#But in lesser canon. Non canon. AU of the AU. WHATEVER. He is capable of killing someone

[shima-draws]

Thinks about Perry covered in the blood of his enemies and swoons

[skitskatdacat63]

misc lore drop day 39/?

Haha after like a week, finally I get to ramble about omegaverse in Boy King AU, which has been in the back of my head. Nothing solid, just kinda thinking about what I would do if I were to make that AU of an AU. I like things like omegaverse, because I like that it adds another level of characterization. With my own OCs, most of them are some kind of animal, because it’s fun to complicate their character even more by adding in these inherent traits. I feel like omegaverse is a midpoint between humans and animal-humans, if that makes sense. Though tbh, I’d probably give them ears/tails if I ever did draw omegaverse because I can’t help myself. I like both the animal-like behaviors but also all the traits that have been assigned to the different designations. It’s fun to subvert them, and see how it complicates a relationship! 

I'm not gonna lie, even though I think Fernando and Seb should be made perfectly equal in most cases, i.e. omegaverse. If I was writing modern, or any other AU, omegaverse, I’d say they absolutely have to have the same designation, because one of the essential parts of vettonso is how similar they are. However in boy king au, I'd have to make Seb an omega and Fernando an alpha. For two reasons, mainly. 1. I cannot really ever see Seb as anything other than an omega(Fernando though is more flexible.) 2. In an arranged historical marriage, it wouldn’t make sense for them to marry together two people of the same designation; in the main AU I kinda handwave away all the gender politics cause I just want an m/m arranged marriage with a little mpreg on the side, and that’s all normal in whatever this universe is, okay!? But having it be omegaverse, to me, means that you’re specifically making it so you can’t just ignore that aspect like you could in a more ambiguous, original setting. Omegaverse tends to have pretty strict ideas on things like who would get pregnant, and they obviously need an heir, so it would end up being alpha/omega. Any other pairing wouldn’t be as functional, and also there would probably be even more strife between the two. Also it’s historical, society would probably see any other pairing as imperfect. Though where it gets fun is when you get to decide how their society functions; i.e. who is at the top of the totem, who’s at the bottom, how are they viewed, etc. 

I said that in canon, I like how balanced they are, but in this AU, It’s good for there to be yet another imbalance. Maybe in this version of omegaverse, omegas would be the peak of society rather than alphas. It would make sense why Fernando, the alpha, was married off to Seb, rather than the other way around. I love non-traditional omegaverse where alphas are seen as out of control and too driven by strong emotions, rather than the typical version(not that I dislike that!) Omegas are seen as calmer leaders, more managed, not as out of control, etc. Though, I’m not sure which is better. For Fernando to constantly be annoyed he’s considered the wife of an omega in a society where omegas are traditionally the wives. Or him being married away being yet another sign of how inferior he feels as an alpha. I think it would drive their whole “pretty, delicate emperor” vs “tough, volatile king” image even further. I guess if it was the traditional “alpha-on-top” society, I feel like it would play out that Fernando would become emperor instead of Seb, which I REALLY dislike, so I’d go with nontraditional. Imagine everyone complimenting Seb on “taming” such a brutish alpha, Seb preening all the way. That would explain why Fernando’s so focused on image, he wants to escape that stereotype, and prove he can be just as sophisticated. It’s not like alphas though are seen as ultra-lesser, just not as capable and people may balk at the fact he’s a king. 

Just thoughts :D but now I wanna write more about that dynamic haha. It would just exacerbate all the problems that already exist in the main AU

[thereluctantinquisitor]

Get Into My Oc

So I was tagged by @chaitea09 and @sunshinemage for this delightful meme, and decided to go with one of my lesser known kiddos. So, without further ado:

Cyrus

NAME: Cyrus du Volise

AGE: 25 at the Conclave

GENDER: Male

ORIENTATION: Bisexual

PROFESSION: Soldier

BACKGROUND (TW: child abuse, abuse): Cyrus was raised in south-eastern Orlais, close to the Ferelden border, in the manor estate of his father, former decorated chevalier Joustis du Volise. Accused and acquitted of murder, Joustis was already famous for his quick temper, but became cruel after his disgraced departure from the tournament circuit and lack of patronage following the extended and highly damaging trial. Cyrus’ mother bore the brunt of his abuse, until she finally fled a few months before Cyrus turned two. His only memory of her is of a song she used to hum to him when she put him to sleep, and it is not something he looks back on fondly.

