#▌✦ ❝ you think like a lockpick‚ let me show you how to use that ➽ & wylan

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

hey! i love your posts! i was wondering if you could possibly do an analysis on the infamous bathroom scene? why does kaz choose this time to get close to inej and help her with her bandages? do you think he went in with the intention to try and give her physical affection or did it just happen? why does he choose to kiss her neck and is there significance to that? no rush, but i’d love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks so much for your question! I know you said I rush but it really has been a long time so I’m so sorry this took forever, but let’s go!

So the bathroom scene begins very specifically parallel with one of the earliest scenes of Six of Crows, when Kaz is washing in his room at the Slat and Inej walks in to deliver him news, and I think this is supposed to give us a sense of finality. It increases the tension, because at this point the reader is very aware that not everyone is necessarily going to survive Kaz's plan and having this echo could therefore look something frighteningly like closure to prepare us for losing one or both of the pair. Now this can be interpreted as a red herring, Leigh Bardugo is the queen of hitting where the mark’s not looking and she feeds us a lot of red herrings to hide her actual foreshadowing (I made a post about it a while ago now but in summary she’s a genius), and this could definitely be an extension of that to draw attention away from Matthias, similarly to how she focuses on the possibility of Matthias losing Nina a lot more than she does Nina losing Matthias, or it could be a hark back to Inej looking at the murals of animals running in circles in Six of Crows, describing them as “destined to chase each other for as long as the Ice Court stood” (or along those lines sorry I don’t have my books with me at the minute) as a metaphor for her and Kaz’s relationship. I think that the cyclical nature of this scene is meant to reference that in order to suggest that actually they have found a way to break the cycle, because they succeeded at the Ice Court, they metaphorically brought it down and so the cycle is broken, and the fact that there are several distinct differences between these parallel scenes enhances that for me.

This scene is only given to us in detail from Kaz's POV, whereas the early scene is from Inej's, and in each case the opposite character is arguably in the more vulnerable appearing position. In the first scene Kaz is shirtless, washing blood off himself, and Inej is actively discomforted by the immodesty of the interaction between them. In the bathroom scene, Inej has removed her tunic and I believe is wearing a tank top, which for her is a massively vulnerable way to be seen because she covers most of her skin all the time - particularly her arms because of her scars from the removal of the Menagerie tattoo. By this point the scars has been removed by Nina when she was high on parem, but that doesn't make Inej's psychological connection to them end and it definitely doesn't decrease her feeling of vulnerability when her skin is on show. There's also the added tension of Inej being injured in this scene. Although both scenes are in the aftermath of danger, the bathroom scene has a far stronger sense of the further danger to come than the earlier one did, since at the time we knew so little of the heist and the plan. Inej's injury solidifies this and makes the danger feel constant and real, as well as intensely increasing her vulnerability in a way that she is very aware of.

The fact that Kaz chooses now to get close to her intensifies this sense of danger and makes the reader very aware that Kaz Brekker, the Bastard of the Barrel, the man we have witnessed successfully breaking in and out of the Ice Court, cutting out a man's eye, scaring a small child so badly she'll probably need therapy as an adult, murdering, thieving, and being so committed to his plans that he swallowed and regurgitated a set of lockpicks without a second thought, is actually, genuinely terrified that he won't come back from the next stage of his plan. In fact he's so terrified that he has decided to face the only other thing that frightens him, so that if he dies today at least he tried. I'm not sure if he went in with the intention of moving from helping her with the bandages to physical intimacy, because even the bandages alone would be a huge step for him. It's possible that once he'd committed to helping her with the bandages anyway, that he decided to push himself as far as possible in case he never got another chance. Possibly if he'd taken things in smaller steps he would have been able to cope with helping her today, and then know that he could help her again, and maybe one day after that he'll be able to kiss her. But one of the things that makes this moment so beautiful is that this is a snippet of time where Kaz and Inej are the only thing that exist, there is no future and if they try hard enough maybe there can be no past, maybe there can just be the present, there can just be this. Kaz takes these steps now becasue he doesn't see a chance to do it again, and although this does wonders to enhance the importance and the beauty of the scene it is also terrifying as a reader to face the very real possibility of Kaz not coming back.

I’m really glad you mentioned him kissing her neck because I do think it’s possibly symbolic and quite meaningful. Whilst both of them struggle with physical contact to different capacities, it’s important to note that whilst Kaz’s fear of contact has made intimacy a seeming impossibility for him, for Inej it’s intimacy itself that’s the biggest influence on her pain. She struggles with any contact she isn’t prepared for beforehand, but only ever finds it worth explaining when it’s a form of intimacy - “the first time Nina hugged me, I flinched”. Even though Inej consents in the scene and doesn’t, at least not vocally or physically and therefore not to the reader’s knowledge, change her mind, she never initiates anything. I think this is important because it forces Kaz to be the one who handles the initial contact; if she touched him skin-on-skin without him forcing himself to do so first then he probably would have shut down and panicked a lot sooner because he wasn’t in control. But he also shows such an important understanding that Inej also needs some level of control. And that control comes in her decision to return the kiss. If he kissed her lips she would be forced to face the prospect of her worst fear “would she kiss him back? Could she be herself in such a moment or […] a doll in his arms, a girl who would never quite be whole”. (Again, sorry, operating on memory alone for the quotes). By kissing her neck, Kaz is able to create this moment of sensuality without taking control of it any more than he needs to for his own sake, making sure that the choice always remains hers. It also makes me think of when Nina kisses Matthias on the neck whilst searching his pockets for parem, when she says that she didn’t kiss his lips because she would not let the drug take that from her. Leigh Bardugo establishes this kiss on the lips as something powerful early on in the book and it comes into play once again here, with Kaz and Inej acknowledging that kind of connection to be a far more symbolic one for them than an initial contact is. In much the same way that Kaz refused to be the one to mark Inej again, he will not be the one to kiss her lips and create a situation she is unprepared to deal with. Ultimately, he has to be able to touch her skin first, and she has to be able to kiss his lips first.

Ok I wasn't one hundred percent sure how I was going to go about this and then suddenly all of that was on the page, but I think what I'm going to do now is pick some specific quotes or moments from the scene to talk about.

"I don't have the words to thank you" "I'm sure the Suli have a thousand proverbs for such an occasion" "words have not been invented for such an occasion" "if I end up on the gallows you can say something nice over the corpse" - honestly not sure if I have anything to say about this I just love this conversation so damn much

"if that were true my shadow would have put Ketterdam in permananent night" "maybe. or maybe your someone else's shadow" "You mean Pekka" - I feel like I talk about Kaz being Pekka's shadow an awful lot but I am just so obsessed with the idea, they are literary foils but there are also such important distinct differences between them it’s just incredible

“I don’t sell girl into brothels, I don’t con helpless kids out if their money” “look at the floor of the crow club, Kaz,” - okay so of the same vein and again I feel like I talk about it a lot, in fact it’s literally what inspired the entire fic im writing (if you wanna read it all the chapters are tagged under “Maya Olsen oc”) but these lines are so goddamn heartbreaking I will never get over them

“How could she still look at the world that way?” - it’s just really interesting to me to have this direct address of comparison of the way their view has been shaped by their experiences, particularly as I’ve talked a lot about Inej having to come to terms with the idea that what happened to her isn’t just a cruel part of the world but an individual piece of a cruel world especially with seeing the “Rare Spices” billboard using hyper-sexualised Suli women to sell the products (I made a whole post on that too) and yet still she sees hope in the world. A lot of this I think is to do with her faith, because instead of believing that there can be no god or saints or other form of deity because of the cruelty in the world, as Kaz does (it’s confirmed that he prayed as a child but is obviously now very atheistic, though we don’t get a lot of detail about what religion he may or may not have practiced), a big part of Inej’s path to hell by is believing that fate planned this for her so that it would lead her to stopping it from happening to others. I struggle with this idea because it seems to imply that it makes her pain worthy of going through when obviously no-one should ever have to experience such trauma, but there are many different ways of interpreting this and personally I don’t think that Inej believes her Saints did this to her for a reason but that she believes they have found a reason for her to continue after after the fact and given her a cause in order to help her through her experiences. I hope this makes sense it’s starting to feel a bit ramble-y

Oh my god I just wrote loads after that and it didn’t save. Oh my god no I can’t believe it I’ve been writing for so long 😭 ok erm… oh god I’m so annoyed right now I can’t remember everything I wrote and it was so much like I’d nearly got to the end of the chapter doing a quote by quote analysis. Ok I’m going to try and reconstruct what I did but please bare with if this isn’t my best work because usually I write very freely when I do these and just throw whatever comes into my head into the page so cautiously trying to think back to what I said originally might make it come across a bit stilted.

I can’t believe I’ve done this 😭

“The distance between them felt like nothing. It felt like miles” - his internal conflict is so brilliantly written and it’s so heartbreaking; the way this is far too close but it’s much too far away

“Graceful as always. A girl underwater” - again this internal conflict, the way she’s underwater because her movements are fluid but she’s also underwater because to touch her it to drown

“His gloves lay discarded […] they looked like dead animals”

“Maybe he would never get to the Slat. Maybe this would kill him.”

“Inej’s eyes were wide and dark. Lost planets. Black moons” - I will never shut up about the fact that soc starts with Joost wishing Anya had blue eyes instead of brown so they were easier to compliment, and then the two books are absolutely overflowing with Kaz and Inej describing each other’s beautiful brown eyes

“It’s shame that eats men whole. He was drowning it. Drowning in the Ketterdam harbour”

“Even now a boy will smile at me on the street, or Jesper will put his arm around my waist, and I feel I��m going to vanish,” - this is such and important moment, this scene is the most vulnerable and open Inej ever is out loud and I think it’s such a massive concession to her trust in Kaz. I think that, especially because the scene is written from Kaz’s perspective, we get a lot more emphasis on his struggle than on Inej’s and although it’s really important to discuss Kaz I do think that sometimes we tread a thin line of focusing on him at the expense of losing focus on Inej and it’s so massively important to acknowledge both of them. This is also one of the things that I think was the biggest downfall of the way the writing in shadow and bone season 2 treated Inej, although I absolutely adore the show and I think that everything Amita Suman does shows that she understands the character in a deep and beautiful level, I also think it’s so so important to realise that not once in either season does that script actually state that the Menagerie is a brothel. One of my friends who hasn’t read the books didn’t get the full picture of Inej’s backstory until I filled in some small gaps for her because the writing just didn’t do her full justice, and I think that’s really unfortunate not least because it means that to some who hasn’t read the books a lot of Inej’s actions in season 2 would come across as her trying rush Kaz into something he isn’t ready for when that isn’t the situation in the slightest

“The room tilted. He clung to the tether of her voice” - I’ve seen a lot of stuff online about the focus points of contact between grishaverse couples and the way their represented, for example with Malina it’s their hands (the way they hold hands as Alina is grabbed by Volcra and it amplifies her power, the way they reach to intertwine their fingers in the meadow, etc). And most of these label the eyes as Kanej’s focal point of contact, and whilst I agree with that I also think that the voice is a massively underrepresented one, especially from Kaz’s perspective. It’s Inej’s voice that helps him work through his panic attack in soc and it’s Inej’s voice that keeps him afloat now, arguably because it’s a form of connection between them that requires no closeness or input, it just exists and can be relied upon.

“I live in fear that I’ll see one of her… one of my clients on the street. For a long time I thought I recognised them everywhere. But sometimes I think what they did to me wasn’t the worst of it” - okay I want to warn you guys now I wrote a long and in depth analysis on this quote and I was incredibly passionate and very proud of it so I’n really really annoyed it didn’t save, and I’m sorry because my analysis now is probably not going to live up to what I wrote earlier but here we go:

For me, this is a massively important quote and there are two ways to read it. Firstly, that when she refers to “her” Inej means Heleen but edits her words as a continuation of this vulnerability she is forcing herself to share. The second is going to link to something I said a while ago about how we could compare a separation of “Inej” and “The Wraith” to the separation of “Kaz” and “Dirtyhands”, but this is a bit more like the separation of “Rietveld” and “Brekker”. Inej talks a lot about how she would leave her body behind to exist only in her mind, in passages I find particularly reminiscent of passages in The Handmaid’s Tale (although please note soc is not very explicit whereas tht is incredibly explicit). But to take that idea further, I think there are certain hints, and I think this is possibly the biggest one, to imply that one of Inej’s ptsd responses it to actually view herself today as a separate entity from who she was during her indenture, effectively saying ‘yes these things happened to this body but they didn’t happen to this mind so that should make it easier’ to herself, which is massively self-destructive in nature because it almost creates this idea that she needs to get over who she once was and move on, very similar to the way Kaz Brekker represses Kaz Rietveld. Arguably, what she’s saying is the worst of it is this fracturing of the self that has been created by what they put her through and that she cannot seem to escape from. Now obviously I don’t know the intent behind Leigh Bardugo’s words and I want to be very clear that there are different possible interpretations of this, this one in particular does happen to more darkly resonate with her ptsd that does not make it correct or incorrect but I think it’s worth considering, especially when it adds another layer to the parallels between her and Kaz.

Ok I’m not going to write out the full quote because it’s quite long but starting from the line “Tante Heleen wasn’t always cruel” - now I talked about this a bit in my post about a comparison between Inej and Wylan as subsequent to a comparison between Heleen and Van Eck, but very specifically in this passage Inej describes this horrifying, heart-shattering image of the way Heleen attempted to instil something akin to Stockholm Syndrome within the girls at the Menagerie, by forcing them to believe that she was their only hope for survival, that she was kinder to them than anyone else would be, that they had to prove they deserved to stay with her, that any abuse she brought down on them came from a place of some kind of twisted love or care because she had to do this to make them understand, that if they would just be good and if they would just understand then she wouldn’t have to hurt them but they won’t do they are forcing her to do this. It’s so painful and it tells us so much detail about Inej’s experience without actually going into tiny explicit details.

“Feeling regret and release as he broke contact with her skin” - again so brilliantly highlighting his internal conflict

“He could feel the warmth of her on his fingers like fever” - if I had a list of my favourite similes in literature… well it would be very long, but this would be on it!!! The subtlety and yet emphasis on Kaz’s internal conflict is so beautifully written here, with the warmth of her flesh against his creating this sensual atmosphere but the comparison of it to fever, to the illness that killed Jordie and took Kaz to the Reaper’s Barge, adds to the way the reminder of his pain is threaded through every moment even when he isn’t physically suffering a flashback, it’s just constantly present and inescapable

“That rapid pulse fluttering in her throat. Alive. Alive. Alive” - agaiiiiiiiiiiiin with the so brilliantly written internal conflict I will never get over. The entire scene is at war with itself, every sentence at odds with its own content. The sexual tension created in the image of the fast heart rate and the way this makes you feel alive versus the desperate need to keep reminding himself that she is alive and breathing she is not a body on the Reaper’s Barge.

