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eroticcannibal · 4 years ago

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Common myths and misconceptions about home education

So in case anyone has somehow missed it, I have recently become a Big supporter of home education in a very lefty way, which has meant I have had to challenge a lot of views I have previously held about home education and that I know a lot of other lefties hold too. I am of the opinion that embracing home education, not as a last resort, but as the primary form of education for as many children as possible, is a vital part of achieving the required shifts in society needed to meet the goals of most leftists. So I am taking it on myself to convince you all that it is a very good thing, and also to clear up some misconceptions people have about home education that may make them feel they are unable to do it.

(A note, I am from the UK and shall be using UK terminology and specifics regarding law, policy and other such things will be from a UK perspective. I shall be using the term home education, as that is the legal term in the UK and is distinct from home schooling, which is the term for what school children have been doing during the pandemic.)

And I would also like to extend a quick thanks to Education Otherwise and the mods at Home education and your local authority for teaching me A LOT.

Have any questions about anything I’ve not covered here? Just let me know!

1. “Home education is illegal.”

- Sadly, home education is illegal or restricted to the point of inaccessibility in most of the world. From the research I have done, it seems that only the US and the UK have reasonable laws around home education (if I am using a very broad definition of reasonable, it is still not great). I do hope I can change this section soon, and I would *heavily* encourage people to campaign for the right to home educate post pandemic, perhaps cite any benefits learning at home has provided to children, perhaps???

2. “Home education is a tool used by religious fundamentalists to brainwash children!”

- This is a view many hold, and for good reason. For many of us, when we think of home education, we think of christian fundamentalists in the deep south of America, pulling their children out of school to avoid the liberal agenda. The truth is, anything can be used as a tool of indoctrination. This can happen in home education, and it can happen and has happened in schools too. In my own communities we have had instances of schools being a site of religious radicalization of children. The reality is this is far too complex and deep an issue to be solved by deeming any particular form of education as “bad”. I am not an expert on how best to deal with such issues, but I do feel that things like outreach and building a healthy community with otherwise more isolated religious groups would be a better way to address these issues.

3. “You need to have x qualification to home educate.”

- Again, a reasonable view to hold, given that state run and private education does require educators to hold certain qualifications, but in practice it quickly becomes evident the same does not necessarily have to apply with home education. Educational qualifications are very much focused on delivering an education in a classroom, which is a far cry from home education. During our home education of our child, my partner, who is a qualified SEN TA, has struggled far more than I have with educating our SEN child, despite the fact I hold no qualifications.

We live in amazing times when it comes to education. There are many things that parents and communities have to teach a child, and there are many things a child can teach to themself if given the tools to do so. You can even learn together! Their are endless resources available, books and games and documentaries, and even home education groups and private tutors if you feel that is the right fit for your child. You don’t need a piece of paper for your child to spend a day with their nose buried in a book, or to help the neighbor with his vegetable patch, or to cuddle up on the sofa while watching Planet Earth.

4. “You are required to follow the national curriculum.”

- This does vary by country (that allows home education). As a general rule, the stricter a country is about who can home educate, the stricter they are about what must be taught. In the UK, you are not required to follow the national curriculum. Education must be “efficient” and suited to the child’s “age, aptitude and ability”, and LAs do require that english and maths are covered. Other than that, you are allowed to tailor the content of education to the child and their interests. We have recently dropped geography for now and are only just picking up history again. It has also given us the freedom to focus on areas our child needs that would not be covered in mainstream education, such as anxiety management, trauma processing, self care and hygiene.

5. “Home education looks like school/is just filling out workbooks/etc”

- The thing you will always hear from experienced home educators when you begin home education is “home education doesn’t need to be school at home”. Much like you can tailor the content of the learning to the child, you can also tailor the delivery to the child. Some child need structure, timetable, instructions. Some need freedom and to bounce between topics. Some need to have an hour learning maths and only maths, some need to go dig up your garden “for science”. Some want to learn every day, some will need extended breaks.

Learning happens all the time, from the moment they wake to the moment they sleep. As an example, at home we have some workbooks, as both me and my child have ADHD and need someone to go “ok learn this” rather than us having to work out for ourselves what we need to cover for core subjects like english and maths. For the rest of most days my child is left to their own devices to binge youtube and netflix and work on their art. We try and go for a woodland walk every few days, where we have Deep Discussions about all kinds of topics, and we are also working on growing edible plants and baking cakes from around the world. We are more hands-off at the moment, due to the current bout of anxiety, but when that settles again we will get back to history themed crafts and STEM activities. Post-pandemic, we will be signing our kid up for swimming classes and “after school” clubs, and looking at sending them down to my mum for the home ed groups where she lives, like the forest school. A lot of home education outside of a pandemic is in groups and community based, or will make use of libraries and museums and other public learning opportunities. Frequently very little will happen at home.

In fact many home educators will advise new families to “deschool” for a while before jumping in to learning. This is a period where you “get school out of your system”, and just exist. Learning does not have to be intentional, you will be surprised how much you can achieve by just having fun.

6. “Home education is expensive.”

- It can be, ask my bank account. However, it is perfectly possible to deliver a quality education with little to no money. I’m not saying it’s easy, but it’s doable. Their are many online resources for free (check out oak academy), and libraries have plenty available too. Even paid resources can be very cheap if you know where to look. (psst, if your kid thrives with worksheets and powerpoints, get yourself a twinkl subscription, download everything you need for a year then cancel it.)

(This does not apply to exams. Get saving!)

7. “Home educated children are not properly socialised.”

- This is only really true during the pandemic. The rest of the time, home educated children are free to socialise whenever they want, with whoever they want, in whatever setting they choose. Socialisation while home educating is in the opinions of many of a higher quality, as they are not limited to groups of a similar age and background. Many home educating families form groups for their children to socialise together too. For ND children especially, socialising while home educated can be far less stressful and far more fulfilling than in school.

8. “Home educated children won’t get qualifications.”

- Just plain not true. Arranging qualifications can be costly and time consuming, but it is possible and regularly done. Some children may return to school or college to access exams for free, and I have heard of a handful of cases where individuals were able to secure prestigious university places without any qualifications. Home education also allows for more freedom with how exams and qualifications are approached, for example, many home educated children will pick one GCSE to focus on at a time, rather than covering numerous topics over 2 years and having exams for all of them at once like children in school will.

9. “Home education is a safeguarding risk/is used to cover up abuse/home educated children are not seen.”

- In the UK at least, home education is not considered a safeguarding risk, no matter what authorities may tell you, nor are home educated “not seen”. They still visit medical professionals, they still engage with their communities.

Now I shall add the relevant paper here should I find it again, but the idea that home education is used to cover up abuse to a statistically significant degree, or that home educated children are at more risk of abuse, is false. Home educating families do face a significantly higher risk of social services involvement than other families, but far less abuse is found in comparison to other families. It is also worth considering, when talking about social services involvement, that many families pursue home education due to failures by schools regarding a child’s vulnerabilities. In most cases, especially the Big Ones, where a home educated child is abused, the child was already known to authorities as a victim of abuse, therefore home educating did nothing to hide said abuse.

Children are also routinely abused in schools, which is another common reason for home educating.

10. “Home education has to be monitored or approved.”

- Depends on the country, I know in Japan home education is monitored by schools, however in the UK, monitoring is not lawful. Local authorities may make informal enquiries to ensure a suitable education is being facilitated (keep EVERYTHING in writing and please go straight to “home education and your local authority” group on FB for advice, you WILL need it!). In England, if your child is in mainstream education, you can deregister at will, from a special school will require LA approval. In Scotland deregistering requires LA approval. (Again, head to the aforementioned group for advice).

11. “You can’t work/get an education while home educating”

- It is hard to balance work, education and educating your child, but it is possible, people do it every day. Obviously, having at least one parent free to educate unhindered at all times is an ideal situation, but in the real world it often does not work that way. Parents may have to home educate regardless of their other commitments if a child truly needs to escape the school system. Many parents work or learn from home, and sometimes it is even possible to combine these activities with home education. Professional artists and crafters can pass down their skills while working, distance learners can invite their children to sit in on lectures. The really great thing about home education is it is flexible. Do you have a whole day of meetings? Let the kid play minecraft all day! Going to be in the office all day? Drop the kid off at the local forest school or something else they can do all day. Drop them with the grandparents to help with the gardening!

12. “Home educated are behind/achieve less than school children.”

- Their is no evidence that home education is of a lower quality than school education. Many children are home educated specifically because the school environment was detrimental to their education, and thrive with home education. Plenty of children are able to learn more simply by having 1-to-1 attention, without the distraction of an entire class. And others may well be “behind”, and are educated at home because of their specific needs that mean they will never thrive in an academic setting, so they are allowed to focus on learning skills that will allow them to live independently.

#word of god #home education

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zarovichwife · 4 years ago

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1-8 for Vulpecula Malfoy?

1. What’s their full name? Why was that chosen? Does it mean anything?

Vulpecula Belmeda Malfoy. Her father named after her the constellation and her mother chose her middle name, a merge of both of her sister’s names Bellatrix and Andromeda. Vulpecula, in latin, means little fox. The nakshatra of Belmeda is the symbol of the deer head which is symbolic to the Potter family.

2. Do they have any titles? How did they get them?

To Voldemort, and other Death Eaters, she’s called The Girl Who Was because she was the original and supposed to be the final horcrux of Voldemort. To friends of the Malfoy family, she’s referred to as the Black Sheep since she wasn’t sorted into Slytherin but rather Gryffindor.

3. Did they have a good childhood? What are fond memories they have of it? What’s a bad memory?

Most of her childhood revolved around being raised in an toxic environment that was provided by her unemotionally available father. The rather good memories, however, was when she got to see her cousin Nymphadora and taught her how to cast non-verbal magic as well as apparition. Her aunt Bellatrix then taught her how to duel, how to cast the Unforgivable curses if she would ever need to and that made Vulpecula very skiddish as a child whenever she learned that that very same family member was cast to Azkaban for using the Cruciatus Curse on Alice and Frank Longbottom.

4. What is their relationship with their parents? What’s a good and bad memory with them? Did they know both parents?

Vulpecula and Narcissa were the ones that had the best relationship because it was the bond that only a mother and child could have; she loved Vulpecula unconditionally. As for Lucius, he wanted greatness for himself and he thought that would stem from him offering up her as a horcrux to Voldemort. He tried to raise her in the ways of a Slytherin but it all fell through, and he grew an estranged relationship with her. He moved on from her and went to coach Draco for him to become the Death Eater that his daughter was supposed to be. All to show and display his loyalty to Voldemort.

5. Do they have any siblings? What’s their names? What is their relationship with them? Has their relationship changed since they were kids to adults?

Vulpecula is the older sister of Draco. They were always close and he loved her, but with believing that he needed his father’s approval at times, he would often side with his father so he wouldn’t get in trouble later. Their bond grew thin as he kept on bullying students at Hogwarts including her best friend, Nyla Sparks. It’s not until she learns that he’s become a Death Eater that their relationship begins to patch itself back together bit by bit, piece by piece.

6. What were they like at school? Did they enjoy it? Did they finish? What level of higher education did they reach? What subjects did they enjoy? Which did they hate?

Vulpecula is no Hermione, or Nyla for the matter, but she was talented when it came to Charms and Potions classes. She excelled in Defense Against the Dark Arts and was high of the class.

7. Did they have lots of friends as a child? Did they keep any of their childhood friends into adulthood?

Her first friends were George Weasley, Fred Weasley, and Nyla Sparks. Hogwarts became her home more than what the Malfoy Manor did and the four of them were in an extremely knitted group which made her feel accepted.

8. Did they have pets as a child? Do they have pets as an adult? Do they like animals?

Vulpecula LOVES animals, her favorite being hippogriffs (which is going to fun writing her scene in POA when Hagrid shows the students Buckbeak) As a familiar for her Fourth Year, she buys a tawny owl and names him Lockey.

#vulpecula malfoy #oc asks #fic: mischief managed #stardust44 #my ocs

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x0401x · 5 years ago

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Hi there! Just want to thank you so much for translating for the VE fandom! I've been looking through your VE posts and noticed you mentioned how anime!Gil is completely different from LN!Gil. I agree with you and was wholeheartedly disappointed in the anime. I was hoping you could elaborate more on your thoughts, where you thought anime!Gil and anime!Violet went wrong and how they were different from the anime. Sorry if you've already made a post on this previously. Thanks again!

Hi! You’re welcome!

This reply took me long enough, lol. I haven’t gone too much into detail, or else I’d just end up writing a bible. It still turned out long as hell, though, so I’ve put it under a cut.

I really didn’t know how to begin with this. “Where they went wrong” kinda implies that those two were going right until some point, and that’s just… not the case. They were a trainwreck from start to finish. And it’s kind of impossible to really discuss this without touching upon the massive fails in the writing of the entire show. It does try to convey important messages to the viewers, but mostly with visuals and repetitive lines, never with the actual plot or the characters. You get an inkling of what the story was attempting to do with them, and that initial idea is what seems to stay with most people, because there’s nearly nothing beyond it.

As director Ishidate has stated more than once before, he made changes to the story because he thought the novel was, in his words, “too orthodox”. But watering it down meant watering the characters down too, Gil and Violet more than anyone else. And this results in a show that ironically fails to grasp its own themes and cast — the personalities and conflicts get lost in the details and have to be patched up with excuses that end up displaying how little the show trusts its own audience. It keeps spelling out plot devices and character traits in an almost robotic manner, with very scarce effort put into actually showcasing them in the situations and dialogues. Everyone is too one-dimensional and the main plot line is repeated over and over instead of being alluded in parallels or even just slightly more intelligent exchanges. Animators like Ishidate have grown dangerously used to committing a grave narrative suicide: to give vague and unconvincing reasons for things to be the way they are and expect the audience to take it all as is simply because it was stated there. Everything is oversimplified because they clearly want the viewers to get invested in the emotional baggage of the show, and only the emotional baggage, because they think that’s all we get invested on. They forget that details are necessary for the whole experience.

