#except naoise is like...

[ishgard]

Woke up and got grabbed by the throat with thoughts of my Azem shard tanks and their government-mandated healer situationships.

[werewolfetone]

Not posting anything more about my opinion of banshees of inisherin even though I have plenty to say about how the hamfisted political stuff was stupid as fuck because I fear that if I post more it will become increasingly obvious that my main thought while viewing was not anything serious but rather that dominic and pádraic are both so much like my awful google docs man

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

hello and welcome to the niche corner

hello i'm néide and this is my blog, which mostly consists of me being grumpy about niche things. i have multiple degrees in medieval irish literature and while sometimes i use these to be vaguely educational, more often i use them to write incredibly specific fic about characters nobody else cares about, and this fic can be found on ao3 (for logged-in users)

so this is a guide to my incredibly specific fanfiction, which i feel also gives a reasonably good introduction to the kind of thing i'm likely to be yelling about on this blog

i am reliably informed that you don't actually need to know anything about the source material to have fun with these fics (or suffer from the angst), but also they can be more fun if you do. some have bibliographies/refs/explanations so i also know a few people have used them as a way to get started with medieval Irish lit which will never not be extremely funny to me

current WIP: chasing someone else's dream (16k, WIP): a cú chulainn/láeg reincarnation fic. they have been reincarnated, not for the first time. they've also been cursed, and thus, unlike in every life before this one, they've never met. ngl this fic contains some of the best prose i ever wrote, please read it

group chats of the ulster cycle, or, the in loco parentis series

a modern AU of the ulster cycle. sort of a college AU, turned into a ballet AU halfway through. consists of:

in loco parentis (135k, complete): my magnum opus. cú chulainn and láeg are university flatmates; group chats featuring all your favourite ulster cycle characters and also some you probably never gave a shit about; cú chulainn as a tiny trans ballet dancer and ferdia as his pas de deux partner; baking; everybody hating on conchobar; nobody dies; way more feelings about both ballet and shostakovich than anybody was expecting, including me; and much more. comes with explanatory notes / bibliography because i'm just Like That

getting the dee (9k, in progress/abandoned): a prequel to ILP, sort of a longes mac nuislenn fic except nobody dies and there are more sex toys. naoise/deirdre with guest appearances from conall. one day i'll go back to this but also i'm a coward

valentáin's day (4k oneshot, complete): a prequel to ILP, featuring láeg and cormac in the pub on valentine's day making fun of all their friends in relationships. they make out, fortunately their friendship survives the experience.

and when you move, i move (2.5k oneshot, complete): a sequel to ILP. just a horny lil cú chulainn/ferdia oneshot set a few months after ILP wraps up.

miscellaneous ulster cycle oneshots

i will be honest, most of these are sad fics of oidheadh con culainn ("the death of cú chulainn") because i just love writing angst, but there's a couple of others in there

a moment's silence (3k): smutty cú/láeg fic set during táin bó cúailnge, inspired by this picture. the most explicit fic i've written

to walk this world alone (6k): extremely niche fic featuring láeg after cú chulainn's death. some otherworldly happenings. sad but not as sad as it was originally going to be.

counterweight (3k): cú chulainn/láeg during oidheadh con culainn, anticipating cú chulainn's death. this one's pretty sad too.

dindsenchas (3.5k): missing scenes between cú chulainn and láeg during táin bó cúailnge. narrated by the landscape of ulster and addressed in second person to cú chulainn himself because the best sex scenes are the ones narrated by a tree.

in one dwelling place (2k): láeg/cú chulainn/emer. vaguely smutty, vaguely fluffy.

we'll say goodbye, today (2k): cú chulainn and láeg during oidheadh con culainn, anticipating cú chulainn's death. big sad hours.

glorious as the sunrise (3k): this is just angst. cú chulainn/láeg during oidheadh con culainn again. not particularly shippy but they love each other very much.

a marriage of inconvenience (3k): modern AU. cú chulainn wants to marry emer but unfortunately never bothered to get divorced after he married láeg for househunting purposes. a very silly fic.

of grief and glory (1.7k): cú chulainn deals with the aftermath of táin bó cúailnge, especially fer diad's death. more sad times lol.

flight risk (2.3k): teenage cú chulainn and láeg steal a spaceship. they get caught. fun scifi AU.

other medieval lit fics (non ulster cycle)

patron saint of toasties (2.5k): finn cycle fic. oisín took time out of uni to travel and now all his friends have graduated and he's lonely enough to text the christian union's "text a toastie" hotline. which is how he meets patrick. very silly modern AU gen fic mostly taking the piss out of st patrick

two birds of a feather (2.8k): yonec (marie de france) | togail bruidne da derga crossover fic. bird dad support group. conaire and yonec hang out and bond over their dads having maybe been birds. stupidest thing i ever wrote and i adore it.

quiver and shake (1.8k): fourth branch of the mabinogi fic. gwydion and gilfaethwy's special brotherly bonding time. canon typical content warnings apply.

other

absent thee from felicity (11k, WIP): hamlet | romeo & juliet crossover modern AU in which horatio and benvolio attempt to deal with the aftermath of their respective tragedies. sad at first, will gradually get sillier. haven't updated in a couple of years but that doesn't mean it's permanently abandoned, i'm just busy

a guild doctor and an abolitionist walk into a bar (5.5k, complete): mortimer sark/daragh vernant (the butterfly assassin by finn longman). in which they become friends while coparenting their fucked up assassin child and pretending they're not doing that. blatant pro-mortimer propaganda tbh and i'm not sorry

if you've never read any of my fics before and are wondering where to start, i firmly believe the reincarnation fic (current WIP) is a good one because it has a solid mix of angst, shenanigans, and weird fuckery, so you can experience the tonal whiplash of the rest of my fics all in one place! but it is a WIP and i make zero promises about upload schedule, it happens when it happens, so not so good if you're impatient haha. plenty of others to get you started though

