#Warrior Code {Musing}

[explorastro]

RANDOM ASTRO TAKES #6

I can only advising you to know more solar geoengineering, or solar radiation management, who is a highly hypothetical and contested type of geoengineering in which solar radiation is reflected back into space to limit global warming, during Aquarius season, sign of the sky…I see it in the sky of France, but do you see it in your country ?

A TikToker has maked an astrological accurate prediction based on ouija, she says that demons who talk in sumerian, the origin of astrology, demons and magic is Mesopotamia, had say her that the world is gonna end the 27 May 2025. What the astrology tells us about this date ? It’s for a New Moon in Gemini at 6° :

Conjunct and ruled by Mercury in Gemini at 2°

Conjunct Uranus in Taurus at 27°

Square a Saturn/Neptune conjunction in Aries at 0/1°

Trine Pluto in Aquarius at 2°

It’s surely the end of an old world but what is the price ? At what cost ? Because the things don’t change like that, so it’s gonna be an impactful new moon with fated collective events like worldwide economic crisis, natural catastrophes, revolutions, international conflicts..

This is the video of the prediction :

The allegory of the snake that is the Devil and knowledge is so rahuvian/ketuvian coded, because the Devil is the snake, so the knowledgeable, the Devil is in the details, and when you know it, who is the snake hidden in details ? Lol 😂

Neptune is where we are inspirational, but it’s more prominent when it’s in Pisces/Leo or at 5/12/17/24/29°, transits or natal. Some words for each signs and degrees :

0° : a fresh start in all areas linked to this planet so photography, spirituality, model, astrology, football

Aries, 1/13/25° : spiritual warrior, new prophet of a religion, new type of model.

Taurus, 2/14/26° : ideal beauty, elegance and charm enhanced, otherworldly vintage photos.

Gemini 3/15/27° : visionary mind, breaks the limits of what is knowledgeable.

Cancer 4/16/28° : illumination of the subtle worlds, underwater is home, spiritual leader.

Leo, 5/17/29° : one of the best look of all time a person can have, hairstyle perfect, too much acting, being seen a lot for their creation.

Virgo, 6/18° : mesmerizing writer, hypnotic services of others, psychedelics used to rearranging the mind.

Libra, 7/19° : ultimate lover, partnership, relationship.

Scorpio, 8/20° : the power at its most high, the influence is massive, transformative insights are philosophically insane.

Sagittarius, 9/21° : some of the best yapper, divine fire, Holy Spirit, soul to soul relationship with universe.

Capricorn, 10/22° : motivator, planner, surgeon literally or metaphorically, the perpetual achiever.

Aquarius, 11/23° : unique player, nerd, geek, rebel, scientific.

Pisces, 12/24° : the final step of inspiration, the ultimate knowledge that is astrology, the muse, the artist who channels the cosmic vibes.

[michaela-o]

Hey guys !! Here's a little writing post for tonight since i once again suffer from art block and i couldn't really get my thoughts on canvas so at least i'll write them down for you🥹🫶🏻

I had a little poetic moment about Cybertronians and how each bot from the Lost Light might view humans in their own way. Here’s how i think a few of them might feel, translated into their own brand of poetic musing:

Rodimus

"They’re like embers scattered on a night’s breeze. Small, insistent, daring to claim a spark of the vast unknown. Fragile? Yes, but isn’t fragility the very flame that burns the brightest in the dark?"

I think Rodimus sees in humans a little bit of reflection of himself—bold and driven, yet so often skimming along the edges of destruction. I think he would admire their recklessness despite their short lives and finds in them a kinship, like stars burning out as they fall.

Drift

"With hands of flesh, they reach for the stars, tiny pilgrims, undeterred by dark. They are warriors bound in tender shells, yet their spirits are sharper than any blade."

I think Drift sees humanity’s journey as sacred, an unlikely pilgrimage. Despite their fragility, they pursue wonders that many would fear, displaying a purity of heart that resonates with his own search for purpose and redemption.

Brainstorm

"They are puzzles, equations, broken in ways no theorem can solve. I could build them stronger, make them last longer, stretch their days to years—yet it’s the ticking clock that drives them which we cannot touch, the glitch of life within the code. They’re impossible, improbable—beautifully, infuriatingly unsolvable."

For Brainstorm, i think humans are the ultimate enigma. So imperfect, so baffling, so limited by their biology—and yet, somehow, they thrive. Their existence nags at him, like a problem he can’t quite crack, but one that has woven its way into his circuits.

Ultra Magnus

"They obey no Prime, no order, no code, yet they find honor in dust and devotion in ruin. There is chaos within them, yet in their eyes—clarity. For all their flaws, perhaps they see the law of the universe far better than we."

Ultra Magnus finds himself both exasperated and quietly moved by humans’ defiance of logic. I think he might struggle with their disorder but recognizes the strange beauty in their conviction. They possess a kind of honor that is beyond his ability to define—a law unto themselves.

Chromedome

"Stories woven in short threads of skin and sinew, their lives stitched in seconds, minutes, hours—a blink of a shutter. Yet they carry tales, so rich and raw, that I cannot forget. They are memory incarnate, fragile as newborn spark, but so full of color."

I think Chromedome would treasure humans for their stories, for the vibrant, bittersweet memories they create within the boundaries of their lives. Every moment for them is fleeting, and so they seem to capture life with a vibrancy he longs to archive.

Swerve

"They bumble and fumble, awkward yet bold, finding joy in the smallest things. They laugh in the face of a world so vast—their clumsy courage, a song I want to know by my spark."

We all know Swerve loves humans and human things. I think he sees humans as charmingly imperfect, stumbling yet fearless in a universe that dwarfs them. Their humor and resilience bring a joy that he can’t resist, as if they were a song that lingers in his circuits, warming him in ways he would never expected.

Megatron

"They are the dreamers, the fools, the ones who hope, rebels in skin who believe in the impossible. I have seen it. They build kingdoms on bones and dreams, believing they can change the world."

Megatron is an amazing character in my opinion in the Lost Light universe. I think he looks upon humanity with a blend of scorn and admiration. They are so weak, yet so defiant—champions of hope despite their powerlessness. Their resilience reminds him of what he once fought for, and though he might deny it, he can’t help but see in them a reflection of his own self.

Ratchet

"Flawed and failing, breaking with each breath, they stitch themselves back with their tender hands. They fall, they fail, yet rise again reminding me why I mend the wounded steel."

I really like Ratchet. I like to think he regards humans with a mix of exasperation and reluctant respect even when he wouldn't directly word it. He sees them as frail and imperfect, breaking down as quickly as they heal. Yet, their resilience, their refusal to give up despite everything, is what keeps him caring deep in his spark. In their struggles, he finds purpose, and in their imperfection, he rediscovers his own reason to heal.

I hope you liked this silly little post for tonight. I hope the art block goes away soon so i can draw more silly robots and their silly lil human friends together :3🧡🧡🧡

[bumblingbabooshka]

Forever wishing we had an episode about why Tuvok chose to go into security instead of science (especially since he started out as a science officer like Spock and T'Pol)

I don't think it has to do with violence...Like, an outlet. He isn't a violent person. I think it has to do with him liking puzzles so much...the strategy of it - the endless combinations...and perhaps just a bit the thrill of it being life and death. That pressure to make the best possible choice every time. And him growing orchids specifically to be displayed - competition and beauty... In 'Learning Curve' he says "The strongest tactical move is always the one in which you will reap the highest gain at the lowest cost." You can tell that he's really a tactician and I think because of that he'd solve problems a lot differently than Worf, or Tasha Yar. Also, there's his decision to mind meld with Suder in 'Meld' - the fact he can't leave it alone is so character-building to me. He has to know why Suder did this, it isn't enough to catch and capture him if he doesn't understand the motivation behind such a brutal action. It fits into his portrayal as a detective in 'Ex Post Facto'. Someone who'll pursue the truth diligently no matter who it implicates. There's also the fact that despite Tuvok coming off as a very cold and uncaring person in episodes like 'Learning Curve' where it's implied he might be willing to allow others to die if it'd be the best move tactically - he's shown to be very willing to protect others like in 'Innocence' where he sides with the children against the adults, going so far as giving one of them a phaser to protect herself and 'Muse' where he stays up for 10 days straight trying to find B'Elanna and Harry or even how in 'Random Thoughts' when Nimira (someone he's only met just recently) says she needs his help and he replies "Then you shall have it." Noss falls in love with him partially because of how he immediately saves her without even knowing her name AND he's with Janeway when she makes her decision to help protect the Ocampa, ultimately agreeing with her logic that it's the right thing to do. It's interesting for a Vulcan to be in Security. Sarek in TOS is against Starfleet partially because he views it as being a forceful, militaristic organization which doesn't achieve real peace. In TOS we don't see any other Vulcans in Starfleet - I'm not saying there aren't any (I think we'd hear about Spock being the first if that were the case) but Sarek's attitude might be a cultural one which I'm sure shifted over time, especially with Spock's rise in fame, but I can't help but wonder how it affected Tuvok's decision to change from Science to Security, if at all. Especially since he's shown to be a very traditional person. Does it seem a brutal occupation to a Vulcan? Vulcans have a reputation for pacifism, does it lead to him being underestimated? He had already established a family by the time he re-entered Starfleet, how did they react to him going from a professor to that? Speaking of brutality, In general there's a violence to the other security officers' pasts. Tasha lived amongst ceaseless violence at every turn for 15 years, Worf is very proudly Klingon and lives by their warrior's code, Odo was raised/working during Cardassian's violent occupation of Bajor...but Tuvok doesn't have anything remotely like that in his past, which is also interesting. You might be tempted to think a Vulcan who'd take a job like that would be accustomed or connected to violence but again, that doesn't seem to be the case with Tuvok. If anything, he's very much representative of the opposite - staunchly, unabashedly Vulcan. He nearly underwent the Kolinahr, only stopping to raise a family instead. He uses the word "Postpone" when he speaks of this, implying he hasn't ruled the Kolinahr out as a possibility in the future. It's very interesting to me!! I wish it was explored more...

[neonpixel-pixie]

RAINBOW CHARACTER PLAYLISTS [ no°1 ]

| orange | yellow |

red.

