#and he trained them extensively for... reasons. and they had a mission that i won't get into and they HAD to have both Courts for it

[flo-zoinks]

what do you think Jack was doing between 1911-1914, besides taking care of Abi? I hc he read through Arthur/John’s journal, trying to learn more about who his father was, and who his late Uncle he hardly remembers was. Maybe Charles and or Sadie briefly came over to support Jack n Abigail (if they are alive. In my heart they are) and he listens to stories about their experiences on their own and w/ John. I love him he makes me so sad.. Jack Marston no one can make me hate you. <3

Hiiii!!!!! Thanks for asking me babes!!! ❤

JACK BETWEEN 1911-1914

About Charles and Sadie, one of my first posts I spoke about this in length, so I'll put the link at the bottom 😘

Jack by 1914 is seemingly fueled by anger. He claims so many times he has "nothing to live for anyway!", and the only think we see him actually go out and do is kill Edgar Ross. He knows the consequences of this, what with it being 1914 - far past the end of being able live as an outlaw/gunslinger successfully, and Ross still being chased and sought by the Pinkerton agency, and meaning Jack failed everyone around him who took part in his upbringing. Seeing as he chases after Ross the almost second his Mother dies, it shows he doesn't want his Mother to face those consequences too and see him do what she never wanted for her son.

So, until his Ma dies? What during? He has no real purpose, (save for taking care of her) that he feels he can do. So I believe he 'trained' himself, to ensure he could do the job he needs to when the time comes, and avenge his Father. He forces himself to perfect shooting, (being a talented gunslinger at the level of his father by 1914 whilst he could barely shoot in 1911 further proves this), and gets strong.

Everyone else around him has died, John, Uncle, those he barely remembers like Bill, Dutch, Javier, the list goes on. Used and abused by the system and the government, until thrown away like a toddler's used toy. Most of Jack's anger and hate is channelled into not being like this. Jack's voice lines speaking to lawman help show this, blaming them for his Father's death and calling them evil and vile. So during those years, whilst he festers and builds up this anger, he pushes and forces it into ensuring he won't end up like them, by getting better than those who died.

Jack, too, struggles with attachment. During a mission with him and John, he refuses to let John help him shoot, saying he'd just better learn himself considering how John would just leave them again. Jack, his whole life, has seen people promise to always be there for him, only to leave time after time again. By 1911, when his Father has fully left him, Uncle has fully left him, he has nobody but his Mother. So I imagine during those years Jack forces himself to be more cut off from society, as a defense to make sure nobody could enter his life again with false promises, only to abandon him. This is excluding Abigail, of course, who has been next to him and alone with him his entire life. To him, his Mother is like an extension of him. He never went to school, or had friends his age, so never had a reason to leave his Mother for more then 10 hours.

Anyway, Jack during these years I imagine becomes totally isolated, to avoid vulnerability and being abandoned again. He teaches himself to be self-reliant, to take care of himself and his Mother as he now knows better then to trust.

I do believe however, as I'll link too at the bottom in reference to a previous post, Jack was obsessed with finding out his past. And a key to that would be Bonnie, Charles and Sadie. Sadie and Charles probably offered to stay and help Abigail I presume, to run the ranch. And considering how the ranch is still working and owned by Jack in 1914, you can assume one of the three did help for a while. Bonnie could've the easiest, paying Beecher's Hope over the years in exchange for some farm services probably. So over the years, he works for Bonnie to keep the ranch working and provide for his Mother, whilst simultaneously trying to learn more about John's life and how much it impacted him.

Having no Father now, and a widowed Mother, Jack too during the times was probably forced to become the "man of the household". I imagine he tries to become his Father, which he both hates and wants at the same time. On one hand, feeling like his Father makes him feel angry and grossed with himself, as it's a man who abandoned him, and someone nobody should want be with his obvious flaws. But on the other hand, Jack has no sense of personal identity anymore, and feeling like his Father makes him feel like he's something bigger, or even important and worth while. He feels a duty, to become the man who died for him, and to step up for his Ma.

