Fool of a Rook

Goodmorning to the Anthropic Claude AI training scraper that suddenly decided to request 660 thousand pages (exactly the number I had remaining on the starter plan) and brought Pikiwedia down. 

Sudden switch from diverse user agents like chrome, safari, messenger preview to Just Claudebot. I'm not even mad though, this is maybe the funniest thing possible, because I've inadvertently poisoned their training data with thousands of fucked up articles with normal urls. 

First screenshot is Alexius, second is Erimond. Third one Erasthenes. In case you don't remember who Erasthenes is, is Calpernia's former master who is currently trapped in a spell.

I was checking the 3 mages you can turn tranquil in inquisition, and the characters opinions on it. Cassandra approves always, wich makes sense for the Seeker, sadly she doesn't change her opinion after her personal mission even when she says she is finding a way to cure tranquility, but eh that's Cass for you. Would love this fact of Bull was more explored than in just approval system. He hates demons playing with his mind and going mad BUT that is when is about him attacking people he doesn't want to... wich is not the same as something that makes you "harmless" to him.

Dorian and Solas always dissaprove, of course. Both mages and not even from that culture. Blackwall is the only non-mage who doesn't even have any connection to the circles or mages who always dissaproves, wich makes sense with his idea of second chances or kill the people who hurt others, and probably thinks this is too cruel. Varric is the only character who never reacts about this, wich says a lot about him.

Now the charas whose opinion vary depending on the situation. Vivienne has a line saying "It is to protect from these sort of excesses that the Rite of Tranquility exists", and in her approvals show this. She doesn't have a reaction to Alexius being made tranquil, but approves of Erimond made tranquil, a blood mage who almost summon an army of demon. In the other hand, she dissaproves of Erasthenes made tranquil as a "mercy". To her, tranquility is a punishment for the ones who truly deserve it. Meanwhile, Cole disapproves of using tranquility as a punishment, but approves when you use it as a "mercy". Cole used to think killing mages was also mercy, so my hc is that a lot of his concept of mercy is sadly... circle mentality, where he absorved a lot of beliefs of the people around him. He killed the mages who didn't want to become tranquils, but this one suffering that wants to stop suffering seems okay with it, so why wouldn't he? Kinda fucked up but I do love it ngl. Sera also usually doesn't have a reaction, but dissaproves of you using it as a "mercy" too. She doesn't seem to want to think about tranquility and that freaks her out (for how she reacts finding about the Oculara being tranquil skulls)

Now, when you do turn someone tranquil (wich you can ONLY do if you are a mage) you get the How Could You war table mission. Where a group of mages are the only ones complaining about it. If you pick Josephine to solve it, she does it, but says "It is unfortunate that this was necessary. But then, a great many things have been unfortunate about all of this." Wich shows to me that she is not happy about it and didn't want it, but still she would follow your decision and let it be. Leliana says "You have taken a brutal stance. If need be, continue.", if we are going brutal, we are going brutal. She also says Magister Erasthenes has been most helpful. Even grateful, as much as a Tranquil can be. (...) It was a clever mercy. And thanks to the spell which binds him, he cannot lie." I don't know if she comments anything about Owain or tranquility in dao, but she shows here a brutal pragmatism about it, wich is curious when she is supposed to be the pro-mage liberation one...but as she said, "the mages shall govern themselves" so a mage chosed it, so it's fine. Cullen says "remind them that the mages created this punishment to protect the rest." Wich is crazy to me specially if we do this AFTER Cassandra mission where is revealed that it was the Seeker who started this.

But NOW the most important part, if you make Cullen solve this, he says "I suspect that the only reason they were successfully reasoned with is that you yourself are a mage. They may wonder how one of their own could do that to another mage, but on some level they accept that at least it was one of their own." The fact that you can only use the rite of tranquility in game if you are a mage, makes me think that if the inquisitor was something else, people would lose the only reason that they may agree with this.

that way we know we’re from tumblr without revealing anything

I’m just going to say this to strangers until i find a tumblr person

must keep reblogering!! Im going to be so suspicious if any one tells me this now!

Remember the answer is: I stole them from the president.

portrait of a bird woman / 150x150 / commissioned

made in aseprite

20. If they were asked to explain the difference between romantic and platonic or familial love, how would they do so?

30. Who do they most regret meeting?

Hi @crimsonphantasmagoria! <3 Thank you for the lovely asks! Since the OC isn't specified, I will be answering for Solstice, because she's got the clearest shape in my brain.

