#because it's so interesting to imagine a pc who would actually navigate that tension with a personal stake in it

[anghraine]

I was searching for an unrelated-to-the-Ascalonian-grudgeblogging GW2 thing, but ended up reading a grumpy recap of the core storyline from someone playing a Charr Vigil member. Surprisingly, they were like, "you know, honestly, all these people wondering why Ascalonians still have a grudge against Charr kind of need a slap in the face. Also, why do Krytans have so much say over what happens to Ebonhawke, anyway? Does it have sovereignty or not?"

I do support slapping every person who is like "why don't they just get over a 250-year long attempt to eradicate them? What a silly grudge" but I don't often see actual players saying so!

I also find the sovereignty issue genuinely interesting.

My impression is that Ebonhawke is nominally an independent city-state, but the alliance with Kryta has been critical enough (esp recently) that they weren't in a position for direct conflict over this "regent of Ascalon" business. So the people of Ebonhawke don't accept Jennah as sovereign—there are even Ascalonian residents of Divinity's Reach who don't—but they also can't afford an open break with Kryta and this is where a lot of their resentment is coming from.

Ebonhawke drawing so much of the Charr's attention in the war was pretty beneficial to Kryta, so I suspect their support was not purely altruistic even without the claim to sovereignty. It's made clear in various storylines that Ebonhawke falling would be disastrous for Kryta. Additionally, the Krytan government offered valuable support and supplies to Ebonhawke, but couldn't really spare much direct military support, so Ascalonians are also conscious that they suffered most of the direct casualties of the war, to the benefit of Kryta. So it makes sense that the relationship is complicated and ambiguous!

Honestly, the tensions surrounding the Ebonhawke-Kryta alliance, the various political maneuvers involved, and the effects of all this on the Ascalonian diaspora are some of the most intriguing aspects of the game to me. The writing is definitely skewed towards the Krytan perspective, to be sure—PCs of any background will remark that Kryta is generous(!) to allow Ebonhawke its own representative in the peace negotiations, for instance. But it's not so skewed that you can't see why Ascalonians insist on their independence from Krytan rule.

#this is why my headcanon for my main is that she comes from a mixed family of krytan and ebonhawke ascalonians #because it's so interesting to imagine a pc who would actually navigate that tension with a personal stake in it #even if the game doesn't suggest that human pcs feel the slightest solidarity with ebonhawke #so there's deborah (who is proud of being ascalonian but considers independent human ascalon gone) on one hand #and then there's devona (a vanguard captain who is privately furious about the peace treaty) #on the other #ailoda has been pushing in the krytan ministry for more assistance to ebonhawke without sovereignty strings attached #and is on good terms with her ebonhawke in-laws #who themselves appreciate krytan support but also insist they aren't vassals of kryta #and althea is simultaneously very loyal to jennah as a krytan subject and very invested in ebonhawke's independence #anyway this is a ... lot ... but. well. i'm me. #anghraine babbles #anghraine's gaming #ascalonian grudgeblog #long post #fic talk #fic talk: pro patria #althea fairchild #deborah fairchild #devona fairchild #ailoda langmar #elwin fairchild #calissa tahiri #gw fanwank

[shadowheartssimp]

pc/shadowheart (another modern au fic help) sub 3k words.

-- x -- 1:21 am - 1 new message

Xildi groggily reaches out to her buzzing phone, only a little peeved that something so easily broke her from her trance. With a sigh she gazes at the awfully bright screen and finds herself frowning before her mind can even process. She doesn’t even get to unlock her phone before another message comes in.

1:23 am - 2 new messages

Sitting up straighter, she finally unlocks her phone.

2 messages from Shadowheart

1:21am → 

hey, are you awake

1:23am → 

youre probably trancing

With a sigh, Xildi weighs her options before realizing there’s not exactly one. Her fingers move fast as she types her reply.

1:24am ← 

I’m ‘awake’ now. What’s wrong?

1:25 am →

i didnt say anything was wrong

1:26 am →

you assumed that

Xildi rolls her eyes before looking back down to her phone.

