#my very own rqg tag

[celsidebottom]

I'M SORRY BUT I SAW YOUR TAGS ON EVIEE'S ART: Zamid epilogue???? ZAMID EPILOGUE? Please please tell me more!

DON'T BE SORRY I WILL ALWAYS TALK ABOUT ZAMID

SO the idea I have is set after the first epilogue so between the 5 and 10 year mark after the Change. Zolf comes to stay with Hamid in Cairo and Hamid is still sort of working on his clothing lines, working for a tailor to learn the ropes, and Zolf is working with some food pantry sort of things and helping out where he can

There are a lot of little moments featuring Harrison Cambell novels, Zolf not letting anyone touch his chair until finally trusting Hamid to help him out, a tipsy dance at a fancy party (including a drunken kiss that they are Real Awkward about when they sober up until they just have to try it again), Hamid crying in a locked room and Zolf waiting outside like the reverse of what they did in Paris after Mr. Ceiling...

And it has some zoscar too I'm not leaving that out because that qpr is real hecking important to me so there are bits with Zolf talking to Wilde about it and after Zolf and Hamid are A Thing Wilde moves with them to Damascus (where Hamid starts school again) so the three of them are living together and eventually will move together to England and the pub for the final epilogue. (Also Hamid asking Wilde if it's okay for him to ask Zolf to marry him and Wilde agrees as long as he gets to officiate lol)

BUT basically it's Zolf and Hamid learning to cope and thrive after the Change and dealing with everything that entails and it turns out that they're at their happiest when they're together, so long as the world isn't falling apart and they don't have to make those kinds of big decisions

#my very own rqg tag #I was going to write this right away as the epilogues were coming out but alas #I got distracted #so the big bang seems as good a time as any to write it #I'm pretty sure I can get 20k out of these nerds lol #thank you for asking me about this I love them so much

[thatoneaceinthecorner]

RQG Art Masterpost

Hey guys! So recently I've had a wave of notes on some of my old rqg art, and a few new followers. I got really nostalgic about rqg and decided I wanted an easier way to access my rqg-related art (other than the dumpster fire that is tumblr's tagging system), and I wanted other people who are just finding my art to have an easy way of looking at the rest, if they want to. So I dug through everything and made a masterpost! This post contains links to all the rqg art I've ever posted on tumblr, as well as a couple images that I couldn't find the original posts for, despite all the digging. It's loosely organized, emphasis on loosely, but I hope it should be fun to look through if anyone ever feels like it. Spoiler warning for the whole show, just in case anyone new isn’t done with their first listen. There's also stuff in here that's pretty old and that I don't necessarily love anymore, but seeing how my skills progressed over time is still pretty neat. This is a long post, so I've put all the links under the cut. Enjoy!

My top three pieces and why they're my favorites

General:

Shoin's sketch of London

RQG Inktober: Scars

Resurrection Ritual in the Ursan Village

Zolf Smith, cleric of what comes next (comic)

Alex's horrible Barret Monster with knife arms

Ada and Tesla in their lab with the Babbage brain

"Why didn't you do more" (it's all your fault comic)

Blue-veined arm in Other London

Zolf and Azu hear the hivemind

Sasha and Cicero leave Rome behind them

Apophis in human form

Party camping outside the Garden of Yerlik

Kantu!! Because I thought they were cute

Also these two drawings, the ones I couldn't find the original posts for. Azu giving Hamid a piggy-back, and a really old drawing of Azu in Carter's mind museum.

Sasha Racket:

Sasha hangs out with gargoyles (and sphinxes)

Sasha portrait

Goodbye, Brock

Goodbye, Grizzop

If Grizzop had lived and helped raised Sasha's kids

Sasha deserves bat wings, as a treat

"I so wish you could meet them"

My very first drawing of Sasha, post-Kafka fight

Wilde:

Wilde masterpost (yes he has his own)

"We're all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars"

His brain might've popped

Wilde looking pretty (plus bonus shitpost sketch)

"Oh Wilde, you must have been so scared"

Wilde with blue veins

Wilde gets his magic back (first time I ever drew him)

Zoscar:

Wild and Zolf in the rain, epilogue

"We've got this" "Yeah, we've got this" aka Parallels

Breath of Life

Wilde's first death

Peace and comfort (for once)

Actually some more peace and comfort

And a little more

Aaand back to some angst

RQG Zine Art:

The End of the World As We Know It

How Little He Matters

Rome Is Where the Heart Is

Animatics/Animations/Videos:

Hamimatic - Immature

Zolf is the sand guardian, guardian of the sand

Wilde and Zolf in the rain but animated this time

Sasha protecting Wilde in Paris

Time lapse of some of the "Breath of Life" drawing

Ben Meredith quoting Jenna Marbles (starring Toothbrush Zolf)

Doodles, sketches, and requests:

Messy busts of the whole party (plus Wilde, obviously)

Azu and Grizzop outfit/deity swap

Never wake a sleeping Barnes (comic)

Toothbrush Zolf

Azu caring for undead Sasha

Ada mourning Babbage AU

Fun sketch page of various PCs

Domestic Zolf and Wilde

Canon-compliant under-dressed Zolf (look he's posing like the coppertone baby from that one brand of sunscreen, i thought it was funny)

