#I don’t have single blorbos as much as casts of blorbos

[the-apocrypha]

3, 22, 26?

3. How would you describe your writing style? 

Uh. Functional. Highly functional. Occasionally I strive toward the slightly poetic or prosaic, and I feel like my own tendency toward dry humor will come out from time to time, but otherwise I think it's pretty… basic. 

(The more literary answer is that my style is highly reflective of my history of pretty much only ever writing within the bounds of fanfiction. While there are obviously exceptions, there tends to be a lot of homogeneity amongst fanfiction writing style, for a lot of reasons, including (1) You tend to write what you read, and (2) People generally turn to fanfiction for literary comfort food. While a House of Leaves or an On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is nice on occasion, we are mostly here to straight torture or sexify or cuddle our blorbos and we don’t want to beat around the bush. It is in no way a bad thing! It’s actually kind of cool, from a literary perspective, because it's genuinely recognizable. Like the Scholomance trilogy! They are good, but you can tell by page two that this person absolutely cut their teeth on fanfiction. So, I am a product of my experiences.)

22. What is it about watching the same two idiots fall in love over and over again? 

See above: comfort food. 

Long answer: for me, I am a person who does not instantly attach to characters. I rarely enter fandoms that are based around a single book or movie, and greatly favor comics/television/series because it lets me spend a lot of time with characters and my affection for them can really take root and grow. Fanfic is just the next natural extension of that. I am very much a person who finds a Happy Button and then wants to mash the Happy Button ad nauseum until it breaks. I listen to the same album on repeat for three months. I just discovered Tim Tams and have bought a box a week for the last four months. And when I settle into a fandom, I want to see my blorbos having nice things over and over and over and over again. :D 

26. What would you describe as OOC?

Oof this is a tough one! I think characterization is such a personal thing that it’s impossible to define that. I definitely have opinions on things that I read, on whether they’re in/out of character, but the beautiful thing about fandom is that we are all casting prisms of the same characters and what is out of character for me may be in character for someone else! So, eh. 

I will say that I feel like any time I start writing for a new fandom, my first fic or two will always feel a little rocky in characterization. Once I’ve written more and developed a more nuanced and consistent concept of the characters, I usually look back on the early stuff and go woof. Sandman has been no exception to this. (Fond wave at fly me to the moon. You’re not completely terrible.)

(for the writers ask meme)

[leafytaffy]

can anyone recommend some affordable games with really good character customization, so much so I can make my blorbos, but also good gameplay too?

stuff I liked in the past for reference, and reasons I stopped playing as well:

Miitopia: ngl I wanna do another playthrough with an Everhood cast, but my main problem with this game is it loses replay value IMMEDIATELY after you beat it. The gameplay is pretty shallow aside from the customization aspect, and the story you already know so it won’t hit differently when you restart of course. Now onto the good: The customization in the switch version is god tier, the story with everyone being miis you cast in each role (excluding our best boy Dominic <3) is amazing, I love playing a fanfic basically!! The personality quirks and relationship aspects are also really fun!!

Cult of the Lamb: more focus on gameplay than customization, but in every damn save I GOTTA make my Everhood blorbos!! For now the little animal followers do well, but I wish modding becomes easier in the future for custom follower forms </3

Flight Rising: I REALLY REALLY want to play this again, but I can’t because the only legal way for me to play it is to use my shitty account I made when I was 16 which used up all username changes and has a TON of shitty cringeworthy forum posts attached to it because it was the pandemic and my social media was extremely restricted with parental controls……. I don’t feel comfortable enough with the moderators and their extremely strict attitudes and rules to just make a new account and not touch my old one.

Sims 3: I wanna play this again so baddddd… I stopped playing sims 2 tonight after a few minutes because tbh? Modern game customization (mainly sims 3 and miis) have absolutely spoiled me to death and I can’t stand having to download a mod for every. Single. Customization I want. It’s so painful.

