#hatchet mends things

[jasperthehatchet]

Part 1 of my mending series! I embroidered the edge of the right pocket!

This alone took a while so I'm definitely taking my time with this project lol. But I'm making progress :)

I think I'll use browns or maybe blues for the left pocket for asymmetry and then next I'll tackle the waist band. Idk yet we'll see

[Image ID: two pictures of the right pocket on a worn out pair of light blue jeans. The top edge of the pocket is reinforced with light green and dark green embroidery thread and it alternates in-between the colors. Each block of color is about an inch long before it changes to the other color. The first image shows when it was almost done with the needle in the frame and the second image is the finished product. End ID]

[horizontouched]

Though survivable, it wasn’t the most pleasant sensation.  It still stung like hell, because apparently even the dead still had functioning nerves, but it was still far from the worst thing in the world.  He’d burned himself in the forge worse than this.  Getting his chest broken open with a dull knife and hatchet while being doused in searing seawater had been substantially more painful.  The most annoying part was that would be at least the second time he’d been stabbed with his own weapon.   Carina looked worse than he felt.  If he hadn’t just caught a knife to the ribs, he’d be more worried about her fainting.  “Yes, if you’d please excuse me for a moment about that.”  Will didn’t immediately turn, waiting a moment in case she did keel over.  Only then was the handle was removed with a sigh and promptly flung back at it’s initial thrower.  Having dismissed near the entire crew that worked under Jones, he’d been hard pressed to find replacements.  The Dutchman could be sailed on only twelve, but that was hardly efficient or pleasant for anyone.  Unfortunate given that most of the dead were worse pirates than he was when he started.  Some had heard rumors of just how captaincy was obtained on the ship-fewer still liked to act on said tales as if it would save them from having to move on eventually. 

In his near two decade long run, it had only happened a few times.  Desperate people who died violent deaths, terrified of the unknown and unnerved with that even he couldn’t answer what came next, were prone to idiocy.  It was not the kindest send off, scoring a man in the chest with a blade and knocking him overboard into an awaiting dinghy to be dealt with later.  He would never be as cruel as his predecessor, but he’d come to understand that sometimes the only way to earn respect was by such actions.  It benefitted no one if his own crew mutinied and then he either had to find a new one or spend the next ten years ignoring each other awkwardly.  Ruder still was daring to attack one’s captain off his own ship.   Will peered over the rail with a deep frown, belatedly realizing he’d need to retrieve his dagger.  Not worth leaving the Pearl for at the moment.  “I should very much like that back when you get the chance.  You’re not going anywhere soon.”  He dragged a hand over his face as he pivoted back to face Carina.  “Are you well?  It’s fine, see?  Gone already.”  Shirt and coat were moved to prove his point, flesh none the worse for wear.  The hole in fabric would need to be mended, but he’d gotten rather good at patching.  

@starsmapped  from here

[paintedscales]

Someone my muse used to dislike / hate, but doesn’t any more

Hello, dreadwyrmz! Thank you so much for the ask! \ o w o / ♥ I hope that the new year has been treating you kindly so far!

SUPPORTING CHARACTER ASK MEME

Man...when the brain is screaming 'Estinien,' and I have to rein it all in because, yeah...that's not a secret. It never has been. Like, the relationship arc on this blog is the enemies to lovers trope.

So!

Urianger.

Nomin still doesn't really come to him for advice or to really speak candidly...but like, she's willing to recognize that Urianger's doing what he can to mend whatever of the bridge that has been burned. She never really cared much for the riddles and archaic ways he spoke, because Eorzean / the common tongue is not her first language, and having to parse his words to better understand their meaning was frustrating. Then there's the whole Warrior of Darkness thing that really soured their relationship, even if he did go, "actually, I'm a double agent, sorry. I am on your side."

Throughout Stormblood and most of Shadowbringers, Nomin's very much, "you talk to Urianger, because I don't want to." Like...tail end of Shadowbringers and Shadowbringers patch content, she starts to make efforts on burying the hatchet on her end. In Endwalker, she's definitely more receptive to Urianger and what he has to say and contribute.

[yudgefudge]

my favorite lyric from each reputation track

...ready for it?: "Every love I've known in comparison is a failure."

end game: "And I bury hatchets, but I keep maps of where I put 'em."

i did something bad: "I don't regret it one bit 'cause he had it coming."

don't blame me: "I would fall from grace, just to touch your face."

delicate: "My reputation's never been worse, so, you must like me for me."

look what you made me do: "But not for me, not for me, all I think about is karma."

so it goes...: "You know I'm not a bad girl, but I do bad things with you."

gorgeous: "Ocean blue eyes, looking in mine."

getaway car: "'Cause us traitors never win."

king of my heart: "And all at once, you are the one I have been waiting for."

dress: "Even in my worst lies, you saw the truth in me."

this is why we can't have nice things: "And so I took an axe to a mended fence."

call it what you want: "They fade to nothing when I look at him."

new years day: "Please don't ever become a stranger, whose laugh I could recognize anywhere."

