#selethen

[eccevenitvulpes]

More RA headcanons, part 3

Selethen is really good at chess

Foldar can't sing for his life. This is a very sore point so do not bring it up

Cassandra likes to experiment with Alyss's disguise makeup

[starburstsobsessions]

this book kinda sucks 🧍

[araluen-arrows]

underrated scenes from erak’s ransom

- Svengal straight up crashing Halt and Pauline’s wedding

- this hard ass quote from Baron Arald (paraphrase): “if you only value my opinion when you agree with it, then you don’t value my opinion at all” BARS

- the fact that the Wolfwind kept Cassandra’s pennant this entire time

- Halt making fun of Svengal for being unable to sit a horse. Svengal making fun of halt for his seasickness and offering him a meal

- Halt getting back at Svengal by chugging his favorite, very rare, very expensive mead

- Evanlyn seeing straight through Selethen’s bluff of having someone else pretend to be the Wakir. (the hero of this book was Evanlyn and you cannot tell me otherwise)

- [Gilan talking to Halt about Will] "would you trust him with your life?” “without question.” “then trust him with his own.”

- Arrow being killed by a desert lion and in turn saving Will’s life by attracting the attention of the bedouin

- Will killing a sand cobra with an arrow and saving Umal’s grandchild

- the Tug vs. Sandstorm race

- not an underrated scene, per se, but in my opinion Yusal’s absolute cruelty (leaving two water skins for forty men in the desert) makes him one of the evilest villains of the Flanagan universe

- slightly related, Aloom’s entire character is underrated for keeping forty men alive on said water

- Halt refusing to give up hope after being captured by the Tualaghi because Will’s still out there somewhere

- Evanlyn standing unflinching as the executioner swings his sword at her, and the crowd calling for her release

- Will shooting the executioner a split second before the downstroke begins

- Horace holding up his bound hands and shouting for Will, and Will splits the rope by shooting an arrow between his wrists

- Erak killing Toshak in battle and returning his sword to him so his spirit won’t wander

- Evanlyn hitting Yusal with his sling and ending all effective resistance from the Tualaghi

- Evanlyn ripping Selethen to shreds in subsequent ransom negotiations by pointing out that Erak isn’t his hostage, he was Yusal’s; Halt subsequently saying “my god, I’ve created a monster”

- Will’s graduation scene

[theraven-gil-lyn]

oops

[redrose-arrow]

ranger’s apprentice characters as customers i have served

[endearingly, pt. 1/2]

Once I have put HORACE’s order in, my boss signals for me to come to the kitchen. She has questions and I answer them. Yes, I put in the correct order. Yes, there’s more main courses than people. Yes, I checked with the table if that is okay. No, they do not want smaller portions. I have no idea if they will finish it all - but Horace does. 

WILL takes a huge interest in my work and me. Another table kept me for longer than hoped so I apologise for taking so long to get to his table. It’s okay, he says. Is it always so busy? he asks. How long have I been working here? How many evenings a week? Oh, I’m a fulltime uni student? Where? What do I major in? Do I have plans for the future? I love talking to him, but as noted, it is busy. I don’t know how to end the conversation without offending him. Thankfully, there’s ALYSS, who tells Will that I “probably have work to do, dear.” I smile at her, thankful. She makes sure everyone pays attention to me when I come to take orders and confirms when I put the orders on the table. Someone wants to ask a question but Alyss points out that the answer is on the menu, saving me time once again. 

JENNY asks a ton of questions about the food - which I can only barely answer. But it’s okay, she’s excited and ends up ordering my recommendation. Which, she later assures me, was really good. It boosts my confidence and her entire being makes me eager to serve her. 

GEORGE comes on a biweekly basis, usually alone. It’s often a quiet night, so I have time to chat with him. I remember his hobbies and ask how that’s been going and he is so appreciative of the talk. He always orders roughly the same thing, so within a few weeks I remember his order. It makes him very excited and he usually rants for a bit about how much he loves the restaurant and our food. 

GILAN orders coffee for every course. I don’t judge him (but I do). When he orders ice cream for dessert I convince my boss to make him the children’s version with the colours and the candy and the lights. He appreciates it more than half of the kids I serve it to do. 

