#whiteraven13

[janearts]

Have you played Dragon Age: The Veilguard? I think Rosia and Emmrich would get along fantastically

No, I haven't! I haven't had much interest in it, unfortunately. My friends who have played have said that it sucks dick for skittles and that's just focusing on the gameplay and not the maelstrom behind it: EA laying off literally hundreds of employees, including senior DA writers and devs with multiple decades of experience EACH at BioWare, while giving their c-suite a combined 60 mil. bonus that same fiscal year. (And it sounds like that shows in-game.)

I know a lot of people have followed me for DA - I drew fanart for what feels like a decade if not actually a literal decade - and I just wanna give everyone the heads up that I don't think I've got anything left in me for DA. It's hard to see, e.g., a character like Varric in-game knowing that they laid off the woman who built that character from the ground up. So, just as a heads up, if you're following me for DA in the hopes that one day I'll draw more DA? I'd abandon ship. No hard feelings whatsoever if you unfollow me.

And if you'll allow me to get on my soap box and yell (not at you specifically, just at the clouds, shaking my fist):

It's also becoming an increasingly hard pill to swallow a bad game when I know there are so, so many good ones out there that are a fucking joy to play. I've personally LOVED Larian's Divinity: Original Sin series, Owlcat's Pathfinder and Warhammer games. (I'm so excited to experience Dark Heresy when it comes out!) Hell, I even recommend going to BioWare's origins and playing Baldur's Gate 1 and 2. (Lukas Kristjanson, one of the people fired by EA, was the lead writer for BG1 + 2 and both of those games have phenomenal storytelling.) So, yeah, I'm not wasting time and money - (things I have precious little of) - on a soulless game from a soulless company with their soulless CEO who makes 260 times more than the median employee there. Fuck that shit.

[stoportotouch]

For the send-you-an-aria ask: Queen of the night aria

it is a BOP! and a threatening bop at that, which we love... there was a window of maybe half a year quite a while before i started t when i could get up there... technically, but it sounded bad, and i never had any particular desire to sing it anyway. still slappeth tho.

technically i do have falsetto range which i COULD potentially and very much hypothetically try to train up there - there are cis male countertenors who are Yer Actual Sopranos - but i don't particularly want to

[snarktheater]

Did you ever read The Giver? I know you reviewed the movie, and it would be interesting to here your thoughts on the differences between the book and movie, since the book was written way before the Hunger Games made dystopias cool whereas the movie (based on the trailers) looked like it was trying to be yet another Hunger Games/Divergent

Haven’t taken the time to read it yet. It would probably be interesting, you’re right about that, although I wonder if a better comparison wouldn’t be with other dystopian novels.

Then again, our current dystopias don’t always seem to know themselves what they want to be about (or when they do, like Divergent, it’s…kind of scary what it reveals about the author and society), so maybe not. I don’t know. More on that whenever I actually get around to reading this book.

[running-with-toast]

I saw in your tags on a post that you thought the manga of Usagi Drop was B A D. I've read the first few volumes and didn't see anything too bad; should I quit while I'm ahead?

You should ABSOLUTELY quit while you’re ahead. The anime is totally fine, it’s cutesy and inoffensive, and it ends on a mellow, satisfying note. The manga from that point onward is gross and bad, and it retroactively tarnished my enjoyment of the show. Stick to the anime, and pretend the manga doesn’t exist.

[janearts]

I know Roisia didn't think much of Gortash's offer to rule the world together, but what were her thoughts on the Steel Watch? Using humanoid brains to power robots seems at least a little necromancy adjacent

[Ask refers to this previous ask.]

At some point I'll need to distinguish that Roisia is not a Dark Urge character. Her dark urges cackle and gurgle and trot along behind her. Anyway, the whole Steel Watch is not just necromancy-adjacent, it is Myrkulite necromancy... just flavoured with Illithid psionics. Reanimate a corpse, tadpole the poor sod, cut off its head, put the reanimated body into a Steel Watcher shell and the tadpoled brain into a jar, and wham, bam, thank you ma'am you've got yourself a Watcher.

Just because it's necromancy doesn't mean it pleases Roisia, though. Roisia is all about the wondrous nature of the organic form. The meat, the guts, the nerves, the intricate and complex systems that allow a body to function. Despite the fact that it was a Necromancer (Balthazar) who helped design the Steel Watch, she would think he missed The Whole Goddamn Point of necromancy and, essentially, nerfed the most powerful organ in the body and implanted a sophisticated organism into one that, while stronger, is far more primitive. She didn't feel there was anything particularly Myrkulite about the construction of the Steel Watch, but what the hell does she know?

[janearts]

Are Roisia’s ghouls the ones from Necromancy of Thay? If so how does that work? Does Astarion have his own set or did she not share it with him?

Answered your questions in detail below the cut!

TL;DR: Some! Does exactly what it says on the tin. No and yes.

Are Roisia’s ghouls the ones from Necromancy of Thay?

They could be, but they aren't necessarily! Roisia is a Necromancer so the ghouls from the Necromancy of Thay stack with the number of summons Necromancers accrue as they rise in power. IIRC, Roisia had a pack of 10 ghouls following her by the end of her adventure. Unless I draw winged ghouls, the ghouls from NoT are indistinguishable from her regular ghoul summons.

If so how does that work?

I wasn't sure what you meant by this question, so I'm gently adding a spoiler tag for anyone who hasn't undertaken or finished the Necromancy of Thay questline. I saw no reason why Roisia's canon should be different from in-game: she unlocks the spellbook, she persists despite the onslaught of the spirits that protect the book, and she continues to hone her mastery of Necromancy with The Tharchiate Codex. (I drew what a protective spirit might look like to Roisia in this post if you're curious!)

Does Astarion have his own set or did she not share it with him?

I was confused by this question, and it (in combination with the previous question) made me wonder whether or not you've played through the quest or the game itself. No judgement at all if you haven't! If you haven't played one or the other, then I should let you know that, to my knowledge, the Necromancy of Thay can only be read by one character of the player's choosing. I, obviously, chose to give a Necromantic tome to my Necromancer. So Astarion does not have his own set in my game (or canon) because Roisia needed the book for her own purposes.

But, that being said, even if Roisia could share the spellbook, she wouldn't. I know I frequently portray Roisia as someone who is kind-hearted, generous, and compassionate—(and she is all of those things!)—but I don't wish those qualities to overshadow the fact that she is also—(simultaneously!)—ambitious, ruthless, and power-hungry. Everything in Ilyn Toth's lab was hers for the taking as far as she was concerned.

[gortash-week]

Are we able to submit long fic for Gortash week/to the collection if we started writing it for one of the prompts?

hi, sure thing!

[gortash-week]

Will you be cross posting the tumblr posts to blue sky and vice versa?

anything that's Gortash Week Official (i.e. the prompt list, things that are relevant to the event) i will be cross posting between tumblr & bluesky, but as for people's works i won't be doing that - you're more than welcome to do it and i will share it both here and bluesky!