Amis is also stubborn tbh. it doesn't crop up That Much, but when he's decided something, he really digs in his heels. goats are the emblem of his House for a reason lmao really the only way to circumvent that stubbornness is by appealing to his curiosity. both these traits showed a lot more when he was alive. he would really dig into his work and not take a break for weeks. he would turn down some invitation just because he's focused, but because he's so stubborn beneath it all, any attempts to get him to reconsider would just make him double down. Damon knew this better than anyone and would instead dangle something interesting in front of him. like enticing out a feral cat. "ah it's a shame you turned down the Duchess' invite. you know [insert philosopher] will be there." ". . . oh?" "mhm. and she's invited — well no one knows if he'll show — but she invited [philosopher's rival]. should be interesting, especially after that 'debate' they had last time."

Followup: Oragnized Crime Recruitment

The Godfather book and the Mafia games, specifically the first Mafia game, are the closest examples of what the Original Asker wants for his game. Goodfellas is another potential example to base the process of one's recruitment into the criminal underworld. In general, recruitment in fiction is generally based on doing jobs and earning a reputation as to one's success at doing jobs. In Goodfellas, Henry Hill started off doing simple, legal-ish errands for the local mafia before the gangsters saw his potential and entrusted him with more illegal jobs. Original Asker's character could therefore be someone who is affiliated with a mobster, but not part of the inner circle until the character pulls off jobs which makes them someone worth recruiting to the organization. Or one could go the Tommy Angelo route and save a mobster's life. -ironwoodatl01

So, it's worth remembering that Goodfellas is (in broad strokes) non-fiction. Henry Hill was a real person. (1943-2012) He was an associate of the Lucchese family. There are some historical, “inaccuracies,” with the film. Though, his arrest in 1980 for narcotics, and turning state's witness is historically accurate, though the film skims over the part where he was ejected from the witness protection program in 1987. Goodfellas was adapted from Nicholas Pileggi's non-fiction book, Wiseguy. I haven't read the book, but it's plausible that some of the historical discrepancies may have come from the book.

In this case, the OP specifically wanted to avoid a background where someone grew up in the neighborhood. Which, I mean, that is their choice, but it is a very popular recruitment method, in part because it's very effective at screening out potential cops, or even recruiting potential tame cops down the line.

Ironically, thinking back now, Mafia, the original Saints Row, and Franklin's arc from GTA5 are all potential reference points for what the OP wanted, and thinking back on it now, they were asking for input on a game, rather than prose, so I should have factored that in with the original ask. The tricky thing about each of those examples is that they're dependent on a lot of very specific moving parts in their respective stories. (Though, to be fair, I barely remember the original Mafia.) None of them are strictly realistic, but they're all internally plausible, when you start factoring in the various character motivations at work.

For some reason, I'm reminded of the Thieves Guild recruitment in Skyrim, which is one of the goofiest criminal recruitments I've seen in a non-parody. Brynjolf grabs some random psychopath wandering through and says, “ah, yes, you must be a master of pickpocketing and interested in a life of crime.” Does it make any sense? Nope. Does it go a long way towards explaining why the Thieves Guild is falling apart? Yeah, kinda, when you think about it. Does the introduction work? For some players, yes.

If the player wants to get into a questline, the justification can be pretty flimsy and still work for that player. Usually we talk about suspension of disbelief like it's a universal constant, but it's individual per member of your audience. Normally, you want to do whatever you can to ensure the suspension of disbelief is as strong as possible. However, in a game, the player's own emotional investment can help shore up weak points.

I'm going to take a quote out of context (a little), but I'm reminded of a quote from Richard K. Morgan about Halo, “[it] is full of these bullshit archetypal characters and there's no real emotional effect.” And, while he was certainly dragged for that quote (and, really the entire interview, it was a mess), he wasn't wrong. The writing in Halo isn't what does the heavy lifting, a large part of that is the player's effort to get through the story. And, in basically any other medium, this would be an exceptionally bad thing.

You won't make your novel better by forcing your audience to complete reflex tests before they start each chapter.

But, with video games, the gameplay interludes, can actually build emotional investment for the player. Even on very flimsy premises.

I've often written about how writing in different mediums requires different approaches and has different strengths. If you want gorgeous combat, then live action or animation are the best forms for you story. If you want visually striking images that linger, comics might be the right choice. If you really want to get into a character's head and live there, prose will let you do that with a level of fine control that is difficult to replicate. (And, note, there's a lot of different pros and cons, so this isn't an exclusive list.) The funny thing is, if you want your audience to do the heavy lifting for suspension of disbelief, that's one of the places where video game writing really shines.

And so we loop back to the Skyrim example. Brynjolf's approach to finding new talent is absolute clown shoes, but it's something you might not notice if this is why you wandered into Riften. It only becomes a problem when you're just there to snuff Grelod the Kind, or are looking for someplace to unload all this garbage you picked up while delving into a Dwemer ruin up in the mountains.

This doesn't mean you should abandon the idea of good writing, but if your player is on the same page as you, you won't need to worry about having something completely believable. For example, the plot-line of Mafia, or (the original) Saints Row.

-Starke

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📓 spill

DARK FOREST TRAINEE HEATHERTAIL AU. Why did this not happen in canon. Lives in my head rent free.

Because, OK, after Eclipse, Heathertail literally spends all of the rest of her appearances in PO3 and OOTS being incredibly angry at Lionblaze and ThunderClan in general. To the point where they imply several times that she literally feels MURDEROUS towards Lionblaze. And then this plot never goes ANYWHERE because the Erins hate cool women.

Anyway my point is, in the AU, instead of just kind of being mad forever after Eclipse, Heathertail goes home with her tail between her legs and thinks about how Lionblaze beat the shit out of her and almost killed her mentor and probably would have liked to kill her to, and she thinks, I never want anything like that to happen to me again. No matter what I have to do, I'm not going to lose any more battles. I'm not letting myself get killed.

And, you know, the Dark Forest picks up quick on that stuff.

Honestly? At this point how things go would kinda depend on a few factors. My personal headcanon 90% of the time is that Breezepelt didn't actually join the Dark Forest until after Sunrise, so in this AU Heathertail could potentially be a senior recruit to him. On the other hand I'm like... kind of really into the potential dynamic of him finding out that Holy Shit, Heathertail Is Here Too and having no idea how to react to that. Because 1. ????????, 2. !!!!!!!!!!. You know?

In any case, I think that Heathertail is like, a pretty driven person and also generally a talented warrior, so she rockets through the ranks of the Dark Forest fairly quickly. It helps that Tigerstar might take kind of an interest in her? I've mentioned before that Tigerstar tends to go through close allies/accomplices and discard them very quickly when someone more interesting/useful-looking crops up, and I imagine the combined facts of Heathertail's competence and that she joined the Dark Forest almost entirely on her own terms - there was no manipulation from a young age going on here, she was an adult and she did this pretty much voluntarily - would both catch his interest.

And initially, Heathertail is like, she knows she's making a deal with the devil, but she just needs to do this one thing of guaranteeing she never has to feel that powerless again. But the Dark Forest has a way of over-validating anger in a way that expands its target range, and I think she slowly starts to want to not just be able to defend herself against Lionblaze but also to make him feel the powerlessness and defeat that she felt, and then she wants to be able to make ThunderClan feel as weak as she thinks they think WindClan are. I don't think she ever goes full 'The Clans are stupid, I'm loyal to the Dark Forest' mode though. Like I said, she knows she's making a deal with the devil. She thinks she's using Tigerstar, without recognizing the extend to which he's manipulating and using her.

All this to say, my ideal dynamic in this AU is that Heathertail and Breezepelt are a villainous power couple, except also he's kind of just the dumb muscle to her actual villainousness because This Is Not A Healthy Heatherbreeze Dynamic; They Never Moved Past Their Toxic Apprenticehood-Era Relationship Patterns. She comes up with evil plans, and then she tells him who to kill, and he does it and resents her and loves her at the same time and she doesn't give him a second thought beyond what he can do for her.

They're also kind of doing their own thing beyond just the Dark Forest's evil plans and they would be the main villains in OOTS. Because. OOTS should have been more closely linked to the more grounded narrative in PO3, and it should have had a big non-repeat villain to give it its own flavor and stakes. Sigh.

And like, maybe Antpelt is there too? But I think Antpelt is like, much less committed to the Dark Forest than either Heathertail or Breezepelt is, despite having been there for much longer. (..my thoughts on Antpelt could be a post on their own so I seriously can't expand on this statement LOL) So maybe at first when they're both joining the Dark Forest he's like, cool! friends :) but then he eventually fulfills the same narrative role he does in canon, which is to say he is killed off to show how badass and scary the villains are. Except in this AU, probably he is either killed for some reason by Heather & Breeze or they allow him to be killed by the DF - and in either case it shows how far gone they are, to allow their friend and Clanmate to die.

Anyway. Probably the Three defeat Heathertail & Breezepelt at some point. Maybe they die, but I also think it would be really fucking funny if they just, got defeated and lived and continued living in WindClan, cause you know damn well Onestar is not kicking out his daughter and if she says he can't exile her edgy boyfriend without losing her too, well, then, the edgy boyfriend also stays I guess. And then they just come to Gatherings with their evil children and say belligerent things every once in a while.

Also here's a sketch I did for this AU which I may or may not ever turn into a finished drawing but it felt weird to make this post and not toss it on.

[ID: A rough sketch of Heathertail & Breezepelt. Breezepelt is a bit taller and scruffier, with a concentrated, but passive expression. Heathertail is shorter and rounder, with a conspiratorial expression. She is holding him by the ear and leaning back to speak to him while she looks away from him. Breezepelt is leaning in to listen and looking at her. End ID.]

Put "📓" or some other version of a book emoji into my inbox and I'll explain the plot of a fanfiction that I haven't written but daydream about.

I was peeking through random folks’ “ask me about a character” meme responses and saw a good one for Hien that was rather critical of him, and it made me wish (once again) that he was at least a little more popular and his character was explored more cuz there’s so much meat there, and a lot of it is ripe for critique. I’ve talked once or twice about Odzaya not liking him much when they first met on the Steppe; partly because her nerves were already amped from being home again after so long away and her admittedly taking that out on him, but also largely because of the admittedly arrogant and even flippant way Hien approached the Steppedwellers with this idea of recruiting them for his war efforts. His attitude toward them left a bit to be desired; while he was overall respectful toward them (at least toward the Mol), he also approached them in a way that lowkey smacked of...well, him being a prince and a noble, and therefore kinda full of bullshit. Say what you will about Magnai, but he had every right to call Hien out on his mockery of the Oronir’s ways; the latter’s words were obviously meant to shallowly appease and appeal to them, but the way he put it forth was so blatantly brown-nosing you could smell it a malm away lol. I think it speaks to Hien ultimately having a similar mentality to the Steppedwellers as the rest of Othard and the world: that they’re ridiculously strong, yes, but also simple, primitive, and subsequently easy to manipulate. I don’t think it’s unfair to say that Hien wasn’t exactly looking for allies or comrades on the Steppe, so much as he was looking for soldiers and  glorified cannon fodder, harsh as that may sound. Note that outside of the WoL gaining the status as the technical leader of the Xaela, there were no Xaela representatives present when plans for the siege of Doma Castle were laid out and discussed, despite them making up the bulk of the army and having a pivotal role in the operation’s success. Odzaya fixes this by way of being a Steppedweller herself, but with any WoL who isn’t, there’s a distinct lack of representation.

And Odzaya saw all of that; it’s one of the reasons she doesn’t like nobility or royalty by default, and why it took so much time for her to warm up to Hien. Not only does she find the idea of power and privilege inherited through birth to be ridiculous, she also can’t stand the sense of superiority that all of them seem to carry with them, conscious or otherwise. Hien may be a good bit different from most; he was a prince, but it was a nominal positional, with no real power attached to it thanks to the Garlean occupation, and he was largely raised by someone outside the royal family. And there’s credit to be given there; Hien’s about the most down-to-earth noble/royal you’ll meet, and he has a genuine compassion for people, regardless of their social station.

But he was still raised to see himself as a future king, and that colors his perception of himself, as well as his treatment of others. If Gosetsu, a Doman retainer with close relation to the king, had to be put in his place with regards to being so dismissive of Steppe culture (in his case, religion), it makes sense that Hien, future Doman king and Gosetsu’s ward, had to be, as well (enter Magnai, Sadu, and Odzaya lol). Think about the way our group kept referring to the Naadam as a simple “contest” (when it’s obviously anything but) as well as never once thinking about the long-term consequences of upending what was clearly a sacred tradition and taking power through it; the khagun is an incredibly powerful title to have, and comes not only with huge privileges, but huge responsibilities, as well. That title going to a non-Steppedweller is side-eye-worthy already (and the potential consequences of that really should’ve been explored more), let alone to someone who’s sole use of that power consisted of ordering a bunch of their people (again, who they have no actual relation to) to fight and die for the reinstatement of a foreign nation they have nothing to do with.