CASSANDRA orders the most basic dishes and honestly it’s relatable as hell. She tells everyone to shut tf up when I try to get their orders. I quickly get a grasp of the jokes she makes about the others and manage to play into them, we bond over how incapable some men are and it’s just entertaining.

ERAK keeps forgetting my name but I don’t mind, it’s sweet that he wants to address me personally. I tell his table that they have drunk all of the beer I had gotten out for the night. They laugh. I am only partially joking. When another table has a birthday they all sing and clap along. He jokes about working instead of paying but ends up leaving a huge tip. Only downside is that they cut their Asian noodles and I am just culturally hurt in my bosses’ stead. 

SELETHEN is a tourist (German for this story). He tries to talk to me in English but I can tell it’s hard for him. When he accidentally talks German to me, I talk back in German. After a few back and forths he realises and we talk in German for the rest of the night. It’s not entirely smooth sailing on my side, but he clearly appreciates the effort and tones down his own accent to help me understand him. I end up giving him some recommendations for activities in the area. 

[makeithappenandreal]

Selethen: You have a very fine son

Halt: *chuckles nervously* What? Will is not my son, guys!

Halt, also: Will, you are sleeping without sheets, you will catch a cold

Halt: Is that peanut in this desert, Will is allergic

Halt: Was that a cough, there is cough syrup in the bag, take it

Halt:*wraps Ranger cloak around Will* it's cold

Halt:*looking at the littlest of scracthes on Will's hand* DID YOU GET SHOT?! WHO DID THIS TO YOU?

Halt: *secretly gives the best part of the chicken to Will*

Halt: I once publicly insulted King Duncan to save Will and I WOULD DO IT AGAIN

Selethen:

Erak:

Gundar:

Selethen: HOW THE FUCK IS WILL NOT YOUR SON

[witchersgoldenbard]

Ranger’s Apprentice fic. a snippet during book 7 (Erak’s Ransom) while they’re captured.

1.1k words of Gilan/Selethen for @kasztanisagod.

tags: gilan whump, soft selethen, hands and smiles

Gilan’s whole body is made of pain, and has been for the past few days. His feet are aching and raw from trying to keep up as they were bound to horses and dragged along. His skin is chafed and bleeding where the unforgiving sand has managed to destroy his clothes after one too many fall, and even the smallest of cuts feel like his body is nothing more than a pulsating mess. 

Worst of all, though, is the dizziness. He doesn’t know if his head is still bleeding or if the wetness he can feel running down his temple is his body’s testament to the desert heat, but it doesn’t make a difference anyway. 

There’s only pain. And nausea. His eyes are open but he needs a second to understand what he’s seeing — and what he’s seeing is the wall of a cell. Distantly, he hears a door clanging shut, but that might just as well be a memory. 

He’s going to throw up. Tough luck when you don’t even know where up is. 

A groan leaves his mouth as he tries to take a deep breath and fails miserably. Instead, he can add two broken ribs to the list of misery. 

Gods above — Arridi, Skandian, whichever Gods are listening — he’s tired. But he fears that if he closes his eyes, he might not open them anymore for the sheer release that would bring. He can’t sleep, can’t rest, not when— 

“Easy now,” a gentle voice interrupts his less than coherent thoughts and just moments later, a tender hand is combing through his blood-crusted hair. “You shouldn’t move, my friend. There’s nowhere to move to anymore.” 

Gilan frowns, his brain trying and failing to provide any information at this point. The hits to his head must have been worse than he thought if his short term memory refuses to work with him completely. 

“We have reached Maashava,” the voice continues and Gilan has to blink the fog away to make out its owner. When he does, it must show in his eyes, for the worry in Seley el’then’s eyes makes way to the briefest of smiles before returning even stronger than before. “Do you not recall?”

Gilan just stares up at him. That’s all his wrecked body and mind allow him to do right now. That’s all they want to do when gentle hands comb through his hair and chase away some of the pain. 

It is then that reality slowly comes back to him and he realises where he is. He’s lying in a bleak but blissfully cool cell — any more of the desert heat in his current state, and you might have had a fair chance at reaching for his oak leaf looking him dead in the eye and he wouldn’t have been able to stop anyone from succeeding. 

