#She kills often

[orboros]

Blood on Snow

The blisters on your feet stung as you climbed even higher. But this was no place for weakness or rest. So you pushed yourself forward, right leg, then left arm. The ice pick embedded itself hard and fast into the frozen wall. Your muscles ached, but it was too late now; you didn't look down. The climb up the wall was a familiar one by now, and you were not foolish enough to risk falling just to look at the ever-expanding world below. The wind was harsh and sharp; it eluded your lungs with every breath. Still, you secured your pick and climbed another step higher. The cold, the aches, the blisters—it would all be worth it in the end. Raiding the villages south of the wall was easy. The Southerners, though they may call themselves northerners, were weak.

Their lives were too easy; no frost to take their babies, nor beasts to take their lives. They lived sweet lives, lives that could easily be taken. The only thing to worry about were the crows; the majority weren't particularly skilled, but their steel weapons and armour made them a pain in the arse to kill. But that didn't stop you before. A soft yell pierced your ears.

Your leader, Gurnard's gruff voice, could only be faintly heard against the incessant wailing of the wind. Your dry eyes turned upward; he was at the top. The tired muscles attached to your bones were filled with new life. You pushed yourself forward with a swing; further and further, higher and higher, you went. Your feet stung, and your calves ached, but the end was near. You stole the winter air and plunged it into your lungs with each breath. The edge of the wall came alive with sweat and blood as you dug your gloved fingers into the ice. Gurnard pulled you up onto the top of the wall by your armpits, like a babe reborn from ice and snow. You slid onto the top of the wall. The pounding of your heart didn't cease. You had done it yet again; you had climbed the wall.

"Hog! Get back here; we need to pull up Ygla and Vigyn."

The fibres in your forearms pushed your torso up and off the snow-capped wall. You stood up to your feet, tall and strong, and reached to take hold of the woven rope. The weight of your body leaned back as you pulled Ygla upward. This was only her second raid, while this would be your seventh. The grunts of Gurnard reminded you that this was his thirteenth raid. His stocky arms, along with your own pulled-up Ygla, despite his experience in raiding, frostbitten sweat dripped from the brown spurts of hair that came out of his hood. With all your force, Ygla was brought onto the top of the wall. She panted like a dog as your gloved hands grabbed her by the arms and slid her out of the way.

Despite how tired you were, how much your muscles ached, and how your skin blistered, you took the rope back into your calloused hands. Vigyn was easier to pull up than Ygla; the twelve-year-old was light and quick with his climbing.

When he was safely brought onto the top of the wall, you were finally allowed to sit. The four of you panted and sweated like dogs as you watched the others in your raiding group climb to the top. Eight groups of four had started the journey together. Only two groups had all their members. Luckily for Ygla and Vigyn, they were placed with very experienced raiders. You and Gurnard.

Now came the hard part: the crows. If all went to plan, you wouldn't see much of the kneelers in black. The sun was beginning to rest, just as planned; everyone would climb down under the thick blanket of night. Then the pillaging would begin.

Pink streaks soon ran through the grey sky. The other raiders soon gathered around the four of you as Gurnard began to speak

"We have to secure the hooks while there is still light; once darkness falls, we climb down the wall. Then we take those southerners for all they have!" His guttural voice bellowed out as a grin spread across his wrinkled face.

Soon, the twenty-one of you who survived the climb secured the hooks. Now you've waited for nightfall. You rested against the snow-covered wall behind you. It was a short little thing to stop the crows from falling off the edge. As much as you wanted to rest fully, you couldn't; you were in the south now, and death lingered around every corner for people like you.

Ygla's fur-covered body slumped against yours. Immediately, you push her off of you with a ram of your shoulder. The fourteen-year-old wined, but moved over none the less. Vigyn sat across from you, picking at the seams of his gloves. He let out a small cry as you kicked him in the shin.

"What is it?" You asked. You didn't particularly care, but none of you had any room for weakness or fear. Not when raiding.

Vigyn's blue eyes looked at yours as he cradled his shin. He looked first to the left, then to the right.

"Where are the crows?" His words made everyone's eyes snap towards the boy.

"They have been dwindling by the day; not even the Nightfort holds any men now," Gurnard said.

"Just think of it; soon the crows will be nothing but ash and bone." A grin spreads across your face at the thought.

{Haelena pov}

The familiar haze came as she stuck her needle into the embroidered fabric. This one was strong; she could feel it. She had, on some level, always seen beyond what others could. It came out of her in spurts, in words and rhymes, but from time to time her eyes would lose focus, and she could see it, not in passing glimpses but fully. Her eyelids fluttered as smoke came into view. Ice and snow

Nothing but ice and snow, There was no fire to light the way. It was too weak to survive the frost. The visions cleared, and as always, Haelena found herself muttering something. The words took a moment to find her ears, but when they did, she heard this.

 

"The blaze below cannot survive the coming snow."

