I really, really like it. Personally, I need to see WLW PriestDoc. I'm not done reading Babel yet, but I just find the relationship between them utterly intriguing. It's one of the few things about "canon" Doctor writing that I like. I wish they'd explore it more. And commit to her being the canon endgame love interest, even if it pisses off all the self-inserters. That'd be ballsy, but gratifying.

This is a slight tangent, but I'm reminded of the game "SOMA". It posits some really interesting philosophical questions about morality and what constitutes a life, a soul, and the meaning of preservation in the face of destruction. I'm getting similar vibes from the conflict between choosing to continue with Priestess's plan or not. You've come this far, is it worth it to throw it all away? Will all that sacrifice be for nothing?

I also recently read a Priestess/FemDoctor fic and it was good--the portrayal of their Doctor fell in line to how I think my own Doctor would feel. Or rather, how I would like to see their dynamic play out. Doctor misses her and wants to be with her again. They're incomplete without her. Watering it down to Priestess being "evil" or "yandere" is very lame; she's by no means "good", and there's no doubt she cares more about Doctor and the Precursors than the Terrans, but I'm harkening back to how some people are so quick to label Kristen Wright as bad/evil. Though it's on a drastically greater scale, I think it comes down to selfishness.

But I'm rambling. Yes, I really like Priestess and I greatly enjoy Priestess/Doctor and my only wish is that there's more of her and a female Doctor.

That's certainly an idea, but sadly I'm already too invested in Ascalon/Kal'tsit!

I think I'm just having trouble drawing a connection between them that makes me want to explore it further, but if you can somehow manage it, all the more power to you!

Hahaha, canonically she CAN see, but with the way her eyes are drawn, how her default gaze is basically a blank stare, and the entire motif of candlelight, I actually like the idea of her being blind. My friend thought she was, because a blind poet-knight who loves the written word is very romantic, but alas, sadly she is not. It won't stop me from headcanoning her with extremely poor eyesight, though. It only makes sense if she did do everything by candlelight.

I'm not sure what you mean by "idolize"? If you're asking me why I say more positive things about Nearl than Saria, I guess it depends from the angle.

Nearl being the paragon conducts herself in a way I find admirable, if detrimental (to herself). She's a lighthouse that guides and helps those flailing in the dark. She realized that it's impossible for her to defeat all that plagues the world. Instead, she'll do her best to act as a beacon of hope so that others don't despair. For them to believe that there IS good in the world and that she will fight for those in need, no matter who they are. To be living proof that knights are real, to inspire them.

It's a largely thankless endeavor and honestly, I wish they explored more on how this type of mentality actually affected her negatively. We only have a few bits and pieces here and there hinting at how Nearl's selflessness is isolating, how lonely she is, how being a lighthouse means little if it isn't being maintained by other people. How she'd give her life for a stranger instead of looking after herself. How she basically ties her self-worth to her knightly creed--who is Nearl without it? She's also chivalrous, charming, and has a cute hidden dorky side to her. And in a world as terrible as Terra where most people are understandably jaded and cynical, someone as idealistic with strong convictions as Nearl is a novelty.

Meanwhile Saria gives off the appearance of someone who has her life together, but in actuality she's failed. So. Much. She's disappointed and let down and hurt practically everyone in her life at some point, that it's almost impressive if it wasn't so sad. Whereas Nearl has her admittedly lofty goals, Saria is more pragmatic, but simultaneously selfish. She enabled Kristen's behavior, possesses an arrogance, inflexible and stubborn to a fault, is kind of a bad friend once you think about it, bad at communication and feelings, and would repeat history again as long as it meant that Rhine Labs survived. This makes her compelling, but at the same time, someone arguably worse than Nearl. By contrast, it's easy to write character studies on Saria, but that's mostly because we see a lot more of her "ugly" side compared to Nearl.

TL;DR I like both a lot, but dunking on Saria is way easier. It's easy to see how someone could fall for Nearl. It's also easy to see why Saria fails at relationships.

Umm, I don't really keep a list, much less keep track of their sexuality. Good AK WLW fanwork (that appeals to me) is hard to come by in the first place, and the stuff I share don't always come from lesbians.

Off the top my head, there's @kagewaka and @dekasuglhime (mostly Skadi/Specter) and @artofhomu (more of a general artist, but occasional AK).

"Situationship" is probably the most accurate thing to call it. Not really a romance, not a friendship, not even a typical mutual enmity. But they are SOMETHING to each other.