Sasha and Wilde bonding time

If Sasha and Cel met each other

Sasha and Zolf, amputee buddies

Wilde in a flower crown (Everyone Liked That)

More domestic Zolf and Wilde

Sasha playing with Hamid's twin brothers

Sasha looking after Grizzop's kids

Zolf and Wilde hugging

Sasha and Skraak, dynamic duo

Barnes and Carter hugging

Kobold in the kitchen with Zolf

Ada holding down the fort

Happy Hamid

Cel and Grag

Wilde and Hamid high-five

#rqg #rqg art #rqgaming #rqg fanart #rusty quill gaming #rqg spoilers #rqg art masterpost #my art #rqg sasha #sasha racket #zolf smith #rqg zolf #rqg azu #rqg hamid #hamid saleh haroun al tahan #rqg grizzop #rqg oscar wilde #grizzop drik acht amsterdam #rqg wilde #rqg cel #cel sidebottom #masterpost #for reference #cy does crimes

[bluejayblueskies]

20 questions for fic writers

thank you @three-magpies-in-a-trenchcoat for the tag!

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 

130 (more if you count my side accounts and anonymous fics)

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 

958,861 (so close to a million,,,)

3. What fandoms do you write for? 

Right now, primarily Malevolent, but I've written for TMA a lot in the past as well. I also have some ideas for RQG fic since I've been relistening to that podcast!

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

The Cube Rule of Food Identification (TMA)

Just Married (Voltron)

it will be this, always (TMA)

a six-step process (TMA)

ten thousand flowers in spring (TMA) (i had no idea this had jumped to spot number 5!!!)

5. Do you respond to comments?

I used to, and I still want to, but I always feel like I need to have something to say more than "thank you so much!" and I get stuck in the paralysis of what to say and then forget to respond at all 😅 but if people ask me a direct question, I will usually answer it!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? 

Hmmm. I write a lot of angst, but I trend towards happy endings rather than unhappy endings, so that's tough.

Oh! So this is on my side account for Malevolent, but The Curation and Preservation of Arthur Lester is probably the closest thing I have to a fic with an angsty ending (that is, it ends very badly for Arthur). Maybe on a more emotionally angsty side, as the pendulum swings? I think that fic generally has an ambiguous/hopeful ending, but only in terms of "they are no longer trapped in the time loop;" all the effects of the loop still remain, consciously or not.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? 

Also a hard question, mostly because I tend to write endings that are a bit.... not open-ended, but more "this isn't 100% resolved but it will be in the future and the steps are there but that's a journey the characters have to take on their own." That said, I think By Virtue of Divine Providence is probably my most straightforward happy ending, where "they lived happily ever after for all eternity" is the general vibe.

8. Do you get hate on fics? 

Not that I know of, though I'm sure it's happened at some point somewhere. Nothing to my face though (yet).

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? 

I do! I typically either write a) sex scenes that fit into the context of a longer fic as a plot point, which tend to be pretty straightforward "sex happened and it was emotional and significant for both people involved" or b) kinky and/or dead dove one-shots that usually get posted on side accounts or anonymously. (Mostly because my bookbinding imprint is tied to this username, and I like to maintain a sort of separation in case anyone IRL comes looking.)

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? 

I'm not a big crossover person, reading or writing. I think I maybe wrote a superwholock crossover when I was 14-15? But that's about it.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? 

I sure hope not!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? 

Not that I know of, though people have done podfics or bookbinds of my fics before!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? 

No, but I'd love to try it some day!

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? 

100% jonmartin; I'll probably never be over them.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? 

I have an unfinished TMA longfic, Seen, Unseen, Unsung that I have fully outlined but will very likely never finish writing.

16. What are your writing strengths? 

I think I'm good at internal monologues (ie letting the character ramble for a bit), emotional beats (particularly angsty ones), and writing dialogue that sounds like something the character in question would say.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? 

I'm so bad at writing romance (and yet I keep trying 😅). Established romance? Fine, okay, I can do that. Budding romance? I have absolutely no idea and rely pretty much entirely on tropes I've seen in other fics or books/TV shows/movies/etc.. Also, I feel that I struggle a bit with transitions between scenes that aren't hard scene break cuts.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? 

If I do, I usually do something along the lines of, "He said in Spanish, 'Don't go over there!'" for ease of reading and because my translations would probably be horrible.

19. First fandom you wrote for? 

Probably Supernatural.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Hands-down whiskey old fashioned sour. It's such a fun world to play in, and I really enjoyed writing all the little newspaper/extra tidbits for it, and I have many more ideas swirling around in my brain for it. By Virtue of Divine Providence is a close second though.

I'll go ahead and tag @shadow0haven, @organchordsandlightning, @captaincravatthecapricious, @splitting-infinities, and anybody else who's interested!

#tag game #sorry it took me so long to get to this! i kept forgetting

[angryducktimemachine]

2, 4, 19?

2. 5 favourites of your own work?

