letters-from-himring-hill

[letters-from-himring-hill]

Oh NICE!

Anyone get any nice presents?

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Thank you! I'm having fun coming up with headcanons while the RP is on semi-hiatus during the holidays. It's especially interesting when I find out I've been picturing someone incorrectly and get new information on them. :3

Because when I'm bored I like to play crossover with my blorbos, I recently spent a fair bit of time thinking about what the Leverage crew and my Terrafell party would do with each other.

First and most obvious: I think Gavrel and Eliot would get on like a house on fire. Literal houses might end up on fire, but they'd belong to people who richly deserved it. Honestly, the two of them might be related for how similar they are. Prefer close to ranged combat? Check. Unexpectedly good at cooking? Check. Capable of taking ridiculous amounts of damage and still functioning? Check. Adopt people at the drop of a hat? Check. Dramatic Hair TM? Check. Nik would be very glad to see Gavrel making an entire second friend and wholeheartedly encourage this. He'd probably try to recruit Eliot for the Adventurers' Guild and get him to mentor the younger guys. The Doc would despair of all of them. Morwen would try the Sad Eyes on Eliot to see if they worked to make him go to the doctor.

Nate, I think, would probably end up befriending Morwen, initially out of concern that she was somehow being taken advantage of by her three extremely tall and sinister travel buddies (he might or might not have been planning a con to get her away from them), and then later because he tends to gravitate to normal people who are out of their depth and help them. Morwen would be extremely grateful for this (once she had informed him in no uncertain terms that Her Boys are not a threat to her, nor are they plotting against her) and might rope him into being one of her political advisors. After witnessing Morwen trying to navigate an unfamiliar political situation, Sophie might also step in to help her with bad acting lessons and good advice on how to read and use body language. A.T., if he found out who these people really were, would, I suspect, be deeply concerned and promptly start several counter-plots for each of the plots he thought they might be concocting. Furniture Man would mostly be amused by the entire thing, especially by the repeated attempts which would probably be made to deceive him.

Oddly enough, I think that Parker and Atticus might actually get on pretty well. Atticus is awful at social cues. Parker is awful at reading social cues. Atticus might teach her magic, though arguably Parker is already magic, which would be a disaster for many people and many possessions belonging to those people, but would probably make them very good friends. (Please imagine Parker with the ability to levitate objects. Or maybe don't. It's kind of terrifying.) Hardison would not like Atticus because Atticus would flirt with Parker. Someone would have to intervene and tell him that Atticus acts like that with everyone before he taught himself how to hack into wards, and you know he would find a way to do that. (Someone most likely being Morwen, because Gavrel would think it was funny.)

@scleroticstatue @thegreenleavesofspring @awwyeah-rambles @sweetcardamom @sunflowergardens-world

@kanerallels

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I just saw a post go by about how different book characters would wrap a weirdly shaped present, and it's nearing Christmas, so I figured that should be my next Terrafell headcanon post!

Gavrel: I think the only person it would occur to him to get a Christmas present for is Morwen, and in no world is he content for her present to look anything less than perfect. He may or may not have spent two or three hours wrapping and rewrapping it, and he may or may not have used an entire roll of tape to make sure it stayed, but by gum it looks fantastic when he's done.

Atticus: I'm not sure it would occur to him to give presents, but A.T. might make him if it was socially appropriate, and in that case: who needs to cut wrapping paper by hand when you can fit it with magic? His presents look perfect, but you might have some trouble unwrapping them if you don't also have magic to remove his sticking spell.

Nik: Sensibly puts the weirdly shaped object in a box, then wraps the box.

Furniture Man: A toss-up between magic and box. If he does use magic, his sticking spells do not require an elaborate counterspell to remove, unlike Atticus'.

The Doc: I legitimately have no idea.

A.T.: At a guess, he seems like he'd use gift bags. Either that, or he has mysterious wrapping abilities that let him wrap things perfectly on the first try without, apparently, thinking about it at all.

@scleroticstatue @exploding-the-wine-cellar @kanerallels @sweetcardamom

@awwyeah-rambles @sunflowergardens-world

[letters-from-himring-hill]

Because when I'm bored I like to play crossover with my blorbos, I recently spent a fair bit of time thinking about what the Leverage crew and my Terrafell party would do with each other.