These problems are recurrent in Violet and Gil, and they never stop. I’ll start with Gil, since he was mentioned first.

Gilbert Bougainvillea is a very complex, humane and multi-faceted character in the novel. What’s interesting is that he doesn’t look like it at first, so he surprised many readers in volume 1 with how caring and endearing he can be. And I mean caring for real. Anime!Gil seemed like a poor excuse for what he was supposed to represent, which in turn made him into a walking contradiction. In the novel, Gil is by far the person that emphasizes the most with Violet, because the two of them are two sides of the same coin. This is where the anime falls short most frequently. They at first look like polar-opposites, but are absolutely not, yet the show portrays them as such. Novel!Gil is gratuitously kind and righteous, and he’s brave and pure-hearted enough to stand by his values no matter what. He’s used to giving up everything for the sake of other people, but he has morals that he holds to the roots of his very being, so he always chooses to donate himself to what he deems as good causes. And once he has his mind set on an objective, he doesn’t mind playing dirty to achieve it, as long as he’s not hurting anyone. That’s exactly the same as Violet, and Gil isn’t the only one who sees himself in her — Hodgins and Dietfried also notice how alike the two are. Novel!Gil relates to Violet on a spiritual level, and he knows first-hand how she must feel. He’s been there and done that. And that’s why she’s his number one priority. His purpose in life is to protect her and keep her in a healthy lifestyle within a blessed working environment and a loving family. Quite literally, all he wants is to make sure that she’s happy, and he’s active and vocal about it. He’s also an unapologetic and unabashed feminist, so he completely approves of her doing anything for a living — she doesn’t need to live her life like an ordinary woman and whatever she wants for herself is fine, as long as it’s not too dangerous.

Apparently, his personality is one of the book aspects that Ishidate believed to be “too orthodox”. He depicts Gil the way you’d expect any male creator to depict a man — a brooding martyr figure who only has a heart of gold in fleeting moments that get replayed again and again in flashbacks to serve as justification for Violet’s undying love. He makes very little strides and there’s a lot of flawed reasoning behind his affection that makes it oddly disconnected, which is the fact that said affection is barely ever there. Gil hardly treats Violet like a person, let alone an equal. Violet is ready to give her life for him anytime, and as we see in the last battle at Intense, he’s ready to cling onto that to save his own life. Ishidate doesn’t shy away from making very evident that he thinks it’s okay for Gil to do only the minimum to earn Violet’s respect and trust, like it’s a given and all he’s required in order to earn her love is to exist. This is very visible in scenes like the one where they first met. Gil seems to shield Violet from the abuse of his brother, but shows next to no distress or even interest over it as he doesn’t even question where she came from or why Dietfried was treating her that way. There’s also the scene where he takes her to one of his family’s residences, and she has his jacket on, just like in the novel… yet he’s letting her walk barefoot in the snow without giving a single flying fuck. He then leaves her side as soon as he instructs the maid what to do with her, not looking back. I also hate that scene where he gets back home and she bumps into him and falls on her butt. He just stares at her and makes no effort to help her back up. But the one I hate the most is that festival scene where he nearly thanks Violet for fighting so well in battle. I mean, she’s killing people for him. She, a literal child, is in the frontlines of a long-lasting war, risking her life and committing mass murder for his sake. That’s literally nothing to be grateful for. Especially not when he’s supposed to love her. And I despise that he only stopped himself from finishing the phrase because he noticed the bruises on her.

Another major defect of the anime was changing Gil’s backstory. Anime!Gil was, by the looks of it, just a rich kid who enlisted simply because that’s the family tradition. And if you take away Gil’s backstory, you take away the viewers’ reason to empathize with him. Why? Because that means he’s morphed into someone who can make choices. Erase any factor that binds Gil to doing what his family and his superiors make him do, and what you have is a grown man with his free will intact. And he uses none of it to help Violet. Anime!Gil was always given the opportunity to say no. He could’ve said no to Dietfried and sent Violet straight to the Evergardens, he could’ve said no to his superior officer and not taken her into the military, or he could’ve at least said no to assigning her to the men’s troops. He didn’t because there would be no story otherwise. Novel!Gil is always attempting to save Violet from the war and from herself, while anime!Gil’s actions beg to differ. And so, anime!Violet’s obsession with Gil stems from the fact that he was the first to treat her remotely like a human being and that, for a long time, he was all she had. None of that fate thing, because it’s also “too orthodox”. But without the fate element and without Gil having no control whatsoever over how he feels about Violet, he’s straight-up a pedophile. If he feels regular romantic love for Violet, who is in her mid-teens, that’s pedophilia right there. This one is my biggest beef with anime!Gil, and I don’t take criticism for it.

Now Violet. Not to be rude, but I see so many people talk about how interesting her anime counterpart is, yet I rarely ever see anyone going in-depth on it. It’s like the way the fans talks about the show. Literally every single person who comments that they liked it always says the exact same thing: “I cried during every episode”. I sort of feel like most of them are just reproducing what they see other people say out there, which is probably what got them interested in watching it in the first place. I don’t mean this with ill-intent; it’s just seriously the impression I get from looking at the tag. I’ve accompanied it since the novel came out all the way back in 2015, and when the show was running, believe it or not, I didn’t really see much of those comments. It started becoming a habit to say it after episode 10, which seems to be the highest-rating episode (the irony being that it was the closest the anime ever got to the novels). Hence why it feels to me like some people just say it on automatic, and I get the same vibe from the fans of anime!Violet.

I’ll just be blunt here: the main difference between anime!Violet and canon!Violet is that canon!Violet was made to be liked by girls and women, and anime!Violet was made to be liked by men. I have already said this before, but Violet is the very definition of independent professional woman in the novel. She’s educated, confident, strong, reliable, altruistic and overall well-versed in at least a little bit of everything. Half of it is due to luck and half of it is her own merits, but all in all, she was created not just to be relatable but also a character that people could look up to. Meanwhile, anime!Violet was clearly made to be waifubait.

I can’t really stress how little thought was actually put into her portrayal and development. We never truly see her internalizing the lessons that she supposedly learns in each of the self-contained episodes. We only ever witness her displaying sudden significant hints of emotion at convenient times, paired to her either repeating what she was told earlier by one of the characters or taking an extremely obvious conclusion to a question that was already half-answered by someone else. Because of this, Violet’s growth process has an unsteady pacing in the anime and mostly feels disjointed. In comparison, novel!Violet is usually not the point of view — she’s often in the role of observer, and we notice through the solutions she comes up with for her clients’ issues that she does have a very humane connection with them. We also notice through the clients’ opinions on Violet that she shows subtle changes at certain specific points, such as smiling just a little when she manages to not only accomplish her duties but also help solve their problems. This makes her more real and believable because, unlike the anime, it presents no abrupt alteration to the essence of her person. She’s growing in her own way, but it’s still easy to tell. It’s also very clever to have Violet be disliked or misunderstood by her clients at first because she’s so aloof and apathetic-looking, but then she grows on them after they actually understand her, and the readers can absorb that from them. I’ve seen many people complain that they can’t really empathize with anime!Violet, but in the novel, the author takes care not to let this happen, and it really doesn’t.

What upsets me the most is that anime!Violet is overly infantilized. We all know that director Ishidate loves her like a father loves a daughter; it’s been said by himself and his colleagues quite a lot. That’s cute and all, but it made her depiction extremely shallow. The biggest problem was making her 14 in the anime. I still struggle to understand what would’ve been so bad with keeping her as a 17-year-old. Sum that up with removing many of her merits and adding forceful childish traits, such as being okay with changing clothes anywhere in front of anyone or pouting when she’s frustrated, and you have the perfect recipe of what waifu junkies like to be spoon-fed with. In my opinion, anime!Violet was a downgraded tragic heroine played in a cheap and boring way to attract tearjerker lovers.

I hope this has covered enough of my take on the matter. ✌️

#violet evergarden #gilbert bougainvillea

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xo-meow · 6 years ago

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𝕯𝖊𝖘𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖞 𝕬𝖜𝖆𝖎𝖙𝖘: The Pirates

(This is a repost because Tumblr is stupid. Not all things in the original post are included in this post but it’s close enough. It sucks because the other has 125 notes :/ )

Rank/Role: Captain

Background: Hongjoong was an orphan much of his young life. His father was a baron, his mother a slave. As evidence of their affair, Hongjoong was immediately cast into the streets, saved only by an orphan house mother who found him moments after he was left. When he was 8, a captain, the original owner of the Destiny, took him in. From there, Hongjoong worked his way up from cabin boy to first mate, an unpopular decision among the original crew of the Destiny. When the original captain was killed, much of the original crew left to find new ships and captains. Hongjoong was alone for a year before he ran into Seonghwa who helped him gather a new crew.

Facts:

Called the Pirate King because he rose to Captain so fast and because he and his crew evade capture with ease

Considered one of the most fearsome pirates

Can be slightly sadistic sometimes

Has many death warrants

Best with guns

Is actually a very soft human being with a hard outer shell

Really cares for his crew

Considers them his children

Would die for them but really doesn’t want them to do the same

Rank/Role: Quartermaster, Boatswain, Cook

Background: Seonghwa is the fourth son of an innkeeper from a seaside town. He found piracy when a crew attacked and ransacked his town when he was young. Though it wasn’t his first aspiration in life, he turned to it because his mother and father both died in the attack. He spent his early years hopping from ship to ship, serving the different crews and learning the ways of the ship. By the time he met Hongjoong, he could run a ship in his sleep. With his connections and knowledge, he helped Hongjoong round up a crew for the Destiny.

Facts:

Is scared of crocodiles

The most trustworthy and mature member of the crew

The person Hongjoong trusts the most

Is vicious in battle

But is a mother to the crew

Makes sure all of the crew are well fed and healthy

Often scolds members of the crew like a mother

Stretches himself too thin sometimes because he tries to take care of everything and everyone

Favorite thing to call Hongjoong and the crew is ‘idiot’ because there’s always something going wrong

Rank/Role: Medic

Background: Yunho is the son of a town doctor. Learning from his father, Yunho became skilled in the medical field at a young age and began traveling when he was 16 to help other people. He eventually found his way to the Destiny when he patched up San and Wooyoung, earning the trust of the crew soon after. Out of the crew members, he is the most likely to take off and not be seen for days when the ship docks in a town.

Facts:

He doesn’t like to fight but he will if he has to

Generally abstains from most immoral activities

Doesn’t like to read (don’t ask him how he became a medic)

Closest to Mingi, who he knew before both of them became pirates

Keeps the crews spirits up

Is a jokester

Doesn’t understand how the crew gets hurt so often

Has a habit of listening to Seonghwa more than Hongjoong

Ultimately is very loyal to Hongjoong

Rank/Role: Sailing Master/Navigator

Background: Yeosang is the eighth son of the King of New Goryeo. Growing up in the palace, he studied hard and is the smartest of all of his brothers excluding the crown prince. On his way back to the palace after an excursion, his caravan was attacked. He was kidnapped by the attackers and was traded and sold for years until he landed in Hongjoong and Seonghwa’s hands. He is on the Destiny against his will, but he doesn’t hate it.

Facts:

Smartest of the crew and the only formally educated member

Loves to watch the stars and the sky

Has a birthmark on the left side of his face trailing from his eye that he covers up so as not to be recognized as the prince

Wants to fly one day

Often puts the crew before himself

Excellent swordsman but doesn’t like to fight

Has expressed desires to at least let his family know that he’s alive but understands that it would be dangerous for the crew as well as himself

The crew love to hear him sing because he has a beautiful voice

Often builds small machines to try to make them fly (always fails)

Rank/Role: Master Gunner

Background: San was born into the life of a pirate. His father was the quartermaster for another ship and his mother was the helmswoman. He knew his way around a ship by the time he could walk and start training to be a gunner as soon as he was of age. The ship he grew up was eventually sunk in a battle with another ship, a day where he lost his father as well. His mother is the one that directed him to the Destiny after a conversation with Hongjoong, who she was familiar with as her crew were friendly with the original Destiny crew.

Facts:

Is one of the more flirtatious members of the crew

Is dangerous when pissed off

Often ends up covered in blood by the end of a battle

Likes when battles occur because he can get his aggression out in a “safe” way

Is actually a softie though

Loves Wooyoung, has jokingly mentioned marrying him

Giggles all the time

Is always happy and playful unless around enemies or strangers

Rank/Role: First Mate

Background: Born in the same town as Yunho, Mingi is one of four children born to the Reeve of their town. His father abused his power often, playing the town for a fool and working in cohorts with the bailiff and lord to make things as hard as possible for the less fortunate. His father, mother, and siblings were killed once the town found out what his father had done. Mingi barely escaped, running from the town desperately and passing out near Yunho’s home. They became friends and when Yunho left, so did Mingi, though they eventually went separate ways. Seonghwa invited Mingi to be part of the crew at the recommendation of Yunho.

Facts:

Very diligent. Makes sure all the duties on the ship are done correctly

Enjoys battle, but only because he does so well at it

Has a back injury stemming from his attempted murder when he was younger

Dislikes unnecessary conflict

Is often found at Yunho’s side

Kind of a coward when just around the crew

Sleeps a lot once he has time

Loves to eat, especially on the off chance Seonghwa is able to make chicken

Always searches for a hot spring wherever they dock

Rank/Role: Gunner, Lookout

Background: Wooyoung was born the son of a prostitute, and lived his first few years of life in a closet in the brothel where his mother worked. His mother never really cared what he did so he ended up running away at a very young age and found odd jobs around this town and that one, eventually ending up in a port town. He stayed there for a majority of his life, only leaving when Hongjoong, at the prompting of Seonghwa, offered him a place on the Destiny.