[fefuckability]

Genealogy qualifier time! Back to having way more men than women to vote on :( Will begin Friday, December 20th at 3pm EST

Here’s how it’s going to work:

There are going to be eight qualifying polls (four for the men, four for the women)

Pick your most bangable favorite from each poll

Polls will run for one week

The top 32 male characters and the top 16 female characters will qualify for the men’s and women’s bracket

We will be using whatever names are listed on their wikis because that is what the official localization is now

Polls:

Qualifier 1 (Sigurd, Naoise, Alec, Arden, Azelle, Lex, Quan, Midir, Jamke, Chulainn)

Qualifier 2 (Beowulf, Lewyn, Claud, Byron, Manfroy, Arvis, Eldigan, Travant, Seliph, Scathach)

Qualifier 3 (Dalvin, Oifey, Diarmuid, Tristan, Lester, Deimne, Arthur, Amid, Luchar, Lucharba)

Qualifier 4 (Shannan, Leif, Ares, Febail, Asaello, Ced, Hawk, Hannibal, Julius, Arion)

Qualifier 5 (Ethlyn, Edain, Ayra, Deirdre, Laquesis, Sylvia, Erinys)

Qualifier 6 (Tailtiu, Lahna, Annand, Aida, Dithorba, Lana, Muirne)

Qualifier 7 (Larcei, Creidne, Julia, Fee, Hermina, Daisy, Nanna)

Qualifier 8 (Jeanne, Lene, Laylea, Linda, Altena, Ishtar, Hilda)

Extra notes under the cut

Characters who are excluded from voting:

FINN AND BRIGID because they won the their respective Thracia brackets. I am not allowing winners to participate in multiple brackets. If you are wondering where they are, they're missing because they've already won.

Anyone who obviously both looks and acts like a literal child. The standard is literally “if a reasonable adult could look at this character and immediately clock them as a child, then they’re out”. Some characters are borderline so discretion may be used. We are not taking manga ages or "Kaga dream scenario" ages into account. Characters I have determined are "too baby" are: Dew, Coirpre, Charlot, Patty, and Tine.

Anyone who lacks either a unique portrait or a unique name.

Characters who do not have a unique human form.

Most of the antagonists, due to most of them being palette swaps. Exceptions were made specifically for Dithorba (due to her existence in FEH) and Aida (I'm pretty sure she's more important than the other palette swaps. Also she's hot).

Additional Notes:

I'm using FEH and Cipher art where possible, but the pickings are really slim on some of these guys

[eungella-viator]

//ayy got some time to squeeze a sketch of my danchou!Saseki :'3 (of course totally different from my saniwa!Saseki, i just happen to like that name a lot that i used it almost every game except gnshn wwww)

Also gon throw a teeny tiny tidbit:

Current class: Yamato

Preferred Element: Wind & Light

Airship: The Engella

Best Girl(s): Heles, De La Fille, Scatha, Arulumaya, Rosetta, Fastiva (and Lyria of course)

Best Boi(s): all his 4kishi and Hiyoko bbies, Sandalphon, Seruel and Naoise, Albert and Yurius, Jamil 💘, Six 🥺

[skelezomperman]

(Gen I)

Who likely gets into internet fights on Reddit, about what and on which sub(s)?

Modern AU and I'll just do it for the 24 playable characters.

Sigurd - r/relationships where he says things about Deirdre so innocently that other people think he's trolling (I suppose I'm cheating since this was already written about by you) Naoise - r/TalesFromRetail because he vents about his job there a lot Alec - also r/TalesFromRetail except he trolls Naoise Arden - doesn't use Reddit but laughs whenever Naoise and Alec's fights spill over into real life Lex - regularly looks at r/AskReddit and gets into fights on bait questions Azelle - quietly laughs at whatever Lex is doing, sometimes shows up to back up Tailtiu Quan - r/tifu enough said Ethlyn - swore off Reddit after spending an entire day arguing about some plot thing about some video game Finn - probably peruses subreddits about knights and gets into arguments about how realistic depictions of armor should be Midir - argues about how chivalrous gentlemen should be, from a male perspective Edain - argues about how chivalrous gentlemen should be, from a female perspective Dew - banned from multiple subreddits for advocating stealing Ayra - argues about the best fencing techniques Jamke - prefers Facebook Deirdre - is completely oblivious to the existence of social media beyond MySpace and AOL Chulainn - professional wrestling fan Lachesis - sometimes trolls people who probably deserve to be trolled in some fashion Beowulf - is into martial arts but dislikes scripted wrestling, oftentimes gets into arguments with Chulainn Silvia - deep advocate for rhythmic gymnastics Lewyn - music snob Erinys - also peruses subreddits about knights and is a stickler for realistic armor, like Finn Tailtiu - r/AskReddit and gets into fights on non-bait questions Brigid - prefers Twitter Claude - stays away from most social media and sticks to posting a weekly sermon on Blogspot

[icharchivist]

So if Siegfried's VA is coming on Granblue TV next week, pretty much everyone assumes we're getting a new Sieg unit. What are we hoping for, here? Fanservice and sexy? Strong and intimidating? Maybe showing off some fierce draconian power? I guess it's all sexy

Grand Sieg Real!!! Grand Sieg Real!!!

i don't know if it's what you really want to know since your ask is more lighthearted but here's what have been my thought process about it all and i've thought about it a lot for the past two years:

ever since Grand!Lancelot dropped in December 2021, we've known that they were going to release a set of Grand for each of the Dragon Knights.