First and most obvious: I think Gavrel and Eliot would get on like a house on fire. Literal houses might end up on fire, but they'd belong to people who richly deserved it. Honestly, the two of them might be related for how similar they are. Prefer close to ranged combat? Check. Unexpectedly good at cooking? Check. Capable of taking ridiculous amounts of damage and still functioning? Check. Adopt people at the drop of a hat? Check. Dramatic Hair TM? Check. Nik would be very glad to see Gavrel making an entire second friend and wholeheartedly encourage this. He'd probably try to recruit Eliot for the Adventurers' Guild and get him to mentor the younger guys. The Doc would despair of all of them. Morwen would try the Sad Eyes on Eliot to see if they worked to make him go to the doctor.

Nate, I think, would probably end up befriending Morwen, initially out of concern that she was somehow being taken advantage of by her three extremely tall and sinister travel buddies (he might or might not have been planning a con to get her away from them), and then later because he tends to gravitate to normal people who are out of their depth and help them. Morwen would be extremely grateful for this (once she had informed him in no uncertain terms that Her Boys are not a threat to her, nor are they plotting against her) and might rope him into being one of her political advisors. After witnessing Morwen trying to navigate an unfamiliar political situation, Sophie might also step in to help her with bad acting lessons and good advice on how to read and use body language. A.T., if he found out who these people really were, would, I suspect, be deeply concerned and promptly start several counter-plots for each of the plots he thought they might be concocting. Furniture Man would mostly be amused by the entire thing, especially by the repeated attempts which would probably be made to deceive him.

Oddly enough, I think that Parker and Atticus might actually get on pretty well. Atticus is awful at social cues. Parker is awful at reading social cues. Atticus might teach her magic, though arguably Parker is already magic, which would be a disaster for many people and many possessions belonging to those people, but would probably make them very good friends. (Please imagine Parker with the ability to levitate objects. Or maybe don't. It's kind of terrifying.) Hardison would not like Atticus because Atticus would flirt with Parker. Someone would have to intervene and tell him that Atticus acts like that with everyone before he taught himself how to hack into wards, and you know he would find a way to do that. (Someone most likely being Morwen, because Gavrel would think it was funny.)

@scleroticstatue @thegreenleavesofspring @awwyeah-rambles @sweetcardamom @sunflowergardens-world

@kanerallels

[letters-from-himring-hill]

@scleroticstatue

(via FlimsyFlamingo on Twitter)

[letters-from-himring-hill]

That's fair. I wouldn't go so far as to say that everyone in a gulag was responsible for his own suffering, certainly, because one man can only do so much when everyone else is refusing to fight. And, as you say, ignorance can actually be an excuse. You can't fight what you don't know about. But there is always something you can do, even if the something is just pray and throw yourself on God's mercy and try not to make things worse. As you say, trying to do something may bring change, but assuming you can't change anything definitely won't.

Interesting, about the Terrans. It’s true, really, any of them could join up with a combat-oriented Guild and really buckle down and get close to being as strong as my friends, with time and dedication, but it seems most of them do not, and the few who do may be admired but are not widely imitated. Thus, I suppose, the gods resorting to semi-kidnapping a monarch to stir things up a bit!

was not expecting to make a Spiders Georg meme to make my point but hey it was a perfect opening XD

Your ongoing conversation with Bri about passivity and consent is making me think interesting thoughts about how you write Terrafell, and how the world seems like a very simple good vs evil setup at first glance, but the closer you look the more complicated the choices become, and how you have to choose anyway because passivity is also a choice and nothing will get better if you don't act, whereas if you act there's a chance of dooming everyone but also a chance of saving the world.

And that's one heck of a sentence, but that's what you get for inspiring me with thoughts about literature and morality. XD

Wow, an author's personal philosophies accidentally getting inserted into their work? Never! 😅

I'm a big personal responsibility person. I'm not sure if you've read the Gulag Archipelago, but he talks about how it wasn't the guards who ran the gulags, it was the prisoners, about how it was Soviet citizens reporting on their neighbors that was driving the gulags to be filled in the first place, and how the citizenry elected Stalin in the first place, so that meant every citizen was responsible for their country going to pot and because he specifically didn't do anything about it, even if he wasn't guilty of the crimes the accused him of, he was guilty of shirking his responsibilities for the country and was therefore responsible for his own suffering within the gulag. He then proposes that if everyone accepted responsibility and actively worked to change everything they could, how much better the world could become.

Terrans live that way because they've lived that way for so long, and so they consent to atrocities every day because they simply do not stop what is happening.

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As I believe Lewis said, not everything that is unconscious is accidental!

I have not read the Gulag Archipelago, though it's on my list of books it would be worthwhile to read at some point. Huh. That's...very much antithetical to our current culture of blaming others for everything that happens to us. I think he's right, though. One man can't overthrow Stalin, but one man can choose not to report his neighbour, even if there's nothing else in his power right now. And if enough people didn't report their neighbours, who knows what could have been accomplished in the way of fighting Stalin? The power of terror is great, but it only works as long as everyone is cowed and only a few people stand up at a time. Once everyone stops being cowed the power is broken, and things like that have to start somewhere. If everyone is waiting for someone else to stand up, nobody ever will.