For my specific headcanons about them... my Doctor is very ace, so their relationship isn't very intimate at all. I can't see Kal being very physical either in a non-clinical way. Doctor's interactions toward Kal are routinely awkward, exacerbated by their own autism and Kal's standoffishness about them in general. At first, Doctor isn't sure what to make of Kal's initial hostility, but the more persistent it is, the more Doctor is inclined to return the sentiment. I wouldn't say they become outright antagonistic, but a mutual distrust essentially becomes the foundation between them, despite working together for both Rhodes and Amiya's sake.

Both of them are also incredibly emotionally obtuse, which lends to their overall wariness about each other. While Doctor may be more open with Amiya, Kal has seen a side of Doctor that no one else has, and that sort of knowledge is strange and unsettling, even frightening. Kal will forever hold it against Doctor, despite them "not being the same person as before" due to their amnesia. But to what extent does a past action define someone? If they don't recall it? And to what degree does them wanting to reclaim their identity means a reason to be concerned?

My Doctor feels alienated and isolated, but also because they have a desire to become "whole" again, and that involves going back to Priestess, despite all signs pointing to how sinister she is and how little she seems to care about Terra. The dynamic between KalDoc becomes a lot more intriguing when you have to tackle the concept of identity, and how (my) Doctor has to reconcile being a good person while also reaping the consequences of their own actions, and yet feeling an emptiness that cannot be filled nor alleviated in any way without returning to what made them a monster in the eyes of others.

The thing that makes KalDoc dynamics so precarious and difficult to get right and/or engaging is that you have to maintain Kal'tsit's resentment of Doctor without turning her into a tsundere. What makes it fascinating is that reducing it down to merely "hate" doesn't quite encapsulate all that feels, according to her. Hate isn't enough. It certainly isn't love, nor apathy. And Kal'tsit, while witnessing those glimmers of humanity from Doctor, cannot relinquish her resentment. She knows better to. Kal will protect Doctor, but will never fully trust nor forgive them. That resentment, that distrust, belongs to her. It will be the only thing that's hers. It's one of the many things that make her "Kal'tsit".

Also it's really, really hard to find queer female or nonbinary Doctor portrayals because 9 times out of 10 you'll trip across some rando who consistently uses he/him to refer to Doctor whenever they are paired with a female character. Or draws/writes them in a very stereotypical cishet male way. And while I know appearance doesn't necessarily dictate gender, and that nonbinary people can use he/him, I honestly doubt the wider gacha crowd is conscientious enough to consider a genuine NB depiction instead of just assuming that Doctor is a cishet man by default.

And thank you very much; if you enjoy those pairs, I encourage you to read the works by @dramaticgaze and @lykieu on Ao3. They are among my muses <3

Ahh damn, I knew I was forgetting someone... I'm planning to pull for her too. I think I would put Ascalon in "Ace".

I headcanon Nine as ace because that's kinda just what I landed on after thinking about her for a bit. No real reason, just like how people are a certain sexuality just because. But if I had to put one in, then maybe it's because I don't get a great read on Nine to definitively say where I do want to put her. So her being in the Ace category is shaky, because IIRC I put her in Pan before.

Of course, this is all subject to change later on, so who knows where they'll end up next year by the time Pride rolls around again.

I prefer Kal'tsit/Gladiia.

I've spoken before elsewhere that Theresa doesn't really FEEL like a character to me; she feels more like an "event" that happened to other characters. A Messianic archetype. The people AROUND Theresa, and the effects she had on them are more interesting than Theresa herself. And as a consequence, that doesn't really give Kal'tsit/Theresa any interesting depth. Despite Theresa meaning so much to Kal, the dynamic itself feels pretty plain and isn't really intriguing to me.

Meanwhile I personally find GladKal more compelling because their dynamic involves someone who's arrogance stems from viewing herself far above other races, being humbled by this one woman who has lived for far too long, and has Seen and Experienced far too much for Gladiia to comprehend. Kal'tsit holds both respect and detachment towards Gladiia while Gladiia is in awe (and perhaps even a small bit of fear) of her. They wouldn't fight over dominance--Kal is too tired and has a complex about exerting her will onto others, while Gladiia has to reconcile deference and her insane top energy towards Kal. Kal'tsit makes Gladiia feel small. She behaves like Kal's guard dog, showing overt concern for her, despite her disdain for land-dwellers. Like yes, Kal'tsit willingly went to jail for the Abyssal Hunters, and she doesn't necessarily show a preference for Gladiia over the other fish, but the combination of Kal's selflessness versus Gladiia's selfishness is tasty.