Facts:

Is one of the stronger members of the crew

Has amazing eyesight and an amazing sense of smell

Has learned to read the wind and sea and can tell when they’re close to land without even seeing it

Follows San’s lead most of the time

The other flirtatious member

Is very playful when not in the presence of enemies

Decently close to Yeosang and tries to make him comfortable

Has a problem with women following him back to the ship because they fell in love with him at first sight

Rank/Role: Gunner, Rigger

Background: Jongho comes from an upper-class family. He is one of six children and felt trapped in his home and family so he ran. He’s not very world experienced, but he did his best to survive. He almost was caught for stealing when Seonghwa found him and gave him a home as well as freedom on the Destiny.

Facts:

Is the youngest member of the crew, yet is the strongest

A very skilled rigger, somewhat due to his strength

Doesn’t like battle, but is skilled nonetheless due to the crew’s instruction

Doesn’t like a lot of rules and regulations

Pretty inexperienced when it comes to the world, though he has seen the horrors of it

Is very brave, up for trying anything once, even if he thinks it’ll lead to trouble

Feels that he owes Seonghwa his life so he is most loyal to Seonghwa, though he is loyal to Hongjoong as well

Eats a lot, maybe even more than Mingi

Likes to break apples in half for fun

ATEEZ

Don’t generally kill innocents or take captives

Only vicious to their enemies and perceived threats

Still plunder towns and villages for gold and supplies

Can be kind of stupid with Hongjoong and Seonghwa’s guidance

#ateez #ateez au #ateez pirate au #ateez imagines #ateez scenarios #kpop #kpop au #kpop imagines #kpop scenarios #lovely-sanie #s: destiny awaits

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gatorsnot · 6 years ago

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a bunch of personal warriors headcanons because why tf not

kinda a long post so check them out below the cut!

- “brat cat” is a derogatory term for a kittypet. the kittypet stereotype falls into two categories: the “fat and lazy” types that are most frequently brought up in canon and the “spoiled, holier-than-thou” types that openly denounce clan cats and other ferals because they don’t have the “alliance” with twolegs that allows them to be fed and protected by them. these “brat cat” kittypets are the smug assholes that look down their noses at the clans because their beloved owners chase them off with brooms for being “lowly, unbecoming strays” that have to actually HUNT for their food and FIGHT for their turf while THEY just have the luxury of having it all handed to them. undoubtedly more likely to taunt the clan cats into a fight but they definitely get cold paws and the last minute and fuckin bounce because they’re humongous cowards that just like to talk big

- cinderpelt has the doofiest, purest smile than could brighten anyone’s day. she gets it from her dad lionheart

- whitepaw got teased a lot at her first gathering because the other apprentices found out she was brightheart’s daughter and would LOUDLY and OBNOXIOUSLY shout awful shit like “mutant spawn incoming!!” and “UGH i wouldn’t DARE show MY face at a gathering or even on a PATROL if MY mother looked like THAT” and birchpaw just strolled up and was like “haha yeah and if you keep saying that shit you won’t have to worry about showing your face anywhere because i’LL CLAW IT OFF”

- darkstripe admired tigerstar so much because he was the only kit in the nursery during his youth and tawnyspots was too sick to spend much time with him. like, he admired tigerclaw a great deal because he was constantly trying to show off how strong and cool he was and while the warriors mostly got annoyed with him and the apprentices always made fun of him, tigerclaw mostly just...tolerated him more than the others (perhaps out of a bit of pity because his father was never around for him either and he was the only kit in the nursery once, though he’d never admit this out loud). once darkpaw became tigerclaw’s apprentice the pitying definitely came to a halt because darkpaw turned out to be a poor fighter and sub par hunter, but was very cocky and just tried waaaay too hard to gain attention and praise in general, and as he gradually got better at things, the arrogance got to his head a lot more. needless to say, tigerclaw was IMMENSELY relieved once darkstripe became a warrior, only to be dismayed that darkstripe would always stick to him like a burr on his haunches regardless.

- runts aren’t necessarily considered helpless by default or lost causes by the clans. in windclan, they’re believed to be able to run much faster than their clanmates on the moor or become the best tunnelers. in thunderclan, they’re lighter on their paws and can sneak up on prey much quieter than their heavier counterparts. in riverclan, they’re very efficient swimmers and fishers that are especially good at diving. in shadowclan, they can chase frogs and rats and can be concealed better in shadowy areas of the marsh. all smaller-than-average cats are also praised in battle for their agility and speed, as their size makes them difficult targets. the only main concerns for them are illnesses being too hard for their bodies to fight off.

- firestar didn’t enjoy the kittypet life at all, but he did secretly miss his twolegs for a time and worried about them until he found out about them adopting hattie. their happiness was the most important thing to him even after he joined thunderclan.

- willowpelt didn’t conceive graystripe with patchpelt, but instead with a kittypet she had a classic summertime romance with. they ended their relationship on good terms after the father decided the kits would fare better as clan cats, and willowpelt raised graystripe alone without naming a father to the clan. everyone silently assumes that whitestorm sired graystripe (i just hate that the patch x willow thing...they’re siblings)

- the grief he felt after silverstream’s death (added on by the additional stress of his whole life catching up to him in his old age) very likely contributed to crookedstar’s death from greencough.

- swiftpaw had a really fantastic and close relationship with bramblekit and tawnykit as their half-brother, he always visited them and their mother in the nursery and played with them or brought them treats whenever he could. the pair were utterly destroyed when they learn that he was killed by the dogs.

- appledusk looked remarkably similar to crookedstar, hence why mapleshade targeted him specifically (tho it WOULD be interesting to wonder if she haunted reedshine’s kits and / or shellheart or at least attempted to...hmm)

- cloudtail’s kittypet name was “cotton” during the time he was sneaking to twolegplace for food as an apprentice (after his super fluffy white fur), pinestar’s was “dusty” after he left thunderclan (i know he refers to himself as “pine” at the end of his novella but i honestly doubt his owners called him that lmao; they named him that because he was dirty all the time), and graystripe’s was “pouncer” when he was captured (because of his numerous escape attempts and stuff)

- reena undoubtedly had a crush on talltail and wanted to be his mate, but she was perfectly fine after she put two and two together and realized that he loved jake and didn’t want to interfere with their happiness

- snowfur was completely and utterly disgusted by thistleclaw’s actions toward spottedpaw, and the first thing she does when spottedleaf dies and comes to starclan is apologize profusely for her former mate’s despicable behavior. spottedleaf tells her not to apologize for his atrocity and the two become quite good friends

- sunfall / sunstar had romantic feelings for moonflower and the two of them had always been close friends, but he ultimately respected her decision to be with stormtail. however, he did quietly disapprove of how emotionally distant he was towards his mate and daughters, as he never seemed to interact with them much or even seem to care that he had a family. after moonflower’s death and stonepelt’s early retirement, sunfall directly asked pinestar if he could have bluepaw, feeling that he owed it to the late moonflower to ensure that her kit had the best education. pinestar likely knew about his loyalty to the fallen warrior and his interest in her, so he agreed.

- brambleberry and echomist [nudge nudge lesbians in my stormstar au nudge nudge] DEFINITELY took on the roles of being crookedstar’s adoptive mothers after rainflower disowned him

- breezepelt is a very good daddy to smokehaze, brindlewing, woodkit/paw, and applekit/paw as he always had the desire to be a better parent than crowfeather ever was to him [yes...i read crowfeather’s trial and know all that went on, but still]. his relationship with heathertail is ridiculously dorky in private, since he’s always had a soft spot for her

- sometimes cats with some kind of plant in their name [stuff like “leaf”, “flower”, “stem”, “branch”, “petal”, and so on you get the drill] try to have a piece of whatever plant from their namesake in their fur somewhere [ex: hollyleaf had a holly berry and leaf tucked in by her ear, goldenflower had the stem and flower of something woven around her tail, so on and so forth]. cats with feather or bird prefixes or suffixes try to do the same with feathers

- there’s an old myth that says kits born on the night of a full moon are suspected to grow up and become leaders someday. some cats believe this to be true, while others don’t

- as it is stated that cats must fast during their journeys to the moonstone and moonpool, it is considered a sin to kill prey at both sites. for example, if a cat were to kill a mouse or something in the caves of mothermouth or around the moonpool, their kill is considered to be pollution of the sacred ground and is to be promptly discarded somewhere else, as it would be considered insulting to starclan if they eat it. punishments for breaking this rule depend on the medicine cat or the leader.

- killing a medicine cat is like, one of the WORST atrocities any clan cat could do. it’s as horrific and treasonous as killing a leader, as the medicine cat not only keeps the clan healthy, they also communicate with starclan. imagine someone walking up and killing some sort of religious leader right in front of their congregation. pretty heinous, right? exactly the clans’ point. the only reasons a medicine cat would be killed was if they were intentionally committing treason against their clan [intentionally causing harm through malpractice or intentionally sending false signs from starclan] or if they were gravely ill or injured themselves to the point where they would be better off put out of their misery

- female leaders and deputies can indeed have kits of their own. mothers who happen to be leader usually keep her litters inside the leader’s den instead of moving to the nursery; it’s private, warm, clean, and well-protected. leader mothers can still partake in regular duties such as arranging patrols and hunting parties, addressing the clan, and holding ceremonies, and either has another queen look after her kits should she be absent for some occasion [like a gathering] or leave them with their father if he is involved. deputy mothers, while they most often end up going to the nursery since they usually sleep in the warriors’ den, can also carry out their own duties while another queen looks after her kits in her absence. all that matters is that the kits are loved and properly cared for.

- as for the unnamed diseases that have killed characters, here’s my takes: tawnyspots died of feline leukemia, pebblefur and shellheart died of stomach cancer, sweetpaw died from complications caused by intestinal parasites (very likely worms that resulted in a blockage), leopardstar died of diabetes (confirmed), ravenpaw died of liver cancer (confirmed), goosefeather died of encephalitis (inflammation of the brain usually caused by infection, confirmed), petalfall died from epilepsy (confirmed), and dandelionkit, mistkit, and nightkit died of fading kitten syndrome (essentially the cat version of failure to thrive). i also think the whitecough is a chest cold, greencough is pneumonia, and that yellowcough could’ve very possibly been feline distemper, but idk

- adoption is considered very noble. i personally really fucking hate the attitude of characters who were adopted finding out and being like “i have been BETRAYED...i can’t believe these ABSOLUTE SCUM loved me, raised me, fed me, protected me, when they were NEVER even related to me by BLOOD? absolutely despicable, i must find my REAL parents and be loved by THEM instead...even if they are total assholes or want nothing to do with me...i can’t believe i was stupid enough to believe these IMPOSTORS were ever really my parents...” it’s just a really stupid mindset?? taking in another’s kits for whatever reason (the mother dies, the parents didn’t want kits, etc.) is considered a great service on the same level as raising their own biological kits. now whether or not said kits grow up and want to confront their birth parents about giving them to someone else or want to know them better is entirely up to them. the clans see adopted kits are better than abandoned ones that could very easily die from exposure or predators, or going through the possibility of them living in an abusive situation because they weren’t wanted or were unable to be cared for correctly.

- speaking of kits, the reason we have the standard “one to four” litter sizes is that overpopulation would be a problem. the average queen in real life can give birth to three to five kittens in a litter, which isn’t too far off from the quantity in the warriorsverse, but also bear in mind real queens can have as many as TEN kittens in a single litter and occasional more. think about it: the mother would need to eat a lot to produce enough milk for numerous mouths; the kits will grow older and want to explore, and there’s a very high risk of one of them slipping out of camp unnoticed and getting into trouble or danger if they’re from a large litter; plus they’ll wean from their mothers and move on to fresh-kill, and a stampede of ten or so hungry kits is going to leave hardly anything for anyone else in the clan, even if they share their food (not to mention, large litters would undoubtedly suffer the greatest during famine, outbreaks of disease, or prey shortages...that’s a lot of bellies to fill and illnesses spread quickly). so tbh i can see where the erins are coming from with the smaller litter sizes in the series, as we all know feral cats are notorious breeding machines

- i do have a few names picked out for kits and apprentices that didn’t live to be warriors, so here’s a few: mosskit would’ve been named mossheart (after her father, oakheart); swiftpaw would’ve been either swiftclaw, swiftstream, swiftwing, or swiftwind; ravenpaw would’ve been ravenflight or ravenswoop (i know he didn’t die but yknow, fun to speculate); sweetpaw would’ve been sweetberry or sweetsong; shrewpaw would’ve been shrewstep; wishkit and hopekit would’ve been wishlight and hopeshine; mistkit and nightkit would’ve been mistfur and nightstone; seedpaw would’ve been seedfern; molepaw would’ve been molenose; gorsepaw would’ve been gorsefire (named after firestar); willowkit and minnowkit (silverstream’s sisters) would’ve been named willoweyes and minnowclaw; snowkit would’ve been snowcloud; finchkit (tallstar’s sister) would’ve been finchfeather; marigoldkit and mintkit would’ve been marigoldleaf and mintfoot; lynxkit would’ve been lynxfang; adderkit would’ve been adderthroat; blossomkit would’ve been blossomsnow; and juniperkit and dandelionkit would’ve been junipertail and dandeliondust.

- darktail was a HUMONGOUS mama’s boy. he loved smoke with all his heart, would’ve done anything for her, and all he wanted in life was to make her proud of him. smoke was also a pretty good mother to him, feeling like she had to make up for her mistake of mating with a clan cat and fawning over darktail because he was the only survivor of the litter. i like to believe that smoke struggled with mental and emotional issues after being rejected by onewhisker/star, and would go off on furious tangents about how horrible clan cats were. darktail grew up watching smoke have these episodes, so he learned to hunt and fight and practiced really hard to she would be happy. needless to say, he was completely crushed when smoke died and mourned her heavily for a long time, and said grief undoubtedly contributed to him pushing so hard to abolish the clans.

