#I like Ronan the eldritch horror!

[romantichopelessly]

rereading call down the hawk is making me crazy for multiple reasons, but one that keeps jumping out to me is that Ronan dreaming Bryde Makes No Sense. Like narratively, it’s a cool concept—there is nothing corrupting Ronan, it is just Ronan himself, the twist is fun, etc etc but like. It doesn’t make sense. Say Ronan actually manifested Bryde in his physical form during the murder-crab dream. It is only a few days later that Bryde is suddenly infamous to the fairy market. Where did Bryde manifest? One of the many things about TD3 that makes no sense

[kazbiter]

kavinsky may have died in the dream thieves but you cannot convince me that his presence and memory didn't shape ronan's "ecoterrorism driven by my own subconscious" plotline in the dreamer trilogy. he would have loved that shit. u never forget ur worst and whatnot

[one-squash-one-end]

An unhinged recap of Ronan's homosexuality

Hi! This once again belongs to my big Raven Cycle analysis, click here for the masterpost.

Again, there's not much room for speculation here, but i had to write it for completionist purposes. I apologize for certain metaphores used, for the most part when I was writing this I was going through it (brain was fried).

Here u go (also spoilers for Greywaren)

d) Ronan Lynch

Next to Adam, Ronan is the only other canonically queer person in the Gangsey. A flaming homosexual with a car fetish (because there was something unbelievably sexy about cars at night). Ronan is the original Be Gay, Do Crime. (Adam is the Be Crime, Do Gay to that.)

You get the gist; he is seriously involved with one guy but used to have some bits of self discovery (not only on the topic of his sexuality) with another, which ended because that guy kidnapped his brother because despite being gay, Ronan unbelievably was not into him. I’m sorry, I really do not want to dissect the entirety of Pynch in here, that would go way too far and I bet there are so many people who could do and have done this better than I ever could, so I’ll stick to elaborating some more on how we find out that he is gay, considering I think he doesn’t say the word until Call Down The Hawk.

In the first book, Ronan does not get a pov, maybe because Maggie needed some more time to figure out how to make a character subtly and thirst over another character in a secret and homosexual way. Still we get some small hints, based on conversations with other characters, or just his behavior in general.

Gansey: “From now on I need all of us to be straight with one another” Ronan: “I’m always straight” Adam: “oh man that’s the biggest lie you’ve ever told” This, of course, is legendary. Ronan is gay, he jokes about it, Adam knows it. I genuinely cannot tell whether Ronan had come out to his friends, whether he just did it through jokes like this etc. If the latter is the case, I honestly doubt that Gansey would have known, as oblivious as he is.

We also have the case study of Declan and his Ashleys. Ronan seems to despise the heterosexual standards that his brother portrays, but it is not clear whether that’s because of heterosexuality, or because of Declan, because let’s be honest, in book one, Ronan would hate, absolutely hate, anyone Declan dates out of principle, because Declan’s just a bitch, or a manwhore, as Gansey would say.

Then it gradually all becomes very much obvious in The Dream Thieves. We got the parallels with religion, his nightmares (his night horrors/self-hate maybe being because of internalized homophobia?) and of course the secrets. The secrets you keep from yourself, the very obvious metaphor. Plus Kavinsky literally calls him the f-slur. You will very easily pick up on that if you’re not as oblivious as I was when I first read the book (I was in my Declan Lynch era with a tummy-ache ok?), but it is explicitly resolved in the epilogue. There is no more room left for ambiguity, thank you Maggie for ending the queer speculation yourself, within the book.

Then there’s gender, of course there’s gender. Gender is like Tad Carruthers, just always materializing out of nowhere, especially when you just want to stay away from it because it’s fake and a massive bitch.

Ronan definitely identifies as male, but if you look at this a certain way he is somehow trans or defies the entire concept of gender either way, considering he is a supernatural being, spirit, entity, that was just socialized as a boy. Ronan is like Cabeswater, or Lindenmere, which both don’t have a gender, obviously, they are forests. The Greywaren is often referred to as an “it”, which makes sense when people don’t know the Greywaren is human, but something about the entire thing smells very trans rights to me. Also that eldritch horror, not quite human at all,  jumble of dark matter thing in Greywaren was just so gender of him.

Ronan would wear a crop top, there’s no doubt to me.