Grands are given to some of the most important characters of the lore and of the game in general.

The Dragon Knights also are in a situation where they're popular and powerful, but their very first units (except for Vane) have been relegated to the Classic Draw, making them difficult to access for new players. It also means that their original kit has been outdated (though they still have their use)

So the idea of those Grands will be to be an upgrade on the Base Units, while taking into account their development so far, and also recapping the important parts of their lore.

It's why Grand!Lancelot recapped from the ground up everything we knew from Siegfried being framed to the crimes of Feendrache and the way Lancelot has grown from his blindly patriotic days.

Since the announcement of the Grand series for the Knights, only Lancelot and Percival have been released. it's also noteworthy that before the current rotation of knights, the last released unit was Halloween Vane, meaning that in the rotation, next one has to be Siegfried.

If they continue on the logic of replacing the base units, it will be an Earth Grand Unit for Siegfried.

What to expect from it? well, it just needs a look at the previous grands to have an idea.

Grand!Lancelot gave him an upgrade by connecting him to the Fairies of Feendrache, finally coming out from their slumbers and blessing their new champion.

Grand!Percival meanwhile got an upgrade thanks to Cath Palug, the guardian creature of the rulers of Wales, who has been set since BFAF with looking over the possible rulers of the nation and eventually give them the power to do so if they're considered worthy.

Their new arts came with an overhaul on their armors and also something that strengthen their current affiliation. Lancelot leaves behind the blue armor to embrace a white one as the leader of the White Dragons. Percival's armor meanwhile ends up upgraded with regal designs reminding of the coat of kings, strengthening as well his goal to become a worthy protective king. His uncap also strengthen this imagery by showing him as a leader of the people, while Lancelot is a little more "battle generic".

The conclusion to drive from it with Siegfried, which i had at the time and have been strengthened by the preview, is that Siegfried is also going to get a power up from a specific creature that will lead him to reevaluate himself.

So obviously, for his Grand to actually have the impact it needs, Siegfried's storyline must continue on the Draconian front.

in Siegfried's Fire unit, following the event of SIEGFRIED, the dragon blood has basically been consumming him and he's losing himself more and more and is currently in a situation of near death or losing his mind if he doesn't find a way to ease up Fafnir's blood. One of the theory mentioned in the FE as to how to save Siegfried's life, is that he has to connect with Fafnir in some way again. (we also know now, from Naoise's storyline, another draconian, than a positive relationship with the dragon you have the blood of in your vein can help you control this power).

So it's basically been set up for years that the next logical step in Siegfried's journey would be related to Fafnir and to his condition as a Draconian, and with the current Grand trend, it seems likely that this will be the core componant to his upgrade.

The newest event is called "The Dragon weep before Daybreak" and will feature discussion of the Sins of Feendrache. The sins of Feendrache are many, and one that is important is the way Fafnir has basically been used to poison the people of Feendrache for years due to Isabela's influence, after all. Moreover, any sins of Feendrache would imply unveiling Josef's past.

So i believe Siegfried will get his upgrade because he will be forced to confront Fafnir, in one way or another, and will come out of it with more power. I also believe that the past we'll unveil, probably even more regarding Josef, are going to break Siegfried to some level.

So what it means for Siegfried's Grand Unit:

-I think it's going to double down on the draconian angle. Since Fire!Siegfried we expect so, Fire!Naoise showed us how a proper feral draconian can evolve, and we know from gbvs that Granblue is leaning harder in harder on Siegfried being fully a draconian now. (besides, in Summer!Siegfried, a huge plot point is that the dragon blood almost drives him to insanity again and he still has to fight it and he wants to enjoy the last few moments he has with his friends for now)

-Which will probably mean that the uncap at least might be Feral and unhinged

-There's the possibility that the uncap also actually reflect his dynamic with Josef.

-I don't really think it'd be sexy for the sake of it being sexy, i think for such a big unit moment, they'll focus on the lore itself. I just hope that they remove his helmet for it bc looking at the concept art for Fire!Sieg, where he wasn't wearing the helmet while in the final art he does, is painful.

-Siegfried's theme colors are already Black and blue, so i think if change to his design, rather than color palette, it will be a design change like Percival had.

tldr So personally i believe it'll be strong and powerful, with a high chance of feral depending on how in control he will be, but nevertheless i do think the focus will be on the draconian aspect of his characterization, or eventually on his relationship with Josef.

and yeah i've been thinking about all of this since 2021 so i have many thoughts alright

[sadincae]

!!

With every “!!” i get, I’ll introduce you to an OC!

My sunshine boy Naoise!!! He's a Pathfinder1e character I played fairly recently. He's a summer sidhe, a starsoul sorcerer, and an absolutely cheerful mess who I love so much.

Naoise is extremely happy all the time, and extremely stubborn. Once he sets his mind on something, that is what he will believe until the day he dies. He dislikes purposely causing harm unless those he cares about are in active danger, preferring to talk his way out if possible. He wants to be friends with literally everyone with very few exceptions. Essentially, everyone is either his friend, or will be his friend in the future.

He does have two people who he is closer with than anyone else, however, which would be two nobles of the Winter and Summer courts, Julius and Aislinn respectively. He's completely oblivious to the fact that these two hate each other immensely, and that both really like Naoise.

