#(because of my note about elves and food)

[outofangband]

Winter in Doriath HCs

Note: I referenced a few of my earlier HCs in this but they’re definitely not necessary to read for this! There is more in the Doriath tag for anyone interested!

Elves and winter general HCs

As always please feel free to ask more or give a specific area to talk about, these are fairly random!

The girdle of Melian provides protection against the harshest weather however, Melian intentionally does not exert significant control over the climate. Snow falls lightly throughout the colder months, many trees lose their leaves and most flowers do not bloom until the stirring. Average temperatures for the coldest months are around 4-7 degrees C or 40-45 degrees Fahrenheit.

Menengroth maintains comfortable temperatures throughout the year. Both the protection of the caves and the magic of Melian defend against extreme cold or heat. A small population of Doriath live in Menengroth in the winter only.

There is a section around Menengroth, part of Melian’s gardens, that is warm throughout the year. This has both outdoor and indoor sections and there are fruit trees in the outdoor section that are more or less free to take from (though some of the species are…unique or possibly dangerous and plenty choose not to take this risk)

Food in the winter comes from this, from foraging and the cultivation that is done throughout the forest, from the rivers, from private collections and storage, and, depending on the time, through trade.

Many of the Iathrim eat little in the winter and some even enter periods of contemplation and reduced movement almost akin to a sort of hibernation. This is also similar to the trances I described as part of Doriath’s summer solstice celebration however longer and less intense. Consciousness is not necessarily reduced or altered during these.

(I will make an entire post just about this to go with my posts about the Ainur and food but in essence, I do not believe elves can go indefinitely without food and water however energy, nutrients and strength are conserved and processed differently than in humans and they can go significantly longer without adverse consequences however they will eventually begin to suffer from them. Like humans, water is more important than food. Many elves eat primarily for pleasure. Maedhros, his life was extended without food or water through Morgoth’s power, similar to how Húrin’s was)

On that note there is also a winter solstice tradition. Like the summer one, many travel for it to obtain privacy, often sitting in trees or upon hilltops by the northern border for days. Most of the week long winter solstice event is significantly more somber than the summer one and there is a day dedicated to mourning. At the end however there is a joyous feast in Menengroth.

Doriath marks the new year in the beginning of the elven season between autumn and winter, Fading. I mentioned their record keepers preserve petals from the first flowers of each year and this tradition is related to other Sindar, Silvan and Avari traditions but their actual new year is in Fading. It is a also a reflective celebration where the sun and moon are honored (after they exist of course) and the past mourned.

Despite the more somber winter celebrations, mentions of snow and winter in song and poetry are commonly playful and whimsical rather than melancholy. Less direct Winter symbology in Doriath include constellations, certain species of ferns (which resemble frost patterns), wood white (butterflies), and maple trees.

Like the Sindar outside of Doriath, the patterns of migrating birds are often remembered and used for indications of weather changes.

[ambrosiagourmet]

Rin Masterpost

Rin! Rinsha Fana! Beloved side character I think about far too much (or maybe not enough?)

I decided that it might be nice to put together an informational post about Rin, since she has some of my favorite background details of any character in Dungeon Meshi. This is partly as reference for myself, and partly for anyone else who might be interested in her but not know where to chase down the tidbits we we get of her, both in canon & extra materials. There’s also a little bit of theorizing and analysis sprinkled in for fun.

If anyone spots something I missed, please let me know and I will add it in!

Alright. Time for ultimate #rinposting

History and Timeline:

We don't have an official timeline for Rin (even in the expanded Adventurer's Bible, sadly), but we can put a lot of pieces together based on Kabru's timeline & their respective ages.

Rin is 2 years older than Kabru, and they met when he was 9. Assuming that he met her soon after she was taken to the elven capital, that means that the elves took her when she was 11.

Before that, she lived on the Northern Continent. Interestingly, when Mickbell asks about Shuro, Rin says she was born "here."

Since "here" doesn't mean the actual Island itself, it must mean simply "not the east." She is described in the Adventurer's Bible as having "no real knowledge of or attachment to the East," so maybe that's why she draws a "there" verses "here" line.

I'd also like to add a note here that the elves don't seem uh... they don't seem great about respecting the value of other cultures, especially those of short-life species. Milsiril seems to have discouraged Kabru from eating or remembering food from his hometown, at least, and that's even as an adoptive parent who cares (at least in some way) for her child. As I will touch on later, the "care" that Rin was under probably had even less respect for her history or ties to either Eastern or Northern culture.

That is all to say, considering that Rin spent many years with the elves, I'd take her having "[no] attachment to the East" as more of a comment on how she feels now, and less as a definite choice she made. She may genuinely have chosen that approach and opinion for herself, she may have been pushed towards it by the elves, and she may have had little choice at all in the matter - all are valid interpretations, though I personally lean towards the thought that it's unlikely the elves didn't have at least some hand in it.

Anyway, Rin does seem to know at least a bit about her heritage - she can presumably name and identify the specific island her parents are from, and she recognizes that "Shuro" isn't a name used there. She also knows that different places from the Eastern archipelago speak different languages, so she knows at least a little about the other islands as well.

Some additional extrapolations I'll make based on these facts: she never mentions, and probably isn't in contact with, any family from her island. This may be because her extended family died, because her parents didn't (or weren't able to) maintain contact, or because she lost contact when she was taken by the elves. Somewhat relatedly, she also prooobably doesn't speak the language, at least not fluently, though her being able to comment on the state of language in the archipelago makes me think that she at least learned a little as a kid.

Anyway, Rin's parents were refugees from the archipelago, though we don't know what specifically caused them to leave. There is this little tidbit of info we get (from the cover of chapter 48, of all places), though:

So yeah, that seems like it would be the backdrop of Rin's parents fleeing. As I said earlier, it's unclear if Rin might have any living family left back on her island. The listing she has for “family” in the Adventurer's Bible is just a dash, but so is Izutsumi's, for instance, and we know that she was taken from her family with no knowledge of who might still be out there. It's possible everyone else was killed, it's possible they were separated... it's possible that Rin's parents didn't even know.

As an additional note, and this is speculation on my part, but I think there is an argument to be made, with this tidbit from the cover as well as the Nakamoto clan's specialty in espionage and use of ninjas, that the politics of the archipelago are partially based on Sengoku era Japan. Not necessarily super relevant here, but I think it's interesting context for all... of the archipelago characters, honestly.

(Especially considering it seems like the Nakamoto clan is in a relatively comfortable position, and yet clearly are involved, or at least prepared to be involved in larger conflict. How stable is their position, really? How is Shuro's father viewed by the wider region and archipelago as a whole? What about his lord? NOT THE POINT THIS IS A POST ABOUT RIN. BUT IT'S VERY INTERESTING TO THINK ABOUT.)

Okay, back to Rin's parents.

Whatever caused them to leave, they made their way to the north, where they made their living with their magic for a time. There are no specifics about what kind of magic they used, but we know at least some examples of jobs that magic can get you, based on the flashback to Laios and Falin's childhood in chapter 26. Laios proposes that Fain could use her magic to be a priest, gravekeeper, or wandering exorcist. Though these are specific to Falin's affinity with spirits, they give some idea of the shape of the work that might be available. It's important, but it is also on the outskirts of society - not necessarily admired or appreciated by the average person.

And Rin’s parents were killed by vigilantes for that magic. It's not entirely news that superstitious villages in the area would sometimes kill magic users - we see a small drawing of people being burned at the stake in a panel towards the end of the manga:

Nonetheless, Rin is the only person in the main cast who has experienced this brutality firsthand. And she did experience it firsthand, having been found by the elves as the sole survivor within the burnt ruins of her home.

It is unknown exactly how she survived, or what happened to her parents before and during the fire. Rin lived, and they did not.

The elves came some time after the fire, intending to investigate reports of ancient magic. They (and we) don't know if Rin's parents actually did use ancient magic, or if the reports and murders were simply spurred by general fear and superstition. Rin was the only piece of "evidence" that remained, and so she was taken back to the west with the elves when they left.

We don't know much about her time on the Northern Central Continent (where the elves/Canaries are based), but it doesn't seem like she was adopted or taken in by anyone the way that Kabru was. According to the Adventurer's Bible, after being taken into custody, "under their care she was treated as a captive animal would be." I would guess that means very basic food and shelter, little to no education. Probably the most social contact she got was from Kabru, as well as maybe, occasionally, from elves treating her as a curiosity, such as in this bit in the Adventurer’s Bible:

Assuming she left with Kabru (which seems like it is the case, there's no info about them having separated during that time), she spent 9 years with the elves, and has been with Kabru on the Island in the 4 years since then.

She also stays in the Golden Country after the end of the story, apparently working as an apothecary.

Additional Details (& Speculation):

What does she remember of her family and home?

I'd like to take a moment here to explore a little of what Rin might remember of her parents and home.

For reference, we can look at Kabru. The canaries came to Utaya when Kabru was 6, and he arrived in the capital when he was 7. He remembers the events of the tragedy in his home, and has some memories of his mother and life in Utaya, including memories of local dishes.

Rin lost her parents and home at 11, so she presumably has much clearer memories of the events that lead to her being taken by the elves... or she might, assuming that they haven't been completely blocked by her trauma from the event.

Yeah, I am fairly damn sure that she's got some memory issues from trauma and PTSD. For one, this is the state she was found in:

As already mentioned, she was also treated like something of an animal by the elves. She probably didn't have a lot of contact with other people, which would further perpetuate that sense of isolation and dehumanization. What I'm getting at here is that Rin probably didn't have much to help pull her out of this place, or heal these wounds. She had Kabru, who was also a kid and even younger than her, and she had herself.

Obviously trauma leaves different scars on everyone, and everyone responds and copes in different ways. But I do think it is interesting that we never hear anything about Rin's parents or life before the elves, and there are no real details about it given in the Adventurer's Bible the way we have for Kabru. What's presented is more surface level facts: they were refugees, they made a living with magic, they were killed.

I'm inclined to believe that things are laid out this way because that's how Rin holds on to these things. She knows things about them, but possibly remembers them more as things she was told/knows to be true, rather than actual memories she can picture herself experiencing.

Rin's Magic

In an interesting counterpoint to her potentially spotty memory, I do actually think Rin may have learned magic from her parents (or started learning, and was self-taught from there). She never attended a magic academy, and actually has a bit of grudge against people who did - owing to the social protection afforded to "upper-class mages," which her parents did not have. She also almost certainly wouldn't have been taught by the elves, who not only treated her as an animal but also knew her parents may have been involved with ancient magic.

Falin began to show signs of magical talent at 8, and was sent to the Magic Academy at 10, and that was as someone who had absolutely no guidance about or exposure to magic in her home town. Raised by two mage parents, I think Rin absolutely could have been learning some things by the time she was 11.

In terms of continued learning, I'll add that Rin is able to identify Marcille's magic as being A) from an Academy student, and B) cast by an elf:

This makes me think that she continued to study magic on her own while held by the elves, and probably even more so after leaving with Kabru. They didn't form the party until two years after they left the elves, which would give Rin plenty of time to try and learn from other adventurers on the Island, or to study up on her own. She'd probably be able to pick up some dungeon-crawling basics (like the water walk spell), as well as become familiar with the skill level and expression of skill common in different people with different backgrounds (hence why she is able to comment on the "textbook" academy wards).

Much like Marcille, Rin also seems to rely on a 'one size fits all' Big Boom method of dealing with monsters: lightning. We see the best example of its power in the fight with Chimera Falin:

But we also see her cast it pretty recklessly in a few other places, including the end credits of the new anime ED, which I think provides a good example of the downsides to such an approach...

Yeah, it is very much a 'get out of the way or get zapped' spell.

Especially since Marcille's offensive magic is self-taught and works very similarly, this definitely reinforces the idea that Rin figured most of this stuff out herself.

Outfit and Character Design

Dear sweet Rin of the Red And Black... how I love her design.

First of all, her clothes are damaged. Despite the fact that Rin looks relatively well put together overall, her outfit is worn out. I have some theories on why this is that I'll get to in a bit, but for now I'll just touch on what this design communicates in general about it.

I think, just like with Kabru's horribly messy room, it creates a sense that there is something more complicated underneath the surface. Something that isn't being addressed or seen to, just as the dress hasn't been mended or replaced.

