#brevity is the soul of wit... which i clearly lack

[callslips]

jock!lottie x punk!nat headcanons

in response to these curiouscats because i have TOO MUCH to say:

firstly this is just actually them. like literally them. but let's get into it

lottie has all the conventions of being a popular girl barring most of the cattiness, mix that with the fact she's part of the soccer team -- YES i am positive she wears letterman's jackets when she isn't dressed up and is friends with other sports circles - the women's tennis team, basketball team (convince she'd play pick up games with them), volleyball team ... lottie KIND OF gives a fuck about academics but i just really see her leaning into the easy way sports culture allows her to socialize and form a circle of friends.

punk nat who plays soccer and ACTUALLY genuinely gives a shit about it, even though she thinks jock-types are meatheads. like, "i play this sport because i'm fucking good at it, but half of you guys are fucking stupid." definitely an extreme music snob who sticks to her own circle of friends, burnout-looking types (though she actually values academics... doesn't really come to class but studies when absolutely NOBODY is looking, because like everyone else she needs to get the fuck out of wiskayok).

they both play for the yellowjackets and their only real interactions are on the field, lottie might wave in the hallway or try and say "hi" but nat COMPLETELY cold shoulders her

lottie has a HUGE crush on nat, talking like, this goes back to middle school years when nat was somehow still 2 cool 4 school and still wasn't giving lottie the time of day. to be fair lottie had just had a major growth spurt and was still becoming acquainted with the sudden distance from her body to the ground .. she was in no position to be trying to befriend someone she thought was a 'cool kid'.

lottie's a jock but not a fuckboy about it, down to earth but you literally wouldn't know it because she's too busy attending keggers and it LOOKS like she's flirting with half of the student body when she's just.. an extremely kind and genuine person. even if she didn't like someone, not even remotely, she would still give them the time of day.

nat sees all of this and of course runs into lottie at after-game parties but does her ABSOLUTE BEST to avoid lottie, until eventually lot gets fed up with all of this pining from afar (or taivan intervenes, deus ex machina style) and lottienat ends up partnered the whole year for their lab class or some shit.

lottie isn't an idiot by any means but she definitely pretends to be because it ends up with nat having to spend MORE time after soccer practices with her working on their projects ... yes lottie is doing the Long Con to win nat over.

nat begrudgingly starting to think lottie isn't THAT bad when she finally lets lottie give her a ride home after a late-night study sesh and finds out lottie actually has decent music taste...

ugh cue the nail painting scene nat had with kevyn except now it's for lottie when lot gets bored with all the studying and starts coloring on her nails with sharpie

they win a game and lottie is like - "Uh, good job on the field today, dude..." to nat, who just looks at her like ???. later, in the locker room, lottie stuffs her head in her locker for a solid thirty seconds wondering why she called nat 'DUDE' of all things, until van is like... "you good?"

so.. yes.. girlfailure jock lottie who can totally be suave with other people but when she talks to nat she's so nervous about sounding cool she ends up making a fool out of herself.

lottie lies and says she "totallyyyyy knows what shoegaze is." and gets caught in it - nat's like: "why would you lie about that?", not mad but genuinely wondering what the point of making that up would be?? and lottie is like, "i just thought it'd make you hate me less if i knew what it was, i dunno." and what follows is HUGE because nat, at this point, has to admit: "lottie, what? i don't- i don't hate you." and now it's lottie's turn to be like ???!!!1!2??!

cue lottie being insufferable about this. nat will say something biting and sarcastic on the field and lottie will just ruffle her hair or grin because now she knows nat doesn't mean it, and nat is like - "i never should have told you i liked you." (this is interpreted platonically) and lottie is even MORE thrilled, like, "oh, so you LIKE me? guess i'm not so much of a pain in the ass after all..." (nat has totally called her this to her face at one point or another).

it takes maybe half the year or more for van to finally be like "dudebro, just fuckin' go for it." at a party and lottie, mildly sedated by shitty beer, approaches nat when she spots her smoking a cig alone.

lottie doesn't really smoke and nat bullies her for it a little ... except lottie looks kind of hot and nat thinks LOTTIE looks kind of hot, so she offers to show lottie a "cool party trick" and they shotgun the cig smoke ... yes lottie coughs after but not from the burn, entirely from the act itself and she's SO red and nat is INSANELY endeared by this

let's just say their regular study sessions at the Matthews' estate become a little less about studying after that... and since lottie doesn't have to play nearly as clueless she jots an answer down and nat is like, "wait - what the fuck?" but lottie uses her big brown eyes to make nat forgive her, especially since it was all to hog nat to herself anyway.

