#she has a. strained relationship

[axe-trio-commanders]

So I've decided I need no provocation to talk about my characters and a post about mounts earlier got me thinking.

So- all my commanders sort of have their primary mounts; they all get two. I'll set one of them to the sorta default mount on 'x', usually the one I'd otherwise use the least, so I'm using these 'signature mounts' more often in-game- but canonically they're more-or-less the only mounts they have- though they lend some mounts to each other. Zori taught Seremnis how to call her skyscale if need be, and seremnis' griffon sometimes follows Enkkioh around when she's bored.

But!! what main two mounts each of the three has sort of follow themes related to their characters.

Zori has a skyscale (named Roro. after prince rorick. bc she's a nerd, which she got via already cannon skyscale quest in lws4) and a skimmer (named Strawberry, yes this is the same skimmer Strea had, that's why they bonded so fast). Both mounts are highkey geared for good, thorough, exploration- she loves heights, she loves swimming, she loves finding cool, hidden stuff.

Seremnis has a raptor (named Aria, that she summons from the realm of torment, and has the temperment of a puppy) and a griffon (named Requiem, a grumpy grumpy girl who only likes this weird salad, that seremnis got via the canon quest but after lws4, at the same time zori was doing the skyscale quest. She wasn't even an actual sunspear griffon she was just chilling there when the sunspears finally decided she could keep one, and now they are besties and seremnis lets her fight things and sometimes help dispose of. evidence). Anyways the theme is Seremnis likes to go fast, and likes to do so at least relatively quietly. There and gone, like a ghost. But also going that fast is just really fun, death 'defying' (like she'd actually stay dead) stunts and all.

And Enkkioh?

Enkkioh has a springer (named G-Force, because she's a nerd, which she bonded with because of the springer's genetic lack of long ears or tail and a similar color patterning to her own- and, fine, he's cute, stop looking at her like that) and a rollerbeatle (named Kinetic Friction, Kinetic for short- because I am also a nerd- which she got through the cannon quest, as a sort of apology to Gorrik and Blish for distrusting them so much at first. Of course, the result was so absolutely cool that she now apologizes by trying to take gorrik on rollerbeetle rides. C'mon gorrik. It's so cool gorrik. I updated the belt system so you won't fall off this time gorrik.)

...And the theme here is that not a single one of these is a flying mount. (Also neither of them are in any way quiet or subtle.) Enkkioh likes a good leap, sure, but there's always obvious ground in sight, she never gets high enough that landing would be an issue. Enkkioh is in both the literal and metaphorical sense my most grounded character- asuran came from underground, and she feels that in her bones.

In short- she's afraid of heights.

...And she's the character I'm playing through SotO with.

An expansion where you can't traverse the whole map, or even most of the map, without a flying mount.

Yeah she's having... a time

[toad-games]

I am having Thoughts about Rebecca

[thefreakandthehair]

(don't bother) calling me when you're sober | rating: m | wc: 1.5k

content warnings: future fic, parental alcoholism ("falling off the wagon"), past parental neglect, minor character death (i've committed wayne crimes i'm so sorry but it's not shown, just mentioned), emotional hurt/comfort, ends on a happy, hopeful note despite the tags

“My dad called.” 

Eddie walks into the room, pinched eyebrows and flared nostrils lit up by the multicolored Christmas lights they string on the tree every year, one hand balled into a fist. The reaction  wouldn’t surprise Steve so much if this happened years ago, when Al Munson was still living in the bottom of a bottle of Jack, but now? 

It’s been eighteen years since he’d gotten sober, nineteen years since his last stint at Hawkins County, and fifteen years since making a genuine attempt to right the wrongs of Eddie’s childhood and build a relationship with his son. 

Fifteen years after Eddie let him in, let him try, let him earn Eddie’s trust. 

Fifteen years is a long time and to see Eddie so vitriolic in the doorway of their apartment’s living room— hands shaking, body shaking— Steve knows something must’ve gone wrong. 

“What happened?” Steve asks, standing from the couch and meeting Eddie where he stands, holding the hand not curled tightly around itself. 