It also reflects her not caring a ton about her appearance. She's neat, but she's not concerned about being pretty, so she doesn't bother with fixing up her outfit after her dungeon crawls. This also fits with her perpetual scowl (which I will talk more about in a bit), and slightly disheveled hair.

Next: the gloves. At first I thought they might be a sort of uncomfortable-with-touch thing, but after skimming through the manga and some bonus content, I have another theory. Rin takes the gloves off to eat, as well as a few other instances, such as when working on a spell with Holm and Marcille in chapter 36

This one is especially interesting because she has them on in the next chapter, during the fight with Falin. Since she also isn't wearing gloves during some of the Daydream Hour art of her outside of the dungeon, that leads me to believe that they are specifically for combat.

What does she need them for, though? Most other casters we see don't wear gloves. Well... just look at the other half of the page where she attacks Falin with lightning:

She is enveloped by this spell. I said it before was pretty reckless magic, but maybe its not just a problem for her teammates, but for her as well.

So here's my theory: maybe the gloves are rubber, or some other electricity-resistant material? They might help protect her from her own magic. I don't know why a caster would need gloves for combat otherwise.

I also think this might be why her dress is tattered at the bottom, by the way. Especially since the Daydream Hour genderswap design doesn't have a similar problem with his outfit, since the tunic isn't as long.

I will admit this is a bit of stretch/guess, but I think it's a fun one, and I wanted to share. I do think I'm right about the gloves being for dungeons/fighting specifically, at least. That seems pretty consistent throughout all of her appearances.

I also mentioned her scowl, so I'll touch on that briefly as well. The (fairly confirmed) explanation for Rin's expression is that she intentionally wears a frown to prevent her other expressions from showing through. I think it's important to emphasize that it's not just smiling that she is trying to suppress here - it's any strong emotion:

Anyway, because I can, here is the art of Rin smiling.

Rin and Kabru

I have talked a bit about Rin and Kabru's history, but I think it deserves its own section.

I think it's very interesting that Rin is pretty much the ONLY character in all of Dungeon Meshi that has explicit canonical romantic interesting in someone. It's literally part of the main summary sentence in her character profile.

This could be sort of reductive as a way to describe a female character (and in some ways it still is), but I think in part the simplicity and directness of it actually is part of what makes it so interesting. Especially when on the very next page we see the comic about her backstory. "This mage is in love with Kabru" -> one page of a horribly traumatic event and a child frozen in shock with no one to comfort her. What does that do?

Well, in my opinion, it shows how much Rin focuses on Kabru as something to keep her in the present. In contrast with the immense loss she has experienced, her love for Kabru is current and alive. He has presumably been her anchor for years, and I think that her love is part of that anchor.

Adding to this, in contrast with how explicit her feelings are, she never seems to actively pursue Kabru. She complains about his potential interest in other women, but she doesn't really flirt. She doesn't let herself smile around him any more than anyone else, and she doesn't hide her bitterness or anger from him to present a more appealing persona.

As much as she craves Kabru's attention, and has stayed by his side for years, I don't know that she really wants to possess him. He seems to know about her feelings, more or less, and she seems to know that he knows. Maybe she believes he doesn't reciprocate and is respecting that, maybe she's afraid of what she could lose if she tried to change things, or maybe the change itself frightens her. In any case, though she's not exactly happy with the way things are between them, she doesn't seem to be trying to change that status quo.

A specific thing I'd also like to talk about with their relationship, beyond Rin's love for him, is her fear for him. As the Adventurer's Bible puts it, "she worries that his knack for dealing with whatever life throws at him might lead him to get too full of himself and end up in serious trouble."

Rin is an interesting mix of restrained and explosive, herself. Her magic is destructive, her temper seems to run hot (she gets annoyed easily, at least), and her feelings for Kabru are apparent. At the same time, she doesn't let her emotions show on her face, she is the one who bluntly states that the group has hit the limit of their abilities, and she doesn't act on those obvious feelings for Kabru. It's interesting, then, that what she fears for Kabru is that he won't restrain himself.

And a small personal idea about that as well: I wonder if she somewhat blames her parents for getting killed. Again, this is very speculative, but I think it's interesting that her fear for Kabru is that he will get too full of himself. Take up too much space. It's never really stated what Rin thinks of her parents, but it can be easy in grief to search for control, and control often means blame. If they hadn't been so confident, so flashy, would they still be alive...?

I don't know if she's ever thought like that, and it could well be that her fears for Kabru come from a totally different place. But it's an interesting connective thread between her past and present - the idea of "getting in trouble" for taking up too much space and being too confident in one's own abilities.

Miscellaneous Tidbits:

On that note, I'd like to wrap up the main part of this post, and move on to a few extra things that I couldn't find another place for.

Rin plays with her hair when she's stressed

Using stressed as a pretty big umbrella here, because I think it's hard to perfectly pin down all the emotions at play, but it is a habit of hers. Best displayed in chapter 32, but it shows up in other places, too.

Her design contrasts with Marcille

This is a small thing, but I just love how much they are visual opposites.

Rin wears red and black and has dark hair, Marcille wears blue and white and has light hair. Marcille cares a great deal for her hair and puts it up in elaborate hairstyles, and Rin's is mostly loose and a bit messy. Marcille was even educated at the Magic Academy, which Rin dislikes. They both have little capelets. Also they both look very cute in each other's clothes.

Rin knows Flamela (and they meet again in canon)

Nothing much is done with this in canon, but I think it’s super interesting that Flamela's squad are the ones that find Rin as a child and take her away to the west, and then they end up stuck in the dungeon together for a bit.

Two days??? I'm so very curious what things were like between these three.

Aaaand I think that's all I have to say about Rin! For the time being at least. There's a lot more analysis that could be done about her and Kabru especially, but for this post I wanted to keep things at least somewhat anchored to canon facts, with only a layer or two of speculation on top.

If it isn't already obvious, I think Rin is a super interesting character with a ton of potential depth to explore. She mostly interacts with Kabru in canon, but has ties to a bunch of other characters: she and Marcille fill similar roles in their parties but have differing personalities and histories, she and Falin (and Laios) have been tremendously shaped by xenophobia and fear of magic common in the Northern Continent, her parents fled from conflict in the same region Shuro and his retainers are from, and she has history with Flamela and some of the second canary squad.

Her temper, her fear, her love... her repression and passion - they all inform her character, even in small ways, even with as little time as she spends on the page.

[empress-simps]

James Potter Dating Sirius’ Younger Sister (Head Canons)

Note: These are just random stuff, it has been sitting in my notes app for a month or so? Enjoyy

Oh boy, you are in for a wild ride; just imagine all the chaos this would bring. Best believe you always have a stupid prank to worry about around the corner when your brother and boyfriend are pranksters.

You were a year younger than Sirius, being the middle child, and Regulus the youngest, it wasn’t surprising that you were kind of shunned by Walburga and Orion. You’re a girl, you cannot pass the Black family name onto your children, you were also not the heir. Luckily, big brother Sirius quickly took you under his wing and became the parent figure in your life.

You were sorted into Slytherin, along with Regulus much to your older brother’s dismay.

He threw a fucking fit and practically felt his soul leave his body the first time you told him. Sirius even went as far as tearing up and looking out the window, defeated. (And quite dramatically)

“You should’ve been a Gryffindor, Y/n! I don’t even know why the sorting hat put you in that evil house!” Sirius huffed, pouting.

“Regulus is also in the same house as me, brother.”

“Well it was quite obvious that he was meant to be a Slytherin, Regulus has a stick up his a-“

Although the Marauders mainly pranks the Slytherin students, you were an exception. How could Sirius prank his adorable little sister? You don’t deserve it! (also because James is a tad bit overprotective when it comes to you, Sirius just chalks it up as James being respectful to his younger sibling.)

“Siri, please don’t make Reggie suffer too much.” You plead to your older brother, puppy eyes activating as you heard their plans to set a nasty prank to slytherin students earlier. Sirius’ features soften, “Alright, I’ll talk to James. He’ll be the one to decide.” He pats your head, already formulating an apology for the prank he’s sure will not be cancelled.

James has been harboring feelings ever since he saw you on the train ride to Hogwarts with Sirius in his second year, so it was quite obvious what his opinion is on the matter.

Sirius randomly starts later that evening, “Prongs, Y/n was asking if you could exempt Regulus in our prank-“

“Oh don’t worry I’ll cancel it.”

Peter sputters “You’ll what?”

James looked at them “What? Let’s give them a day off.” Remus did a double take and actually sets his book down after placing his book mark. Yeah, that's how you know it's serious.

“We’ve been planning this for months-“

“Did I stutter, Wormtail?”

The hold you had on James though, seriously.

James Potter is whipped for Y/n Black.

You want some food that the house elves didn't prepare for dinner? Don't worry, James is on the case! He will run to the kitchens and bribe the house elves to make you some of your favorite dishes and what you're craving.

“What’s with the long face, princess?” Sirius asks, seeing you slump down next to him, looking quite defeated.

“Just some housemates, I couldn’t study well because of them.” You grumbled, pulling out your Herbology textbook and trying to focus.

Prongs frowned, snapping him out of his daydreams (which were probably about you.)

“Who?”

James want names.

Who dared interrupt his sweet girl’s (still not his girl though but we don’t talk about that) study session?!

Remus, being the observant sod he is, looks at Prongs, amusement swimming in his eyes as he takes in James’ angry and protective form.

Remus and Peter already has a hunch that Prongs fancy Padfoot’s little sister like… about a few months or so?

James doesn’t really even try to hide it, although it was one of the greatest unsolved mysteries on how Sirius still hasn’t figured it out.

“You reckon Padfoot’s just playing dumb? Even an oaf could see Prongs making heart eyes at Y/n.” Peter stated, snacking on some chocolate frogs as he sat on his bed.

Remus rolled his eyes, also sitting in his bed at their dorm room. The boys in conversation were in their quidditch practice. “He’s quite thick, I bet he wouldn’t even know until they started dating.”

“But Y/n’s innocent- doesn’t even know how lovesick James is.”

Peter was utterly wrong about that part.

You know that James likes you, although you try to ignore it, you can’t.

Because you like him back.

“Go out with me?”

You felt yourself blanch, hearing the familiar cheeky voice behind you.

You nearly broke your neck as you spun around to see James holding a bouquet of your favorite flowers while sporting a nervous smile.

“Does my brother know this?”

“Do you think I’d still be here alive when I tell him I’m utterly in love with his younger sister?”

Sirius almost busted a blood vessel when he found out.

Remus had to physically restrain him from lunging at James.

Yea sure, Sirius views James as his brother from another mother BUT BROTHER-IN-LAW?

“Bloody hell, Pads! Calm your balls down!” Remus grunts, back hugging the boy as he desperately tries to wriggle out of his mate’s grasp.

“No! Let me go, Moony! I just want to have a chat with Prongs!”

“Chat my ass! You were about to bloody knock the living daylights out of him earlier!”

It took a while for Sirius to wrap his head around how one of his brother-from-another-mother fancies his younger sibling.

He won’t lie, he felt betrayed by James for a short amount of time. He distanced himself (for a day, lol) but of course, he couldn’t stay mad at James.

Realistically speaking? James and Remus are the ones who are good enough to date you for Sirius.

“Do you love him?”

Sirius approached you one time in a random hallway. Youwere caught off guard with his question. You never saw your brother serious like that before.

“Sirius, what are you talking about?” You tried to feign innocence, but Sirius saw through that.

“James. I know he fancies you. Have you been shagging-“

You quickly clamped Sirius’ mouth with your hand, looking at your surroundings to check if anyone heard what he said.

“Salazar’s balls, brother! I still have my virtue!” You hissed, “Besides, I’m saving it for marriage.” You told him, making his tense shoulders relax.

“Atleast there’s something good that came out of those boring lectures Walburga taught us.”

“I am not a whore like you, brother.” You snickered, a playful smirk present on your face as Sirius slowly processed what you said.

“Why you little-“

It would take some adjustments for Sirius as he slowly takes in the fact that you and James started dating.

It doesnt help the fact that James always proclaims his undying love for you every chance he gets, which is every time.