Also this post: https://dlartistanon.tumblr.com/post/715063285007974400

Whoever you are... thank you... outside a tiny circle of friends, I haven't had anyone look forward to more Samuel... I'm just gonna go off the vibes and ignore everything I don't like about the skin (and everything else surrounding her tbh) to fuel more Saria and Muelsyse shenanigans. Thank you again...

I like it! I actually have semi-serious headcanon that all or most Elafia are trans. So transfem Viv fits seamlessly into it.

I'm hyperfocusing on the Shiningale scenes but imagine being Talulah and you're stuck with Nine who keeps you handcuffed and submissive and wants to use you for your repentance but cares enough to not want you to die under the guise of "you haven't been judged yet" and your sister hasn't come to see you or talk to you and suddenly this weirdo named Eblana is spewing nonsense believing she can win you over and thinks she won your verbal debate (she didn't)

Being Talulah is suffering

I'll be honest, my memories are really fuzzy, but I just took her reaction to Reed in WTFC to be that she had a hard time reconciling how the Reed there could be the same Reed in County Hillock. Ch'en said something to the effect of Bagpipe not wanting to think badly of someone she likes, or approves of.

Aww, of course. It's a shame we have to rely on headcanon for it, since "visible" disabilities are so lacking, both in canon and in fanon, to be honest. I remember talking about how you can find a wealth of material depicting a character with mental illness, but less so if a character is physically disabled in some way.

I don't even remember what you're referring to, but thanks! I recall drawing Lava and Glaucus with aids once... I only drew Liz with an implied wheelchair in a doodle, so I'd like to put her in a proper one someday.

On a lesser note, I've come to headcanoning Talulah wearing some sort of knee brace, based on her original Ursus military outfit. Quartz is actually missing an eye to warrant wearing an eyepatch, not just hiding her scarred one. So on and so forth; it's nice to think about debilitating conditions if canon is too scared to.

It's not an odd question at all! I have an updated version. This network isn't exhaustive however; there are some pairs and/or relationship lines that are missing that I didn't include, either because I don't ship it or I don't have enough of an opinion on them to warrant being on this chart. Or only me and my friends know about them.

Notes:

• Doctor is either nonbinary or fem. Also very ace.

Side rant: A lot has happened in 4+ years. Particularly the way Doctor is written and how certain characters are written around them. "Why is Doctor here then?" you may ask. It's canon discontinuity for me, and I've realized that the only way for me not to gag at Doctor content in the game is if I reconcile their existence by superimposing my own take.

However, in doing so, I refuse to call it a self-insert. That word is so loaded with awful baggage and is a viscerally unpleasant reminder of how some of my faves' writing is ruined for the sake of pandering to the lowest common denominator in order to make the player feel special. At the same time, I'm not depicting "Canon Doctor" either because the "canon" writing around them is so half-baked and poorly-constructed in a failed attempt to appease both self-inserters and people who want an Actual Character. My Doc is not In-Game Buckethead, not a self-insert, but a secret third thing.

If I have any Doctor ship, it's solely with Priestess. Maybe Kal'tsit, but the dynamic has to be very specifically tumultuous. Taking characterization bits that I like (my Doctor design is ripped from the promotional image that looks like a Female Doctor) and discarding the ones I don't. Same goes for every operator who's writing suddenly takes a nosedive whenever Doctor is involved.

I don't think she will, but I HOPE she does... she has a voiceline saying that the next time Shining and Nightingale need her help, she'll be there. And not gonna lie, recent developments seem to like a good time for her to come back for her wives. I need her to ICBM (Inter-Continental Ballistic Margaret) her way back into the main story.

I have conflicting feelings about that—deep down, I do want to see her again, because both Saria and Muelsyse were left hanging, not knowing how Kristen truly felt. They never got any closure. To lose someone they loved so deeply, who was so influential in their lives, to have that same person suddenly disappear so suddenly, with no proper goodbye, to have been dealt a blow so devastating as to have left a gaping hole in their hearts… Kristen betrayed them, but that betrayal was founded on a desire to spare them the same fate she was subjecting herself to. Kristen promised Saria that there would be no other casualties. She lamented that Muelsyse would never learn that her plants survived. She left them because she cared about them, but because she never said it, they will never know. That kind of incompleteness is agonizing.

On the other hand, the way Kristen’s story “ended” is a beautiful awe-inspiring tragedy in and of itself. It’s the reason why I think that her coming back would undermine it. It’s the same reason why FrostNova’s story is so powerfully emotional. Yelena deserves to rest. Kristen achieved her dream.