“He’s drunk. He called, and he was drunk.” 

Steve’s chest pulls tight, his heart racing. What does someone say to that? What can someone say to assuage that kind of deep anger, pain, and betrayal? His thoughts are scattered as they try to make sense of what Eddie just said, and he’s even more grateful now that Ronnie wanted a sleepover with Aunt Robin tonight. 

“Eddie, fuck. I’m so— ” Before he can finish his thought, Eddie leans back against the doorframe, ripping his hand out of Steve’s and tangling his fingers in his hair, tugging. 

“How could he? How fucking could he?!” Eddie bellows, eyes squeezed shut. “He knew! He knew that if he ever did this again, I’d be done. For good. For forever. And he did it anyways! After eighteen fucking years!” 

His eyes fly open and Steve stands still and nods him on. There are just no words to fix this, and trying for the sake of filling the silence has never served him well.

“He did it anyway! Two days before fucking Christmas, a week before the anniversary of—” He chokes and cuts himself off. 

He knows what Eddie was going to say. A week before the anniversary of Wayne’s death. It’s been on his mind, too, of course. On his mind and in their conversations over breakfast with eccentric mugs of coffee, over the tangled lights that Wayne could always figure out. The year hasn’t been the kindest to them, particularly Eddie, and Steve wants to protect Eddie as much as he can from whatever he can. 

But he can’t shield him from this. Al Munson skips to the top of his shitlist.

“That son of a bitch!” Eddie rams his fist sideways against the door jam, leaving a sharp, red mark along his pinky. “He promised, and I believed him. Why the fuck did I believe him, Steve?”

Steve takes a step closer and grabs both of Eddie’s hands, carefully soothing the angry mark. “It’s been almost twenty years, babe. Trusting him with so much time invested makes sense. Hell, I did, too.” 

“I’m— I’m in my 30s, hurt and angry about the same shit I was hurt and angry about as a fucking kid. All the nights I slept in the backseat of the car because he blew his money at the bar, all the car accidents and court appearances and jail time, all the mornings I missed school because he didn’t know what fucking day it was,” Eddie rants, stopping to take a breath before picking back up, Steve’s own heart cracking and raging the more he speaks. 

“And every time he’d get sober, he’d always promise. He’d promise it would be the last time, and it never was. Not once could he choose his fucking son and I didn’t understand it then, but now that we have Ronnie, I understand it even less. If I was sick enough to walk away from her, I’d walk my happy ass to the nearest fucking rehab. I get that it’s a disease, I get it, I get it, I get it. But I can’t— I can’t do it again. Not this time. Eighteen years just down the fucking drain because of his company’s holiday party? How can I ever believe him again? Or trust him again?” 

Eddie’s voice grows raspier, breath shallow and quick, eyes watery. “Every time this happened when I was a kid, I always had Wayne. He’s the only person who really got it, y’know? The only one who lived it with me and now, I don’t even have him. My dad’s drunk, slurring his way through who fucking knows what on the phone, and no one else can fully understand the magnitude of what that feels like for me.” 

He squeezes his eyes shut again and drops forward toward Steve, forehead on his shoulder and arms loosely hung around Steve’s waist. Steve still doesn’t have words that bandage this up, but he knows how to show his husband love in other ways. Ways that, over the years, have become a language all their own. Steve pulls him in tight, one hand near his waist, the other cradling the back of his head. Fingers slide carefully beneath the hem of Eddie’s tee-shirt and rub little, repetitive circles into the small of Eddie’s back while he cards his other hand through Eddie’s hair, scratching his scalp and holding him to his chest to feel the rhythm of Steve’s own heartbeat until his breath returns to a steady pace. 

It’s only then that Steve speaks. 

“I don’t know what to say, Ed. It’s fucked up, and if you want to me like, hit him with my car, you know I’m game.” Steve feels Eddie laugh— just a few puffs of air through his nose but it’s a laugh all the same. “But I’m here, and we’re gonna figure it out, okay? Whatever you decide to do, we’ll do it together.”

Eddie nods and lets himself be led to the couch, Steve tucking Eddie into his side and pulling the afghan up over them. 