[samiholloway]

So we're rewatching firefly and just:

Okay what if firefly, but not canceled? Like: they didn't get canceled so the movie doesn't happen and so wash and book don't die; we get to live in the world, and meet other people from the experiment that made river, and they pick up other strays and keep them (diversifying the cast and making the shared future idea way more on-screen), and we find out what sordid past book had before he was a preacher, and in season two badger reluctantly joins the crew after he's deposed as crimeboss, they figure out the Miranda thing but slower over a whole season at the end of the series, and then figure out a cure for reavers (both saving them and bringing down the alliance as the war wasn't able to). Also maybe there's aliens, six seasons and a movie is a lot of space.

I'm thinking the constantly rearranging crew of farscape, the expanding cheerful weirdness of killjoys, the character development of Becky chambers.

Betrayals and juicy redemption arcs.

River regains herself and helps others from the academy do the same.

There's at least three people sent after them from different factions who they convince to switch sides and then adopt.

Book reluctantly takes an apprentice to save them from the same dark past he left by joining the abbey. And winds up causing a cultural revolution in the faith.

These messy weirdo misfits accidentally become the first humans to meet aliens.

Inara liberates girls in worse situations than her own, on principle. Who then go on to liberate others.

They pick up a local space hedge witch and she just never leaves.

Wash and Zoe have like six babies (at least one carried by wash bc scifi, and at least one accidentally acquired on an adventure).

Simon starts educating Jayne bc he's tired of being the dumb one after he realizes it can't always be about the money. He turns out to be really good at like cultural anthropology or something. Simon is so frustrated all the time, but winds up proud of his student.

There's outer planets settled by cultures outside the USA / China, and they get to interact with lots of different takes on what makes people colonize a world (people who should be better represented in the leadership).

It's a running joke that Mal keeps accidentally getting wives and not one of them stays, but for different reasons. Saffron starts a Mal's Wives Club.

Kaylee starts a garden so they can have fresh fruit and veg and it slowly takes over the ship and is tended by more and more of the crew as the series goes on (but is never mentioned), and they eventually can trade fresh food with other rim world drifters.

Wash takes a job teaching piloting to kids from Luddite worlds and loves the kids but misses space and comes home.

Mal turns out to be an excellent cook and sometimes people want good food as much as they want anything else from him.

Other people from other weird government programs crop up, some good and some bad and all of them very sure river is the key to something...tho they can't agree on what.

At least one episode where people who always fight are stuck on a barren planet and have to work together, as is traditional for the genre.

We get to see future tv shows and music and pop culture bc these are people who have hobbies and shows they follow and such. Maybe there's a show within the show that we can follow as the series goes on.

We meet their fav contacts all over the world's and go back to them more than once, and thereby get to know the world's and their cultures better. Sometimes friends of friends give them leads, some good and some bad and once in a while, tied into the big background story. But also, as plots thicken, they have more and more people they can call on and will willingly back them up.

We get so many family dinners. Some with music!

We meet everyone's family back home and see where they came from, and learn why they are who they are (and also mend some bridges or exhume some hatchets).

A ghost story set in a failed colony, that turns out to be a government crime leading to the whole Miranda thing. And also still a ghost story.

[thestarseersystem]

I have been told time and time again on how to heal, how to move on, on how healthy I am being, or what's the right thing to think or feel. But more and more, I've felt with each word spoken to me, that their idea of healing is wrong. I feel isolated and suffocated by their views, how much different I am, shows so deeply.

I think repressing your feelings to the point of numbness is unhealthy. I think ignoring your feelings as a way to bury the hatchet with others is unproductive. I think being apathetic to everything, and forcing others into that thinking is wrong. While feeling numb may help protect yourself, it's not a long term solution to the things you have suffered through.

So, me, holding onto my anger, not forgiving my abusers, feeling all my emotions, deciding to try and remember things, wanting to fully process things, that's not barbaric or bad. I am not a villain or a fool for confronting the past, or being angry with those who hurt me. Some people say forgiveness is the best way to move on, but I'm not someone who has the luxury that neurotypical, abled, or singlets have. I am not hurting myself by telling myself that this person hurt me, I am not building a second grave because of something I am not letting go of. And it's not unhealthy to still have the same emotions you had in the past, it just means you didn't fully process what happened to you.

People craft this narrative that you have to erase all emotions and be logical to have a healthy lifestyle, but that's not the case at all. And especially when most of your emotions come from other parts/alters, that's only going to create a wider dissociative barrier within yourself.

Know it's lies, know that the narrative of "You just need to get over it" is meant to control you. It's meant to put the blame onto you and leave the perpetrator guiltless and free of responsibility. It's a way to get you to forget about all the bad things they've done. Don't listen to people that say it's wrong to still be angry at the things you went through. While anger can be destructive, it comes from a place of protecting yourself for being wronged, it's grief for what happened to you, it's taking action for the past. So don't let people the people that hurt you, punish you, for feeling wronged or hurt.