[ love, power, impulsiveness, determination, passion, danger, aggression, sexuality, confidence, dominance, anger, pain ] → link here

1. TYLER DURDEN from Fight Club

| MR. SELF DESTRUCT by Nine Inch Nails

2. HARLEY QUINN from DC Universe

| PSYCHO by Muse

3. ALUCARD from Hellsing

| BLOODLINE by Slayer

4. KALLEN KOZUKI from Code Geass

| WARRIOR by Helloween

5. CERISE HOOD from Ever After High

| ANIMAL I HAVE BECOME by Three Days Grace

6. MIKURA SADO from Kakegurui

| THE NAMELESS by Slipknot

7. ALASTOR from Hazbin Hotel

| RADIO by Rammstein

8. LIGHT YAGAMI from Death Note

| NO W REDUX by Ministry

9. GASTON from Beauty and the Beast

| MACHO INSECURITY by Dead Kennedys

10. CLAY PUPPINGTON from Moral Orel

| MY WAR by Black Flag

11. AYANO AISHI from Yandere Simulator

| MANIACAL by Cannibal Corpse

12. PATRICK BATEMAN from American Psycho

| FUCKING THE VISCERA by Gorgasm

Like or reblog if you use or share

[dandelionclangen]

YEAR ONE, MOON ONE (PART TWO)

Stonestream and Icypaw attempt to find the FrondClan cat who strayed across their border. After a fruitless search, the two bicker over Icypaw's tracking skills.

[Stonestream - Molly, She/Her - Head Warrior] [Icypaw - Tom, He/Him - Warrior Apprentice] [??? - ??? - Warrior Apprentice]

<- PREVIOUS | NEXT ->

"And you're sure you searched everywhere?"

Icypaw's ears flattened against his skull, turning around to glare at the back of his mentor's head with a snarl on his maw. "Yes, Stonestream! We've been searching since the sun was high, and it's dipping across the hills as we speak!"

That made Stonestream turn right around, a warning growl in her voice. "I'll give you a chance to try that again, Icypaw."

Icypaw shrunk back a bit at her tone, but never stopped glaring at the molly. "If FrondClan came through here, they're gone by now. No one's here but us, and we're not even done patrolling the border."

Stonestream cocked her head to the side. "You're not one to give up the chase so soon. Especially against someone who would break the code."

The words forced his fur to prickle. "This is different than mo-... than Myrtlefur." Icypaw corrected himself. "We can report it back to Littlestar and he can take care of it." (He hoped the newest leader would, at least)

Stonestream regarded her apprentice, nary a whisker out of place, before dipping her head down gently. "You're right. We shall patrol the rest of the border, and then go back to camp to report to Littlestar."

"Thank you." Icypaw huffed.

"But don't think that means you're out of tracking training tomorrow." Stonestream turned around to continue her path, unaware- or uncaring - of the apprentice's apage maw of outrage. "If you can't find the scent you caught, you'll be a liability in a hunt. DandelionClan can afford no liabilities." The rest of Icypaw's arguments was lost to the wind, shaking the grasses and giving the stranger enough time to poke their head out of their hiding place. Garlic and grass clung to them, but they shook their head of the stench.

"Littlestar, huh? They've finally found a leader." The apprentice mused to themselves.

"Spirestar will want to hear of this."

Rimecall goes to Littlestar, and after some patience from thei leader, reveals that they don't feel like a Tom. Littlestar helps them thrugh these new revelatrions as he had done for Iceflower in the past.

Rimecall now identifies as a molly.

[Littlestar - Tom, He/Him - Leader 9/9] [Rimecall - Tom, She/Her - Head Mediator]

<- PREVIOUS | NEXT ->

[green-eyedfirework]

"Prince Richard," said the cold, cruel general, mouth twisted into a smirk and one blue eye icy cold, "Well, I suppose you aren't a prince anymore."

Dick kept his mouth shut, and hoped that the others kept their mouths shut too.  Jason, who was the first one he'd worry about, was gone, disappeared into the night with Tim on the hunt for ghosts.  Cass was halfway across the land, too far to be hurt, which left Damian and Stephanie.  He could trust Steph to keep Damian in line.  He had to.

"If only looks could kill," Slade laughed, and his men laughed with him.  The hall was full of them, of his warriors, menacing the remainder of Dick's paltry court.  The representative from Nanda Parbat was watching intently.  Dick wasn't imagining the smile on his face.  "What's the matter, Prince Richard?  Not enjoying yourself?"

Dick felt sick.  Sick and numb.  He had been castellan of Gotham for a few paltry months before losing it.  Bruce would be so ashamed.

"It appears that the prince has lost his tongue," Slade laughed, beckoning Dick closer.  Dick knew it wasn't worth it to disobey.

Slade waited until Dick was within arm's reach of the throne before grabbing him and forcing him closer.  Dick struggled for an instant before he remembered where he was, and let Slade drag him forward.

The kiss was savage and domineering, Slade's mouth hot and devouring as he pulled Dick fully into his lap, forcing him to straddle the general as he submitted to the kiss.  His cheeks burned when he felt the hands on his ass.

"No, tongue's there all right," Slade called out when he finally pulled back.  "And I now I definitely know why there are so many odes to the prince's ass."  He paired it with a pinch.  "A big castle and a pretty prince in my lap, what more could I want?"

Slade's men were jeering, and Dick didn't dare turn around to look at Damian and Steph.  If Slade wanted—better him than them.  Please not them.

~#~

Dick shifted on his knees, hands balled into fists by his side, not looking up as the general conducted the final preparations for seizing the castle.  Dick didn't want to see Slade.  He didn't want to acknowledge any unspoken order the man would give with Dick here, kneeling between his legs, inches away from his own throne.

Please let Damian not be watching this.  Please, please, let Steph be covering his eyes, Damian shouldn't see this, he was just a child—

"I have to say," Slade mused, loud enough for the whole hall to hear, "I could get used to a sight like this."

A hand tightened in Dick's hair and he let himself be pulled up, pliant.  He wouldn't cry.  He wouldn't cry.

The man's expression was more inscrutable this time.  "All done taking your kingdom," he said, voice heavy with implication.  "Now just to take its king."

Dick locked his jaw.  He would not cry.  He would not cry.

"Someone go fetch a crown," Slade got up, dragging Dick up with him.  "I've always wanted to fuck a prince."  The jeers in the hall grew louder.  "The rest of you can take whatever spoils you like.  We won't be staying long."

They never did.  They conquered, they looted, and they went on their merry way, a vicious band of mercenaries with no code, no honor, no loyalty.

"Please," Dick finally unstuck his mouth to say, "my siblings.  Please don't—"

"The little prince and his handmaid will be fine," the general snorted, still dragging Dick along.  "You really aren't very bright, are you."

Something hot and thick crawled into Dick's throat at the insult given so bluntly.  If Dick had been smarter, he could've protected Gotham, if Dick had been a better leader, if Dick had just crowned himself king—

He could feel himself start to go numb.  Distant.  He barely registered Slade reaching his bedchamber, or shoving him inside, or the man locking the door behind him.

Overkill, Dick thought dazedly, at the numerous locks on the door.

Dick stumbles back.  Away from Slade.  From the man who will—who was planning to—who—

There was a crown in Slade's hand.  Dick didn't know who gave it to him.  Slade steps forward and Dick steps back, until he hits the edge of the bed, until there's nowhere to run.

Slade drops the crown on his head with a sardonic smile.  It's the actual crown.  Gotham's crown, to be worn only by its ruler.  It's of Gotham, the weight heavy on Dick's head, it's the literal symbol of his country.  And Dick is going to get fucked wearing it.

It feels....really heavy.  Dick is actually developing a headache.  He raises a hand to take it off but Slade catches it and forces it down.  "No," the general says sharply.

Dick should obey.  Dick has to obey.  But it's getting acutely painful and he fights against Slade's grip, trying to free his hands or toss the crown off or something to prevent this searing pain.

"It hurts," Dick gasps, vision blurry.  The room is spinning.

"Maybe if you'd just bloody crowned yourself at the start, it wouldn't have to be this way," says an unsympathetic voice, before the whole room goes dark.

[scrollsfromarebornrealm]

Code Black [heavensward]

[CW: Blood, medical activity]

Some time after Riven and the others leave with Lucia for Dravania...

----------------

Code Black: Serious physical threat against staff or violence intended with weapons against staff that requires an armed response.

note: Code Black was first adopted into the emergency code system from the colony's relationship with Ishgard. The unfortunate tendency for assassinations and violence among the nobility of that city-state often meant that houses of healing would be caught in the crossfire between warring families.

Introduction to Surgery, pg 101

------------

The evening was passing far too quietly for Mathye's liking. A head cold, a sprained ankle, a broken arm, a panicking parent over the color of their newborn's poop—and then, nothing else. Not that the lack of patients wasn't unwelcome, it gave the staff time to handle the administrative tasks that just seemed to keep piling up. And for a change, they were actually pleasant ones. Aymeric's current control over Ishgard's government had permitted the Lord High Commander to cut though the rat's nest of red tape that had been holding up Hospitalier medical supplies.

"So…all we need is to keep feeding these things levin-crystals?" A nurse ventured, examining the small army of metallic cylinders that had been placed on a table. The Ironworks had finally been able to perfect (for the moment) a variant of an Allagan machine that could clean medical instruments. An autoclave, it was called.

"Fire." Mathye corrected. "Levin-crystals power them. Fire-crystals and water to create the steam they use to clean."

"Can't believe there's things not even soap and water can't kill." One of the night guards mused.

"I'd like something that cuts down on all the laundry." A junior nurse said wistfully. Then she 'eeped' as her senior glares at her and pointed to a nearby door. The younger woman's shoulders slumped, and she dutifully left the room. Mathye arched an eyebrow, witnessing the exchange.

"Punishment detail for Belinda again?" He asked.