Growing up was painful in many ways, particularly for such a meek child. Shut away in the manor estate, Cyrus made no real friends, and the household staff were too frightened of his father to dare befriend him openly. His father took to blaming Cyrus for his mother leaving, refusing to see fault in himself, and treated Cyrus with cold disdain as a result. It was when he turned thirteen that the physical abuse began, but with little worldly knowledge and no one to lean on, Cyrus found himself trapped in a house that became a prison. As he grew older, his resentment grew with him, not only of his father, but of his mother as well. 

He did not blame her for leaving. He blamed her for leaving him behind to suffer the consequences.

When he reached eighteen Cyrus began sneaking out to the nearby town, uncaring of his father’s punishments because he would bear them regardless. Something in him shifted, and the meek, kind child he had been gave way to someone bitter and angry at the world for turning a blind eye. He drank and staggered home, and the numbness made the beatings easier to stomach. He met people, but still made no true friends, sometimes spending nights accompanying other people in their safer beds just to put off the inevitable return home. Cyrus was arrogant. Rude. Cruel and cynical, but he made sure of one thing: he never threw the first punch. That was the realm of his father, and it was a place he never wanted to tread. He was better. Not by much, but he was better. At the end of the day, he decided he might as well earn the beatings.

Just before his twenty-fourth birthday, Cyrus made the decision to leave for good. He packed his bags and whatever possessions he could comfortably carry, but while he was searching for coin one of the servants tipped his father off, revealing his plan. However, to Cyrus’ surprise, his father invited him to dinner instead. One last time, he had claimed. It smelled of a trap, but what choice did Cyrus have? His father was better trained and still much stronger, and Cyrus had inherited his mother’s shorter, leaner stature. In any case, whatever his father put in the wine, Cyrus remembered next to nothing of that dinner.

When he woke, it was on the side of the road with nothing but the clothes on his back and a searing pain that seemed to engulf the entirety of his face. It wasn’t until he found a pool of water still enough to offer reflection that he realised what his father had done. Stunned, Cyrus remembered reaching up with shaky hands, brushing the red, swollen lines that marred his face, not quite believing what he was seeing. In the end, he could only assume it was his father’s parting gift for the son everyone described as a ‘spitting image’ of him when he was young and loved. Just like that, his father took the one thing Cyrus had thought his own – the decision to finally leave – and twisted it. Just like that, Cyrus found himself alone with nothing.

So, he started walking.

PHYSICAL

BODY TYPE: Svelte. Once he begins training with the Inquisition and eating properly, his muscles fill out more, but his overall frame is still relatively lean compared to many of the other soldiers.

EYES: Ice blue

HAIR: Blue-black

SKIN: Light tan

HEIGHT: 5'8”

WEIGHT: 155 LBS / 70.5KG

SKILLS (S.P.E.C.I.A.L + M)

STRENGTH: 6/10; Cyrus is much faster than he is strong, favouring striking swiftly and with sharp precision over getting into contests of strength. He is more likely to break through an opponent’s defence through sheer volley, rather than brute force.

PERCEPTION: 9/10; Cyrus is very perceptive, particularly to people’s moods, from a lifetime spent trying to dodge his father’s foul ones. He seems to always keep one eye open, refusing to fully relax, as though expecting something bad to happen the moment he lets his guard down.

ENDURANCE:  5/10; While fast, Cyrus does tire quickly. The bursts of speed he favours take their toll, and if the fight drags on for too long, he often finds himself in trouble. In training, he dominates in the sprints, but falls back on longer endurance runs.

