#jam blute

[intomyshadow]

Mari: Might fuck around and let nature reclaim me.

Dira: Does this mean you’re going feral or just lying in the dirt for a while?

Mari: Yeah.

[askhubertvonvestra]

Here’s the fluffy Huleth fanfiction requested by @thatone-quietgirl​ as the prize for winning the Hubert birthday contest! Thank you for sending in such an adorable entry, and I hope you enjoy this soft fanfic!

[mysticdragon3md3]

DMCL fic readlist:

A Union of Kings by Jam Blute (CrookedCompass)

Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Claude von Riegan

Soft Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd

Soft Claude von Riegan

Marriage Proposal

Summary:

The Almyran party meets for negotiations at Fódlan's Locket under the guidance of King Dimitri, and on a rare break, another union entirely is forged between the two kings on the grounds of a happy misunderstanding.

Chapters: 1/1

.

We Build Tomorrow on the Graces of Today by ShiDreamin

Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Claude von Riegan

Tiana von Riegan

Claude von Riegan's Mother

Claude von Riegan's Father

Post-Blue Lions Route (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)

Engagement

Political Alliances

Slow Burn

Summary:

He was Khalid when he met Dimitri again.

Nearly two years after the end of Fodlan's war, Dimitri receives a letter asking him to travel to Almyra to meet the future King. He doesn't expect to find Claude, and he certainly doesn't expect to find himself engaged to Claude. It's all for the sake of bettering their nations... isn't it?

Chapters: 5/20

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Shared Retreat by Graytrickster

Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Claude von Riegan

so much fluff at firststar crossed lovers

Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence

Fix It Fic

Eventual Happy Ending

lot of fluff then so much angst

Joint route, fix it fic au. Switching POVs

PLEASE note tag, rating and content warning changes as the story progresses.

Chapters: 9/?

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show me the foothold from which i can climb by mother_hearted for overplays

Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Claude von Riegan

Post-Blue Lions Route (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)

Friends to Lovers

Summary:

In the aftermath of war, Dimitri struggles to build peace in Fodlan when he cannot find peace within himself. ...he somehow makes his way to Leicester on an unconventional sabbatical. ...Dimitri stumbles through his grief... and into Claude's arms.

Claude's departure to Almyra is already in the books, eager to put his experiences from Fodlan to good use. ...he didn't account for: Dimitri...infiltrating his heart...

Chapters: 10/?

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Golden Dawn by dvrtrblhr

Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Claude von Riegan

Original Golden Route (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)

Summary:

A "What if the House Leaders were forced to fend the bandits off by themselves?", "What if Byleth decided she didn't want to be a teacher?" and "What if the House Leaders had more opportunities to get to know each other?" story.

Chapters: 29/?

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with this ring by asael

Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Claude von Riegan

Arranged Marriage

Assassination Attempt(s)

Summary:

To secure a vital alliance, newly-crowned King Dimitri marries a young prince of Almyra. ...In order to survive, they'll have to learn how to trust each other - somehow.

Chapters: 6/8

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The Savior King, The Master Tactician and the Queen of Liberation by ReynaAtTheEnd

Summary:

A merging of the Blue Lions and Golden Deer storylines.

Part 1 of Verdant Moon, Azure Winds

Chapters: 89/?

.

[quillfulwriter]

Varric's friend Hawke has appeared in Skyhold just in time to join their merry little band on a trek to Adamant. Somewhere in among all that, feelings begin to stir between Dorian and the Champion of Kirkwall. Cole unknowingly cements that bond when he calls attention to the hurt they both carry and, as it turns out, drown out in much the same way.

[ao3feed-soriku]

SoRiku: I Love You

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/33NsSk3

by Jam Blute (CrookedCompass)

KH3 SPOILERS. Reunited at last, Riku is determined to make a fresh start. Especially with Sora. He hasn't confessed yet, but he's accepted those feelings for Sora. For now, that's enough.

