#and won't even eat that guy

[joycrispy]

So I was thinking about this line.

At first, I was like, 'heartless'? How does Shadow know that? I'll grant 'aggressive,' and even 'voraciously carnivorous' - these are true and can be easily observed without moral judgment. That's just animal behavior; 'heartless' is a comment you make on a personality. It implies the behavior is not driven by instinct... but cruelty. And this alien doesn't speak, so...

But then I remembered that he literally shares a hivemind with this thing.

So, my headcanon now is that he was standing there staring (and silently freaking out) because this little jerk was just spamming their involuntary group chat with heinous monster thoughts.

It's probably seeing Shadow standing there next to Abe, and it's vaguely but persistently like:

HEY.

HEY.

YOU SHOULD TOTALLY EAT THAT KID.

LMAO.

HE'S LIKE RIGHT THERE.

I WANNA EAT HIM SO BAD.

YOU GOTTA DO IT MAN.

DO IT WHILE HE'S STILL ALIVE.

IT WOULD BE SO FUNNY.

And then projecting confusion and frustration when Shadow...doesn't. I just think that the vibes of that would be pretty rancid.

[serpentface]

Hibrides and Brakul having the world’s saddest booze-fueled girl’s night, probably a few months before the start of the story.

Anyway here's an extensive rundown of their shared history.

Hibrides Uryashta was the eldest daughter of a chancellor of the imperial city-state of Erubinnos (his lordship Erub Uryashta). She was brought up with great privilege and security, but (like most daughters of noblemen) was destined to be used as a bargaining chip in a political marriage arrangement. She was taken from her friends and family and moved to the city of Wardin at the age of 16 to complete her pledged marriage with Janeys Haidamane, the failson of the trade magnate Haidamane family. Janeys spent about a week poorly attempting to behave like a husband, and then took the first excuse to flee and engage in a petty military campaign against raiders on the Yellowtail trade route. She found herself left alone in his villa for three years with only hired servants for company. She made a few attempts to break into the city's elite social scene, but was quite shy and failed to make any headway.

Brakul had just spent a year and a half in a bit of a whirlwind. He was brought into a skirmish at the behest of an allied clan, who had been raiding the Yellowtail route and now was under attack by combined forces of an enemy clan and Imperial Wardi mercenaries. He killed one of the mercenary commanders and was captured as a prisoner of war, but was spared at Janeys' behest (who fucking hated that guy thought it was awesome that he got killed with a rock) and was ultimately recruited into the group. He had a chance to go back home, but actively chose to deadbeat dad out on his wife and child to be with his newfound lovequest, Janeys. He spent a year and a half as a mercenary, bonded closely with Janeys and swore brotherhood with him, and was eventually brought home to the city of Wardin with him. He found himself in the odd position of being simultaneously scorned as a foreigner and 'heathen', and the legal kin of one of the richest families in the city (and effectively the secret male concubine of their only male heir).

It was in this context that the two of them met, with Hibrides now being 19 and Brakul turning 27.

The two were initially wary of each other (Hibrides was particularly put off by his 'heathen' status) but bonded very quickly, partly due to their mutual states of being unmoored from their old lives, but in large part being just a natural chemistry. They had a lot of common interests and enjoyed learning from each other. Hibrides introduced him to traditional verse poetry (of which she was very fond). Brakul taught her how to ride khait, and even gave her a gelding from his own collection as a gift. They became very close friends over the next couple of years and spent much of their free time together.

A big part of the dynamic was that both of them are gay in a cultural context where there is no concept of Being gay, marriages are usually arranged and always between a man and a woman, and having children is a societal expectation. Each of them began to see the other as an ideal husband/wife, ie "if I had to marry why couldn't it have been him/her?". For Hibrides' part, Brakul had all the traits she would want in a husband: he was a pretty good friend and easy to get along with, he seemed like he'd do an excellent job of fulfilling expected roles as a husband and father (she didn't know about the wife and kid for a while), he treated her as an equal, and, most of all, had no interest whatsoever in fucking her. They were both in a sort of platonic emotional affair, and grew to love each other deeply.