Ohhhhh just the whole description of Kaz saying “after all she’d endured, he was the weak one” and explaining the pain of watching the others able to hold each other, how difficult it is to see Nina hug her and Jesper out his arm around her genuinely makes me want to cry, it resonates so sadly with the scene when they arrive at the Geldrenner and all the others are hugging and so happy to see each other alive, and Nina says that even if Kaz isn’t happy to see them they’re happy to see him, meanwhile Kaz is in a war of self loathing because he so intensely fears that they hate him because they think he hates them but he has no way of expressing himself and it’s just ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, you know?

“He watched that pulse, the evidence of her heart”

The whole passage that follows this moment I can’t explain it any other way than I feel like I’m melting every time I read it. I saw a Tumblr post someone had put on Pinterest recently and if I find it again I’ll put the op username in the comments but it basically said that when a writer can write something that isn’t a sex scene as if it’s a sex scene that it’s kind of magical and I think in a lot of ways this resonates massively with this scene

Ugh and then I want to cry again when he can’t cope and the I ability to express himself becomes anger and becomes descriptions of violence. This is the only time we get a full feel for the absolute unending mess of Kaz’s theist for revenge; it’s never enough, not the banks, not the attorneys, not the man from the cafe, not the boy who lured them in, not Margit, not Saskia, and Pekka Rollins won’t be. I always wonder if it’s important that we’re never told what he did to Saskia. We know that the roper was tortured and left dead with “the key to a wind up dog shoved down his throat” so we know Kaz exercises some kind of poetic justice in his violence, and we see that in his revenge against Rollins too. Maybe he strangled her with a red hair ribbon. Maybe he never actually hurt her. Maybe he couldn’t bring himself to.

“You don’t ask for forgiveness Kaz. You earn it,” “and is that what you intend to do? By hunting slavers?” “By hunting slavers” - maybe it’s just because of the intonation choice on my audiobook (which btw is awesome shout out to the narrators of the audiobook love you guys) but this to me comes across as Kaz attempting to mock Inej in his harried, terrified, clearly losing control state and her so calmly standing her ground and standing by what she believes in

“His eyes scanned her face […] snatching at the pieces of her like the thief he was”

“But if he was going to die today maybe the one thing he’d earned was the memory of her, brighter than anything he would ever have a right to, to take with him to the other side.”

The way the last moments of the scene include him putting back in the gloves, reconstructing the armour

“He might as well go to meet his death in style” - this is gonna be out of tune with everything else I’ve said but damn what an icon love this line

“Whatever happens to me, survive this city. Get your ship, have your vengeance, carve your name into their bones, but survive this mess I’ve gotten us into.” - I may simply ✨cease to exist✨. But genuinely I’ve mentioned several times before about how the city of Ketterdam almost becomes it’s own character as the antagonist because ultimately it’s the system, not any individual, that has to be defeated and I think this quote highlights it so well. There are individual people that have to be dealt with and deserve everything that will be brought done upon them, but it’s the city itself that you have to watch out for or it will swallow you whole

I’m not going to go into detail about their tells because I’ve made a post devoted to them before and good lord this post is getting long, but I just want to emphasise that it’s a brilliant passage

“If you’ve ever cared about me at all, don’t follow” - I just absolutely adore that the next chapter starts with Inej following him mimicking these exact words I love her so damn much it makes giggle every time

“Inej was wrong about one thing. He knew exactly what he intended to leave behind when was gone: Damage” - *collapses* God I adore this there are no words

Ok wow if you made it this far thank you so much for reading this honestly I’m very impressed that you did because this is long. There are definitely details that I’ve lost because I had to require so much of it, which is a real shame but there’s still a lot to talk about here and I’ve written so much is possibly best for the sake of all our sanity’s that there isn’t more. Sorry I took so long to respond to your question but thank you so so much for asking it, I hope you all like this and that it at least made some sense because as I’ve said before these things often make more sense in my own head than they do on paper. Thanks for reading 💖

#this may actually be *too* long #is there a point when it becomes unreasonable? #I was going to make a joke about my Roman Empire but I don’t think any of you needed telling that it was these beautiful novels #they actually just consume me #grishaverse #six of crows #leigh bardugo #crooked kingdom #inej ghafa #kaz brekker #nina zenik #jesper fahey #wylan van eck #matthias helvar #kanej #I’ve been in a very kanej mood recently #live laugh love kanej #kanej has my whole heart #kanej bathroom scene #ck bathroom scene #kanej brainrot #*cries in kanej*

[justporo]

A Song of Night and Laughter (Part 13)

In which Astarion again says "Murder is okay, but not to disrespect my wife" because obviously, people didn't hear him the first time - so he says it harder... and with a knife.

Song for this one: Killing Time - Jordan Fiction

Rating: Explicit

Pairing: Astarion/Fem!Tav (You)

Warnings: Descriptions of violence

“You really thought you would get away with holding a knife to my throat, vampire spawn?”, Miyena hissed. The blade pressed into Astarion’s neck. You were frozen against the stone wall and since Astarion was being threatened and you were pressed up against him to a wall, you had exactly zero options to do something.

The vampire didn’t even spare Miyena a look. His eyes were boring into yours, highly alert and threatening although you knew it wasn’t because of you. His pupils were diluted, his body tense like a panther ready to pounce.

“And you really thought you could kill a vampire with a simple blade like this? You wound me – only figuratively so though”, he spoke with a sneer, seemingly not stressed out at all. You felt the slightest shift in his posture that allowed you just a tad of movement.

“Of course not, I’m not the idiot you’ve taken me for, vampire”, the tiefling woman answered with a hideous smile on her face. Then suddenly Astarion could feel a sharp stake press into his back. He cursed under his breath, his eyes wandering skywards where the moon shone in defeat but still keeping the nonchalant façade. This man would seemingly never lose his teasing and sassy nature – not even in the face of death. Maybe that was when he especially needed it.

You gulped but your mind raced feverishly trying to think of a way out of this. For starters, you decided to keep her talking: “How did you manage to get away from the cityguard? The place was swarming with them!” It worked, the tiefling’s focus shifted to you even though a wince from Astarion made sure to remind you that the stake was still pressing into his back.

“You are not the only one proficient with lockpicking and sneaking around – remember that we are thieves? And I am not as dull as Eodin. And you really think these sad little puppy guards could hold me for long?”, she hissed at you and spitting out your former friend’s name – she surely changed alliances quickly. You could see her arrogant sneer, her dark blue hair shimmering in the silvery moonlight.

But you had her where you wanted her: showing off and wasting precious time talking. Astarion had managed to shift his position ever so slightly. His eyes bored into yours again, flicking to the side for a split second. You understood.

When Miyena was about to tell you how she planned to take her revenge on you especially, you whirled out from under Astarion’s arm and swished to grab at the tiefling’s hand that was holding the stake. Meanwhile Astarion grabbed the hand that was holding the dagger and basically ripped it away from his throat then using her arm to twirl her around – not entirely different from the way he had made you do when you had danced.

The tiefling who had no hands free to do anything, yelped in shock. You twisted her hand to let go of the stake. It clattered to the cobblestones of the alley. You immediately grabbed it and broke it over your thigh then threw the parts further down the dark alley. Then you turned back around again.

Astarion had Miyena in a chokehold and he was the one again having a knife at her throat. His face was contorted in hatred and his fangs bared. You could almost see his red eyes glow, but it must have been a shimmer of the icy moonlight. The panther had pounced and had its teeth around his victim’s neck.

“You really thought you could come out here and threaten me and Tav?”, he hissed at the tiefling who was now helplessly grabbing at his arm holding her head in a tight chokehold – a far cry from the cocky demeanor she had been showing only a few moments ago. “You really thought you could come out here and just kill a vampire?”, he hissed with an even harsher tone. Fury radiated off Astarion, sending lava-hot and icy-cold shivers down your spine all at the same time.

He was basically feral: the way he held Miyena who clearly had not much air left and then on top of that a blade pressed to her face, that had already knicked the skin. You could see a thin line of blood running down her cheek. Even from a distance you could see his pupils dilate – not sure if caused by adrenaline or the smell of the tiefling’s blood that surely most have hit him holding her that close. And with that you saw that Astarion was only mere moments away from completely losing it.

There was a choice you had to make, and quickly. Let her be killed by your soulmate while you stood and watched – she had been the one threatening you in the first place after all – or step in. You felt cold hatred for her and fury deeply inside you which mimicked Astarion’s outer rush of emotions. A part of you would be delighted to see her killed, watch Astarion slit her throat right in front of you. Coming to this conclusion scared you: knowing what you’d be capable of if it was Astarion’s life that was at stake.

But for all the dark violent feelings you had, you still felt compassion: you had worked together for many years, overcome many challenges and shared many hardships – even though you might’ve never really considered her a friend. And you had never been a coldblooded killer – and you sure as all hells wouldn’t start now.

“Astarion”, you whispered. His gaze connected with yours, his face immediately softening. “Please”, you whispered again so faintly there is almost no sound at all. For a heartbeat or two you see different urges battle on the vampire’s face but he finally releases his hold on the tiefling’s neck. He kept holding her with an iron grip though and pressed the dagger against her neck.

Miyena coughed and wheezed trying to fill her lungs with air again, her eyes full of panic. She dared not to try and speak.

Astarion grabbed her by the chin and made her look at him – her faces so close they could’ve kissed. “I’ll have you know that if it had only been me you’d be dead now – leaking out onto the cobblestones”, he spoke intently, enunciating every syllable and with that showing his fangs with every single word. “And if you ever try to threaten us again or send someone else after us or even if I just see you across the street: know that I will kill you and I will make it slow.” Then Astarion’s eyes wandered to you again. Anger still swirled in them but there was also understanding and worry – for you.

You were sure that that was it. That he would let her go now and you’d never see a piece of her again. But Miyena obviously had thoughts on that. “You are so fucking pathetic, Tav, you know that?”, she scoffed and spat on the ground. “You run around acting all goodie-goodie like you’re better than all of us. But you’re a liar and the thief like the rest of us and probably a killer too. And still, you act like that, even making your pet vampire…”

A slash of silver, a feral hiss, a huge spray of crimson blood and a body toppled to the ground. Your eyes widened in shock. Astarion knelt over Miyena’s body. You feared that he had actually lost control. But then you saw the tiefling move, not dead.

The vampire was still standing over the tiefling and it seemed he was whispering something to her, Miyena’s eyes widened and she started to scurry away from him in panic, but slipped on the steady stream of thick red blood that had started running down her throat. The vampire stood up again. “If you run now you’d might find someone in time to save you from bleeding out. I’d hurry though – and don’t fucking scream or I will get you yet”, Astarion said cooly to her.

This time time the tiefling cut her losses for good and got up to her feet and tumbled away – her wound leaving a trail of red. Astarion let the dagger clatter to the ground and turned to you.

You could see his whole face and half his body was splattered with the tiefling’s blood. His pupils were almost blotting out the red of his irises. He started to prowl towards you – his demeanor still predatory and his movement almost feline. His eyes never left yours until he was standing right in front of you. You saw the hunger in his eyes. He licked over his lips slowly, his eyes flickering shut as he tasted the fresh blood that coated them. Your lips opened as you watched his head roll back in bliss and saw his Adam’s apple work as he was trying to regain composure. Then he looked at you again, cocking his head with a smirk that barely did anything to hide the desire that clouded his features.

“Now, where were we, darling?”

Tags: @daedriclys

#astarion #astarion x tav #baldurs gate #baldurs gate 3 #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate iii #astarion x reader #astarion x mc #baldurs gate astarion #astarion x oc #astarion x you #fanfic #fanfiction #astarion ancunin #bg3 spoilers #a night of song and laughter #I didn't tag blood kink on AO3 for nothing

[omegalomania]

highlights from the virtual signing joe did back before his book tour, cause i havent seen anyone talk about it yet:

ppl who participated in the signing got to do a sweepstakes for a merch package and when the spokesperson was showing it off joe was like "and it's got a LOCKPICK and a GARROTE and a BALACLAVA so just DO WHATEVER DAMAGE YOU LIKE"

he introduced black flag, his favorite band, to his daughter and she thought it sounded terrible lkdfjldjfkd

when fob went to induct green day at the hall of fame joe mentions smoking weed with joan jett and miley cyrus. icon.

he regrets not having better tools to deal with his anxiety about touring and worrying about how every time he got in the van he'd be leaving home. "...and i wish i had, instead of looking out the back window, looked toward the front of the van and realized i was with four or five of my best friends and that i was in safe company."

re: the rest of the band, "they are like brothers, at the end of the day. it's a brotherly relationship."

his 8 year old begs him to watch horror movies and r-rated movies with him and he tells her she can watch them when she's 30

"let's talk about music. nothing better than talking about music. don't listen to it. just talk about it."

when asked about his proudest accomplishment: "i love all my children equally. but here's the reality. i am SO proud of fall out boy because it's a gigantic band that i started as a teenager. we just did stadium shows supporting GREEN DAY."

he's also super proud of the damned things and how honored he was that scott ian from anthrax, one of his personal heroes, trusted him to do so much writing

the interviewer goes, "all right here's a softball" and joe goes, "SOFT ME. uh, what?"

his favorite guitar is his 1965 reverse-body gibson firebird

his favorite transformer is grimlock

this question was supposed to be a lightning round but when asked "nintendo or sega" he says nintendo and then spends about 3 minutes talking abt punchout and then rattling off obscure sonic trivia. i love him.

his favorite video game is final fantasy 7. he says he "nearly flunked" out of middle school because of it.

he has a hard time picking a favorite horror movie since he loves horror but he picks "texas chainsaw massacre" as the one that affected him the most. he also recommends "anything for jackson" because it will "give you nightmares, if you are interested in having nightmares"

his favorite star wars character is yoda because his wisdom applies to real life very frequently

a fan-submitted question talked about with knives and how much the fan liked his vocals and both the interviewer and joe smiled REALLY big!!!!

sadly he doesn't like singing that much cause he doesn't like his voice. also he says fall out boy has a really good singer already. but he won't rule out doing some solo venture and recording super distorted vocals someday

re: what he wants to be remembered for the most - "having a sick bod, man."