Honestly? A lot of my works are my favourites 💀 there's enough where i say yes I'm really happy or proud of this, for different reasons! I like my art so here are some highlights from recent drawings:

The Hamid and Zolf, as well as the Rudyard one are favourites because of the idea and emotion in that drawing. Hamid casting heroism on Zolf is just such a good moment and i care about their difficult friendship (at least in Hamids eyes a friendship, Zolf probably wouldn't call them friends) a lot.

Rudyard is a character very dear for me and him passing out on the floor with a bunch of cheese and grape juice together with Madeleine is just too fucking funny and I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

Both because of the vibe and the skill i enjoy the Wilde one. I had a very clear Image of him being wrapped in the robes, giving a mischievous look after stuff mentioned something similar in their tags under one of my other drawings. The specific pose and expression just. Manifested in my mind. But i also think that skill wise it turned out really nice the colours are gorgeous and I'm REALLY happy with my decision for the collar, it's referenced of a portrait of Shakespeare and I'll definitely use that for the robes the next time I draw them as well.

Grizzop is a favourite because of the pose, the composition of him resting on the spears instead of being held down by them.

The last Hamid one is a favourite because i played around with dragonfire in art again and light which i ALWAYS enjoy doing and with the brightness and working over the Lineart of Hamid it's just really cool, isn't it?

4. Favourite things to draw?

People. specifically people from whatever media I'm currently fixated on. Currently that is, to no one's surprise, RQG.

But yeah in general it's definitely people in comfy clothes. I enjoy drawing faces a lot!

19. Favourite character(s) to draw?

Hamid <33333333 but also Rudyard.. haven't actually drawn him THAT much but he's my poor little meow meow and it's so fun drawing him. Zolf really got onto that list as well he's so fun to draw.

#talking badly about your art is out i love gushing about my own art <3 #of course i also have pieces i don't like as much #but that's between me and my art #ask

[shutupeiffel]

Ranking RPG Podcast By Their Theme Tunes

As written by someone who knows almost nothing about music but has listened to an ungodly amount of podcasts. This is by no means a comprehensive list, and if anyone has any recommendations based off these, hit me up!

6. Rusty Quill Gaming

Steampunk! Jaunty! Toe-tapping! Definitely feels weirdly out of place after the intense emotional cliffhangers of late-game RQG! That being said, this song fits into the semi-Victorian ‘industrial but with magic’ feeling of the RQG setting, setting the mood perfectly - if luring you into a false sense of security.

5. Oxventure (The Podcast)

This has such a great Fantasy Vibe, it’s exactly the kind of song you’d expect to hear playing in a tavern or played over a swooping shot of forests in a fantasy film. Honourable mentions to the pieces of music also used in the podcast for ad breaks/the end of the adventure before the outro chat, which are also excellent. 

4. Join The Party

Although there have been three different variations, the fact that Brandon Grugle has kept the same melody throughout is Very cool, and each different campaign (and CAMP-aign) has a theme song that fits perfectly - shout out to Campaign 2′s song which, when I first heard it, made me feel like a protagonist in a cool teen movie while walking round the city. 

3. Flintlocks & Fireballs

What’s better than an instrumental theme tune? Writing your own shanty! Shores of Calcinea does an amazing job of a)introducing the Napoleonic-Wars-inspired setting, b) setting the tone and context for the story, c) getting stuck in your head forever - much to the annoyance of anyone who lived with me while I was binging the show to catch up. If anything will make you want to “Gather your muskets and gather your spears”, it’s this song. (Also the time we all got to sing along to it at a live show was the best)

2. Dungeons & Daddies (Not a BDSM Podcast)

Listen. ‘Alright’ from the Odyssey campaign? Great song, works well playing under the intro/outro as a good theme should. ‘On My Way’? Nigh on PERFECT. The lyrics are such teen angst “the world sucks and the only person I can rely on to fix it is me”, the chorus absolutely SLAPS, and I for one cannot wait for the bittersweet acoustic cover in the final episode.

1. No Small Rolls

This is what I want from an RPG show’s theme! Opening with intense drums, Lyrics about playing D&D, the whole cast singing, “Prepare your party of players and polyhedral dice”, “Your haggard character swaggers with daggers in each hand”! There’s even a hurdy-gurdy version!!! You cannot listen to this without immediately wanting to go out with a group of rag-tag adventurers on an epic fantasy quest. 10/10, everyone else step your game up

#podcasts #rpg #dungeons and dragons #join the party #rusty quill gaming #no small rolls #dungeons and daddies #oxventure #oxventure the podcast #flintlocks and fireballs

[flammenkobold]

I posted 6,184 times in 2022

109 posts created (2%)

6,075 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@kd-heart

@robiinbuckley

@screechfoxes

@odins-sonofmischief

@targaryensource

I tagged 6,177 of my posts in 2022

#house of the dragon - 530 posts

#moon knight - 310 posts

#stranger things - 301 posts

#doctor who - 285 posts

#rqg - 273 posts

#rq gaming - 272 posts

#rusty quill gaming - 271 posts

#loki series - 259 posts

#the master - 215 posts

#the locked tomb - 198 posts

Longest Tag: 94 characters

#ep7 of hotd might as well have been an audiobook for all you could see happening half the time

