#Wrackingspelt

[peanut-gallery92]

Hob: "Wrackingspelt, I'm putting you in charge. Take care of the stables." Hob: "When I get back, if the stables are still standing, I'll give you another apple." Hob: "If the stables are destroyed, I'll give you another apple anyway, because I love you."

[fluffyquill]

When Rue first found out about the goblet/bugglebear/feychild, I imagine that they were pretty anxious, regarding how to tell Hob, and worrying over conflicts between courts. So, they do what Hob does: confide in the most faithful of steeds. (Who will later spill the tea to his BFF Mucky.)

Description below the cut!

More of the Goblet Mini-Series! The Pack of Pixies learn about Goblets Tiny Hob Fable and Grabalba get the news Grabalba explains, and How Hob Found Out

[Description: an inked comic sketch

Panel 1: Rue anxiously wrings their paws in front of a fenced pen, where Wrackingspelt the war horse calmly watches them pace back and forth. There is no text, but Rue seems to be talking at length about the discovery of the new baby and its upcoming arrival, how to break the news to Hob, and worrying about conflicts from other courts.

Panel 2: With a sigh, Wrackingspelt plunks his head on top of Rue's, effectively stopping their snowballing anxiety. Rue freezes, looking surprised. The thought bubbles evaporate in a puff of smoke.

Panel 3: Now calm, Rue nuzzles Wrackingspelt's face.

Panel 4: Rue walks away offscreen, presumably to go tell Hob the good news, and Wrackingspelt watches them go.

Panel 5: A dust cloud appears as Wrackingspelt tears off in the opposite direction, yelling, "MUCKY, YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE WHAT JUST HAPPENED!!"

End description]

[reflection-s-of-stars]

aabria iyengar how could you do this to my heart

[naggingatlas]

need to draw some horsies today. for my capitaine horse girls honor

[brittlebutch]

still can't help but empathize deeply with Hob's anger and affront over the duel during the 'Southern Lawn' episode, mostly because I also cannot understand the social steps taken to land him in that position during any part of those confrontations

[thepringlesofblood]

thank you for your service holy shit it took me like 3 re-watches to understand what was being said.

AIGHT FOLKS so i spent the last few minutes trying to decipher Brennan's rather verbose letter. My ADHD ass heard several quarter words that made my brain fizzle into white snow and decided I needed to make it make sense. Stick with me here, because I may be wrong, who knows.

The letter in bold

An attempt at translation in italics

My Dearest Wrackingspelt,

In the execution of one's duties in service to king and court, it becomes necessary at times to place in the confidence of one's most trusted and privileged compatriots,

To do my job, I must confide in you, my dearest and closest friend

the secret misgivings

I am worried

of tender sentiment

about my affectionate feelings

to which even the steadiest hearts

that even someone as level-headed and rational as me

may be compelled in the face of rank uncertainty and tribulation,

will want to pursue something with [Rue] - in spite of possible punishment -

defiant of all preparation in the narrow precognition of their host,

and despite what I expected of them (based on rumours and gathered intel)

to wit,

I will tell you

the burden of execrable misery,

I feel miserable (about my feelings towards Rue)

far from waning with the passing hours,

and time isn't making this pain go away

counters all adages and aphorisms,

despite all the proverbs saying otherwise

whose musings on the passing of time are rendered mendacious

and my previous beliefs regarding the passage of time are proven false

on the passage of time and its remediation

when I once thought time would heal all wounds

of want or injury.

including the loss or rejection of something I want (the loss of Rue's affection towards Hob, perhaps)

It instead waxes with all the venom and ferocity of an asp

[The pain of rejection] instead is becoming worse and more painful

such that your humble servant must fail in knowing rest or hope.

so much so that I can't sleep or convince myself it gets better, or that things will change.

[It is a dull and dreary ache -] the most dispassionate

[The pain] is a dull and dreary ache - that the most uncaring

tempest whose ruinous wake strands

passing storm leaves behind

[what it cannot destroy.]