"no, genuinely, i want my children to remember me as a good father. that's like the truth. and for having a sick bod."

he really doesn't hold any grudges about the hazing he got in the early days of touring because it was an initiation ritual and it weathered him quickly to touring life. he doesn't think people could get away with it now though.

"if you're gonna punch somebody though, do it when they're not looking"

re: favorite song to play live - "i don't care" because it "Just Rocks." and it's really fun!

his bluetooth in his car started playing "of all the gin joints in the world" and he texted patrick about how good of a song it was and how it'd be nice to play it live again

"as the kids maybe used to say, it SLAPS." brief discussion regarding the difference between a bop and a slap.

currently most of his musical ambitions lie in whatever fall out boy will do next

he tried scoring and composing for commercials and the like and he found that he really does not like it that much

he apologizes for not getting a haircut before the livestream. "this is just how i am, sloppy and unpresentable." (note: he was doing this livestream after a 13-hour flight from rock in rio in brazil)

#fall out boy #joe trohman #*making poasts #i felt like doing this tonight because certain Subsections of bandom are being very irritating and id like some good vibes #plus this was a really lovely little q&a #of all the gin joints!!! he would love to play it live again!!!!!

[abysswalkersknight]

Thanks to a prompt I reblogged, I wrote this quick thing with Silver overblotting. Honestly this helped me a lot more planning for future fics than I thought. As usual hope you enjoy.

P.S if anyone wants to send a prompt via messages or ask, feel free. I found out that writing can be a lot easier with motivation from others and prompts. Plus I love the practise and showing you the results.

--------------------

He was going mad. No he wasn’t. Yes, he was. 

Ever since Malleus got his claws on him, he’s left Silver alone in his room for who knows how long. Silver tried to keep track of time but he gave up after losing at seven minutes, now it felt like its been weeks since he’s been thrown in here, though that wouldn’t have mattered since he found out that Malleus had somehow stopped time in Sage Island, well I doubt anyone will be coming for me anytime soon, so there’s one thing left to do. He stood up from his position on the ground and looked about the room, the key to his door should be in his desk drawer but as expected Malleus must have taken it as well as locking his door with magic. That left the window, Silver pulled his desk away and inspected the window, once again. Locked, and no amount of fiddling or lockpicking would flip it, this may be a bit drastic, sending a silent apology to the school staff, Silver hefted up the heavy desk chair and threw it with all his might at the window. The chair shattered to pieces but the window remained unscathed ‘well that was of no use’ he says to himself, scratching his head ‘perhaps I should use something heavier’ so for what felt like a day or two Silver threw whatever he could find at the window, books, alarm clocks, candle holders, another chair. Hell he even threw one of his two bags of bird seed at it though obviously all that did was scatter seeds all over the room and add to the destruction, partially Silver did all that in hopes that Malleus would hear the ruckus and come to check on him. But he never showed, so Silver was still stuck here. 

Alone.

He’s been in complete isolation for weeks now, it had to be weeks. There was nothing for him to do, somehow all his books were blank, his phone was completely crushed, he couldn’t sleep, he didn’t need to eat (he chomped down the other bag of birdseed just for something to do) 

‘Where are you Malleus?’ he moaned ‘why am I here? I’m of little use now, I’m afraid’ is that why the prince won’t come? Was Silver here because he’s used up all his worth? Just a tool thrown into the back of a shed, cast aside to be left forgotten.

He didn’t want to be forgotten.

He was alone in this unbearable silence, at some point he began banging on his door, kicking it, throwing his whole body at it ‘please Malleus, let me out! I swear I’m still useful, just please! Anybody, please help! Father! Sebek!’ he wailed, something heavy leaked from his eyes and merged with his tears but he took no notice of it. He cried and begged for hours until his voice had grown so hoarse that it hurt to breathe ‘please, anybody…’ he whined, utterly exhausted now he sat on his bed, ignoring how it felt weird, as if something had been spilt on it. He wondered about his friends, were they alright? The last he saw them they were making their way towards black scale castle where the princess and her egg dwelt, even though he knew that his necklace could help them, he knew that he still needed to protect them. Do you think so? A voice whispered in his head, he couldn’t tell whether it was his or Malleus, don’t you think this is where you're meant to be? 

He had wondered that a couple of times, it wasn’t like he was needed by anyone, so why bother rescuing him. After all he caused Malleus’s anguish, possibly long before Silver could understand anything, and it was clear his father never wanted him in the first place, what with his dream world being one where he still had his loved ones, where Silver was non existent, and Sebek, he had his family to support him and he had his friends. Really no one needed him, so why did he still feel the need to protect.

Because you still love them. 

Yes, of course he did. He loved them so much that it hurt, even with the agonising reality he still loved them, and he will protect them with every shred of his being, no matter what happens to him. He could turn into a creature more terrifying than these phantoms and still he will protect his family. 

For what value does he have otherwise?

There is now black staining the walls, though Silver couldn’t tell if it was really there. Where was everybody? He had to get out of here, he had to rescue them! He had to save them from the vile darkness plaguing the land… Why did he need to save them? He couldn’t remember. Something about nightmares? That couldn’t be right, this was a nightmare. Being stuck in this cruel isolation, what did he do to warrant this? 

His bed was now torn to shreds from short violent outbursts he began to have, he was far too exhausted to move a limb now, yet he could not sleep, he ignored all the blot pooling in his mouth and eyes, oblivious of what was happening. It was so quiet one could almost hear a pin drop, instead all Silver heard was the click of the door opening. His head shot up and he gave a blot soaked smile at Malleus whose pale features blinked in surprise as he coughed out more blot ‘oh, Silver. Has it really been that long?’ Malleus coos taking a seat on the cleanest end of the bed, clawed hands stroke through his hair, matting it with inky blot, Silver would have leaned into it had his throat not clogged up. Those hands quickly moved to his back, patting it firmly to help Silver cough it all up ‘oh dear, never had I thought your overblot would be like this’ Malleus murmured solemnly. Silver glanced at him with bleary eyes ‘did you want me to overblot my lord? Would I be more useful that way?’ Malleus smiles then puts a finger to his chin as if in thought ‘hmm, yes It would be nice to have some company though why would it make you more useful?’

‘So I can save you my lord’

‘Oh?’ Malleus raises an eyebrow ‘and why would I need saving my dear Silver?’ suddenly he rises to his feet, in the distance there was the shrill scream of a wild horse ‘because my lord’ Silver whispers, ignorant to the helmet forming around his head. Malleus shoots back as a phantom twice the size of a normal horse rears up at him, it screams again and the overblotting Silver vaults into its saddle, now brandishing a sword at the prince. 

‘I will purge all darkness within the dream!’ 

‘Wait, Silver!-’ Before Malleus could do anything the horse rears again and bolts toward the magically locked window, shattering it and falling into the abyss. Malleus ran to the window in a sorry attempt to save Silver but in his head heard a cry.

‘Meet in a dream.’

#silver twst #twst #malleus draconia #knight's writing #overblot silver #if anyone wanted to know i used Gehrman the first hunter from bloodborne for inspration #i've also found a love for writing angst/eerie fics as well as fluffy/comedy

[hydropyro]

Webs of Fate Chapter 3

ao3 link

CW: Abdirak and all that he entails

It was dark before the quartet made their way into the camp. They had returned to the Grove just in time to rescue a tiefling child from being eaten by a small coven of harpies, and to warn the Grove of the attack that would take place the following afternoon -- allowing them time to prepare. 

The torturer stood from where he had been kneeling near the burning fire when Alakvyr approached, smiling at him. “I see you found the camp.” 

“Yes, and it was a warm welcome.” the man replied flatly. “If you’ll permit, may I survey the camp and find a suitable place for my tent?”

The drow frowned and nodded, “Of course.” He watched the Loviatan make his way across camp, then Gale’s hand rested on his shoulder. 

“What were you thinking?” the wizard asked. “Do you know what he is?” 

Alakvyr laughed and lifted the lower hem of his shirt, turning his back to Gale to show him the just-scabbed over cuts across his lower back. “Yea, I know.” 

When he turned back around the wizard had covered his face with one hand, his brows furrowed. “You let a Priest of Loviatar hit you ? And then you brought him to camp?” Gale’s expression then fell to one of exasperation. “You don’t want him to do it again, do you?” 

“I wouldn’t be opposed,” the drow laughed, but then shook his head. “He said ‘ his Maiden ’ wants him to come with us.”

“Because she couldn’t possibly be responsible for this mess?” 

Alakvyr hadn’t considered that. He glanced to the side where Withers stood. No one else knew what or who the skeletal figure truly was, and the drow had sworn not to reveal him to anyone. He would talk to Jergal and see if he had any insight into whether the Loviatan could be trusted. For now, it wouldn’t hurt too much to have him there. 

“I’m starving ,” Alakvyr said, turning back to Gale expectantly. 

The wizard only sighed and started away, toward the fire. He was the camp ‘chef’, which he had taken upon himself . He had made some comment about not trusting anyone else to recognize wild flora and fungi well enough not to accidentally poison them all, but Alakvyr thought he just enjoyed cooking. 

Alakvyr hurried over to Withers, silent as a shadow thanks to growing up in the Underdark. As he passed Karlach he could hear the bard they’d rescued from camp whispering animatedly to the tiefling and the Blade of Frontiers. None of the three noticed him. Glancing further into camp it was possible that Lockpick had, but he made no motion to follow. 

“ Jergal ,” he murmured, standing close to the god and facing out toward camp lest they be overheard. 

“We meet again,” the impassive skeleton said, sounding tired and unenthused as always. “You are asked to address me as Withers, as agreed.” 

“Of course, sorry, Withers .” Alakvyr fiddled with the broach bearing the Symbol of Kelemvor that was sewn onto the breast of his tunic. “I know you can’t -- or won’t , rather -- say much, but do you know if Loviatar is a threat?” 

“Loviatar is the goddess of pain and torture. She is always a threat.” 

Alakvyr rolled his eyes. “In the purview of the Absolute Crisis, is Loviatar a threat?” 

Withers’s cold, blank eyes bore into Alakvyr a moment, but it seemed as though the god was looking elsewhere, likely through the planes, rather than at the drow standing before him. “I cannot see. It does not seem to be so.” 

“So, can we trust the torturer?” He heard how bad it sounded once it had already been said. 

Now Withers was looking at him, and he was no more enthused than before. He did not respond, and Alakvyr only nodded, knowing better than to press. 

Alakvyr clasped his hands and gave a short nod to the god, then started across camp to where the Loviatan had gone. 

A log had been laid down to cross a narrow stream and allowed access to a small, broken down building. They had already investigated the building before, and no one had claimed it due to the uneven stones in the floor. The soft dirt ground on the other side of the stream was much more comfortable beneath their bedrolls. 

That did not stop the worshiper of pain from, and in fact may have attracted him to, erecting his small tent in the space. 

“I am sure you had quite an earful from your companions?” The man asked, looking up from a book he was reading when Alakvyr stepped into the roofless building. He gave a small smile. 

“Yea, don’t mind them. We’ve all been through a lot recently.”

“I don’t doubt it.” 

“Are you comfortable?” Alakvyr asked. He knelt down beside the Loviatan, before falling back onto his hind end and crossing his legs, as resting on his knees on the stones was too painful. 

“You need not concern yourself with it,” the older man said. “You have an animated skeleton in your camp?” 

Alakvyr nodded. He began to say ‘ we are an odd bunch ’, but the pale grey eyes of the torturer were boring into him. Unlike Withers, who was of flat affect, the torturer had a neutral expression, but his eyes felt as though he was dissecting the drow sitting beside him. 

“What is your name, Cleric of Kelemvor ?” 

“Alakvyr.” He hadn’t remembered that they hadn’t been properly introduced. He had been somewhat familiar with the priest, and so it hadn’t really occurred to him. How odd and -- forward -- the torturer must think him to be. He held out a hand, which was accepted. 

“Abdirak, Pain of Loviatar. I travel the lands to spread the word of my Maiden and bestow her blessings. 

“Forgive me, it is odd, is it not, for a drow to be a Cleric of Kelemvor?” 

Honestly, Alakvyr didn’t know. He could not remember much between the moment he’d pulled the blade to when Withers had stood over him and explained to him what had transpired -- in his typical, vague and unhelpful way. 

“How long have you been a follower of Kelemvor, if you don’t mind me asking?” 

There was intelligence and calculation behind Abdirak’s curious stare. 

“Three days,” Alakvyr admitted, averting his gaze. He needed to tell someone what had happened to him. It seemed like the Loviatan had found an inconsistency in the drow’s story, and back at the goblin camp Alakvyr knew that he had recognized Lockpick’s true nature. Given that he hadn’t called him out, as Alakvyr himself shouldn’t have known yet , it felt safe -- perhaps -- to open up to him. 

“Are you not aware of Kelemvor’s teachings?” 

“Probably not as much as you,” the drow admitted. 

Abdirak chuckled. “We must be well-learned for our Maiden. To understand our clients -- our charges -- in some cases our victims -- it is necessary to understand their faith, the cultures they may have come from, etcetera. 

“It can help in sensing and retrieving the most pure of pain, physical and psychological. 

“I sense a great pain in you, child.” Alakvyr met his eyes again, and Abdirak said, “I can help cleanse you, if you’ll allow.” 

“I spoke to Minthara, a True Soul of the Absolute," Alakvyr began.

“I know of her,” Abdirak interrupted. “She is the one who invited me to assist in procuring information from the treasure hunter.” 

Alakvyr paused. “Have you any loyalties to her?” 

“None.” The Loviatan gestured flippantly at the notion. “I serve only Loviatar. I have no need of this Absolute nor her cult.” 

He was satisfied with the response. “I told her that we would help her to raid the druid grove tomorrow at sundown.”

“The grove I was tasked with finding the location of?” Abdirak asked. 

Alakvyr nodded. “But I plan on betraying her -- I will defend the grove and the tiefling refugees that are camped there.” 

The Loviatan nodded, looking satisfied with the response. “You are worried?” 

The drow nodded again. “I know that we can do it. They are strong people, and all of us,” he gestured around the camp that stood on the other side of the ruin’s wall. “We are all strong, too.”

“Then you should not worry.”

Alakvyr drew a breath to steel himself before saying, “Last time I helped to raid the grove with Minthara.” 

The torturer frowned, deftly placing a hand to his breast and meeting the drow’s red eyes again. “Last time?” 

