Definitely the lair of a female villain. 1986 mansion in Sea Island, GA that’s clearly been redone. 7bds, 9ba, 12,586 sq ft, $45m. Odd description in the listing: “Sophistication & Restraint” and “Soaring Volumes.”
little kids are so fucking funny man. had a kid that couldn’t be any older than like 8 or so come up to me today asking where our dinosaur books where, and when i tried to gently redirect them downstairs (where our kids section is) they very matter-of-fairly informed me that they’d already read every book down there and are ready to learn about the “secret, grown-up only dinosaurs” now
buried somewhere in my drafts is I am pretty sure a half-baked post musing about what a deep personal betrayal alistair would consider it if he ever found out that duncan not only knew who his mom was, but knew her well and fought alongside her and probably held him right after he was born, and didn’t tell him any of it, and then died. like everyone else in his life letting him down is par for the course but duncan was supposed to be different. idk man whatever it is that they have going on between the two of them makes me feral. I’m chewing on the walls
and, of course, the only reason duncan’s different *is* because he died, right? the memory of someone can’t hurt you the way the reality of someone can. not unless you’re forced to confront exactly how disparate the reality of that someone is from the memory you’ve constructed of them and carried around all this time!!!!
It’s insane to me that Dragon Age 2 is sandwiched in between two WAY HUGER and WAY MORE SUCCESSFUL games about more traditional fantasy protagonists facing off against world ending threats and winning and it’s this…weird, raw, personal tragedy about how no matter what you do, you can’t always stop crisis and disaster from occurring. Like The Hero or Ferelden, no matter who they were, wants to stop a Blight. The Inquisitor wants to repair the sky. And Hawke, like, wants to make some money, hang around their friends, and keep their family and their adoptive city safe. And they can’t even fucking do that, so unlike the heroes before and after them. You spend seven years in Kirkwall until the game says, “yeah, no matter what, the prejudices and traumas and hurts of this world are Too Much for one person to stop them. The world changes, wars roll over the land, you cannot stop history, Hawke. You tried. You failed.” And then you just sit there, sixteen years old, listening to “I’m Not Calling You A Liar” and you’re like….well, I guess I really wasn’t a hero. Damn. I love it.
Really though i do think we’re sleeping on the Gender Potential of alisaie “Like A Prince From A Faerie Tale” leveilleur. She’s gay. Her unofficial uncle is Urianger, a man with such gender as beggars belief. She was a weird friendless tomboy in school. Let her embrace the Gender Oddness that comes from these things
I really do love the narrative’s insistence on Lucanis “least charming Crow” Dellamorte. Because the way he backs you to the wall is so goddamn hot, not even he could handle it. Took it straight out of one of his romance novels, then immediately thought "Oh no, too effective, can’t do it.” And then he never does it again. It’s so funny. Lucanis used (Action: Flirt) exactly once and scared himself with his own sexy. Only genuine human vulnerability from here on out. Our beloved Awkward Pantry Man simply cannot endure his own attractiveness.
I like this, but I have a theory.
Crows are trained in seduction. They are taught how to look, how to talk, how to isolate a target to take them out. Lucanis got it, and he admits in game he was not very good at it, Illario took to it better so Illario charms and he stabs. Balance.
I think this was his training kicking in. I think Lucanis was like ‘I am attracted to this person.’ And reacted. And then caught himself.
Because Rook saved him. Rook treats him like a person, not an abomination. Rook doesn’t deserve crow seduction, Rook deserves care and consideration. So Rook gets coffee and baked goods and little check ins because it is how Lucanis knows how to show he cares, and is interested, without being too heavy handed or falling back on training he doesn’t want to use on them.