He initially left his homeland of Tír na nÓg to search for Julius, who had gone on a mission to the connected world of Hadreon and had not yet returned, nor even contacted anyone since leaving. Naoise nearly completely skipped out on training and learning about Hadreon in his eagerness to find his friend, and was thus woefully unprepared for what this new world had in store.

He managed to make more friends, learn Common well enough to at least speak and understand what was said to him, and make no progress in actually finding Julius for a long time. He followed some rumors of sidhe-related activity though and made his way northward to the country of Tomra with a caravan, making even more friends as he grew closer to a specific party of three others.

While helping those in Tomra who were recovering in a war (with the sidhe specifically, but Naoise tried to not think too much about that), he met some rebel sidhe (very nice, if misguided, friends!), was the accidental reason some kids got killed (they got better, it's fine!), helped his friend Archibald set up a drakon noble on a date (he got kidnapped, but it's fine!) and eventually he helped his group traverse the Glass Wastes, the dangerous northern edge of Tomra, in order to recover some airships up there and to free some of the poor souls who had been trapped within the glass there, and for Naoise specifically, to see if Julius was potentially there (spoilers: he wasn't).

It was around this time that he did end up actually getting into contact with Julius via speaking to him through dreams, and he was was livid that Naoise had come to Hadreon alone since he didn't think Naoise would be safe, and that he was going to find him and bring him back to Tír na nÓg. That was fine by Naoise! He was just happy his friend was okay, and that he would be able to see him soon.

After Julius did eventually meet up with Naoise (not before teleporting into the freezing ocean a couple times, lol, lmao), Naoise stayed long enough to help his party clear out one of the airships, rescue one of the only remaining sidhe on board, and take down the captain who was succumbing to corruption. He was sad to leave his new friends behind but did want to return home with Julius, so he said his goodbyes and made his way back home.

Well, for a little while. Julius still had a mission to complete which he had put on hold to grab Naoise and return him home, and Naoise was insistent about coming along with him... and also having Aislinn come along as well, since he'd missed his other best friend immensely in his absence. To further complicate things, Aislinn was very intent on making Naoise a noble as well which would be kind of impossible if Naoise wasn't around to finish the training for that, and Julius wasn't about to let Aislinn screw things up more if he did leave Naoise behind with him......... so Naoise ended up having his way. No one is happy about the situation, except for Naoise, who is just happy to travel with his two best friends.

They definitely aren't going to cause more problems in the campaign.

Surely not.

Never.

:)

[sendme-2hell]

Ranking the books I read in 2022 by how much I liked them

20. The Power - Naomi Alderman

I really really hated this book. I think somewhere else I already talked about how much I hated it. The truth is that the concept is good. And I do agree that if women gained power over men that they would create power structures similar to what women currently experience under men. But the absence of any sort of queer/trans exploration seemed really glaring--especially from the author who gave us Disobedience. I felt it just wasn’t nuanced enough for me. 

19. Yerba Buena - Nina Lacour

Okay I really liked this book! I think there needs to be more coming of age books about lesbians in their 20’s-30’s and that's exactly what this book was. It was a bittersweet book about two women finding each other and themselves, but I didn’t quite latch onto it. 

18. The Oleander Sword - Tasha Suri 

I don’t have anything to say except I really liked the second installment in this series and I can’t wait for the next one! More enemies to lovers where they are still kinda enemies. 

17. The Echo Wife - Sarah Gailey

I liked the idea of this and almost all of the execution. It’s what would happen if a woman found out how to make clones that had the same personality as their source. Then her husband makes a clone of her. As you can imagine, it’s more about trauma and domestic abuse than cloning. Which works. 

16. The Glass Hotel - Emily St. John Mandel 

I love the Emily St. John Mandel Connected Universe. Even though I didn’t find these characters as compelling as some of her other works, one thing really stuck with me. In this book she speaks of the wealthy as living in their own country. Because they are so rich, wherever they go they are having similar experiences with similar people. They have more in common with rich people from other countries than poor people from their own. When characters lose wealth they are demoted to the country of the poor. 

15. Exciting Times - Naoise Dolan

Some people don’t like this book but I was having a good time. Sadly it’s hard not to make the Sally Rooney comparisons since it’s about a really self aware Irish woman noticing a lot about capitalism. But tbh I eat that shit up. Like Conversations with Friends, she is choosing between the idealized perfect woman love interest and the male love interest who will probably never love her. I don’t think it’s a hard decision but these women seem to really have a problem choosing. 

14. We do What We do in the Dark - Michelle Hart

This was another coming of age book about a female college student having an affair with a married female professor. I felt bad for her but also I’m sorry it is kinda sexy. That is absolutely not the point of the book though. 

13. The Vegetarian - Han Kang

One woman decides to be vegetarian and you will not BELIEVE the chaos this causes. I really liked the writing style. 

12. Disobedience - Naomi Alderman 

Unlike The Power, I loved this book. As a Jewish (but not close to how Jewish these characters are) queer woman, I loved this book about Jewish queer women. It was incredibly nuanced, and I was interested in how it explored religion and community and did not give a simple answer. Literally nothing will ever hit harder than women who are foils to one another. One woman is more open about her sexuality and has moved away from her stifling community but she isn’t happy either due to the crushing loneliness of modern capitalism, but the other woman while having community is not being honest about her sexuality and is dealing with oppressive sexism. But now where was the spitting scene from the movie?

11. Sea of Tranquility - Emily St John Mandel

I love time travel. I love meta media. This book was awesome. ESJM writes about her own experiences as the author of a famous pandemic book living during an actual pandemic, but also it takes place far in the future and there is time travel. Five stars. 