Rain World: I wish I could play this, I have tons of skin mods including an Everhood one, but it’s too damn hard for me to play (yeah okay Leaf sucks at video games and just needs to git gud and stop whining). The hardest games I play admittedly are Monster Hunter and Everhood’s battle replay, and I absolutely cannot STAND video game time limits. They stress me the fuck out every time and I can’t deal with them at all (shoutout to Mix quitting the call with me fighting the splatoon 3 final boss because I was screaming my guts out and I ended up having to hand the controller to them for me to beat Grizz), and on top of it I have to use a map in order to beat the game, pre-planning my routes every time and not making a single mistake lest the rain get me. I hate it. I hate that I can’t be good at games for fucks sake ughhhhhhhhhhhHHH

Lobotomy Corporation: I like the customization and modding is rather easy but. Come on. It’s lobcorp no fan has beaten the game its even a fandom in joke LOL (though I’ve definitely gotten farther in it that Rain World. CURSE YOU, TIME LIMITS!!! The thing also keeping me from beating Wandersong….)

[afteriwake]

🍉🍓🍒🍍🥝🍐🍈🫐 That should be enough to give you something to chew on. :)

🍉 Do you prefer to write short fics or long fics? Multichaptered works or single ones? Why? I love writing both, but I think I prefer short fics/one-shots in a series. It's just more fun building a universe with little snippets here and there.

🍓 What’s a fic you’ve written you feel is underrated? A lot of my CSIverse stuff that's not about CSI: NY. Back in its heyday, I was a pretty popular Buffyverse author, a prolific and respected Sherlock writer, I got a lot of love when I was into Bleach, and while I don't write as much Wholock anymore it got a decent amount of hits and stuff. But my CSI and CSI: Miami stuff was usually overlooked? IDRK, I've been writing fanfic for nearly 25 years, I could be forgetting the love I got in those fandoms.

🍒 What’s your favorite character dynamic to write? (Can be romantic or platonic, specific or general!) Idiots to lovers.

🍊 Who’s a character you don’t write for that often, but keep meaning to write for more? (They’re so interesting! But maybe you have trouble pinning them down, or keep getting distracted by another blorbo…) I keep meaning to write Elementary stuff, but the show was so damn perfect as it was that I can only write missing scene stuff. Sherlock and Joan are just so fascinating, as are Gregson and Bell, but I just can't figure out what to write for them.

🥝 What’s your favorite trope/AO3 tag to write? Trope? Fake dating. AO3 tag? -INSERT CHARACTER- Needs A Hug

🍐 Is there anything in canon that you absolutely hate and love to fix in fics? A wrong choice made, a fuck-up in characterization, a misunderstanding never cleared up, a conversation never shown onscreen, etc… Okay. I am not bashing Sherlock here, not really, but after ending season 3/getting utterly and completely spoiled for season 4, you see the show has a fuckton of flaws making it ripe for fix-it fics. First and foremost there's the travesty of Mary's death, then there's the missing Reichenbach stuff, there's Irene being rescued and conflicting ideas by cast and writers as to what happened then, the mystery surrounding just why Molly was in a bad mood for the phone call, Sally's disappearance for most of S3/all of S4 (we know in real life it was scheduling conflicts, but they never explained it in the show), and Eurus...just Eurus. So it's like, you can pick any point in this show and use that as a starting point for fix-it/missing scene fic that's better than canon. But yeah. That's why I have thousands of Sherlock fic and very few Elementary fic by comparison.

🍈 Who’s your blorbo and what are some of your favorite headcanons/ideas about them that repeatedly show up in your fics? Free pass to rant about blorbo opinions. My blorbo has to be Molly Hooper. I write her in so much, with characters from four other mediums as well as multiple male AND female characters in her fandom. I am a strong supporter of the "Molly Hooper is bi" sentiment, that she knows self defence, that she and Sally are friends (if not dating), that she has more money than Sherlock, and that she wants a child at some point (preferably before she's too old to enjoy parenthood).

🫐 What’s your favorite underrated thing in your fandom? (A ship that only you seem to write for, a character there’s almost no fics about, a trope that criminally hasn’t been written yet, etc.) In my primary fandom (Sherlock)? There isn't enough crossover stuff. Don't care what it's crossed over with, it's ripe for crossovers.

fruit emoji ask game for fic writers

[twilightofthe]

Hey y’all!  