"I caught her practicing the kiss of life with that fool she calls her man in the back stairwell." Nurse Genevieve replied sternly. She was a veritable battle-axe of a Duskwight, and one of the Hospitalier's oldest nurses. She'd shown up shortly after Mathye had started to take shifts at the infirmary, declaring that she would be his Head Nurse whenever he was on duty. Mathye, fresh from training and with years of personal experience in the military (along with stories from his grandfather) immediately complied. Only fools turned down veteran nurses.

And only fools dared to get involved in nurse training. Mathye attempted to look innocent as Genevieve fixed him with a glare.

"No comment." He said.

"Mmm-hmm." Genevieve hummed. Then her lips quirked into a smile as Mathye picked up one of the autoclaves and presented it to her. The boy was one of the few who had the balls to go toe-to-toe with her on occasion, and praise Halone he'd been trained well in hand and herb. He behaved around the nurses, had the common sense to skirt-chase elsewhere, always said please when he could, and made sure to always say his thank-yous to the staff. He at least had a good bedside manner for the children who came in, and for some of the civilian adults.

Correction. He at least acted like he had a good bedside manner for the civilian adults. When it came to the military folk, all bets were off.

"Am I to take charge of these infernal machines then?"

"You know better than I where they're needed." Mathye answered. He was rewarded with another smile from the older woman.

"Set the heathen machine down, I'll get to it. And you should be resting." Genevieve had been one of the nurses monitoring Mathye during the surgeries for his leg. Didn't matter than he'd been cleared for active duty, she could see that the younger hyur was still tiring easily. And she'd bet that his newest mantle-Warrior of Light—was also settling uneasy on him. Mathye had basically shot from infamous obscurity to honored hero overnight. It helped that he had his little brother by his side (also a Warrior of Light) and for all his grumping and snarling he'd taken to the Lady Riven as a friend, but while he was in her infirmary, Genevieve would make sure Mathye Bishop would take care of himself.

"I'm fine." Mathye countered, a bit more crossly than intended. Genevieve and everyone else had been fussing about his leg, he was fine. Better than fine actually, he was damn near pain-free. Yes, it was still aching every so often and he hadn't fully gotten the stamina built up yet for the amount of energy he was using to walk with his new limb, but he wasn't in constant pain. And Hrist was calm and adjusting to the new leg, and she wasn't hurting either. A gentle brush of scales on the back of his neck and a lick to one ear indicated his inner dragon's approval of his current situation.

"This is resting. I could have gone to Dravania with the others." He almost had, but Augustine and Riven had both…well, verbally beaten him down. And as he was just back on an even keel with Augustine, and Mathye wasn't keen on fighting with his little brother again. There were also how things were in Ishgard at the moment…

Someone had to stay behind and watch things. Though Mathye wasn't sure of his status of Warrior of Light or 'annoying ass borderline heretical priest' was keeping him safe from the roving packs of angry and hurt Ishgardians. It was coming in useful to protect his fellow-clerics, he'd already let it be known that while he was on duty any man or woman of the cloth could seek him out for healing or a place to hide. And he'd already verbally flayed (and physically beaten) a few bullies targeting novices. (Genevieve didn't need to know that part. Nor Augustine. Or Riven. Or Reinhardt.)

He also wasn't going to look at Genevieve right now.

"Healer Bishop."

"Oh Halone." The guard cracked as the sounds of muffled snickering from the rest of the present staff could be heard. But before anything else could be said, a woman's scream split the air.

'AAAAAIIIEEEEE!!'

"Code Black! Someone help!! Code Black!!"

Mathye and Genevieve immediately bolted as one for the room's exit, the guard's hand flying to his sword as he followed behind them. Out in the hallway healers were rushing into patient rooms, some assisting the ward's more mobile charges to safety, before slamming the doors shut. The sound of locks clicking and bolts falling could be heard, and at a gesture from Genevieve, the main lights were extinguished. In a matter of seconds the ward was empty…but not the main reception area. That was crowded with bodies, primarily Temple Knights and—

Mathye froze. Dimly he was aware of a cry from Genevieve, and inside his mind Hrist flared to life, uttering a scream of alarm.

Oh my gods.

Aymeric de Borel was in the reception room. On a stretcher, pale, blood-soaked, and with a knife sticking out of his abdomen. Next to him, Count Fortemps—also with blood on his clothes. Fear and shock iced through Mathye—this was a Code Black that he had no frame of reference to deal with—

No.

Focus. Work the problem first, freak out later.

"Room Four!!" He bellowed, Hrist bleeding into his voice and amplifying the volume. The command snapped Genevieve out of the paralysis she'd been in, along with the other orderlies. Moving as a unit, they took the stretcher from the Temple Knights, hurrying back into the now-lit hallway. Mathye started to follow them, pausing briefly to take in the room.

"If you are not authorized medical personnel you are not coming in! Get word to House Fortemps and the Second Commander, and lock down the building!"

"Like hells you're keeping us from him!" One of the Temple Knights snarled. Then he backed up as the night guard and his fellows charged in front of Mathye, swords at the ready.

"Try it!" He snapped.

"Get Count Fortemps to Room Seven!"

"He's fine! He saw the whole thing!"

"I'm alright! I'm not leaving!" Edmont had found his voice in the midst of the chaos. He stood his ground as Mathye stopped, glaring at him. Then the younger man gestured.

"Five minutes, then you're going under guard in a waiting room." He snapped, starting to follow the stretcher once more. Edmont hobbled after him as fast as possible, watching as the healer snatched a fresh apron from a nearby orderly. Genevieve was already ahead of the pair, freshly garbled and helping to place the semi-conscious Aymeric on the surgery table. The Lord High Commander's skin was still pale, and his eyelids fluttered.

"Stay here." Mathye ordered, pointing at the doorframe of the surgical room. "And tell me what happened."

"We were walking in Lower Foundation, and a man approached us. He stumbled into Ser Aymeric, like he'd tripped." Gods, he'd forgotten how fast such things could happen, Edmont thought.

"They pulled apart, all seemed to be well, and then we saw the knife." Mathye nodded, hurrying into the room. Edmont watched, fingers tightening around his cane.

It will be alright. It would be fine. Mathye Bishop was one of the best healers in the city, and a Warrior of Light in his own right. It wouldn't be Haurchenfaunt again.

As if he had helped back then anyway. A nasty little voice whispered into the count's mind. Edmont set his jaw, forcing the wicked thought from him. He'd seen what killed his son. Had witnessed similiar injuries when he himself had been an active-duty solider. There were things beyond the realm of mortal man to fix. Warriors of Light included.

"What else?" The shouted question jolted Edmont back to reality. Mathye was looking over at him.

"A-Artoirel caught the attacker, and I called for help. I kept pressure on him until the Temple Knights came, and nobody else attempted anything on the way here." Mathye felt relief snake through him at those words, that was one worry off the table. If Aymeric hadn't been attacked again en route to the infirmary, that meant that there probably wouldn't be anyone looking to finish the job. Technically.

"Go with them." He ordered to the guards that had appeared behind Edmont. "And somebody shut the door!"

"No! I-" Edmont protested, then went silent as sense caught up with him. Right now he was a liability—not to mention an open target if the ward was attacked. Not even healing-halls were safe in Ishgard, as they'd been dragged constantly into the wars of the nobility—attacks and assassination attempts. His part was done for the moment, and he needed to let the healers do their job. Clutching his cane once more, he turned and faced his impromptu bodyguards. Behind him, the door slammed shut.

With Edmont out of the way, Mathye turned his attention to the table. Genevieve was leading the effort to remove the Lord High Commander's armor and clothing.

"How is he?"

"In and out of consciousness." Genevieve reported, making room for Mathye at Aymeric's side. "As far as we can see, there's no other injuries save for the knife, no blood loss from any other locations." Years of experience was whispering to the Duskwight that Halone had possibly smiled on the Lord High Commander. His skin color wasn't good, but it wasn't the hue that that indicated internal bleeding. And the knife sticking out of his abdomen, well, she'd wait on Mathye, but—

"Putting my hand on him." Mathye declared. Genevieve watched as the hyur rested a hand on the Lord Commander's bare chest, his eyes unfocusing. The orderlies paused as well, and the room itself seemed to hold it's collective breath…

To Mathye's eyes, Aymeric was now the living web of systems that kept his body functional. Immediately he was bombarded with what had gone wrong. Nerves screaming in pain, white-hot flashes of agony. Blood rushing out, but now starting to clot—and the blade itself… Mathye directed his attention to the injury, feeling the body's reaction to the foreign invader…

There. Here was the knife, sunk deep into fat and muscle. And yet…

Holy shit.

Somehow, the blade hadn't struck any organs, nor the major blood vessels. It was parked a little too close to Aymeric's intestines for Mathye's liking—and had it been jarred or moved there certainly would have been more damage. The armor had done it's job—blocking most of the hit while the layer of fat over Aymeric's abdominal muscles had done the rest. The hyur forced himself out of the trance, blinking.

"He's alright." Genevieve and the others sagged in relief. Some orderlies whispered prayers of thanksgiving, while others marked themselves with holy gestures. Mathye licked his lips.

"I need gloves and a mask." He ordered. "But he's alright. The knife's not hit anything major. I'll remove it and staunch the bleeding while you lot get the rest of the armor off."

"Gloves and mask!" Genevieve ordered, and another nurse hurried up. "Do you want a blood bottle going?"

"Yes." Mathye let the nurse slip the cloth over his fingers. "He's already been typed. See if one of the Temple Knights is a match." Bowing his head, he felt the tug of the strings as the nurse secured the fabric. Relief was snaking through his body, but he couldn't let himself relax just yet. Gut wounds were still dangerous, no matter the depth of the injury.

"Give him a needle of the poppy-tincture to sleep and dull the pain. I don't want him reacting when I remove this and start cleaning the wound."

"Do you want one of us to check if House Fortemps or the Second Commander's shown up yet?" A orderly asked.

"Yes. If the Second Commander's here, tell him he has command of the lockdown." Mathye exchanged places with another nurse, flexing his fingers as he surveyed the knife. One nurse was carefully injecting Aymeric with a needle containing clear liquid, while another was removing a fabric-wrapped item from a nearby cabinet, glass clinking. Genevieve had come up alongside him with a tray.

"Shall I remove the knife?" She asked, her voice low. Mathye shook his head.

