yeah. all the girls on cr get it to an extent, but it's stronger with marisha - the idea that dnd is inherently a man's game and therefore no woman could be good at it is pervasive even in this fandom, not outright, but in subtle things, like how people give the guys a lot more leeway to do dumb shit than the girls, and on dnd posts in the past i've seen comments like "this reads like how laura and marisha would describe dnd while their husbands facepalm in the background", which like... isn't really harmful on the surface, but i have a hard time imagining matt and especially travis ever facepalming at their wives genuine ideas? like if it's obviously meant to be something ridiculous and not taken seriously, sure, but otherwise, that subtle implication that they see travis as a better player than laura is just way off. (and matt has more dnd experience than marisha but like... she's still a very good player)
2) the keyleth instinct. so here's the thing about campaign one and the characters they chose to play - the majority of the cast played within their comfort zone. they branched out a lot for c2, and obviously they as people aren't identical to their vox machina counterparts, but they're not too far away either. liam's stated he irl would be a rogue, taliesin likes playing intelligent edgy teenage assholes bc he was one, laura is a bit more goofy than vex but she still thinks a lot the same, scanlan is very sam, travis is obviously a lot smarter than grog but he still fell very in line with the kind of character travis is comfortable playing and the things he wants to explore.
but marisha chose a character in campaign one who was completely the opposite of her natural self. marisha is confident and very take no shit and a natural leader, keyleth is awkward and shy and doubts herself and overthinks things and has really bad luck in basically everything she ever tries. and people watched campaign one and assumed all of those traits were just the way marisha was. if you aren't drawn to keyleth as a character, it's relatively easy to find ways to hate her (which again circles back to the misogyny a bit). they see keyleth constantly fuck up due to awkwardness and think "marisha doesn't know how to play the game". they see keyleth be a mess of a person socially and think "wow marisha's not a very good actor if she can't handle this", completely ignoring the fact that she is acting very well and it's proven by the fact that they think keyleth is marisha
(and while she still gets hate as either character, the keyleth hate was far worse than the beau hate)
3) people just, not getting what she's doing. i wasn't in the fandom for the early days of cr2, but i have friends who were, and they've said there were circles of the fandom where everything marisha did was in question, even people not believing beau was a lesbian when it's made obvious in episode one, because what if she's doing it on purpose as a scam? and like, to broaden that a bit, i think marisha's characters and their decisions get misread a lot. i personally happen to find both beau and keyleth very relatable, so i usually get where they're coming from (mostly, bowlgate i was more on caleb's side there, but i still don't think she deserves hate for it), but to people who don't, or just haven't put effort into trying to understand marisha's characters, then between keyleth's awkwardness and beau's abrasiveness i think the majority of what they pick up from marisha's characters is negative
which is a shame, because they're both really good, well thought out, interesting characters.
4) this is going into my own meta for a bit, but, something i've found about marisha's characters is they're quite down to earth and very easily the viewpoint character of the group, in a way? like obviously it's an ensemble cast, but like... let's take keyleth. campaign one starts and ends with her. the very first adventure is triggered by her leaving home for the first time, to start her aramente. she's led a sheltered life up to this point, she doesn't know the world she's walking into - so we learn about this fantasy world at the same time she does. she has the most linear and easy to follow development, her aramente spans most of the story, and once it's done things only get more centered on her. she's now a leader of her people, she's fulfilled her destiny, but that means she lives so long all her worst fears are coming true - that she'll have to spend the rest of her life alone. how did we learn this was her biggest fear? because she's been scared since the start of losing vax, but the reason she has him at all is she resolved to not let that fear control her. and then as the endgame comes in, she suddenly has to face that head on. vax has a week left to live. barely two days after, they run into sprigg - someone who lived so long after all his friends died that he's lost himself, forgotten them, become a hermit of a person who's just living because he's got nothing better to do - everything keyleth believes she will become, and fears so much. but he proves she can still choose to remember them, and choose to live in their absence, not just survive. keyleth is the one who seals away vecna, who's grown so much in her power since that little scared druid girl, she can banish a god. and our story ends with her, and her father, and a raven - she's moving on, she's living, she's thriving, but she'll never forget.