Just figured I should say hi to some of y’all since I realize I haven’t been the most talkative on here as of late

Here’s why.

I am fighting Star Wars fandom burnout so hard.  So, so hard.

This media meant more to me than any media ever had for a long, long long time.  It still holds this near and dear spot to me in my heart.  But now it’s just like, losing the magic, losing the love, losing the passion, and I am 1000% blaming it on Disney and its need to fuck the skeleton of every dead horse they drag back out of the grave.

Basically it’s like, there’s too much content?  And yeah some of it is content that I LIKE, like.  I’ve been begging for more Rebels content since it ended over four years ago and now we’re finally getting the return of at least Sabine Hera and Ezra!  We’re getting a Cassian show and I LOVED Cassian in Rogue One and never dreamed I’d get more content of him!  We had an Obi Wan and Anakin show with baby Skytwins. WE HAD AN OBI WAN AND ANAKIN SHOW WITH BABY SKYTWINS.  Like, if you had offered me any of this stuff back in like, 2017, I would have lost my goddamn mind, I would have been ecstatic, the Obi Wan show alone would have made me have a heart attack and die of excitement alone and haunt the shit out of the show as a ghost so I didn’t miss a single millisecond of it.

But now I’m just like.  Recoiling from all of Disney’s new planned release announcements?  Like I’m looking at all of these ideas and I’m just sighing wearily over the Mando S3 trailer and grunting cynically at the Tales of the Jedi like “hmm whose characterization are they going to fuck up this time” and Andor is so close and I’m scraping the bottom of my barrel to try and find the joy to watch it and rolling my eyes at Ezra casting rumors like “ok yeah sure but it’s in the fucking Ahsoka show they won’t do him justice anyway” and I hate it so much, because this is Star Wars, and I love Star Wars so, so much!

Like this is my universe with my favorite disaster blorbos and the creative worlddbuilding and the magic that I fell in love with, and not being able to find excitement in that is breaking my heart???

Like, I don’t know, it just feels like it’s getting too big for me?  Like they’re adding on more and more to the story and I’m struggling to keep up and none of it is even mattering to me anymore because they’re just going to dump more on top of me before I can even breathe.

Quite literally drowning in content.

I love chocolate cake, it’s like Disney heard me say I love chocolate cake and now they just keep force-feeding me more and more and more chocolate cake even when I’m full, even when I need time to digest, even when while I still love chocolate cake, maybe I’d prefer some vanilla ice cream instead, no they just keep shoveling it in and my stomach is going to rupture.

And it doesn’t make sense and I feel like a bad fan or someone who doesn’t care enough, because I’m seeing OTHER people in the fandom who have been around for just as long as me or longer and they’re still going strong!  They’re still having fun!  They’re not letting the circumstances cramp their genuine, shining joy for the characters and stories they love, and I want that.  I’m jealous of them that I can’t do that, and feeling guilty as shit that I’m being like, disloyal or something, or I never really loved it all that much if I could get so tired so easily?

I’m not going anywhere, y’all, I promise.  I’ll be right here and I’ll be excited to watch and reblog for Andor and Tales of the Jedi and Visions volume 2.

But I might be a bit quieter because I’m fighting not to lose something I’ve loved so much for so long.  I need to find that love again.

[asha-mage]

You're probably going to get a bunch of these, wheel of time (show and books, if they differ) for the blorbo meme

Heh, the actually do differ in some places, but that has to do with the more expansive cast of the books.

For your enjoyment:

blorbo (favorite character, character I think about the most) RAND. Easy money. Rand is such a great character on so many levels and layers, with so much nuance and struggle, and so much strength, that I feel like the fandom doesn't always appreciate, though in their defense their are a LOT of great characters in the books and show to like.

scrunkly (my “baby”, character that gives me cuteness aggression, character that is So Shaped)

Books: Olver, once again, easy money. I am sucker for orphan-raised-by-single-father tropes, and Olver and Mat’s relationship is so good, and so adorable.

