#fey aspects

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

In The Roses of Pieria

dark fantasy romance

a woman takes a well-paying but suspicious sounding job as an archivist working for a mysterious estate owner, and finds herself translating numerous never-before-seen artifacts from her specialty field on an ancient civilisation

as she begins to translate romantic letters between two ancient figures and unravel more about them, her frustration over the knowledge being kept secret and confusion over what the letters reveal grows

but between that and her developing feelings for her employer’s assistant, she finds out that getting to close to these secrets is dangerous

lesbians, vampires, fey

[onefey]

ooh what if rauru and mineru had tails but it's like traditional for zonai to cut them off or sumn... and then the ancient hero, who's the last of his kind probably? is so removed from actual zonai culture that he just has a nice pretty tail he takes good care of. rauru watching from heaven like Oh, How Scandalous!!

[feybeasts]

"All that hemming and hawwing, and here we are, revisiting the same dragon, year after year. Face it- you struck gold the first time"

....it's sort of a fact- if I draw a mom-dommish dragon, they always just turn into a new form for Lymella. This WIP is no different- says something about me, I guess.

[rivilu]

Every time I start any new rpg there's always this moment of realization that the dragon age wiki has me absolutely SPOILED

[inspector-montoya-fox]

[oops-oh-two-point-oh]

i know we’re all ready for some speeches that pride our collective prejudice in the season finale, and i am ON BOARD. but i also want to take a moment to think about the fact that this story so far is essentially the prologue to persuasion.

ur main characters fall in love, one of them allows an authority figure to persuade them against acting on it, and then they’re apart for the better part of a decade?

imagine!! hob never gets rue’s letters. hob knows how HE feels, but he also knows a match with rue is neither suitable nor does it satisfy his orders, besides which to put rue in the position of having to refuse (or--well! never mind!) such an offer is callous in the extreme. the good major marries a lady of the seelie court. he tucks away that feeling of love, real true love that he felt for rue, and buries it somewhere deep. he only takes it out and examines it on v special occasions.

meanwhile rue realizes that hob must have valued his orders over anything that was between them. it breaks their heart just enough to remind them of the value of a sure thing. why give up a position of prestige, social status, and comfort when other risks have so recently failed to pay off?

perhaps rue remains in charge of the bloom, or perhaps they resign that position and join the chorus. either way, duty separates Our Heroes (TM). hob is sent away on a campaign, and rue is occupied with their obligations to the court of wonder.

and THEN, years later, circumstance throws them together again! they’re forced to interact in social settings, surrounded by people who have no idea they once meant so much to each other. friends of friends keep offering to introduce them--’ah, mistrex, have you met major kp hob? he is recently returned from the fighting on the peninsula’--and are surprised when one or the other mutters something about being previously acquainted. just in passing, of course. yes, at a bloom. it was a long time ago.

meanwhile rue is trying desperately to repress feelings they told themselves time had worn away long ago, and hob is reminding himself that what they shared back then was enough--more than enough--it’s sustained him for YEARS--

[majorkphob]

Thinking about how Hob spread the rumor about how Rue called off the Grabalba/Apollo engagement because Rue was in love with Grabalba

But then when Hob came clean to them, Rue was like >:( how dare you say such a thing about me- when they literally called off the Grabalba/Apollo engagement because Rue wanted what's best for both of them

[neuxue]

Just got to Fei Du's totally normal response to Luo Wenzhou asking why he didn't keep the cat all those years ago:

他抬起头，一侧的眉梢轻轻地动了一下：“没准是我还有虐杀小动物的爱好呢？控制不了自己，又怕跟陶然没法控交代，只有敬而远之，骆队，你觉得这个说法合理吗？” // He looked up and lightly raised one eyebrow. "Also maybe I enjoy torturing and killing small animals. I couldn't control myself and I'd have no way to explain it to Tao Ran, so I could only keep a safe distance — does that sound like a reasonable explanation to you, Captain Luo?" (ch41)

And that reminds me of the various other joking-but-also-maybe-not-entirely-joking things Fei Du says: “比如现在，你和我待在一起就很不安全，如果我是坏人呢？”// "Like right now, it's not safe for you to be with me; what if I were a bad person?" or “你放心，我肯定不会动刀捅人，买凶才是我们的风格。” // "Don't worry, I definitely won't stab anyone; my sort tend to hire assassins" or listing off the advantages he'd gain if he killed his father, to name just a few.