Although, before he even asks you to be his girl, he talked to Sirius first, asking for his blessing.

Who is Sirius to deny his little sister and Prong’s happiness?

“I just love her so much…” James sighs dreamily, watching you from the Gryffindor table as you ate in silence beside Regulus, who was uncomfortable and tries to shield you from James’ looks (which he finds creepy).

Sirius can feel his eye twitch.

“Can you stop that Prongs? Just say that to her when you’re alone in a room.”

James frowned, “But you don’t allow us to be alone-“

“Exactly, Prongs. I don’t care if she’s your girlfriend—wife even. She’s my younger sister.”

James perked up, “So you’re alright with her being my wife?!”

Hogsmeade dates with James always.

“Honey, you don’t have to get me that necklace.”

He would buy you anything and everything you land your eyes upon more than 1.5 seconds.

He frowns, looking like a kicked puppy. “But you were staring at it!”

“It just crossed my line of vision-“

James certainly went back and secretly bought it for you.

No one can stop him when it comes to spoiling you.

Effie and Fleamont absolutely adores you.

“So, when is the wedding?” Effie smiled, looking at you and James expectantly

Cue Sirius choking in the background.

You blushed as James cleared his throat awkardly, a beet red blush already dusting his cheeks. “Mum…”

Effie blinks, acting innocent. “What? You guys are about to graduate from Hogwarts in… three months or so!”

Your family found out about the relationship.

Walburga’s stinging slap was marked on your cheek. “Have we taught you nothing, girl?!”

Regulus watched worriedly from the side, feeling helpless as Walburga continued to shout and curse at you.

“You good for nothing brat! I should’ve married you off ages ago! To think you’d turn out to be your older brother… Leave! And never come back as you will be no longer welcomed in the house of black!”

Regulus begged to take him with you.

Having nowhere else to go, you knocked on the door of the Potter Manor tiredly, holding your suitcase and Regulus looking around nervously.

Sirius was the one who answered the door.

“she hit you…” James muttered lowly, softly placing his warm hands on your cheek.

“It’s nothing, James.” You shrugged.

“We’ve suffered worse. I’m sure you’ve known that by now.” Regulus told him quietly, not looking up from his cup of warm tea before his eyes flickered to Sirius.

From that moment on, everything seemed to be better.

You’re happy to get out of the abusive household. Bringing Regulus with you, being reunited with your older brother, and hanging out with your boyfriend anytime you want.

Finally graduated from Hogwarts, James decided to pop the question.

“Padfoot..? You in there?” James nervously knocked on Sirius’ bedroom door.

“In here, Prongs! Hold on.” James heard shuffling before the door opened to reveal Sirius rubbing his eyes, seemingly woken up from a nap. He opened the door to let James in his room.

Sirius eyes him, noticing how fidgety one of his best friends are, his mind assumed the worst.

“I swear to Merlin, Prongs. If you got her pregnant and don’t plan to be responsible for it I’ll-“

James sputters, “What?! No! No one’s having a baby!”

Sirius visibly relaxed, “Then what’s gotten you looking so troubled?”

James pulls out a velvet box from his pocket and opened it to reveal an engagement ring.

“Erm… I’m not Y/n, Prongs.”

Cue a face palm from James, “I’m planning to marry your sister, not you, Pads. I’m asking for your blessing.”

Sirius didn’t think twice before giving him his blessing.

Which was why he and Regulus were dragged alongside Remus and Peter to plan a prefect surprise proposal.

“No no, it’s a bit crooked on the right.” James told Regulus, who was setting up the picnic blanket.

“Sirius, remind me again why I have decided to help this stupidly nervous sod?” He deadpanned to his brother.

“It’s for Y/n, Reggie.”

Regulus frowns, scrunching up his nose as he watches James run around like a headless chicken who’s trying to oversee everything.

“Right…”

“Where’s the ring?!”

Regulus could only sigh as he watched James panicking and looking in every nook and cranny, searching for the velvet box with the ring inside— that was obvious in his back pocket, where he placed it five minutes ago.

[mushroomates]

legolas headcanons:

is, by all accounts, the worlds most awkward elf

most of the fellowship doesn’t even realize how weird he is

thranduil did not socialize his boy well. legolas is not aloof he just has no idea what he’s supposed to be doing.

will walk very slowly with exaggerated movements around hobbits because he thinks they won’t see him otherwise.

the hobbits thinks this is elf custom. frodo theorizes this is because elves want to rest their eyes and ears when they’re at home, so other elves like to announce themselves so no one gets spooked.

this is aided by the fact that legolas loudly announces his presence whenever he enters the room, just incase you missed it.

this conclusion is false. legolas will approach other elves by charging at them, full speed. alternatively, shooting an arrow in their vicinity for a vibe check.

he also likes shooting at people to wake them up and/or scare them

legolas likes that it’s a gentle reminder to his companions that he could kill them at any time and they should be honored that he doesn’t.

aragorn has options about this. legolas tells him that he should be grateful that such a skilled elf is on his side and cares for him. aragorn maintains that if legolas really cared, the elf would stop waking him up with ‘good morning’ shots. he also would like to note that legolas’s loud singing is only slightly better than an arrow flying at you first thing in the morning:.

legolas tries to make friends by staring at them from afar and when they look at him he looks away. like a cat. he will also blink at u as if to say “look! i like you! i’m closing my eyes!!!” again, like a cat.

will bring you small gifts to curry favor, also like a cat. interesting rocks and pretty feathers, samples of dirt, fallen leaves in different shapes and colors, and whatever flowers are near by and catch his eye. gets very upset if you don’t marvel at them for the appropriate amount of time.

will eat bites off of your plate. this is a form of endearment. he’s showing he trusts you and likes you. he’s also showing his inability to cook and hopes you’ll take pity on him by sharing your food.

sometimes will intentionally walk loudly around the camp if he’s bored, angry, or lonely so he can wake aragorn up and they can be awake together :)

likes to sing, loudly, at inappropriate times

no one in the fellowship has seen him piss. some of the hobbits are under the impression that elves don’t pee. aragorn and gandalf do not correct them.

up at the asscrack of dawn. this is annoying, because he’s chipper, looks amazing, and is a tad judgmental that you aren’t as well.

captain obvious as well as worlds most unhelpful elf ever. will point out your mistake, claim to know how to fix it and half the time not offer the solution or his assistance.

cannot do laundry. he doesn’t even get dirty enough to consider it, and with how little people in middle earth wash their clothes anyway, none of his clothes have been cleaned for easily centuries.

is very confused by dogs. doesn’t understand what he’s supposed to do with them. they’re always so happy and want (physical???) attention and,, it’s not a one and done thing either. you’re supposed to keep petting them? after you already pet them.

they’re like wolves, but smaller and maybe stupider. they also stink. boromir has explained to him many times that dogs are man’s best friend and are beautiful creatures. this worries legolas, because that means either dogs are more evolved than they let on,, or men are significantly further behind than elves than he first thought..

can not play the harp. is upset by this fact.

never really bothered to learn how to harp, either.

he believes he should be able to play the harp regardless because the harp is just a big bow with many strings. this is, in fact, false.

will eat anything. mushrooms and questionable berries mean nothing to him.

this upsets aragorn as he believes legolas is setting a bad example for the hobbits, dispite hobbits having the most durable digestive systems. (note: elves can eat almost anything, but hobbits have the stomach of a labrador retriever. they are always hungry, can can eat anything, even what they’re not supposed to)

DID set a bad example for boromir, who mistakingly ate some of the berries legolas offered him and had the shits for weeks.

is like 90% sure who frodo is. it’s definitely one of the hobbits. it’s probably not the one with the pony.

is faceblind. he can’t recognize other people’s faces for the life of him. if you asked him to pick out aragorn in a sea of humans, he’d panic dispite knowing the man for 50+ years.

this also goes for all races, including dwarves. gimli thought he might just be racist and covering his ass, but then watched him stall for like 30 minutes making small talk with some lorien elves and try (and fail) to pick celeborn out of the crowd.

does know what galadriel and thranduil look like. has a hard time pointing out elrond.

will forget your name almost immediately after you tell him. guys like 3k old and has met a lot of people give him a break

to be fair he does know who you are and what you sound/look like. defining features like voice and hair help a lot. it’s just if you were to give him a book of cropped faces and ask him to name, just one,,, he’d panic and throw it at you.

feels robbed of the golden ages,, resents the fact that the world he knows is drastically different that the world he could have been. wishes there were more elves his age and just more elves in general.

that being said he wouldn’t change this for anything as the world he’s in gave him the friends he’s made and the adventure of a life time :)

he doesn’t wash his hands. like ever or at all.

[bibbityboppitybillyharvgrove]

All Thanks to You - T.Nott

Summary - At first, Theo found her gifts sweet and kind but the longer they went on the more they annoyed him. He had the false assumption that she was chasing after his money and status but he was very wrong. He didn't realize how wrong he was until he overhears her sticking up for him in library.

Pairings - Theo Nott x Fem!Reader

Warnings - Use of Y/N, female reader, profanity, stress

Author's Note - I'm getting through all of my requests slowly but surely, this will probably be my first and last post of the day. I'll try my best to keep banging these out but unfortunately today was my last day of spring break and my vacation from work. Thank you for being patient!

Based off the request by an anon

Expect delays in my posting! My semester has started and I am taking 4 classes! Please be patient with me!

My requests are open!

my masterlist

Feedback is welcomed and encouraged!

Enjoy!

It was almost disgustingly obvious how much she liked Theo, except to the boy himself. It had taken him ages to figure it all out. He thought it was weird at first, he was always getting baked treats, a seat saved, books that he ended up loving and notes sent to him. Then, it started to annoy him, he thought that she was just trying to get to him because of his status and money. That of course wasn’t her intention but he didn’t figure that one out until he overheard a conversation, one revolving around him and all of his flaws and untrue rumors.

He was about to jump in himself until the sweet voice of the girl sending him all of these good things chimed in. 

“That’s not true at all. Theo is so kind and sweet. He cares so much about his friends and only acts cold to people like you because you believe and spread all of these bullshit lies. He’s not rude, he’s not unnerving, he especially isn’t ugly or gross to girls. He’s sweet and kind and loving and a great person and if you can’t see that, then don’t consider me your friend anymore,” She ranted before packing up her books and walking away, not expecting to bump into the boy himself. “Oh shit, I’m sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going, I’ll get out of your way.”

“Wait,” He pleaded, having every expectation of her walking away but she stopped in her tracks and turned to face him, “Thank you for sticking up for me. I know I said your gifts were annoying but I don’t really think that. I honestly thought you were after me for money or to boost your status or something, I shouldn’t have assumed that.”

“No, you shouldn’t have. You’re a good person Theo. I’d love to talk more but I really have to go study for the potions exam,” She told him.

“Study with me, I have an O in the class, I can help you.” The smile on her face brightened the room, making his heart skip a beat, a smile finding its way onto his own lips.

“Okay! I know the best spot in the library,” She chirped, grabbing his hand and leading him to the top floor into a quiet corner. The two of them studied together for nearly an hour before she spoke again, “How in the fuck do you make a draught of the living dead again? I can’t remember anything right now, my brain is fried,” She groaned, resting her forehead on crossed arms.

“You need a break, love. Let’s go to the kitchen and get some food from the house elves,” Theo offered.

“Won’t we get in trouble?”

“No, I’m friends with the prefects on duty, let’s go before they change shifts.”

The whole way down to the kitchen, the two were holding hands, neither of them had even noticed until Draco stopped them in the stairwell leading down to their destination. “What do we have here? The infamous Theodore Nott holding hands with his admirer?”

“Oh shove off, we need you to cover the kitchen while we get food,” Theo told his friend, still holding onto her hand even though they were caught.

“What’s in it for me?” Draco asked.

Before Theo could open his mouth, Y/N answered, “Pumpkin pasties, green apples and cauldron cakes. I see you eating those a lot so I assume you like them?”

“You assume correctly, fine, let’s go lovebirds.”

Holding up her end of the promise, she got Draco his favorite sweets, snacking with the two Slytherin boys. The blond boy had taken a liking to her, finding her genuine, funny and observational. The bond between Theo and Y/N had grown and only got stronger by the day. It was no surprise to any of their friends when they started dating not long after studying together. 