Words: 459, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Kingdom Hearts

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Riku (Kingdom Hearts)

Relationships: Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Riku & Sora (Kingdom Hearts)

Additional Tags: Gay, Gay Male Character, I Love You

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/33NsSk3

[stormtheorchard]

Track by Track on ‘Colorado’ by Neil Young

1. Think Of Me

This one sounds a bit like ‘Buffalo Springfield Again’ from Silver and Gold. Sometimes I think that Neil isn’t a composer like Paul McCartney, or a lyricist like Dylan. He’s someone who just picks up a guitar and strums the same chords he’s been strumming since he first started playing as a teen and just sings what’s on his mind. I doubt very much he sat down and wrote these lyrics with a pen or a computer. He’s just gets on a roll and songs whatever bullshit comes into his head. And he’s an obscenely rich man who is allowed to indulge in all his obsessions, so it can be a bit of a one-track ride as a fan. But I do like this as an opening song. It’s very familiar.

2. She Showed Me Love

One of the things he’s obsessed with on this album is the environment and climate change. He’s goes on at length about, “Old white guys trying to kill Mother Nature.” It’s probably true that most climate change deniers are men of his vintage who can’t handle the fact that they’ve done this amount of damage to the world. I just wish he’d come up with a more palatable way of saying it. Because these lyrics are not going to turn anybody’s head. He sounds like a cranky old man banging on about the same thing he’s been banging on about for years now.

As an aside, the reason I’m listening to this is that I have a habit of not listening properly to the old guys. Even the old guys I like. When they’re playing a gig in Ireland or they have a new album out, I just assume that it’s not worth checking because they’re past it and they have nothing left in the tank. I actively avoided going to see Leonard Cohen during that great second wave of his career. (In my defense, I really don’t like that plinkety-plonk synth sound that he had on those albums, and the super layered midi instruments. And all the songs about naked women. I know he’s supposed to be a poet and all, but there are a few songs where there isn’t that much tonally between Leonard Cohen and Roy Chubby Brown. I’d love to see Leonard Cohen out there in the shorts and the goggles, doing Chubby Brown’s act. “You know they life is like oral sex - one slip of the tongue and you’re in the shit.” Could have been a lyric on Death Of A Ladies Man.)

Anyway, ‘She Showed Me Love’ is an old-style Crazy horse stomper, but just not a very good one. “Mother Nature pushing Earth in a baby carriage,” sounds like something bluted out in the moment as a placeholder, not a composed lyric. They’re going for the old days here, but it just goes on and on like a hippy ZZ Top. Nils Lofgren must be a real glutton for punishment, throwing his lot in with Neil AND Springsteen. That’s a lot of intensity to have in your life. While Bruce is out in Jersey blathering on about being a cowboy or whatever he’s into now, Neil is up a mountain in Colorado writing nursery rhymes about the environment. I’d personally rather hang with Neil, but that’s not an easy choice.

3. Olden Days

I love this one. It’s more musically rich than the first two songs. It does sound like he’s hit on a few interesting melodic and chordal things in the midst of a jam and written a song around them. However, I don’t know why he insists on writing songs in the key of D. His voice can’t handle it anymore, and he sounds really thin on these high notes. It’s the kind of thing I enjoy listening to it alone, but would make excuses for if I had the album playing in company. I don’t mind Neil struggling for these notes. Doesn’t bother me at all.

People have compared this album to some of the old Crazy Horse classics, but I think it’s got more in common with Silver and Gold than it does with Tonight’s The Night. I really like these grunge ballads that he does.

4. Help Me Lose My Mind

This is the song on the trailer for the documentary where he’s screaming at that poor old man that works for him - John Hanlon. He’s screaming like a child at him through the control-room glass about how his monitor isn’t working. First of all, what kind of a lunatic is using a monitor in the studio? How fucking loud are they playing?! How can the guy who’s talking about the environment and climate change be using so many extra resources that he doesn’t need in the studio? I do think if Neil Young was ever faced with what would actually be required in cutting our resources down to a manageable level, he actually wouldn’t be able to live his life.

- Maybe just have one guitar, Neil? - What do you mean? - Well, you can only play one guitar at a time anyway. Maybe have one spare. And instead of using these big tape machines that run on tubes and such, why don’t just get a DI for the laptop and we could record the whole album that way? - Okay. I’ll have one more look at the guitars I have out in the barn and pick two? - That’s another thing. I know you like having that big barn for your trains and amps and everything, but you could literally house ten families in that barn. Logistically, its hard to justify having all that space for amps and model trains. - But where will I play with my model trains? - Who knows? Set them up in your bedroom. Daryl won’t mind - she’s open-minded. The track can go round your bed, while you sit propped up by pillows with your conductor’s hat on - you’ll have a grand old time!