Healing is not about erasing the past, it's about accepting and growing from the past, being able to mend yourself from the point you were shattered, and not further hurting yourself because you might have not been the "perfect" survivor. You may not remember or know everything that happened to you, but it's important to be kind no matter what they said.

It's okay not to defend your abuser, it's okay to not love them when they said they loved you, it's okay not to like them, it's okay to cut them out of your life, it's okay to leave them after the terrible things they did to you. You're not a monster for calling people out on their shit, or still wanting them to die in a ditch somewhere. They can go fuck themselves and that's okay.

This is a post for trauma survivors. This is a post for me. Fuck forgiving and forgetting. It's okay if you don't. I just hope one day that we can leave them and their bullshit behind, for good.

[filthy-reckless-rp]

Welcome back, Upper East Siders...

That’s right, we’re back, bitches!

It’s been 1 year and 6 months since the “Gossip Girl Takedown” first began and we have been living in a blissful, XOXO-free world. Well, more or less on the ‘blissful’- this is still the Upper East Side. With GG’s favourites thoroughly moved on with their lives, free of Constance and St Jude’s too, things have been looking up. Hatchets were buried. Bridges have been mended.

You know when Serena and Blair are full on besties again, it’s going to be an awesome summer. In fact, judge most events by that standard and you’ll be just fine.

Through the trials and tribulations, tragedies and triumphs, we are all well and truly ready for summer.

Well, we’re not the only ones.

Before the post was ever made, Nate Archibald suddenly ghosted (a very Serena van der Woodsen move). Barely a note, barely a word. He was just gone.

Exactly 2 days ago this happened: Gossip Girl’s long dormant blog was active. Yes, you did read that right. Gossip Girl is back.

At least, that’s the rumour. You can’t believe everything you read, you know! Plus, it could be a prank. It could be Caisson Andrews messing around (he was the last one to be seen with GG’s infamous laptop, you know). It’s surely nothing although some of us aren’t so sure.

But back to summer! The fun has just begun and everyone has that vacation feeling. Some of us never stopped having it, TBH.

Logan Hunter’s summer beach bash is just around the corner and wouldn’t you rather get ready for that than worry about GG? I mean, it’s definitely, probably a fake out. Definitely.

Maybe.

OOC: We are officially re-opened for interactions!! Please do make your starters with the old “tfrstarter” tag, get your plotting brains on and let’s have a ball. Feel free to refresh yourself on the updated plot and your fellow players’ bios with the links below. 

I have a couple more bios to post as well and constant tidying up but it’s time! This is our lovely soft open and next Friday, we’ll have our first event!! (Logan’s summer beach bash where nothing goes wrong ever, right?)

Full Plot | Characters | Following everyone?

[emometalhead]

Reputation by Taylor for the music ask? 👀

Hi Frankie!! Thank you so much!!!!!

...Ready For It? - "Every love I've known in comparison is a failure / I forget their names now, I'm so very tame now / Never be the same now"

End Game - "And I bury hatchets, but I keep maps of where I put 'em / Reputation precedes me / They told you I'm crazy / I swear I don't love the drama, it loves me"

I Did Something Bad - "But if he drops my name, then I owe him nothin' / And if he spends my change, then he had it comin'"

Don't Blame Me - "And baby, for you / I would (I would) fall from grace / Just to (Just to) touch your face"

Delicate - "Handsome, you're a mansion with a view"

Look What You Made Me Do - '"I'm sorry, the old Taylor can't come to the phone right now / "Why? Oh, 'cause she's dead!" (Oh)"

So It Goes... - "Come here dressed in black now / So, so, so it goes / Scratches down your back now"

Gorgeous - "And you should think about the consequence / Of you touching my hand in a darkened room"

Getaway Car - '"X" marks the spot where we fell apart / He poisoned the well, every man for himself / I knew it from the first Old Fashioned, we were cursed / It hit you like a shotgun shot to the heart"

King Of My Heart - "Is this the end of all the endings? / My broken bones are mending"

Dancing With Our Hands Tied - "I'm a mess, but I'm the mess that you wanted"

Dress - "Even in my worst lies, you saw the truth in me"

This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things - "And therein lies the issue / Friends don't try to trick you / Get you on the phone and mind-twist you / And so I took an axe to a mended fence"

Call It What You Want - "All the liars are calling me one / Nobody's heard from me for months / I'm doin' better than I ever was"

New Year's Day - "Please don't ever become a stranger / Whose laugh I could recognize anywhere"

send me an album & I'll pick my favorite lyrics from every song

[realhousewives-fan]

This is Not a Laughing Matter

Since Nneka Ihim and Wendy Osefo were unable to bury the hatchet, it’s unclear where they can go from here.

There’s certainly no room for a friendship.

I might have been ignorant when it comes to the feud between Nneka and Wendy.

I’ve learned that fans are extremely upset that instead of highlighting Nigerian culture, they’re contributing in “demonizing the culture and spirituality of Nigeria”.