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

not me thinking about "You're more important than a thing!" and then Grizzop protecting Sasha with his life because she was so important to him

98 notes - Posted June 21, 2022

#4

watching some due south and fraser/rayk videos on youtube and crying over how beautiful the show and this ship in particular was and just remembering some things in no particular order:

“Do you find me attractive?” "Very much so, yes.”

the underwater “breathing” thing

zero personal space

the smiles at the end of mountie on the bounty

I will beat you to death with this empty gun

zero personal space the extended edition with extra grabbing

betting on air

LoooOOOuuuu Scagnetti

being in synch

the entirety of Asylum

Love at First Sight discussion with Meaningful Camera Shot(TM)

punching each other

who left the empty butterdish in the fridge

THEY LITERALLY RIDE OFF INTO THE SUNSET TOGETHER

98 notes - Posted January 10, 2022

#3

Zolf “Archive of Our Own” Smith

137 notes - Posted January 13, 2022

#2

Me at everyone who loudly didn’t like the movie: It just wasn’t the movie you wanted and that’s okay, now sit down and drink some hot chocolate it’ll be fine. Me though? I am getting the champagne because this movie had everything I wanted: Keanu Reeves with a rubber ducky on his head, a character that has blue hair and pronouns, Neil Patrick Harris playing a total slime ball, a love story that literally changed the world, Carrie-Anne Moss looking hot, Trinity being badass and a cat.

213 notes - Posted January 8, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

things i have seen made for goncharov so far:

- several university papers - fake DVD cover - several movie posters - several gifsets - fake video reviews - so much fanart - so much fanfic that the ao3 tag has now more fic than the avatar blue people movie - a flash exchange i have to remember to sign up to - a google doc with people writing out the movie - there is a discord server were i’ve seen the link but have not joined bc i am a scaredy cat and new discords scary - pages long meta - shit posts - shit posts by famous people - posts warning people about the dangers of fandom past so that no one gets the idea to start a fundraiser to make this a real thing - almost forgot (thanks for reminding me in the tags): A soundtrack - several playlists - we managed to get a new york times article i think?

anyway i am so damn amazed at this fandom about a made up movie on tumblr. its so exciting and makes me so happy at all the creativity and shared chaos and people just having fun with a story

1,020 notes - Posted November 24, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #tumblr

[ariose-ghoul]

I posted 25,858 times in 2022

That's 4,112 more posts than 2021!

1,119 posts created (4%)

24,739 posts reblogged (96%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@they-thespian666

@kryptic-krab

@transgender-rex

@crownquill

@satansellscookies

I tagged 5,684 of my posts in 2022

#homestuck - 550 posts

#cows - 172 posts

#asks - 86 posts

#prev - 49 posts

#spouse posting &lt;3 - 43 posts

#rqg liveblog - 43 posts

#skeleton war - 35 posts

#unreality - 34 posts

#tma - 34 posts

#the magnus archives - 31 posts

Longest Tag: 135 characters

#also numerous eyes. how many? who knows! who cares. e y e s. 👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️ but like on stalks or whatever like a snail

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

mcr and tma trending at the same time this is like november 5th for podcast people

130 notes - Posted October 12, 2022

#4

some things about jonny d'ville:

-yeah yeah jonny killed his own father but "i know that your hands are already red" can we talk about this??? who else did he kill before???

-the fact that he was probably around 18-ish when he was mechanized (if i recall literally anything correctly) means that 1. lmao permanent babyface 2. this guy Died in a barfight and he canonically just. looked so excited to die. imagine you're in a fight and this kid get shot and hes just absolutely ecstatic about it. what. im aware that jonny sims aged so the character on stage isn't gonna look the same age the whole time but like i don't think any of the mechs physically aged very much? idk.

-yeah thats all i got i just wanted to share

170 notes - Posted April 25, 2022

#3

*A skeleton approaches you with a wizard hat*

Hello fellow wizard, I am also a wizard, would you like to discuss our weaknesses together

of course, but i think it is much more important to the war effort to discuss skeleton weaknesses. do you happen to know anything about those

254 notes - Posted November 12, 2022

#2

another stuffed animal would fix me i just know it

309 notes - Posted August 20, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

1,396 notes - Posted October 13, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

[some-sort-of-siren]

Fic writer asks

Tagged by @bidoofenergy

Ao3 name: eatgreass

Main fandoms: right now? Obsessed with the Iliad and arthuriana. All time? Most of my fics are 3rd life, tma, rqg, and hamlet.

Works: 112! Most were written during Covid and I don’t recommend reading anything I wrote before I started college but I’m also not taking anything down from an archive.

Work I spent the most time on: a Grimm world indeed. It was one of my favorite things to write and I’m very very proud of it. I started it in January 2021 and finished it august 2023. That’s nearly three years.

Work I spent the least time on: probably this. Not my favorite thing I’ve written but I needed to write it at the time, so it sticks around.

Longest fic: also a Grimm world indeed. 132079 words babeyyyyy. I need two Google docs to write it cause at the halfway point my computer started crashing when I opened it.

Shortest fic: hamlet in Latin, 116 words. Written as an exercise in composition. No, I’m not linking it.

