#maybe do the family crests as a border

[lilmccoy]

I don't know yet if it's the best or worst idea I've had, but I'm looking at crocheting a blanket this year. Either of the cover of the Silmarillion, or a granny square of either the family crests or squares themed after each chapter or character. It should be noted that I know a single stitch and have finished a total of 4 projects the 6 years I've been knitting and crocheting. Let's see where this takes me.

[autumnwoodsdreamer]

Hey!

For The inusual headcanons game: ✨ Aq Vetina

You have opened Pandora’s Box, my anonymous acquaintance. And I’m gonna give you multiple headcanons because I have so little self-control and I already used my allotted quota for the day.

First off (and I will die on this hill): Aq Vetina is the name of the settlement, not the planet. I like to put it far in the Outer Rim, nigh on the border to Wild Space and near the Mandalore System (in Lift a Sail, I put it on a certain planet that I won’t name here because it’s a major spoiler😉)

I know a lot of people hold to the idea that everyone in Aq Vetina wears red robes but I don’t really know why because in the flashbacks (particularly in Chapter 8) we see the people in the background wearing a host of colours. I’ve spotted yellow, a lot of brown, quite a bit of grey, blue, black, and even some purple. Actually, the red that the Djarin family wears stands out. So I prefer to take it as the people wear a variety of colours. But! They are big on colour meanings (much like Mandalorians but their list of meanings are quite different because their culture and their values are different) and families tend to dress in the same colour. Also, the colours along with the designs on the bodices and shirt sleeves serve as family crests.

Aq Vetina experiences seasons. Most of the year is warm and dry but it has rains (we see some greenery in the streets so I refuse to let it be another Star Wars Desert PlanetTM) and it has a frosty winter, maybe some very light snow.

They have their own language but Basic is widely known, too.

The place was not completely destroyed in that Separatist attack but it did take a long time for them to recover. They were almost decimated due to the Empire’s mining operations on their planet but they’re still around today (during the Mandalorian’s present) and thriving.

They don’t have a space port, but they do conduct a bit of interplanetary trade (I do like the idea that they’re well-known for their textiles and fabric dyes).

Aq Vetina is very close to the sea (oh, come on, we’re not shown the whole place; I can put it where I want and I want it to be close enough to the seaside that little Din used to splash about on the shore with his parents and collect colourful seashells).

Okay. I better stop there. Thanks so much for the ask!

Unusual Headcanon Ask Game

[zaceouiswriting]

The Wanderer and The Boss

Character: Sett x male reader

Universe: League of Legends

Warnings: None

Author note: Okay my first video game character. Maybe the first of many? We will see! Have fun with this one!

Weeks had gone by, night and days, storms, and even some falling stars. Following only a feeling, that overcame in a thought - A dream so far away, that it needed to be found. Only a light pathing a way, to this ominous place. Walking over frozen lakes, climbing the highest of mountains - and when the bodily energy went low, asking an earth spirit to carry you.

The only food you really needed was the light itself, didn’t matter if it was the sun or the moon. Both filled your body with everything you needed. Which didn’t mean that you wouldn’t love something else to eat.

As you came further to a city in a land unknown to you, the spirit slowly vanished, fearing someone might see it. Not having a problem with this, because your energy was quite high again, you thanked the spirit and let it go back again. Promising to bring it gifts soon.

Only with your trusted stick, do you walk further, meeting new interesting people, and beings, some of you never thought existed. All of it was a complete shock for you. Being kept in walls, never getting the opportunity to see the world. Caged into a golden prison, just because of your blood.

It took you one more month to see all the failures your own homemade with its land and people. The air in this place was clean, filled with magic, something your home began to lose, but was needed desperately.

People lived in harmony with nature, taking only what they needed, and even when they go a little bit over, they are giving the exact amount back, or sometimes even more.

With the falling down forests of your home, back in your mind, a sudden sadness overcame you. Your people weren’t bad, just not educated in these kinds of things. But after you were born, in the moment of absolute darkness, they hoped for a savior. Not only for the state your home was in, but also as a protector against the Noxian armies, slowly creeping onto your borders.

Getting out of these walls, that had kept you, prisoner, all your life, was the only right thing you could’ve done. Your home would be able to hold the conquerer at bay for a long time. Until you return - at least you are hoping so.

Finally, after living in the lands, with multiple different small towns and traveling tribes, to learn about their way of living, you came to an enormous city. Not as big as the one you grew up it, not even close, but still big for what you have seen so far.

The walls looked old, never maintained, as much as most of the city did. For the first time on your entire journey, you felt out of place. The cloak you were wearing, an ever-white one, a spell upon it, so it would never get dirty, a black suit with gold and silver embroidery, that also included your family crest, underneath it. 

Still, no one really batted an eye at you. Not even when you got your hood down,  your mesmerizing silver eyes and especially long sharp ears. Your face looked like any other person, mostly humans. Golden earrings, in which were special stones embedded, that could hold your own magical powers.

Your right ear, is full of golden chains, from the top to the earlobe. Where a moon-like pendant hung down. While on the right side, only a sun-like pendant was with many stones embedded in it. All of them glistened on both pendants. Showing off, that you felt uneasy.

The longer you walked through the city, the more people began to look at you strangely. You knew for a fact, that none of them ever saw someone like you. Not many of your kind were still alive, after everything that had happened.

At least until, you were able to hear a crowd cheering, screaming in bloodlust, that not only got your attention but also the attention of everyone else.

Slowly you walked closer to the place. A big man, guarding the door, asking for money to enter. You could understand him, as you were able to do it with everyone, but chose to ignore his words. Just entering the place. As you walked by, you could see his dumbstruck face but didn’t do anything really. Maybe it was your eyes, or the fact, that you easily walked past him.

But you knew that he felt at peace a moment later.

Getting into the place, you realized it was an arena the moment, blood was everywhere.

In an instant, you got ported back in time, to the moment you saw the unthinkable. Playing with your older brothers, father, and mother in the central gardens of your home, before hearing a hiss and blood getting everywhere, followed by your father falling down dead, absolutely motionless. Shortly after, your entire family was gone and you came out after, killing the soldiers that had done that, destroying their souls in the process.

As you come back, you only could see one of the men, a rather large muscular build. Extremely cocky - dead on the floor. His soul slowly crept out of his body. Holding out your hand, the entire atmosphere in the place changed. Air thicker with magic. The stones in your ears, vibrating with you together, as you whispered for most people, forgotten words. The souls you had just seen, a white little shine in them, represented his good nature - slowly getting back into his body. Healing his injuries in the process.

Seeing this man, punched into a pulp standing up again, completely unharmed was magical. But not the first time you did it.

But the opponent was more than confused, his eyes roaming the stands until they fell on you. As fast as you could, you put your hood back on and walked back to the guy who had let you in.

Coming standing right in front of him, you hold your left hand on his chest, while your right hand came to lay on his left leg. A flood of magic ran through his body, helping him heal. But because he wasn’t a magic user himself, you needed to take it all back.

„Thank you for letting me in, for a moment,“ you whispered slightly. Embarrassed by your voice. „Is the owner of this place a half Vastaya?“

The man nodded strangely. Feeling better, but still confused about what was happening. „Perfect, his mother is alive, right?“ He nods again. „Even better, give him that, his mother will know what to do with it.“ You handed the man a small velvet bag. „And this one is for you, in it is a stone, every day for at least a month, you will take a bit of it, grind it into dust and mix it with honey and terabelt. After that, your sickness should be cured.“

Not long after you left the man standing there in the front of the arena. With two small velvet bags. Your hood deeper into your face, so no one, would see anything, walking off.

Behind you were steps, at least for a moment. As you glanced back, there was the man from the arena, that had looked at you, with an angry questioning look. But before he could see where you went, you jumped into another street. The man was handsome, maybe too much for his own good. Your heart is racing, jumping In excitement.

Which was the moment, that you decided to stay there for a while. How bad could it become? [Masterlist]

[randomnameless]

Too late. But I saw your post about the Supreme Leader's family, and how we know more of Glenn than any of her siblings. I would also like to mention Raphael's younger sister, Maya, who, like Glenn, more is known than any of the her siblings. However, there's also Marianne, who I find outshines Supreme Leader in terms of family background loopholes.

It's funny how simple characters like Raphael and Ignatz have less of a problems than supposedly "interesting" characters like Marianne and Lysithea. But I think all of this falls under crests BaD.

Why no mention of Hilda anon? lol

TBH Lysithea is what I'd call here a "pétard mouillé", aka something that had some potential but ultimately ended up as underutilised/wasted.

I know it's because Adrestia 5evah, but the sheer fact Lysithea has nothing - no mention, no words in her useless and worthless support with Supreme Leader about, uh, papa Ionius being angry and sending dark mages to "test some science project" on her siblings, who died as a result, is completely bonkers - and we don't even have a weak "it's not daddy dearest who did it but the bald fatso who wasn't in power because the insurrection didn't happen yet but it's totes his fault daddy told me and if you question me more i'll stop pretending to give a fuck and ignore you" support, no, it's just... not touched.

Then you have the entire Solon/Tomas from House Ordelia thingie she only mentions in VW but goes "nope I'm not telling you" in WC which is completely, uh... ridiculous, and again, never called out. Heck, the game spends more time dissing Lorenz because his dad sided with the imperialists (to protect his people else they'd be Waldo'd) but not a thing is said about Lysithea who knew there was something wrong with Tomas/Solon since the day she saw him at the Academy and worked with the maniacs who tortured her family at the behest of the Empire! Lysithea saying this in WC would have destroyed Supreme Leader's "plans" in half, but w/c.

There are a lot of things completely stupid regarding Marianne, and I'm not even talking abou the Momo sobfest, but imo nothing concerns her biofam?

We could talk all day long on how she swallows Supreme Leader and Clout's nonsensical shit about "Church BaD promotes IsOlAtIoNiSm" when her own father managed to get fame and acknowledgment as one who can be part of the Roundtable because he's so successful in his trade with, uhh, foreign countries (tfw no isolationism?), or how she could tell Claude that sure a free market where goods and people could cross without any difficulties borders would be a good thing, if some people just want to trade goods and don't invade every saturday because I'm pretty sure if her dad managed to become "important" due to all of the trading he does it's also because the people he trades with don't set up raids for funsies once per week.