- thornclaw and blossomfall were never actually in love, they only had kits together because blossomfall wanted some and thornclaw was getting older and wanted to contribute before he retired to the elders’ den

- brokenstar’s regime was a lot, and i mean a LOT crueler than what the readers were delivered:

she-cats were forced to get pregnant as often as possible, even if they weren’t interested. as soon as their bodies were able to bear more kits after the birth of one litter, brokenstar ensured that they would mate and be impregnated again asap. queens were often overwhelmed by having numerous kits to care for at a time, both older and younger, which led to much neglect the majority of the time. not that brokenstar cared, because to him, more kits meant more warriors. the stolen kits also added to the hoarding. infertile she-cats were often exiled for “not contributing to shadowclan’s destiny of greatness”.

speaking of stolen kits, i like to think that he ordered shadowclan to steal some windclan kits before driving them out of the forest. these kits didn’t fare very well, as they were smaller and skinnier and not as hardy as shadowclan kits, and many of them died save a few. it’s unknown if the stolen kits that did survive brokenstar’s reign ever returned to windclan or spent the rest of their lives in shadowclan since they spent so long there and would struggle to relearn living on the moor.

cats were forbidden from hunting for fresh-kill, as brokenstar believed that all physical and mental energy should be focused on fighting and fighting alone. in the place of prey, they often ate garbage and the carcasses of already-dead animals they found. needless to say, this left everyone prone to illness and nearly all of shadowclan was severely malnourished.

runningnose was forced to present false prophecies and omens to the clan because brokenstar and his main goons forced him to. they were all talk of how shadowclan would rule the forest, all the other clans would fear and serve them and see them as superior in every way. while only brokenstar and his team of muscleheads believed him (and some kits / younger apprentices who were too little to know any better), nearly everyone knew these signs were bullshit.

fighting among clanmates was nearly constant. most of it was brutal battle practice, while other times it was over pitiful scraps of rotten food or disagreements over how the clan was running. usually cats that tried to leave or go for help were killed or “disappeared”.

- quince went searching for tiny / scourge after she saw that he had run away. she encountered the same two kittypets who warned him not to go into the woods, and explained that he hadn’t listened to them. quince then went into the forest and finally caught scent of her son’s blood and found his bell, and assumed that the clan cats she also smelled in the area had killed him.

- smudge honestly considered following rusty into the forest to join the clans with him despite being terrified of them, as he feared for his best friend’s safety and was heartbroken that he decided to leave. the only reason he didn’t is because he also was worried that his twolegs would miss him and that the clans wouldn’t accept him.

- heathertail and kestrelflight are sister and brother, being born to onestar and whitetail.

- before the whole fire fiasco, ashfur was very, VERY pissed to see that squirrelflight had supposedly gotten pregnant by brambleclaw. when jaykit, hollykit, and lionkit were born and suckled by ferncloud, he ending up straining his relationship with his sister by being very against it, using the whole “brambleclaw’s father killed our mother” thing as a reason why she shouldn’t be caring for them. ferncloud knew that her brother had taken squirrelflight’s rejection very poorly, but she never expected him to take it out on a litter of kits, so she cut ties with him. “those kits should’ve been mine anyway” and “they’ll turn out just like tigerstar” were things often muttered under ashfur’s breath. needless to say, he was less than thrilled to find out he would be mentoring lionpaw, and we all know how their relationship turned out after awhile.

- as stated in canon, daisy and spiderleg’s relationship was never based on the fact that they loved each other; they both felt pressured to supply kits for the clan (daisy because she was tired of some cats thinking she was just there to take up space and made assumptions about her loner roots, and spiderleg because he simply felt that it was his duty). they had a one-night stand, which resulted in toadstep and rosepetal.

- sleekwhisker was like, no doubt trying to force her way to darktail’s side as his main lackey (which she kinda was in canon) and possibly his mate. it was a “love for power” sort of situation rather than her genuinely wanting a life with him, while i don’t think darktail looked at her even as the “boss’s favorite floozy” kind of girl. sleek was more focused on that sweet sense of superiority and control, and darktail likely knew that, so always shot down her advances. they both were pretty much after the same thing, sleekwhisker only kept up a facade of a blushing she-cat wanting a big, strong leader for a mate while darktail was basically more concerned with what he already had going for him, not love or hooking up.

- bone is barley, violet. hoot / snake, and jumper / ice’s father. though he never actually spoke up about having kits, his sons’ striking resemblance to him and violet’s resemblance to a she-cat bone had been talking to kinda wrapped the question of their parentage among the bloodclan population pretty quickly. their mother fell ill and died unexpectedly, and bone was certainly never active in their lives, so he never stepped up to finish raising them. he didn’t really even care he had children or that his mate died, it was just something that happened.

- i like to think that berrynose and poppyfrost accidentally ended up falling in love in the midst of helping each other get through the grief of losing honeyfern

- lizardstripe actually ENCOURAGED her kits to bully brokenkit when she wasn’t abusing him herself. she wanted to make it clear to him that he would NEVER be accepted into their family fold, and excused her litter’s behavior as them “toughening him up” since he had to learn to stand up for himself “as he’s got no family outside raggedpelt, it seems”. she was just a shit mother in general, not caring much for her own kits already but she sure as HELL wasn’t going to look after one that wasn’t hers at all. brokenkit was a little burden and pest to lizardstripe, and she wanted to drive that message home as hard as she could, not once stopping to think about the consequences...

#dawn speaks #warriors #warrior cats #headcanons

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mountphoenixrp · 5 years ago

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We have a returning citizen in Mount Phoenix:

Seshat, the Goddess of Literature and Writing, whose origins stem from Ancient Egypt. She is now a historian at Phoenix Library & Museum and professor at Phoenix University.

FC NAME/GROUP: Park Minyoung, Actress GOD NAME: Seshat PANTHEON: Egyptian OCCUPATION: Historian at Phoenix Library and Museum & Professor of World History/Ancestry at Phoenix University HEIGHT: 5'5" | 165cm WEIGHT: 125 lbs | 53kg DEFINING FEATURES: a patch of leopard print tattooed across her left shoulder, starting on her shoulder blade and spilling onto her collarbone - like a sash across her shoulder. Known to always have a pen or pencil in her hair or behind her ear, sometimes both.

PERSONALITY: The goddess of knowledge has always been a hard worker, her work never ending - leaving her with little to no time for anything other than work. It became almost impossible to see where her pen began and she ended. Something changed in her this time. The endless routine of her work lulling her into a zombified state more often than not has drained her almost completely of all life. The lifeless shell of her body roaming the library halls, recording and translating texts. Not anymore. She awoke this time completely of her own accord, a zest for something outside of her work consuming her. No longer would she choose to sit on the sidelines and live through the lives of others in her minds eye. She wants to spread knowledge, knowledge of history to the young minds in the school she’s always worked in and out of. Seshat is more confident, just as blunt as always, vivacious, and ready to live her best life outside of a library for once in her immortal life.

HISTORY: Crumbling;;

Seshat remained stoic as the doorway to her home crumbled, trapping all that she held dear inside. She was ready to spend all of her immortal days inside the House of Life, surrounded by her texts, artifacts and the dead who kept her company. Until it all came crumbling down. The goddess stayed in Cairo a while before feeling useless, so she changed her face and moved on to another city and another library. Until she grew useless there, her vast wisdom becoming too much, so again she changed face and moved to another museum. This was her cycle for many years. Seshat would stay in one town or city until her vast knowledge became too much to hide or was used to its limits. Until she learned of a new place, recorded and created just for those of her kind.

Quiet;;

The goddess knows the exact date she moved into the Phoenix Library. She’s practically lived there as long as it’s existed, going unnoticed by all but the Head Curator - the rotating boss of hers who knows who she is and what she does. No one bothers the goddess as she goes about her work, millennia’s worth of records to be kept and cared for as well as written. She is surrounded by living people now but, just as many texts and artifacts as the House of Life - this library felt the most like home than any other. Children come to her with questions, the quiet goddess known amongst residents as the “Walking Encyclopedia”. She doesn’t give students or children their answers easily she makes them work for them, taking joy in watching them peruse the stacks for a hint. Seshat has been quietly living and working on campus, in the library since it’s construction. Not really taking interest in the residents - until a child pulls her away from her texts just long enough to send her spiraling.

Spiral;;

One too curious demigod later and Seshat is on the precipice of a friendship she did not ask for nor want. Seshat was too involved in her work to care for relationships or friends, she married Thoth - not that it really mattered. She bared the god no children but that didn’t mean she never spiraled before, a few special people have succeeded and removed her from her texts and out into the world. The goddess is no naïve child, she is quite wise and has lived for a long time. It took a very special person to pull Seshat from the loop that was her never ending life’s work. This person was the reason she stood in the middle of Central Park, after only seeing the University campus and the library for so many years this demigod brought Seshat back to the land of the living rather than the records of those long gone.

Overwhelmed;;

The world was different this time and one too many familiar faces that had still changed over time, overwhelmed her. Despite her mind being awake she felt no connection to the outside world, almost afraid to step outside her library. One thing after another, things of her past assaulting her memory, too many questions she refused to answer and- children. She believes it was the shock of meeting one of her children that sent her back into her minds eye. Preferring the never ending images and words in her mind from the billions of people in the world over the few around her everyday. Seshat pulled back into her mind after only a couple months of engaging with the world, it was too much all at once and she was unprepared. So, back to her books, artifacts, and routine she went.

A New Story;;

For the first time in her immortal life, Seshat was bored. Bored of her work, bored of her routine, and she wanted out. Another first rounded the corner at lightening speed as she pulled herself from her own silent zombified state of being. Never had she ever done so herself, it was always someone else who gave her a reason to leave her library but, this time it was of her own accord. Seshat was ready for a change, a change of scenery, a new look, a new attitude, heck even a new career. She was ready to step away from the books, from the library and move into another way of educating the public of their history. So, she moved to the school - taking up a place as a History professor but still making herself available as a historian and translator in the library. She didn’t want to be there everyday but, she knew she would never be able to let the library go fully - it would always be in her heart and who knows… maybe one day she’ll return again.

POWERS: Encyclopedic knowledge of all recorded history, knowledge of every recorded language, knowledge of all recorded artifacts, can write things (objects, animals, people, moments, etc.) into existence using sacred hieroglyphs and papyrus paper STRENGTHS: Logical, Wise, Modest WEAKNESSES: Blunt, Tactless, Fixated

#kpop rp #krp #kdrama #park minyoung #mp; welcome

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asgardian--angels · 6 years ago

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Providing for Pollinators - my Syracuse Wildlife Garden

Hi everyone! Maybe you know me, I am a grad student with a B.S. in Wildlife & Conservation Biology and I study native bees. I am in New York for grad school and my landlady (I live in her personal home with one other PhD student) has agreed to let me turn part of her yard into pollinator habitat. I discussed this prospect a month ago here. On Memorial Day I got to work and finally planted everything!

I thought I would use this opportunity to share my ongoing experience and educate others about the importance and the feasibility of creating pollinator and wildlife habitat in your yard. Please, consider doing even just a little bit to help the natural world this year or in the future. Hopefully the information and resources I provide will be of use.

I will update this post throughout the season as the plants grow and bloom!

This first installment lays out the principles of habitat gardening and thus is pretty lengthy. Part 2 will talk about the plants I chose and include photos of the newly planted garden!

Wildlife habitat in the urban and suburban sphere is crucial going forward in the fight to save our planet from going belly-up. We think of ‘big ag’ as the enemies, and while that’s true, habitat destruction and fragmentation due to development has had just as large an impact, and we are all accountable. Pristine, untouched lawns, silent without birdsong or the buzzing of bees, has somehow become the ideal and a symbol of status and accomplishment (yet another way that western mindset of ‘man vs nature’ rears its ugly head). Few realize the harm that has done, and we’re at the tipping point now. But while we can’t overthrow Monsanto overnight, we can control our own little patch of earth. Reconnect the land, that’s the goal. You’ll find yourself reconnected to it too, in the process. And once you see the amount of thriving life you can support, you’ll never go back to that old turfgrass prison. Creating habitat is its own source of pride, especially knowing you will influence and inspire others to do the same.

There are infinite ways one could construct habitat on their property. It will obviously depend on time, money, desired use of yard (do you have kids? or barbecues? leave some grass), town ordinances, etc. I could have easily ripped up every ounce of turfgrass in the yard, but it’s best to start simple, especially when it’s someone else’s land! I have about a quarter acre to work with - which doesn’t seem like a lot until you realize just how many plants you could fit in there! More so, a quarter acre of habitat where there wasn’t any before sure makes a difference to the wildlife, especially bees, who often nest only a few meters from their host plants and will only travel as far as they need to for food.

Here’s an overview of the ‘before’:

Basically, what we’ve got is a lot of turfgrass and some exotic ornamentals, with a few native trees scattered about at the boundary between the neighbor’s house. Existing plants were hydrangeas, hostas, hellebores, and vinca. I didn’t even know what vinca was (I am rather out of the loop with ornamental plants) so I looked it up, as it seemed very aggressive and had formed a dense mat over much of the ground along the borders of the property. Lo and behold, it is considered invasive in many places, yet it’s sold at pretty much every nursery. It has purple flowers that attract virtually no pollinators, and my landlady loves the darn thing so much she wants it to spread to cover the entire yard if possible. I’ve tried to steer her away from that... a big problem though, was that she did not have any idea what plants were in her yard. Apparently the landscapers did not tell her what they were planting, nor did she seek out the information herself, so I identified them all for her. Maybe it’s just me, but I could never rest not knowing what plants someone put into my ground that I’d have to live with for the next few decades. There’s a huge border of stones at the front of the house, apparently to stop flooding. Let it just be known that stones are pretty dang bad for wildlife habitat, as they do nothing but cover the ground and prevent things from growing. She wanted more stones, I steered her away from that also.