CHARISMA:  2/10; He is capable of having his moments when he is with someone he trusts, but they come only in short, bright slivers that surprise both Cyrus and the person to whom he is speaking. Majority of the time, he acts like an asshole and goads people into hating him because it is easier for him to handle when he knows he deserves it. It gives him a sense of control over the situation, even if the situation is not a positive one.

INTELLIGENCE: 8/10; Being locked up in the manor had its benefits, given the amount of books his mother had brought with her when she married Cyrus’ father. More often than not, he found comfort in quiet pages. However, Cyrus lacked street smarts, and he learned some very difficult lessons very quickly once his father left him on the side of the road with nothing.

AGILITY: 9/10; He is fast. It is one of the things he prided himself on, and one of the things he could practice without raising suspicion. He learned that when someone is stronger than you, it’s best to just try to avoid their swings, or move with them to lessen the impact.

LUCK: 5/10; A lot of his life could only be defined as unlucky. However, he considered finding the Inquisition and meeting the Dawn Squad one of the luckiest things that could ever happen to anyone.

MAGIC: 0/10; Cyrus is a non-mage, and dislikes healing magic in particular due to one of his father’s servants manifesting and staying on staff to heal the worst of Cyrus’ injuries growing up. In order to stay out of the Circle, the mage-servant agreed to make a blank slate of Cyrus every time he was broken.

LIKES

COLORS: Dark shades that remind him of comfort beneath blankets, warm yellows and oranges (like candlelight), and the blue of the ocean.

SMELLS: The heavy scent before rain, vanilla, wood smoke and parchment.

FOOD: Soft bread and warm butter, cinnamon, salmon, rice, and pork crackling.

FRUITS: Apples, berries, grapes, apricots.

DRINKS: Chai tea, warm water with honey, cool water with lemon and lime, any juice.

ALCOHOLIC DRINKS: Ale, wine, mead, whiskey, brandy… etc. You get the idea. If it’s alcoholic, he’ll drink it.

OTHER

SMOKE: No. His father smokes a pipe, and it is another thing that leaves him feeling queasy just being in the same room and smelling it.

DRUGS: He struggles with an addiction to a sleeping remedy meant for short-term relief after the attack on Haven, but he leans on it for far too long and becomes dependent. The squad eventually finds out and gets him help (in canon, Anacrea finds an alternative and weans him off it).

DRIVER’S LICENSE?: In a modern!AU, he would get his license in his mid to late 20s, having been cooped up for so much of his youth without access to a car.

I will tag... @smolpocketmonstercoffee, @lavellanlove, @the-jade-goblin, @bladeverbena aaaaand @chaitea09 (for one of your other babs) ;D

[amorremanet]

wait so why do you have a problem with "A/B shippers feeling like you're judging them" if the ship you're talking about is keith and shiro aka an underage teenager with an adult???

First off, full disclosure: I could see Keith having a crush on Shiro, but ultimately, I see the whole thing as loving and very intensely devoted on both sides, but still ultimately familial or platonic. I can also see Lance and Keith having crushes on each other, I agree that they have a fun dynamic, and I could see them maybe working out as a romantic couple, but… eh, they’re just not my favorite VLD ship.

I’m also in favor of things like tagging, trigger/content warnings, trying to be more responsible and aware of ourselves as content-creators, and so on — but part of this means that you also have to be okay with the fact that people are going to make things that you don’t like, personally, and may even be triggered by or find abhorrent because people are not always going to be at the same place on the learning curve, people won’t always have the same opinions about what does or doesn’t constitute something, “hurtful” or offensive, and different people get different things out of the same fanworks

(e.g., most people apparently feel heartwarmed and happy when reading domestic fic about their OTPS, and that’s fine…… but for the most part, those fics do nothing for me, at best, and at worst, make me feel like there is just something wrong with me because I understand why other people want that life, but I don’t see myself ever having anything like that, and then I end up feeling like maybe I should just not even bother trying to go be part of LGBTQ spaces — not just in fandom but any and all LGBTQ spaces — because I’m probably ruining everything for everyone else).