Show: Loial. What an adorable Unit. Talk about Friend Shaped. I hope we get more of him in season 2.

scrimblo bimblo (underrated/underappreciated fave)

Books: I feel like Elayne gets a bad rep in the fandom because of the Succession Plot (which I enjoyed a great deal personally), and dismissed for being whinny or haughty, when Elayne is always doing the most bonkers stuff. She’s what happens when ‘never got used to hearing the word no’, ‘will do anything for what she views as the just cause’ and ‘mad scientist’ get rolled into one character.

Show: I feel like Perrin doesn't get as much love as he deserves, though the last minute rewrites of the final few episodes are a part of that. His rich internal life and complicated relationship with violence are nicely set up, and I can’t wait to have see that conflict fully realized.

glup shitto (obscure fave, character that can appear in the background for 0.2 seconds and I won’t shut up about it for a week)

Books: Perival Mantear. Another character who I feel like gets a bad rap because he tends to get lumped in with the Snot Nosed High Seat Brigade, and the Succession plot over all, but my boy has got BRAINs he’s got DETERMINATION, and I so badly want a YA sereis staring him, Bode, and Talaan having adventure in Steampunk Randland.

Show: The King of Gheledan, who feel in love with Logain stayed loyal even after all hope seemed lost, and and did his damndest to free the man to whom he had sworn loyalty and his kingdom. RIP my dude. (I almost cheated and named Aram here, but my foreknowledge of what is going to happen with him means that I can’t do that in good faith)

poor little meow meow (“problematic”/unpopular/controversial/otherwise pathetic fave): See. I just wanna say Rand again, because it’s true and I love him. But I’ll go with my runner up, and the obvious choice: Matrim Cauthon who has never done anything wrong in his life ever, don’t listen to what his friends say or the Wisdom say.

horse plinko (character I would torment for fun, for whatever reason): AGAIN I want to say Rand, because he’s My Boy, and half of that is watching him get to actually experience the weight and trauma and how awful it is, of bearing the whole world on your shoulders, but that dosen’t seem right. Unforunately their is no one ELSE in the cast who I would like to torment who I haven’t already listed so. Pass?

eeby deeby (character I would send to superhell): Padan Fain

[dandilions-are-weeds]

Welcome to a Garden of Weeds

ꕥ Welcome ꕥ

This is not my Main Blog, that being @fyrnnicular. There you’ll find most of my random and blorbos reblogs and shit like that, as this Blog is only for Personal Projects, such as art and writing. Although, as said in my description box, I upload once in a blue moon, so don’t expect frequent content here. I will be, however, reblogging my friends arts and writings through this blog now, and will be replying here as an Art Creator. Small note: English is not my main language, and although I am pretty fluent and have a Gods damn good Oxford Exam (shamelessly proud), I also have Himbo Syndrome™ and a single marble that hits the corners from time to time™. 

At the moment I have two Main Projects, Dark Prophecies and Frames of Eulogy. There might be more on the way, but so far, this ones are my main focus at the moment. Each will have their own Tags, and the characters too.

Feel free to interact and ask questions, as my inbox is open to anons too for those that are shy. Hate will not be tolerated, and not even answered. If I haven’t replied to you I either haven’t gotten around to it, have forgotten, simply don’t want to reply at the moment or Tumblr has thrown your ask into the void. It’s nothing personal (the last one I can’t even do anything about it). So don’t be afraid to ask, or even check in why I haven’t replied to it.

If upon seeing my art you’ve entered this Blog to check more of it out: Thank you. If you’re looking for commissions though, I don’t do them at the moment, as it tends to take me up to a month or more to complete an art piece, and I don’t exactly do Sketches at the moment either. (That going mostly for art than writing).

[Looking for a Specific Tag? Look no further than the MasterList.] (but you fool there is none yet. once there is this will be updated do not fret)

ꕥ

(more about the Projects under the cut)

Dark Prophecies 

tells the story of Nathe, a human cursed since birth that makes their living through Monster Hunting. This curse, causes him to hunt down God Beings, getting worse and stronger the closer he is to one. He’s not alone in this story. Having at first but Edaline, a high priestess of Seladín, and her temple to always find rest and some other merchants with whom he has befriended (and their sons and daughters), but as the story unfolds, he will meet a bigger cast of friends such as Regulus, a mysterious scholar, Melania and Joan, both warriors, but from different backgrounds and unlikely allies.  That is all I can tell for now. As it is still a Work In Progress. But hopefully that has intrigued your noggin. 