“Six days ago I survived the crash of an illithid nautiloid.”

He continued quickly before the older man could interrupt. 

“I was a fighter, sworn to Lolth and serving under Minthara Baenre. I didn’t know the full extent of my mission, only that I had to bring an artifact to her. 

“I did everything I had been asked. I found and collected survivors from the nautiloid crash. I had been put onto the ship long before anyone was abducted. I was going to help and lead them to Minthara’s sector once we landed. 

“I led Minthara and her goblins to the Emerald Grove, and I opened the gates, allowing the goblins to rush in and overpower those inside. 

“The leader of the tiefling refugees -- Zevlor, he’s called -- I killed him myself.” Alakvyr’s heart ached at the memory. “In Zevlor’s bunker many of the other tieflings had hidden, and I stormed the bunker along with my general, Minthara. I helped her to slaughter them. They were unarmed -- begging -- pleading . But they were foulbloods. Tantamount to animals. Evil, pure evil. And the faeries of the druid grove?”

“Evil,” Abdirak murmured. He must have had an idea of Menzoberranzanian culture. 

Alakvyr nodded. “Evil. They deserved the slaughter. For the glory of Lolth. 

“But it ate at me -- because I knew that -- that wasn’t the case. They weren’t evil. They had welcomed us in in their greatest time of need. They’d fed us, and were willing to shelter us. With the illithid parasites in our heads, we posed a tremendous threat to them and their people -- and yet--

“So, three days ago I was not able to live with what I had done. I did not feel that I had honored Lolth, moreso that I had dishonored myself. I slit my own throat. 

“And I woke up on the nautiloid ship once again.” 

The Pain’s eyebrows rose, but he did not interrupt. He seemed to press his hand more firmly to his chest. 

“It was explained to me, briefly, that Kelemvor had brought me back. I am an important part of resetting fate, allowing it to ‘spin along as it should’. He granted me with his powers and told me I was to defend the lives of the innocent lest they be cut unnaturally short, and, by any means, stop the Absolute .”

“So you will defend this Emerald Grove tomorrow, and destroy the True Soul Minthara’s army of goblins,” Abdirak said. “That is why you are a Cleric of Kelemvor, despite having an animated corpse in your camp, as well as a va--” he paused. 

“I know about Lockp-- Astarion . But, I appreciate that you did not say anything when you realized. I shouldn’t know yet, and no one else does, either.” 

The priest nodded, looking down at the book that he held closed in his lap. “I do not understand it fully, but I am less confused, now, as to why my Maiden has ordained that I travel with you. I believe I am supposed to help you in opposition to this rising cult and their ‘god’.” He closed his eyes and gave a small, pleased sigh, like one would when submerging themselves into a nice, warm bath. 

“Will you fight with us?” Alakvyr asked, hope building in his chest. 

“I won’t fight,” Abdirak shook his head. “I don’t fight. I can -- mind you -- but I won’t. As I don’t know for sure that these goblins are true enemies of Loviatar, it is opposed to my personal creed that I harm them. 

“But, I am willing to come with you and keep you and your people in good health.” 

Alakvyr nodded. “Thank you," he sighed. Any help was more than welcome. "And -- please, thank Loviatar.” 

The Pain gave him a small smile and held out the blade that he had been clenching in his opposite fist. It was bloodied, and fresh blood pooled in the man’s opened palm. “Thank her yourself.”

#baldur’s gate 3 #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 #Abdirak #Alakvyr #Webs of Fate #Loviatar #fanfic #fanfiction

[gameguy20100]

Baldur's Gate 3 Companions ranked.

So I’ve played BG3 a few times. And Id like to rank the companions. I’ll be judging them on usefulness in gameplay and personality. Keep in mind, my list so don’t pounce on me in the reblogs. And let’s begin.

1) Shadowheart

Usefulness: 5/5. Shadowheart is a cleric. This makes her the most useful companions due to her healing and buffs. I’ve almost never done a playthrough without her. Her thief skills are also extremely useful. Lockpicking and disarming traps is always useful. 

Personality: 4/5. Shadowheart is a very reserved person who doesn’t like talking about herself. And always tries to make out that she doesn’t care. But she’s clearly a lot less selfish than she thinks she is. I see a lot of potential in her character development 

2) Gale

Usefulness: 5/5 Gale is a wizard. Wizards are amazing due to their vast selection of spells. While he is dependent on the amount of spell scrolls and gold you can find, it’s worth it.  Buff, debuff, utility, damage. Wizards can do it all!

Personality: 3/5 Gale’s personality will either make him the best in the party or the worst. He has a rather big ego and brags about how powerful he is. While he does show that he’s not all talk and has a vast amount of magical knowledge. I do understand that arrogance is a big turn off. So he’s only getting a 3.

3) Lae’zel.

Usefulness: 4/5 Lae’zel is by far the toughest of the party Her weapon and armour skills make her the best frontliner. Able to deal, and take absurd amounts of punishment. Sadly that’s all she can do. With no other skills she’s really only useful for combat. Of course, you get into combat a lot so I don’t consider that a negative.

Personality: 2/5 Lae’zel is rude, abrasive, bloodthirsty and racist. Pretty much every word out of her mouth is about how much better Githyanki are and doesn’t care about anything but finding her clan. She suffers the most from the game being in Early access because her story has nowhere to go yet. As of now. She’s the least likeable but I do see potential.

4) Wyll

Usefulness: 3/5 Wyll is a warlock. Warlocks have an issue in that they lack the versatility of wizards, or the raw power of Sorcerers. But is clearly meant to be a similar role of nuker/controller. He only has two spell slots and will burn though them quickly. So more often than not you just spam Eldritch blast. Not bad, but others can be better.

Personality. 3/5 Wyll is a hero to the core. Or at least trying to be. His ideals clashing with his hatred and desire for vengeance makes for a very interesting character. I’m looking forward to see where it goes. 

5) Astarion

Usefulness: 1/5 Astarion suffers a lot in gameplay. His damage output is at it’s best when he can sneak attack. Sadly sneak attack is only really useful against a single target. This game loves to throw groups at the party. And he has no real skills to back him up. He can pick locks and disarm traps, but so can Shadowheart. He can deal damage, but so can everyone. He can sneak around, but I never found a use for that. He’s just not as useful as the others.

Personality: 2/5 If I could sum Astarion up in one word it would be edgy. Another would be arsehole. Constantly complaining when I do anything other than mock and belittle people for their trauma, And a guy who disapproves of freeing slaves or stopping a child from being killed is not a guy I want to get to know. His only real redeeming quality is that he’s fun to watch. He would make a fantastic antagonist, sadly as a party member he’s just irritating. 

So, that’s my list. Thanks for your time. Agree? disagree? Whatever lets just have fun.

#baldur's gate 3 #BG3 #bg3 shadowheart #bg3 gale #bg3 lae'zel #bg3 wyll #bg3 astarion #comparison #list #ranking

[the-stray-storyteller]

Get to know my OC!

*trumpets* @tea-and-mercury

Gently Tagging: @cabbojage @rickie-the-storyteller @palebdot @wubsbian @anonymousfoz and open tag

Also I copy pasted the questions only at the bottom of the post so it will be easier for you guys, you won't have to filter out the questions from all the shit I wrote.

______________________________________________________________

I walk on to the stage. Loud clapping ensues.

Me bowing down: Thankyou! Thankyou!

I sit down on a couch and take a thoughtful position.

Me: Everyday, especially Mondays, I wake up and think "School is fucking horrible" but then I remember that Havenpoint Academy is worse. So here I am with my favourite delinquent from Havenpoint to make me feel slightly better about my own life. Can I hear a cheer for AIDENE RAYNERS!

Aidene runs onto the stage. Everybody screams loudly. Aidene takes the seat in front of me.

Me: How are you doing today Rayners?

Aidene: Well...I tried not to punch somebody but he was too fucking annoying so I ended up kicking him in the stomach. Then he pulled my hair and then my friend attacked him. It was an all out brawl in the school hallway. It felt real good seeing him get hit so many times. So In short I am doing relatively fine.

Me: Damn! Let's not waste any time and get to the questions shall we?

Aidene: Go ahead love.

Me: Are you named after anyone?

Aidene: Naaaah....my name is so fucking unique that typing the words 'Aidene name meaning' on google will show 'Did you mean: Maiden name meaning.

Me: When was the last time you cried?

Aidene: The last day of my old school. It wasn't exactly sad crying though. Don't miss anybody over there.

Me: Do you have kids?

Aidene: Darling...I am still a virgin and a minor by law.

Me: Do you use sarcasm?

Aidene: Not really, that is more of Anne's and Penelope's thing.

Me: What's the first thing you notice about people?

Aidene: Are they rich or not?

Me: What's your eye colour?

Aidene: A deep brown that looks like honey under the summer sun and silver pools of starlight at night. That's how Anne describes it sometimes.

Me: Any special talents?

Aidene: Uh...I can be very very very annoying.

Me: Scary movies or happy endings?

Aidene: I have an over active imagination. I watched 'Lights out' and I felt like somebody was following me whenever I went into some place mildly dark. I couldn't sleep for the next week. So happy endings please.

Me nervously: Where were you born?

Aiden looking at me judgingly: In my mother's womb.

Me: What are your hobbies?

Aidene: I play both acoustic and electric guitar and sing occasionally. I tried my hand at art but it wasn't pretty enough for people. Also *cough* stealing *cough* and *cough* lockpicking *cough**cough*

Me: Do you have any pets?

Aidene: No but this crow comes by my window everyday. I give him food. In return he brings me little trinkets. I named him Corvy.

Me: What sports do you play/have played?

Aidene: I am a pretty decent swimmer and I am really good at running. I have won a couple ice skating competitions too.

Me: How tall are you?

Aidene lay down on the couch diva style and sighs deeply: Woe is me. I am only 5'4 but at least I am not as short as Valentina. She is only 5'2.

Me: Favourite subject at school?

Aidene: I like watching the art students paint from the window while skipping computers. So I like computers.

Me: Dream job?

Aidene: I really don't know....I like mythology so something related to that maybe. Or a musician, that would be cool.

Me: Well that is all we have for today and Aidene I believe you have a trapdoor to open. So until next time....so long farewell and don't die.

Curtains drop.

______________________________________________________________

THE QUESTIONS:

Are you named after anyone?

When was the last time you cried?

Do you have kids?

Do you use sarcasm?

What's the first thing you notice about people?

What's your eye colour?

Any special talents?

Scary movies or happy endings?

Where were you born?

What are your hobbies?

Do you have any pets?

What sports do you play/have played?

How tall are you?

Favourite subject at school?

Dream job?

#Havenpoint #tag game

[5mcsinatrenchcoat]

1 - 5 of the BG3 Act 1 asks for Vice?

BG3 Act 1 Asks (accepting!)

Oh-ho-ho that's a whole ass introduction, let's goooo (and thank you!)

Tell us about your Tav! Name, class and subclass, race, pronouns. Do you have a headcanon for where they're from? Their family? Are they a Dark Urge? Or did you choose an Origin Character? Was it an easy decision?

Name: Vice Class: Barbarian Subclass: Berserk Race: Asmodeus Tiefling Backstory: Urchin Pronouns: she/her

Putting this under read more 'cause trust me I couldn't make this brief even if I wanted to (yay headcanons)

Vice is Baldurian born and raised, in a somewhat more literal sense that one might think. As in, the city did indeed raise her. Her birth name is Volga Redbrook, but she doesn't really remember it. The name, that is. The surname is easier. It's on her parents' gravestones.

Her dad got murdered when she was an infant, and no one bothered to investigate a dead tiefling from a poor family (we've seen first hand how justice in this city works). Her mom hanged around longer, but got sick and also died when Vice was around 8 years old, leaving her an orphan.

If Baldur's Gate has any children protection services to speak of, then Vice never met them. For some time she skulked around the now-empty place they used to live in, but no living space stays empty for long, so she very quickly found herself on the streets. And with streets came trouble.

Stubborn by nature, constantly hungry and angry about it (the fuck do you MEAN you can't spare one damn apple you stupid asshole vendor--), she got tossed around more than once.

That's until one day, when she got in big trouble with the Fists for getting caught stealing, another urchin showed up and snatched her away. A teenage orc girl built like a fighter, with a burn scar on her face and a short boyish cut. She brought Vice to her hideout where she's been collecting similarly lost kids kind of like an older version of Mol. Their own little gang of survivors with no one to look after them but each other.

Now, Uretir, or Ur as they all called her, was about 14-15 years old herself, but to 10 years old Vice she seemed an impossibly cool adult older sister who can do everything and anything. She was strong, she dared to get into guards' faces if needed, she was larger than life. She also taught all of them to steal, to sneak, to lie, to parkour across the city's architecture if needed, and to fight.

Guess who Vice's guardian looked like.

It's in that group that Vice actually took her virtue name, Vice, 'cause it was indeed her own vices that repeatedly got her into trouble. Her stubbornness, her anger, her independence.

She used to be both impossibly angry at the world, especially those richer and more well-off than them, and ashamed of her anger, 'cause, well, it's not a good thing to have, is it? Never does her any good, certainly.

Ur used to say that they didn't need what the rich folks had. That those were stupid and complacent, not seeing shit under their own noses. Someone to be conned and robbed and tricked and laughed at, not anyone to envy. Not anyone to fear either. Ur used to say that everything they needed they already had in them. Their hands, their wits, their strength. Their crew. Ur also used to say that Vice's anger is nothing to be ashamed of. If she has it in her, then it's her tool to wield, to make herself stronger and more resilient. All she had to do was to learn how to harness it to her advantage instead of an obstacle.

Vice took the first part of advice to heart, which makes her incredibly frustrating to every character in the current plot who tries to bait her with power. She has her hands, her sword, her wits and her lies, her lockpicks and her strength. And also her friends. That's enough.

Uretir got killed in a scuffle when Vice was about sixteen. No one showed up to help, not a guard, not a citizen, no one. By the time the rest of them got there, there was no saving their sister.

So that's when Vice saw crystal clear the second part of that advice and made her rage her fuel. Let's just say that Ur's murderers didn't leave that alley alive either.

And Vice? Well, she's a 'barbarian' since. A sneaky, stealthy, lockpicky, smiley and deceiving berserk that will not hesitate to go off if you give her a reason to. The fact that she grew into her considerable height and build only helps her with that.