So I imagine Jack too during the years when he learns about John, makes subconscious choices to change his character to better match his Father, maybe some even without realising. He knows its happening, but doesn't see the choices he makes outright. Small mannerisms, clothing choices, speech patterns are all slowly shifted to resemble his Father. Even more than he did already as his son, too. During voice lines in 1914, he shouts like "I'm John Marston's boy!" At enemies, which I think highlights how much he intends and tries to live in his shadow, or become more, the next John.

Course he still also hates his Father, but emotions are never as simple as binary

Does this make sense ??? 😭🙏thanks for asking me though genuinely!!! I love all asks, and especially rambling ones ab rdr 😭❤ THANK YOU HUNEY BOO

[necrotic-nephilim]

What do you think of alfred/bruce?

!!! good question, i love them so dearly.

shipping Bruce can get difficult when you want to put him in the position of submission. it's not impossible and there are characters you can make him submit (Clark and Diana are the obvious choices) but they're not characters who would any significant power over him, so for the fun of like, fucked up power play, unless you're doing something like an Injustice or Justice Lords AU, it's hard. so if you want to ship Bruce with someone who holds an implicit power over hi him and has the rare ability to tell him what to do, the answer is Alfred. which is just so fun.

because i personally really enjoy putting Bruce in a submissive role. it's a subversion of what you expect out of him, and subverts a lot of his key character traits. he's someone who *requires* control as a part of his personal regiment, part of his mission. he doesn't like to give it up, and he won't give it up to just anyone. when he does give it up, it's always conditional. the few times he gives someone like Dick control, he always takes it right back. Alfred is one of, if not the only person who has full control over Bruce. he can tell Bruce what to do, and Bruce will listen. it's still not perfect and Bruce will go against him, but largely, he can and will exert that control when he feels it's necessary. so that's so fun to play with romantically. especially with the aspect of him not only raising Bruce, but knowing Bruce practically his whole life. Alfred has just always Been There. he's a constant pillar.

and i had an interesting conversation with a mutual about how Alfred's life pretty much revolves around Bruce. Alfred will toss aside his own blood family (Julia) to prioritize Bruce. how Alfred behaves around the rest of the Batfam is defined by their relationship to Bruce and his love for them is often just an extension of his love for Bruce. it's complete devotion from Alfred, and if you make it romantic, it immediately borders on obsession. there's no. "healthy" version of this ship and that's the fun of it. especially if it's a Year One type era, where it's just the two of them. but it's also fun to introduce the rest of the Batfam and see their reactions to it. how long they take to notice, what they feel about it, etc.

these two are so intertwined in a very similar Batman/Robin way, in that most superhero spoofs have a butler for a reason- you just can't separate Bruce from Alfred unless you're willing to kill one of them off. we treat Alfred like this kindly old man who's just there to make tea and witty remarks, but in reality this man is a war vet who served in MI-5. he's rough around the edges in a way that if he and Bruce had met under any other circumstances, they likely wouldn't get along. Alfred has killed people in combat, he has no reason to believe in a no-kill rule and would see the flaws in it. but it's *Bruce*, a man he's been devoted to since the Waynes died. someone Alfred watched grow up.

if i were to personally write them together, i'd have them get together after Bruce leaves and trains for years. because who Bruce is when he leaves Gotham and who he is when he returns are two very different people. and Alfred still lives him wholly, but this isn't a traumatized boy anymore, this is a man who's systematically turned himself into a weapon. and so when Alfred agrees to help, it comes with a natural relationship that's complicated and has built-in fucked up power dynamics. Alfred is the one person who can get away with telling Bruce what to do, killing for Bruce, and taking care of him when he's emotionally vulnerable. there's a deep level of trust in all of that so i really love it and wish we had more of it. you can take it to the extreme dead dove end of things, or play with it in a more domestic sense and both. both are good.

[wildmtthyme]

Character Introduction/Headcanons in "Judgement" for

Morgan "Indiana" Turner

For starters, Morgan's 6'0'', probably 185 lb? I'm not a great judge of weight. She's tall and she's built is what I'm getting at, here.

She's always been the "athletic" girl, the one who played all the sports. She's very competitive. Always has been. Has had to be the best at everything she's done but not at the expensive of others. She won't like trip someone in a race etc.