Now a lot of this could be attributed to Stormblood’s overall lack of consistently solid storytelling; the Steppe quests alone could use an overhaul, because everything we achieved there was attained far too easily and treated far too lightly, in my opinion, given the complexities of the situation and circumstances. Again, it’s not quite so bad if your WoL is Steppe-raised, but that shouldn’t have been a deciding factor given that most WoLs aren’t. But a solid amount of the critiques here also fall in Hien’s lap, in ways that make it clear he’s not simply your handsome, down-to-earth, supposedly “himbo” Doman Lord. He’s got faults and he’s got complexities, he can be cunning and manipulative and flippant and arrogant, and I love the idea of exploring all that more as someone who loves his character.

Marauders and Hellions gala issues:

(spoilers ahead)

The good:

Damn near EVERYTHING about Hellions.

Catseye and Roulette cameo at the ball, giving Empath the beat-down he so richly deserves. 

Havok pushing for Madelyne’s resurrection.  I’m not really an Alex fan, but I support him in this, give that queen the second chance she deserves.  I’m guessing that Maddie will hopefully continue to be a plot point in the series.

Nanny gets drunk and tries to stab Sinister, and I also fully support this.

Empath uses his powers to let Peter “feel” drunk without actually drinking, and it’s kinda sweet.  Like he’s doing Peter a favor.  Of course, he’s also fucking around, because that’s what Empath does.

Kwannon and Greycrow hanging out at the bar together, and Kwannon insisting that the Hellions are her “plus one.” 

Kwannon’s amazing dress, she is gorgeous.

Sinister being catty with Exodus about their outfits.

Emma discovering that she reminds Steve Rogers of his mother, GOD, poor Emma. 

Rhapsody!  An obscure mutant from waaaaay back in Peter David’s X-Factor:

She got to show up and play a concert, and that is fantastic.

A nice moment between Emma and Sean.  Judging by the dialogue, I’m guessing that Emma is trying to recruit Sean for Marauders.  He’s supposed to show up in a future issue, so we’ll see how that goes.  Honestly, Sean/Emma is actually one of my favorite ships for Emma.

Also a Tempo cameo.  She’s also gonna show up in a later Marauders issue, so I guess Duggan is setting his pieces up.  I kinda want Duggan to play more with the toys that he already has (some crew members are still VERY underdeveloped), but I also like Tempo and I hope she becomes a regular in the book.  

Delores, the person who warned the Marauders about the poisoned drugs, gets a nice cameo as well.  Glad to see she got a Gala invite.  I’m kinda wondering if Duggan is actually going to DO anything with her character, beyond her just being a friendly human?  The poisoned medicine wound up being a dead-end plotline when it happened.

Pyro gambling with Bishop, Shinobi, that AIM guy and Bobby (and getting suspiciously lucky), only to be interrupted by The Thing.  Who insists on joining the party.  It’s gamblin’ time!  Also, this is twice now we’ve seen that Pyro has a penchant for gambling, which I could totally see for his character.  I could imagine him getting into money troubles over it back in his pre-Brotherhood writer days.  Don’t mind me, I’m just collecting every scrap of potential Pyro character development and hoarding them like a crow with shiny objects.

Pyro and Shinobi actually in a scene together, something that only matters to me and like two other people.  (I kinda ship it, even though they have never even spoken to each other.)

Pyro also gets a background cameo in Hellions, in the same panel as Sunfire.  Maybe wishing his outfit was as awesome?  I’m a little disappointed that Pyro’s jacket only has the flame designs on the shoulders and sleeves, I was expecting something really cool on the back.

Christian gets to do things, and actually has a decent Gala outfit.

For once, I don’t mind an Emma-focused issue, even though I complain about that frequently.  It’s the Hellfire Gala, OF COURSE Emma will be front and center, she’s hosting the whole thing, and she’ll be making alliances and playing politics. 

The bad:

Poor Bobby has nothing to do but stand in the background and look fabulous.  Even Pyro, with his single line of dialogue, got more play than Bobby.  Maybe he plays a bigger role in other issues? 

The Fenris Twins are at the Gala, and apparently part of Emma’s Hellfire Inner Circle.  WHY?  Why are they still there, Duggan?  When are you going to fire that Chekov’s gun?  Please don’t settle it off panel, like you do with some storylines.  You tend to draw some things out forever, then rush through other important plot points, I’m just asking for an even pace, man. 

Poor Sebastian has nothing to do all Gala but sit in his wheelchair and pout, like a toddler with sideburns.

Shinobi’s Gala outfit is an absolute travesty.  I guess you could call it elegant, I call it boring.  Shinobi should be wearing something daring and attention-grabbing on par with Bobby.  It’s.....just his usual suit with a fancier design?  C’mon.  

Callisto’s outfit is also awfully boring.  I was expecting something a little “tougher” from her.  And it’s fine if she wants to wear something more traditionally feminine, but that outfit didn’t seem to be making a statement one way or the other.  It’s just normal dress.

The Gala would have been about 10 times better if Shinobi and Pyro were allowed to wear these exact outfits:

Let the boys be the fashion-icon dandies that they canonically are.

Dante's Inferno Room - Vale (OC)

thank you to @clairjohnson and @neitherworld and @hoodoo12 (and all of the wonderful content creators) who came up with the Inferno Room AU! it's brilliant, and they very kindly invited others to create their own Inferno girl oc, so here is my very rough contribution.

extra thanks to @djarn who's wonderful picrew i used to create Vale.

warning for mention of death, drowning, sex and sex work.

Name: Vale, she doesn’t bother with her ‘human name’ anymore, what’s the point.

Age: 22 (at death).

Year/Cause of death: Sometime during the 90s (she’s a very new recruit to the Inferno Room). Drowned after falling in the river on her way home from a night out.

Favourite song to dance to: Running up that hill – Placebo (cover)

Role in the house:

Surprisingly not much of a dancer, or at least she doesn’t like to be the centre of attention, so she dances around the club, mingling with potential clients, rather than on stage (security keeps a very good eye on her in case any patrons want to get too handsy).

Vale is the girl clients go to for ‘normal girl sex’, which is surprisingly hard to come by in the Netherworld (people tend to go ham kink-wise now that they are dead, no such thing as regret in the Nether). She likes ‘normal sex’ because it makes her feel less weird about her cold, dead body.

Loves hearing about the kinky stuff everyone else gets up to (if they want to talk about it, obviously).

Is a friend to all, she doesn’t get involved with any in-house arguments, and people find her easy to talk to, so she knows all the drama but gives impartial advice.

Kinda still sad about the whole ‘being dead’ thing, but having people always around her (the other Inferno girls) makes her lowkey forget she’s even dead.

Hair/skin colour/appearance:

Skin is a sickly grey-blue, because she drowned.

Horns are green from the build up of algae on her body, like rocks near the sea with a slippery layer of seaweed/algae on them.

Has ‘freckles’ but it’s really just mildew because she is perpetually damp (and yes, BJ does make never-ending jokes at her expense).

Black hair that she keeps in 2 plaits, clients like it for the pulling factor, she likes it because it means she doesn’t have to wash her hair as much.

A lil’ chubby! Just more of her to love (or fuck, because, as she has to remind herself, none of her clients love her).

Relationship with BJ:

Accidently got attached and caught feelings for him (which she will never admit out loud, she’d rather die all over again) because he was her first client at Dante’s and, honestly, she hadn’t had sex with that many people when she was alive.

Movie!BJ wanted to ‘test out the new model’ when she arrived. As much as he likes being a dom (and he was fully expecting to be a dom, to really ‘welcome’ her to the Netherworld), he was intrigued about how normal she was in bed. Secretly is into it because sometimes simple is better. Doesn’t go with her often though, but will talk to her if he see’s her around in the club, she gets all flustered afterwards (because of the crush she definitely doesn’t have).

Musical!BJ likes to play that they have a real relationship while with her. Jokes around with her and likes the façade of them having normal sex (secretly makes him feel less weird about his demon body). Pretty good friends outside of the bedroom, though she gets lonely when he doesn’t pick her (she thinks its because she’s not interesting enough and he’s having wilder, sexier times with one of the other girls).

Clothing style:

Wears a longish flowing, almost sheer, white dress that fits with her whole ‘drowning victim’ look.

Bare feet.

Has a spiked choker because that was what she was vibing with before she died and she didn’t want to totally start over, even if she is dead.

When she isn’t working, she just wears pyjamas and hangs out with the other girls in their communal living space.

Backstory: It was the 90s, night clubs were all the rage and Vale went out pretty much 7 nights a week. Unfortunately, she also has no sense of danger, so often went home on her own. One fateful night she walked home by the river and tripped, unable to catch herself in her tipsy state, she fell into the water and drowned. Her body wasn't found for months. When she got to the Netherworld, she kind of just wandered around looking for something to do. She didn’t have much direction in life (hence her consistent clubbing), maybe she could find her calling here, she only had the rest of eternity to find her vocation.

Likes:

Gentle sex

Warm blankets (blankets are abundant in her room, even though no one in the Netherworld can ever get warm).

Her drink of choice is beer (even if Netherworld beer is shit).

There’s a very specific genre of horror movies in the Nether that Vale is a sucker for (e.g. very domestic settings that have an uncanny valley, ‘clearly no ex-humans were on the production team’ vibe to them).

Dislikes:

Clients who want something she isn’t willing to give (after BJ she decided the rest of her clients had to want it vanilla or they could go elsewhere. BJ is the only guy she’ll let get a bit kinky, because of the crush she definitely doesn’t have on him)

Baths (she will have showers, but baths make her phantom feeling of being waterlogged feeling to intense).

Being alone.

Exceptionally sad music (it may be her look, and her signature song, but she loves when a heavy rock comes on in the bar that she can really vibe to).

(picrew credit: @mieczyk)

so for the first time I saw batman: the killing joke.

...

it was okay I guess. but massively overrated. I expected some fucking masterpiece of cinema but instead it was just two unrelated short films that were more style and flash than substance.

so first off, barbara's storyline was mediocre. franz wasn't a compelling villain; just a creep, and a trust fund brat. oh wow he's a mafia kid who stole his family's fortune by hacking. if it was the falcone family I'd have cared more but it wasn't so it's just some faceless deathfodder rando. who gives a shit. the whole situation was just a vehicle to shove batman's dick into babs. which kinda fucks over bruce's character here and judging by the timeline kinda makes him a bit of a groomer, yikes. bruce and gordon have known each other since bruce was a young boy and we know that bruce is way older than babs so yeah bruce totally knew her from birth until present day, he literally utilized an active power dynamic to police her crimefighting activities, and he should have fucking known better and stopped her when she kissed him because it would (and did) compromise their professional dynamic, but hey, batdick. and at least barbara recognized that she was behaving emotionally rather than logically when it came to bruce and paris and took the high road out. that would be a serviceable standalone episode to write her on a bus in a serialization but THIS IS A MOVIE. so for a waste of an already short runtime it's like having an appetizer before your meal but instead of something like a crab cake before stuffed flounder, you get greasy onion petals that are more fried batter than onion before getting a well done cheeseburger that's just a glorified hockey puck on a sponge with a kraft single on top. the animation and vocal delivery were excellent of course, not gonna disparage that aspect, so it was well made, but the writing was just not very good. a polished turd. quantic dream must have developed it then because it feels like I watched a david cage production.

so in a 78 minute movie, five of which were the credits, we had a half hour Disney/Pixar short except those bring joy and this brought boring. also there were a lot of shots of her ass tits and underwear that were obnoxiously male-gazey and there was a token gay for the sole purpose of dangling a carrot on a stick for the queers. look kids, warner brothers and dc comics cares about the lgbts! give us money! a waste of time before the real reason why anyone came to see the movie that literally only exists to pad out the runtime to make it a feature length (even though paying a full ticket would've been a total ripoff because, again, IT WAS ONLY 78. even 9 was 81 minutes long and that had an amazing storyline so I forgave it, but 78 minutes? ugh.

also, GOTHAM RAGE??? CRINGE. SO CRINGE.

alright now for the joker segment.