"I can do it." He replied.

Halone, please guide my hands. He prayed. And please, let Riven and the others get back here. Fast.

[a-kinda-boring-writer]

Ok, fuck me, Hollyleaf Thoughts Time(tm) again... or random musings, rather...

I think her story ending in premature death, either immediately after the Leafpool and the deathberries scene, or during the fight against the DF, is technically still a "good ending" for her. Like, in the sense that, from her pov, she wins either way. She either dies with her zealotry intact and then eventually gets to be part of the system that enforces her beliefs, or goes the canon route where she's haphazardly redeemed and reconciles with her family before resting in peace.

This is really out there, and a bit incoherent, but I think that if you want a "bad ending" for her, what you do is... you have her live a long, long life, away from the clans. Instead of going into the tunnels, she runs away from the lake and moves into some distant farm, or gets captured by humans and made a pet, or (if you wanna have fun) joins The Sisters and travels far away. Or whatever. Doesn't really matter.

The point is, she lives a long, unfulfilling life, away from all she knew and thought good. It's miserable. It's empty. Nothing of what she does feels right to her (because she still believes herself a warrior... but she's not living by the warrior code anymore. what is she even doing? why does she still keep going? to prove something?). She never gets any kind of resolution, no closure, no catharsis. She just keeps steaming in her anger and betrayal and sadness. 15 years of that.

You know, paralleling this 👇 only, Holly doesn't get a choice.

And by the time she returns, if she lives long enough to return, barely anyone remembers her and no one recognizes her. Most cats she would want to confront are dead or have moved on impossibly beyond her. Her littermates are just as old, but more mature than her, even Jayfeather. Bramble is retired. Crow is deputy. Squilf is a clan leader. Leafpool is dead. Ashfur is double dead. Even the warrior code itself has changed! Rules removed, added or modified!

But Hollyleaf hasn't changed. She's still angry and feels wronged, but there's no one left to target with her tumultuous feelings. She dies of all age at some point, still unsure if she was right or wrong, the question eating bitterly at her, and with no way to get such a answer.

idk

[tactician]

A VERY DESCRIPTIVE PROFILE OF YOUR MUSE.  REPOST, DO NOT REBLOG, with the information of your muse,  including headcanons, etc.

pawn and arisen edition!

TAGGED BY: @sangre!! THANK YOU BREE i am so sorry it took me 1000 years to get around to this!!!! TAGGING: @godzillaahh, @famewolf and @killdragons since i know you guys have dd2 ocs and i'd love to learn their #lore! if anyone else wants to yoink this from me, feel totally free to say i tagged you, too!

the arisen

name: aurelien. nicknames: "rel" is the main one! he actually introduces himself as rel more often than his actual name. age: 32. race: human. gender: male (he/him). orientation: he's gay!!! zodiac: leo. giggle. moral alignment: chaotic neutral, but he tends to lean into goodness more often than not as his journey progresses. he can just be a total brat, so, you know. class/subclass: rel is an EXTREMELY skilled mage; healing magic and holy magic are his absolute fortes. he devotes a lot of time to studying defensive spells in particular. (he's a skilled healer in a general sense - not squeamish in the face of gore and very good at crafting medicines, antidotes and the like. naturally, he's very knowledgeable of herbs, too.) i think that he'd see success in pretty much any vocation that doesn't require him to like, face is enemies head-on, and prefers to be Far Away from the front lines. he would NOT do well as a warrior or fighter. do NOT touch him!!!! don't do it!!!! background: rel was dumped off at a temple as a baby and raised by the clergy there. it takes a village, etc etc. he was named aurelien by the head priest due to his golden blond hair. rel had a pretty good childhood within the temple, but he had a flair for the dramatic and was quite obnoxious; he never wanted to join the priesthood or practice a life of modest restraint. he got up to a LOT of mischief and was in trouble pretty much constantly with the rest of the clergy.

(and he was seriously a handful; stealing alms for personal use, pulling pranks on others, running away for days at a time, not adhering to the dress code, etc. contrary to his rather angelic appearance, he was quite the delinquent with one hell of a selfish streak.)

but there was still a lot of familial love there, and he took his studies within the temple very seriously. as such, he was a very proficient healer from a young age and helped out often, particularly with aiding ill worshippers and the like. i also definitely see him as kind of a 'leader' amongst the other orphans at the temple - and arguably quite the bad influence... but he was their champion in a lot of ways, who never backed down from speaking up for them. upon coming of age, he left the temple - because, again, him becoming a priest was a laughable concept and he really wanted to See The World - but he still sends everyone funds, medicines and gifts very often during his travels. he tends to keep this secret from others, tho, because he doesn't want to put a target on the temple, so to speak - or, worse yet, to appear 'soft.' he is also quite pious despite his ostentatious demeanor and prays often. i associate him with gold and everything it symbolises. interests/hobbies: he LOVES reading fairy tales; he loves tales of gallant knights and heroism!!! he can't RELATE to those heroes, but he thinks they're dreamy. lmao. he often dreamt of one such knight whisking away from his routine days in the temple for a grand adventure filled with excitement, which... sort of happened? kind of? vaguely? ...anyway. he is also a skilled medic and would probably do well as an apothecary. furthermore, he loves fashion and tends to want to buy all sorts of fancy, impractical clothes. lmao. he has a certain fondness for feathers and gold; a very 'angelic' sort of aesthetic. spoken languages: common! and he can communicate with dragons, ofc. profession: he is the arisen!!! he embraces his destiny to become the sovran to a pretty naive degree at first. (his initial reaction was very much like 'yes, yes, that makes complete sense - i knew i was destined for greatness!' once the more serious aspects of the role come to light, he's significantly less ridiculous and cocky about it. were it not for his main pawn, slate, and the sights that they see during their journey together, he'd probably do his best to worm out of any sort of duty whatsoever. height: ~5'3" colors: GOLDS and oranges. warmth, warmth, warmth. fruits: cherries and peaches! drinks: he likes anything sweet - juices and the like, especially if alcohol is involved. alcoholic beverages: (points at the above answer) LMFAO. i think fruit wines and sweet rums would be his drinks of choice. smokes: yes; as a teenager, rel would hide behind the temple with a pipe and would scramble to hide the smoke when one of the stricter nuns approached. fdlkdjdfkg he isn't a very heavy smoker as an adult and eventually drops the habit entirely during his travels thanks to a Certain Someone's pestering. drugs: ...yeas:) he claims it's all medicinal. it is not all medicinal. drivers license: LMAO. NO. AND THANK GOD FOR THAT. ever been arrested: every time rel gets in trouble with the law, he pulls the 'umm what? little old me? im an angel. im a Man of the Cloth!' (<- is not even a man of the cloth) and he manages to get out of it. he is a menace. but no, he has not ever been arrested. lmfao.

the main pawn

name: slate. nicknames: rel occasionally calls him 'stone,' 'stony' or 'sir stony' lmfao; it started off as an insult whenever slate was being a particular stick-in-the-mud (in rel's eyes), but it's eventually a term of teasing endearment. slate allows this from rel but will side-eye anyone else who calls him one of those stone-related names LMFAO. age: he appears to be in his mid-thirties, but... pawn moment. race: ...again, pawn moment. gender: male, he/him. orientation: definitely some form of aromantic; he has very little interest in romance and will react with total taciturnity to being flirted with by, like, 99% of people. rel is the 1% exception to this, and even that took a while and was very confusing for him. zodiac: capricorn. moral alignment: true neutral. whatever rel says, goes. class/subclass: fighter, as he is highly skilled with a shield and with adopting a more defensive fighting style - but he's fine with any vocation which allows him to get up close to the enemy and brawl, so he'd excel as a warrior, too. he doesn't do well when asked to keep at a distance, as he wants to tank hits that would otherwise be directed at rel. he would also prefer if rel didn't get in melee range as he does NOT like to see rel get hurt in any capacity. they definitely have a certain synergy. (ftr, he would probably be Okay as a thief, but he tends to be bad at stealthing - again, he is a TANK, he wants to have the enemy's attentions on him and him alone. kind of the opposite of what a thief should be doing. LMAO.) background: everything happened very quickly in regards to slate's summoning. when prompted to reach into the rift for a pawn, rel thought back to classic stories of heroism and knighthood - the sort of fairy tales and manuscripts that he read during his time in the temple. because... well, if he was to be sovran, he'd obviously need the most powerful knight to ever exist. so he wanted someone HANDSOME!!! who could serve HIM!!!! first and foremost!!! with the utmost loyalty.

...and it was actually extremely childish on rel's part!

because he didn't consider how their personalities would mesh at all in reality. rel can be a pretty selfish person, and he basically wanted someone who was selfless to an alarming degree, you know? and so this juxtaposition between his and slate's respective personalities was a hugeee issue during their initial time together. slate would go along with rel's whims without a single complaint; he would literally injure himself terribly if rel commanded it. naturally, this frustrated the highly opinionated, headstrong rel, and, for a time, he took an absolutely horrible approach to slate where he'd basically shove slate into bad circumstances in an attempt to have his loyalty break. (spoiler: it never did.) it was a source of genuine worry for rel eventually, going much deeper than him simply having a guilty conscience. the first time slate fell in battle and left rel alone, rel felt completely gutted and sick with worry; he blamed himself for pushing slate too hard and for not having the healing prowess to back him up. he knew that he could just bring slate back and scrambled to do so, but he didn't realise just how much he had come to rely on his knight and was beyond relieved to see him again. meanwhile, slate really just... had complete faith in rel, lmao. he was chilling. shit happens. he approached their relationship with a cold professionalism and he'd remind rel that he was his pawn and that his loyalty was simply part of his charge. as rel's initial frustrations gave way to genuine care and encouragement for slate to voice his honest thoughts and feelings, slate begins to defrost and come into his own. like i said before, i associate aurelien with gold; the extravagence and malleability of it. slate, on the other hand, is practical. it represents staunchness; balance and strength. those are pretty much characteristic of slate as a character. anyway, eventually, they have a very classic 'healer and tank' sort of relationship, except... very... 'someone will die!' / 'someone will definitely die.' interests/hobbies: slate is like... comically into archealogy and history. his enthusiasm for some particularly impressive ruins breaks through his usual stoic coolheadedness and it's pretty funny. he's great at foraging and really enjoys exploring the natural world. he also absolutely loves sparring, especially if rel is watching. and especially if he wins. teehee. spoken languages: common. profession: holy paladin knight-captain vibes for sure... (tho he has a #dark aesthetic lmfao) ... but he is pretty much fixated on keeping rel safe. he doesn't trust anyone else with him. NO EXCEPTIONS!!!!! height: around 6'3"! colors: where rel is warm, slate is cold. silvers and blues. fruits: he has a particular fondness for blackberries. drinks: slate likes strong, bitter drinks! he doesn't really like anything sweet, though... he will just give those drinks to rel. alcoholic beverages: slate has incredible tolerance when it comes to alcohol; he enjoys whiskeys in particular and can practically down multiple glasses of it without so much as flinching. with that said, he prefers to keep a clear head at all times, and if he feels his focus begin to wane, he will stop drinking immediately. smokes: no. he doesn't see the point of it and, when they're close enough for such things, will admonish rel for smoking anything lmfao. drugs: occasionally, but, again, he has insanely high tolerance when it comes to the influence of herbs and the like, so it's pretty much a waste to offer him anything. he'll really only Partake to humor rel, but, even then, he usually ends up being the one taking care of rel when he's zonked out. flkdlkgdfh drivers license: he can drive a carriage but isn't fond of it. again, he likes the natural world a lot, so he'd rather wander in the wilderness and stay off the roads. ever been arrested: no, but he'd like to see someone try.