Because her body is just... the way it is - she builds muscle quickly. She's broad shouldered and has never been "slender" or very feminine. Or rather, traditionally feminine. This has resulted in a lot of teasing growing up. And a lot of assumptions about her sexual preferences.

But she's straight. And that has its own complications. Because not a lot of men out there over 6'0'' and not a lot of men are okay dating someone taller than them. There have been a few but not many.

On the team, she's the k9 handler and weapons expert. Her partner, Sam, is a security and protection specialist (highly trained infiltration k9). [There will be military inaccuracies here people, I'm not enlisted and it's been years since I've been around it.] As far as weapons go, if it shoots - she can shoot it and shoot it near flawlessly. Wherever she goes on field missions, Sam goes. Undercover ops? Not so much. Either one of the team watches him or he goes to the kennels on post.

Because of her competitiveness and her need to be the best, she excelled in the military. Where her masculine build brought its own perks and complications with hazing. But, she persevered.

She was actually born in South Africa before she was sent to Australia to live with a distant aunt who later shipped her off to England to another distant aunt. She never knew her father and her mother was the one who sent her to Australia for reasons she doesn't know (and doesn't care about now). So her accent is kind of a mix.

She has to work hard to keep her body in shape, hitting the gym regularly. She doesn't drink often but when she does, she can and will go overboard.

When she's part of a team, she's part of that team. She's in it 100%. But, when it comes to personal relationships... ehhhhh. She's kinda on the fence. She guesses it probably comes from the whole childhood thing plus the whole relationships ending because she's either too strong or too tall or too good at something etc.

She has body insecurity issues when it comes to her private life - simply because she's not a "girly-girl". Most of the time she's okay with that fact, proud of it really. But deep down, kinda like - behind that shield - it gets kinda lonely.

She's had a massive crush on Simon since day one. Has never acted on it. Has never hinted at it. And is very good at keeping it locked in a box.

Simon is also her bestie. Her person. Her partner in work and best mate off the field. They just get along, they move cohesively when working and they get shit done.

But, because Simon has a certain type of woman that he goes after, she has that thing in her head. That thing that says 'never gonna happen' so she just keeps herself at arms length.

She is very close with Sam, having raised him from a pup and trained him. The training program was extensive and intense but what came out of it was a bond that is iron-clad.

Her team, her dog, her job are such a large part of her life that she isn't sure what her life would be without them.

She does live off post. She bought a small pebbledash cottage out of town with a little land and surrounded by farmland so Sam would have enough space.

The Judge. Can't talk about Morgan without talking about her car. She loves this car. She'd sleep in it if she could stand the back-ache.

She also loves her bike. These are things she'd always dreamed of having and now, after all her hard work, she finally has them. She's proud of that.

(I 100% used Rhea Ripley as her face claim - but from her NXT days, not WWE.) <- The story behind this is that I went looking for an example of what I envisioned Morgan's body type was so I could really get this across. And I found this rando pic of this woman with the short blonde hair and stacked shoulders and I was like "that's it" and yeah - turned out to be Rhea Ripley. Now, I'm not a wrestling fan so I had/have no real idea who she is. But that's how I found her.

Bonus: A peek into Morgan's phone's photo album

[tiodolma]

[https://youtu.be/Kvj4maFyQcs?feature=shared]

i found this song through a mergana spotify playlist. i don't think merlin put even this level of communication towards morgana. what do you think? (also i hope you like it, i became immediately obsessed)

yeah I agree 100%

in interviews about Merlin s3-s5, Colin Morgan often says that "Merlin always tried to show Morgana the right path, but she choose the other path and he must do what he must"... if that really happened, then they would have a conversation like the one in the song. Unfortunately, Merlin gave up on talking as early as the crypt scene 3x02.

Normally hero protagonists who are told "there is no other way," by someone they knew as a friend, would not give up that easily. They would do everything to reason with their friend again and again (see Naruto, one of the best examples), to try to bring their estranged friend back to the fold.

