#tim rambles

soooo if i suddenly don't post or answer asks here again all of a sudden, pls don't be surprised LMAO.

You've gotta ignore that you can hear what i was listening to while screen recording this.

They view the mask as their true face and behind it is their insides, dont bald them. They are made of like a....dust, sand, void particle material

This is self indulgent and mostly just what I made up in my friend group. This is in no way canon and it's being shared because my friend hyped me to so i can share my weird skully art and fanfic. I love aus that have skully as Jay's alter ego but i also love skully as Jessica and even exploring the other characters like Brian being apart of skully so this is how i explained it.

My skully is a separated entity, from the other characters sharing a body with it, and was created in the ark and when they aren't being a vessel, they are some weird void creature #bald. They carry the broken but its more like those people can use skully as a host to continue existing. I think of it like a system, in a way to explain the experience! (But not exactly) Skully fronts the most but others can front and their body/face will appear instead, but also multiple can front at once and collectively share thoughts if both conscious, the rest go into a blurred state of existence like being asleep if not fronting. I also imagine that skully can force them out or they can 'wear' their body and can use this to gain people's trust or if they just want to have a body. Skully cares for all those little freaks and views themselves as their guardian, someone who watches over another.

I imagine the operator to be this presence thats been around for a long time while Skully existed about 20 year before the cast were alive. Skully at this time only used they/them pronouns but as they collected my people like pokemon, it was like they were learning from them and felt more human. The personalities and thoughts of those they carry influenced Skully and they grew to feel more like themselves as they learnt more. Skully hates the operator so they enjoy feeling more human to distance themselves. My skully would eventually identify with being genderfluid, still using they/them primarily but comfortable with he/she and anything else. They are also aro/ace :) if you want exact identities, i thought about it and believe they'd identify with Aromantic, Beliusromantic, Cupioromantic, Asexual and Apothisexual.

Skully also helped Brian/Hoody with totheark and views them as a friend. They are also close with Jessica and Jay as i believe those two would co-front with Skully the most and they'd yap. Like the comics, Skully is able to come to earth but primarily exists in the Ark and needs to return there after some time, and can't leave the ark for long when the operator is too strong.

This is super mega self indulgent headcanon that exists purely in my friend groups rp: when lil boy Timothy escaped the hospital, the time that parallels with the rosswood au series, Tim got lost in the woods and was captured by the operator and sent to the ark and got out through Skully helping him as a small boy. We headcanon Tim died in rosswood because skully didn't exist in that au </3. Post this ark visit, Skully would visit Tim in the hospital sometimes until Tim burnt that sucker down. Self fanservice be warned, but Skully views Tim like their son in my au and its very cute, trust. They are just collecting their son's friends to keep them safe for him, sigh

Also, habit. Yeah. Me and my friends are skullbitting it out. When i draw skullbit, i am only drawing the relationship between habit and skully. Habit views the broken skully carries as weird little parasites it can bother sometimes. Habit also bothers skully but Skully is nonchalant 'bout all that.

Which is odd because while I hate the whole "Qunari fundamentalism and violent usurpation of Kirkwall" and "Mages are oppressed, but also there are "good" Templars and look how dangerous mages can be" arcs in DA2, I actually think Act 2 is my favorite part of DA2. At the same time, because of those fundamental narrative problems, in addition to how clearly rush Act 3 was, DA2 remains my least favorite game of the Dragon Age series.

So, while I don't really look forward to doing any of the treaty obligations of DAO, or the Landsmeet, even though as a public affairs and socio-political and historical nerd I should, there are elements of DAO that just gives me a sense of nostalgia that DA2 cannot really do.

While I understand why many would like DAO, the standard fantasy setting that is Ferelden doesn't really capture me all that much. Ironically it's one of my biggest problems in enjoying Baldur's Gate 3, because Faerun is so frustratingly standard European fantasy that it just makes me want to go read the Silmarillion or A Song of Ice and Fire or even just play DA. I'm just many DnD players enjoy that world for its own, and I think DAO does benefit in some way as being the easiest to immerse yourself into the world of Thedas because of its normative fantasy world - it just doesn't capture me because of how oversaturated those repetitive norms are in the fantasy genre. At the same time, as mentioned before, there is a level of nostaliga for how DAO feels as a game that DA2 and BG3 just can't do for me. Maybe it's the color palette, or the character designs, or something but DAO always had something over the other two games that I cannot really put into words.

It isn't my favorite. I don't really care for DAO's story, and while I do love the DAO companions, BioWare does get far better in the latter iterations in how the companion characters have thematic and narrative complexities (Sten and Zevran really do heart with early BioWare companion quest design...funny how both are the two main POC companions in the game, but I digress). While this may be controversial, I'd argue that Veilguard has a far strong thematical narrative - how it is so quintessentially anti-fascism, and that hope is kindle to the human spirit against human degradation via fascistic influence - over all the games prior to it. Yet, despite that, I do like Origins. As a game it is far more enjoyable to play than say DA2. As a story, it's fine. Clearly it was influenced by the LOTR-mania and dark fantasy influence born out of the late 90s and early 2000s, thanks in part by GRRM. But I just never felt any real strong connection or enjoyment to the smaller stories in DAO, unlike the Redcliffe arc of DAI, or Haven, or Halamshiral in DAI. I don't get excited to go to the Dalish elves or dealing with Ozammar's politics in DAO, which feels odd because I tend to enjoy story and world-building far more than gameplay when I play fantasy games (waves hands at the Soulsborne series), so Origins just always is in this weird spot for me.

Doesn't help that I had some really bad experiences with some DAO fans, which definitely colored my feelings for the game and the Warden for the longest time (looking at you, random Tumblr commenter who added an addition to a fanfic of mine where the Warden comes in and kills my Quizzy for dare being with Leliana), so Origins just always feels weird to me. I don't hate it; I don't love it from this world or back. I enjoy it. I find it boring. It's is mundane. It is wonderful.

I just ugh

at least i haven't hit hallucinations yet....

they've got it the range baby they've got it all. it's about the sun/moon parallel!!! both of them having the weight of their people's futures on their shoulders!!! the "i'll take care of you" "it's rotten work" "not to me. not if it's you" vibes are off the charts and could apply both ways!! literally what the hell they even have a child in common i can't believe we were given the gift of imagining luke skywalker as a dad it makes me so happy