In the course of the next ten years their gang grew apart without Ur to hold them together. A lot of them decided to join the guild. Vice, however, was too sick of losing people, so she went the loner route, living it up while stealing and squatting, Disney Aladdin style (but without an animal sidekick).

The nautiloid actually snatched her up right in the middle of being chased after a robbery gone wrong, so? Successful getaway, I guess?

Now she has a whole squad of weirdos she'd really rather keep from dying and a girlfriend who's MUCH too close to death for comfort, which totally doesn't keep Vice painfully awake at night. Can she keep ANYONE in this godsdamn life.

(As for the question of whether it was easy to choose - I'm a sucker for custom characters, so hell yeah. Vice is a simple Tav, as you can see by the detailed backstory. I honestly never considered Dark Urge for my first playthrough, although it does look interesting if I ever manage a new character!)

Was there something about the character creator that just couldn't capture your Character? Please tell us about their hair, facial hair, tattoos, piercings, disabilities, their trans or intersex body, or anything else you're comfortable sharing.

Well, the thing is, I didn't go into the game with a pre-made character in mind. My only frame of reference was my Early Access character - and I last played EA in, like, summer of 2021, so I don't even remember what I named her. So after playing around in the character creator to see what's what I returned to my EA concept and went from there. 'Cause let me tell you, the new body type alone completely changed the whole vibe. I also decided not to go the non-canon way with the skin color.

But you can still see the roots. The eyes, the horns, the red hair, the general face preset I'm pretty sure. (Why aren't we allowed to color our eyebrows anymore though...)

All in all I'm majorly happy with how Vice turned out. Mayhaps the only thing I'd personally do is make her boobs smaller, 'cause that my general preference for my characters whenever I can control it, but let's be honest not every game lets you do that, so I'm content with letting her breast boobily and whatever. Anything for that height and those guns.

I'll admit I chose her scars all willy-nilly in character creation and now every time I notice them I'm like.

Someone tried really hard to either slit this girl's throat or behead her. I'm yet to decide which and how the hell she survived that.

And I'm pretty sure she just got that tattoo to be edgy and finds it very ironic now that there's an actual bullshit sitting in her eye.

(The only things I find annoying are the glitches like the light colored horns - which has thankfully been fixed - and the glitchy nail color that's been going on with tieflings. Not sure if the second one is still around)

Has your Character been using their illithid powers?

Ha, no. The aforementioned part about not wanting or trusting offers of power and authority and yada yada plus her general stubborn yuck about everything connected to mind flayers made sure of it. She's girlbossing her way through encounters based on sheer ability to lie and/or intimidate. And also a bit of me savescumming. Sue me.

Although to be completely honest I did fuck up on that a bit. I completely missed the fact that the Survival Instinct ability is linked to a tadpole (kinda got used to new abilities just popping up on the panel 'cause I equipped something new and forgot or leveled up or whatever). So I used it a few times and only stopped when the goddamn Embrace Your Potential quest updated and I went "SHIT".

I usually roll with the punches like that, and so was born the headcanon of Vice using the ilithid power unconsciously a few times because she got too scared about a friend - or lover - getting hit too hard in a fight.

She did very much stomp on the very-special tadpole the Emperor gave her. He wasn't pleased, she didn't care.

Do you remember in which order you recruited your companions? Which companion introduction would have felt the most familiar / like home to your Tav / Character?

Okay, let's see. Vice rescued Shadowheart from the pod (failed the strength check miserably and had to use the actual smarts but she got it done), so they landed close by. After which she immediately attempted to steal the shiny artefact thingy from the unconscious girl and had to very convincingly pretend that she was just checking on her upon being caught. So, uh, an interesting start to the relationship. (SH did seem to believe her though)

Astarion was second and he got successfully headbutted for being a little shit (ouch the horns). I also accidentally missed the first scene in camp - or multiple??? - because the very first night we made camp he was already trying to bite Vice. Which she didn't let him do. Their relationship is the rockiest of the whole party, but we're hopefully getting there.

Then came Gale whom Vice dragged from the portal by the muscle alone. She didn't really knew what to think of him for the longest time. Wizards and their hubris are so very much beyond her expertise.

Then of course she saved Lae'zel. Or does she technically count as the first companion, considering the nautiloid? Anyway, Vice's attitude frustrated her considerably for the first half of the Act, but Vice was actually chill about her from the get go. She understands angry. She understands surviving. Doesn't understand the superiority complex, but she got very good at shutting it down, so. (They became good friends later).

Karlach actually was recruited before Wyll 'cause I got nervous I was making too many long rests (got burned in EA once) and speedran directly to her location, past the fake paladins and everything. So Wyll basically recruited himself by showing up at camp. And Vice is glad that he did, 'cause he's an awesome guy and she likes him the best out of her male friends in the group.

As far as familiar/like home part goes… Look, I'm going to be very predictable and say Karlach. Because of many things really. Apart from the fact that Vice's gay ass immediately went "Hot 😳" at the first sight. First and foremost, while all the other companions thus far had been all gloomy and/or secretive (can't call Gale gloomy by any means but he sure as heck was sketchy with his humor shield), Karlach was open and loud and generally optimistic right from the get go, which Vice, who generally survives in the same manner, was tremendously relieved to see. She was also a fellow strong and angry barbarian at that and immediately in that first fight they matched each other step for step, which was also very refreshing. She was ALSO a fellow Baldurian street kid, as it soon appeared. It just clicked. If they hadn't fallen for each other eventually, they'd be the best of friends otherwise, there's no other option.

Do you remember the first humanoid enemy your Character killed? Was it the first person they've ever killed, in your opinion? Would they have been bothered by it?

Now this is a hard one. Do imps count? Does a dying mind flayer, who's skull she stomped on upon finding him? Or are we skipping till goblins at the grove?

Either way, as mentioned, Vice first killed a person, or rather multiple, when she was sixteen. So no, by that point - and she's around 26 in the main story - any of those were hardly her first. She was more bothered by the nature of everything happening (you don't get that kind of action on the city streets okay?) than the general killing she had to do. It's just a part of survival.

Tips of her horns are permanently stained red for a reason.

#tav posting #bg3 spoilers #some #bg3 tav #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #female tav

[askthechronoverse]

So I heard that archive of our own is down. I offer all of you looking for a fic to read this one shot. Originaly written as an anniversary fic for my first year with this AU, I hope this tides you over until you can read your regular stuff.

It was dark by the time Rex got to the castle. He held his breath and looked for a way to enter. No time to be afraid. Nothing to it but to do it. After jogging around the castle's shadow, he found a broken window. With all the stealth he could muster, he sprang through the opening and walked around in the darkness of the unlit castle. It did sting to think that the others weren't as willing as he was to clear out the castle, reclaim the gems, and look for Richard. It made him think that maybe he was wrong about them again. He shook those thoughts out of his head. They were just scared. He would have to be the brave one, that much is obvious. Otherwise, they all would be cowering in the cabin.

It was far too quiet as he headed for the throne room. By now, surely someone would be there. As he passed a nondescript door in a forgettable hallway, he could hear soft sobbing coming from beyond it. He leaned against the door and the sobbing was louder. Rex tried the handle. It was locked and the sobbing quickly turned to a dead silence. Whoever was behind the door was a prisoner. There couldn't be any other explanation. He could hear the sobbing get more intense now. This emboldened Rex further.

"I'll build ya another door later, Princess." He whispered, looking around. He raised his fist, but stopped when the voice on the other side of the door whispered back, just above the sound of Rex's breathing.

"Please, try not to alert the Doom Lords of your presence." The voice quivered. "They appear more organized and focused than last I saw them. We can't risk your capture."

The voice had a point. As Rex thought about what to do, a lone paperclip slid from under the door.

"I would have used this myself, but the door locks from the outside. I'll walk you through using it as a lockpick." The paperclip gave away that this was Richard, which caused Rex to release some nervousness with his breath. He picked up the paperclip and began to follow the brick's uncharacteristically and breathtakingly expert instructions on the improvised lockpicking process. Someday, it was clear that he was going to need to ask how Richard knew how to pick locks like that. The door eventually was open and Richard's large eyes were half closed, but still visible.

"Thank you, RJ. I… I was worried I was going to never see you again." He tried to float to Rex, but faltered. Rex picked him up, which caused him to blush. "Do the others know you're here?"

"Nah. I had to do something. I can't just sit still and let these guys do… this." Rex pointed to the heartbreaking amount of graffiti on the walls like a game show co-host showing off an unwanted prize with a frantically freed hand.

"RJ…" The tone held was a muddy mix of disappointment and something a lot softer, something Rex didn't expect from the monotone brick. Richard closed his eyes, looking more tired than he would have wanted to admit to.

"You good, ba…bro?" Rex wasn't sure why he almost said what he did, but he turned red as he caught himself. The brick nodded slowly, brow furrowed with general anxiety. "Ya sure? Ya looked unsteady."

"I'm just exhausted. I haven't had anything substantial to eat in a while. You don't have anything by any chance?" Richard nestled himself into his rescuer's arm and kept his eyes firmly closed.

"I have…" Rex dug through his vest and pants pockets. "Some bubblegum and half a granola bar. We ain't too far from the kitchen. I could-"

"It's bad enough you came here to-"

"Punch that Lord Business wannabe in the face." Rex affirmed this, unintentionally cutting Richard off in the process.

"... Right… I assume you came without backup and with no one knowing you came. I am not letting you do anything to further compromise your position. Give me the granola bar, please." Rex offered the granola bar and it floated shakily in the air. Richard finished the bar unceremoniously and placed the wrapper in Rex's pocket. "I'm staying with you. Much as I don't feel safe, you're going to get yourself killed like this. I can't allow that."

"Oh? And why not?"

"I just cannot allow it. The princess likes you. I have a duty to her to keep her happy." Richard said, but the brick spoke in a tone that made Rex lift an eyebrow.

“Fine. But if ya feel scared, ya need to go. Trust your judgment. I ain’t gonna see ya get hurt.” Rex pressed his back against the shadow cloaked wall and looked around. “Wait. Why were you trapped in the closet? Can’tcha go through walls?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” He spoke quickly, wishing he could become invisible. “Let’s just get this over with.”

“Ya got it. Let’s get Doom and save the day before the others know we’re gone.” Rex looked down at his rectangular companion and began to inch his way toward the throne room. The way Rex looked down at him made Richard’s heart flutter a little. What was this? Why does he feel like his heart was a butterfly hatchery and all the cocoons finally hatched? No. He couldn’t think like this. He needed to focus on his surroundings, because Rex sure wasn’t going to. The flutter made it so hard to do that. It made him want to remain in Rex’s arms forevermore. He looked down for a moment to ground himself, then snapped his focus back to the area around them.

They somehow managed to get to the throne room undetected.There appeared to be no one around, but it was hard to see in the absent light. Rex held Richard close and the brick questioned why that felt so right. No, no. This man was reckless and bold. He couldn't see himself… being held softly in his big strong arms and being told everything would be just fine and he wasn't going to leave him. By the time Richard regained focus, Rex had placed him on the throne and was trying to pick the lock on a chest.

"What are you doing?" The words came out of Richard slowly and unsurely.

"I'm looking for the gems. Locked chest? Important room? Good place to start." Why did Rex always sound so sure of himself? Why was he so confident? It was almost infuriating… but also endearing. The confidence made him feel confident too, even if the situation they found themselves in was grim. He couldn't believe someone could be like that.

"I suppose. Do I assume you want me to be a lookout?"

"Yeah, Richie. I gotta focus on this. If someone comes, distract 'em." His back was turned to Richard, but the brick couldn't help but imagine the human's tongue was sticking out as he concentrated on picking the lock.

For Rex's sake, Richard kept up some silence. While he did this, he let his mind wander again. He had overheard that this man used to be the hero of TAKOS Tuesday known as The Special, a far more cautious man who still managed to save the day. How? The Special was a public figure at this point. Everyone knew him and he was nothing like Rex. They appeared to be total opposites. Richard knew very little about the specifics and this wasn't the time to ask for more info.

"Ya good, bro? You're super quiet." Rex's concern cut Rick's concentration.

"Oh. Yes, I'm just thinking." The brick bobbed, letting himself take some altitude.

"I like that aboutchu. Ya're always thinkin'. What were ya thinkin' about?" Rex finally finished picking the lock and dug through the chest.

"Nothing. It's none of your concern." Richard looked away for a moment. Why did he want to tell him everything, to talk for hours until dawn? No. He couldn't do that. They were in enemy territory and… oh no. He had been concentrating so hard on his own train of thought, that he hadn't scanned thel area for enemies in a while. He looked around and gasped. He saw a dark shadow on the opposite side of the room. Rex was oblivious to this. He squinted. The yellow face was unmistakable. Master Frown. He cleared his throat to get Rex's attention. Rex couldn't hear him. Richard cleared his throat louder. This made both Rex and Frown pause. The cloaked teen shrugged as he inched closer to Rex, who could see a green twinkle from the corner of his eye.

"They let kids have the gems? Sad. Your boss is makin' things too easy for me." Rex did not turn around.

"OK, I know this is gonna seem like a weird ask from the guy about to kick your butt, but could you sign my cloak? You're kind of a big deal around here and I need something to show that I met you." Frown, despite his name, had a bright grin on his face and a sharpie in his hand, which he spun.

"You know the reason I'm a big deal, right?" Richard was surprised: Rex spoke with such patience in the face of danger.

"Yeah! You're the Master Breaker! The destroyer of worlds! Doom has been wanting us to do that for as long as any of us can remember and you just did it all by yourself! You may have said no to the big boss, but you're a rockstar around here!" The twinkle in Frown's eyes was disturbing to Richard. His mind and gaze went to Rex, who's left eye twitched.

"I am trying to not be that guy anymore. I would have thought sayin' no to your boss would have signaled that. I wish ya said that you were just a fan of my podcast or somethin'." The man got to his feet and shook his head. "No. I ain't signin' anythin' for ya if the reason ya want it is because of that."

"Come on, man! Don't be such a buzzkill! I'm a fan!" The snotty voice made Rex's eye continue to twitch. The frown on Rex's face was sharp and made Richard's heart freeze.

"Yeah. A fan of my work during a time I want to put behind me right now. I'm not signing anything for you." Rex walked toward the teenage Doom Lord. "Give me the gem, kid."

"No way! You won't even give me your autograph! I'm just gonna kick your butt!" The junior Doom Lord held the gem tightly in one hand and rushed at Rex with an open hand in the other. The slap connected with Rex's unshaven face and Rex stood still. Richard called out to him, but the man said nothing, his gaze set somewhere far away from this time and place. Frown turned to face Richard now.