Shame rises in him and he has the urge to apologise to Halt, to explain, but moving his head to the side, he sees that Halt isn’t any better off. He appears to be sleeping and Evanlyn is washing blood away from his face. 

Gilan blinks once, twice, and takes in his old master. It’s not a competition, he knows, but shame makes way to satisfaction when he sees that everyone else hasn’t taken as many hits, kicks and punches as himself. His distractions have worked, then. 

That’s good. Now if only they didn’t make him so nauseous. So tired. So…

“Don’t fall asleep, Gilan,” Selethen demands, and the world tilts slightly, which makes everything worse until… soft. It’s softer now. 

Selethen has moved him so his head is resting in his lap now. 

“You don’t look too good, Ranger. Sleep is dangerous in your state, no matter how badly you might need it. Give it a few hours, please.” 

A beat passes where Gilan tries to process the words that are just too many. Since when does Selethen talk so much? 

“Lies,” he says after a while. 

“Lies?” 

“I look very good. You just can’t see it under all the blood and the bruises.” He tries to crack a smile, but even the huffed breath jolts his head too much. 

Selethen does him the favour of a brief chuckle, and Gilan feels better for it. Lighter. Light is good, he finds. Maybe all he has to focus on is Selethen and his hands working out the clumps of dirt and blood from his hair, maybe all he has to to is make him smile and the world will be a bit less painful. 

His world narrows down to all the ways Selethen is close to him and it does keep him occupied, but it also gets his mind wandering, the adrenaline of the past days wearing off. 

“Keep doing that and I will fall asleep,” he says after another beat of silence. Fall asleep and dream. Dream of what this could mean. Dream of smiles that make me feel lighter. 

“Keep doing what?” Selethen asks, and Gilan senses a trick to just keep him talking, no matter how slurred his speech is. He needs a moment to remember what he said.

“This,” he says eventually, and Selethen only hums. Finding words is hard. He tries. And tries again. “Being gentle.” 

Another smile and Gilan wants to close his eyes to keep it there. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, my friend.” 

“Can’t not be gentle?” He’s losing force on the consonants. The pain is getting stronger, his nerve ends more frayed and his vision blurry. This is familiar. He gives himself another quarter of an hour at most before he will lose his consciousness, no matter how hard he tries to stay here. With Selethen and his wavering smile. 

“Not with my friends, no.” 

This time it’s Gilan who smiles at the word friends. He likes to be Selethen’s friend. The man is admirable, he’s strong, he’s respected by his people and his soldiers, he’s kind, he’s quick-witted and patient, and his hands are impossibly soft. 

“I know you said not to sleep, and I’m no one to deny a wakir’s command, but…” He swallows. Words are hard. He’s not sure they come out as planned, but he perseveres. “I’m afraid I have to prove to you now how stubborn Rangers can be.” 

Another hum from above him and Gilan opens his eyes he hadn’t even noticed closing. The world is fading, but still Selethen is at its centre. 

“I’ll be here when you wake up, then, stubborn Ranger.” 

Will you smile at me still? Gilan wonders. 

“Always,” Selethen says, but before Gilan has time to wonder if someone else has said something, darkness has swallowed him whole.

[permettez-moi]

Shoutout to the three (3) gilan/seley el'then(selethen) fics on ao3 keeping me sane

[chaotic-bi-bish]

GilanxSelethen

Ok, so I know I'm not the only one who ships this, but can anyone deny how perfect this is??? Like when Selethen calls Gil "friend Gilan" I melt. Literally. Also consider this:

Gilan coming back to Arradia, and Selethen giving up all decorum and running to hug Gilan, and Gil laughing with his head thrown back, then grabbing Selethen's face and kissing it long and hard.

I just love them <3

[maidenofcrows]

More things said at my work as incorrect quotes:

Will, probably: I’m going to loose my fingerprints over this job.

>>—————>

Literally any Ranger, but also Crowley specifically: Your answer determines how unhinged my methods towards achievement will be.