[mildew-dread-mold]

REASONS TO VOTE RONAN AND NOT AANG FOR BALDSWAGSUMMIT

they may be both bald by choice, but ronan would have had dark luscious thick curls, can grow stubble overnight, and has to shave everyday (or enough that it is an explicit part of his daily schedule). not only is ronan bald by choice, he puts much more effort into being bald by choice than aang’s prepubescent, mostly hairless ass.

aang isn’t even bald all the time. at one point he is unconscious for a while and then goes undercover with hair, which spans at least half a season (i think?). ronan on the other hand was also in a coma for a good chunk of time but had not grown enough hair to be mentioned. ronan spends more time in his franchise bald than aang does.

in addition to this, when aang is in his dreams he has hair. ronan is bald in his dreams as well. who’s the ultimate bald now?

aang is bald because of what? his culture? which is cool and all but ronan is bald because when he has hair he reminds himself (and others) too much of his father whom he found dead in his family driveway when he was 15. ronan has a better bald-backstory. his baldness stems from a unique and heartbreaking place. aang is literally just a magic monk.

my friend tried to make the point that aang has a cool magic tattoo (which doesn’t have to do with baldness but does perhaps have to do with swag?) and i’d like us all to notice that ronan has not one but TWO tattoos, one of which was gotten to spite his older brother (swagful) and the other of which is a religious metaphor for dragging himself out of eden and rejecting paradise for mankind, and also is magical and keeps him from falling into a coma again (doubly swagful).

maggie stiefvater frequently uses the word “skull” instead of “head” when talking about ronan’s head because he is bald. which weirdly is a really nice synonym for “head” if you ask me. swagful AND bald. baldswagful. which is what the poll is for. aang may be from a cartoon and thus have no written description but you couldn’t call aang’s head a skull. that sounds wrong.

ronan gets bitches. like an overwhelming amount. adam gansey orla kavinsky. aang has gotten one singular bitch.

aang is 112 years old but ronan is a god so he’s been being since the start of time or whatever.

ronan is also an eldritch horror. nothing much more swagful than that. especially not some element bending pacifist kid.

if ronan loses his friends family enemies and everyone would bully him mercilessly. he would genuinely be devastated. adam would be like “sorry i don’t date bald men ranked below top 5” and blue would say “i could get an undercut and keep half of my hair and still beat your ass.” he would actually never recover mentally physically or financially. aang on the other hand would be perfectly fine. his friends would be like “it’s ok aang we still love your bald self” except for toph but aang wouldn’t care.

(if you don’t want to read all that i’ve bolded and italicized the key points.)

for all of the above reasons and more you should

Vote Ronan Lynch

for baldswagsummit2023. he is balder and more swagful than aang could ever dream to be.

[kelliealtogether]

It's the time of year where I like writing something nice, creepy, and a little bit scary (this is relative). I haven't managed much this year, but I have in years past, and below are all my "horror" fics, which I hold near and dear to my heart:

Somnium - Rated T - 3k - Horror of the psychological variety.

The Institute was not Ronan’s idea. Declan said it was only a matter of time until he hurt someone else. Only a matter of time before Matthew was comatose because of Ronan’s hubris or ignorance or both. The idea of Matthew asleep forever packed Ronan’s bags. It requested admittance to the Institute for Evening Experiences. It filled out paperwork in triplicate. Then Ronan was admitted and his education, his treatment, began.

With Teeth - Rated M - 31k - Horror of the werewolf variety.

Adam Parrish and Ronan Lynch have settled into a quiet, domestic life at the Barns. They cook dinner together. They binge watch sitcoms. They even adopt a cat, Opal. When Opal doesn't come back to the farmhouse the night of the full moon, Ronan goes out to look for her. But when Opal comes home and Ronan doesn't, Adam has to go look for Ronan. And when Adam finds him, he finds Ronan's been bitten. It's not until the next full moon that they find out what bit Ronan, but when they do, they have a little bit of a problem. Adam's allergic to dogs, and by extension, werewolves.

In Your Arms (And Arms) (And Arms) - Rated E - 16k - Horror of the man-eating bed & breakfast proprietor variety.

When Adam Parrish needs a place to stay, he finds The Barns, a remote bed and breakfast run by Ronan Lynch. But The Barns isn't your average bed and breakfast. It's more of a... Hotel California situation. Guests can check in any time they like. But some of them never leave.

Vital Pieces - Rated M - 50k - Horror of the cannibal variety (a.k.a. a Bones and All AU)

The first time it happened, it wasn’t Adam’s fault, or that’s what he told himself much later when he understood what he’d done and what caused it. No one had ever been nice to him before. No one had ever held him or rocked him or told him it was okay. Maybe if someone had, he wouldn’t have done it. Maybe his parents weren’t nice to him because they knew what he would do if they were. Adam Parrish doesn't choose to devour people who are nice to him. In fact, he hates himself for it. But when he finds another boy who shares the same type of hunger, Adam realizes that maybe being hungry isn't all that bad.

Electric Feel - Rated E - 4.8 k - Not horror, but tis also the season for monsterfucking, and this one's got plenty of monsterfucking

Adam Parrish almost lost his life because of scrying, so the next time he tries, he's understandably a little tense. If only there were some way his eldritch horror boyfriend could help him relax...