Principles of Habitat Gardening

Insects are good. Insects are what you want. Insects form the foundation of the food web for whatever animals you want to support. This means changing your mindset to see leaf damage as beneficial, something that traditional gardening has drilled into our heads as wrong and ugly. Songbirds rely on caterpillars to raise chicks, and pollinators help plants create fruit, seeds, and nuts, which countless animals rely on. Predatory insects like wasps, mantids, and many true bugs keep populations in check so no plants are ever eaten to fatal levels.

NATIVE PLANTS. How do you attract insects? You plant the things they eat, and that certainly isn’t ornamentals from Eurasia. Insects have long co-evolutionary relationships with specific plants, attuning their tolerance to certain plant defensive compounds. Most butterfly and moth caterpillars eat only a small range of plants, and over half of our bees in North America collect pollen from only one group of plants. These are specialists, and they form a crucial part of biodiversity that’s often left out when habitat is lost and urban sprawl leaves ornamental plants that only a few hardy troopers (the generalists) will tolerate. Native plants are not ~in~ when it comes to gardening though, and it is difficult to find them being sold unless you know where your local native nurseries are. Demanding these plants has slowly begun to change the market, and now some can be found as seeds in places like Home Depot or Lowe’s. Recent studies have shown that songbird nests can fail in suburban areas with a lack of native plants, due to low abundances of insects. If you want birds, once again, provide insects!

Native plants are easier to grow and care for than exotics, because they are adapted to your region, its seasons and climate and precipitation. That’s less manicuring, fertilizing, and pesticide-spraying on your part.

Remember what all animals need - food/water, shelter, and a place to raise young. Providing only one of these things doesn’t do a whole lot of good, as they may stay for a little while but not forever, and you’re not actually creating habitat.

Coarse woody debris - aka logs, stumps, snags, and brush piles - are very useful to wildlife, as sources of food (they host many insects), shelter, and nesting sites (a LOT of birds nest in tree holes and excavated cavities, as well as mammals). Leaving these ‘eyesores’ is doing a lot of good, as well as not raking your leaves (or at least keeping them in a pile) and allowing dead perennial stems to persist through the winter and spring. Bees will be nesting and hibernating inside them!! See? Less work for you, with a hefty payoff.

Diversify as much as you can, in every way you can. Bloom color, bloom time, plant family, leaf texture, growth habit. It will maximize the species you can host in one space.

The goal of creating habitat in your yard is bigger than just inviting pollinators and birds. It’s restoring connectivity to the landscape. Fragmentation of habitat has massive negative effects on wildlife, from mammals and amphibians who need to cross highways and go through yards to get to the next woodlot to the ‘edge effects’ of habitat islands surrounded by parking lots, loud noise, and urban predators. The more people create habitat, the more we ‘plug’ our land back into the larger landscape and help support wildlife at a much bigger scale.

Research, research, research! You need to find what plants are right for your state and region, your soil type and sun levels, and many other specifics only you know. Luckily, there’s plenty of information and books out there to help you (I will recommend some further down).

YOU CAN DO SOMETHING, NO MATTER HOW SMALL. You could own one acre or ten, or maybe just a windowsill or patio garden. Put out a bee hotel. Keep natives in pots (that’s what I do at home). Spread the word (that’s a biggie). You are always able to help.

So, for my situation, we have silty loam soil (you can find yours here), mostly full sun with areas of part-sun and shade. A big problem I had to plan around was the deer, who come through the neighborhood regularly and try to eat the hostas and hydrangeas. Many ornamentals are marketed as ‘deer-resistant’ but a lot of native plants are as well. It has to do mainly with leaf chemistry and texture which equates to some level of palatability. Of course, if they’re very hungry, deer will even eat pine needles. My landlady tasked me with creating habitat that was low maintenance. She is older in age and does not have the time or means to be manicuring everything. Apart from the deer resistance, my landlady also wanted a new groundcover that would thrive in full sun unlike the vinca, because her goal is less lawn to mow. I have a vendetta against the vinca now so I’ve vowed to do all I can do diversify the groundcover. There are many butterflies and moths that rely on various weedy or groundcover plants as caterpillar food (especially violets!). With these criteria, I set out to find a list of plants native to New York available near me for sale that would create a wonderfully diverse wildlife and pollinator garden.

Luckily, central New York has ample resources for this purpose. I utilized the Habitat Gardening in Central New York network heavily, as they have an annual complete buying guide for all native plants in the region being sold by participating nurseries. Audubon, Cornell Habitat Network, Cooperative Extension, Xerces Society, and many others also have information to help. If you’d like a bit of introductory and insightful reading, check this out. Native plants can be bought online as seeds or root stock as well, from places like Prairie Moon Nursery, which caters to the eastern U.S. There are many websites with information on specific plant growing needs, like the Missouri Botanical Garden site.

But wait, there’s more! Don’t forget about our best friend, books! Scientists have been working really hard to gather information and publish it for the public and in the last decade or so a really good handful of books about native landscaping, pollinators, and ecology have come out to aid the everyday person in creating habitat! I want to offer a list of some of my top picks, whether you just want to learn more about the topic or use it as a planning tool, these are pretty readily available at major bookstores.

Books on Pollinators, Ecology, and Native Gardening

#1 - MY ALL TIME FAVORITE!! MY GOSPEL!! Bringing Nature Home by Doug Tallamy (an esteemed professor at U of Delaware, I almost was his grad student). This gorgeous full-color book was the basis for a lot of what we have now and played a major role in introducing the public to the concept of native landscaping. It brought together concepts about the importance of insects, especially herbivorous ones, for birds and wildlife, why and how to support them, the reason we need native plants and why invasives are so harmful, and has a lot of resources and beautiful photos as well. You know how Christopher Lee would read Lord of the Rings every year? Yeah that’s me with this book. Everyone should own this.

#2 - The Bees in your Backyard by Joseph Wilson and Olivia Messinger Carril. This is the single best, most informative, well laid-out, usable bee book out there. Stunning portraits of every genus of bee in North America, with a section on their life history and a section (for us scientists!) on how to identify them under the microscope, thus it’s for all audiences. A significant portion of the book is devoted to the ecology and conservation of bees and how to create pollinator habitat.

#3 - Pollinators of Native Plants by Heather Holm. The book I’d write if it hadn’t already been written, this comprehensive book brings together an incredible amount of information and photos in a user-friendly format. It goes through wildflowers of the eastern U.S. from prairies to woods and wetlands, painting an in-depth picture of their ecological relationships with pollinators. Each plant has a profile about its life history and growing requirements, and the many pollinators that utilize it either as a nectar source or a host plant. Incredibly useful when planning habitat, and it has a huge section with a mind-blowing amount of charts and visuals to help you pinpoint exactly the plants right for your site and needs.

#4 - Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees by Thor Hanson. A brand new book that I fell in love with as soon as I started reading it. Not a field guide; a book of science, conservation, and personal experiences told beautifully and full of passion. My favorite work of bee non-fiction! It is incredibly inspiring. It focuses on native bees, not honeybees (none of this work for pollinator gardens is really for honeybees, and there’s plenty of books out there on them if you’re more interested in that). Native bees are poorly known by the public, and this book endeavors to give us a glimpse into their world, from the evolutionary story that begins millions of years ago to the millions of alkali bees that have found a home on one Washington farm. You will come away wanting to start your new garden tomorrow.

#5 - Summer World by Bernd Heinrich. Well, ANYTHING by Bernd Heinrich. He’s a renowned scientist and naturalist from New England who has a heck of a lot of books documenting his observations and discoveries about the natural world over the decades, as well as the challenges it faces in today’s human world. This is one of my favorites. I’ve met him and I am constantly inspired and often brought to tears by his words. He weaves tales of science, history, and his own life together to match that of Thoreau or Frost and offer us insights into nature that we so often pass by in our hurried lives. Other books include Winter World, One Wild Bird at a Time, Life Everlasting: The Animal Way of Death, and The Homing Instinct.

#6 - Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. A groundbreaking classic that follows the principles of E.O.Wilson (one of the fathers of our field!!), that all human beings need nature to be healthy both physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, and that we have an intrinsic connection to nature and a drive to have it in our lives. Our separation from it in the modern era has come at great cost to ourselves and the planet. This book sets the stage for serious research and justification for why children need to have contact with nature at an early age, how it affects our whole lives and morals as adults, and how it ultimately decides the fate of our world when those children grow up to either want to save the earth or contribute to its destruction. A fundamental and frankly, earth-shattering read. I read it when I was in high school, and it is so so important to the work I do now. Don’t get all ‘hurr durr Thomas Edison was a witch’ on me. You know we have a problem, and I see it every time a two year old is watching an ipad instead of what’s outside around them.

I hope these resources were helpful. If I think of more, I’ll add them in future installments. Thank you for reading, and I hope you will join me in tracking this garden through the year! I’m so excited :D

#nature #conservation #pollinators #pollinator garden #bees #mine #sorry this is so long i've chosen to break up the actual plants into part 2

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pcrfide · 6 years ago

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SOLDIER 76

Name: John “Jack” Morrison Nickname: Miles / Jack / Jackie / Morrison / You Fuck Age: 55 Height: 6’1” Weight: 275 lbs (125 Kg) Hair: [Formerly Blond ] - Currently Grey/White Race: Caucasian

Identifying Marks:

One bisecting scar across the upper plain of the face from left temple over bridge of nose to right zygomatic arch to end nearly at hollow of cheek. Second scar begins just underneath left zygomatic arch and bisects philtrum, upper lip and lower lip. Ends just above the lateral surgical scar for mandible prosthesis. Further notable scarring can be seen in the notes below.

[cut for length]

History

Jack Morrison was born on the outskirts of Bloomington Indiana in a rural farming township that had no real name. The first child and son of Melissa and John Sr, his early life wasn’t much to write home about. He worked on the farm, went to school and was considered by all counts an unremarkable- if cheerfully natured child. It wasn’t until the birth of Abigail and the subsequent diagnosis of Melissa’s cancer that his home life deteriorated.

At the age of 12, Jack took on the care of his sister after his mother’s death from aggressive cancer that metastasized into various organs before it could be removed. At the age of fourteen he dropped out of school entirely to help his father on the farm and take over the house duties. An at-home school program allowed him to continue his education at night while his sister slept. At seventeen he graduated a year early with his GED.

At seventeen he also managed to convince a recruiter at the Army / National Guard service center that he was a year older than he really was in order to join up. He had just spent two nights at a local hospital recovering from a beating brought on from calling CPS on his father for his sister. Abigail wound up being placed with his uncle and his husband, and once the court had finalized the proceeding- Jack was officially free to join.

Jack spent his 21st birthday meeting Vincent, and the two would begin a whirlwind romance that would last up until the formation of the Overwatch Peacekeeping Directive. The break-up was amicable, with Jack serving as Vincent’s best man at his former partner’s wedding. He’s not ashamed to admit he cried, wishing both of them the happiness he couldn’t give the other man.

Jack’s time in SEP is full of half-remembered details due to the amount of stress put on his body from both training, drugs and the missions they were sent to test out in the field.There are mental tripwires set in place that he simply does not remember that can be found at any point in time with the most random triggers. Even he doesn’t know what they all are- and they happen at the oddest times.

Jack turned down the promotion for Strike Commander three times, but only took it because Gabriel expressed interest in taking up another position in the directive due to the nature of the work. It put him out in the field more often, where his war-time command structure made sense as opposed to Jack’s peace-time administrative style. He didn’t want to be stuck behind a desk. It also allowed him more time off to visit his family, and let Jack finagle his schedule so that he could do so. It separated him from his best friend, but the blonde considered it a fair trade off. It’s not like he had a family to worry about, after all.

Jack’s twenty year odd tenure was fraught with both perils from the press as well as odd assassination attempts. He survived no less than twelve per year- at least one a month. The most common was attempted shooting, but the most creative included attempting to poison him through his food. His metabolism let him digest most anything that would kill normal soldiers, and it wasn’t uncommon to merely get indigestion when finding out he’d eaten something laced with rat poison. The worst attempt, however- is the .50 caliber bullet that put a hole through his chest, and out into his back during a speech in Tasmania. He survived, but he lost a good amount of blood.

The last ten years of Overwatch were the worst. Between the Uprising with Null Sector, the fiasco of Blackwatch at Rialto, the loss of Gerard and Amelie, and the knowledge that moles had corrupted the interior of both Overwatch and Black Watch- Jack’s once sun and wheat hair had slowly gone to winter. What was leaked to the press is that a fissure had slowly opened between the division heads of the covert operations team and the Strike Commander. That one agent had suddenly disappeared under mysterious circumstances. And that not a week later, the entire Switzerland HQ went up in flames, smoke and death.

Jack Morrison was buried with full military honors. This was not his final wish. His final wish was to be buried simply, and in Arlington with a plaque stating his name, his crisis rank and the date. That was it.

Recall

Soldier 76 arrived on the scene not two years after the fall of Zurich. A vigilante and troublemaker by rote [sic.[1]] Soldier had been seen making waves in a few cities before his debut in Dorado.

His nickname stems from the rather large callsign on his back, as well as the trained, military fighting style that helps him bring down the individuals that try to take him down despite their overwhelming numbers. Some are calling him a hero, and others yet- a new trouble on their already overloaded system.