They continued to have study dates until the day of the Potions exam. She was extremely nervous and Theo was nervous for her. They didn’t get to see each other until dinner that day. Taking her usual spot next to Theo at the Slytherin table, casually sliding a paper to him. He furrowed his eyebrows before opening the paper, the red ink stared him right in the face.

“You got an O?! Bellissima, that's amazing! I’m so proud of you!” Theo exclaimed as he hugged her tightly, placing kisses on her head.

“All thanks to you, handsome,” She smiled at him.

Theo kissed her deeply on her lips causing groans and gags around them. Neither of them having a care in the world other than her O.

[toskarin]

some mostly flippant rambles on including elves in the Saltreave (that fantasy setting I write when I'm not working on my more serious projects) along with some setting notes in the margins

well. the setting notes are like 90% of the body of the text.

but we do get to elves. and we stay at elves for a while.

-

THERE IS NO ZERO IN THE ROMAN NUMERAL SYSTEM: Prologue to the Preramble

so I've written about my thoughts on elves as sort of "narrative level lifeforms" before, and that's still very much where my thoughts lie on them, but there are also just kind of elves around as fairly normal people in the Saltreave

this is a bit of a blurry line, because they're obviously not the nature-loving type of elf you see post-Tolkien -- which I'll go ahead and say feels like a deliberately obtuse misread of what Tolkien was implying by them living in harmony with a world that is literally described as the manifestation of a song -- but the bottom line is that Saltreave's elves aren't Tolkien elves, and they're not attempting to be subversions of them, but they are written by someone who quite likes those guys

all of that raises another question: what the hell are elves in the Saltreave?

-

I: Preramble

I put a bit of an information abyss at the beginning of the setting by design, outright saying that the "pre-apocalypse" might as well not exist at all.

to some extent you can say that it must have existed, and there is a bit of scattered writing that implies things about the state of affairs the world was in (mostly in terms of the politics between mortal civilisations and how that manifests in the modern politics of the remaining citystates), but the Advent is where the story starts

the most common explanations of what things were like before the current era are, at the end of the day, just attempts to explain what the people living in it are presently perceiving

the Advent, used as shorthand for a million things that each mean something different to everyone, is either the end of the world or the end of the old order of things. it is both the death of the symbolic plane and its violent merging with the material plane, severing every connection to the symbolic along the way

a bit further down that line of thought, even the present magic system gestures towards being derived from an older practice that was forced to adapt to sudden shift of the central symbolic source to a source diffused unevenly in the material plane, although from what exactly this magic system was forced to adapt remains a bit of a mystery

-

II: Into the Ramble

the Saltwind (the thing that gives the setting its name and effectively wiped out the previous world) is actually harmless

or more accurately, it's a visible symptom of an invisible problem, and that invisible problem is extremely harmful in a way nothing else could possibly hope to be

the "salt" in the wind is actually just salt. it's a lot of salt, but it's still just recognisably some sort of organic salt if you were to hold it in your hands

the salt is both the result of the Advent and a vessel for carrying "warped grain," an invisible ripple of magical static that functions more or less like (non-mutagenic, because I'm actually not a fan of using that as an apocalypse fiction concept) magical radiation

warped grain takes on a bunch of roles, so let's go over a few of those in relative brief

the one most commonly acknowledged fact is that warped grain is a soul-destroying pollution. it's bad stuff. it's poison that seeps into everything. it's in the water, it's in the air, it gets into the food as it grows, and you need to affiliate yourself with a citystate that has access to unpolluted (or otherwise purified) supplies to survive in the world as it exists

a bit less commonly (mostly when scholars and other big-hats talk about it) it's acknowledged as a sort of ambient magical noise that makes spells more unpredictable and dangerous. it can also periodically "complete" a spell if you take too long casting it, making it do something unintended (often killing the caster)

in a pinch, warped grain can be absorbed into the body as some kind of environmental magic energy, allowing someone to replenish their depleted magical energy and forgo resting to generate their own*

*: absorbing environmental energy in a world where it's literally poisoned will also eventually fuck up your soul beyond repair, so it's a really stupid idea and not something any serious magic-user would recommend

but most importantly for why elves are around, warped grain can be seen as the frayed threads of a decapitated cosmological order, death-rattling itself apart

-

III: Rambling About Elves, Mostly

because of their intimate connection to the disrupted symbolic plane of the world, the elves who were alive at the time of the Advent were grievously injured, experiencing the soul equivalent of radiation-induced chromosome aberration, and died a few years later. the generations following this one represent the entirety of the remaining elven population

this means that all modern elves can theoretically be divided into two categories

Selvedge Elves - while ostensibly referring to one of "pureblooded" elven stock, meaning someone whose parentage has never included a mortal. the elephant in the room is that Selvedge Elves aren't real and haven't been for quite some time. an actual Selvedge Elf had a lifespan of about 20-25 years and was not capable of having children, on account of being a wholly symbolic being born into a world where the symbolic plane exploded like an asbestos ceiling. "Selvedge" exists as a highly ideologically-charged concept, and not exactly one that lends itself to any non-reactionary interpretations

Scion Elves - everyone else. all elves currently alive are demimortal, which means that they have at least a bit of mortal parentage. even beyond elves, there are no immortals left in the Saltreave, but their descendants are absolutely still around. the term "Scion" refers to those descendants, but given that there isn't really a group to draw them in contrast to, most people prefer not to use it at all.

now it's worth mentioning, while they're all partially mortal, not all currently existing elves are specifically partially human. the stereotypical elf is human or similar, but there's nothing stopping an elf from being, say, a sylvan (the broad category of mortals who have animal ears and such)

Luuga, a character I've posted a few times, would be considered an elf if her status as a sylvan didn't make people identify that first. that's why she has longer, narrower ears than other feline-type sylvans (contrast the only other example I've drawn, Imiellith, and how her ears are much stouter)

more on sylvans and other types of mortal at some later time, but with everything out of the way, let's get down to some elf facts

-

IV: Indulgently Rambling About Elf Facts at Great Length

elves theoretically have different lifespans from mortal beings, which is something they have in common with other demimortals. elves specifically live about ten years longer on average than mortals, provided they don't die of unnatural causes, which they usually do.

additionally, they have a few notable traits that are more specific to elves

(an egregious number of) examples of these include...

elves only breathe as a learned social behaviour and theoretically don't actually need to do it. the same goes for yawning, coughing, sweating, sneezing, and similar functions. somewhat unfortunately for them, because most living things know they need to breathe, elves are still perfectly capable of knowing they need to breathe, which means they're capable of suffocating. in theory, an elf raised by people deliberately trying not to teach them about breathing wouldn't have to breathe, but that's not really a good way to raise a child

elves tire more based on time rather than effort. this is a subtle distinction, but means that an elf can exert more effort in a burst than a mortal companion, yet drops from exhaustion as soon as they've reached the limit of how long they can work. most people never notice this, since "the limits of exerted effort" and "the limits of time spent exerting effort" overlap heavily

elves are about five times more likely to die of old age on their birthday than any other day, but only if they're aware of their birthday. this is something most people are aware of, and different cultures grapple with this in different ways

in cultures with different calendars, the previous point also holds true. in cultures without the concept of something equivalent to a "year," elves just die of old age in more or less the same way mortals do

an elf's hair has a length it wants to be, with the specific length varying between individuals. if cut, it will grow faster back to this length. it cannot be grown longer than this by any means

elves tend to be quick to grasp spoken language, but a bit slower when it comes to grasping written language. this isn't always true, and when it is, doesn't tend to manifest past initial language acquisition

in exception to the previous point, elves are prone to grasping pasigraphies at the same (often accelerated) rate with which they grasp spoken languages. if the conditions were ever to arise for a wholly elven-developed language, it would likely have no direct written component, with all writing consisting of a highly contextual pasigraphy

elves stereotypically have exceptional memories when it comes to things that catch their interest. it's not uncommon for elven big-hats to keep a small stash of special expensive candies entirely for the purpose of forcing themselves to have eidetic memory for something they're disinterested in by associating it with extremely positive stimulus

because of the previous point, there is a notable market for making luxury treats aimed specifically at elven academics in cities they frequent

because of the two previous points, elven academics often develop pleasure-deprivation complexes, feeling guilty whenever they experience positive emotions that don't lend themselves to furthering their work

the previous three points are only true if they are generally understood to be true in the location where the individual is raised

if tested, most elves would appear to be colourblind. a deeper examination would reveal that elves only struggle with telling green and blue, and that this difficulty persists into the very concept of green and blue, which they struggle with disentangling in abstract. this is also true of elves with most other colexifications because I got annoyed with constantly reading people on tumblr doing pseudolinguistics and thought it'd be a little funny to have the Symbolic People run on the faulty assumptions I kept seeing

elves can get so sad they just physically die

elves can theoretically recover from any acquired disease provided that they receive adequate and comprehensive treatment for the symptoms

nothing can reduce an elf's pain to the point where they don't notice it. sedatives work, but analgesics simply do not

elves can theoretically die of any disease (no matter how minor it is) if it lasts long enough

in the same vein as the previous point every chronic illness is effectively a terminal one to an elf. the exception to this rule is that an elf will not die of a chronic illness they are born with, even if the same chronic illness would eventually prove to be terminal in a mortal

elves cannot leave permanent footprints, regardless of what they're wearing and where they try to leave them. if an elf were to step in cement, the bootprint would eventually disappear in the same way that it would if they'd stepped in sand

contrary to the previous point, if an elf writes in ink, the ink cannot be smudged or otherwise distorted on accident. the writing can still be lost by destroying the object it's on or deliberately attempting to smudge it, but this requires intention

while elves are exceptionally capable of performing magic without any formal education, this is actually the result of them being able to open the immortal component of their souls to grain, including warped grain, and therefore should never be done. this is true of most demimortals, with the mortal component of their soul being the safeguard that prevents their souls from being torn apart in the same way their ancestors' were

elves grow to be about as tall as is normal for them to be where they are raised. this is a bit counter-intuitive at first blush, but more or less means that an elf (regardless of specific heritage and origin) will grow to the height that is generally understood to be "normal for an elf" in the location where they are growing

in a similar vein to the previous point, an elf raised by mortals with no knowledge of elves (especially without knowledge that the child is an elf) will not show any physical traits of being an elf. this is an unlikely event that requires like three sets of perfect circumstances to happen, but it's not off the table

in a similar vein to the two previous points, dominant cultural understandings have a causal influence on certain other things considered "elven features," but the only evidenced ones besides height are ear length, ear angle, degree of facial hair, number of ribs, and the exact position in the chest where the heart resides

as a final note, elves always have both palmaris longus tendons, unless they are explicitly understood to lack one or both, as with previous points

-

V: Drawing Some Kind of Conclusion From Rambling About Elves. But Not Really.

this is all a very long way of saying that elves (and other demimortals) represent "those who have lost their plot armour" in a setting where the symbolic plane was seemingly once something running parallel to the material world and now exists most prominently as a severed limb bleeding all over it

because no written history of the immortals was preserved in the Advent, knowledge of the old world is heavily slanted towards a mortal perspective, containing only outside views into the symbolic plane's nature

there is nobody left alive who remembers the world before, several generations having passed since then, but to those who were told that they fell from a world of elevated importance and meaning, it can be especially tempting to view the old world as a halcyon paradise that was ruined

what remains is largely conflicting and disputed. most have long since moved on from litigating these things, faced with a world where it would make no difference

[tanoraqui]

Dungeon Meshi Liveblog: Some Much-Needed Downtime TBH

ok I kinda read these species-swap chapters quickly without commenting 2 nights ago bc I REALLY wanted to catch up to the show, and honestly I didn't have much to say? It was a fun showcase of some different species talents, and introduced multiple fun problems for the characters to solve [takes notes in DM]. But it didn't seem to move either plot or characters forward much. Some notes:

Honestly it's surprising that there's only been 1 count of food poisoning so far, when they're trying SO MANY new things. One must credit Senshi's cooking skills!

