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moregraceful · 3 months

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yet another writing ask: 23 and 32 if you would like to <3

Thank you 🙇🙇

23. Dialogue or description? Why is the other one so hard?

GOD. Dialogue is so hard. I get soooo stressed in rpf bc I often want or am including multi-lingual players who do not speak like a generic Californian, and I get real in my head about like...capturing that authentically and sensitively. Like description is easier to deploy meaningfully and if I fuck it up, I find that way more forgivable in myself than like writing a multilingual player and accidentally leaning into stereotypes about speech patterns or ways of expression that aren't True To Nature. and like to be clear this is specifically about non-Canadian/American players, like if I fuck up some American NCAA white jock who gives a shit but if I leaned to stereotypes about like how idk Russians speak, I would just die. and I have done this!!! I look back at some of my old sidgeno works and I'm like this is unforgiveable lol.

I'm poking at a concept with Radim Šimek, who is from Czechia, and I'm stressing sooo bad about his speech patterns and how he expresses himself in interviews vs teammates, particularly after I noticed how obvious it is that he learned in English in the Bay Area, which is not like...a particularly unique version of English, but I've noticed that sometimes the way Bay Area ppl inflect words is absolutely deranged. and like how does that affect how you express yourself yk, and like I'm basing all of this off getting lectured for being lazy in five years of French classes in high school and college, which is not even remotely the same thing

Also. At least once per fic, I have to go through a delete an instance of "hella". That man from Ontario would not fucking say "hella".

32. Do you have a word/expression that you always use in your writing?

Well I absolutely overuse "like" in speech which is what happens when you grow up in California and write primarily in a fandom of white jocks. Also tend to use "sounding strangled" with regularity, but I have never been able to figure out how to execute that specific emotion any other way (I have not tried very hard)

Thank you!!!

#i was not blessed with the polyglot gene.#i was so bad at tests in arabic class that my professor eventually adapted the weekly quizzes #FOR ME SPECIFICALLY so i could just scrape through the class. and then we did the final exam and i BOMBED IT so he gave me #like MASS amounts of extra credit for all the cultural fluency stuff we did. bc i was very good at the engaging with arabic cultures #stuff when it was in english and like a huge part of the class for him was getting all these like affluent liberal arts school kids #who came of age during the iraq war to have broader view of the middle east #he was like you try so fucking hard. i have watched you take pages and pages of notes in class. i have watched you #work studiously in the workbook. but you're so bad at the language. how can someone applying themselves that hard be so bad at it #i'm giving you like 50pts in extra credit on the cultural stuff to make up for it but like. keep trying i guess?#and he gave me a solid B- lmfao he really wanted me to pass #anyway tl;dr on these tags i am not multilingual bc i am so stupid. and that affects how i write ESL/ELL characters. bc i worry so much #i mean maybe the lesson here is apply the facial expressions my french professor would make when i start stringing together sentences #haphazardly and whimsically and eventually getting what i meant across but not in a way that really sparked joy for a parisian yk #cage replies #selkiefinalist

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unexpectedbrickattack · 8 months

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talks about my own damn post in your inbox i guess but i think a good part of the bros' trusting peppino is like. pizzahead can so easily buy out or win over basically anyone who stands against him and peppino is like the ONE guy they knew for sure that wasn't gonna happen with. he might not have cared/known about their plight, but he also didn't seem to have any ulterior motives that would make their lives more hell if he got the treasures, so that was...really as much as they could ask for given the circumstances

I like the idea of this 🤔 Like maybe there were other people theyve seen immediately take the money, like randos but also some of the bosses. So their only hope was someone who wasnt going to be talked or bribed into leaving this tower alone. I can see ph still trying to buy his way into peppinos restaurant, even towards the end…like ouuuh…fat and rude italian man…i dont HAVE to explode this shop, i can just buy it 🥺🥺🥺 please let me buy it 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 pwease…..🥺 and peppino is so fucking determined to just smash everything into oblivion that that simply isnt an acceptable offer. Get ur ass beat. That is the only acceptable offer. And u know what? John will definitely put the small amount of faith he has in this man bc of it.