Frown shrugged. "I'm gonna call for backup, but I probably should stop you from getting help." He came as the brick with his hands, but was pushed away by an unseen force.

"No. Let him… let him go, Frown." Richard looked to Rex, who stood like an unsettling statue. The human's eyes were glazed over and saucer like, his face pale and frigid looking. The brick floated over the thone, attempting to make his plain form look more threatening.

"Let him go? Last I checked, I'm not Princess Unidork. I don't take orders from you." Frown tried to move forward, but he was pushed again by the invisible force. This force got stronger as Richard moved.

"RJ! Please snap out of whatever hold he has on you! I can only hold him off for so long!" The brick floated to Rex and brushed hair out of his face with invisible hands. "Please, Rex." The brick bit his lower lip.

"I don't know where he is right now, but man his screams are… well, I love screaming usually, but I wasn't expecting such a scared little voice from the great Rex Dangervest." Frown tapped his chin and laughed after a moment at something unheard. He brought the gem out again and shook it by his assumed ear. "Maybe the gem the boss gave me is broken?" The comment and the fact the gem was out in the open was lost on Richard, who kept calling Rex's name to get him out of whatever hold Frown had on him.

"Rex? Please come back." The cold and fearful state his companion was in chilled Richard to his core. Maybe he should get help. He looked around to see that Frown had left, possibly to get help of his own. His companion's voice made the brick jump, both because of how it sounded and the fact that it could be heard.

"Run." This was all Rex was able to choke out before he froze once again. The voice was soft and kind, but that just made the order more chilling. From the distance, Richard could hear two different people giggling. That was very much his cue to get out of there. His body acted before he could say any objections. As he flew, he could hear a woman laughing and telling Rex that the pain in his eyes would look so much better with bruises. He went through the wall of the throne room, but stopped just outside in the garden, covered in the safety of the blueberry bushes.

Why did he run? Rex needed him, though he did say to do just that. He turned to face the castle. Maybe he needed to go back. Something glued him to the spot and made that thought impossible to go through with. He needed to at least get back to the others. He was sure Rex could handle himself, right? It was the only reason that Rex would have told him to run, right? That had to be the thought he settled on at this point. They couldn't afford to lose him, but Rex was strong. You'd have to be strong to be able to do all of the things he's done, good and bad. The fluttering in his heart had yet to abate. Maybe that was because of his fear, or maybe it was something else. There was too much going on in his head for him to know for absolutely certain. He headed for the city in a slow and cautious way, knowing that Puppycorn probably ate them out of house and home and he would need to return with supplies.

#ao3 #the lego movie #lego au #lego movie au #Unikitty #unikitty au #the newspaper isn't antiquated •||• written works #ao3 fanfic

[hey-sherry]

Sherlock Holmes The Awakened Demo Thinky Thoughts

A bit late, but I wanted to share my first reaction to the Awakened demo! This is essentially an expanded version of what I wrote on the FW discord, with screenshots edited to look nicer for tumblr. I will do a separate post on the extra stuff that is normally inaccessible without Ansel. [Extra stuff post here]

So: spoilers ahead + keep in mind that the game is darker and moodier, I edited some of the screenshots so that they are clearer on tumblr/mobile view.

Sweet sweet concept art, gorgeous intro music, yay! The main theme is atmospheric and dark, giving me very slight vibes of the Sarif HQ track from DX:HR... I mean this in a good way, not in a “they copied it” way. It’s that sort of nostalgic ambience, but deeper and darker. One day I’ll stop drawing parallels to Deus Ex, but today is not that day.

The intro cinematic is pre-rendered and really good; I liked Sherlock's narration and the implication it's all in Watson's/players' hands now... He sounds more authoritative and distant than in CO.

I really liked the visual with the fly caught in the cobweb.

I did not expect this! It's a really fun title sequence and wow, we’re being thrown straight into chapter 3. I too thought it would be London but this is great 😄

WATSON!!! At this point I’m thinking, “Oooh we're gonna play as Watson, they probably don’t want to show Sherlock just yet, I know someone who's gonna be very happy about this o,o” (ahem hem, @lucere-aeresta​) I like long dialogues/cinematics so this intro was a treat. I'll have to replay of course but it felt very satisfying to see a chunk of the story here and be introduced to the new characters. There’s a lot going on!

The receptionist

Dr. Gygax!

You can walk around a little and talk to a couple of NPCs. There’s this easter egg - it’s a Lovecraft easter egg (thanks for figuring that one out, Lucere!) The paper itself is straight from Cordona. :D

You cannot pick this letter up, but the message is very clear. May be a clue in the final game.

Who’s there...? BTW this is the exact face Sherlock gives Jon when he plays the guitar too loudly in the CO seance scene :D

OH NO. LMAO! This had me in stitches, and of course I lied. Nice American accent, you dork. The subsequent journal entry essentially saying "Watson tried to act, I guess" gave me a chuckle. I tried!  So hard! And in the en-- moving on...

Here’s how the journal looks like now. The clues have updated icons and you can toggle to sort them by type (document, conversation, item, etc.) or the order in which you found them.

So yeah, Sherlock shows up in disguise and a terrible American accent, says the iconic “Guten day,” and then he gets sedated because Watson cannot lie to save his life.

Of course. OF COURSE. Now I know someone who's going to be a bit disappointed we don’t spend much time as Watson, but that's not me. 😂 My first thought -> they heard us cry and wail about the stubble and said "We're gonna make you beg to have the stubble back" Ok, ok, you win. I'm sorry. 😭

(insert half an hour of zooming around with Ansel instead of playing the damn game) This is how the game levels look when you go out of bounds!

Found some of you in the back! And in the cells! :3 (There’s a wall with photographs of the Kickstarter backers, and a row of cells with names and custom faces - although you cannot see the characters very well at this point.)

Right, I should play. The lockpicking puzzles were fun, but I'll admit I found both of them extremely easy. But I am a seasoned adventure game fan and it's a nice little thing to do for that feeling of escaping the cells. The “Mycroft” (custom) difficulty setting does let you change the puzzle difficulty, so we are probably going to face a bigger challenge in the finished game. The settings don’t make a difference in the demo, though.

SHERLOCK. NO. PUT IT DOWN.

PUT THOSE DOWN OH MY GOD

So yeah, I think it’s safe to say he’s a full blown addict by now. Vogel, what have you done?

Ran into the guard three times, got a game over 😎 Confirmation that yeah Sherlock is still afraid of water! I bet he's gonna love the trip to America and boating around the swamps. What could go wrong.

FYI, there's a guard that you need to figure out how to get past. It's not a sneaking sequence, but you need some items. If he notices you 3 times he rings the alarm, and the game reloads

At this point I'm having fun just investigating stuff and admiring the new journal etc., it's all very nicely designed. It's awesome that we can sort evidence by type now! The mind palace facelift is so good and feels more involved than before.

Back to the game... I SQUEALED!!! 😄 duhhh

And again! Two back to back CO references, yay ♥

Well I am a smart detective and deal with the guard with my brain and not my fists. Time to yoink all of his clothes. Where did his body go? We don't ask such questions around here...

HEEEEEEEEELLLLLLL YEAAAAAAAH

ANSEL PHYSICS RESET MY BELOVED ♥♥ never fix this please never ever

(cue another photoshoot) 

The biggest tease in all of the demo: THAT EXCLAMATION MARK. Let... me... see... outfits! 😂 Lovingggg the updated outfit screen, so happy there's some gorgeous lighting in there. It looked kinda bad in CO.

Okay, back to playing the game! I LIED, more photoshoots as the inmates scream, cry, and wail all around me. Sucks to be them, I guess.

Okay, Gerda! I LOVE her new design, and her voice actress too! She was so great.

Gerda is the second inmate that we meet. She wants her friend Heidi back and until then she will not talk. The first inmate that we meet is Mauricio Napoleon, it is just a short but entertaining conversation/cinematic. We don’t talk to him any more in the demo.

He does that lil smile as she spits the worst threats at him, it's glorious

Something something Silent Hill 3 (Gorgeous!)

I try to play the mountain goat in every game and the absence of the jump button will not stop me

So I didn't take screenshots of the quite meaty gameplay surrounding getting Heidi back and figuring out what's going on, so here's some thoughts: - The updated crime scene investigation looks fantastic! The smokey green aesthetics are fitting and everything is much clearer than it was in CO. I like that we can see how many variations there are for each 'node'. The only thing I'm not sure about is the first person perspective - Sherlock's close focus mode - because I had trouble seeing what's different in the variations, and sometimes the models would push me back a little bit when they loaded. I'd move away from the node just by trying to see things and had trouble re-positioning... not a great deal of trouble, of course, but it is a downgrade from SHCO. I think the 3rd person mode like with Jon in CO works much better. This is my biggest criticism of the demo. - There was a tad too much running back and forth just to seemingly fetch a few items... this may be polished further, I don't know. It gave me old adventure game vibes where you kinda run back and forth for a few small things lol. - I wished we could use the items more directly and/or assemble things, not just have them as text in the inventory... but I understand that making a new puzzle feature may be too much work at this point - The "three clues" dialogue confused me for a moment, but so it did in CO as well so this may be a ‘me’ problem 😂 I keep forgetting that there are 3 different questions to answer, not that I need to present 3 accurate clues... hahah. - The darker overtones are soooo up my alley! When I figured out what had happened to one of the people in the casket... ooof anyway, time to find and assemble Heidi!

Him <3

Awww, isn't it cute?

BUT IT'S WRONG

Oh so wrong 😂 I did NOTTTT expect this ahahahahhhh Hands down the best part of the demo The mental health aspect of the remake was what had me a little worried, but you know what, I think it's gonna be fine 😂 Heidi is one bad bench, and Sherlock just ACCEPTING he's now talking to a demonic doll and making the most of it is just chef's kiss Love, love, love. We're all mad here.

I unlocked a reward, and what a sweet one it is! Sadly, you cannot change your clothes in the demo. The updated physics make his chain and bag go bouncing like crazy, haha.

And thank

you

for reading! Feel free to send me an ask if you have any questions.

#sherlock holmes the awakened #sherlock holmes #john watson #frogwares holmes #SHTA demo #thinky thoughts #my screenshots

[3xm-draconic]

DOVAHJOJO: a bizarre adventure.

In the Army Now.

Jotunn Jostjarna is an orphan living on the streets of Bruma, one day he is adopted by a pare of mercenaries and raised to be a warrior. after 5 years he joins the Legion to help fight in the great war.

Episode 1: Son of man and mer walk tall with pride. 

Jotti lived on the streets of Bruma, he earned a living by doing odd jobs around the city and selling alchemical herbs he gathered in the forest. He had never forgotten that night, 4 months ago, the night the Thalmor took his family from him. Jotti did everything an 11 year old could do to help in the imperial war effort to stop them but it would be at least 5 years till he could actually join the fight.

Till then Jotti helped in any way he could.

One day a duo of mercenaries came into town, Percival Fine-Fur a Khajiit Monk and his companion Ralukar the Orc-blood spellsword, the two were soldiers of fortune looking to join the Legion.

One night in the local tavern, Jotti and the mercs crossed paths…

“You're not all mer are you boy?...you got nord blood in your veins” Ralukar said to Jotti, Jotti stopped cleaning the floor and looked up at the Orc “y…you can tell that my father is a nord?” Jotti said astonished, “I’am a fellow hybrid, my ma was an orc but my da was a redguard” Ralukar chuckled.

Ralukar bought Jotti a warm meal and asked him to take a seat “so what’s your story kid?”, “I am the son of a farmer and an alchemist, the Thalmor killed them months ago and now I live as an orphan here on the streets”.

Ralukar looked sympatheticly towards Jotti “I too lost family to the Thalmor”.

Fine-Fur entered the tavern “Ral? Ral where are you? We need to get going, the Legion said no to letting us in so we’ll half to find work elsewhere…” Fine-Fur looked oddly at Jotti “what’s with the kid?”, “he’s like me Percy, a hybrid who lost everything to the Dominion” Ralukar said as he got up from his bar stool.

Before they left the tavern Ralukar stopped in the doorway “hey kid do you know how to fight? Like really fight not just tavern brawling?”, Jotti shook his head, “then come along with me and Percy, we’ll train you” Ralukar smiled.

Percy’s ears flattened and he growled “you are not serious right now? Adopting a kid when we don’t even have a house?!”, “it’s not adoption” Ralukar shrugged “more like an extended apprenticeship”.

And for the next 5 years that’s what they did.

Ralukar trained him to become a spellsword like him. He trained him in destruction magic, restoration, light armor, smithing and even enchanting. He taught him how to be honorable and noble, he even taught him some of the code of Malacath.

Percy trained him in the ways of gout-fang. He trained him in unarmed combat in case he ever needed it, archery, poison alchemy, sneaking and lockpicking.

Percy taught him to be resourceful and that not every opponent of his will show or reciprocate honor, that he must not be blinded by honor but never lose it.

By the time Jotti was 16 he had grown into a giant of a teen, standing at a towering 6’2, aptly fitting his name.

“I’am going to join the Legion, I want to fight for Cyrodill and avenge my family” Jotti said to Ralukar, his voice now deep in tone.

“Do you think they will let you in? They did not let us in” Percy grumbled, “they will let me join” Jotti assured his masters “they will have no choice”.

Episode 2: Sound the bugle now.

Indeed the Legionnaires had no choice but to let him in, they were stretched thin and losing the battle, a strong capable warrior may be just what they needed.

The recruiter took one look at him and nearly fell backwards from trying to look up at him “n-name?”, “Jotunn Jostjarna”, the recruiter’s guard eyed Jotti “hu that’s an odd name for a HighElf”, “my father is a Nord, I am only half elf”, “half elf?” the guard looked confused, “my mother was Altmer thus I look like her but I inherited my father’s blue eyes and brown hair”.

The guard shrugged “I just never met a hybrid before”.

Jotti was given armor and placed in a regiment “training starts soon so head down to the mess hall and eat, you don’t wanna be marching on an empty stomach” a legit said to him.

Jotti headed to the cantina and took a tray. He was given a bowl of barley gruel with chunks of meat in it, a slice of bread and a hunk of cheese. Jotti took his meal and sat down at a table only to see the other occupants leave as soon as he sat down “I can’t believe they let one of THEM into the Legion…piss-skin bastard” one of the soldiers scoffed.

In his youth Jotti would have cried, he would have been saddened and upset by such harsh words but Jotti was older now and he had been through much worse, words did not hurt him anymore.