But instead we have... well, as the Nopes dev put it "cute girls" and apparently it's ok, because the "very serious (tm)" plot dgaf about how the world it depicted works and actually shits on said plot.

It's also too bad that for all the interesting aspects Ignatz and Raph bring as the new bourgeoisie in a world we're told is full of aristocrats who keep the non-aristrocrats down, nothing is ever brought up.

Some people already pointed out how much of a wasted opportunity it was for, say, Doro looking for a wealthy husband, not looking at the Alliance's bachelors who might not be nobles, but are rich as fuck, or my own favourite plotbunny that will go nowhere, maybe Ingrid's dad trying to set up a match between his daughter and... Ignatz. But no.

Instead they will both swallow the nonsensical "without church there won't be any nobility and the commoners will be happy and able to rise and fall on their own!!" - Raphael's fall not being dictated by his actions but by his parents fucking dying - when their own situation has strictly nothing to do with the Church or the so-called "Crust system".

At least I can write fodlan nonsense about Ignatz's nabatean radar or his wish to be a painter - aka an utterly useless job in a world that's only focused on the military, but maybe reveals that if Ignatz, a merchant's wealthy's son can dream to become a painter, then maybe the world isn't as "martial" and "crust obsessed" as it's supposed to be.

[pcttrailsidereader]

How We Are Seen and Heard

Being a PCT hiker is being part of a unique group of people who are spending an extended period of time in nature. This can be a day, many days, months, or if you are section hiker like me, years. The Pacific Crest Trail is both a National Scenic Trail  and also serves as a foundation for a growing community of hikers, trail angels, and others. 

The ‘others’ tend to be the people we encounter in post offices, stores, and hotels/hostels as well as the strangers that are interested in our individual stories. When my hiking partners and I were assailed by a family of strangers outside of Timberline Lodge asking about what we were doing, how far had we come, and where were we going next, we couldn’t help but enjoy the attention a little. With our chests puffed out we could proudly describe our experiences. I would like to think these people were intrigued enough to learn more about the PCT or maybe even be motivated to go on the PCT themselves. Isn’t that what really created the ‘Wild Effect’? People read Cheryl Strayed’s story or heard her interviewed and suddenly the number of hikers on the PCT set records. 

As the number of hikers has increased so has the impact on communities along the trail from the Mexican border to the Canadian border. Initially the number of resupply spots are fairly close together and not far off the route. As one walks north the distance between towns begins to spread out. As things do spread out when a hiker or hikers reach a town or resupply spot they may be more elated than ever for the food, shower, and what’s in their resupply box not to mention the other amenities these places provide. 

As we found when COVID 19 struck the PCTA tried to clear the trail to keep everyone; hikers and others including first responders safe. COVID was a reminder that our PCT community and its impact can be significant. Being on the trail can be freeing and a real escape from the more formal social constructs of the ‘real world’. This often draws a lot of people to being in nature and specifically to the PCT, AT, CDT, etc. All that being said, our community is more noticed than ever before. 

Being noticed can be wonderful as I described our experience at Timberline Lodge. Being noticed is best when it is for more of the right reasons. Some of the ways we may get noticed are not all for the best reasons. For example; being aware of odor…your’s in particular. When showing up in a public space, finding a seat outside or in a corner is probably not such a bad idea. When on the trail you can spread your gear around but when you are in town consider taking your post office packages to a quiet spot to organize yourself and get packed up again. In some places public showers may be available. At these spots be mindful of those waiting behind you and conserve the hot water. If your definition of a ‘public’ shower is the sink at Walmart try to resist the urge. Remember to praise the trail angels that step up for you and your friends. Please keep in mind that these people are the closest you may ever come to meeting a true saint. Sharing a little or a lot of gratitude with these people goes a longer way than you may have walked. Taking these folks for granted is the very last thing anyone in our PCT community should ever be remembered for. One more thing not to be remembered for is taking a very drunk/high and disorderly zero in a host town or resort. 

[birlwrites]

Can you ramble a bit about the heir rings and what they mean to especially Regulus in ttdl but also Evan Sirius and maybe James

HEIR RINGS HEIR RINGS HEIR RINGS

okay so first of all some background - heir rings are very very similar to lordship rings, except they have a double border. what is on the ring, you ask? a family crest. what does the family crest look like? i do not know. it varies from family to family - the blacks def have some sort of pointedly medieval-looking-ish thing. i think it probably incorporates some kind of representation of a star - not a specific star, but simply A Star

wow paragraph 2 and we already got off track. anyway on personal significance - the heir rings do very much represent *being the heir* to this family, which informs a lot of how various characters feel about them. for example, you know how regulus and evan wear theirs pretty much all the time? that is *not* the case for everyone

and part of that has to do with the power structure they're operating in as well

the potter heir ring is in a high-security gringotts vault. they like to think of themselves as being down to earth, and james never really feels the need for people to know who he is on that level anyway, so like, why bother wearing it? he just uses whatever to seal his letters he doesn't need to use his heir ring for it

sirius received the black heir ring from his father when he was about 9 and proceeded to wear it every day. orion framed it as a responsibility when he handed it over, and little sirius took that. siriusly. (ba dum tss)

over time, though, it became a visual reminder of who he *didn't* want to become. but he couldn't really stop wearing it - the heir and lordship rings are enchanted such that if you don't wear them, they show up constantly within arm's reach to remind you to put them on. the only way to avoid this is to put them in vaults with very specific enchantments (which are part of the default set for a high security vault at gringotts)

sirius couldn't just drop the ring off at gringotts and call it a day, so for a while (at school - this would not fly at home) he tried putting it on a necklace and just hiding it under his robes, but the ring deemed that insufficient and kept taking itself off the chain

so his new method of coping with it was acquiring *more* rings, so that the black one wouldn't stand out as much

when sirius ran away, once again he didn't have the opportunity to swing by gringotts and drop off the heir ring and call it a day. when it disappeared, it was a moment of relief for sirius, but also a recognition that there really was no going back anymore.

when the black heir ring left sirius, it actually went to orion - they had to remove sirius's heir status before they could make regulus heir, and the ring went to orion in the interim as the lord black who would decide what to do with it. this interim period was not very long. when orion gave the ring to regulus, for regulus that was very much a moment of 'oh shit they actually did it.' the heir ring carried a lot of guilt for regulus for a long time - it felt like something he wasn't supposed to have.

but regulus as we see him in ch 37 has gotten accustomed to this new identity and very possessive over it - it's something he's learned to wield, but he's also protective (lingering insecurities, perhaps?) and regulus also doesn't like other people touching his things in general (see his internal monologue about wands in like chapter 14 or smth, and also not wanting people sitting on his bed in study group meetings - dark arts books occupy a different mental space since those come with the assumption that they're going to be passed around)

and evan!!! most certainly does not have a problem with handing his heir ring over to regulus temporarily. that's not to say he'd give it to just anyone. but evan thinks of the rosier heir ring as..... a nametag, almost? it used to have a lot more significance to him, but that's kind of faded over the years, and now he considers it an identifier rather than a ~symbol of who he is~ on a deep level.

but it does still hold some importance for him, because he fought for that identifier. the fact that he has it matters, and that's also why he wears it (unlike james) and doesn't try to hide it or distract from it (unlike sirius). also, shiny

so for evan to *remove* that identifier and hand it over to regulus (who, lest we forget, is heir to a different house and thus a direct competitor for power) is. ok im realizing the way i phrased that makes it sound like he's giving this symbol of himself to regulus, which is NOT what i meant (that's what it would be if regulus handed over his heir ring to evan).

what i mean is that the rosier heir ring represents something that evan feels he doesn't need to prove--to regulus. for evan, the significance there isn't in giving the ring to regulus so much as it is in taking it off in the first place. but regulus parses the significance as being in the act of giving the ring to him, because he attributes a different type of meaning to heir rings

like, if regulus were to give evan his ring, it would be tantamount to a declaration of love. when evan gives regulus *his* ring, it's more tantamount to a declaration of 'i trust that you know me for my own sake and in my own right.' but then again, those two things can coexist very easily

[waterbirdz]

Got the classic TWISTD goes after other people instead of Edelgard Au in my head

(My brain is actually flip flopping between wanting Edelgard and Lysithea to have been experimented on still or not)

But essentially, because I am predictable, they go after Almyra.

Despite what The Church of Serios teaches, Almyra is a very prosperous country that is much grander than Fodlan. Their military prowess once almost defeated Fodlan in the past, and that was over a hundred years preceding the game. Their modern day abilities, unrestrained by church teachings refusing to learn and create new technologies, would be a clear advantage.

Controlling a country like that would no doubt bring in an assured win.

So they scurry over the border like the rats they are. They infiltrate Almyra and get close to their king.

I’m not exactly sure how they do it quite yet. Maybe it’s the act like the person they killed thing. Maybe it’s a violent takeover.

Either way, they take control of the royal family. The kids are locked away, separated from their parents.

It’s then that they find a daughter of Riegan had become Almyra’s queen. Better yet, she had a child.

They were already testing limits, deciding to even try to experiment on those not from ten goddess’s land. Their blood doesn’t flow with the same magic those from Fodlan have. But TWSITD already had plans to try and implant crests. They were curious.

But then there were two of Riegan’s bloodline right before them. One had the chance to inherit both Almyra and the Alliance.

What a chance. What luck.

With all that power…no doubt the Nabateans would fall.

So they began their experiments. They couldn’t risk having the Riegan child die, not when they promised so much.

They start with the other children. They see what limits Almyran blood have when imbued with Fodlan’s magic.

They tell the Riegan child all of their siblings died in the process.

They don’t touch the Queen, she could be a valuable asset later. She is locked away, withering day by day. She hasn’t seen her child in a long long time.

TWSITD finally get their perfect creation. The little demon prince has two crests. Riegan and Flames.

Given the two crests have the same effect they were sure that having both would work, as the child’s body already knew what a crest felt like.

But here’s the thing

Almyra is a prosperous country. A proud one too. They do not take being attacked lightly.

War breaks out among the people. They cry for justice. They cry for the royal family that governed their land for so long.

Nader manages to find the little Riegan child. Still weak, still hurt, and still alive. With all the violence happening, he cannot allow the Riegan child to stay in Almyra.

So Nader makes the most difficult decision of his life.