Most hits: a doorway,probably because it’s a tma fic and therefore one of my bigger fandoms.

Most kudos: I’ve been chronically tired since high school. I also got the kindest comments on that fic!

Word count: 486842. Let’s goooooo.

Favorite work of my own: either I’ve been chronically tired since high school (it was really fun to write, y’all) or one of my Iliad fics cause my Iliad fics don’t get enough hits.

Fic you want to rewrite/expand on: I think that my series the knights of the round table could definitely be rewritten. As for expand, I’m constantly thinking about my that college au I never thought I’d write series.

Share a bit of a wip: woe translation of Gawain and the green knight be upon ye:

“No, I tell you in faith I seek no fight.

Here on this bench I see beardless children.

If I were clad in arms on a huge steed

There are no men to match me, their mights so weak.

I desire a christmas game in this court,

For it is yule and new year, and there are many here.

If any in this house thinks himself so hardy

With such bold blood, such brave mind,

That dare to strike one stroke for another

I will gift him this great battle-axe

This axe, that is huge enough for him to hold as he likes,

And I shall bear the first blow as a sit here.”

Tagging @sharpilu @eyelessfog and anyone else who wants to participate! Thank you so much for tagging me!

#speaking tag

[radiantmists]

like. shorter version: grizzop is a funky little dude who cares so incredibly deeply about his family and friends, who’s dedicated himself to making the world better, and who just has a lot of swagger. his struggles against prejudice and the shortness of his lifespan are extremely compelling.

he also uses his faith to justify the fact that violence is nearly always his first answer to a problem; he never questions whether he might be wrong and sometimes seems genuinely convinced that he’s better than a good chunk of the people he meets, including occasionally his own friends.

i’m not saying you can’t love him, especially when violence and the black-and-white nature of good are sort of baked into the setting, but whenever i see people act like he’s some exemplar of virtue i just... Yikes.

#theyre all professional murderers now #but most of them fell into it #sasha was the first to attempt nonlethal damage on the people who meant to Kidnap her #and she was supposed to be morally ambiguous #hamid made a very abrupt shift to pro-killing which quite frankly i found alarming #azu and cel are still p anti murder #but grizzop was a bounty hunter before this even started #tbh i think looking for a good moral reasoner in this podcast is doomed to failure #bc a) its improv a lot of it isn't going to be super coherent or well thought-out #and b) they inhabit a hugely different moral framework from the one we're dealing with #that's subject to both some in-world differences re: gods defining morality #(plus the fact that its semihistorical and there are fewer non-murder solutions to certain problems) #but also because on a meta-level they're in a game where the whole point is to get better at killing stuff #like. imagine how weird hamid's power growth would be if he refused to use fireball on anything sentient #okay thats lots of tags yeah? #so for my own categorization i think: #rqg #rqg grizzop

[flufflecat]

designing an RQGsona for myself, aka drawing my old dnd character for the first time in years and deciding for no reason that im gonna force her to fit into the rqg world

#rqg #rusty quill gaming #i need to limit my sonas #so its Her turn to return to the spotlight #except shes gonna be polish now for some reason #gonna be a travelling circus performer from poland who is just sort of wandering on her own for now #with a pet.. lynx maybe? idk. maybe a bear. #shes still gonna be a horrendously unoptimized ranger #is she a member of the harlequins or is she just inconvenient? who knows... #gonna do a proper character sheet writeup for her tomorrow but im too sleepy rn #what like. what is poland in rqg #does poland exist #fun fact: very frequently when the party is doing like random stuff i will think to myself #'but what if MY dnd girl were here. what then' #the answer is 'less arguing' probably #fluffle art #wip #sorry for putting this in the tag lol #i am simply.. a loser.

[celsidebottom]

Thinking about Zolf wearing little reading glasses

#my very own rqg tag #I was thinking about my big bang piece #and just imagined him with glasses while reading #and now I can't stop thinking about it #I'm pretty sure someone has said this before but! #I love it

[commander-diomika]

[Image ID: Screenshot of a tumblr reply from user @weareallfromearth ​​ saying “Holy shit I would V much like to know what you’d do with ZolfWilde.” End ID]

This was in response to me tag rambling that if Alex “I don’t Actually Have That Much Experience in Courtship” Newall and Ben “I just Realised I’m Too Straight For This” Meredith don’t know what to do with Zolf/Wilde, they should hand the ship over to me. 

*rubs my gay little hands together.*

I initially characterized them offhandedly as Enemies-to-Lovers but that’s not quite it, is it? On reflection I would say it’s more of an Opposites Attract situation.

Oscar Wilde, as re-imagined in the RQG universe, is a homme fatale; a dangerous, attractive man, skilled in encouraging people to underestimate him, wearing different masks, never quite being able to trust or be trusted by anyone.

There is NO personal/professional line for Wilde. He lives his work, and his work is subterfuge and interpersonal manipulation. (whether or not he started this way in his field as a journalist, or was forced to become this way by the changes in his world, is another post.) He is a person who either cares very deeply what people think of him, or is has decided that manipulating what people think of him is the way to get what he wants, and from the outside it makes no difference.