And then there are things like how he describes strangling someone to death as akin to sipping tea (a way to savour the act), or his How To Physically and Psychologically Break A Person Into Full Dependence On You And You Alone In 3 Easy Steps speech back in ch21, and I can't help but wonder, how did you learn this, exactly? And if it was learned firsthand... on which side of the equation?

And Fei Du saying “知道害怕是好事，因为美好的东西就像瓷器一样 [...] 对它们来说，最危险的往往不是在房间里乱跑的猫。[...] 是瓷器自己没有意识到自己易碎” // "It's good to know fear, because beautiful things are like porcelain [...] To them, the greatest danger isn't a cat running wild in the room. [...] It's that porcelain itself doesn't realise how easily it can be shattered" and how that lesson could be learned either as the shattered porcelain or as the one standing empty-handed amidst the shards.

I think about Luo Wenzhou wondering, once, how Fei Du can understand 'these people' so well, and it's not entirely clear whether he means the criminals or the victims.

I think about the way other characters note how perceptive he is, how well he reads others' expressions and emotions and the thoughts behind them. How exquisitely, alarmingly in control he is of his own. I think about the kinds of environment that can engender such a combination — and about his dream-flashback in which the threshold of his own home always filled him with dread, and in which his mother's corpse reaches out to him and asks, “你为什么不救我？” // "Why didn't you save me?"

I think about Luo Wenzhou's description of Fei Du's expression the first time he saw him, 好像压抑着许多未曾宣之于口的求救和期冀 // As if suppressing unspoken hopes and cries for help, and how now, all these years later, no trace of that remains. And I wonder what exactly that naked pleading vulnerability was buried beneath... and what the plea was for: to be saved? to be stopped? to be seen?

Because I think about how easy it would be, for the understanding he displays of monstrous deeds and the patterns of thought that underlie them — however exactly that understanding was gained — to become the conviction that I can think like a monster, therefore I too am monstrous.

I think about “我要是挨个碾死他们，会算防卫过当吗？” // "If I ran them down one by one, would it be considered excessive self-defence?"

And I wonder if the question this is leading to is: what has it cost you, Fei Du, to save yourself?

[tofufei]

kind of losing my mind and sobbing over an aspect particle (着)

[mejomonster]

Thank you priest for writing lots of epic length slow burns

Thank u Silent Reading for a slow burn that takes like a third a novel to flirt, half a novel to date, three fourths to hook up, four fifths to actually be (relatively) honest and confess some bigger heavy stuff (and for fei du to propose with a quickly made ring) and im on the last fifth now but I expect more reveals to come. Thanks for a slow burn that was half during their actual romance so the buildup of trust and development didn't stall once "together." Thanks for making them "love rivals" at the start so they're not flirting exactly, but they're competitively flirting and will go onto continue doing fighting/competitive flirting for the rest of their lives so its a fun transition from their mutual crush to each other (and also gives a fun opponent/enemies vibe that never totally goes away and even 4/5 in when fei du admits most things, there's the undercurrent feeling they'll never truly be able to see eye to eye in the same world as each other and just have to adjust to learning what the others perception is when they can)

[topios]

"Oh hi there, interested in a cure for that anxiety you seem to be having?"

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads // twitter thread

Venom & Vow

YA high fantasy about two enemy kingdoms whose leaders have been cursed to sleep, and are being run by the teen heirs

a bigender dama/assassin and trans prince are both trying to find the enchanter from the other kingdom who they believe is responsible

two disabled MCs (cane users)

[biteyourcrush]

💭 + for ravi, on her ul'kiha :>

Oh god, what thoughts DOESN'T she have? Especially ones that aren't immediately about the fishdi-

"Sometimes I remember how we met and I'm fucking FLUMMOXED that she gives me the time of day- like, I've had to do a LOT of growing, everyone knows it! I was... I was, y'know. Sort of actively hunting down most of my classmates, not exactly proud of that in hindsight."

"If you had told me a couple years ago that I'd be married to a mermaid princess, I'd have- okay, I wouldn't have laughed, I would have flat out panicked and probably stabbed you. The idea of dating a monster back then... I had my hangups. It didn't work out for mom, but... fuck am I glad it seems to be working out for me."

"I love her. I've made a promise- an oath- to be with her for as long as she'll have me, and promises made aren't just words for me."