From the Uncommon Questions

10. What lie do they most frequently remember telling? Does it haunt them?

"I'm fine." As a lie, it's aimed at herself more than others. Solstice feels like she has no choice but to be "fine"; fine enough to keep going and not crumble under the pressure of leadership or saving the world. This is not to say that she constantly lies about her feelings, nor that she bottles up everything. She does open up to her friends, debriefs missions, doesn't hide how she feels, and she can be, sometimes, honest to the point of bluntness. But the feelings Solstice shares are only the surface ones and she mirrors the person in front of her, saying only as much as the person is ready to hear. The body of the iceberg remains hidden beneath the surface. And yes, it does haunt her. In fact it will catch up with her and it's going to be... cataclysmic.

30. Who do they most regret meeting?

Uuuu, this is a toughie. Lavellan has definitely met a lot of people whom she didn't like, even the inner circle is not all that wonderful. But regret implies something that would have been in her power to control and meeting people is something that happens to her. There's no point being self-condemning over events that simply happen, it would be like being upset at the weather. Nor does Solstice regret recruiting everyone who offered to join; she made the decision with the limited information available at the time, meaning she felt like she needed all the help that was offered. Even if she did end up not quite liking the individuals in the long run, she did, at least, keep a professional attitude towards them.

20. If they were asked to explain the difference between romantic and platonic or familial love, how would they do so?

The way this question is phrased made me get into her head a bit, this is the answer that came out:

"Familial love is the one you feel about your bloodkin. Your clan, your elders, your parents, siblings, cousins, children, pets, are all part of familial love. It has different intensities and sometimes you don't all get along, but the love undeniably remains through the years, even when they wrong you. It manifests in chest and arms; you could embrace them close to your heart, create a barrier around them or do lots of gesture to show your appreciation for them.

Platonic love is my chosen family. The people who have chosen my company over and over again even when I haven't been at my best, and I have chosen them in return. Bonds are created through shared experiences, values, humor and good times, as well as hard times and the ability to be there for each other and offer mutual support. A friend in need is a friend indeed and all that. We can be genuinely happy for each other when good things happen, with no envy and no resentment, and when something bad happens to them I feel as if I have been personally wronged. They are the family worth getting into fights to defend them. This love is the easiest to set boundaries with, to nourish, but also the easiest to fall out of. Its intensity diminishes over time if there are no more wholesome experiences, if the fun is gone, if they wrong you too much or too often, or if you haven't seen each other in too long.

Romantic love is all-consuming and maddening. It defies logic and obscures reasonable thought. It motivates as much as it discourages. It builds monuments and starts wars. It is the highest intensity emotion and it manifests throughout your whole body. Your eyes see only flashing lights, your mind is clouded but for thoughts of them, your heart flutters, your breath catches, your stomach - starved, your knees - weak, and your fists so red-hot and ready for action they could alter reality. It is the hardest love to fall out of, the most difficult to forget. To lose a family member is a natural part of existence, but to lose your vhenan is akin to the death of spirit."

24. Who remembers things?

37. Do they celebrate birthdays, valentine’s day, anniversaries?

47. How do they make up after a fight?

Thank you for these lovely Qs! <3

From Big Fat Domesticity Questions Meme

24. Technically, Solas does, 'cause he's got... magic memory. There's eons of information in there. But something funny happens when people live together for a long time, they start borrowing each other's brain power. Therefore, sometimes, Solstice remembers things he doesn't.

37. They don't celebrate as in doing anything special about it, but they do remember their first kiss every year. They acknowledge that's when both of them got irrevocably pulled into this relationship. Solas also pampers her at midsummer, because he knows she used to celebrate her name day with her clan, and she misses them.

do they have pets?

what habits of the other drives them crazy?

what do they watch on tv and do they fight for the remote?

Hi Vir! Oooh I love those, thank you!

From Big Fat Quiz of Domesticity

Pets: yes, sort of. Not physical animals in the Fade, but some spirits take the shapes of creatures; while Solas prefers the company of his people spirit friends, Solstice prefers to befriend the creatures types, and wisps. She loved animals back in the real world and this is her way of coping.

Habits: I can't really think of any because I assume they would discuss things and be considerate of each other enough to stop doing a behavior that would be upsetting?