He wraps the Riegan child in the finest fabrics he can find. He packs away food, water, a dagger, and a precious little earring.

A few days later, he lands near the Locket. He must say goodbye to the child, if only to ensure they live.

He walks up to the massive fort. Magic and archers all aim their attacks at him, but none fire yet.

General Holst Gonerik stands at the edge of the locket, looking down with those pink eyes. The strange color reminds Nader of the child in his arms, with their own strange eyes.

“Please!” Nader calls, “keep them safe!”

He holds out the bundle in his arms. Still weak, still asleep, still alive.

The Goneril’s take the child within their care. Nader knows what their care is, he hates it with a burning passion. But it is what is best for the child. So he allows it.

The child sleeps and heals over the course of a few weeks.

A little girl with pink hair and eyes often peaks in. Curious in the child brought to her door by the infamous Nader himself

When the child wakes up and heals, they are out to work as the girl’s servant. Help her clean, help her dress, fetch her food and toys.

During this time, the little girl grows uncomfortable. There is a child her age working for her. There is a child her age with dead eyes. A child her age who, actually is only slighter tanner than her. She could easily mistake them as someone from Fodlan who enjoyed the sun too much.

But then they learn the child has a crest.

Instantly the child is carted away to Riegan

The impact is already made

[sahmandbean]

How to Build a Greek Revival in The Sims 4 Like a Nerd

This one was so easy to put together... until it came to a floorplan. There seems to be very little consistency between homes and designers in regard to where each room goes, where the stairs go, and so on, so I did my best. On the plus side that means more creative freedom for you! Whatever you do inside, the outside is guaranteed to be gorgeous with the columns, pediment, symmetrical façade, and elegant roofline and friezes. I did this with just the base game, but of course you don't have to. Ready? Let's build!

If at any point what I am writing doesn't make sense, there is a full video tutorial here that might show a little better than I can tell.

The Greek Revival as a home was originally constructed in the mid 1800s, but you will still see elements used in modern designs, especially in commercial buildings like banks. The tall round columns and triangular pediment over the main entry are probably the main tells of the Greek Revival style, although others include the low hipped roof, tall narrow windows, and use of white and light colored wood throughout the home. Because this home is considered such a classic style, and in one way or another has been around for thousands of years, you can style it to fit in nearly anywhere.

Floorplan

The main footprint of the build will be a large two-story rectangle, with the wider side facing the front. You can use medium or tall walls on the first floor and short or medium on the second. I used medium for both. The floorplan will be pretty symmetrical, and can be closed off rooms joined by large arches, an open floorplan, or a combination. Starts will generally be at the center of the build, but whether they are in that main entry hall or not depends on the home. The main floor will be living space, and if you choose to expand try and keep the home symmetrical.

Some homes may have a deep wraparound deck at the front, some at the back, some all around, and some not at all. However, if you do add one, be sure to cover it and add evenly spaced columns.

Upstairs will be mostly bedrooms. Since these homes often had very large rooms, you can fit in bathrooms pretty easily even if you want your build to feel older. Of course new constructions will have more planning around plumbing.

Exterior

Aside from the entry space, the face of your build will be quite flat. Siding will typically be brick, plaster, narrow siding, and/or stucco, and white. If you use multiple textures, consider using a frieze or floor trim to accentuate the separation between levels. Windows will be tall, paned, and placed two or three tiles symmetrically across the front of your home. For privacy, the upper floor may have complimentarily placed but smaller windows.

For the front entry, make a small deck and add columns. For a two level entry, I like to set the second floor balcony back one tile so I can stretch the front columns all the way to the roof uninterrupted. Top the structure with a gable roof, remove the eaves, and if you have a family crest or flags those would place very well in the open face of the roof.

Before you roof everything, though, place a platform covering the whole roof area. Add white platform trim, then place your hipped roof. This will hide the eave edges, even if they are pulled in, and you can add floor trim or a frieze to customize how thick and fancy you want that roof border to be. Same for the roof above the deck.

Once you have that how you want it, you can place your roof pieces. Other than the pediment, you will be working with mostly closed faces, and use hipped and half hipped roof pieces.

When you are landscaping such an elegant and high-class home, keep order in mind. Tame shrubs around the foundation, contained flowerbeds, and smooth lawns (maybe a fountain if the pond tools are calling your name) will accentuate the build very well.

Interior

High ceilings, white walls, light colored wood floors and cabinets, and the large windows all come together to bring a light and bright vibe to the home. While the floorplan can be open or more closed off, be sure you can have a clear line of sight into the next room and keep ratios in mind when furnishing and decorating. The ancient Greeks were quite into math and beauty combined, after all.

I only removed half a tile from this landing, but if you are looking for a good home to practice opening landings, this is a good one. An easy way is to place a fence or half wall around the area you want to open and delete the floor. If that doesn't work, you can open up the whole floor and build what you want to keep back in with flat floor pieces.

If you want to update this home, the boxy exterior and floorplan make that super easy.

Trade out the round Greek columns for something more square

Choose smaller floor trims and/or friezes and change up the siding colors and textures.

Inside, square off arches, update cabinets and fixtures, and place furniture in a less structured way. You can also warm up the walls with some beige or soft earth tones.

If you want to check out my build, it is on the gallery! My ID is sahmandbean and the lot title is Greek Revival Shell.

If you're interested in floorplans and reference images, check out my collection here on Pinterest.

If you want a more through tutorial, I recommend the video version over on YouTube.

Thanks for building with me today!

[teaveetamer]

I really liked that hypothetical support you made with Edelgard and Hanneman about meaningfully engaging with a character’s queerness. It was brilliant but I sadly don't think it works in a game like 3H. Mainly because I don't see IS ever realistic engaging that much about gay issues to that degree. Your hypothetical was just too good xD there's no chance in hell that IS would have included something that deep or meaningful or realistic in any FE unfortunately. But it was great (1/2)

But I think the problem about your great hypothetical Edelgard/Hanneman conversation is that ... nothing about it is exclusive to crests either. The whole (bearing a child as the heir to a noble/royal family being the main duty of the wife/woman) is a real world problem too. So it doesn't inherently belong in a conversation with Hanneman IMO. Edelgard applying it to being "crests bad" makes little sense cuz as the Imperial princess, that's why she'd be expected to have an heir anyway (2/2)

So my answer to this is two-fold

#1) Honestly I think crests not seeming that relevant to the conversation is more a byproduct of crests just... not being as relevant to the universe of Fodlan as the game, and primarily EdeIgard, says they are.

That's not to say they aren't important. They're extremely important for informing Rhea's backstory and they do have tangible, important uses (such as in Faerghus, where the power of relics is used to hold down the border with Sreng).

However the game, particularly EdeIgard, present crests as if they are the root of all ill in Fodlan when that's simply not the case. Greed is. This is especially true of Adrestia, which is not associated with any major relics and therefore sought after primarily as a status symbol than anything else.

If you were to remove crests from the world, nothing about Adrestia would need to change. One status symbol (crests) would simply be replaced with another (wealth, land, influence, lineage, etc.). I think this is evident enough when you look at the different countries surrounding Fodlan (Brigid and Almyra) and see... they still have nobility and class systems even though they don't have crests.

So you can't make crests that important to her because the worldbuilding doesn't support them being that important to anyone except maybe a handful of people in Faerghus.

#2) I did, actually, try to integrate crests into the conversation. In Adrestia, since crests are primarily viewed as a status symbol necessary for the ruling houses to have (ultimately meaningless, but not having one could be counted against you in a succession crisis), it would actually force her to engage with them in some capacity once she takes the throne.

If she doesn't have a crested heir, it could leave Adrestia in a tilt after she dies. Other nobles could start crawling out of the woodworks to claim her heir isn't legitimate without the crest of Seiros, or claim they also have lineage from Seiros and no crest so they have equal claim, etc. So, with absolutely zero changes to the status quo, she would be required to have one crested heir to ensure stability after she's gone.

And that's the part where having children until your body literally gives out comes in. And that is directly related to crests, because IRL the liklihood of a woman needing to give birth until her body gave out just to produce an heir is much lower. It would be especially low in this game, since sexism more or less doesn't seem to exist, meaning in a world without crests she could have one, maybe two children of any gender and that would be the end of it. However in a world with crests it would be much harder. Crested children are harder to have, especially since the bloodlines are thinning and dying out, which could lead to even more pregnancies, even more failures, and even more trying.

(I know there are sexist things in this game. I'm trying to separate out the incidental dev sexism from the actual sexism baked into the world. If you take out everything that can be explained by "the devs forgot women exist outside of being waifus" then I admit you're really not left with that much actual sexism baked into Fodlan's world).

So, basically, TL;DR: I did my best but unfortunately EdeIgard and Fodlan have so many more writing issues than just the meaningful queer experiences thing and I did my best

[denimbex1986]

'In filmmaking there’s a fine line between elegance and pretension, and Christopher Nolan, a citizen of both nations, criss-crosses the border freely. His dedication to craft is always right there on the screen, even in films you may not like; for better or worse, you can usually feel the thought vibrations that went into his decisions about where to put the camera, or how to move the actors around. He knows his stuff, and he makes sure we know that he knows. His expertise gleams like a family crest, looking great when it’s discreetly stamped on a piece of silver, though you really wouldn’t want it on a beach towel.

There may be times in Oppenheimer when you look at the screen and think, Oh brother! as Nolan razzle-dazzles us with impressionistic inset shots of psychotically whirling stars and billowing plumes of what looks like molten lava, all while the lead character expounds in voiceover on the nature of matter, the universe, and other stuff. But either despite its intense craft or because of it, Oppenheimer works. In telling the story of genius theoretical physicist and atomic-bomb architect J. Robert Oppenheimer—played, with an almost otherworldly luminosity, by Cillian Murphy—Nolan blurs the distinction between grandeur and grandiosity. Both his subject and his lead actor can stand up to the outsize scale of his approach, so why shouldn’t he go for broke? So few filmmakers know how to make, or are able to make, pictures this big, about grown-up subjects. Nolan shapes Oppenheimer’s story into something like an epic poem, focusing not just on his most famous achievement, but on everything that happened to him afterward; Nolan is maybe even more interested in Oppenheimer as a complicated, questioning patriot.