[catholic-character-tournament]

Round 2 - Side A

Propaganda below ⬇️

Ronan Lynch

Uhh fun fact he saw the devil flash his father once, and that's one of the reasons he goes to church on Sundays <3

context for this scene from book 2: ronan is in church with his older brother declan, younger brother matthew, and ghost friend noah "Joseph Kavinsky isn’t someone I want you being around,” Declan added. “Don’t snort. I’m serious.” Ronan merely invested a look with as much contempt as he could muster. A lady reached over the top of Noah to pat Matthew’s head fondly before continuing down the aisle. She didn’t seem to care that he was fifteen, which was all right, because he didn’t, either. Both Ronan and Declan observed this interaction with the pleased expressions of parents watching their prodigy at work. Declan repeated, “Like, actually dangerous.” Sometimes, Declan seemed to think that being a year older gave him special knowledge of the seedier side of Henrietta. What he meant was, did Ronan know that Kavinsky was a cokehead. In his ear, Noah whispered, “Is crack the same thing as speed?” Ronan didn’t answer. He didn’t think it was a very church-appropriate conversation. “I know you think you’re a punk,” Declan said. “But you aren’t nearly as bad ass as you think you are.” “Oh, go to hell,” Ronan snapped, just as the altar boys broached the rear doors. “Guys,” Matthew pleaded. “Be holy.”

Gay Catholic streetracing farmer. Consumed by catholic guilt NOT because of the gay thing but because he can Create things in a way he thinks should be only God's business. Will literally roll up to mass on sunday morning still drunk and bloody.

THIS GOTH KID IS LITERALLY GOD. This is a god trapped in the body of a Catholic teen and if he ever stopped feeling Catholic guilt he’d end the world!!. How is your confession every week that you creating a whole new being? Babygirl the God is coming from inside the house

eldritch entity from beyond the mortal plane wants to be a Real Human Boy, becomes a real (ish!) human (ish!) boy, goes to mass every sunday

Gay boy got his crush an apartment above his church so he could have his two favorite things in one place

gay. I'm not caught up the the series but I went through the tag when the latest book came out and I remember seeing a quote that said he worried if his boyfriend would make it to heaven when he dies because of his agnostic tendencies.

Kid is like a dream warlock who creates psychic horrors and never goes to confession because why would he? and he’s gay

There are no words

basically ronan's powers are inherited from his dead father niall and it means he can bring anything from a dream into real life. so he's got this whole crisis about whether he is a living piece of blasphemy because men are not meant to have the powers of gods or whether he literally is god. which is not acceptable to him for a number of reasons but mostly because he hates himself. his love interest's name is adam and adam lives in a small apartment above a church which the book says focuses the objects of his worship neatly into one building. I love them both dearly. also, this entire page makes me feel like I'm going insane. Ronan Lynch believed in heaven and hell. Once, he’d seen the devil. It had been a low, late morning at the Barns when the sun had burned off the mist and then burned off the chill and then burned the edges off the ground until everything shimmered with heat. It never got hot in those protected fields, but that morning, the air sweated with it. Ronan had never seen cattle pant before. All of the cows heaved and stuck their tongues out as they frothed with the heat. His mother sent Ronan to put them in the shade of the cattle barn. Ronan had gone to the searing metal gate, and as he did, he’d glimpsed his father, already in the barn. Four yards away from him had stood a red man. He was not truly red, but the burned orange of a fire ant. And he was not truly a man, because of the horns and the hooves. Ronan remembered the alienness of the creature, how real it had been. Every costume in the world had gotten it wrong; every drawing in every comic book. They’d all forgotten that the devil was an animal. Looking at the red man, Ronan had been struck by the intricacy of the body, how many miraculous pieces moved smoothly in harmony, no different than his own. Niall Lynch had had a gun in hand — the Lynches had an enormous number of guns of all sizes — and just as Ronan had opened the gate, his father had shot the thing about thirteen times in the head. With a shake of its horns, the unharmed devil had presented its genitalia to Niall Lynch before bounding off. It was an image that had yet to leave Ronan. And so Ronan became a reverse evangelist. The truth burst and grew inside him, and it was laid upon him to share it with no one. No one was meant to see hell before they get there. No one should have to live with the devil. So many homilies on faith were ruined once you no longer required it for belief.

Friar Tuck

If you use the picture of furry friar tuck from the Disney Robin Hood, bless you 🙏

[crimeronan]

is 11 for the ask game your three favorite fics you've written, or your favorite three as a reader? well, do whichever one you like! or both. or neither. i'm not the boss of you.

from this ask game!

i'll do both!

for ones i've written:

breathe on the ashes - 106k heart project about the homestuck ancestors. it's about fighting fate and failing and being doomed and dying. also revolutionary martyrs and eldritch gods. i completed it 5 years ago now and would do some things differently today, but there are parts of it that are still.... some of my best writing. like, ever.

we never were good at doing what we're told - 113k heart project that's a soulmate AU written by someone who fucking hates soulmate AUs. mainly about the three narrators navigating their "soulmates as horror" lots in life with polyamory in the background. tons of vicious relationship fights, ugliness, snuggles, and face touching. it's also perhaps the most personal fic about suicide, bipolar disorder, psychosis that i've ever written.

why did love put a gun in my hand - the luz POV princess fic. i've worked harder on wwaitsoatl and my writing in that fic is better, but this one edges it out for my favorite. there's a lot of horror and characterization stuff in here that i'm really pleased with, even moreso than the character stuff i've explored in more canon compliant fic.