Zolf Smith does not care what people think of him. He isn’t even skilled at being kind and empathetic to people he cares about; he has no time for emotional manipulation or genuine charm. He doesn’t even have a fantastic grasp on his OWN feelings, let alone other people’s. He’s grounded, disinterested in frippery or appearances. Which is why Zolf and Wilde started out so deeply at odds with one another.

Despite the differences in the interpersonal approaches, they have plenty of common ground.

They are both deeply dedicated to a cause. They care about their work to the exclusion of all else. They are both pragmatists who have their own internal moral code, and are willing to bend or break other people’s rules in order to get the job done. They are fundamentally good people. Despite their rocky beginnings, they can respect each other because of these things.

And they might have maintained their mutually disdainful, begrudgingly respectful working relationship and that could have been the sum total... Except then the world fell apart. The Meritocratic organisation was initially compromised, then disintegrated. The blue vein plague isolated everyone and made it even harder to trust supposed allies. The Cult of Hades was on everyone’s ass making their life difficult, the other PCs disappeared off the face of the planet. Zolf and Wilde ended up in a situation where they had no one else they could trust.

Familiarity breeds contempt, but maybe if the contempt is already there, it builds Something Else. Wilde was stripped of his magic in a way that made it much harder for him to keep people at a distance and (pardon the pun) project the illusion of the debonair playboy. Zolf would have had the chance to see through Wilde’s masks, and get a better understanding of what parts of Wilde were a calculated tactic, and what was his genuine self.

Whatever betrayal transpired that gave Wilde his scar and hardened him, Zolf was privy to. He was either there and saw it happen, or he was close enough in the aftermath to see Wilde properly vulnerable for the first time in their friendship. Hell, maybe Zolf was the one who rescued him and patched him up. That was a chance for Zolf to realise that this insufferable man is a friend who he cares about deeply. At this point, he’s cared for awhile, but has been too wrapped up with his own spiritual difficulties to have space to admit that to himself.

And Wilde, oh Wilde, he’s desperate to be seen and known and loved, but he’s never allowed himself. He’s never felt SAFE to. He doesn’t let people get close, treats every conversation as a battle to be won. His safety and his power lies in being admired, but never loved. So even as trust and fondness for Zolf blossoms within him, he won’t for a second allow himself to hope that the fondness is reciprocated

With all that out of the way, this is my version of events.  

Wilde is a slut (affectionate), and Zolf is gray-ace, so if there’s any bridging of that gap in terms of physical intimacy, it has to be from Zolf’s side. Giving canon a tender massage into place, that first instance of Zolf grabbing Wilde by the collar changes. (This happens on the Vengeance after Zolf has taught Wilde to steer the ship). Zolf drags Wilde down to say “I’m glad to see you perked up.” That moment now involves a whiskery kiss on Wilde’s cheek, and the man would be absolutely FLOORED by it.

I’m talking slow-mo glittering lights as Zolf stomps off blushing, unsure what just came over him; Wilde touches his cheek in bewilderment for a stretched moment before realising he’s completely agog, and he let go of the wheel for a dangerous length of time. Every interaction, every moment they’ve spent together over the last two years is flashing before Wilde’s eyes and a new context is being applied rapid fire. I’m talking the italacised oh kind of moment.

(on top of Zolf being witness to The Betrayal, throw some other moments of almost-intimacy into said flashbacks. I’m talking late nights, Zolf doing his gruff-yet-kind caretaker thing, cooking for Wilde, maybe sharing quiet and rare downtime with Zolf reading a Campbell novel on a couch in Wilde’s office)

Wilde is realising, “Oh this is allowed, oh this is reciprocated, this is possible.”

And of course they don’t talk about it, because what’s a slowburn if they immediately go and TALK about their feelings? No, the kiss goes completely unremarked upon, and Wilde continues to needle and tease and get under Zolf’s skin, except now with an added warmth in his eyes because he finally gets it. He finally understands that Zolf cares, that Zolf loves him, he’s just not the kind of dwarf that knows how to express it.

And Zolf, frustrated by feelings he can’t express but is beginning to understand, can hear the undertone of “haha, you looooove me,” shining through Wilde’s deliberate antagonism. They continue their time on the Vengeance just a little easier and closer to one another.

And we continue on to the death/resurrection arc, and Wilde’s spirit pushes for Zolf to open up about his feelings, because if not when he’s literally past death’s door, then when? When Zolf finally manages his “I need you,” it’s like a dam has broken for both of them. The second collar-grab and “We’ll go on a holiday or somethin’,” is now followed by a full kiss on the lips, not particularly erotic but passionate, (it’s the epitome of kissing someone to shut them up) and Wilde makes a surprised and delighted squeak that he would be glad he can’t quite remember when he returns to land of the living.

Once returned, Wilde might not remember everything that his spirit said or did, but he remembers the kiss. The comfort and ease that the two of them share in 179 (Eat Drink and Be Merry) is there, only instead of the two characters still being in a place of questioning their feelings for one another, it’s been answered.

Whether or not this relationship is sexual in nature is kind of up to you and what kind of fan works you like to read/write. I think there are wonderful scenes to be written an explored in many directions.