*ahem*

what the fuck? that sucked! *throws tomato*

mark hamill and the joker's lines and the art and the cinematography and the choreography was all good and the plot was cohesive. I get it.

but holy shit was the writing weak as fuck.

okay so some rando breaks the J-ster out of Arkham (already unlikely but ugh whatever), he didn't turn a trick or recruit or anything, he just went to purchase a carnival. or, steal one. but wait, he DID recruit, but he went to get all of the stereotypical Circus Freak™ stereotypes. little people, fat lady, bearded lady, wolf man, strongman, diaper man (wait, what?), and the two headed woman. I guess if you don't really think about why all of them were super readily available in the outskirts between arkham and gotham [i just realized they both end with -am] then it makes enough sense. and then literally right after that HE RECRUITS SOME GUYS TO HELP HIM KIDNAP GORDON. and then strips and photographs barbara. um. ew. you can tell the writer and director were men. Alan Moore is constantly molesting women in his comics and this one trick pony should be put down already. but whatever. the plot is weak and it only gets saved by the flashback sequences.

oh.

oh no.

they're not that great.

he's a failed unfunny comedian who just wants some money to move his wife to a better house so he turns to thievery with the mob. OR YOU COULD JUST STOP GOING TO THE BAR AND BLOWING IT ALL ON BOOZE. I mean the cops knew where to find him after all so clearly he's a repeat customer (or moore is a bad plot writer who relies on convenience and shut the fuck up and don't critically analyze it). alright so he gets wrapped up in the mob to perform a heist on a playing card factory. GET IT, BECAUSE HE'S THE JOKER??? and he uses the moniker of the red hood to retain his anonymity. I expected the mobsters to be working for francisco but no the paris storyline was only cooked up screenplay for passing the runtime so why would they do something clever and interesting and make the film cohesive? that'd be really stupid to make the movie feel more like one movie and not two short films. at least when grindhouse & planet terror did it they advertised themselves as an anthology film. whatever. he falls in the vat of acid which melts the red hood to his face and I gotta say that's actually a pretty good idea to get his face white and his hair green and his lips red. I like that part. oh wait I forgot about the most important part! his wife gets shoved in the refrigerator. OH WOW THAT'S JUST SO COMPELLING AND ORIGINAL, TOTALLY NOT SOMETHING THAT ALREADY HAPPENED TO GREEN LANTERN. TWICE. although she wasn't literally shoved into a literal refrigerator like alex was. rip in frozen pieces you absolute legend of a trope namer. alright, so... so the joker is sad because his wife died. you know, the wife we saw for two minutes and knew the moment we saw her drenched in sepia she was gonna die. and she died offscreen. kyle's gf died and he was fine. gordon's wife died and he was fine. batman's parents both died and he was fine. oh boo hoo someone I love died! fuck off. I am so goddamn sick of people trying to justify their evil with "I was sad once". it's a stupid trope and it's not compelling. the only valid version is doctor doofenshmirtz' evil(er) version in the PF movie because it's hilarious that it's because of a toy train because that's the emotional depth that fridgewomen is treated with in all of these storylines. but at least batman said so. oh yeah, I almost totally forgot, batman's in this movie.

batman punches people and nonlethally takes them out. by suffocating them and letting them get stabbed and throwing them into pits of spikes and HEY WAIT A GODDAMN SECOND! okay let's just ignore that bit and hope that the little people squeezed between the gaps in the spikes and the strongman could breathe in the face mask and the two headed women had KO gas and the fat lady was fat enough that the knives only stabbed her cellulite. it wouldn't be the biggest reach one would have to make in watching this fucking disaster of a plot mess.

now I did like that it was actually batman, and by that I mean he gave a shit about the insane because he recognizes that mental illness is not a cause of dangerous or criminal behavior, just a potential exacerbating factor if it wasn't treated. yeah he brutalized mobsters and crime lords but they were mostly in self defense while gathering intel. he politely asked sal maroni and the sex workers for information and they gave it to him without violence- he manhandled maroni but only after he reached into his pocket for a cigar which could've been a gun. also batman says sex work should be decriminalized if only by not ratting them out to the cops. he was a genuinely good person in the second half of the movie. too bad it was ruined by the shitty first half that made him a borderline groomer.

joker's song was... bad. mark hamill performed his ass off but the song wasn't that good. it just tried to be willy wonka if he was a voyeuristic monster. oh yeah have the only girl character be paralyzed stripped and photographed only to give her father ManPain™. again... the fuck? joker and batman were both gross but, again. male writers. if it was a one-off I could drop a thermian argument because, alright one and done makes sense, especially 1988 standards. but it saturated and soured the entire goddamn movie because of abhorrent pacing decisions. so you're goddamn right I'm gonna bring it up twice! joker was a creep, his plan was dumb, nolan and burton and lord/miller and even ayer had better motivations. YES I AM SAYING THAT JARED LETO'S JOKER HAD BETTER WRITING THAN MARK HAMILL'S JOKER. not nearly to the level of ledger nicholson or galifanakis but hamill didn't have a lot to work with here and I maintain that his performance was amazing; honestly I like his the best out of all of them but just... not here. but I think I can cut some slack to firelord ozai and luke skywalker even if he just phoned it in here which he didn't. writing was just weak. and that's all there is to it. don't anon me and threaten to remove my bones ok?

alright so batman and joker fought and joker got the upper hand and was gonna kill him but it was a prop gun. haha. they had a heart to heart and batman tells joker that he wants to help him get better, even after joker killed robin and molested barbara and traumatized gordon and did countless other travesties, he still said he would help. but joker said no, and told a joke that was good enough to make batman laugh. and then the credits rolled.

...

what a completely pointless and empty ending. oh it's deep and meaningful and poignant? ok sure, I guess, movie, but you didn't earn that. shyamalan did the same thing a dozen times. that doesn't make him any less of a shit writer.

I can understand the concept of batman laughing at joker's joke, humanizing him.

I get it. I see what they tried to do. I respect it.

but this movie was massively overhyped and overrated and I expected it to be so much better than it was. but overall to me it was just another batman cartoon to throw on top of the pile. maybe it was influential to graphic novels. maybe it shaped batman into what he is today. it published right as tim burton's movie and I can respect its place in the pantheon of comic history. but sometimes things that are classic...

aren't that great.

citizen kane, casablanca, the maltese falcon, the treasure of the sierra madre, gone with the wind, singing in the rain, all of them are classic and legendary pieces of art. but they're just not that good, interesting, appealing, watchable, or FUN. they were good at the time- I mean come on we all know them today- but on going back you'd have to really appreciate the finer details to still love the movies today. and this belongs there, in the vault, to be appreciated from afar. influential if dated.

but god am I still disappointed nonetheless.

TL;DR

it was just okay. had some good ideas, had some really bad ideas, had some ugly stuff. overall mediocre. first half 5/10, second half 7/10, overall 6/10.

A Night to Remember: Persuasion

Fandom: Cats the musical Rating: T (could potentially go up later) Pairing: multiple in future chapters, Tuggoffelees, Victoria/Plato, Demeter/Munkustrap etc. Category: magical circus AU, slow burn Chapter number: 6 Chapter summary: Quaxo and Victoria decide to visit the circus the morning after the night visit. Tugger is not a morning person.

The previous chapter: A Late Visit

Tugger, being a night owl through and through, wasn't really keen on being woken up before the sun had risen high above the circus tent. If he was woken up earlier, for reasons beyond his control and liking, he asked for two things - a good reason and a gentle approach. The morning after his and Munkustrap's visit of the Spectacular siblings, he was granted only one of those - the reason was, indeed, good, but the approach was...well. What else to expect from his brother?

The tall performer was just having the most wonderful dream, something along the lines of lying on a beach, on his own, no fans, no squealing, no unexpected hugging, when a too familiar voice interrupted the pleasant vision and yanked him back to the decidedly less comfortable reality of his caravan. "Rise and shine, dear brother of mine!" A second later, the curtains were drawn apart, no warning, no gentle coaxing, just a sharp sound and even sharper light.

Tugger grumbled and rolled over to his other side, covering his face with a pillow. "You monster. You cruel, cruel monster. How could you do that to a member of your family?"

Munkustrap chuckled and sat beside Tugger on his surprisingly wide bed. Count on the younger man, a known lover of long and comfortable sleep, to squeeze the widest bed possible into the caravan and seemingly defy the rules of space. "Why so glum? Our night mission was a success, you know. The two promising recruits were intrigued by your presentation and decided to visit us the first thing in the morning. They are currently at the entrance, Jenny dragged them over for a cup of tea. But they will definitely want to see the rest of our troupe and who better to show them around than the man who persuaded them to give this humble establishment a chance?" If Tugger didn't know any better, he'd suspect Munkustrap of being slightly mischievous.

"Good for you, oh mighty persuader...persuasion person...whatever." The pillow was not yet removed and the caravan owner was definitely falling asleep again. "Great job, Munk. 10/10. Now go and impress them even more."

But of course, the cruelties had no end. A firm hand yanked the pillow off Tugger's face and exposed his face to the morning light, bright and unforgiving. "Nothing of the sort, Tugger. You were the major factor of our success. In fact, you did so well on your own! You should consider ditching me more often. So off you go and be even more charming than you are now."

Still half blinded by the light, Tugger opened one eye and squinted at Munkustrap. "When did you get a sense of humour?"

Munkustrap smiled and stood up, preparing to leave. "I believe it was born when I saw you gaping at that young magician for not being impressed by you. Ah, one of my most cherished memories."

And before Tugger could react, the heartless man stole his blanket as well and not even a heartfelt "you're dead to me" helped. It truly was a horrible morning.

------

A lot of grumbling and swearing later, Rum Tum Tugger finally emerged from his caravan and made his way towards the circus entrance. Even Jenny's cheerful "Good morning, sunshine!" did very little to improve his mood and neither did seeing the two smiling siblings (well, the girl was definitely smiling, but the magician's face would hardly qualify as a smile - the corners of his mouth were very, very slightly turned upwards and his dark eyes never stopped watching their surroundings. A suspicious guy).

He leaned against a nearby tree and gave a slight wave at Jennyanydots, a mild-looking lady in her forties or fifties. Her copper hair, possibly but very elegantly dyed, glimmered in the morning sun. "I hope you slept well, dear," she winked at him. She had a squirrel sitting on her knee and two surprisingly tame pigeons on her shoulders. Given how calm the siblings looked, they probably had been explained what Jenny's gift was - everyone called it talking to animals, but Jenny insisted it was more of a telepathic connection and feelings exchange. Anyway, animals of all kinds loved her and she returned the love tenfold more.

"Morning Jenny. Spectacular siblings." He may have sounded a tiny bit sarcastic there, but no man should function on so little sleep. "Early birds, are you? I didn't expect to see you at this ungodly hour." And to Tugger's mild annoyance, the magician's smile visibly widened.

"Not at all, Tugger," he assured him while sipping his tea. "But your and Munkustrap's description of this place was so vivid and enchanting that we simply had to come and see as soon as we woke up."

We didn't sleep that well, Victoria admitted, silencing a yawn that almost found its way to her lips. We had too much to think about.

Tugger sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Yeah, well...if you didn't come, we would've found you ourselves. We usually don't get to share all the news in one go, otherwise people just...stare. And doubt. And then it ends poorly."

Noticing the confused glance the brother and sister exchanged, Jenny shot Tugger a disapproving look. "Really, dear. You make it sound so dramatic. No need to scare our new friends away." Turning back to the siblings, she attempted to reassure them. "You have to forgive him, my dears, he is always grouchy in the morning. But he is right. There needs to be a...slight follow-up, I'm afraid. There is something people usually don't react well to, especially when being visited by two strange men in the night."

Victoria's eyes were huge, going back and forth between Jenny and Tugger. What is it?

Quaxo was quiet for a while, staring into his tea. So many things seemed to be going through his head, Tugger was almost concerned he'd just grab his sister and leave. Perhaps it would have been better to tell them everything in one go, but with the past experience...who could have known there would be a single person who didn't appreciate a careful, gentle approach?

The dark eyes finally left the dark liquid, darting back to the tall performer with a surprising directness. "Well, since we're already here, we might as well hear all of it. What's so disturbing you couldn't have told us yesterday?"

Jenny patted his hand in a calming manner. "Please understand, Quaxo. It is not...disturbing as such, but some people, especially those who learn for the first time they are not the only ones with...certain gifts...do not take well being told that they may not be able to handle something. After all, we are all rather special. But some...in different ways."

We have already heard of Macavity, Victoria turned towards Jenny, confused. We already know he's dangerous.

Tugger sighed and the roll of his eyes would probably have been irritating, if he wasn't so tense. "Yeah, you...kinda don't. Not all of it, anyway." Silencing the complaint that was already making its way to Quaxo's lips, he continued. "Look, he runs a criminal group, that's what you already know. Quite a few of our kind are involved, that's what we also told you. But Macavity doesn't need to threaten to get his way."

Victoria was still frowning, not fully following, but Quaxo took a sharp breath and muttered, "He's one of us, isn't he?"

"Yes, he is," Jenny nodded. The reassuring smile left her face for a moment, making it look older and more tired. "Look, dears. From what I have heard, you know from your own experience that our gifts can often influence others, directly or indirectly. You," she turned to Quaxo, "can influence your surroundings. Tugger here is one of those who affect people's behaviour, they are more...willing to do what he wants without him even saying it. Such gifts can be dangerous if used selfishly. And Macavity has one that serves him too well in his activities. He has the gift of persuasion."