-

for ones i've read:

you're a far cry from an empire at peace - yes i know i rec this one Every Time but for good reason. a fic set in the toh princess AU that's about willow as eda's weed-smoking burnout apprentice. she is fucking perfect and the political stuff in here is SOOO GOOOOODDDD

meet hennessy - a gorgeous, evocative, breathtaking character study of hennessy from call down the hawk. it's ugly and raw and really really really fucking good. also worth noting that as far as i remember, this was the first piece of hennessy fanfiction published to ao3 that i didn't write myself. and it DELIVEREDDDDD.

and these are the days that make a forever - ADORABLE raven cycle ot6 polyamory fic about ronan navigating how to come out as gay and polyamorous to his shithead older brother. it is fucking hilarious and always good for a bad day.

bonus because i couldn't decide between ^ that one and:

Spirit and Tongue - another raven cycle fic, this one for the rarepairs of adam/henry and adam/gansey/henry. an AU where adam and henry are fae from opposing courts, and both are fighting for gansey's attention. gansey is a fae-touched human who's clever and sweet and is gonna earn these guys' affection if it kills him. So Fucking Good.

[grewaren]

A Beginner's Guide to Ronan Lynch:

Have you never read The Raven Cycle but you want to write with Ronan? Below the cut is a basic layout of his past, what he goes through in canon, my canon divergencies, and what he's doing in the future, as well as some tidbits for you, the author, and things that your muse will not know about him unless explicitly plotted between us. As I am currently reading the series, this will be updated based on what I've read.

Ronan is something called the Greywaren, an eldritch horror - esque being that is capable of going into his dreams and pulling things out of them. After finding himself enthralled with humanity, he was able to join them and joined Niall lynch's family. However, having the Greywaren as his son wasn't all it cracked up to be. Instead of his parents caring for him, the task was left to his eldest brother Declan. Declan and Ronan were ordered by their father not to discuss the dreaming Ronan did, which led to a contentious relationship developing between the two. This also led to Ronan dreaming himself a brother, who was named Matthew who would love him unconditionally, something he didn't feel from his father or older brother.

Ronan's life changed forever after finding his father's body, dead in a pool of blood with the murder weapon in view. After that, he became the cold and bitter Ronan that we see in the series.

Throughout the series, Ronan and his friends are searching for someone named Glendower, a project of his best friend, Gansey. During this search, Ronan comes into his own as the Greywaren and learns how to hone his skills with the help of someone called Kavinsky. despite disliking him deeply, Ronan acknowledges that he wouldn't be nearly as adept at dreaming ( the process of entering a dream and pulling an object out of it ) without his help.

Richard Gansey is someone that Ronan will always have a somewhat codependent relationship with. They were each others' first friends and Ronan is often called Gansey's lap dog. Regardless of the plot, this friendship will remain important to Ronan.

I've heard The Dreamer Trilogy is kind of a mess LMAO I'll add my canon divergencies once i've actually read them and am able to articulate my thoughts properly.

Things to know about Ronan: he is not a nice person. He is brutally honest, he's mean on purpose, even to those he considers friends. Despite this, he doesn't tolerate rudeness or disrespect back, especially when it comes to his friends and family. He knows he looks scary and he WILL use it to his advantage.

He likes to drive his car, and race it in particular. He's been known to get in lots of trouble after a race.

If you're going to find him anywhere, it will either be at The Barns, the place he grew up, Monmouth Manufacturing, a factory where Gansey lives, or St. Agnes Catholic Church, where he can be found praying or dreaming.

He is a binge drinker. He typically does it to help deal with the trauma of finding his father dead, but also uses it to help him sleep. He is an insomniac.

Things you can know about Ronan but your muse cannot unless we have expressly plotted it: Ronan is a dreamer, Ronan is the Greywaren, Niall was a dreamer, the entirety of his relationship and circumstances with Declan, Matthew is one of ronan's dream creatures, more to be added.

[robobee]

new post greywaren brainwave. Adam does NOT remember the void era at ALL. his brain completely smoothed over the entire "horrors beyond my comprehension and soul bonding with my sort of ex boyfriend" thing so now whenever Ronan nudges toward a "we totally understand each other in our uh. Eldritch Hearts. even if I don't put the toilet seat down" Adam tells him point blank to stop fucking lying like a soap opera loser

[starrypawz]

For Good, For Bad, and Meet Strange For Ronan and/or Lucas?

For Good: Is there anyone in your OC’s life who had an undeniable positive impact on who they are as a person? How did knowing this person improve your OC’s life?

Lucas It would take him a while to admit it maybe but... Livvy like Mama Newman too but like Livvy very much did help shape him into 'Ok maybe humans aren't totally the worst'

For Ronan, Themmy for sure, like Ricardo to but also I think Ronan and Themmy just clicked quicker and like Themmy Gets It (tm) more than Ricardo did on like a gender level

For Bad: Is there anyone who had an undeniable negative impact on your OC’s life? How did your OC deal with that change? Have they been able to move on?