This might be the single funniest joke so far:

I've seen multiple posts saying Senshi's elfsona reveals him to be feminine by dwarf standards, and I'm genuinely BAFFLED by that take because it is SO obvious that Senshi's elfsona reveals him to be 1. the Hottest Man You Have Ever Met, and 2. HAIRY. We have seen 0 other elves with facial hair. I dug up that showcase of different elves and 0 of them have facial hair. In the Tolkienien lore from which all modern fantasy, or certainly this sort of fantasy, is derived, exactly 2 elves in the history of the world are said to have had facial hair. Elf!Senshi has a tiny little moustache. Elf!Senshi isn't feminine, he is the HOTTEST, HAIRIEST bear in the metaphorical gay club.

...it's possible that he's more of a himbo than we realize, though.

I don't know what's up with Kensuke and I AM worried that it's being directed by the demon. I want it to be Laios's friend so bad...

It occurs to me that "the winged lion is actually the demon at the root of all of this" is probably the biggest spoiler I've gotten, and I didn't even realize how huge a spoiler it was because I DIDN'T get spoilered for the fact that, so far as the characters know, the lion is supposed to be a helpful god. Don't play with spoilers, kids! Even if you want to read the juicy meta!

This initial fight with the gargoyles is probably my new second-favorite "Laios is really quickly analytical and problem-solving in combat" moment (the living armor fight is still #1). He sees how everyone is failing, prevents more problems as he can, realizes they can't win and puts together what pieces they need to get out. In group social dynamics, he's a mediocre leader at best, but he's a superb combat tactician.

Laios is just living in his own little after-school special, and I love him for that.

That first panel is definitely support for the theory that the 50-60yr life expectancy of "short-lived" races like tallmen, orcs, kobolds and halffeet is shorter than it should be, relative to their ages of maturity, because the long-lived races control and hold most of the resources. It's even possible that their ages of maturity SHOULD be even older, but social conditions force them to become "adults" at a younger developmental age than dwarves, gnomes and especially elves!

Panel 3 is Marcille mentally shoving Chilchuck higher on her list of Lives to Extend by Whatever Magic I Can Learn.

I love how the way they figure out that the mushrooms' effects are easily reversible is literally by thinking through the greater social worldbuilding implications of the effects.

^This is the single most Dad we've ever seen Chilchuck...topped only by that 'carry child like a football' a moment later. Actually, he yeets Marcille a LOT while tall - here, over the jump in the travel montage, with Laios to make a loop for the gargoyle...which I'm dead certain is an indication of how he physically treated his daughters. Those kids got casually, affectionately tossed like salad.

.

AND THAT'S WHAT WE CALL FRIENDSHIP.

...okay maybe I did have several thoughts about those 2 chapters.

.

"[Falin] was much tougher than I was. I hear she and our parents still write to each other" is SUCH a line for painting a picture of Laios and Falin's childhoods, and Laios's feelings on it.

.

you can keep your Kabru Wink(TM)s, I am weak only for the Laios Fond Little Smile(TM).

.

I love how Senshi is still musing on this soul = egg metaphor, and I LOVE how both times now that we've seen Laios genuinely lose his temper, it's because someone was saying "why are you just being excited about eating monsters when Falin is in danger?!", and he's snapping because he is fucking NOT dismissing his sister in favor of eating monsters, he is doing EVERYTHING IN HIS POWER to save her and it just so happens that the only plans with a smidgen of success involve leaning into eating monsters. And by trying to stop him from that, you're stopping him from saving Falin.

.

Laios, how tf do you remember the Wink? I'm 99% sure Kabru never once winked in your interactions; I WAS looking for it. Was he just exuding wink energy? (I mean...yes.)

.

The dramatic irony jokes in this chapter are on POINT. Chilchuck: "There's no way this thing still works" [tram door slams shut on his heels, cars immediately starts moving]. "You won't find a military company in the dungeon" [smash cut to Shuro, Namari and Kabru unhappily leading the Canaries into the dungeon]. Impeccable.

Stopping this one here in preparation for going nuts about implied elf-related worldbuilding in the next chapters!

[bokutosbiceps]

‘tis the season | kengan ashura

gaolang wongsawat/kanoh agito/kure raian/tokita ohma x gn!reader | fluff | ~1k words

warnings: some suggestive/18+ themes but nothing explicit + obviously cursing bc rai is involved my piece of shit man

a/n: welcome to my xmas special for the kengan boys !! as usual, i chose to write for my fav men. it was sooo hard to decide wtf raian would do because he would refuse to do any of these activities but i think what i chose fits him p well LOL.also I’M SORRY OHMA’S IS SO SHORT BUT I THINK IT’S CUTE, m’kay, so pls enjoy 🎄

18+ MDNI | under the cut for length

gaolang wongsawat finds going to the christmas market with you to be the perfect way to spend his evening. the first stop that you two will make, which is a must, is the coffee stall. he’ll pay for both of your coffees and tip the stall attendant just a little bit extra since he’s feeling the holiday spirit. then he’ll tuck his hands into his pockets and you’ll thread your arm through his and thus begins your journey through the stalls.

gaolang holds you close as you trudge through the market, appreciating all of the pretty stalls decorated with lights and tinsel. you two will stop at every single food stall, and gaolang insists on sharing all of his food with you. he thinks it’s cute the way that your smile reaches your eyes and scrunches your nose when you bite into something that’s hot and tasty.

otherwise, it’s mostly silent, save for the quiet murmur of the crowd around you and your excited comments at anything cute your eyes may land on. gaolang is silently taking note of these things, because he will be coming back to the market without you to buy you each and every one of whatever you showed any interest in. 

kanoh agito is a man of many, many talents, including chopping down the christmas tree for your shared abode. you and kanoh make the long drive up to the mountains to pick out your tree, and you stand back and let your eyes rake over you man while he swings his axe against the poor tree of your choosing.

he sheds his coat and his long sleeve, leaving him only in a tank top to allow for full range of motion, spits into his hands, and grabs the axe like his life depends on it. agito, all rippling muscles, swings the blade of the axe against the tree like a pro, using his hips to add extra power into his swing until the tree is hanging on by a mere, woody thread.

“were you a lumberjack in a past life, babe?” you joke as you watch him tie the tree down to the hood of your car with twine.

“lumber…jack?” agito doesn’t stop what he’s doing but he throws a questioning glance over his shoulder at you. you giggle, remembering that this towering hunk of man still has much to learn about the world around him. you walk up to his side and give the twine a good tug to ensure that it’s secure before turning around and leaning your back against your car.

“don’t worry about it. you were just chopping down this tree like such an expert, i thought maybe you’d done this in a past life.” you watch as agito shrugs his layers of clothing back on and comes back over to you, leaning on the car next to you.

“i’m surprised you noticed my axe technique since you were too busy ogling me.” agito smirks at you, wrapping an arm around your shoulders and pressing you into his side. you gasp in fake embarrassment.

“i don’t know how i’m supposed to resist! you took off your coat on purpose!” you tease.

agito just chuckles and leans down to place a kiss to the top of your head, whatever you say, doll.  

kure raian’s least favorite thing about moving back into kure village is the fact that he is required to decorate the house with christmas lights. erioh gets on his ass, starting in september, to remind him that he must decorate his villa to keep the village looking nice and uniform for the holidays.

“the fuck do i care about uniformity and niceties? we’re fucking assassins, not little ass elves.” raian grumbles as he untangles the string of lights. he continues to mutter and and whine while he fights with the cord and you’re watching in pure delight as you lay out the corny, tacky decorations you bought for the front yard.

raian brings the ladder down from the garage wall with one arm, his muscle flexing and relaxing as he brings it to the spot under the peak of the roof. 

“get over here and hold the ladder for me.”

“can i get a please?” you raise your eyebrows at him, knowing full well you’re in dangerous territory as it is.

“i ask my bitch to do something for me and i get lip?” raian huffs a laugh, throwing his head back in an exaggerated manner. “just get over here before i lose my shit.” 

you laugh and obey your husband, dutifully holding the ladder steady while he quickly and cleanly hangs the lights on the edge of the roof. you’re surprised at how efficiently raian works, and how it actually doesn’t look like shit when he’s finished.

“i’m proud of you, rai.” you smile at him and press a quick kiss to his lips when he comes down from the ladder. despite the annoyed frown on his lips, he’s quick to snake his arms around the small of your back as he looks up at the roof, seemingly proud of his work. he nods in satisfaction before turning back to you.

“now, why don’t we go back inside and you can show me just how proud you are, hm?” raian’s hand drifts down the small of your back till it reaches the top of your butt. you just shake your head and smack his hand away. 

“we’ve still got the yard to decorate, stud.”

tokita ohma is okay with the holidays, because the holidays mean it’s gonna get cold, and the cold means you’re gonna turn on the fireplace, and turning on the fireplace means he will be napping by the fireplace. ohma really only finds it comfortable enough when you’re with him, though, so he’ll wait for whenever you’re not busy to pull you onto the carpet in front of the fireplace.

he wraps his body around you, tucking your head underneath his chin and bringing his knees up behind yours to effectively keep you trapped. lastly, he wraps his arms tightly around your waist and pulls you backwards until you’re flush against his firm chest.  he lets out a deep and content sigh, and you can imagine that his lips are curled upward into a soft smile as he closes his eyes.

“don’t leave, ‘kay?” he mutters before letting out another sigh. you chuckle softly at his request, wondering how on earth you’d ever even be able to escape the strong embrace of your lover. but it’s not like you’d want to anyways.

taglist: @ohmaswife | @kamesama | @thebigevilsamp | @itbitesback | @aloelotustea | @hoe4rairai | @himbo-in-limbo

[edennill]

Dorthonion-adjacent dashboard Simulator

❤️‍🔥goldenflame follow

What should one do if one ends up loving a woman one can never be with? Asking for a friend.

Wish I had talked about what it's like with my grandmother when I still could. But she got her wish at long last.

🎹 daemusic follow

Is she already taken? If not you can wait around and maybe she'll change her mind.

That's what I've been doing since I was an adolescent

❤️‍🔥 goldenflame follow

It's not that simple...

27 notes

🌸 lueth follow

354 notes

🩶 handmadegirl follow

It's almost finished!!

#embroidery #handcrafts #traditional costume #girl sews

54 notes

👤 wise-patience follow

normalise being angry at fate though

11 002 notes

🌫�� grey-s follow

was anyone going to tell me the elvenking is on here liking random posts by bëorians or was I supposed to learn this by having it happen to me

#I am not offended if you are reading this your Majesty just wow #I've never spoken to him in real life and it's like #I think I'm going to think about this for the next two years

43 notes

🌄 youraverageone follow

I'm leaving for the war in two weeks is there anything I should know

👤 warrior101 follow

basically if it's your first time you're going to get assigned on the inner border and you're never going to see battle as long as you're there so don't worry/reconcile yourself to that depending on what your attitude is.

unless the leaguer breaks but then I have no idea what it could be like since it's never happened before.

so yeah, bring some cards, board games or whatever. a stash of trinkets since the only thing people do half the time is gamble lol. things you're prepared to lose.

most the watchtowers are pretty well equipped so if there's any food from home you really can't bear to part with now's the time to learn how to prepare it.

decide whether you want to mingle with elves a lot or not because whether you do really depends on your posting and you can pull some strings to get assigned where you want. by which I mean ask nicely. it can be more strict on the outer border but for early timers it's pretty easy-going. also try to ascertain if you have any family you want to be with and where.

do not bring arms unless you have some heirloom of really good quality. no use lugging a piece of metal around when you're going to be told it's more danger to you than to hypothetical orcs and lent something better.

same with basically anything you don't have a proper version of. except blankets. there's always a shortage of blankets for no discernible reason - it's an injoke at this point - and you want to have several.

don't take letter paper. it hurts to see recruits arrive with a soggy mess in their backpacks when we've literally got reams of it in the storeoom.

🌄 youraverageone follow

thanks! 👍

117 notes

🌲inthepines follow

#memes only Bëorians will fully understand #dorthonionposting

449 notes

[sotwk]

Hello! No pressure and admittedly self serving ask (since I’m writing a fall chapter): do you have any headcanons about Silvan holidays/celebrations?

Ooooh this question! Festivals in Eryn Galen is a BIG TOPIC, in my opinion, because those Silvans love to party! Writing an extensive post describing the annual feasts and festivals throughout each of the seasons has been on my Headcanon To-Do List for a while, and because of your Ask, I'm going to return my attention to that.