[whoreviewswho]

What phantasmagoria is this? - The Unquiet Dead, 2005

There is an element of fun to be derived for anoraks such as ourselves in exercises of comparison and contrast. One such game I have been musing upon lately relates specifically to Doctor Who writers of the original and revived series. For example, Steven Moffat is the modern Robert Holmes, Russell T Davies something more like a Terrance Dicks and Mark Gatiss, the subject of today's discussion, is perhaps more akin to a Bob Baker and Dave Martin. To a certain kind of fan, this might sound incredibly derisive and, to an extent, it is but it is worth noting that the original series' Bristol Boys were hardly hacks or even especially poor writers. Between the two of them, as a partnership or otherwise, no less than nine stories were broadcast in their names over eight years and every single one of them is bristling with creativity and energy. If anything, the downfall of Baker and Martin was that they brought too many ideas to a Doctor Who script. But despite really nobody pointing to any one of their serials and crying "Yes, that one's my favourite", it would be ludicrous to suggest their work left little impact with iconography of Axons, the Mutts, K-9 and Sarah Jane's Andy Pandy costume being etched into the minds of audiences for years to come.

And Gatiss is much the same. Contributing just as many stories over a twelve year period as well as appearing in front of the camera and helming one of the show's finest spin-off ventures, his legacy is arguably even harder to ignore. True as it is that he was never awarded tasks as monumental as The Three Doctors or The Hand of Fear nor creating something as iconic as K-9, Gatiss' unwavering position as the Moff's reliable partner ensured his mark on the series would be left no matter what he was writing and, even then, what he was writing did offer up its fair share of iconic moments. Like the kids who grew up with the Bristol Boys, you'd be hard pressed to find a fan my age who was not unnerved by the peg dolls, introduced to the Ice Warriors or able to recreate the exact cadence of Maureen Lipman's "HUNNNGRYYYYYYYY" at a moment's notice. Hell, they probably even learnt who Winston Churchill was thanks to him. Yet, the comparison still is not flattering. At the end of the day, I am celebrating Mark Gatiss for being a competent writer during two eras of Doctor Who where the overall production was some of the best it has ever been at every level. 

With this in mind, perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Gatiss' legacy is the one he was never allowed to have – the showrunner. Gatiss pitched a complete reboot of the series with G*reth R*berts and Cl*yton H*ckman but obviously lost out to Davies and, it has to be said, the prospect of even one full season of stories that are about as strong as Empress of Mars and The Shakespeare Code is hard to get excited about. There were some potentially interesting aspects such as the Doctor being introduced as an antique shop owner, the continuation of the serial format and Derek Jacobi as the Doctor. All of these things could have made for something entertaining to watch.

But reflecting on this pitch gets us to the biggest problems with Mark Gatiss as a Doctor Who writer and, arguably, the same things that made him the perfect co-writer for Sherlock; he is an old-fashioned, conservative writer and a dreadful romantic for all things nostalgia. His scripts are like the TV equivalent of an interactive museum exhibit that passionately recreates bygone eras. Sometimes this comes good, sometimes it does not but they are qualities that make it hardly surprising that Russell T Davies found him the perfect person to pen the very first historical revived Doctor Who.

Like practically all of Davies' initial run on the programme, My Name's Dickens... Charles Dickens (as it was originally titled) came about from a brief he hired Gatiss to fill. Davies insisted that the story take place in Cardiff, be set during the Victorian era and feature Charles Dickens in an adventure with charlatan medians. Gatiss' original pitch was entitled The Crippingwell Horror and took place in a hotel for fake medians with the character that would becomes Sneed being an employee who suddenly realises his powers are not a mere act. Interestingly, the original script would have drawn some similarities with The Empty Child two-parter with the character that became Gwyneth being haunted by the ghost of her recently deceased brother. Across the various drafts and at the production team's behest, the script became a less and less grim affair with a healthy injection of humour and self-awareness. The concept of the Gelth, however, was present across all versions with Gatiss taking inspiration from a childhood nightmare for the image of the possessed Mrs. Pearce.

In the context of its home season, The Unquiet Dead is perfectly slotted. The third story (and episode) of the season, it follows The End of the World with something completely different. It shows the full breadth of the programmes basic possibilities across three weeks and sets the template for the three modes Doctor Who will continue to alternate between and subvert until the present day. This was probably disappointing for some longterm fans as it does lay down a fundamentally different foundation to the 1963 season. In Verity Lambert's first three stories, Doctor Who was a survivalist drama that oscillated between educational historical settings, futuristic political allegories and surrealist horror flavours. Davies' Doctor Who was a soap opera that shifted between satires of contemporary England, futuristic camp absurdities and pastiches of revered literature. Neither of these is more valid but the distinction is essential to understanding how British television had changed over forty years and, indeed, the kind of fans that each version of the programme has continued to garner.

It is also important in understanding what The Unquiet Dead is actually accomplishing as it is essentially intending to fulfil a dual function. The first, as we have established, is to introduce a new audience to the historical Doctor Who but the second, and arguably harder, is to reintroduce fans to the historical Doctor Who. The way it goes about these things is the same; it turns to pastiche. For new audiences, the cultural context of Charles Dickens' writing and his literary depiction of the Victorian era is heavily leaned upon as a shorthand for establishing the world and characters of Gatiss' story. Leaning on tropes and cultural signifiers is an essential aspect of streamlining for the forty-five minute format and really the only choice for a show as fast paced as Doctor Who set out to be. It's a very savvy choice and, to be fair, not an entirely new one since it is essentially something David Whittaker was employing as far back as The Crusade. However, Whitaker never had to contend with the second aspect of this that works which is making the story equal parts a pastiche of the Doctor Who historical arguably a literary style in its own right in 2005. Henceforth, The Unquiet Dead would be just as the general audiences remembered and expected it to be; famous figures from history, gothic horror tones and colourful and exaggerated period stereotypes. 

The latter of these two examples, of course, pertain almost exclusively to the mid-'70s period which, fair enough, was when Doctor Who was at its peak of general audience popularity (and even then it's pretty much exclusively Talons of Weng-Chiang we are referring to). As for the first, that practice was pretty much abandoned after The Crusades. No, this is not a genuine Doctor Who historical anymore than this is a genuine recreation of Victorian Cardiff. Rather, it is a streamlined and romanticised version and the one that Gatiss is most fond of recreating (and he would several times after this, even in Sherlock). Authentic to real history and Doctor Who or not, The Unquiet Dead set the precedent for practically every historical episode moving forward with every season (save for exclusively series seven) uniting its main cast with a celebrity historical figure for a heightened romp around some bygone literary tropes.

The more attentive reader would likely have noticed by now that I have been avoiding actually talking about The Unquiet Dead itself for some time now. There is a good reason for this which is simply that, besides the context surrounding it, there is very little to actually say. Even what I have is mostly just production background and reiterating points El Sandifer made years ago now (and more eloquently than me at that). I promised an analysis of the episode so let's just bite the bullet and get on with it. As I have already suggested, there is plenty to like about The Unquiet Dead that makes it hard to write off as some wholly disposable runaround. Being so obviously in the mould of the original show, more so than its predecessors and really any other episode of the first season, there is a simplicity to the affair that I find works to its advantage. There are some mature but simply laid out themes of spirituality versus science that come together rather deftly in a climax that hinges on children realising that an open-mind and attentive nature can allow for new discoveries and broader horizons. The constant reoccurrence of gas as a thematic symbol is effective and easy for children to spot. It provides a coherent, visual link between the Victorian era and the modern day, the old world hurtling into a new age.

Dickens himself is key to conveying these themes as well which is impressive considering that Gatiss was reluctant to include him in his story in the first place. Dickens is portrayed marvellously by Simon Callow, an expert on the author with prior experience playing the character and recreating his public readings. Callow was adamant that for him to sign on, the script would have to be of a sufficiently high quality. Allegedly, his initial reaction to the news that the author would be part of a Doctor Who was disappointment, feeling that fiction often did an injustice to the man. Thankfully, he was very much won over by the material and brought, not only the best performance of anybody in the episode but, some serious credibility to a programme that needed it. Simon Callow does not just sign on for any old slop and why should he when he brings such gravitas and grandeur in his characterisation of Dickens? Callow single-handedly elevates the already solid material to make the part simply superb. Like all the great character actors, and like this episode's approach to history, he may not be one-to-one accurate to Dickens as he was in real history but he embodies his spirit and essence of the author as he is remembered by us today.