"For instance," Tugger interjected, "let's say that you go and meet him after your performance. You may know all these things, you are forewarned, you think you can just say no to him. Except when he speaks...things other people had told you don't mean anything anymore. Because he sounds so sincere, so bloody caring," he spat those words out with so much venom Victoria tensed in her seat. "In the end, you join him because you trust him. That is the danger of meeting him. Some manage to escape after while - he stops using his gift on them when they are no longer useful, because he finds it entertaining, to crush people's illusions. What a guy."

"Which is yet another one of his persuasion tactics," sighed Jenny. "If he cannot persuade you fully, he just uses his gift on others in your surroundings. I can't count all those who lost their jobs or homes because Macavity wanted them in his...group. They eventually join, either due to his persuasion or lack of options."

Tugger suddenly left his spot and leaned over the three of them. "Which is why you can't meet him today! You may have been able to somehow cancel my gift," he looked at Quaxo, who visibly froze due to the unexpected closeness, "but Macavity is something else. And I don't want to imagine what he'd do with the two of you. Telepathy and reality alteration. No wonder he wants you so badly."

The tense atmosphere was fortunately interrupted by Jenny who nudged Tugger's side, making him leap back and squirm. Quaxo noticed with a barely contained glee that the tall man might be ticklish. "Now now. You're not here just for tea and a morning horror story," she teased and blatantly ignored Tugger's look of hurt dignity. "Come on, let's meet the rest of the troupe!"

The siblings stood up and carefully approached the dark entrance to the circus tent, Victoria with barely contained excitement, Quaxo with his usual caution. The place might turn out to be their new home...or a trap. That was their usual conflict of personalities, Victoria hopeful and trusting, Quaxo...not so much. Still, he found himself wanting to believe these people, despite his better judgement.

"Oh come on, they don't bite!" growled Tugger and pushed them inside.

----

Next chapter: The Company

Out of the ATLA characters, who would be best to use as a template for a Star Wars clone army? Would you use only one for the template or multiple characters? If you use more than one, for what purpose would you assign their clones?

So this made me think quite a bit, and its harder to answer than expected.

On one hand, my first instinct is to select any of the main characters. All of them have qualities of some kind that can be seen as highly coveted in a clone template for the Grand Army of the Republic. However, there are some significant down sides to each main character being used as a single template for an entire clone army. 

I actually had a very long winded response to this going through all the main characters and pointing out why one wasn’t suited while the other was, but at some point I realized that... almost none of them are truly ideal for being a candidate for a clone template. Shocking, I know, but I did say almost none of them. Now, this doesn’t mean that any of them can’t be a good individual soldier or officer or star ship captain or whatever you want them to be. As soldiers in their own right they would be good. I dare say some of them would be heroes, even legends. 

But I wasn’t looking for heroes or legends. I was looking for someone who could just be a soldier. I was looking for someone who I felt was of fairly decent character, mentally stable, who could follow an order regardless of whether or not it was the right call, accomplish a task regardless of whether or not it was mission critical or trivial, and one who I felt could tolerate military life without many complaints and just... do it. In short, I was looking for someone who I thought could fit the role of a standard clone trooper. Someone who wasn’t out to be a hero or a legend, nor compelled to be a villain.

And that someone turned out to be Suki.

And in my opinion she’s actually kind of the only real choice out of the main cast of characters we see. And this doesn’t necessarily stem from the fact that we see her in a kind-of-military role already through her association with the Kyoshi Warriors, though I will admit it helped a little in making the choice. 

Think about.

I consider Suki one of the main characters in the show, but she has this aura about her, for lack of a better word. A kind of aura that lends well to being the “every-woman” of any given situation that needs something to be done. She’s not really out to be a hero, though she possesses that capacity, nor is she out to be a villain, though I can see her doing more questionable things without any complaints or scruples, if need be.

She’s one of the only characters we see consistently see in some kind of uniformed role. More importantly the uniform is not meant as a disguise or for some other ulterior motive. When she puts on the uniform, she wears it to be a part of something, to do something required of her. When we first saw her in her first episode, I am willing to bet we were all sold on her being a Kyoshi Warrior. How she trained and how she believed in the tenants of her organization. When we saw her again in the show, this time at Full Moon Bay as a guard taking in tickets, again it wasn't as a disguise. She even said she did it just to assist people there, even if it was just doing something as mundane as punching in holes for tickets. On a regular basis, As if it was her job.

And in a way... she kinda is like a clone trooper. 

Clones have been noted to perform a variety of roles despite coming from the same template. And while many were of course trained in those specific roles, the character and personality of the template itself is a factor in how each clone adapted to their role. Now, it is noted that the genome provided by Jango Fett had to be tailored and modified so that the standard trooper could follow orders more obediently, diluting Jango Fett’s more independent and volatile tendencies  while keeping the qualities that made him ideal as being the candidate. The Republic needed a soldier that was tailored and trained to follow orders obediently, one that could “get the job done”. Guaranteed.

With Suki, you potentially have a candidate that is similar. And this is where we get to the darker side of the clones, one where it got me thinking “Okay, who can we change up just enough to have their personality remain intact when their genome structure is tampered with, to the point where they are bred to be a good trooper?” Again, to me, Suki is the only real candidate. Why? Think about what would happen if you spliced up Zuko or Azula or Sokka enough to have them be bred as the genetic version of an ideal soldier. In my opinion, it means taking away what makes them truly unique. To me, that meant diluting Azula’s sense of ambition, sharp wit, and intense independence, possibly screwing with  her mentality even more and making her seem almost lobotomized. That meant making Zuko less emotionally unstable and less angry, but also turning him into a literal drone in a way, completely obedient to whoever commands him. That meant diluting Sokka’s sense of humor and a bit of his creativeness just to control him, as well as smashing his moral compass to the point where he would be a serious asshole. You gain all their fighting qualities and what makes them good on the battlefield, but you loose what makes their characters unique if you have the Kaminoians have their way. And you know what perfectionists they are. Anything they don’t like, they’ll splice it out or dilute it.

With Suki, you don’t loose that much, as terrible or surprising as that might be to hear. If I was a Kaminoian cloner, I’d look at her and think “Hm. This one seems ideal. She has a sense of independence and seems to have a moral compass, but I can work with that. Not too much genetic tailoring to change that. With her template we will have a clone that can follow orders obediently, regardless of morality. She seems to come from a warrior caste with a strong sense of team work and cooperation. It seems to have been instilled in her at a very young age. This can work to our advantage in making a satisfactory product for the Galactic Republic. It helps that she is a proficient warrior as well. Her training has prepared her physically and mentally. Our clones will be able to benefit from this if we can tailor the genome correctly.” I do not believe much of her personality will be changed through this process, though she will come off as being a bit more “darker” or perhaps more amoral. Still, after giving it some thought, these changes wouldn’t be as severe if the cloners were to tamper with the others’ genomes. Hell, the Kaminoians would probably reject of a few of them outright for not being suitable candidates. 

Now, there is also the issue of Order 66 and the Sith being involved in (or rather hijacking) the Clone Project. If I’m getting the information correctly, Master Sifo-Dyas, foreseeing a war that would engulf the Republic, wanted to commission a clone army for its defense. To my knowledge no clone template was decided on by Sifo-Dyas before the Pyke Syndicate killed him. He did contact the Kaminoians though and from what I understand they were merely just waiting on a candidate to start cloning with. Count Dooku was the one who paid Jango Fett to be the template for the clone army and at the behest of Dooku, the control chips embedded inside each clone were intended for them to forcefully comply with Order 66, which was not their intended purpose when Sifo-Dyas proposed the plan. 

Now, with Suki, I still think there is a way to recruit her and gain her genetic template for a project like this. It involves a bit of crafty manipulation by the Sith. Perhaps someone comes up to her and offers the opportunity up in a noble way. “We have selected you as the candidate for a military project that will ensure the safety of all those in the Republic.You are the galaxy’s best warrior, short of a Jedi.” Perhaps Suki would feel a great sense of honor or pride in being selected, even taking pride in training the clones (As a contrast, Jango Fett was paid to be the template after consideration from the Sith since he was considered the best bounty hunter in his trade. He took no pride in the clones he trained and merely saw it as a job.) The Sith finds ways to manipulate and get what they want. I believe putting on a noble face to do so wouldn’t be out of the question.

So yeah. Suki would be my candidate for the clone template for a Grand Army of the Republic. That’s if I had to choose only one character.

If I had to choose multiple candidates though, thats where we get to have some fun! If that was the case, then other characters would be viable as candidates for clone templates.

We can get something like the Bad Batch, or Clone Force 99, from the Clone Wars show, but on a massive scale and with more templates instead of splicing up the single one.

Anyway, that’s my answer for now.

Also I have a question about the universe! What factors decide on the magic a witch is born with? Is it genetics, like do specific magics or talents or traits lie in a family, or is it dependant on the personality or completely random or something totally different? 👀 also, do all witches have a patron animal and what does the type of animal (e.g. wolf or idk rabbit) say about the witch? And last question ahhdjj how did it happen that two incubi (and possibly more), a half-werewolf and the rest of ateez ended up together? Oh and okay okay really last question,,, the witch hunters, what do they gain from killing the witches? Is it only out of fear or do they for example earn money with it? 👀👀 (I'm sorry for bombarding you 😭😂)

ALICE I LOVE THESE QUESTIONS!!!!! PLEASE YOU ARE NOT BOMBARDING ME!! if you more question I’ll happily answer them 😭😭😂😂 I love these so much okay okay so this is gonna be a long post, so prepare yourself (JKJK xD)

I’m gonna throw the answers under the cut so this post doesn’t clog up dashboards okay? it’s pretty long LOL I got carried away xoxo (oh and i answered the ateez question last cause it was probs the longest answer xD)

SO!! for your first question, what determines a witch’s ability!! honestly, I hadn’t thought of it really, I just knew that witches are born with something they specialize in, an ability of sorts. I believe it’s a random occurrence in this world, for instance Chris, Minho and Jisung are born with rare abilities (True Sight, Berserk and Phoenix) while some are more vague with their abilities (Hyunjin being a moon witch, meaning his powers are directly linked to the moon, or Felix being a light witch, which is why he’s connected to stars and light), and others I haven’t disclosed yet (i.e. Changbin. Seungmin and Jeongin). The occurrence of an ability showing itself is often discovered at a young age but can show itself in later ages like preteens to mid teens (but this is less likely to happen). It’s kind of a situation where you’re literally born lucky, unfortunately there can be some discrimination between those who have rare abilities and those who don’t. More common abilities are things such as levitation magic or basic healing magic and all kinds of other things; while rare abilities are more detailed and unique and, without a better word, extraordinary.

yes, all witches have a patron animals, other races can have patron spirits too but it’s a little different. patron spirits are another term for familiar in this universe; they don’t necessarily have to be an animal for other races; a patron spirit or familiar can be another magical creature such as pixies (which I wanna touch on later), or other darker spirits/creatures as well. patron animals are exclusively a witch trait. they’re bonded to you from two methods 1) they’re with you when you’re born and take form when you first cry as a baby or 2) they’re already formed spirits and they choose to form a pact with you; both are possible, but option 1 is more common while option 2 is rarer. option 2 is pretty simple so i’ll just touch on option 1; if the patron animal takes shape when you’re born, it forms through your magic, your personality has yet to take it’s own shape but deep inside certain things are innate and within your magical energy, so the animal taking shape can also say things about your personality yes. (I can touch on patron animals more in a different post if you like just send another ask to let me know if you’re interested ;3)

the witch hunters concept has been a bit under-developed if I’m being honest. as for now, they’re a group of people whose beliefs that witches are demons or monsters have run deep within history. some of the witch hunters are descendants of witch hunters of old, some simply fear witches or hate them and so this sick cult was formed. the witch hunters do have an official name but I’d like to keep it secret for now since I’d like to touch on it in a different story for TLL. they’re mainly a more modern version of witch hunters in old times, they fear or despise witches and they try to find and kill them in secret underground burnings.

okay cracks knuckles so the whole ateez lore in TLL is actually kinda bigger than I initially planned it to be (San and Wooyoung appearing was kinda just like a little taste test for any expansions to come). ateez is another coven in the area of the city that TLL is placed in (it could be Seoul, or a fictional city I haven’t decided yet), they’re in a grey area with skz, they aren’t enemies or friends, they just, exist in the same place and don’t bother each other with each other’s business. unlike skz who is a group formed of all witches, ateez is a coven formed of a mixed amount of races. Hongjoong is a half witch and half wolf which was mentioned in Chris’ story; he has been considered a damned child and has been an outcast to both races ever since he was young, only his parents were really there for him at the time. As he got older he got tougher and learned not to let people push him around, and over time he found others like him, with darker pasts or with potential that he believes has been overlooked for stupid reasons. for instance, Seonghwa was a witch, and he tampered with dark forbidden magic a lot. so he was shunned from his family for such things; but Joong saw how incredibly talented Hwa was and in a way took him in/recruited him. the other members have similar stories but they all gave off the outcast energy and Hongjoong, like Chris, felt he couldn’t leave them behind. thus ateez was formed; it wasn’t unheard of to have a witch coven with multiple races in it, however, aside from Hongjoong, Yunho, Mingi and Jongho are werewolves; and witches and wolves have lots of bad blood between them so that’s the main reason ateez is often frowned upon by other witches; having two incubi wasn’t particularly appreciated either but having werewolves was worse. they didn’t expect Hongjoong, a halfbreed, to understand that though. they’re a group of outcasts or at least that’s how others see them, but they’re just fine and don’t give a shit what others think, they’re a family. (as they say: 8 makes 1 team)

Torchwood characters as avatars of different TMA entities, because I sort of want to write an AU where everyone at Torchwood is just an avatar for a different entity and they’re maybe working together against the Magnus Institute, I’m not sure. I’m just sorting them into avatars for now. Note - I am aware of the impracticality of having a group of avatars for different entities just hanging out together, particularly as the entities don’t all get along, but deal with it. 