5. Green Is Blue

This one really works. Sounds like it could have been on Freedom and been better than most of the ballads stuff on that album. It’s another environmental song, but I think it works much better than the others. It’s less slogan-y and more subtle. The kind of song he can probably knock out in his sleep when he’s not focused enough to try and make every lyric scan like a protest placard. And a polar bear floating on a piece of ice from another time is total Rust-era time travel.  The least cheesy environmental song on here.

6. Shut It Down

“We got to shut the whole system down…” It’s not like he’s not right, but why does he have to say it in one of his worst songs? Jeebus, this is a drag. It reminds of what what Living With War might have sounded like if I had ever listened to it. “What about the animals/ What about the birds and bees?” I agree with you, you mad man! But gadzooks Neil, couldn’t you get Kendrick or someone to sing some of this stuff so that maybe a few people outside the circle of old hippies and hipsters that go to your gigs might hear it? Anyone who has ever bough a Neil Young album surely has surely gotten the message at this stage. The same way that Bob Dylan’s fans are now well-versed on the fact that he wishes it was the 40’s, Neil Young’s fans have a fairly good idea of where stands on the environment. He likes it.

7. Milky Way

This song is the business. Sounds like a mix between ‘Cowgirl in the Sand’ and ‘Danger Bird’ and loopier than either of them. “I was sailing in the Milky Way/Losing track of memories that weren’t that day.” The lyrics on this one are amazing and the band sound great. I think the older musicians can get these performances out of him. He’s trying too hard with The Promise of the Real to play up to being the cranky old fuck. This is an old-fashioned trip to space with Uncle Neil. “Libraries and museums, galaxies and stars…” The guitar playing sounds like he’s playing without a pick, which is something that always sounds great when he busts it out. Like Mark Knopfler’s stoner uncle.

8. Eternity

This is another tune where his voice cracks a bit, but it’s such a great song that it doesn’t matter. Apparently that’s Nils Lofgren is tap-dancing on the rhythm. You don’t get that shit with Bruce! That tap-dancing is the sound of a man dancing with glee at the thought of working with a proper artist. I can even take the ‘clickety-clack’ backing vocals. No-one else on the fucking planet with attempt something so ridiculous with a song like this, and do it with a straight face.

9. Rainbow of Colours

Why am I embarrassed by this song like it’s my dad singing it? And why do positive messages in songs always automatically sound cheesy? He’s sang every possible song he can about what’s going on inside his head, but when he tackles something real like racism, it just makes me cringe. But why? It’s a heartfelt, lovely sentiment that the world needs to hear. Why is it cheesy? Shouldn’t we get past that and just let this be a nice song about how we all actually feel? Maybe if we were all a bit more comfortable with mawkishness then the world could actually be a better place.

10. I Do

Back to D, and straining for every high note in sight. It’s a great song, though. I like that you can sort of hear chatter at the start. Kinda contradicts the aul’ coot screaming at the other aul’ coot on the documentary trailer. On headphones you can hear the snare drum rattling with the sound of the bass. Obviously some live playing happening here. There are some moments of some incredible art on this album, which is always what Neil Young had over his contemporaries - even Dylan and Cohen. He was always willing to look a bit mad and untrustworthy if he thought an idea was worth it.

But holy fuck, this is gorgeous. It’s recycling the chords from ‘Olden Days’ a little bit, but it makes it kind of like a theme. I think the subtler moments on this album are way more effective than the chest-beaters. He’s following weird trains of thought and making them sound beautiful.

[intomyshadow]

Loren: I’m going to defeat you with the power of friendship and this knife I found.

[intomyshadow]

Learn more about ‘em here:

Noyo

Dira

Mari

Loren

Support their story on Patreon | Tip the writer on Ko-fi

[intomyshadow]

Dira: “Oooh, that’s going to hurt in the morning.”

Mari: “It hurts now, actually.”

[intomyshadow]

Dira in the group chat at three am: yall think lava would taste spicy?

Loren: Dira please don't eat lava

Noyo: try it and let us know

Mari: actually since it's made of molten rock, it'd probably taste very bland and dusty

Dira: thank you so fucking much Mari you understand me like no one else

[intomyshadow]

Kidnapper: We have your friend, pay us and you'll get them back

Noyo: Which one of my friends?