Hibrides was pretty quick to catch on that something was going on between Brakul and Janeys, and found it strange and offputting but ultimately none of her concern. Her husband only being interested in his sworn brother and leaving her to her own devices suited Hibrides just fine, and Brakul always just kinda being There meant she was living with what had become her closest friend.

The stable state of this Feelings Triangle began to change in the wake of the brilliant plan to get Janeys (gay) (probably infertile) children he could pass off as legitimate via a Brakul/Hibrides pregnancy. It was something all three agreed to as a necessity; it was already drawing scrutiny that Janeys and Hibrides had been married for several years without a pregnancy, and producing heirs is a societal expectation and a central point of an arranged marriage between wealthy elites.

It was especially critical in this case, given Janeys was his family's only male child and only hope of continuing the family line, given both his golden-child sister Faiza and black sheep half sister Couya were Odonii, and thus sworn virgins and would never marry. (There's also a level to this that Janeys was regarded as a complete disappointment by his parents, and his mother made damn sure he knew that his only value at this point was to produce a better male heir to inherit the business. So this was a big fucking deal to him, and to Brakul by extension).

This was also not a route any of them wanted to take on any personal level, least of all Hibrides. She consented to the pregnancy and everything it entailed, but it was inevitably a painful and distressing experience all around. She had never wanted to be a mother to begin with (though had long accepted it as an inevitability), and now found herself with an infant daughter, which only meant it would have to happen again (they needed a male heir after all). And it would be utter social suicide and a profound shame upon her if the child's illegitimacy was discovered, which only added to the stress.

To make things worse, her first pregnancy shifted the entire dynamic with her husband and brother-in-law/best friend. Janeys changed from completely indifferent to actively spiteful and hostile towards her, and things had become extremely uncomfortable between Hibrides and Brakul. It only got worse with Brakul (the only one of them who actually WANTS kids) (kind of haunted by skipping out on his first child) finding it unbearable to be so close to HIS daughter and having to keep up an act that she was not his own, having no direct role in the kids life. He desperately wanted to be a father.

Hibrides, who was going through a fucking lot, started to become vindictive towards him for his role in things. She resented him more than Janeys, because Brakul insisted he cared about her and would desperately try to pretend things were normal, while consistently siding with Janeys against her wishes, including in preventing her from getting a divorce. (His excuse is that the children's legitimacy would be interrogated in a legal setting, which Is likely and Would be absolute social suicide with very real consequences. But the real reason on his part is that if she got out of the marriage, he might never see her or the children again). Hibrides began to do everything in her power to prevent him from having any relationship with his bastard children, even in secret or under the guise of a relative. Sort of an “if I have to suffer to keep up this facade so should you” thing.

They had two children in a span of three years, two girls (ruh roh!) named Erubi and Livya. By this point, Hibrides and Brakul were both experiencing what we would now call Clinical Depression and Alcohol Use Disorder (especially in the latter's case). Hibrides started to have affairs with both men and women, which she was sure to be very obvious about to insult Janeys and Brakul, but was mostly out of loneliness. Brakul turned his complete focus to Janeys and started avoiding Hibrides entirely, in hopes that she would become desperate enough to be willing to make amends (shockingly, this did not happen, and the rift only deepened).

In the present, their relationship status is: fucked. Both of them do still love each other on some level, but this is probably beyond repair. What little time they've spent with each other in the past year is sitting around being miserable and getting plastered. And now Hibrides, Janeys, and Brakul are all forced into the public eye on the pilgrimage together, and with a third child on the way. So that's probably going to be everyone's problem.

[sidereon-spaceace]

torn between wanting to make all my ocs Specialest Little Guys and overpowered VS. the fact I just finished watching all three extended editions of Lord of the Rings and am deeply moved by the struggles and worth of the common man

[i-carry-the-evilmortyabel-name]

Started as a joke, but not so much anymore! Have a crackship!

[lizzybeeee]

ngl every time I see fully grown adult griffons in the joplin art I hate Assan a little bit more. why on earth is he not fully grown yet. It's been eight years.

The Last Flight happens in 9:41 and Veilguard is in 9:53 -> so that's actually 12 years between when they hatched till DATV starts...how the fuck did griffons ever manage to survive as a species if they're babies for that long?