if i was gonna write out vox machina's story as a novel, there is no character who would better suit being the protagonist than her
it's a bit less strong with beau, but she's still one of the more relatable characters, she's a human, who had a rebellious teenage years because of shitty overbearing parents, she's not a magic user, she's from the country we start in (and doesn't have a dark dangerous mystical secret like caleb and veth), a lot of the big turning points in the story have had her take the lead, it's the relative mundanity that gives a contrast to and lifts up the others, while still being a highly interesting character in her own right. beau is a grounding force of the mighty nein.
i personally like those kinds of characters, but i've noticed in almost all fandoms with a main character and then a group of side characters, the main character is rarely anyone's fave, overlooked in favour more (subjectively) interesting side characters, but then because the story puts the focus on the main character, people get sick of them and start to hate them? and in this form of storytelling, there is no main character, but people sorta do that to those kinds of characters anyway. and in addition to all the other marisha stuff, that probably contributes
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Damn can't believe you cut off early to avoid boring me after I ASKED you about the setting. I want the juicy details! -Foos crimes anon
sgshahshhs Ok!! then welcome to part two Whiplash edition, for those just joinimg us go read the other dnd lore post first!
same anti zen restrictions apply even tho this is all stuff she already knows,
So, lets start strong The unkillable king? did you notice how all of his big scary features (burning castles, necromancy, and mind control) were all things his generals specialized in?
thats bc hes done pretty much Nothing. bc hes effectively five years old, trapped in his forest, and the literal fallen god of decay.
The admiral, who is called Mel, woke up this old god bc she just Really hated her boss. Like she could have just taken a nap, had a good meal and then rain down so much fire on the bastard that his ashes are ashes. but she didn't because he was planning on waking The Old God in order to unleash him on the people of coltonia. and mel said "Hm! fuck that." and woke him up herself and set him up as a puppet. Mel is the brains!! She has a bob cut bc she accidentally set her hair on fire, but i Promise you shes the brains. but she didn't wake him alone, she had help from this dragon called villar.
Decay is usually called Everard bc while in disguise at a tavern that's just Barely within his circle he met a really cute bard and Panicked when the bard asked him his name. and obviously he didn't have one! he was either just Decay or the Boar King, so he Panicked and said the name of the author of the book he'd been reading. and then he fell a little in love with the bard, and then the bard stole his wallet.
And the Bard! Is! The! Interigator! he went to that tavern to play for a crowd he didn't mind charming. He can't play without charming everyone who hears bc hes both an incubus and the prince of the winter court! heir apparent! but he doesnt want to be and only found out less than two years ago at this point, on his 18th bday bc his adoptive mom sold her first child to the fucking queen of the winter court for the gift of music! she didn't think shed ever have to pay up but when she found out it was her or whatever baby she could find to call hers she started praying and begging and making deals with with whatever would listen. and one of the people who would listen was the demon lord Grazzt. who gave her one of his Many children just to see what would happen.
Anyways when he goes to the tavern there's this kinda boring looking guy? who Isnt charmed by him??? and when he trys to figure this guy out hes being all nice and sweet and he Knows this guy is into him? and Hes Not Charmed??? and then Babs trys his hellish charms, and this guy Still isnt charmed??? its like they just Bounced right off?????? and he panics bc this is the first person he can say for certain is immune to him and isnt just being nice and flirty bc they physically have to. and he falls a little in love?? he panics bc he Doesnt Know What To Do.
so he just steals the guys wallet and runs.
The inquisitor cant get through five words without having a nervous break down, and is just a little nerd whos Desperately in love with Bab's sister, and Tamm Absolutely returns his affections but they're both too nervy to actually move on it bc theyre friends! the four of them (Tamm, he identical sister Bamm, their adoptive brother Babs, and Ezekiel) are the single most notorious group of hired hands in all of coltonia??? so he cant Just Ask her bc that would ruin it Obviously.
and Those four work for a gang called the Jackalope. which is also the name of the pub/brothel the gang operates out of.