As you know if you’ve seen even just one Nolan film—it could be Memento, or Interstellar—he likes to scramble the signals in his storytelling. Oppenheimer is a story told in dots and dashes, demanding that you keep up with its shifts in time and space. But even if you know nothing about Oppenheimer’s story, following along is not that hard—Nolan pulls it all together at the end, and from that vantage point, the landscape of where he’s taken us looks pretty grand. We get some background on Oppenheimer’s time as a young student at Cambridge, homesick for America (he was born in New York) and tormented, as he tells us in those voiceovers, by the secrets of an “alien universe.” (Here’s where those visions of blasting stars and looping ribbons of light, accompanied by jarring, staticky noises, come in.) An early encounter with one of his heroes, Danish physicist Niels Bohr (a half-jaunty, half-regal Kenneth Branagh), recalibrates his thinking. He goes to museums, stares at paintings by Braque and Picasso, and something clicks. The music of the universe begins to make more sense. Oppenheimer begins to think and feel more furiously. There’s some writing on a chalkboard—in scientist movies, there always is—but Nolan uses the conceit sparingly and with some delicacy. He knows, as we do, that the scritch of chalk is a lot more romantic than the squeak of a Dry Erase marker.

Nolan toggles between the distant past and the less-distant past, shifting between black-and-white film stock to muted color as he focuses on three central episodes in Oppenheimer’s story. (The movie’s source is Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s 2006 biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.) One of these is the 1954 hearing that ultimately led to the revocation of Oppenheimer’s security clearance, ending his career in government and eroding his status as an academic. Jason Clarke’s Roger Robb oversees the proceedings, wearing a carved-stone face that’s decided “guilty” long before he’s even heard any of Oppenheimer’s own testimony, or that of his witnesses.

The problem was that after Oppenheimer had pulled off the achievement, both extraordinary and tragic, of developing the bomb that would end World War II, his government, which no longer really needed him, decided it was time to question his loyalty—though the FBI had already been dogging him for years, collecting possible evidence against him. After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Oppenheimer had also expressed moral qualms about the horrors that he’d helped unleash upon the world, and worried about the misuse of nuclear weapons in the future. Nolan balances that 1954 security hearing with another set of hearings before the Senate, convened to confirm—or not, as it turned out—Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.), a founding member of the Atomic Energy Commission, to the position of Secretary of Commerce under Dwight D. Eisenhower. Downey’s performance, equal parts subtly scented aftershave and snake oil, is a double-dealing marvel.

By now, you may have figured that there a lot of men swirling around Oppenheimer, and we haven’t even gotten to the sections of the movie set in Los Alamos, where Oppenheimer led a team of scientists in the top-secret activities of the Manhattan Project. (They’re played by actors including, but not limited to, Benny Safdie, David Krumholtz, and Josh Harnett, plus the sole woman, Olivia Thirlby.) When they test their super-duper bomb in the desert, they put on little goggles and avert their eyes during the blast—their self-protective measures are both comical and horrifying.

There’s a lot going on in Oppenheimer, and it can leave your brain a little scrambled. But Nolan never loses sight of Oppenheimer the man. We get a sense of Oppenheimer’s early adjacency to the Communist Party (though he never officially joined), another convenient strike against him during that 1954 hearing. There’s also a grievous and, for Oppenheimer, heartbreaking affair with a 1930s cool-girl party member, Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh)—the love scenes between the two involve some tastefully lit but not-unaffecting nudity, as well as the reading of Sanskrit. (Always interesting to imagine how great scientists do it.)

Nolan is working with so many moving parts here that it would be logical to wonder: does Murphy, his star, even get enough screen time? But Nolan ensures that the movie belongs to him. It’s a wonderful performance, somber without being deadening, and ultimately haunting. What’s it like to be married to a hot genius? (One of the accusations often flung at Oppenheimer was that he was a “womanizer,” though that word has differing meanings depending on who’s applying them, and how.) Emily Blunt gives us a sense of that in her portrayal of Oppenheimer’s wife, Kitty, also the mother of his two children. There’s no single scene that brings this complex and not particularly blissful marriage to life; it’s only late in the film, when Oppenheimer asserts that these two have “walked through fire” together, that you get a sense of the ironclad bond between them. Murphy doesn’t play Oppenheimer as the distracted-genius husband; it’s more that he accepts that his life must unfold on numerous shifting planes, each distinct from but affecting the others. You can’t apply quantum mechanics to human behavior.

Most important of all, Nolan doesn’t disguise or downplay his sympathy for Oppenheimer the man and the scientist. In that sense, his movie is bracingly honest. He also doesn’t try to oversimplify Oppenheimer’s crises of conscience—they were anything but simple, as Nolan and Murphy show in several scenes underscoring the fact that World War II had to end sooner rather than later, to save the lives of both American and Japanese troops—the casualties on both sides were mounting astronomically day by day and week by week. Yet how could anyone involved in the creation of that bomb not question his or her role after the fact, especially with the benefit of hindsight? Murphy, like Oppenheimer, has a frame that looks to be built from matchsticks, almost too fragile-seeming to support that big brain on top. And his skin has a papery, translucent quality; there are moments when you feel you can almost see his nerve endings quivering beneath. That’s acting for the big screen. And it’s what a great actor can do when a filmmaker hands him a very big story, played out on a canvas designed for great leaps of imagination.'

[biglisbonnews]

How Awe and Everyday Wonder Can Shape Our World Imagine yourself at Victoria Falls, on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, a cascade of water more than a mile wide that plummets 350 feet, twice the height and width of Niagara Falls. Or perhaps straining your neck for a long, silent look at Michelangelo’s ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. Or maybe hearing your favorite song for the first time in years, or that moment when the sun crests the horizon at sunrise. According to Dacher Keltner, a leading expert on the biology of human emotion and a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley, these experiences share something, a sense of forces that go beyond our understanding of the world. They are encounters with awe. The science of awe is relatively new. For the past 15 years, Keltner has been studying this misunderstood emotion, and drawing conclusions about the importance of awe in our everyday lives. In his new book, Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life, Keltner examines how this ineffable feeling has impacted our minds and bodies across history and cultures. Atlas Obscura spoke with Keltner about the science of awe, how we cultivate it in our lives, and how it impacts our experience of the world at home and afar. You write in the introduction of your book that your brother Rolf’s passing led you to write it. What was it about that moment that connected you to the idea of awe? Well, there were really two catalysts in watching my brother Rolf Keltner pass away from colon cancer. The first was the fact that the evening that he passed was transcendent. Just watching him head into whatever happens after the body goes and looking at him and wondering what he was feeling. In some sense, death is the vastest mystery and my brother had a vast place in my life. The second thing that happened, when I started to grieve his loss, the only word that I could come up with to describe my mental and physical state was “awe-less.” Everything lost meaning. I felt very disoriented. I felt hot and depressed and anxious. I just felt like I lost my sense of the point of living, although I was not suicidal. So I just started pouring out words about my brotherhood with Rolf, awe, and the meaning of life. Those words eventually became the book. How do you define awe? And what is it in the context of our everyday lives? In the broadest sense you can define awe as the feeling you have when you encounter vast mysteries that you can't understand. When I sat there and I looked at Rolf, a very strong physical guy suddenly disappearing, I just didn't understand it. So awe is the vast mystery that you can't make sense of with your current knowledge. Then, importantly, the second part of defining awe is to say, “Well what's it about? What context are we in? Where does it happen?” And that's where the eight wonders come in: moral, beauty, nature, collective movement, et cetera. It varies profoundly for every person, from one individual to the next. Some people find awe more terrifying. Some people find it in different realms such as nature. If people are religious, they'll find it through belief systems about the divine and spirit. But what's interesting about awe is that there's a universal structure to it. When you hear other people's stories you understand that it’s kind of how you feel, but in a different way. In many different countries, we asked people each day to tell us if they felt awe that day. What we found is that they feel awe about two to three times a week. You always have to think about emotions as families of experiences, and there are really extraordinary experiences of awe, right? For example, when I got to hug the Dalai Lama, I thought that was awesome, but that's rare. There are more everyday forms of awe that people feel quite regularly. People are moved by hearing a lightning storm or seeing a beautiful sunset or seeing somebody help a stranger push a car that's broken down. There's all these everyday, beautiful moments of awe. I hope one of the points of the book is just to open people up to everyday awe. You mention beauty as one of the eight wonders of life that create awe. How does awe differ from joy or contentment or what we experience in the presence of beauty? It's fascinating because the science of emotion really started by looking at the negative emotions—anger, fear, sadness, and disgust—and then it moved to select positive emotions like pride, laughter, joy, and love. But it ignored this whole space of emotion that I write about in the book, called the self-transcendent emotions. The self is always getting us to strive for goals, to fulfill our desires, and to gain social status, but there are emotions we feel when we lose the self. Awe is one of them. Awe is what I feel in relation to something bigger than myself. Joy is the feeling you have when all of the burdens and expectations of yourself are kind of quiet for a while. Contentment is where you really feel like you've got enough. Another really interesting one is bliss or ecstasy, which is where the self just vanishes completely. You feel ecstasy when you’re throbbing with people on the dance floor, and you think, “I don't know who I am or what's going on here, but it feels great.” So there are these self-transcendent states that awe is part of. What are some tangible ways that people can find awe as we navigate an uncertain world: social media, the ongoing pandemic, climate instability, and more? I think this is part of why this emotion is getting such attention right now. In some sense, we have lived through what sociologists say is an era of self-focus and narcissism. Those emotions and that self-focus tend to be accentuated by social media. It leads to a lot of rumination, anxiety, and self-criticism. With respect to the environment, reports say our consuming behavior plays into how we respond to the climate crisis. Awe is almost the antithetical state to all this self-focus because it opens you up to other people. It makes you wonder about things. It makes you turn away from social media and get outside and explore. Awe studies in China showed that it makes people eat less red meat, burn less fossil fuels. So this is an emotion that really gets us to be other-oriented, kinder, more focused on caring for the natural environment. Sometimes negative things—maybe a forest fire or flood—can inspire awe as well, based on their scale or impact. Do you differentiate that feeling from the more inspiring version of awe? What an important question, right? Remember, there are eight wonders that you can experience, like spiritual practice and music and nature and the like, and they vary in their subjective feeling tones. Some experiences of awe feel almost fearful. Others are purely blissful and joyful. So how do we differentiate awe from these related states? We do this in a couple of different ways. One is within the category of awe, about a quarter of the experiences are really threatening and you feel fearful, you feel uncertain, and your body reacts with stress. Three quarters of the experiences of awe don't have that threat quality. So that's the first pass. For a lot of people, religious people, it's just pure joy and bliss. For a subset, thinking about the divine and their relationship to God may feel threatening. They feel like they could be punished or what have you. So threat is one way to sort out the variations of awe. We've also done a lot of work that really differentiates awe from horror. When you think about carnage or genocide or violence or you see dead bodies, it is mysterious and mind-blowing, but that's not awe. That's horror, right? Then there’s terror. People feel terror about mortality. That’s vast and mysterious, but threatening and terrifying. And that, too, is really different from this more inspiring state of awe. In your book, you write about how awe is what we feel when we are in the presence of something that transcends our current understanding of the world. It places us beyond ourselves. How do you think this approach can impact the way we explore the world at home and afar? What a terrific question. One of the central insights about what awe does for us is that it makes us, as Jane Goodall said, amazed at things outside of ourselves. Our minds, our feelings, our concerns are very small parts of the world and reality. We know that, but given our lives and given the importance of pursuing self-interest, we often think that's the only thing that exists. Here's an emotion that points you to things larger than the self, outside of you, and that's why, at the end of the book, I talk about how awe opens us up to the systems of life. Studying awe, doing research on awe, thinking about it so much, and having great conversations like this one opens this up for me. I can look at a tree and that's a whole system that I can be amazed by. I look at the clouds roll in or I see kids on a playground using this system of language and play that connects humans. Or I look at a newspaper article, I read about a scientific finding that is part of this system of understanding the world scientifically, or I engage in a ritual with other people and think about the origins of that ritual in yoga. We are surrounded by all these vast complex systems that make up the world, both natural and social, and awe makes us connect to them, which is remarkable. It’s thrilling to feel that. You define wonder as “the mental state of openness, questioning, curiosity, and embracing mystery.” Atlas Obscura’s mission is to inspire wonder and curiosity about our incredible world. How do wonder and awe relate to one another? It's interesting because awe hasn't had as much scientific or philosophical attention as fear and love, emotional states that we've made progress in defining, so your questions are right on the mark. Awe is really a feeling state. It's this emotion you have when you encounter a vast mystery, then the feeling leads to changes in what you do in the world, physiology, hormones, and also how you make sense of the world. It produces the mental state of wonder. So, wonder follows awe and wonder is more of what you might call an epistemological state. It's a state animated toward gaining knowledge about the world, and it's defined by certain qualities. For example, sometimes I am really open and I'm curious and I gravitate to what is not known, whereas when I'm proud and arrogant and certain about everything, I only think about what I know, as a counterpoint. So wonder is a mental state that follows the feeling of awe. Why is it so important for us to cultivate a sense of awe in our lives? In some sense, this is why I wrote this book. Alongside science and my brother, we're coming out of a pandemic, depression and anxiety are up, isolation is up. Our life expectancy in the United States has dropped collectively for two consecutive years. It's fair to say we're sort of struggling. And the studies find that awe is about as good for you as anything that you can do. It reduces stress, reduces loneliness. It makes you feel like you're more deeply intertwined with community. It elevates health, cardiovascular function. It reduces inflammation produced by your immune system. It is good for you. So then the question is: What do I do? Throughout the book, I write about really simple things you can do. Go on an awe walk, just go out and look for mystery. Listen to music in a different way. Listen to music that really defines who you are and what your sense of purpose is. Tell awe stories. You know, it's so fun when I teach people at work, and you get people starting to talk about the patient they’re attending to or the student who's really doing well, and they will really be moved almost to tears. Think about sacred texts for you and people who really inspire you morally. Look at clouds, look at the night sky, listen to the ring, there's a ton to do to cultivate everyday awe. In fact, in some sense this is what culture is, right? Museums and music shows and films and religion. They are ways to make us feel awe, so return to them. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/science-of-awe-dacher-keltner