“I never want to be what Al was to me to our daughter,” Eddie whispers, not looking away from the tree. 

“Well, you’re ahead of the game, because she’s already older than you were when he started hitting the bottle hard. And I know there’s the genetic piece to it that everyone talks about, but nurture counts for a lot of who we become, too. Shit, I owe Joyce Byers a huge thank you for being more of a parent to me than my own were because she’s probably the reason I didn’t turn out like Dick Harrington. Ronnie’s never going to have an Al Munson in her life, because you weren’t raised by Al Munson. That’s not whose legacy you’re passing down. You’re passing down love, not pain.” Steve presses a soft kiss to Eddie’s temple and feels his whole body sag into him. 

“Yeah. Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Eddie’s voice is quiet now, a far cry from his earlier venomous edge. 

Silence nestles onto the couch with them, a comfortable addition, as they watch the basketball game Steve had on before Eddie told him about the phone call. Watch is a loose description, actually. They're more just looking at a moving, flashing screen. 

“My hand really hurts, by the way,” Eddie announces, holding up the hand he’d used to punch the doorjam. “That was fucking dumb.”

“Maybe a little bit, but I get it,” Steve untucks a hand from beneath the blanket and outstretches his palm. “Lemme see?”

Eddie plops his hand into Steve’s and Steve takes a look, mentally working down the check list he’s memorized from his decade plus of EMT work. No obvious breaks, nothing looks crooked, Eddie’s able to move each finger and flex his hand without severe pain. 

“If anything, it’s just gonna be bruised tomorrow. But I’ll fix it,” Steve grins and lifts Eddie’s fist to his lips, carefully kissing each knuckle and paying a little extra attention to the pinky that delivered most of the blow. 

“I’m so in love with you, Steve.” Eddie rests his temple on Steve’s shoulder. “You know that, right?” 

“I know,” Steve agrees, chest fluttering despite the circumstances. “And I’m in love with you, too. You know that, right?”

Eddie snuggles in and wraps Steve up, full koala, as though he’s trying to get as close as possible without actually cracking Steve open and climbing inside of him. 

“Definitely.”

The next morning, Aunt Robin brings Ronnie home and together, they decorate the gingerbread cookies that only vaguely look like people but are good enough to pass for a seven year old. Halfway through, Eddie’s cell phone rings and the caller I.D. reads Al. Steve watches, worried that Eddie’s going to answer in the middle of their decorating. That he’ll forget Ronnie’s having the time of her life, and that in his righteous indignation, Eddie will leave the table to go fight and argue.

There’s so much to be said, and Steve wouldn’t blame him, but he breathes a sigh of relief when Eddie simply declines the call and sets about pouring more edible glitter onto his design with a smile down at their daughter. 

[rapidhighway]

The fics where Knuckles has some cool powers from the master emerald or is like a very special guy who talks to the master emerald are so good but I've been thinking. What if he isn't. He's the guardian of the master emerald, not a user. Sonic is the one who can use the chaos emeralds and is basically the chosen one when it come to chaos energy, and Knuckles just guards it.

I just imagine Knuckles, who's been put on angel island and basically sacrificed his entire life to this thing and never received any form of acknowledgment, who then meets Sonic who's basically a chaos energy magnet. Chaos emeralds love him, master emerald responds to him. Sonic is there to use the energy, Knuckles is to only guard it

[simply-ellas-stuff]

Someone commented on one of my posts that Alicent not comforting aegon was because she had him at 15.

Strained relationship, yes. Unable to connect and bond with him, yes. Awkward as fuck around him, yes.

However.

It is basic human empathy and sympathy to comfort someone crying hysterically in their bedroom after the death of their child. You hug them, you apologize, you put a hand on their shoulder.

It doesn't matter that it was Aegon. Or Helaena for that matter. A father's son was just murdered. And Alicent leaves him alone to sob hysterically. A mother just had to choose between her son and daughter and *saw* and *listened* to her sons head be cut off. And Alicent tries to talk to her about being caught having sex with Cole.