[what it cannot destroy.]

It has taken me 45 minutes to write the past four sentences, so I shall speak more plainly.

my boy Brennan is telling us it took 45 minutes in the green room to write all that in preparation of the epistolary period - fuckin hell.

I wish that you were here. I wish that I could tell you everything would be alright. And most ardently, (captions say "urgently" but I heard "ardently") I wish that you might one day read-...

This part - wow, this part. No translation needed. More than likely, the feelings embellished in THIS PART are directed towards "Wrackingspelt," but wouldn't it just fuck me up if this part of the letter was about Rue.

TL;DR Brennan is having Hob wax purple poetic about his feelings towards (and perceived rejection by) Rue. Hob didn't get any sleep. He thought time would make it all hurt less, but he was wrong.

[artific3r]

heavily intrigued by your reverse horseboy

sorry i didn't respond to this sooner, i was trying to convince myself that doing things for fun is ok even if people have dubbed it "cringe", and talking about things that are fun for me is also ok

He's an acofaf oc that i was NOT intending to be as insane about as i am.

ok so important fact one is that he's wrackingspelt. important fact two is that hob goes back for wrackingspelt only to find him gone. important fact three is that wrackingspelt gets into a "magic accident" which leaves him with a human torso where his neck and head used to be. And back pain. Important fact four is that hes meant to be something of an antagonist in a theroetical season 2

I should note that wrackingspelt has been sentient in a fey way for quite some time now, but has been unable (and unwilling) to make his presence as a Fey and Not-A-Horse known. He had it good! Hob took care of him, and being a war horse is not easy, but Hob took measures to make sure he was not hurt. They were brothers in war, after all!

But Hob left. And with nothing but letters to show for it.

The goblin court is left scrambling after Hobs leaving the court. They need this marriage to go through but there is no one to do it. Until a newly centaurified Wrackingspelt makes an appearance.

So now Wrackingspelt is going to marry Lady Sylmenar! But wrackingspelt can't marry lady sylmenar, that's crazy! Hes a HORSE, and everyone knows wrackingspelt as the former Major Hobs mighty steed! This wont do at all! No no no. This is... um... Wrrrrrr... Wren! Wren Finnigan! Yes yes, Baron– Baronex? Oh alright, Baronex Wren Finnigan! Hes– oh, any? Alright. She's a war hero, don't you know! He was in every battle, right alongside Hob! Hobs greatest assistant! Hob took all the credit though, that heathen! His departure is what allowed the goblin court to realize how truly special Wren is.

Of course Lady Sylmenar, the BELOVED Wren is going to make a WONDERFUL spouse, it's better this way for you, Hob was always a stick in the mud, and Wren Finnigan, soon to be Wren Sylmenar, is a HIT with all the fey, they're a real charmer, now go on, time to get you too married!

And Wrackingspelt– err, Wren– has only ever known serving hob, and HOB only ever knew serving the goblin court, and so of COURSE wren will serve the court in his stead! Whatever monster bewitched Hob must be very powerful indeed! Hob would never betray his station so fragrantly! And Wren is going to get to the bottom of it!

But hob left of his own volition? Theres no way! Betrayer! Betrayer to the goblin court and to Wren! This whole situation is his fault, then! And rue was the one to call of the marriage between grabalba and apollo, this is their fault too! Once everyone knows, the unsteady relations between the goblin court and court of wonder will smooth out, of course!

But his duty to Lady Sylmenar comes first, of course. Duty always comes first! Thats what hob always believed, and he was a hero (or was he?), so it must be true! (Wren is unfortunately incapable of connecting the dots of "hes not a hero" to "so it might not be true". Or maybe not incable so much willfully ignorant. Or maybe both. I haven't decided yet).

And at first its hard. Like... really hard. Wren was a war horse and now they're a centaur and a married man and a political pawn and they're going to and hosting parties and they're doing all the etiquette befit of a member of the seelie court and its all so much it makes him want to puke.