Frames of Eulogy 

Is a collection of stories and characters, that sincerely, I am far too attached to get rid of. No matter how much “Kill your Darlings” I do. I just love them, and I have had most of them for far longer than I care to remember. So I’ll just be a happy kid in my sand box. They all share a World Building that is different than that of Dark Prophecies. At the moment it wraps around Dumah Aziz Blackwood Morningstar, his family and the people they know and care for, or will know and care for. As of recent I have started re-working them as a character and the World Building of the world, so like the previous one, it is all I can tell for now. Not out of suspense but because I like to present neatly folded Lore and Content (which is why I rarely post stuff too).

ꕥ

If you got curious and would like to get notified when I post something (major) about either stories, feel free to ask me to tag you! Just give me your @ and which story you’re interested! 

[tuiyla]

I don't think it's unreasonable to only like Glee because one character (sans Santana).

Nobody likes Glee enough to be a a somewhat active Glee blog on tumblr in the year of our lord, 2022. And because Glee is mostly terrible and every single character sucks in one way or another it's perfectly sensible to only connect to one niche character.

In fact, dare I say that the reason Glee maintained its popularity for three long seasons was seventy percent due to its cast and the chemistry they had with each other. The Glee actors made their character bearable. Case in point, the most blobroed characters were played by the strongest actors (Santana, Quinn, Kurt, Blaine, Rachel). I can confidently say that the Glee fandom invented the real-life shipping phenomena.

The Glee fandom, in particular the Tumblr Glee fandom, is built upon liking character enough to become an unpaid intern for this godawful show (affectionate). And just like you, I'm as invested as I am with Glee because of my beloved Santana.

Yeah I mean, I don’t think it’s unreasonable either Anon lol but I appreciate the reinforcement.

It’s a point of fascination for me how Glee doesn’t seem like it ever had a unified fandom and because of the enormous cast and different tones and storylines it tried to juggle, it was always different subsections. And you know I do feel the need to sort of defend Glee every now and then because despite its messiness, I don’t think it’s a bad show. I even get defensive, mostly when non-Gleeks shit on it because its ups were very high and it had such an impact. It was also absolutely hilarious so often and showcased such talent; did it do that in the ebts possible way, no, but it did on ocassion do things right.

All that to say that I think, even sans Santana, Glee’s fun and has such an appeal. And to be clear I love other characters as well, I’d just say I love them a normal amount. Like, you know, I’ll write novel-lenght posts about Quinn and Kitty too and get overwhelmed by my love for Brittany and Mercedes but I consider that to be regular fandom stuff. I connect to them too. My love for Santana just happens to be so intense it would be, and is, enough to singlehandedly maintain my continued interest in the series. You know I just point that out along with everything in the previous paragraph because, as much as we fans also shit on it, Glee does have merits. The lows tend to be really, really low, but it credit where credit is due it had so many interesting characters and stories and did get some things right. I just don’t want us to forget that even as we rightfully clown on it.

And I do have to note re: the most blorboed characters that the actors might be some of the strongest but the characters themselves also had the most storylines/the most emotionally resonant ones. Almost all of these characters had much to do and were very central from the beginning so far be it from me to take away from, for example, Dianna Agron's performance, it's not like she had Tina or Mercedes levels of plotlines even as a guest star and even as the show seemed to actively hate Quinn. It seems to me like a positive feedback type of situation. The main exception being Santana, whose initial role was very limited and it thanks to Naya Rivera that that role was expanded and she became a fan favourite. Not so coincidentally, this is part of why Santana's my blorbo. Arguably Blaine was a similar case but ultimately vastly different from how small a role Santana originally was. And all of this is just to say that characters like Artie, Tina, and even Mercedes never really stood a chance if being blorbos like the rest of them, not on the same scale. Mercedes, who’s widely beloved (nowadays) including by moi, simply did not get enough focus in the story to be as talked about, so I really just wanted note that re: the actors.