1:27 am →

anyways

Moments pass, and the elf is torn whether or not she wants to return to her trance. She wonders how pissed Shadowheart would be if she accidentally left her on read, and decides that it’s likely not worth finding out.

1:31 am ←

Shadowheart?

1:31 am ← 

You’re making it seem like something’s wrong.

Most likely because something is wrong, but getting the half-elf to admit that is half the battle. Huffing, Xildi shuffles off the bed and begins traversing to her kitchen. Might as well get a snack if she’s about to be up all night waiting for whatever is wrong with her friend. 

Her phone buzzes as she’s prepping a light snack for herself, at least signaling that Shadowheart didn’t pass out on her. Scratch wakes as well, trotting into the kitchen and wagging his tail in hopes for a midnight snack as well.

1:38 am → 

someone from the orphanage contacted me today

1:38 am → 

i didnt want to even message you but idk

1:39 am →

unfortunately you know my past

Xildi rolls her eyes, it wasn’t her fault that Shadowheart blabbed it out when she was drinking too much wine at Wyll’s party. Either way, the story did already peak her interest and Xildi found herself approaching her couch with warm toast.

1:40 am ← 

The orphanage? I thought you told them to never contact you again.

1:41 am →

i did

1:41 am →

that’s why its bothering me

Quizzically Xildi bites on her toast.

1:42 am ←

Wait… you didn’t answer? Are you telling me they called and you let them go straight to voicemail?

1:43 am → 

and? i didnt want to be reminded of that awful place

1:44 am → 

i dont want to listen to it

1:44 am →

at least alone. im coming over

Xildi blanches. She’s coming over, now? She’s hardly well dressed for visitors, practically in her underwear and hair a mess. Not to mention that the place was in an array (not really, but in her eyes it was a pigsty that couldn’t be seen by anyone else’s eyes).

1:45 am ← 

Now?! Seriously? Couldn’t you wait until morning?

1:45 am ←

Shadowheart, my place is a mess.

1:46 am →

yes. now. 

It starts processing in her head. Shadowheart doesn’t live far, perhaps 15 minutes minimum if she takes the bus, but there aren’t any at this hour. At least she’s pretty sure there’s none.  So she’s walking, that gives her probably an extra 10 minutes. Then she’s reminded of how incredibly dangerous that is to begin with -- but it’s Shadowheart and she likely doesn’t care to begin with. She grew up in this neighborhood, this is nothing!

1:48 →

i need you

Oh. Xildi knows her cheeks are warm, because never has Shadowheart ever been so forward. A heavy breath leaves her lips as she knows she has no choice now but to let her come over and likely listen to this voice mail with her. Whatever comes afterward will be another story she’s sure.

1:50 am ←

The door’s unlocked, please be safe getting here.

1:51 am →

im fine

1:52 am →

but youre sweet to worry

Frantically Xildi shoves the now cold toast into her mouth and begins cleaning at an incredible pace. She starts with the kitchen, disturbed that she even let there be dirty dishes to begin with. A few minutes later and she’s drying her hands, curiously peaking over at her phone to see if anything else has come through. Thankfully nothing and she sets off for her bedroom.

It only takes a few more minutes to tidy up before she goes back to retrieve her phone. 

1 new message from Shadowheart

2:04 am →

bitch’zel stopped me on my way. im omw now

Xildi purses her lips, it was awfully late for Lae’zel to be out and about. Now that she thinks upon it, she does recall Astarion’s door closing roughly ten minutes or so ago. Interesting. 

2:05 am ←

Any chance there’s a bus going at this hour?

2:06 am →

already ahead of you

2:06 am → 

last bus of the night… guess im staying at your place again

2:07 am ←

Glad I cleaned my room then :/

2:07 am → 

how kind! bold of you to think id actually sleep with you though

Xildi feels her heart strings pull at that one. 

2:07 am →

well…

2:08 am →

perhaps a discussion for another night

Dropping her phone onto the bed, Xildi falls back and stares up at her ceiling. She’s already on a roller coaster of emotions, she can’t imagine what must be barreling through Shadowheart at the moment. Scratch trots into her room, whining slightly before laying on the floor by the foot of her bed. 