[fischiee]

omega when he’s implanted in tex: you should give into your rage and abandon those you might love to fulfill the urge to find revenge for all those who hurt you. kill your daughter in cold blood while she is incapacitated with agony at even the mention of your name

omega when he’s with the reds and blues: muahahaha 😈😈!!!!1!!! !!! im eevviilllll and im going to blow up the whole! WORLD! !1! 😈😈😈 !!!

[aardvaark]

the leverage team would have had a games night… once. everyone cheated so much and in such increasingly extreme ways that all mentions of monopoly are banned in their headquarters (this makes talking about marks who monopolize the market very confusing)

[wolfienation]

im shocked that i havent seen shipping of these 2 because the potential😭

edit: ive been strong armed by @softantlers the ship name is vapefork

[demaparbat-hp]

YOOOO DEMA YOU LIKE ARCANE???!! omg who's your favorite character??? and favorite moment(s) from s1??? (and fav ship too 👀 👀) will you draw for Arcane in the future???? (peak show with peak art =perfection, just saying)

Anon, you have the. Best. Timing. Ever. I literally just finished an Arcane artstyle study with Katara of the Undercity as a subject!

My favorite Arcane character is and forever shall be Ekko (best boy). Other faves are Viktor (chronic illness baby) and Jinx (trauma gremlin).

As for the S1 scene... Besides the finale and that breathtaking Guns for Hire sequence? The Ekko/Jinx fight from ep 7. It broke me. (And turned me into a Timebomb shipper. Which was arguably worse.)

[sukibenders]

Me, watching some YJS fans justify what Shauna did to Mari by using clips of Mari and Jackie giggling in s1 (normal teenage girl things), or Mari speaking the truth and trying to take Jackie's jacket (even though it was the middle of winter and the group were already sharing clothes), with said fans saying that they've would've done worse to Mari in response, acting like that makes them any better:

[zularchive]

[sunlight-shunlight]

my personal headcanon is that after flemythal uses the well's power on my lavellan for the first time, it sort of forcibly readjusts her accent when speaking elvhen, from "reasonably fluent modern dalish" to "crisply upper-class ancient arlathan". and she doesn't actually notice this at the time, bc by the time it happens, she's already Experienced Crestwood, and doesn't speak elvhen often otherwise.

but the next time she talks to solas and drops in a word or phrase in (stilted and unhappy) conversation, he very much does notice the shift, and feels a sense of palpable horror that she's already been a bit changed.

[deatheweeb]

Bive just breathing outta relief after somehow beating MR with a pickaxe to death

This was made as a little warm-up to get used to animation :>

[gammija]

a nuance that gets a bit lost in martin 'murder' blackwood is that while he's definitely not against a good killing, it's more of a fun couple's activity rather than true heartfelt passion, you know?

i mean, twice he's had the opportunity to have Jonah get shanked, and he foils them, even though he wants the guy dead. Like, murder is always an option, but he usually tries other, less direct methods first - in fact id say that his trying to be clever and moral still leading up to the end of the world is exactly what drives him to say, ok well fuck it then, let's get our murder on

[creativesparkz]

maybe im a little late but this trend was literally made for them trust

[queenvhagar]

Something I've realized about the women characters of HOTD is that they seem to be aware of modern politics and sensibilities in that they seem to be detached from their time and place in a sense.

Realistically, women in these worlds would want the same thing men do in the situations that they're in. When their families' lives are threatened, when their power is threatened, they are willing to go to war. They want vengeance and justice. They want their enemies to pay for what they've done. They want power and security for themselves and those dear to them. Some have hard power, like dragons or skill with the blade, that they can and will use to achieve their goals. In ASOIAF this is Daenerys, Brienne, Arya, and more. Some have soft power, like charisma, influence, and political knowledge, that they can and will achieve their goals. This is Cersei, Sansa, Margaery, and more. All of these tools and weapons are willingly yielded by their users to help themselves and their families to survive and to thrive.

Yet the women of HOTD seem to view these things differently. They stay stuck on the fact that men don't listen to them, instead of using the tools available to them to do anything about it and help themselves as GOT characters would. When Rhaenyra is talked over by her small council, instead of making a show of force or demonstrating her ability to lead and make competent decisions about warfare, all she does is accept what others tell her to do and then complain about it in private. When Alicent is ignored in the small council, instead of using her influence to convince her vulnerable son the king to do as she wants, she puts him down and isolates herself further. Despite the many decisions that these women could take to help themselves or act in any way that could help their situation, they are stagnant and passive.

It's almost as if these women are stuck on their victim status, in that they view themselves as victims in ways that the GOT women have either long accepted as truth or have been socialized to view differently. The women of HOTD know it's not okay for women to be talked down to, they know it's not okay for women to be interrupted or ignored, they know it's bad that nobody takes them seriously, whereas this is barely a thought of the GOT women, for whom it is a part of the world they've already adapted to and they know how to navigate around. Somehow it seems like the HOTD women are consistently shocked and surprised into inaction by the very fact that sexism exists in their world, despite the fact it's been there their whole life and they've never known differently.