they definitely don't officially come out as dating, one day lottie's just chatting with her circle of jock friends in the hallway and sees nat coming so she pulls her over and slings her arms around her, hugging her from behind, and yes, some jocks are meatheads, but these are lottie's friends and lottie is hugged up against her so... nat's not really going to complain.

in conclusion: jock!lottie wins over punk!nat by kind of being a loser, but a charming one nonetheless.

is this basically a fucking au? mini fic ? someone tell me to shut up next time

#guac hcs #guac answers #lottienat headcanons #brevity is the soul of wit... which i clearly lack #when i learn how to format tumblr posts.. it's so over for you #lottienat #yellowjackets #natalie scatorccio #lottie matthews

[classpect-crew]

The Bard of Time, In Brief(s)

Let’s be fair: the Bard gets a bad rap, and I’ve already expanded upon the Destroyer Classes a bit here, but today I want to dive into a specific Bard to show you just how many interpretations you can spin off of one Classpect. Remember: Sburb loves wordplay and irony when assigning Classpects, and the strongest associations of each half of your Title (outside of the established abilities of your Class and Aspect) are generally ones that inspire a particular turn of phrase. A Maid of Time who has a lot of time on her hands is, quite literally, “made of time.” Of course, Aradia already beat me to the punch with this joke, but it’s a good example of what I mean.

This speaks to me on a personal level, because after diving into what it could actually mean to be a Bard of Time, I think this might be the funniest, most self-referential Classpect I’ve ever identified with—which means it’s perfect. Naturally, since brevity is the soul of wit, I will be brief: I am a musician of no small talent with an impeccable sense of rhythm, as well as an amateur poet. Beyond that, I gave myself the middle name Taliesin after the timeless bard—Shakespeare wasn’t the first to hold that title—because I have an ego the size of Jupiter and I love the romance and drama of setting myself up with a legacy to fulfill. So, let’s take a deep dive into the Bard of Time, from both my personal perspectives and a more general analysis. To hell with brevity—on with the show!

On a surface level, the Bard of Time is “one who inspires the destruction of death, certainty, and Time itself.” However, we can expand this list ad nauseum by interpreting many different functions and associations of Time—but I’m getting ahead of myself. The two Bards we’ve seen in the comic start out with an unshakeable faith in something that shapes their personalities and worldviews. Now, this could simply be a function of the Aspects of Hope and Rage, which are represented by enduring faith and eviscerating doubt, respectively. We really only have two Bards to analyze, and their Aspects are direct opposites. Still, it’s something to consider. Bards are a Passive Class, and their interactions with their Aspect usually come in the form of inspiring the Aspect itself, or its destruction, in others. I truly believe that the word “inspire” is as crucial to understanding the Bard as “destroy,” and this also has many, many possible interpretations.

The Bard can be considered a Buff/Debuff Class, though this is a bit misleading. As we’ve seen with Gamzee in particular, the Bard can become deeply affected by the whims of their Aspect. Destroyer Classes seem to be spawned into sessions with far too much of their Aspect; unlike Rogues, their purpose is not to diffuse their Aspect to areas of low concentration, but rather to destroy it outright and make room for its opposite to reign. We see this very clearly with the Princes: Dirk was part of a session rife with romantic drama and one identity crisis after another, which would have prevented anything from getting done until he intervened. Eridan’s destruction of the Matriorb, the symbol of the session’s Hope, broke the trolls out of stagnant passivity and ultimately led to the joint creation of the new universe. Bards tend to have a more subtle effect on their sessions. Their influence ripples out in unpredictable ways that can be the catalyst for, in ironic Homestuck fashion, both the failure and success of a session.

The Bard of Time will be part of a session with far too much Time. This could indicate a lack of urgency in other players that leads to a cascade of unproductive and damaging choices, since there’s “plenty of time,” or it could mean that the Bard’s allies are far too wrapped up in the implications of fate and certainty, leaving them paralyzed by inaction or even determined to spend the session fucking around based on the assumption that they’re already Doomed. They may assume, incorrectly, that their Will has no bearing on the session, much like Aradia before her maturation arc. It’s helpful to note here that the Maid is the Active inverse of the Bard. The Maid begins as a subservient to their Aspect, and then grows to heal their relationship to it, culminating with the ability to create it for themselves. The Bard starts out heavily influenced by their Aspect’s opposite, and later inspires the destruction of the most negative relationships of their Aspect in others, and in their session at large.