So Dickens becomes the heart of the narrative, somewhat inevitably given the mythic status he holds in British literary canon. While Rose is still serving as an audience surrogate in the sense that hers are the eyes with which we view the past (more on that later), it is Dickens who serves a more traditional protagonist role to no small extent. If we consider the Doctor and Rose as analogous for Doctor Who as a series and the Gwyneth/Sneed double-act as our vessels for historical pastiche, Dickens falls in between as the baffled and wry viewer of events who understands the rules of period costume dramas and is being introduced to the weirdness of a Doctor Who story. All of the characters are awarded strong moments but only Dickens receives a full-blown opportunity for change and it is he who actually saves the day (with a healthy dose of real-world science for the kiddos at that). Dickens is the narrow-minded know-it-all whose beliefs are challenged by exposure to a new facet of his world and this, on the surface, is an extremely obvious direction to go. In the absence of a full-blown special, The Unquiet Dead is honorarily regarded by some fans to be the Ninth Doctor's Christmas episode and the allusions to Dickens' most renowned work in that arena are anything but subtle. The door-knocker is a cute touch and offering Dickens his own Scrooge arc, of a sort, works well enough however on-the-nose it is but going so far as to quote the book, not only several times but, as his final line is a level of overtness that I could have done without.

What is more interesting to talk about is Dickens' role in a metafictional sense. Like every story of the first series, The Unquiet Dead is drenched in metatextuality, in this case responding directly to its prior television version. Dickens is the original series of Doctor Who; a beloved icon that still has many fans that has grown stale, burnt its bridges yet continues to go on and on "the same old show... [p]erhaps I've thought everything I'll ever think". Yet, Dickens' worldview is challenged and his morale reinvigorated as the new show, the Doctor and Rose, enter the scene and disrupt his entire understanding. Doctor Who is more than capable of continuing in a new form for a modern world but its older form, the one Dickens embodies, cannot continue alongside it. Zooming out to a broader lens, we can see an even cheekier read where Dickens is symbolic of an entire storytelling approach for science-fantasy and drama that is reinvigorated by the potential of what Doctor Who could be.

Despite Dickens taking over the narrative, the medium aspect was obviously not abandoned and the bridge between the two worlds in this story is not Dickens but literally and figuratively embodied through Gwyneth, played very charmingly by Eve Myles. Gwyneth is the core character embodying the spirituality aspect of the story, essentially serving as the opposite for Dickens. The latter refuses to accept the Gelth exist because they do not fit the facts of his worldview while Gwyneth accepts them more readily than anyone because the facts presented align with her spiritual beliefs. Gwyneth is a medium, communicating with her “angels”, the Gelth, and ultimately understands both conflicting parties’, the Doctor and Rose's, ideologies but refuses both and makes her own choice to help the Gelth, regardless of what others think and makes her own choice to destroy them be sure it is what she believes to be right.

Besides it being a good choice formally to air this episode in the third slots, The Unquiet Dead also lees back an appropriately further layer to the Doctor's character, challenging the audience's morality without ever making him non-empathetic. Plagued by guilt over the consequences of the Time War, still something that we know nothing about beyond the fact that it wiped out there Time Lords, the Doctor offers the Gelth the opportunity to roam freely amongst the bodies of the dead, much to Rose’s disdain. The Doctor's role has little precedent in the televised show, clearly suggesting that his mistake comes from an overwhelming and misplaced emotional response. The Doctor projects his guilt onto a situation that takes advantage of that but his moral position is never seriously challenged. Rose takes a more conservative position which stems naturally from the best scene in the episode where she and Gwen are conversing about their respective upbringings. The scene overtly positions Rose as the educated, condescending lady of privilege which is a delightfully intelligent role to cast her in given her introduction in Rose explicitly establishing the opposite. Rose thinks she knows better than Gwyneth because she thinks she is smarter than her. It could have been a disastrous move and it is impressive that it never paints her in an entirely unlikable light. Importantly too, this scene is written by Russell as a late addition to extend the runtime. 

Everything in the story up until here is working but the climax is ultimately where it kind of breaks down and never recovers. The story needs the Doctor to be right for the arc and theme of enlightenment and indulging other perspectives to broaden your own to actually work but it also needs to have an exciting third act with monsters and life or dearth stakes. So, the Gelth are just irredeemably bad beings. As Sandifer exposes in her own essay, this story is infamously criticised for xenophobic undertones regarding the Gelth and she breaks the entire argument down incredibly well. My only addition to that critique is that I think it is barely a matter of conjecture to say that this reading was unintended given Russell's insistence upon recreating the 1980 moment from Pyramids of Mars. The scene was, mercifully, cut but the intention was to explicitly depict a present-day Earth that has been invaded by the Gelth which would have more than doubled-down on their position as irredeemable monsters. 

This is not a story about immigration, it is not Flip-Flop, and Rose is never painted as morally correct for insisting that their cohabiting the Earth is wrong. The focus of the conflict is on the whys of their choices, not the what. The Doctor is perhaps the most enlightened, for lack of a better word, of the cast but his emotions override his judgement and he allows the Gelth a way to invade while Gwyneth has an unwavering belief in her angels and the blind faith gets her killed. Dickens is only able to save the day once he accepts that his life has been fundamentally changed which leaves Rose as the one character whose development is somewhat confused. Rose thinks herself superior to Gwyneth due to her relative education and life experience but is shamed by her for assuming she can make decisions on her behalf. The result of this is... nothing really. Rose just sympathises with Gwyneth and is as moved by her death as her two surviving companions and that is about all here is to it. The sombre tragedy of the scene following Gwyneth's death ("She saved the world. A servant girl. No one will ever know.") is staged like a story that is fundamentally about class but The Unquiet Dead just is not. It's not that it doesn't come up from scene to scene but the theme is not a driving force of the story until it very suddenly and awkwardly is.

The Unquiet Dead is a good episode of Doctor Who with a great sense of atmosphere and tonal consistency but is more than a little shy of greatness. The production quality is excellent, the corpses and wonderfully creepy, there are great performances from the whole cast and the only real holes in the production are the lack of ambition in direction and editing (it is cut very slowly) and the surprising lack of score from Murray Gold that is something I would never criticise a story with his name attached for otherwise. The final script here is something much messier than the rest of the production and favours individual moments over a cohesive bigger picture. It is entertaining, clever and the right story to be airing three weeks into the show's run but becomes, nonetheless, somewhat more and more insubstantial on repeat viewings. It is a solid episode of a promising programme that likely needed at least one more draft to tease out its most interesting ideas. And maybe tackle that inadvertently problematic bit. In other words, the consummate Gatiss. Start as you mean to go on, I suppose. 

[catofadifferentcolor]

Terrible Fic Idea #82: The Chronicles of Narnia, but make it ASOIAF

@kyuremking recently asked me how I would go about combining Game of Thrones with The Chronicles of Narnia - and admittedly I was a bit baffled at first. Narnia has never been one of my go-to fandoms - I never liked how CS Lewis handled Susan, as if growing up was a crime worthy of exclusion from paradise, and the religious imagery feels quite heavy-handed considering the century in which they were published.

But I thought. And I mused. And I turned the idea over in my mind. And this is what I came up with: What if the Stark siblings fell into an Old Gods-analog of Narnia?

aka The Chronicles of Winterfell fic

Just imagine it:

One day while exploring beneath the catacombs, young Arya Stark falls into Narnia. It is not quite the Narnia we know, with most of the heavy Christian symbolism of the books being replaced by the beliefs and mythology of the Old Gods.

As the religion of the Old Gods is not overly expanded upon in canon, let's imagine it here as something of a cross between shintoism and folk orthodoxy - polytheist and heavily animist with a notion of "pollution vs purity" and an un-codified moral code, but with localized cults of anthropomorphized saints which over the centuries have picked up certain aspects of certain of the New Gods. The details don't really matter so long as the two most important of these saints, which have taken on aspects of the Smith and the Mother, can be used to replicate the Narnian idea of son of Adam and daughter of Eve.

Arya falls into Narnia. Bran tentatively believes her, but the rest of her siblings think she's telling tales. This leads to some back and forth before Jon and Sansa are separately tasked to pull Bran and Arya out of the catacombs - and end up falling into Narnia after them.

Jon, Sansa, Bran, and Arya free Narnia from an endless winter at the hands of the Corpse Queen, who was trapped there by the Children of the Forest, which weakened the Others enough that the Last Hero was able win the Battle for the Dawn. They then rule Narina as Kings and Queens for forty years, eventually falling back into Winterfell while hunting the White Stag.

The exact details of the Narnia interlude are unimportant, as our story picks up literally the minute they find themselves all in a heap back in the catacombs, child-sized once more.

The rest of their family immediately notices the difference, but has no idea what to make of it. All of a sudden the four middle Stark children seem to have overcome all of their differences. They're not just acting like miniature adults, they're acting like proper lords and ladies - used to commanding and their orders being followed.

The difference is starkest with Arya - who seems have mellowed in the course of a day to warrior queen out of legend - and Sansa - who is no longer dreamy but dangerous in the way all Queens of Winter have always been. But it's there with Jon - who seems surer, steadier, and more comfortable in his own skin even as he looks at Ned with betrayal in his eyes - and Bran - who has gone from wanting to be a storybook knight to being the gallant knight he's always wanted to be.

Additionally, all four seem unspeakably close these days and can often be found whispering together - and slowly going silent when anyone else draws near. They're in and out of each other's chambers to the point where it's honestly strange to find one of them alone.

There's no time to ponder these changes, as the royal party is on their way North.

Ned will regret not paying closer attention for the rest of his life.

For while in Narnia, the Stark children learned two things: 1) That Jon is the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and his second wife, Lyanna Stark. Though it's never outright stated, it's heavily implied that while Lyanna's abduction was willing, her imprisonment in a tower was not, and by the end of it hated her husband more than anyone. Jon will never, ever be sure where his conception fell on the spectrum; and 2) that the Long Night is coming. It may be in their generation, it may be in the next, but Westeros must be strong to ensure the Dawn will come. Everything they've learned about Robert Baratheon suggests that he will not - cannot - be the king Westeros needs. And so Jon, Arya, Bran, and Sansa plot, and scheme in preparation for Jon to take the throne himself.