It's true. There are things which are out of the Terrans' power to change, but there are also plenty of things that are in their power to change and they're not doing anything, presumably because the world has always been like this/they're keeping their heads down/it's not their business/standing up would be dangerous...which are probably much the same excuses that people used for falling in with Stalin's orders.

And then we have the one guy who despite going around rescuing people from atrocities left and right and spending most of his time fighting monsters, somehow thinks he's responsible for all the stuff he can't stop.

average Terran stops 3 atrocities per year factoid actualy just statistical error. average Terran stops 0 atrocities per year. The Holy Knight, who sleeps in dungeon & stops over 10,000 per day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

Your ongoing conversation with Bri about passivity and consent is making me think interesting thoughts about how you write Terrafell, and how the world seems like a very simple good vs evil setup at first glance, but the closer you look the more complicated the choices become, and how you have to choose anyway because passivity is also a choice and nothing will get better if you don't act, whereas if you act there's a chance of dooming everyone but also a chance of saving the world.

And that's one heck of a sentence, but that's what you get for inspiring me with thoughts about literature and morality. XD

Wow, an author's personal philosophies accidentally getting inserted into their work? Never! 😅

I'm a big personal responsibility person. I'm not sure if you've read the Gulag Archipelago, but he talks about how it wasn't the guards who ran the gulags, it was the prisoners, about how it was Soviet citizens reporting on their neighbors that was driving the gulags to be filled in the first place, and how the citizenry elected Stalin in the first place, so that meant every citizen was responsible for their country going to pot and because he specifically didn't do anything about it, even if he wasn't guilty of the crimes the accused him of, he was guilty of shirking his responsibilities for the country and was therefore responsible for his own suffering within the gulag. He then proposes that if everyone accepted responsibility and actively worked to change everything they could, how much better the world could become.

Terrans live that way because they've lived that way for so long, and so they consent to atrocities every day because they simply do not stop what is happening.

[letters-from-himring-hill]

Very annoying, that.

Terrafell reread, day 3: Where on EARTH did Gavrel get his story about people building houses with body parts in the walls to protect against lightning? My browser probably thinks I'm superstitious and/or haunted now, but I couldn't find any record of that actually happening. Is that an urban legend, a conspiracy theory, or did he just make it up to spook Morwen?

I think I got the name wrong. They're witch bottles, not spirit jars, and they were real folklore traditions in America and Europe from the mid 1600s until at least the Civil War. While there's no evidence they contained actual body parts, they did contain hair, fingernails, teeth, animal bones, and urine.

[letters-from-himring-hill]

Either name makes sense for what they supposedly do. *shrugs* It may just be that 'spirit bottle' as an internet search turns up a bunch of modern spiritualist stuff before you get to the 18th-century things.

Terrafell reread, day 3: Where on EARTH did Gavrel get his story about people building houses with body parts in the walls to protect against lightning? My browser probably thinks I'm superstitious and/or haunted now, but I couldn't find any record of that actually happening. Is that an urban legend, a conspiracy theory, or did he just make it up to spook Morwen?

I think I got the name wrong. They're witch bottles, not spirit jars, and they were real folklore traditions in America and Europe from the mid 1600s until at least the Civil War. While there's no evidence they contained actual body parts, they did contain hair, fingernails, teeth, animal bones, and urine.

[letters-from-himring-hill]

Ah, I see! Googling that name proved more fruitful. (I think the error works in character, honestly, given how long it's been since he must have read about them.) People will come up with the weirdest stuff, I swear...

Thanks for the clarification!

Terrafell reread, day 3: Where on EARTH did Gavrel get his story about people building houses with body parts in the walls to protect against lightning? My browser probably thinks I'm superstitious and/or haunted now, but I couldn't find any record of that actually happening. Is that an urban legend, a conspiracy theory, or did he just make it up to spook Morwen?

I think I got the name wrong. They're witch bottles, not spirit jars, and they were real folklore traditions in America and Europe from the mid 1600s until at least the Civil War. While there's no evidence they contained actual body parts, they did contain hair, fingernails, teeth, animal bones, and urine.

[letters-from-himring-hill]

Honestly, fair.

Stop saying “there are plenty of fish in the sea”. I’ve got my eye on one specific, emotionally distant salmon with commitment issues

[letters-from-himring-hill]

XD XD XD (so am I the person who's going after the emotionally distant salmon, or the one who's hunting the white whale?)