As for real-life shipping, well then yikes for that lmao. I mean hey, Glee’s popularity and legacy are both beasts but real-life shipping and the intensity of the fandom in general... big Yikes. I could go the rest of my life without people creating elaborate conspiracy theories on Swiftgron or CrissColfer or whatever. Just another side note really.

And you know now I’m starting to feel bad for taking this ask so seriously even though it’s just a message of solidarity re: a previous post of mine lol, but you also made me ponder on this fragmented nature of the Glee fandom some more and I sort of lament it. I make it no secret that Santana IS The Bitch for me and most of what I actually contribute to this fandom has to do with her, and I love to see other people do the same for her or other characters. But I’ve experienced it with other, awfully entitled and generally warped-sense-of-reality anons how this fragmentation can be taken to an extreme. I’m talking automatically categorizing fans based on their fave ships and characters, assigning to them certain things based on that and this general perception in the fandom.That... is less fun. And it’s not an issue unique to Glee but it’s an issue nonetheless. So I’d like to keep the duality of “yes I think Santana is hands down The Best part of Glee” and “Glee as a whole is fascinating with so much to discuss.” But you I am with you, I too am here for our beloved Santana first and foremost, but... yeah. Glee’s also just in general good, actually. Well, maybe not good. Interesting? Worth taking about even 7 years later? Worth crediting? Yeah.

[aceyanaheim]

Sending you the obvious gimme ask of the live action Mighty Ducks and whatever numbers please you

sfhsalkjfasdf ILOVE YOU OMG OKAY

Imma just put all the movies plus the new series ( game changers) in one because I can.

The first character I first fell in love with: Charlie Conway ( he babie your honor ;A;) Also Hans. Gordon that is your Father  Also Alex Morrow in Game Changers

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: GORDON BOMBAY ;A;

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: sdjkfhkasdf I don't think there's any there's like 8 of us in that fandom maybe lol I know I had a hard time with Orion in D3 but then he was nicer to the kids and i was like "okay we cool" and like I genuinely like him now so like...no one..I guess?

The character I love that everyone else hates: I don't know many ppl as into this as me but I lowkey think maybe Gordon Bombay and I Suffer ;A;

The character I used to love but don’t any longer: Huh I don't think there is one actually. Pretty blorbo movie/series.

The character I would totally smooch: Listen half the cast is my parents age and the other half is kids literally no one but I'd like for Alex Morrow to adopt me does that count?

The character I’d want to be like: i..Kinta...they're all a mess...they're such a mess there is literally not a single character in both the trilogy and the reboot series that is not an actual mess I actually don't have one of those for once for this

I Would love to be able to skate Like That tho

The character I’d slap: Coach Riley hands down. Also the rich assholes in D3 who were literally like "should we give scholarships to this hockey team like guys that's money we're giving them god forbid" but especially the Dean because fuck the Dean. Also the Iceland coach who busted Gordon’s knee in D2 even though he’s kinda terrifying tbh like that is an entire hockey player and i am v smol but fuck him. Also the rich boy dude in D3 that called the Ducks "an affirmative action" like that once i will throw hands at a 16 year old idc/j

In...in that order lol

A pairing that I love: hnnnn I like Gordon Bombay and Alex Morrow Together but not always romantically"? I just think they legitimately make each other better and make each other's lives better and sometimes it’s romantic and sometimes its not but  I always like them Together does that make sense? I still ship Gordon with Charlie's mom sometimes. Don’t really have a lot of ships in the actual team because they’re sorta...a conglomerate to me like they’re a found family and also codependent af lmao so any way they pair off I’m usually fine with.

A pairing that I despise: -shrug emoji- I mean aside from the usual suspects ( anything with the coaches and students is A N o ) nothing really? 

SEND ME A FANDOM

[chuckling-chemist]

Lancer

(*dusts fantrolls off* These are my DIY blorbos you know. I used to write them all the time before Goro Akechi killed my lusus. Oh what a time...