While I work on it, for purposes of your fic, here are my basic headcanons about....

AUTUMN CELEBRATIONS IN ERYN GALEN

Mereth Nuin Giliath: The Feast of Starlight

This is the biggest and arguably the most important of all annual celebrations in Eryn Galen for three reasons:

It is the oldest of all Silvan feasts--older than the Woodland Realm itself. It commemorates the awakening of the Elves on the shores of Cuiviénen--literally the first event in the history of the race. Although the manner of feasting and traditions have changed over the millennia, it has been observed for as long as the eldest of the Nandor could remember.

It celebrates the light of the stars and the Queen of the Stars, Elbereth Gilthoniel. The Silvans may admire Oromë most out of all the Valar, but they still highly value and honor Varda as the source of light, goodness, and protection.

On a more personal note, Elvenking Thranduil met (SA 1358), was betrothed to (SA 3262), AND married (SA 3265) Elvenqueen Maereth all during the Mereth Nuin Giliath. Therefore it is an important anniversary for the royal family, which they choose to celebrate with the entire realm throughout their rule.

Art credit: Miriam Ellis

Mereth Nuin Giliath is celebrated both in Eryn Galen and in Lórien. In the SotWK AU, Thranduil and Maereth meet for the first time during the Mereth (see fic: "Sins of Our Fathers"). In Chapter 1 (the only chapter, so far) is the most I have attempted to describe this celebration.

The feast is held during the "Middle Days" (Enderi), for 3 straight nights, roughly during the first week of October.

It involves three nights of eating, singing, and dancing under the stars. With the entire kingdom invited, it is always the most well-attended community event.

In Eryn Galen, when its population was at its peak, this meant tens of thousands of revelers gathered in one place!

Although technically hosted by the King, the whole community pitches in and works together to arrange everything.

Harvest directly precedes the Mereth, so the realm is well-stocked with food for the massive celebration.

Hunting season comes after the Mereth, so food is additionally replenished for the coming winter.

These are just the basics, so more details will follow in the complete "Celebrations by Season in Eryn Galen" post. Coming soon...hopefully! :) I will tag you, @dilettantefeminist -- thank you again for prompting me to think about this!

OTHER USEFUL LINKS:

Introduction to SotWK

Main Headcanon Masterlist

Fanfiction Masterlist

sotwk headcanon - This tag captures all SotWK headcanon posts, including minor ones that might not be on the Masterlist.

[falmerbrook]

Snow Elf culture?

*pulls up a chair*

Perhaps...

A wee disclaimer that I'm not particularly good or creative with developing cultures or societies, but my brain has just latched on to the snow elves in a way where I can't stop myself. But anyway

I developed a lot of this because of a big ass draft for a fic I've been writing on and off about Gelebor and Vyrthur, so a lot of my headcanons are religion heavy. I'll start there:

Gelebor seems to place Auri-El and the Chantry of Auri-El as having significant importance to the Snow Elves over the other gods/temples. He's probably got a bit of bias in that regard since he's devoted his life to Auri-El, but in order to differentiate their religion from the other elven ones I like to think that their religion in general worshipped Auri-El as not even just as the figure head of their pantheon, but almost monotheistical, while the other gods (Trinimac, Syrabane, Jephre and Phynaster according to Gelebor) were like minor divine figures or just legendary heroes even more than in Altmer myth, depending on the interpretation. My idea is that if their culture had been allowed to continue on, it would've eventually become monotheistic, but by the arrival of the Nords they were in a bit of an awkward transition period with it.

I also like to lean into the sun motif with Auri-El that they established in Dawnguard and with Auriel's Bow, partially because it's another thing to make their depiction of him more unique, and in part because it makes some very juicy irony for Vyrthur. Some ideas include:

- The more religious folk tend to pray at noon when the sun is at it's highest. - The two biggest snow elf festivals happen on the summer and winter solstices. As far north as they are, the summer solstice is during a time of year where the sun barely sets and the winter one is during a time of year where it barely rises. The summer one is more jovial and celebratory, with a grand feast. With almost 24 hours of daylight, the festivities last up to three days straight, with folks commonly staying awake for over 24 hours. Most of it is spent outside, with the celebration being focused on making the most of the weather and daylight hours to spend as much time in the sun and the light of Auri-El as possible. The winter festival is as large scale but lasts longer and is lower-key. It also involves a feast but features more winter foods and meat and alcohol. It is more pensive. At this point in the year, there is no full daylight, and so this season is seen as a test of one’s faith and mental fortitude. This festival acts as a break from this trying time, taking time to relax, build community (a strong community will allow them to make it through the winter and strengthen their minds), and bond with family and friends. It is about a weeklong break, where leading up to the festival everyone works harder to prepare for it and allow themselves to have the break. There are activities and festivities, but they remain indoors for the most part and are smaller. - I've referenced this before, but with long winters with little sunlight (due to harsh weather and short days), they see that time of year as a reflective test of will and faith.

Due to their proximity to dragons, it was hard to miss the connection between Auri-El (/Akatosh) and dragons, and so their depiction of Auri-El is either much more influenced by the iconography of dragons, or is a dragon (although their depiction of dragon Auri-El is much more benevolent than the Nord/Atmoran one). I got the idea for this one from this Reddit post (i know I dog on Reddit a lot but this one has got some fun stuff in it, even if it's a bit out there)

^On that note, later in the timeline (post Dragon War (the timeline is very fuzzy on when this and the Night of Tear happens. They are both sometime vaguely in the late Merethic Era I believe, but it's unclear which happens first or how long each conflict is)) some Snow Elves see a sort of unreturned, unofficial comradery with dragons, seeing themselves as both on the receiving end of the Nord's/Atmoran's brutality (disregarding whether it was warranted or not in the context of the Dragon War).

Ok here's some more general cultural ones:

I mentioned my reasoning for this in this post, but I like to think their general settlements were not as permanent, with a larger focus on wood and building into the sides of hills (good for warmth), while their temples tended to be made of stone and much more permanent. This is why there are so few identifiable Snow Elf ruins across Skyrim. Their cities and towns were easy to wipe out, scavenged for resources, or were in good places for Nordic cities (perhaps Bromjunaar was originally the site of a Snow Elf city?), and their temples were either very hidden (e.g. the Chantry of Auri-El) or eventually converted to Nordic temples.

I love this journal in general for gleaning ideas for Snow Elf headcanons for, but one interesting this is the use of "Old Ones" and "Young One". They're treated like established titles. From that I like to think they place a lot of emphasis on the respect of those older than you. The social hierarchy and whose opinions are most valued is heavily influenced by age. Folks call anyone older or more revered “Old Ones” as a term of respect, and anyone younger than them “Young Ones”. Old One is almost never used in a demeaning way, but Young One can be (not always). Typically, “Old Ones” is used in the third person (e.g. you wouldn’t refer to someone directly as “old one”) whole “Young One(s)” can be used as an epithet for someone directly or in third person.

When thinking about death/"burial" customs (needed for some scenes in the fic I'm planning), you have to consider that there probably wasn't a lot of land in a place like Skyrim where someone can be buried. Nords intern their dead in crypts or burn them to get around this, and I like to think Snow Elves participated in something akin to sky burials (at least sometimes). After preparation, the departed's body is left outside on a ledge, cliff, or the temple balcony to be scavenged by birds. This is seen as a metaphorical return to Aetherius, while their soul literally returns to it. They do this even in poor weather or deep winter. If it doesn’t thaw and rot/be scavenged until months later, so be it. The length it takes to rot is considered indicative of how long it takes for the spirit to let go and move on (not in a bad way though. It’s interpreted more in the way of the soul or body grieving). It's seen as if they may wish to wait until spring to finally rot if they want to experience one more warm, sunny day.

Food (I mostly wrote this in my notes in the context of the Forgotten Vale and Chantry of Auri-El, but I think it could work elsewhere as well to an extent): Plant-based food is grown in gardens in the spring and summer, and that that is able to be stored is carefully preserved through the fall and winter. Winter foods include some nuts, dried vegetables, and dried and preserved/fermented grains (like wheat, barely). These foods must be eaten slowly throughout the winter to last, and winter diets are more meat based. Summer foods include apples, cabbage/lettuce, leeks, tomatoes etc. Snowberries can be found in the wild out of season of most other fruits, and provide fruit in very early spring. Occasionally, fungus from caves is harvested, but this is seen as a delicacy (foreshadowing).

Ok, that's it for now. I gotta go to bed. Thanks for the ask!!!! :D

[hanzajesthanza]

about geralt and eskel (crossroads spoilers)…

even though eskel wasn’t in crossroads himself, i love how he’s a recurring motif. damn it, i would love to see more about these two. they are like the epitome of “he’s not heavy, he’s my brother”. (and as an only child i find that fascinating, very unique and curious).

and something which hit me. is how geralt and eskel’s relationship changed over time, as they got older.

the first story we ever hear of them is about the bumblebee, a memory from childhood: incredibly innocent and silly, boyish, mischievous. of course, they are disciplined pretty brutally for it* but it’s a real childish game

later, at the beginning of this book—when geralt is still more innocent—he “brightens up” at being able to mention something funny about his brother, recalling his name… he’s left kaer morhen, he’s not side by side with him anymore, but still his memory brightens with a mention of him

towards the end of this book—geralt is still young, but no longer innocent—he uses eskel’s name as a psuedonym, as he’s stalking a man to murder him in cold blood.

it’s a bit of levity to an otherwise predictable situation (we know when the white wolf goes on the prowl, he catches his prey, haha, similar situations can be seen in the saga so we pretty much know how this will turn out)

but despite the dark subject matter, it’s still tinged with a bit of mischief. eskel won’t actually have these murders pinned on him, because geralt uses his name that he doesn’t use anymore, but it’s still a bit like how a boy geralt might respond to vesemir asking who knocked over some alchemy equipment: “noooo, wasn’t me, it was eskel”. funnily shoving the blame onto his brother, who is miles and miles away from him at this point. and wholly unable to retort, “what?! nooo, wasn’t me, geralt did it!”

by blood of elves, both of them have matured, they’re men in their 50s now, they’re professionals. witchers. they’ve both managed to survive. their bond still persists, but is that of men, not boys—a comment, “you’re alive,” a sudden, quick, wordless embrace… a brief moment. and yet they are so similar, carbon copies, just with different color palettes. (select > ctrl-C > ctrl-V > ctrl-U > adjust the hue slider).

and what their bond is now is not so many jokes and mischief, but a shared responsibility, to raise a child, to take care of their home, to bide by their old father, to groan at their younger brother. and between them, a shared sense of nobleness, eskel was very polite and upstanding to triss merigold, geralt was too, and in his emotionality… yeah.

they grew up.

(* note, one could argue that belt whippings are normal discipline in this universe, but i ask you to look at how geralt never beats ciri with his belt, only threatens it once, but never goes through with it—rather he shares with her his food and relents to her the two apples. how tuzik never beat his daughter until he came home one day and she had dressed herself up as falka. and how andrzej sapkowski himself, in historia i fantastyka, said he is such a pacifist he cannot even spank a child. imo, it’s pretty obvious that belt discipline is considered an extreme, it’s used to invoke a sting of pathos in the witcher, it’s unable to be glazed over)

[birmit]

Ilandis Scarletveil

✧ Name: Ilandis Scarletveil ✧ Race: Night Elf | Kaldorei ✧ Occupation: Druid, one of the senior alchemists of the Cenarion Circle ✧ Age: about ~10,000 years ✧ Gender: Female

Note: I am not very knowledgeable about the lore of the night elves, especially their history. Therefore, there are not many details regarding traditions here, but I plan to add them in the future. Also, Ilandis is my character in the ttrpg "A Time of Changes", so some fragments of her biography may change. The article also intentionally omits some details from future events, so as not to spoil the plot of the personal quest for fellow players (and also because at the moment I want to focus on the image and life of Ilandis "before" certain events).

Appearance

Ilandis is a tall, thin night elf with long green hair. She has sharp features, and her skin is already showing the first signs of aging in the form of dark circles and wrinkles around her eyes.

One of the most obvious features of her appearance is her long, knife-like ears. Ilandis has longer ears than many other night elves, which often becomes a problem, especially in cold climates.