Lucas if we exclude you know the whole eldritch horror trying to eat him, he didn't make it through his youth unscathed, there wasn't many incidents but he did have like at least one bully growing up and basically it did sort of help knowing 'I'm actually an eldritch horror and you are cosmically nothing' and then yeah just realised that person wasn't worth it.

Ronan *Just gestures towards The Farm*

Meet Strange: What’s the most memorable way your OC has ever met a new person? Was it a good experience? Bad experience? Just plain weird? How’s their relationship with that person now?

I mean for Lucas the way Jonny rocked up was really freaking weird, but hey Lucas got a boyfriend out of it in the end so it's all good.

Ronan I feel however they met Ortega (Which I admit I've never like actually decided how it happens, so many options) is up there and then I mean that whole relationship has been interesting

[nonsensical-silly]

honestly i feel like this could be interchangeable

like sure ronan can be the eldritch horror while adam is the eldritch ho

but it can be reversed with ronan being the eldritch ho and adam being the eldritch horror

Me when I’m telling my friend about ronan and I say “he’s lowkey a eldrich horror” and she goes “an eldrich whore???”

Which. Not quite that's adam

[kelliealtogether]

6, 18, 30 for ao3 wrapped ❤️

[ao3 wrapped]

These were fun! Thanks! 😘😘

6. Favorite title you used

This is another tough choice, but for sheer punniness, Tent-sion. I will not apologize for loving stupid, punny titles, and I think this one is the worst I’ve ever used, and that is precisely why I love it. 

18. The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?

It’s a toss up between Blue and Gansey. This year, I’ve really tried to incorporate them more into fics, and getting their voices right continues to be something I struggle with. I always feel like I write Blue too bitchy, and Gansey too highbrow, but I’m trying. 😭 I think I've gotten so used to writing Adam and Ronan that the rest of the Gangsey is particularly troublesome to write because I want to do them justice.

30. Biggest surprise while writing this year?

I think what surprised me most is that tentacle/tendril porn is really, really fun to write because you don’t have to think about quantities of appendages and whose hand is doing what. 😂 Ronan’s eldritch horror status is horribly underutilized in TRC fic, and more people should lean into it. Let Adam Parrish be the monsterfucker he deserves to be (which was my mantra for 2023). 

[catholic-character-tournament]

Round 1 - Side A

Propaganda below ⬇️

Ronan Lynch

Uhh fun fact he saw the devil flash his father once, and that's one of the reasons he goes to church on Sundays <3

context for this scene from book 2: ronan is in church with his older brother declan, younger brother matthew, and ghost friend noah "Joseph Kavinsky isn’t someone I want you being around,” Declan added. “Don’t snort. I’m serious.” Ronan merely invested a look with as much contempt as he could muster. A lady reached over the top of Noah to pat Matthew’s head fondly before continuing down the aisle. She didn’t seem to care that he was fifteen, which was all right, because he didn’t, either. Both Ronan and Declan observed this interaction with the pleased expressions of parents watching their prodigy at work. Declan repeated, “Like, actually dangerous.” Sometimes, Declan seemed to think that being a year older gave him special knowledge of the seedier side of Henrietta. What he meant was, did Ronan know that Kavinsky was a cokehead. In his ear, Noah whispered, “Is crack the same thing as speed?” Ronan didn’t answer. He didn’t think it was a very church-appropriate conversation. “I know you think you’re a punk,” Declan said. “But you aren’t nearly as bad ass as you think you are.” “Oh, go to hell,” Ronan snapped, just as the altar boys broached the rear doors. “Guys,” Matthew pleaded. “Be holy.”

Gay Catholic streetracing farmer. Consumed by catholic guilt NOT because of the gay thing but because he can Create things in a way he thinks should be only God's business. Will literally roll up to mass on sunday morning still drunk and bloody.

THIS GOTH KID IS LITERALLY GOD. This is a god trapped in the body of a Catholic teen and if he ever stopped feeling Catholic guilt he’d end the world!!. How is your confession every week that you creating a whole new being? Babygirl the God is coming from inside the house

eldritch entity from beyond the mortal plane wants to be a Real Human Boy, becomes a real (ish!) human (ish!) boy, goes to mass every sunday

Gay boy got his crush an apartment above his church so he could have his two favorite things in one place

gay. I'm not caught up the the series but I went through the tag when the latest book came out and I remember seeing a quote that said he worried if his boyfriend would make it to heaven when he dies because of his agnostic tendencies.

