#NEW BEHAVIOR GENERATOR

[sha-brytols]

listen not to pull the "wont anyone PLEASE think of the straight women" card but it has to be said i'm mildly convinced the so called "solas hate" from the devs is actually just misogyny.

[pigeon-butch]

I certainly have my own concerns about the treatment of moo deng but um. well i think some of you may just be racist

[rainbowsandwhumperflies]

The Winged Servant - drabble

Notes: okay you might've noticed there was no poll last week to vote for this week's chapter. That's because I love Dakota too much and didn't want to keep them to myself for any longer and no one was voting on the option for Ryan to meet his only ever friend. Ryan is 18 here, about two years before he ever heard Onyx's name. Speaking of which, Onyx is not here, and neither is any other whump content. This is whatever the opposite of fanservice is, where the author is clearly the only one who cares

content warnings: super corrupt Rao monarchy, that's pretty much it, this is not even whump

masterlist

“I have dinner for you, Your Highness,” someone said from the doorway, and Ryan glanced up to see a person who, sure enough, was holding a tray of food. But it wasn’t Jayden, and Ryan had told Jayden to bring him his food.

“Where’s Jayden?”

“He’s busy.”

His eyes narrowed. “He’s never too busy for a direct order from the royal family. What the fuck did you do?”

The servant cocked their head to the side. “Apologies, Your Highness. I asked if I could do it instead. I didn’t realize this meal delivery was so important to you.”

“... Why?”

“Because you don’t tell people things like that.”

“Why did you ask to do it, dipshit.”

They grinned. “Maybe I like seeing you, Your Highness.”

“Is that right? You like seeing me, and you like being a smartass, and you like pissing me off?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe,” Ryan repeated sarcastically. “Fine. Bring me my food, and take a few bites so I know you’re not poisoning me, and you can get out of my hair.” That wasn’t as safe as he was supposed to be. But there were still four more complaint forms to go through before he’d have time to care.

“I sure hope you weren’t poisoned,” the servant said, setting the tray down and picking up a cracker. “This would be a really stupid way for me to die.”

This would also be a really stupid way for them to spend their time living—it’d be faster to just let Jayden, a close, trusted servant do his job—but Ryan didn’t point that out.

Ryan also didn’t point out the way that the crumbs clung to their sparkling lip gloss. That was the reason he was staring at their lips, because it was distracting, but it’d be rude to point it out. So he kept staring at their lips.

~

They were at the next dinner party. Not serving food at the party, either, getting served food, which meant that they were not a servant. “Dakota Lake,” they were introduced as, though their younger sisters kept calling them Kota. And while Ryan hadn’t noticed them posing as a servant, he would have recognized their sisters. Only eight years old and already, the two had a reputation for being the castle menaces at every single event. And… he supposed that if he thought about it, their mom had been working there for a few months now, an important enough job that her family was considered nobility.

Dakota didn’t seem entirely focused on the dinner party, which was disrespectful enough in and of itself that Ryan started to get pissy. But clearly they weren’t the only distracted one, or Ryan would have been able to recognize them before they’d delivered his dinner four days earlier.

They ran right into the prince later, balancing three plates of what had been turkey before it became a mess on his suit. “I’m- shit, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-”

“You’re not a servant,” Ryan blurted, making Dakota pause in their reach for paper towels.

“... No, Your Highness. What?”

“You’re not a servant, and you brought me food last week. I want to know why.”

They laughed breathlessly, brushing Ryan’s shoulder off with a napkin. “Christ. I told you, didn’t I? I wanted to see you.”

“No one wants to see me.” That wasn’t exactly how those words were supposed to come out, but they were true regardless. Prince Ryan wasn’t known for social visits.

“Really, Your Highness? No one?” They handed their dirty plates off to a servant passing by, apparently deciding that they’d done enough cleaning and the servants could do the rest. “Do you get out much? Lots of people think you’re nice to look at. How did you recognize me, anyway? You were so focused on that paperwork—barely looked at me.”

Ryan blinked slowly.

Lots of people think you’re nice to look at.

He wondered if lots of people included Dakota. He wondered why that mattered. He wondered if it was relevant at all that he’d recognized Dakota based on the sparkling lip gloss that they were wearing, the lip gloss that the bread crumbs had stuck to when they’d delivered the food.

“I remembered you because it’s weird fucking behavior to intercept a direct command from a prince just because you wanted to see him.”

“Do you want me to piss off? I will if you want.”