In addition to correcting these broken relationships with Time, the Bard would also be well-equipped to invite the destruction of damaging patterns, which can range from unhealthy habits and addictions to karmic cycles spanning time and space. Perhaps they choose to get sober, and that choice ripples out and inspires others to do the same. (This has happened in my own life, and I’ve had at least half a dozen people reach out to tell me that speaking publicly about my sobriety encouraged them to break their addictions, too.) They may also invite the destruction of the “Doomed” label given to both individuals and broader Timelines, which could be extremely beneficial to others—but could also, in theory, lead to a Timeline cursed by everlasting stasis, like a terrifying form of limbo. Given enough power, they may even be able to invite the destruction of Death itself. I’ll leave this power’s implications, both awe-inspiring and horrifying, to you, dear reader.

“That is not dead which can eternal lie,

And with strange aeons even death may die.”

#classpect #classpect analysis #homestuck #bard of time #bard class #time aspect #wow this took about…3 hours or so #i should probably eat something

[a-sleepy-reader]

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov: an Analysis and Review

Foreword

Trigger warning for themes of paedophilia, sexual assault, stillbirth, manipulation, violence, and tragedy as well as gruesome descriptions of death. If you want a review free of spoilers, please scroll to the section labelled ‘Conclusion/Review without spoilers.’

Introduction

Calling Lolita a controversial novel is a safe bet. Some readers revolt at its topic, others still protest it as the inspirational romance of the century. Both give Lolita a bad name. I will say it once very clearly; plot-wise, Lolita is a book about a paedophile who grooms, manipulates, isolates, and rapes a twelve year old girl. It is disturbing subject material to say the least, subject material that has to be given more thought than its protagonist’s ramblings of adoration for the book’s namesake. 

For instance, despite its fluctuating reputation, Lolita has found itself to be a playful and humorous novel to many, a “...comedy of horrors” according to the San Francisco Chronicle. So what is Lolita, exactly? A comedy? A thriller? Both? It is time to examine this twisted novel and see just how tangled its thorns are.

Plot synopsis

Humbert Humbert is a typical man by most standards: a handsome, French writer and professor with a soft spot for road trips… and little girls. 

Humbert categorises the sexes into the male, the female, and the nymphet, the latter of which describes peculiar young girls Humbert feels an intangible attraction to. It is with such a nymphet that Humbert self-describingly falls in love with; rambunctious twelve-year-old Dolores(whom he dons ‘Lolita). He cannot keep his mind off of her; ‘light of my life, fire of my loins.’ In however poetic a prose he may choose to describe it, Humbert feels a physical bond to young Dolores like to no one else since his dead childhood sweetheart. Humbert goes so far to pursue the girl that he marries her mother, whom he plots to drown in the blue depths of a lake to have Dolores all to himself. However, what Humbert describes as a work of fate led to the day Dolores’ mother’s brain lay strewn about the road, smeared by an incoming car. She didn’t need to be subject to Humbert’s schemes to die.

From there on, Humbert has legal custody over the twelve-year-old fire of his loins. Raping Dolores becomes a routine. Though she does initially say yes, she is a minor incapable of consent in the imbalance of a grown man with everything to lose if she is to either escape or stop the affair; she will lose her only family if she reports him, and risks breaking his heart if she cuts off the affair altogether-unfortunates only know what people do when they have nothing to lose. Orphaned and trapped, Lolita agrees to Humbert’s ‘love.’ As he described it, ‘she had nowhere else to go.’ 

Two years pass before Dolores falls ill during their second road trip and is taken out of the hospital by an uncle aware of Humbert’s affairs. By way of escaping with this newfound relative, Dolores is finally free from Humbert’s possessive grasp. Depressed by his separation from the girl, Humbert lives a miserable life for several years before receiving a letter from Dolores herself saying she is married and pregnant. Though Humbert suspects the man behind both titles is her own uncle, Dolores refutes this by saying that, though she was in love with him, they did not settle because she refused to be in his pornographic film.

Enraged with the uncle, Humbert arrives at Dolores’ uncle’s house and murders him before being arrested. It is here that we learn Lolita is Humbert’s autobiography of the events surrounding his ‘love’ for the book’s namesake. Though he wishes for the girl-turned-woman to live for a great many years, the victim, escapee, and survivor dies in 1952 during childbirth. Her offspring is a stillborn.