Kid is like a dream warlock who creates psychic horrors and never goes to confession because why would he? and he’s gay

There are no words

basically ronan's powers are inherited from his dead father niall and it means he can bring anything from a dream into real life. so he's got this whole crisis about whether he is a living piece of blasphemy because men are not meant to have the powers of gods or whether he literally is god. which is not acceptable to him for a number of reasons but mostly because he hates himself. his love interest's name is adam and adam lives in a small apartment above a church which the book says focuses the objects of his worship neatly into one building. I love them both dearly. also, this entire page makes me feel like I'm going insane. Ronan Lynch believed in heaven and hell. Once, he’d seen the devil. It had been a low, late morning at the Barns when the sun had burned off the mist and then burned off the chill and then burned the edges off the ground until everything shimmered with heat. It never got hot in those protected fields, but that morning, the air sweated with it. Ronan had never seen cattle pant before. All of the cows heaved and stuck their tongues out as they frothed with the heat. His mother sent Ronan to put them in the shade of the cattle barn. Ronan had gone to the searing metal gate, and as he did, he’d glimpsed his father, already in the barn. Four yards away from him had stood a red man. He was not truly red, but the burned orange of a fire ant. And he was not truly a man, because of the horns and the hooves. Ronan remembered the alienness of the creature, how real it had been. Every costume in the world had gotten it wrong; every drawing in every comic book. They’d all forgotten that the devil was an animal. Looking at the red man, Ronan had been struck by the intricacy of the body, how many miraculous pieces moved smoothly in harmony, no different than his own. Niall Lynch had had a gun in hand — the Lynches had an enormous number of guns of all sizes — and just as Ronan had opened the gate, his father had shot the thing about thirteen times in the head. With a shake of its horns, the unharmed devil had presented its genitalia to Niall Lynch before bounding off. It was an image that had yet to leave Ronan. And so Ronan became a reverse evangelist. The truth burst and grew inside him, and it was laid upon him to share it with no one. No one was meant to see hell before they get there. No one should have to live with the devil. So many homilies on faith were ruined once you no longer required it for belief.

Temenos

so his whole thing is he's an inquisitor who is just fundamentally bad at being a priest on account of he does things like forgetting scripture and not being able to help but doubt the institution which gets everyone hes ever cared about killed. he's gay. he says shit like "careful, i bite". he's in yuri with a holy knight. he's one of my favorite characters and i want to beat him over the head with a cast iron skillet

fucked up gay little cleric who was supposed to grapple with the fact that the institution he serves is corrupt except he has been in doubt from the very beginning and very clearly doesnt put much stock in the scripture hes made it his lifes work to preach. hes kinda a freak with it. every line he speaks is said with the cadence of a gay guy checking under his nails while ignoring you as he talks. i have to hit him with mallets and shatter him into pieces.

This man is the world's worst clergyman. He's a high ranking member of the holy inquisition, but nobody respects him and he mostly just uses his position to investigate random murders for fun. He regularly forgets how the bible goes and little kids have to correct him on how the plot goes of the jrpg equivalent of jesus's resurrection. He has a holy knight for a boyfriend. He tortures people for information any other character can just ask for. His best friend out of the rest of the main 8 is an assassin and gang member. He tries to get people to commit crimes with him. His story is about uprooting the corruption in his church and killing high ranking church members and also Literal Fucking Jrpg satan. He regularly blasphemes and everyone around him looks in horror as he shouts at god and encourages people to become atheists. His catchphrase is "doubt is what I do." He is still somehow the most devout character in the entire game despite being a total fuck up of a cleric who does not deserve to be here whatsoever. Pls let him win it'd be SO FUNNY

Hes genuinely just the funniest guy. Very little about his story has to do with the faith but like. He routinely roasts the entire pantheon of in-universe gods. He beats people up (metaphorically of course) as one of his main game mechanics. He got stamped as the resident gayboy SO fast. His starliner definitely has higher intelligence than wisdom even though clerics use wisdom. Every chapter he appears in he solves a mystery by zoning out so hard his god blesses him with extremely vivid hallucinations. He's so deeply fucking traumatized. One of his battle skills is fully just beating his enemies up with his staff. He ends up defunding the police. He can very casually become a thermonuclear bomb but in a very holy way. His best friend is a 23-year-old assassin that exclusively calls him "Detective". Is he Catholic (ish)? Yeah, but he certainly doesn't always act like it.

He constantly commits heresy and doubts the gods but is still the not-Pope's right hand man

Listen, imagine you'd go to church and your priest gets roasted by kids for forgetting how the bible goes. That's him, canonically even. He's like if a redditor who wants to be a detective was cosplaying as a holy man. He's someone whose whole thing is doubting the gods and the church, to the point where he makes another person question his faith too, even though he is technically The holy man. He's absolutely unhinged and gay. He's 30 years old and absolutely does not look like it. He's traumatized, and cannot be sincere and honest about his feelings even once. He should go to therapy actually. Like desperately. For his sake and everyone around him.

he is from the faith but he doubts everything around him to find the truth through it........ also i'd like to see him torment the crotchety priest i had to do a face-to-face confession with in high school. it'd be funny.