Adam would definitely be an avatar of The Web, this was the first one that I came to a solid decision on because his whole point of being is that idea of being caught in a trap that you can’t see, being puppeted or manipulated. That’s how Adam survives, and so maybe his ability comes not from the fact that he’s an alien, but because he’s an avatar of the Web? 

Suzie - The End. I could maybe factor the Skin Book into this, but I just like the idea of Suzie trying to harness The End like Mary Keay. Maybe they could even use the Skin Book instead of the Resurrection Gauntlet? It would stop them from bringing Owen back in quite the same way, I guess, but we could work around that. She’s not that important really, we can make her fit somehow.

Owen - The Corruption. This is a concept this is. Owen vibing around as an avatar of the Corruption, particularly after his original death of getting shot, maybe, and considering the feelings of love and companionship that come from its manifestations. I think it would be interesting given his history as a doctor depending on exactly when he gets chosen as an avatar, I wonder how exactly it would play into it. I definitely think he’d appear as decay and infection rather than insects because of that. Also fits in really well with Katie, the idea of him bringing about her death a little more directly, maybe just the proximity to him did it?

Tosh - The Beholding, she has an aptitude for knowledge doesn’t she, and you could argue that the pendant Mary gave her in GBG just opened up this power she didn’t realise that she had. Given how the pendant impacted on her in the episode, it would be cool to see how she reacts to the compulsion ability. There’s a lot of potential for angst there, particularly with everything that goes on in the earlier episodes. Also maybe that would make her the Archivist? Undecided. 

Jack - I really struggled to decide with Jack, there are quite a few that he could be, but in the end I just decided to go with The Desolation, so I guess he’d be a member of the Lightless Flame? The whole thing about destroying the lives of people who had things to live for fits him really well. You could say that maybe Tosh and Owen (not so much Ianto because of the fact that he’s part of the Distortion) and the tragedies that befell them made them drawn to him because he’s an avatar of the Desolation.

Gwen - The Extinction. I’m aware that even as of 2012, they think The Extinction wasn’t powerful enough to take an avatar, but that’s exactly why I think it works. Gwen, the newest Torchwood recruit, lost in a world she doesn’t understand, works well when you think of how The Extinction is the newest entity, still growing and deciding and discovering. And I get that the other avatars are trying to prevent The Extinction, but maybe because she’s the first ever avatar of The Extinction, they don’t realise that’s what she is? Maybe they think she’s just another avatar of The End which is why they sort of replace Suzie with her? 

Ianto - I’m actually still unsure of this one. I’m definitely leaning towards The Spiral, actually. Either as him being an avatar of the Spiral or just a Distortion instead. Everything with Adam and all of the times he was retconned might leave him more open to being an avatar of the Spiral, though I do like the idea and the angst of him being spiralled similar to how Michael was, maybe because Yvonne tried to prevent The Great Twisting and in the process The Distortion fused with Ianto. 

Gray - I decided on The Stranger for this one, but then again I also kinda vibe with the idea that Gray is actually one of the NotThem, which could explain a lot of his actions, maybe? Jack hasn’t seen him in years, and we know people don’t recognise that the NotThem aren’t who they’re supposed to be, so it works. There’s also the connection between The Stranger and The Desolation, which works for Gray and Jack. 

Feel free to discuss or argue against me if you have any other ideas, or develop on these at any point. I’m only on Season 4 of TMA right now, so we’ll see what transpires. 

The Ric Grayson AND Talon storylines both end at the same time, and in the same way:

Great Grandpa Creeper Cobb successfully manipulates Ric into position to be brainwashed and become the Talon that Willie the Weenie has always wanted him to be.....this happens for like, two issues.

Then Grandpa Get Ye To A Graveyard Already fucks up....he accidentally brings Talon Ric within sighting distance of the Court’s latest crop of prospective Talon recruits, including a wee baby ten year old orphan being trained to be a future Talon.

And the essential corn kernel of Dick Grayson’s essence, deep down in his psyche, just fucking POPS like its Orville Redenbacher and someone just nuked it in the microwave.

And the real Dick Grayson comes SHRIEKING to the forefront of Talon!Ric’s brain, nothing subtle about it, and the next thing his Rancid Relative knows, he’s being fucking impaled by his great grandson’s blades as said great grandson, who is SUPPOSED to be docilely brainwashed, wtf, is already halfway across the room, diving into the mass of other Talons like they’re a collection of bowling pins and he’s a wrecking ball straight out of a Miley Cyrus music video, but instead of the caterwauling lyrics “I never hit so haaaaaaaard in love,” Dick’s accompanied by a soundtrack of him screaming:

“I WILL PROTECT YOU SMOL CHILD!!!”

As said smol child is just standing there, staring, like....dude, wut?

And then Dick finishes absolutely DESTROYING everything undead and nefarious in sight like he’s the Tasmanian Devil on meth, and he turns to said smol child and begins the process of Smothering, as his hands flutter all up and down checking for injuries but not touching, like: 

“Did they hurt you are you alright you’re safe now cough once for I’m all good or punch me in the no-no’s if I’m making you feel unsafe, I will make sure you are totally safe from here on out, you are my baby now, I have decided, but like, only if you want to be.”

And smol child is decidedly overwhelmed but Man-Who-Speaks-Like-He-Has-Pixie-Sticks-In-Place-Of-Blood-Vessels seems harmless, if weird, and is definitely preferable to the weird Bird Men who kidnapped him off the streets and tried to teach him how to kill people and make death threats out of nursery rhymes. And he doesn’t have a lot of experience in OTHER subterranean lairs to compare this one too, but he’s decidedly not a fan, so when Dick asks if he would like him to take him to see Batman and Batgirl and Robin and other superheroes who can also reassure him there will be no more homework on How To Torture People Good, he’s like....”yeah I guess. If you want.”

And so Dick scoops him up with glee and takes off through the tunnels, yelling back over his shoulder: “Bye Greatly-Gross-Grandpa, hate you lots, don’t call, don’t write, you’re officially off my Christmas card list, hasta la neeeeeeeeeever.”

Thereupon swiftly grappling across the Bludhaven rooftops, yelling PARKOUR! just because he can and its fun, and its weirdly relaxing for his wee passenger, because look, this dude may be weird as fuck, but he’s clearly got the moves to protect him from the Undead Legions of Ornithologists and he seems too....fun to be evil, like not in the Joker kinda way like he’s seen on TV in previous foster homes where its like, jeez dude, try hard much, but more like an adult who just quit a soul-crushing cubicle-dwelling corporate-craphole job and has suddenly been reminded that the sky is blue, flowers smell good, and there IS a Santa Claus, Virginia.

Thus by the time they arrive at Wayne Manor, with no attempt made to hide where they’re going from his wee passenger’s eyes - Dick has already decided he’s keeping the kid, pending said kid’s approval but look, kids like him and he’s determined to bring his A game to the pitch meeting, so he likes his chances - said wee passenger disembarks in the Batcave but stays close by, clinging to Dick’s side in an ever so slight way that allows for plausible deniability later, once he gets his bearings and also his bravado back.

“Dick?!” Comes the chorus of voices from the rest of the family, who are all there already, by great coincidence and in great defiance of the crapfests in their own individual titles, but also who the fuck cares. And Dick puffs out his chest, cuz he’s putting on a good show for his new kiddo, first impressions are important...

“Tis I, fam! The one true Dick Grayson has returned! Huzzah!”

Look, being completely oblivious to his Greatest Dork Energy coinciding with his Times He Most Attempts To Be Impressive, is like, Peak Dick Grayson characterization, you can trust me, I’m a doctor. 

And Tim’s like, “Why are you dressed like a Talon?”

And Dick’s like, “Isn’t the better question why AREN’T you dressed like a Talon?”

Which makes no sense but shhh, I’m running out of steam here, don’t question the atmosphere, just let it be.

And Bruce is like, “Who’s your friend?”

With like...designs and agendas already in mind, because said wee Talon-to-be is cute and adorable and bravely trying to act like he is not at all intimidated by his surroundings and is in total control of what’s going on like, he meant to be here, this is all according to plan, yes, excellent, everything is progressing nicely....

Which as everyone knows, are the three key essential traits Bruce looks for in prospective adoptees....

So Dick snarls and later blames it on residual Talon-ness, they’re very territorial bird...assassin....people....anyway, the adrenaline is still high and also he has swiftly become attached because whether kiddo knows it or not, Dick 100% credits him with the brainwash-breaking and thus when factored in with the cuteness quotient, what we have here is an instant recipe for Protectiveness slash Possessiveness that would be creepy and inappropriate if this wasn’t pure crack. 

But crack it is, and thus Dick curls a protective arm around the kiddo like the lap-bar on a particularly turbulent roller coaster and applies G-Force sufficient to keep even Superman from prying him out of his hands - but in a gentle, non- ’crushing kinda way that might hurt the kiddo,’ even though physics doesn’t work like that, except look, these are CRACK PHYSICS, they can and they do work like that. 

And he’s all, “I already adopted him, so back off, Bruce, I’ll cut you. But also hi dad, I missed you. In spirit I mean, like I had amnesia and then I was brainwashed so technically its probably a reach to say I missed anyone but just roll with it. Also I can haz hugs now, please?”

And then Damian apparates in front of Dick amid a cloud of Disapproval that’s really just a cover for OMG-I-Was-Without-You-And-It-Was-Terrible-And-I’m-So-Glad-You’re-Back-But-Also-Who-Is-This-Interloper-And-Why-Is-He-Stealing-My-Hug.

“Tt. Grayson. Your absence was...less than desirable. See to it that this doesn’t happen again. Also what is that and why is it here.”

“Aww, Dami, I’m sorry. I promise to install a “please have the nearest available psychic reboot my brain in case of future brain damage slash amnesia” clause in my living will, and soon as I get a free second, I’ll break the fourth wall and blackmail the DC editorial staff into declaring me off-limits for all death, brainwashing and/or kidnapping plots for at least the next four major crossover events. I have naughty pictures. They’ll cave.”

“Hmph,” Dami says. He resumes staring pointedly at the kiddo, who juts his chin defiantly and stares back while clinging more tightly to Dick, because he may have very little clue what’s going on, but he’s a quick one and has at least picked up on the fact that Dick wants him and this other kid wants Dick. Which combined with the rescuing and the kicking of bad guy ass means Dick is probably Quality and In Demand and Of Value, and thus he might as well stake a claim now and worry about whether or not to act on that or skedaddle later, once he’s got more intel. He’s a natural Bat, this one, but then, that’s probably why he was in Toddler Talon Boot Camp, he scored high on whatever weird aptitude tests they used to scope out talent, and by talent we mean murder-skills.

“Dami,” Dick admonishes then, “This isn’t an it, he’s a person, and he was recently traumatized so promise me you’ll be on your best behavior or at least your ‘engaging in shenanigans with Jon’ behavior. And he’s not competition, you’re my Dames and my little bro, and he’s potentially your nephew, which is a whole separate category and no threat to you and your baby bro status at all, so retract the claws. If anything, the real danger is Pops adopting him and thus supplanting you as the official Baby Bird of our generation, so make like an ally and help me get that dangerous “I’m gonna adopt this kid so hard” gleam out of Bruce’s eye before it gets any gleamier. We’re still only halfway through my tearful reunion and having to cut Dad before we even get to cake would be a major mood-killer, but I’ll do it, I swear. Also, get your Baby Bird behind over here and hug me already, I have two arms.”

Damian rolled his eyes but obediently disappeared and reappeared nestled against Dick’s other side in the blink of an eye. The proper application of ninja skills has always been the pursuance of hugs and cuddles. Thus sayeth the crack.

“Hey, I do get cake, right?” Dick asked suddenly, looking around dangerously. “I was amnesiac and also brainwashed, I deserve cake, TELL me there’s gonna be cake.”