Analysis

It’s a curious thing, really. That so many interpret Lolita as a romance, I mean. Of course, it often presents itself in its writing as a summery romance to read on the beach. A handsome man meets a female. An attraction is felt. Male and female confess an attraction for one another which leads them on a series of road trips following the female’s mother’s incidental death. The language is no exception to this tone-just read the first paragraph: 

“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.”

It’s made up of beautiful, flowery sentences, language suggestive of the pure romance of a man ‘in love.’ With a twelve year old girl he rapes. Yes, Lolita is one of those novels that wears many outfits, its outermost lining being that of a tragic love story of one traumatised man and his ungrateful lover. This perspective is especially interesting when taking into account Lolita’s exquisite writing; could the flowery language have prompted so many to interpret this book as a romance? Could Lolita be representative of how so many wield words to distract or deceive those trying their best to disapprove of them? Either way, few deny that Humbert is lying, to himself or to the reader, of exactly how the events of his fascination with Dolores occurred. Digging further into the book, Lolita becomes  an unreliable narrator’s documentation of the rape and manipulation directed toward a naive minor trying to cope with her mother’s death. Further still, it is a comedic satire of a paedophile’s attempts  to justify his crimes... and failing miserably. “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I wasn’t even her first lover.” Deeper still and it’s one man’s search for his childhood sweetheart(dearest and deadest) he never finished loving, so he seeks, endlessly, to shower her lookalikes with unwanted ‘love.’ Without end. Without fulfilment. 

Lolita is a story of infinite stories.

Review

What first struck me about Lolita was its beautiful writing; its eloquent prose, imagery, and metaphors hopelessly hooked me from the first paragraph. Nabokov never ceases to use amazing similes, description, and personification to amplify the reader’s experience of the goings-on of Humbert and the girl. This is especially striking in contrast to its tragic subject material; Humbert will rape, and he will manipulate, and he will scheme a murder, and he will hurt so many innocent lives, but he will do so with seemingly effortless grace in the scribbles on a paper. 

Despite this, I did not find Lolita to be a difficult read regarding comprehension of the text. True, many a word I did not understand, but, despite this, I could always tell what was being communicated; the language is certainly not as dated as Hemingway nor Shakespeare. It may even be a calming read for those with a strong stomach, and will certainly teach a thing or two to those wishing to learn more about poetic writing styles done well. 

Some may find the book to be lacking in terms of plot and overall excitement, but I feel this is a subjective view rather than a relatively factual one; Lolita is not an action book. Nor is it a drama. Humbert sometimes spends pages describing the exact locations of a road trip, or exactly how he earned money in the 50’s, and so forth. Some may find this mundane; I will admit that I was, at times, bored by it myself. However, what Nabokov sacrifices in brevity he makes up for with a profound understanding of Humbert’s emotions, environment, and thoughts. 

One slight criticism I do, however, have, is that I found all of the characters in Lolita were fairly bland for me. True, Humbert is unique in his attempt to beautify the macabre, but beyond the initial shock factor of his morale and the revelation that he is seeking the love of a girlfriend from his childhood, Humbert can be mostly summarised as ‘quiet, manipulative, scheming, and possessive of Dolores.’ I was not invested in him as a character, probably due to a lack of good qualities within him; it is true that by one perspective, his story can be interpreted as tragic for him, though through the more common lens of Lolita being a 336-page manipulation of the severity of the atrocities of an evil man, Humbert loses all good qualities beyond his capabilities as a writer.

The same goes for Dolores herself, as I found her to be fairly two-dimensional; she is very sensory and seeks goods of food and adventure and she has a rambunctious heart unconcerned with how others’ feel nor how others perceive her. She is what many would call a ‘wild child,’ and though she becomes more withdrawn later in the book due to the numerous abuses she endured, I did not see much depth to her beyond face value. 

That being said, I certainly do not think the characters are bad, just that they are underwhelming in comparison to the rest of the story. 

I recommend Lolita to those enthralled by character-driven stories of nuanced emotions and traumas, a sort of story of the broken attempting to break the whole. If you are not put off by very thorough descriptions nor by a purposefully thin plot, I have the impression Lolita will revolt, horrify, hypnotise, and seduce its readers into its soft, macabre pages. 

I give Lolita a rating of 90%.