[homeinteriorideaz]

Easy to Create Beach-Themed Living Room

What child doesn’t love to play at the beach? If your kid loves to frolic in the surf and sand, then why restrict his or her fun to just those scant few summery days you and the family can get yourselves down to the nearest shore? Why not transform your children’s bedroom into a beach front fantasy that they can enjoy every day of their lives.

A beach themed living room is easy to create. Paint the ceiling bright sky blue, maybe dotted with billowy white clouds, and lit by a big, bold lighting fixture that emulates the shining, glimmering sun. Dot the ceiling with glow in the dark stars, planets, comets, meteor showers, and other nighttime phenomena for when the lights are out.

Paint the walls a deeper blue with highlights of white sea foam and tall wave crests, highlighted with images of dolphins, breaching whales, seals, sea turtles, seagulls, and other ocean life, as well as surfers, parasailers, water-skiers, and other ocean enthusiasts.

And speaking of the other life (human and otherwise) populating the typical beach scene, you can also add to the image by peopling the custom beach theme bedroom with stuffed sea animals as well as decorating it with surfboards, boogie boards, water-skis, inflatable rafts and water tubes, and other water-sport implements.

The floor of the room, meanwhile, can be divided in two: half covered in wood, ceramic, vinyl tile, or a beige carpet or floor mats evocative of the sandy shore and the other half covered in plush blue carpeting or floor mats reflective of where the water meets the shore.

The focal point of any bedroom is, of course, the bed. And the focal point of a custom beach themed living room would be a custom theme bed built in the shape of a structure typically seen on the sandy shore

On the display shelves on the room’s walls, built into the custom theme bed, and/or the surfaces of the various supplementary pieces of furniture in the room, you can display collections of seashells, coral, and sandglass. These ornaments also do well when glued onto the borders of mirrors, picture frames, and even on the custom theme bed itself.

Other details that help flesh out the fantasy may include a beach umbrella for shade and privacy, authentic beach furniture, along with fake rocks, boulders, and steep cliffs for depth. Ample soft pillows give a sense of floating on the water, and sheer, billowing fabrics evoke the constant light ocean breeze. A small working fountain can help add the sense and sounds of flowing water, and an aquarium filled with tropical fish or goldfish do well at adding an element of life brimming on your child’s private shores. Lastly, be sure to provide plenty of beach themed living room on a budget.

[infernalrevenge]

Heya! Headcanons for the lords with a friend/crush who can make jewelry? Like, the metalwork kind of jewels, gold, silver, platinum, steel, bronze, etc? They love creating and working with metal, and they like the precise work? Maybe they gift them a pretty ring of pendant once they become good friends, as a way of saying how much they appreciate them?

Yooooo that's so cute. I'm in a romantic mood though so I may do the Lords having a crush on reader hehehe. Hope that's alright!

------------

Alcina Dimitrescu

Lady Dimitrescu only wore the finest jewelry that the best have to offer, so for you to catch her attention, you must have the same eye for quality.

Though if she already has a soft spot for you, she may be more willing to accept your gifts even if others say they're not the "best" out there. As if anyone would question her impeccable taste.

She may commission you for a piece or two, usually coming in fours -- one for her, and the other three for her daughters. You would learn she was sentimental with her accessories in this way.

She didn't often initiate conversation, but you weren't as afraid of her as the other villagers were. Of course you respected her and made that known, but a part of you was aware that she found your behavior her rather endearing. It didn't seem like everyone was friendly to her in this way, or wanted to get to know her.

You've already seen her wear a necklace around, so you may decide to gift her an iron ring with a dark red jewel sitting on the oval bezel. Not too big, wouldn't want it to seem too tacky, but just enough to be fitting of her high status.

It took a bit of math to properly estimate her ring size, considering it would have to be much bigger than how you usually made them, but it also made it easier to add more detail. The final product came out looking almost like a bracelet on you.

When you presented it to her, it was at first regarded with... confusion. She didn't remember ordering something like this from you, but once you explained your intentions of it being a gift as a show of appreciation, she was incredibly flattered.

She noted the little details you've added onto it, how the metal body looked like braided vines wrapped around her finger, the floral border surrounding the shining jewel, and what appeared like two swords crossing behind the main face. It was almost reminiscent of her family crest -- one that you had been familiar with over the years of doing work for her.

She kept the ring on most of the time but did not entertain too many questions about it, and especially kept it from Heisenberg's notice (lest he tried to steal it to annoy her.) It was for her (and you) to know where it came from. Little did you know what it really meant to her.

Sometimes she would find herself looking upon it fondly when the glint of the jewel caught her eye. She would see you and the pride on your face when you gave it to her, as well as the sweetness and sincerity of the gesture.

Don't be surprised if she asks you out within the next week and offers to court you shortly after -- all you've done was open the floodgates to her love. Only time will tell if you reciprocate.

Donna Beneviento

Donna's love language did not often include receiving gifts, but at the same time she was not one to turn them down. That would be rude, after all. She preferred to be the one giving them though.

She already wasn't the type to spend on herself, so if she came by your shop looking to get something, it was usually accessories for Angie or any other dolls that she can't make herself. Only the best for her little ones, and she trusted that you would always provide.

She would find herself fascinated with your work, how you're able to seemingly weave metal into intricate patterns to make your designs. If you jokingly told her you had powers akin to Lord Heisenberg, she wouldn't have doubted you.

She would even linger around your shop while you worked, even if you mentioned that you could only get it to her in a few days. You never minded the company though, there was something almost comforting about her presence, contrasted by the loudness of Miss Angie. You quite liked conversing with her too.

She was a simple woman, and you noted as such based on how she presented herself. If you were to gift her something, it may be a pendant, something she can hide under her clothes if she so desired.

The pendant itself would be no bigger than her thumb, its body made from silver with a golden sun molded on one side and a golden crescent moon on the other, reminiscent of her house crest.

You presented it to her with a detachable chain, unsure if she would even want to wear it. Maybe she can keep it as a charm, or in her pocket -- whatever she might do with it, you would be happy with. You were just glad to give her something in return for her continued patronage and kindness.

Luckily for her she had yet to be seen by anyone without her veil, otherwise her blushing face would have been exposed to you once she realized you were actually giving something to her without anything in return. What's more, you even made a matching one for Angie, who demanded to put it on right away.