FATHER BROWN BUT MAKE HIM GAY AND PLAGUED BY TRUST ISSUES. This man will forget his own sermons, beat people up for infos and, at the same time, gets to be the fantasy equivalent of a youth pastor. He somehow manages to be the most unhinged person in a party that includes a vengeful math professor who can and WILL mug people. He might not be the most devout Catholic of them all, but he is definitely the *funniest* one. Give it up for the world's shittiest priest!

i’m gonna be honest temenos is a TERRIBLE catholic but he’s funny and i love him. he also has a weird gay thing going on with a paladin it’s great.

[clotpolesonly]

they could have gotten up to so much hi-jinks together 😭 they are both such intensely lonely characters. Ronan said to Hennessy "please don't let me be the only one," and Declan is always surrounded by people and couldn't form a genuine connection with a single one of them. so the thought of them growing up together, sharing this experience, united in it, makes me wanna CRY.

i've got two go-to scenarios to make this fever dream of mine happen 😂 1) he wasn't a dream but he is now, and 2) he was always a dreamer but he never knew

for the first scenario, well, the dreamer secret got significantly less secret after the events of TDT, ya know?? the ley line turning off made a lot of really big waves, and the moderators confirm that the government is aware of dreamers and willing to back organizations working to eradicate them. i imagine they would also be willing to back organizations working to study them. every urban fantasy needs mad scientists!! these ones want to know to what degree dreaming is a heritable trait. if it's a recessive gene or something. if the ability may be latent in children of dreamers who otherwise haven't presented with it themselves. if that latent ability could maybe be activated.

pls imagine Ronan and Hennessy raiding this medical/military facility in the middle of nowhere to rescue Declan who's been kidnapped and speeding away with him thinking they got off scot free until they realize that Declan is dripping nightwash and it's not stopping and that can't be right, it can't be, but it IS, and Ronan has to slap Hennessy's sleep mask on Declan and follow him into a dream and put something in Declan's hand and tell him to bring it back, just do it, i don't care if you think you can't, stop panicking and just fucking do it, do it now please --

and for the second scenario, Declan's always been a dreamer, but for whatever reason, he.....wasn't allowed to be. the most convincing reason i've come up with so far is that Niall intended to suppress Ronan's dreaming. Ronan was the eldritch entity in a human skinsuit, Ronan was the one he was afraid of, Ronan was the one that drove Mor away with his frightening amount of power. if he could just find a way to turn off or dampen Ronan's abilities, it would significantly lower the chances of him dreaming up a nuclear bomb and somehow destroying the world, ya know??

also it's just a LOT to have two toddlers with uncontrollable dreaming abilities, on top of his own barely controlled chaos. they can't go on this way, it's fucking dangerous, so when the medication Niall dreams up for Ronan fails........he tries it on Declan. whatever Ronan IS must be interfering, cuz the meds work just fine on Declan, his natural human son. it's not how Niall wanted to solve this problem, but it's the only option he's got.

and so Ronan is the dreamer of the family and Declan is not. because there's only room for so many in one household. someone has to be stable, someone has to be safe, someone has to be awake to clean up the others' messes. it's the only choice he has. it just works better this way. doesn't it? for everyone.

except for Declan, of course, for whom it fucking SUCKS. and he doesn't find out about his suppressed ability until his prescription runs out and Niall isn't around to dream up any more of it. congratulations, you're a dreamer. which sucks even fucking more after a lifetime of anxiety and envy and resentment.

BUT!! THE BONDING!!!! THAT COMES AFTER!!!!!!

because the brothers are both so goddamn lonely. Ronan has always craved someone like him, someone who can understand him and share in both the horror and the glory of what he (they) can do. and Declan has always just wanted to feel like he belongs. like he is a part of his family and not set apart from it.

i spend a lot of time thinking about Ronan teaching Declan how to dream 🥺 it's so weird cuz there's some instinct, from deep down, to ask Declan to teach him. cuz he's the big brother, ya know? he's the one who always knows everything and has all the answers. and Ronan's been so desperate for a teacher. but he's the one with the experience here, and Declan is looking to him for answers, and that feels really good in its own way. to be needed, respected, acknowledged by the brother whose approval he's always craved (not that he would ever admit as much).

i definitely agree that Declan would not be a flashy dreamer, haha. i can see him as a forger, like Kavinsky but less of an unhinged dick about it 😂 meticulous and careful and controlled, flawlessly recreating whatever he needs to, down to the last nick and scratch and speck of dust. Ronan thinks that's boooooooring, but he can appreciate the craft at least. he spends a lot of time trying to badger Declan into having more FUN with dreaming, come on Deklo, you've got infinite cosmic power at your fingertips, don't you wanna have some fucking FUN?? quit dreaming up staplers and paperwork, you fucking nerd-ass loser alkdfjgh

i'm just obsessed with them ok, i have so many thoughts, i am deeply deeply invested in the whole concept

talk to be about your dreamer Declan au 👀

With pleasure 😈 It's less of an AU and more of a vague string of ideas unattached to any definitive plotline. But I started wondering what makes someone a dreamer, and why the gene would’ve skipped Declan if both his parents were dreamers, which got me wondering about what kind of dreamer Declan would be. He wouldn’t be so reckless as Niall and he'd have more tact than Kavinsky. I kept imagining him as some kind of closet dreamer, meticulous and careful and controlled. He's always been secretive because he was raised to believe that secrets = safety so he practiced in private and taught himself how to dream responsibly.