Regardless of circumstances. Someone as pious and emotional as Alicent should have been able to comfort both Aegon and Helaena in that moment.

And, to apologize to Helaena for her being forced to join in parading her dead son outside surrounded by strangers that clearly made Helaena wildly uncomfortable.

Her concern regarding getting caught with criston when speaking to Helaena, who looks like she hasn't slept in days after having to choose which child would die, and her ability to just walk away from aegon, who is sobbing hysterically, shows there is something else going on with Alicent.

Either her own catholic guilt regarding Jaehaerys not having a guard because she was having sex with with the guard, bad writing, or Alicent just completely disassociating her children until they are nothing more than pawns as a way to Cope. She does not see them as people. She does not see them as people to comfort.

Dyana, a stranger raped by Aegon, saw more comfort from Alicent than Aegon or Helaena did this episode. Aemond, when he lost an eye, saw more comfort from Alicent than Aegon or Helaena did this episode.

Regardless of reasons, I think we can all agree that it was cruel of her to walk away from Aegon while he's sobbing into his hands and it was wildly inappropriate to bring up what Helaena saw while Helaena is actively grieving her son in his bedroom and holding his funeral shroud.

[thereareeyesinsidethetrees]

ford: would you be interested in a dd&md campaign where nothing bad happens whatsoever

stan: what’s the fun in that?

ford: the escape from our chronic depression

stan: …can i raid a dragon’s hoard or somethin

ford: you can. you can even mock the dragon so hard it dies

stan: holy shit yeah i’m in

[heroes-of-lemuria]

Wizard101 ocs that aren’t young wizards, always fun to me! Well in this case they’re the parents of the young wizards, here’s Idun and Caldwell, Katherine’s parents! Some blurbs about them -

If you’re in need of charms or blessings, go to Idun Ravenwhisper, anyone in Hrundle Fjord will tell you as much. The Ravenwhispers have long been talented mages with a special connection to Lady Nightstar herself, and though she was adopted in to the feathered family, Idun is no exception. A skilled runesmith, she’s made quite the name for herself, eager to offer her charms to anyone in need, regardless of what can be paid in return. It’s her duty to Raven, she says. Wintertusk can be brutal at times, no need to grow harsh yourself. This openness to outsiders led to her a fateful meeting with a Marleybonian businessman who took a few wrong turns on his way to Ravenscar. She’s very proud of her hard earned reputation, a firm believer in bringing honor to one’s family name, a trait she’s passed on to her only daughter, Katherine.

Caldwell Ravenwhisper’s (ex Harris) talents lie much more in the realm of the mundane. He grew up with his own set of familial expectations, taking his place the family trading company, proudly the only Cat owned one in Marleybone. It was family business that originally brought him to Grizzleheim - a place he found refreshing after a lifetime of Marleybonian frivolity. The lovely Idun only bolstered his desire to stay. Though relations back in Markeybone have grown strained, he’s found happiness in Grizzleheim, despite still being seen as an outsider, and a rather weak one at that. Still, he has a family and even a new career - advising Baldur Goldpaws on Grizzleheim’s own interspiral trade network.

[valeovalairs]

You can pry girl dad Mark Winters out of my cold dead hands.

[slayerdurge]

Sacrifice (A Post-DA II Sebhawke Two-Shot)

Summary:

Marian Hawke had always lived her life for her family—but magic took them all from her. Her mother killed by blood magic, her sister by the Blight that the magisters of old unleashed upon the world, her brother now a templar who no longer speaks to his apostate sister. She tells herself that if she can just be the perfect Andrastian, maybe one day it’ll make up for the fact that she’s a mage. Maybe then she’ll feel clean. She falls in love with a Chantry Brother who's also the most selfless man she's ever met, the only person she knows who carries as much guilt as she does. And though they’re both desperate to atone, when they look into each other’s eyes, neither can imagine why someone so wonderful should feel so damned. She knows there’s no real precedent for their chaste marriage. An apostate joining the Chantry in the first place is revolutionary. But Sebastian's enthusiasm makes her believe that maybe the Maker might actually let them have this. Then comes the destruction of the Kirkwall Chantry and the invocation of the Right of Annulment. Afterwards, nothing at all is certain.