You weren't expecting to see the necklace out in the open, you were happy enough knowing it was with her and that she seemed grateful for it. You were a bit surprised to find her wearing it visibly though, subtly drawing attention to it amidst her dark attire.

She's found herself unconsciously thumbing at the engravings over the pendant as it hung around her neck, almost like it provided comfort during anxious times. It was like having a piece of you with her (near her heart. At least, that was how she wanted to see it.)

She probably wouldn't ever admit to just staring down at the thing with a soft smile when she first got it and returned to the manor, heart fluttering in her chest the whole way back. Unless Angie had let it slip -- the woman was on a happiness high for hours after that.

Salvatore Moreau

Salvatore didn't often leave his reservoir, but he would sometimes stop by your shop perhaps looking for a gift for Mother Miranda. At least, that was how his visits started. They gradually evolved to just enjoying watching you work -- anything was better than sitting in his dank estate surrounded by dead bodies.

You'll have to forgive and be patient with him for his lack of socialization since being reborn though. But he truly was a sweet guy, you just gotta give him a chance. Once you have him by your side, he's got you for life.

He likes to peek over your workstation when you're there but has to steer clear of the room with the furnaces. He can't handle the heat too well, but you understand.

You've noticed his little crown made of bones sitting atop his head for a while now, wondering exactly why he wore it. You asked him once and he simply replied that he liked it, it made him feel important somehow.

Well, you were about to give him an UPGRADE! (Oh wow, you hope he won't take this as an insult.)

It wasn't often that you got a chance to fashion a crown, considering the only one here for royal lineage was Lady Dimitrescu (you were skeptical if Miranda was, but rumors went around.) But dangit, you were going to make an awesome crown for Mr. Fish Man!

The finished product was made with bronze, matching the general aesthetic and color of his clothes. The wide band was decorated with imagery of undersea life, the points of it molded to look like closed clams. At its front was a mermaid that seemed to have just emerged from the sea, akin to his own family crest.

When you presented it to him, you had it placed on a pillow as you jokingly got down on one knee. He cried on the spot and you had to help calm him down.

It's just that, this was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for him?? And considering his reputation, not a lot of people were nice to him at all, not even his peers. So for you to have done this, just because you wanted to???

Please give him a minute to let out his feelings, he really needs it.

He wore it around every day even when no one was around, and if anyone asked him about his new crown, he would proudly proclaim where he got it from and who gave it to him. You made him feel like he could be the King of the World.

Karl Heisenberg

Karl was a frequent visitor because even he needed a break from both his crony work and his side hustle of trying to take down Miranda. You wouldn't think being around another metal worker helped, but he actually liked that aspect of work the most, so much so that it didn't feel like work really.

You two found yourselves bonding over just being able to create using the same medium. While it was clear Karl had a powerful advantage, there was also something relaxing about doing things the old-fashioned way (but he does get lazy about it sometimes.)

You have a collection of little trinkets he's made for you -- rough figurines, keychains, even just perfectly sculpted metal balls. He has some of yours too, but since they were all made of scrap metal, they weren't anything spectacular.

One day you figured you should make him something actually special, something he can keep or wear around. What use was being able to make jewelry if you can't share your talents with others?

You made him a belt buckle, based on an inside joke between you two about him being a cowboy. This was only emphasized by the fact that you crafted it in the shape of his house crest -- a horse's profile behind a big metal horseshoe. It was just a coincidence, alright? You just worked with it.

When you presented it to him with a cheeky smile, he gave a sarcastic laugh and a roll of his eyes. But despite your demeanor about it, you were also serious about giving it to him. Once he realized that, he... short-circuited for a brief moment, a minor hiccup in his brain.

You... you actually wanted to give him something that you seriously made? With this amount of detail? He had always known you were a skilled and precise worker, but this was... (oh god why was he getting warm all of a sudden???)

He honestly just can't believe you would make something for him, with actual effort. Not that he thought you couldn't, just... give him a moment.

Still, he immediately took the buckle from you and started to take out his old one, prompting you to stop him before his pants fell down. Goddammit, Heisenberg, you can do that elsewhere!

Once you saw him again, you spotted him showing off his shiny new gift to anyone who would listen, to your slight embarassment. If you asked him why he had to do that, he'd say he had every right to be proud of the one-of-a-kind gift you've made for him. It was only right for everyone to know how great you were.

[thiotchi]

Of all things, I accidentally made myself ship Cora/Mihawk and King/Mihawk and @raging-barbarian got me started on a rambling tangent for a "Zoro raised in Wano by Mihawk and somehow King and Cora are both involved" AU (instead of working on, y'know, my 30+ wips).

(Please don't ask me how this started, I still have no idea.)

So Mihawk (~23) finds baby Zoro (~1) literally just wrapped in a blanket and floating out at sea in a basket. Mihawk recognizes like a pendant or something with a Wano family crest on it (land of the samurai - he knows his shit) so he takes Zoro back to Wano, only to find out that there's no one left to care for him.

(And maybe they found Toddler Perona (4-5) on the way to Wano and, well, he's already In For A Pound in finding homes for abandoned children)

This is young Mihawk, he's not just going to abandon a baby to the wild (he was an orphan too? Zoro is just that adorable and they bonded?) and maybe this is before Mihawk found Kuraigana so he's literally just living bounty poster to bounty poster (like Zoro was) so he decides to stay on Wano for the time being. It'll be time to learn more about the way of the samurai too, so bonus for someone who's going to become the World's Greatest Swordsman.

Since this is all like 20 years in the past so everything with Oden is recent or just happened, of course Kaido's right hand King (~26) is going to go investigate this outsider and potentially extremely dangerous person who just showed up at their border.

Does this end up being love at first sight? Who knows, but King sees Baby Zoro in Mihawk's arms and Toddler Perona clinging to his coat-jacket-thing and King thinks of 7-8yo Yamato (whom he is practically raising because Kaido is a shit dad) back at the castle and he. Can't do it.

It's still up for debate on how King convinces Kaido to let them stay but surely it would be a good idea to keep a Warlord close? to make sure that the World Government/Marines aren't finding out The Plans.

(I just realized that Mihawk might not have been a Warlord by his early 20s but shh.)

Something something skip forward a few years and Mihawk meets Cora at like a Warlord meeting, either when Cora is still a marine or undercover as Doffy's right hand.

Do Mihawk and Cora bond right then? who knows. Maybe while they're waiting for the stupid meeting to start, Mihawk just starts talking about His Kids because maybe Zoro stained the shirt Mihawk decided to wear that day and he Literally Didn't Notice until Cora pointed it out to him. And Cora just listening (pretending to be mute) to this Extremely Scary Warlord who got a Bounty That High without even having a crew and considered one of the Strongest Swordsmen in the world talking about his children (which now includes Yamato) like they're Everything to him.

Maybe Mihawk is the reason why Cora decides to go against his brother/go against the mission to save Law. His job as a marine means everything to him but if Mihawk teaches him anything, it's that sometimes you gotta put that Aside.

Grabbing Law and going on the hunt for the Ope Ope no Mi goes a lot smoother. Perhaps Cora knew about Vergo being in the Marines (as a result of going to Warlord meetings) and warned Law? Or Law found a different Marine to bring back to Cora while he was heavily injured. Or maybe, knowing about Cora's plans, Mihawk (30) was the one to find Law (13) and Cora (26) and bring them back to safety on Wano.

They're only there long enough for Cora to heal safely and for Law to recuperate from eating the Ope Ope no Mi and cure himself of Amber Lead Disease but you definitely know that Zoro (8) and Law (13) have tiny childhood crushes on each other (or maybe Law has like a huge hecking crush on Zoro if you want to be closer to canon) when they separate. They think it goes away over time but then they see each other when they're older and realize that it was more than a simple childhood crush.

Cora does go back to the Marines (long-distance pining for Mihawk who he gets to see at Warlord meetings and okay, maybe he misses King a bit) but Law still ends up as a pirate somehow, maybe going back to North Blue after finding out that Doflamingo and Kaido are working together on fake devil fruit.

Kaido starts becoming really abusive because Yamato is failing to meet his Extremely High Expectations and Mihawk is many things but he's not abusive and just lets him and Perona do whatever they want so it doesn't sit right with Zoro and he knows King can't do anything. So when Ace (17-18) shows up on Wano (looking to fight Kaido except he's not there so ends up running into Mihawk (38) instead and "eh, good enough" only to get his ass kicked), Zoro (16) begs for his help to break Yamato (23) out of baby jail Kaido's prison.

Zoro and Yamato both leave Wano together because if there's one thing Zoro can't stand, it's the thought of his adoptive older brother going back to being treated horribly.

Only both Yamato and Zoro get separated from each other at some point because they're both shit at navigation. So when Luffy finds Zoro like In Canon, Zoro is all "yeah, I'll join your crew if you help me find my brother."

Yamato and Zoro have only been separated for a couple of months at most but you can only imagine how Yamato (26) must be worrying over his baby (19) brother by now. Zoro gets lost easily!! (ignoring the fact that Yamato, himself, is lost).

Luffy, of course, agrees because it's like a free 2-1 nakama and Pirate Hunter Zoro's older brother of all people? SCORE.

Wait, wouldn't Demon of Wano and Oni of Wano be cool matching epithets for Zoro and Yamato?

So the rest is just following Canon except with Yamato being part of the Straw Hats. You know, just your average 9-foot-tall, horn-having, skull-crushing dude with a baseball bat kanabo.

Skip to Sabaody.

Both Zoro (19) and Law (24) have existential crises when they see each other again at the Auction House ("Oh no, he's hot!") and Yamato, older than BOTH of them, going "hmmm, something suspicious is happening here".

Zoro gets sent back to Wano because obviously he didn't pay enough attention to his lessons (his chest scar, prior to leaving Wano, is evidence of one such failed lesson) and Yamato gets sent to Cora (37) maybe. Where Cora can teach Yamato about how sometimes your loved ones can also be Absolutely Horrible people and you gotta let them go.

Cora and Mihawk both having to fight at Marineford (Mihawk is much less phased because he's just Like That while Cora is a blubbering mess) only to go home and find one of their Children (Yamato as Cora's by extension) has been sent to them by that one Warlord with Bear Paws for Hands.

Ace still dies because it's too crucial a point in time. I'm sorry.