BBC Merlin never did this. Instead he continued to hold back his truths and show animosity to her while he anguished about her in private. Morgana was nothing but honest to him when they were face to face. Yes, even in her hatred of him, she never lied to his face about what she thought about him.

I understand why Merlin is like this though. He had been like this since s1. He was never accustomed to talking/reasoning with people he considers immediate enemies or threats.

Edwin Muirden was instantly killed with an axe that Merlin deflected. Merlin didn't even bother to ask why Muirden was threatening Gaius's life in the first place. At the first sign of danger Merlin immediately goes "you hurt someone i care about so it's not my fault that you die."

Aulfrc and Sophia never got a chance against him possessing one of their Sidhe staff and shooting at them (and he knew their motivations too, but like Muirden, he felt no sympathy because they were immediate threats to his "mission")

Merlin's kill streak just goes on from there. Nobody that he considers a serious threat was given a second chance, or even a chance to represent themselves in a court. As long as they commit actual treason or hurt his family, in Merlin's eyes, then they must be immediately eliminated (and usually without a trace.) this is why extrajudicial killing are bad in the long run yo.

That's why Morgana choosing her choices was her death sentence. Her adversary/rival was never one for communicating against people who directly opposed him, more so against people who were directly prophesied to be against his "Destiny" or let's be real, "mission"

the only glimmer of hope we have for merlin having some communication skills was when he revealed himself to Gilli. See? He could have done it. However, still he just choose the one semi-magical person who only had a ring for a source of power (only gave the user a bit of strength boost).

And that's depressing to me. Merlin only reveals himself to those who he knows won't have the means to truly fight back against him (Freya, Gilli, dying Arthur). He was more afraid to reveal himself to people like:

Morgana who had the power of not only her personal magic but the nobility and high priestesses extensive training as backup if words failed her,

Arthur whom he feared would turn into an Uther if he'd revealed himself to him at the height of Arthur's power

**I know Merlin could defeat Morgana anytime of course. It's just that Morgana has more advantage over him in that aspect of their magic education because, aside from royalty/nobility/political upbringing, she had a better teacher who trained her properly/formally in all the magic and secrets that allowed morgana to act more independently and with more initiative even on her own; unlike Merlin who only bothered to learn stuff when necessary because he was convinced that he was "the greatest warlock who ever lived" anyway. See by s5 how he still has to ask gaius for basic knowledge about magic and the kingdom, it's not a good sign.... but i digress.***

Merlin's overly cautious, paranoid, control freak nature (thanks to gaius's and kilgharrah's continuous training) by s3-s5 cost him to lose the skill to negotiate, talk with people he considers threats and adversaries, even against people who he had a history of friendship and affection.

It's a sad tale for someone like him who really aspired to be free and not be alone. He kept pushing people away, he kept silencing them permanently in the guise of self defense, he never tried to use other ways to incapacitate them and hear them out.

Merlin was a tragedy, man. His isolation, seclusion, radicalization started way too early. He was on kept on a dark path himself (or a path that was too bright that he couldn't see anything else). Kilgharrah and Gaius kept so many important things about his heritage and his mission from him. His mentors kept him dependent on their knowledge and wisdom through various manipulation techniques. This caused Merlin to kept acting based on very limited and biased information which often led to terrible political consequences which he did not have the skills to prepare for.

That's why the lines of Varian really stood out for me.

The path of hate love is a dangerous track You take one step and it's hard to turn back It pulls you along, and though it seems wrong it feels right Don't you see this path you're on leaves a permanent mark It feels good at first, then it slowly turns dark With each passing day you're further astray from the light Suddenly, you lose your way and lose the thread Lose your cool, then lose your head Every loss is harder to excuse Then you'll see you'll lose your faith and lose your soul 'till you lose complete control And realize there's nothing left to lose Nothing left to lose

Even if these lines were supposed to be for "Cassandra" or "Morgana", you can easily sing this to Merlin too. He used "love" and "for the good of all" to justify everything he did, even his cruelty, his ruthlessness, his desperate need to control everything.