>>—————>

Cassandra, at one point but also more than once: I’m a better fighter than you and I’m pregnant!

>>—————>

Selethen, because vibes: Did we put the skull back?

>>—————>

Horace: Why is there a crisp in my shoe?

[kasztanisagod]

yesterday i found out people ship gilan with selethen. today, i am posting a fic about them because i have no self control lmao anyways here it is

[eccevenitvulpes]

Selethen: What is the most illegal thing you can do with one gold coin? Gilan: Exchange it for a hundred copper coins, put them all in a sock, and then beat someone to death with it.

[the-professor-of-gallifrey]

United Chapter 44

Ok, I keep forgetting to post an update here whenever I post a chapter, so for the very very few of you who follow it, more chapters of United! I just posted chapter 44!

Hope you enjoy!

[theraven-gil-lyn]

05 - Deceive

‘I needed to be sure that you were the real Princess. That’s why I had Aman impersonate me. I knew you’d probably see through the deception. But if you were planning trickery of your own, you’d pretend to go along with it; Only a real princess would have the courage and dignity to call my bluff and walk out as you did.’

Erak’s Ransom // Ch 18

[redrose-arrow]

hi so it’s very important to me that you meet Falcon and Hawk, Gilan’s cats:

basically i headcanon that selethen, when he came to araluen for the royal wedding, gave gilan a cat when he left. and the cat came with a note, which told gilan to name the cat after something that reminded him of selethen, *cute and slightly blussing winky face*. but gilan was so in awe over the cat that he couldn’t come up with the perfect name, so he went to the one other person he knew who had had to name pets: will. 

that was a mistake. 

because, as we all (but gilan obviously does not) know, will is terribly at coming up with names and cannot be credited with the names of his own dogs. and so the cat was called “sand” for a while. it could’ve been worse, but, as jenny remarked to gilan, is that really the best thing to name the cat after? 

it was indeed jenny who ended up suggesting the perfect name: hawk (because selethen’s nickname in nihon-ja was taka, get it?). 

alas, hawk it is. hawk is orange and must have more than nine lives because there is no other way to explain how he is still alive. too many falling down... anything. hawk is also scared of mouses and birds and insects and would not survive a day in the wild. gilan is 99% sure that the one time hawk went into the woods he almost died, and that he was saved by another cat. hawk brought this cat home. gilan did not want to take the new cat in, initially, but at closer inspection realised that the cat must have been abanonded. its fur was dull, grey, and dirty. besides, hawk seemed absolutely and totally in love with the cat. so gilan welcomed it into his home and named him falcon. 

hawk and falcon share one braincell. they like to cuddle, anywhere and everywhere. one time, gilan took off his cloak outside when it was warm, the cats fell asleep in it, and gilan couldn’t find them for hours. several tear-stained letters were sent and he almost declared a fief-wide emergency. ever since, gilan and the cats are even more inseparable. 

gilan has even made a habit of bringing hawk and falcon to the gatherings. the first time, hawk decided to pick a fight with ebony (no one understood why). falcon made himself comfortable in the grass and watched. ebony fought back until hawk retreated. gilan complained that will’s dog bullied his cat. will countered that gilan’s cats were just too arrogant. and since rangers love a little drama, they began picking sides, and within a few minutes the entire corps was divided into cats and dogs teams. flashbacks to the great coffee debate were not uncommon. weapons were grabbed and threats were made but. but. then halt came in between his two apprentices and pointed a finger. turns out, falcon, hawk, and ebony had all fallen asleep on crowley’s lap. the gathering was saved. 

this is not to say the cats do not annoy gilan, too. they have hissed at him for daring to pet them and have meowed at the most inconvenient times when they wanted attention. he has cursed at them several times already and undoubtedly will do so again. they also run away occassionally to convince townspeople to feed them and pee on gilan’s bed when they’re stressed out over bad weather. hawk especially gets stressed out when it’s pouring outside and will hide in the most unreachable places. 

bonus: the only person that hawk and falcon like more than gilan, is david. they somehow and inexplicably despise selethen and gilan thinks it’s hilarious. 

[rangerangel]

Day 19: Burn

In which companions attend the funeral of a dear friend.