Her phone buzzes again and she lazily reaches across her bed to find it. She doesn’t even get a chance to look at the screen before it drops on her face with a defiant thud. Groaning she picks it off her face and squints at the bright device.

2:14 am →  

or i guess you dont want to talk about it

2:14 am ←  

I do.

2:15 am → 

😤😤 good

Xildi finds herself laughing and lowers her phone onto her chest. 

2:18 am ←

Do you have an ETA?

2:19 am →

excited to see me?

2:19 am →

bout five minutes though

Xildi decides that staring aimlessly at her ceiling is her best way to waste time, not finding energy to do much else. She knows Shadowheart arrives when the door creaks open slowly, and Scratch jumps from his spot on the floor and sprints out of the room. She can hear the light grunt from the half-elf as the dog nearly knocks her over, a fragile laugh echoing the silence as claws scratch along the wooden floor.

It thankfully doesn’t take long for Scratch to settle, Xildi notes from the sudden silence. There are light steps, from both the dog and Shadowheart as they approach her room and the elf gradually rises herself into a more approachable position. Finally their eyes meet in the dim room and she can just tell how worn Shadowheart is.

“Hey,” comes lightly from Xilid as she offers a faint smile. She figures if anything she should try to be welcoming. 

Something close to a response comes from Shadowheart who sulks into the room, dropping her backpack on the way. She practically falls face first onto the bed and lets out what Xildi assumes is a much needed breath.

Tentatively, the elf places a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

“Do you want to change first?”

“I guess.”

So it was going to be a difficult night -- morning? Xildi isn’t sure anymore. Gradually Shadowheart rises from her spot and keeps her gaze away from the elf, absolutely avoiding the pressing matter on hand. The tension stays thick as she digs through her backpack and eventually pulls some sweats out.

Pointendly looking away, Xildi focuses on the ceiling once more as Shadowheart changes. A few quiet moments pass before the mattress shifts and the half elf hesitantly lays down next to her. Now two sets of eyes focus on the white popcorn.

Shadowheart is silent for a long time -- long enough that the elf fears that she has fallen asleep. Just when she’s about to ask, she hears Shadowheart say “I don’t even know if I want to hear what they have to say.”

Xildi shifts her gaze to a troubled Shadowheart who still casts her hard stare to the ceiling. “Do you think you’d be better not knowing?”

“No,” comes first, followed shortly by “I don’t know”.

Finally dark green eyes meet Xildi, ones filled with exhaustion and definitely some fear. The elf can’t help but wonder of all the horrors her friend(?) grew up with in that orphanage. “I could always listen to it, so you don’t have to.”

“And hold it against me?”

“You know I wouldn’t do that.”

Something close to a soft smile eases its way onto Shadowheart’s face, scooting closer and resting her cheek on Xildi’s shoulder. The half-elf’s phone does a light drop on her stomach, almost as an invitation before she sighs. 

Taking the hint, the elf lifts Shadowheart’s phone and goes to unlock it. Truthfully it felt wrong to be even doing that, but she figured if she didn’t there was no way in hell Shadowheart would. A light mutter from her side tells her the passcode that she already secretly knows from another drunken night, and she quickly exits her messages before seeing something she might not meant to be. 

Hell, she shouldn’t be navigating her phone to begin with. 

Her thumb taps the phone app and she feels Shadowheart tense against her, digits gripping her arm. “We could always listen to it later.”

“No,” says Shadowheart as she glares at her own phone. “I didn’t come all this way to continue ignoring it.”

With a slow nod, Xildi continues and clicks on the voicemail tab. She’s only a little surprised to see a few from Gale and Wyll, from today even, but ignores it for the sake of seeing the number sticking out like a thumb between it all. Tentatively she glances to the woman beside her, who holds a fierce look before she taps the number to play the voicemail. 

It starts casual enough, the shuffling of papers, stating who is calling and stating that they were looking for, yes indeed, Shadowheart. To this day Xildi is shocked that they truly messed up her birth certificate that badly. Just when they’re both thinking that the call is a fluke, that they’re trying to bait her back into calling without anything, they hear: “Please call us back when you can, we believe we might have found information about your parents.”