If we’re speaking on a meta level however, I’m personally tired of all the Endfield crumbs they’re shoehorning into OG AK. I want to keep them separate games. The only reason why I even have a mildly passing interest in Endfield is whether Kristen will be relevant. There are theories that Perlica has some connection to her because she appears to wear the same colored tags that Kristen does. The thought of Kristen meeting someone, having company in the vast emptiness of space, brings me a little comfort knowing how heart wrenching and miserable it is otherwise.

TL;DR Kristen back in OG AK: eh I dunno. As long as there’s no Endfield ties. Kristen in Endfield: omg ;_;

Uh… I guess Rhodes Island feels like a cop-out answer, so if I had to pick, then it’d be either Loghshinny’s Dublinn or maybe Neo-Reunion. We may be worse off, but I’d rather side with Reed and those who just want a place to call home/the group who only want justice for the Infected.

I think the princess carry CG was the same thing that made me go [eyes emoji] at it, too! There's something so notable about taking care of someone who's supposed to be your enemy. What keeps me interested is that Reedpipe got along very well, despite Reed hiding her identity from Bagpipe. Bagpipe lost friends and colleagues due to Reed's actions, and personally I find relationships to be a lot more interesting if at least one person is, for all intents and purposes, responsible for the other's pain. Part of Reed's development is accepting her own responsibility/identity as a Dublinn leader and the choices she'd made, when she had tried to flee/distance herself from them.

'What the Firelight Casts' ended with a somewhat hopeful outlook that Loughshinny and Fiona will eventually reconcile (the onus is more on Bagpipe's side), because Bagpipe knows that Reed is as kind and genuine as she presented herself to be. That wasn't an act. She has to come to terms that the Reed she remembers and the Reed she got to know are the same person, with all the conflicting emotions that entails.

It took me a hot minute to realize "interpretation" meant "artistically" and not "personality-wise"...

I can't imagine Andi being a character with a lot of interpretations in the first place, but thank you, that's flattering to hear! It's so cool to be told that your take on a character rubbed off on other people that you're the first that comes to mind whenever they think of that character.

Thank you! That's funny because I remember someone else also saying that my Nearl is Gender and I was a little confused, haha. Personally I never saw Nearl (either in canon or my own portrayal) to be particularly Gender, but I won't complain if people who enjoy my art do.

Also I never expected to draw as much Saria as I do, but I'm very happy with how I draw her. I hardly--if ever--see her visually depicted as a tired 40-year-old dad with prominent eyebags, so to have that be my Niche fills me with a certain amount of pride.

Thank you very much! It's been a while since I last drew Blemirock...

Yes, my inbox is open for anyone who wants to talk about art/AK/anything! I make an effort to at least get the general gist of AK lore, but my brain can't really hold onto a lot of info. AK's stories tend to have multiple plotlines happening at once and it's so easy to get overwhelmed and forget certain things. Really, the only thing I managed to clearly retain concerning the recent plot is whatever is happening to Shining and Nightingale, lol. I pretty much only keep a constant eye on my favorites' developments.

NPCs: Talulah, Domma, Nine, Mandragora, Toland, Crownslayer

Alters: Fang, Shining, and maybe Nightingale? I saw someone suggest she could be a Bard and I was like oooooh. Zima (grows up to be a proper General Winter), Andreana (becomes more corrupted and looks like the other Abyssal Hunters with red eyes and pale hair), Ceylon (tbh even though I like Eyja, Ceylon is more deserving of an alt), Pramanix (she shot a bow in BTI!)

Thank you kindly, I hope the brainrot gets worse and you agonize over how Yelena and Talulah went from rivals to friends (to almost lovers) with the caveat that Talulah is grieving over Alina and that, after all the pain that Talulah put her through, the very last thing that Yelena wished was for Talulah to be saved and not walk alone…

Or you relish over the idea of Yelena learning how to be intimate with her dumb dragon girlfriend, feeling warmth for the first time since she got infected

It's been years since she was first implemented in the game and I find it interesting that no other character has elicited the same response out of me that she has. I wouldn't necessarily count Andi among my faves (since she's woefully underused and largely ignored. Tbh unless the next Abyssal Hunter event has her in it, I'm not even interested), but she is incredibly fun to draw. All of my gender envy goes into her. How I wish I could be cuttlefish... Lowlight got the right idea when he cosplayed her.