Stop saying “there are plenty of fish in the sea”. I’ve got my eye on one specific, emotionally distant salmon with commitment issues

[letters-from-himring-hill]

Nik is going to Have A Time with that, for sure.

As the Terrafell reread continues: Sir Dwarf mentioned that Atticus had told him about meeting Morwen, when he came to deliver her armour. If it's not a spoiler, what did he say? Was this an "is this woman actually as crazy as I think" check? A rant about how I was going to die? Sounding out Sir Dwarf's opinion of me as a monarch? I'm very curious!

Well... There was a lot of dancing around like "what do you know?" without having to reveal what they knew, and then it was a match of "this is the queen so even if she's being insane I have to follow her command" versus "this is the queen so whatever she says is good and must be for the betterment of society." And such.

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That makes sense, honestly. The higher level you are, the more monsters you’ve probably fought, the more likely you are to have Trauma TM. The not getting medical attention being a him thing also tracks. My poor Sock Police.

Morwen is 100% going to set a time and place to meet up with him if they both get Jumanjied and she is sure going to have a time dealing with that. On the one hand she’ll be proud of him for going and accomplishing good things, but on the other there will definitely be some “do you get injured FOR FUN SIR???” and she may very well resume her habit of pestering him to go to the doctor. XD Which will either endear her to his military buddies or confuse them or both.

I am rereading the Terrafell RP to date (as one does) and I have just noticed that the scene after the Great Mutual Breakdown cuts straight from Gavrel leaving my house to ye olde prophetic dreams to Gavrel standing guard outside my house when I put my head out, so I have to ask.

Did he sleep?

Or did he just stand guard outside my house? All night? Like the devoted, utterly careless of his own welfare dingbat that he is?

:3

He did not sleep

:3

There are things he knows that you don't about the dangers of the Village

[letters-from-himring-hill]

"Alright, so you've got thirty minutes to live. Tell me exactly how that tasted."

...yeah, I can see someone in Ancient Greece doing that, honestly.

Does anyone else have context-specific blorbos? Fictional guys who just show up to your brain when you're doing a specific real-world activity that is associated with that specific guy for you, now?

E.g. Gavrel is the Cooking Blorbo. Whenever I am making something he shows up to my brain and is simply there. Today I am making chicken and dumplings and imaginary Gavrel is pondering the merits of putting hemlock in it. (I have told him that he may not.)

[letters-from-himring-hill]

Ah, right, Atticus knew that Sir Dwarf was aware of my title but not how much I'd told him, and I'd told Sir Dwarf to keep things very hush-hush (though I do not know how successful he'd be at that).

Sir Dwarf really does frighten Morwen. Absolute devotion is a dangerous thing! A noble and honourable thing, but a dangerous one all the same. Poor Atticus probably did not get anyone to rant with out of this interaction, then. XD Pity, he probably needs someone to rant with, and he's not quite to the point of doing it with Gavrel yet because currently at least two of the things he wants to rant about have to do with Gavrel and Morwen trusting him.

As the Terrafell reread continues: Sir Dwarf mentioned that Atticus had told him about meeting Morwen, when he came to deliver her armour. If it's not a spoiler, what did he say? Was this an "is this woman actually as crazy as I think" check? A rant about how I was going to die? Sounding out Sir Dwarf's opinion of me as a monarch? I'm very curious!

Well... There was a lot of dancing around like "what do you know?" without having to reveal what they knew, and then it was a match of "this is the queen so even if she's being insane I have to follow her command" versus "this is the queen so whatever she says is good and must be for the betterment of society." And such.

[letters-from-himring-hill]

*Morwen thuds her head into the wall at the mention of missing organs*

How much of that is...normal-ish for Terrafell, and how much of it is specifically a result of his whole...trauma and isolation and guilt? Because Atticus seems to have similar standards, but Atticus is also a walking pile of trauma.

Old habits die hard, so I can see that. XD The midnight pho would taste fantastic, though, I'm sure.

That does not surprise me in the least but I do now want to hug hypothetical sent-back-as-his-teenage-self Gavrel. (And bandage him. And drag him to a hospital. And make him stay put in the hospital.)

I am rereading the Terrafell RP to date (as one does) and I have just noticed that the scene after the Great Mutual Breakdown cuts straight from Gavrel leaving my house to ye olde prophetic dreams to Gavrel standing guard outside my house when I put my head out, so I have to ask.

Did he sleep?

Or did he just stand guard outside my house? All night? Like the devoted, utterly careless of his own welfare dingbat that he is?

:3

He did not sleep

:3

There are things he knows that you don't about the dangers of the Village