It clicks.

Shadowheart is still, terrifyingly so.

Xildi glances from the phone in her hand, to Shadowheart who is practically cuddling her side, to her white popcorn ceiling. Even she is unsure if it’s the truth or a white lie to get back in communication with her.

“I hate them,” comes quietly from Shadowheart, who’s biting so hard on her lip that blood dares to drip. “I hate them so much.”

Xildi remains quiet, completely and utterly unsure of how to proceed with this new information. A part of her feels that she shouldn’t have just heard this voicemail. She can only imagine how Shadowheart would have handled the news alone. Poorly, if she really has to guess.

Said woman exhales loudly, her grip on Xildi’s arm tightening before gradually loosening. Her breath is fragile for a moment, teetering on the edge of likely tears -- the elf doesn’t dare to look -- before mellowing out to an extent. She shifts slightly before sitting up and crossing her legs. 

“I don’t even know if I want to meet them.”

Her voice is so fragile, unlike herself, that it takes Xildi by surprise. She’s sitting up faster than she can imagine and wastes no time placing a hand over Shadowheart’s own. The very least she can do right now is be supportive. “You don’t have to any time soon.”

Briefly the half-elf tenses from the touch. “They left me there.”

“Sometimes there’s not a choice,” says Xildi with a frown, remembering her own past all too well. She wonders if her brothers are still well even after all this time. “Even so, because of that it led to us meeting, right?”

“Look at you, trying to make this positive,” scoffs Shadowheart, but the faintest of smiles shines. Their eyes lock for a few seconds and the same butterfly feeling stirs in Xildi’s stomach. “It’s crazy how one even can change everything. That orphanage was shit, but it led me to Shar -- something to believe in.”

“Are you thinking how things might’ve been different if you grew up with them?”

Shadowheart tilts her head. “My parents? A little,” pursing her lips, she gazes intently at the wall behind Xildi. “I hate that they left me in that awful place, never once tried to get in contact with me. And now I despise that the orphanage is trying to bring me back.”

“You don’t have to go, or even call back.” With a reassuring smile, Xilid takes her hand back and runs it idly through her hair. “If you’re happy where you are, why change it?”

The half elf pauses, as if Xildi’s words struck her like a bolt of lightning. Her gaze shifts from the wall to her lips, then to her eyes. “Would you change anything?”

“Me?” A bit baffled, Xildi raises a brow before shrugging it off. “A few things here and there sure, but I suppose it’s often better to let destiny take its course.”

“You think us meeting is destiny? That’s cute.”

Xildi gives Shadowheart a look, despite it all there’s something deeper that she’s not inherently saying. It gives her an inkling that somewhere inside, she’s actually agreeing with her -- and that they should continue letting it. Her heart skips in her chest, unsure whether to take the advance before she manages a response. “Do you disagree?”

A long silence fills the air, as if Shadowheart is weighing her options carefully. What is likely only a moment or two feels like an eternity, dragging on and eating away at Xildi until finally -- finally! -- the bed shifts underneath Shadowheart’s weight and the woman is sitting next to her. Polished nails gently scratch at Xildi’s fingers before resting. “No, I don’t think so. In fact…” trailing off, Shadowheart uncharastically fails to meet Xildi’s gaze. “I think you should let it take its course, right now.”

Oh.

Mustering up all of her courage, Xildi leans forward and lifts her free hand, cupping one of Shadowheart’s cheeks. Her skin is warm and soft against her cool hands, a dull reminder of how chilly she prefers to keep her room. Her heart is pounding against her chest as she leans closer. She can see all of her eye lashes, how they begin to flutter nervously, and the dark hues of green in Shadowheart’s eyes. 

Her breath catches, perhaps the other’s too, before she sets her mind on it. Her chest practically explodes as she timidly presses her lips against Shadowheart’s, a full eruption of emotions consuming her as she suddenly gasps for air. How she frees her other hand to cup her other cheek, the need to feel incredibly close to her rising as her heart continues to pound. 