Soldier, AKA Jack- sports a heavily modified Helix Heavy Duty Pulse Rifle with helix rocket modifications and a lessened kickback with dampeners in the stock. It has a 20 round clip with a rechargeable base that allows the pulse packs to recharge with the energy released by the gun for the next clip. It allows him to keep firing pulse rounds into the fray nearly constantly.

A bandoleer of biotic canisters can be seen around his right arm, his hips and across his chest for ease of reach. They’re easy to manufacture- considering they’re of his own design- but it’s the containment process that’s a son of a bitch. They’re solar-powered, allowing him to recharge them in the sun after a fight.

The lower half of his jaw is a prosthetic, allowing the jaw-piece of his mask to adhere to the ports set on the lower half of the hinge. One port on each temple allows the visor to patch in without analog, and an entire relay down his spine allows a healer to monitor his biometrics remotely as well as help assess nerve relays. Extensive nerve damage from Zurich means sometimes they do not fire right and may need help with reflexive action.

Extensive scarring can be found from underneath his right armpit- over his chest to mid-point on his thorax, down his torso, over his groin and down to just above his right knee from where a burning piece of the building fell over him. His right hand has fine motor control issue and his hip causes him to limp if he has to run for an extended period.

His mask contains a rebreather for oxygenation. Sometimes his lungs don’t want to work right and he has to get more oxygen into his lungs faster. It helps.

Despite all of this, he’s still one lethal son of a bitch. His processing speed hasn’t stopped at all, and he can still metabolize poisons. This goes for sedatives and medicines. It makes for issues when he’s under the knife or recovering.

Weapons

Heavy Helix modified duty pulse rifle w/rocket launcher modifications & aim assistance to tactical visor.

Tactical knife [ black carbon steel]

Sig Saur handgun .9mil

Neo-Remington handgun .45mil

Biotic canister bandoleer | arms/chest [ 10-15 ea]

Armor

Kevlar-modified high density ballistics chest armor with integrated flex-weave.

Flex weave compression shirt to wick away excess moisture against skin to reduce sweat

High density ballistics dual polymer leather jacket with ballistics armor able to withstand up to a .45 caliber round @ 15 ft.

Steel shin/knee and calf guard attachments to reinforced steel toe combat boots.

Heavy duty reinforced leather motorcycle gloves with dual-layer padding on palms and knuckles.

Four bandoleers (two used, two replacements) for biotic canisters (one set shoulder, one set waist) - a fifth prototype in works for thigh. High density flex leather for wear-and-tear.

#h e a d c a n o n s // x leaves of grass x

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anneandsnowflakepresent-blog · 6 years ago

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I’ll Set You Free - Undertale Arc

Part 1:

You find yourself on a bed of golden flowers with no idea how you ended up there. You stand, checking to make sure you're all there. You feel as if something is missing, but you've got all your body parts and nothing hurts. You walk forward and come across another golden flower. It grins at you. "Howdy! I'm Flowey. Flowey the flower!” Flowey leans forward on his stem and gives you a once-over. “Aren’t you just the strangest human I've ever seen!"

You stammer something about a talking flower. Flowey just laughs. "Oh, I know I'm one to talk—no pun intended—but I mean it. I've seen a lot of humans, but you are just... creepy. It's probably not good manners to do this, but... well, I’m just dying to see your soul!"

You feel a foreign tug in your chest. The feeling makes your hair stand on end and goosebumps rise on your skin. What feels like electricity gathers in the air, and your breath hitches as a small, cartoonish heart is pulled from your body. Immediately, you notice that something is very wrong. Your soul is a mess of vibrating black and white dots, just like a static screen. Your breathing quickens.

Something is very, very wrong.

“Oh wow," Flowey giggles, "you're even weirder than I thought! Look at that thing! That's… actually really gross. Like, how are you even alive right now, with your soul like that? I wonder what would happen if I were to..."

A circle of white pellets suddenly surrounds your soul. Your heart hammers against your chest as they rapidly close in around you.

Before you can do anything, you see a fireball materialize out of thin air and strike Flowey. He cries out in pain and you just manage to catch a glimpse of the burn on the side of his face before he burrows into the dirt and disappears. A tall figure strides towards you from the shadows. You try to shove your soul back into your chest, but it doesn't cooperate with you. You hastily cover it up with your hands to shield it from the potential threat.

"What a terrible creature, torturing such a poor, innocent youth..." A soft, motherly voice comes from the figure. She steps into the light. Your savior is a goat-like monster with white fur and gentle maroon eyes. Her eyes travel downwards to see your hands cupping your soul. "Ah, do not be afraid, my child. I mean you no harm."

You’re still in disbelief over these talking monsters, but you can't sense a drop of malice or ill intent in her words. You decide that she can be trusted--at least, for now. She did just save you from a talking, homicidal flower after all, and what other choice did you have? You relax a little, but still keep your hands where they are. You can never be too safe.

Your response seems to be good enough for the monster. "I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins. What's your name?" You tell her your name and she repeats it with a nod. "I pass through this place every day to see if anyone has fallen down. You are the first human to come here in a long time."

You're not sure if that's good or bad.

"Come! I will guide you through the catacombs." Your soul is sucked back into your chest. That weird, empty feeling is still there, but at least it isn't as strong as when your soul was out in the open. "This way." Toriel beckons for you to follow her with a kind smile. You're hot on her heels, goosebumps still prickling on your arms from your encounter with Flowey. She leads you into the first room of the Ruins, and you immediately notice the bright yellow star hovering in front of a patch of red leaves.

You walk up to the star. "What's this?"

Toriel is already waiting for you at the top of the staircase. She gives you a look of genuine confusion. "What is what, my child?"

You frown. It's right in front of you! You reach out a hand and touch the star, your fingertips tingling from the contact. "This thing, of cour—!" You cut yourself off with a loud yelp. The tingling had quickly turned into a biting numbness that was slowly engulfing your lower arm. You jerked away from the star.

“Is everything okay?” The goat monster calls softly to you, her brows furrowed with concern—but you’re distracted by the black rectangle that had popped up in front of you like a screen. It only takes you a few seconds to realise that it’s a countdown; a countdown for 24 hours. Six minutes had gone already. What’s it counting down to?

You glance up at Toriel, suddenly remembering her presence. The countdown is gone when you look back. “...Yeah.” you say quietly. “Yeah, I’m fine.” You turn and make your way up towards her, taking the stairs two steps at a time. You catch her briefly inspecting your arm before she smiles at you again and leads you through the doorway.

“Welcome to your new home, innocent one. Allow me to educate you in the operation of the Ruins.” Toriel walks across four of the stone tiles on the right side of the room and pulls the lever mounted on the wall. The door clicks opens. She turns around. “The Ruins are full of puzzles; Ancient fusions between diversions and doorkeys. One must solve them to move from room to room. Please adjust yourself to the sight of them.” She brings you into the next room, where you can see two streams running under small wooden bridges. “To make progress here, you will need to trigger several switches. Do not worry, I have labelled the ones that you need to flip.” She smiles reassuringly and walks over to the second bridge. You spot a plaque on the wall. Maybe it has some useful information for you?

“Stay on the path.”

...How enlightening.

You cross the first bridge and flip the switch. Toriel nods approvingly. The second switch is a little harder to pull. It’s jammed and touching it feels like pins and needles in your hand. Eventually the switch is pressed, and the spikes blocking the entrance to the next room fall away with a loud thud. “Splendid!” Toriel says happily. “I am proud of you. Let us move to the next room.”

You wipe your hand against your shirt as you follow her lead, trying to rid yourself of the prickling sensation in your skin. “You will need to be prepared for this situation. However, worry not! The process is simple.” Toriel guides you over to a training dummy. “When you encounter a monster, you will enter a fight. While you are in a fight, strike up a friendly conversation. Stall for time. I will come to resolve the conflict. Practice talking to the dummy.”

Feeling slightly nonplussed, you take a step towards the dummy. Your soul is pulled out from your chest once more. Four orange, glowing buttons appear in front of you. FIGHT, ACT, ITEM, and MERCY. Following Toriel’s instructions, you choose to ACT and talk to the dummy. “Nice weather we’re having,” you say awkwardly.

“...”

The dummy doesn’t seem much for conversation, but Toriel seems happy with you. Just like that, the fight is over. She gives you a small round of applause. “Ah, very good! You are very good.” She disappears into the next room. You linger for a bit, staring deep into the dummy’s eyes in an attempt to connect to it spiritually, before giving up and following suit. “There is another puzzle in this room,” Toriel says as you approach her. “I wonder if you can solve it?”

Suddenly, a monster bounds up to you. Or is it two monsters? It looks like a large, white frog, with another tiny creature ducked underneath it. It’s staring down at the floor and twitching oddly. The encounter feels too early. You don’t know why it feels too early, but something isn’t right. Your soul flies forward and the four glowing buttons show up again. You prepare to call for Toriel… But you decide against it. You can handle this one yourself. You press ACT and compliment the monster. “You look really nice today!” you chirp. The monster slowly looks up. Its eyes are glazed over with tears. You frown. It leans forward, as if it wants to whisper a secret to you, and...

Static. Loud, ear-splitting static erupts from its mouth. You jerk back, heart leaping into your throat. It leaps onto your stomach. You topple down to the floor, landing hard on your tailbone. There’s no space in your racing mind to focus on the pain, because the monster is still spouting static in your face. You think it’s trying to say something, but you don’t know for sure until the white noise clears and you hear it scream something that makes your blood run cold:

H̶̰̦͋̽͒́͋̄̀̽͑̇̕͜��̧̧͙͎̭͓̹̖ͅẸ̶̡̭͉̱͇̪͔̬̭͗̇̉͛̅́͝ͅL̵̨͚͇̝̮̳̖̲͖̺̰̹̐́̅̀́̍͛͘P̸̢̡̬̠̠̠̯̳̬̳̠̊͛̉͗̀̀̍͆̆̓̈́̚͘ ̸̪͚̩̿̒͆Ṁ̷̝̅E ̸̨̭͙̞̘̝̝͎͔͚̱̳̋̈̐̉̉́̌̂̃̕͜͠!̸̡͉͓̘̩̰͔̬̼͖͆͌͛̏́͜

Your vision goes black. When it returns, the monster is gone, and Toriel is kneeling in front of you. “Are you alright?” she asks, a paw outstretched towards you.

Your erratic breathing slows, and you blink dazedly at her. Slowly, you reach out and take her hand. She helps you to your feet. “What happened?” you say. You know exactly what happened, but you want to hear what she has to say about it.

“You fell. You must’ve tripped on a loose brick. Please do be more careful, dear.” Still holding your hand, she leads you through the next puzzle. You keep your eyes on the floor as you reflect on your current situation. I’m stuck in a world full of monsters. I just got screamed at by a frog and no-one saw it except for me. Or maybe Toriel did see, and she’s just lying to me? You glance up at Toriel, accidentally meeting her gaze. You quickly avert your eyes. Does she have any reason to do that? Can I trust her? Can I even trust myself? I could be insane, for all I know. How am I going to get out of this?

“Puzzles seem a little too dangerous for now,” she says. The next room is a ridiculously long corridor, which she asks you to walk through on your own. You obey stiffly. When you reach the end, she emerges from behind a pillar, thanking you for trusting her. You nod dumbly at her words, only tuning in when she says: “I must attend to some business, and you must stay alone for a while. Please remain here. It’s dangerous to explore by yourself.” She gives you a cell phone to call her with before leaving.

You roll the cell phone around in your hand. It’s prehistoric compared to what you had before you woke up here. You lean against the pillar, rubbing your neck and heaving a tired sigh.

What should you do now?

A) Stay put. Getting out of here will be easier if you have some insight on your situation, and that group of frog monsters huddled in the corner of the room might have some answers for you...

B) Get moving. Whatever that countdown means, it can’t be good. It might be dangerous to explore without Toriel, but you can’t afford to waste any time.

Vote here!

#undertale #interactive story #anneimaginesundertale #snowflakeimagines #I'll Set You Free #undertale arc #flowey #toriel #froggit #training dummy

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blarfkey · 6 years ago

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Thick as Thieves Chapter 5 Update!

Chapter five is up and ready! Link to the fic is in my sidebar of my blog, in case tumblr is still screwing with links not showing up in the tags. Chapter one is included below for anyone new who wants to check it out.

title:Thick As Thieves

fandom: Dragon age

Pairing: Solas/f!Cadash

Summary: Everything he had planned for the last several centuries has gone up in the literal smoke still billowing from the Conclave and his only hope lies embedded in the hand of a petty criminal dwarf who looks barely old enough to buy a mug of ale. It takes all his self control not to cackle in some forgotten corner like the mad Fen'Harel of Dalish infamy.

Rating: PG - PG 13

Tags: slow (slooooowwwwwww) burn, enemies to friends to lovers, culture clash, Solas has a judgey mouth and it gets him in a lot of trouble

The dwarf who bears his mark is not in any way intimidating. She reminds Solas of a child, not just in stature (though the top of her head barely graces his shoulder) but in her countenance. With round cheeks splattered with freckles and eyes like a fawn, she carries an air of innocence. In fact, the most frightening thing about her is the pair of wicked daggers strapped to her back and even they look out of place, a child playing dress-up. It makes Cassandra’s caution look almost comical.

He can tell from the bewildered expression on her face that she has had few interactions with powerful magic. She has no issue stabbing demons, yet stalls in front of the rift, forcing him to grab the mark and do it for her. Afterwards, she stares at her in hand in morbid fascination.

“What did you do?” she asks.

“I did nothing. The credit is yours.” Millennia of practice allows him to speak these words with a smile as he swallows bile.

Noticing Cassandra’s agitated pacing int he corner of his eye, he launches into an explanation of the mark and it’s abilities, based on his “theories.” The lies fall easy from his lips, a skill he is not proud to have. Cassandra, desperate for hope, swallows them without question.