and the Jackalope is ran by Big Mama, a reclusive and mysterious woman whos perpetually being guarded by a man named Mole Hill. one of these people is a goliath, the other is a gnome. you can probably guess which is which.
and technically both babs and ezekiel are only on loan to the boar king but that changes after babs and everard get married for the second time.
and Vilar!! he was a Frequent john at the Jackalope while he was helping mel wake Everard bc he was trying to figure out what the fuck was going on. So he had his regular girl right? for an easy unwinding fuck, and she told him what nights shed be there bc hes respectful and tips well and its worth keeping him around. but one night he fucks up and asks for her when he Knows she won't be ther bc hes just Tired after chasing an arsonist around a forest all day. and before he can correct himself the girl at the desk is like Sure! she'll be right with you!.
and hes just "????" and then the girl shows up?? and they go back to the room and he Knows there's something up??? and tldr he spends a solid month trying to figured out whats going on with the shapeshifter who fills in for some of the sex workers.
anyways, hes also a bronze dragon whos in charge of making sure nobody enters coltonia from the west and has a grey render be calls his dog named anatomy. and his personality can be summed up as "bastard cat man who needs to fuck less" bc God Dammit does he have a lot of bastards.
and his arch nemesis is the gold dragon no name who blames him for the death of their son (which to be fair he blames himself for that too). she Is Hell Bent on murderizing his ass but they are too evenly matched so they're just stuck in perpetual war.
and there's other stuf but im Out Of Words.
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4, 5, and 20 mun views
Mun Views 
4. On your fandom. 
Which one lmao....um, well X-Men? Cool, a lot of the fandom to some degree is drawn cuz they can relate be they part of some type of minority group. Don’t see too many assholes, I think most of the jerks that were on here fell off during nippocalypse. There is a divide with the comic elitists vs xmcu and it’s dumb. I used to be an xmcu blog cuz I WANTED to read the comics but I was a broke ass college student who had literally no access to that, but I’d seen Wolverine and the X-Men, plus the movies that were out at the time. If I’d let those asses run me off, well, wouldn’t have continued to build my comic book collection (I’d already read Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, I’m talking specifically X-Men comics).
Arrowverse? I don’t follow many of the blogs, I have a select few I follow. My fandom experience is pretty much my friends with fairly similar views so I can’t speak on the fandom outside of the fact there’s a loooot of veiled hating on women of color under the guise of griping with the crappy writing. I try to avoid it. I don’t hold with Iris and Cecile hate, they’re good characters subjected to the writing of white men, what do you want.
Star Wars? NOPE. Hell naw. No thank you. Bye. I have no interest. I make it very clear this is a “the prequels are the shit, TCW is a fucking joke and trashes the characters, not!Star Wars mouse sequels are non-existent, the og EU is not legends it’s the only recognized canon” blog, and I’m this unapologetically. I have extremely strong opinions, I’ve literally been in the fandom since I was 6, I’ve spent hours reading EU content, visual dictionaries and encyclopedias, concept art of the movies books, comics, novelizations, etc. If you’re a stan of the other...stuff, I’ll probably say shit that will offend you and it’s probably for the best you don’t follow me cuz I’m not censoring these opinions, ever, at all. And for the love of all things holy, if you want to call R*ylo okay, or Anidala toxic, we meeting up behind Denny’s, yo.
Supernatural? Kinda sorta, considering I don’t link Nil and Farrar to any of the show canon besides using some of the monster lore. Like we don’t do the appropriation of native spirituality on this blog, so there’s no use of W*nd*g* cuz you’re not supposed to write or say that, like no. I have major problems with the show, that’s a mile and a half long, past season 5 it went downhill, they really should have left Swan Song as the finale. The queer baiting and bury the gays, the trash trash trash finale, the way any poc and female characters are handled, there’s so much oof. I stay away from it. Honestly kind of nice to see the SPN crowd was mostly quiet, it was RAMPANT when I first got on here, and there was a looot of drama. The way the extreme crowd of the fandom conducts themselves with the actors and stuff tells you a lot. Another nope. I prefer to stick to fandomless urban fantasy.