They're prepared to play the long game - but don't have to after Bran spies Jamie and Cersei in the First Keep. He arranges for the pair to be discovered in a way that is utterly undeniable. The twins are tried, found guilty, and beheaded in short order. Cersei's children are declared bastards - and, after Joffrey draws a sword in protest of this, Joffrey is slain as well. Myrcella and Tommen are remanded to Ned's care until they are old enough to join the Faith, enter the Citadel, or take the Black.

And then Robert does what he does best: drinks and whores, seemingly uncaring that his rule is hanging by a thread.

And so Jon acts - or rather, Jon and Sansa go to Ned so that he can act. They sit him down, explain that they know Jon is the rightful Targaryen heir, and state that if Ned does not declare for Jon now, he is dooming Westeros to a bloody civil war. It is best to act decisively now rather than wait for Robert's vices to kill him.

This conversation takes the better part of the night, but eventually Ned is convinced. When morning comes, Ned orders his guards put the few royal guards not already under watch (the majority Lannister men-at-arms having been imprisoned for rioting after Jamie and Cersei's deaths) and takes Robert hostage.

Jon is named King Jaehaerys III.

A great host marches south to King's Landing, picking up the lords of the Riverlands while fighting off Lannister forces, and takes King's Landing quickly, despite Renly's spirited defense of the city. Forces are sent to mop up Stannis at Dragonstone in echo of the Rebellion and in short order Jon is King of Westeros in truth.

What follows is a montage of Jon doing is best to strengthen the kingdom, put down rebellions, and make Westeros ready for the Long Night.

Bran marries Shireen Baratheon, who is named Lady Paramount of the Stormlands in her own right. Their marriage is one of surprising affection - and one which seems determined to restore House Baratheon to its greatest number through their own efforts. Bran is known as The Noble Wolf, and earns a reputation equal to that of the Dragonknight or Duncan the Tall.

Arya marries Robin Arryn, but it's doubtful they ever consummate the marriage. When he dies two years later, she claims the Vale by right of widowhood, and has already been doing such a good job ruling in his stead that few protest when there are no viable alternatives. No one ever quite knows who fathers her heir, but by that point the Long Night is in full swing and few take issue with it.

Robb marries Margery Tyrell, the closest the Tyrells can get to the crown. It's a successful marriage, if not one of deep affection, and ensures the North is well-fed when the Long Night comes.

Jon marries Sansa, with whom he'd had a relationship in Narnia and who he'd been dancing around after their return to adolescence. They often wonder about the children they left behind in Narnia, which causes some angst when they start having children in Westeros, but are undeniably the happiest royal couple in 200 years.

There are other efforts beyond marriage in the background, including 1) a long sequence during which Theon Greyjoy is installed as Lord Paramount of the Iron Islands after his father rebels. He proves to be remarkably loyal to the crown, marries Lyra Mormont, and turns the Ironborn from pirates into a royal navy in one generation; 2) Rickon is sent to foster in Dorne, which he takes to in a way no one could have predicted. He ends up staying in Dorne for most his life and becomes known as The Desert Wolf - a wilder, fiercer knight than his brother Bran. He never marries, but fathers a bevy of bastards to rival Oberyn Martell - at least half of them with Oberyn's daughter Loreza; and 3) Tywin being in open rebellion for years before Tyrion, in a desperate attempt to ensure a Lannister stays Lord of the Rock after they're assuredly defeated by the combined strength of the rest of Westeros, kills his father, takes his place, and swears his fidelity - just in time for the Long Night to descend.

With their preplanning, the Long Night is not half as bad as it was in canon - but it's still war. Sansa rules in King's Landing while Jon, Arya, and Bran lead the fighting to the north.

The situation goes poorly at first, with royal forces able to hold The Others off long enough for the Free Folk to to safety - but it's still a retreat, with each loss to the living strengthening the dead. The situation is starting to seem desperate by the time the Others reach the Wall.

In the darkest moment of the Battle of the Wall, the dragon Cannibal arrives at Castle Black to aid Jon, while two of his kin go to help Arya and Bran at the Shadow Tower and Eastwatch-by-the Sea. (These dragons being ice dragon cousins of the Targaryen fire dragons of the east, and thus drawn to the Stark bloodline when they bother to take riders at all.) Together they are the three heads of the dragon...

...and they start pushing the Others back. Within two years, they have won and the Night King is destroyed.

Jon goes on to rule for several more decades, beloved and capable in a way that no Targaryen ruler before him has ever been. (His few detractors are quick to point out he's more Stark than Targaryen, but Jon takes that as a compliment.) His queen, Sansa, seems less a consort and more a co-ruler, and is possibly more beloved than her husband. Their rule is one of peace and growing prosperity throughout the Seven Kingdoms and takes up an almost Arthurian place in the later history and mythology of Westeros.

They never speak of their experiences in Narnia to anyone - save Jon and Sansa's eldest son, Robb and Margery's eldest daughter, Arya's heir, and one of Bran and Shireen's middle children, who fall into Narnia themselves while exploring the Red Keep, who help the rightful king retake his throne...

Bonuses include: 1) The relationship between Robb and Jon never quite getting back to where it was before the Narnia interlude. As a result, Robb and Theon become even closer - which may have a strong role in Theon's efforts to turn the Iron Islands away from raiding. Dealer's choice if this relationship is bromance or romance; 2) A revival of the Old Gods and their religion following in the wake of the Targaryen Restoration. They win many converts everywhere the Stark family gains a foothold and godswoods are restored throughout the Seven Kingdoms; 3) A projection of Westerosi power into the lands beyond the Wall. At first this is nominal, but as parts of Beyond The Wall start to build villages and keeps similar to those in the North, things begin to change. Within 100 years most of the area capable of being settled this way is under control of their own Lord Paramount descended from a marriage between Robb and Theon's lines. The lands further north continue their pre-War lifestyles, but are nominally part of Westeros as well; and 4) Daenerys lives a happy life with Drogo in Essos. She watches with pleasure as her son Rhaego forms the largest land empire the world of ice and fire has ever seen - and lives just long enough to see that empire collapse after his death as his heirs scrabble for power. One of her great-grandsons, however, does end up on the throne of Yi Ti. His dynasty will eventually rise to be Westeros' great eastern rivals.

And that is surprisingly more than I thought'd I'd have. @kyuremking, IDK if this is quite what you were looking for, but it's the best I could come up with. As always, feel free to adopt this bun, just link back if you do anything with it.

More Terrible Fic Ideas

[rpking99]

Dominant Female Muses

This list is super obvious. Female Muses who are very dominant/I prefer to write as dominant

COMICS- DC

Catwoman

Selina Kyle, Catwoman. Sexy, confident, highly stealthy. She is oh so skilled and stealthy, she will rob you dry

Poison Ivy

Posion Ivy. Also known as Pamela Isely. The woman of the Green. Killed by a a man called Jason Woodrue, she was reborn with powers over plants and with phermones powers. A mistress of seduction, a defender of the earths plant life itself, she is also a brilliant scientist

Lady Shiva/Sandra Wu-San

Lady Shiva. The deadliest woman alive, mother of Cassandra Cain. Cass is a better fighter, but Shiva fights to kill. Robbed of her innocence, in every sense of the word, by David Cain, Shiva is a roming warrior. A force of nature some worship like a god. She kills as she sees fit, for profit or because she was annoyed

COMICS- MARVEL

Superior Spider-Woman/Spider-Bitch/Olivia Octavious

In an alternate universe, Olivia has done the same thing her male counterpart had done and stole the body of a Spider-Girl/Spider-Woman

Aiming to be the Superior Spider-Woman, greater than any other, meaning other Spider's simply refer to her as the Spider-Bitch

White Queen/Emma Frost

Emma Frost is the White Queen. Originally a villain for the Hellfire club, eventually joining the X-Men. She is sexy, she knows it, she flaunts it. A confident smirk on at all times as her telepathy, telekenisis and the ability to turn her body to diamonds makes her a rather tough boss bitch

ANIME- DIGIMON

Lila

LadyDevimon Level: Ultimate

Lila can be summed up with two words 'Dommy Mummy'. A sensual beauty who spent her life seeking the thrills and darkness of the world, from dark sensual kinks to the power of the shadow world. Eventually she gained the power of the Code Crown of Lust, the power of sin itself, and became Lilithmon. Queen of lust, queen of the dark world, she now lives seeking more thrill and pleasure with sensual excitment

She is sensual to the bone. Loving the embaressment others have, as well as the pleasure of the flesh. She can also be very cruel and sadistic when the mood suits her

Lila's Digivolutions

ANIME- DRAGON BALL

Bad Launch

ANIME- YU-GI-OH

Dark Signer Carly

Carly is/was a reporter in the 5Ds universe of Yu-Gi-Oh. Using a Fortune Lady deck she did her best to reveal the truth. A kind, caring, soul with slight confidence issues. Before she died...

After death she was reborn as a Dark Signer... she was mostly the same with some slight darkness to her. The EarthBound Immortals able to manipulate and use her from within. Once defeated, Carly was brought back to life as her old self

Yubel

Yubel is a canonically intersex character with both parts.

ANIME- ROSARIO+VAMPIRE

Inner Moka

CARTOONS- RWBY

Cinder Fall

Cinder Fall is one of Salem's soldiers, one of her main servants. She is a rather sadistic woman, even if she was still rather sensual and teasing. An evil woman through and through

Salem

VIDEO GAMES- PERSONA

Margaret

Akari Amamiya

(face claim is the crossdressing design for Joker. The art works too well for a female Joker but I already have Rin...)

This OC is Akari Amamiya, Rin's own mother. A former prison warden, she and her husband went through a.... But of a rough patch because of the Shido incident. Her husband believing in their daughter being a deliquent and trouble maker. Let's just say... When Rin returned home, the house was one person short....

Akari works as a negotiator. Arriving for business deals, hostage negotiations, anything. Wearing a.... Modified version of her old outfit to add intimidation/to throw off the opposition, she has a near 100% rate of success in scoring her client the best result. The reason it's not 100% is because she will never screw over those being victimised. If she's hired to make a negotiation against a weaker party, she will do all in her power to make it better for them.

...