Her body is covered with traditional tattoos of her race, which she has applied throughout her long life. The first were patterns on her face and ear, which marked her coming of age. Otherwise, Ilandis's figure can attract attention only by its excessive thinness and even bonyness. The druidess rarely eats anything other than decoctions and infusions, which has greatly affected her appearance over the years. The fact that Ilandis does not disdain to test the results of her own researchs on herself also adds to the sickliness of her appearance.

Headcanon: Night elves (especially those who have mastered the art of druidism) require much less food and sleep to survive. This is why Ilandis can go longer than others without rest.

Сharacter traits

— An old and grumpy elven woman, that says it all. — She distrusts and disdains all races except the Kaldorei. She considers them inferior and unworthy of much attention. She is tolerant only of representatives of other elven communities (except the Sin'dorei). She despises the Horde and can agree to cooperate with them only in cases of extreme necessity. — She can rarely be seen smiling or simply content with life. Most of the time she is gloomy, and her eyes look as if in her thoughts she is somewhere very far away. Ilandis has difficulty expressing emotions, but she herself does not suffer much from this. — She prefers the company of books and her own research to society.

Background

Most likely, Ilandis had some kind of psychological (or congenital) deviation from birth, which in the realities of Azeroth simply went undiagnosed, since no one really cared about it. Since childhood, she was withdrawn and silent. She was not interested in playing with others and was always busy with her own things. With endless persistence, she could repeatedly move things from one place to another or arrange tree leaves by shade and degree of sickness. No matter how much her parents and teachers studied with her, she remained terribly straightforward, although she could perfectly well repeat every line from etiquette books by heart. As a teenager, she was not interested in relationships with others or events and could spend days in her own room, which was more like a library.

Note: I don't know enough about medicine or psychology to make a specific diagnosis (and I don't want to put a label), but Ilandis most likely had some form of autism from birth.

Elven age smoothed out all these nuances and taught her to better adapt to society. Or, at least, to pretend that she was at least a little interested.

Even before women were officially allowed to become Circle druids in Kaldorei society, Ilandis became interested in this art. Since childhood, she was attracted to everything related to nature: from studying plants to collecting butterflies and insects. And — their dissection. She was interested in how it all worked, how she can "reassemble" any manifestation of life and what it can be used for. Secretly, she eavesdropped on the lessons of other druids, and so gradually, step by step over many years, she was able to master this magic herself.

Ilandis' views on nature and the druid way have always been quite different from the mainstream. Instead of blindly protecting any living thing, she followed the principle of "survival of the fittest." Therefore, she studied all manifestations of life and death.

Another favorite hobby and the meaning of Ilandis's life was alchemy. Even before she came of age as a Kaldorei, she began making potions, decoctions, and poisons. This direction opened up a whole new path for her experiments, which she did not fail to take advantage of. Very quickly, her house turned into a storage room for all sorts of ingredients, notes, and experimental samples. The elf often tested the effects of various mixtures on herself, which is why her body, especially on the inside of her arms, has faded remnants of specific scars.

Artwork by aunhana

After her talents as a druid and scholar became known to the community, she was forced to become a member of the Cenarion Circle. Ilandis always felt love and a certain patriotism for her people, so despite her reluctance to interrupt her studies, she still agreed to move to a new position. Thus, Ilandis became one of the first female druids invited to the Circle.

Despite the fact that experiments on living beings were not very approved by the druid community, the results of the work of the Scarletveil always justified any risks. For example, she made some of the best healing potions, whose recipes could not be repeated by other alchemists. In matters of antidotes, she often had no equal, since she could determine by the smallest signs what exactly the wounded were poisoned with - and how to provide them with first aid. On the battlefield, she remained cold-blooded even in the most frightening situation, which saved the lives of many kaldorei and representatives of the Alliance. Therefore, for a long time, everyone turned a blind eye to what other dubious concoctions Ilandis made and what ingredients she used for them.

Ilandis always refused any titles in the community and preferred to remain in the shadows. But despite this, she was still appointed senior alchemist - and later mentor. After all, even the Circle is not averse to politics, and they were well aware that sooner or later Ilandis could cross the line. And losing her work would be too inconvenient in view of the constant aggravation of conflicts between the Alliance and the Horde. Therefore, they tried to assign students who showed talent in alchemy to her many times. But, except for one, no one could withstand her difficult character and teaching methods.

Artwork by CHELOBEK

A Time of Changes

Note: Northrend - about 25 years from the opening of the Dark Portal, until the start of the full-scale war with the Scourge.

Ilandis Scarletveil rarely left Kalimdor for official reasons, and even more rarely as a member of an expedition. But this time, when the Circle approached her with a request to join a group of other druids traveling to Northrend, for some reason she agreed. It is currently unknown whether this was due to an unexpected surge of altruism, or if the night elf was pursuing her own goals.

Having safely reached the northern continent, the expedition set up camp in the Borean Tundra. But during the night, their camp was attacked by undead, who killed most of the druids. Ylandis miraculously managed to survive, but she woke up on the cold stone floor of a frozen prison, completely without equipment and even without clothes. And more importantly - surrounded by unknown and motley representatives of the peoples of Azeroth.

Among them, a huge furry mass stood out, taking up most of the cell. This "mass" eventually turned out to be a tall tauren - and moreover, a druid, who, however, could not possibly be part of their expedition. In other darknesses of the small room were, as Ilandis then decided: two obvious elven women with ears similar to sin'dorei; a man in a cloth mask, which for some reason was left to him; and a blood elf with eyes burning with the fel fire.

At that time, Ilandis could not yet imagine that she would have to forget about her principles regarding other races and enter into a temporary alliance with this inveterate group of adventurers.

Artwork by SYR

Facts

— Ilandis is ambidextrous and can use both hands equally well. She also speaks Darnassian, Druidic, and Common. Ilandis is 230 cm tall.

— She believes that life in animal forms is a humiliation for true kaldorei. She herself also rarely uses them, preferring to rely on the magic of the stars, as well as healing spells. The only forms she uses are the half-elven moon and tree forms.

— Ilandis is asexual, she does not feel attraction to others and is not interested in romantic relationships.

— She runs a store with potions. She herself never appears there, having shifted all the work on interacting with clients to hired employees. Over her long life, she has accumulated quite an impressive capital, but does not monitor it in any way.

— She has a huge collection of various dried insects and animal skeletons. She was into taxidermy for a while.

— She loves herbal teas and can survive for a long time eating only them. She does not tolerate alcohol well.

— Her only "successful" student eventually ran away from her to another continent and even refused to join the Cenarion Circle.

[candy8448]

The final meshi

(reading the final chapters for the first time)

(Previous post)

Man chapter 95 make me wanna cry

So much father daughter bonding energy here

I love chilchuck so much

I love how everyone just misunderstands the question XD

I also lodt how marcille is fine with her fate and is like "yay besties!" With the elves who are gonna imprison her, lol

Man these pages are gonna make me cry i love them so so so much.

I like how marcille learns that she can't make everyone's lifespans longer just like that so she learned what she had been doing this whole story because of senshi and the others 😭

KAHSBSHAJSAYA 😭😭😭

Chapter 95 is probably my favorite of these final chapters, it gives us a final impression of all the main cast and what's changed about them.

That last pannel makes me go ajsgskaahaba

This reminds me of that one pannel of chilchuck i keep seeing

Even at the end of the manga, kui brings uo interesting things to think about in her world, such as what does chimera meat contain? Would some ingredients be toxic to other races?

Marcille blushing so much at eating her girlfriend XD

Also i heard so much about chilchuck doing marcille's hair and i thought that maybe it would be a few pages long. I really wanted a bonding between them especially since they've been at eachother's thoats the entire series, but alas, its one page and i was slightly dissapointed. I was hoping we at least got one pannel where we see chilchuck doing her hair

(Dadchuck :D)

Dang im gonna cry again :(

Ive never been so sad to see one of these end notes

Ahh!! this chapter page looks so nice !!

Also dadchuck vibes (im so sorry i keep mentioning it, but i just cannot stop seeing it)

XD i love the "*please don't acctually do this"

Dang...

Also that first pannel on that second page looks so good

Oooh the first page is so cool

And the second page is so cute!! 💖

This is hilarious XD: falin's nice greeting, shuro's blush, namari's awkwardness, chilchuck's disgust and marcille's pure, hatered filled deadpan.

(Also like how its just characters from laios' first party)

Sigh... like brother, like sister

This pannel is a wonderous piece of art

ahh dungeon food... delicious in dungeon

BRO

I CANT BELIEVE ITS IVER

I DONT WANT IT TO BE

I love this series so much, its probably one of my favorites and im so sad to see it go. Totally buying the adventurer's guide once i can buy it (i want to have something physical from this series) so there may be anther post or two of these but that will be after probably a long while

Final thoughts:

But i love kui's detail in her world and characters, there is so much depth and questions in every corner to develop further. The story was syper engaging and i loved every step of the way. I was told that this series was goofy but then goes super serious for the rest, but it actually did an amazing job at switching between comedy and seriousness quickly but im a way that seems completely natural. (I also adore the art style)

She also did an amazing job at making me interested in ALL of the characters. Usually in series they introduce so many characters all of a sudden and dont develop them that well at all, but still expect me to be invested in them, so the series remains just have a ton of scenes of these new characters interacting but are so shallow that i skim super quickly over them, and then i fall out of love with the entire series as a whole and have to drop it because im getting bored, but kuo manages to keep me invested with every character introduced, so im invested in them almost as much as the main cast and love them all (also the character designs are all super creative. You probably saw those posts where people say you cant play the "find the main cast game" with dunmeshi because of how great the designs are.

Man this is such a good series

[a-shrieking-cloud-of-bats]

DF Posting: KingChannels - Year 3

Here we are again. Much belated on account of me having an awful head cold for most of the past two weeks.

The beginning of the defensive layer, which, as time has gone on, has only gotten less solid. Regardless I think having room to retreat behind corners when archers come a knocking will be helpful.

We left last year with the trade depot Almost complete, and the defensive layer, starting up. Happy to say we made a lot of progress on both, but a lot happened so we'll start from the top.

Early on the elven caravan arrived; I personally have no abnormal distaste for the elves (even if selecting everything in a bin except the bin is obnoxious), but we didn't have any trade goods because I'd not decided to, you know, make any, on account of sheets being wanted next year. So we didn't really get anything, not that they brought much. Not even very many animals. Very dissapointing honestly. Didn't even get a screenshot.

Our starter library. We probably won't need it anymore after we start getting the tower constructed but that could be a while. I set a scholar to work here after I made it as well, and installed a table later on.

In the meantime we made a starter library for our scholarly pursuits to begin in earnest, rather then waiting for the tower to start construction. It's small, but it'll work. We assigned Ingish Arzesidan as scholar, our old woodcutter. She honestly loves it and is constantly getting good thoughts from debating and pondering, though these are somewhat offset by her bad thoughts from not practicing a craft. Thems the breaks. Around this time I also started making clothes from our pig tail fiber, to ensure our in fort child would have clothing. Also so anyone whose clothes rot off can get a new set.

Our first scholar.

After all that hubbub we almost immediately got a migrant wave; 9 dwarves, 2 melee dwarves for the military, and a High Master Surgeon, very nice. This reminded me we needed to make a hospital. My idea is to build it on the ground floor, likely near the cistern, hopefully out of the way of any trouble in the event anyone needs to be brought to it during combat. It'll also make getting the water from the cistern to the nearly required hospital well less of a pain in the butt.

The first two are our melee dwarves and the last is the surgeon.

Around the time of the migrant wave we got another Child Strange Mood; it finished around the time we finished sorting otu the migrant wave as Ablel Regezar only grabbed two apple wood logs. He made, adorably, a toy axe, Desiszisang. During the course of this year I caught several dwarf children playing with it so at least it's getting use!

The fort's most popular toy. And... only toy, now that I'm thinking about it.

Of note; all this happened in Early Spring. This was a very rapid fire series of events, but things slow down a bit henceforth. Not before finding a mysterious vomit trail from the trade depot to the first floor of the fortress entrance. Probably a dwarf that'd been underground long enough to get cave adapted. I didn't see any sign of combat, anyway, so it's not an injury at least. Regardless the fort now has its first streak of green mess. There will be many more.