Kaido is the reason Zoro (20-21) is missing his eye - as punishment for running away with Yamato. It would've been worse (Zoro likely would've been killed) if King hadn't convinced him that it was better if Zoro was alive - Yamato would be more likely to come back home. And then King (47) is the one to (secretly) help Zoro (21) leave Wano to go back to Sabaody and there's a tear-jerking heart-wrenching reunion scene between King and Yamato (28) before King has to return back to Wano.

When it comes to making the alliance (Law totally chose Luffy out of all of the Supernovas because Zoro, you can't convince me otherwise), Luffy is like "heck yea, I wanna punch the shit out of Yamato's dad" and everyone else is a little bit more on board. Yamato and Zoro both had to deal with that asshole and probably (accidentally) shared tidbits about how their childhood was really difficult (a la living in Wano under Kaido's rule).

Not to mention the surprise of everyone on how Zoro, Yamato, and Law know each other:

Zoro & Yamato: Our dad's are dating.

Everyone: Wait...wtf

Law: You don't have to word it like that.

Yamato: King and Mihawk were far better dads than my dad ever was

Zoro: and they're kind of long-distance dating Cora

Law: Who isn't actually my dad!!

Everyone who remembers Cora shouting 'THAT'S MY SON!!!' from across the battlefield at one point: uh-huh

And when it comes time to beat Doflamingo, both Zoro and Yamato are heavily invested in punching the shit out of him (especially Yamato, who just spent 2 years with Cora).

So they defeat Doflamingo, go to Zou, and then go to Wano. The Straw Hats still gotta go save Sanji from WCI but Yamato and Zoro both go with Law, obviously.

While they're waiting for the rest to show up, Zoro shows Law around Wano properly because he'd been sick the last time he was there and this was, y'know, the place he grew up (they're totally not dates except that they are).

The time to fight Kaido comes.

Zoro fighting King is basically just emotional with lots of sword swinging (King had to take his mask off in the first 20 seconds because Zoro had never seen it before and wouldn't stop laughing) while Yamato is finally standing up against his father for the first time.

After everything is done and over, Mihawk comes back and looks at the aftermath and goes "I was gone for two days" (more like a month but okay). Everyone else is just "Do we need fight this guy too?" until they realize that that's Zoro's other dad. The Main Dad. The Strongest of the Dads.

Perona pops out of nowhere and shouts, "You were in Wano this whole time and you didn't STOP BY??!??!?!" and gives everyone a heart attack.

I don't know what happens after this because, well, we're still fighting Kaido right now. But Cora probably shows up so it's a Proper Family Reunion and, as the one with the least tact, is probably the one to ask why Zoro and Law aren't married yet.

[dmclemblems]

maybe sometime I really will go into more detail about how inaccurately Houses handled recruits for the Lions besides for on this post (like for more depth), but the fact that you can recruit Sylvain outside the Lions in Houses is absolutely NUTS. the whole flirting with girls thing is so superficial and he knows it, so the whole idea of him joining any house because of the option of Byleth being female is super lame (even if Byleth was male he wouldn’t). his loyalty to Dimitri, Felix, Ingrid, and Faerghus itself would never allow for him to take up arms against his family group of friends or his home. he just wouldn’t.

I’m actually very happy that Hopes doesn’t allow any of the Lions to be recruited outside AG besides for Mercedes (not loytal to Faerghus) and Ashe (who you could argue Lonato with and the fact that he would just want to survive and surrender to any enemy because he needs to survive to take care of his little siblings). Only those two have reasons to be recruited whereas none of the other people in Faerghus would ever ever ever take up arms like that against their own family, friends and homeland.

I mean it’s literally basic Faerghus facts that it’s a country of extremely loyal people. they’re not loyal to their customs, just ingrained in them and Dimitri is working to carefully change any toxic customs or issues while making sure it doesn’t cause any problems that could harm the citizens (like riots and shit). they have customs that can change, but their loyalty to their home and each other is part of who they are as people.

just because they’re willing to die for their country doesn’t make them all the nonsensible shit that Edelgard and Hubert say about them. Edelgard says shit like how she can’t understand why they die for their homeland instead of surrendering and choosing to live because she’s so narrow mindedly focus on the Crest system that she literally believes Faerghus is just trying to defend its old ways and stay trapped in them.

it’s literally not. it’s a country that will fight to protect its freedom from invaders and will die for their honor, loyalty and everyone and everything they love. they don’t die to protect their systems. they fight because they aren’t willing to be overthrown. Edelgard should have known that with how long they’ve been fighting Sreng away from its borders. Faerghus is full of VERY PROUD people and you can’t just walk in with an army and go “hey so I’m here to overthrow your country and destroy your systems and throw your people in power out of power”. they’re not just gonna be like oh no how scary it’s an army. they’re gonna say bitch fuck you and your whole ass army you’re gonna have to kill us to take this country.

yeah, they’re used to their systems, but the people also recognize that Sreng has been kept away thanks to the Lance of Ruin and the Gautier family’s Crest’s power. until they’re able to find a new way to manage that, they can’t just toss the system out the window. they need a plan first and then they need to find a way to initiate that. you also can’t just change things overnight and expect the populace to be cool with it. there’s a reason it’s taking longer for Faerghus to have huge changes, and it’s because Dimitri knows how to run a country. it’s because he knows the people he needs to worry about and please are the people themselves.

tl;dr the Lions are way too fucking loyal to ever leave Faerghus. Felix is also like that and him being a tsundere character doesn’t change that. him not knowing how to handle talking to Dimitri, who he shows worry about in a very aggressive and roundabout way, is not him actually hating Dimitri and wanting to leave Faerghus behind. his issues with Dimitri also don’t extend to Faerghus itself, so even if they couldn’t find common ground again (which they do), Felix would not leave Faerghus because his country has nothing to do with their personal issues. if he didn’t like something Dimitri did as a ruler, he’d want to be there as someone who can borrow Dimitri’s ear and give him advice to help him. he would not just walk away and be like oh well I guess Faerghus is fucked. he’d work to help fix the problem.

while I understand the overall reason for Houses letting you recruit basically anyone, I know it’s also a common thing that people mention how much of an asspull the dialogue is for the characters’ reason for turning on their homeland. it’s one of those things where you can’t reasonably recruit them as a real story-based ally because it messes with their core character. in the case of Hopes, it at least handles the recruit problem for the Lions waaaay better.

like... if this universe was real, you would not be recruiting them to another country’s side in war. you just wouldn’t because you couldn’t. it’s like trying to pull a single brick out of a solid brick wall with just your hands and nails. y’ain’t doin’ it.

[princess-of-riviaa]

Wicked Rose

Pairing: Geralt of Rivia x Rosa Malvada (OFC)

Summary: Geralt is sent on a mission that sends him to the doorstep of vampire Rosa Malvada. Steamy smut insues.

Warning(s): dirty talk, biting kink, SMUT, blood, both characters are very dominant

Word Count: 3092

There were countless reasons to enjoy an immortal life. The power was intoxicating--there was no greater feeling than knowing you were the greatest threat in any given room. The access to knowledge that stretched across every part of the realm, the secrets that stayed trapped within country borders--all of it there for you to revel in. But the greatest thing of all, the thing that brought satisfaction even in the darkest of nights, was being the kind of monster everyone believed vampires to be.

A regular vampire proved to be a challenging opponent, even for a skilled warrior. The Higher Vampires were impossible to kill. With their wit and strength, they ran circles around mortal men. Not even the legendary witchers could end them; only a Higher Vampire could kill one of his brethren, which had only happened twice in all of history. And Rosa Malvada, Princess of the Higher Vampires, was the most feared and powerful of her entire clan.

Geralt of Rivia, the most famous witcher along the west coast, had been stalking her for three days now. He’d been careful, calculating every movement before he made it. It was cute, actually, how much effort he put into being stealthy. Little did he know Rosa had noted his presence within the first twenty minutes of his days-long hunt. She’d considered draining the blood from his body and burying him in some forgotten part of the woods. Who was he to think that a centuries-old Higher Vampire--a princess of their clan--wouldn’t note his presence? How dare he think she would fall into his trap! But she’d been curious. She’d never seen a witcher hunt, and it had been appealing enough that she’d played the part of a happily oblivious vampire, letting him follow her from town to town, never letting him realize that she was drawing him ever closer to her nest.

The night of the full moon, Geralt had decided to make his attack. He’d been smart enough to drink one of those witcher elixirs he kept on his body--a wise precaution she had to give him credit for. But even that magical potion couldn’t take her down. Not before she found out why he’d been hunting her. Not before she’d have her way with him.

His boots were near-silent as he strode through the abandoned halls of an ancient castle along the coast of Temeria. It had been Rosa’s home since an ancient royal family had decided to abandon it due to the rumors of an evil vampire lurking in the halls at night--a rumor that had proved true, since Rosa had been sloppy enough to leave behind a mess of the guards’ bodies she’d drunk from. The family had been so scared they left with nothing but the clothes on their backs. The belongings they’d left behind were now part of Rosa’s trove.

Geralt pulled out two swords from his back, careful to make his movements as silent as possible. His ears perked up at every breath of the wind. That witcher elixir had heightened his senses, Rosa realized, and if she wasn’t careful, her game of cat and mouse would come to an end much too soon. She watched from the shadows as he stopped at the end of a hallway. He looked like a mountain in all that black armor--a mountain she wanted to climb. The sight of him was distracting--

Until he cocked his head, a predator finally spotting his prey.

“The shadows won’t hide you from me.” He spoke in a whisper, but Rosa heard him perfectly, as if he’d whispered the words in her ear. Rosa stood in a corner of darkness, and with thirty feet of distance between them, she thought it would have been harder for him to spot her. She was impressed.

“What makes you think I’m hiding?” she purred in response, moving through the shadows so he could catch a glimpse of her blood-red eyes.

“I don’t want to kill you,” he admitted as he turned to face her. That perfect face was paler than usual, enough so the veins under the surface of his skin were visible. And those eyes--darker than the shadows that now cloaked Rosa. He was the pure embodiment of death.

Rosa had never wanted a man more.

“Then what are you doing here?” She forced her tone to remain clipped, despite the desire starting to pool between her thighs.

“A descendant of the family who once lived here,” he began. “He’s paid me to return a lost family crest to him.”

Over her dead body. “Everything within these walls belongs to me. If they wanted some family crest, their ancestors should have brought it with them before they fled this place.”