Notes:

This is basically a one-shot with two chapters (a two-shot?), but I do plan to write more about this Hawke in the future (she has a very, very interesting dynamic with Meredith that I'm exceptionally keen to explore).

Chapter 1: Home

It’s odd, she thought, all these templars kneeling in front of a mage. 

Now that the heat of the moment had passed, Marian could tell that many of them were starting to realize it too. There were more than a few apprehensive twitches and shuffles, but none dared stand while Knight-Captain Cullen remained kneeling. Knight-Commander Cullen now, she supposed. She was glad of that. He deserved it.

She did wish he would stand, though. She wanted quite desperately to go home. 

Maker, please let them let me go home. 

She kept silent. Her companions did the same. She knew they were right behind her—Sebastian, Aveline, even Carver—but she was barely aware of them. Her gaze was fixed on the templars in front of her. 

Several tense moments later, the Knight-Commander rose. The rest of the Order rose with him. He walked towards the center of the courtyard and stopped about ten feet away from her. She was grateful that he didn’t come any closer because she was suddenly hit with the mad urge to flee. She clenched her fists and rooted her feet firmly in place. 

“Champion,” the Knight-Commander began, then paused. He took a moment to clear his throat. Marian steeled her nerves in case he had some kind of grandiose speech in mind, but Knight-Commander Cullen was a Ferelden. Earnest. Straight-forward. He embodied the best of their shared homeland. He simply said, “Thank you.”

She nodded at him. Her usual flair for diplomacy had abandoned her tonight. “Of course.”

He nodded back and gestured towards the Gallows exit as if to say ‘permission granted’. Thank the Maker. She turned, but as she did, she felt a fear so intense that it froze her body where it stood and so familiar that it flung her mind back into its earliest memories. 

[read more on ao3]

[shirleyjacksonism]

tagging @nellslions @gabriestat @creaturecannibal @lovelaceisntdead @elcctra @nsewell @whiterthanafishsthroat @brigittefitzgerald @andreacantillos @shirleyjacksons @magicoleanders @thefinalpaperheart @elizabugz @c-dollanganger @lightsinthemist @persephonesque @prairietrashdotcom @goticoamericano @waitingroomphoebebridgers @seawilde @marywshelleys @cryptidlark @childofchryses if you haven't already done this, and anyone who wants to ♡

[npdkondraki]

every day of my life i think about how clefs opinions on tessa are pretty much "why am i letting myself be treated like this again. maybe i deserve it. maybe this is some cosmic punishment for everything ive done. but i dont think any of us deserve this. what would francis think of me letting us be treated this way again" and tessa is just sat there fucking fuming that hes treating samuel with basic respect and manipulating it in every way she knows how in order to try to wretch them away all while telling sam shes doing it so he wont be uncomfortable. what is their fucking problem

[quibbs126]

Something I find funny about Dragons Rising is that they place so much emphasis on the Monastery and it being the ninja’s home base, when in the original show, sure it was in the pilot, but it got burned down in Episode 2, it didn’t even last two episodes of the show. And then outside of flashbacks or time travel, and then the first episode of Season 7 where its remains get burned down yet again, it’s basically entirely forgotten about as a location until they randomly have it rebuilt in Season 10 for whatever reason (well I think it was because the Legacy sets were coming out, but still)

I would say Destiny’s Bounty was a more significant base, but to be honest its significance as their main base kind of ended by Season 2, after it crashed in Episode 25. And outside of as a base for traveling, it kind of became just transport like it is in Dragons Rising. In the original series they kept getting new bases every couple seasons until they finally settled on the Monastery again in Season 10 and it stayed like that up through Crystalized, even with it getting destroyed again

So I mean I guess overall it’s their most important (and consistent) base. But like, as someone who’s watched at least the original 5 seasons countless times over the years, it’s just very funny to me. This was not your forever ninja headquarters, you left it to rot for years until you randomly decided to rebuild it