10. They Never Learn - Layne Fargo 

Is this book as much of a literary achievement as some of the books I’ve ranked lower on this list? Absolutely not. But it does have a queer woman murdering rapists and getting a happy ending. Incredibly cathartic 10/10. 

9. Fire & Blood - GRRM

I’m sorry this should not be ranked so high. Especially since I learned GRRM was pressured by HBO to work on this instead of winds of winter in time for HOTD to come out. But honestly I really liked it. I am a real sucker for seeing large family history and lineage and that’s exactly what this is. Also I love a good unreliable narrator! It adds this other layer to reading, where you can see the biases and societal norms influencing the writing. I find the sense of ambiguity quite powerful where you know multiple answers could be true, but also when the narrator is so unreliable you can imagine quite literally anything. I choose to imagine Visenya and Sharra of the Vale were lovers, Alys and Tyanna were lovers (and something really complicated went down), and that Rhaenyra and Alicent had a toxic age gap relationship. No one can stop me! 

8. Our Wives Under the Sea- Julia Armfield

This was a really creepy book about a woman whose wife goes to sea to research something and comes back changed. It reminds me of that part from The Doll House by CMM where she speaks about how the idea of possession is comforting because it implies it is not the person you love who has changed and is hurting you, but something else inhabiting their body. I love a book that uses sci-fi concepts to explore relationships. 

7. Nona the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir

I truly think this is the book that closest captures what it is like to be a child. I love Nona with all my heart. Can’t wait to see what happens to these crazy kids in Alecto. 

6. Everyone in this room will someday be dead - Emily R Austin

This book is funny and captures what it feels like to have anxiety in a scarily accurate way. It made me feel a lot of things. 

5. The Rehearsal - Eleanor Catton 

There is something so fascinating about media that explores the toxic relationship between competitive young artists (musicians and actors especially) and their mentors. The other book that comes to mind is Trust Exercise. Like that book, The Rehearsal has unreliable narrators and a peculiar structure. It is a little more raw and experimental; you can tell this is Catton’s first work. Yet I found it so powerful and thought provoking. 

4. Klara and the sun - Kazuo Ishiguro

I read this in a day but I can’t stop thinking about it. Just one of those books about AI and personhood and what if we could create a realistic person from AI? What about personality replication? But what was most interesting to me was how Klara created a religion out of what gave her life -- the sun. Also every time I see the M3gan trailer I think of this book.

3. Detransition, Baby - Torrey Peters

What an interesting book about gender, family, queerness, motherhood, etc…

2. Conjure Women - Afia Atakora

Another book I will think about for the rest of my life. It explores the life of three women (two black one white) living in the South before and after slavery is abolished. It explores a sort of intersectionality and is nuanced but not forgiving of the white woman. It also has a really interesting magical realism aspect which can be read as literal or metaphorical.

1. No one belongs here more than you - Miranda July

A short story collection that is incredibly weird yet so powerful. I am most drawn to authors who let their characters be as strange as humans are. Characters who have not-often-expressed thoughts are sometimes the most relatable because I personally am not going around narrating my life like a cliche standard romance novel and I don’t think most people are! I think most people are out here thinking the weirdest least-logical thoughts out there. And that’s great! I think what ties the stories in this collection together is that the narrators of each story are suffering from either extreme loneliness or trauma, and this leads them to act from a sort of logic that a “normal” person might not understand. But the reader can understand it. You can feel their loneliness radiating from the page and see it dictating their actions, and suddenly it makes sense. As we live through a pandemic, I truly relate to the extreme lengths these characters go through just to feel any sort of human connection.

[finnlongman]

Okay, here's my best guess at translating this description:

A dark-white scarlet-coloured gilla in the presence of the warrior, as if the full complexion of a rose was in his head, a satin hood/cowl on him with the headband of precious stone framing his face to protect him from cold weather and from the heat of the sun, a rod of silver in his hand directing the horses so as not to give information to them except the information the warrior desired.

(Uncorrected, rough, take with a grain of salt, etc.)

I am assuming this black-white-scarlet-coloured description is a shorthand for evoking that motif of black, white, and red as colours on beautiful people -- cf. Naoise, for example -- although it sounds very weird phrased like this.

It's also interesting to have that kind of "idealised beauty" motif evoked in a description of Láeg, who as a charioteer isn't really framed as an object of desire at any point. And then to go on and talk about his fancy satin hood and headband of precious stones and so on... it's a little odd.

But what's really interesting about this one is that it comes after a very lengthy description of the chariot and both horses, and you would expect it to be followed by a description of Cú Chulainn, and it's just... not. There is no description of Cú Chulainn here, despite the fact that Lugaid, who is describing them, immediately then says, "Get up, Cú Chulainn is coming towards you."

At first I thought I'd misread it and this was intended as a description of Cú Chulainn, but the headband and the goad are common enough details of Láeg descriptions that I don't think it can be, even if I somehow messed up the first part of the first line. So. I dunno what's going on there. But please enjoy Láeg in his fancy hood.

Apparently people who say things like "I don't care if you're Black, white, or purple" were referring to the character being described in this line, who is a "gilla dondfinn dathchorcra".

No, I don't know what that's getting at, either. It's probably something idiomatic that I'm not grasping.