Anyway enjoy 1600ish words of unedited rambling for 4/13. See you next year!)

When Dontoc first stepped into Sandyhorn, it was impossible not to hear the rumors.

Word carries fast. It’s something he knew all too well himself. And to end up traveling all this way on a whim of fate, finding himself sucked almost immediately into a festival where the only thinking loosening people’s tongues more than the alcohol flowing was the dreadful heat baring down on the whole city. Within minutes of stepping outside, he immediately caught word of the dreadful witch who lives on the outskirts of the city, where the road gives way to twisting paths leading to nowhere and gnarled trees older than the purplebloods who stalk the forest looking for easy culls.

And, unfortunately not for the first time in his life, his curiosity got the better of him. He had found himself dabbling in magic (if he could call the book he found in his ancestor’s library that allowed him to channel the Horrorterrors “magic” in the same sense a supposed witch would use the word) during his time in his self-imposed isolation, and the thought of someone who could understand what exactly he found drove his curiosity.

For the first time in his life, Dontoc found himself searching others out for answers.

They weren’t difficult. So long as the person was willing to talk – and admittedly, being a violetblood in a city filled with lowbloods, most were at least willing to hear him out before brushing him off, out of fear of his lanky frame attempting to retaliate – he could get a few questions in and attempt to piece together what they meant in their drunken haze.

(Did all landdwellers drink like this? He couldn’t remember a single event held down in Sindaria dominated by seadwellers where the alcohol was more plentiful than water. What were they even celebrating? There was no holiday today, as far as he knew. Most of them were at the end of the sweep, not firmly lodged in the stickiest and most unpleasant part of the summer.)

“They say she cursed her neighbor for taking up too much space,” one troll said. “Resulted in the other troll’s hive burnin’ to the ground in a night. Nothing left.”

“Can you imagine pissin’ off the heiress and living? As a teal?” another said. “That’s how you know she’s terrifying.”

“She’s got friends too,” a third troll said much later, one that Dontoc found fanning himself at a corner. He was a higher caste than many he ran into, an oliveblood dressed in practically nothing. “Can’t imagine a scary fucking hag like that having friends, but whaddya I know?”

“Course she’s got friends!” the oliveblood’s friend – a yellowblood hiding their eyes in a pair of dark sunglasses – said. “You never heard about that bruiser who keeps her safe?”

Dontoc cocked his head, fins fluttering in curiosity. “A bruiser?”

“Yeah!” The yellowblood hopped off the curb, clearly excited to share his news. “Look, lotta trolls don’t realize this cause the guy covers up everything about them, but I saw them take off their mask once and-”

“You didn’t see shit,” the oliveblood retorted. “You don’t go that way.”

“Yes I did. I wasn’t heading out that way, but we all know the creepy guy with the featherbeast mask works with her. Same as the crazy bitch in glasses and-”

“Vekuzz, they’re both crazy bitches in glasses-”

“-You know what I’m talking about!” Vekuzz exclaimed. “Anyway, I saw him take their mask off once, and I shit you not, the guy’s eyes were purple. I saw the guy take it off, wipe their face off, and put it back on like no one saw. But I did! Sent straight chills down my body and made me want to look the fuck away, but sure as night it was the deepest purple you ever saw in your life.”

“They were not.” The oliveblood stood up now, eye twitching in obvious irritation. “You think purplebloods would hang with someone like her?”

“It’d keep the other ones off her ass.” Vekuzz crossed his arms. “‘Sides, don’t the legislacerator types work with ‘em?”

“Yeah, but she’s not a legislacerator. She’s a-” the oliveblood groaned, gestering blankly into the sky. “She’s encroaching on their territory. That’s all.”

Dontoc blinked owlishly at the two of them. “Right,” he said quietly. “Thank you for the information.”

The more people he talked to, the more they spoke of the supposed bruiser. Almost more so than the witch. The witch, he learned, most people knew her face, knew to avoid her and her street. But this apparent bruiser, this hulking troll in a beak mask and no horns, who chose to cover their body from head to toe in draping black garb? Somehow, everything about them managed to evade the general population.