Wilde allowing himself to enjoy sex for intimacy and closeness instead of using it as a tool/ Zolf not being one for sex but Wilde’s never slept more soundly than when he’s being held in Zolf’s arms/ Zolf realising that the unfamiliar feeling he’s been struggling to express is the desire to rail Wilde til he cries/ Wilde realising that if his partner doesn’t want it from him, he’s actually quite content without sex/ The two of them being mean, antagonistic bastards to each other while fucking but Make It Kink (of the trusting and RACK kind). There really isn’t a single bad interpretation.  

So really, I’m not doing anything different with them other than reading between the lines, giving canon a little nudge, and sticking the landing. This isn’t to disparage the concept of queer platonic partners. (I’ve got one!) or to talk shit about Ben or Alex (I DO respect their craft).

It’s just to say I find these two characters , and everything they’ve been through, PAINFULLY romantic, tropey, and delightful. I’m looking forward both to how Ben and Alex play the QPP, the fanworks I’m gonna read and hopefully write, and the inevitable tragedy that you KNOW Alex is gearing up for.

#zoscar #zolfwilde #RQG #rusty quill gaming #zolf smith #RQG Oscar Wilde #hank talks #rqg podcast #rqg meta #feel free to reblog #and to talk to me about it

[prismatic-et-al]

was inspired by my own rqg tag for an au where the blue-vein plant is just a particularly temperamental, shitty houseplant that the party members keep passing off to one another as it slowly grows bigger and more poisonous to the point it gives anyone who touches it this bizarre - but ultimately harmless - infection. nobody has any clue what kind of plant it actually is, or who originally owned it, just that it showed up one day and it sucks. 


zolf has been engaged in psychological warfare with it from the beginning due to the fact that no matter what he does - gives it more water, less sunlight, etc - it only ever wilts in his care.

 
azu is suspicious of it, but is more irritated that she basically has to quarantine herself from her family when she has it, because her brother is highly allergic to whatever mystery nightmare chemical it has going on. 


hamid hates it but refuses to admit it, because a fancy plant seems like the kind of thing he should keep around, even if it is currently taking up an improbable amount of space in his apartment by now. 


cel has to keep themself from experimenting on it, since they really have never seen anything like it! but every time they start to take clippings they sort of get? this inexplicably malevolent vibe? but that’s ridiculous, plants aren’t sentient, um - 


wilde despises it because it scratched him once when he was leaning down to water it (look! he even has a scar from it!), much to the bafflement of everyone, since it doesn’t have anything even close to thorns. 


sasha would have laughed at him about it, but she does keep on finding her knives within leaf-reach when she’s positive she didn’t leave them anywhere near it. she mentioned this to grizzop, who very quickly prepared a “killswitch”- a bottle of bleach and a box of matches that he checks on every day…just in case. 


all of them at one point have seen it move on its own. none of them have ever admitted this aloud. the plant is counting on this.


[ID: an ao3-style tag reading “Local Houseplant Seeks World Domination”. end ID]

#listen comedy aus are the best #for all those owners of shitty houseplants out there #rqg #rqg zolf #rqg azu #sasha rackett #hamid saleh haroun al tahan #zolf smith #cel sidebottom #grizzop drik acht amsterdam #rqg wilde #rusty quill gaming #etal.txt #rqg au

[raspberryhell]

12 for the artist asks!

12. Show your favourite drawing from this year

ooooo I have a whole lot of favorites of mine this is gonna be fun >:) Trying to go chronologically, I am still very happy with all the art I made for the RQG zine! Godddd that whole zine was such a fun experience!!

And I'm very fond of this one drawing of a scene from rqg 112 (the You Are More Important Than A Thing! scene). I tried some texture-y things with it and kept all the lines and colors pretty fast and loose which ended up coming out better than I expected! Also very happy with this one Cel, especially when you compare it to the year-old drawing I was remaking it from, love solid signs of improvement!

but but but!!! Above all, the one thing I am most proud of that I made this year is, of course, the huge ass Now rqg animatic/pmv!!! I love all my animatics but this one especially had a good Several Months of planning and drawing time (and a... comparatively very short amount of video editing time lol) poured into it. There are some things I wish I could go in and change or adjust but, in the end, love how it all came out and thankful for the great reception it got!!!!!

For a tag game on twitter a bit ago, I edited the main cast's portraits from the first chorus together side by side, its the banner pic on my priv twitter right now and I get a little giddy every time I see it, its just sooo cool and I can't believe I drew it sometimes skdjfsdfkjk

ANYWAYS thank you for giving me an excuse to gush about my own art, I think its something all artists should do every now and then at least <3

#ask #rqg #artist ask game #:D

[icebluecyanide]

RQG 214 Anxiety Report

Format copied from UPROXX’s ‘The Americans’ Anxiety Report series. I’m basically going to rank RQG characters by how worried I am about them after any given episode, based entirely on my whims and wants and whatever I think is concerning or funny at the moment. If you have a different order feel free to come up with your own ranking or let me know in the tags!