Nneka and Robyn Dixon used words like “voodoo”, “curses” and “hexes”, I thought these were just big words used for shock values, like Housewives often does.

I never thought that Wendy’s mother seriously was a witch or trying to cast evil spells against others.

Nneka and Wendy hinted on how severe these allegations were in this episode, and I decided to do some research on the matter.

The reason why I thought this feud was interesting was simply because it revealed how Wendy and her family allegedly had tried to prevent Nneka from joining the show.

I believed that Wendy’s mother might have made some threats against Nneka, like, with the holy ghost fire and thunder and lightning.

I thought this was a family feud and a power struggle over who would be the Nigerian Queen on RHOP.

I hope my ignorance hasn’t offended anyone, and if it has, I deeply apologize.

As Nneka and Wendy failed to come to an understanding, and Wendy stormed out of the café, Nneka started crying to the producers over the situation.

Some fans speculated that Nneka had realised the severity of the situation she had created and that she couldn’t get out of it.

In my opinion, it seemed like Wendy never had any intention of mending things with Nneka.

But they kept it civilized as the women went on their girls trip to the Dominican Republic, and Robyn is the hostess, Lord help us.

Gizelle Bryant thought it was funny to crown Nneka as the new Grande Dame of Potomac, as a dig at Karen Huger, but it ended up being extremely corny.

And Candiace Dillard Bassett didn’t want to even acknowledge the prank. She was mad.

[dentedhalostories-blog]

Advent 2023 - Day 5

If you know Northern Ireland then you know of the Troubles, the times and the ways religion, nationalism and political ideology pulled people apart and broke them to pieces.

Corrymeela seeks to put those who have been pulled apart back together, and seeks to make peace between those broken to pieces.

One of the members of Corrymeela, poet PadraigÔ Tuama, has become one of my favorite writers.

In his astonishing, beautiful book of poems Sorry For Your Troubles, you'll find these words in the small, lyrical essay "Bury the Hatchet" -

The folks at Corrymeela have long believed that human encounter between people who believe and think different things can have a transformative effect.

Transformative because it is more courageous to have an argument with a person in a room than never entering that room in the first place.

Transformative because when you can be in a place of beauty it might be that your mind can be open to new and creative possibilities, and because to lighten the shadow of our land, we must all speak of our own shadows.

Transformative because when you have an ethic that challenges scapegoating, you may be able to open up a way of reflecting on your own shortcomings.

Transformative because they believe in the power of the shared table and the poured cup of tea.

How we need to be this and do this in our here and now.

Padraig’s words inspired this small story from me.

Small Story:

She held his hand.

'For someone so small and frail, he has big, strong hands,' she thought as her fingers intertwined with his fingers.

When you're a migrant kid, and you spend your life picking peaches and tomatoes in the hot sun of humid days, your hands grow like the fruits and vegetables of spring and summer, but the rest of you withers away like vines of winter and fall.

He squeezed her hand, and she could feel the beating of his heart in her hand, and she felt it deeply inside of her, and she turned and looked into his eyes.

'I understand,' she whispered, and he could feel tenderness deeply inside of him, as he looked into her deep brown eyes.

When you're an indigenous kid in the Arctic, and you spend your life building and mending under the small sun of frozen days, your heart grows beautiful and mysterious, like the great bowhead whales under the ice, but the rest of you bends against the harsh, bitter winds of the ocean.

They both turned again and looked out over the water at the setting sun.

Tears welled up in the corners of their eyes and dropped down their cold cheeks into the icy Chukchi Sea.

And they knew human kindness, and felt the warm tears of love.

- Trevor Scott Barton, Advent Notebook, 2023

[jasperthehatchet]

I mended my sweater!! There was a hole in each sleeve and I patched them up with green cotton fabric and darker green thread. I used fabric instead of my faux leaf patches since I wash this sweater more often. I'm really happy with how it came out!!!

[Image ID: two images of my arms, with loose dark green sleeves. There's a lighter green leaf shaped patch stitched onto each sleeve, with a darker green stitching outlining the patch and running through it to look like veins on a real leaf. End ID]

[yn-ymn-yln]