“I’ve been paid to finish the job,” he insisted.

“Whatever amount they’ve promised you, I’ll double it.” She had more than enough gold to spare. Make enough calculated kills, drink from the right kind of people, and inheriting chests of gold becomes as easy as breathing.

“Come out of the dark. Maybe I’ll consider your offer.”

“Drop those blades,” she compromised, “and I’ll go anywhere you want, Witcher.”

Metal clinked against stone, a riotous sound amongst the silence of the dead castle. Geralt’s hands went slack at his sides. It was a mirage. An act of relaxed calm hiding a hunter about to pounce.

Rosa was precise with her movements, careful to never move within his reach even as she evaded the cover of darkness. His eyes slid along her body so sensually that her body burned everywhere he looked. It was almost enough to get her to step towards him. Almost. She lifted her chin higher, confident in the curve of her hips and the swell of her breasts that he now took in. Blood-red hair curled down her back, stark against the white dress she wore.

He sniffed audibly before muttering, “I didn’t know vampires could be aroused by anything other than blood.”

He could smell the lust dripping between her thighs. It only made her want him more, somehow.

She retorted, “I didn’t realize witchers could be so attractive.”

Silence filled the air as they stared at each other, both resisting the urge to close the distance between them and take what they both were craving.

“Afraid to want a monster, Witcher?” she taunted.

A warning growl was the only response he gave.

“I’ll pay you to leave empty-handed tonight, to return to the man who paid you and insist that this precious family crest no longer exists.” She took half a step towards him--the only amount of distance she dared to close between them. “I’ll pay you in gold. Or, if there’s another form of payment you’d prefer, I’d happily let you indulge in that too.” The smile that tugged at her lips was flirtatious. It only grew as Geralt’s gaze dropped to her mouth, those darkened pupils missing nothing.

He was silent. A man of few words. That was fine--Rosa would be sure to fill the silence as he filled her tonight.

She spread her arms. An open invitation. All he had to do was take it. “Come on, Geralt. Take what we both want.”

Still, he hesitated.

“Would you prefer it if I beg?” she wondered.

He pounced. Half a second passed before he had her pressed against the wall, her back pressed tightly against his chest. She ground her ass into his hard-on. Oh, fuck. The stories of a witcher’s girth weren’t just stories. One of his hands moved to her hip, grinding her body against his erection, while the other tugged hard enough on her hair to force her to look up and back at him.

“I’d like to hear you beg,” he growled.

Yeah, right. She dug her elbow into his stomach hard enough to make his grip loosen on her. A second later he was the one trapped against the wall. She held onto his wrists with a grip so tight not even a witcher’s strength could get him out.

“Sorry, darling, but I don’t beg for anyone.”

Before he could say anything, she licked up the column of his throat. His witcher heart was slow, but his pulse still made her toes curl. She longed to know what he tasted like, longed to know if he tasted better than he would feel when he was balls-deep inside of her.

The sensation of her tongue on his skin made a low growl elicit from the back of his throat, a sound so intoxicating that Rosa did, for a moment, contemplate begging him to fuck her if she had to. She needed this man inside of her, needed him to mark her up and fuck her so well she couldn’t walk right for a day afterwards.

“You don’t beg?” Geralt's voice was a low timber in her ear, making her shiver with arousal. And then his hand was around her throat while the other one went to the sensitive mound between her legs. “Then you’ve never had a Witcher fuck you.”

A moan fell from her lips before she could stop it. Her body was pure reaction now; there was no more room for her pride to decide what she would do. She was merely a reaction to every move Geralt made. She was at his mercy.

In one flash of movement Geralt picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder, carrying her off through the castle like game he’d just proudly hunted down. He stopped at what was once the duke’s quarters, but had been Rosa’s quarters for centuries now. The room was filled with piles of clothes, books, and gold. Crimson sheets were thrown about the bed on the far wall, which was where Geralt strode for now. He was gentle as he set her down but the look in his eyes was wild and ravenous. She had no doubt her eyes held the same kind of animalistic hunger.

“Ever fucked a vampire before?” she questioned as she sat up and started untying his breeches.

“No,” was his simple reply, his voice a deep, rumbling baritone that made Rosa’s stomach knot with need.

She pulled down his breeches enough for his cock to spring free and--wow. Whether it was the Witcher mutation or Geralt had been blessed by the gods themselves, Rosa didn’t particularly care. Not as her mouth literally watered at the site of his thick, long cock, already glistening with precum. Dark curls swirled around the base of his shaft. A thin vein ran along the length of his cock from base to tip and she practically moaned. She wrapped her hand around his length, softly caressing the velvet of his sensitive skin as she began to jerk him off. He growled in approval. It wasn’t long before her skilled hand had him bucking his hips, desperate for her to increase her pace so he could cum. But she continued her slow assault on his throbbing cock, enamored by the look on his face as she teased him. Precum continued to fall from his tip. It mixed with her hand to make a sinful squelching noise. That, along with Geralt’s grunts and growls, was the only sound in the room.

Rosa finally pulled her hand away when she decided she’d tortured the Witcher long enough. His eyes were lidded, heavy with lust, but they widened with arousal as he watched her lick up every last drop of the precum on her hand. With a growl that promised her unbecoming, he splayed a large hand on her stomach and pushed her back. He climbed over her as she relaxed against the bed. His right leg instantly moved between her own, his knee finding a home against her aching pussy.

“My turn,” he growled before moving to hover over her heat.

“Wait,” she called out, her body already humming with intense heat. “You really want to get me off?”

The look in his golden eyes was answer enough.

“Then let me drink from you.” Her voice was breathy, too overcome with lust to sound normal anymore.

He paused, and that lust in his eyes was replaced by a look of distrust.

“I won’t drink too much,” she promised. “But for a vampire, drinking a partner’s blood while being intimate with them is better than anything else. It’ll make me cum long before eating me out will.”

“Which vein is best?” Geralt asked in a low, curious voice, but there was still hesitancy written all over his face.

“The closer to the heart, the better,” she admitted. “Anywhere would do, but blood from the heart, or anywhere around it…” She closed her eyes as she thought about the intoxicating taste of blood straight from the heart. It had been a long time since she’d let herself indulge in it, since tasting blood that sweet normally sent vampires into a frenzy. But the memory of that nectar on her lips made her legs clench, it was that good.

“You stop when I tell you to,” Geralt demanded. His tone was stern, but he was giving in. Indulging her.

Her heart began to beat faster at the thought of drinking from him. “And if I don’t?” Rosa wondered, opening her eyes to look at him again.

The answer to her question was written in his eyes. If she didn’t stop, if she gave in to the monster inside of her, he’d kill her.

“As you wish,” she complied.

He reached a hand towards her. For a second she thought he was reaching for her neck, wanting to pull her towards him for a kiss, but his hand stopped between her breasts, at the dress still covering them. A second later and the dress was torn to shreds, her breasts falling free. Her nipples were already hard from arousal and a low sound of approval fell from Geralt as he observed it. His eyes scanned the rest of her body with hunger.

“Your turn,” she demanded, longing to see his body in all of its naked, muscled glory.

He rose to his feet and began undressing, teasing her as he moved slowly. All she had to do was spread her legs and one look at the sight of her glistening folds made him rush his movements. His body was a glorious maze of muscles and scars--a picture perfect warrior. Dark curls that matched the hair around his cock swirled around his chest and trailed a path down his stomach. An ancient kind of power and strength radiated off of him. Gods, did she want this man inside of her.

Geralt gave her only a few seconds to take in his naked form before he was on top of her, his mouth devouring hers. His tongue was hungry and demanding as it pushed past her lips and collided with her own. She moaned into his mouth as he ground her hips against hers, his cock rubbing against her clit and sending electricity through her veins. Her arousal spiked, and suddenly she could feel her fangs coming out, and before Geralt could break the kiss, she bit his bottom lip. They both moaned--him at the sensation of being bit for the first time, surprised that it could be so arousing for the victim; and her because his Witcher blood was the finest wine she’d ever tasted. Her legs clenched around his hips as she swallowed the first drop of his blood.

It was then that he chose to plunge deep into her folds. She released a cry of pleasure that made the walls shake. Her walls squeezed around him as he continued to enter her, his cock going ever deeper and farther inside of her. Geralt muttered something in a language Rosa didn’t recognize, but she got the message clear enough from the tone: he was loving this as much as she was. The pain of his cock splitting her open was a welcome hurt. It turned her on and made her walls clench even tighter around his length, which only made his growls and moans deepen.

“Fuck me, Witcher,” she cried out.

He obliged her. His hips began to move at an exhilarating rate and the sensation of his cock penetrating her at such an inhuman speed threw her over the edge in a matter of moments. She threw her head back as she cried out, her fangs only elongating further as she came around his unrelenting cock.

Even after the waves of ecstasy calmed inside of her, Geralt didn’t stop fucking her. His hands had moved to her hips in a deathly grip. She was sure to have bruises from where he held her.

“Let me drink from you,” she cried out.

Without even stopping his thrusts, he tilted his head to the side, inviting her to suck at his throat. She pulled him closer to her and clamped her mouth around the soft skin of his throat, letting her fangs break the skin slowly. His movements became sloppy as she began to drink from him, as if it were as much a turn on for him as it was for her. She drank mouthful after mouthful of his sweet nectar. Her entire body lit on fire as they attacked each other, her with her mouth, and him with his cock. This was how she wanted to die, she decided--her mouth around his throat, him balls deep inside of her. It was the closest to heaven she’d ever get.

Geralt let out a broken moan as his cock spasmed inside of her. A second later his hot seed poured inside of her, dripping down her legs and onto the bed. Geralt came longer than most men did, which must have been another aspect of the Witcher mutation, but she loved it, reveled in every second of it. And when he was done, he collapsed on top of her. She pulled her mouth back and forced her fangs to retract. Blood dripped down his neck and dried on his shoulder.

“I didn’t realize you had a biting kink,” she murmured minutes later.

“Neither did I.” He was on his back beside her now, his eyes closed and a droopy smile on his face.

“We’ll have to do this again sometime,” she said, admiring the few of a Witcher fucked out beside her.

He let out a humm of agreement, and then his breaths deepened and slowed. She fell asleep beside him, a smile plastered onto her face. It was the best sleep she’d had in decades.