Every fort, by the end of the run, is usually just covered in blood and puke. This is small potatoes.

Taking up the next large swathe of time was mostly me digging to find ores, rather then for fortress construction, with the completion of a stockpile I was digging near the metal processing area to store ore and coal. During this time I'd noticed unhappy dwarves were looking pretty intimidating, I think it hit a high of 16 which is more then a third of our fort. You've gotta nip this in the bud so in a mostly ineffectual attempt to do that I made some meals. Mostly quarry bush leaves, but higher food quality = happier dwarf. Unfortunately we don't really have a lot of edible wildlife, I've only seen ravens and they're too small to butcher and a pain to catch besides. Maybe one day we'll be eating raven eggs, but it seems like a bit too much trouble for now.

all of my mining floors start like this. I want people to be able to move through them well in the event I use them for something more important then burial site.

We hit Lignite and Iron shortly below where I started digging exploratorily. Very good sign; if we can find flux we've got steel, which is fantastic. That'll handily take care of most of our fortress defense needs, at least as far as we can hope for. We also found kaolinite which will make us some high quality ceramic stuff when I set it up. I also intend to use the exploratory digging tunnels for most of our burial slabs; it just feels appropriate to me.

During all this, the work on the defensive layer was moving along. The windows on the left are Gem windows, and we'll be layering some fortifications over hte front of them to ensure noone just breaks in through those windows. Eventually patrols or watch animals will keep an eye out through there to let us know when goblins or kobolds are skulking around. Hopefully, anyway.

It was around this time I realized my military squads had Never Stopped Training. I looked into a bit of stuff regarding the new UI and it turns out they've been on manual training, never stop mode, for like a year now. That's probably why everyone's so pissed off. I fix that and indeed the bad moods at the fort start dropping, thankfully. THe summer migrant wave also hit, 8 dwarves. A high master metalcrafter, a high master furnace operator, and a middling papermaker. Normally the papermaker would be on hauling duty, but given we're making a library... hmm. Two randos from the wave got drafted into our military squad making an even 10. Training can Really start now. Especially now that they're doing advanced training and teaching and sparring and such. They don't do that on manual evidently.

Once more, oru new Local Celebrities. I also assigned another dwarf to scholarship around this time I believe; Kadol Usenvabok. We'll probably worry more about the scholars when the tower goes up because if I keep posting dwarf thoughts we're gonna hit the image cap.

Seconds after this migrant wave the high master metalcrafter enters a secretive mood. Looks like we're getting a legendary metalcrafter. Honestly sort've stinks; he was allmost there anyway. Regardless, he goes to work. After some livestock butchery, he makes an Artifact Silver Chain out of Horse Leather, Chert Blocks, a Silver Bar, and cut bloodstones. Pretty nice sounding, and we can definitely find a use for it somewhere. Probably put it in a well, but maybe we can find some sort've novel use for it in the tower. It Is silver after all.

Pretty Good.

As we moved into autumn, I realized we were running out of food for some reason. Had the realization we weren't growing any plump helmets in autumn for some reason, so I fixed that. Also set about to making another still, as the population was getting quite hefty and a single still probably wouldn't be cutting it for much longer. As time went on it stabilized, and later in the year restocked itself so we're good again. Crisis Averted.

Shortly before the caravan arrived there were officially enough farmers in the fort to qualify for a farmer's guild. I immediately set about making one of the rooms I Dug out for specifically this purpose into a farmer's guild, and everyone was happy about it. Farmer dwarves will talk about farming in there, along with just generally socializing. It'll slowly increase their skills in various farming aptitudes. It's great.

The Dwarven caravan arrives annnnnd I forgot to make trade goods. God damn. I quickly hammer out some rock rings and buy some iron bars, using them to make a weapon for the militia. Need stuff sooner then later, and we're not exactly short on iron. The liason requested Amulets, which is great for us and I Immediately set on that to avoid this problem next year. I make our standard selection of military grade metals and silver.

Around this time enough work on the cistern got done for me to be comfortable draining the pond, finally. I wanted to get constructed stuff in there sooner rather then later because... I like constructed stuff. No dirty hole water here.

the top floor hadn't been walled in yet but I did take care of that over the rest of the year.

I love a bit of fluid mechanics in DF so this excited me. I've actually not done a lot of it, but I love the concept. We'll probably need another pool or two before it'll have enough loaded in to make its way to the hospital well, but it rains all the time here, so it shouldn't be too long. Since we've got enough standing water in the cistern too (about a full z level), we can just dump in whatever we can get and it'll be stored too, so that's nice.

Anyway the autumn migrant wave hits annnnnnd we got two dwarves. I forgot I had the migrant cap lowered to a pitiful 50 due to a previous fort I ran, so that's my bad, Yet Again. I raise it to 100. The two dwarves were not notable in any way. I also assign a scribe to our library to copy the books we do have.

As we trundle on towards winter, a child is posessed, which has become a commonplace enough occurrence that I honestly wasn't particularly interested. More livestock died to feed the leather requirement, and he got wood, bones and leather.

Before he finished his artifact, however, a werehare broke into the depot. He immediately bites down on Logem Urvaddatan, our freshly recruited high master surgeon, and shakes him to bits.

So much for that hospital. KingChannelses first fatality. Brutal.

There were two militadwarves nearby at the time so they immediately set to attacking the werehare (with picks?? why do you people have picks equipped you're not miners), and he goes down pretty unceremoniously, being an unarmored, roughly human size, enemy.

During the scuffle however, a militadwarf was bitten. This means they are now a werehare, and they Will be hostile to their fellow dwarves when they turn.

The bitten militiadwarf on the left, Iden Eshtanmubun and more competent combat on the right.

Me, not willing to create isolation chambers for bitten dwarves, and not wanting to have to deal with this guy popping off every quarter of a year, elect to banish him. Iden Eshtanmubun has no family in the fort, so nobody is going with him. He's upset, but what's he gonna do, come back as a werehare to take revenge? Hopefully not. He was actually also a aprt of the wave the surgeon came in on, so I guess the wave was just cursed. We'll have to keep an eye on Ablel Dumatdeleth, I Suppose.

After all of the drama and our first death, the child finishes his artifact, a horse bone pick. Maybe someone will actually use it. I kind've don't care right now kid I'm sorry.

I am normally quite happy about equippable artifacts, even if they're shit, but a pick is pretty hard to equip on purpose and they all behave the same regardless of material.

After processing all this I realized our defensive layer is pretty much done, our wall is done, our trade depot is done, it's time to build that overhang. I don't think the werehare climbed in over the wall but better safe then sorry. Unfortunaetly, while trying to do this, I realize my wall is too close to the edge of the map to build an overhang. So we have to rebuild half of it. Ugh.

In the shadow of death we find.... more menial labor. As usual, I guess.

I immediately stat making another layer of the wall on the relevant sides inside the fort. We'll worry about tearing down the outside layer later. I'd rather have a wall people can climb over then no wall at all. This in and of itself takes about til the end of the season, so we'll carry on with other stuff, though the death was the last major event of the year.

Other then some boring logistical stuff (we ran out of chert I can't color coordinate until I mine more rarrrr), the rest of the year was pretty quiet. We found some Green Jade, a 20 value gem, which is Very nice, we found more iron on the living floor, while expanding it for future waves, which I mined out, and our scribe made a copy of our one book, The Way of the Path of the Moon. Or whatever. It was something like that.

As the year drew to a close, the baby born in fort grew to a child and learned to walk on his own. He is no longer at risk of being used as a shield by his mother, and they ran out into the snow and immediately got pissed off about being snowed on. Thanks kid. She can now harvest and haul stuff, so she'll be a minor help for the next.... 15 years. Frankly if we see her grow to be an adult that alone is a fantastic run.

Baby Lolor Rimtarilir, like all dwarves, immediately knows where the clothes are upon gaining locomotion. She's also pissed off because of the snow. Get in line Lolor.

Along with the baby becoming independent, our initial Scholar, Ingish, became an astronomor. He's officially studied the book about the moon's path enough to gain a title. Our mental pursuits are looking up.

A monumentous occasion given the goal of our fort. We need more eggheads. They're chopping a tree right now but rest assured they are very intelligent.

And that's that. A death, a lot of construction and a working cistern; that will continue, but we are pulling up on the end of Surface construction not involving the tower, at least, maybe another couple of years? Hopefully we'll have sterling silver production in hand by then.

Next years goals are finally get that cistern loaded up with water and giving our dwarves an indoor well, Finish The Damn Wall, and hopefully find flux and start steel production. Also hopefully we find silver. I guess if we can't find any silver on site a ceramic tower might be good. And very silly. Same color anyway. We'll see.

Until Next Year. Our fortunes rise and fall together.

[kittenshift-17]

dramione hangover breakfast

Hermione grizzled into the arm she'd been using for a pillow, her head splitting and her mouth dry as the desert.

"Noooo," a gruff male voice complained when she stirred, beginning to wriggle out of the arms she'd laid spooned in all night.

"Shhhh," she sighed. "Oh, my head."

"Granger?"

Hermione sat up slowly, rubbing her hands over her face and trying to remember why she'd drowned herself in whiskey and wine to wake up dead like this.

"Just.... quiet, Malfoy," she muttered without looking at the surprised blond on the bed beside her.

"We went home together?" He rasped. "Again?"

"Seems so," she mumbled. "Urgh, I need a shower."

Shuffling across the bed, she rose from it naked and stumbled to the bathroom of his flat, knowing the way well. After all, this wasn't the first time she'd made this particular mistake.

When she felt vaguely more human, Hermione got out and dried off, pausing to brush her teeth before wrapping her hair in a towel and returning to the bedroom still naked. Malfoy was sprawled on the mattress, looking worse for wear, a few love bites littering his neck and chest that she knew she was responsible for.

"Are you staying for breakfast?" He checked while Hermione helped herself to his wardrobe, not about to put last night's ballgown back on in the harsh light of day.

"Yes, please," Hermione murmured.

Draco nodded, rising from the bed too, also naked, she noted with appreciation even if her head was splitting. He dressed quickly before leading her out through his impressive flat and into the kitchen where an elf was already taking care of feeding them.

The first time she'd slept over, she'd taken umbrage with an elf feeding her, but on this, the eleventh time, she hadn't the energy to make a fuss.

"So," he said quietly when they both had cups of tea in hand and a plate of greasy breakfast food before them.

"Must we discuss it every time, Malfoy?" Hermione sighed. "We drink too much and we fuck. And in the morning after it happens, we swear it can never happen again, but it always does. Just accept it."

He eyeballed her in silence after that as they slowly polished off their breakfast.

"Do you have my cream knitted jumper? He asked when the food was almost all gone.

"Possibly."

She did. She wore it around the house whenever she had a bad day and wanted to be cosy because it was the softest thing she owned.

"Can I have it back?" He smirked, quirking an eyebrow.

"No."

He blinked before a soft snort of laughter escaped him.

"Next time we do this, maybe we'll go to your place, and I'll steal back all the clothing you pinch, then," he teased.

"Next time?" She frowned.

"You've just said to accept it keeps happening even when we swear it won't," Malfoy shrugged. "Perhaps we ought to consider letting it happen without needing to get uproariously drunk at work functions before it does?"

Hermione's brow furrowed.

"You're suggesting we... make this a regular thing?"

"I think it's already a regular thing, Granger. What's this, the tenth time we've done this?"

"Eleventh," she corrected.

"Mmm."

They eyed each other speculatively in silence for a long time after that before Hermione sighed and got to her feet. Rounding the table, she thanked the elves for breakfast and wandered to the living room, collecting her shoes and dress on the way.

"Until next time, then?" Malfoy met her by the fireplace, holding a small pot of Floo powder.

"I'll see you at work tomorrow," Hermione nodded.

She huffed in surprise when, before he let her step into the fireplace, he cupped her cheek and guided her mouth to his, kissing her softly.

"Think about my offer," he murmured against her lips when they broke apart.

Hermione nodded, climbing into the fireplace and dropping her powder, whizzing away, knowing she'd do more than think about it and knowing she was probably going to end up marrying the ridiculous man.