*Any fandoms that are crossed out I no longer write for*

The Originals/TVDU

-Elijah Mikaelson

Burning Regret -Angst

Feminism is for Everybody -Fluff

Once in a Lifetime -Hurt/Comfort

Moments in Time -Angst

Touchy, Feely -Angst/Fluff

Snatched Away (Requested) -Angst with a happy ending

Death Sentence (Requested) -Angst with a happy ending

The Ring -Angst

Soft Surrender -Angst/Hurt/Comfort

A Different Kind of Love -Smut

She Used to Be Mine -Angst

-Klaus Mikaelson

One Last Goodbye Kiss -Angst

Last Hope -Fluff

Broken Walls and Mended Hearts -Angst with a happy ending

Youthful Glow (Requested) -Fluff

Clarification (Requested) -Angst/Fluff

Holy -Angst with a happy ending

When Our Lips Finally Met -Angst with a happy ending 

-Kol Mikaelson

Afternoon Nightmare -Fluff

New love Masterlist -Angst

Black Sheep (Requested) -Fluff

Four Senses (Requested) -Angst/Fluff

Love or Witches? (Requested) -Angst/Fluff

More Than Sad -Hurt/Comfort 

-Rebekah Mikaelson

Furry Friend  (Requested) -Fluff

Can You Open This? (Requested) -Fluff

A Turning Point (Requested) -Angst with a hopeful ending 

-Freya Mikaelson

Healing Words (Requested) -Hurt/Comfort

-Hayley Marshall

A Different Kind of Love -Smut

-The Mikaelson Brother’s

Bury The Hatchet Masterlist -Angst with a happy ending

-The Mikaelson’s

A-super special-Sexual -Fluff/Asexual!reader

Bumps and Bruises  -Fluff/Hurt/Comfort

Rough Storms and Pillow Forts -Fluff

Supernatural

-Dean Winchester

A Simple Salt and Burn -Fluff/Hurt/Comfort

Stranger Things

-Steve Harrington 

Christmas Turned Upside Down -Fluff/Hurt/Comfort

A Soft Place to Land -Hurt/Comfort

-Eddie Munson 

A Quest of Two Lovers -Fluff

The Loner and The Freak -Fluff/Hurt/Comfort

Confessions -Angst/Fluff

Crazy...but That’s How It Goes -Angst/Fluff

Maybe... It’s Not Too Late -Angst/Fluff

Black, Gray, White and Purple -Hurt/Comfort/Asexual!reader

Misguided Emotions -Hurt/Comfort/Neurodivergent!reader

[she-who-the-river-could-not-hold]

Crackling Fires 2021 | October Fic Challenge

"Something in the Water"

hosted by: @crackling-fires | prompt(s): day 04 – chilly, day 05 – cabin on the lake | ship(s): Bellarke, Linctavia (minor) | wc: 974 Getting away to nature can be good for repairing friendships as well as crossing new bridges in current ones.

The damp cold of the morning cut through even the heavy sweater that Clarke had pulled tight across her body. Thankfully, the coffee that she was currently holding was scalding hot––too hot to drink even––which made it an excellent way to warm up her hands. Taking a long, deep inhale of the coffee’s aroma and allowing the steam to warm up her face, Clarke leaned against the porch’s wooden railing to look out over the lake.

Everything was still this early. A heavy fog was slowly burning off, but kept the tree-line hazy and shrouded. Outside of the occasional caw in the distance, the birds were even still asleep.

Which is very much what she would have preferred to be doing instead if she was honest with herself.

But the reason she was up this early was because the others who had woken up even earlier than her were pulling into the dock down below.

Clarke waved her mug of coffee in greeting as Lincoln appeared first on the steps leading up to the cabin. His smile flashed bright against the misty morning and he hoisted his fishing gear up over his shoulder as he began the climb back up. Next was Octavia, her hair pulled back in a wet braid and her stand up paddle board in hand. And then next came Bellamy, holding his own fishing gear and looking extremely happy to be back on solid ground.

“Welcome back,” Clarke called over the railing once they were all in earshot. “Any success?”

“You won’t believe the size of the bass they caught!” Octavia crowed.

Once they got up, Clarke gave an air hug to the young woman, still wet from an apparent fall into the water, who promised to immediately go take a hot shower to ward off the chill from being soaked. Lincoln showed her that they indeed caught a couple impressively large fish and Clarke’s stomach rumbled at the promise of that night’s dinner.

“And how was your quiet morning?” Bellamy planted a quick kiss on her head as they lingered out on the porch, the other two stepping inside the cabin.

“Good! I finished the promotional piece for Indra and got it sent over. With the time change it should be the first thing she sees when she checks her email.”

“And you got to be warm,” he tacked on with a groan. “Plus an extra two hours of sleep.”

“So you aren’t going to turn into a fisherman overnight?” Clarke teased, nudging him gently in the side.

Bellamy laughed, shaking out his curls. “Nah, I don’t think I’m going to be keeping this up.” His eyes trailed back up to the cabin though and his smile turned softer. “I think it meant a lot to O though, so I’m glad I did it.”

Clarke wrapped her arm around his waist and he cradled her into a one-armed hug.

“She’s definitely happy that you did. I’m glad you and Lincoln are getting closer,” she murmured into his chest. “Seemed worth the early wake up.”

She felt him nod above her. He and Octavia’s fiance had been friends then fell apart once he started dating his younger sister. While their friendship had been on the mend for a bit, this fall retreat was in an effort to cement the growth before Octavia dove headfirst into wedding planning. She’d told him that she wouldn’t be able to focus otherwise and the last thing Bellamy had wanted to do was distract her anymore than he already had. And luckily, they’d already almost buried the hatchet as it was and now it was hard to remember the bickering. So Clarke had offered up her family’s old cabin up in Maine for them to all get away to for a long weekend and just focus on the four of them.