Kidnapper, while Dira is looking at him intensely: The hot one

Noyo: He made you say it, right?

Kidnapper, in tears: Can you just come and take him?

[intomyshadow]

Dira: It’s nice to be wanted, you know?

Mari: Not by the law!

[intomyshadow]

Bet you can’t guess who the screw-up is. ;)

Anyway, you can learn more about all of ‘em here:

Noyo

Dira

Mari

Loren

Support their story on Patreon | Tip the writer on Ko-fi

[intomyshadow]

Loren: I bet you can’t make a sentence without using the letter A.

Dira: You thought you just did something, didn’t you? Well sorry to burst your bubble but it is possible for numerous sentences to be constructed without employing the first letter of the English lexicon.

Noyo: Then perish.

Mari: ... Fuck.

[intomyshadow]

Meet Mari

Word count: 1600 (3 to 13 minutes) | Rating: T | Story: Into My Shadow

Note: Fantasy races (common and original), magic

Read Dira’s character introduction

Read Noyo’s character introduction

The Blossoming of Year 185: Dawn’s Strike Era

The streets of Garres were like veins, carrying goods and people wherever they needed to go in the city. Sometimes, to places they’d rather not be. Reliable and chaotic, the contradictory way life worked anywhere else. It made the cobblestone streets easy to map in her mind, especially with practice. Anyone could tell the sunbaked almshouse walls from the lofty towers of the governmental district, but only a local could get from one to the other without being late or lost.

Exactly why living in one place for years wasn’t so bad.

Mari knew the routes and schedules of most carriages there. Not to mention basically everyone who kept the city’s blood pumping. Not that any of them really saw her. She was known for her ties to the Union. Only the half-elf who ran their errands and did their chores. Beyond that, she was no more than one of the strangers outside. And it was incredible, the things people let you see and hear when you were invisible.

But if there was one skill she had mastered, it had to be knowing when to wait for the right moment.

The morning mail coach came soaring down the road, and everyone knew they had the run of the road. Stopping one meant paying a fine—even if you did it by mistake. Mari was in a hurry too, poised to hop across the street on the raised steppingstones the moment it went by. She was close enough to feel it rush past, and a small splash from puddles of yesterday’s rain hit her boots. Nothing that wouldn’t dry. Especially if she ran, and she always did.

Her boots barely tapped against each roughly circular stone that kept people above the water, waste, and manure, then she was on the other side. The poor ladies and gentlemen serving the country from its capital couldn’t do that in their fine heeled shoes and fluffy wigs. Their jobs seemed important with all the shouting, but pretty stifling. So long as she did hers to avoid getting yelled at herself, it didn’t matter.

Darting around frantic storeroom maids in the center of the market square, Mari made her way to the weapons and armor marketplace. The heavy smell of molten metal and coal from smithies burned her nostrils before she even saw the magic shops. All the stores there were more like workshops where you could buy goods, not like the tents and stalls of most other places. Maybe the merchants of magical wares didn’t quite belong there, but there they were. No one really wanted to see them while they picked out a new suit before the festival season or resupplied on early summer vegetables and wines.

Pulling the empty satchel up her shoulder, Mari kept her eyes up and stuck close to the wall. The only people around the weapons shops were assistants to the Guard Captain, hunters, and mercenaries. They covered the whole nation’s people: dwarves, elves, people with mixed descent like her, and even the lone chiali now and again. None of them were gifted with patience for anything that didn’t apply to their work, or none that Mari knew. All she had to be was fast and out of their way. She had to move quickly anyway since it would be hot and muggy soon, and Mari wouldn’t be up to as much running.

She ducked into the open rounded doorway of the mages’ goods shop soon enough. Could have done it with her eyes closed, but it was better that she didn’t.

“Hm?” The shopkeep frowned over the counter, glaring down at her from his stool. That sternness was just part of his expression, she learned that shortly after they first met years ago. He was framed by jars of all kinds of magical goods, some open and easy to reach and others sealed and locked on the top shelves behind the front counter. His thick, black moustache with flecks of grey twitched with his ‘tsk’. Fat fingers tied off the thin rope around some gathered stems of faintly glowing thistles that she didn’t recognize. Not yet. The dwarf was no mage, but he knew more than she’d ever forget about magic in the wild—and he liked to remind anyone who came in of that. “Just you, is it?”