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

friends, readers, assorted goblins, the day has come

my college-AU-turned-ballet-AU of the táin, in loco parentis, which began inauspiciously as a shitpost in 2018, has finally come to an end

at 135,693 words it is the longest thing i have ever written, far longer than i ever anticipated it being, and absolutely full of extremely niche medieval literature references

FEATURING

láeg and cú chulainn as flatmates

group chats featuring all your favourite ulster cycle characters and also some you probably never gave a shit about

cú chulainn as a tiny trans ballet dancer and ferdia as his pas de deux partner

baking

everybody hating on conchobar

no dead people. everybody lives. even naoise

also nearly everyone's queer. except like. conchobar. and, to everybody's surprise, naoise.

emer as a terrifying getaway driver

far more feelings about both ballet and shostakovich than anybody was expecting, including me

a wild range of creatively-utilised source material, from táin bó cúailnge to aided derbforgaill to fled bricrenn and back again

... and much more besides

you should read it! i am reliably informed that you do not need to know anything about medieval irish lit to have a good time, although it will probably make slightly more sense if you do! i would hazard that the writing improves as it goes on although i really cannot judge at this point as i have lost all perspective!

testimonials from readers:

"How did you make me so invested in a modern day college au for the ulster cycle that I haven't even read??"

"one of the most compelling updates to a mythological story I've EVER encountered"

"the combination of comedy and emotion in this fic is golden and it's all just generally delightful and I love it"

"I keep trying to pick which line is funniest. I love this fic."

"god this fic is so good!! it has everything: irish myth!! realistic non-us uni vibes!! trans Cu!! BaLLeT!!!!"

"an emotionally devestating shitpost 10/10 put this in the MOMA"

i will leave you with: cú chulainn, lug and súaltaim's family group chat, because it's the stupidest thing i've ever written, and because i am always down to roast lug

anyway it is complete, it is long, it has an ending, it is all there, so if you hate reading WIPs because you've been burned too many times by abandoned fics or you just never got around to starting it before, NOW'S THE TIME

MOREOVER if you have read the fic and would like some help identifying the medieval texts it's referencing or just want an explanation of Why I Did That, i now have a post explaining aaaallll the references, so you can even appreciate the super niche shit

[daydreambclievers]

okay but. i mean. i gotta. naoise and kins kiddo

send me a ship and i’ll tell you what it would be like if they had a kid! - still accepting!

name: aoife

gender: female (she/her)

general appearance: she looks mostly human, except her eyes and the glow on her skin in her true form. her eyes are the color of flames and they glow brighter when she’s upset. her skin glows faintly like she’s always lit by firelight. she uses glamor in the mortal world to make her eyes a natural color and hide the glow, except on her face because she can pass it off as a really amazing highlighter. her blood is also darker than a human’s (since naoise’s is black) but it’s not so unnatural that it would raise too many flags since it’s still red-ish. she wears a lot of sweaters. her whole look just radiates cozy and warm vibes.

personality: curious, skeptical, and loving would be her big three traits. she’s always finding something to learn or explore, but she’s cautious of those around her and takes most things with a grain of salt. if someone gets past her guard, she loves them fiercely and will do anything for them. generally friendly unless you give her a reason not to be.

special talents: she’s half fae so she’s immortal but not invincible. she can summon flames if she focuses enough but doesn’t do it too often.

who they like better: oh this is tough. she loves both of them so much, but for very different reasons.

who they take after more: i’d say she’s a pretty solid mix of the two, but maybe a touch more like naoise bc she skews more fae and she likes things that are new and surprising. she’s also prone to seeing humans (aside from her mom) as…things seems wrong but she has a decidedly more fae view of humans despite being half human herself.

personal headcanon: she has…interesting relationships with her family. she loves both of her parents deeply, but she’s hesitant at best near the others. she doesn’t trust kieran because he doesn’t like mortals and she’s half mortal herself so she doesn’t know how far that extends to her. she’s met ultan once, but she suspects she’s more like him than anyone else in her family because even with her weird views on mortals, she does think they’re endlessly fascinating and would never harm them and has befriended one or two and she doesn’t care about power or the courts or anything like that. her aunt inspires awe and fear in equal measure because she’s a badass but that’s also kind of scary.

faceclaim:

[irelandseyeonmythology]

You mentioned the differences between versions of myths from timeframes, and now places. How much of a timespan between myth versions usually exists for the different cycles? What gives an idea if a version of a myth is an older or a newer one?

Oh, this is one of my favorite questions!

So, what we generally consider as "Irish Mythology" is really Irish literature from the Middle Ages (with our earliest stories being from the 7th-8th centuries) to the Early Modern period (anywhere from about the 14th century into the 17th century.) During this time, you have all of the cycles being written, because the term "cycle" is something that we really use for our purposes more than something that was actively used. (If you were to ask a medieval Irish person about the Mythological Cycle, for example, they wouldn't know what you were talking about -- We use that term because it makes for an easy shorthand.)

Oidheadh Chloinne Lir (the Children for Lir), for example, while we consider it to be one of THE major myths, was actually probably written around the 15th century. Cath Maige Tuired (The Second Battle of Magh Tuired), meanwhile, was written in about the 9th century. And the FIRST Battle of Magh Tuired (Cath Maige Tuired Cunga), was actually written much, much later, no earlier than the 15th century according to John Carey's argument present in The Mythological Cycle of Medieval Irish Literature. These days, we would consider it to be a prequel to the second battle. Lebor Gabála Érenn was compiled around the 11th century, but it ended up functioning as something of a scrapbook, with a ton of material being put into it over the years, some of it earlier, some of it later, with a ton of scribes trying to work with it. Meanwhile, Tochmarc Étaíne (the Wooing of Étaín) is around 8th century or thereabouts.