"One day we're going to kill her dad- chop the head off the beast of tyranny that her people suffer under, and then retire to a nice house by the sea where she can just be Miranda- just Slz'Exkii, without the crown weighing her down."

[stealingyourbones]

Some magic shenanigans happen that make heroes have aspects of their personas. Stuff like Black Canary, Robin, etc. having feathers and/or wings; Batman's cowl becoming real bat ears; and Nightwing having Kryptonian biology. Heroes with more abstract names/costumes look like they have a cool power-up activated. Villains could also be affected by the magic.

There's plenty of magical things in DC, but I think it could also work as a DP crossover? Maybe the magic event could be Desiree or Fright Knight? He turned inanimate objects into monsters during "Fright Night", so I think costumes would be fair game. Danny could also just Be There while looking more phantom-y than usual lol

Oh this slaps SO MUCH! so many DC heroes have names or character designs inspired by animals, mythology, or references to other franchises.

I don’t want to add too much because there is SO much potential in this and I don’t wanna take it over but I’ll propose a few ideas:

The Riddler would become far more fey-like.

Green Arrow is spotted wearing far more medieval England style clothing by citizens of Star City.

Some speedsters get little wings/feathers on their feet/ears

Aquaman becomes more “monsters of the deep” esque

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

CENTAUR

VS WARFORGED

Apparently the official centaur are FEY centaur. That's why they're person sized, they're elf/pony instead of human/horse. They're strong and perceptive survivalist fey! I refuse to believe I need to explain what a centaur is, or the appeal. They even have enough supernatural strength that they count as if they were a full sized horse for carrying capacity and such. So riding them is still on the table, it's just easier to reach the humanoid half.

Warforged These are sentient mechanical people! They don't need to eat sleep or breathe, and can modify themselves fairly easily. Most are agender, but it does note that some pick a gender they like. They were made to aid with all aspects of war and then...the war ended. Their creation stopped and they were left to fend for themselves. Some just kept fighting for their own sake. Some redefined their life to become obsessed with something new like baking or farming. And some are wandering philosophers, trying to figure out what comes next. What do you do when your life HAD a point and now it's gone?

[feyclowns]

touching on the fey — newborns and babies

reproduction/childhood, biology and social hierarchy/dynamics i think are the most changed aspects of my au. here are some notes on newborns (anti-wanda, juandissimo, and sanderson pictured)

anti-fairies are born after just 3 months, small with large wings and ears- not cubed but foop/irep has a genetic mutation. they all have pointed ears and claws. they instinctively grab, cling and latch and have poor eyesight, capable of loosely mimicking parents' speech. it is not uncommon for them to have teeth.

they rapidly become more independent over the following months, and go from teeny helpless little bundles wrapped up in their own wings to scrabbly, hungry, vocal little creatures. they're curious little buggers and inherent lovers of chaos.

common mutations are ear shapes, devil tails, horns and hooves (hooves are cherub descent). anti-wanda was born with black hair that lightened with age.

fairies are born after several years(still not sure just how long)- large with small wings and only their primary and neural cores active. i will write about the core system later. they are not round but are chubby little guys, having drained a lot of magic to develop and be able to function independently. they're big in proportion to their parents, definitely two arms needed to carry for the average small fairy. there are several subspecies and fairies are from the branch of True Fey.

they are open-eyed and more cognizant than human newborns, able to lift their heads, grab for things (poorly) and follow movement. they make noises but no words, and are capable of smiling. they will learn to scoot around rather quickly, but their magic cores develop first, so while they might be able to move around and interact/understand their parents their speech and mental growth is extremely delayed. it is not uncommon for them to have full heads of hair.

common mutations are cherubism, four wings, butterfly wings and pointed ears.

pixies are additionally born after several years (though not as long as a fairy), large, open-eyed and more cognizant than a fairy baby. while they're sleepy and non-emotive, they are very good with motor functions and enjoy repetitive behaviors.

like fairies, they only have their primary and neural cores active, but pick up learning language and physical advancement far faster than their fairy cousins- pixies take longer to pick up magic instead. they're intelligent, dexterous and quickly become independent- i want you to imagine a toddler in a suit calmly making themself a bowl of cereal, utilizing a stool.

pixies do not show much genetic diversity. most pixies reproduce extremely rarely (with the exception of One) due to biological and social limits. all pixies are born with straight black hair, rounded ears and unusually dull eyes for a magic being- a pixie and a fairy will almost always make another pixie; their genes are very dominant.