(doesn't seem like its a good sign for repopulating the griffons if it takes a couple of decades for maturity? That's a lot of time for shit to happen to them in the meantime - babies are vulnerable!)

Scratch that, how did they even survive with Isseya? Did she feed them normal unblighted griffon food? Is there a Pet Smart store around the corner where she goes to get food for them as she plans to have them undergo the joining once more? So many questions about how the hell they actually lived with her for so long...

I admit I was pretty skeptical playing the game that the griffons would even be alive - obviously you want a chance to save them, but I think the game hurt itself by spreading out companion quests in bits and pieces, and after certain main missions were done. Like, it's been a year (?) since the beginning of the game? That's a lot of time for a bunch of little bird-cats to be alone with a crazy blighted elf. :(

Most likely answer: baby griffons make cute little sidekicks + smaller model/animations to deal with + there's no logical reason to explain how Isseya would be able to confine a dozen angry teenage cat-birds.

Respectfully, I personally disagree with having the word 'hate' and 'Assan' in the same sentence lmao. I loved my bird-cat son <3 (but, yeah, he should probably be a big boy by this point)

(Assan is not a 'baby' baby - but he's super young for a griffon? Way too young for maturity to be 'just around the corner', you know?)

Me to Assan:

[pardonmydelays]

listening to saturday on a loop at 6 in the morning i bet my neighbours love me

[mechahero]

//Thinking about Lambda and how he presents himself and how he goes about with how he personally views masculinity. That being said, he is a guy but his gender is also very much monster. (In the sense that's gender neutral/not adhering to any binary at all. More of a concept than an actual thing if that makes sense.)

[naivety]

have a coworker whose previous job was at a hog farm and he tells me you can't butcher specific species of male pig boar for their meat like that doesn't sound made up. i'm like okay what like it's just stinky and tough or something?? but you still could if you wanted technically and he's like no...... like why. why. i'd eat an ethically raised and slaughtered forbidden boar cause i'm not a pussy. what are we doing. why are you as a man jacking off pigs for their sperm but won't eat them like you eat their wives and cousins. what is going on

[vaguely-concerned]

I think rye really likes chocolate, but like... mostly very very dark chocolate. boring bitter barely sweetened adult person chocolate, to the point where most of the others find it borderline inedible. it's a regular occurrence for someone to raid the lighthouse kitchen for snacks and light up like 'ooooh wait we've got chocolate???' and someone else has to go 'yeah but it's only rook chocolate tho sorry :/'. 'oh okay :')'

[homicidalbrunette]

This clip has everything

- an hilarious bit of shade exchange about Queen of the Universe being cancelled and then about the Trixie and Katya show being cancelled and why

- a deep cut Ghost reference

- that Trixie motel season two is about them moving and renovating a new house

- How (as she says herself) she had to pack up her house, renovate a new one and move in all within a month while filming a reality tv show about it

- Doing all this while also doing all her other multiple projects

- During what we know now as when she was already spiralling, thus causing her to have a breakdown

- Katya going suddenly serious with a rather concerned and dubious opinion about this

[keeps-ache]

mm i Neeed to go the beach

[quinn-fucks-shit-up]

just scrolled so far down my own Tumblr I found an argument I had with a guy who was literally defending landlords and billionaires

what a waste of time

[drop--pop--candy]

urgrhrgrhfh the Envy

[tropicalcontinental]

Wait hold on scratch that regularly scheduled programming and that 10 morbillion years reveal this is an EAS Broadcast except it's not that at all and it's just more OC art (also old)

They are NOT this cuddly or even romantic (to me at least, I just can't see it as romantic) in their current iterations in fact my feelings on their relationship is complicated (me below for reference)

[i-appear-misssing]

I just had the horrible thought that I need to fall in love because having devastating crushes on beautiful, competent, authoritative women that I desperately want to please is exhausting and I need it to stop

[eclipsecrowned]

goes into tags for one of my fandoms. watches that one fandom's wheel of fortune swing back around to 'why are m*rder hornets building nests on my blog?'