5. On exclusivity. 
If that’s someone’s jam, that’s cool. Doesn’t bother me. At one point I was exclusive to a few versions of characters. Not anymore, but I can understand how sometimes someone just clicks for you to the extent it rubs you wrong seeing a different version. It doesn’t stop me from writing with other people so I literally give no fucks and don’t see why anyone else should either.
20. On 'popular' blogs. 
Here’s where I piss a lot of people off, and I don’t really fucking care, as having at one point been an even more actively sought out blog back when the MCU was taking off in 2012-2014 and having tons of asks and thread requests, I can more than speak on what it’s like being a popular blog.Technically still am, you don’t have to take my word for it, just look in my thread tracker, and that’s not even all the threads cuz some are in drafts cuz they’re starters and I can’t add yet.
There’s nothing wrong with people enjoying your writing and following you. Awesome, good for you. It often proves to be a lot for people and I don’t like when I see people biting off more than they can chew but still pushing for more followers and asks and threads. Frankly, it’s really, really rude. I get wanting to make people happy, or wanting to try new threads and stuff, but you should also be reasonable with how much you can manage. If I see someone complaining about having too many drafts and asks and then not being able to write because of the pressure, but then daily pushing their promo or their wire or memes...and nothings coming of it...and they’re admitting they can’t get their muse to reply...then STOP. “You don’t owe anyone anything” means you don’t owe anyone respect and obligations that aren’t due.
When you decide to join a collaborative writing hobby, you’re still committing to your partners to write to some degree. Now if that means you’re going to be slow, and super minimal with which followers you actually interact with THAT IS FINE...as long as you have that communicated and make it very clear to the people who follow you they’re probably just following to be lurkers. But I can’t get with constantly pulling for interaction then within the same day the whole inbox is being dumped, drafts are being dumped, the same three people are the only ones ever getting a reply for the past three months, etc.
There’s been times I’ve said I can’t plot right now, there’s been weeks I bump all the memes in my queue further down so that they don’t post so I can catch up. I’m so secure with partners I don’t follow back unless I get my rules code sent in (newsflash: 9/10 I never see it). I never post a promo. I really don’t need to, if I see someone I really want to interact with on my dash, I’ll follow first, but I can’t in good conscious promote myself when I’m at a decent spot keeping up with a LOT. Sometimes I’m really glad I’m a multi with OCS and mostly female muses, it helps avoid ever reaching the point where I’m just getting too many followers to keep up with, but giving yourself a cut-off isn’t a bad thing people. Trying to do too much is.
There, I have successfully pissed off a ton of people, but I’m not taking it back. There’s way too much immaturity on this matter on here, and it’s really a litmus test of the people who HAVE been in group hobbies that are interdependent of cooperation of all members offline, and those who haven’t. “It’s my hobby” isn’t this get of of jail free card you get to wave everywhere when you want to ignore people. You can’t pull that in most hobbies that involve more than one person, whatever it may be, if it’s a DND group, rec sports, chess, whatever. This is my hobby too. I just probably take hobbies and commitment to other people to a more...respectful level. If I have real life, or physical issues, of course that takes priority, but here’s a little secret...we ALL, like 99% of the community, have some degree of mental health, nuerodivergence, jobs, home life, chronic physical issues. I want you to single me out the mun that doesn’t have any of that impacting their writing capabilities to some degree. Please, find them for me. You having those things doesn’t make you special and if you can’t communicate that it’s too much, you need the “flood of follows” from your promo circulating but can’t ever write...I’m just sighing over here.
If any of these opinions rub you wrong, I don’t mind you just unfollowing,that’s fine. No one is forcing you to remain. I strongly believe the people that don’t want to remotely take it seriously, and the people that do take it more seriously, should just keep to themselves, that way no one is getting offended by the other for how they choose to enjoy their hobby. You should enjoy it, goddamnit!!! But NOT at the expense of stringing other people along. Communication is kind of essential here, as much as people want to go “I’m too shy, BLOCK”, but y’all I have ADHD, RSD, social anxiety (I used to live in an anxiety attack it was so bad), and I still do my best to communicate with people even on uncomfortable topics. If I can manage, so can you. And if you CAN’T be mature...and communicate...then mayhaps stick to fanfic until you learn how.
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