But then I keep imagining how everything would have been different if Declan had been open about it the whole time. Declan teaching Ronan, the two of them sharing dreams but also like just playing around with it? Seeing who can dream up the weirdest/stupidest thing (Ronan always won).

Declan experiencing the nightwash when he inevitably tries to stop dreaming because he wants to he normal and Ronan freaking out because he thinks his brother is dying. Ronan cleaning him up but admonishing him the whole time.

Ronan and Declan as kids, sneaking around the Barns to go through the dream stuff Niall doesn't want them to see. Ronan and Declan actually bonding and leaning on one another because they trust each other, they're the same.

But then your post got me thinking about involuntarily suppressed dreamer Declan and I'm obsessed with that idea. It makes so much sense and it hurts me so much... Declan eventually being outed as a dreamer, clueless and lost because he'd never been allowed to explore that side of himself. He has to look to Ronan for guidance, he has to figure out how to survive inside his own head again. He would have nightmares for sure, but he'd also, for the first time in his whole life, have dreams.

I'd absolutely love to hear anymore thoughts you have on dreamer Declan if you wanna share!!

[crimeronan]

"No," Adam said, "he really is an eldritch god. Like, actually. We spent some time together on the astral when he was... I mean, he's not shitting you. That's all I'm saying."

Gansey ran a thumb contemplatively over his lower lip, brow furrowed.

Hennessy, meanwhile, had other apparent priorities. "You two fucked while he was in questing spirit tentacle mode? Holy shit, Parrish. That's the most interesting thing I've learned about you. Was it hot?"

"And didn't even invite me," Gansey murmured, halfway between rueful and amused. "So. A god. That's certainly something. How does all of that affect weekly Mass?"

"Oh, Jesus," Ronan said. "Don't make me figure that shit out right now."

"Stop giving him all this credit, both of you. You're making it sound like he's the reason the earth revolves around the sun. Quit all the ego stroking, he preens enough as it is. 'Eldritch god' my ass." Hennessy pulled a pack of cigarettes from her back pocket, fished one out, and lit up. "He's a fucking fairy. Can we move on?"

Henry, sunning himself on the other side of the porch, lazily raised a hand. "Well, we already knew that."

"YES," Hennessy crowed, smacking a hand down on the concrete ground. "Yes. Thank you for appreciating my wordplay. This is the funniest thing that's ever happened, actually. Slurs eternal for Ronan Lynch."

"Remind me not to let you design my tombstone," Ronan said, slinging a leg over hers and leaning against her shoulder.

"Maybe that's why you decided to be gay as a human," Adam suggested. "Because it's really funny."

"That honestly does sound like something I'd do," Ronan agreed.

Gansey settled down on Ronan's non-Hennessy-occupied side. After a moment, he hugged Ronan tightly around the waist, forehead pressed to his shoulder. "I should have known," he said, laughing a little, breathless. "I should have known. You've always been..."

"An eldritch horror?"

Gansey laughed again. "No. Beautiful."

[fanfiction-artist-prototype]

tagged by @bloustorm​ to list 10 of my favourite characters from different media in no particular order!

Damn you Blou, i have to literally turn my brain upside down and shake all the dust and idea tidbits out to find this list!

1) Rin Okumura, Blue Exorcist (this is supposed to be in no particular order but listen, Rin was like *the* character for me since the moment I picked up manga)

2) Cale Henituse, Trash of the Count’s Family

3) Inej, Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

4) Jason Todd, specifically in any adaptation of the Under the Redhood arc

5) Mari, Empress of all seasons by Emiko Jean - Yokai empress of Japan?? Whose husband's army literally back down because fuck that they aren’t fighting the Empress? Love this book, really sad it’s not a duology because the last chapter is rushed but also it couldn’t have last another book so I guess it’s for the best.

6) Zetian, Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao - ANOTHER OMG OMG BOOK like Zetian is so cool and XJZ has such a way with words?? And their yt channel is amazing.

7) Kerri, Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero - It’s a Scooby Doo parody mixed with eldritch horror and Kerri is partly responsible for my gender awakening since it’s the first time I ever read about the concept of a afab feeling like a girl but *not*, how you don’t feel like a man but never like a woman but something inbetween but also closer to femininity  than masculinity. Good book just for the scooby doo eldritch vibes but also much gender

8) Geer MacDonald, S.T.A.G.S. by M.A. Bennett - classic private school murder mystery but with a twist and Geer has no clue what’s going on and starts talking to a mounted Stag head at one point which is just so funny given the context.

9) Blue Sargent, The Raven Boys Series by Maggie Stiefvater

10) Gansey, Ronan, Adam and Noah, The Raven Boys series by Maggie Stiefvater - Blue gets her own spot but the boys all get to be together because you can’t separate them.