“Well that answers whether or not we should be worried about this being an attempted infiltration or not,” Jason says, strolling over casually. “No impostor or brainwashing script-writer could ever duplicate the Essence de Dick so perfectly. Hey squirt. Welcome to the madhouse. I’m Jason, what’s your name?”

“Oh right,” Dick realized, cocking his head. “Hey, what is your name?”

“Really, Dick?” Tim sighed, fondly exasperated. “I realize you like to jump from A straight to Z whenever possible, but steps B through Y aren’t usually just mere suggestions.”

“It hadn’t come up yet,” Dick defended himself.

“Yes, why would it have,” Duke mused from where he was leaning over and snapping his fingers in front of Bruce’s eyes, in a futile attempt at tearing his gaze away from the viable adoption candidate within 20 meters from him. It was probably best that they get this adoption thing inked out and signed off on as soon as possible - it was the only thing that was definitively going to get that “Argh, I’ve spotted treasure ahoy” look out of Bruce’s eyes. And Alfred had been very clear :Bruce was forbidden to adopt any more kids himself until he got a better handle on juggling the six he already had. Which. The past year had...probably not met Alfred’s standards on, so it didn’t seem likely he’d be waiving that requirement any time soon. 

(And nobody wanted to get in between the Unstoppable Force that was Bruce’s ‘must adopt all the orphans’ and the Immovable Object that was Alfred’s ‘must maintain at least a reasonable fascimile of order in this household, even if it is a total sham, appearances matter.’)

“Hey!” Dick protested. “I’ve been busy, okay? There was fighting and then there was parkouring and now we’re reunifying, and it wasn’t like I was just calling him ‘that kid’ in my head, I was calling him ‘my kiddo’ which is a perfectly reasonable identifier and thus more specific detail just....hadn’t been relevant yet!”

“So uh, bee tee dubs, what is your name, buddy?” Dick asked, looking down. His kiddo looked back up at him for a long, measuring moment, and then he shrugged.

“I’ll tell you in exchange for some cake. You said something about there being cake, but I don’t see any.”

Dick got misty-eyed at that. “See? He already prioritizes like me. This was destiny! Also, you heard my kiddo, do we not deserve cake? It has been a very long day, there was murder and mayhem and more. Also, my creeper great grandpa was there being icksome, and you know how much that weirds me out.”

“Come along, Master Dick,” Alfred said then, appearing out of nowhere thanks to his Bat-Butler Magic. “And your young charge as well. I already have your favorite baking in the oven and it should be done shortly. Lemon meringue with raspberry layers.”

“That’s disgusting and I will not participate in any ceremony that treats that as part of a celebration instead of just a weird kind of laxative,” Jason said loftily, though it escaped no one’s notice that he was the first to the stairs.

“Shut your facehole, its delicious and amazing and you will like it or I will kick your ass,” Dick said, equally loftily.

“Boys,” Bruce said with a long-suffering sigh, as the threat of brotherly bloodshed was enough to finally shake him out of his orphan-induced stupor.

“At MARIO KART. I will kick his ass at MARIO KART, ugh, jeez, B, why do you always assume the worst of us?”

“Precedent,” Tim said dryly.

“Who the hell asked the Oompa Loompa Brigade to weigh in with all ninety of his pounds?” Jason called back from the top of the stairs. 

Cass came up on Dick’s left, where the kiddo was one half of the sandwich made by him and Damian on Dick’s other side. She smiled down at him when he directed his still very wide-eyed gaze at her, landing on her after his latest sweep of the cavern and all its contained chaos, as if trying to take it all in - most likely in the hopes that if he could manage that, somehow the last 72 hours of his life might suddenly make sense. He really was adorable.

“Don’t worry,” she beamed at him, reaching out to pat him comfortingly on his shoulder, right above where Dick’s arm was still curled around it like a warm blanket - albeit one with the tensile hold of a python. “They’re all crazy, but only in the good ways.”

Duke scoffed as he slipped ahead of them and started taking the stairs two at a time. “It’s funny how you say that like you’re some kind of exception to the rule.”

“Bold words, little brother,” Cass called after him. He only shouted back from the top in a booming voice, his words echoing down the narrow stone stairway dramatically.

“Am I not Batclan?”

“Oooh, is that a new thing we’re doing?” Dick asked excitedly. “Somebody catch me up, I demand context. I smell a story there.”

“It was Jason’s fault,” Tim said automatically. Dick nodded.

“Sure, that tracks. Continue.”

Bruce trailed after his brood of batlings and birdlets, sidling over to where Barbara was waiting for the elevator. The latter having hung back to watch the commotion with the air of one taking notes for repurposing in the form of future blackmail material. Her ever extending network of spies and informants made so much more sense, suddenly.

He cleared his throat while they listened to the hum of the elevator’s machinery as it descended to their level.

“I wasn’t really thinking of adopting the boy,” he said. Not at all sullenly, nor with a trace of defensiveness to be found.

“Of course you weren’t, Bruce,” Barbara said. She patted his arm fondly, with all the conviction of a kindergarten teacher whose student was attempting to claim innocence on the matter of a paint disaster perfectly matching the paint stains on his hands.

“I wasn’t,” Bruce muttered as she preceded him into the elevator. 

Why did nobody ever believe him?

I had a third interview today with the job folk. It was actually my first in-person interview with anyone there. This particular person is the GM of the spot and they turned out to be pretty chill.

There were some things he said about himself and the Area Manager that threw some red flags but it's really all whitewashed bullshit. I mean that in a normalized way. In a way we [POC] are all accustomed. One line that stands out was about facial hair. "Yea, he [Area Manager] doesn't really like facial hair. It just looks more professional. He kinda plays it like if you look at all of the high ranking CEOs of companies, all of them are clean shaven." My follow-up to that was, "They're also all white but I guess it's easier for me to trim my beard than bleach my skin." He chuckled that one off but I could see how uncomfortable he got for the remainder of the interview. I was glad. I like setting the tone from the start. Know that you're potentially hiring someone who does not act as immature as you perceive their look.

There was also a line about how he wants to be like the Area Manager. "When he walks in the room he makes you want to stand up. It's that intimidation factor. I want that."

My response: "Your goal is to have such an intimidating presence that people want to stand up when you walk into a room?" He paused as though what he heard didn't make sense. My response to his silence was, "What purpose does that serve other than feeding your ego?" He backpedaled and simplified it to wanting a "commanding presence."

He steered clear of the bullshit after that. A few hours later the recruiter called asking me how much I wanted to make and my shirt size. My offer letter is being drafted and my BG check is a day from clearing.

Ep. #1 - “hail santa that is all.” (Chrissa)

Nothing much really so far. We got into tribes so far everyone seems cool ans all so can't wait to see what happens from here.

Opening thoughts: I'm very much downplaying my knowledge, making it seem like I care most about challenges, know nothing about how online Survivor works (I played and hosted one) and not a massive amount about the actual show either, asking a lot of questions. Trying to find people with the most similar personalities and let others propose any alliances.

boy am i overwhelmed

Day 1; So I'm sitting here, eating dinner, a salad with garlic bread and a mike's hard pineapple strawberry lemonade, and I decide to do a confessional! Lets talk about my tribe, first and foremost. We're the "Second Chances" tribe. Fitting, we're all FLOPS. Imma do this in the order we were REVEALED to the world. Because that's cute, right? We're basically the beauty tribe bc everyone is lowkey real scrumptious lookin. Eric; Before this game, Eric and I bonded in the Ahkmim VL about how we never get cast for tumblr survivor, and how we're waiting for redemption, and I'd feel bad leaving him as the first boot. So hopefully he'd also feel bad, and wanna talk to me. I don't think the two of us have much in common yet, he's into anime, and reading, which is like, two things I'm not really down for, but I'm definitely gonna give Spirited Away a try sometime soon so I can talk to him about it. I kinda wanna ask if the red in his hair is naturally like.. blood red. But maybe that's the lighting in the room, or maybe he died it even MORE ginger, because I often hear to him referred to as GINGER Eric, but also i don't wanna have an awkward "No, this is just like.. normal ginger" conversation. Megan; Ohhhh Megan.. my girl Megan. We've had a rocky road in our friendship, and I wish I was just talking about ice cream. Something about her though just makes me have infinite patience for the things the two of us deal with, I can't help but just want to be with her all the time. I scouted her out from FaceBook to play my Whodunnit, and we've been extremely close ever since, our game relationship has been rocky enough for me to worry slightly about her, but all I can do is trust her, and build good enough relationships with other people that if she tried to fuck me over, I would know, and strike first. Its still unclear to this day whether she had a hand in my elimination in a Big Brother game we played, 1984. What is crystal clear, is that we cried together while she cast her vote to evict me. I love her, won't never stop lovin her. I'm hoping this can be OUR season to dominate, because I feel like we're almost evenly matched when it comes to a jury vote. Will; "Whoop-de-do" iconic king of not getting his haircut. Uhh.. idk what all to say, because before the game, I knew nothing of this man. However, Monty said something about him being alive and on Skype, and my mind immediately goes to "Is he hot?" and I check his profile, and publicly announce that he's hot. Which isn't FALSE, but then we both get revealed for the game, and put on the same tribe. So now we're vibing, and relating on the fact that tumblr players hate us, and we've deemed each other, "Heather". He's currently petitioning to call our tribe "The Heathers" instead of Enlil. We get on really well, and he's pretty damn cute. Also, he goes to bed SO early, I hope we get enough time to talk and get close on this tribe. Julian; Well. This is a lot to unpack, but I found out he was playing about 3 days before the game, and since that point. He's gotten unnecessarily aggressive with me, and a couple others over non-tumblr related matters. Julian and I have a rocky history, between me being recruited, and auto-casted for his ORG, Trinity Survivor, his ex-co-host/current-best friend berating me, and deleting messages to make me look bad. To Julian throwing passive aggressive low-blows about my social ineptitude in my face if I'm angry about something, to us making final 3 together in minis. Overall, I'm constantly at odds about how I perceive our relationship, I want to be able to assume the best of him, and say that I'm good in his book, no matter what happens. I think a lot of the time, our friend group isn't the most mature, and it is really difficult to have an adult conversation with someone from within that friend group, without someone else having an opinion to share on it, so I've heard things that he's said about me, that I'm not necessarily sure if its true or not, but I try my best to hold a strong, level head and smile whenever I see him, but sometimes its difficult wanting to approach a conversation with someone head on, but knowing that you can't do that with him is definitely a struggle of mine. We have very different communication styles, and its difficult to see past it sometimes. For now, I'm going to be working with him, but I'm not sure how long that can last, as he admits it himself, he can only handle my personality for short periods of time. Jack; Well, Jack hasn't said a single word for the last three hours, since the game has begun. I don't WANT to have to stay up till 5-6 in the morning to try to have a conversation with him, but if that's what I gotta do, then that's what I gotta do. Chrissa; Chrissa, Todd. My LOVE. Chrissa is someone that I owe something to, she's amazing, beautiful, talented, show stopping, never before seen, etc. Our game relationship is not great, because I organized her first boot in Ascendance Season 4; Back to the Future. However, it was because she was attached to someone that kept accusing me of having powers behind my back. So, hopefully Chrissa forgives me, and gives me another chance, because I'd love to work with her. I feel like Chrissa is someone who is extremely intelligent, and loyal, and that's someone I want on my side. I love my tribe, lets win every challenge until the merge!!

Well... I’m back again... not going inactive this time! Let’s just do a quick roundup for now: JJ seems to think we’re in a showmance already which is either great or bad for my game, Megan’s a sweetheart and I could see us aligning, Eric is definitely a gamer and I have a feeling he’ll be a loyal, jack and Julian are both pretty straightforward and seem on the quieter side, and Chrissa straight up vanished already so we’ll see how that goes! Basically somebody thinks I’m their husband but I don’t know if I ever signed the prenup, but if it means JJ is gonna spill on how he feels about everyone then that’s some good insight. Nobody really wants to talk game yet but that’ll change soon!! Kk bye for now

Night 1/Morning 2: Everyone on my tribe seems extremely cool and I'm loving the way the tribes are divided. The only name I recognized on the cast was Monty's and he's on my tribe! I don't know him personally but I think he first played around when I was hosting a season. I have hit it off with Johnny the best so far I think, and definitely Isabelle as well. I seem to have a lot in common with both of them on a personal level. Strategically, I haven't locked anything down yet. I don't want to come right out and blurt "ALLIANCE?" with anyone; for right now I'm just trying to play it cool, get to know people as well as I can, and be a likeable presence in the tribe so people just wanna have me around.