She also sells photos of herself on some 'adult' websites, but only pictures of herself wearing some form of cloths. Never naked

VIDEO GAMES- MEGAMAN

Dark Megaman.exe (will be reffered to as Rock)

Dark Megaman is a clone made from all of Hub's self doubts and negative emotions given form. Still a femboy, but still rather dominant.

Empress Roll.exe/Devil Roll.exe

Empress Roll is a corrupted version of Roll. When influinced by something like the Devil Chip, this form of Roll is born. Gone is the sweet innocent Navi, replaced by a Virus in Navi form. Sadistic, cold and cruel. You bow to her feet your face her whip~!

VIDEO GAMES- METROID

Dark Samus

VIDEO GAMES- STREET FIGHTER

Juri Han

Poison

If you know Poison, you know about the gender situation with this character. And I do not feel confident writing a trans character, as I feel as though I will come across as offensive just from my ignorance about the subject. Also, there are plenty of arguments about Poison's gender because of how some people are idiots. So I am portraying Poison as a Futa, but if you wish to see or use her as a trans character I am more than fine with that just please communicate with me.

VIDEO GAMES- MASS EFFECT

Aria

TOKUSATSU- ULTRAMAN

Grigio Darkness

Carmeara

[asgardianhammer]

Primary Law; Asgard's Covenant of Non-Interference

Disclaimer: As always this relates to Asgard for my muse’s MC universe, solely based on headcanons.

“ Our expansion, of mind and soul, grew far beyond the borders of realm eternal. Power, as much as it was Seidr driven and might in the physical, would become a force that needed taming. At the very least, it needed guidance and consideration, before it was wielded...

—–  Scholar Oris Stallson of the Archives”

In shimmering halls of Asgard, gold and starlight weaved together in endless patterns, the first scroll contained proclamations bearing the weight of the Primary Law. Ancient as the scrolls may be, tucked away and kept safe, its contents had been liberally shared through the generations, in teachings and re-workings of the aged parchment.

It is codified, and it is lived.

The Aesir, children of Yggdrasil's breath, carry within them an inheritance older than kingship , a sacred stewardship over the Nine Realms. Not conquerors, though the echoes of their battles might suggest otherwise. Custodians, guardians set between chaos and collapse.

The law is simple: to intervene only when the balance tilts toward oblivion, and never to uplift a realm before its time.

The Steward's Hand.

To wield power without wisdom is to invite ruin. Even Borr, for all his grave mistakes, had understood this.

Asgardian intervention is a matter of grave deliberation, and never made on a whim. The realms tangled closer to the heart of the Great Tree are afforded greater attention, others are observed as one watches the unfolding of a distant constellation, with reverence and restraint.

When they act it is not to rule, it is to steady, to restore, and protect. A single hand upon a falling stone, preventing an avalanche. Thus have the Asgardians stood across ages; silent where growth is needed, fierce when destruction must be halted, always with the knowledge that even the lightest touch can change the course of an era.

Oaths & the binding of souls.

Honor is the marrow of Asgard, warriors swear oaths as sacred as the blood that runs through their veins. Healers bind themselves to the service of life, regardless of allegiance, scholars, even smiths, and templars take solemn vows to protect the balance they have inherited. It is by these bonds, unseen but unbreakable, that Asgard's guardians measure their right to intervene. To betray these oaths is to betray Asgard itself, and all the forefathers. Even in the chaos of battle, when foes fall and comrades bleed, the code remains: mercy offered where it can be, intervention withheld where it must be.

The Gifts Withheld.

Even though the halls of Asgard burn with secrets that could turn barren worlds into empires overnight, these gifts are kept behind sealed doors. There is a heavy understanding within all, that a blade placed too soon in an unsteady hand cuts deeper than any sword. Thus, there is restraint, not borne from cruelty but from compassion. The seed must find its own soil and be nourished by skilled hands. Only when a people's spirit stands ready to bear the burden of new knowledge do the gates open, and even then, cautiously, wisdom and tools are shared.

The Covenant Unwritten.

Once it is embedded in the hearts and minds of every young Asgardian, it needs no repeating or reminding. There is no monument displaying the law; it exists in the mind, moves, like breath, through the people, in quiet understanding.

Preserve the balance. Guard the free will of all peoples. Intervene only when the realms threaten to fall into ruin.

And in this, Asgard holds itself apart, not out of pride, but out of reverence for the grand design, the weaving of fate that even gods do not dare to unmake.

[reiketsui]

Make a Team of 6 different pokemon that you think fit your muse the LEAST and explain why!!

TYPHLOSION/any starter pokémon really: he can't stand them. he sees them as the perfect example of how certain privileged kids get magically 'chosen' by professors and get special mons for themselves.

DELCATTY: he can't get along with cats. (despite of being both cat and dog coded, but he's the kind of cat who hates other cats)

GALLADE: honorable warrior and a knight? not his vibe.

DRAMPA: nurturing and protective of kids? nah, drampa would beat his ass for being the way he is.

CHERRIM: he would look at that thing and go what. he has a bad habit on relating appearance to power when it comes to pokemon, although he's gotten better at this after training his fidough.

HO-OH: it chooses a hero to show itself to to grant them eternal happiness. yeah sorry, not for you.

[tiredassmage]

10, 12, 21 multimuse asks :3

fhamk you! at least one of these is still going to make me feel like i have to pick the favorite kid or something akdnfla;kdfn;lasdf.

[multimuse asks!]

10. Which muse is the most fun to write for?

Spoiler alert, it's this one - the one that makes me feel like I'm maybe trying to pick a favorite kid. I could make probably an assumed argument for Tyr because [growing laundry list of aus I keep developing of him], but... ouughghg, I don't knowwww.

So, obvious disclaimer, I enjoy any of the blorbos that stick around long enough for me to put more than a handful of things into their tags. What you might not expect for this answer then based on the fact that I don't have a lot of completed stuff, I think, of them, is.. I really do enjoy writing Savosta and Rhyst's dynamic. Out of the two, I think Savosta deserves the special recognition for this one because I think there's still... things that I'm trying to get to settle out about Rhyst. But Savosta just has... really interesting ways he looks at things and a quite interesting sort of... way of speaking and describing things that I've done... There are tiny pieces of things I've written that I think I would phrase differently for him now with a bit of hindsight and a better grasp on who Savosta is, but he has a very distinct demeanor compared to the rest of my cast. For being a Sith, and especially for being in the role of the Warrior, Savosta is physically probably not what you expect (somewhat short, even by Chiss standards being one such way, and has a usually... fairly level and measured way of speaking. It's fairly deliberate and not... hurried, but not meandering, if that makes sense. And I don't have anyone else that really wields speech the way that he does, which can be slightly challenging to properly convey out of my head and into the written form, but does make him uniquely interesting and fun to play with. When I actually sit down and write anything of the deeply developed saga in my head between him and Rhyst as the Sith Warrior and Jedi Knight of my legacy batch.

12. What is something everyone should know about your muses before they interact?

... If I've ever said something about them and then later on down the line said something that seems contradictory, it isn't that I was lying, it's just that I learned something new about them /lh. Which is half-joking, but also... yeah. Which is one of the beautiful and probably most enjoyable parts to me about developing characters together, particularly with even one other person to play cheerleader at least for them, or even better to actually put the plastic dinosaurs together in the sandbox and see what happens.

But! I love getting into the meat and potatoes, if you will, of developing a character by trying to understand their motivations - what views they hold and at least a little about what developed them into holding those in the first place. And then from there the good ol' reliable wisdom of the fictional character does not necessarily reflect reality is a good one. I have a fairly developed cast of characters I would generally describe as good, or at least decent people at this point, and have started to play more with characters who just... might fucking be in the wrong and be stuck in that view lately for a little variety in the blorbo garden, if you will. Seren's my staple example of this at the moment because Len I initially thought was going to be more of a consistent hardass than he ended up being because lo and behold, introducing him to a broader cast of people and developing what he thinks his honor code is and how he applies it sort of... domesticated him, if you will? He's certainly still not a good person, but oouggh. I love that stubborn asshole, dude.

Anyway, Seren is just... Seren can also get attached to other people and can even want better for them, despite the numerous not-great ways he can go about showing and expressing that, it's just... well. The point is that what he Thinks is good at expressing that and supporting that is not always, in fact, good. For anyone. Let alone the object of his attention. And that's kind of The Point, with Seren. Which is actually a good lead in to the last question then, lol.

21. Which muse is the most problematic towards other muses?

Of my own cast and their ability to nuisance each other, I'd be ready to accuse Len simply because he's pretty bullheaded and thinks instigating can be a little fun.

But actually now that I have once again thought about Seren, I... I really gotta probably say it's him. Because sometimes the biggest difference between Len and Seren is that Len can, even if he's incredibly stubborn and kind of reluctant about it sometimes, recognize and admit when he's wrong and that he's probably hurt someone he cares about. Len has a level of self-awareness that should not be over-credited, but should be credited nonetheless. He is semi-set in his ways of doing things, but he has enough self-awareness to admit that it does not work for everyone and it doesn't always make him a joy to be around.

Seren on the other hand has... a tendency to overassume things about others - even people he says he likes or cares about, etc. He can project onto others what he thinks happened, is happening, what that should feel like, and how he would handle the Thing in question. This is the major root cause of issue between him and his brother Coredin, and it's even present in his relationship with their sister, Eli. Seren claims to have such a protective streak - and a borderline controlling one, to be frank - over Eli for her own good and to look out for her, but I do think he fails a lot of the time to consider Eliana as her completely own person. Seren gets his own shit involved in what he thinks is right for her, and she's not the only one he does this to. Now, for Coredin? That's entirely set up his life for years of struggle. For Eli? She considers him kind of a nuisance and... not much else? A probably well-meaning nuisance because he's her older brother, but... kind of a nuisance nonetheless, that she kind of writes off because well. That's siblings, isn't it?

Anyway. It can work in his favor...ish, if it happens to also align with the other party's views. But frankly in a way that usually makes both Seren and said other party worse, rather than better. (Citation, the whole odd... thing... of a situation... of affection and devotion so deep the lines blur a lot with A'jel @shadowsofdread that he has.)