#answered #chattin #peppino #pillar bros #my thots are like…#gerome has loads more faith and optimism #and whatever hangups he had about peppino is immediately thrown away by the end of the first stage #whereas. i think of john w very little hope. afterall HE is the person falling apart at the seams. not gerome #and he would be a little offput that someone supposedly here to ‘save’ him is in it for his own reasons (reminds him of ph)#hes a lot more hopeful by the vigilante fight #and hes more or less patiently waiting for everything to come down by the final floor #(as opposed to waiting around; extremely hopeless and aimless)#and it is just so funny to me to have peppino be a hero in ANY way #he doesnt think of himself as one; and john certainly doesnt think of him as one #but he is exactly what they needed; a middle aged man swimmin in so much debt #that they would risk going into this fucking tower and kill themselves bc they only have one thing to lose #and its this fucking shop ph is threatening to obliterate #john just sittin there like. huh. i guess it makes sense. who else would be stupid enough to come here??#‘pizzahead.’ ‘well u are not wrong about that’

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astridthevalkyrie · 4 months

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everything you see ab being the oldest daughter is true btw why am i the family therapist AND punching bag smh

long ass depressing rant in the tags srry i got a wee bit emotional

#my dad has something going on where there's a ringing in his ear my mom has tendonitis and neck pain now #and i feel for both of them i'm goin to cvs to get the meds giving my mom massages every night talking to my dad to distract him #they're both going to the correct doctors #but just throwing it out there i have had tendonitis and chronic upper back pain for 5-6 years and no one gave a shit most i've gotten is #jokes that i'm faking it #i'm in physical therapy for my back NOW but that's bc i finally crawled out of the depression long enough to do it myself #which is fine whatever i'm 22 i should be the one making my own appointments and it'd be weird if i wasn't #but when i was 16 or 17???#being hospitalized for STRESS HEADACHES at 14 too???#who gets hospitalized for that shit and how were my parents not concerned that i at the age of 14 was #so stressed out that my head was pounding all the time #and bc i'm the third parent who has to be the only emotional safe space #i don't say anything if my sisters are rude to me bc at least they feel safe enough around me to be rude to me #i have to listen to everyone and their momma's problems #i'm in law school!!! i do not need this i'm anxious all the time!!!#and if i'm not anxious i'm depressed!!!#my therapist point blank tells me shit like 'you're incredibly lonely' or 'you have way too much on your shoulders' and it makes me CRY #the most basic fucking observations that i KNOW but hearing someone else acknowledge it and not berate me fucking sends me into TEARS #i get messages from online friends here like 'hey i saw your post you don't deserve that' i physically cannot keep my eyes dry!!#every time i have any interaction ever i am at least a little uncomfortable bc i am always trying so hard to make sure i come off as kind #and not awkward or mean #i feel like everyone around me was given some kind of how to manual on life that i wasn't #and i KNOW this is not unique tons and tons of people feel like this #i know this is the depression and the anxiety and the possible autism i'm well aware #but then every couple of days my mom gets the brilliant idea to tell me i'm rude or lazy or whatever and i lose my shit #i just wanna sleep and write fanfics in the nicest way possible i hate everyone #i will try my best to not be mean to anyone bc no one deserves it but i am angry and i am constantly feeling the hurt of my inner child #my MOTHER threw a hardcover book at my HEAD when i was ten bc i had been reading and hid the book under the pillow #what the actual fuck????#my dad's response to any and everything is to deal with it

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lethalhoopla · 1 year

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Okay so while everyone's making killer theories and observations about the teasers we have for Dreadwolf on top of piecing together more and more of the lore and imagery from Inquisition and 2 and even Origins, I just needed to put this observation of my own down as well.

So, the final, incomplete, Solas mural in the rotunda, right?

Clearly, the dragon slayed with the sword, and a.... beast, of some sort. I've seen it referred to as a wolf, a dragon in and of itself, and just some representation of the Inquisition itself.... maybe.

But that's always not quite fit for me. It seems odd that Solas, who is beyond skilled at painting and iconography/symbology, would make something so…. hard to parse. And granted- this was clearly roughed out in a rush, to put it lightly. He's left at this point, the mural forever unfinished.

But in Tevinter Nights, it's described specifically (as written by Lukas Kristjanson):

"The eighth and final panel of the fresco, meant to commemorate the battle against the blighted magister Corypheus, was unfinished. It showed only rough shapes, outlines...."

"... The story was well known- the Elder One, the false god Corypheus, had torn a hole in the sky to steal power from the heavens. He couldn't be killed until his blighted dragon was dead, and the Herald, the Inquisitor, had somehow countered with a dragon of their own. And there was a dragon on the panel, with an Inquisition blade in its neck. But according to the story, both creatures had fallen first, leaving the final victory to the Inquisitor.

But here, unfinished, was the outline of a beast that stood over both dragon and sword. This was not the battle, or the victory. This was after. And the beast was not a dragon. The outline alone might have allowed that assumption, but now, filling with black and red, it was something other. The creature was reptilian, but also canine. The snout was blunted and toothy, but edges came to a point in houndlike ears. [.....] revealing scales and tail, and paws with talons. It looked like two figures painted on either side of a pane of glass, then viewed together, their forms confused. A wolf that had absorbed a dragon, and now stood crooked over all."

Now, without getting too deep into spoilers for that short story (I really recommend it, and the rest of Tevinter Nights!), the depiction could be warped by what happens in the story (and is unfolding in that scene). But due to the reason it's warped, what 'colors' it, I think that the depiction is still accurate (it just becomes a bit more Spicy, let's say). I think that what Solas was starting was a creature like that - a wolf, that absorbed a dragon.

Of course, the question then is what that means.

As lore's revealed over the series, dragons aren't just associated with Archdemons, or even with the potential legends of qunari 'origins' (as dragonkin). Dragons are also specifically associated with the Evanuris - from the fact that only those as powerful as might-as-well-be-god mages could shapeshift into dragons, to their personal symbolism, to hints that different archdemons might be connected to each one (their numbers match, for one...)

Was it Solas leaving some hint as to who, what he was, then? The Dreadwolf, but also the Trickster God? Perhaps how despite simply attempting to free/help his people (he speaks of the loyal, steadfast wolf in the game more than once, wise and wonderful), he was elevated to the status of legend and god (dragonhood)? Was it symbolizing the blended might of the Inquisition, both protector Wolf and godlike Dragon? Some blend thereof, or extrapolation beyond?

Fuel for thought, for sure. But beyond that... the silhouette kept reminding me of something.

It took me a little too long to realize - it wasn't until I was idly staring at the Steam startup image for it while waiting for Origin to hurry up and connect that it hit me.

It's.... it's right there on the box/start screen.

It's... way, way closer to the creature Solas had begun to depict than what we've seen in dragon silhouettes in the past. And I get it- even as I write this, I hesitate, because I mean, the whole silhouette included has wings, right?

(sidenote, but major props to whoever designed this piece, the details are so good, including the fade/fireball/comets shooting off the 'wings' to look like support bones for wing webbing)

That's why I hadn't really thought about it before. But when that hit me, I went back to look at dragon silhouettes in previous games, and I mean-

That's the usual Origin one - and yeah, that's.... way more narrow a snout, though of course you're still getting that dragon spine spike along the neck. The neck itself is far more narrow, too, and its teeth more needlelike.

Okay, what about DA2?

Alright, now we've got some framing that is like DAI. (also, more props for the designers, and the silhouettes of Kirkwall friends/foes, hot damn).

But that face - the dragon's face. I keep catching on it. DA has a really great track record of being pretty specific about its silhouettes, symbols, and general representations, at least where it matters.

The dragon-made-by-silhouette in the Inquisition cover art is significantly blunted in its snout, the neck much broader, shortened in horn (or ear), and even the angle of horn (ear??) is different from past dragon iconography.

I dunno. I definitely don't think it's unreasonable to leave it at artistic representation/liberty, it just ended up a bit rounded, whatever. But where I get less inclined to leave it at that is when coming back to this final incomplete mural panel.

... It's all of it. The down-rounded snout, the way the teeth are depicted, the horn-ears, the spikes-that-could-be-fur, the obviously shorter and wider neck, the over-exaggerated sternum bone that strikes as dragon (/reptilian) before you think it could also be wolf rib cage-

It's.... close. Awfully, curiously close. At the very least, the Inquisition splash art feels like it could be the middle step between dragon and this. The splash is dragon, but wolflike - this is wolf, but dragonlike.

........... now, why the heck does this matter? Well, maybe it doesn't to most people, haha. But I'm an imagery and lore-reference obsessed nerd, and Dragon Age really does go hard with it's laid lore and hints of the future. So I can't help but ask-

Is the mural really depicting the Inquisition Defeating Corypheus?

... even the Tevinter Nights story, the way it's phrased casts some murkiness.

"The story was well known...." ".... This was not the battle, or the victory. This was after."

.... With dragons representing the Evanuris, perhaps.... is this instead a note, a hint, left depicting Solas' intent? To slay the dragon, the true dragons, what remains of the Evanuris after he tears down the Veil - because it would not only cause chaos, but also release them from the prison he'd made via the creation of the Veil?

Is the dragon-wolf not the Inquisition, but Solas, or rather - more importantly - Fen'Harel?

The shape of the maw, the way the ears point back, the trailing scruff/magic along the neck 'spine'....

Even the way the rips are traced, and the paw is drawn-

Hmmm.

Hmmmmmmmmm.

... I think it's depicting more than Corypheus' defeat.

But too, there's two other elements that keep rolling around in my mind with all this-

) "... On the mural, all Messere would say is, 'Skyhold is [their] fortress' (meaning of course the Inquisitor). 'These are [their] actions.' "

If these are their actions........ how does the potential for this image to be depicting the downfall of elven gods play into the picture (literally)...?

And thus, the second thought:

2. ) On that very same splash image for Inquisition, the silhouette of the dragon (with hints of wolf) is made via the energy of the Mark coming off the Inquisitor's hand. The dragon-ish creature is of the Inquisitor's making.

The creature is what the Inquisitor has made. Their actions. The mural, a depiction thereof; their choices, their efforts, their impact.

Their impact - a changed Solas... or, perhaps, one all the more committed to his cause. Fen'Harel, or a wolf-dragon hybrid, roaring at a slain dragon, sword of the Inquisition buried deep.

Trespasser, revealing just how much further Solas' network of spies and agents has expanded through the Inquisition. And whether through friendship/love or rivalry/antagonism, Solas coming away from it with his determination redoubled, his mission certain.

Whether it was intended to depict the effect of the Inquisitor on things they don't yet grasp, or their affect on him and his intent to bear out his mission........... I think this mural's about a lot, lot more than just the defeat of Corypheus.

#dragon age #dragon age theories #solas #dragon age inquisition #solas murals #long post #i spent way too long on this but i can't get it out of my head so here it is #a whole essay just to say HEY GUYS I DONT THINK THE MURAL MEANS JUST ONE THING #(i say 8 years fuckin late to the party)#buuuuuut i haven't seen anyone pointing out the dragon-wolf transition exactly so who knows maybe this #is interesting to someone else #and before anyone tries to say that the creature on the splash isn't anything BUT a dragon pls reread what i wrote #i just mean to point out the similarities and the curious transition in how its all depicted #it doesn't feel coincidental is all i mean #i know im reading too far into it lol don't worry #we're all just having fun in the sandbox #i should add - solas absorbed mythal (possibly w ogb essence added depending on your world state) as a direct result of all this so!#wolf absorbed a dragon indeed. and likely he had to make that choice as a direct result of his orb being broken in the final battle…#again- the actions of the inquisitor for better and worse alike

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