“It seems you hold the key to our salvation,” he tells the dwarf, and the bitter irony of that statement nearly chokes him.

She just looks at him, lost and perhaps a little horrified. He almost feels pity for her, this simple creature who stumbled into magic far beyond what she can handle. A protective urge wells up in him and he stamps it back down.

“And here I thought we’d be ass deep in demons forever.” Varric pipes up, unable to handle not being the center of attention for more than a few minutes. "Varric Tethras: rogue, storyteller, and, occasionally, unwelcome tagalong.“

He throws Cassandra a wink, who rolls her eyes. Solas secretly wants to join her.

"Are you with the Chantry, or …” she trails off.

Solas laughs, he can’t help it. The thought of Varric praying piously in front a statue of Andraste, his chest hair on full display – "Is that serious question?“

Her deadpan tone says yes, but there’s a gleam in her eye, a spark of levity that suggests otherwise.

"Technically I’m a prisoner here – just like you,” Varric says, which immediately offends Cassandra.

“I brought you here to tell your story to the Divine. Clearly that’s no longer necessary.”

“And yet here I am. Lucky for you, considering current events.”

The prisoner graces Varric with her first smile. It’s small and weak – barely more than the twitch of her mouth – but the spark of warmth it brings promises that the full effect could be dangerous indeed.

“It’s good to meet you Varric,” she says.

“You may reconsider that, in time,” murmurs Solas. Despite the shortness of their acquaintance, Varric and Cassandra bicker more often than most married couples that Solas knew.

“Aww, I’m sure we’ll become great friends int he valley, Chuckles,” Varric shoots right back to him. It took him approximately half a day to bestow an ironic nickname for Solas that, unfortunately, shows no signs of dying down.

“Absolutely not.” Cassandra steps in between them, lording her height over Varric, who does not back down.

Solas braces himself for yet another one of their spats.

“My name is Solas, if there are to be introductions,” he says to the prisoner as they argue in the background. “I’m pleased to see you still yet live.”

But not for much longer. He stopped the mark from killing her instantly, but he can only hold off it’s effect for so long. Eventually it will destroy this dwarf, devour her like dry firewood.

“Shay Cadash,” she says, turning that small but dangerous smile on him.

“What he means is, ‘I kept that mark from killing you as you slept’,” Varric interjects, surprising Solas at how quick he is to give others credit.

Her smile drops immediately. A strange look replaces it- like she swallowed something bitter. But she covers it up quickly enough to make Solas wonder if he had seen it at all.

“Then I owe you my thanks,” she says, turning towards him and giving him a solomn bow of her head.

She looks anything but grateful.

“Thank me if we manage to close the breach without killing you in the process,” he says. He has no need of her gratitude. He wants to get rid of the Breach and get his orb back – and if the dwarf dies, well that makes getting his mark back remarkably easier.

He assures Cassandra that no mage, much less a dwarf, could ever have the power to create the Breach. And though he has nothing to recommend him – no allies or education or background to vouch for him – Cassandra accepts them without protest. He does not know if she is merely naive or has an innate judge of character, but her trust in him will be easily exploited.

“We must get to the forward camp quickly,” she says and they move on, the dwarf trailing behind them.

“So let me guess: Surface dwarf, maybe part of the Carta?”

They’ve headed into the forest, snow drifting from the pines overhead at the slightest breeze. Varric walks beside the prisoner as if they’re on a leisurely stroll to admire the scenery, his crossbow slung over his shoulder.

“What makes you say that?”

“I can tell a proper Orzamarr dwarf from fifty paces. Also you got that shifty smuggler look to you.”

Solas raises an eyebrow. He has seen shifty smuggler dwarves – eye-patches and rough beards and scars. The prisoner's guileless brown eyes and freckled cheeks does not resemble them any more than Solas resembles the Dalish.

The prisoner certainly stiffens at the remark. "Are you calling me a criminal?“

He can tell she is fighting to sound nonchalant.

"You are a criminal,” Cassandra says, disgusted.

“Now now,” says Varric in a condescending tone that is sure to grate on Cassandra. "There’s nothing wrong with being a criminal. Keeps the guards in business.“

If Solas had any doubts that Varric dabbled in illegal ventures, they have all but disappeared.

"Well I’m not the only one with the shifty smuggler look,” says the prisoner, looking at Varric pointedly.

“Varric didn’t destroy the conclave,” Cassandra snaps.

“That you know of,” says Varric. “We shifty smuggler types can be tricky.”

He winks at the prisoner. An hour into their acquaintance and Varric is already trying to adopt her. Solas wonders how long it will take for the prisoner to gain an embarrassing nickname. He had “chuckles” in two days.

It does not escape his notice, however, that the prisoner does not deny her Carta associations. It seems almost unbelievable, looking at her, but that might be the point. She might use her youth and air of innocence as tools to make her enemies underestimate her. He can’t deny their effectiveness – he fell for it himself. It makes this entire mess of a situation even more complicated and Solas bites his tongue to keep the hysterics down.

Everything he had planned for the last several centuries has gone up in the literal smoke still billowing from the Conclave and his only hope lies embedded in the hand of a petty criminal dwarf who looks barely old enough to buy a mug of ale. It takes all his self control not to cackle in some forgotten corner like the mad Fen'Harel of Dalish infamy.

Every aspect of Fen'Harel he crafted to be a spectacle, from his dress to his mannerisms to his speech. His name alone summoned dread in his enemies and strength in his allies. Even a thousand years later, the Dalish fear to speak it.

Solas, by comparison, must be invisible. Mild. Polite. His clothes simple, his voice pleasant, his words comforting and informative by turns. Solas the humble apostate is no less a fabrication than Fen'Harel and compared to Cassandra’s intensity and Varric’s quick wit, he melts into the background, forgotten. Free to watch the bearer of his mark and what he notices does her little credit.

They call her the Herald. Cadash either confirms or denies this, depending on who she is talking to. Much of the Herald’s disposition changes with her surroundings and companions. It makes it difficult to pinpoint exactly who she is. The only constants are her levity, a trait blooming to life now that she has grown more comfortable and the threat of execution no longer hangs over her head, and her ability to win over each and every person in the Inquisition with a systematic determination that disturbs him.

Cassandra’s suspicions lasted barely the first night. Part of this stems from her own intelligence, for not even grief or anger can blind her from seeing the truth of a situation. She lives up to her title in that respect. But Cadash’s continual expressions of respect for Cassandra, discussions of her faith, her immediate loyalty to the Inquisition’s cause certainly helped that forgiveness along.

Cadash speaks tactics and shares underworld contacts with Leliana. She compliments Cullen’s leadership and spars with his soldiers. She trades quips with Varric and insults Orzamarr Dwarves and of course she has read all of his books.

She doesn’t quite know what to make of Solas – no one here does – but she always offers that dangerous fragment of a smile for him and combats his formality by trying to make him laugh. In fact, she goes out of her way to acknowledge him, even if it’s just offering up a “good morning” or asking how well he slept. No matter how much he tries to stay in the background, he always attracts her attention.

It would all seem coincidental if Solas has not witnessed the calculating expression that creeps on her face when she thinks no one is watching her. No matter how genuine she may seem, it’s clear her interactions are charades, carefully calculated and flawless executed to secure the people’s loyalty.

It leaves the truth of Shay Cadash a mystery, but one Solas will piece together.

“Good morning, ” she greets him the day before they head out for the Hinterlands.

“The Chosen of Andraste,” he says, a hint of bitterness he can��t control seeping into his tone. “The blessed hero come to save us all.”

She looks over at him, her lips quirked and that gleam in her eye, as if they two of them are sharing an inside joke.

“That sounds a lot flashier than Freckles,” she says, citing Varric’s nickname for her. “Tell me, am I riding in on a shining steed?”

A smile twitches on his face before he can stop it. He must admit, it’s hard not to be charmed by her at times. Parts of her interactions are genuine. But her sincerity to makes her insincerity all the more believable.

“I would have suggested a griffon. But sadly they're extinct. Joke as you will, but posturing is necessary.”

As if she needed such advice, but Solas needs to find a role to play if he wants to stay in the Inquisition and Mentor gives him a perfect amount of influence.

The Herald rolls her eyes and leans closer to her him, lowering her voice.“This whole thing sounds like a farce, to be honest. Some great joke of the universe. All I wanted to do was find out how the mange/templar was going to screw with Lyrium sales. Trust me, I did not ask for any of this.”

She glances down at her gloved hand, the light of the Anchor barely imperceptible through the leather. Rather than parade it around, the mark stays hidden, as if she cannot bear to look at it.

“But someone has to seal the Breach and no one else’s hand has been possessed by ancient, unknown magic, so I guess everyone is stuck with me.”

For a brief moment she looks lost, uncertain, a dark cloud stolen over the sunlight of her disposition. Needles of guilt prick him, but Solas ignores it. This is nothing but an attempt to make him feel protective of her and he cannot be manipulated.

“Spoken nobly indeed,” he says instead.

Judging by the raised eyebrow he gets from her, he did not entirely suppress his sarcasm.

“You think I’m mocking you. This age has made people cynical.” He turns and looks over at the cage of mountains that surround them. “I’ve journeyed deep into the Fade and ancient ruins and battlefields to see the dreams of lost civilizations. I’ve watched as hosts of spirits clashed to reenact the bloody past in ancient wars both famous and forgotten.”

He turns back to her. "Every great war has it’s heroes. I’m just curious as to what kind you’ll be.“

He allows his words to linger, to settle like heavy fog between them. Let her know that he is watching. Let her know that her every action is being weighed and judged. She may not care what an apostate thinks of her, but Fen'Harel’s conclusion will be a matter of her life and death.

If she notices the weight of his speech, it does not show in her face. The cloud has passed and her eyes are bright.

"Hopefully the kind that chases kids off my farm with my cane and rambles on endlessly about the glory days to anyone who makes eye contact with me in a bar.”

Despite his best efforts, the corner of his lip tugs up. "I can think of worse fates.“

She takes her leave then, to finish packing for the Hinterlands and finalize plans with Cullen. Solas watches her go, frustrated. Her jokes give him nothing of substance to analyze, tell him nothing about her save perhaps an aversion to taking anything seriously. (No wonder she and Varric get along so well.)

He cannot shake the feeling that she did so on purpose.

Solas keeps his suspicions of the Herald to himself. It’s clear now, after gaining three more recruits, that Cadash is very good at what she does: she systematically finds a point of commonality between her and any given member of the Inquisition and exploits it. It doesn’t matter if they are a Qunari spy, a Grey Warden or a street urchin with a bow – Cadash won them over in the time it takes Solas to choke down a cup of tea.

Only he remains unaffected from her guileless tactics, perhaps because his situation so closely mirrors hers. They are both outcasts, pretending fealty to the Inquisition to secure their own survival, manipulating the people around them to hide the truth of their identity.

Shay Cadash isn’t the chosen messenger of a goddess any more than Solas is a humble apostate. The hypocrisy of his disapproval is not lost upon him; yet Solas finds something dishonest in how far she will take her manipulations. He keeps his companions at a polite, but firm, distance with strict boundaries – he would never go so far as to fabricate camaraderie.

The Herald has no such compunctions; Watching her trade stories with the Iron Bull, or prank ideas with Sera or discussing Grey Warden history with Blackwall – watching them slowly open up to her, while she plays them like puppets on a string, leaves a bad taste in his mouth.

He refuses to join them, keeping up his rigid formality in the face of all her questions and humor. It frustrates her, he can tell. She drags him all over the Hinterlands for weeks as the sole mage of the party, peppering him with question after question. The Fade fascinates her. A part of Solas would like to believe in her insatiable curiosity, but he knows that if he did not value the Fade so openly, she would have lost interest in it weeks ago.

That does not stop him from enabling her behavior, if only for the pathetic reason that he dearly wishes to have someone with whom to discuss it. She may raise some eyebrows at his ideas, but she never openly passes judgement upon them and she listens to them with a seemingly open mind. He wishes everyone else had the open-mindness she appears to have and he wishes, secretly, that it wasn’t an obvious ploy to win his loyalty.

It’s almost enough to make one forget that she’s the member of a ruthless crime family. But she gives herself away in her deft hands, able to pick any non-magical lock, or in her silent footsteps, the way she can sense even the subtlest traps. No matter how enthusiastically she embraces the Inquisition, Solas has no doubts that she schemes for ways to give herself power and influence through it.

Unfortunately, just as he can sniff out a fellow deceiver, so can she. Cadash has been sniffing him out with less subtlety than she believes. Cloaked in flattery, in the fascimile of friendship, in the nonchalant air of a joke, she keeps him close, prods him with questions, tests his answers. She neatly side-steps all questions about her life in the Carta and yet has no issue probing into the depths of everyone else’s personal life, most notably his.

It’s on one such occasion that his polite veneer finally cracks. She is plying him with questions about his origin. He counters them with the same vague, inconclusive answers she gives everyone else, but inside his temper boils. He’s sick of her distrust, her false overtures of friendship, her hypocrisy.

"You said earlier you’re from the north, Solas. How far north? Are you used to snow? Is that you can walk around with bare feet all the time? Or is that magic? Or is it just an elf thing? Do elves have special feet?”

The questions pop out like fireflies, as if one question in turn inspires another and she must ask them all before she forgets. Her child-like curiosity is almost winsome, but Solas refuses to be charmed by it.

He is sick of playing this game with her while she thinks she can charm his suspicions away like she has done to everyone else. As if he’s as naive as a toddler.

“I know what you’re doing, Herald,” he says. “And I must warn you, it will not work on me.”

Shock flickers across her face, quick as as candle flame before she snuffs it out. He treasures it all the same, a mark of triumph.

“Oh God,” she says, closing her eyes in mortification. “I’m being really annoying, aren’t I? I didn’t mean to intrude, you're just literally the most interesting person here. You can tell me to shut up if I get to be too much. It won’t offend me. My cousin’s done it a hundred times.”