His actions from the very beginning left a permanent mark on him too. He just didn't realize it because they kept convincing him that he was still alright. He was made to believe that it was ok to decide for others, but when the others told him they did not accept what he wanted, then he gave up and then killed them off (eventually or made them leave his presence forever).

**and besides it is normal to feel hate. hate is just a feeling. what you do with that hate is more important. some people use hate to actually inspire positive change in their communities**

thanks for this rec @tundratoad. It is very mergana, I'm also putting this on my mergana song playlist hahahaa

Also, it i so heartwarming to know that mergana fandom thrives in spotify and tiktok. i'm glad they are out there. i've only been exposed to the tumblr and youtube fandom. I've seen remnants of it in the old forums. I hope to explore those fanspaces someday (if they'll have me, with my hot takes and all)

[mokartbox]

I finished the sketches and labeled them. I'm posting them now instead of when they're 'done' because my wrist hurts and im letting myself take a break.

Ok now to break it down, from left to right:

Tav: 5'6", affiliated with Alterra only as a nonessential systems tech. Basically if it won't kill you from it breaking, it's their job to fix it before you notice it's broken on the Aurora. Took the 18+ month job as just another trip out into space because they like space travel. Always wanted to explore the stars but that's a science job and they couldn't afford the university sims for that. Highly efficient, but not great at taking care of themselves--though they excel at taking care of others. Occupant of pod 5. Beat the Warpers to the others expressly because they fabricated a scanner and repair tool within 24 hours of landing, accounting for their head injury.

Shadowheart: 5'3", affiliated with the Faerun Group, specifically Baldur's Gate Co. and contracted to Alterra as a spiritual consul for the Alterra mission. Her religious affiliation with the Sharran temple of her home planet is considered a protected fringe belief system, aka it's a cult that controls members via application of debt. Her parents were caught up in one of their expansions and she was part of the collateral the temple took in the debt settlement. She hasn't seen them since she was a teenager. The Mother Superior had her attend university sims for being a doctor to serve the cult, but had her focus on theology more when dealing with other groups. Her pod sank in one of the kelp fields.

Lae'zel: 5'10", subcontracted to Alterra by the Gith Group under the CEO Vlakiith. Meant to provide security for the Aurora while construction happens, and thus one of the few people with a bypass to print something vaguely like weapons from fabricators. This doesn't work in emergency mode, however. Just graduated from training academy consisting of extensive sims and physical education. Is both very confident in her skills and terrified of being alone in a crash scenario. Not because she's insecure, so much as the larger portion of her training was group work and flying solo feels very much like she's unprepared. Her pod is at the edge of the red grass plateau.

Karlach: 6'0", was formerly sold into the service of an outer systems mercenary group run by Zariel. Currently unaffiliated, technically. Zariel outfitted her with cybernetics that make her hit like a truck, trained her in the use of weaponized PRAWN suits... and wired her heart function to a black box that Zariel usually had her commanders keep on their person, tethering her very literally to the outfit. Upon stealing this black box during a raid on their asteroid base, she hijacked a ship and tried to slingshot around the planet-- getting shot down just as she was being boarded. Her pod landed around the near side of the dunes. She doesn't leave it for obvious reasons.

Astarion: 5'9", currently owned by the Szarr Family Corporation due to a massive amount of medical debt. Currently conducting a form of corporate espionage, in that he fully intends to legally 'discover' nearby resources and force Alterra to argue his claims in court--which Cazador fully intends on capitalizing on. Because if they lose, they still need to pay a finders fee and Cazador gets it in payments. If they win, Alterra has to cede any profit from those resources to Cazador as the owner of the discoverer. Astarion's cybernetics are proprietary Szarr tech and allow Cazador to influence his behavior directly through impulses, strengthening his body and mental processing power by converting a higher than average amount of body reserve iron into other tissues with micro-fabricators. This essentially means you can beat the shit out of him and he won't die, but he will be deeply iron deficient for the next few weeks if he doesn't have supplements or meat. Is one of the few people on the Aurora that bothers ordering the meat dishes because he's used to powering through the disgust of eating organic meat to deal with his tech. Sews as a hobby and did some embellishing to his emergency environment suit while on the Aurora because he didn't anticipate needing it. Promptly discovered that this fucks up the insulation. His pod is wedged upside down in the sand of the crash zone. He braved the outside enough to get a hold of a broken seaglide and get back before he got woozy and get bitten 1 time by a sand shark.