“We should come up here more often though, fishing or not,” Bellamy piped up from above her.

Clarke hummed pleasantly at the idea. “It’s really amazing. I’m so much more focused and it’s cool to make new memories here. My grandparents would be thrilled if they were still around to see it being used more. I loved coming here as a kid.”

“I can see that,” he remarked warmly. “I mean, I can also see…”

He paused with a flush and Clarke carefully pulled away from him.

Her heart pounding and a sly, but giddy grin slowly quirked at her lips. “You want to finish that sentence Mr. Blake?”

Laughing, Bellamy ducked his head before looking back at her, eyes sparkling.

“Well… Mrs. Blake…” he drew out teasingly, though still blushing, “I guess I can also see our kids here too. Lincoln was a good teacher, we both love hiking and it’s healthy to get away sometimes. It would just be nice to add to those memories.”

Clarke felt like her heart was floating and she smiled widely.

“Is that your way of saying you’re ready to start trying?”

When Bellamy nodded, Clarke pushed herself up on her toes and pulled him for a kiss. He chuckled against her lips as she nearly spilled her coffee on them before enthusiastically returning it. They’d hinted at the next step for a bit now but neither had felt like they were ready to commit to the idea. She’d even been nervous about how to tell him that she was ready now, that her freelance was in a good enough place that she could set aside time depending on how quick it all came together, but not sure how to do it without pressuring him.

But he was, as usual, on her same wavelength and being at the cabin had not only rejuvenated his friendship with Lincoln, but brought them to the conclusion together.

Or maybe he just really liked the look of her in his sweaters.

[the-historywhore]

The chronicles of Æthelstan, and his fiery wife.

Chapter 1: Married life.

Warnings: mentions of discrimination, mentions of violence.

———————

“Frida?” Æthelstan called, he had returned from his work with Ragnar in Kattegat hoping to be greeted by his wife. However, it was not that simple.

Æthelstan was a Christian, and his wife was a Pagan - a Norse woman. She was fair and beautiful, but fiery and short-tempered. He peered around the corners of the hut, hoping to find her but he found that he was alone. The Saxon huffed, all he wanted was for some comfort.

His day working with Ragnar, had also given him grief. Although Ragnar would not do such a thing, many others found themselves taunting Æthelstan. He was mocked for his faith, the butt of many jokes and taunts. It was tiresome for him.

“Husband?” He heard her call.

Frida found her husband sat upon their bed, fiddling with his hands in his lap. He seemed lost in the days thoughts. She set down the basket of fish she had collected down by the fjord and walked over to him. Her heart did swell when he looked up to her, she smiled at him and he did to her. Frida sat down beside him, her husband leant his head on her shoulder.

“What troubles you, my dear?” She asked.

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with, love” He replied, brushing his emotions off. Although, with his love beside him, his troubles did not seem so great after all.

“The other men have been calling you names again, they’ve been taunting you for your faith?” She deduced. Æthelstan avoided his wife’s gaze, she was right. And she knew it. “Tell me their names.”

“No, Frida. You don’t-“

“I wasn’t asking” Frida growled. “Tell me their names, I won’t have them speak to you like that!”

Æthelstan was the only one who could silence his wife’s rampages, he softly cradled her jaw to press his lips to hers. Affectionately rubbing the skin of her cheek with his thumb.

There were many times like this, where he would quell Frida’s rage and bloodlust. When she’d had a bad hunt, or torn her clothing just after she’d mended it.

“You can’t hurt everyone who makes jokes about me, just sit here with me for a while.” He explained.

“Fine,” She huffed. “I won’t hurt anyone, but I will be asking Ragnar to put a word out” She wagged her finger in his face, showing that she meant business.

Frida was small, and often described as ‘cute’. This meant that many people never took her seriously, but Æthelstan always took her seriously. He had seen what she was capable of, heard the way her anger twisted her voice to sound vicious and malevolent, she was a true force to be reckoned with. On one occasion, whilst sleeping, an enemy of Æthelstan’s had broken in while they were asleep and Frida had taken them down all on her own. In fact, Æthelstan woke up to see his wife seething with anger, hatchet in hand and blood splattered all over her face, straddling the waist of an unidentifiable man that had clearly had his face caved in with the harsh kiss of his hatchet.

She was condescending and sarcastic, and her blood-lust never seemed to end - but by Odin’s beard did Æthelstan love Frida, with all his heart.

—————

Sorry this is so short! The next one will be longer, I promise <3 let me know what you’d like to see Æthelstan and Frida face next :)

[qqueenofhades]

What weapons were used during the Crusades? I remember something vaguely about bows/crossbows being important but nothing else. Thank you :D

Nonnie, if you are (as I suspect) asking this for Very Important Fic Research Purposes, let me just say: you, my good gentleman/lady/nonbinary pal/mineral/vegetable, are Extremely Valid, and I salute you utterly. Let us just quietly assume that is in fact what you are doing. Buckle up, because yes. You have to consider individual and collective weaponry, differences in Christian vs. Muslim armies, tactics, and their development over the crusades. Never fear, I am here to make it entertaining (ish) for you. Let’s start with the individual warriors.