Similar things happen with the other cycles, with Fenian and Ulster Cycle material continually being created throughout the middle ages and early modern period -- I will say, though, that in GENERAL, not always, you do see Ulster Cycle material dwindle slightly in popularity while Fenian material rises (though there is later Ulster Cycle material! Including, for example, an Early Modern recension of the story of Deirdre and Naoise.) This is why people usually think that the Fenian Cycle came later -- It didn't, it was there at LEAST as early as the 8th-9th century (we have some Fenian texts in law codes from that time), but it really reached its height after the 13th century, with the creation of Acallam na Senorach (the Colloquy of the Old Men), with Diarmuid and Gráinne possibly being written down as little as a century after that or as much as three centuries.

Now, this leads to the second part: How do we know?

And, a lot of the times, there's a lot of guesswork involved -- often, we can't get it to an exact century, usually giving a range of about two hundred or so years. Manuscripts won't help you, because you often have scribes jotting copies down. (Cath Maige Tuired, for example, is only extant in one 16th century manuscript, despite dating to the 9th century.)

There are a few methods that we use to come to these conclusions: First off, and the absolute GOLD standard, is if the author responsible signed his name to it. You sometimes get this with the poems, though not, unfortunately, with the prose literature, except in odd cases. This is what is known as "external dating", because it allows you to use material from outside the text to date the material inside of it (annals, glosses, etc.), giving you a much firmer idea of the date. Alternatively, sometimes, even when old manuscripts are no longer around, we have access to the tale lists in them, usually because the scribes liked to cite older texts. We know, for example, that the legendary lost manuscript Cín Dromma Snechtai contained an early version of Compert Con Culainn (The Conception of Cú Chulainn), The Voyage of Bran (Immram Brain), and Togail Bruidne Uí Derga (The Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel), and we generally, though NOT uniformly, think that that manuscript was from around the 8th century, meaning that we can generally safely suppose that some version of these stories was around at least as early as the 8th century, maybe even before.

But, unfortunately....90% of the time, you will NOT be this lucky. Which is when you can start having ~fun~.

During the.......about nine hundred years that these texts were being written and compiled, the Irish language did not stay stagnant. (It would make my life so much easier if it did, but it didn't.) The language, essentially, turns itself inside out over the course of this time period, introducing some major changes, and the language of the stories often reflects that. Stories from, say, the 8th century are going to be written in Old Irish, while stories written in the 16th century are going to have Early Modern Irish. Often, what you'll get is a mixture of different time periods, so you can see what changes were taking place in the language as this was being written down. (For example, we know that Cath Maige Tuired underwent revisions in the 11th century, why? Because it has some features of Middle Irish, even though it kept a lot of the older features from the 9th century.) Because some scribes would drop older features into newer texts and some scribes would try to modernize older texts with newer features (think "trying to put Shakespeare through an autocorrect), it isn't foolproof, which is why we have to give a broader range, but, by adding up all the different features and weighing them against one another, we can usually date the text within a couple of centuries.

One of my personal favorite examples are in the notoriously early Mongán texts -- Mongán, as a figure, is the sort that we can usually date a text from based on his presence alone, simply because, in the early period, you have this MASSIVE AMOUNT of material about him, only for him to virtually disappear within a few centuries. (You do get...some later material, but nothing resembling that earlier burst of popularity.) But what makes his stuff unique is that some of his stories are identifiable to *the seventh century* from the language, simply because it's a form of Irish compatible to *when the Ogham stones were being written down.* (Essentially, the Irish language went through a MASSIVE shift in the 7th century, transitioning from Archaic Irish to Old Irish. We don't know why. But they did.) Not all, but it's enough to be fascinating. Likewise, we can often date a text later if it has, say, a ton of Latin, Norse, or English loan words, because then we'd know that they'd had at least some strong influence from these languages while writing it.

Likewise, we can sometimes tell from features mentioned (for example, an abbey being there that we know was only founded in the 11th century, or, in the case of the Fenian Cycle, as Murray notes in his article on dating early Fenian Cycle material, if a story contains a positive depiction of Finn, it's quite likely to be later, as the church didn't exactly approve of the Fianna being...themselves). If you see a bunch of raiders from Scandinavia showing up (see: Cath Maige Tuired), you might be looking at something from around the 9th century, with the Viking invasions, etc. This is less grounded than the others, but it can be combined with the methods mentioned both above to help you.

Anyway. This is some of the most complicated, delicate work that we do -- It, frankly, terrifies me, BUT it's very interesting, and it really lets you peel back the layers on how complicated this tradition really is to work with. We use the term "Irish Mythology" and we think of one unified mythology, with a certain level of continuity, but we often forget that we're looking at nearly a thousand years of literary tradition, with thousands of individual hands going into writing it down. The scope is VAST.

I hope that this helped! Don't hesitate to send me any follow up questions!

[naoisewaoise]

INTRO POST

hi! i’m naoise! i’m gay & genderfluid

i use they/he prns

IST/GMT timezone

Irish 🇮🇪

i speak english & basic irish

————

i mainly post & write about creepypasta

———

https://archiveofourown.org/users/naoisewaoise

————

asks & requests are open

————-

I will write almost anything except things that include an adult and a minor in a romantic context, nsfw or anything like those.

_______

DNF: Basic Criteria (eg. Racists, Homophobes, etc)

[icharchivist]

Considering the Versus Rising Deluxe edition basically guarantees you the (first) 6 DLC characters, we can expect at least 6 on top of the ones we have now. We might be getting a second wave of DLC as well, of course, like regular Versus. It seems given that Vane and Sandalphon are gonna be among the DLC characters, but yeah, we might be getting Siete too. Or maybe some of the playable characters from Relink if that's successful. They also said they'd use less known characters now so. Randall?

ooooh???