He exists. Except he doesn’t, some believe to be something created by her, as he only appears in the dead of winter when everything is dead, and he’s some kind of death omen she summoned. He’s a purpleblood, an blueblood, an alien, a supernatural entity she managed to bind to her. He’s as real as he is fake, an walking enigma with a deep voice who keeps intruders at bay and terrifies anyone somehow not terrified by the ancient hag in the woods.

Everyone had their own story about the witch and her rabid barkbeast kept on a chain, and Dontoc found himself drawn to every single one.

He’s not sure when he passed out from heat exhaustion. He’s not sure who found him and so effortlessly managed to carry him all the way down here – much less who’d be willing to drop him straight into the hive owned by the supposed witch.

And what a witch she was: her head coming up somewhere along his chest, her horns frequently being the only way to notice her the second anything tall blocked her form. She looked no older than him – maybe younger, with long hair and sharp teal eyes framed behind half moon glasses – and flitted about the plant-filled waiting room he had found himself in with the natural dexterity of someone who lived here their whole life.

She wasn’t, he learned, a witch at all. Pallia Alkali was a scientist in hiding from the very same purplebloods who stalked the forest just outside her home, calling her bubbling solutions and medicines potions and who actually stayed alive despite the dangers of her location thanks to catering to the pirate port not much further east from Sandyhorn.

Dontoc liked her. A lot. It made the decision to stay and study with her an easy one.

And, when the winter came around, he too got to meet the supposed bruiser, the lancer of the witch and her supposed second in command.

(If the rumors knew about Aisral, the pyromaniac tealblood already living with her who accidentally burned her hive to the ground testing a fabric, they wouldn’t be so quick to call this man her second in command. But they didn’t. So it defaulted to him instead.)

He walked upstairs into the living spaces with barely an acknowledgment toward Dontoc’s direction, only sighing in Pallia’s direction.

He looked exactly like the rumors. He was draped from head to toe in black, from the black coat to black pants, without a sign of any sort of symbol on his person. His black, wide brim hat showed no indication of holes for his horns, and as far as Dontoc could see, he had none, making the only color on his whole ensemble come from the bone white beak mask that covered his face and white gloves covering his hands. With his large frame looming managing to tower over Dontoc’s frame, he felt like a shadow hanging over the both of them, a foreboding omen of an unknown future.

“A fish?” he said. His voice was deep – surprisingly so considering how much Dontoc figured the mask would have muffled it – and so clearly toned with disappointment Dontoc felt his fins droop in embarrassment. “You know how I detest them. Especially ones like…” he paused, and Dontoc saw the beak point in his direction. He’s utterly certain the other troll was raking him up and down, searching for something “...like him.”

Pallia rolled her eyes. “Oh come off it. I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t extend the same invitation to him as I did for you.”

“No. That would only make you a fool once over. Not twice over. But if you insist.” He turned his whole body to Dontoc now. With careful precision, Dontoc watched as he took his mask off, only for the briefest moment, letting Dontoc catch exactly what the one oliveblood once saw by accident.

The telltale purple of a purpleblood, miles away from any Carnival in sight, casually existing inside the house of a scientist keeping herself away from them.

For a brief moment, he felt like barely a hatchling again. An unexpected wave of nausea and jitters hit him, making his legs quake hard enough he nearly toppled over, stopping only when the purpleblood put his mask back on. He didn’t have any time to wave of anxiety any more than the worry of Pallia associating with the very caste infamous for destroying what she was.

Dontoc did not have to see the sharp-toothed grin on his face to know the other troll was grinning at Dontoc’s obvious discomfort. “Call me Glacin,” he said. “I’m sure you’re pleased to be in the company of a fellow highblood, my Lord.”

Dontoc grimaced. “There’s no need to use such titles around me,” he said stiffly. “Just Dontoc’s fine.”

“Just Dontoc then.” He chuckled lowly. “I’ll keep it in mind.”

Dontoc wasn’t sure he wanted him to. He’d much rather stay far away from this odd troll, long before he realized exactly who Glacin’s ancestor was.

And when he did, he slowly realized how badly history would keep the two stuck together.