Without further ado, these are the top 10 characters I am most worried about in the show after listening to RQG 214:

10. Ada

She’s stuck in the lab with no way out, with sleeping (?) gas and possible other terrible planar monsters on one side (plus whatever is going on outside the complex/bunker between the plants and the cult of hades), and the doorway to the tunnel that Zolf blocked on the other. Did they store any rations or food in the lab? Is there a limited supply of oxygen now that the door is sealed air-tight against the gas? I have concerns.

9. Babbage

This is a bit of a mixed one, because I don’t care too much about Babbage’s safety per se (sorry Charles), but if his brain gets crushed it’s very likely that they won’t be able to get the kill-switch working properly. So like, here’s to hoping the orb he’s in is made of reinforced glass?

8. Einstein

He has almost definitely been taken by some faction, whether it is the blue veins or the cult of hades. What if he’s blue veined and starts popping in during the fight? What if he’s NOT and he pops in during the fight and gets burned by Guivres?

7. Azu

But Cyan, you cry, Azu is a PC! A main character! Why isn’t she ranked higher? And yes that is true, but she is also buffed up quite well at the moment, has a decent number of hitpoints, a big axe, and the most likely enemy she will be fighting until the distracting Guivres plan fails is weird plant creatures that she can cleave. I am very excited about the possible cleaving. Having said that, I’m not sure what’s to stop Guivres from glassing the bell tower and Azu’s reflex save is rubbish so, insert One Fear meme here.

6. Zolf

Is in much the same situation as Azu, he’s got loads of hitpoints, but he’s also worryingly unconcerned about his own health because of it, and there’s a good chance Guivres may go all FIRE on them at some point, and I fear Guivres has too much spell resistance for his ice javelin spell to work this time. :(

5. Hamid’s twin brothers

Okay, listen, if Einstein has been blue veined and Einstein knew where the twins were, that would mean they’re in danger. I know Ismail at least can probably can cast fireballs and Ed was still hanging around but like,,, if anything happened to them I will cry. They are already different ages, Alex, leave them be 😭

4. Wilde

Is probably going to cast some illusions or buffs, which would both be really nice, but we all know that Alex rolls distressingly poorly sometimes, and he’s not exactly got lots of hit points. I’m very concerned about him if Guivres decides to breath fire in their direction.

3. Cel

They have surprisingly decent hit points from what I remember, but they’re mechanically Shaken which is bad, and they’re also planning to run interference between Guivres and the tower party and they have the wings and move speed to pull off some self-sacrificing tactics and also said they would distract the GIANT ELDER DRAGON.

2. Skraak

Is currently played by Alex, who is a monster and forces Bryn to roll for him without context, and is also probably trapped under or in a glassed house??? Judging by what Alex said they also took a bunch of damage already and I’m not convinced he made his escape artist check, so yeah, MUCH ANXIETY.

1. Hamid

If Skraak dies in this battle and Hamid doesn’t, he’s gonna feel so guilty, but also that might not matter because Hamid is currently COMPLETELY VISIBLE and being stared at by a MASSIVE DRAGON (cousin?? aunt???). I’m also not sure a fire resistance of 10 is going to be much help against a 60ft cone of fire doing 20d10 damage. FLY LITTLE DRAGON BOY

#rusty quill gaming #rqg spoilers #rqg anxiety report #i hope gragg is alright in other london but he didn't make the list I guess #topaz is not on there because topaz has been buffed up to ridiculous levels and she's also an angel

[shofics]

So if anyone’s been watching the RQG tag on AO3 recently, they might have noticed that, ahem. Upwards of fifty fics got posted this morning for the WIR holiday exchange. So that was a lot.

This was my gift! For the wonderful @snakewife , ‘Sasha besting Eldarion’, a little pre-canon Sasha and Brock lore. I struggled for weeks with very few ideas, then sat down and ended up writing the entirety of this in literally two sittings. I’m very happy with it, all told, and I’m so stupid excited to finally get to have it out there!!! Dear Stan, ily, I hope you have a lovely holiday.

Sasha’s lungs burn as she runs, but she barely feels it.

It’s raining hard, a real Upper London downpour, the kind that soaks into your flesh and fills up your bones until you’re dragged down by the waterweight. Sasha darts through it like a raindrop herself, trying to pretend it’s just another crowd to blend into. Trying to forget where she’s going.

That’s the problem, though; forget where you’re going and you’ll never bloody get there, so instead Sasha tries to focus on why, because focusing on why makes her angry, and right now that’s the only thing that’s fueling her. She sprints silently through the storm, one skinny little street rat with dark eyes and nine fingers, running on half a once-hot meal and a pulsating fury she’s learned to tuck under her ribs to keep herself warm in the winter; a burning confusion and hurt as old as she is, because people keep telling her they want her safe from harm only to later reveal that what they really wanted was to be the only one allowed to harm her.

Sasha knows how to get through the wardings in Eldarion’s house. Not like she hasn’t done it before, after all.

Continue reading on AO3!

#rqg #rqgaming #rusty quill gaming #rqg fic #sasha rackett #Brock Rackett #eldarion #Eldarion rqg #shoposts #showrites #GUESS I GOTTA UPDATE MY TAGGING SYSTEM NOW