Randall would make me in particular super happy and he would be an interesting/a bit unique choices? there's not a lot of characters who predominantly fights with their feet, so it would actually make for more interesting gimmicks imo.

but i don't know if he'd show up, even if after Marionette Stars he got more popular, i don't know.... Feather is more of a possible face for that event yaknow? (but there's enough fist fighter in the game to make him a bit redundant)

Cupitan could join in and have unique gimmicks, maybe a bit redundant with Metera, but, she could. it'd be fun if she was to comment on the emotions of each character tho???

mhmm who else..... (esp on the less popular side)

Graaaaaanbluuuue would you consider my queen, my sweet love, my gunner Catherine? pretty please? My wife? my everything? my--

oh she's popular but i have to propose Vania. because i have a friend who loves Vania. so i want Vania to be in the game for him.

and what if we make Dante a playable character in game. All the cats fighting ultimate. did you consider that? we should get Dante in game.

also i'd love Nicholas out of pure "i love this character" but i feel like his gimmick would be difficult to translate in game. Except if we go with his Dark unit's gimmick? it'd be fun. just for me. Tho in that case Robomi could probably join the fray.

ELMOTTTTTTTTTTTTT ELMOTT WOULD BE SO FUN.

a bit more on the popular sides but:

i'm looking at my list of characters so excuse me if this ask is a bit all over the place, but how the fuck has neither Albert nor Yurius be considered in game yet??? Albert may be too redundant but Yurius could be so fun. wtf.

and also none of the Irestill chara are in the game yet??? Naoise or Heles probably would have high chance to join as spear users, maybe Scath could be fun tho. Seruel is benched for being a boring sword user

no primal pals either. let Baal join. Or in the same spirit, Aoidos???? music themed fighting player would be so fun!!

so yeah those come to mind at least???

[teatitty]

I said that I was going to talk about Deirdre so lets talk about Deirdre, Ireland’s most famous tragic herione, whose epithet is literally “Deirdre Of The Sorrows.” Warnings for general Conchobar creepiness and a suicide at the end

Dating back to the Ulster Cycle, Deirdre was born to Felimidh Mac Dall, a chieftain and bard of the Ulaidh, during the reign of Conchobar (this will go well...). As a child she was very beautiful and the druid Cathbad prophesized that this beauty would only grow as she aged, until she became the most beautiful woman in Ireland. Unfortunately she would also bring war and tragedy, because that’s always how these stories go

When this news reached Conchobar’s capital, Emain Mach, his royal knights (The Red Branch) decided that, to spare Ireland of this misery, they would take the young child and kill her. Conchobar, however, ordered her to be put into the care of the poetess Leabharcham, so that when she was of age he himself would marry her (yeah haha it doesnt get better from here)

One year during winter, Deirdre, walking alone, comes across a raven eating a dead lamb. Horrified by this sight, she declares that she would only let love into her heart for a man whose hair was as black as the Raven’s wings and whose lips were red as the sheeps blood. (Very gothic of her)

When she was nearing the age of maidenhood she spotted a man approaching Emain Macha, who had raven black hair and blood red lips. She finds that his name is Naoise, and he is the son of Usna and Ebhla, the daughter of Cathbad. She asks Leabharcham to help her meet him, as he is her love, and the poetess agrees. Naoise falls instantly in love with her, but, aware of what will happen should Conchobar discover their relationship, he confides in his two younger brothers, Ainlé and Ardán, and they help him and Deirdre escape from Emain Macha to Alba (Scotland) where they find safety in Glen Etive

This...does not last. Conchobar very quickly finds out and his anger and jealousy grows fiercer every day. His spies discover that they are holed up under the protection of a Caledonian King and so legally Conchobar can do nothing to them. This, however, does not stop him. He comes up with a plan to lure them back to Ireland and sends Fergus mac Roich, (who was the “purest of heart” at the time) to Scotland to relay a message to them that he had forgiven them and wished them only happiness

(He also wanted Ainlé and Ardán back with his Knights cuz they were too valuable to lose)

Fergus takes his two sons with him and they ride off. He relays the message but Deirdre still doesn’t trust it. It is only because of Fergus’ stellar reputation that she agrees to return (yikes). Upon their return they are greeted with a huge feast and stated to meet with Conchobar by morning. Deirdre naturally doesn’t like this but Fergus assures her that Conchobar would never dishonour his own words (yeah do you see how he managed to keep a good rep yet?)

In the morning everyone gathers around the exiles in the forecourt. All except Fergus who had conveniently been sent off on an errand by Conchobar beforehand. Conchobar appears on the balcony, orders his knights to seize Deirdre but kill the rest and TLDR to this whole scene: Naoise dies by the hand of Eoghain and one of Fergus’ sons, Buinne, surrenders, but the other, Illán Fionn, refuses to dishonour himself and keeps fighting until death 

Cathbad calls Conchobar out for his treachery, Deirdre collapses from sorrow and despair at Naoise’s death and when Fergus returns to see the butchery he swears vengeance and disowns Buinne and this is how he ends up at Connacht with Medb! It’s all coming together

Conchobar then has Deirdre taken to his quarters, but she refuses to speak to him and after a year of silence he becomes bored and his lust for her turns cold, whereupon he has her bound by hand and feet and thrown into a chariot. She is then given as a reward to Eoghain, the man she hates most after Conchobar himself. On the way to Eoghain, however, she manages to throw herself from the chariot and smash her brains out upon a rock, killing herself instantly. She is then buried next to her lover Naoise and from their graves two trees grew in a tight embrace