“Your one to talk you scrawny limp-dick Impiral” a deep gruff voice called out, Jotti turned to see a tall Nord man in his 20’s sit down next to him “I say if you are willing to fight for your homeland it should not matter what you are, your land is your land and it is your devines given right to defend it” the man grumbled.

He turned to Jotti “Name’s Ulfric, Ulfric Stormcloak, you?”, “Jostjarna, Jottun Jostjarna, my father is a Nord that's how I got my name”, “your half nord? Your father ever talked about skyrim?”, “yes, he told me it is a beautiful land and one day, after this war perhaps, I’ll visit it”.

Ulfric grinned “I hope you do too, she is indeed a sight to behold”.

As Jotti and Ulfric ate a commander approached them, “Ulfric you are to scrub the latreens for your words, you are in the same unit so you must treat each other with respect”, Ulfric nodded “yes commander I’ll get right on it but you should know I was only defending my friend here”, the commander sighed “I know, we heard what Tullius had said so he too is to scrub the latreens with you”.

Jotti wished Ulfric the best as he left for training…oh if he only knew how brutal the 30 year long war would be.

#jjba #skyrim #crossover #fanfic #jjba fanfic #jojo bizarre adventure #ulfric stormcloak #general tullius #dragonborn

[lucakairomi]

Luca and Malik

Still working on formatting! I was inspired by the lovely @lumpsbumpsandwhumps Red Room asks and decided to write something based on their answer to Luca and Malik meeting! Also serves as an intro piece for my main whumpee, Luca Montoya. As always, if I need to add any tags or warnings, just let me know! Meg belongs to @fandom-trash-xl and Jacob belongs to @space-is-out-there! Malik belongs to @lumpsbumpsandwhumps.

(Not sure how to do under the cut, so forgive my formatting.)

----

In retrospect, this wasn't one of Luca's better ideas.

Sure, it sounded good in theory. Sneak into the suspect's place of work, root around for any evidence or suspicious-looking packages, snap some pictures, and get the Hell outta dodge.

But in practice?

Well, Murphy's Law did have a habit of screwing her over.

She was trying to jimmy the lock of a particularly stubborn desk drawer, fiddling with the lockpick and muttering curses under her breath. Locked drawers were always a prime candidate for dossiers, or firearms, or folders with incriminating information in them- incriminating information that she needed.

The rumors of a serial kidnapper had been more than enough to spark her interest. The interest has only deepened as she looked and found evidence- scarce, but there- missing persons cases, with victims never well-known enough to really get on the cops' radar, but just often enough to show some semblance of a pattern. And it had led her here. To a funeral home.

Normally, she wouldn't be alone for something like this, but Meg was out on another case and Jake was probably high at a park somewhere. So alone it was.

Not that she minded, as less people meant less auras to keep track of. The people outside passed by like fireflies, dimming as they walked away and brightening as they neared the building, but none of them were hostile or alarmed. None of them had seen her.

Until Murphy's Law got involved.

Luca swore again as she lost the sweet spot when her hand shook. She shouldn't waste so much time on one lock. She's still got plenty of things to look at, and she's got to leave before her presence draws any attention-

"And who might you be?" A southern drawl made her jump in alarm, and too late did she sense the cooly malicious aura behind her.

Fuck you, Murphy.

She carefully rose to her feet and turned around, being careful to show her empty palms. No use getting shot now.

The man asking was older, but only by a few years, she thought. Lean, but well-muscled, with a bandanna covering half his face. His stance was relaxed, easy- not what one would expect when finding an intruder in their place of work. His aura, while dormant, subtly pulsed with... excitement wasn't the right word, maybe... alertness? Anticipation?

She thought quickly. Fight or bluff her way out of it? She glanced down. His hand was by his pocket. Not quite touching, but close enough. He was probably armed. That made the decision for her.

"I'm sorry, I came here to talk to someone about a service?" She does her best to look confused and relieved. "I tried to call earlier, but nobody answered..."

Technically not a lie- she had called on a day she knew they were closed to check if anyone was working late or overtime.

"We're closed," the man observed, and she mentally cursed herself. Think of something!

"...The door was unlocked?"

He raises a manicured eyebrow and she resists the urge to smack herself. "Anyway, you're closed, sorry to bother you, I'll just be on my way," she says as she attempts to slip past him and out the door, but a hand is on her arm and Oh Fuck No-

Instinct takes over as she whirls to shove him away from her, and as her palm meets his chest a burst of blue energy explodes on contact, sending him crashing into a nearby file cabinet. She catches a glimpse of his surprised expression before she regains her senses and bolts for the door-

She twists the doorknob.

It's locked.

Shit.

The deafening footsteps behind her warn of an incoming attack, and she turns just in time to see the man’s fist hurtling towards her face. She lifts her arm to block it. His fist strikes first her arm, then her head. The world explodes into a cascade of bright lights; her arm goes numb and then her skull is pounding. Even with her healing factor, she'd be feeling that for weeks.

She chokes as he grabs her by her jacket collar and slams her bodily against the wall. Her feet strain to touch the ground as she grips his arm with both hands to relieve the pressure on her windpipe.

"You're an interesting one, aren't you?" His tone is intrigued, but his aura is dripping with a twisted kind of excitement she's only felt from a few other people in her line of work...

And all of them were killers.

Aura flows through her veins, stifled by the lack of oxygen. His southern accent is lilting, almost amused. "I'd be honored to get to know you better."

She spits at him. He looks surprised, then amazed, then delighted. Never a good combination.

He releases his grip on her throat slightly, enough for her to gasp for air, before he chuckles and throws her over his shoulder. She kicks and thrashes, landing a few good hits, but this guy is no pushover as he carries her to another room in the back and opens a door.

Craning her neck, she sees stairs descending into pure black. She doesn't have much time to think about it, as she's tossed head over heels down the stairs. She lands hard on the cement floor and tastes blood in her mouth, eyes wild as she scrambles to her feet and back up the stairs, determined to rip her attacker apart-

Malik slams the door in her face.

She pounds against the other side, screaming curses and punching the door until her knuckles bleed, but it's no use. She hears him laugh from the opposite side.

"I'll be with you in a moment, darlin'. Just have to get my equipment set up..."

She doesn't want to know what he's planning to do with it.

#whump #whump drabble #whump writing #tw: kidnapping #tw: lady whump #tw: violence #my writing

[crab-instruments]

Lock and Key Extra - Silco's POV 4-5

Master <Part 3 Part 6>

Pairing: Silco x GN Reader

Summary: After stumbling into a job with Silco as your new boss, you seek to prove yourself worthy to the Kingpin. Shenanigans ensue. As your relationship grows, so do the feelings you deny.

Warnings: angst

Beta Reader: @unfocusedfish

“Jinx, for the last time, it doesn’t concern you.” Silco sat with his head in his hand, leaning away from the desk. Jinx had her feet on his chair and her head rested on his shoulder.

“Come on! You’ve been such a hard ass lately and they’ve been mopey and jumpy. It’s obvious you did something.” Jinx played with the eye injection in her hand, twirling it between her fingers.

“Me? Why would you assume it’s my fault?” He reminded himself that he loved having a clever, observing daughter, even if she stuck her nose in his business.

“Do you think the naïve, sweet as frosting lockpick could do anything wrong? Plus, you’re just acting guilty. If they fucked up, you’d have them killed.”

Silco stopped himself before saying anything, choosing to sigh instead. “How are they doing?”

“Why don’t you just ask them?”

“Jinx, would you just—”

“They’re fine. I mean, as fine as they can be. Functioning. The kitchen staff has been grateful since they clean the dishes instead of sleeping. Also changed the locks two or three times and fixed almost every squeaky door hinge. The filing room has never been cleaner, you can actually see the flo—”

“Thank you, Jinx.” Silco laid back in the chair and placed a light kiss on the crown of the blue haired girl. Jinx sat up and placed the injection in his eye, helping him through the pain.

“Well, I have a magic show to plan for and a lockpick I need to interrogate for answers.” She slid off the desk and skipped out.

It was quiet for a few moments before Silco let out a sigh.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The Industrialist could not care at all for the meeting at hand.

Chem Barons discussing what they wanted, what they felt they deserved, and what they felt they didn’t owe.

These meetings had been much more bearable with you here, Silco thought. It was entertaining to watch you try and pay attention, fighting off sleep as Finn droned on and on. Now it felt like a punishment as he wrestled with keeping himself awake.

Sevika had made a point that you would be too anxious to fix whatever happened, not even fully understanding what you did wrong. It’s not even that you did anything wrong, it’s that Silco is emotionally inert as the golden armed criminal put. Silco would have to offer an olive branch first in some way, no matter how small, to get you to bite.

While considering what options he had, Sevika burst through the door with paper in her hand. Everything came to a halt, Finn shutting his stupid golden jaw. Had she forgotten that the meeting was happening? Not that it mattered, it was going nowhere fast. She looked apprehensive as she hastily made her way to Silco’s desk. The note in her hand had terrible handwriting but clearly had your name on it so the Kingpin picked it up and read it as fast as he could.

“Silco,

I have your special lockpick. I am going to make them suffer for how you ruined my operation.”

The note went on but Silco could only see red. “Everyone out!” The Chem Barons scattered, no one daring to challenge Silco when he was this pissed. “Where did you get this?”

“Hand delivered by a street rat. Didn’t give a name.”

“I have no doubt in my mind that it’s Hank or whatever his name is. He was especially pissed after I stopped him from scamming us and I believe he blamed the lockpick. Hank isn’t entirely unwise, producing a plan that would affect me.” Silco crumpled up the paper in his hand, unable to hold back his wrath. “Foolish enough to start a war with me, though.”

Jinx strolled in. “What’s all the commotion? Also, have you seen—”

“They’ve been taken.”

She blinked, surprised at how quickly Silco had answered her. “What?”

Silco handed her the note, not bothering to smooth it out. “Do you know Hank’s warehouse location? I know he only has one. It must be where he took them.”

“Yeah, it’s not too far from the market… shit, that’s where they took them. They were headed there not too long ago.”

“Sevika, gather some men. We have work to do.”

Sevika nodded in response and headed for the door.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When they were close to the warehouse, Silco got Sevika’s attention. “Kill Hank once we have my lockpick. Should have done it before but…”

“Yeah, yeah, you’ve gone soft. Leave it to me.”

Silco rolled his eyes before watching as his men moved forward, taking down the poor security Hank had set up.

Normally, he would enjoy watching his power at work, taking over what was rightfully his. This time, though, it was not a show of strength but a lesson to be taught. The uncertainty of your condition left him hesitant, unable to keep his emotions off his face without effort.

When one of his men alerted him that it was all clear, Silco sprinted inside, following the direction to where they had found you. The henchmen didn’t look Silco in the face which only made him more worried.

When Silco got to your body, lying helplessly on the ground, he wasn’t sure he could breathe anymore. You had been beaten up in the face and were pale. He gently put a hand on your forehead before he slid it to support your head from the ground. Silco called your name a few times before your eyes actually opened.

“Good, stay with me, stay with me. What hurts? Did they give you poison?” When you didn’t register anything, he panicked harder but attempted to stay calm. Silco switched tactics, asking simpler questions. “What did they do?”

Your voice was rough, like you were talking through molasses. “They gave… me something like a truth serum… but with shimmer. I didn’t… I don’t think I gave anything away. It really only made me say what came to my head first before I could think of it.”

“So, not much change from normal,” he quipped before he realized this was not the time. Silco was elated to hear your voice.

“I was a little bit more of a dick, I think.”

He undid the restraints and stood. “We’re going to get you out of here, don’t worry. Can you walk? You barely seem coherent enough to know I’m even talking to you.” He watched as you struggled to stand, knowing the answer to his question.

 “I… I want to say that I can walk out of here on my own and show how strong I am, but I can’t get my legs to work so I’ll need help to leave quickly.” You looked at him sheepishly and it almost hurt him. Even now you fought against the idea that you could ask for help, that you could rely on him. Silco quickly let you lean on him before lifting you up, bridal style. He recalled an earlier time when you had requested Sevika carry you like this, so Silco hoped he would do in this situation. Sevika was busy.

Silco gave orders to raid the place to some of the other men, though it didn’t look like it had many resources, and to rally back at The Last Drop. He was on a mission to bring you home as soon as possible.

When you placed your nose in the crook of his neck, his footsteps slowed a bit and he chastised himself for it. How can you be so distracting? Silco almost missed the small “… always wears nice clothes…” you mumbled because of his thoughts. He chuckled, unable to help himself. The effect you had on him.

Oh, what he wouldn’t give to capture the moment you realized you had said it out loud.

“Do you know how unfair this is?” You pathetically punched his chest, Silco almost telling you to not waste your energy but you continued. “I barely have a filter to stop my thoughts but now I don’t even have that. Nothing to stop me from saying how badly I want you to notice me. How I want to be near you all the time. How handsome you are. Scars are thought of as ugly, makes you scary but there is beauty in danger. I lose myself to the all-consuming chaos in your eyes. I feel a sense of accomplishment when I’m rewarded with a smile from you, especially the ones you hope no one sees. I’m so happy you came but I also feel crushed because I failed you again. Hurts so much. Or that’s the shimmer.” You stopped to take in a few breaths, feeling winded. Silco had absolutely nothing to say, no words came to his mind. No one had ever said anything so sweet, so close to a love confession to him since he was younger. If he wasn’t already emotionally fried, he would have short circuited right then and there. “Maybe both but likely the drug. I’ve never felt so strongly about anyone… before…”

“No no no no no! Stay with me! Stay awake! Damn it!” He moved his feet as fast as he could.

Part 6

******

I have no idea if tags are working, rip tags

Requested tags/continuation: @imalovernotahater @distinguished-jeseter-things @thesinoflust1103 @jinxs-monkey-bomb @grapegirly @marine-captain-deku @ohworm-writes @accordionplayingrat

Tag not working: @d0nutkaky0in @mochi-clouds

#lock and key #lock and key extra #silco x reader #silco x you #silco x oc #lol silco #arcane silco #crab fics

[ocean-blue-whump]

The Safecracker

Part One // Part Two // Part Three 

Tagging @painful-pooch @winedark-whump @justplainwhump @diyalogues @thingsthatgowhumpinthenight - let me know if you want to be added/removed!

CW: guns

***

“Alright. The logistician’s in New York? Uh huh. Okay. Yeah. We’re about to get the safecracker. Meet you there.” 