“Yeah,” she said with a nod, dropping the rolled parchment on the counter. The Union’s crest was emblazoned on the outside beside the ribbon holding it closed—a precaution for all their parchment in case something important was lost, supposedly. “Got the whole Union order here.”

He kept that surprising delicate touch from the flowers when he swept up the scroll, pulling the ribbon loose to unroll it. From habit, he muttered it out loud as his dull blue eyes moved down the list.

That week’s resupply trip called for more of what Mari recognized. No Union storeroom run was complete without basic healing herbs, but this one included various roots and powders to carve into protective sigils on armor and shields. Plus some fake-sounding items like will-‘o-the-wisp dust. Mari read about them in the Union’s in-house library when most people were asleep, and she doubted they gave off anything like dust. If finding your way back to your original spot after getting tricked by a will-‘o-the-wisp only meant following a dust trail, why did people stay lost?

But if the Union mages asked for it, it had to be real. Maybe it wasn’t literal. Like sprigs of baby’s breath.

“The glass is new,” she interrupted his mumbling and pointed to the windows. Usually, just fancy clothes and jewelry stores had glass windows, but they had gotten more common in other shops with decent sales. Having the Union buying through him most of the time would do that for his profits. She heard him stomping down the ladder from his stool while she leaned to check for outside hinges through the window. “Kept the shutters. Smart.”

“Mmhm. Wait here.”

Wait, he said, like it ever took him long. Mari was barely taller than him when she did her first supply run for the Union, and she was amazed at how quickly he measured and packaged everything. While he worked, she put her satchel up on the counter and flipped it open for him just in time for him to nestle the first bag of herbs in.

“Walk gently,” he ordered as he pat down a box of packed powder.

“Understood.”

“Not how you usually dart around here.” He pierced her with another glare, tossing the tired leather flap over her bag to close it.

“Yes, sir.”

“I mean it.” Punctuating that with a calloused fingertip pointed at her, he moved the bag over to her open hands at the counter’s edge.

“I said yes,” she repeated with an uneasy grimace, not sure what else he wanted. Mari raised the shoulder strap over her head for the steadier carrying it obviously needed.

“And this.” Less gently, he brought a package up onto the smooth wooden countertop and pushed it over to her. The wrapping job wasn’t like his usual. No practical plain paper held in place with twine, but deep slate blue paper with thick silver ribbon adorning it. The contents were clearly a book. Mari softened her grimace but didn’t reach for it. In all the years she knew him, he didn’t adorn anything. If someone wanted to get a gift to a member of the Mages’ Union, they wouldn’t go through him and definitely not her. Even a surprise gift would be better off handled by actual delivery people.

“What’s this?”

“For you.” Glancing back down to it and again to him, Mari closed her hand around the strap over her chest. This just got more and more confusing. Who would give her something? Mari didn’t talk to anyone she didn’t have to, so there was no one to send her an unexpected present.

“What for?”

“A gift,” he observed, being his usual blunt self, but without any of the clarity that usually came with it. He must have read something in her glance at the present because he muttered something before offering something she could hear. “If you’ve got your mind set on working at that place ‘til you’re grey, be serious about educating yourself. Before you get killed.”

“Alright,” she asked, as bewildered as ever. No one got a nice shop with glass windows and shutters because they gave out gifts to the spry little stray running tasks for the Union. Still, she picked up the package. It was heavier than she guessed it would be… Probably two books, then. Trading the grimace for a level stare, Mari thanked the stars she was talking to someone who didn’t waste words. “But what’s that to you?”

The long hairs of his moustache ruffled in his scoff as he settled back up onto his stool. Leaning over the counter, he almost looked like he was smirking. “You have a birthday, don’t you?”

“Suppose I do.” Giving him a shrug, she continued her answer. “Not sure when it is, though.”

“In that case, doesn’t matter when you get a present.” Nodding to the book, he scooched back into his seat and reached for another bundle of glowing thistle. “There’s your gift.”

“From?” He quirked an eyebrow, clearly at his limit for questions. She should have figured it was straight from him anyway. There weren’t many people who remembered Mari and her interest in magic. Add in apparently having a reason to present her with a new book… Well, that didn’t leave a lot of choices. “Right. Thanks.”

“Mmhm. Don’t die.”

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