Conclusion/Review without spoilers

Lolita is a vile, endlessly layered story of trauma and the endless search for lost love, horrific abuses, of humorous wit and smirking irony, and of one man’s endless destiny of deceit. I suppose Humbert’s own initials best summarise the smile and wink this book will deliver as you holler at Humbert, weep for Dolores, or perhaps even vice versa. They do say Russians are witty, and Nabokov does not fail this reputation even when we analyse how Humbert Humbert’s initials sound in the author’s native language: 

Ha-ha.

#literature #books #classics #book review

[tangleweave]

3. What current rp trend do you hate? 8.Name any three things about the rpc that bother you. 13. Have you ever thought about leaving rp? What caused it? What changed your mind?

Hmmm, I see a theme here, Anon. I hope RPing isn't a negative experience for you on the whole, but I can certainly understand if maybe there's some stuff you find frustrating and might like to know if you're alone in feeling that way. (Spoiler alert: I promise you you're not.) But as for my answers to these:

3. Head, meet hornet's nest -- I'm not wild about baby threads. Now, yes, for anyone who follows me, here I am saying this when I actually have one in progress with @sigynthevictorious. Context is important, though... the specific problem I have with baby threads is NOT that they exist, it's that there are lists of quick-hit prompts which set the scene in all of 4 or 5 words. I feel that a prompt is meant for creating context quickly, while ignoring / sacrificing a certain amount of emotional connection. I'm at an age now where it's actually questionable whether kids are in my future, and it's not a subject I take lightly. I feel like pregnancy / baby prompts are just far too whimsical. The revelation of a pregnancy should be an occasion steeped in emotional nuance. Can that really be achieved when your introduction of the subject can fit into a Tweet?

8. I could go all day on this one. I need to remind myself that brevity is the soul of wit. Here we go...

-> Short attention spans. If I'm writing with you, it's because I genuinely want to and enjoy doing so... and it does sting a little to look at my tracker and realize it's been over a month since a thread which didnt even make it to 10 tags was updated. Generally that seems to mean it's dead in the water.

-> Wanting my characters to fit your expectations. Those who read my writing have said they can hear my characters' voices very clearly in their heads, and I'm quite glad of that, but I've seen it happen where one person (usually an anon) will bash an RPer for not playing the character "properly", whatever that means. Well, we know what it means, don't we -- it means playing the character the way the basher thinks it should be played. No more, no less. Given what I've heard, maybe the new Loki series will give players a little more cloud cover on this (I haven't watched any of it, but if you know what I'm talking about, you'll know very much what my third point is going to be)...

-> Failure to tag spoilers. Seriously, y'all, can you just please? It's not that difficult an ask! Text posts, pics, gifsets, moodboards... do I really have to turn my computer off and literally bury my head in the sand to avoid accidental exposure? I really do want to experience The Thing -- but on MY terms, not yours, and it shouldn't take me giving up things I like doing in order to accomplish that goal!

13. Of course! Didn't just think about it, actually did it, a couple different times. My first RP community was through LiveJournal, and I was brought there by my girlfriend. Unfortunately, she became increasingly toxic over time, and I became so entwined with all the RPs that she was part of, that when we broke up, it was an absolute nightmare and I had to just cut myself off from all of it. I didn't RP for a long time afterward, until a good friend familiar with my writing (@shoresofacheron) pointed me to Tumblr. I tried it briefly but hated the lack of a user-friendly experience and hated even more that I was a beginner who didn't know how to begin. I had to come back to it a couple times to get a sense of how to do all the things I wanted to do. Stuck with it playing as Dr. Strange and a smattering of villains / anti-heroes for a while, dropped it again when I wasn't really feeling it anymore after a huge purge event... and then was convinced yet again -- by the same friend! -- to give it another shot. So here I be, and I've gotta say, I'm happier with this iteration than any previous one.

#answered asks #anonymous asker

[curriebelle]

I hate it when I play a game and then I Essay instead of doing real work.

I beat BG2 and Throne of Bhaal with the Edwin romance mod installed because heck if I’m not gonna romance the snarky wizard, given the option. The whole way through I’m waffling on whether the mod is good or not, because it’s got some problems, but it’s also genuinely funny and I like both the secondary characters it introduces. And then the epilogues are just. A culmination of everything wrong and I must drag my hands down my face and write a post about how I could fix it.

1) Dear god, especially when it comes to written, selectable dialogue, brevity is the soul of wit. In the unmodded game, Edwin has an excellent vocabulary and a flair for the dramatic, but he’s actually not too verbose. He’s all pithiness over prattle. Step one: Remove about 60% of his adjectives.