Oh, she is good. In the face of her sudden embarrassment, Solas almost feels guilty for calling her out.

Almost.

“You’re probing me. Trying to catch me in a lie. Testing my loyalty.”

After a moment her features relax into something more sheepish – but not at all regretful.

“You caught me,” she says with a rueful smile. “But you can hardly blame me. You’re so distant and mysterious. It’s hard not to be curious about you.”

How tightly she still clings to pretense, as if she still had a chance to deceive him. She has no idea who she’s dealing with.

"And the fact that I’m both an elf and an apostate mage has nothing to do with your curiosity?” He struggles to keep his tone neutral.

Her eyebrows raise. "I don’t know. Does the fact that I’m a Carta dwarf have anything to do with the fact that you don’t like me?”

Her words leave him floundering for a reply.

“It’s not hypocritical to be distrustful of a criminal,” he snaps, his control breaking. “It’s just common sense.”

Hurt flashes in her eyes, just a split second before her face shutters into apathy. Solas curses himself and his temper. He is too old and too experienced to allow someone so young and idiotic to get to him. Besides, the Herald has power and influence in the Inquisition now; it’s dangerous to make her an enemy.

“I apologize,” he says, though the words taste bitter in his mouth. “That was uncalled for.”

Her demeanor shifts. The look in her eyes grows sharp and calculating. She stands confidant, chin up and shoulders straight. No trace of her genial, sunny disposition remains. Like a veil lifted, Solas finally sees the true Shay Cadash.

“Oh, don’t bother,” she says sweetly. “You were just being honest. Probably for the first time. I appreciate it, actually, more than that polite mask you wear all the time. And I’m not the only criminal here, apostate. We’re both in a precarious boat and you’re not exactly in a position to be alienating potential allies.”

“And what do you mean by that?” he says. The implication in her words is clear, but it’s impossible for anyone to know of his part in the destruction.

“I mean, if I were going to point fingers at who blew up the temple, I would start with the weird apostate who knows everything about the Fade and showed up out of nowhere.”

Solas keeps his expression very still. He does not allow himself even the tiniest of flinches, for none would escape the notice of her keen gaze. But still, it unnerves him how accurate her suspicions are, how easily she jumped to such conclusions when no one else has.

“You cast suspicion to draw attention away from yourself,” he tells her shortly, aiming his tone for offended and disdainful. “I was no where near the temple at the time of the explosion. Leilana has confirmed this with multiple witnesses. Do you not trust her word?”

Her gaze does not waver, unconvinced and unfazed.

“What’s your last name, Solas?”

A multitude of names, both real and stolen, fly through his mind, but he waits too long to answer.

“That’s what I thought,” she says and her smugness cuts through him like a knife. “See, Solas, here’s the thing. I have just about as much control of being a part of the Carta as you have over being a mage. But at least the Carta taught me that loyalty matters above all else. We might back stab everyone around us, but we’re loyal to our own. Without that loyalty, infighting makes the Carta fall to pieces. By those standards, this Inquisition isn’t any different. And already, people from all races and beliefs and classes have started to unite themselves for this goal. Except for you.”

Her conscious mind knows nothing dangerous about him, but her instincts practically scream his duplicity, he can see it in her eyes.

He is stepping on thin ice here.

“How do you come to that conclusion?” he asks. “I volunteered my services. I’m here because I chose to be.”

Unlike you, the implication clearly states, but if it insults her, the Herald does not let it show.

“You shun all company,” she says, ticking it off on her finger. “You give almost no personal information about yourself, and you distract others from this by being free and open about your esoteric information on the Fade that, conveniently, only you know. Everyone else here has ties and history and relationships. You are a complete unknown, even to our spymaster. If anyone could just up walk away from the Inquisition and sell all our secrets, it would be you.”

In the last year Solas has found himself lost in the remnants of a world unmade by his own hand, with nothing but a paltry shadow of his former power to protect him from the violence that springs up in every corner, and stuck in the middle a powerful organization out for his head.

And yet the instincts of a simple dwarf, this young woman barely out of childhood, this criminal street rat, makes him feel more vulnerable than any of the other dangers combined. It infuriates him. Solas has played the Game flawlessly in a court a thousand times more vicious and bloodthirsty than Orlais could ever hope to be. Yet he cannot fool one simpleminded, magicless dwarf.

“I assure you, closing the Breach is of the utmost importance to me,” he says, not that his words have any impact on her. "The Inquisition has my complete loyalty for that cause.“

She waves his reassurances aside with a dismissive hand.

"Your assurances are meaningless if I don’t know the kind of person you are. And I’ve tried to figure that out by befriending you, but you have too many walls up. Maybe if I were another elf, they might come down. But a dwarf stands no chance, does she? And certainly not a criminal.”

Solas does not know how to respond to that in a way that would not further offend her. His people never understood or agreed with Dwarves, and he carries that with him into this new age. Not all Dwarves are inherently bad, but they lack imagination and have little concern over issues that outside their sheltered world. Both qualities do little to inspire faith in this woman’s ability to handle the Breach.

Something in her gaze shifts, her glare softening into something …tired. “You want honesty, Solas? Here’s some honesty. You frighten me. You saved my life and therefore I owe you a very great debt. I don’t like not understanding the kind of person I owe and what they would ask of me.”

Before he can respond, Leliana appears. Solas would be real coin that she eavesdropped on at least part of their conversation, but she is too professional to let it show on her face.

"Ah, Herald. How did I guess I would find you here?” she says. “If you have a moment, I would like to share with you some information on Redcliffe that’s come in.”

“I have the time,” the Herald says and she leaves without giving Solas so much as another glance.

After their conversation, the Herald changes. She still keeps up appearances, asking him relevant questions about the rifts, taking him with her to the Storm Coast, where she picks up a Qunari spy without so much as batting and eyelash at the dangerous implications of having such an ally.

When the others are present, it is as if the argument never happened. Only Solas can feel the difference: smiles that no longer reach her eyes, questions that are short and to the point without any of her usual curious rambling, ignoring his presence when she passes him in Haven instead of walking over with a greeting and a smile.

He thought he would prefer it.

Instead he finds it nearly intolerable.

Did she ever feel this patronized by his own brand of distant civility, as if he were too stupid to notice how thin the polite veneer was over her dislike? Every murmured “good morning,” every health poultice tossed to him in battle, feels somehow like a slap in the face; a duty rather than courtesy.

To add insult to injury, comparing their interaction with those she has with the other companions makes the chill of her attitude even more apparent. She and the Iron Bull connect near instantaneously, as only fellow liars can. Only because of its absence does Solas notice how often the Herald had tried to engage him in laughter and discussion before.

The most pressing issue is how his position within the Inquisition is now at risk. With each new success, both big and small, The Herald gathers more power and influence within the Inquisition. If she does decide to pursue her suspicions of him, Cassandra would have him banished before nightfall, and Solas needs the power and resources of the Inquisition to reacquire his orb.

Allowing his irritation to push him outside the boundaries of propriety and anonymity was a stupid, reckless move, the kind his younger self would have made. Solas cannot afford any more such mistakes; he walks a precarious line here, as Cadash infuriatingly pointed out.

If he wants any chance of his plans coming to fruition then he must return to the Herald’s good graces. And soon.

But underneath his frustration lies a true kernel of guilt that refuses to stay hidden in the background noise of his thoughts, like a stone in his foot wrappings. In that split second after he called her a criminal, Solas saw a flash of genuine pain. He had hurt her and he could tell its sincerity by how quickly she buried it.

Her words haunt him for days after.

“It’s not hypocritical to be distrustful of a criminal, it’s just common sense.”

Indeed. Such words could be thrown back at him and ring more truthfully. She can’t know. She cannot possibly know and yet her instincts tell her otherwise. Her unerring, perceptive suspicions make him afraid and in his fear he has lashed out and made an enemy.

Three thousand years old and he still acts like a child.

Here’s some honesty: you frighten me.

Solas. Frightening. To others the idea may seem absurd, a reaction he carefully cultivates. The truth of his identity would truly terrify her more so than the blank of the unknown that she despises. But these words haunt him more than the others. She doesn’t fear his magic or his love of the Fade as the others do, but the vulnerability of being in debt to someone who could extract a terrible price for it. And she has no way of knowing that he would never ask of such a thing.

(The bitter irony that she believes he saved her life disquiets him.)

He can tolerate this no longer. He needs the protection that her friendship would provide – and if that means to fabricate an apology and start over, then so be it. Two can play at that particular game.

(Solas ignores the thought that hovers in the back of his mind, that he may have genuinely misjudged her).

He waits impatiently for their return to Skyhold and the opportunity to speak with her privately, finally securing one as she leaves the stables.

“Herald,” he calls, increasing his stride to catch up to her. She stops and waits for him, even though it would take but a moment to for his longer legs to close the gap between them. Her face shifts in a mask of indifference.

“May we speak in private? I have something important to discuss with you.”

A wariness crosses the Herald’s face and Solas feels a pinprick of guilt.

“Alright,” she says.

She must think he has information about their upcoming meeting with the mages to follow him. Not everyone in the Inquisition would welcome such an alliance, but the Herald is adamant for it. She’s sold smuggled to too many desperate, bloodthirsty templars to trust them, or so she says.

He leads her to the shack that houses him, opens the door, and gestures for her to walk inside. She gives him a calculating look, no doubt looking for a potential threat in his behavior, before stepping inside. He follows, leaving the door cracked open and standing so that she is closest to it.

“If it’s something this sensitive, perhaps we should go to Josephine or Leliana,” she says.

Solas shakes his head. “It is something personal, between us.”

" …Oh.“ She shifts her footing, anxiety spasming across her features before she schools it under control. Solas does not like to see her cage her emotions, when she lets her personality fly free around everyone else. He is indeed a wolf in sheep’s clothing, but no one is supposed to be frightened of him yet. Much as she irritates him, Solas does not wish her actual harm.

He underestimated how much pride she has, which should have been the one dwarf stereotype he remembered.

"I would like to offer my sincerest apologies for my behavior the last time we spoke,” he begins. “I had gravely misjudged you, blinded by my own prejudices. What I said to you is unacceptable and I beg your forgiveness.”

Judging from the surprise on her face, she probably expected more abuse from him, and it shames him. But even still, her eyes remain wary, an unwillingness to believe him.

“What brings this on?” she asks. “That argument was a month ago.”

“Your words and my own observations. I initially mistook your camaraderie for manipulation, but I now see that I was wrong.” He gives her a self-deprecating smile, using her tactics against her. "You, however, were completely right about me. I’m used to a solitary life, so I naturally shy away from attachments, but I’ve also made it easy to slip away if I needed to. I’m an apostate mage, surrounded by Chantry forces. Cassandra has been accommodating, but you must understand my caution.“

"I do,” she says, and her shoulders relax. “But you’ve stuck around to help. I’m not going to let anyone use that against you, not even someone as scary as Cassandra.”

“And how would you stop them,” he asks. Despite her easy confidence, she is so very young, not even into her third decade yet.

“However I had to,” she says and it doesn’t sound cocky or self-assured. It sounds like a forgone conclusion.

He’s unexpectedly touched by it.

“Even someone who has hurt you?”

She levels him with an exasperated look. “We’re all on the same team, Solas, and the problem we face is far bigger than any petty squabbles and personal prejudices. You’re a useful ally and I owe you my life. No one is going to lay a hand on you.”

Her ability to see the bigger picture, to put aside infighting for a common goal, sound so far from what he expected from a dwarf. Perhaps he should reevaluate his opinion of her.

Though the situation doesn’t merit it, Solas has to inwardly smile at such defense of his well being. It has been a very long time since someone has underestimated him to such a degree and he finds the untruth oddly freeing.

“Thank you,” he tells her. “And, please, do not worry yourself over your debt. You owe me nothing.”

The Herald graces him with a sad, half smile. “That’s a sweet sentiment, Solas, but a debt is never forgotten or forgiven. One way or another, it’s always paid.”

“That’s quite a cynical view of things.” Not surprising, considering her past, but Solas wisely does not voice this.

“From your point of view, perhaps. But to me, a favor for a favor keeps things equal and honest and everyone knows where they stand with each other. I find that preferable to people who hand wave a debt, only to remind me of it later when they need something from me.”

What situations she’s experienced to have such a pragmatic view so young he can only imagine.

“I cannot fault your logic,” he says. "I will consider your debt repaid, then, when you close the Breach.“

"How convenient, when that’s already my goal,” she says, the side of her mouth quirking up.

He wants to make a joke in return, but his sense of humor (withered and twisted for centuries of disuse) comes up short, especially facing the sudden intensity of her gaze. She studies him, no doubt looking for signs of trickery or insincerity.

Still not trusting him.

He can only look back at her and hope he doesn’t come up short in her scrutiny.

“I appreciate your apology, Solas,” she says softly. “I know how hard those can be and you didn’t have to.”

"Perhaps we can put this whole fiasco behind us, then,” he says.

“I think I would prefer to start over.”

The Herald sticks her hand out and graces him with the full brilliance of her smile and he understands a little why the others follow her so readily.

“I’m Shay, if there are to be introductions.”

His own words from that fateful day, verbatim. Perhaps he made a bigger impression on her than he had thought.

“Solas.” Instead of shaking her hand, he bends down and kisses the tops of her fingers. It’s an impulsive decision, but she deserves a gentleman’s manners, if only to make up for his lack of decorum before.

Besides, she isn’t the only one who knows how to charm.

Judging from the way her cheeks glow, he succeeded. A step in the right direction

#my fic #dragon age #thick as thieves #solas #solas/cadash #da: inquisition #da:i #inquisitor cadash #cadash #female cadash #solasmance

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