Not particularly, Ryan realized, which came as a surprise to himself. He had always hated the dinner parties. Cardan hated them, too. Really, the only people who liked them were noble families who needed to feel important and appreciated, and Ryan wasn’t in the mood for appreciating people.

But Dakota had made the poor decisions that they’d made, and they’d done it without apparent motive. That made them an unsolved mystery. And a mystery was much more appealing than the dinner party.

“I forgive you,” Ryan decided, and Dakota snorted as if he’d made a joke.

“Okay, Your Highness. Thank you.”

“Unfortunately, we’re both still covered in your fucking turkey. Come on, I’ll let you borrow some of my clothes if you need some.” They had other options, actually. Like asking literally any of the people employed here for clothes. But they hadn’t said “lots of people think you’re nice to look at” to the people employed here.

“Okay,” Dakota agreed with a soft smile. “Thank you, Your Highness.”

~

taglist: @kaleidoscope-of-thoughts @toyybox @fuckcapitalismasshole @rainydaywhump @jay--o

@risk606 @cepheusgalaxy @fourwingedwriter

ps: I'm tagging you all because this is very much the universe that The Winged Servant takes place in. However, all this stuff that happens to Ryan before he meets Onyx is pretty much irrelevant to the actual plot. And not whumpy. And there will almost definitely be more of this because Dakota is my favorite ever character. So if you don't want to be tagged for this stuff lmk ^^

[voidcat]

They’re gonna try to add what to the penal code now?.. 😀🤡

[perihel1on]

really really funny to post a whole long well-thought-out thing about how i no longer identify as plural then immediately get into a week long argument with myself(s) about whether that's true

[xxplastic-cubexx]

sending you the best wishes for 2025 (even tho there's still 4 hours to it for me lol) 🫶🏻

happy new year to everyone !!!!!! here's to hoping it's better than this one was :^)

[marc--chilton]

i can imagine that house would want his daughter to know her grandma. but does house ever let john near giselle? does wilson know about all that john has done?

good question! i only actually just started figuring out a better timeline for when giselle's born and settled on a post-birthmarks point and just sort of futz with canon after that point. so giselle doesn't ever meet john, but given how stressed house gets when his dad gets brought up, she pieces some stuff together and finds she's not exactly heartbroken to not know him. she has a nice relationship with granny blythe though her shortcomings as a beta who doesn't have strong instincts can ring pretty loud sometimes -- she hasn't changed since house was a kid in that way, so it's sort of a raw spot all around.

i'm gonna be so fr right now. i feel like whenever house opens up about like his childhood or trauma or what have you he like barely gets any comfort and i'm a little mad about it! so i take advantage of having a bad memory and trick myself into thinking over the course of the 'birthmarks' trip wilson ended up garnering a lot of reluctant sympathy for house bc he was genuinely so pitiful trying to convince wilson to let him off the hook by explaining a little of how awful john was to him. the stuff house has hinted before but wilson had just chalked it up to that just being john drawing on military knowledge for discipline (which. isn't entirely wrong i guess. but it was very much abuse too)

BUT

if john WERE still alive. oughh. blythe would want to visit immediately after giselle's birth and she'd drag john with her despite knowing how poorly john and house get along. she doesn't even consider the danger -- actual danger, real harm -- that could ensue if house doesn't want to see his dad. haywire hormones and high instinctual drive to protect his newborn pup could very well lead to a physical altercation that even if house won would still hurt him terribly.

and even with the lax attitude wilson holds for the father-son relationship, he too would get set off rejecting john's presence through sympathetic response to house's own distress on seeing him. bc like granted everything's running high in that timeframe, but now he's a parent too, and he just thinks on what house has told him in varying degrees of detail john's forms of punishment for minor infractions, and how when his dad's around, house's entire demeanor changes to uncharacteristically demure, polite, with a wariness that comes from experience.....

what's really sick is how john can just huff at house once as a warning if he starts acting up and house would heel with a flinch. he does it once when house had seen john reach for giselle while blythe was holding her. house's growling dies instantly (fearful, but mostly just resentful) but wilson's cranks up and he finally physically escorts john out of the room, who goes semi-willingly because frankly the whole thing just reminds him that his son's an omega so he didn't exactly love to be there either, he just came because blythe wanted him to.

[backpackingspace]

Listen. Listen it's a month into the clone wars and obi wan is buying Cody the good stuff(nice coffee), the council setting the clones up with jedi library access and signing them up for classes (college degrees for everyone), they're codifying their culture(they have records of everyones cultures. The clones are no different) , and teaching them that they are safe to be actual people.