Shadowheart chuckles against her lips, the hot breath tickling her lips as she finds herself smiling. It’s not long before she goes again, parting her lips just enough to ensnare the half-elf’s lower lip. To feel how soft and full hers are against her own, the warmth that comes to her cheeks, face -- hell, her stomach too. All overwhelming but wonderful at the same time. She wasn’t aware how much she was craving this moment.

After what feels like an eternity (but definitely was a couple minutes at most), Xildi pulls herself away and shyly drops her hands to the bed. Her cheeks burn as she stares at a lopsided and completely goofy grin that stretches on Shadowheart’s face. Endearing? Absolutely.

“Perhaps… it was destiny -- us meeting that is.”

Xildi smiles. “Perhaps it was.”

#my brainworms are so huge #i finished writing this at like 4:30am #and I was torn whether or not I wanted to post it #buuuut my ideas of modern au: #shadowheart grew up in an orphanage (obviously) and it was not a great:tm: experience #they've been friends for a while #also im sorry lae'zel but we all know shadowheart would call her that #Shadowheart #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3: modern au #modern au #writing kiss scenes are so hard though let's be real #I wish more fanfics would include text convos bc lbr that's how a lot of communication is done nowadays

[iat313allaroundyou-blog]

Project Deliverable #2 Bible

1.Premise and purpose

The premise of the project is about telling audiences don’t judge a book by its cover as well as don’t judge a person by his/her looking, sometimes the really horror, bad person is covered by another person that he/she may has some weird actions. But this weird guy may be a kind person, people always considered things with stereotype so that ignore other details. For example, in our comic, is about a young male student Allan moves into a house with his crush, Rose together. The house is located at remote place. However, Allen starts to notice some weird things happened in the house such as other roommates suddenly disappear. Moreover, Allan wants to investigate all the incidents happened in the house. The landlord George stars misunderstood by Allan because of his weird actions and this strange conditions to rent his house. The purpose of our project is for dark entertain—horror comic, also have some meaningful points for people to learn through this comic.

2.Audience and market :

Our target audiences’ ages are between 18 to 25 year-old, we are aiming to younger age who are interested in horror and suspense topic. Our audiences’ age limit is 14A – 14 Accompaniment, which means that persons under 14 years of age must accompanied by an adult. Since there has a huge group of people who like to watch horror movie but sometimes the ending is anticlimactic or unsatisfactory. Our project can let the audiences standing as a character’s point of view to make a decision which will affect the ending. The ending is not having only one but have different endings due to what the audiences have chosen. Nowadays, people using a lot of technology, such as iPad, iPhone or laptop, our project also included some interactions so when the audiences are reading our comic can also get participation to it. However, the attraction of our comic is that the audiences can engage into the story deeper since they can decides how the story will end.

3.Medium, platform and genre :

Our work is a storyline comic, which is being made for the interactive comic, and technological devices such as smartphone, ipad, or ipod...etc. We will use image of drawing to present the content of the story.  The limitation of this medium are the users can only using mouse click or tapping on the touchscreen to interact with our comic. The advantages of this is very easy to understand and quickly to operate. Due to the easy-understanding, users will focus on the story more and won’t take too much time on how to interact with the comic. The main platform of our comic will be on PC or smartphone or ipad. The game genre is role-playing which the user will being the main character through the whole game.

4.Narrative / gaming elements

Our project contains narrative elements. The plot of the comic is the protagonist Allan moves into a house with his crush, Rose together. The house is located at remote place where However, Allen starts to notice some weird things happened in the house such as other roommates suddenly disappear. Moreover, Allan wants to investigate all the incidents happened in the house. while his investigation Allan discover that both Ben and George have weird behaviour and the terrible truth is waited to be discovered. We may have 2 different endings, one is everyone dies no one discovers the truth, the landlord keeps renting his house to other people to be the next victims. And the other one is the protagonist is the survivor and both Ben and George are found guilty. It can be a surprise reverse ending for the readers. Our tone of the comic is about dark, scary, horror and mysterious.