How To Arm Your Crusader: Nicky Edition

First! Nicky is from Genoa, which was most notably involved in the First and Third Crusades. I mention this because if you’re deciding to place him among a contingent of his fellow countrymen, it’s useful to know where you can most easily do that and where it would be most realistic to have them fighting. It will also make a difference for what he’s armed with. You are correct about crossbows being one of the major weapons of the crusades; indeed they were so effective in medieval warfare generally that the church tried to ban them, at the Third Lateran Council in 1179, from being used on fellow Christians. (Muslims were still fair game.) Longbow archers were used occasionally (though it wasn’t until the 13th century, mostly after the end of the crusades, that they became a major battlefield force), but Nicky would definitely be a crossbowman or at least know how to use one, because we have multiple mentions of Genoese crossbowmen in the sources. (Me in the shower this morning: YOU IDIOT OF COURSE HE’S A CROSSBOWMAN! YOU SEE HIM WITH A LONG RIFLE AND EVERYTHING!). Notably, Richard the Lionheart fought the Battle of Jaffa (1192) with 54 Genoese crossbowmen, about 100 knights, and 2 horses. It is up to you if you decide to use this fact or not, ahem.

Crossbows are easier to learn how to use than longbows, but require strength to wind the mechanism and launch the bolt. There is also a more powerful version called the arbalest, which had a frame made of metal instead of wood. These also had a longer range, so they were in fact a bit like the assault rifles of their day. Unlike a rifle, however, you have to have enough time to fire the weapon (which takes a while) and therefore it’s not as useful if the enemy is right on top of you. They’re most helpful in attacking an enemy in a more stationary position (such as, say atop a tower or a wall) and where you can have enough space to reload without being overrun.

We see that Nicky has a broadsword, which would also be a fairly standard weapon for a crusader. Most boys started their training at the age of 7, and the value in achieving the rank of knighthood would rise steadily over the course of the crusades, complementing the development of the ethos of chivalry. At the time of the Norman Conquest (1066), we could still have “free” or “unfree” knights, and it was a mark of military service rather than a distinct social rank. But with the popularity of chivalric literature in the 12th century, the ideas and prestige associated with knighthood skyrocketed. I know I’ve written some posts about this somewhere, which I’m too lazy to go find right now, but you can possibly find them in my medieval history tag. In essence, chivalry means martial prowess. It has a more romanticized aspect, of course, but it’s mostly about kicking ass, though it does prescribe certain codes of conduct for combatants (on both sides) and for noble-born women, as well as a strong religious aspect. If you do want more info on this and how to avoid the stereotypes of a chivalric knight, let me know and I’ll go dig up my old stuff.

There’s also a big difference between fighting on foot (infantry) and fighting on horseback (cavalry). All the footsoldiers were a lower or more common rank, and if you had a horse, you were almost certainly a knight or a professional soldier. Footsoldiers usually were pike (spear)men, since even if you only have long spears and a shield wall, you can throw together a pretty awesome defense. (At the Battle of Hastings, English fyrdmen with just pikes and shields almost defeated multiple Norman heavy cavalry charges.) Plus, a spear doesn’t take too much special training: just poke the sharp end into the other guy, as Jon Snow might say. Hence it was easier for non-professional soldiers or citizen conscripts to use it rather than the more specialized skills for knights.

The best warhorses were known as destriers. They were specially trained to kick, bite, and raise as much hell as their masters in battle; they were expensive and prized. A fast, strong horse often also used for war or for fast travel is a courser. A horse for non-battle or basic transport situations would be a palfrey or a rouncey (though lower-status men-at-arms could also ride one in battle). We can decide whether or not Nicky has one of these.

Armor! The Christian crusaders wore steel (chainmail) which was a major advantage in close-quarters combat. This is not the plate armor you may be thinking of, since full-body armor didn’t get used until around the 14th century at the earliest and came into full vogue in the 15th/16th century (by which cannons had often made it obsolete and dangerous). Chainmail is no joke: it weighs at least thirty pounds and boys had to wear it from childhood to know how to stand up in it, let alone move. (I.e. all those movies where anyone just slaps it on and is fine are liars.) You would wear several layers: first an undertunic, then a padded leather gambeson, the steel hauberk itself (often thigh-length), and then a cloth tabard on top, which displays your badge or flag or your cross, if you’re a crusader (though these were far from ubiquitous and sometimes color-coded by country). That way people can also tell which side you belong to. You wear a helmet on your head (obviously), vambraces and gloves on your arms, and greaves on your legs, over heavy leather boots. Now imagine all that coming at you with a spear on a charging warhorse.

.... what I’m saying is, medieval knights could kick your ASS.