[choclilies]

I know it's passed and stuff but what happened this morning irked tf out of me. People were so excited and opening that comment section was surprising as hell. And the way people doubled down...Some of y'all are not real. Chris didn't deserve that. And after reading what happened after....I'm just happy people showed up to support him because that other stuff was so uncalled for.

[btsbs]

.

[wizardnuke]

you have the envisci majors who are visibly super into hiking/climbing and/or hunting you have the envisci majors with their bug print button ups and pins and you have me. some guy. cursed with tree knowledge

[h-ypno]

Talking to my roommate is horrible. It's like two terrified animals having a standoff in a room.

[bidonica]

Rules: Shuffle your on repeat playlist and post the first 10 tracks, then tag ten people.

I was tagged by @nobodysuspectsthebutterfly and since I'm on desktop I also used this chance to update the covers of my newest spotify playlists with custom graphics because I'm Like That (used to do elaborate sleeve graphics on cassette mixes and burned CDs because I'm cassette mix years old)

Sick Love - Scanners

Once In a While - Rosegarden Funeral Party

Mary On A Cross - Ghost

I Don't Want To Fall In Love - She Wants Revenge

Space - Magic Wands

Perhaps - Guns 'n' Roses

Written in Blood - She Wants Revenge

BB's Theme - Ludwig Forssell & Jenny Plant

Half A World Away - REM

Ellipsis - Drab Majesty

non-binding tags for: @samshinechester, @forgottenbones, @pointlesslybirdie, @onionjulius, @figs-and-pomegranates, @melrosing, @heresiae, @spaceofentropy, @tenitchyfingers, @feydrautha

[elvisqueso]

for some reason, the "cishets at pride" discourse is still going on and i only ever really see the One Tweet about it (which is usually a Sign that it's not actually as big of an issue as the rest of the internet made it seem), so I went to look at OP's tweets to see if there was more context and here's what I've learned:

the original tweet was meant to be a joke (i guess)

it exploded when other people took it personally (understandable, bc the internet) and then the Discourse started

the broad summary around the joke's sentiment is really that many queer women (especially queer women of color) are feeling less safe at PRIDE and in other queer spaces as more non-queer people become comfortable attending those spaces

their fears are generally reasonable and based on personal experiences with (usually white) cishet men harassing/assaulting them in places where they were meant to feel safe

they also feel that the community at large doesn't support them or believe them when they try and voice their fears

the other side— which took the tweet personally— are (i think at the general core) people who've often felt alienated in queer spaces bc they don't "perform queerness" in a certain way and so felt they weren't welcome at PRIDE or in queer spaces unless they conformed to someone else's ideas of queerness

basically, you have two sides with valid positions talking past each other. bc the internet

i think the thing to learn here is that the queer community at large needs to recognize that while it's REALLY GOOD that PRIDE has become more accessible and so "mainstream" society is becoming more accepting of queerness (and perhaps making people feel safer and more comfortable being out publicly in general as a result), there's also a responsibility to look after the vulnerable members of the community and not ignore them if they say they're feeling unsafe (because the previously more exclusive space is no longer as exclusive).

we should keep in mind that predatory men have ALWAYS invaded queer spaces with the express purpose of harassing queer people— especially queer women. that doesn't mean we need to constantly be on guard if a dude with a dick happens to be in the area (that's no way to live), but we do need to be realistic bc there is, unfortunately, a LOT of historical precedent.

he might not show up on your arm, but if a guy is at the event and he isn't acting right, then the community needs to stand by its most vulnerable members and protect them first.

at the same time: queerness is not actually an exclusive lil clique. it's a broad swathe of humanity. if you really, really can't feel safe or comfortable at public events bc you can't handle being around a certain kind of human to the point where you can't go to PRIDE bc some of those humans are gonna be there? that's 100% a you problem. have a private party about it with people who agree with you. then maybe talk to a therapist about finding a way to manage your phobia, bc that's what that is.

tl;dr: we need to take better care of each other.

[lurxof--thxmaw]

Oh you are severely aromantic aren't you 👁️👁️

"Mh?"

Now that is a word she has not heard before. It does not happen often: the madame hates to result unprepared. What she can offer now is her best guess, which is － again, she notes with profound displeasure － still tied back to her romantic life. Which does not exist. Because she wishes not for it and the hardships it brings, of course.

"The lot of you very interested in matters which do not concern you. Why not ask these frivolous questions to the rest of the staff?"

[indi-ice-cube]

So, like, imagine if Milo and Sam had a great-grand-child.

That's Agent Daniel Sousa from Season 7 of AoS.

(credit to Secrxts; not my video)