5. User’s role and POV:

Allan, a male student, is the main character in this interactive setting. There are 2 different outcomes at the end based on user’s choice for Allan. The POV will be based on the first person’s view. We will provide sufficient information for the audience to determine who is the murder in the story. The story will two different endings, both good and bad. For the good, the actual murder will be found and arrested. The protagonist is the survivor and both Ben and George are found guilty. However, for the bad ending, it is still a mystery of who is the real murder. Everyone dies no one discovers the truth, the landlord keeps renting his house to other people to be the next victims. The user will be in his or her own nature to choose the outcomes.

6. Characters:

There are 5 nonplayer characters in this project. Ben, the murder, has terrible burns on his body (60%) and a little not obvious burns on his face in an accident. He is a makeup artist, he is trying to kill people to get their beautiful skin as a kind of collection (use as makeup products or make a mat in his room). George, the landlord with weird actions would be misunderstood by others. He has some strange restrictions of renting his house such as age limit, no more than 25, etc. Regardless of these creepy conditions, there are still some students willing to rent here because of the cheap rent. The character of George is actually used to build confusion or disturbance for audience. Rose, Jessica and Monica, three tenants in the house are in fact the victims, who got murdered by Ben. For better clarification, we did build up a character bible to explain the role, background (function) and result of each of them.

7. Structure and interface:

As the audiences start to experience our story the character in the story will first appear in a house. Audiences will then use website to read our story by clicking on a specific area on the comic, which will lead the audience to different end points. There are two possible endings in the story. The first one would be everyone dies and no one discover the truth behind the story. The other ending would be the protagonist survive and both Ben and George are found guilty. The structure of the project is focusing on interactive linear storytelling, however, some memories and flashback might also be plugged into the story as well. The story allows audiences to have different options to choose from. When it comes to the time that audiences have to make decisions the comic will clearly shows options that audience can choose from in first person P.O.V. view. The entire story is made out of levels that audiences have to make a choice in order to read the content on next page and find out the ending. There are 3 modules that audience will experience throughout the story, which are “first appear in the house”, “discover the mystery in the house”, and finally “the truth behind all the incidents”. Moreover, we will use some words to indicate the area to navigate the audiences to click on to make the project more fluent.

8. Storyworld and sub-settings:

The main storyworld of the project is set in a house where everything starts. There will only few sub-setting when character has the flashback or memory in the scene and the school might also be the sub-setting because there might be school scene plugged in when characters are not at home. The environment of the school might look like the surrey campus and the lecture room as well. The people in the main storyworld will be neighbours to each other, and mostly students, however, the landlord(George) and one of the tenant(Ben), which will be the murderer in the story have weird actions and behaviors. The setting will be at the time of 2017, the house will be looked like an ordinary house that contains furniture, and rooms.

9.User Engagement:

Our project is trying to keep the user/audience engaged by creating a mysterious and horror environment and story plot.In our project for the most of time audiences know as much as the actors know. So that they will be curious about the situation or the plot that is about to happen. By creating such a tense atmosphere and curiosity, our project could keep getting their tension. The most important goal that user is trying to accomplish is figuring out who is the real killer and the aim that behinds she/he kills so many people. Watching a thriller story, audience always wants to know the ending. The part that will add tension to the experience is that the project we created provides with two possible criminal suspects, a weird landlord and a guy with burned skin. When user/audience feel both of them have possibility to kill people, they would pay attention to more detailed clues rather than having one obvious people who have intention and motivation to kill. Although we do not provide user with a reward or penalty, but they do have accomplishment when the ending is same as they inferred as they story goes on.  

10.Overall Look and Sound

We will present our project on the form of animation by hand-drawing. As the final version is towards to comics, the project will be more in a fantasy environment comparing with filming in a realistic environment. Our project does not have any audio since it will be present on paper, but we will use shades, colors in contrast if necessary, facial expressions and different points of view etc to express character’s emotion and personal traits. Sounds sometimes help to create a more tense atmosphere, but black and white comics, which has no sound, could enable user to have more space to imagine and provide details that we as creators want to show.

#IATSFUIAT313siatproject