I just asked Collin to talk to Adam about forming a four person alliance, which Collin will "bring" me into while Adam suggests someone. This might secure me in a four person alliance which would be ideal, but if it backfires, it will backfire on Collin, not on me. I'm trying to get myself into a majority while insulating myself from being seen as the strategic threat

First confessional before first IC

I was thrust on a good tribe we have JJ and Eric and hopefully this group of people won't make us last in competitions atleast lol maybe if we lose though hopefully i can argue why jack needs to go with his timezone but hopefully i don't have too. 

im ngl idk why i decided to play tumblr survivor again and the instant paranoia of just caring about my PLACEMENT is going to keep me up at night *shivers*

It's been a day in and so far I really like our tribe! I'm vibing with a few of them and it looks like there's been alliance formed between myself, Julian and JJ. JJ has said that he owes it to Chrissa not to vote her out if we lose, and I think he has something with Megan on the side based off what Julian has told me. That leaves Will and Jack, and I've talked with Will a ton. Tomorrow I'm gonna try and see if he wants to work with me too because I feel like to win this season, you will need to keep all your options open. 

Day 2: I got to talk to Jack last night, he was talkin about how he did some funky fresh survivor statistics on how tribe swaps affect tribe line loyalties, which I found super interesting. Then I decided to share a statistics thingy I did on how the Final 3 format doesn't produce an even ratio of male / female winners, but the Final 2 format does, and how potentially something about the final 3 format in survivor could be a factor in why we haven't had enough female winners in the last few generations of survivor. But he didn't even believe there was a female bias in survivor.. which kinda threw me off. Oh well, we ended the conversation on a good note before I went to bed. Well, the tribe seems to be getting along well, I tried to get a tribe call going, but it ended up just being me and Megan helping Chrissa with strategies to get higher scores in the challenge. She can't seem to break 100, and I feel really bad for her, I hope the rest of us can carry this competition, because I would feel like the worst human being in the world if I gave someone first boot twice in a row. Not to mention I'd consider Chrissa a friend of mine. Maybe I'm playing this game a bit too emotionally, before we even have our first tribal. What a concept.. Will and I are only getting closer and closer, we continuously refer to each other, affectionately, as "Heather". But he really lied to me today, pretty hard core. He said he was gonna order his weight in mexican food when he got off work... but he ate Thai instead...? How dare he ??? Rude. Anyways, if he's lying about that, what else could he lie to me about? Smh. Fuckboys amirite? I think that if we lose this challenge, Jack would be an easy vote off. He's in a different timezone, and his age unfortunately would make it really difficult to have a decent social game. If we lose more than once, there's one of two things that could happen.. 1.) There's a standoff between Julian, Megan and I, trying to maneuver this tribe to remove each other. Which is exactly why a friendship / showmance / whatever with Will is so important. Will would likely be the swing vote they try to get, I don't see Chrissa voting me out if I prove my loyalty at the first tribal our tribe faces. 2.) The three of us dominate the premerge portion of the game, and it becomes an impossible to maneuver situation for me at the merge, because all the connections I have outside of my own tribe, both Julian or Megan also have a hand in, with the exception of Jay, who I don't find myself falling that closely to. I feel like I might be thinking too much, too fast. I guess I just can't show the rest of my tribe that. I'm hoping my reads on the tribe are at least somewhat correct this time around. :/

Collin never ended up messaging Adam, and I was worried about falling behind the 8-ball, so I took alliance building measures into my own hands. I messaged Zach about joining up by stating that Collin had told me he also had a good conversation with Zach, and I made sure Zach didn't just feel "brought in" by asking him which person he would want to be 4 in our alliance. He suggested Cameron, which is fine by me. He hasn't officially reached out to Cameron yet, but our plan is to bring Cameron in if we end up losing, and I will probably want to vote Kyle or Grace in that scenario. Hope we don't lose though!

I don't really (or at least usually) stress about challenges and definitely not this early in the game, but some of these people are so stressed and panicky. Will (who I talked to about aligning earlier today like I had said I would in my last confessional) is stressed about not being able to beat his current high score of 199 and feels like he's on the lower end and might be eliminated. I was telling him though that this isn't necessarily about your score, but your ranking. You can get 209 or 189 and still get the same ranking. Chrissa on the other hand is totally panicking. She has an admittedly low score of 89 which she forgot to screenshot which is really rough. She same flash games aren't her thing (and I believe her) but when I tried to calm her down and say there's lots of time to improve and that we can win this, she continued to panic. There's not much I can do for her. I'm not aligned with her right now and she's just really scared to get first boot, which I don't even think will happen. JJ feels obliged not to make her first boot should the scenario present itself, and I'm aligned with him and Julian. If anyone's going home right now, it's probably Jack unless he has connections I am unaware of. I would really like to win though because I love our beauty tribe xoxo 

I managed to find the idol clue, and in telling my formed trio of Collin and Zach, Zach accidentally revealed that he had found it too. I don't think he intended to tell me, so now I am not sure if I fully trust him. I'll work with him for now, but he is going to be a big move player and I'll have to watch out for that

Forgive me father for i have sinned it's been a day since my last confession I've made some progress me and grace knowing each other well pregame means i have an instant ally coming in to help not be first.....or second out and me and Collin seem to be kinda working together I guess?? I hope not fully sure but I feel confident I'm not going if we go to tribal.

hiiii so glad to be back in the game!!!! So thankful I have the opportunity to redeem myself after my huge flop in 94, but lowkey worried about being on the An tribe? Only because it is filled with people who have done well in the past I’m not sure how to measure where I fall within them, but everyone has been very nice and seems to get along with me so far! Also it seems like there is no suspicion from them about Zach and I being siblings which is STELLAR. From looking at the cast I think the only person who knows for sure is JJ, and perhaps Megan? But thankfully they aren’t on a tribe with either of us so that might work in our favor. I’m a little nervous about this first challenge but I have one of the highest scores on my tribe atm, so I feel like if we go to tribal it might be okay. Fingers crossed hehe ;))

FUCK entanglement! FUCK IT IT IS THE WORK OF THE DEVIL hail santa that is all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBoZlL8ZWzY

Zach is playing super hard out in the open. That is good for me, he can make connections to help our alliance, and if there is ever a moment where our alliance gets exposed, he will probably be out in the forefront as a target. The flip side of that is that I might not be able to go to the end with him if he could be perceived as the leader of my alliance, so I'll need to see how the game develops

We came in second in the immunity challenge by ONE POINT. Thank the lord because our group seems very cohesive at the moment, and going to tribal would have put everyone into scramble mode. I've been bonding the closest over the first 4 days with Isabelle, and I am hoping it can lead to a strong game relationship. Right now, we seem to be very social with one another and we have gone as far as to say we wouldn't vote for one another, but I'm still sort of waiting for that defining confirmation (as much as you can get that in Survivor). After that, I'd say I've been pretty chatty with Johnny and Monty equally (but I think I have a slightly tighter personal bond so far with Johnny). Abrielle I talked to more so over the first couple of days but I would say between her, Jay and Madison those are the ones I've made the least connection with. They all seem like good people, just haven't had as much traction chatting with them. I don't want us to go to tribal for as long as we can help it, because for me the best case scenario heading into a swap would be if our tribe had the numbers advantage and some sort of tribe-wide unity going into it. I feel like that way I could be in a good spot but also not in the forefront of the tribe alliance (I'd hope that would sort of fall on Monty or Johnny maybe because of their Tumblr Survivor experience). For now though, just continuing to get to know everyone as best I can and try and make sure people want me around, and have me in their plans moving forward.

https://youtu.be/2ix-llpzUOQ

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https://youtu.be/bwCjV8my_Zc ok my mom walked in so i didn't get to finish my thought, but i guess the full thought is just: what the fuck? like i'm really gonna be watching this vid on repeat while y'all are just trolling us. this will end up in my nightmares. know that. also my paranoia is once again setting in. as i mentioned in previous confessional, i feel like ben and i have bonded the most, and we've both pointed it out to each other, but now i feel like he's pointing it out... almost too much? he's basically comparing our convos to his with the rest of the tribe and that they're much better (which i lowkey agree), but something feels fishy because again IM PARANOID. AM I BEING PLAYED?? like literally the scenario in my mind is that everyone's aligned except me and ben has been chosen as the bug to make me feel comfortable. okay yes im crazy. and it's only day 2 whew! im going to bed goodnight.

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ok now ive found a video about spectograms the channel has liked. this hunt is getting me anxious bc slowly but surely the amount of views on the immunity idol vid is increasing. AHHHH

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ok i found the spectogram and it literally spells out "SINK." (also this shit is scary so again, my nightmare comment holds.) so there are 5 other followers, which makes me know for sure that at least 5 other ppl have found this vid. also i have no idea what to do with the word. i assume that it'll come in handy eventually (maybe a password? send in a chat? comment on the vid? something?) and i really really hope im the only person to find this. i know that's unlikely tho.

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oh my god. oh my fucking god. the clue is at survivor-mesopotamia.tumblr.com/sink . im screaming. proud of myself. BUT of course it says... "clue Though you have found it, No clue has emerged. UNDER CONSTRUCTION, Come back when you’ve merged." i- i have to wait until i've merged. HA. we'll see if bitches get that far. and im bitches. anyways sorry for the spam, now back to your regularly scheduled programming

Day 3: I almost forgot to do this confessional. But here I am, in bed, watching Avatar, and drinking butterscotch milk with Irish cream, which is surprisingly good? Anyways, here we go! First, you’re telling me that we LOST the challenge.. what the hell :( I thought I did so well having 188, but apparently even 256 wasn’t going to cut it. The fact that if Jack could improve his score by 30 points, means we’d be safe from tribal, it annoys me that it felt like he didn’t try as hard as Chrissa in the flash game? Julian, he says we can beast through this game and make final three. This is something I’d really love to be able to trust that he has in mind, but I just am unsure at this moment. He gave me information towards the idol search that I appreciate, and probably wouldn’t have figured it out myself. That felt good, but I feel like he wasn’t giving me everything he knew, just enough to make me feel comfortable. I’ll have to continue to keep my eye on him.. Next, Heather, or Will, my potential showmance. We’ve finally got the opportunity to call each other, we talked about the idol search, and our potential moves in the future. He told me he likes the idea of not playing with Julian, but right after he told me this, Julian asked if we were good? Which was kinda sketch. But I’ll do my best to trust Will, and call it a weird coincidence. Megan hasn’t talked to me much today, but she was a room moderator for sequester, and was visiting a friend today, so I can’t blame her. Chrissa is hopefully safe, I can’t give her first boot in back to back games together, I refuse to be that heartless. She’s so good I can’t do it. Eric hasn’t talked to me much either. For someone who should probably know that his name is on the block, I’m surprised Jack isn’t talking too much to me? Maybe it’s because I’m on the chopping block and I don’t know it. I’d be really heartbroken if I were the first boot.

So we lost the challenge by ONE FREAKING POINT, which sucks ass. But not me doing the best in my tribe on the challenge. We stan improvement. Anyway, it looks like the discussion for the vote is between Jack and Chrissa, namely Jack. Though Chrissa performed worse in the challenge, she's done a better job connecting with the rest of us than Jack has. As of now, that's what the general concensus is. I talked to Julian and he agreed, and we are aligned with JJ. Chrissa would vote our way to make sure it isn't her. Another thing that's happening is the idol search. The video made literally no freaking sense, but when the channel liked this video about spectograms, Julian put the video into it and it spelled sink. It turned out that by putting the word sink into the blog link, it says a clue will be there but at the merge. I guess this means for now there will be no idols, so as long as the people im with are truthful, the person who is planned to go home at tribal will go home without a shadow of a doubt.

https://youtu.be/ury1fLaZQec

Right now everyone on the tribe is at peace and getting along, but we all know that’s gonna change when we go to tribal council.

I'm sad we lost the first challenge. I came back to do better than i did the first time, so the idea of being the first boot would suck. I'm not that close with Chrissa so 100% she's my vote. She has played more seasons than all of us & the second chancers deserve their time. Also, Chrissa did the worst out of us in the challenge so it makes it easier to convince everyone to vote for her, but i also dont want to be the one who targets her first because that could come back round to me, and i would hate that as i've waited over a year for a 2nd shot at this. At the moment i'm closest with JJ & Will F, they are 100% my final 3 right now. I like Megan & Eric as well. I've only had 1 comversation with Julian and we did get on well but we havent talked about anything since then. I've tried to talk to Chrissa but she's never really tried to talk to me.