There’s value in being open to critically discussing these things, and it’s true that tags/warnings are not always functional (e.g., a lot of people in the past have written non-con fic and tagged it as dub-con, or just not tagged it at all, because of how rape culture has made it so they don’t understand that some situations are not as consensual as they might think) — but this goes all ways. Everyone needs to be self-reflective and open to critical discussion, not just people who ship certain things or like certain tropes. Everyone needs to recognize that they are capable of doing things that hurt other people, and everyone needs to acknowledge that we are all deeply flawed beings and not always right, no matter how much we feel like we might be.

And part of that self-reflection/self-awareness needs to be accepting a degree of personal responsibility, recognizing that not everyone who likes a ship that you don’t is being irresponsible about it, being aware of things that might trigger you and staying away from them (which is never going to be a perfect system, because things like the, “Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings” option are vague, tags are imperfect, blacklisting shit doesn’t always work, etc. — but that doesn’t mean that anyone on any side is right while anyone else is wrong; it means that the situation is more complicated than most of us on all sides want to make it, and that nobody is helping anyone by throwing out ad hominem attacks, reductionistic arguments, and worse)

and (this is going to be a BIG point for me in here, and if it seems like I’m harping on it kind of a lot, that’s because I am) not harassing or suicide-baiting people because they ship a thing that you personally dislike or (gasp, shock, horrors) wrote a fanfic about it.

With the preamble out of the way, now it’s time for the really fun part (which will ideally be all that I have to say on the subject because, as you’ll see in here, this touches on a lot of personal shit for me that I’m much happier NOT shoving my face in all over again)

If you don’t agree with my take on things when I’m done, that’s fine. We don’t have to agree as long as we can respect each other while disagreeing — but you know what would be the best for my mental health, in terms of talking about anything, Voltron-wise? Dealing with these arguments as little as possible because I would rather not relapse into active suicidal ideation again.

Want to talk Voltron with me? Cool. All I ask is that you ask me about, for instance, my dumb college AU headcanons — which have, among other things, Hunk/Keith/Lance, Matt/Shiro, Allura/Shay, a lot of Keith & Shiro brother feels, Pidge being 15 and usually some degree of Done with everybody, and Lotor the preening douchebag fratbro — or my “#someone please help takashi shirogane” tag, or how Keith is autistic as Hell and Lance and Hunk have ADHD, not about the latest round of fans being complete assholes to each other.

Anyway, anon is speaking in reference to this post that I made while I was barely awake last night.

cw for discussion of abuse, harassment, suicide-baiting, and suicidal ideation underneath the read more.

1. Those ages are not actually canon.

Yes, they are a fair interpretation of canon, but until they are actually said in the show itself, they’re not fully fledged canon and you can’t expect everyone in the fandom to agree on them OR to know what you’re talking about when you treat them as if they’re canon

Also, not everyone keeps up with every single panel, every single interview, every single thing that TPTB say or post on social media, etc., and no one should ever *NEED* to keep up with absolutely every single piece of anything that is even remotely related to the thing they like in order to be part of the fandom — especially not when statements made by TPTB are often vague and/or self-contradictory, as statements made by TPTB often are (not specifically VLD’s TPTB, but TPTB for every fandom I have ever been in, even when there was just one creator, like JKR)

Like, if you understand that someone isn’t, “less of a fan” of Marvel or DC just because they haven’t read absolutely every story even remotely involving their faves, can’t tell you everything about the weird period where Wolverine’s backstory involved him being not a mutant in the usual sense but an actual facts wolverine who had been turned into a humanoid shape by “genetic engineering” magic, like [the movies, the Teen Titans cartoon or Young Justice or X-Men: Evolution, or whatever] more than the comics, and so on

—then you should damn well understand that someone is not, “less of a fan” for not keeping up on absolutely every single thing that TPTB say in any context ever, and that someone isn’t “wrong” or a “lesser fan” coming to an interpretation of the characters’ respective ages based solely on the show because that is the only thing they watch related to the fandom

Speaking of JKR, though: frankly, I see this age thing as being a very similar situation to how JKR “confirmed” that Dumbledore is gay…… in a special thing at Carnegie Hall, a few months after DH first came out (she made those statements in October 2007. I was a freshman in college, and everyone in the grindeldore comm on LJ absolutely lost our shit over it).