Darien looks over at Penn. “Who was that?”

“Jude,” he says in a gruff voice. “We’re stopping in New York.”

“Yeah, I heard that.” He puts his own phone away, looking out of the truck window at the vast expanse of grass surrounding them, a few mountains in the distance. “What are we doing? Why’d you stop?”

Penn laughs, pulling the keys out of the ignition and opening his door. “We walk. Can’t drive any further.”

Darien sighs, grabbing his bag and climbing out of the truck. His keychain, a metal Starfleet Academy insignia, hits his leg, bouncing with each step on the dusty road as he walks around to Penn. “I don’t understand why I have to be here for this.”

“Because I don’t want you getting scared and running off, where I’d have to waste my precious time tracking you down again.” Penn turns around to face Darien, holding a handgun by his side. 

Darien’s heart skips a beat. A gun. The crazy idiot is holding a gun. He puts his hands up and steps back. “W-what are you doing with that?”

“Relax.” Penn checks the gun before sticking it in the waistband of his jeans. “Welcome to the field, Darien.”

“I want to go back to my desk,” he grumbles, clutching his bag. “I don’t see why a gun is necessary here.”

“Yeah, and I hope you never do.” Penn sighs, letting his sweater fall down to disguise the gun. He looks old in that moment, and Darien notices a hardness to his face that he didn’t before. “Listen. I’ll worry about the gun. You just stand there with your Star Trek bag and try not to have a panic attack, alright?”

Darien glowers at Penn, his heart still racing from the sight of the gun. “I’m not useless.” 

“Never said you were. Now you’re just reaching.” Penn chuckles and locks his truck, scanning their surroundings. “Damn. This isn’t where I expected our safecracker to be.”

As Penn sets off walking, Darien tries to keep up, grateful he’s wearing black Converse instead of his white pair, with how much dust the wind picks up. “Yeah. It’s kind of…the middle of nowhere.”

Penn slings his hands in his pockets, looking almost casual, but Darien can’t forget he has a gun. “Well, it’s outside of his normal pattern of behavior. His name is Scipio. He’s a…” He smirks. “Do you remember what it was like working with Jude?”

“Yeah, she’s straightforward.” Darien pauses, trying to think of the right words. “Professional.” It’s almost ironic, calling this business professional. 

Penn just nods. “Yeah. Scipio…I’ve never worked with him, but apparently he’s the opposite. He used to perform in Vegas. Houdini type shit, plus normal lockpicking. And then, of course, on the side, he put those skills to use after the show. I still don’t understand why all those fancy hotel and casino owners let him on the property, considering his tagline was something about being able to crack any safe in the world.”

“So he stole from the places he performed at,” Darien says to clarify. At least Penn’s giving him a debrief on what’s going on, ever since the mistake he made about not asking him what the target was.

“Yep. But they were catching onto him.” Penn shrugs. “Then he went missing. Turns up here. Which is very, very good for us.”

“Why’s that?” Darien asks. “Wouldn’t it mean he’s out of practice and, and not the best?”

“That’s not how that works. It’s like riding a bicycle. He hasn’t forgotten. And this is good for us because it means he’s not running a contract with any other thieves. He’s not working a job, probably low on money. He’ll take my offer.” 

Penn’s got a gun, and no matter how casually he acts, Darien can’t forget that, especially as they approach a worn down wooden fence marking a dusty enclosure. 

There’s a man riding a chesnut colored horse, moving at a fast clip. He’s got cowboy boots, blue jeans, and a blue button down shirt on, topped off by a straw hat, and he’s the perfect level between muscular and lean, his muscles visible as he jumps the horse over some bars. And that face…

Fuck. Darien feels himself blush looking at his face. He’s attractive, light brown eyes and stubble, brown hair cut short under his hat. This better not be Penn’s safecracker, because Darien’s going to have a very hard time focusing with him on the team. 

When he spots them, he rides over and slides off the horse’s back, holding the reins in one hand. “Can I help you?” he asks in a strong British accent. 

Fortunately, Penn steps forward and saves Darien from further embarrassment. “Yeah. We’re looking for Scipio.”

The man shrugs, but there’s the faintest look of concern on his face. “Sorry, mate, don’t know who that is.”

“Ah, bullshit. You might be able to run from Vegas, but I know who you are.” Penn leans against the railing. “You’re one hell of a safecracker.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says. “This is what I do.”

Penn shakes his head, turning away, and Darien thinks he’s going to give up, but instead he reaches across the fence and grabs the man’s wrist, pulling up his sleeve to reveal a tiny tattoo of a key. “Knew it was there. Hi, Scipio.” Penn lets go of his wrist and turns to Darien. “That key was the Illustrious Illusionist’s logo when he was still performing in Vegas. And the Illustrious Illusionist is…”

“Scipio,” Darien breathes out, looking at the man with wide eyes. 

Scipio grumbles and pulls his wrist back, glaring at both of them. “What are you, fucking cops?” 

Penn laughs. “Yeah, not even close. We’ve got a job offer for you.”

Scipio leans against the horse, one calloused hand brushing through its mane. His fingers are long and surprisingly delicate, Darien catches himself staring and blushes. “Yeah, a job? I thought no one could find me out here.”

“Yeah, well, we need someone with your specific skillset to work a job.” Penn grins. “Unless you think you can’t do it anymore?”

Oh. Oh. Darien holds back his annoyance at realizing exactly how Penn manipulated him, and the same is about to happen to Scipio, but he stays silent. Penn, despite his many, many flaws, knows what he’s doing, and Darien remembers how cleanly the Lisbon job went. 

Scipio scoffs. “Excuse me, of course I can do it.”

Penn’s grin only grows. “You don’t even know what kind of locks you’ll be working with.”

“Please, like it matters.” Scipio fixes Penn with a dirty look. “I don’t need to know what kind of lock it is. I can work with anything, anywhere, anytime, with anyone. Even a prick like you.”

God, Penn is good at this. It’s almost scary to watch. 

Penn lets the insult roll of his back, keeping his smile. “So then prove it. Work with me here. Plus, there’s also 1.4 million dollars in it for you. Probably will do you some good, since you’ve been out of work for so long.”

Scipio shakes his head. “You bastard.”

“Name’s Penn, by the way. But bastard works.” Penn gestures to Darien. “This is Darien. He’s the tech.”

Darien awkwardly waves, not knowing what else to do. “Um, hi?”

Scipio gives Darien a nod. “Fifteen minutes. Give me fifteen minutes to say goodbye to my horse and get my bag. I assume that’s what you want, right? We’re going somewhere else.”

“New York,” Penn says. “Picking up the rest of the crew.”

Scipio doesn’t say anything, getting back on his horse and riding off towards a small farmhouse and barn in the distance. 

“That was…quick,” Darien says, turning to Penn. “I’m just glad you didn’t shoot him.”

“Some people don’t need much persuading.” Penn straightens up, checking his phone. “Damn. No service.”

This man is worried about phone service when he has a gun. 

“I had service back at the truck…” He sighs and puts the phone away. “It’s fine. Scipio better get his ass out here soon.”

“Do you really think he’s coming back?” Darien asks. “I mean, you didn’t exactly do that much convincing.”

“I mean, you didn’t take too much convincing yourself,” Penn says with a chuckle.

“I—” Darien falls silent, feeling his cheeks heat up. 

Scipio comes walking down the hill, a backpack thrown over his shoulder, and he hops the fence in one smooth movement. “Shall we, then?”

Penn turns sharply on one heel, leading them back to the truck. Darien takes shotgun again, leaving Scipio in the back. “Seriously? You drive this piece of shit?” Scipio asks. 

Penn throws his keys on the driver’s seat, but stays standing outside the car. “She’s not a piece of shit.” He reaches behind him and pulls the gun out with a grunt. 

“Woah!” Scipio jumps back, almost hitting his head on the ceiling. “You brought a fucking gun?”

Penn rolls his eyes. “You both need to relax.” He ejects the magazine and stores both of them in the side of the door, climbing into the car. 

Darien doesn't know what to say, what to make of his new boss being so nonchalant about walking around with a gun. 

Scipio, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have a problem with talking as Penn starts driving. “You brought a fucking gun? Just casually. Brought a gun and didn’t think it’d be relevant to tell me that.”

“Yep!” Penn has to yell a little bit to be heard over the sound of his truck and the bumpy road. “You might be a master safecracker, Scipio, but you’re out of practice. And Darien here’s had no practice. Welcome to my operation.”

“Oh, fucking hell, what have I signed myself up for?” Scipio groans, flopping over in the backseat, his hat sliding low over his face. 

Darien finally turns around, looking at him and his annoyingly handsome self. “A million dollars.”

He lifts his hat up just enough for Darien to see one of his eyes. “Yeah. You know…fair enough.”

#heist team #darien #penn #scipio #whump #whumblr #writeblr #blue's words

[echo-echo31]

a concept for Hellinois Thursdays

heist that keeps running into his favorite plaything decides “I’m gonna teach him how to pick a lock” why? because I say so

illinois is amused because he’s fairly confident that he can do it after the very cocky demonstration from heist

“well, go on, show me how’s it done, sweetie.”

and well let’s just say things aren’t going too well and illinois is getting more frustrated but obviously flirting his way through it

“you call this hard work, honey? maybe i should just do what you do and look all pretty for the cameras”

however heist knows he is full of shit (of course he does, he knows him better than anyone) and decides that you know what? he’s gonna have some fun

so now he’s purposefully whispering in his ear, trying to fluster him (maybe a few almost neck kisses, he really likes that physical contact)

then heist switches tactics from that to slowly undressing illinois, undoing his buttons, feeling up his chest and teasing his nipples

“there’s no need to be shy about asking help from your master”

that little shit could’ve used a lot of words but he wants a challenge

so now they’re both holding out, seeing who breaks first. illinois too stubborn to give into the teasing and heist unrelenting, testing, pushing

needless to say, i don’t think either of them will remember later who broke first. just that they need to have lockpicking sessions more often

The anons are coming for me.

#echo answers #hellinois thursday #fuuuuuuuuuck i love it

[imightbeabuddhist]

Salutations Tumblr.

Welcome to My Blog:

By Z.D. Burkitt

The question on your mind has to be, but who are you? Well, let me answer your question with a question. Did I forget the "by" line? No, I'm really asking. Anyway.

I'm Z.D. Burkit. Z for short. I've been a hobbyist writer for 25 years. Now, I'm a Copywriter. Can you tell? -covers my username with my hand- So, I figured I'd introduce myself. As I said, I've been writing for 25 years. However, I haven't published anything other than crappy fanfiction on fanfiction.net. Assuming that website still exists. Like a blacksmith at their* forge, I've learned much about writing, honing my craft(we'll get there.* <--pun). As the name suggests, I'll mostly be posting Copywriting Memes. Sometimes it'll just be the meme. Other times I might share why I like it and any insights I gleaned from it. I'll also post regular blogs and the occasional short story. Now it's time to address the elephant in the refrigerator.

Darn that Pesky Pachyderm:

I am Non-binary. No, I won't bring this up unless I need to. Nor do I care what pronouns you use. They, he, she, or neo-pronouns are all fine. I'll leave that up to you. I should also say I am Pansexual and engaged. As I get more comfortable, I'll give more details. One final thing, I have ADHD. Since this is my first post, I think I'll leave the housekeeping there. This seems like a good time to get the elephant out of my now-destroyed fridge. -sigh- 

Some more Things about Me:

I'm fascinated by fungi. I guess you can call me an amateur mycologist. Mushrooms, lichens, and all fungi are mesmerizing. I'm working on a story about super-powered teens living in 2100. The Golden Trio in my novel are LGBTQIA+ and Neurodiverse characters. River, the MC, is a Genderfluid Pansexual shapeshifter. One of their best friends is an AMAB non-binary gay person. The other is a cis-gendered bisexual guy. I promise River is not a self-insert. You'll come to know that as I add more to this blog. I am a big-ol' nerd. As evidenced by my near-comprehensive knowledge of the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles. Feel free to test me. I'm also well-versed in Destiny and Gear of War lore. Despite not owning any, I have a growing appreciation for excellent watches. They're just cool. Although I'm no car expert, that's what we call an understatement, kids; I do enjoy rewatching episodes of The Grand Tour. While we're on shows, I'm constantly binging Start Trek DS9. It's my comfort show. I aspire to one day get a Private Pilot's license. And yet, I've never flown. I've never even seen the inside of a plane that was about to take off—just a few at an aviation museum. While we're on the topic, one of my favorite podcasts is Black Box Down; it's all about aviation disasters. Listen to it if you're afraid to fly like I was. You'll realize just how rare these things are. Not only that, but the steps taken to prevent them from happening again. Not a spon. I have no sponsorships. I'm an anime fan, shocking, I know. And I'm clearly a fan of italics. And, like David Tannat's Doctor, I can ramble when I get going, can't I? Here are a couple of rapid-fire facts about me.

I practice lockpicking as a hobby - Scrolling through TikTok, I came across a guy called McNallyOffical, who made it look like a lot of fun. So, I bought a cheap lockpicking kit of off; I'll call it the Everything Store and a cheap (read Master Lock) lock. As soon as it arrived, I stared with the clear practice lock, and once I stopped pretending I was in Skyrim, I got it on my second try. Now that little clink sound of the shackle popping is just uggh. -chief's kiss-

I'm 420-friendly - That one speaks for itself. 

I'm an ex-Atheist - I'll admit this is partially due to the anger I felt when I had to deal with any religious or spiritual things that wasn't good for my mental health. So I took a step back from the community and soon found I wasn't angry more often than not. I still respect and listen to many Atheists like Penn Jillette and his business partner, Mr. Teller. Jillette's book God No! is still a personal favorite. The anger made me decide to believe in all gods or none. I have an answer to the ontological question do you believe in god? I believe in every god. I'll delve into that later.

I do believe Science - Despite believing in spiritual things, I am an avid proponent and communicator of Science. No Flearth or anti-vax nonsese here. One spiritual practice I reject is holistic crap and other snake oil. Crystals are pretty, but they can't heal shit IRL. 

This one should be obvious - I'm someone you can come to if you're LGBTQIA+ and you need to talk. 

I have depression, anxiety, and ADHD - I'm very open and vocal about my, and mental health in general. It's important, and you are too. Never forget that.

I think that's an excellent place to stop. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. Take care. 

-Z

The Convival Copywriter

P.S.

If you're interested in an INTRODUCTORY OFFER for my services, email me at [email protected]. 

-The Convival Copywriter