Gale: 5'8", Freelancer. AKA he's blacklisted for losing one of the bigger subcompanies in the Faerun Group about 45% of it's annual profits in the span of one week. In his defense, he'd made the investment that lost all the money because it was something his contractual partner [lover] Mystra was interested in at the time. Normally, this status would leave him destitute and unemployable due to liability--a fate worse than death in-universe. However, he's also one of the most educated men in the Milky Way--through both simulation and practical education. Basically Alterra hired him as a very, very, very cheap way to buff their scientific staff on the Aurora. And it got him off planet for over a year, which he was very grateful for, even if he does miss his cat. His pod is over the mushroom forest and he's deeply, deeply afraid of trying to swim when he cannot see the bottom.

Wyll: 5'7", Alterra... technically. More specifically he was manipulated into signing on as a bounty hunter for Alterra under Mizora, under the contractual agreement that Alterra then wouldn't buy out and dissolve his father's stake in Baldur's Gate co. Mostly he hunts down debtors and space pirates that raid Federation trade ships. Currently on assignment to hunt down Karlach specifically, because Mizora didn't like Zariel spending time on her. Told Wyll she was raiding and producing illegal weapons. He's been in deep space a while tracking her down and it was his raid on the base that let her escape--and why she was being boarded when they were shot down. His pod is about 200 meters further into the dunes. His cybernetics let him generate a small taser like shock, but that won't really help against a reaper. Or surrounded by water.

Halsin: 6'3", TECHNICALLY Alterra. Legally, Alterra. Legally he's a loyal xenobiologist looking to slap his name on the research rights on anything living on anything near the phasegate when it's being built. In reality he's a member of the Druids, an informal organization that protests the commodification of alien life and sues the Federation regularly for protections for newly discovered planets and lifeforms. He is also a xenobiologist, though. And has every intention of slapping research rights out of Alterra's hands-- well until the ship goes down. Then he's more concerned with surviving and also being delighted by the environment. His pod crashed into the side of the floating island and he got out just in time to haul it physically onto dry land because it WAS going to slip into the tide. Joins the gang when they show up to meet up with the Sunbeam and welp. His PDA often cuts his verbal notes short so he's often either typing frantically to get it all down or physically writing it with charcoal on the cave walls. His handwriting is terrible, but he knows what it means so it's fine.

Tav rescues all but Halsin through sheer power of hearing a fucked up noise and deciding they could outswim it. Also bc repairing the radio meant their cybernetic HUD is just SWAMPED with pings and its annoying.

im drawing the gang in their wetsuits for the subgate au and Astarion is about to be fucking bald if his hair doesn't cooperate

[givemewallywestorgivemedeath]

So Max is old. Downright ancient even. He's one of the only Fae from the war era (Fae vs Emerald Knights) that's still alive. And he kinda predates a lot of rules. And frankly, the current court system as a whole.

So Max isn't sealed.

And he kinda accidentally skipped out on a lot of rules because he wasn't sealed. (A lot of rules don't apply to younglings aka the unsealed and the assumption is that all mature Fae are sealed. So Max is allowed to do a lot of stuff that other Fae can't, like exist in human spaces, touch iron, cross salt lines and running water, ect)

As for emotions, Max has base level Fae emotions which means he is emotionally constipated at all times. But also he was tricked into a deal (a deal I won't get into right now for spoiler reasons) that curses him with the ability to love as a human would. So he's very closed off. Walls all the way up. Because emotions make you weak and sad.

(^ good fucking luck with that one old man LMAO)

BRO. @ftl-faster-than-life this is beautiful. I love it so much.

I was literally nailing down the timeline for this au and I think it's pretty solid and then yOU HIT ME WITH THIS?! THIS IS SPECTACULAR. WHAT THE FUCK.

Oh my god their ears are so perfect. Wally's little baby ears are literally so cute. And the matching hats 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

I'm going insane I love this so much