This is what I mean when I say that the women of HOTD feel as though they're separate from their time and place. It's as if they exist outside the narrative, outside of this time and place somehow, based on the decisions they make and the way they behave. Instead of acting as others would in their time and place, they frequently seem as if they are aware of modern sensibilities and politics and it's these things that guide their thoughts, decisions, or dialogue. Their awareness of this prevents them from going to war when they have good reason to want to, and realistically any woman in this universe would willingly go to war, and it makes them say certain things that seems almost out of place in the context of the time and place that sound at times as if the writers are using them as a mouthpiece.

Yet the men of the story behave more faithfully to time and place. They desire action, they desire vengeance, they are allowed to feel angry for themselves and they are allowed to want power for the sake of it. They get to be more fully fleshed out in their motivations and personalities. They're believably a part of this time and place. The men behave no differently than the men of GOT save differences in character and context, but the women are so distinctly different from the women of GOT in terms of how they're allowed to feel, speak, and act.

[dvoidroid]

Basically their whole interaction in Wielder of Names

[plagueislost]

I WOULD LIKE TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS ON JASON WING AU THE WAY HIS WINGS CHANGED AND SUCH

do other people who use the lazurus pit experience changes in their wings or was it bc he changed as a person before/after his death

do you think people who go through trauma experience changes in their wings

also what does family preening look like

i am obsessed with the wing au

THANK YOU FOR ASKING I LOVE TALKING ABOUT THIS AU.

i originally got the idea of his wings turning white from that streak in his hair that appeared after the resurrection. i figured hey, if the lazarus waters can do that to someone’s hair, it can probably do that to their wings too, right? it allows for Bruce to not realize Jason is Red Hood for a little bit longer, and it lets you visually separate these two halves of Jason’s life.

I honestly got pretty lucky that pigeons and doves are the same type of bird, and that their symbolic meanings are so contrasting. Jason was a street rat before the resurrection. even after becoming robin, his entire outlook on life was informed by his experience on the streets, and his wings reflected that.

after the resurrection, he becomes in a way haunted by his previous life, and is stuck in a state of grief over what he lost and what he can never again be (robin, bruce wayne’s son, whatever). doves are a symbol of peace, which is a nice contrast to the red hood persona, but they’re also a symbol of grief and mourning (well, technically mourning doves are but shhhhh).

I imagine that since Jason is the first to be revived fully from the dead by the lazarus pits, he is the only one to have experienced significant change in his wings. it’s possible Ra’s might have some white speckling from frequent exposure to the pits, but i honestly haven’t decided yet.

about the trauma causing changes in wings thing, most likely it wouldn’t be anything so drastic like Jason’s change but it can definitely leave lasting effects. i heard somewhere that birds in very stressful situations will over-preen themselves, essentially plucking out perfectly healthy feathers until skin is exposed. This is probably a behavior that would manifest in people in this world too, as a form of self harm. It’d be pretty hard to hide, though, so if someone were trying to keep up appearances they’d likely search for other avenues.

lastly, family preening i’d say is similar to social grooming behaviors in apes or birds. I’m not sure about the social structures behind preening in birds, but i know a lot of species will groom each other in order to bond. We don’t see a lot of social grooming in humans because we’re able to stay rather clean on our own, but i’m sure that would be a different story if we had large appendages in hard to reach places covered in feathers that won’t necessarily fall out on their own when they need to.

social preening would look different on a case-by-case basis, depending on living situations and interpersonal relationships. for example, someone who lives alone would probably invite friends over so they can preen one another in a giant pile on the floor, but a group of people living together wouldn’t need to make an event of it and would just idly groom each other while watching tv or something. people probably sell tools that allow you to get to those hard to reach place on your own if you don’t have anyone to preen you, but they aren’t a huge industry. also, you can go a while without preening before it gets dangerous, but it’s uncomfortable and itchy the whole time. with the Wayne foundation, theres likely preening centers across Gotham where individuals (homeless or otherwise) can get their wings preened if they don’t have anyone to preen them and can’t afford the tools.

Jason is still pretty testy about preening now, but before he reconciled with Bruce, his wings were in a constant state of disrepair. He had the money (from crimelord-ing) to pay for the tools to preen himself, but he wasn’t taking very good care of himself overall during that period, so it took a back seat.

thanks for indulging me with this au you guys have been very kind about it :)

[acevity]

man this company IS pretty lethal huh.

i am full of a lot of thoughts about them in lethal company. so many. like pomni being a designated ship bitch bc not only is she good at it but they cant trust anyone else on comms. zooble dipping out all the time via death just to avoid having to do anything ever. and also being stolen by the lootbugs and baboon hawks CONSTANTLY. they gang up on jax to lead him to snare fleas just to shut him up, otherwise he shouts and attracts the eyeless dogs. god.

[aethersea]

it is funny though how kids' shows are so so so careful about death, no one's ever killed except MAYYYYBE the big bad, all those random side characters are fine, here have a quick shot of them before we leave just so you know they really did survive that 50-foot drop into a stormy sea,

and meanwhile kids' books nearly all agree that it's not an adventure until it has a body count.