Hi!! Megan for my first confessional!! Yall are gonna have to remind me throughout my time in this game to do these because I'm SO bad at remembering to do confessionals lmaooo. So this first round there's been a lot going on. There are three tribes- newbies, flops, and a tribe of vets who have played well. Clearly I am on the flop tribe, because I was a SAD pre-merge boot in Svalbard. I was feeling really excited about my tribe and definitely thought we could do well and at least not lose the first challenge - we don't want to be flops again!! But alas, after a long day of doing that stupid entanglement flash game, we have proven our labels and FLOPPED yet again, getting last. SO. now we have to go to tribal council tonight. I am out of town this weekend so I haven't been able to talk to many people but I hope I can make it through this first vote. All I've heard so far is that people want to keep the tribe strong so we don't lose another challenge, and based on the first challenge scores, the two bottom challenge players would be Chrissa and Jack. So far I have heard that people want to do Jack instead of Chrissa, which I am fine with. I haven't talked to him that much and I think the time zone difference unfortunately puts him at a disadvantage, so honestly, we should probably vote him out first. I am nervous of course though because people have been fairly quiet and that's never a good thing, but I am hoping and praying that nothing crazy happens and Jack is the first boot and all is good and fine with that. Okay now I'll talk a little about the players on the tribe and how I feel about them- Okay so obviously I know JJ and Julian fairly well from previous games & also being in various group chats together. So far we are planning on working together as a trio and I am GOOD with that so far. Chrissa I have played with once before but she's not very social or talkative, and tbh, I haven't had a DM with her in this game yet, but she seems sweet. Eric I like a lot, he is funny and outgoing and a little chaotic and I love that in him. I think I know him from something previously but quite honestly I don't remember him, but he remembers me LOL. I hope they're good memories. Jack, again, I haven't talked to him much because of the time difference I think. Also isn't he like a minor? Oof that's weird. Anyway onto the final member of my tribe - the king, the legend, the literal love of my life - WILL!!!! I had never met Will before this game but we vibed IMMEDIATELY. We get along so well and we have a lot of things in common and we like the same kinda things. We've had a lot of really good conversations already and I feel the closest to him in this game by far, even though I have known other people on my tribe longer. I adore Will and I will do everything in my power to make sure we both get as far in this game as we can. Okay I think that's enough for a first confessional, bye!!!

Things have been pleasant and slow so far. Everyone on the tribe seems nice and at this point I’m still just hoping that we’ll all get as far in the game as possible at the expense of the more experienced players. I’m a little concerned because I haven’t really been party to any strategy talk yet; I think that’s just because no one has thought it necessary while we don’t have to go to tribal, but I’m still worried I might just be on the outs and not know it.

hiiii so glad to be back in the game!!!! So thankful I have the opportunity to redeem myself after my huge flop in 94, but lowkey worried about being on the An tribe? Only because it is filled with people who have done well in the past I’m not sure how to measure where I fall within them, but everyone has been very nice and seems to get along with me so far! Also it seems like there is no suspicion from them about Zach and I being siblings which is STELLAR. From looking at the cast I think the only person who knows for sure is JJ, and perhaps Megan? But thankfully they aren’t on a tribe with either of us so that might work in our favor. I’m a little nervous about this first challenge but I have one of the highest scores on my tribe atm, so I feel like if we go to tribal it might be okay. Fingers crossed hehe ;))

I’m SCARED I’ve been out of the loop for TOO LONG. 

from what I've heard i am safe i won't be comfortable until i heard the votes not being all me. 

https://youtu.be/oX4-_QPoqNk

https://youtu.be/YviOufmjmps

My brand is having 4 minute confessionals

from episode 1 https://youtu.be/VqDkCGLTARU

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from episode 1 also https://youtu.be/mklfEHtGp04

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9UqNr3fbiE

Jack voted out 6-1

Forgive this, but I gotta rant!

I don’t really like Deku! I feel his character has unutilized potential - or, rather, the character he is supposed to be isn’t the character he is. Of course, this is my opinion.

But yeah! I get it - he wants to be a Hero, he wants to ‘save people with a smile on his face’, but he’s quirkless. Still, supposedly he had this great determination and heroic qualities even before meeting All Might - his hero analyses, him applying to UA... which really means nothing. And that’s all he did.

Sure, he’s a kid, he’s 14, give him a break, but there was so much he could’ve done!!! Learn first aid(!), learn self defense, volunteer, community service, all that. He’s said to be smart, sure, but even better way to show this is to have him realized or had planned for his future Hero career by gaining supplement skills before he ever applied to UA. I really really wish we could’ve seen the UA kids learn first aid.

Biggest problem I have - though, granted, this is brought up in the story - is that everyone still thinks being a Hero is punching bad guys, when it should mean helping people. And yeah, it’s not just Deku, but he’s supposed to be so different All Might thought he should be his successor. The scene where he saves Bakugou, honestly he was also standing in the crowd hoping for a Hero to come - its only when he realizes it’s his friend, that he says his body moved in its own. Which, true, is brave; but him helping a unlucky rando without a second thought might have been better. Have him Good Samaritan the heck out of strangers.

It’s just, the story makes him out to be so kind and gentle and self-sacrificing, and yeah, I can see the times where those shine through; but I also am reminded of that time he heard Todoroki’s family life and decided the appropriate response is to focus on their upcoming match, and when he helps out Bakugou and Eri, it’s because it was relevant to him (recognizing Overhaul in the latter case). Sure, it’s just how stories and plot conveniences are - but there should be other times too for randos; just like two panels of it at the beginning of the chapter.

(Which is why I like the protag from Vigilante much better! In his spare him he just decides to pick up litter and help ppl in small ways, to destress! Yes! He missed his high school entrance exam saving a stranger from drowning! He’s got his flaws, he’s not pure heroic either, but he’s much more aware of his to help people than Deku)

The base for his character was Jack Midoriya from the oneshot My Hero; but Jack fitted well for his story. Iirc, He didn’t want to be the greatest hero ever, he didn’t even really wanted to save everyone really - he just wanted to be a ‘hero’ and help out. At least that’s more honest. He couldn’t be a hero tho, but he showed initiative in trying to get as close as he could to it - working for a support item company to get his hands in support items to be a hero with, going vigilante. But transplant that character to BnHA then try to say Deku is selfless and kind and determined from the get go is a bit of a mistake.

He’s also really not that smart. You know who’s really smart? Shigaraki Tomura!!! Hero analyses, sure, but besides brief tactical brains when relevant to plot, most of his fights is just punching. IIRC.

And why did he care so much about Kouta not liking Heroes? Leave the kid alone, let him hate cops if he wants

*

(Another pet peeve - the fandom’s focus on his quirklessness and how he meant he suffered great discrimination. He was obviously bullied for it, and I don’t doubt there is discrimination for quirkless people - but I don’t think it’s as bad as others make it out to be. I’m ready to eat my words, but I just don’t feel the story supports this - but again, it could be fault of the creator for now showing.

Like, just looking at him doesn’t tell you he’s quirkless. There’s no visible marker of it. He’s not gonna be called a ‘mutt’ or ‘dumb lizard man’ at first glance. Appearance-wise, he’s still the ‘norm’ in the universe - no appendages, no physical transformation.

Besides that, there a lot of people with ‘useless quirks’ - quirks that don’t do much at all, factor very little into their everyday life or skills. This is a superpowered society, sure, but it’s one where people are forbidden to use quirks unless licensed and where you still need boring old accountants and taxi drivers and real estate agents and busboys. These jobs don’t require quirks.

Instead, often we see it’s that people with the more ‘unheroic’ quirks that gets the short end of the stick. Mutant discrimination, quirks that can easily harm people if not very careful, quirks that violate human taboos (like blood drinking). I think, yeah, there is a hierarchy of valuing people for their quirks, definitely, but it’s not a clear hierarchy with quirkless people at the bottom. I do wish we see more quirkless people doing stuff!! But honestly I think there’s very little difference between someone quirkless and someone who has ‘bendy fingers’ (David Shield) for a quirk.)

*

Moreover - tho this is more the fault of the author I guess? - is that only according to genre and story conventions do we know Deku and Shigaraki will duke it out, or otherwise confront each other. There’s very very little interaction between the two beyond their actions effecting each other (and not on purpose, it just so happens because they’re on hero and villain sides). Their goals don’t even factor each other in beyond the vague

There’s still ample time for Deku to find out more about Shigaraki but the idea of Deku extending a hand to help Shigaraki is kinda laughable right now. Honestly Bakugou and Shigaraki had better connection and potential; for one, one of Shigaraki’s schemes was all to capture Bakugou and recruit him; for another, Bakugou learning that being a Hero isn’t punching out bad guys and having to save people’s hearts is an actual, interesting storyline that develops both characters, IMO.

All Might reaching out to Shigaraki and redeeming/ trying to redeem him? I’ll accept because I love whacked up Shimura family drama! The connection between the two, AFO’s meddling with them both, all that buried history and mystery to uncover, all those emotions of hatred and guilt, and the emotional consequences of Shigaraki getting incarcerated or executed for his crimes and All Might willing to try his hardest to prevent that / soften that for him, which contradicts his supposedly heroic and impartial justice law-abiding gimmick; and the fate of the story and effects on society resting absurdly on how their relationship turns out, bringing up questions about sacrifice and familial duty and justice - yes, absolutely!!!

Deku saving Shigaraki? :/ nothing to back that for now, still.

Petty, but it’s partly why I don’t wanna see allying-with-the-heroes-type-redemption for Shigaraki if it means Deku helping him lmao. Anyone else who’s relevant, sure! Fucking Gran Torino could work.

You've probably answered this before but who do you think will carry on the tradition of being the bridge companion between Inquisition and da4?

oooh, great question. let’s see.

first I’d exclude Solas (obviously), since ostensibly the game so far appears to be about stopping him. I’d also cross Varric off the list because he’s returned as a companion once before and I don’t think they’d have him do so again. the guy’s arc feels complete, let him rest. 

Vivienne and Cassandra can both be Divine. if we’re heading to Tevinter, would the White Divine really go traipsing around in the field there, in a country which is under the remit of the Imperial Chantry? besides you’d think Divine Victoria has one of the most known, recognizable faces in all of current Thedas, right? so it would seem grossly counter-intuitive at best for them to be in the party, when the vibe so far feels like in DA4 we’ll be trying be stealthy/sneaky/incognito in our efforts against Solas.

I know possibly-dead status for a character hasn’t stopped them before (Anders, Leliana) but eh. imo ‘died in a previous game due to actions of the player’ should mean dead and stays dead, lol. Iron Bull can be dead. same goes for Blackwall. 

Cole… more humanlike vs more spiritlike are pretty divergent states imo. if he were to come back as a companion, there’d have to be 2 alternate subplots for his arc/2 different personal quests/an alternate dialogue line every three or four lines or somesuch, going by the difference between the two states we see in DA:I & Trespasser. if he crops up, I’d guess instead at it being a cameo. it would be much easier to have 2 different possible sidequests, or one sidequest with 2 different possible iterations of the character, worldstate depending.

Sera can be never encountered/not recruited/kicked out etc. that said, her low approval ending of just going back to her previous life, is still pretty open-ended, and her 2 high approval endings (whether or not Inky decides to become a Red Jenny) both imo kinda paint her as remaining an ally of/working with the Inquisitor and the Inquisition-remnants still, especially if Leliana or Cassandra are Divine. to add, she’s a good candidate for the role of ‘elf opposed to Solas’ (a position for me which will sorely be in need of representation in DA4) and she has the sort of skills and resources it sounds like we’ll be needing, with her whole sneaky rogue with the secret society/spy network schtick. post Inquisition she’s more formidable, more focused and tactical, and Solas had even been giving her advice on how to better run the organization, lol. this stuff factors bigtime into my own current hcs about where my Inquisitor is now, what she’s doing and who with. SAYING THAT.. in DA BW have never made the bridge companion someone who was an LI in the prior game, so..

encountering Dorian in DA4 seems at this point pretty much a given, for reasons which have been laid out at length elsewhere. I agree with the prevailing speculation though that he’s more likely to return in an advisory sort of capacity or other prominent non-companion role in the plot, since he was an LI and also since as a Magister he’s got a load of important shit to do.

yknow, for some reason I actually reckon they will buck the trend with DA4 and there will be no returning companion-from-DAI-companion. everything said above aside, I’d like to see them break away from this pattern and I’m also consistently of the opinion that when it comes to returning chars/cameos etc, less is more and more new! less old!. too much of that makes Thedas seem weirdly small. & I would rather spots on the roster go to ‘ascended extras’ (e.g. Cole being utilized from Asunder, Cass being stepped up from DA2) and entirely new characters. this is where I prefer the screentime and resources to go to, and it’s less messy in terms of potential differing worldstates etc. especially when in the case of DA4, they kind of made a point of ‘oh damn Solas knows everything about us and how we operate, we must find NEW people he doesn’t know!!’. Yknow? I think we’re looking at no bridge companion, and the familiar face/familiar faces and other pre-existing characters as it were on our team being ascended extras like Harding and Maevaris.

despite not being a companion previously, Harding would be a good ‘bridge’ imo. she’s popular and well-liked among the fandom, capable, has relevant skills (rogue, stealth etc), witnessed the events of the previous game enough that she could comment on stuff and guide/provide context, but wasn’t in the immediate inner circle & so was less likely to have been a high-priority subject of Solas’ spying and scrutiny, she’s a race and gender combination that we haven’t had before but need, features clearly in the Trespasser epilogue, still isn’t super fleshed out so there’s plenty room to expand, etc.

(also obligatory comment because I can’t not hey Bioware ascend Felassan pls  i beg u plssss im dyinggg squirtle plssss)