Sure, it spread like wildfire, but a ton of people at the time decided that it didn’t count as canon because it wasn’t in the books (so they were allowed to keep acting like Dumbledore/McGonagall had been canon when it hadn’t been), and someone who is just reading the books without knowing about that interview would not necessarily know that Dumbledore is gay (which is entirely why JKR does not get Good Ally Cookies™ for just going, “lol he’s gay” only after all the books had been published and she’d inked all the future movie deals)

Likewise: someone who only watches the show would have no way of knowing all of the things that have been said or not about the characters’ ages (I am literally only vaguely aware of it because of having friends on all sides of the debate and hearing about different parts of everything from them)

Until the ages that some people assign to Shiro and Keith (and everyone else, besides) are actual facts, in the show canon, treating them as if they are isn’t fair or accurate, and you can’t hold people accountable for it when it’s not in the show and the extra-canonical statements don’t actually agree with each other

and 2. (way more importantly) Because I have seen the receipts on people harassing, suicide-baiting, abusing, etc. people over shipping Keith/Shiro romantically, and aside from the fact that the ages people are using to justify said behavior are not hard-facts, full truth canon, I don’t believe that it is ever right or acceptable to tell other human beings to kill themselves, that they deserve to die, or similar just because they have a different read on canon and/or like a different ship than you do.

Don’t tell me that nobody does that, because I’ve seen the receipts about how they very much have.

To be fair, I have also seen receipts about bad behavior from the Keith/Shiro shippers and I’m not saying that it doesn’t happen.

I’m saying that I’ve seen a lot more of it from the people bashing the Keith/Shiro shippers and I understand why Keith/Shiro shippers might feel uncomfortable or judged or like I’m going to attack them just because I love the Keith and Shiro relationship as much as they do, I just don’t ship it romantically.

I’m also not saying that there aren’t good points on all sides… but all sides ALSO have a lot of points that are, frankly, full of shit.

Don’t tell me that it’s only a vocal minority who does this, because that might be true (in my experience, it almost certainly is), but until the silent majority stands up and tells said “vocal minority” that suicide-baiting people is not okay, then the relative sizes of their contingents does not fucking matter — because the people doing the suicide-baiting are still allowed to continue doing it.

Look. On one hand, I am sensitive to this, because I have personally been harassed, cyberstalked, suicide-baited, and worse in other fandoms — all because I didn’t ship one thing, I did ship others, and I tried to go, “Hey, the way that you guys are treating other fans isn’t cool and you really shouldn’t do that” when some fans treated others like shit for not liking their OTP and wanting to have some kind of space in the fandom where they could like their faves and ship their ships without every single thing being turned into S//terek some other ship

Maybe it’s just me? But as someone who has found themself needing to get put on new anxiety meds and a higher dose of their antidepressants because of people on the Internet refusing to give me peace and telling me to kill myself (or similar) over not shipping their ship and saying that they shouldn’t harass other fans — and then still found myself, at one point, counting out my anxiety meds to figure out if I could overdose on what I had, and only realized how bad this was because my head was too muddled to do the fucking math?

Yeah, you could say that I have a bias in favor of, “Don’t fucking suicide-bait people” and can understand why the behavior of some people who bash Keith/Shiro might make the people who ship it romantically feel like they’d be in danger of bashing or personal attacks from me just because I don’t personally read their relationship as one that is or could be romantic

On the other hand: I’m sensitive to this because I have also done a lot of shit that I’m not proud of while trying to go, “Hey, guys, this pattern or this behavior in the fandom is pretty racist, ableist, misogynistic, abusive, or whatever, otherwise gross; it’s not cool and we should stop enabling it.”