But it gets easier. Lady Sylmenar is never told of who Wren was, but she's very kind. And she's very understanding. And she's funny! And shes very pretty, and a very good companion. And when she laughs she throws her head back, and her favorite color is orange, and hey what a coincidence thats wrens favorite color too! (And wren neglects to mention it wasn't his favorite before her) And they don't love each other, of course not... but! Thats not the point. The point was a political alliance, and thats what they got. And they respect each other. And she's great! And they're so similar! (Who wren is anymore is... irrelevant. Who wren was is irrelevant. But... wren has to admit, there are parts of himself there that are pretty similar to parts of Sylmenar. Wren wonders if they are both carving themselves into pretty shapes. Wren pushes that thought down)

And Syl's got an appreciation for the arts, and painting specifically.

And wren takes to painting like a life line. He drenches his feelings (what feelings? My heart is full of garbage. Wren supposes thats true on several levels) in symbolism meant only for him to understand the depths of.

Wren is making the goblin court proud. Hes making the seelie court proud. Shes a crowd pleaser, always the life of the party, What more could he ask for? ...what else is there but serving your court?

Tl;dr: Basically, wrens got that famous-older-sibling/parent/older-relative-who-fucked-up complex where there's the simultaneous desire to fill the big shoes they left behind while not fucking up in the same way they did. Unfortunately for Wren, his feet are very different from hobs.

She is also in love with Sylmenar. Yah she accidentally fell for Syl. Oops

Wren is always the biggest presence in the room. When wren arrives, EVERYONE knows. Which makes her stealthy rougish skill set all the more unnoticed, because how can you not know when wren is in the room? EVERYONE knows when wren is in the room!

Wine aunt meets gossipy queen bee sort, idk im not great at describing things.

Says a lot of shit to mess with peoples heads the the very specific way that has plausible deniability

If in a duel with wuvvy would say some shit like "well you, more than anyone else, understand the misery of second place"

Idk its 2am and im not doing things i need to be have this oc nonsense

[bisekcual]

Question: if you were to imagine Hob's family, what are they like?

HI i totally missed this. i have done some limited imagining of it for little creature on ao3 (pre-series hob fic from before the wrackingspelt identity reveal, in which wrackingspelt is a bariaur knight from the court of hoof and claw who takes him on as an apprentice). i've been meaning to get around to writing more for that, but i've started a lot of projects recently and i don't have much time to put to all of them lol

anyway. so far in the fic, i've only written hob's dad, prickshiv hob. prickshiv is a grizzled older man with a shrewd face and hard hands. part of the premise of the fic is that at this point, the goblin court still has access to magic, so he works breeding magical horses for the nobility and sometimes military of various visiting courts. by the time of the fic, the goblin court has been his primary customer, which suggests a coming war. prickshiv is a forceful and physical man.

as with everyone in the goblin court, it's a complicated thing to talk about his relationship with his son. i would say he cares for knickolas but doesn't quite understand him, and i don't think he realizes that, but he cares in the way that makes sense to him. in one version of a later chapter that i remember having outlined, prickshiv insists on taking knickolas's place in conscription for the coming war, for example, even though he's past age for it.

in terms of the rest of his family, i haven't thought about it very much... i do remember seeing a fic in which hob had two younge rsisters, and i liked that a lot! it really worked to establish his devotion and tendency toward servitude -- protective/hard-working older brother helping his family stay afloat. but i dunno, i think a lot of family structures suit hob. i will say something i've been toying with lately is the question of whether family structures are very rigid in the goblin court, or if they could be a bit looser - whole neighborhoods being considered "family" of a sort by proximity, for example? idk! just smth ive been chewing on :]

[arcanetwister]

English is not my native language and I spend two hours to understand that letter from captain K. P. Hob to Wrackingspelt. Brennan went monologuing for two minutes using phrases and words I didn't know and in fact after translating a bunch of it I spend extra time to google the meanings for words I didn't understand even in my native language. What a ride. Thank you mister Mulligan for tricking me into studying.