2) Incidentally, that Thayan (read: Russian) accent actually inclines a listener to expect certain speech patterns and sentence structures. This isn’t a jab at people who speak with accents, by the way - far from it. But if English is your second language, you may build sentences and choose words differently. And if we hear a Russian accent, even if it’s in a fake fantasy setting, we subconsciously expect those structures. Take the canonical re-invitation dialogue in ToB:

“You have regained your senses and recognized my indispensability! This is good, this is very good.”

“This is good, this is very good” is very different from a phrase with similar meaning but a different structure, such as “Excellent! You’ve regained your senses...” etc.

The point is that if you read Edwin’s dialogue you should be able to hear it flowing in the accent his actor has chosen. This doesn’t always happen in the mod. Obviously, the easiest editing method here is to read everything aloud in a Russian accent. I’m serious. Oh and also I think it’s Thayan and not Thayvian?

3) He’s got that added-comments-in-brackets dialogue quirk, which is a wonderful tool to see inside Edwin’s head, but it does need to be used with care. It’s best for contrast, when he’s internally seething but externally trying to keep his composure. The mod takes the opposite tack and uses it for when he’s internally swooning, which I kind of love because it’s hilarious, but it could still make better use of the contrast at times. Not-as-smooth-as-he-thinks-he-is on the outside, internally hyperventilating - that’d be something to see.

4) Back on the topic of brevity - the Bhaalspawn’s responses need to be toned down about eight notches. The player needs more space to project himself or herself onto the PC. More than once, the lengthy, detailed responses made me cringe, and I didn’t want to choose any of them, because I thought “My bard would say this, but not that...she agrees with this, but wouldn’t say it in that way...” etc, etc. (I distinctly remember the “supply of emergency chocolate” line because I started wondering if chocolate had been invented yet, and that destroyed the suspension of disbelief. It can get too silly.) When writing for customized PCs, you have to stay away from detail that would be necessary in the dialogue of an NPC (i.e., Edwin’s). The simpler the sentence is, the easier it is for more people to imagine their Bhaalspawn saying it. This is clearly written for the modder’s Bhaalspawn, not every Bhaalspawn - because even the highly evil responses carry the same over-the-top sarcasm as the good or neutral-chaotic-ish responses.  DA:O’s Alistair romance is a good example of how to pull this off properly while keeping the comedy intact. Everybody remembers the “lamppost in winter” conversation, but Alistair gives you all the bizarre prompts, and the PC chooses how to play off it - sincerely or teasingly. That’s an awesome tactic.

5) I read one review of the mod that was like “Edwin is too sweet by the end” and...that’s kind of it, but also kind of not. If you shift him to True Neutral (I did) the sweetness does kind of make sense (plus, it’s alluded to canonically. “Eddie” /snort). The problem is that the last four conversations or so flatten him out a lot. Being “sweet” is easy, but being selfless is not. Edwin is pretty much an ignoble, selfish brat, and I think it makes way more sense for him to struggle with the Bhaalspawn’s fate than instantly accept that she will transcend beyond him. Who the heck is above Edwin Odesseiron, huh? Psh. Nobody. He claims he’s ready to beat up Elminster (and by the time you level him up in ToB I bet he could do it I mean holy shit he can summon like 6 planetars a day fuck off everybody). In canon when you drag him to hell he’s like “Eh, I was already headed here. Maybe I’ll stick around and see if there’s some profit in this”. He’s a schemer, not a martyr. He’s ambitious. At least, he is naturally. Seeing him struggle with accepting the Bhaalspawn’s destiny and learning that there are powers and fates beyond his, and then preparing to let her go, would be way, way more powerful than him being like “ah yes farewell my deva I have always Predicted this. Even though I lack such foresight that I’m completely unable to learn divination spells.”

6) (On the other hand, A+ for the “my deva” conceit. That is perfect. Edwin’s a conjurer, so of course his pet name of choice would be one of the most powerful pets you can summon. I love it. That’s the creepysweet I’m looking for in a Lawful Evil romance. Plus it sounds good in his voice in my head. It’s perfect. GAH.)

So yeah. I’ve been thinking a lot about writing Evil romance since working on Devils - I might try and break this one down too, and see how I would do it. Writing exerciiiiiiise \o/

#baldur's gate is baldur's great #bg2 #shut up currie #I am still happy I installed the mod though #and I'll still use it on my second playthrough #what am I gonna do #romance anomen #PSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH