#Island Fever | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ijuststareatstuffhereok89 · 6 hours

Text

Six: Cuts Like a Knife

Bucky is determined to find you when he and Steve begin making headway in the search across the Pacific. Meanwhile, after days of peace lead to your shelter finally being finished, your truce is broken when Loki insults you for the final time.

CHAPTER WARNINGS: Loki is a bastard again, very brief descriptions of blood/injury

MASTERLIST

“Oh, fuck it,” you muttered under your breath ruefully, staring at the littered chaos that was your camp on the beach.

Loki had been right about the storm only being a squall. It was just after sunrise when you emerged from the cavern to the typical pink-and-orange sky. You insisted that you could make the swim back without Loki’s voluntary discomfort, and you did. A part of you was still convinced that he had turned into a dolphin more for your impression than your overall well being.

Whether the rain runoff had moved everything when it made the sand wet, or if the tides just came in that much higher due to the swell, the camp was destroyed regardless. Three of the bamboo beams Loki had placed around the thick palm trunk were washed away, and the rest were either uprooted entirely or askew. The completed floor panel was, thankfully salvageable, but the frame of the second was also gone for good. None of the clay pots Loki had made were in sight.

“I don't think it’s that bad. Look, the parachute made it!” Loki pointed to the sopping, limp white fabric spread out like a net some yards away.

“Ugh, that’s going to take a week to dry,” you moaned.

Loki shrugged. “We could be rescued by then.”

“I hope so.”

You looked at Loki in silence, trading looks of tense worry. “I guess we rebuild before another storm comes?” you suggested weakly. “Maybe we reinforce the support beams or choose a trunk further into the forest this time?”

He smiled back. “As you wish.”

A rogue tropical swell had moved across the sector Steve and Bucky were searching, forcing them to land in New Zealand to refuel after a day’s fruitless effort. As they waited at the hangar under Stark’s company’s control, Bucky was asking everyone in the vicinity if they’d received any signs of life in the area. No one had, of course.

Steve was having a hard time reining in his friend. “Buck, don’t you think if they did hear something they’d say so?”

“She’s out there with that…that predator,” he muttered frantically under his breath.

“Loki is a lot of things, but I don't think he’s that, not anymore.”

“He’s UNSUPERVISED!” Bucky snapped. “He can be whatever he wants now, including a killer, a rapist, a--”

“--Bucky, you’ll trigger The Soldier!” Steve warned. “You know you’re still vulnerable!”

Bucky looked at his confidante and took a deep breath out. Steve was right: his deprogramming was never finished, because even in Wakanda the technology wasn’t complete enough. The team there did what they could, but by the end, Bucky became a sort of proto-Hulk. His madness was now only triggered under stress, which could be both a blessing and a curse.

“It doesn’t hurt that the world is now on the hunt for him,” Steve reminded Bucky, patting his shoulder firmly in manly comfort. “They’ll be found.”

“But will she be found ALIVE?” Bucky added.

Steve nodded with a reassuring smile that unrolled gracefully across his chiseled face. “Absolutely, if we have any say in it.”

A man in beige khakis tapped the Cap on his shoulder. “Team Stark has checked in. They’re refueling in Manila, no signs.”

“Shit,” Bucky exclaimed.

“Ahem?”

A second, much smaller man stepped out from behind the first, dressed identically and holding a small clipboard. Everyone looked at him curiously. “What is it, Mr. Smithers?” asked the larger soldier.

“We…we just got a call from a small Coast Guard station in the Marshall Islands,” said the nervous boy. They reported a Mayday signal four days ago before being dropped at about 11:30pm. It may have been them.”

“WHERE?�� asked Bucky at a shout.

“About a thousand-or-so miles off this coast, probably due north.”

“And why didn’t they scan that area already?” asked Steve, keeping a hand on his friend’s shoulder to quell his anger.

The larger man interjected to answer Steve before Mr. Smithers could. “It’s not an easy area to scout once you leave Micronesia. Some islands out there are too small to spot, others are in prime typhoon paths, the winds and currents can be too strong to stay on course.”

“This region has the most isolated islands on Earth. Planes can’t get to some of them without extra fuel onboard,” Mr. Smithers added. “It’s very possible no wreckage will be found.”

“I’m not looking for the goddamn wreckage, I’m looking for her,” Bucky grunted aggressively.

“Buck,” Steve said authoritatively. “It’s fine. This is our first lead, we’re already ahead of the others.” He turned to Mr. Smithers, who was now all but cowering behind the taller man. ”Can we get exact coordinates?”

“Probably,” said the unnamed taller man. “We can go through the log, and if we find it, you can be airbourne again within the hour.”

“Excellent, thank you!” said Steve, slowly bringing Bucky away, encouraging deep, calming breaths. “We’re gonna find them, Buck. I promise.”

“He’s such a piece of shit,” Bucky replied, Loki’s smarmy face in the back of his mind. “The things he could be doing to her right now if they’re even alive!”

Steve shook his head with a frown. “She’s tough as nails, she’s always been able to keep Loki at arm’s length. You have nothing to worry about.”

He wasn’t going to admit it to anyone, but Bucky was fully prepared to take Loki out if he got wind of the Asgardian putting a single finger on you. He looked up into the air, his nerves not yet settled, but at least he was breathing normally and at a lesser risk of becoming The Soldier.

When I find you, Y/N, I’m gonna get down on one knee in front of everyone, I swear! No more keeping it a secret.

“You really have nothing to fret over,” Steve assured him, “Even if they’re walking on some warm deserted beach, Y/N has never entertained feelings for him. Hell. she has never enjoyed being around Loki!”

You’d never admit it (even to yourself), but for the first time in your life, you were enjoying being around Loki.

Aside from the parachute and surviving floor panel, everything else was useless or missing. You suggested spending a few hours scouting further down the beach. After all, you were beginning to wear a footpath through the trees, but neither you nor your companion had bothered looking on the western or southern sides of the island for more opportunities for shelter.

There was still an awkwardness to your cordiality, but for now it would have to do. Your strategy for keeping things to small talk that anyone could relate to was working out well. The pair of you walked along the beach for much of the afternoon as the sand dried under your feet, sharing the occasional laugh or witty remark as you talked about the little things too keep you both calm and amicable.

“Top three fears,” Loki suggested as a prompt. “And keep it to the physical. I don't want to ruin this lovely afternoon by talking philosophy.’

You twisted your lip in thought before replying with, “Spiders, clowns, and Pauly Shore movies.”

His reaction was a standard ‘hmm.’

“Hmm? You aren’t even going to ask for more?” you teased. “There is a VERY specific reason for why I’m afraid of Pauly Shore that I’m sure you would just die to mock.”

“The more time I spend with you, the more I learn to be satisfied with what you give me,” Loki sighed. “I suppose that’s not a bad thing.”

“No? Must mean I’m boring to you.”

The God strode a step ahead of you, turned around, and began walking backwards with remarkable grace, so that he could face you while he spoke. “It means you don’t waste anyone’s time. As someone who once had to spend seven hours listening to his father kiss the rear of the King of Vanaheim while standing knee-deep in a mound of snow, I can certainly appreciate that.”

You followed Loki down the beach, your feet tracing his step at an even pace, while continuing to expand on this newfound pattern of stability. Eventually, you came upon a dry dune that was piled higher up on the beach, just in front of two large palms bending out toward the shore. If the mound of sand weren’t bone-dry, you could’ve almost burrowed into it and created a hobbit-hole for yourself in the cool shade.

“This piece of real estate comes with a guard wall,” you suggested lightly. “Still in the shade, but looks a bit more protected from the elements.” You turned to Loki with a genuine smile. “What do you say?”

Loki wanted to say how good it felt that you were asking for his input, but he only matched your grin. “Let’s begin anew, then, shall we?”

The passing storm temporarily brought the humidity down in the morning, but by late afternoon the moisture in the air had built back up. Loki started by re-forming a few clay pots in order to replenish your drinking water while you started ripping vines off the trees again. Loki cut more bamboo, and with a quiet, cordial working environment that put you both at ease, you were able to make substantial progress by nightfall.

Once the sun set, you went to make a bed in the sand as you had the previous few nights, but as you settled, Loki set his green fire ablaze and looked in your direction. “All the way over there?” he faked a whine.

“You…you want me to sit with you?” you asked him with disbelief.

“Well, don't then, if it pleases you,” he said, suddenly grouchy, turning his back to you.

It took a moment for your sore, overworked body to get up again once you settled down a bit in the dune, but once you did, you re-positioned yourself at Loki’s side as he used a stick to prod at the emerald coals.

Apparently, you both were talked out, as you merely sat next to the fire in silence for a long while. You caught glimpses of his face, and he did of you. You’d been noticing his physical appearance a bit more since he began walking around in front of you wearing an improvised kilt, but something about the gentle green fireglow casting shadows across his face turned him into a work of art. It was as if the scars of his past, the arrogance of his present, and the worries of his future were highlighted in his glistening eyes. His hair was now crusted with the salt of the sea, yet it did nothing to hinder the graceful way it fell over his shoulders.

You’d always held a secret fondness for long-haired men. It made being around the Avengers a little more pleasurable.

Every time you caught him eyeing you, you felt exposed. You wondered if he was beginning to long for carnal company, perhaps one of his pretty little reporters or those models he encountered at public events. I’d never fit the bill, you thought sadly. Maybe I should put these ideas out of my head and not even entertain them.

Loki’s chin turned to the sky. He whistled a phrase from some old song with casual skill. “We haven’t seen a single plane fly overhead since we’ve landed here, have we?”

“I haven’t seen one,” you said. “It gets so quiet at night I would’ve heard one.”

“If a green fire at night doesn’t attract an airplane, nothing will,” said Loki.

“We can’t give up,” you insisted, “We’ll finish the shelter. This spot is better. Once we do, we can make a beacon to light at night.”

Loki was quiet for a moment. You saw a row of pearls unroll across his face when he grinned after a second. “You never give up on anything. You’re so much like my brother.”

“I’m sorry?” you asked.

Loki licked his lip and took a swig of boiled water from a clay bowl. “It’s arguably your best trait,” he said nonchalantly, “Your persistence. It’s not something you see amongst the human race every day.”

“How do you know that?” you asked, your voice raising. “You never bothered to get to know me or how persistent I am.”

“You never noticed?”

“Noticed what?”

Loki shifted a little closer to you, until your thighs were touching. “Noticed how I was always in the room with you whenever you argued your way through some PR issue, or whenever you stood up to some shouting reporter on my behalf, as begrudgingly as you did so.”

“I always knew you were around!” you said defensively, not wanting to sound ignorant. “It was my job to have you around.”

The god shook his head. “But you never noticed that I was watching you. I was always watching you fight those battles. Your strength…it has a way of commanding the attention of a room, whether or not you’re aware of it. There’s something attractive about it.”

Your heart began to speed up as you looked into his eyes, seeing nothing but a genuine compliment in them. “I…that’s so kind of you. I never really thought anyone noticed me, especially because I was always standing next to you.”

Loki dismissed you with a hand wave. “When you aren’t squawking like a chicken hawk, anyway.”

You couldn’t help but chuckle. “I guess I do it because I feel like it's the only way to get you to listen.”

He leaned in. “Well, maybe if you ever asked me to listen, I would have. I don't recall you ever assuming everything but the worst of me.”

You looked away, embarrassed. “I…ugh…”

The heat of shame crawled into your face. Loki was right. For all of his insults, taunts, and harassments, you never checked in on him with sincerity. You always assumed he was out to make your day worse. His harassment was not justified, but it wasn’t as if you took active steps to solve the rift that divided your personalities.

Loki tapped your cheek, drawing your face back to meet his. He was practically leaning over you now. “If you admit it, perhaps I’d be willing to start over with you. Here and now.”

“Admit to what?”

“That you’ve always had it in for me, and that you’ve been wrong,” Loki requested.

You jerked your head away from him. “I’ve been the wrong one?”

Loki gritted his teeth. “Yes--”

“--when you’re the one who pranked me the day we met and every single day after?! You’re the one who always teased me without prompting! How is this my fault when you never gave me a break! You….oh, you!”

The peaceful spell was over as anger flooded your mind again. Loki’s sweet words from minutes ago were eclipsed by the new animosity he instigated. You got up and went back to the dune, furiously kicking at the sand until you were tired enough to lie down and let exhaustion take you away.

You slept poorly. The following morning, you were up before the sun, managing to put together an entire floorboard by the time Loki woke up. Your mind raced between Loki’s stubborn idea that the rift between you was purely your fault, and the fact that even as you yelled at him last night, his words pricked at your heart. Part of his accusations were true: you never asked him how he was feeling, or perhaps why he acted out. If only you had…

No, Loki was wrong. You were his PR assistant, not his therapist. It was never on you to cater to his heart, only to make sure the surface of him was appropriate for when the UN was looking. In that aspect, you never once failed at your job.

Did Loki ever want there to be more between you? Did he ever want to tell you what was on his mind? How could you tell, when every other time you saw him he was shoving his tongue down some blonde’s throat?

Were you…jealous? Was that it?

No, you told yourself, you’ve never wanted that from Loki. His arrogance is such a turnoff!

How could Loki gaslight you so, when he wasn’t even around? That bastard’s powers! Maybe planting the seed of jealousy or guilt in your mind was part of another mind game of his.

You were tying up the frame of your next floor piece, hoping Loki would wake up soon to cut more bamboo, when he snuck up behind you, holding a coconut shell and digging slowly at the meat with a fingernail, plucking a chunk and gently laying it in his mouth before addressing you. “How long have you been up?”

“Hours, and I need more bamboo,” you said coldly.

That was the only exchange you had for most of the day.

While it was much less comfortable to work around him that day, the renewed animosity between you meant you both could focus on your tasks. Your shelter advanced even more than it had before. All of the support poles were firmly in the ground, and three out of the four floorboard panels were finished. Loki configured everything as a sort of bridge between the two leaning palms, the parachute would hang above.

“We’ll be able to finish by this time tomorrow,” Loki said, bringing two more bamboo stalks out from the jungle, one in each fist.

You were silent, his words from yesterday still buzzing like a mosquito in your ear. You were just finishing the third panel, and Loki’s sticks were the last ones you needed to complete them. You quietly reached out for one, but he withdrew them and stepped back.

“You’re being especially frigid today,” he said with suspicion. “Did something I said last night stick with you?”

“You mean nothing to me, Loki, now give me those!”

“Not until you admit that I am, in fact, right!” Loki insisted.

“For fuck’s sake Loki, sometimes I wish--”

“--wish for what?” he challenged. You grabbed onto one of the stalks and began pulling back on it. Loki’s Asgardian strength would eventually win out, but you put all of your body weight into your struggle regardless.

Suddenly, every ounce of what you’d been suppressing for the past year and a half came exploding from every cell of your body all at once in one impressive shockwave.

“--LOKI, I WISH YOU WERE DEAD!”

You both flew backwards. Somebody had given, but you weren’t quite sure if it were you or him. All you did know was while you fell onto soft sand, Loki had stumbled back into the forest and fallen over a stone. He shouted, stumbling to his feet.

“NORNS!” he hissed in pain, his hand flying down to his shins. Your eyes flew to the blossoming spot of blood that grew along his ankle.

“It’s just a cut,” you mumbled. “If you’re going to whine about it, I’ll be over by the fire so I don't have to hear it.”

High and Mighty Loki of Asgard is upset over a scrape!

Leaving the bamboo at his feet as Loki winced and examined his wound, you turned your back to him. You could hear him mutter a single word under his breath as you walked away.

“Bitch.”

You’d heard many terrible, malignant words come from Loki’s mouth. For some reason, this was the first one that stung.

TAGLIST: @anukulee @jiyascepter @wolfsmom1 @cakesandtom @holdmytesseract @simplyholl @lokisgoodgirl @mjsthrillernp @meowmeow-motherfucker @foxherder @letstalkaboutshtuffff @ladymischief11 @libby-bibby @javagirl328 @crimson25 @lcolumbia1988 @gruftiela @mochie85 @huntress-artemiss @loz-3 @kikster606 @muddyorbsblr @sheris532 @lokischambermaid @kneelingformyloki

@soulpiercing @goddessgirl43 @canigetanap @theoneandonlythorn @forleiasake @eleniblue @knight-of-the-doctor @goblingirlsarah @clusterfuck-meup @mischief2sarawr @cabingrlandrandomcrap @kats72 @glitchquake @zippythewondersquirrel @ameliariddle @alexakeyloveloki @lovingchoices14 @lokidokieokie @littlegodslut

@casifer391 @free-llama-arcade @alucardsdaddyissues @pest-ill-ence @elviswifesworld @mynameiskelly @xxinvisiblexx @luphelia @hyunsuksswife

34 notes · View notes

gofixxx2 · 1 year

Text

#cool #oceanic feeling #ocean #island #island fever #coral #vaporwave #mountain #bubble #electric blue #love #pretty #cute #old

7 notes · View notes

jiggadphotography · 2 years

Text

Spice at Island Fever SpringBreak Miami 2022

@spiceofficial live at islandfever 2022 #jiggadmedia #spice #springbreakmiami #springbreak2022

youtube

View On WordPress

2 notes · View notes

adventuresandcoffeee · 2 years

Text

Pursue happiness ✨

#life liberty and the pursuit of happiness #happy birthday America 🇺🇸#golden retriever #Oregon coast #island fever

3 notes · View notes

felassan · 11 months

Text

remember that wild Dragon Age theme park ride (Dragon Age: Flight of the Wardens), originally located in Dubai until it randomly turned up years later (now also oddly-rebranded as "[Not Dragon Age We Swears It]: The Guardian") in, of all places, Skegness England? well, I had to satisfy my curiosity and obsession with obscure pieces of Dragon Age media & archival thereof. and so - actually quite some time ago now - I finally got around to going on a pilgrimage there (which was this whole, like.. heinous harrowing in and of itself, that I will not go into), and I rode it

and to my surprise the original Dragon Age in-ride movie is still part of the ride experience! - complete with references to darkspawn, a Pride demon, dragons, green "rifts", Discount Anders (a Grey Warden[?] mage called 'Eldron'), Discount Yavanna (a Witch of the Wilds called 'Alexia') and Dragon Age: Inquisition soundtrack music. there is also now a new pre-ride movie which replaces the old Dragon Age pre-ride movie as part of the ride's rebranding, and i simply ?¿?

there are also still quite a lot of identifiable Dragon Age props in the fantasy-themed queue-area of the ride (so these must have been part of the whole purchase between parks), including multiple iconic Inquisitor helmets, Grey Warden shields, a Dragon Age dragon (now with DA-dragon identifiable horns.. sawn off??), and several Dragon Age banners, including the Inquisition hairy eyeball, the templar symbol and the Circle symbol. here's some pictures.

[^this image is taken from the video linked below]

I also captured the new pre-ride movie, and you can see it along with the Dragon Age in-ride movie here ⬇️. and so now, with this epilogue to the.. most odyssey of all time, more than two years after the first message about the ride was ever sent to Ghil Dirthalen, this adventure in obscurity and the strange fever-dream meta story of the Dragon Age: Flight of the Wardens era in Dragon Age history is finally complete.

youtube

Ghil Dirthalen: The Guardian??? {Overview. - Spoilers All}

[video source & link: Ghil Dirthalen, posted here w/ permission]

some further notes, thoughts and commentary under the cut -

there's a few seconds missing from this capture of the in-ride movie. for the sake of the curious and completion: in them, you're still in the fort and you see lots of 'Wardens' walking and milling around.

a camera in the ride takes two photos of the riders during the ride, which are displayed on a screen on the way out. you can choose to buy these from the Fantasy Island merchandise store. you know those photos of people on log flume rides? it's like those, only of the four riders in a row in the seats. the photos have Fantasy Island branding on them and fire along the bottom, then in two corners there's a bit of a dragon's head and that's about it. the ride photo is the only Guardian-specific merch available at the park.

some of the queue area props appear to be from random other places. like there was a barrel which had something like "1850 distillery" written on it, which is obviously temporally/thematically and universe-ly out of place (not that that's at all unreasonable given the rest of the rideworld lore, there's totally a way it could have gotten there easily hh, see below), and I guess it's a spare or leftover prop from a Western-themed ride or something? others were generic sword'n'sorcery fantasy props (some of these are from the ride's previous life in Dubai though). there are also some pretty random props, like a dead stuffed roe deer's head on the wall and a.. comically large spoon.

there's music playing in the queue area, but it's not DA music, it's generic ye olde fantasy world music.

some folks there mistakenly thought that the long themed lead-up (it was pretty darn long) queue area with the props was the entrance to or start of something completely different, like a haunted house or maze type thing, or was the ride 'experience' in and of itself.

the ride attendant gives you the option of watching the new pre-ride movie or not. I guess they get sick of putting it on and listening to it 9000 times a day (valid), and also cutting it out reduces queue times as it's about five minutes long. it's screened in a little enclosed room at the end of the queue area. you go in and sit down, they show it to you, then you go through another door to the chair machine.

the in-ride movie is blurry and poor quality. I heard someone else who rode it say that it was so blurry that they had no idea what was going on hhh

Now about the new pre-ride movie. in the linked video, the start of the new pre-ride movie isn't included in full at normal speed as it seemed to be a compilation of whatever random fantasy-themed stock footage the video creator could find, stitched together. but again for the curious and the sake of completion: it starts out panning randomly around SPACE, like at the solar system and of planets and at the Milky Way. for a sec I wondered if it was made up of random old Mass Effect assets. then it shows dragons (FROM SPACE) invading an Earth-like planet where I suppose the Ferelden-y kindgom (formerly called "Noathen", now called "Elvia" or something) setting in the rideworld is now supposed to be set. these invading dragons invade either from space or.. another dimension?? or maybe from the future or both?? [see below], entering through a big green rift. (and they still have the green coloring for the rifts and call it/them "rifts" like in DA, which was honestly so funny to me for some reason). the whole panning in from space start to the movie reminded me a lot of the Easter eggs in the DA and ME games that, while they're just Easter eggs for fun and I don't subscribe to this theory myself (as DA is its own great, self-contained thing), could light-heartedly imply that the planet with Thedas on it is a planet in the MEverse (like the krogan head in the Winter Palace in DAI or the ogre in that ME dlc).

in the pre-ride movie, the kingdom of "Elvia" might have actually been called "Albion", which is the earliest-known name for the island of Britain. (it was hard to make out exactly what the king was saying there) the new pre-ride movie seems like it was made in England and ofc thats a common fantasy setting, so I could see it, especially since the king character's name was something like Aethylswyth, which sounded very "Old English". for me personally, if it was "Albion", it adds fuel to the fire of Caitie's cracktheory/"trying to make this fit"-headcanon for the ride story/lore (see Caitie's original video on the ride's previous life for this), that it's set somewhere obscure and backwatery in Ferelden, which is kinda England- or Britain-inspired. (dont take these thoughts or other thoughts in this post about the lore/canon etc too srsly pls hh, it's just crack for fun and I know tis just an off-brand themepark ride)

on the whole the new pre-ride movie is pretty random. there's a giant in it, but it doesn't look like a DAI giant. (is it his big spoon??) it shows a fortress in part of it which looks a bit like Skyhold if you squint, with the long bridge approaching it as the entrance. at one point one of the dragons that pops up is a dragon designed more in the style of a dragon as they are sometimes depicted in, for example, Chinese mythology and folklore. the "communication device" the king described had me rolling, it's exactly like a Dragon Age Skype Crystal or a working set of eluvians from Thedas.. I wondered if the video creator was inspired some by DAI promo images and took cues from the Inquisitor's green hand/the Anchor, since the king has a green glowing thing on (or in?) his chest. and when the king started listing the elements humans are made of, I was reminded of Fullmetal Alchemist.

also, "through a time rift".. I mean technically Dorian's involvement in DAI DOES show green space-time magic right? Where is this other dimension? ofc I know it's not literally Dragon Age, but it's funny to think about and to try and make it "fit" skhskdhfjhe. is it the Fade? the Void? from somewhere in-between like Tevinter Nights implies exists? or is it the dimension which has Thedas's mundane world itself in it - like maybe the dragons are invading this poor guy's kingdom dimension from Thedas? if so what tf is going on in Thedas?? did Solas' explosion at the Conclave ripple through spacetime and rip holes in the fabrics of other worlds as well - like is Solas out here accidentally causing interdimensional Space Dragon invasions? like, theoretically.. the new pre-ride move does reference the in-ride movie, and in turn the in-ride movie is still Dragon Age (!), so technically the new pre-ride movie IS.. kind of.. weirdly.. canon.

((the pre-ride movie references an "outerworld", implying that even in THAT dimension there's an outer world and an inner world, definitely more than one at least. and back on the dimensions thing, I'm not clear - are the dragons coming from Thedas dimension? or are they coming to Thedas dimension? "they came through the rift, human in form but with powers, the ability to fly [that's Eldron] and the ability to transform into dragon-like creatures [that's Alexia]" implies that the dimension on the other side of the rift - if the helpers came through the same rift as the invading dragons - is Thedas, because that's Eldron and Alexia from the Dragon Age in-ride movie being referred to, and Noathen where they're from is in Thedas somewhere. so some Thedosians have travelled to another world to save it?? Dragons are escaping out of Thedas? but.. from space? but also - the narration is telling us that Eldron and Alexia and the other Guardians brought with them from where they came from, as a gift, incredible advanced technology that the people of Elvia have never seen before. he then gives the example of "this communication device" which could be read meta-ly as meaning the television screen, and of plans to build a machine made of metal and advanced technology (meaning the ride machine you go sit on, which is a themepark machine irl obviously and in the 'world' of the ride, some kind of flying machine). so like.. are Eldron and Alexia from Future Thedas (think Avatar Aang/Korra, when by Korra's time there's like lots more machinery and a more modern feel), a Thedas which has advanced complex machines like idk, AEROPLANES? is that what they mean by "time-rift"? because they specifically did say "time". is that to try and explain the modern machinery? does that mean the invading dragons also came from the future, not just from space or another dimension? the other option: Eldron and Alexia came from alternate universe Thedas, which has more modern technology in it. but Thedosians Time-Travelling From The Future And Also Space And Another Dimension is so funny to me so lets go with that. my headcanon is that on the way to Elvia they also timetravelled through a Westernthemed time period and thats why theres a recent-modern period whisky barrel)).

in the ride's previous life, the explanatory hook was that Eldron made you a special harness or saddle thing with which to ride a dragon, which was what the ride machine was simulating. however now, the hook to explain the machine is that it's a gift of advanced technology powered by carbon, hydrogen, organic matter (Big Oil lmao?) etc. (I enjoyed that this explanatory hook got wackier between eras of the ride's life, much like the whole meta story of this piece of media itself. it was already weird because riding dragons isn't really part of DA. though I don't understand meta-ly speaking this convoluted explanation for the machine. dragon-riding isn't an identifiable or key part of the Dragon Age franchise, so they could have kept the idea that you're sitting on a dragon's back and flying around on that in instead of having this wacky explanation about a flying machine gifted from magical strangers from Back To The Future and it would have been fine. I love it though bc its so absurd)

And Tiny Dragon Alexia from the original ride experience is kinda referenced (unintentionally?) when the king introduces the dragon "Guardian" "Mia", as when she comes on-screen her size or scaling looks small/kinda off, so maybe Tiny Dragon lives on. so now we have Tiny Dragon Alexia, Tiny Dragon Mia, and Tiny Dragon queue prop. it's a Tiny Dragon Conference.

and like I just have so many questions. in her original video on the ride, Ghil Dirthalen wondered at length where in Ferelden/Thedas Noathen could be. where is Elvia? why does the pov of the pre-ride movie proceed downstairs into the room where the king is - like why does the king have his throne in a basement? is he in an underground bunker for safety because of the Space Dragon invasion? why does he say we "climbed" up when we have just gone down into his dungeon? why is the tiny dragon introduced as "Mia" when the tiny dragon witch lady in the in-ride movie is called "Alexia"? does the king's green glowing chest thing work like the Anchor - does he have a chest Anchor.. a Chanchor? where did they get Discount Gandalf from the queue area and why is he exactly like the Ghil Dirthalen Stock Theatre Wizards in her original video? why did they change the kingdom's name from "Noathen" to "Elvia" in the pre-ride movie when "Noathen" was already non-existent in Dragon Age lore? why did they scrub Dragon Age from or avoid Dragon Age in the pre-ride movie but leave the whole Dragon Age in-ride movie intact? are the "Guardians" Discount Grey Wardens? is the king's whole schpeel secretly an evil plot so he that can use our bodies for like necromancy-alchemy? why does the ride run on your flesh and are we about to be sacrificed in a blood magic ritual? do we end up like the husks in Mass Effect after our organic forms are broken down into compounds to fuel the King of Elvia's flying anti-dragon defense tank? is the actor of the king a park staffer who is into larping, or someone's fun nerd uncle who likes DnD? does Caitie not in fact agree that I am very handsome and smart, indeed the World's Most Interesting Guy? 😤 why go to the trouble of sawing off the dragon's DA-dragon horns when the in-ride movie is still Dragon Age?? why are the dragons invading from space anyway like what do they want??? how can I obtain the king actor guy's autograph? where are EA's lawyers? and why is there a giant spoon?

#dragon age #Not Dragon Age We Swears It #bioware #solas #video games #lul #long post #longpost #gpoy #mj and the world #saveserault #mass effect #(shoutout to the DA Archivists)#thanku to ghil for her vids and for permission to post this video here #this whole episode in my life and in the DA fandom feels like a strange shared fever dream. was that real? am i? is Skegness? is DA4? r WE?#lmaoo #skegness the swampy ass crack of england #Fantasy Island - where dreams go to die (but fever dreams live on)#(cant believe one of the pretend Wardens from Ghil Dirthalen's Eldron's fake Warden cult was literally there irl at Fantasy Island. im ded)#and if u are reading this thinking wat the heck fel r u ok its just a rebranded themepark ride like calm down its not That Deep #i grasp ur collar and raise you that #in the time between dai and DA:D i have fully lost my mind #what dragon age does to a guy #while we wait for dragon age 4 this is the plot of dragon age 4 #on my knees constructing elaborate headcanons about and trying to make sense of a Not dragon age theme park ride #surrealism.txt

410 notes · View notes

ofmermaidstories · 1 year

Text

there’s something so bittersweet and lovely about fanfic, at it’s core. it’s so impermeable, because it’s so individual. fics don’t get finished. fics get lost because they were typed out and sent to friends, in the 70s, and somewhere along the way someone packed it up in a cardboard box and their kids shuffled it to the attic. websites go down. archives get built, but then people lose faith in the story or the canon or the creator and delete them. you read it at like, 3am, and can’t remember the title months later when you look for it again.

the tiktok these comments are from was lamenting about the loss of a favourite fic—it (the tiktok) had 85k+ likes, and over 700 comments, mostly similar to these. people talking about downloading fics to read on a tablet only for them to disappear the next day. using the wayback machine and combing through results, just to find something they loved. i think it’s sweet because it’s so human—how easily we love something, and how easily we lose it. i used to print out my favourite fics, as a kid—i still have a binder of them, buried under yearbooks and the old journals i kept during those topsy turvy preteen years. i could tell you the overarching plot to a Cardcaptor Sakura fantasy AU i read (and loved; it became my personality for months afterwards) but i can’t remember how it ended, or if it even did. i finally broke down and signed up for an account on AO3 specifically to bookmark an old, old fic that i had read somewhere else, years and years and years ago and found again on AO3 only because i accidentally stumbled on the author here on tumblr (i had only found the fic in the first place all those years ago because of a playlist). i used the same shade of lipstick for years purely because a fic i really liked had the main character apply it (it was a limited edition one at the time; i bought my first one from a ebay seller in the UK at double the retail price, lmao) while the love interest watched them, but i can’t remember the name of it, only how it made me feel (and how, for years afterwards, i would wear that shade whenever i felt like the day had something promising to it).

one of the first anon’s i ever got, in the early days of this tumblr, was someone who asked me if it was okay if they downloaded surrender—and of course it was. of course it is. there was a point, during the final stretch when i was trying to write the last chapter, that i almost lost the entirety of what i had written for that fic—and i mean, it was on AO3 by that stage so it would’ve only set me back a chapter or so, but it goes to show how fragile things can be. how sometimes fics only last in tiny ways—because of the unfinished PDF file someone downloads. The patchy memory of someone’s who’s jumbling it and three other fics together. Because someone wore the same shade of lipstick you mentioned, off-hand, for years afterwards.

(this is a love letter to the silent readers; the silent savers. the lurkers. fandom and the internet at large is made of lurkers (eighty-five thousand likes. seven hundred comments). people who saved fics and waybacked them and will reread them, even uncompleted. telling each other we did a good job, that we liked this or we liked that is wonderful, and fun, and a great (and important) way to build a community and has also given me my current friends—but sometimes something you make will matter and live on in a way you will never, ever know. and it’s just how it is. it’s part of the fun and it’s part of the charm. it’s just how we work as people.)

#floating rubbish island: mermaid spam #shall i do a part two for the opposite end of the spectrum? the readers who tell you as they’re rereading?#the ones that come back to point out details that have stuck with them?#sometimes i worry i don’t give enough to those of us in the community who do that #today i got a comment on surrender and it made my whole day—which otherwise would’ve been spent being miserable trying to sweat out my fever #people are so sweet and i feel so empty-handed for them sometimes #because time is so valuable—people don’t *have* to comment #people don’t *have* to note the tiny details #i share these fics because i *want* to—that is a choice i make knowing that maybe people won’t like it or respond to it #no one asks me to spend the time i do on these fics and so no one owes me for it #which makes the time someone *does* spend commenting or tagging or saying hello even more precious

608 notes · View notes