Also here is the captain's letter to Wrackingspelt for everyone who is interested:

My dearest Wrackingspelt, in the execution of one's duties in service to king and court, it becomes necessary at times to place in the confidence of ones most trusted and privileged compatriots, the secret misgivings of tender sentiment to which even the steadiest hearts may be compelled in the face of rank uncertainty and tribulation, defiant of all preparations in the narrow precognition of their host, to wit, the burden of execrable misery, far from waning with the passing hours, counters all adages  and aphorisms, whose musings are rendered mendacious on the passage of time and its remediation of want or injury. It instead waxes with all the venom and ferocity of an asp, such that your humble servant must fail in knowing rest or peace or hope. It is a dull and dreary ache. The most dispassionate tempest whose ruinous wake strands where it cannot destroy.

This pompous speech with complex turns of phrase broke my brain. And what’s even funnier is that in fact this letter was ultimately understood by a HORSE.

[thisisnotthenerd]

and the other half of round two, the sidequests!

feel free to give reasoning/propaganda as you like!

the intrepid heroes poll

quick episode descriptions:

volcano of violence: all of the lotr parallels in one place. leiland being a cringefail after casting circle of death. markus negotiating with an eagle. the combination of grasping web and reverse gravity. balloon elf. sokhbarr raising the lava mog. the concept of galfast hamhead. efink facing her father and husband and beign conflicted

the great chase: caravan chase, mad max style on the teenager's bed. ti wants to blow up the boy. car-go and bean are remarkably effective. boomer is a boarding party. jizz balloons. lots of toy vehicles. car-go transforms with felix inside.

the horizon beyond the squall: marcid attacking a chimney. you wrote a whole song just to be mean to me. cheese, prince bitch. no kings for this captain. nat 20 medicine check to revive myrtle. destroy undead. beating a motherfucker with another motherfucker. bob's inflict wounds. ending with cheese getting a ship and the buccaneer buddies sailing off.

unfinished business: splitting up to resolve the mystery. buckster's legendary nat 20 persuasion to give advantage on stealth. daisy and the vicar sneaking in. sylvester failing at climbing the tower. lars killing the constable and pretending to be a ghost for lucretia. gangie and the vicar undulating. daisy and sylvester simultaneously arriving. shitting out of a window to "provide a cushion". daisy getting her story with sylvester's help. gangie falling into mrs. molesly's room. sylvester almost dying but getting a nat 20 death save with buckster's help. a wedding and bacchanal.

we're the heroes: one of these things is not like the others. collecting the bag of socks. jammer crying about weights. sam and philtrum. dates at the questing beast. the tournament. dream's cinderella moment. where did those mice get lithium. you don't get wet fire. i disavow you. what do you want me to tell your family. he had enough. blast him to the underworld. you can gps a phone. my girl just glinda'd your ass! that's some american magic, bitch! evan and dream lock up tallulah's wand in an orb.

i fucking love you: no one is surprised. incendiary cloud. OSTENTATIA'S DIVINE INTERVENTION ON A 19. god wants a bag from ostentatia. antiope will not submit. penny texts i'm in. nta 20 counterspell on finger of death. nonna wallace approves. katja trips a snake. i didn't even know you could trip a snake. antiope's incredible action surge turn that ends with showing her ass. sam is power word killed. that's my sister. danielle channels anima. revivify. bringing talura through the doorway in death. ending with graduation and 'take us to the book!'.

waylaid by werewolves: the werewolves are girls. zarb mini with six buttholes. chewing gum mist. fifi. shooting through the flamethrower. losing dracula. drago was the star. fifi becomes a werewolf. reading a letter in the middle of battle. florina under the carriage. enraged frenzy. i've heard of a cat scan. i make the horse fly. something seems very familiar about her. the dog is my wife! izzy holds with disappointment. a monster has been eating my letters to you.