I understand where a lot of the intensity comes from, on the parts of the people who believe that they’re trying to make their fandoms of choice into better and/or safer spaces, more accessible to more people and more fun for more people — and in theory, I support the move to make fandoms safer…… but I can’t support a practice of doing this that repeats so many of the same mistakes that have hurt people before, have hurt me personally before, and/or that I personally did that hurt other people before.

Also? Because I have been there, done that, and gotten approximately twenty-seven t-shirts, I know how easy it is to lose sight of what you think you are doing, how easy it is to lose perspective on what you’re doing, and how easy it is to start doing shit that actively hurts people (and not to any constructive end), while you are nominally trying not to hurt people

So, I’m not unsympathetic to the people who’ve been bashing Keith/Shiro shippers and I don’t think that most of them are bad people — but I still know, from having been on both sides of this, that what I have seen of a lot of their behavior is doing more harm than good (and fun fact, it was the biggest reason why I didn’t watch VLD at all until my goddaughters [who are 12 and 14] watched it, fell in love, and I wanted to know what they were talking about)

TL;DR: I’m concerned about the feelings and comfort of Keith/Shiro shippers, and not making them feel uncomfortable or like they are going to be attacked if I want to venture out into their fan-spaces, because I understand that they have been targeted and hurt before, in ways that I consider to be completely unacceptable because I’ve hurt people in the same ways before and been hurt by similar behaviors

—and if you can understand that someone might not feel comfortable being friends with someone because they romantically ship a couple that you interpret as being an adult and a teenager, despite the fact that this IS NOT hard-facts canon? then you should damn well understand why someone might not feel entirely safe or comfortable being friends with someone who doesn’t romo-ship their OTP, when not romo-shipping their OTP tends to be directly correlated to shit like stalking, harassment, abusive anon comments, and fucking suicide-baiting

—and I really cannot stress enough how much the suicide-baiting point shits me, okay.

Like, I have dealt with suicidal ideation and attempts since I was eight years old. I hate and am deeply ashamed of the fact that I have ever made other people feel as low as I have when I’ve wanted to die. I still struggle a LOT with blaming myself for, “letting other people [online and offline] make me feel like that,” despite knowing that I shouldn’t blame myself and despite the fact that I have told other people NOT to blame themselves for this kind of thing before.

If I’m an irredeemably terrible person for feeling like nobody ever deserves to be suicide-baited over what they ship or don’t ship, and that, even if they don’t tag as responsibly as they could, they deserve to be treated with the bare minimum of interpersonal decency and not attacked until such point as they start actively attacking someone else in the same ways that everyone who sends harassment, suicide-baiting, etc. has done and continues to do?

—then fine, I guess I’ll be an irredeemably terrible person.

I’d rather need to have difficult discussions, try to have them in the most constructive way possible for as many people as possible, accept a flawed system in the hopes of making it better, accept that (unfortunately) there is no such thing as a perfectly safe space for everyone and that trying to make any given space safer is always going to be an incredibly difficult task that involves some degree of compromise and some kind of Choices by all involved, and try my best to treat people with empathy, compassion, and understanding

It’s not an easy solution, it’s not always a particularly comforting way to approach things, and in my experience, it will demand a LOT from anyone who wants to go this route

But I’ve made people feel terrible over things that were not nearly as “pure” or ideologically righteous or important as I thought they were, and I have been suicide-baited more than enough for one lifetime (I’ve been suicide-baited by my own mother more than enough for one lifetime, never mind having it happen in fandom spaces too), and I hope that you’ll understand if I have no desire to go back to either of those places — especially not the one where I make people feel like shit, and especially when I’m trying to be a better person and not do things like that to people

This is rambling and repetitive and has really stopped being a TL;DR summary

I’m sorry, I stand by what I’ve said but I haven’t gotten more than 5 hours of sleep a night in the past three days and it’s doing a number on my attention span

I’m done talking now

Here’s a picture of my family’s dog as a reward for making it this far (unless you’ve decided to flame me while reading, in which case this is still a picture of our dog but it’s not a reward for you, I just can’t stop you from looking at it)

(okay, I couldn’t pick just one picture of our dog, so here she is being lazy and dressed as a lobster for Halloween, respectively)