[xibaxiba]

i think yara's bpd tendencies are most apparent with robin because she seesaws between "robin my precious best friend who never does anything wrong if anything happens to you ill kill everyone in this town and then myself" and "robin my personal burden who HATES ME and wants me DEAD and therefore idc what they think of me anyway (flirts with them as a form of psychological warfare)"

[angelonhelios]

im gonna be honest ur posts pose a bit of an Issue for me bc like my rewrite has a plotline that involves lilith doing some shady shit in the name of the greater good and. in the light of the whole settler colonialism thing. is there a way to differentiate her attitude from jack's because i really dont wanna come off as "she's just as bad as him" guy number 172

I STRUGGLE WITH THIS TOO…To me the distinguishing factor is that the raiders don’t act with the same all encompassing anger that jack does. I don’t think there ever could be a true “just as bad as him” argument because he wants and has the means for total annihilation. no bias, no care for the individual, he says himself he wants every man, woman, and child on pandora dead. its his end goal, quite literally nothing matters more than that. whereas the crimson raiders have tunnel vision in regards to what they want and everything else is just white noise - the bandit casualties are just a byproduct of what they’re convinced they Have To Do, but their deaths are not the underlying goal. these people are violent criminals, so who cares if they die? they were in our way. the raiders have a scale for who is important and who isn’t, and the scale has some leniency for bandits. (that service = fondness cycle we’ve talked about before.) jack has no scale. it doesn’t matter what can be offered to him or what can be done for him. everyone is the same because everyone is a bandit and so everyone should die. so on and so forth. the best example i can think of is how lilith handled the children of the firehawk: she uses them as a shield, and tolerates them because of it. this tolerance grows to fondness. she’s flattered by them killing in her name. (its only bandits dying, after all. there’s no real value lost.) and then she intervenes whenever they start burning sanctuary citizens. (people who are decidedly Not Bandits, and deserve her protection.) jack would have just killed everyone at first glance. the bandits, the settlers, the vault hunters, and everyone else within a five mile radius if he could. lilith, if incentivized, can see the humanity in her enemy. which is something that jack outright refuses to do. i think comes down to generalized apathy versus abject hatred. someone can be made to care. it is a hell of a lot harder to convince someone to love or even tolerate someone they hate.

[cxlxstialroyalty]

For the past few days, Xing had been feeling under the weather. Her throat was itchy and it was hard to breathe at times. For an immortal such as her, these symptoms were highly unusual. She had never been sick before now. Yet even now, this did not feel like human sickness should.

The pain only increased now, the princess coughing violently in the bathroom of her apartment. It started as spit, then turned to blood, and finally...small flowers escaped from her mouth into the sink below.

Despite the blood covering the blossoms, she knew that shape and blueish-color underneath. Forget-Me-Nots, her favorite flowers. Her eyes widened at the sight before her, her hand trembling as she slowly picked up one of the red-soaked blooms.

This wasn't normal. Even she knew that mortals did not cough out bloody flowers like this.

Xing needed help. She needed it desperately. One person came into mind instantly, and she knew she needed to see them, regardless of whatever relationship they had up until this point.

The princess swiftly left the confines of her home, navigating her way through the city to the place the one she sought lived. Her fist knocked against their door rapidly, only ceasing when the door was open.

"I...I need help. Please. I...I had no one else to go to..."

[supernoverse-askblog]

Hey Midge, I remember you saying you had four kids [In reference to this] and was just wondering... we know Caspian, Dakota and Wiluna... however that's just three. Who would be the fourth kid that you've mentioned very briefly?

"Right... well..."

"That's correct. I do have four kids. But Kelowna, uh... doesn't live with me."

"It's... a bit of a personal situation. But, to make a long story short, this is my second marriage. The first one ended... badly, and Kelowna didn't take it well."

"She's old enough to live on her own now, and I see her sometimes when I travel to Red Bay. She's a Dewott, and she trains at the Guild there. I don't know what her plans are after she finishes her training."

"She's met Koda, Wiluna and Caspian, and my Team, and we're not on bad terms necessarily. But it's still a touchy topic, so she keeps her distance. Which is... fine."

"...It's fine."