duel on the southern lawn: rumor phase. rue writes the letter and commands wuvvy to burn it. i drank tea and went to bed. letter to wrackingspelt. rue's assistant. hob getting clocked by rue. wuvvy demanding satisfaction. andhera demanding satisfaction. wet wrestling. this is the biggest stretch of a fuckin' lifetime. nat 20 to be a slippy boy. hoisting andhera up by his taut cotton pants. accepting the hand of friendship.

yonder where the fruit do be lyin': quichei. deli's perception roll. raphaniel as a youth pastor. giant radish head. colin is covered in blue. extremely realistic fake orange. rick perry, you dog. silence. queen's losing it. raphaniel gets the orange down. banana boat guy. come on provolone! deli attacks queen pamela rocks. subtle spell shatter in the carriage. brennan kills pamela rocks again. you died for nothing. chasing and murdering the mushroom guy.

in the heart of death: brennan walks jujubee through an optimized turn. 49 damage immediately. troyánn slips. keekee starts falling. scorching ray. the devil works hard, but d20 works harder. buddy bear shoves zaria into the pit. lightning javelin in the titty. fireball. princess does like 70 damage and pushed kerwyn into the abyss. troyánn goes down. princess gets keena. nat 20 counterspell. twyla crits on morgan to end the battle.

case closed: the party converges on oblongata station once more. they're facing down the don and madam loathing, who can turn them against each other. imelda and dan flash the gangsters to wildly differing results. ivana rolls a 59 on hunch and he still comes back. elias punches his boss. dan goes down. the fix eats the key. conrad rolls a 57 [the number of heinz varieties] to bring down madam loathing. elias steals a birthday cake and runs out into the street, gets a date and reconciles his childhood trauma as he goes into witness protection.

evolution & revolution: warning the populace. pitching scam calls. driving the truck. phoebe is jaegering dr. wenabocker in a very gross maxi. the ground collapses. revenants are charmed. viola is very efficient. thorn calls lightning. tula attacks her son for 67 damage. ava attacks the groun for 109 damage and a long rest. jaysohn gets phoebe. lila fireballs. viola crits twice and kills one guy with paladin/fighter shenanigans and then kills the rest by kicking the trigger of a gun and hitting a gas tank. tula heals jaysohn, lukas, and herself a little bit. battle is over in 1.33 rounds.

[knottyroseswrites]

Y’all remember how Hob is writing kinda sorta love letters to a mystery person in the first few episodes of acofaf? DID WE EVER FIND OUT WHO OR WHAT THAT WAS ABOUT?!? PLS HELP ITS DRIVING ME NUTS

EDIT: OH MY GOD I HAVE TO REWATCH THE START!! APPARENTLY ITS HIS HORSE (Wrackingspelt) ?!?!?!

[agueforts]

now, come on, gang.......

trying on new icons no one look at me

[fluffyquill]

Happy belated Winter Solstice, everyone! More sun from now until summer! I'm super happy that ACOFAF has brought a surge of art motivation for me these last few months, and I hope that it continues.

Rue finally gets to meet Wrackingspelt!

(Description below the cut)

Rue giggles as Wrackingspelt, Hob's giant war horse, shoves his nose into Rue's face. Dressed in a frilly pirate-style shirt, Hob stands on Wrackingspelt's other side, watching the exchange fondly.

[storygremlin]

The devestation that is Rue telling Hob to look after himself and his heart because it doesn’t seem like anyone in his court cares to bother and Hob IN THE NEXT EPISODE being ordered to marry without being consulted at all or even told to his face, proving Rue right, is so. fucking. good.

“Good news Wrackingspelt, I’m in love,” hurts me every time.

[deconstructthesoup]

Every rewatch of A Court of Fey & Flowers hurts when you realize that Wuvvy really thought that Wrackingspelt was a lover of Hob's and that's why she called the duel

And everything could've been avoided had she known that it was his horse and he was essentially doing a diary entry

[grimalditeuthis]

oh wrackingspelt we're really in it now