You can also use daggers, hatchets, and other small arms (morningstars are cool, but alas, were never really used in the field). A knight sometimes carried a special blade known as a misericorde, which had the gruesome but necessary purpose of finishing off a wounded enemy (or friend) who hadn’t died immediately from their injury but wasn’t going to survive it either. Welp.

And with that:

How To Arm Your Muslim Warrior: Joe Edition

So we’ve got Nicky sorted: what about his More Than Boyfriend mortal enemy? Well, for the most part, it will look something like the above. Christian crusaders of the period would have called Muslims “Saracens,” which was the name for them, along with less flattering things (heathens, infidels, etc) but when in doubt, if writing from a crusader POV, you can just use Saracens. Actual Muslims obviously never use this word to refer to themselves. They did not have crossbows, but rather shorter and more mobile bows that were designed to be used from horseback. Arabian horses were smaller in stature than European destriers, but faster and more maneuverable, and had a legendary reputation for speed and temperament. Muslim forces would also sometimes ride to the battlefield and then dismount to fight.

We see that Joe has a sword with a shorter and wider/slightly curved blade in comparison to Nicky’s long, straight broadsword. In my fic, I call this a saif, which is just the Arabic word for sword and is how Muslims of the period would have referred to it (the word “scimitar” is from an Italian name for it and wasn’t used until at least the 16th century). It can mostly refer to any Islamic sword in this style, though there are different names for regional variations. If you want to give him a really cool and culturally significant weapon (especially since I headcanon him as a Fatimid Shia Muslim from Egypt), you could give him the zulfiqar, which was a double-pointed sword used by Ali ibn Abi Talib, a cousin of Prophet Muhammad and one of the main figures in Shia Islam. It is often represented on flags and in battlefield invocations. The actual zulfiqars that exist are more often dated from the 16th/17th century with the Ottomans or from 19th-century Persia, rather than from the crusades, but hey, you can always say that Joe had something to do with that. Sidenote, research the differences in the various Muslim dynasties of the crusader period, as they’re definitely not one size fits all (especially in re: the prominence of Sunni sultans in the later crusades, and how Joe might have thought about that).

As noted, the Muslims didn’t wear steel armor, which was a disadvantage to them in close-quarters combat with crusaders. Their armor was made of boiled leather and lamellar scales, designed to be light and good for long-distance riding rather than a heavy battle. They would also have helmets (in various shapes and styles), gloves, etc. An archer would have a quiver and have to think about using, reclaiming, or mending arrows after a battle (the Never Ending Quiver in every movie ever: ALSO WRONG).

I will confess that I don’t know as much about Islamic warrior ethoi comparable to chivalry as I should. However, the crusades were taking place against the backdrop of the Islamic Golden Age, in which the culture, sophistication, and scholarly study in the Islamic world was at its height, and there are plenty of artists, poets, mathematicans, and philosophers that Joe would be familiar with, that would guide his actions in the way that chivalry might for a knight. Such as, for example, Avicenna (Ibn Sina) from Samarkand, or the Banu Musa brothers of Baghdad. There would also obviously be the Qur’an and the ahaditha (sayings of Prophet Muhammad) and other religious texts and traditions. Obviously if you’re going to use any of these, be respectful, do your research, and present it in a positive way.

And then of course there is the:

Big-Ass Cool Weapons of Major Boom

So what else do we have on a large scale, aside from the individual warriors? For a start, we have (on the crusader side) siege engines, such as mangonels, trebuchets, towers, etc. These are not comparable to the Return of the King-esque “break off a chunk of the city with every hit,” but they were pretty damn effective; during the Third Crusade, one stone from a trebuchet was reputed to have killed twelve people in the market in Acre. Richard the Lionheart also hauled along a lot of high-quality stone from Sicily to make better missiles than the soft crumbly sandstone of the Holy Land. There’s a reference to a “cat,” which seems to have been a tower containing multiple compartments for crossbowmen, which could be pushed up against city walls. There are also battering rams and other blunt-force weapons, since sieges were a main part of every crusade. (In fact, commanders tried to avoid open battles as much as they could, though there were also usually at least one on each crusade.) Defensive strategy included digging deep ditches around walls, to prevent your opponent’s siege engines from getting too close, or just throwing stuff down at them as they tried to climb with scaling ladders. With this, we also have....

Greek fire! It’s semi-similar to wildfire from Game of Thrones, even if not quite as effective, but still a pretty cool weapon. The Muslims used it first; it didn’t enter Christian warfare until Geoffrey Plantagenet introduced it in 1151 (his grandson, Richard the Lionheart, also got to be rather fond of it). It was a long-burning liquid explosive that could burn even on water and couldn’t be put out by regular means; it was very feared and very effective. So if you were under siege and had some of that stuff to pour down on the defenders, it would be useful (along with boiling pitch, oil, or other more ordinary substances). Your enemy might plan for that or try to defend against it by using hides soaked in water or some other kind of shield.

Anyway, I’m sure there is more I could say here, but this is already MORE than long enough. I hope it is helpful to start with. And inspirational. Ahem.